Phoenix
officer charged with for role in Prescott bar fight that left man bloodied,
bruised
FLAGSTAFF, Arizona — A Phoenix police officer has been
charged with assault for his role in a Prescott bar fight that left a man
bloodied and bruised.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced the
misdemeanor charge Friday against Eric Amato. A preliminary hearing is
scheduled Oct. 10 in Yavapai County Superior Court.
Amato and other members of a law enforcement motorcycle club
had been holding their Christmas party on Prescott's Whiskey Row before a fight
broke out at one of the bars.
Amato has told authorities that he hit Justin Stafford
because Stafford made an aggressive move.
The state Department of Public Safety recommended charges
against Amato and others. Amato is the only one charged.
Phoenix police say Amato is working a non-enforcement
assignment and is under investigation by the department.
CPD
Officer Charged With OVI Pleads No Contest
A Columbus police sergeant charge with OVI and having an
open container in a moving vehicle pleaded no contest in the Franklin County
Municipal Court Thursday.
Sgt. Joshua K. Wagner was permitted to withdrawal a guilty
plea and enter a plea of no contest, according to court documents.
Wagner was off duty when he was arrested the morning of Sept.
7.
According to police, Wagner was found slumped over the wheel
of his personal car. Another driver spotted Wagner at the intersection of
Second Avenue and Summit Street and called 911. The driver told a police
dispatcher that it appeared that Wagner was passed out with his foot on the
brake at a green light.
The Columbus police report indicates Wagner blew a .181,
which is more than twice the legal limit.
"He was sentenced and treated just like anyone else
that came through that courtroom. He has to do a three day program, 72 hours of
community service, fines and a drivers license suspension, so he is not saying
I am above the law or anything like that. He made a mistake, is willing to take
responsibility and move forward," said his attorney Mark Collins.
Wagner's drivers license has been suspended for six months,
meaning he cannot operate a police cruisers, in addition to his driving his own
car.
"He is very good at his job from what I understand,
loves his job, this is what he wants to do is to move forward. In order to do
that I think this was the right step for him," said Collins.
For now a police officer with 10 and 1/2 years on the job,
the same officer who was decorated after being shot in the face during a
barricade situation four years ago, will be on desk duty. Collins said he still
faces punishment from an administrative process at CPD that is separate from
the courts.
Cop
charged with DWI
Police busted a fellow officer in Forest Hills for allegedly
driving while drunk on Sunday morning.
Armando Urbina, 36, was driving a tan 2002 Saab along the
Grand Central Parkway when he crashed the car into a concrete median near the
Long Island Expressway intersection at approximately 7:52 a.m.
Officers from the 112th Precinct questioned the 12-year NYPD
veteran, who was off-duty at the time of the crash, and when they asked him to
take a Breathalyzer test, Urbina refused.
He was arrested at the scene of the accident and has been
charged with driving while intoxicated and refusing to take a breath test.
There were no other individuals involved in the accident and
no one, including Urbina, sustained any serious injuries. Information on which
precinct Urbina worked for or his rank in the department was not made
available.
The arrest came just hours after a Department of Correction
Capt. Grayson Fredericks was charged with DWI and speeding in Queens Village.
Chesterfield
Police officer charged with hit-and-run, DUI
COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va (WTVR)–A veteran Chesterfield County
Police Officer is on paid leave, after being charged with misdemeanor
hit-and-run and DUI.
Jacqueline Conner, 49-years-old, was arrested early Sunday
morning, after Colonial Heights Police got a call about a hit and run accident
at the intersection of Conduit Road and Ellerslie Avenue.
A short time later, Conner was charged and released on an
un-secure bond.
An officer from Chesterfield County, arrived at Conner’s
home on Sunday Morning and collected her department issued pistol, badge and
her police car.
Steve Neal, a retired Police Officer says, paid or unpaid
leave is common practice for departments as is collecting an officers
department issued equipment.
Conner joined the department in 1990, just out of Radford
University and rose through the ranks to Corporal. For many years, she was the
face of the department, serving as their spokesperson for Crime Solvers.
Conner’s current assignment is a Detective in
Investigations.
CBS 6 legal analyst Todd Stone says most first time DUI
offenders do not serve time, unless they have a very elevated blood alcohol
content.
“But when someone leaves the scene of an accident and is
actually caught and found to be intoxicated., if that’s what the evidence
proves, then it may be active incarceration,” Stone said.
Fort
Worth officer charged with DWI fired
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A North Texas police officer has
been fired following his arrest for allegedly driving while intoxicated after
taking a prescription drug.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://bit.ly/1fS30DI )
reports Fort Worth Officer Brian Blue has appealed his termination.
An attorney for Blue, who'd been a Fort Worth officer since
2003, calls it a unique case involving a reaction to a prescribed medication.
Blue was indefinitely suspended last week following an
internal investigation into accusations that he took a sedative while at work,
then later crashed his personal SUV into another vehicle.
A disciplinary letter filed Monday outlines the June 26
incident. Chief Jeff Halstead says Blue acknowledged taking the prescription
drug. Blue allegedly did not seek proper approval to leave work early. A DWI
charge was filed in July.
Florida
Police Officer Charged With DUI
Local Kendall district police officer, Fernando Villa, 32,
was charged with DUI on Tuesday night after another officer found Villa passed
out from intoxication inside his patrol car. Unlike most DUI arrests though,
Villa was released after signing a notice that promised that he would appear in
court to address the charge. Police Director, Jim Loftus noted that
“Someone along the line decided to depart from my specific
directions,” He went on to tell reporters that “We’re going to discover the
identity of the person or persons and hold them accountable.”
Another officer, whose name was not released, found Villa’s
patrol car stopped in the middle of an intersection in West Kendall at
approximately 8:20 p.m. Tiesday night. Villa was at the wheel dressed in gym
shorts and a T-shirt, according to police reports. No explanation was forwarded
to answer how Villa returned to his home or who had made the decision to let
him go. Villa has been relieved of duty with pay until this incident has been
investigated.
The Villa DUI incident is just the latest in a bizarre list
of incidents involving Miami-area law enforcement lately. According to reports,
Miami Beach patrolman Derick Kuilan almost killed two people back in July after
allegedly running into them while driving his police ATV while carrying a
female passenger on a drunken late night joyride. Kuilan was released and is
awaiting trial on reckless driving and DUI charges.
On-Duty
Miami Police Officer Charged With DUI
A Miami Beach police officer who severely injured two people
while driving an ATV on the beach has been charged with a DUI in Miami Beach
and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury.
Derick Kuilan, 30, was in uniform on July 3 with fellow
Miami Beach police officer Rolando Gutierrez when they visited South Beach
hotel club. The two officers were allegedly drinking and taking pictures with a
group of women.
According to a Circuit Court affidavit, the five women were
attending a bachelorette party and “did not believe [Kulian and Gutierrez] were
real police officers” since “the behavior of both officers was so
unprofessional.” After leaving the hotel club, Kuilan and one of the women
mounted an ATV for a ride along the beach. Two witenesses described Kuilan’s
ATV as “driving fast on the sand” and without headlights in the pre-dawn hours.
The two witnesses heard the ATV and caught a glimpse of it seconds before they
heard “a loud impact” as the ATV struck a man and woman walking on the shore.
The woman remains hospitalized after suffering a broken femur
and having her spleen removed. The man suffered a broken bone that required
surgery. Both victims are 29 years old.
Kuilan and Gutierrez have been fired from the Miami Beach
Police Department. Kulian was booked July 26 on four felony counts into the Miami-Dade
County Jail before being released on $30,000 bail.
Double
standard for Waterloo cop who smoked pot, lawyer says
KITCHENER Waterloo regional police used different standards
when they disciplined six officers who smoked pot off-duty, a Cambridge lawyer
charged Monday.
Lawyer Bernard Cummins accused police of applying a double
standard by laying criminal charges against only one of the officers — his
client, Jeremy Borda.
Cummins's comment came Monday at a police disciplinary
hearing for Borda at police headquarters. Borda is being sentenced under the
Police Services Act for numerous incidents of smoking pot with other officers
and civilians at parties, and buying marijuana from a former girlfriend who was
a drug supplier.
He's one of a group of officers in Cambridge who have faced
disciplinary charges for smoking pot off-duty.
A police prosecutor has recommended Borda be fired. Cummins
is fighting to keep the 33-year-old officer's job.
He slammed police management for treating Borda differently
from other officers, particularly Const. Jason Gamble. Gamble avoided being
fired at a police disciplinary hearing in 2011 because he was the first officer
to come forward, resulting in discipline against other officers.
Gamble said he smoked pot with fellow officers because he
wanted to fit in. He said he didn't report officers drug activity because he
feared being labelled "a rat." He was demoted to fourth-class
constable from first-class, the stiffest penalty before dismissal.
Cummins argued Gamble's misconduct was similar to that of
Borda. But Borda was treated more seriously by being charged criminally, he
said.
He also said Borda's case was also not much different from
that of Const. Jennifer Falsetto who was demoted four ranks, but got to keep
her job because she was suffering from a mental illness at the time she smoked
and bought marijuana.
By charging only one officer criminally, Cummins said police
management is practising a "grossly unfair application of the criminal
code."
Prosecutor Lynda Bordeleau acknowledged the hearing officer
will have to consider "the management approach to misconduct. You'll have
to carefully review the decisions of Const. Gamble and Falsetto," she
said.
But she said it was not within the hearing officer's powers
to "examine the police exercise of criminal authority."
Bordeleau called for Borda's firing because of the totality
of his offences, which included trying to persuade a fellow officer to
"take care of" a speeding ticket the officer had given to Borda's
friend.
Borda was angry at the officer for issuing the ticket after
his friend made it clear that he knew Borda and wanted to become a police
officer, Bordeleau said. Borda told the officer later that she should not
charge fellow officers and their friends, Bordeleau said.
Believing police officers and their friends should receive
preferential treatment "strikes at the heart of policing," which is
to apprehend offenders and lay charges, Bordeleau said.
Cummins said there was never any allegation that Borda tried
to obstruct justice.
Earlier this year, Borda pleaded guilty to 11 police act
charges of discreditable conduct and one of insubordination. He will be
sentenced Dec. 9.
Police also charged him criminally with trafficking
marijuana after he bought pot from an ex-girlfriend and gave it to Gamble.
In court, he pleaded guilty to simple possession and was
given a conditional discharge, a fine and community service. No conviction was
registered.
Cummins noted that Justice K.E. McGowan said during
Borda'sentencing that she found it "extraordinary" to see someone
charged with trafficking for providing just one joint — something she hadn't
seen in 30 years.
Bordeleau pointed out the judge also said she was troubled
by the fact that Borda had used pot for 1 ½ years before being caught. The
judge also said it was known among some of his colleagues that he kept a small
baggie of marijuana — something that wasn't true of Gamble or Falsetto,
Bordeleau said.
Bordeleau said Falsetto wasn't fired because she was
diagnosed as suffering from major depressive disorder. That counts as a
disability which must be taken into account as a mitigating factor.
Cummins presented a letter from a psychiatrist who diagnosed
Borda with substance dependence disorder. It began with alcohol and progressed
to marijuana.
But Bordeleau noted the psychiatrist didn't think there was
a connection between his illness and his misconduct.
Cummins said Police Chief Matt Torigian has said he's in
favour of people being ticketed for simple possession of marijuana, rather than
charged criminally.
"How does that not apply to Jeremy Borda?" Cummins
asked.
Borda apologized to the tribunal.
"I'm truly sorry for my actions and conduct," he
said. "I'm deeply embarrassed, ashamed, regretful and remorseful. I do not
blame anyone but myself."
He's taken treatment for addictions plus counselling.
