The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

Federal Police Brutality Probe Leads To Wall In Shopping Mall

Meriden, CT, USA

The federal investigation into police brutality allegations against the son of the Meriden police chief has led authorities to a wall in a security office in the Westfield Meriden Square Mall.

Sources told The Courant this part of the investigation stems from a July 2010 case in which officer Evan Cossette arrested of 17-year-old Milan McGarrah on shoplifting charges.

McGarrah was caught by security officers at the Sears department store in the mall stealing three pairs of bluejeans, according to a police report.

Cossette was the first officer to respond to the security office, where McGarrah was being held. In an interview with The Courant this week, McGarrah said that Cossette entered the office and handcuffed him.

McGarrah admitted that he started giving Cossette some verbal abuse at which point, McGarrah said, Cossette slammed him against the wall.

"He threw me against the wall while I was handcuffed and I hit my head,'' McGarrah said. "I was saying stuff to him but nothing that merited getting my head slammed into the wall."

McGarrah said that he had no visible injuries from hitting the wall, although he was dazed. He was eventually charged with shoplifting.

The small security office at Sears contains a desk and three chairs wedged against the wall opposite the desk. On Wednesday, the head of security declined to comment on the case or on whether investigators had taken anything from the office.

The brown office wall did contain a noticeable white square - about three feet by three feet- that had been replastered but not repainted. When asked about the hole in the wall, the security director said he couldn't comment. Sources said investigators removed a piece of the wall.

The police report of McGarrah's arrest, filed by officer Donald Huston, who is listed as the arresting officer paints a different story. The report states that McGarrah was uncooperative, wouldn't sit down and constantly yelled that he would kick "both officer's ass" if they took the handcuffs off.

The police report said that McGarrah fought all the way into the police cruiser and until he was booked at the station.

Ironically Huston is one of the officers who wrote a letter to City Manager Lawrence Kendzoir months later complaining about disparate treatment within the police department and how Evan Cossette wasn't disciplined like other officers because his father, Jeffry Cossette, is the police chief.

Federal and state authorities convened a grand jury in April to investigate brutality allegations against Evan Cossette after that letter was filed and the videotape of an incident between Cossette and arrestee was released.

The grand jury investigation originally focused on a May 2010 video of Evan Cossette pushing a handcuffed inmate backward into a jail cell. The inmate, Pedro Temich, hit his head on a cement bench and passed out on the floor bleeding.

Evan Cossette is shown on the tape walking into the cell several times and moving Temich around before taking his handcuffs off just before ambulance personnel arrived. Evan Cossette was given a letter of reprimand in that case.

Two more brutality claims were later made against him. One case involved Robert Methvin, who Evan Cossette acknowledged kneeing in the face in October 2010 after police had been called to Methvin's home because of a loud argument.

Methvin filed a brutality complaint with internal affairs but Sgt. Leonard Caponigro found the allegations baseless after a six-minute interview with Evan Cossette in which he told the chief's son not to worry because he was "just going through the motions." Caponigro has since retired.

In the third case, Evan Cossette used a Taser to subdue Joseph G. Bryans in the parking lot of the Midstate Medical Center in January after Bryan had walked out of the emergency room angry that he wasn't being treated quickly.

At least two of those men, Bryan and Methvin, have appeared before the grand jury investigation into the police department. McGarrah said he didn't file an internal affairs complaint against Cossette because he just wanted the case to go away.

McGarrah said that he has not gone before the grand jury, but that he was interviewed a few months ago by FBI agents. McGarrah said he received community service.

 

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Fairfax County Police Sgt. Weiss Rasool award for Terrorism Against the People…yeah, the Fairfax cops actually hired a terrorist

Court says Vermilion police brutality lawsuit can go forward

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ELYRIA — An appeals court has upheld a county judge’s decision to allow a jury to decide a lawsuit accusing two Vermilion police officers of brutality.

The lawsuit centers on the Feb. 19, 2005, arrest of Jill Garvey on a charge of wrongful entrustment after she and her husband, Richard Garvey, were stopped by then-Vermilion police Officer Larry Miller, who knew Richard Garvey’s driver’s license was suspended.

The couple had been in a bar drinking and Miller smelled alcohol on Richard Garvey’s breath during the stop. Both Garveys were asked to step out of the vehicle, according to court documents.

Police said both of the Garveys were intoxicated.

Officer Craig Howell arrived after the initial stop and placed Jill Garvey in the back of his police cruiser. He reported that when she was told her vehicle would be towed from the scene, she became “agitated” and “defiant” and refused to sign the wrongful entrustment citation so she could be released.

Police then decided to arrest her and asked her to get out of the car so she could be handcuffed. Jill Garvey, who eventually pleaded the case down to disorderly conduct, refused, and Officer Richard Grassnig removed her from the vehicle, forcing her to the ground where she landed on her chest and face and was handcuffed, according to the decision from the 9th District Court of Appeals.

The impact broke the bone around her eye, fractured one of her sinuses, and caused bruising and other injuries, the appeals court wrote.

Both Howell and Grassnig have denied they used excessive force, and according to court documents, argued “they were reasonable in their actions to extract Garvey from the cruiser because she was resisting arrest.”

They contend that Garvey lunged forward as she was being taken out, something Garvey and her expert witnesses argue didn’t happen.

The officers and the city of Vermilion had argued that the case should be thrown out because Garvey’s version of events wasn’t backed up by the facts as the officers saw them, and even if the officers had been wrong they were immune from civil liability.

But the appeals court ruled that there were disputes over what happened and, since the facts were in dispute, it was enough for Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Edward Zaleski to allow the case to go to a jury.

“The facts could demonstrate that the acts were done with a malicious purpose, particularly if Officer Grassnig is found to have pulled Garvey out of the cruiser by the hair, slammed her face into the pavement and told her, ‘Now you’re going to listen to us,’” the appeals court wrote.

The appeals court also ruled that Howell’s role in Garvey’s injuries, specifically whether he assisted Grassnig in removing her from the back of the patrol car, remains in dispute.

Former Vermilion Police Chief Robert Kish previously has said the officers involved in Garvey’s arrest were cleared of wrongdoing following an internal review.

But Garvey’s lawsuit also contends that a proper investigation wasn’t done or even documented and that Grassnig had a history of using excessive force.

Garvey’s attorney contends that Grassnig had a use of force rate per number of arrests of 13.24 percent between 2004 and 2006, well above the average of the Vermilion Police Department’s average of 2.21 percent.

Grassnig also received an unsatisfactory performance evaluation in 2004 in which his superiors noted that he needed “to tone down aggression.”

The appeals court did toss out part of Garvey’s lawsuit, saying that she couldn’t sue the city over intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Mark Petroff, Garvey’s attorney, said the case will now move to trial, unless Vermilion’s attorneys appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“Our opinion is that based on the criteria the city generally uses for apprehending individuals, excessive force was used,” Petroff said Tuesday.

A call to attorneys representing Vermilion wasn’t returned Tuesday.

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Atlantic City police officer calls misconduct charge retaliation

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ATLANTIC CITY — A veteran police officer says he was charged criminally because he would not help set up a case against several prominent officials, including the mayor and police chief.

Officer Michael Jones, who has worked for the Atlantic City Police Department since 2001, is charged with official misconduct and theft for allegedly violating the rules of the Live-In Police Officers Program by taking a more than 80 percent discount on rent for an apartment in Stanley Holmes Village and then subletting it for a profit.

But Jones, 39, insisted Wednesday that he did live in the apartment on Caspian Place from April 2005 until he was asked to leave last May.

Instead, he claims that Detective Jason Kangas, of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Official Corruption Unit, told him “that if I cooperated with him and helped him build cases against several individuals ... he would make the charges against me go away.”

Mayor Lorenzo Langford, police Chief Ernest Jubilee, Atlantic City Council President William “Speedy” Marsh and Councilman Marty Small were named, he said. All four men and Jones are black.

“I think there are racial overtones in those allegations,” defense attorney James Leonard Jr. said, calling it a “racially motivated witch hunt.”

“That’s so untrue,” Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said of the race claim. “That is ... I need to find the word ... reprehensible on his part.”

Leonard earlier used the same word to describe the investigation’s alleged tactics in going after his client.

“The way that (Jones) was treated at his home, I find to be reprehensible,” he said.

Housel said he could not, under the law, comment on whether anyone from his office spoke with Jones, but stressed that the investigation was a joint one with the FBI’s Public Corruption Task Force. His office also never comments on whether an investigation exists, so could not comment further on whether the four men named are the targets of an investigation. Jones said Kangas’ questions did not lead him to believe there was any current investigation on the four he named.

Housel said the allegations against Jones are not about black and white, but green.

“This fellow, for years, received thousands of dollars from people to whom he sublet an apartment he agreed to actually live in and did not,” Housel said.

The Live-In Police Officers Program allows officers to lease public housing at a significantly discounted rate in exchange for active community policing.

According to the charges, Jones rented the $1,035-per-month apartment for $202, then collected between $39,200 and $51,000 in rent money.

“There is absolutely nothing to the allegations,” Leonard said. “Officer Jones never earned $1 from any illicit activity. He never charged anyone rent at 1522 Caspian Place.”

Jones said he was asked to leave the program in May 2011. That was, according to the charges, because Jones was violating his agreement.

“The Housing Authority provides housing for many, many minorities, and we are acting after being informed by them about an offense about which they are the victim,” Housel said. “Shame on (Leonard) for bringing race into what is simply alleged official misconduct. That’s just offensive to me.”

The authority and taxpayers lost $61,642 in potential rent during the time Jones was in the program, the charges claim.

Local PBA President Dave Davidson said Jones is in good standing with the union and that they will stand by him throughout the process.

“We are all protected by the same Constitution, where a person is presumed innocent,” Davidson said. “We are going to make sure he’s given his rights, and that his rights are protected.”

Housel took issue with previous statements Leonard made that were published in The Press of Atlantic City, saying the allegations were disheartening not only to Jones but to all the officers of the department.

“He is using this to try to put a wedge between my office and the hardworking and honest officers of the Atlantic City Police Department,” he said. “They do put their lives on the line every day. However, we do not allege that they steal thousands of dollars by taking advantage of a program for police officers to live in Housing Authority apartments.”

Leonard and Jones insist this officer hasn’t either.

“I am 100 percent innocent of these charges and the allegations against me are completely false,” Jones said.

Leonard said there will be no plea deal in the case, and is adamant that it will be taken to trial.

“We will establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he lived in that apartment the entire time he was involved in the program,” Leonard said.

This week’s candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution to Conflict Center Award. Fairfax County Police. police brutality

Former Brooksville lawman arrested again

Had enough?  Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America.  Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent  DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

He told her he still loved her, but his object of affection had filed an injunction against him, according to an arrest warrant.

Bryan Drinkard's message to his ex-girlfriend landed him in jail for the third time in less than three weeks, deputies said.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office arrested Drinkard shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of violating a dating violence injunction.

Drinkard, 44, a former Brooksville police detective and corrections officer at the Hernando County Jail, was scheduled to be transferred Wednesday to a facility in Sumter County, said Lt. Cinda Moore, a sheriff's spokeswoman. He is being held without bail.

Deputies said a woman received a letter in the mail Saturday without a return label. Inside the envelope was one of the accuser's personal stationary cards, which she keeps in a drawer next to her bed, according to the warrant.

The inside of the card included the words, "I love you" and a pet name Drinkard had used for her during their relationship, deputies said.

The woman also gave a sworn statement alleging the card contained Drinkard's handwriting.

The warrant for Drinkard's arrest was issued Saturday, but Drinkard was not located until Tuesday night. He was arrested at a house off Preston Road near Brooksville, according to jail records.

On March 9, deputies arrested Drinkard on charges of burglary, grand theft and stalking. Those charges were linked to allegations made by Tiffany Still, a former girlfriend.

The sheriff's office has not released details because the investigation remains open.

Five days after his Hernando arrest, Drinkard was jailed on a count of forgery. The charge was filed by his former employer, the Brooksville Police Department.

The forgery case was related to allegations Drinkard took business envelopes and letterhead from the Law Offices of James Martin Brown. He was accused of signing the letters and using a signatory stamp belonging to Brown, who had been representing him.

Drinkard did not have permission to use the letters or stamp, authorities said.

Police said Drinkard used the forged letters to make a public records request. He had been seeking information about Still, who works as an administrative assistant at the police department, according to reports.

Drinkard was fired Feb. 29 after turning in his agency-issued .45-cal. Glock handgun in the lobby of the police station. Video surveillance showed him walking into the building holding the gun in his right hand with his finger on the trigger.

He laid down the weapon on a counter in the lobby. The counter was close to Still's work station. She sat at her desk minutes after Drinkard turned in his weapon and left. She and another administrator immediately notified the chief about the abandoned gun, according to an agency inquiry.

Chief George Turner told Drinkard earlier that week he had been suspended with pay after an internal affairs investigation was opened against him.

Drinkard had been investigated and disciplined numerous times in the four years he was employed at the police department.

He previously worked more than a decade at the Manatee County Sheriff's office, at which time he was investigated 44 times. He was forced to retire in 2003 after being arrested on a stalking charge, according to public records.

He was acquitted a year later. His accuser was a former girlfriend.

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

NYPD cop arrested for beating man into coma at Inwood nightclub

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An NYPD cop has been arrested for viciously beating a man into a coma at a troubled Inwood nightclub, police said.

The Internal Affairs Bureau arrested rookie Ariel Frias, 27, this morning on misdemeanor assault charges in the Jan. 8, off-duty beating of Edwin Veloz at Mamajuana Café on Dyckman Street.

The beating left Veloz with brain damage, court records show.

Frias’ accomplice, Javier Delarosa, 23, turned himself in days after the beating but Frias remained at large even as the police department issued an appeal for the public to help identify the perp.

Frias is a police officer whose job it is toorder equipment and supplies for the department.

Dramatic video allegedly shows the cop and a pal punching the victim out cold. Witnesses said at the time that Veloz could be heard snoring immediately after the incident.

The incident led to Community Board 12 voting to oppose Mamajuana's request for a liquor license at a second establishment in the neighborhood.

Neither Frias nor his defense attorney immediately responded to calls for comment.

Fairfax County Police Officer “Crazy Moe” Mohammed Oluwa Jihad on your ass. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

NYPD cop arrested two months after Washington Heights bar fight that left man with brain damage

Ariel Frias charged with assault in off-duty incident

BY JOHN DOYLE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Mamajuana Cafe in Washington Heights, where fight involving off-duty NYPD cop Ariel Frias left a man with brain damage.

An NYPD officer has been arrested more than two months after he allegedly punched a man in a bar fight, leaving the victim with brain damage, authorities said.

Ariel Frias, 27, an NYPD officer, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with assault, police said.

Frias was off duty and partying with a friend at Mamajuana Cafe on Dyckman St. in Washington Heights, about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 8, when he allegedly punched Edwin Veloz, 23, knocking him unconscious, according to court papers.

Veloz suffered brain damage as a result of the assault, court papers said.

The other suspect, Javier Delarosa, 26, surrendered to police on Jan. 17 and was charged with assault, cops said.

Frias, who has five years with the NYPD is assigned to the departments quartermasters section, said police. He was was arraigned Wednesday on assault charges and suspended without pay.

Had enough?  Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America.  Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent  DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

N.J. police chief to face misconduct, insurance fraud charges as trial begins

The Record of Woodland ParkHackensack Police Chief Charles "Ken" Zisa

HACKENSACK — Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa is set to go on trial today.

Zisa was suspended without pay in 2010 after he was charged with official misconduct and insurance fraud.

The chief is accused of removing his girlfriend from the scene of an accident in 2008 in which she was suspected of being intoxicated. Authorities allege Zisa then filed false information in an insurance claim.

Zisa also is accused of covering up an investigation stemming from a 2004 assault and robbery in which his girlfriend's sons were suspects.

The chief's attorney tells The Record of Woodland Park the case is based on testimony from police officers who stand to gain financially from his conviction.

Had enough?  Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America.  Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent  DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Cop on disability faulted for side job: drug dealer

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 (Reuters) - It's a standard feature of workers' compensation insurance policies that you can't hold a job while collecting benefits, but the Ohio Supreme Court took the definition of "job" to a new level this week -- drug dealing, it turns out, is real work.

The court, in a 7-page ruling on Thursday, said a police officer collecting permanent and total disability was improperly engaged in "sustained remunerative employment" because he was regularly selling prescription drugs.

Former Parma, Ohio, police officer Donald McNea Jr. went on disability in 2004, the court's ruling said. Between October and December 2005, he made four recorded drug sales. He was arrested that December and pled guilty to four felony charges in September 2007, receiving a three-year prison sentence.

But McNea challenged a ruling by the state's industrial commission that he had been overpaid benefits starting from the date of his first known drug sale. The state supreme court, in a unanimous judgment, supported that decision.

 "McNea was performing sustained remunerative work through late December 2005, and there is no evidence that his medical condition changed afterwards so as to preclude that endeavor. The commission also found no evidence suggesting that McNea would have abandoned his long-running enterprise had he not been arrested," the court wrote.

The Fairfax County Police officer Walter R. Fasci/ Sean McGlone award for sober living. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Cop arrested for suspicion of DWI in his patrol car

by SHELTON GREEN / KVUE News and Photojournalist JUSTIN TERRY

khou.com

Posted on March 30, 2012 at 10:22 AM

MUSTANG RIDGE, Texas – A police officer working in a small community 30 miles south of Austin is now engaged in a fight to keep his job after he was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated in his marked patrol car.

Around 1:15 Wednesday afternoon, Officer Jacob Cuevas was spotted by a passerby in Guadalupe County, a little more than 40 miles from Mustang Ridge, slumped over the steering wheel of his patrol car.

Cuevas was off-duty and in plain clothes, and it isn’t known why he was in his police unit.

Guadalupe County Sheriff Deputies say when they arrived they saw Cuevas driving on FM 621.

When he was pulled over, deputies said they could smell alcohol on Cuevas and they also said that he appeared intoxicated.

Cuevas was arrested and charged with DWI. He was taken to the Guadalupe County Jail in Seguin.

“Well shoot he should be fired because I feel a police officer is supposed to be upstanding in the community, they represent the community,” said W. Williams, a Bastrop County resident who frequently drives to Mustang Ridge.

Cuevas posted a $10,000 bond and was on administrative leave, pending the outcome of his case.

  

Cop arrested for suspicion of DWI in his patrol car

Had enough?  Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America.  Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent  DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

by SHELTON GREEN / KVUE News and Photojournalist JUSTIN TERRY

khou.com

Posted on March 30, 2012 at 10:22 AM

MUSTANG RIDGE, Texas – A police officer working in a small community 30 miles south of Austin is now engaged in a fight to keep his job after he was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated in his marked patrol car.

Around 1:15 Wednesday afternoon, Officer Jacob Cuevas was spotted by a passerby in Guadalupe County, a little more than 40 miles from Mustang Ridge, slumped over the steering wheel of his patrol car.

Cuevas was off-duty and in plain clothes, and it isn’t known why he was in his police unit.

Guadalupe County Sheriff Deputies say when they arrived they saw Cuevas driving on FM 621.

When he was pulled over, deputies said they could smell alcohol on Cuevas and they also said that he appeared intoxicated.

Cuevas was arrested and charged with DWI. He was taken to the Guadalupe County Jail in Seguin.

“Well shoot he should be fired because I feel a police officer is supposed to be upstanding in the community, they represent the community,” said W. Williams, a Bastrop County resident who frequently drives to Mustang Ridge.

Cuevas posted a $10,000 bond and was on administrative leave, pending the outcome of his case.

Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Cops Arrest Kids After Bottle-Throwing Melee In The Bronx

Residents of Concourse Village in the Bronx say cops randomly arrested bystanders in a massive sweep of an apartment building after bottles were thrown from the roof at police officers Saturday. A massive police presence surrounded the building around 6 p.m., as a crowd of some 50 people gathered outside, according to DNAinfo. Witnesses and those arrested say police indiscriminately pepper-sprayed and arrested innocent bystanders, including an eighth grade boy and a mother who said she was pepper-sprayed and arrested while trying to keep her children out of it.

A mobile police surveillance tower had been installed at the scene about two weeks earlier, due to gang activity in the area. After bottles began raining down from the roof of the building, near the corner of 163rd Street and Teller Avenue. Cops at the location called for backup, and as you can see from this video, a chaotic scene soon unfolded in the courtyard. The person who uploaded the video writes, "Heard yelling.. Looked out the window and this is the shit I see.. These cops have been violatin this area for the past month.. Goin extra hard for quotas and Tryna make it seem like they actually do."

At least ten people were arrested, four of whom were under the age of 16, and one officer injured his hand after a person allegedly kicked him. Jermaine Brown, whose 14-year-old son was arrested and pepper-sprayed when he went out to see what the yelling was about, tells DNAinfo, "They arrested a model kid for no reason. I’ve lived in this area for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this." It's unclear if police arrested whoever threw the bottles.

Had enough?  Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal hearings into the police problem in America.  Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a permanent  DOJ office on Police Misconduct.

Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Vineland's tainted evidence frees man

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BRIDGETON — A state judge Friday dismissed a firearms indictment against a Vineland man after a county prosecutor admitted a Vineland police detective’s alleged misconduct raises “credibility” issues about evidence.

Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Darrell M. Fineman quickly accepted the prosecution’s motion, allowing defendant Maurice A. Pettway to walk out of the county courthouse a free man. The dismissal means Pettway cannot be charged again in the same matter.

Pettway praised his attorney, state Deputy Public Defender Caroline Turner. “This woman saved my life,” the Vineland man said outside court, smiling at Turner.

With Friday’s action, there are now at least 40 criminal cases in Cumberland County that have been dropped since March 2011. All were dropped based on suspicions that Vineland police detective Gamaliel Cruz lied in at least one affidavit he filed for a search warrant while assigned to the city’s narcotics unit.

The Cumberland County Prosecutor’ Office made that allegation against Cruz after an investigation into a case unrelated to Pettway’s. That investigation expanded to include at least 39 cases in which Cruz’s involvement led prosecutors to drop charges.

Cruz was suspended from the police force as a result, although he was not charged criminally. He is fighting the city’s attempt to dismiss him from his job.

Pretrial argument on whether the state’s case against Pettway was fatally tainted started last year.

First Assistant Prosecutor Harold B. Shapiro has handled the Pettway case. Prior to the hearing Friday, he declined to comment on whether his office might take similar action on other pending cases.

“The state has been guided in its consideration of the Detective Cruz cases by what it deems to be its responsibility to minimize and/or alleviate unfair prejudice to defendants,” Shapiro wrote in a brief submitted to the judge. “In previously pending cases where the charges could not be sustained against defendants without the testimony of Detective Cruz and in circumstances where the state has determined that the involvement of Detective Cruz may have caused it to lose confidence in the integrity and credibility of the evidence supporting prosecution, the state has determined that dismissal with prejudice is required.”

One impact from the prosecution’s decision to drop the Pettway case is it short-circuits a defense motion to obtain copies of all other affidavits Cruz filed in similar cases over the past several years.

Defense attorneys, in this case and others, have questioned Cruz’s use of unidentified “confidential informants” and his habit of using what Turner called an affidavit “template” to fill out the requests. Cruz would “cut and paste” information from one affidavit for another, adjusting details as needed, she alleged.

In the Pettway case, court documents and testimony indicate, Cruz emailed his affidavit template to Vineland police Officer Robert Magee. That officer then used it, with alterations, to secure a warrant from Superior Court Judge Gary D. Wodlinger to search for any drugs that might be in Pettway’s possession.

Pettway was arrested on Aug. 5, 2010, at a traffic stop and the warrant executed. But police did not find the narcotics the affidavit indicated would be present in his vehicle.

Instead, Pettway was charged with possessing a stolen firearm that was found during the search. Pettway denies ever seeing the weapon before police said they found it.

“I’m delighted that the case is being dismissed by the prosecution,” Turner said after Shapiro offered his motion. “However, I would like to continue my discovery motion for the affidavits. Because, Judge, my office represents a lot of clients that could have been affected by these irregularities.”

“I don’t think anything has been proven ‘true,’” Fineman answered, adding he must consider discovery requests on a case-by-case basis.

As the argument continued, Turner asked, “How are people, who have been affected by this, to know they have been affected?”

Fineman responded that is a duty of the prosecution. The Prosecutor’s Office, over the course of this case, has come forth with additional information favorable to the defense after investigating defense claims.

Fineman complimented Turner for showing “tenacity.” But the court isn’t empowered to address “amorphous” controversies, he added.

In dismissing Cruz-related cases last year, the Prosecutor’s Office set up three categories representing what it said were different levels of involvement by the detective. It decided to dismiss cases in which Cruz was the officer to file an affidavit, or in which he was a principal witness.

The office has continued with an undisclosed number of cases for which, it argues, Cruz doesn’t need to be called as a witness even though he’s linked to the cases. The legitimacy of such a legal firewall has been in question throughout the Pettway case.

In her motion, Turner states: “As part of the affidavit discussed so far has been proven to be, at least in part a lie, and as the detective who wrote about his personal knowledge of the CI (confidential informant) in question has been suspended for lying in an affidavit under oath to a Superior Court judge and as Office Magee acted in bad faith or a reckless disregard for the truth of his sworn statement, all the information pertaining to the CI should be stricken. As stated by the Supreme Court … ‘police can not insulate one officer’s deliberate misstatement merely by relaying it through an officer-affiant personally ignorant of its falsity.’”

Outside court, Turner criticized the Vineland Police Department for a lack of management oversight.

“There is no accountability,” she said. “They can change (informant identity) numbers when they like. The can change other people’s affidavits make it look like their own. They can tell lies in affidavits. This is a police department?”

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Documents point to misconduct within Hallsville Police Department

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Months before he and three other officers were terminated in December, the Hallsville chief of police had been threatened with firing amid allegations his officers were double-dipping, failing to respond to calls in a timely manner and fraternizing with women while on duty.

According to documents released by the city under the Texas Public Information Act, Hallsville Mayor Jerri Medrano repeatedly warned Chief Greg Scott in 2011 about performance issues within his department.

The most revealing of the documents was a memorandum from Medrano to Scott, in which the mayor accused the chief of being unprofessional, being too close to his staff to discipline them and ignoring public warnings that one officer routinely “spent time with women” in his car while on duty.

In the April 29 memo, Medrano said she had complaints from the public regarding police officers “double-dipping” by working private security detail while on duty; failing to adequately patrol; failing to respond to complaints in a timely manner; using foul language in public; making sexual innuendos in public and failing to enforce codes.

Medrano wrote to Scott, “I believe that you do not think you are answerable to anyone.”

She wrote “ … truthfully I was ready to terminate your employment with the City, but, I have agreed to work with you … You are all good guys but it has gotten too lax. … ”

Despite the warnings, Medrano graded Scott’s annual job performance as exceptional or superior in his July job evaluation.

In the evaluation summary, Medrano noted, “The past couple of months Greg showed improvement when supervising the department but in the past 2-3 weeks I’ve noticed that he is sliding back into the old behavior. I know this is difficult for him to maintain but he will have to decide whether the problem is eliminated or he will seek employment elsewhere.”

After the July evaluation, documents showed, police officer T.C. Livingston was reprimanded July 25 for not spending enough time on active patrol; Livingston, Sgt. Mack Fuller and Earl Dykes were disciplined Aug. 22 for committing a class C misdemeanor by riding four wheelers on city streets, and on Nov. 15, Hallsville Alderman Doris Coleman complained the police station was unmanned on two of her visits.

On Dec. 28, Medrano fired Scott, Fuller and Livingston, leaving Dykes the remaining Hallsville officer. Dykes quit in the middle of his shift that night. The City Council later voted to reinstate Scott, Fuller and Livingston after outcry from residents.

The documents released revealed Dykes’ personnel issues were a key component in the controversy.

In her April 29 memo to Scott, Medrano wrote she warned the chief “months ago” that Dykes “was spending a lot of time, on duty, with women in his vehicle or parked beside him on Cal Young Rd. (reported by neighbors across the street that saw him daily) for most of his shift.”

Medrano wrote she saw Dykes parked for hours at a time, while on night duty, “in the dark part of the sub-courthouse with another vehicle.”

Two days later — on May 1 — Dykes was suspended from duty without pay because a criminal complaint was filed against him.

Harrison County District Attorney Coke Solomon said the complaint was filed by a resident with the Hallsville Police Department and investigated by members of the department.

Evidence was presented June 30 to the Harrison County grand jury. Solomon said the grand jury found there was not enough evidence to indict Dykes. The district attorney would not disclose the nature of the criminal complaint or the name of the complainant. The City of Hallsville has not released a copy of the complaint.

Dykes was reinstated, given back pay and resumed patrol duty July 4.

As part of his reinstatement terms, Dykes was required to show proof he attended mandatory counseling sessions and proof he repaid Charlotte Anderson in full for a debt he owed her, city documents showed. Documents released by the city include a copy of a receipt from Anderson for $800 for “back rent due 2/1/2011.”

In the April 29 memorandum, Medrano ordered police department vehicles be left at the office at the end of each shift.

“No extra security outside the city limits using the city vehicle,” she wrote.

City documents obtained by the News-Journal include a January 2010 memorandum from an unidentified source prohibiting officers from performing private security work while on duty.

“Any officer scheduled to work for the City of Hallsville is not to work a side security job at the same time. ... Greg, I should not have to be having to tell you all this. Security is for their off time to earn extra income and not to be done on City Time. Do you need me to type up a formal notice and sign it for the department or will you handle it?”

Medrano declined to comment on any of the documents obtained by the News-Journal.

Since the officers returned to work, she said, there have been no problems.

“We’re trying to put this behind us and move forward,” she said.

She said a financial review of the department will be conducted in April.

“Our town is so small we just always did things the same way,” Medrano said. “Now we’ve got to create policy and procedure and move forward.”