The national issue of mentally unstable cops

Greensboro police officer charged with possession of child porn

Corey S. Daniel

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro Police Department officer has been charged in connection with child pornography.

The Greensboro Police Department became aware that Officer Corey S. Daniel was a person of interest to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office in October in connection with a child pornography case. He was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 24.

Daniel was arrested on Nov. 6 and charged with possession of child pornography.

Daniel joined the department on May 16, 2012.

Sandusky officer suspended in controversial traffic stop caught on camera

BY PEGGY GALLEK

SANDUSKY, Ohio — A police officer involved in a controversial traffic stop has been suspended for 60 days and ordered to sign a last chance agreement.

Sandusky Police Chief John Orzech said Officer Chris Denny received the discipline Thursday after he was found guilty of several administrative charges, including insubordination and failing to be honest.

According to the last chance agreement, if the officer violates any part of the agreement he could be terminated.

The last chance agreement also states the officer must get additional training in report writing and search and seizure. He most also perform 208 hours of community service.

The discipline stems from Denny’s handling of the October traffic stop of Andre Stockett.

Stockett videotaped the stop and the video soon went viral on social media. Stockett said the police were harassing him.

Stockett and his girlfriend, who was driving the car, where both charged with obstructing official business. They have both plead not guilty and their cases are pending.

Stockett says he is now considering legal action.

California police spent $45mn on spy gear with little oversight

Police departments across California spent more than $45 million on surveillance equipment over the course of a decade with little to no legislative or public oversight – and without the public's knowledge, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU report, titled 'Making Smart Decisions about Surveillance: A Guide for Communities,' reveals how California law enforcement took advantage of millions of dollars’ worth of federal surveillance gear to sidestep city council oversight and boards of supervisors. Police also avoided consideration of costs and benefits and left the public in the dark as to how law enforcement was using the equipment to track their lives.

“After revelations of mass surveillance by the NSA, the public isn’t buying the ‘just trust us’ approach anymore. The public expects to know why surveillance is being considered, how it is going to be used and what safeguards are in place to guard against misuse before any decisions are made,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California, said in a statement.

The report surveyed 118 California cities and towns and found that 90 were using surveillance technology. Only five had carried out public debate before acquisition, and four had public policies concerning use and limits. In total, the 118 cities and towns had spent over $45 million on equipping their police departments.

 The majority of police units were using license plate readers (57) and video surveillance (62), but many were using a multitude of devices to track and survey people.

For example, the automatic license plate readers (ALPR) is a camera system mounted to a police car or light that scans license plates that come into view. They are often used to look for stolen vehicles, but they can record the time and place of every single vehicle that drives by.

Facial recognition software, meanwhile, identifies a person in photos or video based on various characteristics of the person’s face. The accuracy of facial recognition, however, can vary widely.

Automated social media monitoring consists of software tools that collect posts and other information on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. These tools may also analyze the collected data in order to learn information such as the social connections or political views of individuals.

Another device – the International Mobile Subscriber Identity catcher (IMSI) – emulates the functionality of a cell phone tower in order to interact with a nearby mobile phone. Commonly known as Stingrays, a popular brand name, they can be used to capture and intercept the contents of communications, including calls, text messages, or internet activity. Many IMSI are used in dragnet fashion, scooping up information about every phone in range.

In one instance, the report said the San Jose Police Department obtained a drone with federal funding with no public debate and no policy safeguards in place. After protests, the police department apologized, grounded the drone, and initiated public outreach.

ACLU California is proposing a measure called the Surveillance and Community Ordinance to provide transparency, accountability, and oversight. The ordinance is being drafted and will be introduced in the coming weeks.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, as well as the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, have also both joined the ACLU to endorse the need for oversight ordinances. They are quite familiar with how unchecked surveillance often has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and religious minorities.

“Communities are increasingly concerned about making sure that time, energy and resources are not spent on expensive, ineffective and overly intrusive surveillance systems that create more problems than they solve,” San Francisco supervisor John Avalos told the ACLU. “That’s why public transparency and engagement are key to any decision about whether to use surveillance technology. If surveillance technology is to be used, clear rules must be in place to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability.”

Civil forfeitures need more oversight

  

The Issue

State law allows county officials to seize money or property believed to be connected to crime. The practice is called civil forfeiture and here, as across the country, it's on the rise. The Lancaster County District Attorney's Office has generated millions in forfeiture proceeds in recent years and has a $1.75 million surplus. The proceeds help to fund the Lancaster County Drug Task Force, which the DA says still is underfunded.

In theory, the idea of seizing cash and other assets from drug dealers and then using the proceeds to fight the drug scourge seems like a perfect kind of justice.

But as critics across the country are pointing out, the practice of civil forfeiture is ripe for abuse.

And even two former Justice Department officials who helped create the asset forfeiture initiative in the 1980s have expressed alarm at the way it’s being used.

Writing in The Washington Post, John Yoder and Brad Cates maintained that civil forfeiture has become a fundraising activity for some law enforcement agencies, rather than “an even-handed effort to enforce the law.”

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman acknowledged the potential for abuse in an interview with LNP.

“If it’s being abused as a means of generating revenue, then you have a problem,” Stedman said.

He said that Lancaster County — unlike many other counties — waits until a person is convicted and a direct appeal is denied before it files forfeiture petitions to allow the county to keep the assets.

The reality is, though, that property once seized seldom goes back to its owner.

In many cases that’s appropriate; the money or assets are connected to the sale of drugs. Where that’s not the case, there is a process to file for the return of your property. If your request is denied, you’ll likely need to hire an attorney.

If you’ve lost hundreds of dollars, and you don’t have much to begin with, are you likely to chance losing hundreds more by hiring an attorney?

Most people don’t even try to get their assets back; some feel powerless to fight for their return.

Consider the case of Theresa Campbell, whose son pleaded guilty to possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

In the course of raiding the family home, police took $300 from Campbell’s purse.

Police said Campbell helped her son to hide drugs during the raid but she wasn’t charged with any crime.

 She never got her money back.

Consider, too, Barbara and Ralph Spring, who are raising their grandsons after their daughter Jessica died of a drug overdose.

They would have liked to have had their daughter’s Jeep Cherokee to transport their grandkids. Or they might have sold it and put the proceeds toward their grandkids’ college savings.

But a drug dealer they don’t even know ended up with the vehicle. After he was arrested, he surrendered the Jeep to the police.

It was later sold by Lancaster County.

The District Attorney’s Office published a brief legal notice stating that anyone with a legal claim to the vehicle should come forward.

But the Springs didn’t see the notice. County officials might have tried calling them — they’ve had the same phone number for 20 years, they told LNP — but the brief legal notice was the only notice that’s required.

Sometimes, it seems, legal and right are not the same.

Stedman defends civil forfeiture as an effective way of stripping assets from drug dealers, and of funding enforcement.

Critics, however, call the practice “policing for profit.”

It turns on its head a basic tenet of American justice: Law enforcement doesn’t have to prove that cash and other property are connected to crime.

The property’s owner has to prove that it is not.

In other words, the property is guilty until proven innocent.

Civil forfeiture feeds the perception that the rights of ordinary citizens are trumped by law enforcement.

And that perception leads to cynicism and distrust of our legal system.

There’s a way to counter that perception: Appoint an independent ombudsman to review civil forfeitures, and streamline the appeal procedures.

No one is going to cry for the convicted drug dealer whose assets were seized and then used for the excellent purpose of investigating and charging other drug dealers.

Seizing the property of those who are convicted — or at least charged — seems entirely appropriate.

But those who live with criminals, or care for them, shouldn’t be viewed as guilty by association.

And neither should their assets.

Gerry Hyland, working to make the cops even more unaccountable

San Francisco police corruption trial begins in federal court

By Bob Egelko

A federal prosecutor opened the trial of two San Francisco police officers Monday by telling jurors the case was about “corruption with a badge.” Defense lawyers countered that it was about a third policeman who cut a deal with prosecutors to frame their clients.

Reynaldo Vargas, who pleaded guilty to four felony charges last month and agreed to testify against his former colleagues, is a man with an “evil nature” whose testimony was “bought and paid for,” Brian Getz, attorney for police Sgt. Ian Furminger, said in an opening statement to the U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco.

Teresa Caffese, lawyer for Officer Edmond Robles, said Robles “had no knowledge of what Vargas was doing” and “didn’t help Vargas commit any of the crimes.” Vargas, she said, “is a liar and he is a convicted criminal” who “is now pointing fingers at Ed Robles because he wants to save his own skin.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rodney Villazor said Vargas and other witnesses would describe a series of thefts of money, drugs and other property from criminal suspects by the three officers, who worked in the plainclothes unit at the Mission Station.

$30,000 in cash

In a May 2009, during a search of a home in Newark, where the officers were assisting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Villazor said, Vargas found a shovel in the backyard, dug up $30,000 in cash and split it with Furminger and Robles. The next day, the prosecutor said, Robles deposited $6,000 in his bank account.

In another 2009 search, Villazor said, Vargas found two Apple gift cards, one for $500 and the other for $53.17, in the hotel room of a suspected drug dealer. “Vargas looked at Ed Robles and said, 'Let’s go shopping,’” Villazor said, and one of the gift cards was used to buy an iPod for Robles’ girlfriend.

“That’s what this case is about, a cop stealing money,” the prosecutor said. He said the items police seize during searches belong in evidence lockers, “not in their bank accounts.”

Caffese said Robles, when he gave the iPod as a gift,did not know it had been purchased with a stolen gift card.

Furminger and Robles are charged with theft from suspects and from the city and with depriving the public of their honest services. The criminal charges against all three officers followed an investigation by San Francisco police and the FBI that concluded they had stolen marijuana that had been seized from suspects in 2009, and that Vargas had delivered the drugs to a pair of informants, who sold it in return for 25 percent of the proceeds.

Furminger and Robles have been suspended without pay.

Ex-officer’s admissions

Vargas was a police officer from 1999 until he was fired in 2012 for allegedly falsifying his time sheets. In a plea agreement Oct. 21, he admitted stealing computers, gift cards, money and other property and keeping them for personal use. He also said he, Furminger and Robles had taken marijuana from a seized UPS package in 2009, and that he later gave the drugs to two people whom the three officers had been trying to recruit as informants.

Vargas will testify later in the trial, which is scheduled to last several weeks. One prosecution witness Monday, the girlfriend of a suspected drug dealer, described being handcuffed and interrogated by the three officers, who then allegedly offered her a kickback if she would implicate her boyfriend.

The officers trashed the couple’s hotel room and took her to the police station, said the witness, Kelsey Stewart, where they asked her about her boyfriend’s bank account and motor vehicles, and said “whatever money they got they would split with me.”

Stewart said she didn’t remember which officer asked the question, but all of them were within earshot. They later released her without charges.

Another prosecution witness, Ian Elliott, a friend of Stewart’s, said he heard Robles question her outside the hotel room and offer to “split the proceeds with her” if she helped them find her boyfriend’s vehicles.

The trial resumes Thursday.

Gerry Hyland wants to increase the cops power in Fairfax County

Grassley demands answers from Fairfax police, U.S. attorney in John Geer case

Few details of his death 14 months ago have been released

By Tom Jackman

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), likely to be the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined a growing chorus of voices Thursday demanding to know why Fairfax County and federal authorities have offered no explanation, and made no decisions, about the August 2013 police killing of an unarmed Springfield man.

Grassley sent letters to Fairfax Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. and U.S. Attorney Dana Boente in Alexandria saying that even if the shooting of John Geer “was justified, family members and the public are entitled to a credible, independent accounting of exactly what happened at Geer’s residence on Aug. 29, 2013, and why.”

Grassley sent a series of specific questions to Roessler and Boente and asked that both respond by Dec. 1.

“How long will it be before a decision is made to either pursue an indictment or drop the case?” Grassley asked Boente about the now 14-month-long investigation.

“Please explain why FCPD refuses to disclose even basic information concerning this case,” Grassley wrote to the police chief.

Roessler said he could not comment on the letter or say whether he would respond. Boente’s spokesman, Joshua Stueve, said that the Justice Department’s Legislative Affairs Office handles all correspondence from congressional officials and that he could not discuss the case.

On the day he was shot, Geer, 46, was standing unarmed in the doorway of his Springfield townhouse, his arms on the frame of the storm door, and talking to Fairfax officers after tossing his longtime partner’s belongings out of the house upon learning she was moving out. Witnesses, including his father and his best friend, said that after about 50 minutes, an officer suddenly fired one shot into Geer’s chest from a distance of 10 to 20 feet, with no apparent provocation.

Geer turned, closed the door and collapsed, witnesses said. Police waited another hour, while calling to him to respond, before knocking down the door. By then, Geer had bled to death.

Following department policy, police declined to reveal the name of the officer or any details of why he fired until the Fairfax prosecutor ruled on whether a crime had been committed. But after five months, during which Fairfax prosecutor Raymond F. Morrogh reportedly tried and failed to obtain the internal affairs files from previous cases in which the officer was involved, Morrogh shifted the case in February to the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria for federal investigation. That office has not offered any details on the case in the nine months since.

Grassley has been the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and is expected to be named chairman with the Republican takeover of the Senate. The committee has oversight of the Justice Department and its U.S. attorneys.

Grassley said he sent the letters because the Geer case “has received little attention, except in The Washington Post, and at least the known facts are concerning. It’s unacceptable for the U.S. attorney and the police department to leave a case like this languishing for so long, keeping Geer’s family and the public in the dark.”

Geer’s father, Don Geer, said of the letters, “I thought he did a wonderful job. I wish he’d done it a year ago. He certainly has asked the right questions.”

Don Geer said he has heard “not a word” from federal authorities “for a long, long time.” In September, Geer’s former partner, Maura Harrington, filed a wrongful death civil suit against the Fairfax police in hopes of learning more information about why Geer was shot.

Supervisor Gerry Hyland said nothing and did nothing when the Fairfax County cops framed a grammer school teacher and murdered two unarmed citizens….and got away with it ……Opps Deary Hyland is the cops loudest supporter.  

SOMEBODY PLEASE run against this coward. He’s beatable.

 The people of Fairfax County are sick and tired of the cops murdering unarmed citizens. 

Don’t worry, Opps Dearie Hyland will probably run into the closet to get his things and then not come out of the closet. He’s beatable.

When Cops Get Arrested, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office Doesn't Put Their Booking Info Online

By Ray Downs

The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office has been selectively taking names of police officers who get arrested off the booking blotter, effectively giving busted cops special treatment over regular folks who get their names, mug shots, and personal information put online for all to see when they get thrown in jail.

A story published Sunday by the Palm Beach Post revealed the practice, which PBSO officials have since admitted to doing. Their excuse is that their computer program doesn't allow them to scrub officers' home addresses and birth dates, which is not allowed to be released to the public under state law. And since they can't take off that information, they decided to just leave police off the record entirely.

The PBSO has done this for all five officers (that we know of) arrested this year, including the recent arrest of Boynton Beach officer Stephen Maiorino, who is accused of raping a woman at gunpoint on the hood of his patrol car.

See also: Boynton Cop Stephen Maiorino Arrested for Raping Woman at Gunpoint

But as the Post points out, the PBSO was able to scrub addresses and birth dates of officers before -- like how they did for Boynton Beach Police Officer Alex Lindsey in 2011 when he was arrested for falsifying documents.

Interestingly, the PBSO's booking blotter was offline Monday night and the link instead goes straight the site's homepage. The PBSO tells the Post it will continue to be offline "until further notice."

Records of the officer arrests are still available to the public under Florida's open records law, but for now, a request to the PBSO must be made to obtain them. But with the booking blotter currently down, even non-police officers will enjoy the privilege of not having their mug shot and private information published online for all to see and use for money-making purposes like charging a fee to take to take the information off private websites. For now, at least.

Jerry Hyland won't come out of the closet and speak up against police murders of unarmed citizens in Fairfax County  

Deputy in slap video is charged, steps down

Longtime lawman arraigned on misconduct, harassment charges

By Lauren Stanforth

A Saratoga County sheriff's sergeant abruptly resigned Monday as he was charged with official misconduct and harassment after a video was posted on the Internet over the weekend that purportedly captured him slapping a man whose car he wanted to search.

Sheriff Michael H. Zurlo said his office began an investigation into the actions of Sgt. Shawn R. Glans immediately after they learned the video was posted on the department's Facebook page around 9 p.m. Friday. The video shows Glans demanding to search the vehicle of a young man, Colin Fitch, who was standing next to the deputy in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store in Halfmoon. Fitch refused to consent to the search as Glans peppered him with expletives and said they could get a search warrant if he didn't turn over his keys.

Glans grows increasingly agitated during the encounter, which was being secretly filmed by Fitch's friend Adam Roberts, who was standing next to the pair. "You want to (expletive) resist?" Glans tells Fitch as the deputy steps toward him and the video captures a loud slapping sound. The video camera was pointed downward at the time of the alleged strike. Glans then grabs Fitch's keys, throwing them to another deputy. "Search the (expletive) car," Glans tells the other deputy, who has not been identified.

Zurlo acknowledged Glans struck the young man. Glans, 48, was arraigned in Halfmoon Town Court on Monday afternoon on one count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and second-degree harassment, a violation. The charges state that while on-duty and in uniform Glans "did knowingly commit unauthorized physical acts in seeking to secure and expedite the search of a vehicle with an intent to benefit himself," according to court records. The harassment charge says Glans slapped Fitch "in the back of the head with an open hand."

"His actions both as a police officer and a sergeant were completely inappropriate," Zurlo said at a news conference Monday at which he announced that Glans had resigned. "I am very disturbed. I have zero tolerance for that type of activity."

Glans, who said he's been a police officer for 27 years, was immediately suspended after the video surfaced Friday. Zurlo said the sergeant reported in on Monday morning and then voluntarily resigned. Glans' attorney, Matthew Chauvin of Clifton Park, said he didn't know if Glans was informed of the criminal charges against him before he resigned.

"The video is difficult to place in the context of the person we know," Chauvin said. "I hope the 20-plus years he's put into the community doesn't go unnoticed," he said adding, "There are two sides to every story."

Glans also has worked as a part-time South Glens Falls police officer. South Glens Falls police declined to comment on his status with that department.

Glans told the Times Union Saturday that he was concerned about public safety after seeing the gun in the car, but that he would have acted differently if he knew it was being videotaped. "If I had to do it all over again ... I'd probably do the same thing. If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad," he said.

The sheriff said an internal investigation is ongoing regarding the actions of the two other deputies who were at the scene with Glans but did not intervene as their sergeant allegedly slapped the young man. Zurlo declined to identify the other deputies. With Glans' resignation, the internal investigation into his actions is closed, Zurlo said.

Halfmoon Town Justice Lester Wormuth granted an order of protection on behalf of Fitch and Roberts that prohibits Glans from contacting them.

Zurlo said Glans and other deputies approached the two in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Route 9 around 2:30 a.m. Friday after receiving a call of suspicious people parking at another business and entering woods on Route 236 near the Wal-Mart.

When deputies arrived at the business on Route 236 the car was gone, but they said they found a vehicle matching the description in the Wal-Mart parking lot a short time later. Glans saw a .22-caliber rifle in the car's back seat and wanted to search the vehicle.

After the video captured Glans allegedly slapping Fitch, Roberts kept filming and can be heard telling Glans that what just happened was "intense" and he asks the sergeant if he was going strike him next. The sergeant responded that he could "rip your (expletive) head off and (expletive) down your neck." Glans is due back in Halfmoon court on Dec. 9.

Demand Jerry Hyland to come out of the closet and address the murder of unarmed citizen by the Fairfax County cops

Jury selected for western Pennsylvania officer charged with wrongly stunning handcuffed man

 By JOE MANDAK 

 PITTSBURGH — A jury has been selected to decide whether a western Pennsylvania police officer violated a suspect's civil rights by repeatedly zapping him with a stun gun, even after he was handcuffed — an encounter recorded on another person's cellphone.

The attorney for Millvale Officer Nicole Murphy doesn't dispute she used the stun gun on Thomas Jason James Smith after his arrest for public drunkenness in September 2012. Rather, he contends the 30-year-old officer was justified in using it because she was trying to stop Smith from banging his head.

"This guy was out of control. They believed he was on some other kind of substance," defense attorney Robert Stewart said after Murphy's arraignment in June. "She had a choice of Tasering him to subdue him or letting him split his head open." Stewart didn't immediately return a call seeking comment following jury selection Wednesday.

Opening statements in the case are scheduled to begin Monday morning in federal court.

The FBI began investigating after someone leaked a 52-second cellphone video of the incident to Pittsburgh-area media outlets in early 2013.

The video shows a shirtless Smith, then 28, sitting on the floor of the police station while he banged his head on the edge of a desk. Murphy then zaps him with the stun gun. Murphy reported in a criminal complaint that she used the stun gun to subdue Smith when he became violent, but Smith isn't seen attacking her in the video.

The video also shows some emergency responders smiling and laughing at Smith's behavior.

The prosecution and defense haven't specified who took the video. Court documents filed in recent weeks suggest the case will boil down to the testimony of Murphy — who remains on unpaid leave — and another officer, part-timer Casey Bonincontro.

Prosecutors have asked the court for permission to raise issues relating to Murphy's character if she testifies.

According to pretrial motions, prosecutors want to ask Murphy about a 2011 drunken driving arrest and about a man Murphy allegedly befriended or dated "who was known to her to have a drug-related criminal record." Stewart has argued neither is relevant.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, are concerned that Stewart plans to use Bonincontro's personnel files with the borough and other departments to allegedly show she violated various on-the-job rules.

The judge has yet to rule whether any of that can be used at trial.

The charge Murphy faces carries up to 10 years in prison and, because it's a felony, would end her law enforcement career even if she avoids incarceration.

Jerry "opps dearie" Hyland won't stand up to the cops

Colchester, Vt., officer charged with taking drugs, gun

The police chief in Colchester, Vt., is calling it the darkest day in her department’s history. Chief Jennifer Morrison said town Detective Corporal Tyler Kinney will face federal charges in connection with the alleged thefts of drugs and a firearm from a police evidence locker. Authorities say the investigation began early Monday, when the gun that was supposed to be in the Colchester department’s possession turned up during a search carried out by Burlington police. Morrison said the investigation led to Kinney, a 12-year veteran of her department. The 38-year-old Jericho resident is to be charged formally on Wednesday in US District Court. It could not be determined immediately whether Kinney has a lawyer. 

              

Jerry "Opps Dearie" Hyland, the best friend injustice ever had

Suspended APD officer named officer of the year

By Noelle Newton

An officer suspended for ten days by the Austin Police Department, has just been awarded officer of the year.

The Austin Police Association President says he did what the department should have done in the first place.

Officer Jonathan Laborde is appealing his discipline.

Until an outside source decides on the matter, you can take a look at the video of the incident in question for yourself.

In the APD dash camera video, off-duty officer Jonathan Laborde with his badge in his left hand and his gun in his right chases after a man who just ran through his church.

Laborde would later learn that the man he was after, Matthew Rogers, had just attempted to steal from a T-Mobile store. Police say Rogers struggled with an employee and then pulled a knife on him.

The clip after that shows Laborde tackling Rogers in the middle of a street.

A patrol officer can be heard saying, "I can hear somebody helping us out. (siren) Thank God cause I've been chasing this guy. He had a knife on him so I didn't want to get stabbed."

On Saturday, Laborde was recognized by the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas as the Central Texas Regional Officer of the Year.

"The department wouldn't recognize his courage so we did," said Sgt. Wayne Vincent.

Sgt. Vincent nominated Laborde.

"He actually did what I think every citizen would expect an off duty police officer to do," he said.

Vincent's opinion of what took place is much different from APDsupervisors who suspended Laborde for ten days.

A disciplinary memo states Laborde posed an unreasonable threat to the public stating most responding officers didn't know Laborde was an officer, but instead an individual running after the suspect with a gun in his hand.

It is department policy to wait for an on-duty officer to arrive before intervening.

Laborde is appealing the suspension and Vincent is showing his support through this award.

"We did this to send a message to our membership that despite what you might go through and the criticisms you go through when you do the right thing you're doing it for the public and you're doing it for the profession and we're proud of you for doing so," he explains.

Laborde is waiting for a hearing date.

APD is not commenting about this incident again until that hearing takes place.

Cop Shoots Judge With Taser In Courtroom

By Michael Allen

Judge Geary Kull was reportedly attacked by defendant Michael Ganter in court last Thursday, and accidentally tased by a police officer.

The bizarre incident happened in Maywood, Ill., near Chicago (video below).

Ganter, who was not handcuffed or shackled, was being taken out of the courtroom by two deputies when he allegedly went after Judge Kull and punched him several times.

When a police officer fired a taser at Ganter, Judge Kull was hit by one of the taser’s prongs.

Ganter was in court because he was charged with aggravated battery and attempted murder, but has now been charged additionally with a second count of aggravated battery and resisting arrest.

“The gentleman who struck him, struck him in the head and the face. Judge Kull told me that he was pummeled by this gentleman,” Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans told CBS Chicago.

"[Judge Kull] was struck by one of the taser prongs that went awry when they were attempting to remove the defendant from attacking the judge," Chief Judge Evans told ABC 7 Chicago.

Cook County Jail Executive Director Cara Smith told the Associated Press that Judge Kull was taken to a nearby hospital and released.

Two Years Later, No Charges After Police Kill Homeless Man in Barrage of 46 Shots

By Lauren Walker

On a quiet Sunday in July 2012 in broad daylight, six police officers in Michigan repeatedly shot an African-American man struggling with homelessness and mental illness. While the killing of Milton Hall prompted local outrage and a federal investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in February that it failed to find “sufficient evidence of willful misconduct” to prosecute the policemen.

This Monday, more than two years later, the ACLU released footage obtained from the Hall family’s lawyers and used it as part of its testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, in order to put pressure on the federal government. While a bystander video was shown on CNN shortly after the shooting, the newly released dashcam video shows the incident with unprecedented detail.

 In the video, Hall, 49, is seen standing in a Saginaw, Michigan, parking lot surrounded by eight police officers with their guns drawn and pointed at him. During the short stand-off, a police dog began to growl and lunge toward Hall, who took out a small pocketknife in response. It was when he turned to the dog, the ACLU says, that police showered Hall with a stream of bullets.

The officers fired 46 shots in a matter of seconds, hitting Hall 14 times. Once on the ground, an officer turned him over, handcuffed him, and put his foot on Hall’s back—with “his blood running down the street like water,” Jewel Hall, Milton's mother, told the ACLU.

Milton Hall was born on April 25, 1963 in Saginaw. His mother told the ACLU that Hall spent his days as a community worker who fought for equal rights. He was an avid reader, researcher, and even received training from Rosa Parks. In his mid-20s, signs of Hall’s mental disability started to appear.

“As long as he was on his medication and all, he did fine. It was when he wasn't on his medication that he was impatient. He'd sometimes become intolerant,” Jewel told the ACLU. “But when he was on his medication, he maintained.

"It's been devastating to our family; it was devastating to the community. And justice still has not been served," she said. "There needs to be a change in how police deal with situations like the one that ended my son's life. Our leaders have to address conditions that allow police to use excessive and deadly force with impunity."

"As a civilian, Mr. Hall had every right to expect that the police would protect his life, but instead, he was the target of what resembled in many ways a firing squad,” Mark Fancher, a lawyer with the ACLU of Michigan, said. "The government cannot act as if the life of a homeless black man has no value. Saginaw deserves justice not only for Milton Hall, but for the entire community that has been devastated by this inexplicable act of police violence."

The hearing, held on Monday, focused on racially biased policing in the United States. While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has no legal authority, the ACLU hopes the testimony will serve “as a wake-up call for the desperate need to address police misconduct against the black citizens of this country," said Michael Steinberg, the legal director of the ACLU of Michigan. “The power behind these international tribunals is to draw attention to the problem and to put pressure on the United States to abide by human rights principles.”