Former Reynoldsburg Police Officer Agrees to Plead Guilty to Civil Rights Charges, Federal Program Theft

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of Ohio

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Former Reynoldsburg Police Officer Agrees to Plead Guilty to Civil Rights Charges, Federal Program Theft

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Shane M. Mauger, 41, of Columbus, has agreed to plead guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to deprive persons of civil rights and federal program theft.

Benjamin C. Glassman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Field Division, John F. Oleskowicz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Chicago Field Office, Timothy J. Plancon, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the case today.

According to the statement of facts, Mauger was employed as a police officer with the Reynoldsburg Division of Police during the time of his offenses. Since at least November 2006, Mauger conspired with at least one other person to steal money and property in his capacity as a police officer. The money and property he stole came from the execution of search warrants, the execution of consent searches and other police actions. In total, the conspirators stole between $150,000 and $250,000 of money and property.

Mauger and at least one other person also filed false paperwork as part of the conspiracy. Mauger caused search warrant affidavits to be submitted to judges, knowing the affidavits contained false statements. For example, Mauger caused an affidavit to be filed that stated marijuana had been found in a trash pull at a residence, which he knew that in fact no marijuana had been found. He then participated in the execution of a resulting search warrant, which he knew was based on false information. Mauger also conspired with at least one other person to cause police reports to underreport how much money had been found in search warrants. The police reports excluded the amount of money the conspirators unlawfully seized.

By stealing money and property and by causing false statements to be made in affidavits in support of search warrants, Mauger oppressed persons’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and their Fourteenth Amendment right not to be deprived of property without due process of law.

Each of the crimes carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

An arraignment hearing is yet to be scheduled in U.S. District Court.

Acting U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the FBI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), Department of Justice OIG and DEA and Assistant United States Attorneys Peter K. Glenn-Applegate, Salvador A. Dominguez, and Jessica W. Knight, who are representing the United States in this case.

and the cops on the scene won't be fined even a penny

Tamir Rice’s Family to Receive $6 Million From Cleveland

By MITCH SMITHAPRIL 25, 2016

Cleveland Mayor on Tamir Rice Settlement

Mayor Frank Jackson announced a $6 milllion settlement with the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old killed by the police, but said no price could be put on the life of a child.

CHICAGO — The family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy whose fatal shooting by the Cleveland police in 2014 prompted national outrage, is set to receive $6 million from the city in a settlement announced Monday in federal court records.

The settlement, which would be the latest in a series of seven-figure payouts by major American cities to the families of African-Americans who died at the hands of officers, spares Cleveland the possibility of a federal civil rights trial that could have drawn new attention to Tamir’s death and to the city’s troubled police force. It also allows the city to avoid the possibility of an even larger judgment.

Cleveland officials said the settlement was the city’s largest in a police-related lawsuit, though under the terms of the agreement, the city does not admit wrongdoing. The $6 million figure is in line with settlements in the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Lawyers for the Rice family had been meeting with Cleveland officials to discuss a settlement since early last month. The agreement must still be approved by a probate court.

For the Rice family, which had called for criminal charges against the rookie officer who opened fire almost immediately after encountering Tamir on Nov. 22, 2014, the settlement means a significant payment and an end to civil proceedings. But it does nothing to change the decision by a Cuyahoga County grand jury last year to not indict the officer, Timothy Loehmann. Lawyers for Tamir’s estate said Monday that “no amount of money can adequately compensate” the boy’s relatives for their grief.

Tell me again why we don't require an IQ test for cops

Ex-Oklahoma deputy Robert Bates guilty of killing unarmed suspect

By Ralph Ellis, Christopher Lett and Sara Sidner, CNN

Updated 7:46 AM ET, Thu April 28, 2016

•           Robert Bates was a volunteer reserve sheriff deputy for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office

•           He fatally shot Eric Harris in April 2015 after Harris fled

•           Bates' lawyer said he meant to deploy his stun gun and pulled his pistol by accident

Tulsa, Oklahoma (CNN)A jury found a sheriff's deputy guilty of second-degree manslaughter Wednesday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect.

Robert Bates, who was a volunteer reserve sheriff deputy for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office last year at the time of the shooting, never denied shooting Eric Courtney Harris.

Bates, 74, said he meant to use his Taser stun gun, not his revolver, on the suspect, who had been tackled by other deputies and was being held on the ground.

How easy is it to confuse a gun for a Taser?

The jury deliberated less than three hours and recommended Bates serve four years in prison, the maximum possible sentence. Preliminary sentencing is set for May 31. After the verdict, Bates was escorted out of the courtroom by two deputies from the department he once served.

In his closing argument to the jury, defense lawyer Clark Brewster said Bates should be be thanked for trying to help his fellow deputies. He displayed the stun gun and Bates' pistol and showed how they were similar size and weight.

"He got out of his vehicle to man up and help," Brewster said. "I truly believe you will find this was an accident driven to this point by the actions of Mr. Harris."

Prosecutor John David Luton told the jury Bates was nodding off in his car before the arrest. He said it was wrong to blame Harris for the shooting.

"Bob Bates didn't act with usual and ordinary care," Luton said in his closing argument. "He also didn't do what a reasonable person would do under similar circumstances. ... Eric Harris deserved to be chased, he deserved to be tackled, he deserved to be arrested. He did not deserve to be killed by reserve deputy Bob Bates."

Bates was CEO of insurance company

The death of Harris is one of several nationally known cases in which a white law enforcement officer killed an unarmed black man. These cases have galvanized the public over tactics that police are trained to use.

The all-white jury, consisting of six women and eight men, had to decide if the shooting was, in the words of court charging documents, "an act of culpable negligence." Those documents said Bates believed he had his Taser in his hand when he shot.

Bates didn't testify in his own defense and only made one comment on the record in court. When the judge asked if he was satisfied with his defense, Bates replied, "I'm absolutely tickled to death."

At the time of the shooting, Bates was 73 and the CEO of an insurance company. He had worked for the Tulsa Police Department for a year in the 1960s and had been a reserve deputy since 2008.

On April 2, 2015, he was providing backup and parked several blocks away from an undercover officer conducting a sting operation to try to catch Harris illegally selling a gun.

As deputies rolled up to arrest Harris that day, the suspect bolted and was pursued by officers, who caught him and took him to the ground. Bates got out of his vehicle and fired his pistol into Harris' back.

Bates experienced heavy stress, psychiatrist says

'Oh! I shot him! I'm sorry!" Bates said, as captured in a video of the shooting.

Authorities said Bates thought he pulled out his Taser but "inadvertently" fired his gun.

The defense put on two expert witnesses who were both medical doctors. They testified Harris died of a heart attack not from he bullet that pierced his lungs. But the Forensic pathologist Cheryl Niblo testified that Harris' death was a homicide caused by a gunshot.

One of the things the prosecution had to prove to get a guilty verdict was whether Harris was killed by Bates when Bates shot him.

The first defense witness was Dr. Charles Morgan, a forensic psychiatrist, who was shown video of the incident. He testified that Bates may have pulled his gun during the arrest because people tend to resort to their habits, not training, during times of "uncontrollable stress."

Prosecutor Kevin Gray questioned Morgan about how he knew it was Bates' habit to use his pistol. After being prodded by the judge, Morgan answered that he didn't look at any of Bates' training records to come to his conclusion.

Bates' training was an issue throughout the investigation and trial.

Deputy Ricardo Vaca testified that if Bates actually had used a stun gun instead of a pistol at the moment the shot was fired, it would not have been consistent with their training.

"You are supposed to wait until you have a clear opening and then deploy," he said.

Vaca was the first deputy to tackle Harris and was on top of him when the shooting happened.

'I almost got killed,' deputy says

"I almost got killed," Vaca said, his voice cracking. "It makes me emotional. Inches to my right and I would have been killed,"

Vaca and another deputy testified they observed Bates in his patrol vehicle nodding off a few minutes before the takedown order was given.

Deputy Michael Heisten said Bates gave a statement to investigators and claimed to have been in situations like this before. He meant to use nonlethal force as he had in the past, the statement said, according to Heisten.

"Based on his record how often had Bates been in a situation involving a fleeing felon?" Gray asked.

"Never." Heisten replied.

Shooting puts spotlight on reserve officer programs

The defense contended that mistaking the stun gun for the pistol was an honest mistake. On video, Bates could be heard saying he was going to deploy his stun gun. Deputy Leighton Boyd testified he heard Bates say that and moved back to avoid being hit by a stun gun prong.

The judge allowed Brewster, the defense lawyer, to give the jury an opportunity to hold Bates' gun and a stun gun similar to the one Bates carried that day. Brewster took the revolver himself and activated the barrel laser on the courtroom wall. The stun gun also projects a red dot, he said.

Heisten, a detective with the sheriff's office, said the weapons are different. A switch must be flipped before making the stun gun operational. There is no corresponding switch on the revolver, Heisten said.

'I thank God for the conviction'

After court convened, a tearful Andre Harris, brother of Eric Harris, he was relieved the jury convicted Bates.

"I thank God for the conviction," Andre Harris said. "I hope he's [Bates] taught a lesson that all lives matter."

Bates should never have been working as a deputy, he said.

"For a 73-year-old to be out on a drug task force, supposedly chasing deadly criminals, is not his line of work," Harris said. "Seventy-three is the age where you retire with your grandkids and enjoy life."

Andre Harris also said "pay for play" helped Bates obtain his position as a reserve deputy. The Harris family lawyer has said Bates donated equipment to the sheriff's department, an allegation the sheriff's department has denied.

An internal inquiry by the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office in 2009 concluded that Bates was shown special treatment and that training policies were violated regarding his role with the agency.

Information about the internal investigation was not revealed to the jury.

Sheriff resigns in wake of Eric Harris shooting

CNN's Sara Sidner reported from Tulsa. Christopher Lett reported from Atlanta and Ralph Ellis wrote the story in Atlanta.

Former St. Louis cop admits crashing police SUV while driving drunk off duty

•           By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A photo of a police SUV damaged when then-St. Louis officer Jason Flanery crashed it while driving under the influence in December 2015. This photo was part of a sentencing memo entered into the court record by prosecutors.

ST. LOUIS • A former St. Louis police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident.

Jason Flanery, 33, will serve two years of probation, attend aSubstance Abuse Traffic Offender Program and watch a talk by a panel of victims affected by drinking and driving.

He also paid about $3,400 to cover damage to the parked vehicle that he hit and a police SUV he was driving while off-duty.

Prosecutors said Flanery drank and took cocaine before crashingon Jamieson Avenue in Lindenwood Park about 6:20 a.m. on Dec. 19. Tipped by witnesses who described the police SUV, officers found it at Flanery’s home a few blocks away.

He appeared “quite intoxicated” but refused field sobriety and breath tests, forcing police to seek a search warrant for his blood, they said. Seven hours after the crash, Flanery’s blood-alcohol level was 0.117 percent, well beyond the 0.08 percent legal limit. Another test showed the presence of cocaine, prosecutors said.

In an interview, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said Flanery apologized to the victim, who was “satisfied” with the outcome.

In a sentencing memo, prosecutors sought one year behind bars, calling it “reprehensible” for Flanery to have used cocaine and “morally repugnant for a police officer, who is sworn to uphold the law, to leave the scene of an accident” and create a “financial hardship; for an innocent person.” The memo said probation would not be appropriate.

But Joyce acknowledged that probation is a typical outcome, and said she was “not surprised.” In a prepared statement, she said pursuit of a tough sentence should “send a message to anyone involved in law enforcement.”

Flanery has resigned from the force. Defense lawyer Matt Fry said he is attending school and no longer is in law enforcement.

Fry said that cocaine did not come up at the plea hearing, and that Flanery did not admit to using it. The lawyer said that the test showed only a metabolite, not actual cocaine.

Fry said a request for a year in jail was “ridiculous.” He said he told Circuit Judge Michael Mullen that a first-time offender would get the same deal in the city and in St. Louis and St. Charles counties. “Nothing special about it,” he said.

Flanery was charged just days after he was sued over the fatal shooting of VonDerrit Myers Jr., 18, on Oct. 8, 2014. Flanery had been in uniform but off duty at the time, working for a private security company. An investigation confirmed his claim that he had been defending himself.

SAPD: Police officer shoots, kills himself in patrol car

Male officer was 10-year veteran

By Ben Spicer - Web Editor , Josh Skurnik - Reporter , Bill Barajas - Reporter

SAN ANTONIO - A 10-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department was found dead Tuesday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head inside his marked patrol unit, police officials said.

The male officer, who was in full uniform, was found just before 7:30 a.m. at Loop 410 and Port Entry on the city's East Side.

According to preliminary information from SAPD, the officer didn't return to a substation after his shift ended at 6:30 a.m., and other officers were sent to investigate. He was found dead in the patrol unit.

Vincent Jordan, a truck driver, said at around 5 a.m. he turned into Port Entry without a signal and saw the patrol car with no lights on and thought he would get pulled over. But the officer just put his brake lights on.

Jordan said when he left a half hour later, the officer was still there and thought it was strange that police would be targeting speeders at that location.

"No officer sat here before," Jordan said. "They sat down there before but never here. That's unbelievable."

SAPD family assistance officers, chaplains, and SAPD psychological services will be available to department members, officials said.

The incident is being investigated as an apparent suicide, officials said.

The leading killer of law enforcement officers is suicide. Click here to see statistics on officer suicides and how to help prevent it.

Social worker discusses impact of suicide on loved ones

Valeria Lerma, a social worker and therapist at the Center for Health Care Services, said suicide is an impulse, but there "usually is a long history of things, and the main thing there is hopelessness."

Lerma said this sort of loss can leave family, friends and co-workers with a range of emotions.

"The tendency (is) to kind of replay the moment, the hours, the day kind of leading up to the loss in an effort to try and see if there were any signs missed, anything they could have said, anything they could have done to prevent it," Lerma said.

She said the natural tendency is for loved ones to try to push the emotions away, but she said that is the worst thing to do.

"Most of the counseling is going to be geared toward allowing the individual to feel safe, in a safe environment, where they can fully experience what it is that they're feeling," Lerma said. "Because the sooner you are able to face those feelings, the sooner you'll be able to deal with them."

Disabled Virginia Man Dies After Police Encounter

PEGGY FOX  

  

ANNADALE, Va. (WUSA9) -- Several investigations are underway into the death of a disabled man who died after a scuffle with a Fairfax County police officer on Wednesday.

The altercation happened in Annandale near Round Tree Park. 

"This kind of thing should not happen," said  Roger Deeshaies, CEO of St. John's Community Services, which is the organization that was caring for Paul Gianelos.

Family members of Paul Gianelos say he was profoundly autistic.   They say he could read, but never spoke a word in his entire 45 year life.  They are angry, and they want answers.  On advice of legal counsel, they declined to be interviewed on camera, but they did say that there was a plan in place that should have prevented what happened and kept Paul safe. 

Gianelos lived at a special needs group home a few blocks away from his elderly mother in Annandale.   On Wednesday,  he was at Round Tree Park on Annandale Road, eating lunch with his group from St. John's Community Services. 

Deshaies says Gianelos wandered away, and when group leaders realized he  was gone, they called police.

Fairfax police say a 20-year veteran officer with crisis intervention training, spotted

Gianelos along Annandale Road, about a mile from the park.  Police say the officer tried to talk him into coming back to the group home outing.  Gianelos  apparently refused, and police say he became combative and began to struggle with the officer.   Gianelos was handcuffed, and fell, hitting his head.     Rescue crews were called and police say when Gianelos was being transported, he went into cardiac arrest and died. 

One of Gianelos's family members said Paul would have happily gone with anyone who offered something as simple as a Coke.  No force was needed, they said.

"We are strongly committed to finding out what occurred.  We need to learn from it and make sure corrective action is taken," said Deshaies.  He told WUSA9 that the staff at St. John's is devastated and that grief counselors have been brought in to help.

The family and police are waiting for  the results of an autopsy. 

Fairfax County Police officials say they will release the officer's name within the next few days.   The department is conducting two investigations, one criminal and one through Internal 

Cleveland will pay the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old fatally shot by police, $6 million in a settlement

The family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy whose fatal shooting by the Cleveland police in 2014 prompted national outrage, is set to receive $6 million from the city in a settlement announced Monday in federal court records.

The settlement, which would be the latest in a series of seven-figure payouts by major American cities to the families of African-Americans who died at the hands of officers, spares Cleveland the possibility of a federal civil rights trial that could have brought new attention to Tamir’s death and to the city’s troubled police force. It also allows the city to avoid the possibility of an even larger judgment.

The agreement must still be approved by a probate court. Under the terms of the settlement, Cleveland does not admit wrongdoing.

Bernie Sanders Calls for a Mandatory National Database of Police Killings

BY TRACE WILLIAM COWEN

As the election spotlight remains firmly focused on the troubling state of police brutality in the United States for many voters, the issue is inspiring refreshingly direct responses from some candidates. Bernie Sanders, a very public proponent of drastic police reform, told theGuardian earlier this week that he not only supported such reform but also the implementation of a mandatory national database for allpolice-related deaths.

"When individuals die under police apprehension or police custody, should [reporting that] be mandatory?" Sanders posited during a press conference on Wednesday. "Yes. I do believe that." Sanders added, after being questioned by the Guardian, that he would also support any legislation seeking to make this a reality:

Of course, the Vermont Senator's stance on combating the prevalence of American police brutality has been a crucial component of his campaign platform since he first announced his White House intentions. "At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country," Sanders said in August when revealing his own plan for reform. "With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter, we will reinvent how we police America."

Though this proposed national database has continued to garner a baffling number of opponents, publications like the Guardian have already implemented their own tracking method for police-related deaths in America. At the time of publication, the Guardian's The Counted project reports that 158 people have been killed by police in 2016 alone.

Battle for Police Reform, Handgun Penalties Begins

 Sean Yoes Senior AFRO Contributor

We’re roughly a third of the way through the 2016 legislative session in Annapolis and there is growing dissension among activists and legislators who seek law enforcement reform in the state.

On Feb. 23, divergent groups including family members of people killed by police officers, heads of police unions, police chiefs and children protesters (draped in crime scene tape) descended upon the state capital, as debate began over 27 bills aimed at some measure of law enforcement reform. Even William Porter, the first officer to stand trial connected to the death of Freddie Gray attended the hearings.

The focus of many is on House Bill 1016, which was crafted to amend Maryland’s Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR), the first and many argue, the strongest set of protections for law enforcement officers in the nation. The bill is the product of a legislative task force known as the Public Safety and Policing Work Group.

“The problem is that they got most of that information…from folks who are affiliated with law enforcement. A lot of folks did a lot of good work, came up with some okay ideas, but also came up with some problematic ideas,” said Lawrence Grandpre, director of research for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a Baltimore-based grassroots think tank. Grandpre made his comments during, “First Edition,” Tuesday evening.

“The biggest example of this is a provision which basically means that if you have a police officer accused of doing something wrong when they go through…the internal trial board…and there is only police officers who serve on that trial board,” Grandpre added. “So, it’s literally the police policing the police.” As of now, HB 1016 has the full support of Speaker of the House Mike Bush.

LBS supports legislation that will be introduced by Del. Jill Carter (D-41st), which LBS said will include a provision that would require at least one civilian member of the internal trial board that would determine discipline for officers accused of misconduct.

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis is wearing a couple of different lobbying hats during this legislative session. He is against pending legislation that would increase the influence of police unions in the disciplinary process. But, Davis is supporting legislation brought forward by Sen. Catherine Pugh (D-40th), which would require anybody caught with a loaded handgun to be locked up for at least a year.

Davis laid out his argument for the handgun legislation on First Edition, Feb. 23.

“The choice a person makes to arm himself with a firearm before he leaves his house, whether it’s sticking that gun in your waistband or sticking that gun under the front seat of your car is problematic for our community because young people whether it’s in Baltimore or any other major city or major county in the country really don’t possess the conflict resolution skills that we need them to possess in the first place,” said Davis, who characterized himself as one of the more progressive police chiefs in the nation during the interview.

“And the immediate availability of a firearm I think really takes some occasions that should, maybe in days gone by, should be a fist fight at most, it takes it to a gun battle,” Davis added. “And we have so many acts of violence in the city that are just spontaneous eruptions of emotion that without that immediate accessibility to a firearm, I think that conflict is otherwise resolved.”

Also during the show, Natasha Pratt Harris, associate professor and Criminal Justice Program coordinator at Morgan State University, argued the handgun legislation may be necessary, but preventative measures are more vital.

“I consistently say that we need to see this as an absolute emergency…saying, `How do we make sure children who are going back and forth to school, how to we make sure elderly siblings — like just happened yesterday, who were going to the bus stop– aren’t injured and really looking at that piece to protect our communities,” she added.

“Not so much focusing on punishing and punishing and punishing, when we know that hasn’t worked.”

Sean Yoes is a senior contributor for the AFRO and host and executive producer of First Edition, which airs Monday through Friday, 5-7 p.m. on WEAA 88.9.

- See more at: http://www.afro.com/battle-for-police-reform-handgun-penalties-begins/#sthash.I0FeGyTj.dpuf

Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition Rallies and Lobbies for Police Reform in Maryland

February 27, 2016 by Thomas Nephew

Maryland Police Reform press conference on February 23 Photo Credit MCJPA Coalition viatwitter

This post is a modification of the original post by Thomas Nephew at Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition

MCCRC’s Thomas Nephew and over a hundred other advocates of police reform descended on Annapolis on Tuesday to press their case for real police reform andagainst measures like “Recommendation 23”— packing brutality hearing boards with members favorable to the accused — that would set back that cause.

It was a full day of education and advocacy, including a press conference, a hearing on the police reform measures, and meetings with legislators and their aides.

The hashtag for the day was #NoRec23.Activists demanded that any reform package should:

·         Reduce the unfair advantage given to officers accused of brutality:

·         Don’t let bad cops choose who reviews their own brutality cases.

·         Allow trained civilians to sit on trial boards, ESPECIALLY in brutality cases.

·         Provide local civilian review boards with subpoena power to question officers accused of misconduct.

·         Eliminate the 5 day window that bad cops use to manufacture their story.

·         Outlaw collusion between officers so they don’t lie to protect each other.

·         Treat victims of brutality as well as all other victims fairly:

·         Open up who can file brutality complaints.

·         Eliminate the time restriction on when complaints can be filed.

A press conference before the hearing featured advocates bedecked in yellow “Caution” ribbons indicating the strong reservations about that element and others of the House and Senate leadership omnibus police reform bill HB1016 (now crossfiled as Senate bill SB1026).

Larry Stafford (Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability, MCJPA) led off comments with a remembrance of Marshawn Carroll, a smart, committed young African American Ohio man who had worked with Larry and MCJPA here briefly before returning to Columbus, where he committed suicide earlier this month.  “What has not been reported widely was that before he took his life, he had actually lost a friend to police violence in Ohio. And so recognizing the pain and the trauma that is inflicted on communities across this country when their loved ones lives are lost through police violence, or their freedom is infringed upon because of police misconduct and abuse of their authority, it’s because of that that we’re here today.” Other speakers included:

·         William Rau (Caucus of African American Leaders): “…our elected officials are policymakers who are acting on our behalf.  These walls, this carpet, this podium, the pomp and circumstance, the parliamentary procedure, that is all put into place to do our will.  We must remember that…we are challenging a process that has run amuk.  […] We must let them know we’re paying attention to every single word and every single comment.”

·         Marion Gray-Hopkins (Coalition of Concerned Mothers): “…most importantly, I am a survivor.  My son Gary Hopkins was murdered by the police November 27th 1999.  I’m here with Greta Willis whose son Kevin Cooper was murdered in Baltimore City.  I’m here with Darlene Cain whose son Dale Graham was murdered in Baltimore City in 2008.  And… there are other mothers who are not here who I am representing: Dorothy Elliot – son: Archie Elliot, murdered – over 20+ bullets while he was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, and it was alleged that there was a gun.  I’m here for Gina Best whose daughter India Kator was murdered in Virginia.  This is not just about Maryland.”

·         Rev. Jamila Woods Jones (Jabez Christian Community Church):“This is not a new issue, we’ve been coming here for years, with the same issues, the same concerns. And while we’re happy that we’re moving forward, we want to acknowledge that there are some fatal flaws that *must* be addressed if we’re going to make this a truly transparent effort that is beneficial to everyone. … Now we’re calling on our legislators, we’re demanding that our legislators hear the cry of the people.  That’s all I have to say.”

·         Sophia Marjanovic: “…during my divorce I met a county sheriff whose conduct concerned me about his neglect of duty and misconduct. I made a complaint of misconduct with the county sheriff’s department. The department did not advise me about whether they’d be investigating the case, and never advised me about whether there was an outcome of an investigation. […] I was later ordered to work with the same sheriff against whom I filed the complaint. […] I’m concerned about retaliation because the officer shouted at me that he didn’t want me filing a complaint against him again. […]  I ask that the agency be required to inform the complainant of the outcome of an investigation.”

·         Kirkland Hall (Somerset County NAACP): “I’m here speaking for a young lady who had been voiceless after what happened to her in 2009.  … The Maryland State Police called her home looking for a young man who had escaped from a work release team.  She wasn’t there.  But he left a message. He said ‘My name is Sergeant Milo, Maryland State Police.  We need for you to call us.’ When he thought he had hung up the phone, he made this statement: ‘I’m getting sick and tired of calling these n*****s on the telephone with these long voice messages.’ […] We could hear other police officers laughing on the phone.  Which tells me there’s a culture of the police department. Which tells me that they are very familiar with the words of Chief Justice Taney many years ago, that a black man has no rights which a white man should respect.”

·         Lawrence Grandpre (Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle):“Some people think this issue of police reform is complicated.  I don’t think so.  You can look at the words of the people who represent the establishment to see what the problem is.  A few days ago [Delegate] Curt Anderson was on the radio. And he said ‘This trial board thing, it doesn’t matter. That’s internal, that’s kind of like a court martial. So we don’t need non-police officers on that board. Think about that. An elected official in Maryland just said that we should have military style justice for civilian police forces.  It’s a small step when you isolate a community and produce a military style accountability system; soon enough you’ll get military style application of policing on the streets.”