We called the Fairfax County police for help....the punks they sent threatened to arrest us. One cop tells my wife that if she keeps crying he'll arrest her and the other cop, La Forge or something, says to me "You call the police this what you get"
I said that was wrong and he said
"Go ahead, say more fuck'n thing prick" and I thought "Well if you insist".
A Westminster police officer accidentally shot a mirror last month while dressing for his shift in a locker room at the police station. No one was injured and the department is conducting an internal administrative review of the incident, according to Chief Jeff Spaulding.
On Sept. 15, Officer Elias Cuadro, a two-year member of the department, was changing from his civilian clothes into his uniform when the gun discharged as he went to holster the pistol, according to Spaulding.
“It is apparent that he inadvertently placed his finger on the trigger while holstering the weapon, causing the gun to discharge,” Spaulding said.
The mirror was damaged and had to be replaced, costing $386, according to Spaulding.
Cuadro has not been placed on leave and will keep his police powers while the investigation takes place, Spaulding said.This is the second time a firearm was accidentally discharged in approximately the last 10 years, according to Spaulding. The other incident occurred in October 2010.
BRYAN COUNTY, OK --
According to online court records a Durant Police Officer has been charged with
"Driving a Motor Vehicle Under the Influence of Alcohol".
Records show that on
Friday a letter was sent to 36-year-old Brandon Carbaugh notifying him of the
charge. Nearly two weeks ago, OHP says, while off duty, he crashed a pickup on
State Highway 91 in Bryan County. Troopers say he failed a field sobriety test
and was arrested and taken to MCSO with arm and leg injuries. Authorities say
he was not booked into jail because he did not receive a medical release. At
last check, Durant Police told News 12 that Carbaugh was put on paid
administrative leave.
BRYANT, Ark. —
The police chief in Bryant has been suspended for five days for seeking
reimbursement for a steak dinner purchased at a Florida strip club.
Bryant Mayor Jill Dabbs says Chief Mark Kizer will begin serving his unpaid
suspension next week. This week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that
Kizer and school resource officer Lee Ledbetter were each reimbursed for steak
dinners from a restaurant connected to an upscale strip club in Orlando, Fla.
They were in Florida for a work conference on school resource officers.
The newspaper reports ( http://bit.ly/19DwDrH) that the council also approved spending
$20,000 for an audit of its city finances, including travel expenses.
Kizer had no immediate comment Thursday night but said earlier that he and
Ledbetter visited the steakhouse at the recommendation of their hotel
concierge.
An internal
investigation stemming from a dispute between a supervisor and a patrolman has
led to a three-day suspension for a third officer at Vermilion Police
Department.
Last month,
administrators began probing the rift between Vermilion police Sgt. Aaron
Bolton and Officer Craig Howell.
The
long-running feud centered on Howell’s relationship with his own girlfriend and
Bolton’s disapproval of the relationship, according to internal police
documents the Register obtained through a public records request.
Bolton
also accused Howell of profiling women by age and appearance during traffic
stops, according to the documents.
After
speaking to Howell about the allegations, police supervisors determined they
were unfounded.
In
a formal complaint dated Sept. 10, Howell said his friction with Bolton started
in April. That’s when Howell started dating a woman who was friends with Bolton
and Bolton’s wife, according to the complaint. Bolton made it clear he didn’t
approve of Howell’s relationship with the woman, the document stated.
Other
events transpired in the months that followed, but Howell never made a formal
complaint — that is, until Bolton sent an email to the commander of Erie County’s
Special Response Team. The email suggested Howell wasn’t suited for the unit.
At
that point, Howell sent his supervisors a three-page letter detailing his
formal complaints against Bolton. In short, he accused
Bolton of various misdeeds, such as providing Howell’s private address to a
resident during a police ride-along, and making false allegations about
misconduct. He also accused Bolton of namecalling and defamation, among other
things.
Supervisors
interviewed Bolton, Howell and a third officer, David Jones, about the
allegations.
The
bulk of the investigation’s findings have since been sent to Vermilion law
director Ken Stumphauzer for review.
Jones
was suspended for three days. Police documents show Jones played a part in
driving a police ride-along passenger past Howell’s home. The passenger was
previously engaged to Howell’s girlfriend.
“While the lion’s
share of the blame for that incident rests on another’s shoulders, you still
bear your share of the blame for failing to recognize a malicious and
inappropriate act and partaking in it,” police Chief Chris Hartung wrote in a
disciplinary letter to Jones. “You and you alone answer for your integrity and
cannot allow your actions to be guided by those of questionable character.”
FORT WAYNE, Indiana — The judge in the reckless homicide and drunken driving trial of an Indianapolis police officer has ruled that police emails with daily summaries of the proceedings didn't reveal anything unduly prejudicial against the defense.
Allen County Judge John Surbeck declined Tuesday to strike the testimony of a police captain who had read the emails before being called as a witness in the trial of David Bisard.
Surbeck also denied a request for a directed verdict by defense attorney John Kautzman after he argued the state failed to prove its case against Bisard.
Bisard is on trial for charges stemming from an August 2010 crash into two motorcycles that killed a man and seriously injured two other people.
Surbeck estimates the case will go to the jury for deliberations on Monday.
A decision on whether
or not the suspension of a Dothan police officer was justified is more than a
month away.
In Judge Butch
Binford’s courtroom today, Corporal Raemonica Carney went up against the City
of Dothan. In May, Carney was suspended for 10 days and put on desk duty after
the personnel board found controversial Facebook posts made by Carney violated
the Police Department’s social media policy.
The posts made by
Carney were about former Los Angeles Police Officer Christopher Dorner who went
on a killing spree in February before killing himself.
Carney’s attorney,
Sonya Edwards, stated that the suspension was a violation of Carney’s first
amendment rights, while the city’s attorney Kevan Kelly argued that substantial
evidence was presented at the personnel board making the suspension fair.
Judge Binford did not
rule today, he gave the city 21 days to submit a case brief. Then Carney’s
attorney will have 14 days to respond. Once the response is in, Judge Binford
will decide if the personnel board was equipped to make the ruling or if the
case should go before an appeals court.
HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) -
A Hattiesburg police officer is on suspension indefinitely for reportedly
refusing to apologize to Mayor Johnny DuPree regarding a traffic incident last
week.
Sources both inside and outside HPD tell News Seven that the
officer apparently sounded his siren after pulling up behind a car blocking the
right-of-way on Hall Avenue . The driver of the car was talking to an occupant
of another car that was pulled off on the shoulder of the road. We're
told the occupant of that second car was Mayor DuPree. We're also told the
driver of the car blocking the road pulled onto the shoulder allowing the
officer to pass.
According to individuals with knowledge of the case, Chief Frazier
Bolton suspended the officer after he refused an order to apologize to the
mayor. HPD spokesman, Lt. Jon Traxler, confirmed the officer was
suspended for insubordination but refused to discuss details of the
incident. Traxler says the officer will remain suspended until internal
affairs completes their investigation.
The funeral
for Patrick Hill, a 37-year-old father According to police, Joseph opened fire
on officers on April 2, and they returned fire, killing him. Sgt. Jeffrey
Pacholski was wounded but recovered. Investigators said a pellet from an
officer's shotgun ricocheted off the hood of a car and struck Hill.
Raytown police officer was charged Friday with stealing drugs and jewelry from the department’s evidence room. Jackson County prosecutors charged Justin M. Pool, 35, with three counts of stealing a controlled substance and two counts of theft of property. All five charges are felonies.
He allegedly stole the items, including oxycodone pills and gold jewelry, in January, when still a member of the department, according to prosecutors.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/10/25/3078711/former-raytown-police-officer.html#storylink=cpy
New York suddenly has a list of “Shopping While Black” scandals unfolding. After high-end department Barneys was accused of racial profiling by a pair of young people, a rising Hollywood actor had a similar situation happen to him over the summer at Macy's. Rob Brown, 29, says that after buying his mother a $1,350 watch for her graduation, plainclothes officers accused the star of HBO's Treme for possessing a fake card back in June.
With the recent slamming of Barneys by Trayvon Christian and Kayla Phillips for being accused of grand larceny as Brown was, things aren't going well for the retail giants in the big city. Brown sat down with the New York Daily News, and spoke on the incident that landed him in cuffs and late for his mother's graduation.
The Finding Forrester actor is suing Macy's for unspecified damages, and also reached out to Christian regarding his case. From the Daily News: Brown, who made his movie debut starring opposite Sean Connery in 2000's “Finding Forrester,” says he'd been shopping at Macy's flagship store because he wanted to buy a graduation present for his mother, Myra, who received a degree from Metropolitan Community College. He settled on a $1,350 silver Movado watch with gold trim.
Brown said he purchased the last one, the display model, and strolled over to a Sunglass Hut in the store while he was waiting for it to be cleaned. He said he saw some $350 Prada shades he liked and was also going to buy those — but while he was waiting for them to be tightened, he was suddenly swarmed by “at least three” plainclothes officers. Brown, a Brooklyn native, thought at one point he was being robbed before he says the cops paraded him around the store, and taking him to a holding cell where he was held for 45 minutes.
After the cops checked Brown's records, the actor says an officer took him to his mother's graduation which he says he was late for. “To be late for my mother's graduation ceremony — that was devastating,” Brown said. Brown vented on Twitter in June after the incident, clearly angered for getting fingered for a crime he didn't commit. On Wednesday (Oct. 23), Brown reached out to his followers to connect him Christian. Hit the gallery to see photos of Brown speaking with the Daily News, and showcasing some of his acting roles. -- -
HOLLYWOOD — DiIvory Edgecomb, a Hollywood cop and former star running back for the Florida Atlantic Owls, was arrested by his own department on DUI charges in September and immediately relieved of duty with pay. Edgecomb, 27, was placed on administrative leave Sept. 30, the day of his arrest.
As is customary, he was forced to turn in his badge, department-issued gun and squad car, said Lt. Osvaldo Perez.
FORT WAYNE, Indiana — A chemist who ran the Swedish government's forensic lab for 30 years testified Friday that the blood test that indicated a suspended Indianapolis police officer was legally drunk at the time of a fatal accident was accurate.
Alan Wayne Jones estimated that David Bisard, who faces reckless homicide and other charges, probably had eight to 10 drinks the night before the crash and perhaps two more in the morning to "steady his nerves," The Indianapolis Star reported (http://indy.st/169xVdu ).
The blood tests on Bisard after the crash in his patrol car that killed Eric Wells and badly injured two others in 2010 have been central to the case. Prosecutors were allowed to present test results from two vials of blood taken from Bisard after the crash, despite defense arguments that one wasn't properly drawn according to Indiana law and the other was mishandled by police evidence technicians who removed it from refrigerated storage.
Tests showed Bisard had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19, which is more than twice Indiana's legal limit of 0.08 percent. The Indiana Supreme Court in ruled in December that the blood tests could be admitted into evidence.
PALMER PARK, Md. — Prince George’s County police say an officer has been suspended from duty after he crashed his cruiser while under the influence of alcohol. Police say Cpl. Rodney Lewis was off-duty and wasn’t acting in a law enforcement capacity at the time of the crash, which occurred early Friday morning on the Capital Beltway in northern Virginia.
DALLAS -
The Dallas police officer who shot a mentally ill man in a disputed incident caught on tape was fired Thursday.
Police Chief David Brown also announced Officer Cardan Spencer would be charged with first degree aggravated assault. But a judge reportedly refused to sign the arrest warrant and now the case will be referred to a grand jury.
Spencer was fired for violating DPD's deadly force policy and its procedures on mentally ill people. Spencer had a hearing on Thursday morning.
"We are not going to sweep officer misconduct under the rug," Brown said at a press conference. "An officer's actions must reasonable and necessary."
A police report said Bobby Bennett, 52, threatened Spencer and another officer with a knife last week and then Spencer fired his gun at him.
But video captured by a neighbor's camera shows Bennett didn't appear to move toward the officers at all until he crumpled to the ground from a gunshot.
Bennett's mother, Joyce Jackson, said her son suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is still hospitalized recovering from the shooting. "I hope this situation will help the police with training in dealing with the mentally ill," she said.
She's hoping for a harsher punishment for Officer Cardan Spencer. "Officers are not above the law, okay," said Jackson.
Chief Brown said Bennett told detectives he was suicidal and wanted officers to kill him. He had a similar run in with cops in Euless in 1998.
Police will continue to investigate the second officer involved in the case. Although Officer Christopher Watson did not fire his weapon, he was the one who filed the police report.
The chief said Watson has admitted to remembering things out of order or that didn't happen, possibly because of the stress of the situation.
He will remain on restricted duty until the investigation is complete.
Officer Spencer was very emotional and expressed regret about what happened, the chief said.
"Cops are not superhuman. They have fear. But that fear has to be real," Brown said.
"He was very upset like anyone would expect, very disappointed and feels very betrayed by the department," said President of the Dallas Police Association Ron Pinkston.
The FBI is also investigating the case to determine if Bennett's civil rights were violated.
A 24-year veteran officer was charged with filing vouchers for work he never performed, collecting over $4,000 in the process.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office announced the indictment of a Milltown police lieutenant Thursday on charges of filing overtime vouchers and collecting money for work he never performed.
Douglas R. Cole, 47, is facing charges for theft by deception, official misconduct, engaging in a pattern of official misconduct, and tampering with public records or information.
According to the prosecutor's office, between Dec. 5, 2011 and July 19, 2012, Cole allegedly filed vouchers for payment on work that he never performed for 17 different jobs while working for the borough. He received a total of $4,920.30 in monetary compensation for the vouchers, the prosecutor's office said.
Cole, a 24-year veteran of the force, is also alleged to have collected more than $200 for 16 of the 17 jobs he claimed to have been working, which established an official pattern of misconduct, according to the prosecutor's office.
PANAMA CITY - A former Panama City Police Officer is charged with battery for spraying a shoplifting suspect in the face with pepper spray.
Cpl. Bernie Willburn retired last month after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation into the incident that was caught on his dashboard camera.
In a video the girl seen in the back seat is Veronica Bowles. According to the FDLE's investigative summary, obtained by Newschannel 7, she was arrested June 25 after she stole $3.55 worth of ice cream from the downtown marina's Ship's store.
Stanley Jones, the Marina Director, flagged down two officers on Segways after he says he watched Bowles take the ice cream, walk across the parking lot and start eating it.
When officers approached Bowles at the bus stop, she said you're here to "f**k with me" about the ice cream and then offered to pay for it. But it was too later. Jones wanted to press charges. Bowles said they would regret, then threw change and her sunglasses on the ground. She then stomped on the sunglasses, breaking them into pieces.
The officers placed her in cuffs and Bowles started kicking them.
Willburn arrived on the scene and placed Bowles in his patrol car. She started kicking in the back seat and then spit on Wilburn before he could close the divider.
Bowles continued to kick and scream, despite several warnings from Wilburn that he would pepper spray her if she didn't calm down. After four and a half minutes, Wilburn opened the door and sprayed her in the face.
Wilburn said that's how he was trained to handle the situation and that he followed PCPD policy.
But the FDLE determined Wilburn's actions were not justified and that there was enough probable cause to charge him with battery if Bowles filed a complaint.
Bowles filed a complaint September 30. Wilburn was later charged with simple battery.
Bowles was charged with retail theft and battery on a law enforcement officer.
An Ocala Police Department officer was arrested Friday on a warrant for forging a woman's name on a traffic ticket.
Officer Daniel Fitzpatrick -- a three-year officer with nothing but good reviews and commendations in his record -- turned himself in on the third-degree felony charge of uttering a forged instrument.
Authorities gave no motive for the alleged crime.
The case came to light on Oct. 17, when Shautauqua Scott, 36, of Ocala, came to OPD to ask about a notice to appear in court on a citation for driving while her license is suspended, according to an arrest affidavit. She said the officer had given her a warning, not a ticket.
OPD Sgt. Chas Maier reviewed a video of the traffic stop, in which police say Fitzpatrick told the driver she was getting a warning. Maier also viewed the ticket at the Clerk of Courts Office and interviewed Scott, who said she never signed a citation.
On Friday, Scott said she has seen a copy of the ticket and that the signature on it is not hers.
"He tried to get it close to it," she added.
If her sister hadn't noticed the case online, Scott said, she would have missed the court date and had a warrant for her arrest
Members of the community gathered once again to demand justice for Kayla Moore, a transgender individual who died in Berkeley Police Department custody in February, by presenting a report to the city’s Police Review Commission on Wednesday night.
In its report, Berkeley Copwatch highlighted allegations of police misconduct and a dearth of mental crisis services that it said contributed to the death of Moore, who had a history of mental health issues. About 50 people, in addition to six commissioners and four Berkeley police officers, attended the meeting.
In the eight months since Moore’s death, the three-member People’s Investigation — a partner of Berkeley Copwatch — has probed and analyzed what transpired about midnight Feb. 13.
Close to tears and in a shaky voice, Moore’s sister Maria Moore said to the commission, “The (People’s Investigation) report is the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever read.”
The investigation included interviews with witnesses and residents, reviews of BPD documentation and research on nationwide trends of similar incidents. It recommends disciplinary action be taken against officers who were present at the time of Moore’s death and policy changes be made in how police handle mental health crises.
Police officers have dangerous jobs. When they stop a car or search a house, they never know whether a drug-crazed person will open fire at close range. The tragedy of two state troopers killed in their squad car beside I-79 in Clay County last year provides grim evidence.
Dealing with violent drunks, stoned pillheads, raging ex-husbands and the like creates emotional tension. It takes a rare personality for an officer to remain calm and professional during such confrontations.
Unfortunately, some officers fail the test. An endless string of lawsuits accuse West Virginia police of severe beatings and other misconduct that cost taxpayers millions in settlements. While wearing guns and possessing legal authority to kill, a few officers lose control.
For example, Trooper Gary Messenger II was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for the savage beating of a Welch man, who was awarded $1 million by taxpayers.
For example, South Charleston troopers beat lawyer Roger Wolfe so badly that spinal fluid came out his nose, and $200,000 damages were paid to the victim.
For example, four recent lawsuits accused troopers in Logan County of an ugly string of brutal attacks. One report said taxpayers shelled out $91,000 for state lawyers defending against the allegations.
For example, a State Police report said 13 troopers were fired for misconduct in 2009, and 19 others resigned to avoid discipline. Of 226 accusations against troopers that year, roughly half were sustained by department examiners.
Back in 1990, a teenage Lincoln County boy complained that a trooper beat him with fists and clubbed him with a heavy flashlight. This case reached the state Supreme Court, which ruled in 1995 that all State Police complaints must be examined impartially by a neutral party. As a result, the department created a Central Log of Complaints -- but it has remained concealed in secrecy.
In a democracy, the public is entitled to know what government agencies do and how taxpayer money is spent. The Charleston Gazette has fought numerous court battles that forced public actions -- such as ethics rulings against lawyers and doctors, or restaurant inspection scores, or the outcome of lawsuits alleging misconduct by government officials -- to be revealed to the people.
When State Police refused to disclose matters in the Central Log of Complaints, the Gazette sued to bring this public information into the sunshine. Police leaders said such a disclosure would violate the privacy of troopers -- even if each trooper's name was blacked out.
Now this suit is before the state Supreme Court. The newspaper's attorney argued that revealing complaints against troopers is no different than revealing complaints against lawyers and doctors -- two examples in which the court previously ordered disclosure.
We hope the five high court justices will let West Virginians know this vital information about their armed officers.
The rallies were held in over 30 US cities, including in New York and Los Angeles, where local activist groups gathered to bring awareness to the importance of stopping police violence, Al-Alam reported.
Organizers say that the aim of such demonstrations have been to bring forward a united, powerful and visual coalition supporting individuals and families victimized by police brutality in the US.
Participants say they gather each year to bring about change for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, one they rightfully deserve - freedom, justice, equality and respect.
Numerous human rights observers have raised concerns about increased police brutality in the country in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
An extensive report prepared for the United Nations Human Rights Committee tabled in 2006 states that in the US, the "War on Terror" has "created a generalized climate of impunity for law enforcement officers, and contributed to the erosion of what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control over law enforcement agencies".
"As a result, police brutality and abuse persist unabated and undeterred across the country," the report said.
Studies have shown that most police brutality goes unreported and the process of filing a complaint is difficult and often intimidating.
Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was sodomized by cops in a Brooklyn police station bathroom in 1997 is returning to the borough — to stump for a new district attorney.
Louima will appear with Brooklyn DA Democratic nominee Ken Thompson and Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday, which will be followed up with a series of church visits across the borough on Sunday, a spokesman for Thompson’s campaign said Thursday.
A U.S. District Court judge this week denied a motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit claiming that former police officer Evan Cossette used excessive force against a prisoner and interfered with his medical needs during an arrest in October 2010.
Robert Methvin filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 against Cossette claiming the officer used his knee to strike him in the mouth after he was handcuffed and lying face down on concrete. Methvin suffered cuts to his mouth and face that required sutures.
Cossette, son of Police Chief Jeffry Cossette, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit because Methvin had pleaded guilty to interfering with police during his arrest, and because police officers are allowed some discretionary use of force when handling combative subjects.
Hollywood Fla. Police officer was arrested by his own agency after he crashed into another car while under the influence of alcohol, officials said.
DiIvory Edgecomb, 27, was charged with DUI and damage property after the Sept. 30th crash, an arrest report said.
Officers first received the call at 1:37 a.m. after a woman named Shantrice Shipman said a car traveling southbound in the northbound lane of North 22nd Avenue at Pershing Street had crashed into the passenger side of her car, the report said. She told police he did not stop after the crash and continued to drive southbound.
An officer patrolling the area located Edgecomb on North 22nd Avenue and Simms Street where he was pulled over in a well-lit business area with fresh damage to his car, including a flat front tire, police said.
The report described Edgecomb's "eyes to be bloodshot and watery and the arrestee had the slight odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath."
After being placed in custody, officials said Edgecomb refused to take sobriety and submit a breath sample for alcohol testing.
ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis police officer who was arrested in July 2012 for burglarizing a home while he was drunk and off-duty has pleaded guilty to a trespass charge.Andrew Perez, 30, pleaded guilty this week to the misdemeanor. He was given a suspended imposition of sentence and ordered to be on probation for two years. Perez was originally charged with burglary, a felony. But his defense team negotiated a deal with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office for the lesser charge.
On July 15, 2012, a Sunday, a resident of the Clifton Heights neighborhood awoke about 3:30 a.m. to find a stranger in the house, emptying a purse. The victim told police that he, his girlfriend and his three children were sleeping at home in the 6200 block of Bowman Avenue when he heard a noise, found the man and forced him to leave. Police arrested a drunk and disoriented Perez down the street and later learned that he was an off-duty police officer. He was suspended from the force without pay and charged the next day with burglary.
A Baltimore police officer has been sentenced to eight years in prison on drug and weapons charges.
Thirty-six-year-old Kendell Richburg had pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm to further drug trafficking. He was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Baltimore.
Prosecutors say Richburg told a drug dealer when it was safe to sell drugs, and in return, the dealer gave information about his customers so Richburg could arrest them.
BERTHOUD - A Berthoud police officer was arrested Wednesday on four charges of child abuse and one of false imprisonment, according to Loveland Police Department.
Jeremy Yachik, 35, is free on a $1,500 cash bond after Loveland police came to his home with a warrant.
A big part of the investigation focuses on a video recorded by Yachik's ex-fiance, Ashley St. Roberts, 26. According to an arrest affidavit, the video shows officer Yachik abusing his 15-year-old daughter because she ate carrots from the refrigerator.
Yachik is accused of choking, force feeding, binding her hands with zip ties, locking her in rooms, handcuffing her and restricting her from eating. He's also accused of forcing his daughter to eat ghost peppers for lying and confining her in a dark laundry room.
According to the affidavit, Officer Yachik admits to hitting his daughter and restricting her from eating food. He's not the only officer in Berthoud who is being investigated. The town's top cop, Police Chief Glenn Johnson, is on paid administrative leave right now while Loveland Police conduct a criminal investigation on him. St. Roberts has accused Chief Johnson of covering up the video, the affidavit says.
No charges had been filed against Johnson by Wednesday, according to Larimer County District Attorney's Office. Loveland police have declined comment on the case.
Yachik if convicted could face up to 18 months in jail on each child abuse count and up to a year in jail on the false imprisonment count. He has no previous criminal counts but has had multiple financial lawsuits filed against him by creditors since about 2009, according to Colorado court records.
Yachik's arrest comes during what appears to be a contentious domestic dispute between Yachik and Saint-Roberts. Yachik and a 7-year-old with the same last name filed for a temporary restraining order against Saint-Roberts on March 25. But the hearing was apparently canceled the same day it was filed, according to Colorado court records.
Also March 25, Saint-Roberts was charged wihth domestic violence including third-degree assault and obstructing telephone service. She's pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec. 16. In June, Saint-Roberts was charged with violating a protection order and in that case is scheduled for a Dec. 18 trial. Both criminal cases involving her were investigated by Loveland police.
A child-custody case between Yachik and Saint-Roberts remains open and is scheduled for a telephone conference Nov. 4, state court records indicate.
WAYNE COUNTY—A Wayne County Sheriff’s officer was arrested Monday afternoon for filing a false document.
The Sheriff’s Office says Brandon Martin, 31, of Newark, falsified his time cards and was paid a benefit that he did not earn. Martin was charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the second degree and petit larceny.
He resigned and will appear in Lyons Town Court at a later date. 10-23-13
A college student claiming he was wrongly arrested last year during a sting operation targeting gay men in a beach bathroom has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the city of Manhattan Beach and police officers for discrimination, false arrest and violation of civil rights.In the lawsuit, filed in federal court last week, Charles Samuel Couch said he was taking care of a disabled boy last year when he was swept up in a police sex sting and lumped together in media reports with men charged with lewd conduct.
Couch, 22, of Hawthorne, has asked for $5 million for the “great humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish” caused by the incident.
At the time of his arrest last March, Couch was employed by Cambrian Homecare in Long Beach, providing respite care to a 13-year-old boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome, which is characterized by mental retardation and incomplete sexual development.
According to the lawsuit, during a supervised walk in Manhattan Beach, the boy told Couch he needed to use the restroom, so the two headed toward the beach bathroom at Marine Avenue and The Strand. Unbeknownst to Couch, Manhattan Beach police officers were conducting a sting operation targeting gay males who were meeting up in the bathroom, which had been publicized on the Internet as a popular meet-up for sex.
Because of his condition, the boy in Couch’s care frequently spent an abnormally long time using the restroom. While the boy was in the stall farthest from the entrance, Couch sat down on a bench in the changing area of the restroom to wait for him.
Detective John Nasori entered the restroom, according to the lawsuit, and said, “Hello,” before entering the middle stall. A few minutes later, the child bolted from the stall, telling Couch, “There is a man looking at me in the stall.” Horrified, Couch told the boy, “Ignore him. Just keep walking.”
As the two walked out of the bathroom, Couch was confronted by five detectives in plain clothes “resembling thugs.” Presuming that they wanted to kidnap the boy, Couch grabbed the boy to protect him.
He was then tackled, choked and handcuffed, according to the lawsuit, and did not realize the men were actually police officers until he was taken to jail.
What followed was months of irreparable damage to Couch’s reputation and future, his attorney, Bruce Nickerson, said.
During hours of interrogation, Couch gave officers permission to retrieve the boy’s backpack from his car. Once inside the car, however, the police ransacked it without a warrant and took Couch’s backpack containing his laptop, Nickerson said.
Although Couch was given a detention certificate, stating that he was detained, not arrested, and there was insufficient evidence to file a criminal complaint, the lawsuit states, the police kept his laptop for several months, forcing him to withdraw from El Camino College because all of his schoolwork was on the computer. No evidence of child pornography or any other crime was ever found on Couch’s laptop.
A month after his arrest, Couch discovered that his photo had been posted on a local newspaper’s website and published nationwide, with headlines stating he had been arrested in a sex sting operation along with 17 other men.
Even though Couch earned almost straight A’s in high school and at El Camino, Nickerson said, when he applied for top four-year colleges, he hit a snag with the applications.
“They ask, ‘Have you been arrested?’ And he has to state this outrageous arrest,” he said.
His grades easily qualified him for the top schools in the country, but he is now at a lesser-ranked school in Philadelphia, according to Nickerson.
Couch planned to follow in the footsteps of his father — a defense contractor — and apply for internships in the industry.
“This is how kids get ahead in the world. After college, those internships morph into a full-time job,” Nickerson said. “He hasn’t been able to make one application. Once they get wind that he was arrested for lewd conduct and child endangerment, he’s history.”
Nickerson said he’s filed scores of lawsuits related to police sting operations and lewd conduct arrests, but Couch’s case is unique.
“All of my clients were gay men or perceived to be gay who went down to the bathroom to do some sort of cruising,” Nickerson said. “Now here is a case where my client is totally above reproach. … This is the first time a client didn’t do anything at all.”
In fact, Couch is an Eagle Scout, whose Eagle project was developing a respite program for families with children with genetic disorders, Nickerson said.
“Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome need exercise or they get overweight, get diabetes and will die. (Couch’s) program was to get them out of the house, walking and exercising. But they have to be supervised or they get lost,” he said.
Couch’s project turned into a full-time job with Cambrian Homecare, which he later lost because of the incident.
Nickerson is confident in his case.
The parents of the boy in Couch’s care immediately vouched for Couch and explained the details of their son’s syndrome.
In the police report, Nickerson said, the detective insinuated that the boy had been taken to the restroom, knowing about the lewd conduct going on inside.
“The innuendo is that the boy told my client that the cop did not do something sexual through the hole as the little boy was told would happen. That will not pass the smell test. That presumes the boy has a sex drive. The pediatrician has testified that (that’s not the case). Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome have shrunken testicles. There’s no sex drive possible for this little kid,” Nickerson said.
Nickerson said although it was not in the lawsuit, he will present another facet of the incident to the jury.
“When the cops saw my client and the little boy approaching the bathroom, they see a white college kid and a black 13-year-old, and they can think of no reason those two are approaching the bathroom except for sexual purposes,” he said. “They thought he was there to prostitute the kid.”
Eleven months after his detainment, Couch was charged with two counts of resisting arrest related to attempting to protect the boy during the incident, Nickerson said. All criminal charges were dismissed in August.
But the incident left an indelible mark on Couch — a soiled reputation, lost job, compromised future.
“This is a brilliant kid. He was once a happy-go-lucky college kid. Now he’s withdrawn, fearful; he keeps his nose to the grindstone. He doesn’t know who to trust and he’s leery about meeting new people in strange situations because look what happened to him,” Nickerson said. “It’s just appalling.”
Nickerson sent the city a demand letter three weeks before filing the lawsuit, asking them to file a motion with the court for a factual finding of innocence to start “my client’s rehabilitation of his reputation.”
“If the court grants the motion, they destroy all records and order the purging of files all over the place so my client can say truthfully that he was not arrested. (The city has) refused to do this,” he said.
The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages against Nasori for perjury and maliciousness.
The detective authorized the release of Couch’s photo and its posting on the Manhattan Beach police website indicating an arrest for lewd conduct after authorizing a certificate of detention, which states there was not sufficient evidence for an arrest for lewd conduct or child endangerment.
After issuing the certificate, Nasori swore under penalty of perjury that Couch’s laptop had to be searched because “it was used as the means of committing a felony,” the lawsuit read.
City officials directed questions to Eugene Ramirez, the special counsel hired to represent the city in the case.
Because the suit was recently filed, Ramirez said, he still has not talked to anyone involved in the incident, and he must gather relevant reports and begin the discovery process.
“We have to determine if there was any misconduct whatsoever,” he said. “Pending that, there’s no reason to believe anyone did anything inappropriate.”
The city has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit. Since the suit was filed in federal court, all parties will be required to undergo a settlement conference, Ramirez said. If the parties don’t settle, the case could go to a jury trial.
In November 2012, police officers in Commerce City, Colorado, received a call about a large dog roaming free in a subdivision. Unbeknownst to the police or the caller, Chloe, a large, three-year-old mixed breed, was not an intruder. A woman in the neighborhood was dog-sitting for a friend, and Chloe had flown the coup.
Eventually, police and an animal control officer cornered the anxious dog in an open garage. A cell phone video shows them debating what to do as Chloe sat and watched. Eventually, one of the officers tasered Chloe. She fell over, then began to run away. As Chloe attempted to flee, an animal control employee snagged her with a catch pole. That should have been the end of the story, except Commerce City Police Officer Robert Price proceeded to shoot Chloe four times with his service weapon, alarming the animal control worker and killing the dog.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - As the trial of suspended Indianapolis Police Officer David Bisard continues in its second week, Wednesday's testimony is expected to focus on DNA evidence linked to the deadly crash.
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UPDATE: 10:14 a.m.: It was revealed in court that a member of Metro police has been attending the trial and sending daily summaries of testimony to others in the department, including some on the witness list.
"That's about as bad as anything I've heard about the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. But I've heard a lot of bad things about the IMPD," Judge John Surbeck said.
Major Greg Bieberich, who has been sending the notes, was put under oath and told to stop disseminating the information.
"You need to realize that this must stop immediately," Surbeck told Bieberich.
Bieberich responded, "Yes, sir."
Previous Report The prosecution is getting close to resting its case, as the David Bisard trial continues Wednesday morning.
Jurors in the case against the suspended Indianapolis Metro Police officer heard more evidence Tuesday.
Officer John Koers testified that Bisard was assisting him on a call that day. When Bisard asked him if it was an emergency Koers said "no". Koers also testified that he saw no signs that would indicate Bisard was drunk.
Prosecutors say Bisard was driving 76 mph before the crash.
Police say Cody Lee Smith’s second victim was 14 years old
WYOMING — Less than two weeks after a suspended borough police officer faced charges for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl, he was in court again Monday for charges he had sex with another girl.
State police charged Cody Lee Smith with four felony counts, including statutory rape and corruption of minors.
He had been charged Oct. 9 with misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors when state police alleged he had sex at least three times with a 15-year-old and supplied alcohol for minors in June of this year.
According to a state police affidavit:
Smith met his second victim, a 14-year-old girl, in 2012 at the Luzerne County Fair through mutual friends.
He sent messages to her using Facebook and they began to see each other shortly after. Smith was 20 years old at the time. The girl said Smith knew just how old she was.
The girl offered her story to state police Oct. 11, two days after the suspended officer’s arraignment.
Smith told her he was in a gang and flaunted a tattoo on his arm. He told her he worked for Verizon, and the girl said she knew he was 19 or 20 years old.
Because he was so much older, Smith insisted the girl should keep their relationship secret from her friends and her mother, state police said.
During each of their sexual encounters, the victim said, Smith picked her up at home without her mother’s knowledge and they went to his house, where he lived with his mother, state police said.
This happened at least 10 different times, in his Wyoming home and once when he took her to a hotel in the Poconos, state police said. The encounters happened between September of 2012 and February of 2013.
Wyoming Mayor Robert Boyer suspended Smith without pay when Smith was first charged Oct. 9. Smith was sworn in as an part-time officer April 9.
He is free on $30,000 bail posted Monday by a bail bondsman. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30 before District Judge Joseph Carmody.
BERTHOUD, Colo. — A Berthoud Police officer who was suspended after his ex-girlfriend claims she sent a video of him striking a child to law enforcement has been arrested.
In a four page affidavit, the Larimer County District Attorney says the man in the video is Officer Jeremy Yachik and they’ve charged him with four counts of child abuse and one count of false imprisonment.
Jeremy Yachik, 35, was arrested at his home in Loveland Wednesday.
The accuser’s video tape was first seen on FOX31 Denver News earlier this month.
On September 24, Loveland Police received an email outlining child abuse allegations that Yachik had physically abused a juvenile over the last several months.
Loveland Police conducted an investigation and were granted an arrest warrant for Yachik on Tuesday. He was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Loveland Police Department where he posted bond and was later released.
A woman who says the officer is her ex-boyfriend sent the video to law enforcement officials and claims they did nothing. As a result, the police chief in Berthoud was also on leave.
In addition to the alleged criminal acts seen in the video, the affidavit for Yachik’s arrest describes alleged past crimes.
It states, “[the victim] reports having her hands bound to her back with plastic zip ties and being secluded in the laundry room of the home.” It also refers to the victim being “forced to eat ghost pepper sauce,” and “slammed [the victim’s head into the wall].”
The affidavit says police interviewed Jeremy Yachik and they wrote, “Jeremy admits he’s the one depicted in the video and admitted to the acts disclosed by the victim.”
It also details more trouble for the Berthoud police department. The question is whether the chief ignored the video when he received it in April.
The affidavit states, “In Chief Johnson’s office, evidence was collected that corroborated [the victim's] account of attempting to report this incident to [the Chief].”
Court documents in a separate case detailed more information about the accuser and the officer who is suspended. The paperwork is about a domestic violence incident that happened in March.
People in Berthoud who defend the officer say it’s that incident that led to the release of the video tape.
The court documents say Loveland police were called to the couple’s home when the Berthoud officer called to complain that his now ex-girlfriend assaulted him and was upstairs threatening suicide.
One month after the woman was charged with domestic violence, she says she sent the video that allegedly shows the officer hitting and kicking his child to the Berthoud police chief. She now accuses him of a cover up.
When police arrived at the home that day in March, investigating officers noted the man had “…Dried blood and scratches on the right side of his face.”
They also said the couple’s child had “evidence of a yellowish mark… that could have been from an old bruise.”
FOX31 Denver verified the child referred to in the court documents was not the alleged victim in the video sent to Berthoud police.
One resident we spoke to was surprised about the allegations against the officer.
Other court documents FOX31 Denver uncovered show information about an alleged fight the suspended officer had with another Berthoud officer in 2011.
The report says, “[The officer] displays threatening and violent behavior towards officers.”
Once incident is described where “[the officer] came within five inches of another officer’s face. His fists were clenched.” The writer goes on, “In all my years in law enforcement, I have never seen this type of aggressive action from one officer to another.”
The accuser in the current case faces three separate counts of domestic violence for the incident in March. They include assault and obstruction of telephone service.
She is scheduled to go on trial in December.
QUINCY, Washington — A Quincy police officer accused of lying about the reasons for pulling over a driver was suspended for 10 days.
The Wenatchee World reports (http://bit.ly/1bT3Hw5) Chief Greg Meinzer wanted to fire Officer David Andersen over the incident last November but agreed to the suspension.
Andersen denied lying. The Grant County prosecutor said there wasn't enough evidence for a charge of official misconduct.
Information about the suspension was obtained by the Wenatchee newspaper through a public records request.
Andersen said reasons for stopping the car including having the license obscured by a trailer hitch and a passenger not wearing a seat belt. Investigators said the license plate was not obstructed and tinted windows made it difficult to see a passenger
DANE REISTER—the Portland cop facing criminal charges over a 2011 shotgun ammo mix-up that nearly killed a man—has finally been fired from the police bureau, Chief Mike Reese announced last week in a statement both brief and apologetic.
"This has been a long and thorough investigation, which had complexities due to the pending criminal charges," Reese said in prepared remarks. "The events of June 30 devastated the lives of those involved, but we hope that this action will bring some sense of closure."
The police bureau said Reister violated two directives: 315.30, which requires a minimum "sufficient competency" for police work, and 1050.00, which forbids officers from loading live rounds into a less-lethal gun.According to court files, Reister had a similar ammo mix-up during a training exercise several years ago.
The police bureau—unlike in other discipline cases—has declined to release documents that might shed more light on Reese's decision, citing exemptions in public records law for personnel files.
The Mercury and the Oregonian have both appealed the denial. The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, which normally would adjudicate such a dispute, has combined the two newspapers' appeals and is asking its Clackamas County counterparts to handle it, in light of the ongoing criminal case.
In any case, the dismissal was not unexpected.
It came six months after the city agreed to pay $2.3 million—a record amount—in a federal suit filed by the man Reister shot, William Kyle Monroe. Monroe's attorneys, as part of their suit, had demanded Reister's dismissal.
And, the day after the incident, Reese and then-Mayor Sam Adams apologized for the shooting and the lapses that had led to it, calling it a "terrible mistake."
"We don't know how it occurred, but we know it should not happen," Reese said on July 1, 2011. "It is not a part of our training protocol."
Reister, clutching his bright-orange beanbag shotgun, had been confronting an unarmed man in a mental health crisis, 20-year-old Monroe, near a park in Southwest Portland on June 30, 2011.
Monroe, after emptying his pockets, had set off to run away. Reister then fired what he thought were beanbag rounds.
But Reister had mistakenly loaded the gun with live ammunition—after commingling the two types of rounds, marked with different colors, in his duty bag. (The police bureau has since explicitly banned this practice.)
It wasn't until Reister saw all the blood that he realized what he'd done, court files show. Monroe was shot up all through his legs and lower body and might have bled out if he hadn't been so close to a hospital, his attorneys wrote this year. Monroe's injuries are both crippling and permanent.
Reister has since pleaded not guilty to assault charges—an unprecedented indictment by a Multnomah County grand jury. Prosecutors also tried to charge Reister with "negligent wounding," an offense typically associated with hunting, not police work. That charge has been caught up in appellate court.
The dismissal could excuse the city from paying Reister's legal bills in that criminal case, whenever it wraps up. The city's contract with the Portland Police Association (PPA) requires it to pay up when officers, because of their official duties, face criminal charges. But dismissal over the conduct that led to the charges—provided the union doesn't reverse it—offers an escape hatch.
Reister's attorney, Janet Hoffman, hasn't returned messages seeking comment. She did tell the Oregonian, at least, that a grievance was expected. That decision, however, is up to the PPA's executive board. PPA President Daryl Turner declined to comment.
"We're not going to say anything right now," he told the Mercury, citing the ongoing criminal case.
Reister's dismissal marks the second time Reese has fired a cop in a use-of-force case. Reese fired Ron Frashour in 2010 for shooting and killing Aaron Campbell (although an arbitrator later gave Frashour his job back). It's also the first major police discipline under Mayor Charlie Hales.
Said the mayor, in a statement: "This is an appropriate ending to a very sad story."
An attorney representing a woman accidentally shot by Daytona Beach police has asked for the city’s insurance limits, but stopped short of saying whether a lawsuit was forthcoming.t. Their target was a man they say was going to stab Johnson. Her attorney, Trakina L. Graham of Orlando, sent a letter to the city asking for its insurance information
Katrina Tatisha Johnson, 37, was shot in the arm by police in a September domestic violence incident. Their target was a man they say was going to stab Johnson. Her attorney, Trakina L. Graham of Orlando, sent a letter to the city asking for its insurance information.
“At this point we are still investigating this claim,” Graham said Wednesday in a phone interview. “We are trying to gather information. No one is saying that there is a lawsuit that’s going to be filed.”
In response to the letter, Deputy City Attorney Robert Jagger sent a memo to Police Chief Mike Chitwood to preserve records.
“Neither the City nor any of its employees have been sued, but the City has been apprised of claims that make it reasonably probable that litigation may be instituted,” according to the memo from Jagger dated Oct. 8.
Jagger’s “Internal Pre-Litigation Hold Memorandum” said that Chitwood should “err on the side of preservation” regardless of city record retention policies.
“Because no lawsuit has actually been filed, it is difficult at this time to narrow the scope of what categories and types of documents and electronic information must be retained,” Jagger wrote.
Chitwood declined comment.
Johnson was shot once in the arm on Sept. 25, Chitwood said on the day of the incident. Officers were called to the home on the 800 block of Magnolia Avenue where several people screamed that “He’s gonna kill her!” Chitwood said.