Parents Blame City Cops for Son's Suicide

By MATT REYNOLDS 

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - A teenage boy posted on social media that he was about to kill himself, and Huntington Beach police knew it, and found his address, but did nothing to stop it, the late boy's parents claim in court.
     Seventeen-year-old Matthew Cline shot himself in the head on July 17 at his home in Huntington Beach, his parents, William and Kathleen, say in the lawsuit against the City of Huntington Beach, in Superior.
     Matthew was a high school senior on the varsity football team. His mother found him after she returned from the gym.
     Matthew's parents say that on July 16, their son posted on iFunny: "My name is Matthew Cline. This will be my last post on ifunny as I will be committing suicide tonight."
     The parents say in the complaint that Huntington Beach police knew of the post, and knew Matthew's address, but did not send a squad car to the home or warn the Clines.
     Had it done so, Matthew would "be alive and well today," the Clines claim.
     According to the lawsuit, Ana Gutierrez, a teenager in Los Baños, in Northern California, alerted police after reading Cline's iFunny post, then finding his Facebook page and discovering that he lived in Huntington Beach.
     The parents claim that a Doe police officer, identified in the lawsuit as "Rodriguez," took the call and "lulled" Gutierrez into believing police would intervene and do everything they could to stop Matthew Cline.
     Rodriguez did locate Cline's address in Huntington Beach, hours before Cline killed himself, the parents say. But police neither called the parents nor dispatched officers to the house.
     Rodriguez's police report is attached to the court filing as an exhibit. It states: "I attempted 2-3 phone calls but no one answered. Due to the fact we were unable to determine where the Mathew Cline lived who made the post, no units were sent to any of the addresses we located under that name."
     The parents call that a "blatant, bad-faith" lie: "Approximately 20 hours after the HBPD received the call from Gutierrez, Matthew shot himself in the head and committed suicide at his Dovewood [Drive] residence. Had the HBPD made contact by sending a unit to the Dovewood address, or even just telephoning the Clines, Matthew Cline would be alive and well today."
     Responding officers "immediately recognized" Cline as the person who had posted on iFunny, and questioned neighbors about the post, the parents claim.
     "In addition, HBPD claimed that they had called plaintiff William Cline's cell-phone number upon receipt of the call from Gutierrez, substantially prior to Matthew's suicide, but the Clines received no phone call to warn them, either to their cell phones or their residence phone," the complaint states.
  

cop arrested in connection with '94 double homicide

A former Kentucky police officer was arrested over the weekend on a 1994 double murder charge, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office announced this morning.

Edward Carter, 43, was taken into custody without incident at the Days Inn motel off Bards Road and Interstate 71 in Deerfield Township early Saturday, said Lt. Eric Johnson.

Carter, who has been living in Mason, was one of three men indicted Friday by a Christian County grand jury in the shooting and stabbing deaths of two prostitutes inside a massage parlor in 1994 in Oak Grove, Ky., where he used to work as a police officer.

Warren County sheriff’s detectives were able to establish, with the use of the License Plate Reader system (LPS), that Carter was in Mason in August of this year.

Jury selection beings in trial of Oklahoma police officer charged in teen's death

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jury selection has begun in the trial of a Del City police captain charged in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager.
About 50 prospective jurors appeared Monday in Oklahoma County District Court for the trial of 48-year-old Capt. Randy Harrison. Harrison is a 23-year-veteran of the Del City Police Department and has pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the March 14, 2012, death of 18-year-old Dane Scott Jr.
An affidavit filed by police says Harrison was trying to arrest Scott after a car chase and took a handgun from the teen. As Scott ran away, Harrison fired four times with the fourth shot striking Scott in the back.
The affidavit says Scott was unarmed and was posing no threat of death or great bodily harm.

Officer Charged With Theft by Deception

Theft by deception charges have been filed against a New Jersey police officer accused of improperly accepting more than $20,000 in rent subsidies paid by a municipal housing authority. Acting Middlesex County Acting Prosecutor Andrew Carey says Sayreville officer Stephen Gulick turned himself in this week and was released on his own recognizance. A telephone number for Gulick, who has been on the force for 14 years, could not be located Saturday. Carey says Gulick got the money from the Sayreville Housing Authority to subsidize the rent paid by a female tenant at a property he owned. The woman's name was not disclosed. Gulick subsequently married the tenant, who then became ineligible for the housing assistance. But authorities say he continued to receive and cash checks on her behalf

Controversy Brewing Over Arrest, Tasering of 14-Year-Old-Boy

Was excessive force used by Tullytown police when they tasered a 14-year-old last week?
That’s the question raised publicly via social media when an images of the bloodied and busied boy spread over the weekend.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said the actions of the borough police officer who fired a single taser barb toward the 14-year-old handcuffed boy as he ran toward busy Route 13 in an attempt to escape “seems appropriate.”
The mother of the boy, Marissa  Sargent,  and many on social media are calling into question whether the officer’s actions were “appropriate.”
“I know what my son did was wrong, but look at the picture, you think he deserved all that for retail theft?” she told LevittownNow.com exclusively on Saturday morning.
Sargent also alleged her son’s rights were violated because police officials “wouldn’t let me see him at the police station.”
“He’s a minor, I’m his parent, and I should’ve been able to talk to him while I was there” she said.
According to court paperwork first obtained by LevittownNow.com on Friday, the boy was taken into custody along with Jordan Gibson, 19, who has no fixed address, and another passenger, who was not identified in court papers. The arrest came after Tullytown police were called to the Walmart for the group of that were accused of shop lifting $31.93 worth of merchandise on Tuesday at about 2:30 p.m. The F-150 driven by Gibson allegedly sped at “high speeds” through the Levittown Town Center shopping and was then chased by police onto Route 13. Police said the F-150 struck the rear of a car before officers trapped in as it drove into the Route 13 construction zone and took the three retail theft suspects into custody.
Heckler said as the 14-year-old boy sat handcuffed in the back of patrol car he somehow managed to escape and ran for it. A Tullytown officer gave chase on foot, repeatedly yelled for the boy to stop and warned him he would use the taser, Heckler said. After the boy did not comply, Heckler said the officer fired his taser to stop the boy from running handcuffed into busy afternoon Route 13 traffic, where construction barriers would have likely trapped him in the lanes of travel.
“If he would have ran out there and been hit by a cement truck, you’d be hearing a hoo-ha about it,” Heckler said.
One question that will need to be answered is how in fact did a boy handcuffed in the back of a patrol car get free, Heckler said.
Sargent claims the boy was struck in the face by the taser barb and “punched” several times in the face also causing a nasal fracture as the minor and his uncle left Walmart and were approached by authorities.  ”He’s going to need surgery now,” she said.
“A mystery shopper”, Sargent said, “saw Jordan take a BB gun from a case and put it  into my son’s backpack.”
The alleged BB gun was not listed in the probable cause affidavit filed against Gibson.
Heckler said the boy was actually struck in the shoulder by one prong of the barb and the other stuck in his cheek.
“[The boy] probably turned around to see if the officer was chasing him when the barb caught his cheek,” the district attorney said. “With handcuffs there was nothing to break his fall as his legs gave out.”
The boy was taken to Lower Bucks Hospital and treated for his injuries. He was released a short time later and taken to the Bucks County Juvenile Detention Center in Doylestown Township a short time later.
The boy’s family said he was released from jail on Friday.
The image of the boy circulated on social media shows swelling and bloodied wounds. Heckler said the boy’s wounds looked considerably worse as swelling set in.
Heckler said the boy did not report police brutality when youth officials talked to him during the week. He added that it was his understanding the boy was on probation, however if the family does lodge a report “county detectives will look into it further.”
Officials confirmed Saturday night that no formal complaint has been filed by the boy or his family with the district attorney’s office or Tullytown police.
“The police department is aware of the misinformation that has been circulating on social media about an arrest made by Tullytown officers. A thorough review of the incident is underway,” Tullytown Police Chief Dan Doyle told LevittownNow.com via phone interview.
Sargent, when asked on Saturday if she was going to file a complaint against the Tullytown Police Department, said, “we’ll be doing that  Monday.”

Court date set in police corruption suit

BENTON HARBOR A court date has been set for a lawsuit against the city of Benton Harbor.

Three men, previously charged with drug crimes, are suing the city over a drug scandal involving two former police officers. The men claim the city encouraged officers Andrew Collins and Bernard Hall, who are now serving prison time for planting drugs on suspects.

According to the Herald Palladium, the lawsuit claims as many as 80 others were wrongly arrested. Several cases were dismissed in 2008, when an internal investigation found drugs in the officers' lockers, and found that they created fake police reports and warrants.

Trial has been set for December 3rd