KIDS AND COPS: GEE, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?: Maui police officer charged after allegedly slappi...

KIDS AND COPS: GEE, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?: Maui police officer charged after allegedly slappi...:  Maui authorities Wednesday charged a 46-year-old police officer for allegedly slapping his 13-year-old daughter, who fell and sustained ...

Todays sexual assault charges against your police: Fired Tucson cop arrested on new charge

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This Week's Charge of Child Molestation by your Local Police: Seiling Police Chief Arrested For Child Sex Crime

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Ex-Detective Guilty In Tax Case

A former Waterbury Ct. detective pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to mislead a federal Internal Revenue Service investigation of charitable contributions he claimed as deductions on his tax returns in 2007 and 2008.

Robert Liquindoli, 42, of Waterbury lost his job with the city police force when the IRS arrested him a year ago and could be sentenced to 10 months or more in prison when he returns to court, probably in February.

Liquindoli was ensnared by a federal investigation of retired IRS agent Thomas Thorndike, who opened a Waterbury-area tax preparation business that counted many area law enforcement officers as clients. Thorndike, who prepared Liquindoli's tax returns, was sentenced to six years in prison for tax fraud and was accused of falsifying returns in order to give clients undeserved deductions.

Waterbury When IRS agents accused Liquindoli of claiming questionable deductions, authorities said he lied to them and tried to create phony receipts to justify his claimed non-cash, charitable contributions.

Fired Pa. cop guilty of man's holding cell beating

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania police officer who was fired after he refused a random drug test last year has been convicted of beating a handcuffed prisoner in a holding cell and then trying to cover it up.

Walter R. Johnson, 38, of Oakdale, was convicted at a non-jury trial of simple assault and official oppression — the cover-up charge. An Allegheny County judge on Monday also sentenced him to two years' probation and two weeks in jail, though Johnson doesn't have to serve that time until January. Johnson's defense attorney, James Wymard, didn't immediately return a call for comment and the officer doesn't have a listed home telephone.

Johnson was a patrolman in Avalon, a tiny borough near Pittsburgh, when he threw the prisoner, 49-year-old Robert Szilagyi, into a holding cell wall so hard the man's jaw was broken and his teeth loosened — including one later found lodged in his airway. Avalon police alerted Allegheny County detectives after they learned surveillance video of the April 2012 beating existed following Johnson's firing last July.

According to a criminal complaint the detectives filed against Johnson, Avalon police first encountered Szilagyi after a report that he was fighting with another man that night. Police contend Szilagyi ran away before police arrived and was found hiding in bushes, then struggled and fought with officers while they were handcuffing him.

On that night, medics were called to take Szilagyi to a hospital after he was found to have injuries in the police station holding cell — though police at that time attributed the injuries to his earlier struggle with officers, according to the complaint.

The detectives determined, however, that security video from the holding cell showed Johnson walking Szilagyi to the cell at which point he "literally throws Szilagyi, with his hands still handcuffed behind his back, into the cell ... propelling the victim forward with such force as to cause him to leave his feet, hurtling head-first toward the floor and rear wall of the holding cell," according to their complaint.

Another officer enters the cell and leaves with Johnson, closing the door, before a third officer arrives and Szilagyi can be seen "with a large puddle of blood drops on the floor in front of him," the detectives said.

Online court records show Szilagyi pleaded guilty to simple assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct stemming from the earlier fight and encounter with police and was sentenced to a year's probation. He could not immediately be located for comment because he's in the county jail awaiting trial on charges including aggravated assault, drunken driving and burglary stemming from two separate and unrelated incidents earlier this year.

Szilagyi's criminal defense attorney for his April 2012 arrest said he couldn't comment on whether Szilagyi pursued a claim for his injuries, citing a confidentiality agreement. Federal and county court records show no record of a lawsuit.

Avalon police officials did not immediately return calls for comment on the verdict, or about the request for a drug test that prompted Johnson's firing.

Police officer convicted of DWAI

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A judge returns a verdict in the trial of an Albany police officer who lost his job after a drunk driving arrest.

The judge found Brian Lutz guilty of DWAI after a bench trial.

As a result, Lutz will have to pay $875 in court fees, complete the DMV's Drinker Driver Program and a attend a victim impact panel. The judge also suspended his license.

Lutz was arrested in December 2010 after police said he was asleep behind the wheel, and parked on the right lane of Interstate 787.

He plead not guilty to drunk driving charges back in March 2011. Lutz is currently suspended without pay.

Officer charged with lying to get search warrant

A decade after a federal judge publicly attacked his truthfulness, a Baltimore police officer has been charged with lying to get a warrant to search a Northwest Baltimore home, the state's attorney's office said.

Thomas E. Wilson III, a 19-year veteran of the department, lied when he said he saw a suspect leaving a house in the 5600 block of Wilvan Ave. carrying a black bag, according to the state's attorney's office. He faces charges of perjury and misconduct in office.

The Police Department declined to comment on the charges. Wilson could not be reached, and no attorney is listed for him in court records.

Other Baltimore officers have been implicated recently in fabricating details to secure authorization for arrests or searches. At the sentencing of officer Kendell Richburg in federal court last month, his attorney said the practice was widespread and driven by pressure on police to hit targets.

At the hearing, federal prosecutors said the FBI was investigating a number of officers who had made up information. Wilson worked in the same district as Richburg, but an FBI spokesman said the charges against him were not related to that inquiry.

In the Wilson case, the day after the search in May 2012, a man named Thomas Foster who lived at the Wilvan Avenue address was charged with gun and drug offenses. Prosecutors dropped those charges in December 2012, court records show.

In 2003, Andre M. Davis, then a U.S. District Court judge in Baltimore, said an affidavit in a separate drug case that Wilson filed seemed to be packed with "knowing lies." Davis also called Wilson's account of that bust "implausible and incredibly presented" before he threw out the case.

The Police Department disciplined Wilson for neglect of duty, stripped him of five days' pay and ordered him to remedial training. But his attorney told The Baltimore Sun in 2010 that the administrative trial board did not convict Wilson of an integrity violation.

Wilson stayed on the force, but a defense attorney used the judge's words against him in a case stemming from a 2008 arrest.

"His credibility is suspect," the lawyer told the jury. "This is a man who was chewed out in almost unheard-of fashion by a federal judge five years ago."

Wilson testified that in both instances he had been honest, even if he had been confused on some of the details in the 2003 case. The defendant was convicted, but granted a new trial by an appeals court, after it found prosecutors had gone too far to protect Wilson.

The defendant, Bryan Sivells, pleaded guilty to the lesser of the two charges he faced and received a four-year prison sentence, most of which he had already served.

Cops charged in Kentucky brothel slayings

After nearly 20 years, authorities believe they have finally solved the murders of two workers at a Kentucky massage parlor with the arrest of two former police officers -- including the lead investigator in the case.

After nearly 20 years, authorities believe they have finally solved the murders of two workers at a Kentucky massage parlor with the arrest of two former police officers -- including the lead investigator in the case.

Edward Carter and Leslie Duncan are among three men indicted in the late-night slayings of two young women at the New Life Massage Parlor in Oak Grove in western Kentucky. Carter and an Alabama man face murder charges while Duncan has been charged with complicity to murder.

Investigators are being tight-lipped about how the ex-cops were allegedly involved the deaths of Candace Belt, 22, and Gloria Ross, 18. Their battered, blood-soaked bodies were found in a back room of the parlor on Sept. 20, 1994, after co-workers left the building to get something to eat.

Locals long suspected police involvement, but authorities just couldn't come up with the evidence.

"At the time and for years to follow, everybody thought that it was a couple of police officers that were involved, but there was never any proof given," said Oak Grove Mayor Dan Potter.

"There were always potential suspects," said prosecutor Lynn Pryor. "No one felt comfortable bringing charges on them before now."

One person, at least, didn't hesitate to voice her suspicions early on: Tammy Papler, the madam who ran the brothel.

At a public meeting in 1997, Papler -- angered for being forced to shut down the parlor -- stood up and unleashed a slew of allegations, including the claim that she had been bribing police to keep her business open. She said after she stopped making the payments, the killings occurred.

Carter was paid to work as a janitor at the parlor, but the payments were in reality bribes to allow the brothel to remain open, Papler claimed. Duncan, meanwhile, sometimes demanded cash from her, she said.

Law enforcement officers were such a common sight at the parlor that soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell didn't think twice to come in when the police were around, she said at the time.

Papler couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. But Pryor, the prosecutor, said the former madam would likely be called as a witness if the cases come to trial.

Relatives also said they had long believed that police were involved.

"There's a few of us that suspected the cops had something to do with it there," said Johnny Belt, Candace's uncle.

Duncan even came to the home of the victim's grandmother to express condolences.

"He came and sat at my mom's table and drank coffee, telling her how bad he felt," Belt said.

Bobby Combs, an ex-Oak Grove police officer, recalls taking orders from Duncan -- the case's lead detective -- at the murder scene.

"Oak Grove, as you can tell, messed it up," Combs said.

Eventually, the case was turned over to the local Christian County sheriff's office. But it languished, becoming the subject of an "Unsolved Mysteries" segment on TV. Kentucky State Police took over the investigation in 2006.

The arrests have brought a fresh round of notoriety to the town of about 9,000 bordering the Fort Campbell post along the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

"It's kind of like knocking a scab off a wound," said the Rev. Dave Noffsinger, pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Oak Grove.

Carter, 43, and Frank Black Jr., 39, of Gadsden, Ala., were indicted late last week by a Christian County grand jury on two murder counts.

Carter was arrested in Warren County, Ohio. Black was taken into custody in Etowah County in Alabama. There were no records either man had yet hired an attorney, court officials in both states said. They are being held on $1 million bond and will be arraigned after being extradited to Kentucky, state police said.

Duncan, 50, is serving a three-year sentence for evidence tampering in the case. It was his arrest that broke open the case. Authorities wouldn't give further details. His attorney, Stephanie Ritchie, declined to comment on the case.

Investigators don't anticipate other arrests, said Kentucky State Police Trooper Stu Recke.

Carter and Duncan left the Oak Grove police force soon after the slayings. After leaving town, Duncan spent time working as a security guard at a discount store in Hermitage, Tenn., while Carter worked as a private security guard and police officer in a Louisville suburb.

State police offered few details about Black's alleged involvement, other than to say he was not a police officer. He was convicted of attempted rape in December 1995, and registered as a sex offender when he moved to Alabama.

Combs, the ex-Oak Grove police officer, said Papler has been vindicated with the arrests.

But city council member Barbara Jean Leavell disagreed.

"If you run a business like that, you're just as guilty," she said. "You might not have pulled a trigger or a knife ... but she was guilty of running that business."

Second Officer Suspended After DPD Shooting Of Mentally Ill Man

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The Dallas police officer who witnessed his partner shoot an unarmed mentally ill man and then lied about what happened afterwards has been punished with a 15-day suspension.
Officer Christopher Watson was placed on restricted duty after home surveillance video showed a different story than what Watson swore to in a signed statement.
The video, taken on October 14, showed the victim, Bobby Bennett, with his arms at his side moments before Officer Cardan Spencer shot him. Both Spencer and Watson claimed Bennett lunged at them with the knife before Spencer fired the shot.
At the same disciplinary hearing, Police Chief David O. Brown stated Officer Watson would be investigated by Internal Affairs. Based on the results of that investigation, IA determined that Watson violated the department’s procedures by immediately approaching a possibly armed person. IA also determined Watson was untruthful in a sworn affidavit. Watson, who has been on the force since January 2008, does have the right to appeal his suspension.
Bennett’s mother initially called police on October 14, to report her son was acting violently and may have had a knife. After he was shot, officers charged him with aggravated assault. Those charges were dropped when surveillance video showed he did not threaten officers with a knife as the officers reported. Bennett, who has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia, spent nearly a month in the hospital recovering from his injuries after the shooting.

Buffalo rookie police officer fired after being charged with growing marijuana at his home

James Hamilton’s Facebook photo shows him posed behind his Porsche Cayenne wearing sunglasses and a “Party All Day” T-shirt.

But the Buffalo police officer wasn’t celebrating Thursday after his arraignment on charges of operating a marijuana-growing operation in the basement of his Floss Avenue home on the East Side.

A six-month investigation led by the Police Department also resulted in Hamilton’s immediate dismissal from the force on which he served for less than a year.

“Like any organization, you have bad apples,” Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Thursday.

A rookie cop who was recently named Officer of the Month by his union, Hamilton faces multiple drug and weapons charges in connection with the marijuana-growing operation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch said 82 marijuana plants and 4 pounds of loose marijuana were found in the basement of the home. Police also recovered a 12-gauge shotgun.

Hamilton, 29, was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, who entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

“My client is innocent,” defense lawyer Matthew Borowski said. “And he intends to fight these charges.”

Prosecutors said Hamilton’s arrest came on the heels of his sale Wednesday afternoon of two quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for $1,100 to a confidential source in the city’s Broadway-Bailey section.

Hamilton, who was under surveillance, was then called to Police Headquarters, where he was arrested. Later in the evening, police with a search warrant went to the home and found the pot-growing operation.

Derenda said the investigation started in May and was led by his Internal Affairs and Narcotics bureaus. He said the investigation, which included the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, was welcomed by rank-and-file officers in his department.