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".
WICHITA, Kan. — A former
Wichita police officer and USD 259 security official has been formally charged
with child sex crimes.
On Wednesday, 51-year-old Alex
Robinson was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail. Robinson made
his first court appearance Thursday afternoon and was charged with several
crimes involving three minors:
Robinson was charged with two
counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and three counts of aggravated indecent
liberties in connection to crimes alleged to have occurred between 2000 and
2002. The victim in that case was 12 to 13 years old at the time.
He was also charged with
aggravated indecent liberties with an 11-year-old that allegedly happened in
June 2012.
Robinson is also facing two
counts of indecent liberties with a 14-year-old, alleged to have occurred
between August 2011 and September 2012.
He remains jailed on a $100,000
bond and is scheduled to be back in court for a preliminary hearing on March
27.
Background:
Robinson was first arrested on
similar charges in January of 2013 after a 24-year-old man came forward,
alleging sex crimes that happened more than a decade prior when he was a
juvenile. Crimes of that nature typically carry a 5-year statute of
limitations, but Captain Brent Allred said last year that certain qualifiers
could be met allowing charges to be filed in this case, several years after the
statute expired.
He was free on bond until being
arrested again this week.
Robinson was a 22-year veteran
of the Wichita Police Department, retiring as a sergeant in 2006. He then took
a job a security supervisor with Wichita Public Schools, but has not been back
to work since his first arrest last year. A school district spokesperson said
his employment is currently "under review."
Robinson was last interviewed
by KAKE News in 2007 after receiving an award from then-President George W.
Bush for volunteering more than 17,000 hours at the Boys and Girls Club.
COLUMBUS (Rob Wells) -- The
Fraternal Order of Police says that no matter what the outcome of a court case,
a Columbus Police Officer charged with OVI will most likely return to his
regular duties as a patrol officer.
Investigators say that
25-year-old Russell Redman III had his gun taken away and has been reassigned
to desk duty following a Feb. 27 car accident.
FOP officials say that Redman
crashed his truck while driving on Route 62 in New Albany around 2 a.m. They
say he hit a car driven by a 22-year-old woman. Investigators say no one was
seriously hurt, but Redman was later charged with OVI.
Union reps say since it's now a
criminal investigation, they're not involved. They say that they will only help
if Redman requests assistance and after a court trial is complete.
Redman has been with CPD for
the past three years according to police officials.
ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West
Texas police officer has been arrested on charges that he groped women during
traffic stops.
Odessa police Officer Salvador
Becerra (buh-SEHR'-uh) was being held Friday on two counts of violating the
civil rights of and improper sexual activity with a person in custody.
Ector County jail records do
not list an attorney for Becerra, who was arrested Thursday night and bond set
at $20,000.
Texas Rangers are
investigating.
A probable cause affidavit says
Becerra early Sunday told a woman that he would not arrest her on a drug charge
if she let him touch her breasts. The document indicates the woman complied,
then reported the incident Monday.
An affidavit indicates
investigators believe Becerra groped another woman Feb. 21 while on duty.
Becerra faces police
disciplinary hearings next week.
A former Allegheny County
police officer, jailed in Westmoreland County on charges of impersonating a
police officer, was charged on Thursday with running a prescription drug ring.
A state grand jury accused Mark
Fisher, 34, of Irwin, who worked as a police officer in Swissvale and Turtle
Creek, of directing an illegal prescription drug ring from 2007 to 2011. The
participants sold drugs in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, the grand jury
said.
Fisher developed an addiction
to pain medication since an undisclosed injury in 2007 and recruited several
people to help distribute prescription pain narcotics, Attorney General
Kathleen Kane said.
Kane said she anticipates
additional arrests.
Fisher eventually stopped using
others and began to pass illegal prescriptions at pharmacies, written in his
name or his wife's, Kane said.
Fisher and his wife became
patients of a Westmoreland County doctor who gave Mark Fisher prescriptions for
the painkiller Roxicodone and a sedative, Ambien, the grand jury said. The
couple then became “social friends” of the doctor, according to the grand jury.
Fisher is charged with
acquiring a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery,
deception or subterfuge; possession with intent to deliver a controlled
substance; conspiracy; and impersonating a public servant.
In 2011, authorities charged
Fisher with attempting to illegally forge prescriptions from the Westmoreland
County doctor's office. Fisher claimed he needed blank prescription pads for
his work as an undercover officer, police said.
The doctor's cousin, who worked
in the office, told the grand jury that he telephoned police about “obviously
forged documents purporting to be from the Turtle Creek Police Department and Mark
Fisher.”
Authorities said Fisher no
longer was an officer when he attempted to obtain the forms. State police
arrested him in Greensburg on charges of impersonating an officer, theft by
deception and receiving stolen property.
Online court records show
Fisher was expected to plead guilty to those charges in January but did not
appear for the hearing.
Westmoreland County Judge Rita
Hathaway issued a warrant for his arrest. He has been held in the county prison
since Friday.
A witness told the grand jury
that Fisher's drug distribution crew sometimes met him “while Fisher was in a
police uniform in a patrol car” and that he would provide them with
prescription forms to obtain painkillers.
Pennsylvania has the
14th-highest rate of drug overdoses in the nation. Most are caused by
prescription drugs.
A police brutality case brought
by former Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe and 11 others against 20
Galveston police officers will move forward despite the city’s request to have
the case dismissed.
Judge Keith Ellison denied
requests by officers and the City of Galveston to squash the case, saying only
"the crucible of a trial" could determine exactly what happened on
Oct. 4-5, 2008.
The federal lawsuit claims
Galveston police officers used excessive force when they used pepper spray and
Tasers on wedding guests in the San Luis Resort's H2O bar.
Galveston police said in 2008
that “the riot” started when officers tried to stop 19-year-old Cole O'Balle
from entering the hotel's pool area with an open container of alcohol.
Officers allege O’Balle attacked them,
punching them in their chests.
Court documents show that other
guests, including Backe, got involved in the fight between officers and
O'Balle.
O'Balle was taken by helicopter
to Memorial Hermann Hospital with a gash to his face.
Backe and nearly a dozen others
were arrested. He eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge
of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to one day of probation and a $1 fine.
The former Astros pitcher and
the other plaintiffs first filed the federal lawsuit in 2010. The suit names individual officers, former
City Manager Steve LeBlanc, and former Police Chief Charles Wiley as defendants.
A statement from the City of Galveston
released at the time of the lawsuit’s filing said, "The events underlying
the suit were thoroughly investigated and the city is not aware of factual
support for any of the claims asserted."
Backe finished 30-28 in six seasons with the
Astros in 2009. He had his best year in 2005, when the Astros went to the World
Series. He finished with a career-best 10 wins in the regular season and earned
two postseason victories.
ELKO — A sheriff candidate
running on jail reform came closer to his platform than expected Thursday after
he was booked into custody for felony DUI.
About an hour after Ron
Rylander finished filing to run as the county’s top law enforcer, he was in
handcuffs and guided into a cop car.
Rylander, who gave an interview
to the Free Press before his arrest, called himself a dark horse candidate, in
part due to his “checkered past.”
While talking to the media,
police received a call from someone at the courthouse who reported an
intoxicated person, according to Lt. Ty Trouten.
Two police officers arrived at
the county courtyard and stayed in close proximity to Rylander. After Rylander
drove away, the police officers did as well.
Trouten said Rylander was
pulled over for making an improper turn and because the officer knew Rylander
did not have a valid license.
Rylander, 51, was booked into
Elko County Jail for third-offense DUI, driving with a suspended license,
driving without proof of insurance and driving left of the center line. Bail
was set at $21,050.
In addition to prior DUI
arrests, Rylander has been arrested for disturbing the peace for making
repeated non-emergency calls to Elko Central Dispatch.
Because of his familiarity with
the jail system, Rylander said before leaving the county complex Thursday, he
offers voters a unique perspective. His platform is centered around jail
reform. Rylander opposes Sheriff Jim Pitts’ newly announced policy to bill
inmates for food, medical visits and booking costs.
Rylander argued the mandatory
fees will ruin the jail’s commissary system.
Furthermore, Rylander believes
the new policy will lead to expensive lawsuits.
“(Pitts) is going to end up
getting sued and end up costing the county more than it’s worth,” he said.
Rylander wants jail staff to
undergo more training, and the jail to increase the number of low-risk inmates
it grants “trusty” status, a designation for inmates who are allowed to work
during their incarceration.
“There’s only one dorm in there
for trusties and it’s packed,” he said.
A greater emphasis should be
placed on rehabilitating inmates, Rylander said. Along with religious services,
inmates should have the opportunity to get treatment and attend support groups,
such as AA, he said.
If elected sheriff, Rylander
said he will work with Elko Police Chief Ben Reed to continue communication and
collaboration between the two agencies.
Rylander has lived in Elko for
about 23 years. He’s formerly been employed as an environmental engineer at
various mines and worked as a down-hole surveyor for a mining support company.
FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) –
Lawyers for a man who was arrested for recording a Fall River police officer on
a public street asked a judge to dismiss the charges, but an agreement fell
apart at the last minute.
George Thompson, 51, of Fall
River, was arrested Jan. 6 and charged with violating the state’s wiretap
statute and resisting arrest. He will be back in court on April 11 because
prosecutors said they wanted to run the details by District Attorney Sam Sutter
before signing off on any deal.
A spokesperson for Sutter
declined to comment because the case was ongoing.
Thompson said he was using his
iPhone to record Officer Thomas Barboza talking on his cell phone and swearing
while working a construction detail. According to an arrest report Barboza
claims Thompson was attempting to conceal his phone. Thompson disputes that
saying he had arm out holding the phone.
In court Thursday Thompson’s
attorney Daniel Igo said a federal appeals court case should be considered in
throwing out the charges.
But Judge Joseph Macey was
skeptical about applying the federal ruling known as the “Glick” case, where
the First Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Boston lawyer who was arrested
for recording police officers in a public location.
“I’m not satisfied with the
Glick case,” he said. “That’s a federal case.”
For Macey, he said it boiled
down to one question “was it secret or wasn’t it?”
The Massachusetts State Supreme
Court ruled against a civilian in a 2001 case where they upheld a charge
against a man who recorded an Abington officer in secret.
The video Thompson shot would
likely clear up the dispute, but the recording disappeared while the phone was
in an evidence room at the police station.
In an interview with Fall River
Police Chief Daniel Racine earlier this month, he said they have served a
search warrant on the Apple Corporation to try and determine what happened.
“If a Fall River police officer
erased that video, he’s fired and I would suspect the district attorney would
take out charges,” Racine said. “If any other individual did that, we will take
out felony charges.”
According to a court document
police suspect Thompson erased the video himself remotely.
“It is plausible that the owner
of the phone performed a remote factory restore through the iCloud while the
phone was in the evidence vault,” according to the court filing.
Thompson said the last thing he
wanted was for the evidence to disappear.
“The chief keeps pointing
fingers,” Thompson said. “The chief needs to look within the police
department.”
Barboza was disciplined after
he admitted to talking on his cell phone during a work detail, according to
Racine. He was placed on a one day unpaid suspension and forbidden to work
details for 15 days.
Thompson – who filed the
complaint against the officer – called the discipline a “slap in the face.”
“A five year-old in school
would get a more severe discipline,” he said.
An ongoing federal lawsuit in
Portland, Oregon accuses police officers of arresting two tow truck company
employees after they towed unmarked police cars parked illegally on a private
lot.
The five cars belonged to
police officers and a DEA agent who were working on a nearby sting. A business
owner at the lot says the cars were parked there over a span of two days. The
owner first put a note on the windshields of the cars asking them to be moved.
The next day, he spoke with one of the officers.
The officer allegedly
“responded with expletives” to the note and insisted the cars would not be
moved. The business owner then called the property’s trustee, who called a
towing company. The cars were towed.
Later, several police officers
showed up at the tow company's office to get their cars back. Per protocol,
employees of the company asked for proof of ownership of the vehicles. The
officers were unable to display any information proving they owned the cars.
They left and said they would return later.
Soon after, a group of cops
both in uniforms and street clothes returned to the office. Then, according to
the lawsuit, Sgt. Andrew Roberts showed his badge to the tow company employees
and insisted that was all he needed to retrieve the cars. When the employees
didn’t comply, they were arrested.
The lawsuit filed by the
arrested employees accuses the officers of violating their constitutional
rights by detaining them. They say the officers didn’t have probable cause to
arrest them, and that their rights to due process and protections against
unreasonable search and seizures were both violated in the arrest. The lawsuit
also claims Sgt. Roberts threatened to arrest the lawyer of the employees for
asking questions.
The employees are seeking
$500,000 each for pain and suffering. The tow truck company seeks to recoup
money spent defending the employees in court.
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A new
grassroots organization is taking on the San Diego Police Department over
police misconduct.
They are demanding sweeping
changes within the organization and disagree with how new police Chief Shelley
Zimmerman plans to clean up the organization.
FED UP rejects the assertion by
the newly appointed police chief that a few "bad apples" need to be
weeded out in the department. FED UP demands a complete overhaul and deeper
investigation into San Diego's officers.
They have a list of demands
including: thorough investigations of sexual misconduct; implementing a zero
tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment; and training officers on
sexual violence.
They named recent sexual
assault cases -- those of former San Diego officers Anthony Arevalos and Chris
Hayes.
"We want to raise
visibility. So we can feel safe and be safe. We want to stand against this
culture of misogyny that we're facing," FED UP protestor, James Messer
said.
As of this morning, the San
Diego Police Department and City Attorney's Office had no comment.
Three Bronx men who were set
free last year after spending nearly 18 years in prison for two murders they
say they did not commit are suing New York City and the two lead police
detectives on the case, accusing them of deliberately using tainted or false
evidence.
The lawsuits, filed in Federal
District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday, stem from the 1995 murders of a Federal
Express executive, Denise Raymond, and a cabdriver, Baithe Diop. The killings,
which took place in the Soundview neighborhood in the Bronx three days apart,
were thought to be related.
Seven people were indicted in
the two murders and six were convicted. But the convictions began to come apart
in 2012, when an investigator with the United States attorney’s office in
Manhattan obtained confessions from two former gang members who said they had
killed Mr. Diop. In 2013, the Bronx district attorney’s office acknowledged
problems with evidence used to tie defendants to the murder of Ms. Raymond. The
indictments in both cases were vacated, and those imprisoned were freed.
The lawsuits claim that the
detectives, Michael Donnelly and Thomas Aiello, improperly conducted
identifications of suspects, coerced false statements from witnesses, provided
nonpublic details to witnesses to bolster false accounts, failed to follow up
on leads and hid evidence. The suits also cite a key prosecution witness who
later recanted.
“When you’re innocent and
you’re in prison knowing that you didn’t commit this crime, the pain is
double,” said Carlos Perez, who, along with Michael Cosme and Devon Ayers,
filed the lawsuits against the city. “It hurt me emotionally, it hurt me
psychologically; many times I cried.”
A spokesman for the Police
Department did not reply to a request for comment. Spokesmen for the New York
City Law Department and the Bronx district attorney’s office declined to
comment, with the district attorney’s office citing the pending litigation.
Similar suits were filed
recently by Cathy Watkins and Eric Glisson, who were also convicted of killing
Mr. Diop, and were freed in 2012; and by the estate of Israel Vasquez, who was
convicted of killing Ms. Raymond but freed in 2007 by an appeals panel. City
lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the Vasquez case last year, rejecting all
assertions of wrongdoing by the detectives and saying that the witness’s
recantation was not credible.
Mr. Perez’s lawsuit states that
Detectives Donnelly and Aiello ignored certain leads. For instance, the suit
asserts, the detectives did not interview a man who had pawned a bracelet
bearing Ms. Raymond’s initials. And, the suit said, they did not pursue records
from Mr. Diop’s cellphone, which had been stolen after his killing and used to
call an apartment where the men who later admitted killing him, Jose Rodriguez
and Gilbert Vega, were living.
That failure left the two “free
to continue committing violent crimes in the Bronx for years,” the suit says,
adding that Mr. Rodriguez had been involved in a shooting in 1997 that killed
two people during a Thanksgiving football game between residents of two public
housing complexes.
“This case is particularly
egregious,” said Elizabeth Saylor, a lawyer at the firm Emery Celli
Brinckerhoff and Abady, which is representing Mr. Perez, Mr. Cosme and the
estate of Mr. Vasquez. “Six people were incarcerated for 100 years in this case
because of the detectives’ misconduct.”
Because no physical evidence
linked any defendant to either killing, the prosecution relied heavily on
witnesses. Among them was Kim Alexander, who testified that she had seen
another man, Charles McKinnon, arguing with Ms. Raymond as she left work the
day before she was killed.
Detective Aiello picked up
security video tapes from the building where Ms. Raymond worked, then wrote in
a report that he had viewed the material “with negative results,” causing a
prosecutor to state in court that there was “nothing” on the tapes.
Later, however, it turned out
that a tape showed Ms. Raymond but not Mr. McKinnon, undermining the
prosecution’s contention that an argument between the two had led to a murder
plot. Judge William C. Donnino said that the failure to turn over the tape was
“serious,” adding that it contained “evidence that is arguably favorable to the
defense.”
Another prosecution witness was
Cathy Gomez, a teenager who could not read or write English. In 1995, Ms. Gomez
signed a detailed statement that provided a basis for later courtroom testimony
saying that Mr. Cosme had displayed a silver-colored revolver, given her a
blow-by-blow account of killing Mr. Diop, then shown her a phone that he said
had come from Mr. Diop’s car. But in 2012 Ms. Gomez said that Detective
Donnelly had written the statement and that she had signed it without knowing
what it said. “Nothing’s true in there,” she told a lawyer representing Mr.
Glisson, according to a transcript of a videotaped interview.
Mr. Perez has always maintained
his innocence.“This whole case was fabricated,” he told Judge Donnino. “I’ve
been framed by a ruthless crooked homicide cop.”
Police misconduct files must be
made public, court rules
BY FRANK MAIN
The Chicago Police Department
can no longer keep misconduct records secret, a state appeals court has ruled.
The Illinois Freedom of
Information Act doesn’t exempt “CR files,” which consist of misconduct
complaints against officers and documents created during the investigations,
the court found Monday.
The appeals court also found
that “RL” files are open to the public. Those files identify police officers
who have accumulated the most misconduct complaints. At issue were two RL files
that named officers with the most complaints between 2001-2006 and 2002-2008.
University of Chicago law
professor Craig Futterman hailed the ruling, saying: “I really do think this is
a watershed moment in Illinois in terms of police transparency and
accountability.”
Shannon Breymaier, a
spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said the city plans to ask the
Illinois Supreme Court to review the decision.
Jamie Kalven, an independent
journalist and community activist, had filed a Freedom of Information request
asking the Chicago Police Department to provide him with the Repeater Lists
(RL) files as well as Complaint Register (CR) files involving five officers,
Futterman said.
In 2009, the U.S. 7th Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled against Kalven because the information he was seeking
was part of a federal misconduct lawsuit. Third parties like Kalven don’t have
legal standing to become involved in a lawsuit once the plaintiff and defendant
settle the case and agree to seal the police misconduct files, the federal
appeals court ruled.
But the state appeals court
said those files are a matter of public record under the state Freedom of
Information Act.
The state appeals court
returned Kalven’s request to a lower court to decide what information the
police department can black out from the CR and RL files because of privacy concerns.
Futterman said he doesn’t have
a problem with the department redacting personal information about officers and
third parties — such as telephone numbers, Social Security numbers and the
like.
He also doesn’t have a problem
with the department blacking out the names of the people who file the
complaints and witnesses who are interviewed during the investigations.
But he said Kalven should
oppose any attempt by the department to block the public from seeing
recommendations by the police Internal Affairs Bureau and the Independent
Police Review Authority — the bodies that investigate complaints of police
misconduct — about how much discipline should be imposed against officers for
sustained complaints.
Futterman added that the
appeals court clearly stated that the names of the officers and the allegations
of misconduct can’t be redacted.
“Police officers do not have
recognized privacy interests in complaints of misconduct,” Futterman said. “We
entrust cops with a lot of power — power to use force and even to shoot and
kill. They have to have that power to do their jobs. But with that power comes
responsibility. ... This will allow the public to evaluate whether the process
of these complaints being investigated is a good process that we can trust in.”
The court battle over the
records stems from a 2004 lawsuit that Diane Bond filed against the Chicago
Police Department claiming she was abused by officers. Futterman was her
attorney and submitted evidence that less than 1 percent of misconduct
investigations resulted in a complaint being sustained.Bond settled her lawsuit
for $150,000, records show.
Detroit— A city police officer
who was suspended in 2006 for improperly firing his gun and then lying about it
is the subject of another investigation after shooting a 20-year-old man
Wednesday outside an eastside gas station.
Officer Christopher Stanton,
who is assigned to the department’s Commercial Auto Theft Unit, was off duty
when, at about 12:30 a.m on March 12, he allegedly shot a 20-year-old man in
the lot of a Sphinx gas station in the 17800 block of Van Dyke.
After the shooting, the
20-year-old was arrested. He’s being held on “unrelated charges,” Detroit
Police Sgt. Michael Woody said.
“The officer will be put on
desk duty while an investigation is conducted to determine if there was any
wrongdoing criminally or departmentally,” Woody said. “The investigator will
prepare a warrant package and submit it to prosecutors for consideration of
charges.”
A source familiar with the
investigation told The News Stanton was working an unauthorized security detail
at a church across the street from the gas station when he got into an argument
with the man, who was unarmed.
At some point during the
altercation, Stanton pulled out his pistol and shot the man once in the chest,
the source said.
Stanton was suspended without
pay after a Feb. 28 2006 incident, in which he shot at a 19-year-old car thief
suspect during a foot chase. While being chased, the man fell down and was
injured.
According to minutes of the
March 23, 2006 meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, the 19-year-old
reported Stanton for shooting at him. Department policy prohibits officers from
firing at suspects who don’t pose a threat.
Stanton claimed the suspect
threw a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun to the ground during the chase. The
officer also claimed he hadn’t fired his weapon.
But a ballistics test of his
gun showed he had fired it, and a .40 caliber bullet from Stanton’s service
weapon also was found at the scene. In addition, there was gunshot residue on
Stanton and the suspect.
Stanton was suspended without
pay for conduct unbecoming a police officer but allowed to remain on the force.
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indianapolis police
officer pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple charges stemming from a 2012
domestic violence incident.
Officer John Haggard entered a
guilty plea on charges of criminal recklessness, domestic battery and
intimidation, all class "D" felonies, for assaulting his wife and
then breaking into their neighbors' home once she headed there with their son.
Fourteen other counts against
Haggard were dropped.
According to court documents,
Haggard, his wife and their 4-month-old son were driving home on Dec. 23, 2012,
when Haggard and his wife got into an argument about his driving.
Haggard's wife, Mary Haggard,
said her husband had been drinking and the roads were icy, so she had asked him
to be careful, police said.
When they got home, John
Haggard told Mary Haggard to get out of the car without her infant son, and
when she refused, John Haggard punched her multiple times, the probable cause
affidavit said.
Court documents say once the
couple was inside their home, John Haggard tried to make his wife leave, and he
hit her again when she refused.
Mary Haggard sent text messages
to her neighbor, who is also married to an IMPD officer, asking her to come
over to the Haggards' home. Mary Haggard, her son and the neighbor then went to
the neighbor's home across the street.
According to the probable cause
affidavit, John Haggard then forced his way into the neighbor's home, pulled a
gun and said he was going to get his son.
The neighbors' 7- and
10-year-old children witnessed John Haggard's intrusion, police said.
John Haggard eventually left,
and police were called.
UPDATE 10:00 AM - An additional
charge has been filed against the officer currently suspended following an
arrest. The charge is felony Assault or Battery upon certain personnel. The
additional charge involves an employee of the Ada County Sheriff's Office and
occurred during the investigation.
Boise, Idaho ( KMVT-TV /
KSVT-TV ) - A 43 Year old Boise Police Officer has been suspended after he was
arrested early this Friday morning for domestic violence. According to the
Police department, the incident occurred at an east Boise home shortly before
5am. The arrest was made by an Ada County Sheriff’s deputy. Gary Miller of
Boise will be suspended from duty which means all of his police powers have
been suspended pending an internal department investigation. Miller has been
charged with misdemeanor Assault, Domestic Violence. He has been a Boise Police
officer for 16 years and was assigned to the Bench Patrol Division. In addition
to criminal proceedings, Miller is subject to an internal investigation
regarding applicable policies of the Police Department. According to a
statement from the department, “The Boise Police Department demands the highest
professional conduct from its officers, both on and off duty, which includes
conformance to laws.”
FILER -- The Filer Police
Department released the formal investigation by the Nampa Police Department
regarding an incident in Filer, in which an officer shot and killed a dog.
The city of Filer requested
that the Nampa Police Department do an independent internal investigation into
the situation.
We contacted the Filer Police
Chief for reaction to the report, but he was not available.
RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION
In the 12 page report, Sgt. Tim
Randall with the Nampa Police reviews in-car video from Officer Tarek Hassani's
patrol car, and interviews those involved with the call on February 8th.
In the report, Randall says the
officer's interest of safety could provide sound justification for shooting the
dog, but adds, "the argument is less convincing given the fact that the
officer had prior information that the dogs might be aggressive and his failure
to develop or consider any realistic non-lethal plan for dealing with the dogs
was not reasonable."
The report says at the time of
the shooting officer Hassani feared for his safety, providing justification for
shooting the dog.
But it also criticized the
officer's actions during the incident.
In the report, Randall
questions why Hassani didn't simply stay in his car, call the dogs owner, or
call for back up.
It says Hassani stated he
"did not consider that" saying it was his job to respond to the dogs
at large call.
Randall also asked why Hassani
didn't use a taser, a catch pole, or a baton, all of which the officer had that
day.
Officer Hassani said he was
"taught not to use a taser on a dog" and was concerned for his
safety.
The report also mentions a
previous incident where Officer Hassani was bitten by a dog.
DOG OWNER'S RESPONSE
Rick Clubb has admitted all
along that his dogs were at large that day, and he also admits it was not the
first time neighbors complained about his dogs.
However, Clubb maintains that
his dogs never acted aggressively, and his 7-year-old black lab, Hooch, should
not have been shot.
"That's all he was doing
here was protecting his property, where he shot him at was right there and he
died right there by the tree," said Clubb.
We showed Clubb the report on
Tuesday, and he said he was disappointed, but not surprised.
"He didn't have to shoot
him right in our neighborhood with kids running around, birthday party, that's
just ridiculous, that's a trigger happy cop," said Clubb.
Clubb says he will keep pushing
to get Officer Hassani fired, and is planning to file a lawsuit against the
Filer Police Department.
"Oh yeah, most definitely
disappointed, but we're not going to stop here, there's no way we will stop
here," said Clubb.
WHAT'S NEXT
Filer Mayor Rick Dunn tells us
Officer Hassani is still on paid administrative leave as the city council
considers his future.
There will be a chance for the
public to voice their opinion on this case to the Filer city council and Mayor
at an open forum, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Mayor Dunn says each person
will have two minutes to give their opinion on the case.
Dunn tells us the city council
reviewed the report in an executive session Monday night, but wants to hear
from the public as well.
A Lexington police officer faces
an internal investigation and might be charged later this week with animal
cruelty, authorities said Tuesday.
The Scott County Sheriff's
Office said deputies had asked the Scott County Attorney's Office to review the
case, in which officer Jeff Brangers shot and killed a neighbor's black
Labrador Saturday as it walked away from his property. Brangers, a Scott County
resident, keeps chickens on his property about five miles east of Georgetown.
Scott County Sheriff Tony
Hampton said Tuesday that Brangers might be charged with second-degree animal
cruelty later this week.
Conflicting statements
attributed to Brangers caused the sheriff's office and the county attorney's
office to consider filing a charge, Hampton said.
State law says, "Any
livestock owner or his agent, without liability, may kill any dog trespassing
on that owner's property and observed in the act of pursuing or wounding his
livestock."
Brangers initially told a
sheriff's deputy that the dog was in a crouched position and looking at his chickens.
But he later said that he shot the dog as it was walking away.
In that instance, if the
chickens were not being pursued or wounded, Brangers would not have been within
his rights to shoot the dog.
"When the dog's walking
away, that changes that," Hampton said.
Dog owner Brian Geary must sign
a complaint, which must also be signed by a judge. Once that is done, Brangers
would be served a court summons to appear in Scott District Court, Hampton
said.
Geary said Tuesday that he
intends to press charges. Second-degree animal cruelty is a misdemeanor
punishable by up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
Also Tuesday, the Lexington
Division of Police said it has started an internal inquiry into the dog's
shooting.
Lexington police spokeswoman
Sherelle Roberts confirmed the inquiry Tuesday afternoon.
Brangers, 39, joined the
Lexington police force in 2012.
Geary, who also raises chickens
on his property, said in an interview on Monday that Angel, a 12-year-old
Labrador, had never bothered poultry in the past. Geary said Brangers told him,
"I have a right as a property owner to protect my property from threats,
and I perceived her as a threat. ... Your dog was on my property. I eliminated
the threat."
"If he didn't catch her
chasing chickens, he had no grounds to the shoot the dog," Geary said
Monday. "That's my whole premise."
