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".
The names of Chicago police
officers who have had multiple complaints lodged against them were made public
Wednesday following a seven-year legal battle.
The names of Chicago police
officers who have had multiple complaints lodged against them were made public
Wednesday following a seven-year legal battle.
The hundreds of pages of
documents include a list of 662 officers who were the subject of more than 10
citizen complaints between 2001 and 2006. The list of names doesn't just
include officers who were found to have committed wrongdoing after those
complaints were filed, but also officers who were exonerated.
"This is real change. This
is real reform. It was a long time coming, and it's a first step. There are
other steps that need to be taken," said Jamie Kalven, The Invisible
Institute.
Writer Jamie Kalven filed suit
to force Chicago police to release the officers' names, as well as the charges
against them, which range from excessive use of force, racism, and false
arrest.
Among the worst repeat
offenders are Jerome Finnigan and Keith Herrera, who were at the center of a
misconduct scandal and went to prison, but not before amassing more than 50
complaints each.
Kalven says the documents show
a department that looked away.
"They had multiple
occasions to stop these guys," said Kalven.
For seven years, the city
fought the release of the records in part because the list of names includes
exonerated officers.
"There's a lot of
allegations there, but it doesn't prove these individuals did anything
improperly," said Dean Angelo, Sr., president, Fraternal Order of Police.
But earlier this month, the
city ended its legal challenge. Mayor Emanuel said in a statement: "the
new policy of making these files available to the public is a proactive step
forward in building the trust and partnership between residents and
police."
"It's a step toward
accountability, towards professionalism of the police department," said
Kalven.
For the third time in a few weeks,
a new video showing police brutality has surfaced and it's sparking a lot of
outrage.
The video from Brooklyn appears
to show an NYPD officer step on a suspect's head. Multiple reports say the
officer is Joel Edouard.
The suspect, Jamil El-Cuffee,
was arrested for allegedly smoking marijuana. While the 55 second video doesn't
actually show the officer's foot touch the suspect's head, another officer seems to react to the alleged
stomp.
Saturday morning, the tension
and frustration was palpable at the National Action Network in Harlem. It was
the first time the mother of Eric Garner spoke since the death of her son.
"What this is about? Justice, your daughter, I wouldn't wish this on my
worst enemy" she said.
Garner was the Staten Island
father of six who died a little over a week ago after an officer put him in an
apparent chokehold.
At the scene where Garner was
arrested, a rally was held Saturday calling attention to police brutality.
Earlier this week, a video also
surfaced out of East Harlem. It appears to show a man being punched in the face
while in a chokehold.
He allegedly jumped a
turnstile. Right now, his name as well as the two officers' names have not been
released.
As for Garner's death, Staten
Island prosecutors have now launched a criminal probe. Garner's widow, Esaw
Garner, also spoke Saturday. She said her husband was never violent towards
anyone.
"He only yelled at me and
he was a quiet man, he is making a lot of noise now" she said.
In the meantime, Officer
Pantaleo as well as the officer involved in the alleged head stomping have both
been stripped of their guns and badges and placed on modified duty.
In the East Harlem
incident, those two officers have been
put on medical leave.
The NYPD says all of its
members will be receiving new training and all of the incidents are being
investigated.
A former Chicago cop caught up
in a “hare-brained” scheme to plant drugs and a gun in a suburban woman’s car —
a scheme that led to a $375,000 city payout — may soon get his job back.
Slawomir Plewa could be back on
the streets, even though the Chicago Police Department is fighting the fired
cop’s efforts in court.
Plewa’s actions “represent a
serious breach of the public’s trust,” says Marty Dolan, the lawyer who sued
Plewa in federal court on behalf of the suburban woman. “He violated a sworn
oath to protect the public and certainly does not deserve a second chance to
serve in any capacity whatsoever.”
But Cook County Circuit Court
Judge Diane J. Larsen disagreed, ruling in April that the Chicago Police Board
went too far when it voted 8-1 to fire Plewa last year. Attorneys for Chicago
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy are due back in court later this month, preparing
to argue that Larsen got it wrong — that she “usurped” the police board’s
authority when she said Plewa deserved a more “lenient” punishment.
“The last couple of years have
been a nightmare for me and my family,” Plewa, 35, told the Chicago Sun-Times
this week. ““It’s been real tough on us. I’m looking forward to going back to
work.”
Plewa was a “highly decorated”
tactical officer based on the North Side, when he crossed paths with a
desperate Crystal Lake man in the middle of a nasty divorce. Plewa didn’t know
that the man, Bogdan Mazur, had an ulterior motive when he called Plewa
anonymously in spring 2007, to offer
information about a woman with illegal drugs and a gun in her car, according to
Plewa’s lawyer, Dan Herbert.
“He had no idea who this Mazur
was and what his relationship was with this woman,” Herbert said. “He simply
alerted his team to the tip and they acted on it, just as they had hundreds of
times in the past.”
Plewa didn’t know, Herbert
insists, that Mazur was trying to frame his estranged wife.
The tip came in on April 1,
2007, with Mazur telling Plewa where he
could find the illegal drugs, the gun and Mazur’s then-wife, Sylwia Marcinczyk.
The woman was arrested and spent about two weeks in jail, but was later
acquitted of all charges.
Prosecutors took another look
at the case, charging Mazur with four felonies, including delivering
drugs. Prosecutors also charged Plewa,
alleging he’d been part of the plan to frame Marcinczyk — although they never
charged him with trying to profit from the scheme. Mazur pleaded guilty to
filing a false police report and agreed to testify against Plewa. Even so, in
August 2010, Cook County Judge Michael
Brown found Plewa not guilty of all charges, saying the officer was merely
guilty of being a “dupe.”
“There was no evidence that you
were involved in the planning of this hare-brained scheme,” Brown said from the
bench. “There was no benefit that you got.”
But Brown blasted Plewa for
allegedly lying during Marcinczyk’s trial that he’d never met Mazur before
arresting his wife. Brown said it was clear from the evidence that Mazur had
met the officer.
“You did a very horrible thing,
Officer Plewa,” Brown said. “You lied in court. That’s not the kind of thing that we can countenance.”
Plewa says Brown’s decision
vindicates him, and he denied this week having any part in Mazur’s scheme.
“It’s obviously not true,” he
said.
Despite the not-guilty finding,
in June 2012, the city agreed to pay $375,000 to Marcinczyk to settle the
lawsuit she filed against Plewa and the city, alleging false arrest and
malicious prosecution — among other things.
In settling the case, one of the city’s lawyers noted the cellphone
records showing “numerous calls between Mazur and Plewa” prior to Marcinczyk’s
arrest.
“Plewa also allegedly did
nothing to identify his informant or verify his information,” the lawyer,
Leslie Darling, said at the time.
And it wasn’t the first time
the city has paid out in a case involving Plewa. A 26-year-old man accused
Plewa and other officers of falsely claiming to have found drugs in his home in
2008. The city paid a $100,000 settlement in that case, said John Holden, a
city spokesman. The city settled for $50,000 in another case, in which a man
claimed he, too, had been wrongly accused of having drugs when Plewa and
another officer arrested him in May 2008, Holden said.
In July 2013, the police board
voted to fire Plewa based, in part , on his alleged lie in court in the
Marcinczyk case.
“No police officer, even one as
highly decorated as Plewa, can be allowed to remain on the job when he gives
false testimony under oath in court,” the board wrote, explaining the decision.
Plewa appealed, and earlier
this year, Larsen ruled the police board decided to fire Plewa without
considering any significant evidence — including not looking at the transcripts
from Plewa’s criminal trial.
Lawyers for Supt. Garry
McCarthy head back to court on July 31 to ask Larsen to reconsider her ruling.
Plewa said he has “no idea” why
his former employer doesn’t want him back on the force.
“I did the best job I could,”
he said. “My record of arrests and commendations should speak for itself.”
A confidential informant gave
an investigator in the Athens County prosecutor’s office a tip in late
February: This prescription-drug ring? It’s huge.
Now, authorities say, they have
dismantled an operation that might have put as much as $3 million worth of
painkillers on the streets of southeastern Ohio with the arrest on Friday of a
former Detroit police officer. He is accused of being the architect of the
business and the supplier.
As if unraveling a sweater,
investigators tugged at each lead they came across after that tip, trying to
trace the criminal enterprise. They had so far arrested nearly a dozen suspects
— including a former Chauncey, Ohio, police chief — but there had been nothing
quite like what happened on Friday.
That’s when, on the order of
Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn and armed with a 12-count indictment
that includes racketeering, drug-possession and aggravated drug-trafficking
charges, authorities arrested Brandon Jorge Allen at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport.
Blackburn, speaking by phone
yesterday from Detroit, where he was overseeing the issuance of a search
warrant, said that Allen, 29, was trying to leave the country. The U.S.
Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of
Homeland Security helped to stop him.
Federal authorities said
yesterday they aren’t sure when Allen will be brought back to Ohio to answer to
the charges.
How did an ex-cop from Michigan
— one who in 2008 pleaded guilty to extortion charges stemming from an attempt
to force a store clerk to pay to avoid arrest — end up in Athens?
“Mr. Allen said Athens County
was a gold mine,” Blackburn said.
“For years, he’s been the
source of a drug that is ruining the lives of our citizens.”
The indictment says the drug
ring dealt almost exclusively in the high-powered painkiller oxycodone, which
generally sells for about $1 a milligram on the streets.
Svea Maxwell is prevention
coordinator with the
317 Board, which oversees
addiction and mental-health services in Athens, Hocking and Vinton counties.
She said these recent
high-profile drug arrests are making a difference: “The community is happy to
see the action.”
Many agencies are working
together to make a dent in the drug business, and that’s great, she said, but
she hopes an equal focus is put on treatment in the aftermath of the criminal
cases.
“We hope this opens roads and
pathways to get people help,” she said. “The crime comes from people trying to
feed their own addiction.”
Blackburn said that’s not the
case with Allen. He’s a businessman, not an addict, the prosecutor said.
Records show that when Allen
was convicted on a federal charge of “extortion under color of official right”
in August 2008, he was sentenced to one day in prison and given credit for time
served. The Athens indictment alleges that he started trafficking drugs in
Athens County in early 2009.
Blackburn said this is the
largest narcotics investigation ever undertaken locally. He said the entire
operation centered on the village of Glouster but affected the nearby villages
of Murray City, Nelsonville, The Plains and Chauncey, as well as communities in
Meigs County.
He said locals would meet Allen
or his runners in the parking lots of businesses on I-75 in Perrysburg in
northern Ohio and carry the drugs back to Appalachia. Allen also sometimes
traveled to Athens County himself.
After several Athens County
residents were arrested in recent months, the road led to Detroit and Allen,
who owns a business there called Star Status Music Group.
The cooperation of the others
was critical to Allen’s arrest, Blackburn said.
“I think some people saw this
train wasn’t stopping, and they decided to get first-class seats while some
were still available,” he said.
Assistant Prosecutor John
Haseley said the resources mustered locally for the investigation were
unprecedented. Blackburn said that when time is factored in, it’s probably a
$100,000 investigation so far, and it isn’t done.
It has taken detectives and
prosecutors to West Virginia and South Carolina. Recorded jail calls and
social-media accounts have played a key role in deciphering who is involved,
Blackburn said.
The indictment shows that
authorities are moving to take Allen’s business and personal property in
Detroit and a 2004 Buick LeSabre through forfeiture. They also seized a 2014
Mercedes-Benz worth more than $100,000.
The images that emerged of
Jah-miel Cuffee's arrest shows him pinned on the pavement by other officers
By Matthew Chayes
NEW YORK — The family of a man
who died after a violent encounter with the NYPD on Staten Island, joined by
another man shown on an amateur cellphone video getting stomped on the head
during an arrest in Brooklyn, appeared at a rally Saturday led by the Rev. Al
Sharpton demanding action against police brutality.
The images that emerged of Jah-miel
Cuffee's arrest shows him pinned on the pavement by other officers when the
accused officer approaches and lowers his foot on Cuffee's head. He was
suspected of smoking a marijuana cigarette, police said.
A week earlier, Sharpton
preached from the same pulpit at his Harlem headquarters over the July 17 death
of Eric Garner, 43, an accused peddler of untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island
on whom cops applied a banned chokehold. That incident also was caught on
amateur video.
Sharpton said he watched the video
of Cuffee's Wednesday arrest after returning Friday from a meeting with federal
prosecutors to ask that they, instead of the local district attorney, consider
prosecuting the chokehold officer.
"It was almost like, 'Here
we go again,' " Sharpton said.
Sharpton suggested he wants to
see Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration roll back the so-called
"broken-windows theory" of policing — championed by Police
Commissioner William Bratton — in which officers focus on small offenses to
deter bigger crimes.
"The challenge for this
mayor is that you ran on transforming the Police Department," Sharpton
said. "You have the opportunity now to show you said what you meant and
you meant what you said."
Esaw Garner, the dead man's
widow, said she wanted the officers involved in his arrest to be arrested.
"He was a quiet man, but he's making a lot of noise now," she said.
Cuffee, 32, who has been
charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and evidence tampering, had a
bruise on his forehead that he says was sustained in the stomp.
"I just want it all to
stop. I just want justice," he said.
Cuffee's sister, Rashida Rahim,
said her brother was defenseless. "This has to stop," said Rahim, 39,
of Englewood, New Jersey. "We need to have justice."
Both officers — Joel Edouard in
the Cuffee case and Daniel Pantaleo in the Garner case -- have been stripped of
their badges and guns and put on desk duty, the NYPD said.
The officers' union president
said videos "present an isolated period of a police interaction but never
the entire scenario."
Also attending Sharpton's rally
Saturday was Nicole Bell, whose fiance, Sean Bell, was unarmed when he was shot
dead by undercover police officers who fired 50 shots outside of a Jamaica,
Queens, strip club in 2006. Bell said she felt a kinship with the Garners —
"like looking in a mirror."
Sharpton said he and the Garner
family are scheduled to meet Monday with Staten Island District Attorney Daniel
Donovan Jr. With Robert Brodsky
SALEM — Less than two days
after an MBTA sergeant allegedly struck several cars and a bank after
assaulting a woman in Salem, he was arrested Monday on additional charges in
Methuen.
David Jaime, 29, of Methuen,
was apprehended by police yesterday after a brief pursuit on Berkeley Street in
Methuen about 7 a.m., according to Lt. Greg Gallant.
He was charged with violating a
restraining order and failure to stop for a police officer, Gallant said.
Methuen police received a call
that Jaime ignored a restraining order put in place after he allegedly
assaulted a woman Saturday, Gallant said.
Police pursued Jaime in his
vehicle for about three blocks before he finally pulled over, Gallant said.
Jaime was then taken to Lawrence District Court to be arraigned, he said.
The arrest in Methuen followed
Jaime’s arrest in Salem on multiple charges Saturday night, Salem police Lt.
Robert Morin said.
He was free on $1,500 personal
recognizance when he was charged with violating the restraining order, police
said.
Jaime, an MBTA officer since
his graduation from the police academy in 2008, was placed on paid
administrative leave, MBTA spokeswoman Kelly Smith said. He earned $89,479 last
year, she said.
“We were notified of his arrest
and he is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation,”
Smith said.
Salem police responded to 16
Meadow Lane at approximately 11 p.m. Saturday after receiving a call about an
unwanted man at a party, Morin said.
The caller told police the man
was drunk and threatening to hit people at the party. Police also received
multiple calls from people who said the man, later identified as Jaime, may
have passed out in the street, according to a police report.
When Salem officers arrived at
the home, they learned Jaime had left in a black sport utility vehicle and
struck several parked cars. Witnesses also said he assaulted a woman at the
party.
Photos of a pregnant woman in a
chokehold by a New York police officer is getting a lot of attention.
Seven-months pregnant Rosan Miller and her family were accused Saturday of
illegally grilling on the sidewalk. Someone used a cell phone to snap the
pictures. The footage shows a NYPD officer with his arm round the 27-year-old
woman’s throat while he arrested her.
The New York Post reports that
cops arrived at Miller’s house on Bradford Street in East New York at about
7:30 pm when they saw her husband, Moses, grilling on a public sidewalk and
asked him to move everything to their backyard. Mr. Miller didn’t provide his
ID as requested by police and walked off. As police were in the process of
arresting Mr. Miller, Rosan’s brother, John Miller, got involved by slapping
police in an effort to stop the arrest.
Rosan Miller found herself
getting arrested as well, but resisted against officers as they tried putting
cuffs on her. The pregnant woman was placed in a chokehold position as police
subdued her physical protest. The video shows the whole situation unfold with
the couple’s 7-year-old son watching
Barron claims at least one of the officers
called Miller’s husband the N-word.
Cops are prohibited from using
chokeholds on suspects. According to police the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is
reviewing the incident. Police officers are restricted from using chokeholds on
suspects.
Miller wasn’t injured in the
ordeal and she received a summons for disorderly conduct. Her brother-in-law,
John Miller, is charged with obstruction of justice and harassment. Moses
Miller is charged with resisting arrest.
Huffington Post adds that NY
police officers have been prevented from using chokeholds for 20 years. Reuters
is cited in their report as revealing the department currently has a “backlog”
of complaints about this very thing being done by police. This news about the
pregnant woman being in a chokehold comes just after a Staten Island man died
after NY police subdued him the same way. The NY cop who used the move on
Garner could face murder charges for the incident.
Garner was arrested and charged
for the illegal sale of cigarettes. After Garner’s death, activist Rev. Al
Sharpton is calling for a nationwide ban on chokeholds. The latest incident
involving a pregnant woman, will make that message louder. Sharpton says:
“We cannot just depend — and
this is important — on police policy to stop the choke hold. We need a federal
precedent.”
An Indianapolis Metropolitan
Police Department officer was arrested today on drunken driving charges for the
second time in nearly a year.
Officer Kevin Edward Brown, a
16-year veteran of the department, is accused of driving his marked police
vehicle while under the influence of alcohol in Morgan County, said IMPD
spokesman Sgt. Kendale Adams. Brown, 42, was off-duty at the time of his
arrest, according to a release from IMPD.
Last August, Brown also was
arrested in Morgan County on suspected drunken driving. Police pulled over a
gray Chevrolet Tahoe that Brown was driving after he failed to signal a turn,
according to a release from the Mooresville Police Department at the time.
Brown was suspended from IMPD
at that time pending an internal investigation. Adams said at the time of his
arrest today, Brown had fulfilled the terms of that suspension and was back on
the police force.
Brown was booked into the
Morgan County Jail and will remain there without bond until his initial
hearing, according to jail officials. It was unclear this afternoon when that
hearing was scheduled.
Additional details were not
available this afternoon. Brown was suspended without pay pending an internal
investigation.
Weirton, W.Va. – A single
vehicle accident around 5 a.m. on Saturday at the intersection of Weir Avenue
and Cove Road involved a Weirton police cruiser. Officials say the cruiser is
just about totaled.
During the crash investigation,
officials found out that the officer behind the wheel was driving on a
suspended license.
That officer is Patrolman
Robert J. Ryan.
Ryan was cited for driving
suspended through Weirton Municipal Court.
A New Orleans police officer
was placed on emergency suspension without pay and booked with two felony
charges of domestic violence after police said she tried to run down a man with
her car early Sunday morning in the Esplanade Ridge neighborhood of the Seventh
Ward.
Stephanie Caldwell, a 10-year
veteran NOPD officer assigned to the department's Special Operations Division
tactical unit, was booked with one count each of domestic abuse aggravated
assault and domestic abuse battery.
Police said Caldwell, 33,
argued with a 47-year-old man around 3:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of
North Broad Street, and attempted to strike the man with her car, a silver 2000
Jaguar.
Police said the man fled on
foot westbound down Broad Street as Caldwell pursued in her car, driving
against traffic on North Broad and Onzaga streets before hitting a parked car.
Investigators said Caldwell continued her pursuit onto Rousselin Drive until
she lost control turning the wrong direction onto Lapeyrouse Street. It was at
that intersection that she drove head-on into a wooden power pole, cracking it
nearly in half and disabling her car, police and witnesses said.
Police said that after Caldwell
underwent alcohol and drug testing and received medical clearance, she was
arrested and booked by the NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau.
The man was not injured and
refused medical treatment, police said. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune does not
identify victims in domestic violence cases.
"I heard a loud crash, and
when I looked out my window, the police were out there already," said Carl
Mutin, a nearby resident of Lapeyrouse Street. "As soon as I heard the
boom, it seemed like there were flashing lights at the corner right away."
The NOPD did not say whether
officers already were in pursuit of Caldwell when the crash occurred. One
witness who did not wish to be named provided a photo of the crash scene
showing the Jaguar's driver's side air bag had deployed on impact.
"Almost immediately, it
seemed like there were at least half a dozen cops there," the witness
said.
Another neighbor, Penny Irving,
said she noticed two NOPD officers standing watch over the wrecked car until
the vehicle was towed away Sunday afternoon. The damaged utility pole already
had been replaced by midday on Monday.
A press release issued by the
NOPD said Caldwell also was booked with reckless operation of a vehicle,
hit-and-run, and driving against traffic. However, those additional charges did
not appear on her court record Monday morning.
Caldwell's bond was set Monday
at $2,000. As part of her bond obligation, she had to sign a protective order
ensuring that she has no contact with the man involved in the incident. The
next hearing in her case is scheduled for Sept. 24 before Criminal District
Court Judge Julian Parker.
Caldwell is the third NOPD
officer booked in the past 2 1/2 weeks in connection with violence against
someone in a personal relationship.
Detective Robert Hurst was
booked July 11 with simple battery -- after initially being charged with
attempted murder -- in connection with an argument last December with a woman
he did not co-habitate with. That relationship did not meet the state's
requirements for a domestic violence charge, Orleans Parish District Attorney
Leon Cannizzaro said.
Hurst pleaded not guilty and is
free after posting a $5,000 bond. He is scheduled for an Aug. 27 judge trial
before Criminal District Court Judge Keva Landrum-Johnson.
A second SWAT team member, NOPD
Officer Christopher Carter, was suspended July 14 in connection with a domestic
violence complaint lodged in January. Carter was charged with domestic abuse
battery and domestic abuse battery involving strangulation in a bill of
information filed by the DA's office.
Carter pleaded not guilty and
is free after posting a $32,500 bond, court records show. His next hearing is
set for Aug. 28 before Landrum-Johnson.
Both Hurst and Carter were
placed on emergency suspension without pay by the NOPD.
Police sources say the
allegations involve the officer's actions at a Walmart in Hartford a whether he
stole merchandise while working a private-duty job there.
Tuesday, Jul 29, 2014 • Updated
at 6:20 PM EDT
Hartford police are
investigating one of their own, who’s been forced to turn in his gun and badge
and stay away from police headquarters.
The allegations involve Officer
Luis Feliciano’s actions at the Walmart on Flatbush Avenue in Hartford. Police
are investigating claims that he stole merchandise while working on a
private-duty security job, according to police sources.
One source told NBC Connecticut
some of the questionable conduct was caught on tape.
Police sources said Feliciano
has been suspended as a criminal investigation gets underway. Police have not
made an arrest in the case.
“Yesterday we suspended an
officer with pay as a part of an administrative protocol and there is an
ongoing criminal investigation right now,” said Deputy Chief Brian Foley of the
Hartford Police Department.
Police union president Sgt.
Richard Holton declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Walmart also declined to
comment.
This incident comes about a
year and a half after Hartford police confirm Feliciano’s department-issued gun
was stolen in Springfield, Massachusetts. Hartford police released no other
details about that incident.
A judge revoked officer Ryan
Robinson's bond related to DUI charges for receiving additional charges while
out on bail. NBC 6's Claudia DoCampo reports from the Miami-Dade Courthouse.
A Miami-Dade Police Officer
charged with DUI is back in custody for driving with a suspended license and
leaving the scene of an accident while out on bond.
A judge revoked 41-year-old
Ryan Robinson's bond at a Tuesday hearing. Robinson was charged with DUI in
April after
Then four weeks ago, officials
said he was caught driving with a suspended license. Authorities said Robinson
hit car that had a person inside it in a Palmetto Bay parking lot, then drove
away, but he hit another parked car that was empty. The person in the first car
called police and he was charged with driving with a suspended license and
leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.
Famous Mug Shots: Destiny's
Child Singer Arrested
"I do have serious
concerns regarding the safety of the community," Miami-Dade Judge Maria
Ortiz said.
Robinson, a 12-year veteran of
the Miami-Dade Police Department, was arrested in April on charges of DUI, DUI
property damage and DUI causing serious bodily injury in the incident that
happened at the Publix parking lot at 20425 Old Cutler Road.
Weird News Photos: 232
"Teeth"
The off-duty officer was
driving his 1997 GMC truck and was first involved in a traffic crash causing
property damage, police said. As he tried to leave the scene, he struck the
grocery cart with the two children inside, police said.
The impact caused the cart to
fall on its side and Geah Garcia, 3, and Meah Garcia, 6, to fall into the
roadway. The girls were treated at a nearby hospital for non-life-threatening
injuries.
Seven years ago, Robinson and
another officer faced a lawsuit and civil federal trial after the two allegedly
fired their weapons 27 times and killed two people. Robinson and the other
officer were cleared of all charges.
Following the latest
traffic-related charges, Robinson has been placed on house arrest and given a
SCRAM bracelet to monitor his alcohol intake. He has been placed on paid
administrative leave pending his trial, which begins Sept. 8th.
BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore
police officer has been charged with hitting a 14-year-old boy while he was in
custody after allegedly leading law enforcers on a car chase.
The State's Attorney's Office
said Tuesday that Officer Serge Antonin had been charged in a criminal
information with assault and misconduct.
Prosecutors say Antonin, a
14-year veteran of the department, hit the teenager after he was pulled out of
a car on July 29, 2013. Authorities say the teenager had stolen a car and led
police on a chase.
A veteran Troy cop was arrested
Wednesday for allegedly tipping off a suspect in a drug ring that investigators
were about to raid his home.
Officer Brian Gross has been
charged with felony evidence tampering and other charges. Before a courtroom
full of Troy police, Gross pleaded not guilty in Troy City Court. Some of the
Gross’ colleagues that were in court were reportedly upset they did not receive
any warning of Gross’ pending arrest. The case is being handled by Attorney
General Eric Schneiderman’s office.
Gross was assigned to assist
with the State Police’s narcotics unit.
Gross’ arrest stems from a State Police investigation of a Rensselaer
County drug ring that began last year.
From the story on our main
page:
One of the suspects whose
residence was raided allegedly told State Police investigators that he’d been
tipped off that a search warrant would be executed. The person who told the
suspect allegedly admitted receiving this information from Gross, who arranged
in-person meetings using text messages, according to the complaint.
The Attorney General’s office
said that the person who tipped off the suspect, after learning of the raid
from Gross, had been told by the officer to “watch [his] back” because he had
come to the attention of the State Police, according to the Attorney General’s
office.
A week before the raids, Gross
again warned the person not to have drugs inside the residence because “there
was a good chance the police would be getting a warrant,” according to the
complaint.
The mayor of Houston, Texas,
apologized last week to a woman whose beloved family dog died when a police
officer forced her husband to leave it on the side of the road after a traffic
stop. The helpless little 14-year-old chihuahua was already mostly blind from
cataracts and didn’t stand a chance when the officer arrested Josie Garcia’s
husband — on a charge that was quickly dropped anyway — and refused to let him
call anyone to pick up the dog.
Josie Garcia appeared at a
Houston City Council meeting on July 22 to tell her story.
On July 14, she said her
husband gave a friend a ride home from a family gathering when a Houston police
officer pulled his truck over, saying that he made a turn without using his
turn signal.
The cop then searched the car
and found, according to court records, that the friend was in possession of the
drug PCP. The officer then took the two men into custody. But Garcia said her
husband pleaded with the officer to let someone come and pick up Guero, the
lovable chihuahua who enjoyed riding in the truck and was along for the trip.
But the Houston officer
refused, telling the man to leave the dog by the side of the road, but
according to Garcia, the arresting cop said it wasn’t his problem, that the dog
would be fine.”
What makes the story even more
unbelievable is that the arrest happened close by to Houston’s Bureau of Animal
Regulation and Care. But in addition to refusing to allow the man to call
someone to get Guero, the officer didn’t even bother to call animal control to
collect the dog.
Charges against Garcia’s
husband were dropped and they put up “lost dog” posters, hoping someone had
picked Gero up and they would see the dog again. Instead, they got a call from
a Good Samaritan who said he saw Guero wandering up a freeway ramp near where
the officer forced him to be abandoned.
The Good Samaritan said he tried
to get the dog, but traffic was too heavy. Before he could reach Guero, the dog
was struck and killed.
“Let me give you a public
apology right now on behalf of the city of Houston,” Mayor Annise Parker said
at the council meeting. “I don’t know what airhead — there’s another word in my
mind but I’m not going to say it — would throw, you wouldn’t put a kid on the
side of the road. You shouldn’t put someone’s pet on the side of the road.”
The report is one of many
recently involving family dogs killed by police officers, seemingly for no
reason.
The Houston Police Department
says an investigation into what happened and why Guero was dumped on the road
could take an astounding six months.
ST. CHARLES • A reserve officer
with the Pine Lawn Police Department has been charged with raping his former
girlfriend at an apartment in St. Charles in May.
Rico L. Frazier, 23, of the 5900
block of San Simeon Drive in south St. Louis County, was charged Thursday with
burglary, rape, felonious restraint and two counts of sodomy.
The woman, 22, a student at
Lindenwood University, reported the attack just before 4 a.m. on May 1. It
happened about two miles from campus at the Time Centre Apartments, 901 Time
Centre Drive. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Frazier had been a volunteer
reserve police officer with the Pine Lawn Police Department for three months at
the time of the assault. He graduated from the Eastern Missouri Police Academy
in November 2013.
Pine Lawn Police Lt. Steven
Blakeny said Frazier was with the department as a reserve until the end of June
when he told officers he was taking a paying job with another department. It
could not be determined Thursday whether another department hired him. Blakeny
said Frazier did not volunteer with the department after the attack.
“This kid on paper appeared to
be stellar,” he said. “He was one of the standout students at the academy.”
Frazier and the woman dated
until October 2013, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said and remained
friends afterward. The two had spoken as recently as the day before the
assault, and the conversation had been cordial, he said.
Police gave this account of the
attack:
Frazier smashed in the sliding
glass door of the woman’s apartment about 3 a.m., while she was sleeping.
Frazier then sprayed her in the face with law enforcement-grade pepper spray,
temporarily blinding her.
He tackled the woman and
repeatedly beat her face into the floor as he pulled her hair. The woman fought
back and was able to rip a necklace off Frazier, but he overpowered her and
raped her.
Frazier then forced her to go
downstairs where he sexually assaulted her a second time on a futon in the
living room. While Frazier was going through her dresser drawers, the woman
called 911. When Frazier heard her on the phone, he fled the scene.
Photographs of Frazier were
located on social media that showed him wearing the necklace left behind at the
apartment. The pepper spray, which also was left behind, matched the make and
model of the spray Frazier was issued as a reserve officer, police said.
DNA evidence from the victim,
pepper spray can, necklace and bedding matched Frazier’s DNA, according to
court documents.
Lohmar said although police
suspected Frazier early on in the investigation, the victim initially didn’t
think the attacker was Frazier because for much of the 45-minute attack, she
couldn’t see clearly because of the pepper spray. In addition, Frazier
apparently disguised his voice, Lohmar said.
Though police were able to
gather significant DNA evidence, they did not have Frazier’s DNA for comparison
until just recently, Lohmar said.
Frazier’s bail is set at
$200,000 cash only.
Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch
contributed information to this report.
