smack'n the old wife around, a national police past time

 Louisville police officer charged in wife’s battery
Louisville Metro Police officer Jonathan Osborne was arrested Monday morning in Clark County and is preliminary charged with aggravated battery, domestic battery, battery, resisting law enforcement, criminal restlessness and public intoxication.
by Gary Popp
JEFFERSONVILLE — A Louisville police officer believed to have brutally attacked his wife late Sunday night, causing their vehicle to crash along a Sellersburg roadway, has been charged in Clark County.
Jonathan A. Osborne, 34, Louisville, appeared in Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 on Thursday morning. He has been charged by the Office of the Clark County Prosecutor with level 5 felony battery; level 6 felony attempted battery by bodily fluid or waste on a public safety official; and class A misdemeanors of resisting law enforcement and criminal mischief.
The Louisville Metro Police Department officer was represented at the hearing by Bart Betteau. A not guilty plea was entered during the proceeding presided over by Judge Drew Adams. Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Harmeyer represented the state at the hearing.
A spokesman with LMPD said Thursday that Osborne is suspended from the department without pay until the disposition of the criminal case.
After the hearing, Betteau said that Osborne acted like a “completely different person” during the assault than he has been his entire life.
“He is extremely sorry with what happened,” Betteau said. “There has never been any allegation any where, any time, any place that he has been physically abusive to any person.”
He said Osborne has been proud to serve as a police officer and hopes to have the opportunity to continue working with at LMPD.
Betteau said the allegations against his client do not support a “clear-cut case” of culpability.
“We have something that we could certainly present to a jury which would, in fact, make him not guilty of these offenses, if we choose to do that,” he said.


Cleveland police officer is under arrest for several charges including kidnapping, domestic violence, and intimidation.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland police officer is under arrest for several charges, including kidnapping, domestic violence, and intimidation. Officer David Anderson, 51, turned himself in on Saturday. Anderson has been suspended since December, after his arrest for felony stalking and domestic violence. He remains suspended without pay pending a criminal case against him. He has been a Cleveland police officer since October 2007.

Bond set for LMPD officer accused of punching his wife while she was driving
Jonathan Osborne, 34, is charged with aggravated battery (level 3), battery, criminal recklessness, domestic battery with prior unrelated co., public intoxication and resisting law enforcement.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – A Louisville Metro Police Department officer was arrested in Clark County, Ind. Sunday, Feb. 1.
Jonathan Osborne, 34, of Louisville, is charged with aggravated battery (level 3), battery, criminal recklessness, domestic battery, public intoxication and resisting law enforcement.
Osborne appeared in court Monday around 1:30 p.m. The prosecutor requested a 72-hour continuance in order to review paperwork.
The Clark County Prosecutor said Osborne punched his wife while she was driving, causing a crash; Osborne then hit and kicked his wife in the face.
Osborne's bond is set at $30,000.
LMPD issued the following statement: "We are aware of the charges our officer is alleged to have committed in Indiana. Officer Osborne is afforded due process and we will await the results of his case in court. In the meantime, the Chief has initiated a Professional Standards investigation into this matter and, therefore, in accordance with KRS 15.520 we are prohibited from speaking further on this particular case."
Jonathan Osborne was accused of beating his wife after a Super Bowl party
Police shortly release a statement on Feb. 4 to give more insight on Officer Osborne's suspension:
"After reviewing the video of Officer Osborne's actions, which also led to his arrest in Clark County, Indiana, the Chief has determined to exercise his authority under KRS 15.520 and suspend Officer Osborne without pay pending the disposition of the charges."
Osborne will be back in court on Feb. 5 at 10 a.m.

Suspended Cleveland police officer jailed after domestic incident Saturday; judge revokes bond
By James F. McCarty, The Plain Dealer 
CLEVELAND, Ohio - City police officer David Anderson, who already was facing domestic violence charges, was arrested Saturday in connection with an incident at a North Olmsted restaurant.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury returned an indictment earlier Monday charging the officer with aggravated menacing, menacing by stalking, abduction and other charges involving his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend.
During a hearing Monday in Common Pleas Court, Judge Michael Jackson ordered Anderson's original $25,000 bond revoked based on the new charges and evidence from prosecutors that the officer had repeatedly violated a no-contact order with the victim.
Jackson ordered Anderson held in the County Jail without bond, and set bond on the new case at $200,000. Anderson pleaded not guilty to the new charges.
After the hearing, Assistant County Prosecutor Christopher Schroeder said Anderson and his girlfriend caused a scene during a loud dispute at a Chili's restaurant where they had gone to eat dinner Saturday. Anderson followed his girlfriend into the women's lavatory and forcibly led her out of the restaurant while gripping her arm, Schroeder said.
Restaurant employees were concerned for the woman's safety, and called police, Schroeder said. Anderson later surrendered to police and was arrested.
In court documents filed with Jackson last week, Schroeder said he had obtained evidence that Anderson had committed 240 violations of a no-contact order with the victim since his arrest Dec. 15 on domestic violence charges. Schroeder said he suspected Anderson of witness-tampering, and of threatening the victim, and asked the judge to revoke the officer's bond.
On Dec. 23, a grand jury indicted Anderson on charges of menacing by stalking, aggravated menacing and domestic violence. Anderson pleaded not guilty to the charges on Jan. 8, at which time Judge Dan Gaul delivered the no-contact order.
Anderson, however, immediately began calling the victim - essentially every day, several times a day - Schroeder said in the motion. The calls lasted for a total of more than 35 hours, he said.
Defense attorney Henry Hilow said Anderson's girlfriend supports the officer.
"She has made it clear from the beginning that she wasn't a victim, and she maintains that to this date," Hilow said.

According to the original charges, Anderson attacked his girlfriend three times on consecutive days, beginning Dec. 13, when he shoved her to the ground, causing her head to strike the pavement and knocking her unconscious. In the ensuring days, Anderson shoved her to the ground outside their home on South Hills Avenue in Cleveland. And on the following day, he kicked in her bedroom door, chased her down the stairs and shoved her to the landing, where her head was bloodied, prosecutors contend in court documents.

Former Chicago-area police officer charged with trying to hire hitman
By Robyn Turner
CHICAGO (WKOW) -- Drew Peterson, the former Bolingbrook, Illinois police officer convicted of killing his third wife, has now been charged with trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars. 
Monday, state and local prosecutors stated Peterson is charged with solicitation of murder for hire and for murder after allegedly trying to hire someone to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow while Peterson is imprisoned.
Peterson, 61, is serving 38-years behind bars after his 2012 conviction in the 2004 drowning death of Kathleen Savio.
The investigation into Savio's death was reopened after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared in 2007.  Authorities have stated they believe Stacy is dead and that Drew is a suspect, however, he hasn't been charged in that case.

Philly Cops Charged in Brutality Incident After Victim’s Girlfriend Did Some Investigating of Her Own to Get Authorities Started
A year and a half after the incident, the two cops were charged and suspended with intent to dismiss.
Ed Krayewski|
Two Philadelphia police officers, Sean McKnight and Kevin Robinson, were arrested last week on charges of assault, criminal conspiracy, reckless endangerment, tampering with public records, making false reports, obstructing the administration of law, and official oppression. The charges stem from a May 2013 incident in which pulled over resident Najee Rivera while he was riding a motorized scooter. Rivera allegedly fled, and cops are accused of pursuing him without using their sirens or lights and then violently beating him after catching him.
The Philadelphia police accepted the cops’ version of events, which accused Rivera of assaulting them and resisting arrest, and that would’ve been that but for his sleuthing girlfriend.
Philly.com reports:
"As soon as I picked him up, we went right over there," [Rivera's girlfriend Dina] Scannapieco said. He was in a hospital gown covered in blood.
Eventually the couple made it to the 2700 block of North Sixth Street, where he had been arrested the night before - and where two officers were saying Rivera had thrown one of them into a brick wall.
The two, she said, saw where he was arrested.
"You seen all his blood all over the pavement," she said…
After seeing the blood, Scannapieco began asking questions.
She eventually found surveillance video, at a barber shop-auto detailing business on the block, that would exonerate Rivera and lead to the arrest of the officers who prosecutors say beat him without provocation and then falsely arrested him.
By August 2013, charges against Rivera were dropped and the cops began to be investigated. A year and a half later, after a grand jury found the bulk of their statements false and they face formal charges, the police department has suspended McKnight and Robinson with “intent to dismiss.”  Police say they could not have started an investigation against themselves immediately at the time absent an official complaint. That hurdle has now been removed, and the Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey says in hindsight police should have canvassed the area after Rivera’s arrest.
At least one of the officers, Robinson, has been previously accused of police brutality while making a false arrest. He was sued in 2012 and the city settled for $125,000. He remained on the force.