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".
on sale now at amazon
"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
Hollywood Fla. Police officer was arrested by his own agency after he crashed into another car while under the influence of alcohol, officials said.
DiIvory Edgecomb, 27, was charged with DUI and damage property after the Sept. 30th crash, an arrest report said.
Officers first received the call at 1:37 a.m. after a woman named Shantrice Shipman said a car traveling southbound in the northbound lane of North 22nd Avenue at Pershing Street had crashed into the passenger side of her car, the report said. She told police he did not stop after the crash and continued to drive southbound.
An officer patrolling the area located Edgecomb on North 22nd Avenue and Simms Street where he was pulled over in a well-lit business area with fresh damage to his car, including a flat front tire, police said.
The report described Edgecomb's "eyes to be bloodshot and watery and the arrestee had the slight odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath."
After being placed in custody, officials said Edgecomb refused to take sobriety and submit a breath sample for alcohol testing.
ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis police officer who was arrested in July 2012 for burglarizing a home while he was drunk and off-duty has pleaded guilty to a trespass charge.Andrew Perez, 30, pleaded guilty this week to the misdemeanor. He was given a suspended imposition of sentence and ordered to be on probation for two years. Perez was originally charged with burglary, a felony. But his defense team negotiated a deal with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s office for the lesser charge.
On July 15, 2012, a Sunday, a resident of the Clifton Heights neighborhood awoke about 3:30 a.m. to find a stranger in the house, emptying a purse. The victim told police that he, his girlfriend and his three children were sleeping at home in the 6200 block of Bowman Avenue when he heard a noise, found the man and forced him to leave. Police arrested a drunk and disoriented Perez down the street and later learned that he was an off-duty police officer. He was suspended from the force without pay and charged the next day with burglary.
A Baltimore police officer has been sentenced to eight years in prison on drug and weapons charges.
Thirty-six-year-old Kendell Richburg had pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm to further drug trafficking. He was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Baltimore.
Prosecutors say Richburg told a drug dealer when it was safe to sell drugs, and in return, the dealer gave information about his customers so Richburg could arrest them.
BERTHOUD - A Berthoud police officer was arrested Wednesday on four charges of child abuse and one of false imprisonment, according to Loveland Police Department.
Jeremy Yachik, 35, is free on a $1,500 cash bond after Loveland police came to his home with a warrant.
A big part of the investigation focuses on a video recorded by Yachik's ex-fiance, Ashley St. Roberts, 26. According to an arrest affidavit, the video shows officer Yachik abusing his 15-year-old daughter because she ate carrots from the refrigerator.
Yachik is accused of choking, force feeding, binding her hands with zip ties, locking her in rooms, handcuffing her and restricting her from eating. He's also accused of forcing his daughter to eat ghost peppers for lying and confining her in a dark laundry room.
According to the affidavit, Officer Yachik admits to hitting his daughter and restricting her from eating food. He's not the only officer in Berthoud who is being investigated. The town's top cop, Police Chief Glenn Johnson, is on paid administrative leave right now while Loveland Police conduct a criminal investigation on him. St. Roberts has accused Chief Johnson of covering up the video, the affidavit says.
No charges had been filed against Johnson by Wednesday, according to Larimer County District Attorney's Office. Loveland police have declined comment on the case.
Yachik if convicted could face up to 18 months in jail on each child abuse count and up to a year in jail on the false imprisonment count. He has no previous criminal counts but has had multiple financial lawsuits filed against him by creditors since about 2009, according to Colorado court records.
Yachik's arrest comes during what appears to be a contentious domestic dispute between Yachik and Saint-Roberts. Yachik and a 7-year-old with the same last name filed for a temporary restraining order against Saint-Roberts on March 25. But the hearing was apparently canceled the same day it was filed, according to Colorado court records.
Also March 25, Saint-Roberts was charged wihth domestic violence including third-degree assault and obstructing telephone service. She's pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec. 16. In June, Saint-Roberts was charged with violating a protection order and in that case is scheduled for a Dec. 18 trial. Both criminal cases involving her were investigated by Loveland police.
A child-custody case between Yachik and Saint-Roberts remains open and is scheduled for a telephone conference Nov. 4, state court records indicate.
WAYNE COUNTY—A Wayne County Sheriff’s officer was arrested Monday afternoon for filing a false document.
The Sheriff’s Office says Brandon Martin, 31, of Newark, falsified his time cards and was paid a benefit that he did not earn. Martin was charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the second degree and petit larceny.
He resigned and will appear in Lyons Town Court at a later date. 10-23-13
A college student claiming he was wrongly arrested last year during a sting operation targeting gay men in a beach bathroom has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the city of Manhattan Beach and police officers for discrimination, false arrest and violation of civil rights.In the lawsuit, filed in federal court last week, Charles Samuel Couch said he was taking care of a disabled boy last year when he was swept up in a police sex sting and lumped together in media reports with men charged with lewd conduct.
Couch, 22, of Hawthorne, has asked for $5 million for the “great humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish” caused by the incident.
At the time of his arrest last March, Couch was employed by Cambrian Homecare in Long Beach, providing respite care to a 13-year-old boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome, which is characterized by mental retardation and incomplete sexual development.
According to the lawsuit, during a supervised walk in Manhattan Beach, the boy told Couch he needed to use the restroom, so the two headed toward the beach bathroom at Marine Avenue and The Strand. Unbeknownst to Couch, Manhattan Beach police officers were conducting a sting operation targeting gay males who were meeting up in the bathroom, which had been publicized on the Internet as a popular meet-up for sex.
Because of his condition, the boy in Couch’s care frequently spent an abnormally long time using the restroom. While the boy was in the stall farthest from the entrance, Couch sat down on a bench in the changing area of the restroom to wait for him.
Detective John Nasori entered the restroom, according to the lawsuit, and said, “Hello,” before entering the middle stall. A few minutes later, the child bolted from the stall, telling Couch, “There is a man looking at me in the stall.” Horrified, Couch told the boy, “Ignore him. Just keep walking.”
As the two walked out of the bathroom, Couch was confronted by five detectives in plain clothes “resembling thugs.” Presuming that they wanted to kidnap the boy, Couch grabbed the boy to protect him.
He was then tackled, choked and handcuffed, according to the lawsuit, and did not realize the men were actually police officers until he was taken to jail.
What followed was months of irreparable damage to Couch’s reputation and future, his attorney, Bruce Nickerson, said.
During hours of interrogation, Couch gave officers permission to retrieve the boy’s backpack from his car. Once inside the car, however, the police ransacked it without a warrant and took Couch’s backpack containing his laptop, Nickerson said.
Although Couch was given a detention certificate, stating that he was detained, not arrested, and there was insufficient evidence to file a criminal complaint, the lawsuit states, the police kept his laptop for several months, forcing him to withdraw from El Camino College because all of his schoolwork was on the computer. No evidence of child pornography or any other crime was ever found on Couch’s laptop.
A month after his arrest, Couch discovered that his photo had been posted on a local newspaper’s website and published nationwide, with headlines stating he had been arrested in a sex sting operation along with 17 other men.
Even though Couch earned almost straight A’s in high school and at El Camino, Nickerson said, when he applied for top four-year colleges, he hit a snag with the applications.
“They ask, ‘Have you been arrested?’ And he has to state this outrageous arrest,” he said.
His grades easily qualified him for the top schools in the country, but he is now at a lesser-ranked school in Philadelphia, according to Nickerson.
Couch planned to follow in the footsteps of his father — a defense contractor — and apply for internships in the industry.
“This is how kids get ahead in the world. After college, those internships morph into a full-time job,” Nickerson said. “He hasn’t been able to make one application. Once they get wind that he was arrested for lewd conduct and child endangerment, he’s history.”
Nickerson said he’s filed scores of lawsuits related to police sting operations and lewd conduct arrests, but Couch’s case is unique.
“All of my clients were gay men or perceived to be gay who went down to the bathroom to do some sort of cruising,” Nickerson said. “Now here is a case where my client is totally above reproach. … This is the first time a client didn’t do anything at all.”
In fact, Couch is an Eagle Scout, whose Eagle project was developing a respite program for families with children with genetic disorders, Nickerson said.
“Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome need exercise or they get overweight, get diabetes and will die. (Couch’s) program was to get them out of the house, walking and exercising. But they have to be supervised or they get lost,” he said.
Couch’s project turned into a full-time job with Cambrian Homecare, which he later lost because of the incident.
Nickerson is confident in his case.
The parents of the boy in Couch’s care immediately vouched for Couch and explained the details of their son’s syndrome.
In the police report, Nickerson said, the detective insinuated that the boy had been taken to the restroom, knowing about the lewd conduct going on inside.
“The innuendo is that the boy told my client that the cop did not do something sexual through the hole as the little boy was told would happen. That will not pass the smell test. That presumes the boy has a sex drive. The pediatrician has testified that (that’s not the case). Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome have shrunken testicles. There’s no sex drive possible for this little kid,” Nickerson said.
Nickerson said although it was not in the lawsuit, he will present another facet of the incident to the jury.
“When the cops saw my client and the little boy approaching the bathroom, they see a white college kid and a black 13-year-old, and they can think of no reason those two are approaching the bathroom except for sexual purposes,” he said. “They thought he was there to prostitute the kid.”
Eleven months after his detainment, Couch was charged with two counts of resisting arrest related to attempting to protect the boy during the incident, Nickerson said. All criminal charges were dismissed in August.
But the incident left an indelible mark on Couch — a soiled reputation, lost job, compromised future.
“This is a brilliant kid. He was once a happy-go-lucky college kid. Now he’s withdrawn, fearful; he keeps his nose to the grindstone. He doesn’t know who to trust and he’s leery about meeting new people in strange situations because look what happened to him,” Nickerson said. “It’s just appalling.”
Nickerson sent the city a demand letter three weeks before filing the lawsuit, asking them to file a motion with the court for a factual finding of innocence to start “my client’s rehabilitation of his reputation.”
“If the court grants the motion, they destroy all records and order the purging of files all over the place so my client can say truthfully that he was not arrested. (The city has) refused to do this,” he said.
The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages against Nasori for perjury and maliciousness.
The detective authorized the release of Couch’s photo and its posting on the Manhattan Beach police website indicating an arrest for lewd conduct after authorizing a certificate of detention, which states there was not sufficient evidence for an arrest for lewd conduct or child endangerment.
After issuing the certificate, Nasori swore under penalty of perjury that Couch’s laptop had to be searched because “it was used as the means of committing a felony,” the lawsuit read.
City officials directed questions to Eugene Ramirez, the special counsel hired to represent the city in the case.
Because the suit was recently filed, Ramirez said, he still has not talked to anyone involved in the incident, and he must gather relevant reports and begin the discovery process.
“We have to determine if there was any misconduct whatsoever,” he said. “Pending that, there’s no reason to believe anyone did anything inappropriate.”
The city has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit. Since the suit was filed in federal court, all parties will be required to undergo a settlement conference, Ramirez said. If the parties don’t settle, the case could go to a jury trial.
In November 2012, police officers in Commerce City, Colorado, received a call about a large dog roaming free in a subdivision. Unbeknownst to the police or the caller, Chloe, a large, three-year-old mixed breed, was not an intruder. A woman in the neighborhood was dog-sitting for a friend, and Chloe had flown the coup.
Eventually, police and an animal control officer cornered the anxious dog in an open garage. A cell phone video shows them debating what to do as Chloe sat and watched. Eventually, one of the officers tasered Chloe. She fell over, then began to run away. As Chloe attempted to flee, an animal control employee snagged her with a catch pole. That should have been the end of the story, except Commerce City Police Officer Robert Price proceeded to shoot Chloe four times with his service weapon, alarming the animal control worker and killing the dog.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - As the trial of suspended Indianapolis Police Officer David Bisard continues in its second week, Wednesday's testimony is expected to focus on DNA evidence linked to the deadly crash.
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UPDATE: 10:14 a.m.: It was revealed in court that a member of Metro police has been attending the trial and sending daily summaries of testimony to others in the department, including some on the witness list.
"That's about as bad as anything I've heard about the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. But I've heard a lot of bad things about the IMPD," Judge John Surbeck said.
Major Greg Bieberich, who has been sending the notes, was put under oath and told to stop disseminating the information.
"You need to realize that this must stop immediately," Surbeck told Bieberich.
Bieberich responded, "Yes, sir."
Previous Report The prosecution is getting close to resting its case, as the David Bisard trial continues Wednesday morning.
Jurors in the case against the suspended Indianapolis Metro Police officer heard more evidence Tuesday.
Officer John Koers testified that Bisard was assisting him on a call that day. When Bisard asked him if it was an emergency Koers said "no". Koers also testified that he saw no signs that would indicate Bisard was drunk.
Prosecutors say Bisard was driving 76 mph before the crash.
Police say Cody Lee Smith’s second victim was 14 years old
WYOMING — Less than two weeks after a suspended borough police officer faced charges for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl, he was in court again Monday for charges he had sex with another girl.
State police charged Cody Lee Smith with four felony counts, including statutory rape and corruption of minors.
He had been charged Oct. 9 with misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors when state police alleged he had sex at least three times with a 15-year-old and supplied alcohol for minors in June of this year.
According to a state police affidavit:
Smith met his second victim, a 14-year-old girl, in 2012 at the Luzerne County Fair through mutual friends.
He sent messages to her using Facebook and they began to see each other shortly after. Smith was 20 years old at the time. The girl said Smith knew just how old she was.
The girl offered her story to state police Oct. 11, two days after the suspended officer’s arraignment.
Smith told her he was in a gang and flaunted a tattoo on his arm. He told her he worked for Verizon, and the girl said she knew he was 19 or 20 years old.
Because he was so much older, Smith insisted the girl should keep their relationship secret from her friends and her mother, state police said.
During each of their sexual encounters, the victim said, Smith picked her up at home without her mother’s knowledge and they went to his house, where he lived with his mother, state police said.
This happened at least 10 different times, in his Wyoming home and once when he took her to a hotel in the Poconos, state police said. The encounters happened between September of 2012 and February of 2013.
Wyoming Mayor Robert Boyer suspended Smith without pay when Smith was first charged Oct. 9. Smith was sworn in as an part-time officer April 9.
He is free on $30,000 bail posted Monday by a bail bondsman. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30 before District Judge Joseph Carmody.
BERTHOUD, Colo. — A Berthoud Police officer who was suspended after his ex-girlfriend claims she sent a video of him striking a child to law enforcement has been arrested.
In a four page affidavit, the Larimer County District Attorney says the man in the video is Officer Jeremy Yachik and they’ve charged him with four counts of child abuse and one count of false imprisonment.
Jeremy Yachik, 35, was arrested at his home in Loveland Wednesday.
The accuser’s video tape was first seen on FOX31 Denver News earlier this month.
On September 24, Loveland Police received an email outlining child abuse allegations that Yachik had physically abused a juvenile over the last several months.
Loveland Police conducted an investigation and were granted an arrest warrant for Yachik on Tuesday. He was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Loveland Police Department where he posted bond and was later released.
A woman who says the officer is her ex-boyfriend sent the video to law enforcement officials and claims they did nothing. As a result, the police chief in Berthoud was also on leave.
In addition to the alleged criminal acts seen in the video, the affidavit for Yachik’s arrest describes alleged past crimes.
It states, “[the victim] reports having her hands bound to her back with plastic zip ties and being secluded in the laundry room of the home.” It also refers to the victim being “forced to eat ghost pepper sauce,” and “slammed [the victim’s head into the wall].”
The affidavit says police interviewed Jeremy Yachik and they wrote, “Jeremy admits he’s the one depicted in the video and admitted to the acts disclosed by the victim.”
It also details more trouble for the Berthoud police department. The question is whether the chief ignored the video when he received it in April.
The affidavit states, “In Chief Johnson’s office, evidence was collected that corroborated [the victim's] account of attempting to report this incident to [the Chief].”
Court documents in a separate case detailed more information about the accuser and the officer who is suspended. The paperwork is about a domestic violence incident that happened in March.
People in Berthoud who defend the officer say it’s that incident that led to the release of the video tape.
The court documents say Loveland police were called to the couple’s home when the Berthoud officer called to complain that his now ex-girlfriend assaulted him and was upstairs threatening suicide.
One month after the woman was charged with domestic violence, she says she sent the video that allegedly shows the officer hitting and kicking his child to the Berthoud police chief. She now accuses him of a cover up.
When police arrived at the home that day in March, investigating officers noted the man had “…Dried blood and scratches on the right side of his face.”
They also said the couple’s child had “evidence of a yellowish mark… that could have been from an old bruise.”
FOX31 Denver verified the child referred to in the court documents was not the alleged victim in the video sent to Berthoud police.
One resident we spoke to was surprised about the allegations against the officer.
Other court documents FOX31 Denver uncovered show information about an alleged fight the suspended officer had with another Berthoud officer in 2011.
The report says, “[The officer] displays threatening and violent behavior towards officers.”
Once incident is described where “[the officer] came within five inches of another officer’s face. His fists were clenched.” The writer goes on, “In all my years in law enforcement, I have never seen this type of aggressive action from one officer to another.”
The accuser in the current case faces three separate counts of domestic violence for the incident in March. They include assault and obstruction of telephone service.
She is scheduled to go on trial in December.
QUINCY, Washington — A Quincy police officer accused of lying about the reasons for pulling over a driver was suspended for 10 days.
The Wenatchee World reports (http://bit.ly/1bT3Hw5) Chief Greg Meinzer wanted to fire Officer David Andersen over the incident last November but agreed to the suspension.
Andersen denied lying. The Grant County prosecutor said there wasn't enough evidence for a charge of official misconduct.
Information about the suspension was obtained by the Wenatchee newspaper through a public records request.
Andersen said reasons for stopping the car including having the license obscured by a trailer hitch and a passenger not wearing a seat belt. Investigators said the license plate was not obstructed and tinted windows made it difficult to see a passenger
DANE REISTER—the Portland cop facing criminal charges over a 2011 shotgun ammo mix-up that nearly killed a man—has finally been fired from the police bureau, Chief Mike Reese announced last week in a statement both brief and apologetic.
"This has been a long and thorough investigation, which had complexities due to the pending criminal charges," Reese said in prepared remarks. "The events of June 30 devastated the lives of those involved, but we hope that this action will bring some sense of closure."
The police bureau said Reister violated two directives: 315.30, which requires a minimum "sufficient competency" for police work, and 1050.00, which forbids officers from loading live rounds into a less-lethal gun.According to court files, Reister had a similar ammo mix-up during a training exercise several years ago.
The police bureau—unlike in other discipline cases—has declined to release documents that might shed more light on Reese's decision, citing exemptions in public records law for personnel files.
The Mercury and the Oregonian have both appealed the denial. The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, which normally would adjudicate such a dispute, has combined the two newspapers' appeals and is asking its Clackamas County counterparts to handle it, in light of the ongoing criminal case.
In any case, the dismissal was not unexpected.
It came six months after the city agreed to pay $2.3 million—a record amount—in a federal suit filed by the man Reister shot, William Kyle Monroe. Monroe's attorneys, as part of their suit, had demanded Reister's dismissal.
And, the day after the incident, Reese and then-Mayor Sam Adams apologized for the shooting and the lapses that had led to it, calling it a "terrible mistake."
"We don't know how it occurred, but we know it should not happen," Reese said on July 1, 2011. "It is not a part of our training protocol."
Reister, clutching his bright-orange beanbag shotgun, had been confronting an unarmed man in a mental health crisis, 20-year-old Monroe, near a park in Southwest Portland on June 30, 2011.
Monroe, after emptying his pockets, had set off to run away. Reister then fired what he thought were beanbag rounds.
But Reister had mistakenly loaded the gun with live ammunition—after commingling the two types of rounds, marked with different colors, in his duty bag. (The police bureau has since explicitly banned this practice.)
It wasn't until Reister saw all the blood that he realized what he'd done, court files show. Monroe was shot up all through his legs and lower body and might have bled out if he hadn't been so close to a hospital, his attorneys wrote this year. Monroe's injuries are both crippling and permanent.
Reister has since pleaded not guilty to assault charges—an unprecedented indictment by a Multnomah County grand jury. Prosecutors also tried to charge Reister with "negligent wounding," an offense typically associated with hunting, not police work. That charge has been caught up in appellate court.
The dismissal could excuse the city from paying Reister's legal bills in that criminal case, whenever it wraps up. The city's contract with the Portland Police Association (PPA) requires it to pay up when officers, because of their official duties, face criminal charges. But dismissal over the conduct that led to the charges—provided the union doesn't reverse it—offers an escape hatch.
Reister's attorney, Janet Hoffman, hasn't returned messages seeking comment. She did tell the Oregonian, at least, that a grievance was expected. That decision, however, is up to the PPA's executive board. PPA President Daryl Turner declined to comment.
"We're not going to say anything right now," he told the Mercury, citing the ongoing criminal case.
Reister's dismissal marks the second time Reese has fired a cop in a use-of-force case. Reese fired Ron Frashour in 2010 for shooting and killing Aaron Campbell (although an arbitrator later gave Frashour his job back). It's also the first major police discipline under Mayor Charlie Hales.
Said the mayor, in a statement: "This is an appropriate ending to a very sad story."
An attorney representing a woman accidentally shot by Daytona Beach police has asked for the city’s insurance limits, but stopped short of saying whether a lawsuit was forthcoming.t. Their target was a man they say was going to stab Johnson. Her attorney, Trakina L. Graham of Orlando, sent a letter to the city asking for its insurance information
Katrina Tatisha Johnson, 37, was shot in the arm by police in a September domestic violence incident. Their target was a man they say was going to stab Johnson. Her attorney, Trakina L. Graham of Orlando, sent a letter to the city asking for its insurance information.
“At this point we are still investigating this claim,” Graham said Wednesday in a phone interview. “We are trying to gather information. No one is saying that there is a lawsuit that’s going to be filed.”
In response to the letter, Deputy City Attorney Robert Jagger sent a memo to Police Chief Mike Chitwood to preserve records.
“Neither the City nor any of its employees have been sued, but the City has been apprised of claims that make it reasonably probable that litigation may be instituted,” according to the memo from Jagger dated Oct. 8.
Jagger’s “Internal Pre-Litigation Hold Memorandum” said that Chitwood should “err on the side of preservation” regardless of city record retention policies.
“Because no lawsuit has actually been filed, it is difficult at this time to narrow the scope of what categories and types of documents and electronic information must be retained,” Jagger wrote.
Chitwood declined comment.
Johnson was shot once in the arm on Sept. 25, Chitwood said on the day of the incident. Officers were called to the home on the 800 block of Magnolia Avenue where several people screamed that “He’s gonna kill her!” Chitwood said.
A man is suing a Lima police officer who accidentally shot him while shooting at dogs last year.
Ronald Keller filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court seeking more than $25,000 in damages. The lawsuit names Officer Frank Vaccaro as the only defendant.
The lawsuit said Vaccaro responded to the 800 block of South Elizabeth Street to assist in the capture of two pit bull/Staffordshire terriers on June 19, 2012. The dog warden was on scene already and was unable to capture the dogs.
Vaccaro pulled his rifle and fired on the dogs knowing pedestrians were in the immediate area, the lawsuit said.
Keller was walking nearby and was struck in the right hand by one of the bullets Vaccaro fired, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accuses Vaccaro of acting with conscious disregard to a known or obvious risk to Keller that was unreasonable under the circumstances. It further said Vaccaro failed to exercise proper care when firing the weapon.
Keller suffered permanent injuries, pain, emotional injuries and had $32,766 in medical expenses with additional expenses expected. He also had lost wages and a loss of earning capacity, the lawsuit said.
Lima Law Director Tony Geiger defended Vaccaro.
“The lawsuit contends the officer acted in a reckless manner. The City disagrees with that. The officer was confronted with a vicious pit bull and shot the dog to protect the public,” Geiger said.
MANSFIELD — Maurice King III is not going away.
The former Bellville police officer, sentenced in 2008 to 22 months in prison, was picketing on the downtown square Tuesday afternoon. King was convicted of seven counts, including four felonies, for trying to buy reportedly stolen guns from two felons acting as informants.
King has steadfastly maintained his innocence. He said the informants, who were key witnesses in his trial, were told what to say.
King wore a green sweatshirt with the words: “I am innocent. They lied.”His primary target was Richland County Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Bosko, the lead investigator in the case. King carried a sign with Bosko’s picture on one side with the word “liar” in boldface. The sign called Bosko “a face of Richland County’s corruption.”
“I’m just sick of being quiet,” King said. “It’s coming up on six years. That’s long enough. They took everything from me.
“Eric is the specific target in my case, but I’m targeting corruption in Richland County. It’s got to stop. I’m doing this for the next victim. He (Bosko) is the true criminal, not me.”
Sheriff Steve Sheldon said he stands by Bosko and the case against King.
“In 2008, Capt. Bosko conducted an investigation concerning alleged activities by Maurice King III. That investigation led to six felony charges against King,” Sheldon said. “The case was prepared by the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office and tried in Richland County Common Pleas Court in front of a jury of his peers.
“He was convicted and sentenced to prison. Capt. Bosko is an outstanding investigator and person and a huge asset to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office. We stand by his investigation.”
Sheldon said King’s picketing did not warrant coverage.
“I am surprised the media finds the ramblings of a convicted felon newsworthy,” the sheriff said.
King said the case devastated him.
“My (law enforcement) career is pretty much over. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “They hurt me. They hurt my family.
“They caused indescribable pain that can never be mended. I lost my grandmother while I was gone; she was like my mother. I still haven’t dealt with it.”
Throughout his case, King said he was offered various deals — but refused them all.
“I wasn’t going to admit to something I didn’t do,” he said. “I don’t have any credibility anymore, but I have my integrity.”
In 2011, King had two appeals of his case denied.
“The CIs (confidential informants) lied about me. The judge (James DeWeese) accepted the lies,” he said. “We appealed it.”
The Fifth District Court of Appeals said King “has not demonstrated that the court abused its discretion in dismissing his petition for post-conviction relief.”
King said he is not deterred.
“My family asked to come up with me, but I told them to lay low,” he said. “If nothing happens in the next few months, we’ll be back in full force.
“I’m fed up. I’m done.”
Pittsburgh Public Schools police officer will serve 32 to 64 years in prison for molesting four boys in the late 1990s.
Allegheny County Judge Donna Jo McDaniel called 44-year-old Robert Lellock a sexually violent predator and a danger to the community before imposing the lengthy sentence on Tuesday.
Lellock was found guilty in July for crimes that happened during the 1998-99 school year.
Prosecutors said Lellock pulled the boys from class at Arthur J. Rooney Middle School, took them into a janitor's closest and molested them.
Defense attorney Timothy Kidd said that Lellock will be appointed a public defender and will likely appeal his conviction
GARY — For the second time this year, Patrolman Demonte Yanders is in jail, charged with multiple felonies, accused of assaulting his live-in girlfriend.
Yanders, who celebrates his 30th birthday Thursday, was on top of the woman and beating her when Patrolmen Nicholas Ferrell and Phillip Komisarcik entered the couple’s Woodlake Village apartment about 5:15 a.m. Sunday.
He is charged with two counts criminal confinement, strangulation and misdemeanor battery. He is at the Lake County Jail in Crown Point.
The victim, Tiffany Swagerty, 31, was “curled up on the bedroom floor crying” when one of her three children opened the apartment door for police. She had bruises on her cheeks and neck and a bite on her back, the probable cause affidavit states.
Early Sunday, at the conclusion of his birthday celebration at a Brunswick night club, Yanders argued with a man at the front door. Family members tried to get him to leave, and finally “pushed” him into the passenger’s seat of his car, with Swagerty behind the wheel. She told Detective Pete Baum that Yanders continued to argue with her and demanded she return to the club, but she refused. When they arrived home, he punched her face and she triggered a panic alarm, which summoned police to the apartment.
A Georgia law enforcement officer was arrested last week for allegedly offering to provide uniformed protection for the trafficking of methamphetamine.Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Strickland was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on federal charges on October 17, 2013. The U.S. Attorney’s Office accused Strickland of offering to act as security for individuals he believed were trafficking methamphetamine, the same drug Mexican cartels have increasingly pumped into the U.S. The cartels have increasingly sent their own Mexican national operatives to oversee and manage operations.The U.S. Attorney’s Office accused Strickland of providing security for methamphetamine shipments while in uniform and using his police vehicle.Another instance of a U.S. law enforcement officer using both his uniform and police vehicle to provide protection for narcotics smuggling surfaced in Texas earlier this year. In that case, a Houston area law enforcement officer took $2,000 to "protect" a massive shipment of cocaine.I contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office for Breitbart News at the time of that issue, but they refused to discuss the origins of such an unusually large amount of cocaine. The FBI also declined to comment on the origins of the shipment. However, Breitbart News obtained the official court documents in the case, which revealed that the shipment had originated in an unspecified foreign nation.The complaint against the Houston area law enforcement officer can be viewed below: - See more at: http://www.texasgopvote.com/issues/restore-families/us-police-officer-charged-protecting-drug-trafficking-005988#sthash.dHvswBBr.dpuf
NEW YORK -- A ninth biker was arrested Monday night in Brooklyn in connection with the Alexian Lien assault.
Jason Brown, 40, is from Brooklyn.
He is charged with gang assault, assault and criminal mischief.
He is expected to be arraigned Tuesday.
Meantime, an undercover police detective arrested in a motorcyclist-SUV melee no longer plans to testify before a grand jury, his lawyer said Monday.
Attorney John Arlia initially indicated that Detective Wojciech Braszczok wanted to speak to the Manhattan grand jury that's considering indicting him. But Arlia said Monday he's advised Braszczok not to do so "because the evidence speaks for him."
"My client has complete confidence and faith this grand jury will determine that he in no way intended to injure, nor act in any way to injure" an SUV driver who was beaten by several other bikers, the attorney said. Video and other evidence will show Braszczok didn't come close to contact with the driver, Arlia said.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has said Braszczok nonetheless actively participated in the attack by shattering the SUV's back window and kicking its passenger side, and he has been charged with gang assault. The DA's office declined to comment Monday on his decision not to testify.
Many defendants ultimately choose not to testify before grand juries, for various reasons. It's not uncommon for defendants to give notice that they want to appear and then change their minds.
Braszczok was off-duty when he participated in a Sept. 29 motorcycle rally that took a violent turn. He's one of several riders who have since been arrested.
After the SUV driver bumped a bike that had slowed in front of it, motorcyclists surrounded and converged on the Range Rover SUV; its driver fled in fear for the loved ones riding with him and ran over a biker, and motorcyclists chased him, pulled him from the vehicle and attacked him, police and prosecutors say. The encounters were partly caught on a helmet-camera video posted online.
The SUV driver, Alexian Lien, hasn't been charged with any crime.
Braszczok did nothing to stop the assault or summon help, didn't report having been there to his superiors for a few days, and wasn't straightforward when he did, prosecutors said.
The detective was stripped of his gun and badge after internal affairs investigators discovered he saw at least part of the confrontation. He initially told authorities and his union that he didn't intervene in the attack partly because he works undercover.
Arlia has said that the window Braszczok is accused of breaking already had a sizeable hole in it. The detective didn't know other participants in the rally, which was organized online, and he pursued Lien only to prevent his flight after the SUV ran down and seriously injured motorcyclist Edwin Mieses Jr., Arlia said.
"The facts cannot be changed to lump him into an attack he was not a part of. We owe him and his family at least that much," Arlia said by phone Monday.
Braszczok (whose name is pronounced VOY'-chek BRAZH'-ahk) has been a police officer for a decade.
It's unclear when the grand jury might vote on whether to indict him.
A spokesman for Lien didn't immediately return a call Monday.
QUINCY, Wash. (AP) — A Quincy police officer accused of lying about the reasons for pulling over a driver was suspended for 10 days.
Chief Greg Meinzer wanted to fire Officer David Andersen over the incident last November but agreed to the suspension.
Andersen denied lying. The Grant County prosecutor said there wasn't enough evidence for a charge of official misconduct.
Information about the suspension was obtained by the Wenatchee newspaper through a public records request.
Andersen said reasons for stopping the car including having the license obscured by a trailer hitch and a passenger not wearing a seat belt. Investigators said the license plate was not obstructed and tinted windows made it difficult to see a passenger
WEST PITTSTON - The Wyoming Borough police officer suspended earlier this month for reportedly hosting underage drinking parties was hit with new charges Monday alleging he repeatedly had sex with a 14-year-old girl on his mother's bed.
Cody Lee Smith, 21, of Wyoming, is facing charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sex assault, aggravated indecent assault and corruption of minors.
The charges are in addition to counts of corruption of minors and furnishing alcohol to a minor filed earlier this month alleging Smith hosted underage parties and had sex with a 16-year-old girl.
Smith declined to comment Monday following his arraignment.
According to a state police affidavit, Smith met the 14-year-old girl at the Luzerne County Fair in the summer of 2012. They began talking on Facebook, and between September 2012 and February 2013, they had sex at least 10 times, according to the charges.
In each case, Smith drove the girl to his mother's home in Wyoming and had sexual contact on a couch in the living room or on his mother's bed, the affidavit says.
Smith told the girl he works for a cellphone company and that he is in a gang, showing her a tattoo on his arm, police said. He also told the girl not to tell anyone about their relationship because he would get in trouble, the affidavit says.
Smith was charged Oct. 9 with three counts of corruption of minors and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor alleging he had inappropriate contact with another girl June 17, when he was 20 years old and she was 16.
The girl reported Smith gave teens alcohol on "numerous occasions" at his home and that she had a sexual relationship with Smith until he turned 21 on June 30 and told her he could not continue to see her, court documents allege.
Magisterial District Judge Joseph Carmody arraigned Smith on the latest charges Monday afternoon, setting his bail at $30,000. Smith, who was already free on $30,000 bail in the first case, immediately posted bail through a bondsman.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 30.
Wyoming Borough Mayor Bob Boyer has said Smith is suspended pending the outcome of the criminal charges.
NEW ORLEANS -- An off-duty New Orleans police officer was placed on emergency suspension after being arrested for driving while impaired Monday evening in Gretna, according to Remi Braden, a spokesperson for the NOPD.
Officer Lindy Collins, who works in the Fourth District, was seen driving erratically on Stumpf Boulevard, near Gretna Boulevard, by a Jefferson Parish deputy who was off-duty, Braden said. Collins was driving his personal vehicle and had hit a curb, causing a blowout to his front tire.
"The off-duty deputy got out of his personal vehicle, approached Collins and determined he was incoherent. The deputy, who was assisted by an off-duty New Orleans police officer, stayed with Collins until members of the Gretna Police Department arrived. Gretna officers placed Collins under arrest for driving while impaired," Braden said.
According to police, Deputy Chief Arlinda Westbrook immediately placed Collins on emergency suspension without pay pending the outcome of a Public Integrity Bureau investigation.
A St. Cloud police officer said she is scared for her life because a police sergeant in her department, who is also her ex-boyfriend, has been repeatedly harassing her and threatening to commit suicide.
Eyewitness News at 10's Renee Stoll broke the story earlier this month about an Osceola County love triangle that led to a female Osceola County deputy being arrested for beating up a female St. Cloud police officer.
The deputy alleged the St. Cloud police officer, Jennifer Hoyos, was having an affair with her husband, John Nettles, who is also a sergeant with St. Cloud police.
Hoyos, who was dating Nettles, is afraid for her life after she said he's been repeatedly harassing her.
The St. Cloud Police Department said there's nothing it can do about it.
Police reports show just how frightened the officer is of the sergeant.
"My ex-boyfriend is here. I've been text messaged that he's trying to commit suicide. He came here, he keeps knocking at my door, he won't go away," Hoyos said in a 911 call.
The ex-boyfriend Hoyos is talking about is Nettles.
This isn't the first time officer Hoyos, also with St. Cloud, has called for help.
Hoyos told the Orlando Police Department investigators she had "told him to leave her alone and to stop contacting her" when Nettles showed up to her apartment with a marriage proposal.
When he came to her home a second time, she was so scared she called 911.
"I'm in my room. I am armed right now. I don't know what he's going to do," Hoyos said.
According to reports, St. Cloud Police Captain Bret Dunn ordered Nettles to stay away from Hoyos, but just three days later Hoyos told her supervisor he was emailing, texting, and calling her.
She believed he had tracked her down even though she "has been staying with a friend due to being afraid to go home, and not knowing what Nettles would be capable of doing," according to a report.
This time her fellow St. Cloud officers arrived, but that report shows Capt. Dunn told them not to contact the Sheriff's Office because he didn't think there was enough for a criminal investigation, even though Hoyos said she was willing to prosecute.
Captain Dunn also said there isn't even enough here for an internal investigation, writing, "We have looked into each matter and have found no policy violations, accusations, or have received no formal complaints that would warrant a formal internal investigation."
Eyewitness News has not heard back from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get their take on Sgt. Nettles' actions.
Sgt. Nettles is on extended military leave for an injury incurred while he was deployed on duty, but he does have possession of his department-issued handgun.
Mountain City, TN – A Tennessee police officer has lost his job after a tense stand-off with a squirrel inside a store.
According to police documents, officer Jody Putnam was inside a Dollar General Store in Mountain City, northeast of Johnson City, two weeks ago when employees noticed that a squirrel had wandered in. How Putnam chose to intervene seems to have cost him his badge, reports WJHL.
Putnam apparently discharged his firearm and shot at the squirrel while inside the store. After that failed to work, he turned to his pepper spray and chased the rogue rodent around before apparently giving up.
out.”
Putnam was dismissed on October 2, 2013. He had worked with Mountain City Police for five years. Aside from a few certifications and details about his firing, little else was in his personnel file. He had previously worked at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, but resigned after 14 years.
When cops arrested him two years ago outside a Stapleton barbershop, George Pringle told them the small item they found in a cellophane wrapper in his pocket was peppermint candy, his lawyer said.
Officers refused to believe the New Springville resident and arrested him for possession of crack-cocaine, said attorney Jason Leventhal.
Pringle, who was jailed for 27 hours, wasn't fibbing, and, now, his false arrest will cost taxpayers $42,500.
Pringle, 56, has settled his wrongful-arrest federal lawsuit against the city and several cops, said Leventhal.
A Dallas police officer who was captured on a neighbor’s surveillance video shooting a mentally ill man as he stood still is likely to be indicted for his actions during the deadly force confrontation, several legal experts say.
If Officer Cardan Spencer were indicted in the shooting of Bobby Gerald Bennett, it would send shock waves through the Dallas police force, which hasn’t seen one of its own charged in an officer-involved shooting in decades.
“It just seems like, just from looking at it, that this person was shot by the officer without any legal justification,” said Robert Udashen, a well-known defense attorney who teaches criminal procedure at Southern Methodist University’s law school. “If a civilian had done that, a civilian would already be charged with a crime.”
Getting a conviction would be a lot harder than an indictment, though, because legal experts say juries are loath to second-guess the actions of police officers in deadly force situations.
“A jury may not want to convict him because of who he is,” said Juan Sanchez, a former Dallas County prosecutor. “Officers always get a fair trial, I’ll tell you that. People don’t want to believe that they would do something like that. They always have the presumption of innocence going for them.”
Bennett, 52, continues to recover at a Dallas hospital after being shot in the abdomen outside his mother’s home in the southeast Dallas neighborhood of Rylie. Authorities have dropped an aggravated assault charge against Bennett.
Spencer is on administrative leave. His attorney, Robert Rogers, has said that Spencer was justified in the actions he took in dealing with Bennett, who had a knife in his hand.
Citing legal reasons, Police Chief David Brown has declined to publicly comment about the shooting. Police officials also initially barred members of the media from an unrelated public meeting Monday night at the city’s south central patrol station. Media members were only allowed in after complaints were made to the city’s chief spokesman.
On Tuesday, Mayor Mike Rawlings issued a written statement, saying that he had seen the video and “found it disturbing.”
“Clearly this is a serious issue,” the mayor wrote. “I’m confident that the Dallas Police Department will move forward with its criminal investigation into this incident in an appropriate and expedient fashion.”
The status of the department’s criminal investigation is not clear. After completion, such cases routinely go to a grand jury.
Authorities have said that Spencer and his partner were dispatched to the 9400 block of Crimnson Court after Bennett’s mother called police for help in dealing with her son, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She told a 911 operator Bennett had a knife.
According to an arrest affidavit, Spencer shot Bennett after he walked toward him and his partner with a “knife raised in an aggressive manner.” Spencer fired his weapon four times, striking Bennett in the abdomen. Spence’s partner did not fire his weapon.
Rogers said Tuesday that the arrest affidavit was not written by Spencer, “nor was it based on any statements that he made.” He said Spencer gave a statement to investigators the day after the shooting, explaining why he used deadly force. Rogers declined to elaborate on the contents of that statement.
The controversy surrounding the shooting stems from a neighbor’s video showing that Bennett, who was sitting in a chair, initially rolls back from the officers as they advance on him. He then stands up but does not move. His hands remain at his side and he is standing still when Spencer shoots him.
“It’s the smoking gun,” said Danny Clancy, a former Dallas County prosecutor. “It doesn’t appear that the officer was in any danger at that moment in time when he fired his weapon.”
Clancy and the other legal experts believe Spencer will probably be indicted on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. There’s also a possibility of federal civil rights charges.
The last time a Dallas officer is thought to have been criminally charged in connection with a police shooting was when Officer Darrell Cain was indicted in the 1973 fatal shooting of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez. Cain killed Rodriguez when he put a gun to the boy’s head and pulled the trigger. Cain said he believed the gun was empty. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to five years in prison.
But that case was the exception, not the rule.
If Spencer is indicted, it’s anybody’s guess as to how it would play out in a courtroom, legal experts say.
The defense would be that Bennett “is mentally unstable,” said Toby Shook, a former high-ranking Dallas County prosecutor. Spencer “could say ‘from my point of view, I felt I had to shoot before he did anything else.’ You can’t get around the fact that he has a knife in his hand and has mental issues. A case like this always come down to a self-defense argument.”
“It’s really hard to convict police officers,” he added.
PHILADELPHIA - October 23, 2013 (WPVI) -- Two Philadelphia police officers are facing federal charges related to an incident where a woman was allegedly forced to strip naked while one of the accused officers pleasured himself.
Former Police Officer Joseph Harvey and Officer Sean Cahill, both of Philadelphia, were arrested on Wednesday.
According to the indictment, On October 8, 2009 Harvey used his power as a police officer to order the victim to remove all of her clothing and sit naked while he pleasured himself.
The indictment goes on to claim that when questioned about the incident, Officer Cahill falsely claimed to have been with Harvey at the time, telling FBI investigators that Harvey was never alone with the woman in an alleged attempt to discredit the victim.
Harvey, 39, is charged with deprivation of civil rights under color of law. If convicted, he faces a maximum term of one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment.
Officer Cahill, 34, is charged with making a material false statement. If convicted, Cahill faces a maximum term of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, up to three years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.
Cahill, a 10-year veteran assigned to the 24th District, has been suspended for thirty days with the intent to dismiss.
Harvey was a 7-year veteran, previously assigned to the 24th District.
Panama City Police Officer is being charged with battery for pepper spraying a woman while on duty. The June 25th incident can be seen on dash cam video subpoenaed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement during an investigation. The report says 14-year-veteran Corporal Bernie Wilburn was arresting 26-year-old Veronica Boles for shoplifting when Boles spit on him from the back seat of the car.
Wilburn then opened the back seat drivers side door and grabbed Boles pulling her to the other side of the patrol car. Later, Wilburn is seen pepper spraying the handcuffed suspect.
Charges were filed against Wilburn October 1st. He was put on paid administrative leave a week after the incident and resigned on September 20th from the department.
The FDLE handed over their findings to the State Attorney's office. The Panama City Police Department and State Attorney's office declined to comment on camera.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- A Montgomery police officer has been charged with using his position to unlawfully enter the home of a local resident. Destin Ryals, 21, was arrested on Oct. 22 at his home with the assistance of the Prattville Police Department on the misdemeanor charge of first-degree criminal trespass, the Montgomery Department of Public Safety released today. The Montgomery Police Department initiated the investigation Monday after receiving a citizen complaint that a police officer had used his position to unlawfully enter a local residence. Ryals is accused of entering the home under false pretenses after the resident opened the door to the officer. As part of its investigation, MPD is reviewing all citizen contacts involving the officer during his six months of patrol duty with the department, the Department of Public Safety released. Ryals was immediately relieved of duty and termination proceedings were initiated, according to the department. Ryals subsequently resigned Monday, effective immediately.
A sting with fake drugs led to the arrest and resignation of a La Crosse Police officer earlier this summer. At a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, former La Crosse Police Lieutenant Brian Thompson faces charged with one count of Possession of Narcotic Drugs. The criminal complaint against Thompson says the investigation began after concerns that Thompson was spending time in the department's evidence room that weren't a part of his normal duties. It also says Thompson asked other officers if they had any leftover pain medications. The complaint says Assistant Chief Robert Abraham had Captain Jason Melby pack a duffel bag with personal items and a bottle of fake narcotic pills. Chief Abraham then gave the duffel to Thompson and told him to take care of putting it into evidence. The complaint says that video cameras later captured Thompson searching the bag. When Abraham asked if there was anything in the bag, Thompson replied that there were only clothes in the duffel bag. Later, when Abraham checked, he found the pill bottle, now empty, in the duffel bag. Thompson again said that there were only clothes in the bag when he was asked a second time. On August 13, Thompson admitted he took the pills from the bag and ingested them. He also told investigators that on at least three occasions he took methamphetamine from the evidence locker and ingested those drugs.
Lubbock police officer accused of sexual assault was set to go on trial Monday. However, the trial was delayed for a fifth time. It will be rescheduled for November or January.
A victim came forward two years ago saying 32-year old Jason Hignight raped her twice when she was 18-years old.
Court documents accuse Hignight assaulted her in 2007 at a duplex near 35th and Quaker. At the time Hignight lived in the same building as the woman. The victim did make a report with the Lubbock Rape Crisis Center in may of 2007 but charges were not filed until much later.
He resigned from the Lubbock Police Department in January, 2011, just before he was arrested.
A borough police officer charged with battery of another officer in Florida last year was sentenced to one year probation earlier this month.
Ptl. Allen Kenneth Moore Jr., 43, pleaded no contest to simple battery, a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida, according to a Polk County, Fla., court official.
Moore was charged in November 2012 after an alleged altercation with another Penns Grove police officer in a Winter Haven, Fla., hotel room. Moore allegedly beat the other officer in the face with a lamp, according to police.
The victim of the attack was identified by police as Penns Grove Police Sgt. Patrick Riley.
According to authorities, Riley was in Polk County to testify at a court hearing on a juvenile matter — a trip reportedly paid by the state of Florida — and, on Nov.13, he met up with Moore who was in Florida for a vacation.
Police said the two went to a local bar where Moore allegedly became “extremely intoxicated,” and the two returned to the hotel where Riley was staying.
At the hotel, Riley reportedly told Moore that he was in no shape to drive, and that Moore could stay until morning. An altercation occurred and Moore allegedly attacked Riley, hitting him numerous times with a “lamp that weighed just shy of seven pounds,” police said.
When police arrived at the scene, they said they found Riley on a bench outside, bleeding from numerous injuries to his head. He was taken to Winter Haven Hospital for treatment and was later released, authorities said.
Polk County Court officials said that Moore pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of simple battery, a first-degree misdemeanor, earlier this month. He was sentenced to 12 months' probation to be served in New Jersey, officials said.
Moore was suspended without pay from the police department earlier this year and the suspension is still in effect, borough solicitor Adam Telsey said. Moore was paid $81,808 per year prior to his suspension, according to state employment records.
Salem County Prosecutor John T. Lenahan said that his office conducted an internal affairs review following the sentencing, and the completed review has been sent to Penns Grove. Telsey said Moore’s status with the department is currently under review but could not provide further comment.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two East Haven police officers were found guilty Monday of violating the civil rights of Hispanics, bringing to four the number of officers convicted in a case that has roiled the shoreline town for years.
David Cari and Dennis Spaulding were among four East Haven officers arrested by the FBI last year for allegedly harassing and abusing Hispanic immigrants. The other officers, Jason Zullo and John Miller, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and await sentencing.
Lawyers for Cari and Spaulding said federal prosecutors didn’t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, while prosecutors said the evidence showed the defendants engaged in racial profiling and harassment.
Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21. Cari and Spaulding could face up to 20 years in prison.
‘‘Today’s verdict is a painful, although important step in the healing process for the town of East Haven and for the East Haven Police Department,’’ said Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. ‘‘For some in our community, today’s verdict provides a sense of vindication and closure. For others, especially our police family, it is a difficult and sad occasion. What is clear is that for all of our residents, it is an opportunity to close a difficult chapter in our town’s past and move forward as one, unified community.’’
East Haven has held community meetings, offered cultural sensitivity training to town employees and provided language access tools to residents with limited English proficiency, Maturo said.
Prosecutors told jurors that Cari and Spaulding had extreme bias against Hispanics, engaged in racial profiling and acted as though they were above the law. They said Cari and Spaulding made up bogus allegations against Hispanics and wrote false police reports.
Federal prosecutor Richard Schechter said Cari falsely arrested a Roman Catholic priest who recorded Cari and Spaulding on video in a Hispanic-owned store in 2009 in an effort to document East Haven police abuses. Schechter said Cari was upset that he was being recorded and made up a bogus story in a report saying he thought the priest, James Manship, might have a weapon and Manship interfered with an investigation.
Prosecutors presented 14 witnesses over 15 days of trial, while defense lawyers rested their cases last week without calling a single witness.
Cari, who has since retired from the force, and Spaulding, who remains on unpaid suspension, were charged with conspiring to violate the constitutional rights of Hispanics and their supporters, deprivation of rights by making false arrests and obstruction of justice by filing false reports. Spaulding was also accused of using unreasonable force.
The officers were found guilty of all counts.
A federal indictment said the four officers assaulted people while they were handcuffed, unlawfully searched Latino businesses and harassed and intimidated people, including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or abuse the officers committed.
Police treatment of Hispanics in East Haven has been under federal scrutiny since 2009, when the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe that found a pattern of discrimination and biased policing.
Spaulding’s lawyer, Frank Riccio II, and Cari’s attorney, Alex Hernandez, questioned the credibility of government witnesses, saying their testimony at trial conflicted with their testimony before the grand jury.
They also said the arrests that prosecutors called false were actually supported by probable cause, the officers’ reports were true and they did not engage in racial profiling.
Spaulding is very disappointed with the verdict and plans to appeal it, Riccio said.
Hernandez said Cari’s arrest of Manship was done ‘‘by the book’’ and Manship interfered with a police investigation. Manship was arrested, but prosecutors later dropped the charges.
MYFOXNY.COM -
Troopers from the Wappingers Barracks arrested a 49 year old, Village of Cold Spring Police Officer early Sunday morning, following an internal investigation.
Troopers arrested Anthony P. Pupczyk and charged him with Criminal Mischief 3rd Degree after he was caught damaging a co-worker's vehicle.
The victim, a fellow Cold Spring police officer had four of his vehicles damaged during the course of the year and suspected Officer Pupczyk was committing the damage, but was unable to prove it until he was caught last night by Village of Cold Spring Officer in Charge, George Kane.
Officer Kane contacted the State Police to handle the arrest. Officer Pupczyk was taken into custody and processed at SP Wappinger and was released on his own recognizance and issued an Appearance Ticket returnable to the Town of Cold Spring Court.
GUTHRIE — A police lieutenant accused of arresting his wife's ex-husband for no apparent reason after the Mumford and Sons concert has been fired, City Manager Sereniah Breland said.
Breland said the city of Guthrie would have no further comment about the firing of Lt. Mark Bruning, who was accused by a local man of arresting him after the concert in early September.
That's been the theme as the state wraps up its prosecution of four Milwaukee officers charged with abusing their power and conducting illegal behavior as policeman.
Today, Jeffrey Dollhopf and Brian Kozolek - the last of the four charged - agreed to plead no contest to one of those charges (a misdemeanor) and resign from the Milwaukee Police Department.
In exchange, the state dropped all the other charges, which included some felonies.
A judge will hand down sentences in December; Dollhopf and Kozolek still face penalties of up to a $1,000 fine, community service, and/or 90 days in prison.
Earlier this month, Jacob Knight struck a similar deal with prosecutors and is serving a 20 day prison sentence.
Michael Vagnini pleaded no contest last spring and is in the midst of a two year sentence behind bars.
WASHINGTON -
Two D.C. police officers, now suspended without pay, are about to go on trial with a former D.C. officer for allegedly taking part in a vicious assault outside a Northwest D.C. nightclub more than two years ago.
Prosecutors say two of the three officers, who were off duty at the time, beat one man so severely he lost an eye in the attack.
It took more than a year to investigate the case before nine people, including four D.C. police officers, were indicted.
Since then, four of the nine have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and at least one has agreed to testify for the government.
The case goes back to June 10, 2011 when Walter Blair and Brandon Coates were assaulted outside the Lotus nightclub on K Street, NW. Blair lost his right eye in the attack.
Later this week in D.C. Superior Court, officers Kenneth McRavin, Keith Goins and former officer Thaddeus Modlin Jr., will go on trial with Ivon Atkinson, a security guard at the club.
Prosecutors say McRavin and Modlin took part in the attack along with Atkinson while Goins failed to take police action.
Four other men, Tho Nguyen, Vlade Jankovic, Quinton Raines and Timothy Brown, have all pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
In court Monday, Prosecutor James Smith told Judge Stuart Nash that Brown will testify for the government.
Ronald Karp, who represents Walter Blair, has seen the surveillance video recorded outside the club that night and described it to reporters in the days after the assault.
"It's a very mean video,” said attorney Ronald Karp. “And we have talked to witnesses as well. And if you put the whole picture together, you have someone on the ground in the fetal position just trying to cover up, unable to defend himself and then you see these folks dressed in black, who were obviously bouncers from this nightclub, not trying to apprehend him in any way, but are kicking him.”
According to a letter sent to the defense by the U.S. Attorneys Office and recently filed with the court, a witness identified as W-21, has changed its story and now says it did see off-duty officer Kenneth McRavin dragging and kicking one of the men and the previous story they told was incorrect.
Officers McRavin and Goins are still on the force, but suspended without pay.
Modlin has left the force, and a fourth officer, Yolanda Lampkin, has also left the force. She faces trial next year for making a false statement.
Jury selection begins Tuesday for a trial expected to last a month.
WASHINGTON—Brandon Shane Mundy, a former police officer of numerous law enforcement agencies, the most recent being the Town Creek, Alabama Police Department was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor to serve five years in prison and three years of supervised release and to pay $3,745 in restitution for violating the civil rights of a man during the course of an arrest. Mundy previously pleaded guilty on April 25, 2013, to one count of willfully depriving the man of his constitutional right to be free from excessive force by a law enforcement officer acting under color of law. According to information presented to the court, on November 22, 2009, Mundy was involved in a vehicle pursuit and fired shots at a man’s vehicle before later ramming the vehicle and causing it to wreck in a ditch. While another police officer reached the man and placed him under arrest without resistance, Mundy arrived and unjustifiably and repeatedly beat the man in the head with an object that was either a baton or a flashlight, causing the man to suffer physical injury. After Mundy lost control of the object, he continued to strike the man in the head with his fist.
“When law enforcement officers abuse their power and violate the civil rights of those in custody, they will be held accountable,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute those who cross the line to engage in acts of criminal misconduct.”
“Every police officer is sworn to serve and protect, and virtually all of them take that oath seriously. This officer did not and assaulted a citizen in violation of his oath,” said Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. “My office continues to aggressively prosecute police misconduct and takes a zero-tolerance policy in this regard.”
This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Holt of the Northern District of Alabama and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Daniel H. Weiss.
Want to change the way the Fairfax County Police act?
Fire the people who hire the cops and watch how quickly things change....star with the worst of the lot, Sharon Bulova. She refuses to take a stand against the brutality of the Fairfax County Police. Throw her out of office.
God bless this man
Make this national
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Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.
Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities
By Justin Jouvenal/Post
The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.
“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”
Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.
Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.
John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.
Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.
At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.
Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.
Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.
“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.
Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.
“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.
White trash special
“Shazam and Yeha doggie! I betha they let me take this har little beauty home ma sister date me again!”
Our ink will outlast his career
Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.
Occupation by force
According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.
The Cops and AI, bad idea
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The Fairfax County Police have, in recent memory, murdered innocent
citizen, and, generally speaking, the cops who pulled the triggers got away
with it....
Artikel Sudah Publish
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John Geer killing
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Geer case has Fairfax supervisors taking another look at attorney
By Tom Jackman and Antonio Olivo February 27
Members of the Fairfax County Board of Superv...
Sex crimes by your local police
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*Memphis police officer charged with solicitation of a minor*
Yolanda Jones
Memphis police officer Derrick Abdul-Wakil is due in court Monday after he
was a...
its out money, not the cops money
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Fairfax County police have spent $1.3 million on weapons and protective
gear, $561,000 on buildings and improvements and $208,000 on electronic
surveillanc...
Metro police officer charged with rape
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A Metro Police lieutenant was arrested on Friday after being indicted on
charges of raping a woman with whom he had a long-term relationship.
Police said ...
Toledo police officer charged in shooting plot Lt. Ramirez charged with felonious assault, obstruction, evidence tampering A Toledo po...
Okay you wanna hear it?
"Let us hear that concern. We are not hearing it from anybody except the media, except individual reporters." Fairfax County propaganda expert Mary Ann Jennings on why her department won't release the incident report on the Master's killing.
Okay Mary, here you go Babe.......................Any other requests?
Fairfax County Police: They have to much money and not enough to do
Fairfax County Police: They have to much money and not enough to do
Chief Roooarerer protecting us from us............it made more sense when he said it
Remember the lead singer from "Queen"? Is it just me or....
