Judge rules police brutality suit brought by Ex-Astros pitcher will go to trial

By Heather Alexander

A police brutality case brought by former Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe and 11 others against 20 Galveston police officers will move forward despite the city’s request to have the case dismissed. 

Judge Keith Ellison denied requests by officers and the City of Galveston to squash the case, saying only "the crucible of a trial" could determine exactly what happened on Oct. 4-5, 2008.

The federal lawsuit claims Galveston police officers used excessive force when they used pepper spray and Tasers on wedding guests in the San Luis Resort's H2O bar.

Galveston police said in 2008 that “the riot” started when officers tried to stop 19-year-old Cole O'Balle from entering the hotel's pool area with an open container of alcohol. Officers  allege O’Balle attacked them, punching them in their chests.

Court documents show that other guests, including Backe, got involved in the fight between officers and O'Balle.

O'Balle was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital with a gash to his face.

Backe and nearly a dozen others were arrested. He eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to one day of probation and a $1 fine.

The former Astros pitcher and the other plaintiffs first filed the federal lawsuit in 2010.  The suit names individual officers, former City Manager Steve LeBlanc, and former Police Chief Charles Wiley as defendants.

 A statement from the City of Galveston released at the time of the lawsuit’s filing said, "The events underlying the suit were thoroughly investigated and the city is not aware of factual support for any of the claims asserted."

 Backe finished 30-28 in six seasons with the Astros in 2009. He had his best year in 2005, when the Astros went to the World Series. He finished with a career-best 10 wins in the regular season and earned two postseason victories.

Elko man files for sheriff, gets busted for drunken driving

By Dylan Woolf Harris

ELKO — A sheriff candidate running on jail reform came closer to his platform than expected Thursday after he was booked into custody for felony DUI.

About an hour after Ron Rylander finished filing to run as the county’s top law enforcer, he was in handcuffs and guided into a cop car.

Rylander, who gave an interview to the Free Press before his arrest, called himself a dark horse candidate, in part due to his “checkered past.”

While talking to the media, police received a call from someone at the courthouse who reported an intoxicated person, according to Lt. Ty Trouten.

Two police officers arrived at the county courtyard and stayed in close proximity to Rylander. After Rylander drove away, the police officers did as well.

Trouten said Rylander was pulled over for making an improper turn and because the officer knew Rylander did not have a valid license.

Rylander, 51, was booked into Elko County Jail for third-offense DUI, driving with a suspended license, driving without proof of insurance and driving left of the center line. Bail was set at $21,050.

In addition to prior DUI arrests, Rylander has been arrested for disturbing the peace for making repeated non-emergency calls to Elko Central Dispatch.

Because of his familiarity with the jail system, Rylander said before leaving the county complex Thursday, he offers voters a unique perspective. His platform is centered around jail reform. Rylander opposes Sheriff Jim Pitts’ newly announced policy to bill inmates for food, medical visits and booking costs.

Rylander argued the mandatory fees will ruin the jail’s commissary system.

Furthermore, Rylander believes the new policy will lead to expensive lawsuits.

“(Pitts) is going to end up getting sued and end up costing the county more than it’s worth,” he said.

Rylander wants jail staff to undergo more training, and the jail to increase the number of low-risk inmates it grants “trusty” status, a designation for inmates who are allowed to work during their incarceration.

“There’s only one dorm in there for trusties and it’s packed,” he said.

A greater emphasis should be placed on rehabilitating inmates, Rylander said. Along with religious services, inmates should have the opportunity to get treatment and attend support groups, such as AA, he said.

If elected sheriff, Rylander said he will work with Elko Police Chief Ben Reed to continue communication and collaboration between the two agencies.

Rylander has lived in Elko for about 23 years. He’s formerly been employed as an environmental engineer at various mines and worked as a down-hole surveyor for a mining support company.

Man asks court to dismiss charges for recording cop

By Tim White

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) – Lawyers for a man who was arrested for recording a Fall River police officer on a public street asked a judge to dismiss the charges, but an agreement fell apart at the last minute.

George Thompson, 51, of Fall River, was arrested Jan. 6 and charged with violating the state’s wiretap statute and resisting arrest. He will be back in court on April 11 because prosecutors said they wanted to run the details by District Attorney Sam Sutter before signing off on any deal.

A spokesperson for Sutter declined to comment because the case was ongoing.

Thompson said he was using his iPhone to record Officer Thomas Barboza talking on his cell phone and swearing while working a construction detail. According to an arrest report Barboza claims Thompson was attempting to conceal his phone. Thompson disputes that saying he had arm out holding the phone.

In court Thursday Thompson’s attorney Daniel Igo said a federal appeals court case should be considered in throwing out the charges.

But Judge Joseph Macey was skeptical about applying the federal ruling known as the “Glick” case, where the First Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Boston lawyer who was arrested for recording police officers in a public location.

“I’m not satisfied with the Glick case,” he said. “That’s a federal case.”

For Macey, he said it boiled down to one question “was it secret or wasn’t it?”

The Massachusetts State Supreme Court ruled against a civilian in a 2001 case where they upheld a charge against a man who recorded an Abington officer in secret.

The video Thompson shot would likely clear up the dispute, but the recording disappeared while the phone was in an evidence room at the police station.

In an interview with Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine earlier this month, he said they have served a search warrant on the Apple Corporation to try and determine what happened.

“If a Fall River police officer erased that video, he’s fired and I would suspect the district attorney would take out charges,” Racine said. “If any other individual did that, we will take out felony charges.”

According to a court document police suspect Thompson erased the video himself remotely.

“It is plausible that the owner of the phone performed a remote factory restore through the iCloud while the phone was in the evidence vault,” according to the court filing.

Thompson said the last thing he wanted was for the evidence to disappear.

“The chief keeps pointing fingers,” Thompson said. “The chief needs to look within the police department.”

Barboza was disciplined after he admitted to talking on his cell phone during a work detail, according to Racine. He was placed on a one day unpaid suspension and forbidden to work details for 15 days.

Thompson – who filed the complaint against the officer – called the discipline a “slap in the face.”

“A five year-old in school would get a more severe discipline,” he said.

Tow Company Employees Arrested After Towing Illegally Parked Cop Cars

By Jonathan Wolfe,

An ongoing federal lawsuit in Portland, Oregon accuses police officers of arresting two tow truck company employees after they towed unmarked police cars parked illegally on a private lot.

The five cars belonged to police officers and a DEA agent who were working on a nearby sting. A business owner at the lot says the cars were parked there over a span of two days. The owner first put a note on the windshields of the cars asking them to be moved. The next day, he spoke with one of the officers.

The officer allegedly “responded with expletives” to the note and insisted the cars would not be moved. The business owner then called the property’s trustee, who called a towing company. The cars were towed.

Later, several police officers showed up at the tow company's office to get their cars back. Per protocol, employees of the company asked for proof of ownership of the vehicles. The officers were unable to display any information proving they owned the cars. They left and said they would return later.

Soon after, a group of cops both in uniforms and street clothes returned to the office. Then, according to the lawsuit, Sgt. Andrew Roberts showed his badge to the tow company employees and insisted that was all he needed to retrieve the cars. When the employees didn’t comply, they were arrested.

The lawsuit filed by the arrested employees accuses the officers of violating their constitutional rights by detaining them. They say the officers didn’t have probable cause to arrest them, and that their rights to due process and protections against unreasonable search and seizures were both violated in the arrest. The lawsuit also claims Sgt. Roberts threatened to arrest the lawyer of the employees for asking questions.

The employees are seeking $500,000 each for pain and suffering. The tow truck company seeks to recoup money spent defending the employees in court.

Group wants SDPD accountability for sexual assaults

By Gene Kang, Reporter -

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A new grassroots organization is taking on the San Diego Police Department over police misconduct.

They are demanding sweeping changes within the organization and disagree with how new police Chief Shelley Zimmerman plans to clean up the organization.

FED UP rejects the assertion by the newly appointed police chief that a few "bad apples" need to be weeded out in the department. FED UP demands a complete overhaul and deeper investigation into San Diego's officers.

They have a list of demands including: thorough investigations of sexual misconduct; implementing a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment; and training officers on sexual violence.

They named recent sexual assault cases -- those of former San Diego officers Anthony Arevalos and Chris Hayes.

"We want to raise visibility. So we can feel safe and be safe. We want to stand against this culture of misogyny that we're facing," FED UP protestor, James Messer said.

As of this morning, the San Diego Police Department and City Attorney's Office had no comment.  

Set Free in 1995 Killings, 3 Bronx Men File Suits Alleging Police Misconduct

By COLIN MOYNIHANMARCH 11, 2014

Three Bronx men who were set free last year after spending nearly 18 years in prison for two murders they say they did not commit are suing New York City and the two lead police detectives on the case, accusing them of deliberately using tainted or false evidence.

The lawsuits, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday, stem from the 1995 murders of a Federal Express executive, Denise Raymond, and a cabdriver, Baithe Diop. The killings, which took place in the Soundview neighborhood in the Bronx three days apart, were thought to be related.

Seven people were indicted in the two murders and six were convicted. But the convictions began to come apart in 2012, when an investigator with the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan obtained confessions from two former gang members who said they had killed Mr. Diop. In 2013, the Bronx district attorney’s office acknowledged problems with evidence used to tie defendants to the murder of Ms. Raymond. The indictments in both cases were vacated, and those imprisoned were freed.

The lawsuits claim that the detectives, Michael Donnelly and Thomas Aiello, improperly conducted identifications of suspects, coerced false statements from witnesses, provided nonpublic details to witnesses to bolster false accounts, failed to follow up on leads and hid evidence. The suits also cite a key prosecution witness who later recanted.

“When you’re innocent and you’re in prison knowing that you didn’t commit this crime, the pain is double,” said Carlos Perez, who, along with Michael Cosme and Devon Ayers, filed the lawsuits against the city. “It hurt me emotionally, it hurt me psychologically; many times I cried.”

A spokesman for the Police Department did not reply to a request for comment. Spokesmen for the New York City Law Department and the Bronx district attorney’s office declined to comment, with the district attorney’s office citing the pending litigation.

Similar suits were filed recently by Cathy Watkins and Eric Glisson, who were also convicted of killing Mr. Diop, and were freed in 2012; and by the estate of Israel Vasquez, who was convicted of killing Ms. Raymond but freed in 2007 by an appeals panel. City lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the Vasquez case last year, rejecting all assertions of wrongdoing by the detectives and saying that the witness’s recantation was not credible.

Mr. Perez’s lawsuit states that Detectives Donnelly and Aiello ignored certain leads. For instance, the suit asserts, the detectives did not interview a man who had pawned a bracelet bearing Ms. Raymond’s initials. And, the suit said, they did not pursue records from Mr. Diop’s cellphone, which had been stolen after his killing and used to call an apartment where the men who later admitted killing him, Jose Rodriguez and Gilbert Vega, were living.

That failure left the two “free to continue committing violent crimes in the Bronx for years,” the suit says, adding that Mr. Rodriguez had been involved in a shooting in 1997 that killed two people during a Thanksgiving football game between residents of two public housing complexes.

“This case is particularly egregious,” said Elizabeth Saylor, a lawyer at the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady, which is representing Mr. Perez, Mr. Cosme and the estate of Mr. Vasquez. “Six people were incarcerated for 100 years in this case because of the detectives’ misconduct.”

Because no physical evidence linked any defendant to either killing, the prosecution relied heavily on witnesses. Among them was Kim Alexander, who testified that she had seen another man, Charles McKinnon, arguing with Ms. Raymond as she left work the day before she was killed.

Detective Aiello picked up security video tapes from the building where Ms. Raymond worked, then wrote in a report that he had viewed the material “with negative results,” causing a prosecutor to state in court that there was “nothing” on the tapes.

Later, however, it turned out that a tape showed Ms. Raymond but not Mr. McKinnon, undermining the prosecution’s contention that an argument between the two had led to a murder plot. Judge William C. Donnino said that the failure to turn over the tape was “serious,” adding that it contained “evidence that is arguably favorable to the defense.”

Another prosecution witness was Cathy Gomez, a teenager who could not read or write English. In 1995, Ms. Gomez signed a detailed statement that provided a basis for later courtroom testimony saying that Mr. Cosme had displayed a silver-colored revolver, given her a blow-by-blow account of killing Mr. Diop, then shown her a phone that he said had come from Mr. Diop’s car. But in 2012 Ms. Gomez said that Detective Donnelly had written the statement and that she had signed it without knowing what it said. “Nothing’s true in there,” she told a lawyer representing Mr. Glisson, according to a transcript of a videotaped interview.

Mr. Perez has always maintained his innocence.“This whole case was fabricated,” he told Judge Donnino. “I’ve been framed by a ruthless crooked homicide cop.”

Why don't we do this in Fairfax County?

Police misconduct files must be made public, court rules

BY FRANK MAIN

The Chicago Police Department can no longer keep misconduct records secret, a state appeals court has ruled.

The Illinois Freedom of Information Act doesn’t exempt “CR files,” which consist of misconduct complaints against officers and documents created during the investigations, the court found Monday.

The appeals court also found that “RL” files are open to the public. Those files identify police officers who have accumulated the most misconduct complaints. At issue were two RL files that named officers with the most complaints between 2001-2006 and 2002-2008.

University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman hailed the ruling, saying: “I really do think this is a watershed moment in Illinois in terms of police transparency and accountability.”

Shannon Breymaier, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said the city plans to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to review the decision.

Jamie Kalven, an independent journalist and community activist, had filed a Freedom of Information request asking the Chicago Police Department to provide him with the Repeater Lists (RL) files as well as Complaint Register (CR) files involving five officers, Futterman said.

In 2009, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kalven because the information he was seeking was part of a federal misconduct lawsuit. Third parties like Kalven don’t have legal standing to become involved in a lawsuit once the plaintiff and defendant settle the case and agree to seal the police misconduct files, the federal appeals court ruled.

But the state appeals court said those files are a matter of public record under the state Freedom of Information Act.

The state appeals court returned Kalven’s request to a lower court to decide what information the police department can black out from the CR and RL files because of privacy concerns.

Futterman said he doesn’t have a problem with the department redacting personal information about officers and third parties — such as telephone numbers, Social Security numbers and the like.

He also doesn’t have a problem with the department blacking out the names of the people who file the complaints and witnesses who are interviewed during the investigations.

But he said Kalven should oppose any attempt by the department to block the public from seeing recommendations by the police Internal Affairs Bureau and the Independent Police Review Authority — the bodies that investigate complaints of police misconduct — about how much discipline should be imposed against officers for sustained complaints.

Futterman added that the appeals court clearly stated that the names of the officers and the allegations of misconduct can’t be redacted.

“Police officers do not have recognized privacy interests in complaints of misconduct,” Futterman said. “We entrust cops with a lot of power — power to use force and even to shoot and kill. They have to have that power to do their jobs. But with that power comes responsibility. ... This will allow the public to evaluate whether the process of these complaints being investigated is a good process that we can trust in.”

The court battle over the records stems from a 2004 lawsuit that Diane Bond filed against the Chicago Police Department claiming she was abused by officers. Futterman was her attorney and submitted evidence that less than 1 percent of misconduct investigations resulted in a complaint being sustained.Bond settled her lawsuit for $150,000, records show.

Detroit police officer investigated after shooting 20-year-old

George Hunter

Detroit— A city police officer who was suspended in 2006 for improperly firing his gun and then lying about it is the subject of another investigation after shooting a 20-year-old man Wednesday outside an eastside gas station.

Officer Christopher Stanton, who is assigned to the department’s Commercial Auto Theft Unit, was off duty when, at about 12:30 a.m on March 12, he allegedly shot a 20-year-old man in the lot of a Sphinx gas station in the 17800 block of Van Dyke.

After the shooting, the 20-year-old was arrested. He’s being held on “unrelated charges,” Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody said.

“The officer will be put on desk duty while an investigation is conducted to determine if there was any wrongdoing criminally or departmentally,” Woody said. “The investigator will prepare a warrant package and submit it to prosecutors for consideration of charges.”

A source familiar with the investigation told The News Stanton was working an unauthorized security detail at a church across the street from the gas station when he got into an argument with the man, who was unarmed.

At some point during the altercation, Stanton pulled out his pistol and shot the man once in the chest, the source said.

Stanton was suspended without pay after a Feb. 28 2006 incident, in which he shot at a 19-year-old car thief suspect during a foot chase. While being chased, the man fell down and was injured.

According to minutes of the March 23, 2006 meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, the 19-year-old reported Stanton for shooting at him. Department policy prohibits officers from firing at suspects who don’t pose a threat.

Stanton claimed the suspect threw a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun to the ground during the chase. The officer also claimed he hadn’t fired his weapon.

But a ballistics test of his gun showed he had fired it, and a .40 caliber bullet from Stanton’s service weapon also was found at the scene. In addition, there was gunshot residue on Stanton and the suspect.

Stanton was suspended without pay for conduct unbecoming a police officer but allowed to remain on the force.

Suspended IMPD officer pleads guilty to domestic battery

Charges stem from 2012 domestic violence incident

TheIndyChannel.com Staff

INDIANAPOLIS - An Indianapolis police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple charges stemming from a 2012 domestic violence incident.

Officer John Haggard entered a guilty plea on charges of criminal recklessness, domestic battery and intimidation, all class "D" felonies, for assaulting his wife and then breaking into their neighbors' home once she headed there with their son.

Fourteen other counts against Haggard were dropped.

According to court documents, Haggard, his wife and their 4-month-old son were driving home on Dec. 23, 2012, when Haggard and his wife got into an argument about his driving.

Haggard's wife, Mary Haggard, said her husband had been drinking and the roads were icy, so she had asked him to be careful, police said.

When they got home, John Haggard told Mary Haggard to get out of the car without her infant son, and when she refused, John Haggard punched her multiple times, the probable cause affidavit said.

Court documents say once the couple was inside their home, John Haggard tried to make his wife leave, and he hit her again when she refused.

Mary Haggard sent text messages to her neighbor, who is also married to an IMPD officer, asking her to come over to the Haggards' home. Mary Haggard, her son and the neighbor then went to the neighbor's home across the street.

According to the probable cause affidavit, John Haggard then forced his way into the neighbor's home, pulled a gun and said he was going to get his son.

The neighbors' 7- and 10-year-old children witnessed John Haggard's intrusion, police said.

John Haggard eventually left, and police were called.

Haggard's sentencing hearing was set for May 7.

Boise Police Officer Suspended Following Arrest

By Paul Johnson

UPDATE 10:00 AM - An additional charge has been filed against the officer currently suspended following an arrest. The charge is felony Assault or Battery upon certain personnel. The additional charge involves an employee of the Ada County Sheriff's Office and occurred during the investigation.

Boise, Idaho ( KMVT-TV / KSVT-TV ) - A 43 Year old Boise Police Officer has been suspended after he was arrested early this Friday morning for domestic violence. According to the Police department, the incident occurred at an east Boise home shortly before 5am. The arrest was made by an Ada County Sheriff’s deputy. Gary Miller of Boise will be suspended from duty which means all of his police powers have been suspended pending an internal department investigation. Miller has been charged with misdemeanor Assault, Domestic Violence. He has been a Boise Police officer for 16 years and was assigned to the Bench Patrol Division. In addition to criminal proceedings, Miller is subject to an internal investigation regarding applicable policies of the Police Department. According to a statement from the department, “The Boise Police Department demands the highest professional conduct from its officers, both on and off duty, which includes conformance to laws.”

Report released on Filer dog shooting

FILER -- The Filer Police Department released the formal investigation by the Nampa Police Department regarding an incident in Filer, in which an officer shot and killed a dog.

The city of Filer requested that the Nampa Police Department do an independent internal investigation into the situation.

We contacted the Filer Police Chief for reaction to the report, but he was not available.

RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION

In the 12 page report, Sgt. Tim Randall with the Nampa Police reviews in-car video from Officer Tarek Hassani's patrol car, and interviews those involved with the call on February 8th.

In the report, Randall says the officer's interest of safety could provide sound justification for shooting the dog, but adds, "the argument is less convincing given the fact that the officer had prior information that the dogs might be aggressive and his failure to develop or consider any realistic non-lethal plan for dealing with the dogs was not reasonable."

The report says at the time of the shooting officer Hassani feared for his safety, providing justification for shooting the dog.

But it also criticized the officer's actions during the incident.

In the report, Randall questions why Hassani didn't simply stay in his car, call the dogs owner, or call for back up.

It says Hassani stated he "did not consider that" saying it was his job to respond to the dogs at large call.

Randall also asked why Hassani didn't use a taser, a catch pole, or a baton, all of which the officer had that day.

Officer Hassani said he was "taught not to use a taser on a dog" and was concerned for his safety.

The report also mentions a previous incident where Officer Hassani was bitten by a dog.

DOG OWNER'S RESPONSE

Rick Clubb has admitted all along that his dogs were at large that day, and he also admits it was not the first time neighbors complained about his dogs.

However, Clubb maintains that his dogs never acted aggressively, and his 7-year-old black lab, Hooch, should not have been shot.

"That's all he was doing here was protecting his property, where he shot him at was right there and he died right there by the tree," said Clubb.

We showed Clubb the report on Tuesday, and he said he was disappointed, but not surprised.

"He didn't have to shoot him right in our neighborhood with kids running around, birthday party, that's just ridiculous, that's a trigger happy cop," said Clubb.

Clubb says he will keep pushing to get Officer Hassani fired, and is planning to file a lawsuit against the Filer Police Department.

"Oh yeah, most definitely disappointed, but we're not going to stop here, there's no way we will stop here," said Clubb.

WHAT'S NEXT

Filer Mayor Rick Dunn tells us Officer Hassani is still on paid administrative leave as the city council considers his future.

There will be a chance for the public to voice their opinion on this case to the Filer city council and Mayor at an open forum, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Mayor Dunn says each person will have two minutes to give their opinion on the case.

Dunn tells us the city council reviewed the report in an executive session Monday night, but wants to hear from the public as well.

Lexington officer who killed dog could face cruelty charge; internal investigation launched

By Greg Kocher

A Lexington police officer faces an internal investigation and might be charged later this week with animal cruelty, authorities said Tuesday.

The Scott County Sheriff's Office said deputies had asked the Scott County Attorney's Office to review the case, in which officer Jeff Brangers shot and killed a neighbor's black Labrador Saturday as it walked away from his property. Brangers, a Scott County resident, keeps chickens on his property about five miles east of Georgetown.

Scott County Sheriff Tony Hampton said Tuesday that Brangers might be charged with second-degree animal cruelty later this week.

Conflicting statements attributed to Brangers caused the sheriff's office and the county attorney's office to consider filing a charge, Hampton said.

State law says, "Any livestock owner or his agent, without liability, may kill any dog trespassing on that owner's property and observed in the act of pursuing or wounding his livestock."

Brangers initially told a sheriff's deputy that the dog was in a crouched position and looking at his chickens. But he later said that he shot the dog as it was walking away.

In that instance, if the chickens were not being pursued or wounded, Brangers would not have been within his rights to shoot the dog.

"When the dog's walking away, that changes that," Hampton said.

Dog owner Brian Geary must sign a complaint, which must also be signed by a judge. Once that is done, Brangers would be served a court summons to appear in Scott District Court, Hampton said.

Geary said Tuesday that he intends to press charges. Second-degree animal cruelty is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.

Also Tuesday, the Lexington Division of Police said it has started an internal inquiry into the dog's shooting.

Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts confirmed the inquiry Tuesday afternoon.

Brangers, 39, joined the Lexington police force in 2012.

Geary, who also raises chickens on his property, said in an interview on Monday that Angel, a 12-year-old Labrador, had never bothered poultry in the past. Geary said Brangers told him, "I have a right as a property owner to protect my property from threats, and I perceived her as a threat. ... Your dog was on my property. I eliminated the threat."

"If he didn't catch her chasing chickens, he had no grounds to the shoot the dog," Geary said Monday. "That's my whole premise." 

84-Year-Old Bloodied By Cops Hopes Jaywalking Charges Will Be Dropped

The elderly man who was apparently injured by police while being arrested during a jaywalking incident was in court today. The son of 84-year-old Kang Wong said, "This whole ordeal for our family has been a nightmare. My father isn’t a criminal, he is the victim here."
Police say that Wong had been walking without the light at 96th Street and Broadway, a busy intersection where vehicles killed two pedestrians (and two blocks from where another car killed a little boy). Wong doesn't understand English, and it seems that an officer pursed Wong. A witness told the Post, "The cop tried to pull him back and that’s when he [the pedestrian] began to struggle with the cop. As soon as he pushed the cop, it was like cops started running in from everywhere."
Wong, who lives on West 97th, was bloodied and bruised, and charged with jaywalking, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Today, his lawyer said the charges ought to be dropped: "This police officer acted excessively. The officer body-slammed Mr. Wong into the sidewalk, causing injuries to his head."

The Manhattan DA's office is reviewing the charges. NYPD internal affairs is also reviewing the incident, but Police Commissioner Bratton had said shortly after the incident that he thought Wong fell and was injured that way.

Florida cop resigns after using police car to flirt with women while on duty

Officer Rey Munoz had been with the Melbourne, Fla., Police Department for less than a year when he was caught hitting on a police sergeant's niece and trolling for women outside a gym.

By Nicole Hensley /

A Florida cop resigned last month after using his police cruiser a bit too literally, cruising for women while on the job.

One of the victims was related to a high-ranking officer in his department.

Dashboard camera footage shows Officer Rey Munoz driving his patrol car in the parking lot of a Melbourne gym and asking two women for their phone numbers, according to documents released to the Daily News by the Melbourne Police Department.

That wasn't the first offense.

The department first learned of the cop's unprofessional habit when a Melbourne police sergeant said Munoz approached his niece in a Walmart parking lot Dec. 23, documents show.

One of the victims, 22-year-old Brittany Youney, said Munoz drove up to her as she walked to her car outside an LA Fitness and asked for her age and phone number.

"He said he wanted to know because I was beautiful," Youney wrote in a Feb. 18 police report. "I told him I was spoken for."

An internal investigation of Munoz's behavior began Feb. 19, but Monoz resigned Feb. 21.

Chief Steve Mimbs says Munoz violated the department's policies by behaving in a way unbecoming to an officer on duty and by not recording audio during traffic stops.

The department's internal investigator said Munoz either removed a microphone connected to his patrol vehicle's dash cam system or turned it off while talking to women outside the fitness club.

Munoz had been with the department for less than a year

IMPD officer pleads guilty to domestic battery

By Troy Kehoe

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A suspended IMPD officer pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts stemming from a 2012 arrest in which he was accused of assaulting his wife and breaking into a neighbor’s house.

John Haggard, 41, agreed to plead guilty to three Class D felony counts domestic battery, criminal recklessness and intimidation. In exchange for the plea, 14 additional counts including criminal confinement were dropped.

According to court documents, police arrested the 14-year veteran officer on Christmas Eve 2012, the day after he was accused of attacking his wife and threatening neighbors who intervened. The two had been driving home when an argument erupted over Haggard’s driving and the safety of the couple’s 4-month-old son, court documents show.

Haggard was suspended without pay following the incident.

As part of Thursday’s plea agreement, Haggard was instructed not to have any personal interaction with his wife.He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7.

Suspended Girard police officer’s family facing charges

GIRARD, Ohio - The family members of a suspended Girard police officer are now facing charges. Officer Larry Neely was suspended for 20 days without pay after an investigation determined underage drinking and pot parties were taking place at his home.

Now, Neely's wife, Kandy, and her 18-year-old son Michael Dulaney are charged with committing an offense involving a minor.

City Police Officer Charged With Assaulting Nephew Over Unpaid Water Bill; Placed On Paid Leave

A Chattanooga Police officer has been charged with domestic assault in an incident in which her nephew said she hit him over an unpaid water bill.On Tuesday,  Officer Cameka Bruce was arrested at police headquarters by another city officer.  Officer Bruce, 35, has been placed on administrative paid leave pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. In the incident at 4944 Sarasota Dr., 24-year-old Marcus Berry said his aunt came to his residence to collect money he owed her for the water bill. He said she became angry when he was not able to give her the full amount of the money. He said she got out of her car and came at him.Police said there was an argument that "became physical."Mr. Berry said he was punched by his aunt.An officer said Mr. Berry had scratch marks across his left eye. Pictures were taken of his injury.