and no charges were brought againt the officer...wow, there's surprise.
-
*Officer loses gun at entertainment center, teen shoots it thinking it was
a prop: police*Sun, April 26, 2026 at 2:25 PM
-
TYSONS, Va. (WKRC) -...
The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: Cocksuckers
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Photograph the Police: Texas student arrested after filming police traffi...
Photograph the Police: Texas student arrested after filming police traffi...: A University of Texas at San Antonio college student has reportedly pressed charges against a local law enforcement officer after she was...
More criminal cops
(NAPERVILLE) A convicted
burglar, car thief and would-be forger is free on bond and awaiting trial,
after allegedly assaulting a west suburban Naperville police officer during a
disturbance at the man’s home, the Naperville Sun is reporting.
Nathan M. Pope, 30, has an
arraignment date pending in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton on a
misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault of a peace officer or volunteer,
according to court records.
Pope was arrested about 1:01
p.m. Feb. 22 at his home on the 100 block of East Bailey Road, in an apartment
or condominium complex near Washington Street in the central part of the city.
Sgt. Bill Davis said police
were sent there to investigate and settle a domestic quarrel. During their
investigation, “Pope was uncooperative, and subsequently tried to strike one of
the officers,” Davis wrote in an email.
No injuries were reported
during the incident.
Pope has an extensive criminal
record in DuPage County that dates back more than 15 years. He was sentenced to
60 days in DuPage County Jail after being found guilty of fleeing from the
scene of a May 1998 traffic crash in Lombard, court records showed.
A judge in November 2000
ordered Pope to serve three years in a boot camp-style program run by the
Illinois Department of Corrections. That followed his convictions for stealing
or being in possession of two vehicles stolen earlier that year in Carol Stream
and Glen Ellyn, records indicated.
Pope in January 2005 was
sentenced to three years in prison, for burglaries he committed in April 2003
in Glen Ellyn and Lombard, according to records. That sentence also took into
account an August 2004 burglary attempt in Wheaton, records showed.
He was most recently sentenced
to six months in jail in May 2011, in connection with a November 2010 theft in
Woodridge, records indicated. He served that term concurrent with a six-month
sentence he received on a charge of attempted forgery in Clarendon Hills,
according to records.
The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: OKC Officer Charged With Misdemeanor Assault And B...
The epidemic of mentally unstable cops in America: OKC Officer Charged With Misdemeanor Assault And B...: Danville Man Declined to Enter Plea on Charges of Civil Rights Violations Edmond Robles, 46, of Danville is among 6 police offi...
Yet even more drunk cops
Suspended Detroit police
officer arrested on suspicion of impaired driving
An already-suspended Detroit
police officer was arrested Sunday afternoon for suspected impaired driving
after causing an accident on Detroit’s west side, Detroit police have
confirmed.
Shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday,
“a suspended officer was driving westbound on Plymouth and turned into an
oncoming car that was traveling eastbound on Plymouth, causing an accident,”
said Detroit Police Deputy Chief Rodney Johnson.
After 911 was called, “the
officers arrived and arrested the suspended officer while operating while
impaired,” said Johnson.
“The officer was then conveyed
to the detention center,” he said shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday night.
Johnson did not say why the
officer had been previously suspended, nor identify the officer.
The officer was not injured,
said Johnson, nor was the driver of the other car. A passenger in the car that
was hit complained of stomach pains and was taken to the hospital, Johnson
said.
even more drunk cops
Off-Duty Rockford Cop Pleads
Guilty to DUI
UPDATE 3/3/2014: ROCKFORD
(WIFR) -- The Rockford cop accused of drinking and driving has plead guilty to
two counts of Aggravated Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol.
Police say in May 2012,
off-duty Rockford cop Daniel Cruz was passing an SUV in a no-passing zone
southbound on Beloit Road when he struck a pick-up truck and collided with the
SUV near Townhall Road.
All four passengers of the SUV
were taken to the hospital, one of the passengers was paralyzed from the neck
down as a result of a spinal cord injury. Following the crash, Cruz began
walking away from the scene and was stopped by a firefighter approximately ¾ of
a mile from the accident scene. Cruz refused all chemical testing. A search
warrant was then obtained for an involuntary blood draw. Lab results later revealed
Cruz’s blood alcohol content to be .14 grams per deciliter.
Cruz was a thirteen-year
veteran of the Rockford Police Department who was off duty at the time of the
crash. He is no longer with the Department.
More criminal cops
Former Police Officer Admits
Guilt in Robbery Plan
U.S. Attorney’s Office February
24, 2014 • Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(215) 861-8200
PHILADELPHIA—Former
Philadelphia Police Officer Jeffrey Walker pleaded guilty today to a scheme in
which he planned to rob a drug dealer while on official duty. Walker pleaded to
attempted robbery that interferes with interstate commerce and carrying a
firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Walker told a cooperating
witness (CW) that he wanted the CW to help him identify a drug dealer so that
Walker could conduct a car stop for suspected drug violations or plant drugs in
the car. On May 21, 2013, the CW informed Walker of a car parked outside a bar
on West Girard Avenue. Walker drove up to the car, placed drugs inside the car,
and then followed the driver when that person left the bar. When the car was
pulled over, Philadelphia Police, including Walker, took the key to the
driver’s home. Walker and the CW went to the driver’s home. When they exited
the home, Walker was arrested and was in possession of $15,000 that he had
taken from the house.
U.S. District Court Judge
Eduardo C. Robreno scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 21, 2014. Walker
faces an advisory sentencing guideline range of up to 10 years in prison.
The case was investigated by
the FBI and Philadelphia Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant
United States Attorney Anthony Wzorek.
More drunk cops
Suspended Detroit Police
officer arrested after reportedly driving drunk, causing crash
DETROIT (WXYZ) - A Detroit
Police Officer on suspension is arrested for driving drunk after crashing into
another vehicle just before 1 p.m. today.
“I’m just hoping my daughter is
okay,” said Naomi Gaither.
Gaither’s daughter was driving
in the car the officer hit. Her daughter
went to the hospital right after the accident.
She had a friend in the car with her.
No one knew anything was wrong with the friend until he grabbed his
chest and collapsed a short time later.
A group of people screamed for
the officer’s to call another ambulance.
“Oh my God. Officer! Officer!”
Friends yelled for police to
call another ambulance. Police tell 7
Action News that the suspended police officer was driving drunk.
“She just didn’t yield and
didn’t stop and slammed right into them,” said Gaither.
When she first heard the driver
that hit her daughter might be a police officer she got even angrier.
“I would be really mortified
and highly upset,” said Gaither.
Her daughter was driving a
white car and the suspended officer was driving a gray SUV. The girl was driving eastbound on Plymouth
Road and the suspended officer was driving in the opposite direction. The suspended officer turned in front of the
girl and hit her.
“She just didn’t yield and
didn’t stop and slammed right into them,” said Gaither.
Gaither said the suspended
officer tried to flee from the crash.
“Thank God that the police
chief and the police officers who work under him responded so quickly. They diffused her because she did try to hit
and run,” said Gaither.
Police arrested the suspended
officer for operating a motor vehicle while impaired.
“I hope this is a lesson for
someone else. If you’re 21 and older and
you’re going to be responsible enough to drink, be responsible enough not to
get in the car and endanger other people that’s around you,” said Gaither.
Detroit Police are still not
saying why the officer was on suspension.
More Drug Cases Linked To Corrupt Philly Cop Get Thrown Out
By Dave Schratwieser
CENTER CITY -
The fallout from the arrest of
narcotics officer Jeffrey Walker continued Friday at the Criminal Justice
Center when a judge threw out more than a dozen drug convictions tied to the
admittedly corrupt officer.
"We'll look at every case, we'll look at
it the same way, we'll look at the evidence, where appropriate, we'll dismiss,
where it isn't we will not," said Assistant DA Robin Godfrey.
"It will be a black eye on the police department
until they do something structurally different," said Public Defender
Bradley Bridge.
Eighty-five drug cases have now been tossed
out since Walker's arrest last May with more potentially to come. The 24 year
police veteran plead guilty to robbery and weapons charges in federal court
earlier this week. He was arrested in an FBI sting last May. On Monday, his
lawyer said Walker is cooperating with the FBI. He predicted other officers and
suspects will fall
These are dangerous people who engaged in
significant criminal activity for quite some time," said Thomas
Fitzpatrick, Walker's defense attorney.
"I want to get it rooted out now,"
Commissioner Charles Ramsey told Fox 29 on Friday following a police graduation
ceremony.
Commissioner ramsey has already
said a federal grand jury is investigating at least half a dozen former
narcotics officers. They have been removed from street duty. Ramsey's committed
to getting rid of corrupt cops.
"Anytime you can rid your ranks of a
corrupt officer, it's a good day," Ramsey added. "The honest men and
women who are working hard every day, they don't deserve to have guys like this
working along side them, they truly don't."
Bridge says there has to be significant change
at the department for corruption to end, especially in the area of narcotics
investigations and arrests.
"You can't have narcotics
officers being there for a continuing period of time where they are involved
with large amounts of money, large amounts of drugs and very little
oversight," he said.
Former law enforcement officer agrees to plea deal in child porn case
Robert Sullivan
A Liberty man arrested last
fall on federal child pornography charges has signed an agreement in which he
would plead guilty to two counts of child exploitation, U.S. Attorney Joe
Hogsett said Wednesday.
Derek D. Walton, 31, was
arrested in August 2013 after FBI agents raided his home at 5242 Greenwood
Church Road. At the time, authorities located a laptop computer, a USB flash
drive and a video camera, which allegedly contained images of Walton and a
female victim.
“Today’s announcement is that
Mr. Walton acknowledges his guilt for the production of child pornography,”
Hogsett said during a visit Wednesday to the Palladium-Item.
Walton will appear in court to
formally accept the plea agreement and then later face sentencing. Dates for
those two hearings in federal court have not been set yet, Hogsett said.
If accepted, the agreement
would see Walton face a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 60 years in
prison, Hogsett said. Federal laws also require that Walton will serve at least
85 percent of the sentence handed down in the case. He also could face lifetime
supervised release upon completion of his prison time.
Walton had a history spanning a
decade as a law enforcement official in eastern Indiana, including a stint as a
reserve officer with the Richmond Police Department and as a deputy marshal for
the Laurel Police Department. Most recently, Walton had been a reserve deputy
with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department since 2004 and had served as a
reserve deputy and jail officer with the Union County Sheriff’s Department
before his arrest.
An investigation by the FBI
revealed Walton had used an AOL email account to exchange child pornographic
images and videos. In addition to using his home computer, investigators
uncovered 29 instances where Walton accessed his AOL account while at the
Franklin County Security Center between October and November 2011 to engage in
illegal child pornographic activity and conversations.
During a search of his home in
August 2013, authorities found a USB drive and a camera hidden in different
locations within the home. Those items contained 17 still images and two videos
of a nude female victim between the ages of 13 and 14. The videos include
images of the victim showering and changing clothes while being secretly
recorded inside Walton’s home in November 2012.
The arrest was part of the U.S.
Attorney’s Operation Community Watch, a program that allows federal
investigators and prosecutors the use of cutting-edge techniques to identify
and charge individuals in Indiana engaged in the receipt and trafficking of
child pornography. Hogsett said this case involved efforts by the FBI, the
Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the
Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Franklin County
Sheriff’s Department.
“The reason Operation Community
Watch is so important is because the goal is to identify pornographers in
southern Indiana in an effort to prevent Hoosier children from being
victimized,” Hogsett said.
“In this case, we not only
caught someone who was a trusted member of the community and a part of law
enforcement involved in trafficking child pornographic images, but also someone
who was victimizing Hoosier children as a pornographic producer.”
No child porn charges yet against ex-Tremonton police officer
Tim Gurrister,
TREMONTON -- Investigation
continues on accusations of child pornography against a police officer who was
arrested and booked into jail last summer but yet to be charged in court.
The arrest came in June of
Jeremy Rose, 37, a 12-year-veteran of the Tremonton force. He was booked into
the Box Elder County Jail on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor.
The charge can include
possession of child porn as well as its manufacture, but officials this week
declined to narrow down the allegations against Rose.
Shortly after he was arrested
and posted bail at the Box Elder jail, Rose resigned from the Tremonton
department in July, Tremonton Police Chief Dave Nance said.
Rose was arrested after an
investigation by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force operated out
of the Utah Attorney General's Office. ICAC's mission is to track child
predators online.
Misty Larsen, spokeswoman for
the attorney general's office, said she could only say the case is still
ongoing. "They are still finishing up the investigation and the charges
are still pending," she said.
Nance said the last he heard
the investigation was waiting on results from the state Crime Laboratory, and
possibly a computer forensics examination unit. He declined comment on Rose's
whereabouts or his employment status.
Meanwhile, a woman in Logan in
December filed for a protective order against Rose.
It was granted Jan. 2 by 1st
District Judge Kevin Allen.
Heidi Nestel, the woman's
attorney, said she was aware of the criminal investigation against Rose. But
Nestel said she couldn't comment on the protective order and any possible link
to the attorney general's probe out of concern for her client's
confidentiality.
Frmr. Unionville PD officer arrested for child porn
Kirksville
Another former member of the
Unionville Police Department was arrested after an investigation by the
Kirksville Regional Computer Crimes Unit.
Clinton Montalbetti, 23, was
arrested by Kirksville detectives and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office at the
Linn County Sheriff’s Office for an outstanding warrant for possession of child
pornography Tuesday.
Montalbetti was investigated by
the Kirksville Regional Computer Crimes Unit after images of suspected child
pornography were located on a flash drive used by the suspect while he had been
employed as a police officer with the Unionville Police in late 2013.
Police executed a search
warrant at Montalbetti’s residence outside of Brookfield Tuesday and collected
evidence.
Montalbetti was being held on a
$10,000 cash-only bond. The investigation continues with the possibility of
additional charges.
Montalbetti’s arrest comes on
the heels of the arrest of former Unionville Police Officer David Banks, who
was arrested last week for sexual misconduct with a minor.
Pa. cop pleads no contest in wife's 1983 death
MONTROSE, Pa. (AP) -- A former
police officer in northeastern Pennsylvania has pleaded no contest to voluntary
manslaughter in the death of his estranged wife more than 30 years ago.
The Times-Tribune (http://bit.ly/1exkOre)
said former Montrose police Sgt. John Walker was immediately sentenced Thursday
to two to four years behind bars in the 1983 death of Lynda Walker in New
Milford, Susquehanna County.
Walker was charged with
first-degree murder in October 2012 after a grand jury investigation and has
been in prison since then. The murder charge was dropped in exchange for
Walker's voluntary manslaughter no-contest plea.
Walker told authorities he
found his wife's body with a gun in her hand. Her death was initially ruled a
suicide.
Her body was exhumed in 2011
and a forensic examination concluded the gunshot wasn't self-inflicted.
California cop convicted of assaulting 5 women
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) —
A former Northern California police officer is facing the possibility of life
behind bars after he was convicted of sexually assaulting five women while
authorities said he was on patrol.
The Sacramento Bee reports
(http://bit.ly/1jFSymO) that a Yolo County jury found Sergio Alvarez guilty on
Thursday of 18 counts of kidnapping, rape and forced oral copulation. The jury
could not reach a decision on ten other counts, including counts related to
Alvarez's alleged attack on a sixth woman. Prosecutors said Alvarez, while
serving as a West Sacramento police officer in 2011 and 2012, targeted drug
addicts and prostitutes. He allegedly forced them to perform sex acts in his
cruiser, back alleys and wooded lots. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April
4 and faces the possibility of multiple life sentences.
Former Carroll Valley officer charged with corruption of a minor
Daniel Lanious, 50, allegedly
sent sexually explicit text messages to a 13-year-old girl
By Mark Walters
mwalters@eveningsun.com
@walt_walters on Twitter
A former Carroll Valley Police
officer has been accused of sending "flirtatious and sexual" text
messages to a 13-year-old girl, police state in charging documents.
Daniel Lanious, 50, of South
Middleton Township, Cumberland County, was charged with corruption of a minor,
according to a police criminal complaint filed at District Justice Susan Day's
office in Mount Holly Springs.
The teenager's mother told
police that Lanious met her daughter in July 2013, according to the affidavit
of probable cause.
The girl received a text
message from Lanious out of nowhere, the affidavit states. The messages quickly
became "flirtatious and sexual," the affidavit continues.
The girl said she believed
Lanious obtained her cellphone number from her Facebook page, the affidavit
states.
The girl told police Lanious
often mentioned wanting to have sex with her, according to the affidavit. She
said she played along to an extent, but was not as graphic as he was, the
affidavit continues.
The messages reportedly stopped
on Aug. 13, when the girl's mother caught the last text, which read
""¦ I wish you were home"¦ I wish you were on birth
control"¦ I have a condom," according to the affidavit.
The mother replied to the
message and told Lanious she hoped he was not over 18 because her daughter is
only 13, according to the affidavit.
A day or two later the mother
was visited by Lanious' son, who asked the mother if she would be contacting
police, the affidavit states.
During an interview with state
police Trooper Matthew Johnston from the Carlisle barracks, Lanious admitted to
sending sexual text messages to the 13-year-old girl, the affidavit states.
Lanious apologized repeatedly
for his actions and admitted what he did was "very stupid," according
to the affidavit.
A preliminary hearing is
scheduled for Lanious on April 2 in front of Day. He is being represented by
Gettysburg attorney Steve Rice. Rice declined to comment on the case until he
has spoken further with his client.
"As a well respected law
enforcement officer, it would be nice if people could give him the benefit of
the doubt," Rice said.
Mark Walters covers Adams
County for The Evening Sun. Contact him at 717-637-3736 ext. 147.
Prosecutors: 6 SFPD officers charged with theft, intimidation
SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal
prosecutors say grand juries have returned indictments against five San
Francisco police officers, two of whom were charged with stealing money and
drugs seized as part of investigations. A former officer has also been charged,
reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
The U.S. Attorney's Office
announced the indictments on Thursday.
Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, Officer
Edmond Robles, 46, and former Officer Reynaldo Vargas, 45, are all charged with
distributing controlled substances along with stealing money, drugs, computers,
electronic devices and gift cards from suspects, according to the Chronicle.
Furminger is also accused of
extorting property from an individual, though that was not among the listed
charges, reports the paper.
Separately, the other three
officers are charged with civil rights violations for allegedly entering single
occupancy hotel rooms and intimidating their occupants. The Chronicle
identified the officers as 41-year-old Arshad Razzak, 36-year-old Richard Yick
and 44-year-old Raul Eric Elias.
Prosecutors say those
allegations are based on surveillance footage released by the city's public
defender, Jeff Adachi, in 2011.
San Francisco police have
scheduled a news conference at 11:45 a.m. PST to discuss the indictments.
Stockton Police Accused of Brutality
Tim Lantz
An allegation of brutality is
being made against the Stockton Police Department, but the accuser is well
known at Stockton City Hall.
Former Stockton City Councilman
Ralph White says he has video of the fatal Feb. 9, police shooting of Donald Haynes.
At Tuesday night's council
meeting he said officers in that shooting are guilty of police brutality.
Police say Haynes confronted
the officers with a bayonet during a traffic stop and left them with no choice
but shoot.
The Stockton Record says White
plans to hold a news conference Wednesday morning to talk about that
incident.
He claims officers were
influenced by a domestic violence call involving Haynes and his wife.
An internal police
investigation is being conducted.
Read more: Stockton Man Dead
After Officer Involved Shooting
Protesters file civil rights lawsuit against Pasadena alleging police brutality
By Lauren Gold,
PASADENA A group of protesters
that got into a scuffle with police outside a lecture by former Mexican
president Vicente Fox has filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city
and the Police Department.
The complaint alleges that
Pasadena police violated the protesters’ right to free speech and assembly, and
right to be free from unreasonable use of force. The suit further alleges
assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress on protesters by at least
10 police officers during the incident at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in
November 2012.
Protester Clarence Smith, 36,
of Los Angeles, said he was beaten by the police along with many others around
him. Smith said he is a member of the Los Angeles Community Action Network.
“For me it was very traumatic.
I have dreams of being beat up by Pasadena police,” Smith said. “And for what?
For a peaceful protest? People have to know what these police are doing to the
activist community. ... I don’t want to be in this city. At least in Los
Angeles the police don’t beat you like they do in Pasadena. L.A. is one of the
worst units out there but Pasadena P.D. is unreal.”
Attorney James Segall-Gutierrez
filed the suit on behalf of 16 people, including two minors. The officers are
not specifically named in the lawsuit and Segall-Gutierrez said he is still
working to determine their identities.
Segall-Gutierrez filed the
complaint in federal court Feb. 14 and served the lawsuit on the city Thursday.
City spokesman William Boyer, who filmed part of Thursday’s press conference
with a cellphone, and police spokeswoman Lt. Tracey Ibarra declined to comment
on the case.
At the time of the protest,
police said the group became violent and unruly after one woman burst through a
police blockade. Six of the protesters were convicted of misdemeanor charges
after the incident.
Segall-Gutierrez released a
police body camera video of the incident he said he obtained while he was
briefly representing some of the protesters in the criminal cases filed against
them. None of those who had criminal charges are part of the lawsuit.
The video shows a handful of
protesters standing outside the auditorium and a police officer tells them to
go across the street where the rest of the group is standing. Segall-Gutierrez
said the city obtained a permit for the space in front of the auditorium upon
learning that the group planned to protest the lecture, forcing the protesters
to stand across the street.
As the officer wearing the
camera walks across the street, he yells at the protesters to follow him. Then,
the video shows, a struggle begins. During the 16-minute video, the camera is
often covered by the officer’s hand or cellphone, so the incident is not
clearly visible.
Throughout the video,
protesters can be heard yelling expletives at the officers and asking them for
their business cards. One man yells at the officers for hitting a pregnant
woman. At the end of the video the officer wearing the camera can be heard
talking about which of the protesters “committed battery” on him and needed to
be arrested. The officers joke about how they “didn’t expect to get into a
fight with five” of the protesters.
“These were pacifists holding a
peaceful protest,” Segall-Gutierrez said at a press conference outside Pasadena
City Hall on Thursday. “I would like it if the city would appropriately train
their officers and get rid of the aggression within the Police Department. My
clients should get monetary compensation from the city as well as an apology
from the Police Department.”
Last month, felony charges were
dismissed against four of the protesters who were arrested, and last year two
others also had their charges reduced.
Three protesters agreed to
plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a public meeting, with a
sentence of seven days of community service and two years of probation. The
fourth protester agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanor battery with injury
to a peace officer with 10 days community service and two years probation,
District Attorney’s Office spokesman Ricardo Santiago said.
In exchange, the DA’s Office
dropped the two felony charges of resisting a police officer and battery with
injury on a peace officer for three of the protesters, their attorney Tarek
Shawkey said.
Two other protesters were
originally charged with six misdemeanor counts, but the charges were reduced to
one count each of jaywalking.
In the end Shawkey said he was
pleased that the case was resolved with no felony charges for his clients.
“It was absolutely a victory
for them,” Shawkey said. “The DA and the police chief came around after they
saw all the evidence.”
Novi judge accused of pressuring defendant to drop police brutality lawsuit
As Oakland County attorney
Timothy Corr sat in the private chambers of Novi District Judge Brian MacKenzie
in the spring of 2010, he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
The judge — in the presence of
a Walled Lake police officer — was encouraging Corr to get his client in a
drunken-driving case to back off from a related police brutality lawsuit. If
the client backed off, the implication was, the judge would go easier on his
sentencing, Corr recalled recently in an interview with the Free Press. If he
didn’t, he was going to jail.
“It was clear we had a sitting
judge telling me I had to violate my client’s rights by waiving his right to pursue
a civil rights violation against a police department,” said Corr, who was
representing Marquin Stanley. “I was astonished.”
Corr’s handwritten notes from
the March 24, 2010, meeting, which he shared with the Free Press, back the
claim. “If I relieve police of liability for brutality, they would dismiss the
charge,” the note read.
Corr took the deal back to
Stanley — who had been Tasered and kicked while in police custody — and advised
him to reject it, which Stanley did. Later that day, MacKenzie sentenced
Stanley to 93 days in jail, the maximum allowed.
MacKenzie, a well-known judge
who also serves as president-elect of the American Judges Association,
adamantly denies ever pressuring Corr or his client, saying he sentences all
drunken drivers to the maximum if they are caught again while on probation.
“The suggestion that I would
threaten Mr. Stanley is not only false, it’s offensive.” MacKenzie said.
A series of allegations
The case — a rare instance of a
practicing attorney speaking out publicly against a sitting judge — is the
latest in a series of allegations against MacKenzie, who has gained national
acclaim as one of the foremost advocates of the intensive probation style
treatment of drunken-driving suspects.
In December, the Free Press
reported that McKenzie’s son had worked for a drug and alcohol testing agency
that the judge often orders defendants to use and that his wife runs a
nonprofit that is funded in part by companies that provide services ordered by
the judge. MacKenzie denied any conflict of interest.
On Feb. 13, at the urging of
county Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, Oakland County Circuit Judge Colleen O’Brien
took superintending control of MacKenzie’s docket, saying the lower court judge
had flouted state law and “has given illegal sentences.”
“Judge MacKenzie has chosen not
to follow the law on at least eight occasions,” O’Brien wrote in her ruling. “A
judge cannot ignore the law.”
O’Brien ordered what she
described as the “extraordinary remedy” of taking superintending control of
MacKenzie’s docket, a measure that requires him to follow several strict
protocols when handling future domestic violence cases.
In asking O’Brien to take
control of the docket, Cooper accused MacKenzie of running a rogue court,
complete with illegal sentencing practices, hidden files and inaccurate
transcripts. Her office is also reviewing transcripts in the Stanley case,
although that case was not cited in the motion to have the circuit court take
superintending control.
In reporting this story, the
Free Press reviewed hundreds of public records, including police reports, court
filings and transcripts and conducted numerous interviews, which offer a
glimpse of the way things work in a judge’s private chambers, where no
transcripts are kept.
Video changes minds
Marquin Stanley was a
troublemaker. Arrested in 1996 at age 18, he spent two years behind bars on a
felony firearm charge. By the time Walled Lake police arrested him on Jan. 10,
2010, he had picked up a scattering of misdemeanors, including domestic assault.
And he was already on probation to MacKenzie for a 2009 drunken-driving
conviction.
When police took him to the
Wixom police station that night — Walled Lake uses the Wixom lockup to house
prisoners — Stanley was using offensive language, according to police reports.
As he stood in the booking area, talking on a pay phone, a video shows a police
officer taking the phone from him and hanging it up.
Stanley appears to argue with
the officer but then turns his back to the officer and begins emptying his pockets
onto a bench. The officer then walks behind Stanley and Tasers him in the back,
sending Stanley crashing into the bench, then onto the ground.
The video shows the officer
kicking Stanley over onto his stomach while he is on the ground convulsing. An
ambulance later took Stanley to a hospital where he was treated for facial
injuries.
Police sought warrants charging
Stanley with resisting and obstructing arrest, a felony, along with driving
while drunk and driving with a suspended license. Oakland County prosecutors
issued the warrants.
But when prosecutors viewed the
video on March 12, 2010, they changed their mind. They concluded that Stanley
had not resisted arrest and decided to drop that charge, leaving him with only
misdemeanors.
Prosecutor’s office records
show the assistant prosecutor told that to MacKenzie and defense attorney Corr
in MacKenzie’s chamber on March 24, 2010.
Corr said MacKenzie waited
until the assistant prosecutor left the chambers on another matter, then made
the pitch. By that time, the Walled Lake police officer in charge of the case
was present in the judge’s chambers, Corr said.
The judge’s proposal was clear,
Corr said. “If I didn’t have Marquin admit resisting and obstructing, then he’s
going to give him 93 days in jail,” the maximum sentence allowed.
Corr said they weren’t
pressuring Stanley to plead guilty to a felony, but merely to acknowledge it on
the record. Such an on-the-record statement would clearly be used to torpedo
Stanley’s upcoming civil suit, which claimed he was Tasered for no reason.
A year and a half later, Walled
Lake police and other defendants in the civil rights suit agreed to pay Stanley
$150,000 to settle it, though they denied any wrongdoing.
Conversation denied
While both the assistant
prosecutor and the defense attorney say that MacKenzie was told in chambers the
felony charges were being dropped, MacKenzie denied to the Free Press that such
a conversation occurred.
“The prosecutor never notified
me, prior to May 13, 2010 (when the felony dismissal was put on the formal
record), that they would be moving to dismiss the case,” MacKenzie said. And he
denied he waited until the assistant prosecutor was out of the chambers to make
his pitch.
“Mr. Corr has said a number of
things in this claim that are problematic. He has said that he and I engaged in
unethical ex parte conversation. That didn’t happen,” MacKenzie said. “I don’t
engage in prohibited ex parte discussions with either the prosecutor or the
defense counsel on pending matters.”
Ex parte communications are
when one party to a pending case talks to a judge without the other party
present.
MacKenzie said it was the
prosecutor who had offered a deal, a claim that Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul
Walton said is a lie.
“There was no deal, there was
never a discussion of a deal,” Walton said.
Corr said that he never
discussed a deal with prosecutors, and that the only deal on the table was the
one MacKenzie was offering behind closed doors.
MacKenzie points to a
transcript of the hearing, during which he says, from the bench, “the
prosecutor will not reduce the charge without the understanding mentioned to
him, he chooses not do that, I can’t solve the problem.”
Walton said that statement was
“absolutely false.”
MacKenzie told the Free Press
he would have had no motive to try to harm Stanley’s civil rights case in
federal court. But both the defense attorney and prosecutor say Walled Lake
police were pushing hard to find a way to avoid the suit.
According to prosecutor’s
office records, the Walled Lake officer in charge, in urging prosecutors to
reconsider their decision not to charge Stanley with resisting arrest, claimed
MacKenzie had already promised to bind Stanley over for trial in circuit court
on that charge, even though there had been no evidence presented. That officer,
who has since been laid off from the department, could not be reached for
comment for this story.
And defense attorney Corr said
he took notes as he overheard the police officer in the hallway trying to
convince the assistant prosecutor to keep the charges or pursue new ones.
That same police officer was
sitting in MacKenzie’s chambers, Corr said, when MacKenzie offered the deal a
short time later.
After his release from jail,
Stanley was placed on two years of probation. In 2012, with less than two
months to complete probation, MacKenzie found him in violation after he left
the Novi courthouse without completing a drug test. This time, MacKenzie
sentenced him to the Oakland Couny Jail for a year. He served 270 days, then
was released after earning good time.
Stanley, now living in Detroit
after MacKenzie ordered him to stay out of Walled Lake, says the ordeal was a
string of injustices, first the Tasering, then MacKenzie’s heavy-handed deal,
then the jailing. “They did me wrong,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been
drinking, but there was no cause to do all that.”
Don't Destroy Police Disciplinary Files Just Yet, Hawaii Lawmakers Say
By Nick Grube
Nick Grube/Honolulu Civil Beat
A Honolulu police cruiser on
the corner of 10th and Waialae avenues.
Hawaii lawmakers want the
chance to research police misconduct without being told an officer’s
disciplinary file has already been destroyed.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary
Committee passed a bill that seeks to increase transparency about bad behavior
inside Hawaii’s county police departments by forcing agencies to include more
information in annual misconduct reports to the Legislature.
But the committee also amended
the measure to force county departments to hold on to fired officers’
disciplinary files for at least 18 months after those annual reports are
submitted.
The original version of the
bill — introduced by Rep. Karl Rhaods, who chairs the Judiciary Committee —
only called on departments to keep a fired cop’s file for six months.
“We wanted to extend it to 18
months,” Rhoads said. “We were concerned that if it were only six months long
that when the reports come to us we would not be able to review anything.”
House Bill 1812 seeks to shed
more light on the misconduct that takes place inside Hawaii’s four county
police departments for forcing those agencies to disclose more information
about bad cops.
Each year county police chiefs
are required to submit a report the Legislature that provides a brief summary
of misconduct incidents and whether an officer was suspended or discharged.
No names are provided, and the
reader is often left guessing as to what actually transpired. There’s also no
way to tell if a disciplinary action has been overturned as a result of a union
grievance procedure.
But HB 1812 propose to increase
the amount of information given to lawmakers in the annual reports. Not only
would the bill require better descriptions of the misconduct, but it would also
note which incidents constituted criminal conduct and whether an officer was
prosecuted.
The bill would also require
county police departments to describe whether an officer has appealed a disciplinary
action and whether it was still proceeding through a union grievance process.
HB 1812 has a companion bill in
the Senate that also passed another legislative hurdle Tuesday. Senate Bill
2591 — introduced by Sen. WIll Espero — was approved by the Sen. Clayton Hee’s
Judiciary Committee after first passing out of the Senate Public Safety
Committee.
The State of Hawaii
Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO) is the only group to oppose the bills
so far.
In written testimony, SHOPO
President Tenari Ma’afala said that providing more details about misconduct
could lead to the identification of police officers.
He also said the bills
contradict Hawaii’s public records law, the Uniform Information Practices Act,
that states that only the details on discharged officers can be made public.
SHOPO did not oppose the
provisions that would force county police departments to identify which
incidents were committed by the same officer.
The union also did not oppose
saying in the reports whether an officer has fully exhausted the grievance
process.
Support for the bill comes from
the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter and the Civil Beat Law
Center for the Public Interest.
In written testimony SPJ
President Stirling Morita blamed the Legislature for making police officers’
names secret.
He recounted the story of how
the Legislature in 1995 exempted suspended cops from having to reveal details
about their misconduct at the behest of SHOPO.
At that time, the union was on
the losing end of a legal battle with a group of University of Hawaii
journalism students who wanted police disciplinary records.
Morita noted that the
Legislature in 1995 required the annual misconduct reports to be submitted as a
way to measure whether the secrecy was warranted.
“But we wonder how the public
and the Legislature can gauge whether the law is having bad results because the
summaries of offenses are so bereft of details,” Morita said. “How can anyone
get a picture of offenses within a police department with such inadequate
descriptions as hindering a federal investigation?”
He added that giving the public
more detail about the various incidents of misconduct would identify individual
officers. Rather he said it would give the public a better handle on whether
the police department, its administration and the police commission were
providing adequate oversight.
“This bill does not violate any
privacy rights of the individual police officers,” Morita said. “Please pass
this bill.”
Both HB 1812 and SB 2591 were
drafted in response to Civil Beat’s series, In The Name of the Law, that
examined police misconduct and the secrecy surrounding it.
Should the bills become law, it
would help reverse what has been a decades long trend to cover up police
misconduct in the Hawaiian isles.
Civil Beat also recently won a
lawsuit that challenged the confidentiality surrounding suspended police
officers.
Should that ruling stand it
could mean that all suspended and discharged police officers’ disciplinary
files will be publicly available and the records haven't been destroyed.
Police review board needs teeth, Durham activists say
Ray Gronberg
Local NAACP leaders and other
activists say the city’s Civilian Police Review Board ought to demand more
authority to handle complaints, including the right to conduct its own
investigations of police officers.
The board now has the authority
only to look over the shoulder of the Durham Police Department’s internal
affairs detectives, weighing in on whether they’re doing their jobs properly
when someone alleges police misconduct.
As a result, “people are not
convinced the board as presently constituted will provide relief,” Ian Mance, a
lawyer with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, told members of the
advisory panel.
Mance’s comments came during a
hearing that members said will set the stage for them to confer next month on
whether to ask the City Council to change the board’s operating procedures.
The lawyer and other speakers
said the board should seek independence from the city manager, who by law has
final say over employee discipline, including of the police.
The council in setting up the
Civilian Police Review Board in 1999 made it an arm of the manager’s office.
The manager appoints its members, and the board reports findings to the
manager.
But James Chavis, a former
Partners Against Crime District 1 co-facilitator, said the board should report
directly to the City Council so the public can hold elected officials
accountable for the Police Department’s actions.
Given the current system,
there’s reason to think the manager “will not accept your recommendation [on a
case] if it’s not for the benefit of his bosses,” Chavis said, adding the
review board needs make sure elected officials hear about misconduct complaints
“face to face” and in public.
NAACP activists, Mance and
local defense lawyer David Hall all said the board should ask for the
independent investigative authority it presently lacks.
Now, “you are relying on the
Police Department to provide you the information you consider,” Mance said. “If
there’s a compelling statement from a citizen that’s not in interests of the
Police Department, all they have to do is withhold it. Make it easier for
people to get face time with you.”
The Durham NAACP, represented
by chapter First Vice President Roland Staton, said the board should have the
power to compel police cooperation, if necessary through subpoenas.
But the group – whose leader is
County Commissioner Fred Foster – stopped short of asking that the board
receive binding authority over disciplinary matters.
Mance did not, in written
comments arguing the panel should be able “to overrule police and city manager
decisions regarding police discipline.”
He acknowledged that would
require a change in state law, which now withholds even from the City Council
the authority to overrule the manager’s disciplinary decisions.
But he argued that the council
can expand the review board’s powers in lesser ways without asking the N.C.
General Assembly to change the law.
Wednesday’s hearing was the
latest in a series of advisory-board meetings that have followed complaints
about alleged racial profiling and the Police Department’s handling of a spate
of officer-involved shootings.
All the previous hearings were
by the city’s Human Relations Commission, a separate panel that’s working on
the issue at the City Council’s request. It held weekly meetings in January to
gather information to use in drafting advice to the council.
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