City to pay $63K to woman police shocked with Taser

Altercation broke out after woman called police to report attempted burglary

By Luke BroadwaterThe Baltimore Sun

Baltimore's spending panel approved a $63,000 payment Wednesday to settle a police brutality lawsuit filed by a woman shocked with a Taser in 2012.

The lawsuit concerns the events of April 30, 2012, when Ashley Overbey called Baltimore police to report an attempted burglary at her home. According to documents presented to the Board of Estimates by the city solicitor's office, Overbey got into a "verbal confrontation" with one of the officers at her home. The officer accused her of pushing him, and attempted to arrest her.

Overbey alleges the officer pulled her hair and began hitting her, the documents state. When additional police officers arrived as backup, Overbey and the officer were struggling in the hallway. A second officer began struggling with Overbey, while a third shocked her with a Taser, the city said.  Overbey was charged with assault and resisting arrest, but city prosecutors later dropped those charges. She filed a lawsuit against the three officers alleging false arrest, assault and battery, among other claims.

"Folks got emotional," City Solicitor George Nilson said of the altercation. "There was lots of noise and lots of resistance. One citizen had to be Tased in order to calm down. We decided it made sense to settle the matter rather than throw it up in the air for a jury. We make these judgments all the time."

The city of Baltimore spends millions each year settling lawsuits. Settlements of greater than $25,000 are approved by the Board of Estimates, which is controlled by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Here’s the Data That Shows Cops Kill Black People at a Higher Rate Than White People

Plus: the crazy way the FBI classifies all police shooting victims as criminals.

—By Jaeah Lee

Since a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, one month ago, reporters and researchers have scrambled to find detailed data on how often cops wound or kill civilians. What they've uncovered has been frustratingly incomplete: Perhaps not surprisingly, law enforcement agencies don't keep very good stats on incidents that turn deadly. In short, it's a mystery exactly how many Americans are shot by the police every year.

However, as I and others have reported, there is some national data out there. It's not complete, but it provides a general idea of how many people die at the hands of the police—and the significant racial disparity among them:

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting program records that 410 people were killed in justifiable homicides by police in 2012. While the FBI collects information on the victims' race, it does not publish the overall racial breakdown.

• The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that between 2003 and 2009 there were more than 2,900 arrest-related deaths involving law enforcement. Averaged over seven years, that's about 420 deaths a year. While BJS does not provide the annual number of arrest-related deaths by race or ethnicity, a rough calculation based on its data shows that black people were about four times as likely to die in custody or while being arrested than whites.

Note: Most arrest-related deaths by homicide are by law enforcement, not private citizens. Rate calculated by dividing deaths by the average Census population for each race in 2003-09. "Other" includes American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians, other Pacific Islander, and persons of two or more races.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics System offers another view into officers' use of deadly force. In 2011, the CDC counted 460 people who died by "legal intervention" involving a firearm discharge. In theory, this includes any death caused by a law enforcement or state agent (it does not include legal executions).

The CDC's cause-of-death data, based on death certificates collected at the state level, also reveals a profound racial disparity among the victims of police shootings. Between 1968 and 2011, black people were between two to eight times more likely to die at the hands of law enforcement than whites. Annually, over those 40 years, a black person was on average 4.2 times as likely to get shot and killed by a cop than a white person. The disparity dropped to 2-to-1 between 2003 and 2009, lower than the 4-to-1 disparity shown in the BJS data over those same years. The CDC's database of emergency room records also shows similar racial disparities among those injured by police.

However, these numbers provide an extremely limited view of the lethal use of force by law enforcement. For reasons that have been outlined by USA Today, Vox, FiveThirtyEight, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and others, the FBI data is pretty unreliable and represents a conservative estimate. Some 18,000 agencies contribute to the FBI's broader crime reporting program, but only about 750 reported their justifiable homicide figures in 2012. New York state, for example, does not report justifiable homicides to the FBI, according to bureau spokesman Stephen G. Fischer Jr.

The FBI's data only counts "felons," but its definition of a felon differs from the common legal understanding of a felon as someone who has been convicted of a felony.

It's also not clear that Brown's death—the circumstances of which remain in dispute—would show up in the FBI's data in the first place. (Ferguson reported two homicides to the 2012 Uniform Crime Report, but neither were justifiable homicides, according to Fischer.) The FBI's justifiable homicide data only counts "felons," but its definition of a felon differs from the common legal understanding of a felon as someone who has been convicted of a felony. "A felon in this case is someone who is committing a felony criminal offense at the time of the justifiable homicide," according to a statement provided by Uniform Crime Reporting staff. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook describes the following scenario to illustrate what constitutes the justifiable killing of a criminal caught in the act:

A police officer answered a bank alarm and surprised the robber coming out of the bank. The robber saw the responding officer and fired at him. The officer returned fire, killing the robber. The officer was charged in a court of record as a matter of routine in such cases.

And since the classification of felonies—usually serious criminal offenses such as murder and assault—may vary by jurisdiction, UCR staff states, there is no standard definition of the word.

This leaves much room for interpretation. Was Michael Brown committing a felony at the time Officer Darren Wilson shot him? Local authorities in Ferguson have claimed that Brown was a robbery suspect and that he assaulted Wilson prior to the shooting. Whether Brown's case might be classified as a justifiable homicide hinges on the details of what happened in the moments before his death and whether local investigations determine that Wilson was justified to shoot. The FBI's records ultimately rely on police departments' word and the assumption that the victim was a criminal.

BJS, meanwhile, collects its data from state-level coordinators that identify arrest-related deaths in part by surveying law enforcement agencies. But the majority of these coordinators do not contact each law enforcement agency in their states, so BJS has no way of telling how many deaths have gone unidentified, according to spokesperson Kara McCarthy. BJS collects some details about each reported death, such as how the victims died, whether they were armed, whether they were intoxicated or displayed signs of mental illness, and whether charges had been filed against them at the time of death. It does not collect information about whether the victims had any prior convictions.

Some of the gaps in the FBI and BJS data can be filled in by the CDC data, but there are limitations here, too. The CDC data does not evaluate whether these killings were justified or not. The agency categorizes fatalities by International Classification of Diseases codes, which are used by coroners and medical examiners to record the medical cause, not the legal justification, of death. And death certificates aren't immune to reporting problems, explains Robert Anderson, chief of the CDC's Mortality Statistics Branch. This data is still "at the mercy of the medical examiner and coroner," who often write death certificates and may not include details about officer involvement. Anderson says those details are necessary in order for the CDC to categorize a death as a legal intervention.

Better data, and the will to collect it, is necessary to get the full picture of how many criminals and law-abiding citizens are killed by police every year. Until then Michael Brown—and others like him—may never even become a statistic.

Trial date set for officer accused of slitting dog's throat

 THE EPIDEMIC OF MENTALLY UNSTABLE COPS IN AMERICA CONTINUES

By David Collins

Officer Jeffrey Bolger pleads not guilty

BALTIMORE —A trial date is set for a Baltimore City police officer accused of slitting a dog's throat, killing it in June.

A Baltimore City police officer is charged with aggravated animal cruelty for cutting the throat of a dog, police officials announce.

Officer Jeffrey Bolger, 49, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Thursday, seeking a jury trial. A trial date was set for Nov. 7. The judge will rule later on a defense motion to dismiss the case.

Bolger is charged with aggravated animal cruelty, animal mutilation and misconduct in office in the alleged killing of a 7-year-old shar-pei, Nala. According to charging documents, officers responded to the Canton area on June 14 regarding a pregnant woman who was bitten by Nala, who was off her leash.

According to charging documents, Bolger slit the dog's throat while Officer Thomas Schmidt held it. Schmidt faces three criminal counts of aggravated animal cruelty, animal abuse and misconduct in office.

New information emerged during arraignment as attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the charges, disputing witness accounts that Bolger set out to gut the dog. Court documents say the shar-pei fought for more than an hour to escape and that Bolger considered using his service revolver to euthanize the dog.

"It would have endangered the lives of those individuals because of a potential of a ricochet bullet," defense attorney Steve Levin said.

Defense attorneys said reports of Bolger yelling "I'm going to gut this dog" are untrue. Attorneys said, "Bolger stated in a frustrated manner that he was going to have to cut the dog."

"It is very convenient that now that's a story they are going to go with and that's a word that rhymes with gut," said Nala's owner, Sarah Gossard, who called the motion to dismiss ridiculous.

"We filed a motion to dismiss based on the fact the state's attorney brought charges without showing there was sufficient probable cause," Levin said.

Court papers say Bolger used his knife in the least painful way to euthanize the dog and that he acted according to the law. Attorneys said Bolger used his knife in a fashion that placed the public in the least amount of danger.

"The Baltimore City Police Department did not provide these officers with the proper equipment, and in a frustrated manner, Agent Bolger determined he would have to use his knife," Levin said.

"(I want them) to lose their jobs because I wouldn't want this to happen to someone else, and I would love to see them do jail time," Gossard said. "Both of these officers have dogs. It's disgusting to me. I think their dogs should be taken away from them."

The cop crime wave continues. La Vergne cop fired after sex allegations

Christopher Merchant

LA VERGNE – Jason Helkenberg spent less than a year on his dream job as a police officer before an internal affairs investigation uncovered a slew of inappropriate activity, according to documents obtained from the city of La Vergne.

The former patrol officer was suspended without pay from the La Vergne Police Department pending an investigation on July 24, according to personnel records from the city's human resources department. The next day, his employment was terminated on grounds of alleged inappropriate sexual activity, visiting adult and social media sites and posting photographs online while on duty and divulging criminal information to non-law enforcement persons, according to the records.

La Vergne Police Chief Mike Walker requested that Helkenberg's city email account be shut down while the officer was suspended, but not before Helkenberg could send an extensive message to the chief.

"This is my private downfall," Helkenberg said in the email. "I have let my private life interfere with work."

Further details about the investigation of Helkenberg are contained in an internal report, which will be available to The Daily News Journal Friday, said La Vergne Sgt. David Durham in a Wednesday email.

Helkenberg was hired Sept. 20, 2013, according to his personnel records. In his email to Walker, he said he always dreamed of serving others as a police officer due to experiences he had as a troubled youth.

The email did not sway Walker's decision, he said.

"He violated his oath of honor," Walker said. "We have some really good folks here who don't do things like that. ... We hadn't received any indication of any wrongdoing prior to that tip, and then we looked into it and took care of it."

Prior to working at the police department, Helkenberg drove a tow truck and got a degree in aeronautics with a minor in criminal justice, according to personnel records. The company he worked for and the school he attended were redacted from the documents. He applied for a position as an officer after seeing a listing on the city's website and graduated from the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy with high marks.

Helkenberg received a raise in pay along with other officers at his pay grade from $16.45 an hour to $16.94 on July 1, three weeks before his suspension, according to personnel records.

"Upon taking the oath, I promised to you and every other law enforcement officer in this country that I would maintain loyalty and trust," Helkenberg wrote in the email to Walker. "I have since disappointed everyone including myself."

Helkenberg's termination notice stipulates he cannot apply for a position with the police department again.

"When you lose your integrity in law enforcement, you're done," Walker said.

East St. Louis turns to outsider for police misconduct probe

By CAROLYN P. SMITH

East St. Louis on Friday brought in an outside investigator and indefinitely suspended its assistant police chief until a misconduct probe is completed, the city manager said.

Assistant Police Chief Ronald Ike began an unpaid suspension on Aug. 28 that initially was to last five working days. City Manager Deletra Hudson on Friday said Ike's suspension was extended until the misconduct investigation is completed.

Ike could not be reached.

A female summer youth worker after her first day on the job filed a four-page complaint involving Ike that led to the suspension. Hudson was investigating, but on Friday said an outsider is now handling the inquiry.

Black Lawyers to Challenge Police Brutality in 25 Cities

September 8, 2014 Jazelle Hunt News No comments

By Freddie Allen

NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent

National Bar Association President Pamela J. Meanes.

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In an effort to combat police brutality in the Black community, the National Bar Association (NBA) recently announced plans to file open records requests in 25 cities to study allegations of police misconduct.

Pamela Meanes, president of the Black lawyers and judges group, said that the NBA was already making plans for a nationwide campaign to fight police brutality when Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer following a controversial midday confrontation in a Ferguson, Mo.

Meanes called police brutality the new civil rights issue of this era, an issue that disproportionately impacts the Black community.

“If we don’t see this issue and if we don’t at the National Bar Association do the legal things that are necessary to bring this issue to the forefront, then we are not carrying out our mission, which is to protect the civil and political entities of all,” said Meanes.

The NBA, which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges,” selected the 25 cities based on their African American populations and reported incidents of police brutality.

The lawyers group will file open records requests in Birmingham, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix; Los Angeles; San Jose, Calif., Washington, D.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Miami; Atlanta; Chicago; Louisville, Ky.; Baltimore; Detroit; Kanas City, Mo.; St. Louis, Mo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Las Vegas; New York City; Cleveland, Ohio, Memphis, Tenn., Philadelphia; Dallas; Houston; San Antonio, Texas, and Milwaukee, Wis.

In a press release about the open records requests, the group said it will not only seek information about “the number of individuals who have been killed, racially profiled, wrongfully arrested and/or injured while pursued or in police custody, but also comprehensive data from crime scenes, including “video and photographic evidence related to any alleged and/or proven misconduct by current or former employees,” as well background information on officers involved in the incidents.

Not only will the NBA present their findings to the public, but the group also plans to compile its research and forward the data over to the attorney general’s office.

Meanes said that the group’s ultimate goal is to have a conversation with Attorney General Eric Holder and to ask him, and in some cases, demand that he seize police departments or take over some investigations that are going on in states or run concurrent investigations.

Meanes said that federal law prohibits the Justice Department from going into a police department unless a pattern or history of abuse has been identified.

“The problem is that the information needed for that action is not readily available in a comprehensive way on a consistent basis with the goal of eradicating that abuse,” said Meanes, adding that the open records requests is the best way to get that information.

Meanes said that the NBA was concerned that the trust was already broken between the police force and the residents of Ferguson and that the rebellion and the protests would continue.

“We don’t think St. Louis County should investigate this. We don’t think the prosecutor should investigate this. There should be an independent third-party investigating this and that is the federal government,” said Meanes.

Phillip Agnew, executive director of the Dream Defenders, a civil rights group established by young people of color in the aftermath of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager in Sanford, Fla., said that law enforcement officials taunted, antagonized and disrespected peaceful protesters who took to the streets of Ferguson and at times incited the violence that they attempted to stamp out in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown.

“An occupying force came into the community, they killed someone from the community, and instead of being transparent and doing everything they could do to make sure the community felt whole again, they brought in more police to suppress folks who were exercising their constitutional rights,” said Agnew.“If your protocol results in greater violence, greater anger, and greater disenchantment of the people, you have to chart a different course.”

On the heels of the NBA announcement, Attorney General Eric Holder launched two initiatives designed to calm anxiety and frustration expressed by Ferguson’s Black residents towards the local police department over allegations of misconduct, harassment and discrimination. The Justice Department also introduced a “Collaborative Reform Initiative” to tackle similar concerns with the St. Louis County Police Department and to improve the relationship between police officers and the communities they serve.

During a recent press conference to announce the new initiatives in Missouri, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Department of Justice is working across the nation to ensure that the criminal justice system is fair, constitutional and free of bias.

The interventions in Missouri are an important part of that commitment,” said Holder. “While there is much work left to do, we feel confident that there are solutions to any issues we find and that community trust in law enforcement can be restored and maintained. Ferguson and St. Louis County are not the first places that we have become engaged to ensure fair and equitable policing and they will not be the last. The Department of Justice will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the Constitution has meaning for all communities.”

The new programs will work separately from the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the Brown’s shooting death.

Although Ferguson city officials were widely criticized for the lack of diversity of their police department, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch study revealed that only one town out of 31 St. Louis County municipalities where Blacks accounted for at least 10 percent of the population, had an equal or greater share of Black police officers.

“While areas patrolled by St. Louis County Police are about 25 percent black, 10 percent of the county police force is black,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

As the NBA applauded the Justice Department’s latest efforts to protect the civil rights of American citizens, the also urged the attorney general to commit to investigations in the same cities where they are filing open records requests.

According to the NBA, Dallas tops the list for police misconduct in the South and more than 60 unarmed Black men have been killed by the Dallas Police Department, since 2001.

Agnew said that the days where police officers are able to kill people with reckless abandon are over.

Meanes said that the NBA will plans to train community stakeholders and local lawyers to effectively try police brutality cases without damaging the evidence and without becoming witnesses themselves and is also educating citizens about what to do when they are stopped by police.

“This is not a war on police officers,” said Meanes. “This is a war on brutality and in any kind of system where people are paid to protect, we ought to be advocating for that protection.”

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Police brutality case: Charges dropped against Syracuse man left bloodied during arrest

By Douglass Dowty  

Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man who claims police brutality had all charges against him dropped today by the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office.

Alonzo Grant, 53, complains that Syracuse police left him bloodied after arresting him on false charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and harassment in a June 28 confrontation at his 105 Hudson St. residence.

After reviewing the case, the DA's office concluded that Grant had done nothing wrong.

"Witnesses at the scene, both related and unrelated to Mr. Grant, did not report any conduct by him that could reasonably be considered resisting arrest," prosecutors said in a news release. The law did not support the disorderly conduct charge, either.

"It appears that Mr. Grant has an unblemished record and is well-established in the community," the DA's office continued. "Based upon all of the foregoing factors, this office has moved to dismiss these charges in the interest of justice."

Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler declined Wednesday to discuss the decision by the DA's office to drop the charges against Grant.

"That's not something that's appropriate for me to comment on," he said.

Fowler confirmed that an internal police department investigation into the matter is underway, but would not provide specifics.

One of Grant's lawyers, Jesse Ryder, said the DA's office vindicated his client's version of what happened.

"Our client is innocent. He was innocent from day one. We're happy the DA's office has recognized that," Ryder said, stressing Grant's spotless criminal record.

Grant has filed a complaint against officers with the city's Citizen Review Board and plans to file a federal lawsuit, said another attorney, Charles Bonner, of San Francisco.

"I want to applaud Chief Assistant DA Alison Fineberg and DA Fitzpatrick," Bonner said. "They felt the injustice in this case and they wanted to be on the right side of justice. And they did the right thing. I think this is going to have a unifying effect on the Syracuse community."

The confrontation started after Grant called for police help one Saturday evening to report an argument between his daughter and a neighbor in the front yard. By the time officers arrived, the dispute was over.

Instead, police charged Grant with acting aggressively around his wife and other officers. The DA's office described what happened:

"It was Mr. Grant who made the call to police in an attempt to prevent the verbal dispute from escalating further. He was not suspected as the perpetrator of any crime. When an officer entered the residence to assess the situation he eventually asked Mr. Grant to exit his home and speak to SPD Officer Paul Montalto. As he was walking out the door, Mr. Grant punched his screen door, causing the door to slam against the side of his house. Almost immediately following Mr. Grant's action, the police decided to arrest for him Disorderly Conduct.

SPD Officer Damon Lockett reached for Mr. Grant and both parties went over the side of railing and fell to the ground. At this point, Officers Lockett and Montalto struck Mr. Grant about the face and head several times. Mr. Grant suffered injuries which required medical attention.

Those findings came after Fitzpatrick assigned Fineberg and two investigators to review the case. They interviewed six witnesses and three police officers, and read all related police reports, affidavits and partial video of the incident, the release stated. Fineberg declined to comment beyond what was stated in the news release.

The prosecutors' version of events is starkly different from what the two responding officers claimed happened.

An account from Officer Montalto described it this way: "The defendant violently punched the front door of the house causing it to fly open,in the presence of police officers, and continued to annoy and alarm all parties involved with his violent, tumultuous, threatening behavior."

The police then accused Grant of grabbing an officer around the waist and attempting to tackle him.

Grant "refused to comply with several commands to place his hands behind his back so that he could be placed into handcuffs. In order to effect this authorized arrest the defendant's hand (sic) were physically led behind his back," Montalto wrote.

Grant was due in City Court today to face the charges. But instead, Fineberg publicly announced the DA's office intention to drop the charges.

Grant is a 30-year employee of St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center who works seven days a week and has been married for the past 28 years.

His case is one of two recent accusations of police brutality that led to a review of the city's use of force policy by Common Councilors.

Bonner, his lawyer, said this case will be a beacon for those victimized by "rogue officers."

A federal lawsuit will be filed Thursday accusing Syracuse police of false arrest, falsified police reports and conspiracy to deprive Grant of his federal and state Constitutional rights, the lawyer said.

Memphis Cop raped 14 year old

 Lisa Fogarty, Fri, September 12, 2014

Fourteen years after a young woman was reportedly raped, the suspect behind the crime has finally been arrested thanks to DNA evidence – and it’s someone few people probably believed could

Fourteen years after a young woman was reportedly raped, the suspect behind the crime has finally been arrested thanks to DNA evidence – and it’s someone few people probably believed could have been responsible for it. Bridges Randle, 40, is a former Memphis police officer who now works as an administrator at the Boys and Girls Club in Atlanta. He’s also the same man police say may have raped a 23-year-old woman back in June 2000, reports Raw Story. Investigators say the young woman called police to report a domestic violence incidence 14 years ago. One of the officers who reportedly responded to the call was Randle, and the victim claims he returned to her home later that day to question her. That was when she says he forced her by gunpoint into the bedroom, where he allegedly raped her. Despite the fact that DNA evidence was collected at the time, it took more than a decade for the untested rape kit to make it into the national crime database, reports WMC. Randle, meanwhile, reportedly quit the police department in 2001, moved to Atlanta, and changed his name. It is not known how he was eventually caught, but the Boys and Girls Club released this statement following his arrest: “Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta has learned that a staff member has been accused of rape and is being held on bond in the Shelby County Jail in Tennessee. We are deeply concerned and alarmed by this allegation, and have taken immediate action. The employee has been terminated and we have prohibited this individual’s access to our organization and any of our operations.” Randle has been indicted for aggravated rape and is being held in lieu of $250,000 bond. Sources: Raw Story, WMC 

The epidemic of drugged and drunk cops

LMPD officer charged with DUI, leaving scene of an accident

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A Louisville Metro Police Department officer has been placed on administrative reassignment after he was pulled over by officers in Bullitt County.

Officer James Hemmer Jr., 43, was arrested by Mt. Washington Police on Sept. 11 and charged with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

The LMPD's Public Integrity Unit and Professional Standards Unit are investigating the case.

Hemmer has been an officer with LMPD since Feb. of 1999.

Today’s other child porn charges against your local police

Retired Phoenix police sergeant arrested on child porn charges

PHOENIX -- A retired Phoenix police sergeant was arrested after authorities reportedly found child pornography inside his Chandler home Friday.

Detectives from the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at 61-year-old Robert Carrillo's home near Kyrene and Ray roads.

"Police showed up in my backyard ... asking if they could get on my roof and survey a house across the street," Doug Grounds said.

"A couple of snipers wanted to climb up because they were getting ready to arrest the neighbor across the street," Holly Grounds added.

Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos said detectives located a large number of images depicting child pornography.

Carrillo declined to answer questions but was ultimately booked into jail on suspicion of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

"I think it's horrible," Doug Grounds said. "Taking advantage of young people is just the worst thing that can be."

Neighbors were shocked, saying Carrillo kept to himself but that they never saw anything suspicious.

"It's kind of scary to think that something like that can happen right across the street and you don't know it," Doug Grounds said.

He said he knew Carrillo had worked for the Phoenix Police Department and felt more secure living close to an officer.

"For this to happen, it just makes you think a little bit," he added.

"They're supposed to uphold the law," Holly Grounds said.

Martos confirmed that Carrillo retired earlier this year after 37 years with the department.

Carrillo was one of two officers shot while responding to a shots fired call in Phoenix in 1999.

Martos said the investigation is ongoing.

Today’s child porn charges against your local police

Reserve Officer Arrested For Possession Of Child Porn

By: Jamie Burch - Email

WIXON VALLEY – A sergeant with the Bryan Police Department’s reserve unit is arrested on child porn charges because of what a friend found while installing an app on the suspect’s smart phone.

According to the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, the friend ran across pornographic images of two female children, under the age of 17.

Tuesday, a Sheriff's Investigator and Texas Ranger served Dennis Fraley, 61 of Wixon Valley, with a warrant to search his phone. The Sheriff’s Office says they found pornographic images that had been taken with the phone’s camera.

Fraley was arrested shortly after 5:00 p.m. Tuesday at his home in Wixon Valley.

When deputies arrived, Frayley said he knows he messed up and that "he had arrested people like him."

Fraley was a Reserve Officer with the Bryan Police Department. A spokesperson says Fraley has resigned.

Statement from Chief Eric Buske

"The Bryan Police Department expects the highest standards from our officers. The men and women of our department support this stance. We have a rigorous hiring process for our full time officers as well as for our Reserve Officers. Dennis Fraley joined the department in 1983 as a Reserve Officer. There was nothing in his hiring process or in his years of service with the Bryan Police Department that indicated he was involved in any type of criminal activity. When we became aware of this investigation, Sgt. Fraley was asked to resign and he complied with that request. None of the crimes that Fraley is charged with appear to be related to his activities while serving as a Reserve Officer. This case is a Texas Rangers and Brazos County Sheriff investigation and we fully support their investigation." Fraley is charged with three counts of Possession of Child Pornography, a 3rd degree felony.

Today’s almost child molestation assault by your local police

Iota officer charged with sexual battery

By Anne Robicheaux

IOTA, LA (KPLC) - An off-shore worker and part-time officer with the Iota Police Department has been charged with sexual battery, following an investigation by the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office received a complaint earlier this week regarding an incident involving a 19-year-old victim that occurred about two years ago.

Harold James Doucet Jr., 44, was arrested and charged with sexual battery. He was booked into the Acadia Parish Jail, with his bond set at $25,000 by District Judge John Trahan.

Doucet worked for the Iota Police Department on and off for many years. Although it is unknown if he was employed as an officer at the time of the alleged incident, he is currently employed by the department and is expected to resign, said Maxine Trahan, Public Information Officer with the Acadia Parish Sheriff's Office

The cop crime wwave continues: No Delay In Trial Of Cop Who Killed 7-Year-Old Girl

 By ED WHITE

DETROIT (AP) — A lawyer for a Detroit police officer who accidentally killed a girl during a raid fears that widespread media coverage of a police shooting in Missouri could harm his client's right to a fair trial.

Steven Fishman sought a delay in Officer Joseph Weekley's trial, which starts Monday. But Wayne County Judge Cynthia Hathaway turned down the request last Friday.

Weekley is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He admits shooting 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones during a 2010 raid but says the shooting happened when the girl's grandmother grabbed his gun. Mertilla Jones denies any interference.

A trial last year ended without a verdict.

Fishman says police in general have been vilified in news coverage of the recent shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. He wanted to postpone Weekley's trial until 2015.

Another cop compensates for small penis: Idaho cop not justified in shooting of Arfee the dog: officials

Officer David Kelley said he ‘was scared’ when shot and killed a black Labrador that poked his head out the window of a white van while the cop was investigating a man possibly luring children. External and internal investigators agree that Kelley violated the Coeur d’Alene Police Department's deadly force policy in shooting the dog.

BY NICOLE HENSLEY

An Idaho cop who shot and killed Arfee the dog feared the black Labrador was going to bite his face.

But both an internal and external review found that Officer David Kelley violated Coeur d’Alene Police Department’s deadly force policies when he shot the dog while investigating a suspicious vehicle July 9.

At a Friday morning press conference, Police Chief Lee White would not confirm if Kelley was still employed by the city and declined to elaborate on any disciplinary action the officer might face.

The seven-year veteran of the Coeur d’Alene force and his partner were dispatched to a parking lot behind the Java coffee shop to look for a man in a white van allegedy enticing children.

Kelley approached the van matching the caller's description with his gun drawn because he wanted the “element of surprise,” but the van was empty of offenders. It was only Arfee that spooked him.

“The dog was aggressively barking and growling and its mouth was within inches of my face,” Kelley wrote in a police report. “I had the split second thought that this dog is going to ... bite me immediately.”

The officer admits he “was scared,” but before he could alert his partner on the other side of the van, he fired one shot at the dog as it tried to leap out of a partially open window on the driver’s side.

Instead, Arfee died with a whimper after scampering toward the back of the van as its owner, Craig Jones, of Colorado, was having breakfast inside the restaurant.

The shooting was never caught on the officer’s body camera.

 “I saw insufficient reasons why Officer Kelley chose not to announce his presence or knock on the van to elicit a response in order to clear the van,” wrote Robert Bragg Jr., of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center.

Kelley claims he stayed at the van for a half-hour waiting for the dog’s owner to come back. But when Jones wrapped up his meal, he found his window shot out, a note on his windshield and a lot of blood, but no Arfee.

The shooting also sparked controversy that the police department mistakenly identified the dog as a vicious pit bull in initial reports to the media.

In another police report, the dog was described as a “black male dog, possibly Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix dog.”

It took nearly two months to complete the internal and external investigation, to the community’s dismay. In the meantime, a Facebook page called “Justice for Arfee” was created to document the progress.

“I think everyone was frustrated on the amount of time for the investigation to get out, including the officer,” White said at the press conference. “But frankly, commenting on this case before it was completely vetted out would have been premature.”

Jones sought legal counsel after the shooting, but the city of Coeur d’Alene has not offered any compensation in Arfee’s death. They have, however, offered to buy the white van that his dog died in once the police investigation is over.

The dog’s remains have since been returned to Jones.

We need national IQ standards for cops: Cop Fires Gun Inside A Target Bathroom

An off-duty Honolulu police officer alleges he accidentally fired his gun while he was in the bathroom of a Target store on Saturday.

According to KHON, the officer took the Glock out of the holster, put it on the toilet paper dispenser, and accidentally shot it when he went to pick it up.

No one was injured, but the bullet ricocheted off the stall and into the wall of another stall. It’s unknown if anyone else was in the bathroom at the time, but the noise startled shoppers in the store.

The Honolulu Police Department is investigating the incident. This is the third time in the past month that a Honolulu police officer has accidentally fired his gun. In August, an officer died after an accidental shooting during a barbecue. The other incident occurred during an arrest, but no one was hurt

We need national IQ standards for cops: The Duplin County sheriff  kills dog.

The Duplin County sheriff says Deputy Kevin Williams was on duty when he got a call that his child was sick and needed to be picked up from school.

When Williams arrived home, he fed the dog, but forgot to take “Kela” out of the cruiser.

The dog was found dead the next morning, according to authorities.

Kela was a Belgian Shepherd trained to track down people and narcotics.

The deputy has been reassigned to courthouse baliff.

The sheriff says the district attorney’s office did not bring charges against Williams because there was no criminal intent.

We need minimum IQ standards for cops and here's why: The Duplin County sheriff kills dog.

The Duplin County sheriff says Deputy Kevin Williams was on duty when he got a call that his child was sick and needed to be picked up from school.

When Williams arrived home, he fed the dog, but forgot to take “Kela” out of the cruiser.

The dog was found dead the next morning, according to authorities.

Kela was a Belgian Shepherd trained to track down people and narcotics.

The deputy has been reassigned to courthouse baliff.

The sheriff says the district attorney’s office did not bring charges against Williams because there was no criminal intent.

The cop crime wave continues. This week’s rape by cop report

Rape kit testing helps indict former MPD officer in a 2000 rape

By Jason Miles

MEMPHIS, TN -

(WMC) - A former Memphis police officer was indicted on aggravated rape charges. A back-logged rape kit finally got tested and helped lead to the indictment which stems from an attack that happened 14 years ago.

Bridges Randle, 40, is accused of raping a woman in her apartment on June 24, 2000. He changed his name, but Memphis investigators still tracked him down to Atlanta, Georgia where he worked for The Boys & Girls Club.

"We've been working very hard to get through this backlog and to make sure all of these kits get tested and get the results we have today," District Attorney Amy Weirich said.

Randle remains locked up at the Shelby County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

He is accused of raping a 23-year-old woman at gunpoint in 2000. Investigators say it happened at a Fox Meadows area apartment.

Police had been there earlier in the day on June 24, 2000 responding to a domestic violence call. The alleged victim told investigators that a man acting like a police officer later returned to ask more questions.

The woman says that man pulled a gun on her, forced her into a bedroom, and raped her.

DNA evidence from an previously untested rape kit identified the suspect as Randle. At the time, he was an officer with Memphis police.

Randle left MPD in 2001 and was most recently an administrator with The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, where he went by another name.

"It's a good day for the victim and the community," Amy Weirich said.

Randle will be arraigned in criminal court on Friday.

The Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta released the following statement:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta has learned that a staff member has been accused of rape and is being held on bond in the Shelby County Jail in Tennessee. The staff member was stationed at our central office downtown and was not an employee of a specific Club location. To our knowledge, the alleged activity took place more than 10 years ago in Tennessee and does not in any way involve anyone in Georgia or any minors.

We are deeply concerned and alarmed by this allegation, and have taken immediate action. The employee has been terminated and we have prohibited this individual's access to our organization and any of our operations.

The safety and protection of the children we serve is the number one priority of the Boys & Girls Clubs. Our organization is committed to the highest standards of ethical behavior and integrity, and does not tolerate inappropriate or illegal activity on the part of any Club staff, volunteer or youth member. As part our commitment to safety, we conduct criminal background checks on all staff. Each background check must verify the person's identity and search all 50-state criminal databases and sex offender registries.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta will continue its full cooperation with the authorities on this matter.