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Medical Examiner: Death in cop custody a homicide
Man died of ‘blunt trauma’ to head, torso
By Marie Szaniszlo and Laura Crimaldi
Saturday, January 23, 2010 -
A 45-year-old man’s death in police custody at a North Andover sobriety checkpoint was caused by a beating and has been ruled a homicide, the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said.
But two months after Kenneth Howe of Worcester died, all of the officers involved in the case remain on full duty, his lawyer said.
And the account given by a state trooper differs from the one initially issued by Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s Office.
“I’m not suprised, the way this investigation is proceeding,” the lawyer, Frances King, said.
The ME’s office determined the cause of death was “blunt impact of head and torso with compression of chest,” with “atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease” as “other contributory conditions.”
The homicide ruling assigns no blame or criminal wrongdoing, the medical examiner’s office said.
Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for Blodgett’s office, which is investigating Howe’s death, said investigators have conducted more than 50 interviews and are awaiting a final autopsy report and forensic results. Asked whether the probe is now a murder investigation, O’Connell said: “We’re not characterizing it.”
State police spokesman David Procopio declined to comment, other than to say the status of the troopers involved has not changed. North Andover police and the Essex Sheriff’s department referred all questions to Blodgett’s office.
Howe was a passenger in a car stopped on Thanksgiving Eve at a checkpoint manned by state and North Andover police and sheriff’s personnel when a trooper saw him making “furtive” movements, according to a statement Blodgett’s office released two days after the incident.
Howe “jumped out the window, struck the trooper and fled,” according to that statement, and was handcuffed after a brief foot chase and an “ensuing struggle.” Police later found 15 mg of Oxycodone, for which Howe had a prescription, in his pocket, Blodgett’s office said.
In her own statement, trooper Jodi A. Gerardi says Howe hit her twice before he got out of the vehicle, striking her a third time with the door. Gerardi yelled “help,” she says, and several troopers and town police ran after Howe, who “continued to assault everyone in his path” as a pit bull he released charged at officers.
Howe “was eventually taken to the ground, where he continued to disobey orders to ‘stop resisting’ by several other officers,” according to Gerardi’s report, which says he was charged with assaulting a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana and a controlled substance, OxyContin. The report makes no mention of Oxycodone.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100123medical_examiner_death_in_cop_custody_a_homicide_man_died_of_blunt_trauma_to_head_torso/srvc=home&position=4
Pennsylvania man beat up and arrested after questioning officer’s illegal parking (Updated)
January 22nd, 2010
A Pennsylvania man who questioned an off-duty state police officer about parking a pick-up truck in the fire lane of a grocery store ended up having cops follow him home, beating him up and arresting him on disorderly conduct charges.
Ron Doyle was also charged with DUI, but he said he didn’t drink until after he got home from the store. His blood-alcohol content level was .108, which is above the legal limit of .08.
Ron DoylePolice say he was belligerent, insulting and took an “aggressive stance” when he opened the door.
He said they were the aggressive ones, kicking his door in when he did not open it immediately. He said they also tackled him to the floor where he ended up with several cuts to his face.
The truth may lie in a dispatch tape because Doyle dialed 911 after he saw three state police cars pull in front of his duplex. He kept an open phone line with the dispatcher during the entire exchange with police, according to the Chambersburg Public Opinion.
But the local police department is refusing to release that tape because “the public interest in disclosure does not outweigh the interest in nondisclosure.”
In other words, the local police department is covering up for the state police officers, which is not surprising.
Hopefully, they get sued for withholding public records.
The police side of the story has already been contradicted by a pair of witnesses who observed the initial interaction in front of a local grocery store.
Jeremiah Snyder told Public Opinion Monday that narrative did not fit with what he saw as he and his wife walked out of Giant the afternoon of Jan. 10.
He said Doyle walked up to a truck parked in the fire lane, knocked on the truck’s window and said something to the man sitting in the driver’s seat about being parked in the fire lane.
He said the man flashed a badge and told Doyle the badge gave him the right to park there.
“My wife and I looked at each other, but kept walking,” he said.
He said Doyle did not appear to be drunk, “in any way, shape or form.”
He said he also did not hear Doyle swear or even raise his voice at the trooper during the encounter.
Doyle is a retired U.S. Marine who has worked as a civilian police officer on military bases. His preliminary hearing on the matter was postponed indefinitely.
http://carlosmiller.com/2010/01/22/pennsylvania-police-beat-up-and-arrested-after-questioning-officers-illegal-parking/#comment-18872
FOLLOW-UP: Former Deputy Paul Schene Says He Beat Teenage Girl Because He Was Afraid of Her
By Caleb Hannan in Crime & Punishment
Wednesday, Jan. 20 2010 @ 10:12AM
Video: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/01/former_deputy_paul_schene_says.php
It's long past time for Paul Schene to man up. The King County Sheriff's Deputy who lost his job after beating 15-year-old Malika Calhoun in a SeaTac holding cell first said he'd attacked the girl because she injured his shin kicking off her shoe. Then, when video was released showing him accidentally kicking the cell's metal toilet, and thus injuring himself, he wisely shut up. Until yesterday.
That's when he testified for the first time about his version of the events that were caught on tape in November of 2008.
As The Seattle Times reports, Schene defended his actions as appropriate because he said Calhoun had made an "angry face" at him, kicked her shoe deliberately at his groin and because he was "afraid of being injured by her." Schene also said he followed police academy protocol when he kicked Calhoun, grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the ground and punched her multiple times while she was cuffed.
It's unknown what effect Schene's testimony had on jurors. But as a representative of everyone in the world with working retinas, I can say the only effect it had on me was to feel pity for the man who lives his life in fear of teenage girls throwing tantrums.
TSA Plants "White Powder" On Unsuspecting Passenger
Daniel Rubin: It was no joke at security gate
By Daniel Rubin
Rebecca Solomon said the security worker's action "was such a violation."
In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile.
The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.
Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations.
She would be flying into Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted bombing on Christmas, just 10 days before. She was tense.
What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.
After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.
A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.
Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.
She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"
Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking.
She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.
Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.
Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.
Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't.
Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.
Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.
And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.
Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.
A joke? You're not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger's emotions?
When someone is trying to blow planes out of the sky, what is a TSA employee doing with his eyes off the ball?
When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband. She was shocked that no one took him off the floor, she said.
"It was such a violation," the Wynnewood native told me by phone. "I'd come early. I'd done everything right. And they were kidding about it."
I ran her story past Ann Davis, regional TSA spokeswoman, who said she knew nothing to contradict the young traveler's account.
Davis said privacy law prevents her from identifying the TSA employee. The law prevents her from disclosing what sort of discipline he might have received.
"The TSA views this employee's behavior to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional," she wrote. "We can assure travelers this employee has been disciplined by TSA management at Philadelphia International Airport, and he has expressed remorse for his actions."
Maybe he's been punished enough. That Solomon's father, Jeffrey, is a Center City litigator might mean this story isn't over.
In the meantime, I think the TSA worker should spend time following passengers through the scanners, handing them their shoes. Maybe he could tie them, too.
Update: Ann Davis, the TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20100121_Daniel_Rubin__It_was_no_joke_at_security_gate.html
Police fight cellphone recordings
Witnesses taking audio of officers arrested, charged with illegal surveillance
By Daniel Rowinski, New England Center For Investigative Reporting | January 12, 2010
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.
“One of the officers asked me whether my phone had audio recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said recently of the incident, which took place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said, “my phone was seized, and I was arrested.’’
The charge? Illegal electronic surveillance.
Jon Surmacz, 34, experienced a similar situation. Thinking that Boston police officers were unnecessarily rough while breaking up a holiday party in Brighton he was attending in December 2008, he took out his cellphone and began recording.
Police confronted Surmacz, a webmaster at Boston University. He was arrested and, like Glik, charged with illegal surveillance.
There are no hard statistics for video recording arrests. But the experiences of Surmacz and Glik highlight what civil libertarians call a troubling misuse of the state’s wiretapping law to stifle the kind of street-level oversight that cellphone and video technology make possible.
“The police apparently do not want witnesses to what they do in public,’’ said Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who helped to get the criminal charges against Surmacz dismissed.
Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll rejected the notion that police are abusing the law to block citizen oversight, saying the department trains officers about the wiretap law. “If an individual is inappropriately interfering with an arrest that could cause harm to an officer or another individual, an officer’s primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of the situation,’’ she said.
In 1968, Massachusetts became a “two-party’’ consent state, one of 12 currently in the country. Two-party consent means that all parties to a conversation must agree to be recorded on a telephone or other audio device; otherwise, the recording of conversation is illegal. The law, intended to protect the privacy rights of individuals, appears to have been triggered by a series of high-profile cases involving private detectives who were recording people without their consent.
In arresting people such as Glik and Surmacz, police are saying that they have not consented to being recorded, that their privacy rights have therefore been violated, and that the citizen action was criminal.
“The statute has been misconstrued by Boston police,’’ said June Jensen, the lawyer who represented Glik and succeeded in getting his charges dismissed. The law, she said, does not prohibit public recording of anyone. “You could go to the Boston Common and snap pictures and record if you want; you can do that.’’
Ever since the police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991 was videotaped, and with the advent of media-sharing websites like Facebook and YouTube, the practice of openly recording police activity has become commonplace. But in Massachusetts and other states, the arrests of street videographers, whether they use cellphones or other video technology, offers a dramatic illustration of the collision between new technology and policing practices.
“Police are not used to ceding power, and these tools are forcing them to cede power,’’ said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Ardia said the proliferation of cellphone and other technology has equipped people to record actions in public. “As a society, we should be asking ourselves whether we want to make that into a criminal activity,’’ he said.
In Pennsylvania, another two-party state, individuals using cellphones to record police activities have also ended up in police custody.
But one Pennsylvania jurisdiction has reaffirmed individuals’ right to videotape in public. Police in Spring City and East Vincent Township agreed to adopt a written policy confirming the legality of videotaping police while on duty. The policy was hammered out as part of a settlement between authorities and ACLU attorneys representing a Spring City man who had been arrested several times last year for following police and taping them.
In Massachusetts, Wunsch said Attorney General Martha Coakley and police chiefs should be informing officers not to abuse the law by charging civilians with illegally recording them in public.
The cases are the courts’ concern, said Coakley spokesman Harry Pierre. “At this time, this office has not issued any advisory or opinion on this issue.’’
Massachusetts has seen several cases in which civilians were charged criminally with violating the state’s electronic surveillance law for recording police, including a case that was reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court.
Michael Hyde, a 31-year-old musician, began secretly recording police after he was stopped in Abington in late 1998 and the encounter turned testy. He then used the recording as the basis for a harassment complaint. The police, in turn, charged Hyde with illegal wiretapping. Focusing on the secret nature of the recording, the SJC upheld the conviction in 2001.
“Secret tape recording by private individuals has been unequivocally banned, and, unless and until the Legislature changes the statute, what was done here cannot be done lawfully,’’ the SJC ruled in a 4-to-2 decision.
In a sharply worded dissent, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall criticized the majority view of a law that, in effect, punished citizen watchdogs and allowed police officers to conceal possible misconduct behind a “cloak of privacy.’’
“Citizens have a particularly important role to play when the official conduct at issue is that of the police,’’ Marshall wrote. “Their role cannot be performed if citizens must fear criminal reprisals when they seek to hold government officials responsible by recording, secretly recording on occasion, an interaction between a citizen and a police officer.’’
Since that ruling, the outcome of Massachusetts criminal cases involving the recording of police by citizens has turned mainly on this question of secret vs. public recording.
Jeffrey Manzelli, 46, a Cambridge sound engineer, was convicted of illegal wiretapping and disorderly conduct for recording MBTA police at an antiwar rally on Boston Common in 2002. Though he said he had openly recorded the officer, his conviction was upheld in 2007 on the grounds that he had made the recording using a microphone hidden in the sleeve of his jacket.
Peter Lowney, 39, a political activist from Newton, was convicted of illegal wiretapping in 2007 after Boston University police accused him of hiding a camera in his coat during a protest on Commonwealth Avenue.
Charges of illegal wiretapping against documentary filmmaker and citizen journalist Emily Peyton were not prosecuted, however, because she had openly videotaped police arresting an antiwar protester in December 2007 at a Greenfield grocery store plaza, first from the parking lot and then from her car. Likewise with Simon Glik and Jon Surmacz; their cases were eventually dismissed, a key factor being the open way they had used their cellphones.
Surmacz said he never thought that using his cellphone to record police in public might be a crime. “One of the reasons I got my phone out . . . was from going to YouTube where there are dozens of videos of things like this,’’ said Surmacz, a webmaster at BU who is also a part-time producer at Boston.com.
It took five months for Surmacz, with the ACLU, to get the charges of illegal wiretapping and disorderly conduct dismissed. Surmacz said he would do it again.
“Because I didn’t do anything wrong,’’ he said. “Had I recorded an officer saving someone’s life, I almost guarantee you that they wouldn’t have come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you just recorded me saving that person’s life. You’re under arrest.’ ’’
The New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University is an investigative reporting collaborative. This story was done under the guidance of BU professors Dick Lehr and Mitchell Zuckoff.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/12/police_fight_cellphone_recordings/
Deputy accused of having sex while working security at hotel
Regional Report
December 02, 2009|By Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel
The Orange County Sheriff's Office disciplined a veteran deputy caught having sex while working off-duty security at a hotel that hosted Gay Days events.
Witnesses at the Royal Plaza Resort told investigators they saw Master Deputy Bryan Villella and another man having sex in an unlocked conference rooms this summer. Villella worked security at the hotel while off duty.
Sheriff's investigators said Villella, 45, violated the agency's moral conduct policy. Supervisors docked him 150 vacation hours, placed him on one-year probation and assigned him to another beat. Villella is a 23-year-veteran of the Sheriff's Office.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2009-12-02/news/0912020028_1_gay-days-events-front-desk-investigators
Small Town Illinois Sheriff Charged With Pot Dealing And Murder-For-Hire
Justin Elliott | January 5, 2010, 9:48AM
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/gallatin_sheriff_raymond_martin_drugs_corruption_a.php?ref=fpa
Raymond Martin had been sheriff in tiny Gallatin County, Illinois, for 20 years. So when he was arrested on federal drug and gun charges last May for allegedly running a large-scale marijuana dealing operation out of his police SUV, residents were shocked.
But that was only the beginning.
On Saturday, when Martin's wife Kristina and 20-year-old son Cody came to visit him at the jail, they were both promptly arrested. All three were charged Monday on state murder-for-hire charges.
According to the complaint, the trio arranged to have two men -- identified as Kevin B. and Thomas H. -- carry out first degree murder. The charging documents don't detail the alleged plot. But citing a source close to the investigation, ABC affiliate WSIL reported that the subjects of the alleged murder plot were two witnesses in Raymond's upcoming drug trial.
The three are scheduled to appear in Jackson County Circuit Court today.
It's not clear whether one of the targets of the alleged murder plot is the confidential DEA source who appears to be the main informant on the drug charges. According to the federal complaint, Martin warned the source that he would prosecute the source on any charge Martin wanted to "make up."
He allegedly gave the confidential source as much as 20 pounds of pot on a biweekly basis, according to the criminal complaint. The source would then allegedly sell the drugs and split the profits with Martin.
The complaint alleges Martin used his sheriff's department cell phone and his patrol vehicle, a Ford Expedition, during drug deals, all while in uniform and on the job.
So where was Martin getting the pot? He allegedly had at least two sources, as the complaint describes:
"On at least two other occasions when the C/S [confidential source] called Martin to tell him that he was ready for a delivery of marijuana, Martin told the C/S that Martin would have to go by the Courthouse and 'pick it up' and would meet the C/S at the usual location in ten or fifteen minutes. Martin also told the C/S on more than one occasion that if the C/S could locate any outdoor marijuana grow operations in Gallitin County that Martin would arrest the individuals and confiscate the marijuana. After the case was completed in court, Martin would then bring the confiscated marijuana to the C/S to sell instead of destroying it. Martin and the C/S would split the profits evenly on the sale of this marijuana as Martin would have 'nothing' in the marijuana."
The alleged drug dealing was a lucrative enterprise for Martin. Investigators reportedly found a safe at his house with $100,000. They allege that Martin didn't have a mortgage on the $300,000 home, even though he and his wife brought in just over $50,000 a year in legal income.
You can read the drug complaint here and the murder-for-hire charges here.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/gallatin_sheriff_raymond_martin_drugs_corruption_a.php?ref=fpa
Cop Tasers Unconscious Diabetic 11 Times
Chicago police officer Darren Pedota is at the center of a lawsuit filed by a diabetic man who was Tasered 11 times over the course of a minute while suffering from a diabetic seizure.
This isn't the first time an officer has found himself in a similar situation, although in many of those cases the police appeared to be unaware of the patients condition, and mistook the involuntary movements as an act of aggression. In this case however, Pedota was one of the cops called in with the EMT. The police were asked to help the paramedics move the patient off the floor when an involuntary movement of the arm struck one of the assisting individuals. That's when Pedota sprung into "action."
As you might expect, the man suffered injuries from the attack and has responded by suing the crap out of the department for battery, excessive force, and failure to intervene. Hope he wins.
http://gizmodo.com/5437088/cop-tasers-unconscious-diabetic-11-times?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Strange New Twist in Scandal Involving Rogue Philadelphia PD Narcotics Unit
Radley Balko | December 17, 2009
Earlier this year, I posted on a rogue Philadelphia narcotics unit headed up by Officer Jeffrey Cujdik that was shaking down immigrant bodegas across the city. (See updates here and here.) Cujdik's thugs would come into the stores armed with search warrants for selling otherwise innocuous items like small plastic bags that can also be used to package illegal drugs. They would then cut the cords to the stores' surveillance cameras and start helping themselves to cash registers and merchandise. Members of the unit have also been accused of sexually assaulting women during drug raids.
Philadelphia Daily News reporters Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker—who have done some amazing reporting on this story—then showed how lax oversight from prosecutors and police commanders and casual dismissal of citizen complaints allowed Cujdik to continue to operate well after his shakedown tactics should have had him booted off the force. He'd likely still be shaking down bodegas were it not for Ruderman and Laker (the two reporters were of course attacked by Cujdik's police union).
Now Ruderman and Laker report an incredible new twist involving Cujdik's brother Gregory. Unlike two of his brothers and his father, Gregory Cujdik isn't a Philadelphia PD police officer. In fact, he's a convicted drug dealer. The story begins last April.
IT WAS just after midnight. Brian Westberry and a woman friend sat frozen in his bedroom, hoping the persistent pounding on the front door of his Northeast Philly home would stop. It didn't.
Westberry, 24, slipped his licensed .38-caliber revolver into his pants pocket and crept downstairs to open the door.
There stood Gregory Cujdik, 32, who demanded to see "Jen," his girlfriend. Westberry told him "Jen" didn't want to see him, and repeatedly ordered Cujdik to leave. When Cujdik refused, Westberry threatened to call police.
" 'Do it. My family are cops,' " Cujdik said, according to Westberry...
Before Westberry could finish dialing 9-1-1 on his cell phone, Cujdik stepped through the doorway and punched him in the throat, Westberry said.
That's when Westberry pulled out his gun and Cujdik fled, Westberry told the Daily News.
Westberry never fired the gun. In fact, Westberry suffered the only injury when Cujdik staggered him with a punch. But rather than arrest Cujdik, a convicted drug dealer, authorities slapped Westberry with a slew of criminal charges, including felony aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime, terroristic threats, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
From there, Westberry's life got worse. Westberry believes Cudjik is behind a Nov. 14 arson of his house. Detectives didn't question Cujdik until after a Daily News reporter asked a police captain about the case earlier this month.
It gets worse. The detective who arrested Westberry is the wife of Jeffrey Cujdik's former partner. The two also co-own a dunk tank (!?) rental business. Westberry is a gun collector. The police seized all 40 of his guns, all of which were legal and licensed.
All charges against Westberry were finally dismissed in October. But Gregory Cujdik has yet to be charged, for either the assault or the arson. The investigating officer said he never got around to questioning Cujdik about the arson due to a backlog of other cases. Of course, that didn't seem to stop the department from going after Westberry. The investigating officer also indicated he thinks Westberry, who has no prior criminal record, may have intentionally set fire to his own home in order to frame Cujdik.
Incidentally, since the Daily News first broke the story about Jeffrey Cujdik's thuggish narcotics unit in March, none of the officers in the unit has been charged with a crime. A few have been taken off the street and lost their police powers, and there's now a federal investigation underway. But all of the officers from the unit are still collecting paychecks.
http://reason.com/blog/2009/12/17/strange-new-twist-in-scandal-i
Off-Duty Cop Fired, Charged in Wawa Worker Beating
By Danielle Johnson
NBCPhiladelphia.com
A Ridley Township off-duty police officer is out of a job for punching a Wawa worker in the face after she carded him for buying chewing tobacco.
Officer Brian Decker, 33, was charged with assault, terroristic threats and harassment in the alleged beating of a Wawa employee Monique Bronson, according to the Delco Times.
Decker was let go from his position with the police department on Monday.
Police said the alleged assault happened last Tuesday afternoon at the Wawa across the street from the Ridley Township Building.
Police say Decker became enraged when he was carded for buying chewing tobacco.
Witnesses say Decker shouted profanities at Bronson and repeatedly hit her in the face.
Ridley Township police said the Decker was having personal problems and has since checked himself into a rehab facility.
No word on what kind treatment Decker is receiving or his condition.
Decker served with the Ridley Township Police department for 7 years.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34517346
Cop Admits to Pulling Gun on Snowballers
Cop says on video he pulled a gun because he was hit with a snowball
By TERESA MASTERSON
Updated 3:39 PM EST, Sun, Dec 20, 2009
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Eyewitness_Confirms__Cop_Freaks_Out_Over_Snowball_Fight_Waves_Gun-79729162.html
Impeachment appears imminent for federal judge
Corruption found during FBI state probe
By Ben Evans ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's not the lifestyle of a typical federal judge: Five or six vodka cocktails during lunch; gambling with borrowed money; bankruptcy under a phony name; cash, trips or home repairs from lawyers; and a bail bondsman with business before his court.
Witnesses in the congressional impeachment case against U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. paint a jarring portrait of the former Louisiana state judge appointed to the federal bench in 1994 by President Clinton.
As Congress wrapped up several weeks of evidence-gathering hearings this week, legal experts who testified before a House task force suggested Judge Porteous is a clear candidate to become just the eighth federal judge in U.S. history to be impeached and convicted by Congress. Lawmakers appear poised to take their advice and bring charges early next year, setting up a historic trial in the Senate.
"The fact is that we are discovering a pattern of misbehavior that occurred over such a long period of time that it's virtually unique in the annals of impeachment," Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina, told the House panel. "Just imagine what happens if you don't act here - what kind of precedent does that set?"
Judge Porteous, who sits in the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, so far has offered little in his defense. And while his defense attorney, Richard Westling, acknowledges that the evidence doesn't look good, he says the House has disregarded key facts and circumstances. Judge Porteous may have made mistakes, Mr. Westling argues, but his transgressions don't warrant impeachment.
"The presentation before the task force has been one-sided and clearly aimed at moving forward toward eventual impeachment," Mr. Westling said in an interview. "We hope that senators will withhold judgment until we have been given a full and fair opportunity to confront the allegations in a Senate trial."
Mr. Westling has his work cut out for him.
In the opening hearing, House investigators said Judge Porteous had racked up more than $150,000 in credit card debt by 2000, mostly for cash advances spent in casinos.
Two New Orleans attorneys who once worked with Judge Porteous said they gave the judge at least $20,000 in cash gifts while he was a judge, including $2,000 stuffed in an envelope in 1999, just before Judge Porteous decided a major civil case in their client's favor.
At another hearing, the lawyer Judge Porteous hired for his 2001 bankruptcy discussed how he and the judge initially filed the judge's bankruptcy under the name "Orteous," with a hastily arranged post office box as his address, to keep his name out of the newspaper. House investigators said Judge Porteous also lied about his debts and assets in an effort to lower his bankruptcy payments.
Later, New Orleans bail bondsman Louis Marcotte testified that he and Judge Porteous had a long-standing relationship in which Mr. Marcotte routinely took Judge Porteous to lavish meals at French Quarter restaurants and offered his employees to work on Judge Porteous' cars and home. In return, Judge Porteous manipulated bond amounts for defendants to give Mr. Marcotte the highest fees possible, said Mr. Marcotte, who served 18 months in prison on related corruption charges.
Judge Porteous also erased criminal convictions for two of Mr. Marcotte's employees.
"I knew he was struggling - he would have five, six Absolut [vodka] and tonics" at lunch, Mr. Marcotte testified. "I asked him for things and he asked me for things."
The allegations against Judge Porteous were largely uncovered during the FBI's Operation Wrinkled Robe, an investigation of state judges in Jefferson Parish, where Judge Porteous served before getting his federal post. That six-year investigation brought 14 convictions, but Judge Porteous was never charged.
The House needs a simple majority to approve impeachment; the Senate needs a two-thirds vote to convict.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/19/impeachment-appears-imminent-for-federal-judge/
An Irvine cop ejaculates on a motorist but escapes criminal liability
R. SCOTT MOXLEY
Published on February 08, 2007
Officer Park: put your hands behind my back
No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.
When the case went to trial, however, defense attorney Al Stokke argued that Park wasn't responsible for making sticky all over the woman's sweater. He insisted that she made the married patrolman make the mess—after all, she was on her way home from work as a dancer at Captain Cream Cabaret.
"She got what she wanted," said Stokke. "She's an overtly sexual person."
A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s—agreed with Stokke. On Feb. 2, after a half-day of deliberations, they found Park not guilty of three felony charges that he'd used his badge to win sexual favors during the December 2004 traffic stop.
Park, 31, was red-faced and unable to control his twitching foot in the moments before the verdict was announced; if convicted, he would have faced prison. When he was found not guilty, he briefly embraced Stokke. In the public seating section, tears flowed from his gray-haired mother's face. His father, a mechanic, closed his eyes and threw his head back. Outside the courtroom, surrounded by his family, a smiling Park said he felt vindicated.
Veteran sex crimes prosecutor Shaddi Kamiabipour—who'd called Park "a predator" during the nine-day trial—said she was disappointed with the verdicts. She also dismissed Stokke's contention that the Orange County District Attorney's office had overcharged the case. At stake, Kamiabipour said, was the principle that no one—not even a horny cop who'd once won honors for community service—is above the law.
"Park didn't pick a housewife or a 17-year-old girl," Kamiabipour said in her closing argument. "He picked a stripper. He picked the perfect victim."
* * *
In the wee hours of Dec. 15, 2004, Lucy (only her first name was used during the trial) finished her final shift at Captain Cream in Lake Forest, not far from the Irvine Spectrum. Management had let her go after an incident involving a female customer in a bathroom stall. According to court records, there had been a small amount of cocaine, kissing and breast fondling.
Meanwhile, Park was on patrol in the southwest portion of Irvine. Prosecutors believe he was craving a sexual rendezvous, and so he watched for Lucy's white BMW to leave the strip club parking lot, then tailed her, waiting for an excuse for a stop. Park insisted he'd been cruising on the 405 north and coincidentally saw Lucy's vehicle weave and speed.
Kamiabipour, the prosecutor, shook her head in disbelief. She knew the facts—that the officer had waited at least eight or nine minutes before stopping the stripper on a secluded section of a highway that was out of his jurisdiction.
"He was stalking her," she said.
Four months earlier, Park had stopped Lucy under similar circumstances. That time, he'd ignored a plastic drug baggie he'd found in her car and her suspended license. But the stop wasn't a waste of time. After friendly chit-chat, the officer had scored Lucy's phone number. Telephone records show that Park called the stripper the next morning. She told him she was too busy to meet.
On the witness stand, Park explained that he'd called Lucy out of concern for a citizen's safety. He also shrugged his shoulders when Kamiabipour slowly listed the first names of nine Captain Cream female employees—Annette, Denise, Rashele, Marlia, Brandi, Andrea, Deborah, Laura and Shannon—whose license plates he'd run through the DMV computer in the weeks prior to his sexual encounter with Lucy. (Another coincidence, according to Stokke.) Jurors also learned that Irvine Police Sgt. Michael Hallinan had previously warned Park as they left work to stay away from the strippers.
Park, who works in construction nowadays, conceded that he'd been given the warning but claimed that he had no clue it was Lucy in the vehicle or that she had an invalid driver's license, even as he approached her car window.
Kamiabipour believed she'd caught the 6-foot-3 cop in a lie. Records show he ran the bosomy, 5-foot, 110-pound dancer's license plate before the stop, did not call for backup despite the potential for an arrest and failed to tell his supervisor or dispatch that he was leaving Irvine. Several Irvine officers testified that Park's behavior that night was odd.
"[Park's] testimony was just incredible," said Kamiabipour. Irvine city officials must have doubted his story, too. After an exhaustive police internal affairs investigation, they felt it was prudent to give Lucy $400,000 to make her civil lawsuit go away—for fear a jury might give her much more.
In a secretly-recorded phone call to Laguna Beach police shortly after the incident, Lucy recalled that she'd told Park she had no license. Park began "rubbing himself up against me," she said. "Then, he said, 'What are we going to do here, Lucy?'"
Park unzipped his pants, took his penis out and got an erection, she explained. "Basically, the officer made me give [him] a freaking hand job and he let me go. I'm so freaked out about it."
(Lucy also told police, prosecutors and the jury that Park had also fingered her vagina and fondled her breasts before he ejaculated on her.)
*
Officer Park: put your hands behind my back
Officer Park: put your hands behind my back
"I was confused," she told the Laguna Beach dispatcher. "He called me afterwards. I'm scared, you know . . . What's an Irvine cop doing hanging out at a strip club in Lake Forest?"
Telephone records prove that Park made a 19-minute call to Lucy shortly after their encounter. The officer—who told the woman he was "Joe Stephens," an Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy who had died months earlier—said it was a friendly call to make sure she'd arrived home safely. The stripper said he told her to keep her mouth shut.
And then Kamiabipour introduced the bombshell evidence from a high-ranking Irvine police officer: on the night Park tailed Lucy out of the city, the global positioning system in his patrol car had been disconnected without authorization.
"I checked and [the GPS] was not working," said Lt. Henry Boggs.
An unexplainable coincidence, Park's defense countered.
* * *
For all his boneheaded mistakes, Park madea sharp decision picking his legal counsel. Stokke (and John Barnett, Paul Myer and Jennifer Keller) is among the elite of the local defense bar. His fine suits and mastery of courtroom procedures compliment the folksy, grandfatherly style he uses to charm juries. And there was this unspoken advantage over the prosecution: longtime courthouse observers have no memory of an Orange County jury convicting a police officer of a felony.
It wasn't a surprise that Stokke put the woman and her part-time occupation on trial. In his opening argument, he made it The Good Cop versus The Slutty Stripper. He pointed out that she'd once had a violent fight with a boyfriend in San Diego. He mocked her inability to keep a driver's license. He accused her of purposefully "weakening" Park so that he became "a man," not a cop during the traffic stop. He called her a liar angling for easy lawsuit cash. He called her a whore without saying the word.
"You dance around a pole, don't you?" Stokke asked.
Superior Court Judge William Evans ruled the question irrelevant.
Stokke saw he was scoring points with the jury.
"Do you place a pole between your legs and go up and down?" he asked.
"No," said Lucy before the judge interrupted.
"You do the dancing to get men to do what you what them to do," said Stokke. "And the same thing happened out there on that highway [in Laguna Beach]. You wanted [Park] to take some sex!"
Lucy said, "No sir," the sex wasn't consensual. Stokke—usually a mellow fellow with a nasally, monotone voice—gripped his fists, stood upright, clenched his jaws and then thundered, "You had a buzz on [that night], didn't you?"
As if watching a volley in tennis, the heads of the male-dominated jury spun from Stokke back to Lucy, who sat in the witness box. She said no, but it was hopeless. Jurors stared at her without a hint of sympathy.
In his closing argument, Stokke pounced. He called Lucy one of those "girls who have learned the art of the tease, getting what they want . . . they've learned to separate men from their money."
Kamiabipour wasn't amused. "Dancer or not, sexually promiscuous nor not, she had the right not to consent," she told jurors. "[Park] doesn't get a freebie just because of who she is . . . He used her like an object."
rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com
http://www.ocweekly.com/2007-02-08/news/illegally-park-ed/
ACLU Roadmap of Justice Department Inspector General’s Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters
March 19, 2007
TO: Interested Persons
FROM: Michael German, Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington
Legislavitive Office, former Special Agent, FBI
RE: Roadmap of Justice Department Inspector General’s
Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters
DATE: Monday, March 19, 2007
____________________________________________________________
The American Civil Liberties Union has long had serious concerns about the FBI’s authority to use National Security Letters (NSLs). The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)’s recently released audit of NSLs confirmed that the Patriot Act gave the Justice Department and the FBI too much power. The original Patriot Act, passed in 2001, relaxed restrictions on the FBI's use of NSLs and the number issued has increased astronomically. While reports previously indicated a hundred-fold increase to 30,000 NSLs issued annually, the recent IG audit shows there were actually at least 143,000 demands issued under the NSL statute issued between 2003 and 2005, and probably many more. The IG examined only a tiny sample of the hundreds of thousands of NSLs the FBI issued, so the report shows just the tip of the iceberg.
The IG identified numerous FBI abuses and misuses of their NSL authority. What follows is a roadmap to the 199-page IG report. It shows that the FBI reported false information to Congress because poor internal management and a disturbing lack of accountability within the FBI make it impossible for anyone to know how many of these letters have been issued, and what information may have been collected with them. Even more disturbingly, it shows the FBI intentionally circumvented the law to gain access to records that weren’t even relevant to any authorized FBI investigation. But the information gathered by these methods is permanently retained.
IG REVIEW OF FBI’s USE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
I. Previous Reports To Congress Were Wrong
The FBI was required to report the number of NSL demands to Congress, but those reports vastly understated the FBI’s use of NSLs. According to the IG report and in contrast to their congressional reporting, the FBI database shows the following (p. 37):
NSL Demands in 2000: 8,500
NSL Demands in 2003: 39,346
NSL Demands in 2004: 56,507
NSL Demands in 2005: 47,221
Total NSL Demands 2003-2005: 143,074 (p. 36)
But these numbers fail to capture the depth and range of the FBI’s use and abuse of the NSL authority. For example, just nine NSLs in 2004 requested information on 11,000 separate telephone numbers (p. 36).
Moreover, the IG report shows that the FBI data is wrong, due to three separate problems:
1) Field delays in entering NSL data (p. 33).
Resulted in 4,600 NSL requests not being reported to Congress
2003-2005.
2) Incorrect data entries in the NSL database (p. 33).
Resulted in 477 NSLs erroneously excluded from reports to
Congress.
TOTAL known NSL requests not reported to Congress to be
8,850 (6 percent) (p. 34).
3) Inaccurate data in the FBI NSL database (p. 32).
The IG review of 293 NSLs found in a sample of just 77 case files
revealed:
17 percent more NSLs in FBI case files than recorded in
the NSL database;
22 percent more NSL requests in FBI case files than in the
NSL database;
46 of 77 files reviewed (60 percent) were deficient in
required paperwork;
and
12 percent of cases did not accurately state whether the
target was a US person (p. 35).
And this power has increasingly been used to gather data on US persons. The IG report showed that NSL requests for information on US persons increased from 39 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2005 (p. 38).
II. Indefinite retention of NSL data and potential for data mining of innocent Americans
The data received from NSLs is uploaded into three FBI databases:
* Automated Case Support - 29,000 FBI users, 5,000 non-FBI users (p. 28).
* Telephone Application database - for link analysis, 19,000 users (p. 28).
* Investigative Data Warehouse (p. 30 footnote 64, p. 53):
This "warehouse" includes data from 50 different
government databases, includes 560 million records,
and has 12,000 FBI and non-FBI users
The IG audit found that:
* Information received through NSLs is indefinitely retained and retrievable (p. 110).
* The FBI uses NSLs to close cases by concluding subjects pose no terror threat (p. 44), but that information remains in the databases.
* Data from NSLs is shared with the Intelligence Community, other government agencies and foreign governments (diagram 5.1, p. 47).
* Purging of irrelevant data received with NSLs is not required by DOJ/FBI policy (p. 110).
* The FBI did not issue guidance on sequestering, destroying, or using information improperly received until November of 2006 (p. xxxiv, and p. 29, footnote 62).
The IG also expressed concern about the FBI using NSLs against persons two or three steps removed from subjects (p. 109).
III. Intelligence Oversight Board violations
The Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) is a standing committee of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Under Executive Order 12863, the IOB is directed to inform the president of any activities that "may be unlawful or contrary to Executive Order or Presidential Directive." The IG report noted that this directive covers "reports of violations of Department investigative guidelines or investigative procedures." (p. 68)
The IG audit found the following:
* 26 possible IOB violations were reported to the FBI Office of General Counsel (OGC).
* 19 of those were referred to the IOB by OGC (p. 69).
* IG disagreed with one OGC decision not to send report to IOB (p. 76).
* IG review of just 77 case files found 22 more IOB violations.
* 22 percent of files the IG reviewed contained an unreported IOB violation.
* Agents and analysts don’t review records provided from NSL recipients to determine if records are responsive to their NSL requests (p. 85), in violation of DOJ guidelines.
IV. Private Sector Relationships
The IG report highlights how cozy relationships between FBI counterterrorism officials and private sector entities resulted in the circumvention of the NSL statutes, and the illegal dissemination of private information protected under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA).
The IG report indicates the FBI personnel developed "close working relationships with private sector companies, including telephone companies that furnished points of contact to facilitate the FBI’s access to records held by these companies." These relationships led to the use of the illegal use of "exigent letters" to circumvent the ECPA laws regarding the privacy of telephone toll records (p. 87).
The IG report indicates that FBI personnel who used "Certificate Letters" to obtain the financial records of 244 named individuals told the FBI Assistant General Counsel that the Federal Reserve Bank personnel providing the records did not feel that NSLs were required because the Federal Reserve Bank was a "quasi-governmental" body. Federal Reserve Bank policy, however, requires that the FBI issue RFPA NSLs before the FBI may obtain Fedwire records. Federal Reserve Bank officials stated that, "the position on whether to require NSLs depended on who the FBI’s point of contact was at the Federal Reserve." This statement plainly indicates that personal relationships with Federal Reserve employees are used to circumvent the RFPA laws designed to protect private financial records (p. 117).
These examples show how a process with no accountability or oversight can quickly degenerate into a systemic disregard for proper procedures, grave violations of civil liberties, and ultimately intentional violations of the law.
NSLs AND THE COUNTERTERRORISM MISSION OF FBI
The IG uses anecdotal information to report that FBI agents say NSLs are "indispensable" or "our bread and butter" (p. 45), but the numbers tell a different story.
The IG report details 4 cases in which toll billing records obtained from NSLs were used (p.49):
* In one, the FBI "initiated investigations on individuals" identified in toll records received through NSLs, but no results of the investigation were noted.
* In one counterintelligence case, an NSL was used in an investigation that led to a conviction.
* In a third case, an NSL was used to verify that the subject "was in touch with an individual who had been convicted of federal charges." No outcome reported.
* In a fourth case -another counterintelligence case - NSL toll data revealed that, despite denials, an FBI source was in contact with a foreign intelligence agent.
The IG report details 2 cases in which financial records obtained from NSLs were used (p. 50):
o One counterterrorism case where financial records from NSLs were used to identify sources and recipients of money transfers and assisted in the collection of information on overseas targets.
o One counterterrorism investigation in which financial records obtained from NSLs were used to determine there were no significant ties to criminal activity and therefore the investigation was terminated.
The IG report details 3 cases in which Credit Bureau records obtained with NSLs were used (p. 51):
o One counterintelligence investigation in which Credit Bureau records obtained with NSLs assisted in eliminating concerns that the subject was hiding assets.
o One counterterrorism investigation in which subjects dispersed by Hurricane Katrina were located using credit reports received with NSLs. No results of the investigations were reported.
o One counterterrorism investigation in which a credit report obtained with an NSL was used to locate a subject in another city. The case was transferred to the FBI office in the other city. No results of the investigation were reported.
If these examples seem underwhelming, it may be because the IG had little to work with. Despite agent claims that NSLs are indispensable, the IG found very few instances in which data from NSLs was used to prosecute terrorists. The FBI does not keep records of how NSL-derived information is used (p. 60) so the IG asked FBI field offices to report how many times they referred targets of national security investigations to law enforcement authorities for prosecution.
Responses indicated that "about half" of the FBI offices referred one or more counterterrorism investigation targets for prosecution from 2003 to 2005 (p. 63). Of the 46 FBI offices that responded, 19 said they made no referrals. Of the remaining 27 offices, 22 provided details showing criminal charges in 19 fraud cases, 17 immigration cases and 17 money-laundering cases, using information obtained with NSLs (p. 63). The IG report says one FBI office estimated that it used NSL-derived information in approximately 105 criminal proceedings from 2003 to 2005 (footnote 107, p. 64).
All told, the FBI reported 153 criminal proceedings resulting from 143,074 NSL requests. "Criminal proceedings" means all federal grand jury proceedings, as well as search warrants, indictments and trials (footnote 103, p. 62). The IG documented only one material support for terrorism conviction in a case using data from NSLs (p. 64). In other words, NSLs, sold as anti-terrorism tools, are not producing convictions against suspected terrorists.
IMPROPER OR ILLEGAL USE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
The IG report also shows that FBI personnel developed several illegal schemes to circumvent the NSL statutes, abusing the authorities they were given under the Patriot Act and violating the law. The complexity and duration of these schemes demonstrates this misconduct was knowing and intentional.
I. Use of illegal "Exigent Letters" (p. 86-99)
The IG audit found examples in which the FBI circumvented the NSL authority completely by using "exigent letters" to obtain information, with the promise that the agent had already requested a grand jury subpoena or an NSL. The companies receiving the "exigent letters" were asked to turn over sensitive customer information in reliance on that representation. In fact no emergency existed, no grand jury subpoenas or NSLs had been requested before the documents were obtained, and the FBI could not substantiate that agents ever followed through with the proper process.
1) Illegal contracts (p. 87):
The FBI Communications Analysis Unit (CAU) contracted with three telephone companies between May of 2003 and March of 2004, arguing that "previous methods of issuing subpoenas or National Security Letters and having to wait weeks for their service… is insufficient to meet the FBI’s terrorism prevention mission" (p. 88). Under these contracts the three telephone companies would provide the FBI with call data information upon receipt of "exigent letters" signed by FBI Counterterrorism Division personnel who were not authorized to sign NSLs (p. 89). These contracts allowed the FBI and the telephone companies to circumvent the laws controlling the dissemination of telephone toll records.
The FBI Office of General Counsel was aware of these illegal contracts because, as with all FBI contracts, OGC procurement attorneys were involved in reviewing and approving them (see footnote 126, p. 89).
The FBI provided the IG with 739 exigent letters from March 11, 2003 to December 16, 2005 that requested records for 3,000 different telephone numbers (p. 90). Just one letter requested toll information for 171 different numbers (p. 90). But the IG does not know how many "exigent letters" were actually executed because the FBI did not retain copies (p. 90).
The FBI sometimes issued NSLs after receiving requested documents to "cover" the information obtained, but such "cover" NSLs were often issued months later (p. 91).
The FBI could not substantiate that NSLs or other legal process was ever issued to cover the records obtained with the "exigent letters" (p. 91). [FBI claims that the FBI received only documents to which it was entitled to are false.]
2) False statements:
Contrary to the provisions of the contracts that said the FBI would obtain telephone records only after securing the NSLs or grand jury subpoenas, the FBI obtained telephone toll records and subscriber information before serving NSLs or subpoenas, and sometimes without ever serving NSLs or subpoenas (p. 90).
The "exigent letters" issued by the FBI falsely stated that subpoenas had already been requested from the US Attorney when no such request had been made. The IG could not confirm even one instance in which a subpoena had been requested (p. 92).
Despite the language in the letters claiming exigent circumstances, many "exigent letters" were used to collect information when no exigent circumstances existed (p. 92).
The FBI made "factual misstatements in its official letters to the telephone companies either as to the existence of an emergency justifying shortcuts around lawful procedures or with respect to the steps the FBI supposedly had taken to secure lawful process" (p 97).
When CAU asked FBI field offices to send NSLs to cover the "exigent letter" requests, they often did not disclose that CAU had already received the documents (p.92).
3) No investigative authority for the "exigent letters" (p. 92):
The NSL statutes require Senior Executive Service level officials to certify that information sought with NSLs is relevant to an authorized investigation. "Exigent letters" were often issued with no authorized investigation tied to the request.
After receiving documents in response to the "exigent letters" CAU officials asked FBI field offices to open new investigations so after-the-fact NSLs could be issued, without saying the documents were already received. Many FBI offices resisted these efforts.
4) NSLs issued from control files with no open or pending investigations:
300 NSLs issued as part of a "classified special project" (possibly the NSA program?) were issued from a control file that did not reference an authorized investigation (p. 98).
Six NSLs from the Electronic Surveillance Operations and Sharing Unit were issued to Internet Service Providers without reference to any pending investigation, and were signed by an NSLB attorney. The FBI Unit Chief argued this was within the "spirit" of the law (p. 101).
5) FBI Attorneys knew of abuse of NSL authorities:
FBI field offices complained to National Security Law Branch attorneys (p. 93).
In late 2004 an NSLB Assistant General Counsel said the practice of using "exigent letters did not comply with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) NSL statute (p. 93).
In December of 2004 an NSLB Assistant General Counsel complained that CAU requests for NSLs failed to disclose that CAU had already received the documents (footnote 129, p 93).
By law, NSLs can only be issued in connection with an authorized investigation. Nonetheless, an NSLB Attorney signed Electronic Surveillance Operations and Sharing Unit NSLs that were issued without reference to any authorized investigation (p.100).
6) FBI NSLB Attorneys issued inappropriate advice (p. 93):
For two years starting in late 2004 NSLB attorneys counseled CAU officials to:
* Discontinue use of "exigent letters" except in true emergencies.
* Tie requests to existing investigations, or open new ones.
* Issue NSLs promptly after serving the "exigent letters."
* Modify the letters to reference NSLs rather than subpoenas.
* Consider opening "umbrella" investigations from which NSLs could be issued. (This was not done because CAU officials told NSLB, falsely, that each "exigent letter" could be tied to an open investigation and that such requests were "few and far between.")
Starting in June of 2006 "exigent letters" were modified to reference NSLs (p. 94).
As of March 2007 the FBI is unable to determine whether NSLs or grand jury subpoenas were issued to cover the documents requested with "exigent letters" (p. 94).
7) FBI attorneys were intimidated into approving NSLs (p. 112-114):
IG interviews revealed that FBI attorneys serving as Chief Division Counsels in FBI field offices approved NSL requests they would have preferred to reject for legal inadequacy because they were afraid to challenge their FBI superiors who had approved the investigations (p 113). The intimidation of FBI legal counsels demonstrates that the FBI cannot be expected to police itself. Independent oversight is the only mechanism that will ensure the FBI is complying with the law.
II. Illegal "Certificate Letters" used to receive records from the Federal Reserve Bank (p. 115-119):
A second illegal scheme the IG discovered involved the Terrorist Financing Operations Unit at FBI Headquarters, which issued unauthorized "Certificate Letters" to obtain financial records of 244 individuals in violation of the Right to Financial Privacy Act.
1) Circumventing the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA):
The FBI circumvented the requirements of the RFPA by using "Certificate Letters" instead of RFPA NSLs to obtain "financial records" from the Federal Reserve Bank (p. 115).
The IG identified 19 "Certificate Letters" requesting information on 244 named individuals, but could not determine the number of letters issued because the FBI did not keep copies (p. 115).
Not all individuals whose records were sought were subjects of investigations (p. 116).
FBI officials who signed the "Certificate Letters" were not authorized to sign NSLs (p. 116).
2) FBI officials mischaracterized nature of "Certificate Letters" to hide abuse:
In July of 2004 NSLB attorneys learned of "Certificate Letters," but were told by FBI personnel, falsely, that the letters only asked the Federal Reserve whether it had records. NSLB instructed FBI officials to ensure no records were sought with the letters (p. 116).
In fall of 2004 NSLB attorneys learned the letters were being used to obtain records, were being used in non-emergency situations, and after-the-fact NSLs covering these requests were delayed as long as six months. NSLB again advised FBI officials not to obtain financial documents except with a duly authorized NSL (p. 116-117).
The FBI issued at least three "Certificate Letters" in contravention to NSLB advice (p. 117-118).
Federal Reserve Bank officials told the IG they did not consider themselves a "financial institution" within the meaning of the RFPA, and did not consider Fedwire records "financial records." Yet they admitted Federal Reserve Bank policy requires the FBI to issue RFPA NSLs before the FBI may obtain Fedwire records and "financial records," and that they should not have provided records without RFPA NSLs (p. 117).
Despite this, the IG could not reach a legal conclusion as to whether the Federal Reserve Bank is a "financial institution" within the meaning of RFPA, and could not conclude that the FBI’s practice of using "Certificate Letters" violated RFPA (p. 117).
CONCLUSION
The IG report shows more than just poor management and incompetence in the FBI’s handling of its authorities under the NSL statutes. It shows widespread disregard for the few limits Congress imposed, and an institutional willingness to intentionally violate the law to collect vast troves of data that are not even being used to prosecute terrorists. The IG report shows that the ACLU was right to oppose this gross expansion of unchecked power.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The full IG report is available at:
www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0703b/final.pdf
Additional ACLU concerns about the use of NSLs is available at: www.aclu.org/nsl
Footnotes:
[1] The ACLU has challenged this Patriot Act statute in court with two cases: one involving an Internet Service Provider; the second a group of librarians. In both cases, the judges ruled that the gags were unconstitutional. The case involving the Internet Service Provider is ongoing because the ACLU and its client have challenged the constitutionality of the NSL provision itself. In court, the ACLU and its client are arguing that the provision violates the First Amendment insofar as it requires judges to rubber stamp gag orders issued by the FBI. Argument before the district court is expected in April. For more information about the ACLU's legal challenges to the NSL provision, see www.aclu.org/nsl
[2] Fedwire is the Federal Reserve Bank’s electronic funds and securities transfer service (p. 116-117).
[3] The Intelligence Authorization Act of 2004 expanded the definition of "financial institution" in the RFPA to cover travel agencies, Western Union, real estate agents, insurance companies, casinos, car dealers, the Postal Service, and "an agency of the United States Government or of a State or local government carrying out a duty or power of a business Described in this paragraph"
campaign
Keep America Safe & Free
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-roadmap-justice-department-inspector-general%E2%80%99s-review-fbi%E2%80%99s-use-national-secu
Federal Judge Says NYPD Plagued by "Widespread Falsification by Arresting Officers"
Radley Balko | December 1, 2009
In refusing to dismiss a lawsuit against New York City brought by two brothers arrested on trumped-up drug charges, Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein had some harsh words for the city's police department. From the NY Daily News:
"Informal inquiry by [myself] and among the judges of this court, as well as knowledge of cases in other federal and state courts ... has revealed anecdotal evidence of repeated, widespread falsification by arresting officers of the New York City Police Department," Weinstein wrote.
He said that while the vast majority of cops don't engage in crooked practices, it was common enough to be an institutional problem.
The judge said that despite better training for recruits and tough disciplinary action for bad cops, "there is some evidence of an attitude among officers that is sufficiently widespread to constitute a custom or policy by the city approving illegal conduct."
Maximo and Jose Colon were arrested and jailed last January for participating in a drug deal with undercover officers at a Brooklyn bar. They were released—and the officers who arrested them were later indicted—when surveillance video showed the arresting officers fabricated the entire drug deal. From an A.P. story on the case last June:
Jose quickly got the tape to defense attorney Rochelle Berliner, a former narcotics prosecutor. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"I almost threw up," she said. "Because I must've prosecuted 1,500, 2,000 drug cases ... and all felonies. And I think back, Oh my God, I believed everything everyone told me. Maybe a handful of times did something not sound right to me. I don't mean to sound overly dramatic but I was like, sick."
What the tape doesn't show is striking: At no point did the brothers interact with the undercover officers, nor did the brothers appear to be involved in a drug deal with anyone else. Adding insult to injury, an outside camera taped the undercover officers literally dancing down the street.
If it weren't for the tape, the Colons would probably still be in prison.
The Colons' lawsuit argues the incident is one of many, brought about in part by arrest quotas imposed on officers by the NYPD.
http://reason.com/blog/2009/12/01/federal-judge-says-nypd-plague
In police custody, a suspicious death BOSTON
December 4, 2009
Howe was smoking marijuana in the passenger seat of a vehicle on Nov. 25, authorities and witnesses say, when confronted by state, local, and county law enforcement officers. He allegedly exited a window, struck a police officer, and fled. Police arrested Howe after a brief chase and struggle. He collapsed a short time later at the State Police barracks in Andover and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. That’s the official version of events. But an unnamed witness tells a different story, according to Frances King, the attorney for the Howe family. The witness claims he could see as many as 20 police officers surround the suspect, flailing their arms. King also says that Howe’s body showed signs of significant bruising.
Howe’s death evokes the 2008 case of David Woodman, who died of a heart arrhythmia after a confrontation with Boston police. No charges were brought against the officers. But Woodman’s family suspects the use of unreasonable force. The same specter hangs over the Howe case. In both cases, police went into the bunker, failing to produce a timely police report of the incident. In the Woodman case, an independent inquiry by former US attorney Don Stern found a “surprisingly cursory’’ police investigation of the death. In the Howe case, investigators have gotten off to a slow start. A week after the incident, they had yet to complete their interviews of all officers present at the scene. In potential police misconduct cases, best practice calls for interviews to be conducted within a 24- to 48-hour window. Otherwise, the suspicion of collusion can arise.
Police await the toxicology report on Howe, who had earlier run-ins with law enforcement. The presence at the scene of a photographer for the Eagle-Tribune newspaper during part of the incident should also aid the investigation. It is too early to draw firm conclusions. But it is not too early to wonder why a suspect with a small amount of marijuana - a civil offense in Massachusetts - would be rolling around on the ground with police in the first place. Only a thorough and impartial investigation will reveal the truth.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/12/04/in_police_custody_a_suspicious_death/
Police Brutality in America, by State
http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/12-02-2009/Police-Brutality-in-America-by-State-250
Officer Slams Dude Through Window
http://www.break.com/index/officer-slams-dude-through-window.html
Fatal Police Cruiser Accident Caught on Tape
Thursday, November 19, 2009
This is amazing and disturbing dash cam video released November 17, 2009. The video shows a Milford Connecticut cruiser striking a car killing two teenagers June 13, 2009. The accident happened on the Boston Post Rd in West Haven CT while 2 Milford Police cruisers were returning after assisting the Orange Police at a disturbance at a bar. The Milford officer involved in the accident was traveling 94 miles an hour prior to impact.Watch the dash cam indicators of the cruiser as the speeding cruiser comes up from behind him. He starts at around 50 and than starts flooring it getting up to 70. They were returning to Milford and were not responding to a call. It's pretty clear they were racing. The officer involved in the crash was charged with 2 counts of homicide with a motor vehicle November 15, 2009, after 5 month investigation by the Connecticut State Police.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdDW9aE6-A
Officer arrested in child porn case
By Ryan Hutton, New England Newspapers
Updated: 11/03/2009 06:12:08 AM EST
Tuesday, Nov. 03
ADAMS -- Veteran Adams Police Officer Alan C. Vigiard, 45, was arrested last week and charged with possession of child pornography. He has been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation, authorities said Monday.
According to state police reports, Vigiard, who is married with two children, allegedly downloaded and viewed child pornography in the Adams Police Department evidence room. He pleaded not guilty to the child pornography charge Friday in Northern Berkshire District Court.
Police Chief Donald Poirot and the State Police Berkshire Detective Unit began investigating after a folder containing 153 images of child pornography was copied onto CDs with evidence for a larceny case and sent to the Berkshire County district attorney's office, according to court documents.
The images included both male and female children "clearly under age 18" in various states of undress and in sexually explicit situations, according to state police reports. Mixed in with the pornographic images were pictures of clothed teenage girls who have been identified as being from the Adams area.
Also on the CDs were images and a video clip of a male masturbating in front of a computer monitor, the reports state -- the male's head is never in view, but the background was clearly identified as the Police Department's evidence room. According to police, the man in the video had a distinctive scar on his left hand that
matched one a state trooper noticed on Vigiard's hand when he was arrested.
Vigiard is one of only four people with access to the Police Department evidence room, Poirot told state police.
According to court documents, the State Police Digital Evidence Unit was called in to investigate the department's computers, and Poirot contacted the town's network administrator to track Vigiard's account. The administrator said all computer accounts are protected by passwords, so it is not possible for someone to access an account other than his or her own. The digital evidence unit found that time stamps reporting access to the pornographic files matched the times Vigiard had been logged into the system.
The digital evidence unit also found that "Lime Wire" -- a peer-to-peer file sharing program -- had been installed on the evidence room computer. Lime Wire is a program used to download both pirated and legitimate music and videos, as well as more illicit materials such as child pornography. In the Lime Wire searches, police found numerous words and phrases common with searching for child pornography, court documents state.
Poirot told state police the Adams Police Department is not properly equipped or trained to handle cases of child pornography so none should be located anywhere on the department's computers or network.
On Thursday, Poirot confiscated Vigiard's key to the evidence room, court reports state, adding that while state police were meeting with the chief in his office, network time stamps showed that Vigiard tried to delete additional files from the department's network from another computer. State police were able to recover all the files.
According to court documents, Vigiard, after being confronted with the charges, agreed to cooperate with state police: He asked that they not respond to his home and arranged a meeting with troopers at the Adams Police Department later Thursday afternoon. Before that meeting, however, Vigiard called Poirot to cancel, and at 6:40 p.m., state police arrested him outside his home.
While he was being booked at the Cheshire State Police barracks, a trooper observed that Vigiard had a scar that matched the one in the masturbation video and documented it, reports state.
Poirot said he could not comment on an open investigation. He said the department was taking the case very seriously and cooperating with state police. The district attorney's office would not comment beyond confirming the charges against Vigiard.
Vigiard has a pre-trial hearing scheduled for Dec. 21 in Northern Berkshire District Court. If convicted, he could face up to five years in state prison or two and a half years in county jail, as well as fines ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_13699286
Georgia Corrections Officer Arrested for Distributing Child Pornography
By Stephanie F. Brown, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Posted On: July 4, 2009 by David A. Wolf
A Bleckley County (Georgia) corrections officer was arrested in June, 2009 for distributing child pornography. A Cobb County, Georgia police detective posed as a 13 year old girl in an undercover operation. The corrections officer, Jason Shane Price, sent the undercover detective sexually explicit messages and images as well as videos of child sexual abuse.
Authorities are requesting information from the public if they have been in contact with anyone using the email address suthyrngent07@yahoo.com or boiledpenuts2001@yahoo.com. Individuals who have been in contact with these email addresses should report their contacts to the Crimes Against Children’s Unit at 770-801-3470.
http://www.childinjurylawyerblog.com/2009/07/georgia_corrections_officer_ar.html
Dallas Police Officer Arrested for Drunk Driving
An off-duty Dallas police officer was arrested early Wednesday morning and charged with driving while intoxicated and failing to stop and render aid. Senior Cpl. David Aguilar hit another car in his Toyota Tacoma pickup truck at Custer Road and Plano Parkway in Plano, Texas, then fled the scene. Police picked Aguilar up about five miles away. The other driver was hurt although his injuries were minor, according to police. As of Wednesday afternoon Aguilar remained in Plano County Jail. Aguilar is now on administrative leave.
It’s chilling to think that a 12 year veteran police officer would drink and drive, let alone leave an injured person at the scene of a car accident. Although drivers who leave the scene are usually trying to dodge responsibility for their part in the accident, consequences always end up being much worse than if they had just stuck around. Thankfully the other driver only suffered minor injuries, but the negligence of the officer in this case is appalling.
Information provided by Dallas Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 877-294-1115 or online by clicking here.
Posted by Mark A. Anderson
http://www.dallasfortworthcaraccidentlawyer.com/2009/08/dallas_police_officer_arrested_1.html
Huntington Beach Police Officer's Domestic Violence on Wife
October 14, 2009
Posted In: Assault and Battery , Criminal Defense , Domestic Violence , Felony
By Michael L. Guisti on October 14, 2009 8:00 AM | Permalink
HUNTINGTON BEACH - A Huntington Beach police officer, James Roberts, has been charged with domestic violence for assaulting his ex-wife. The wife now is suing the Huntington Beach City for police officers ignoring and covering up the case.
The police officer was arrested Sept. 2 and charged with assaulting and abusing his ex-wife. There were17 felony counts of domestic violence and assault and battery charges again him. She also filed the claim against the Huntington Beach city officers who have been allegedly trying to cover up this case.
Domestic Violence is a serious crime and it involves violence or threats upon another person. Under California Penal Code sections, Domestic Violence or Domestic Abuse involves charges such as: Spousal Abuse ( PC 273.5 ); Assault ( PC 240-241); Battery ( PC 242-243 ); Criminal Threats ( PC 422); Threatening phone call ( PC 653 ); Intimidating a witness or victim ( PC 136).
Domestic Violence can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the seriousness of the case and the prior criminal records of the defendant. Domestic violence or domestic abuse with serious Injuries usually is charged as felonies.
Domestic violence is one of the most aggressively prosecuted crimes. The penalties for domestic violence can be severe, and it carries heavy punishment. The Court usually also issues a restraining order to make sure defendant stay away from the victim.
If you have been arrested for domestic violence, you need to seek an experienced Orange County criminal defense attorney immediately so that your rights can be protected. Our domestic violence attorneys have successfully defended clients in Orange County (Santa Ana, Fullerton, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin and Westminster), Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino.
How an experienced Orange County Criminal Defense Attorney can help you in your Southern California Domestic Violence defense ?
At Law Offices of Michael L. Guisti, our experienced Southern California Criminal defense attorneys are committed to protect your rights and freedom and we will put our experience to work for you. We have handled hundreds of domestic violence cases and our attorneys are capable of getting the charges reduced or dismissed.
If you are facing domestic violence charges or any other crimes, you need to contact us immediately at 714-530-9690. Call us to set up a free consultation with our most experienced criminal defense lawyer to discuss your case further.
http://www.orangecountycriminallawyerblog.com/2009/10/huntington-beach-police-office.html
LAPD officer arrested in Austin on suspicion of sexual assault had history of misconduct allegations
April 6, 2009 | 6:09 pm
A Los Angeles police officer was arrested over the weekend in Travis County, Texas, for allegedly forcing himself on a motel employee while she was retrieving a crib for his child, authorities said today.
Silvio Sam Filipovich, 43, was taken into custody Friday night at the Mountain Star Lodge motel just outside Austin, Texas, and was booked on suspicion of attempted sexual assault. He was released after posting $20,000 bond, said Travis County Sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade.
Filipovich was "not on active duty," and was "on an extended leave" at the time of the reported incident, according to a source familiar with the case who said he was not authorized to discuss the case because it was a personnel matter.
According to authorities, Filipovich allegedly had asked a female motel employee for a crib for his infant child about 10:30 p.m. Friday. He then allegedly pushed her into a closet and tried to fondle her breasts and genitals before she fought him off and called for help.
Filipovich could not immediately be reached for comment.
Records obtained by The Times show that the 21-year veteran LAPD officer had a history of misconduct allegations leveled against him.
The records, which date back to 1995, show that department officials had recommended discipline of more than 100 days for alleged offenses by Filipovich that include trying to improperly convert an on-duty contact into a social relationship, making a discourteous remark and being discourteous during traffic stops.
In one case, records show, department officials alleged that while off duty, Filipovich "inappropriately exposed [his] penis in a public place." It was unclear from the records what, if any, discipline he received.
-- Andrew Blankstein
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/lapd-officer-arrested-in-austin-on-suspicion-of-sexual-assault-had-history-of-misconduct-allegations.html
Officer Accused Of Taking Drugs From Evidence Room
POSTED: 12:45 pm EDT October 1, 2009
UPDATED: 12:56 pm EDT October 1, 2009
LYNDHURST, Ohio -- A former Lyndhurst police office was indicted Thursday on charges of drug possession, tampering with evidence, and theft in office.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said Robert Colombo, 40, stole drugs from an evidence room and replaced them with rock salt.
The evidence was confiscated from a vehicle involved in a crash on May, 19. Lyndhurst officers responded to the scene, found heroin and arrested two people.
They officers returned to the station to book the suspects. At the station, Colombo took the evidence to log it into the evidence room but instead replaced the evidence, investigators said.
Colombo was found the following day at his Summit County home with heroin. BCI conducted the investigation.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21171818/detail.html
Officer arrested; citizenship questioned
He is suspected of taking on identity of dead cousin years ago
By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May 31, 2007
A Milwaukee police officer was arrested Wednesday by federal immigration agents on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant who assumed the identity of his dead cousin a decade ago, officials said.
The officer, who has lived and worked under the name Jose A. Morales since he was a teenager, was arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz confirmed Wednesday.
A spokeswoman from Immigration did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday night.
"When the Milwaukee Police Department was made aware of these allegations, we worked in concert with federal authorities on this investigation," Schwartz said.
Morales, 24, was suspended after his arrest, Schwartz said. He will continue to be paid, per state law.
Morales was hired five years ago as a police aide, a program that came under fire during the investigation of the beating of Frank Jude Jr. and was later overhauled.
Morales became a patrol officer in December 2004 and was most recently assigned to second shift at District 2 on the south side, Schwartz said.
The U.S. attorney's office began reviewing the case Wednesday, said Michelle Jacobs, first assistant U.S. attorney.
"The case is under consideration by our office and a decision on charging will likely be made" today, Jacobs said, adding that if Morales is charged, he would appear in federal court today.
If Morales is charged or just deported, there will likely be fallout within the criminal justice system, based on the history of other police officers who have been charged with crimes. Prosecutors typically drop any case that an accused officer is a witness in and sometimes old cases can come up for appeal, if the officer was a key witness.
Officials did not say how Morales came to the attention of federal authorities.
It is suspected that he, as a teenager, took on the identity of his dead cousin. By doing that at such a young age, he created a trail of fingerprints and other identification that ultimately allowed him to join the department, Schwartz said.
"We do everything we can during the background check when people apply to be police officers, but in this case when it has been going on so long, it would be really difficult to discover it was going on," Schwartz said.
Changes to program
Since Morales was hired, the police aide program has been overhauled after a disproportionate number of its graduates landed in trouble. Officials found some aides lied, didn't work hard and failed to be physically fit.
The program, which grooms teens to become police officers, has been restructured with stronger oversight, closer evaluation of aides, a new uniform and additional required college credit, the department said.
The background check, which is the same for aides and officers, also has been strengthened after officials found that some of the officers accused in the Jude beating had questionable backgrounds. Now, the chief plays a larger role, personally reviewing all applications.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29401339.html
On Tuesday (20/10), a former TSA screener at Philadelphia Airport (PHL) admitted stealing from hold baggage. The screener had been seen by a loader removing a laptop from a suitcase and hiding it behind an explosives detection machine. A search by TSA management discovered four computers and a games console hidden behind the machine. He will be sentenced later.
http://www.aviationsecuritynews.com/Pages/26th%20October%202009.html
Woman Finds Officer in Her Bed
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A U.S. Capitol Police officer was arrested Sunday morning in Arlington County when a woman came home and found him passed out drunk in her bed, police said. The two had never met.
The officer, Thomas Patrick McMahon, 34, was charged with unlawful entry. Police say they are perplexed as to why McMahon picked the apartment, in the 1000 block of North Randolph Street, to sleep. He lives in Reston.
"I don't know if it looks similar to his apartment in Reston or what," said Arlington police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal. "Thankfully, nobody was hurt."
When officers arrived at 1 a.m., McMahon was still sleeping, Nosal said. Police think he walked into the apartment through the front door.
McMahon, a Capitol Police officer since 1998, is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal charges, said Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman. Schneider said the agency will also conduct an investigation.
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His arrest was first reported on WUSA-9.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093004586.html
Attica Correctional Officer Arrested
Posted on Friday, 2 of October , 2009 at 3:01 pm
BATAVIA—A correctional officer at the Attica Correctional Facility has been arrested for allegedly defrauding the state Insurance Fund.
James S. Gibbs, 33, of Batavia, has been charged with third degree grand larceny, third degree insurance fraud, first degree offering false instruments for filing and a violation of the Worker’s Compensation law.
State Police said the charges were the result of an investigation which revealed, that during the winter of 2008 through the summer of 2009, while collecting full disability compensation from an on duty injury, Gibbs received wages while actively plowing driveways and sealing parking lots in the City of Batavia.
Gibbs was arraigned in the City of Batavia Court and remanded to the Genesee County Jail in lieu of $10,000.00 bail. 10-2-09
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/10/02/attica_co/
MC Corrections Officer Arrested on Drug, Gun Charges
Written by MC Prosecutor's Office Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:44
Newsbrief - Law and Order
FREEHOLD, NJ - On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, Todd Messinger, 40, of East Brunswick, N.J., was arrested by Detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and charged with numerous crimes, including third degree Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance, second degree Possession of a Firearm While Committing a Drug Offense, and three counts of second degree Official Misconduct.
The arrest resulted from a joint and cooperative investigation which was conducted by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office, the New Jersey State Department of Corrections, and the Freehold Township Police Department. The joint investigation followed an internal investigation which was initiated by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and then referred to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The joint investigation revealed that Messinger, who is employed by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office as a County Corrections Officer assigned to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, had made plans with another individual pursuant to which Messinger was going to bring roxycontin, a controlled dangerous substance, into the Monmouth County Correctional Institution with the intention to distribute the roxycontin to an inmate.
Concerted action by the various agencies who were involved in the investigation resulted in Messinger being arrested before his plans could be fully implemented, and before any controlled dangerous substances actually entered the Monmouth County Correctional Institution. Messinger was arrested while wearing his uniform and carrying his duty firearm as he was accepting delivery of what he believed to be the roxycontin a short distance from the Monmouth County Correctional Institution just after he completed his shift.
Messinger is charged with third degree Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled Dangerous Substance, third degree Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled Dangerous Substance with Intent to Distribute, third degree Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Dangerous Substance, third degree Possession of an Imitation Controlled Dangerous Substance with Intent to Distribute, second degree Possession of a Firearm While Committing a Drug Offense, and three counts of second degree Official Misconduct.
If convicted, the maximum potential custodial sentence for each of the third degree crimes is a State Prison term of up to 5 years. If convicted, the maximum potential custodial sentence for second degree Possession of a Firearm while Committing a Drug Offense is a State Prison term of up to 10 years. The crime of Possession of a Firearm While Committing a Drug Offense is subject to the “Graves Act,” which requires the imposition of a period of parole ineligibility of at least 3 years. If convicted, the maximum potential custodial sentence for each of the second degree Official Misconduct charges is a State Prison term of up to 10 years with a mandatory 5 year period of parole ineligibility.
Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Quinn set bail for Messinger at $560,000. Messinger posted bail shortly after his arrest, and he was released. Following his arrest, Messinger, who has been employed by the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office for approximately 9 years, was suspended without pay.
Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno stated, “The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate unethical or illegal conduct by any of its employees.” Sheriff Guadagno further stated, “The integrity of the 650 dedicated men and women who serve in the Sheriff’s Office must be and remain above reproach.”
Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin stated, “Corrections Officer Messinger violated his sacred oath to uphold the laws of this State and by so doing violated the trust of this community and brought negative attention to a fine law enforcement agency that played a major role in bringing an end to his criminal conduct.”
Despite these charges, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and State law.
http://www.ahherald.com/index.php/Law-and-Order/mc-corrections-officer-arrested-on-drug-gun-charges.html
Warsaw officer arrested in domestic dispute, fired
Published: October 24, 2009 3:00 a.m.
Michael Zennie
The Journal Gazette
A Warsaw police officer is free on bail after Fort Wayne police arrested him early Friday on a charge he hit his wife.
Warsaw Police Chief Perry Hunter said he fired Joseph Klaehn, 31, of the 1600 block of Echo Lane in Fort Wayne, after learning of the arrest.
Klaehn’s wife told police early Friday that he slapped her across the face at least twice after an argument. A friend of Klaehn’s wife called officers and urged her to file a police report. The couple’s two small children were asleep at the home during the assault, police said.
When officers went to Klaehn’s home and arrested him, he denied hitting his wife, a police report said.
Klaehn joined the Warsaw Police Department in March and was scheduled to go to the police academy in January. He was still a probationary officer, so the department can fire him immediately instead of waiting for public safety board proceedings, Perry said.
Klaehn was formerly an Allen County confinement officer. He was booked into the Allen County Lockup about 3 a.m. on a single count of domestic battery. He was released on $2,500 bond.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091024/LOCAL07/310249937
Police: Cop Asked For Jail-Cell Sex Act
17-Year Veteran Arrested, Suspended, Being Fired
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police say a male officer has been suspended for 30 days with intent to dismiss for allegedly asking a female prisoner to perform a sex act.
A Friday-night news release from Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey states that Officer Malaika T. Mebane, of the 39th District, was arrested earlier in the day by the department's Internal Affairs Division.
According to police, it was in the early hours of Friday morning when another on-duty officer assigned to the 35th District cell block spotted Mebane in an unoccupied jail cell facing a female prisoner, who was seated on a bench.
Police said the female officer immediately notified supervisors.
Supervisors in the 35th District detained Mebane, a 38-year-old and 17-year force veteran, held the cell room as a possible crime scene and contact internal affairs. The female prisoner was taken to a secure area.
Police said the district attorney's office was consulted, interviews were conducted, and the prisoner stated that Mebane asked her to perform oral sex on him.
According to police, Mebane was charged with attempted indecent deviate sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, attempted institutional sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual assault, indecent assault and unlawful restraint.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/101609_Police_Officer_Accused_Of_Jail_Cell_Sex_Request
Major police raid targets L.A.’s notorious Avenues gang
Under the cover of darkness this morning, about 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies launched a major assault on the Avenues gang, hoping to deal a blow to one of Los Angeles’ most notorious criminal groups.
Warrants in hand, teams of officers departed a massive command center in Elysian Park around 3 a.m. and descended on dozens of homes in search of 54 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang who were wanted on an array of federal charges related to the gang’s extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.
Within hours, 44 of the men and women were in custody, according to LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure, who is overseeing the operation. The others remained at large and are being sought. Among the arrested was Tammy Armstrong, a state corrections officer accused of aiding members of the gang currently incarcerated. Several weapons were also confiscated.
With more than three dozen other suspects already in custody on unrelated crimes, the operation aimed to bring fresh criminal charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members.
Some suspects were sought elsewhere in the city and in other counties, but the sweep focused on Glassell Park and other neighborhoods in the northeastern reaches of Los Angeles — the center of Avenues territory since the gang first surfaced in the 1950s.
There were no reports of officers encountering violent resistance. San Bernardino County sheriff’s officers shot two aggressive dogs they encountered at one location, police said.
More typical of the morning was the scene that unfolded on Estara Street in Glassell Park. LAPD SWAT team members quietly surrounded a home in search of a pair of brothers, Norberto and Roberto Salazar. Using a bullhorn, a SWAT officer ordered the occupants out of the house. Several dazed looking women carrying small children wrapped in blankets emerged and were taken aside for questioning. They were followed shortly by Norberto Salazar, who was walked down the street in stiff plastic handcuffs and wearing baggy white shorts and a white tank top.
On the street corner, beneath a sign advertising check cashing at the El Ranchito meat market, Salazar spoke quietly with detectives for several minutes before being led away to a waiting car. He is accused of directing other Avenues members to commit several violent or drug-related crimes. His brother, who is accused in a beating of a man, was not found at the house.
The operation culminated a yearlong investigation of the gang that had been headed jointly by a unit of LAPD detectives that specializes in gang-related homicides and a DEA task force. The group turned its focus on the Avenues in the wake of the August 2008 slaying of Juan Abel Escalante, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Escalante, 27, was gunned down outside of his parents’ Cypress Park home early in the morning as he headed to work as a guard at the Men’s Central Jail.
LAPD detectives led the murder investigation into the killing because it occurred within city boundaries. Within days of the shooting, agents from the DEA task force, which had previously investigated the Avenues, came to detectives with information they had gathered that indicated members of the gang may have been responsible.
That tip led to the arrest in December of two Avenues members in connection with the murder. Months later, a third member was taken into custody, and charges were brought against a fourth, who remains a fugitive. In the course of investigating the Escalante killing, however, the LAPD detectives and DEA agents delved into the inner workings of the Avenues and began compiling evidence related to a host of other alleged crimes.
Some of the information was collected during interrogations of Avenues members and others from the neighborhood who had been arrested by a special team of 54 uniformed gang officers deployed in the area. Much of the incriminating information, however, came from the suspects themselves as DEA agents secured approval from federal judges for an array of wiretaps that allowed them to listen in on gang members’ phone conversations.
“They could have just stuck with Escalante,” McClure said. “They could have said, ‘We got what we came for,’ packed it up and moved on to something that would have been easier. This operation was not a result of me telling them they have to do this. It is a result of this unit saying, ‘There is more here, let’s keep going.’”
Over the course of the investigation, cases were built against Avenues members for their alleged roles in six other unsolved murders and four attempted murders, police said. The bulk of the charges, however, involve extortion and other crimes that Avenues members and associates allegedly committed as part of the gang’s extensive drug trafficking in the area, police say. Most of the Avenues members and associates included in the indictment are being charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows prosecutors to pursue more serious prison sentences.
At a planning briefing last week with representatives from the agencies involved, there was little question as to what had kept the group motivated.
With the auditorium at LAPD headquarters filled with a few hundred officers, a recording was played of the phone call Escalante’s wife made to a 911 dispatcher after discovering him in the street. “If anyone has any doubt about the rationale or reason behind this operation, it was this,” a detective said.
During a final briefing at the command post this morning, however, LAPD Cmdr. Pat Gannon reminded the officers, “This is not about payback. This is about us being professional, doing our jobs and putting people behind bars.”
After several weeks of painstaking planning, the sweep went off without any major problems. Once taken into custody, suspects were transported back to the command post, which took on a surreal quality as the day’s first light revealed dozens of handcuffed men and women being processed in an assembly-line fashion in the middle of a sprawling parking lot dotted with hundreds of police vehicles and catering trucks to feed hungry officers.
The Avenues gang, named for the avenues that cross Figueroa Street, has a long, ugly history dating back at least to the 1950s, when it was linked to many shootouts and killings. It is thought by some that the group’s origins can be traced back to some of the hundreds of families displaced from Chavez Ravine, now home to Dodger Stadium, and the Rose Hill area.
The group’s insignia, which many members have tattooed on their bodies, is a skull with a bullet hole in it and wearing a fedora. Various cliques of the Avenues claim Highland Park and parts of Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock as their territory. It is linked closely to the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which demands that the Avenues and other Eastside gangs send up a share of the taxes they collect from low-level drug dealers and others selling goods on their turf.
Today’s sweep is hardly the first time law enforcement has taken on the Avenues. In 2002, the city attorney won an injunction against the gang, making it illegal for members to congregate throughout much of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Cypress Park and Eagle Rock. A few years later, federal prosecutors won hate-crime convictions against Avenues members for the killings of three black men between 1995 and 2000.
Government attorneys argued that the Avenues launched a campaign of violence to force black people out of the Highland Park area in the 1990s and targeted the men simply because of their race. In 2007, the city used a narcotics-abatement lawsuit to shut down the home of a family at the center of the Avenues’ Drew Street clique.
At the time, then-City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo called the house the gang’s “mother ship.” In February of last year, the gang re-erupted into the city’s public consciousness when police said Drew Street members gunned down a man as he stood on a curb holding his 2-year-old granddaughter’s hand.
They brazenly took on police in a running gun battle, firing at officers with an AK-47 assault rifle in broad daylight. Most recently, in June 2008, the DEA task force that came to LAPD detectives with information on the Escalante killing conducted a similar, but smaller, operation to the one carried out today. That investigation named 70 defendants.
At the time, LAPD officials assured residents of the area that they would work to keep the gang from reclaiming control of the neighborhoods. Drug activity and violence in the area has slowed considerably in recent months, police said, but considering the size of today’s operation, the gang has maintained a commanding presence.
More than last year’s sweep, today’s operation struck deeper at the guts of gang, targeting higher-level members who play central roles in running the day-to-day operations of the gang. Most prominent on the list of suspects taken into custody was Rudy Aguirre Jr. Aguirre had established himself as a crucial bridge to the outside for several of the gang’s leaders in Pelican Bay State Prison, said Christopher Brunwin, the assistant U.S. attorney leading the effort to prosecute those arrested.
“The roots of this gang and others like it run so deep that the idea of completely eliminating it is not a realistic goal,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck. “But eliminating its ability to operate as a criminal enterprise is realistic. We have taken a big step in that direction today.”
http://californiacorrectionalcenter.blogspot.com/2009/09/state-corrections-officer-arrested-in.html
Birmingham Police Officer Arrested
By Corinne Alcazar
Published: October 13, 2009
BIRMINGHAM-The Birmingham Police Department reports today that allegations of insurance fraud were brought against a Birmingham Police Officer.
Officials From the Aflac Insurance Company obtained five warrants for Theft 1st degree against the officer.
The officer involved is Rowena Gadson, 42, of Birmingham.
Gadson has turned herself in and has posted bond. Gadson served with the Birmingham Police Department for 15 years and was assigned to the Detective Division.
After receiving the information, Gadson was terminated by Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper.
No information has been developed to indicate that any other officers were involved in these illegal activities.
http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/birmingham_police_officer_arrested1/100128/
Officer Arrested for Attempting to Help Inmate Escape
Posted On: October 12, 2009 by Shouse Law Group
Hollis Sallahudin, a corrections officer at North Las Vegas Detention Center, was arrested for allegedly trying to help an inmate escape from the jail. She’s been placed on paid administrative leave and was charged with aiding a prisoner to escape and forgery by tampering with computerized data.
Aiding a prisoner to escape (NRS 212.100) with the use of a deadly weapon is a category B felony in Nevada, carrying one to six years in prison and maybe a $5,000 fine. Where no deadly weapon is used, as seems to be the case in Sallahudin’s case, it’s a gross misdemeanor, carrying up to a year in jail and maybe a $2,000 fine.
North Las Vegas Detention Center is a large jail with nearly 1,000 beds. In addition to holding inmates arrested for misdemeanors in North Las Vegas, the North Las Vegas Detention Center also houses inmates from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Marshal Service, and overflow from the Clark County Detention Center.
Posted by Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorneyhttp://www.las-vegas-criminal-defense-blog.com/2009/10/officer_arrested_for_attempting_to_help_inmate_escape.html
Married Calexico police officer arrested for hitting girlfriend outside bar
CALEXICO CA --- A Calexico police officer faces a felony domestic violence charge after he was arrested over the weekend for allegedly punching his girlfriend in the face and stomach outside a bar where he was confronted by his wife who came looking for him, a Calexico Police lieutenant said Monday.
Juan Garcia, 41, posted bail following his arrest Saturday night at the Calexico Police Station, said Lt. Gonzalo Gerardo. Garcia's wife, Gabriela Guadalupe Leyva Garcia, 34, was also arrested for allegedly hitting her husband's girlfriend, Gerardo said. Leyva Garcia has also posted bail.
The girlfriend, 29, who Gerardo declined to identify, was treated and released at El Centro Regional Medical Center for injuries to her lower jaw and stomach.
Juan Garcia, a five-year veteran of the Calexico Police Department, has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of his case, Gerardo said.
By SILVIO J. PANTA, staff writer
Silvio Panta on October 05, 2009
http://www.ivblogz.com/quicknews/2009/10/married-calexico-police-officer-arrested-for-hitting-girlfriend-outside-bar.html
TAMPA CRIMINAL BLOG: Florida Beach Officer Arrested While On-Duty For Sex Crimes
Posted On: October 21, 2009 by David Haenel
A Volusia County beach patrol officer was arrested while on-duty for alleged sexual contact with an underage girl as reported by the Bradenton Herald on their website. Robert Tameris, 44-years-old, is accused of beginning a sexual relationship with a girl who he met while she was sunbathing at the beach. The girl’s age was reported to be 16 at the time they met.
According to reports, the two began a sexual relationship in 2007 and the officer is alleged to have recorded the pair having sex without the girl’s knowledge. Investigators set up a call between Tameris and the girl in which he reportedly acknowledges the sexual relationship. He was charged with unlawful sex with a minor.
If you have been charged with a sex crime in central Florida and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact Criminal Defense Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourFelony.com. Also you can contact Darren via email or by stopping in any of our four central Florida office locations.
http://www.floridacriminaldefenseattorneyblog.com/2009/10/tampa_criminal_blog_florida_be.html
Barrow detention officer arrested
Posted by Kristi Reed
Thursday, October 29. 2009
A Barrow County detention officer was arrested today by Barrow County Sheriff’s Office narcotics deputies.
Jeremy Robert Haney, 30, of Bethlehem, was arrested after purchasing a small quantity of hydrocodone from an undercover deputy. Haney was arrested without incident.
Detention center administrators learned of Haney’s suspected drug activity and worked with narcotics agents to conduct an undercover operation. Within 24 hours of receiving the tip, the Sheriff’s Office had investigated and arrested Haney.
Haney is charged with purchasing a controlled substance, conspiracy to purchase a controlled substance and violation of oath of office. He is currently in custody and being held at an undisclosed location.
Haney has been employed at the Barrow County Detention Center as a detention officer for the past year and a half. His duties included inmate supervision. Haney’s position did not involve regular contact with the general public.
Sheriff Jud Smith said his agency is committed to providing excellent law enforcement services to the citizens of Barrow County and out of county guests.
“We hold our employees to the highest of standards and will not tolerate any criminal activity whatsoever,” he said.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
http://www.barrowjournal.com/archives/1903-Barrow-detention-officer-arrested.html
CHP officer arrested on child cruelty, spousal abuse charges
October 4, 2009
The Associated Press reports that California Highway Patrol Officer Richard Joseph Handwork was arrested Friday at the CHP office in Yuba City. The 44-year-old Yuba City resident is suspected of inflicting corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant and of willful cruelty to a child. He made bail and is on "administrative duty," according to the wire report, while the allegations are being investigated. Click here for the AP story picked up by The Bee.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/the_state_worker/2009/10/chp-officer-arrested-on-child.html
Longboat Key police offcer arrested after pointing gun
By Anthony Cormier
Published: Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 3:53 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 3:53 p.m.
SARASOTA — A Longboat Key police officer was arrested after she pointed a gun at a woman and her children near Southside Elementary School Wednesday, an arrest report says.
Patricia Ann Beardsley, 51, was booked into the Sarasota County Jail Wednesday afternoon on a felony count of aggravated assault with a firearm.
The incident began as parents were picking up their children from Southside at 2:30 p.m. One mother, Jill Campbell, had three of her children in the car and pulled into Beardsley’s driveway to make a Y-turn.
When she did, officers say Beardsley approached the car with a 9 mm pistol, pointing it inside the vehicle and screaming at Campbell.
One of the woman’s children screamed and ducked into the back seat. When police arrived, Beardsley denied pointing a gun at the family, saying it was only a cell phone in her hand. Another witness, however, told officers that Beardsley had a gun.
Beardsley had called 911 moments earlier to report people parking in her driveway, the report says. Beardsley, a 10-year veteran of the force, has been suspended from duty.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090917/breaking/909179963?Title=Longboat-Key-police-offcer-arrested-after-pointing-gun
Cop [Suspended] - accused of pulling gun at haunted house
Accused of pulling handgun at a chain-saw wielding man
Oct . 27, 2009
ESSEX, Md. - An off-duty Baltimore city police officer delivered the fright of a lifetime to a haunted house employee, pulling a gun on the chain-saw-wielding man at the end of his act, authorities said Monday.
Sgt. Eric Janik, 37, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment for pointing his service handgun at the worker, who was dressed as Leatherface, the killer from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Baltimore County police said.
The employee, Mike Morrison, followed Janik and several other people up a staircase Sunday night at the end of the haunted house tour in a bid to get "one last scream" out of them, police said.
When the group exited into a parking lot, Janik pulled his gun and pointed it at Morrison from less than 10 feet away, according to police and Morrison, who said he dropped the chain saw, put his hands up and backed away. The saw had no chain.
Only then did Janik identify himself as a police officer, said Morrison, who retreated into the building.
"I started shaking pretty bad," he told The Associated Press.
Another employee of the House of Screams called police.
According to charging documents, Janik smelled of alcohol and told police two different stories about what he did with the gun. First, he denied drawing the weapon, but later he said he pointed it at the ground.
Morrison and two other witnesses told police that Janik pointed the gun at Morrison's chest.
Janik had no listed number and a voice mail for his attorney, Shaun Owens, was not immediately returned.
A security guard had been following Janik's group, which included his 9-year-old daughter, through the haunted house because Janik appeared to be drunk when he arrived, House of Screams owner Tony Sapanero said.
Morrison said Janik's daughter appeared to be disturbed by his act, in which he pretends to cut one woman in half and disembowel another with the chain saw.
Janik was suspended with pay after police commanders learned of what happened and could be without pay after a hearing Tuesday morning, city police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
City police officers are required to carry their service weapons while off duty within city limits and can carry them at their own discretion outside the city, Guglielmi said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33486517?GT1=43001
Duke police officer arrested for rape
Webster Delenn Simmons Duke officer charged with rape
Posted: Oct. 27, 2009
Updated: Oct. 28, 2009
Durham, N.C. — A Duke University police officer has been arrested and charged with raping a woman in Dothan, Ala., over the weekend.
Webster Delenn Simmons, 37, of Rougemont, was arrested Monday after the alleged attack was reported. He was charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy.
The 34-year-old victim went with Simmons to a bar on Friday night, Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes said. The victim bought every drink but her last, which Simmons bought. Hughes said Simmons possibly laced the victim's drink with drugs.
Hughes said the victim remembers leaving the bar. When she woke up early Saturday, she was being raped in Simmons' car. She was gagged and handcuffed.
After executing a search warrant, authorities found two pair of handcuffs, a ball gag, a thick white rope, an unknown power source with wires attached to a nail, a whip and flog, and what looked like medical tubing.
Authorities suspect Simmons may have committed other sex crimes, Hughes said.
“We are certainly cooperating with the officials in Alabama. We really don't have any indication there's been another crime, but we will continue to cooperate with them or any other agency as we need to,” Duke University Police Chief John Dailey said.
Simmons, who had no criminal record, was hired by Duke last December.
“It's disturbing to hear any serious allegation about any law enforcement officer because they represent all of us in law enforcement. So clearly it is concerning,” Dailey said.
Simmons was being held under a $120,000 bond Tuesday at the Houston County Jail in Alabama. He has been suspended with pay pending further investigation, university spokesman Keith Lawrence said.
“Clearly this is one individual who does not represent the good work and the dedication of the 173 other employees that we have at the department,” Dailey said.
Prior to his work at Duke, Simmons was a master officer with the Raleigh Police Department from 1998 to 2007.
Duke police said they will conduct their own internal investigation of Simmons.
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6292066/
TPD officer arrested after being found drunk on job
The officer was arrested on Friday, suspected of being drunk on the job
By Arielle Berlin
Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 8:54 p.m.
TOLEDO, OH -- A Toledo Police officer has been relieved from duty after a firefighter allegedly found him drunk on the job.
Police Chief Mike Navarre confirms that Officer James Breier was arrested Friday afternoon. Officers arrested him when they saw probable cause that he was intoxicated.
Breier has been placed on temporary paid leave while the investigation is being handled by Internal Affairs.
http://www.toledoonthemove.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=367496
I'd call this Murder
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/041750.html
NEVER Seek “Help” from the State’s Armed Enforcers
Posted by William Grigg on November 1, 2009 08:03 AM
Niles Leo Meservey, a 51-year-old resident of Stanwood, Washington, was drunk and belligerent when he slumped into the seat behind the steering wheel of his Corvette last June 10.
Meservey had been cut off by the bartender after he had inflicted his unwanted attention on a couple of women at a nearby club, briefly dragging one of them onto the dance floor.
Several people were worried about the prospect of the intoxicated man attempting to drive home when he clearly presented a risk to himself and others. One of them, Trisha Tribble, called 911.
“We’re really concerned about a guy leaving the parking lot of Chuckwagon [Inn] on Evergreen Way — in a white Corvette, he’s extremely intoxicated,” Tribble told the dispatcher.
Several officers from the Everett Police Department soon arrived; among them were Troy Meade, an 11-year-veteran, and Officer Steven Klocker. Meade arrived at about 11:39 PM; Klocker reached the scene a little less than five minutes later.
At the time Officer Meade arrived, Meservey was hedged in by cars on either side of his Corvette, and cut off by a parking lot fence in front of him. Meade pulled up behind Meservey’s car, effectively boxing him in.
Joanne Hancock, who was smoking outside the Chuckwagon Inn when the police arrived, went inside to tell others concerned about Meservey that “They’ve got him!” The news prompted a small group of people to go outside to watch the arrest.
By the time Klocker arrived to provide “backup,” Meade had spent perhaps five minutes trying to convince Meservey to get out of the car. Klocker would later report that Meade’s tone and attitude toward the intoxicated man were “belligerent,” and that he “used language which made him [Klocker] uncomfortable because of the nearby civilians.”
“I don’t know why the f**k I am trying to save your dumb ass,” Meade snarled at Meservey, according to Klocker’s account.
Both Meade and Klocker withdrew their portable electro-shock torture devices (more commonly called Tasers). Meade, who was closest to the driver, shot Meservey with his Taser through the open driver’s side window, inflicting two separate strikes — one five seconds long, the other six seconds’ duration.
“Why in the f**k did you do that?” muttered the drunken man, who — predictably enough — didn’t want to stick around for any more abuse. He reached for his keys and started the car, but he had nowhere to go: It lurched over a concrete curb and ran into an unyielding chain-link fence.
Bear in mind, once again, that Meservey was entirely boxed in. It was possible, albeit with some difficulty, for Officer Meade to reach through the window and seize the car keys, rather than escalating the situation by using potentially deadly force.
But Meade’s pointless escalation didn’t stop with the two Taser strikes.
After Meservey’s brief attempt to drive away, Meade — according to the official police account — took up a position near the left rear wheel of the Corvette, and pulled his gun.
“Time to end this,” bellowed Meade, according to Klocker. “Enough is enough.” From a distance of six to seven feet, Meade fired eight shots into the car, murdering Meservey.
When several other police officers arrived a few minutes later, Meade was seen pacing back and forth near the murder scene.
“I’m out of it,” he exclaimed to one of the new arrivals. “I want my Garrity.”
The “Garrity Rule” — adapted from the 1967 Supreme Court ruling Garrity v. New Jersey, which involved a ticket-fixing scandal — triggers an enhancement of the right against self-incrimination that only the government’s armed enforcers enjoy: Any statements made after the magical Garrity incantation is uttered can only be used for the purpose of a departmental investigation, not for criminal prosecution.
Klocker, who witnessed the entire incident, pointed out to investigators that when Meservey’s body was pulled from the car, the prongs of Officer Meade’s Taser were still firmly embedded in his shoulder.
“I’m thinking as I ‘m dragging him … why didn’t we [shock] him again?” Klocker told investigators. If escalation had been “necessary,” Klocker thought, Meade would have used the Taser again, or resorted to pepper spray. “I would never have shot [Meservey]… I don’t think we had reached that level of force yet,” Klocker concluded.
What seems obvious to someone not indoctrinated in the state’s view of discretionary killing is this: There was no reason to use force of any kind in this situation, beyond the minimal amount necessary to take the keys away from Meservey. Once that was accomplished, the intoxicated man had nowhere to go, and it would have been a matter of patiently waiting for him to leave his car, or fall asleep.
Rather that choosing an approach of that kind, Meade (who was involved in a prior lethal shooting a few years ago) went up the escalation ladder very quickly — vaulting from confrontational and abusive language to lethal violence within a matter of minutes.
Meade did provide an ironic service of sorts by offering such a compelling display of the fact that citizens face the risk of lethal violence in every encounter they have with law enforcement personnel. Making that point was obviously not worth the price of a man’s life.
Meservey’s daughter has filed a $15 million wrongful death claim against Everett. Meade has been charged with first-degree manslaughter and placed on paid vacation (aka “administrative leave”); unlike a private citizen charged with lethally shooting an unarmed man six times in the back, Meade is loose on his own recognizance.
Meade’s attorney defends the murder as the result of a “split-second decision” (it wasn’t, as we’ve seen) and predicts, with tragically justifiable confidence, that the officer will be acquitted in court. It’s entirely likely that Meade wouldn’t have been indicted if it weren’t for rising public concern over recent police shootings in Everett.
Trisha Tribble, who called 911, was mortified by the death of Meservey, whom she described as “this drunken guy, [who] was obviously out of his mind.”
“There was no reason for him to die,” she commented after the slaying.
And that was the trouble with Tribble’s actions the night of June 10: Any time we seek “help” from the state’s armed enforcers, we’re effectively inviting them to use lethal force.
Charges Dropped Against Cop Caught Having Sex With Cows
KTLA News
4:44 PM PDT, September 24, 2009
MOUNT HOLLY, NJ -- A former police officer accused of having a moonlight tryst with a group of cows will not be facing animal cruelty charges after all.
As it turns out bestiality is not a crime in New Jersey.
Former Moorestown police officer Robert Melia Jr. was charged last year with sexually assaulting three girls.
During the investigation, police say they found a video in the man's home that showed him sexually molesting cows.
According to prosecutors, Melia Jr. dropped his trousers and let the animals taste his genitals on a Southhampton farm in 2006.
Superior Court Judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to jurors that proved that Melia's alleged actions in fact tormented the cows.
"I'm not saying it's okay," Judge Morley said in court after dismissing the charges.
"This is a legal question for me. It's not a question of morals."
Melia and former girlfriend Heather Lewis remain charged with molesting the three girls.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-cow-cop,0,7485962.story
FOLLOW-UP: Alabama judge not guilty of sexual abuse of inmates
Attorney Robert Clark said former Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on several charges and the judge in the case granted a directed verdict of acquittal on all the other counts.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/26/alabama.judge.inmate.sex/index.html?eref=rss_us
Naturally if you did this (Spanked People) on any other job you'd be guilty.
FOLLOW-UP: Dolton cop in beating case has troubling history
October 8, 2009
A Dolton cop caught on camera allegedly breaking a 15-year-old special needs student's nose for failing to tuck in his shirt has a troubling history that includes killing a man in a case of disputed self-defense.
The officer is now in an Indiana jail on an unrelated rape charge.
Christopher Lloyd, 38, was identified today by his father, Charles Lloyd, and Dolton Mayor Ronnie Lewis as the officer who in May was videotaped by a school security camera scuffling with 15-year-old, 140-pound Marshawn Pitts at the Academy for Learning in Dolton.
An attorney hired by Pitts' parents released the videotape earlier this week, calling the incident an "unprovoked attack" on a vulnerable child. The tape, which has no audio, appears to show the officer slam Pitts against a locker, wrestle him to the ground and pin him.
christopher_lloydcaption.jpgBut speaking Thursday, Charles Lloyd said he had seen the tape and discussed the incident with his son, who he said was "just trying to do his job as a police officer and is completely innocent."
"My son said, `Sir, you need to tuck your shirt in,' and this boy said `**** you, I'm not gonna tuck my shirt in, you can't make me,'" Charles Lloyd said.
"That boy struck my son in the eye and broke his glasses -- he had a history of behavior issues," he alleged.
Christopher Lloyd was arrested last month and charged with sexually assaulting a woman he knew at her home in Hammond, his father said.
According to Lake County, Ind., court documents, he held a pillow over the woman's face while sexually assaulting her Sept. 14 and had previously threatened her with a knife.
Lloyd, who's being held in lieu of $110,000 bail, faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of rape, criminal deviate conduct, criminal confinement and sexual battery, said Diane Poulton, spokeswoman for Lake County's prosecutor.
A lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, Nicole McKinney, last summer alleges he gunned down her new husband Cornel McKinney in front of their children outside their home on the 6100 block of South Langley Avenue on Feb. 17, 2008.
A Robbins police officer at the time, Lloyd was suspended following the shooting but eventually found work with Dolton police in January, his father said.
Though an autopsy shows he shot McKinney 24 times, the lawsuit alleges, he was not charged because Chicago police accepted his explanation that he'd acted in self defense.
Chicago police spokesman Veejay Zala said details of the investigation into McKinney's death could not immediately be found Thursday, but McKinney's attorney, Rahsaan Gordon, said the latest series of allegations against Lloyd showed he shouldn't have been employed as a police officer.
"At some point, people in positions of power need to protect the public," Gordon said. "You have to ask why he was hired."
Lewis denied any impropriety in Lloyd's hiring, saying that the Indiana rape case was "not my problem" and that he hadn't heard of Lloyd until the incident at the Academy was brought to his attention last week. Lloyd was terminated following the incident, Lewis said on Wednesday.
Dolton Police Chief Robert Fox declined to comment, citing pending lawsuits.
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/10/dolton-cop-in-beating-case-faces-unrelated-rape-charge.html?obref=obnetwork
The Worst Way To Get Rich
MARION, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio sheriff's deputy who committed suicide last week pretended for years that he had cancer while scamming his family and colleagues out of thousands of dollars in charitable donations to pay for phony medical bills, authorities said Wednesday.
Marion County Deputy Sheriff Joe Russell, 39, shot himself in his home on Sept. 30. An autopsy showed that he was healthy and did not have cancer.
"This was a fraud. This was a con," Sheriff Tim Bailey, who learned of the autopsy results on Tuesday, said at a news conference outlining details of the investigation.
Russell had fabricated notes from doctors to help pass off a story about how he was fighting cancer in his lungs, brain and testicles, Bailey said. Investigators also believe Russell shaved his eyebrows and head, used tanning beds to make himself appear red from cancer treatments and once told others he was receiving treatments at John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore when he really was staying with a friend.
"His concern was only for himself, not his wife, not his young daughter, not his friends," Bailey said following the news conference. "He conned his very close personal friends. He ran this ruse through the community. This is sick."
Co-workers had donated more than 75 days in unused sick leave and vacation time to Russell so he could get treatment. He also received about $20,000 from a Fraternal Order of Police fundraiser in 2007.
Bailey said he had been suspicious about his constantly sick deputy, who used about 57 days of sick time over the past five years, but medical privacy laws prevented him from delving into the matter.
Investigators are looking into whether Russell used his county sick pay under fraudulent conditions, and his county and sheriff's association insurance policies as well as pay due for unused vacation and sick time and holidays have been frozen, Bailey said.
"If there is money due back to the county, to the taxpayer, we're going to try to recover that," he said.
Russell became a full-time deputy in September 2004, performed well on the job and was liked by co-workers and others in the county building where he worked, Bailey said. He began the cancer scam around late 2005, the sheriff said.
Russell lived with his wife and two daughters in Delaware, about 20 miles north of Columbus. His wife told investigators she also believed her husband had cancer and didn't know about the con until last week, Bailey said.
http://www.askmen.com/sports/news/43_the-worst-way-to-get-rich.html
FOLLOW-UP: AZ COPS lie again on the cover-up that ensued.
***
Phoenix PD issues statement about homeowner shot by police
Reported by: ABC15.com staff, wire reports
Reported by: Katie Fisher
Last Update: 10/07 8:55 pm
Man shot by Phoenix PD files $5.75 million claim
PHOENIX – The Phoenix Police Department issued a statement Wednesday addressing a September 2008 incident that led a Phoenix homeowner to sue the city and its police department.
Tony Arambula is seeking $5.75 million in damages for himself and his family after he was shot by police on September 17, 2008 after officers responded to a call about an intruder inside his central Phoenix home.
Phoenix Police Spokesperson Tommy Thompson said in a press release issued Wednesday that officers responded to a call at Arambula's Phoenix home, but "after entering the residence, one of the officers mistakenly shot the armed home owner."
The press release goes on to say that the "department has been honest and forthright from the very onset of this incident. No attempt has been made to conceal the truth or the facts surrounding it."
Thompson also acknowledges Arambula's lawsuit and says his department will not be making any further statements as the litigation process takes its course.
The claim, filed by Phoenix attorney Michael Manning on behalf of Arambula, names the city, its police department, the officer who shot Arambula and two other officers.
Phoenix police declined to comment on the shooting or the pending claim.
The night of the shooting, Arambula said an intruder had broken into his home.
Arambula called 911 and told police he was holding the intruder at gunpoint.
As officers arrived, Arambula's wife Lesley said she told them her husband was inside the house holding a gun on the intruder.
"I told them my husband was inside, he was the one with the gun," she said Tuesday.
The officers entered the house with a shout of "Police!"
Almost immediately afterward, Phoenix police Officer Brian Lilly shot Arambula in the back.
Three more shots were fired at Arambula, one hitting him in the arm.
The incident was recorded during Arambula’s 911 call, made available earlier this month.
Listen to the call.
The claim said that when Arambula fell to the floor, Lilly shot him two more times.
That's when Arambula told Lilly he'd shot the wrong man.
In his Internal Affairs interview, Lilly admitted firing at Arambula without any verbal warning, according to the claim.
Arambula said he did everything he was supposed to do in that situation.
"I would have loved if they would have told me to get on the floor and drop to my knees," Arambula said. "To not have given me any opportunity to not get shot, it's confusing. I pray that this never happens to another family."
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/Phoenix-PD-issues-statement-about-homeowner-shot/sLWUCAu1I0eVLymRsuVjJg.cspx
Tyranny is government denial of our Natural Rights. They are defined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The world is changing. People must speak up. Please share your stories of police abuse.
Judicial malfeasance, and other governmental violations are of interest.
CPS cases, illegal roadside check points, brutality cases, all violations of Posse Commitatus, etc.
http://oathkeepers.org/oath Any officials who take offense here please visit Oath Keepers.
http://gunowners.org/ They are your rights, hold on to them.
http://www.copblock.org/ A decentralized project supported by a diverse group of individuals
united by their shared goal of police accountability..
BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA&NR=1
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