Three Phoenix police officers resign after being accused of forcing a man to eat marijuana

http://www.businessinsider.com/three-phoenix-police-officers-resign-after-being-accused-of-forcing-a-man-to-eat-marijuana-2016-9

Three Phoenix police officers have resigned after a man alleged they forced him to eat marijuana found in his vehicle to avoid going to jail, Chief Joseph Yahner said Thursday.

A fourth officer, Jeff Farrior, was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant for being aware of last week's incident and not taking appropriate action, Yahner told reporters.

"Their actions are appalling and unacceptable. This conduct is against everything that we stand for," Yahner said.

Police identified the three officers who quit as Richard G. Pina, Jason E. McFadden and Michael J. Carnicle.

Two of them are being investigated both criminally and by the department, Yahner said, adding that the third officer is considered a witness to the act and is the subject of just the administrative investigation.

Yahner said all of the officers' video cameras were turned off and did not record the incident in which a 19-year-old Phoenix man was stopped for a traffic violation around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 13. The man, whose name was not released by police, was issued a citation and had his car towed.

He later told a patrol supervisor that the officers demanded he eat the marijuana, estimated to be about a gram, or go to jail.

The man reported feeling ill after ingesting the marijuana of an unknown potency, but didn't need any medical attention, a police spokesman said.

Yahner called the allegations about the officers' actions "disturbing and upsetting."

The three officers who quit were all in their first year with Phoenix police and were probationary employees, according to Yahner.

"I was going to fire them. They chose to resign," he said.

Yahner declined to discuss details of the criminal and internal investigations.

Caught on Camera: Texas Transit Cop Resigns After Train Station Beating

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/caught-camera-texas-transit-cop-resigns-after-train-station-beating-n654821

A Texas transit cop resigned on Monday after a train station camera captured the officer repeatedly beating a man with a baton two weeks ago, authorities said.

Metro Police Department Chief Vera Bumpers said in a statement that a review board concluded that the officer, identified only as J. Warren, used excessive force in the Sept. 14 encounter.

"The board recommended termination of the officer," Bumpers said. "Officer Warren, however, presented his resignation before that action could be taken."

Video footage published by NBC affiliate KPRC showed two officers approaching a man slumped over on a platform bench at Burnett Transit Center, north of downtown Houston.

The station identified the man as Darren Giles, 31.

In the two-and-a-half-minute silent video, Warren can be seen attempting rouse Giles while a second officer looked through a cooler that sat beside him. When Giles stood up, Warren struck him repeatedly for approximately eight seconds.

As Giles writhed on the platform floor — and as the two officers restrained him — Warren struck him two more times.

Giles was charged with resisting arrest and criminal trespass, KPRC reported, though those were later dropped.

The second officer, Daniel Reynoso, will return to duty after additional training, Bumpers said.

"This incident is not reflective of our police force and I will not tolerate inappropriate use of force by officers," she said.

Good ole corrupt Houston and Metro police. Smh. This is one reason why I don't trust cops, they fly off the handle too easily and are not properly trained.

Cop violently arrests a man for sitting on his own porch while body cam is on


http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article105525491.html

A Greensboro police officer was stripped of his law enforcement credentials last week, after the release of police body camera footage that showed him violently arresting a man for sitting on his own porch.

Police body cameras have been in the news in Charlotte, involving the fatal shooting by a police officer of Keith Lamont Scott.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Friday night that it will release more than two hours of video footage of the scene of Scott’s shooting, a reversal from the agency’s previous stance.

In a statement, police spokesman Rob Tufano said the department will honor a request from Scott’s family to make public all dashcam and body camera footage that CMPD has obtained at the Sept. 20 shooting.

Police will allow the family to view the footage sometime next week, before providing it to the public, Tufano said. The statement did not specify what day or time.

In the Greensboro case, Dejuan Yourse was waiting for his mother to arrive to let him into his home on June 17, when two officers were dispatched to investigate a possible break-in, the Huffington Post reported.

On the video from a police body camera, Yourse is seen trying to phone his mom so she can speak to the officers. He gives the officers his ID and suggests the officers ask a neighbor to verify that he lives there.

Officer Travis Cole soon places his hands on Yourse’s chest to stop him from walking away, according to the Huffington Post. After Yourse sits back down, Cole takes Yourse’s phone from his hand, throws him to the floor and struggles to handcuff him.. Yourse keeps asking Cole why he’s punching him. When Cole yells, “I’m going to hit you again,” Yourse yells back, “Why?”

The Greensboro City Council voted unanimously last week to strip Cole of his law enforcement credentials. The district attorney refused the council’s request to file criminal charges against the officer, saying he wouldn’t “rehash the same evidence,” the Greensboro News & Record reported.

Police had charged Yourse with resisting arrest and assault on government officials. The charges were dropped when Cole resigned in August. The second officer quit her job last week, the Huffington Post reported.

‘I Can’t Breathe’: Disturbing Video Shows Father Of Four Begging Guards For Help Before He Died In Jail

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-sabbie-jail-deaths-bi-state-jail-bowie-county_us_57f2ab41e4b024a52d304102?bns

“I can’t breathe.”

Michael Sabbie ― a 35-year-old stay-at-home father of four ― said it after five guards piled on top of him inside the Bi State Jail, a facility that sits directly on the border between Texas and Arkansas and is run by a for-profit company.

“I can’t breathe.” Sabbie ― who packed his kids’ lunches, drove them to and from school, and carted them around to their after-school activities ― said it again after a sixth officer pepper-sprayed him as he lay on the concrete floor.

“I can’t breathe, sir. Please! Please!” Sabbie ― who wrote a Facebook post thanking God for his kids just hours before his arrest ― said it again as guards held him up against a wall outside of the nurse’s station.

“I can’t breathe,” Sabbie said again after he was forced into the shower. “I can’t breathe,” Sabbie repeated, echoing the final words of another black father, 43-year-old Eric Garner, who died in New York in July 2014 as the result of an officer’s illegal chokehold.

A guard threatened to pepper-spray Sabbie again. “I’m sorry,” Sabbie said, hoping to avoid being hit with painful chemical agent a second time. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Then Sabbie collapsed. The guards, paid a starting rate of $10 an hour, apparently thought he was faking it. They took him to a cell.

“Can’t breathe,” Sabbie said as guards removed his handcuffs and left him on the floor of the cell overnight. Sabbie, who at that point had been in custody for roughly 48 hours, was dead by the morning.

The basic details of Sabbie’s death, one of more than 800 jail deaths counted by The Huffington Post in the year after Sandra Bland died in jail on July 13, 2015, wouldn’t normally raise much suspicion. The initial news reports said that Sabbie, who was arrested on a domestic assault charge, was found “unresponsive” on the morning of July 22, 2015, suggesting he died in his sleep. A medical examiner ― noting Sabbie’s obesity and that he had significant heart muscle damage ― deemed his death “natural,” a label that implies it was an unavoidable tragedy. Those circumstances wouldn’t make Sabbie’s death terribly unique: Heart disease killed an average of 226 jail inmates a year from 2000 until 2013, making it the leading cause of jail deaths after suicides.

But calling Sabbie’s death “natural” obscures more than it illuminates, and would hide the failures that very likely could have prevented his death. A quick internal investigation might have absolved jail employees of any wrongdoing. But in Sabbie’s case, there’s video.

“If you just looked at the cause of death, you would think that Michael died of some sort of hypertensive heart condition, and that may be true,” said Erik J. Heipt, one of the attorneys representing the Sabbie family. “But if we didn’t have a video, we’d never know that he had been begging for help due to his shortness of breath and inability to breathe. We’d never know that he said ‘I can’t breathe’ 19 times in the nine minutes that we hear in that video.”

Heipt and his law partner, Edwin Budge, regularly represent families of individuals who have died in jails across the country. But this video is “without a doubt among one of the most outrageous,” Budge said.

“Clearly he’s a person in a state of medical crisis, in medical need, asking for help, and the response to his essentially pleas for medical help is inhumane, which is a term I don’t use lightly,” Budge said.

Preventable deaths being labeled as “natural” is a “common phenomenon” and a “huge problem” in jails across the country, said David C. Fathi, the director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project.

“We often find that someone’s death is characterized as ‘natural causes’ ― maybe it was cancer, maybe it was heart disease,” Fathi said. “But if you look at the medical record, you often find egregious neglect and denial of care. If someone dies of cancer that went totally untreated, is that death from natural causes?”

Sabbie was arrested on July 19, 2015, after getting into an argument with his wife over money, according to a police report. Sabbie’s wife told an officer that he threatened her before getting out of the car and walking away. Another officer located Sabbie, who denied threatening his wife. Due to the alleged threat, Sabbie was arrested for third-degree assault on a household or family member, a misdemeanor.

Sabbie was taken to the Bi State Jail, a facility with 164 beds that housed 134 individuals as of this week. The for-profit company LaSalle Corrections has run the facility since 2013, when a previous company backed out because it reportedly could not turn a profit. Governments pay just $39.50 per day to house inmates at the Bi State lockup and $46.50 per day to place them at the Bowie County facility, a nearby facility LaSalle Corrections also runs. (The company that backed out of the previous contract submitted a competing bid of $56.25 per inmate per day.) Under the contract with Bowie County, LaSalle Corrections absorbs the cost of medical services and also indemnifies the county against any claims from inmates or their families.

The Bowie County facility has agreements with local surrounding counties to house their inmates, which the Bowie County Sheriff has said “helps us to lower the costs” of detaining the county’s own detainees, and jail revenue is “one of the largest portions of Bowie County’s budget,” according to a local news report. A job listing for a position at the Bowie County Correctional Center says pay is $10 per hour, and that the position requires “zero experience as a correctional officer.” As of this July, the facilities were reportedly shorthanded and seeking to fill dozens of positions.

With a population of just 134, the Bi State Jail is one of the smallest jails in the country that had two reported deaths in The Huffington Post’s jail deaths project, which looked at deaths between July 13, 2015, and July 13, 2016. There were two additional deaths at the nearby Bowie County Correctional Center, which has 748 beds and a population of 674 as of this week. Together, the LaSalle facilities had four deaths in a single year, with a joint population of just 808. Other jails that reported four deaths in the year HuffPost examined had populations double, triple and even quadruple that.

Matthew Campbell, who is representing the family of another inmate who died in the Bi State Jail, said the facility is “by far the least secure jail” he’s ever been in. He said he was able to walk in with a briefcase without being searched or showing identification.

“The guy behind the big glass window doesn’t have me sign in, doesn’t ask for ID. There’s no metal detector, he doesn’t check my bag, buzzes me into the attorney meeting room,” Campbell said. “It could have been a briefcase full of cocaine and guns, and I could have left it there in the room and nobody would have been any the wiser.”

At about 3:30 a.m. on July 20, less than 12 hours after his arrest, Sabbie told jail staff he was having difficulty breathing and could not breathe while lying down. A nurse treated him for a low level of oxygen in his blood, and advised him to sit up if he had trouble breathing.

The next day, July 21 at 10:30 a.m., Sabbie was found on the floor of his cell and taken to the nurse’s station. He said once again that he couldn’t breathe and that he believed he had pneumonia. But a nurse cleared him to go back to his cell, which frustrated Sabbie. “So [y’all] aren’t going to help?” he asked, according to police records. He began walking back to his cell, but fell on the floor on his way back and required assistance. The nurse, Tiffany Venable, said she had seen no signs or symptoms of pneumonia during the morning appointment. She told an investigator she completed a medical form for this visit, but believed she placed it in the wrong file.

Sabbie had a court appearance that afternoon, during which he pleaded not guilty and had his bond set at $2,500. A court bailiff said he observed Sabbie “sweating very heavily and coughing.” The judge also saw that Sabbie was having trouble breathing, and suggested Sabbie might have asthma or bronchitis. Sabbie said in court that he had been spitting up blood and needed to go to the hospital.

After the court appearance, Sabbie and a group of other detainees were taken back to the jail at about 4:15 p.m. This is where the video kicks in, and we see that Sabbie stopped to lean against a wall.

Officer Clint Brown walked over to Sabbie. Brown claimed Sabbie wanted to use the phone in the booking desk, but Brown said he had to go back to his cell. He claimed Sabbie turned aggressively toward him, so he grabbed him. Other officers soon assisted.

Lt. Nathaniel Johnson, who earlier in the day had taken Sabbie to the nurse because he had difficulty breathing, pepper-sprayed Sabbie directly in the face, just as he said, “I can’t breathe.”

Venable, the nurse who saw Sabbie earlier in the morning and had been on duty since 5 a.m., witnessed the guards use force against Sabbie, and then evaluated him briefly in her office. She didn’t fill out a form, but said she believed his complaints were a normal reaction to pepper spray.

“Ms. Venable said she wanted to get off work on time because she had to get her daughter to a pitching lesson,” one police report states. “She said she was going to complete one this morning when she came into work but learned that Mr. Sabbie had passed away.”

Heipt, one of the lawyers for the Sabbie family, said they believe that Sabbie had pulmonary edema, or excess fluid in his lungs caused by a heart condition. It’s a medical emergency, but treatable and should have been detected with a proper evaluation, Heipt said. The State Crime Laboratory’s Medical Examiner Division found that Sabbie died of “hypertensive arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” and claimed that the altercation “played a minimal role in the decedent’s death, and may not have contributed at all to his death.”

Correctional Officer Simone Nash was charged with keeping an eye on Sabbie overnight. She was required to do cell safety checks on all her pods and cells every 30 minutes, as well as a count four times each shift. Although her records indicated that the guard did those 30-minute checks, she admitted that “not all the checks were done and they were only documented,” according to a Texarkana Police report. Nash admitted she “didn’t consistently enter and check the cells inside the pods during every one of the 30 minute checks” as required, according to the report. During her counts, she said that while Sabbie never responded to her during the counts, she claims she saw him breathing.

LaSalle Corrections employees were still not conducting proper face-to-face observations on July 18, 2016, nearly a year after Sabbie’s death, according to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which performed the inspection after the July 1, 2016, death of Morgan Angerbauer. Twenty-year-old Angerbauer, whose family is represented by Campbell, was diabetic, and jail nurse Brittany Johnson was arrested in August and charged with negligent homicide in connection with her death. (In a similar case, a former Oklahoma guard was indicted on a federal civil rights charge this week for allegedly ignoring the medical needs of a diabetic detainee who died in 2013. It is rare for corrections officials to face such charges for exhibiting “deliberate indifference” to the medical needs of inmates.)

Heipt, who is also representing the family of a man who died of thirst in a jail run by prominent Donald Trump supporter and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, said it’s only recently that there has been public attention on jail deaths. Local media outlets sometimes only cover a “sham investigation” conducted by local officials investigating themselves before moving on.

“This is not a tin-foil hat conspiracy; it happens all the time,” Heipt said. “The jail or the county investigates itself, inmates aren’t interviewed, medical records are not reviewed, video recordings are lost or destroyed, and medical examiners who are in charge of determining the cause of death are not given complete information, and so the cause of death is either undetermined, wrong, or doesn’t tell the whole picture.

“The American public has no idea what’s taking place, and because of the lack of public awareness, there’s a corresponding lack of public outrage,” he added. “So politicians on the local and national level have ignored it. Consequently, jails are understaffed and underfunded, money is saved by denying medications and medical care. Funding issues also lead to inexperienced and unqualified corrections officers being hired, as well as a lack of training.”

Sabbie was “cold to the touch” when guards eventually entered his cell, according to documents. The voicemail of the warden, Robert Page, was full when HuffPost reached out for comment this week. He did not respond to a message left with an employee, nor did an official at LaSalle Corrections’ corporate office in Texas.

In a statement, the Sabbie family said they “cannot conceive of how something like this could happen to an American citizen” like Sabbie.

“He was treated as if his life did not matter,” the family said in a statement issued through their lawyers. “Most of all they want justice and accountability and to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

“I can’t put into words how devastated my children and I are after the loss of Michael,” Sabbie’s wife Teresa said in a statement. “He was my backbone and best friend. My children lost a wonderful father who wanted the best for his family. A piece of our heart is gone, and I pray to God for justice. This was a tragedy that should never have happened.”

The Department of Justice informed Teresa on Aug. 1, 2016, that it would not be prosecuting anyone in connection with her husband’s death.

“After careful consideration, we concluded that the evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes,” Paige Fitzgerald, acting principal deputy chief of the criminal section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, wrote in the letter. “Please accept or [sic] condolences on your lost [sic].”

John Oliver on Police Accountability in the USA
 

A black 17-year-old reported his stolen car using LoJack ... and police reportedly arrested him instead

http://www.chron.com/technology/businessinsider/article/A-black-17-year-old-reported-his-stolen-car-using-9397893.php

Race-relations between the police and black citizens is a huge topic of conversation in America right now.

Athletes are refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest over police killings of unarmed black men, the presidential candidates were asked about the issue in their debate on Monday. And on Tuesday, police near San Diego fatally shot another unarmed black man within minutes of responding to a mental-health-related call.

With this subject in mind, we bring you this story of what an ordinary black family can face when they need the police.

Take for example this series of tweets from by Tristan Riddell, who is best known for his Nerd Party network podcasts The Senate Floor and Nerd Nuptial. For his day job, he works as a videographer/video editor at Northwestern University.

"One of my favorite students had his car stolen last night. He's a 17 year old black male. Thought it would be a good idea to call the cops.

Groceries in hand he checks his LoJack app first and can see that its moving down the road. Cops arrive and immediately frisk him.

They ask him if he's on drugs. He tries to tell them that he just wants his car back.

He shows them on his phone exactly where his car is. They don't believe him so they put him in the squad car and take him in. They process him and take his fingerprints.

He gets to call his mom and she raises hell. After a long time they let him go."

They then allow him to go get his car and the window is broken in. It was exactly where the app said."

This never would have happened to me because I'm white. He called the cops asking for help and got treated like a criminal.

Just because he's black and could afford a fancy car."

We reached out to the student who has, so far, not responded to our questions. Riddell has not revealed his identity nor said what city and police department where this occurred, except to reveal that it happened in Illinois.

It seems likely it was in or near Chicago because Northwestern is located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston (though we have no evidence that the incident took place there).

Phoenix Woman Removes Handcuffs And Hangs Herself Inside Police Van, Authorities Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/phoenix-woman-suicide-police-van_us_58009c43e4b06e047594281c?

A woman arrested in Phoenix for domestic violence and assaulting a police officer slipped out of her handcuffs and hung herself with a shoelace from a vent in the back of a police van, authorities said on Thursday.

The woman was rushed to hospital unconscious after the officers driving the van tried to revive her, but she was not expected to survive, a Phoenix police statement said.

It did not give her name or race.

The woman was being taken to jail after being arrested early on Wednesday and was the only person in the back of the van, the statement said. An investigation into the incident had begun.

Last year, Sandra Bland, an African-American woman, was found dead with a trash bag around her neck in her cell at a jail in Waller County, Texas, where she was arrested at a traffic stop. Authorities said her death was a suicide.

The case sparked protests and raised questions about whether she was jailed and mistreated because of her race.

A committee this year recommended sweeping changes for Waller County jails, including better mental health screening.

New York police officer fatally shoots 66-year-old woman

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/19/us/new-york-police-shoot-women/index.html

A New York City police officer shot and killed a 66-year-old woman while responding to a call at a Bronx apartment, police officials said Wednesday.
Officers went to the Pugsley Avenue apartment around 6 p.m. Tuesday after a neighbor called 911 about an "emotionally disturbed person," Assistant Chief Larry W. Nikunen said.

A sergeant entered the seventh-floor apartment and encountered the woman, who was armed with scissors, but he persuaded her to put them down, Nikunen said.

The woman grabbed a baseball bat and attempted to strike the sergeant, Nikunen said. The officer fired two shots, striking the woman in the torso, he said. She died of her injuries after being taken to Jacobi Medical Center.

The officer was armed with a Taser, but it was not deployed, Nikunen said.
The reason it was not deployed and whether it was necessary for the sergeant to open fire will be a part of the investigation by the New York police's Force Investigation Division, Nikunen said.

The woman was identified as Deborah Danner, said Thomas Antonetti of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. She was a 66-year-old black female who lived alone, Nikunen said.

The officer has not been named, but Nikunen said he is a white male and an eight-year veteran of the police department. Antonetti said the officer is on "modified assignment" that requires he be stripped of his gun and badge pending the investigation.

Nikunen said that the New York police has a history of responding to this apartment for similar disturbances.

"There have been several instances with this individual with similar types of calls," Nikunen said, adding he did not have the details on those earlier incidents.

Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted: "We're determined to get to the bottom of what happened and won't rest until we do."

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. issued a statement calling the shooting "an outrage, especially given the New York Police Department's knowledge of this woman's history and the police officer's possession of a stun gun."

"While I certainly understand the hard work that our police officers undertake to keep the streets of our city safe every single day, I also know what excessive force looks like."

Diaz called on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to investigate.

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James tweeted, "Police-involved shooting of woman in Bronx is concerning. We need a swift, thorough, transparent (investigation)."

The killing comes after protests in recent years over fatal police shootings of black people in cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters have been demanding justice and an end to police brutality.

Eugene O'Donnell, professor of law and police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CNN that these situations are "all too common and all too predictable."

But the shooting appeared to be legally justified, he said.

O'Donnell said that ideally, mentally unstable individuals should be protected and overseen to make sure they stay on their medications.

He said the New York Police Department has specially trained officers for these types of incidents, but the officers who initially respond usually don't have that training.

"Anyone who says this was a Taser situation doesn't understand what the police do," he said. "A baseball bat can cause death or serious physical injury, and a Taser is not appropriate in a deadly force situation."

Agawam fires 3 city cops in connection with 'use of force' incident at police HQs

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/10/agawam_fires_3_city_cops_for.html

Mayor Richard A. Cohen has fired three Agawam officers who were suspended in connection with a "use of force" incident at police headquarters.

City officials have yet to release details of the June 19 incident, which involves allegations that the officers assaulted a male suspect who was in their custody. The officers — Sgt. Anthony Grasso, Edward Connor and John Moccio — were terminated on Wednesday, according to Agawam Police Chief Eric P. Gillis.

"The men and women of the Agawam Police Department serve this community with honor and distinction every day, and both Mayor Cohen and I stand firmly beside them," Gillis said. "We will continue to work hard to maintain a level of trust with our citizens, and we fervently hope that this incident will not interfere with those efforts."

The officers were placed on paid administrative leave in September, pending hearings and the outcomes of internal and external investigations. The case is now in the hands of the district attorney's office, which will determine whether to file criminal charges against the officers.

Attorney John Connor, who represents the officers, said in previous comments to the media that he would appeal any disciplinary actions taken against his clients, who "acted properly" in the incident. Connor could not immediately be reached for comment.

Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen said he takes the allegations "very seriously." The incident, which sparked an internal investigation conducted by an outside agency, is now in the hands of District Attorney Anthony Gulluni.

Legal and law enforcement sources have told The Republican that the officers used excessive force and injured the suspect. The alleged assault was captured by police station cameras, according to officials.

All materials related to the investigation, including audio and video recordings, have been turned over to Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni, who will decide whether to prosecute the officers. A spokesman for Gulluni has declined to comment on the probe.

"We fully expect that this matter will continue forward pursuant to law and established provisions within both of the collective bargaining agreements currently in place," Gillis said of the fired officers, all of whom belong to a union.

Agawam hired APD Management, a Tewksbury firm that handles confidential inquiries on behalf of police departments and municipal governments, to conduct an investigation into the matter. APD's findings were among the materials sent to the district attorney's office.

'They acted properly,' says lawyer for Agawam officers accused of excessive force

"We had an opportunity to present evidence, and that evidence is very clear that they acted properly," said John Connor, the attorney representing the Agawam police officers.

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy no longer employed after using excessive force during domestic dispute

http://kron4.com/2016/10/20/sonoma-county-sheriffs-deputy-no-longer-employed-after-using-excessive-force-during-domestic-dispute/

A Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy who was deemed to have used excessive force during a “non-criminal domestic argument” in Sonoma Valley last month, is no longer employed with the sheriff’s office, a sheriff’s sergeant said Thursday afternoon.

Deputy Scott Thorne, who was hired as a reserve officer in June 2015 and began working full-time in April, used excessive force with his baton and Taser against a husband during the domestic dispute around 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 24.

Sgt. Spencer Crum said the sheriff’s office is prohibited from saying if Thorne was fired or voluntarily left the force. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office and the Santa Rosa Police Department are conducting an independent criminal investigation into Thorne’s use of force, Crum said.

“He had no probable cause for an arrest and used excessive force using his baton and Taser,” Crum said.

“Sheriff’s Administration felt that the actions of the primary deputy (Thorne) were excessive for the circumstances and were in violation of our use of force policy,” Crum said.

The sheriff’s office’s policy specifically states that use of force by deputies must be reasonable and appropriate for every situation, Crum said.

Thorne and deputies Beau Zastrow and Anthony Diehm responded to a domestic dispute call by a neighbor. A woman at the residence opened the front door and the deputies entered the home.

Diehm interviewed the woman and Thorne and Zastrow went to the back of the home where the husband was locked in a bedroom, Crum said.

According to the sheriff’s office’s account of the incident, Thorne forced open the bedroom door when the husband refused to come out. The husband was lying on a bed and Thorne ordered him to stand up but he refused.

The husband pulled away when Thorne grabbed his arm, and Thorne shot the husband with his Taser but it had little effect. The husband sat up and pulled the Taser wires out, and Thorne then struck the man in the leg with his baton.

Zastrow and Thorne tried to restrain the man in bed and Diehm arrived to assist. The man broke free and ran toward the bedroom door. Thorne struck the man several times with his baton and the man fell to the ground where the struggle continued. Diehm shot his Taser to no effect and three deputies were able to handcuff and arrest the man.

The deputies then determined there had been a non-criminal domestic-related argument between the husband and wife. The husband was taken to a hospital for treatment before he was booked in the Sonoma County Jail at 1:12 a.m. Sept. 25 for threatening an officer, resisting and obstructing an officer and battery on an officer. He was released on $10,000 bail at 2:36 a.m.

The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office informed the sheriff’s office on Oct. 11 it would not file criminal charges against the husband. The sheriff’s office did an internal review of the incident that included reviewing the video from the deputies’ body-worn cameras, Crum said.

The sheriff’s Administration Office then determined Thorne’s actions violated its excessive force policy, Crum said.

“The Sheriff (Steve Freitas) is deeply concerned over the incident that transpired. We are conducting a thorough investigation of all deputies involved and will take prompt, firm and appropriate actions in this matter.

“We have reached out to the victim in this case and offered our sincere apology. We also want to apologize to our community. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office strives to do our absolute best to provide professional public safety services. This is an isolated incident that we are proactively addressing, and does not reflect the values of the Sheriff’s Office,” Crum said.

Zastrow, who joined the sheriff’s office in September 2013, and Diehm, who started in May 2015, are still on duty. They also are the subject of an internal investigation, Crum said.

“We don’t believe they are a danger to the public,” Crum said.

There were no previous complaints about Thorne before the incident, Crum said.

Sheriff Steve Freitas did not return a call for further comment on the incident late Thursday afternoon.

Brown Deer officer charged in shooting

http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2016/10/21/brown-deer-officer-charged-shooting/92508848/

A Brown Deer police officer who shot an unarmed man after removing him from a county bus in March has been charged with aggravated battery with use of a dangerous weapon, a felony, according to a criminal complaint.

The man, Manuel L. Burnley Jr., 26, was face down on the ground when Officer Devon Kraemer shot him in the back, according to the complaint issued Friday.

Charges in police shootings are extremely rare in Wisconsin.

In Milwaukee County, just two officers have been charged in fatal shootings in nearly 50 years, according to legislative research conducted in 2014. Only one of those shootings occurred while the officer was on duty. That research did not quantify charges in nonfatal shootings.

Charges are filed so infrequently in part because officers are authorized to use deadly force if they reasonably believe someone poses a threat to officers or to members of the public.

Kraemer, 27, told authorities she shot Burnley "because she feared for her safety and that of her partner," the complaint says.

But an expert retained by the prosecutor's office, Emanuel Kapelsohn, concluded that while Kraemer may have been afraid, that fear was not objectively reasonable.

"It was Kapelsohn's professional opinion that Kraemer's use of deadly force was not consistent with generally accepted standards for use of force in Wisconsin or nationwide," the complaint says.

According to the complaint:

The incident began when the bus driver flagged down the officers in the 8600 block of N. 60th St. because Burnley was arguing with her. Kraemer boarded the bus and told Burnley to get off, but he refused, using vulgar language and displaying a belligerent attitude. He did not threaten anyone on the bus or suggest he had a weapon.

Kraemer and her partner, Michael Leeman, removed Burnley from the bus. As they took him to the ground, they also fell. The two officers rolled Burnley onto his stomach; he struggled as they tried to handcuff him.

"Kraemer stated that she was unable to gain control of Burnley's left arm, and she drew her firearm, and pressed it against Burnley's back," the complaint says. "She then drew it back a short distance, to avoid a malfunction, and fired once, striking Burnley in the back, then immediately re-holstered her firearm."

After he was shot, Burnley asked what happened and heard Leeman respond by saying, "We just shot you" and using a racial slur, according to a document Burnley's attorney filed as a precursor to a lawsuit. Burnley is African-American; the two officers are white.

Burnley was hospitalized for 12 days and lost part of a lung as a result of the shooting. The bullet remains in his body and he is unable to work, according to his attorney, Jonathan Safran.

"Mr. Burnley is lucky to be alive and not paralyzed from being shot," Safran said Friday.

Kraemer has been placed on administrative leave with pay, according to a statement from Brown Deer Police Chief Michael Kass.

"As with any officer-involved shooting, the Brown Deer Police Department recognized that criminal charges were always a possibility," Kass said in a statement. "We fully understand and accept the need for this high level of scrutiny within the criminal justice system."

Milwaukee police conducted the investigation into the shooting at the request of Brown Deer police.

Brown Deer police had referred Burnley to the district attorney's office, requesting charges related to assaulting the two officers, but prosecutors did not charge him.

Kraemer has five years of experience with Brown Deer police and Leeman has two years with the department.

If convicted, Kraemer faces a maximum possible penalty of 20 years in prison and $50,000 in fines. She would not be able to continue working in law enforcement since she would no longer be allowed to carry a gun under federal law.

Kraemer is the second police officer to be criminally charged by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office in as many days. On Thursday, Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, whose shooting of Sylville Smith prompted riots in the Sherman Park neighborhood, was charged with three felonies and two misdemeanors, including off-duty sexual assault. Smith's death remains under investigation.

The shooting of Burnley isn't the first time Brown Deer police training has been called into question in recent years.

In 2012, Brown Deer police officials asked the state Department of Justice for training on how to handle domestic violence situations.

The request came amid sharp criticism in the wake of a shooting at Azana Salon and Spa that resulted in the deaths of three people and the suicide of the gunman. The shooter, Radcliffe Haughton, and his wife, who was among his victims, lived in Brown Deer. Less than two years before the spa shooting, officers saw Haughton point what appeared to be a rifle at his wife. Officers set up a tactical perimeter, told him he was under arrest and ordered him to surrender. He refused. A supervisor ordered officers to leave the scene 90 minutes into the standoff.

At the time, police experts told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that leaving without making an arrest was a breach of basic police protocol and created a risk to the public.

‘Hurt Him’

https://www.abqjournal.com/873290/guards-handling-of-problem-inmate-sparks-complaints-from-mdc-medical-staff.html

Jail Sgt. Eric Allen gave the order repeatedly: “Hurt him.”

Correctional officers responded by twisting inmate Joe Ray Barela’s handcuffed wrist as he screamed in pain. The officers described it as “pain compliance” needed to control a belligerent prisoner with a long rap sheet and a history of violence.

But it horrified medical staffers who were trying to assess and treat Barela in the emergency room at the Bernalillo County jail, according to county documents released in response to a Journal request for public records.

One nurse called it torture. Two employees were in tears.

“They won’t stop hurting him,” one counselor told a colleague.

And the orders to “hurt” Barela, they said, interfered with their attempts to assess his medical condition.

They told sheriff’s detectives and a private investigator for the county that they think officers used excessive force on Barela and that the incident fueled tension between medical staff and corrections officers inside the massive jail.

Some medical staffers also said correctional officers tried to intimidate them after the incident.

Their accounts of what happened to Barela on Dec. 18 are outlined in reports prepared by sheriff’s detectives and a private investigator for the county Human Resources Department.

The officers saw the incident much differently. No one used excessive force, they said, and their actions were simply intended to keep everyone safe from an inmate with a history of violence.

Barela, 39 at the time, has been booked 30 times and was being held on charges that included aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to a jail report.

“This guy is a decade-long troublemaker in any facility,” jail Lt. Stephen Perkins, head of the correctional officers’ union, said in a Journal interview. “This guy is a problem child.”

Whatever happened, the incident highlights tension between correctional officers and medical personnel inside the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of the 50 largest jails in the country.

Allen acknowledged telling “the civilian staff to keep their opinions and noses out of his and security staff’s business,” the private investigator, Doug Shawn, a retired Albuquerque police officer, wrote in his report.

Andrea: Clink link for rest of article

I am so sure that the 66 year-old woman would have beat the shit out of that younger cop with a baseball bat.

They have specially trained officers to deal with mentally ill people but those aren't the police that respond to a call of an emotionally disturbed individual?

OMFG.

Police Kill Renee Davis, Pregnant Native Woman

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/police-kill-renee-davis-pregnant-native-woman

Renee Davis was shot and killed by Kings County (Washington) Sheriff’s deputies on Friday (October 21). The 23-year-old Native woman was five months pregnant and struggling with depression. She texted a friend to say that she was “in a bad way,” her foster sister, Danielle Bargala, told the Seattle Times. That person called the police, who went to Davis’ home on Muckleshoot tribal lands. Two of Davis’ three children (ages 2, 3 and 5) were there with her. The oldest child was with a family friend during the shooting.

Officers say that no one answered the door, so they entered the home. “They tried repeatedly to get somebody to come to the door, nobody did. But, they could see the two kids running around inside then house,” King County Sheriff’s Office media relations officer Cindi West told press, per local station KOMO. “The found her in the house and she was armed with a handgun.”

Bargala told the Seattle Times that she doesn’t know if her sister owned a handgun, but that as an avid hunter, she had a hunting rifle. But she does know that her sister was not violent. “It’s really upsetting because it was a wellness check. Obviously, she didn’t come out of it well,” she said.

“My community is confused. We have our own police department in which we know our deputies personally. I never thought this would happen so close to home,” Hunter Vaiese told Heavy.com. “She needed help, but she got bullets. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Davis’ children were not injured in the shooting and are currently living with relatives. The names of the two involved deputies have not yet been released; they are on paid administrative leave.

hi you...:)
They know exactly where the kill zones are and there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Emotionally disturbed man, 49, dies after NYPD sergeant shocked him twice with stun gun in Bronx confrontation

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/man-critical-condition-cops-taser-bronx-clash-article-1.2855934

A 49-year-old Bronx man who threatened officers with a bottle died Wednesday after an NYPD sergeant used a stun gun to subdue him, police said.

Cops responded to a 911 call around 5:30 p.m. on Mayflower Ave. in Pelham Bay about a man armed with a knife who was “acting violently.”

Three officers and the sergeant confronted the man in a basement apartment of the gray Victorian home. The distraught man menaced them with a glass bottle, police said.

The patrol sergeant used a stun gun on the man, who fell to the ground, but revived moments later and tried to fight with the officers. The sergeant delivered a second blast from the stun gun, police said.

The man went into cardiac arrest, and the cops on the scene performed CPR. Paramedics then took him to Einstein Hospital, where he died at 7:22 p.m., cops said.

The tragic incident comes just 15 days after cops shot and killed Deborah Danner, a 66-year-old woman suffering from schizophrenia, when officers answered a neighbor’s complaint about her behaving “in an irrational manner” in her Bronx apartment building.

The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division was looking into Wednesday’s death and no disciplinary action had been taken against the sergeant, identified by sources as William Melrose, a 13-year veteran working in the 45th Precinct.

Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, said members of the office’s Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit were on the scene to review the incident for possible jurisdiction under a 2015 executive order by Gov. Cuomo.

An upstairs neighbor who only gave his first name, Derrick, said he knew the man and described him as a “real good dude.”

“He’s not an aggressive guy at all, he’s a real good man,” said the 28-year-old neighbor. He said the man was kind to his 5-year-old son.

“He works out in Long Island. He cuts cold cuts — he’s a deli guy,” Derrick said. “He was real good with my son. My son called him ‘Big Buddy.’ ”

In an Oct. 21 press conference following Danner’s death, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said, “There are times when Tasers aren’t effective, but they are less-than-lethal weapons and we do use them.”

The NYPD has increased the number of Tasers in its arsenal from 670 in 2014 to 1,710 this year, O’Neill said.

Ariz. police officer placed on leave after violent video surfaces

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/17/ariz-police-officer-placed-leave-after-violent-video-surfaces/94009190/

PHOENIX — A Flagstaff police officer has been placed on administrative leave after a video showing him punching a woman in the face surfaced Wednesday on Facebook, according to a police spokesman.

The Flagstaff Police Department "became aware" of the video, which shows Officer Jeff Bonar striking the woman during a Wednesday afternoon arrest, about 7:30 p.m. MT, police Sgt. Cory Runge said in a statement.

"Our agency is very concerned by what is depicted in this video," Runge said. "We are immediately initiating an internal investigation into this incident."

Flagstaff resident Jimmy Sedillo identified the woman in the video as his girlfriend when contacted by The Arizona Republic. He said the pair had received an eviction notice the previous week, and Wednesday was their deadline to leave.

He said officials, including Bonar, came to watch the couple leave and lock up the house. But when Bonar saw Sedillo's girlfriend walk out of the house, he identified her as having a warrant out for her arrest.

“She had a warrant a few weeks ago,” Sedillo said. “He still assumed she had a warrant.”

Sedillo said he and his 3- and 9-year-old children, mother, niece and brother-in-law watched his girlfriend get hit and tackled. His brother-in-law, Danny Paredes, shot the video shared on Facebook.

“It was just shocking,” Paredes said. “I pulled out my camera immediately.”

The video later shows an official who appears to be from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office helping Bonar hold the woman down and arrest her as she cries, "I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything."

Flagstaff police said they would release further details "as the investigation progresses."

Jail monitor: Mistakes, poor monitoring before 3 inmate deaths

http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2016/11/17/jail-monitor-mistakes-poor-monitoring-before-3-inmate-deaths/94042466/

Three deaths at the Milwaukee County Jail all came after mistakes in medical care or potentially poor monitoring of vulnerable inmates, according to a new report issued by a court-ordered monitor of the facility.

The monitor, who is a physician, also found more than one-third of all medical positions at the County Jail and House of Correction remain vacant, an issue he said makes it "extremely difficult" to properly treat inmates.

The findings by the court-appointed monitor, Robert Shansky, are detailed in a report providing new details about the recent spate of deaths at the County Jail. The report reiterates concerns Shansky had in his report from May about Armor Correctional Health Services, the private contractor responsible for medical care at the county's two jails.

Four people have died since April at the County Jail, the downtown facility run by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. The House of Correction, which is run by the county in Franklin, hasn't had any inmate deaths in that time. Both facilities are staffed with Armor personnel.

Shansky did not directly attribute problems with jail oversight or medical care to any of the four deaths. But in three of the four cases, he questioned whether the inmates were properly screened and monitored after being booked into jail. Shansky did not address the fourth case because it occurred in late October, one week before his visit.

"(The report) still leaves a lot of questions. I think in all of these cases, we don't really have a full picture yet," said Pete Koneazny, litigation director for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. The society and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin represent Milwaukee County inmates who sued the county over medical care in 1996, a lawsuit that resulted in Shansky's appointment to monitor the jails.

The problems identified by Shansky in the deaths reflect larger issues he saw at the jails. He found "substantial delays" in responding to inmates' requests for medical attention, and noted the jails' record-keeping procedures remain out of date.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and Armor representatives did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Armor has previously said temporary employees are used to ensure all shifts are filled, even if the employees aren't full-time staffers.

In a statement, county executive spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said House of Correction and county officials are "actively reviewing this report and will work transparently with Armor and Dr. Shansky to address the issues raised." Baldauff noted Shansky's report often did not specify whether problems were found at the House of Correction, the County Jail, or both facilities. The county will seek clarification on issues specific to the House of Correction, she said.

Mistakes before deaths

Shansky visited the jails two weeks ago. He tours the facilities, reviews medical records and interviews staff twice a year under terms of a settlement in the 1996 lawsuit.

In his report issued this month, Shansky addressed the deaths of three people: Terrill Thomas, 38, who died of profound dehydration in April; a baby who was born, and later died, in a cell in July without any jail staff noticing; and Kristina Fiebrink, 38, whose death in August hasn't been explained.

In Thomas' case, Shansky said a shortage of corrections officers "leaves open to question whether more careful monitoring of him might have altered the outcome." Thomas, who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a history of schizophrenia, went days without water after jail staff turned off his access to water, according to inmate accounts.
Terrill Thomas with his 20-year-old son, also named

Terrill Thomas with his 20-year-old son, also named Terrill, at his son's high school graduation in 2014. (Photo: family photo, family photo)

Shansky also found that Armor staff could have more thoroughly and quickly evaluated Thomas' mental health issues after he was booked into jail. Thomas had been in jail for nine days before his death.

The baby's death "raises several questions," Shansky said. The inmate who gave birth, Shadé Swayzer, has said she asked for medical attention prior to giving birth, but a corrections officer laughed off her request. The Sheriff's Office said Swayzer never asked for help.

Nevertheless, Shansky questioned how an inmate could give birth in the jail's special needs unit -- Swayzer had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia -- without any staff noticing.

Shansky wrote that the baby's suspected cause of death was fetal suffocation, though he doesn't specify whether the child suffocated in utero or after birth.

In Fiebrink's case, Shansky's report doesn't specify a cause of death. The Sheriff's Office has not provided any information about the circumstances surrounding her death, and autopsy results have not been released.

Shansky does note that Fiebrink was not started on a preventative detoxification protocol -- she was a known heroin abuser and had been jailed several times in recent years -- or assessed by a medical practitioner before her death.

Before all three deaths, the inmates repeatedly refused medical care or were uncooperative with jail staff.

Persistent issues

The jail deaths all took place amid the backdrop of staffing and patient care issues at the facilities.

In October, 37% of all contractually-required medical care positions were vacant, up from about 30% in May. This was largely due to nursing shortages: 19 of 31 registered nurse positions weren't filled, 15 of 26 licensed practical nurse positions were vacant, and 3 of 4 psychiatric nurse jobs weren't staffed.

"It becomes extremely difficult to provide timely and appropriate services under those constraints," Shansky wrote.

In addition, a study by Armor's own staff of inmate "sick call" requests found some inmates waited weeks for treatment, and a few waited more than a month. Shansky also found "serious quality issues" after reviewing documents that showed how nurses treated sick inmates.

Shansky did write that many of Armor's top administrators at the jails appear serious and dedicated. He also lauded the Sheriff's Office for planning to add 70 corrections officers in January 2017. In July, a Sheriff's Office inspector said 260 jobs were budgeted for the jail, but only 186 were filled.

Koneazny, the lawyer representing inmates, said he has a "low to medium" level of confidence Armor will address problems. He agreed Armor leaders seem "competent and committed," but Armor's failure to fix problems identified in May concerns him.

Baldauff, the county spokeswoman, said staffing vacancies will be scrutinized.

"While shortages in the inmate medical field are not unusual, the seriousness of this issue in Milwaukee County warrants our full attention," she said.

Days after testifying against officer, deputies beat woman

http://www.local10.com/news/bob-norman/days-after-testifying-against-officer-woman-says-deputies-beat-her

The cellphone video of a Fort Lauderdale police officer pushing down a homeless man and then slapping him while the man sat harmlessly on the pavement at the central bus terminal spread around the world like wildfire.

It also led to criminal charges and a highly publicized trial for Officer Victor Ramirez. At the heart of both the video and trial was a 24-year-old woman named Jessica Mooney. She can be seen in the video, which was shot by her boyfriend at the time, later reached out to the victim, Bruce LeClair, and then testified against Ramirez at his trial with the hope that it would help to stop any similar abuse from happening again.

"All I did was try to help somebody," said Mooney. "I testified because I thought it was the right thing to do, because the cop was wrong."

But just eight days after the trial ended with the officer's acquittal in March, it happened to her. She was badly beaten by Broward sheriff’s deputies at the jail after she was arrested by Fort Lauderdale police. The photos of the aftermath show Mooney -- a 5-foot, two-inch, 120-pound woman –- with a grotesquely swollen face, a gash over her eye, and bruising all over her arms, torso and legs.

Her criminal defense attorney, Scott Hecker, says there can be no good explanation for the beating.

"It never should have happened," he said. "You would think that training would prevent deputies from beating a woman like this. You’re in jail, but it’s supposed to be a safe environment .. it’s supposed to be a controlled situation. Here, unfortunately the people in control were out of control."

When interviewed, Mooney could barely bring herself to look at the photos and broke down after seeing them. She says she has lasting physical ailments from the beating, including occasional seizures.

"I never want to see this happen to anyone again," she said, before breaking into tears. "Can we stop?"

The incident occurred after an admittedly intoxicated Mooney was arrested for failing to pay a restaurant and bar bill at the Quarterdeck in Fort Lauderdale. Police arrested her while she was walking home with her five-month-old baby in tow.

"The allegation was that she handed her child to a stranger to hold the child," he said. "Eventually she was arrested for neglect and petty theft for the money that was owed to the restaurant."

The theft charge was later dropped when it was determined she had in fact paid; a misdemeanor neglect charge remains pending. It was later during fingerprinting at the Broward County Jail that the incident occurred.

According to a State Attorney's Office investigation into the incident, deputies allege Mooney had yelled profanities at them. Mooney said a deputy named Amanda Moreno was verbally abusing her. She said she asked for her name and badge number, but couldn’t see it because her hair was covering it.

"With one finger I went like this," she said, brushing her own hair away. "She smashed my face on the finger printing thing."

Three or four more deputies jumped in.

"I don't know if I lost consciousness or if my body went into shock," she said. "I believe I had a footprint on my rib cage. They split open my eyebrow. The whole inside of my mouth had cuts everywhere, just from being brutalized. I was on the floor."

Moreno and other deputies, however, told prosecutors Mooney didn’t simply brush the deputy’s hair but "violently pulled" it, according to close-out memo authored by Assistant State Attorney Ryan Kelley. Mooney’s attorney, Hecker, says he was allowed to see jail surveillance video that captured parts of the incident, and that what he saw contradicts the deputies’ stories.

"You see her hand go up to the front and go up, it's not a fist and it's not a grabbing motion as the deputies say," said Hecker. "It’s moving away."

He said the video then shows Mooney go down and several deputies standing over her, though the actual beating can’t be seen while Mooney is on the floor.

"What you can see in the video is everybody on top of her," he said. "She's underneath these people. You can see arms move."

He said that once Deputy Moreno was extricated, she went right back towards Mooney.

"It appears as though she's about to kick the defendant and as she lifts her leg she falls," Hecker said. "The "deputy falls on her rear end."

The State Attorney’s Office is refusing to release the video, even though it is part of what is now a closed investigation and would normally be a public record. Prosecutors cite a recent legal decision from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office that basically opines that government surveillance video footage isn’t public record because its release could compromise government security systems.

Hecker notes that in this case surveillance video paid for by taxpayers meant to safeguard the public is being withheld in a way that could protect deputies from bad behavior. Conversely the release of the video could vindicate those same deputies in the eyes of the public. Hecker said he intends to get a copy of the video through a court order.

Prosecutor Kelley concluded that the video does not contain sufficient evidence to charge Moreno or any other deputy with a crime. He noted in his report that the video shows Moreno going back at Mooney and falling to the ground, but determined that her intent was "unclear." While Mooney suspects that the beating was retribution for her previous testimony, there has been no evidence found to support that is the case.

"It never should have happened," said Hecker. "The only people that were violent in this case were the BSO detention deputies."

76 gunshot wounds, 0 police cameras, countless questions

http://www.abc10.com/news/local/76-gunshot-wounds-0-police-cameras-countless-questions/354335056?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Jamarion Robinson was a runner.

His mom's house is filled with trophies stretching back to elementary school. You know, the gold, plastic trophies with a runner frozen in time.

In the photos, he's outfitted in a black helmet with yellow and red pads for Tuskegee University. The white lines of the field pass him in a blur as he runs with a football tucked under his arm. He ran his way to player of the year as a freshman. He ran his way into adulthood, surrounded by a loving family.

And he ran from police. Until the day the U.S. Marshals office kicked in the door and shot him 76 times.
draft



Jamarion Robinson was shot 76 times.

Jamarion was killed in August after a series of rapid fire while inside his girlfriend’s East Point apartment. From the first warning shots until it was over, nearly 3 minutes of gunfire was captured on the cell phone of a resident standing nearby.

Investigators have not said how many shots Robinson fired, but the Fulton County medical examiner said he was hit 76 times.

“His head, hands shot off, arms, entire upper and lower torso area, down his thighs, his shins, his feet,” said Robinson.

Community activist Nicole Borden walked through the apartment after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation processed the scene. She believes, as does the family, the use of force was excessive. On the walls you can see the investigator’s markings, counting the number of bullet holes.

“As you’re going up the stairs the numbers keep getting larger. Fifteen, 20 and you start to think like, when are you going to stop counting? I mean, number 68. Can you imagine going to a crime scene and you see number 68 bullet?” asked Borden.

U.S. Marshals said Robinson had a gun. But Borden questions how he could get six bullet wounds – one in the palm of his hand – if he was continuing to hold and fire a weapon.

She also wants to know why it took a private investigator hired by the family to find two bullets fired straight down into the ground, where Robinson’s body was laying.
draft

The Robinson family's private investigator says he found evidence of two bullets fired straight down into the ground, where Robinson’s body was laying.

The GBI is now investigating, but some believe without body cam video to help narrate the events, there’s a key piece of evidence missing.

The events leading to Jamarion Robinson's death were not caught on camera.

U.S. Marshals don’t wear body cameras, even when serving arrest warrants. Marshals are federal agents within the Department of Justice. Even though the DOJ has given more than $20 million in grants to support body camera programs at local police departments, they don’t equip their own law enforcement with them.

11Alive Investigator Rebecca Lindstrom asked for an interview with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to explain why not. The only response she received was a written statement from a spokesperson saying, “The Department of Justice is looking into the use of body cameras and has been consulting with our federal law enforcement components.”

“They have enormous power, they need to be subject to these checks and balances,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU took the U.S. Border Patrol to court demanding that, in certain situations, officers wear body cameras. The border patrol has started to implement them, slowly. The ACLU says it may take aim at U.S. Marshals next.

“I think it’s a real problem if the federal government is asking and encouraging local police forces to use body cameras, but not its own police forces like the U.S. Marshals when they’re engaged in the same activities.”

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has launched his own investigation into Robinson’s death to determine if any of the Marshals should face charges.

“If we had body cams, a lot of the issues that have been raised about that case would go away," Howard said. "But that videotape doesn’t exist."

East Point police were at the scene to assist the U.S. Marshals. They have dash cam recording devices, but the department said the officers that day drove the new police cars which did not have cameras installed.

Howard believes that if an agency has the equipment, the community's expectation is that they will use it. He said every law enforcement officers working in the field should now be wearing body cameras - even U.S. Marshals.

“There’s no difference if somebody’s shooting at you, whether it’s a U.S. Marshal or not," Howard said. "And if the U.S. Marshal doesn’t want to wear body cams, then my position is, they shouldn’t be involved in the arrest.”

Jamarion Robinson was a wanted man.

“There’s so much going on now with innocent people being killed at the hands of the people who are supposed to be able to protect and serve us,” Monteria Robinson said.

She considers her 26-year-old son one of those innocent people and has set up a Go Fund me account to try to investigate and hold law enforcement accountable.

Robinson’s mother doesn’t understand why so many law enforcement officers were needed to arrest her son - or why, since police were aware he had recently been diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, Marshals didn’t show up with a mental health professional to assist.

After the fatal shooting, marshals said they went to arrest Robinson at the request of the Gwinnett and Atlanta police departments. They said just a few weeks earlier he had poured gas on the floor beneath his bed and in front of his mother’s bedroom.

According to the arrest warrant, a friend stopped him before anything happened. Robinson’s mom said she called police, not to have him arrested, but to get him mental health assistance.

Atlanta police had their own arrest warrant - this time for allegedly pointing a gun at officers while being confronted at a friend’s apartment complex.

In the past 2 years, Robinson had left a paper trail in courts across metro Atlanta. He pleaded guilty to a series of traffic violations in Gwinnett for driving without a license plate and giving officers a false name, all of the offenses misdemeanors. He was charged in Cobb County with possession of a controlled substance and arraigned in Union City for failing to stop at a stop sign.

His mother says he thought his problems were behind him and he was preparing to return back to school to finish his biology degree. He had already alerted his football coach about his return.

Jamarion Robinson isn't alone.

This isn’t the first time an arrest by U.S. Marshals has raised questions. A year earlier, Michael Smashey was killed as U.S. Marshals tried to arrest him in Cobb County. Sheriff’s deputies on the scene had cameras, but when Lindstrom asked to see the video, she was told it didn’t exist.

Lindstrom learned officers intentionally didn’t use them. In Cobb County, the sheriff’s policy allows deputies to turn off their cameras “when undercover agents such as federal marshals and narcotics agents may be recorded.”

Simon Araya, who helps create the technology behind Utility’s Body Worn cameras, said it’s not his place to set policy. But he said his company’s redaction software can conceal the voice or physical identity of an undercover officer in a matter of minutes.

“It doesn’t matter where he is in the video. The software will keep looking for him and when he comes back into view it will redact him,” Araya said while demonstrating the technology.

Jamarion Robinson's family is pushing for change.

Robinson doesn’t know what happened inside the apartment where her son died, but she does know something needs to change.

“Someone has to eventually stand up and that’s going to be the Robinson family," she said. "Someone has to stand up and say no more. And that’s going to be the Robinson family."

Video shows police hitting teen protester with baton

http://www.abc10.com/news/local/stockton/video-shows-police-hitting-teen-protester-with-baton/355472143?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

A protest in Stockton turned violent when an officer used his baton to hit a 16-year-old girl.

ABC10 News recently received cellphone video from the protest, which took place October 12. Protesters were demanding that the Stockton Police Department release body camera footage related to the death of Colby Friday, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting.

Tamaya Slaughter, the 16-year-old protester, said police were trying to stop protesters from moving off the sidewalk and crossing the street.

“I guess he got mad, I guess people were yelling,” Slaughter said. “I was standing right there, and he hit me.”

In the cellphone video, an officer is seen turning his baton and jamming it into the crowd. Slaughter can be heard screaming off-camera.

Soon after that, Slaughter was arrested for battery of an officer and resisting arrest – charges that are still pending. Stockton Police Department spokesman Joseph Silva told ABC10 News that the officer was spat on by Slaughter prior to using his baton.

Slaughter denies spitting on the officer.

“I do not recall. I was yelling out of anger. If it was, it wasn’t intentional,” Slaughter said.

Dionne Smith Downs, a friend of Slaughter’s mother, filmed the cellphone video. She said they want police body camera video to be released.

“Show us! We’ve been asking for cameras. Every other city is playing videos. Every other thing other cities have done – they show videos. Why is Stockton the only city that never wants to give you nothing?” Smith Downs asked.

Silva said that the Mobile Field Force, the specialized unit seen in the video, trains regularly on crowd management and uses only reasonable and necessary force.

“Since the suspect is still in the court process pending charges of battery on an officer and resisting arrest, we cannot release any evidentiary video footage. Just like in any use of force case, an administrative review was completed and the officer’s actions were found to be within Department policy,” Silva said.

Yolanda Huang, Slaughter’s attorney, is asking for charges to be dropped against her client.

“The Stockton Police have a history of excessive force against unarmed citizens, particularly against people of color. This latest incident where Stockton police attacked black children, who were peacefully exercising their first amendment rights by protesting the latest police shooting of an unarmed civilian, Colby Friday, is egregious and unacceptable,” Huang said.

Lawsuit: Cops mocked man's genitals during strip search

http://www.kcra.com/article/lawsuit-cops-mocked-man-s-genitals-during-strip-search/8362514

A new lawsuit accuses New Jersey police officers of unjustly strip searching a honeymooning Israeli man at a mall and mocking his genitals.

The unidentified 38-year-old man filed a discrimination lawsuit in Bergen County Superior Court on Wednesday.

The lawsuit says security at the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall stopped the man in November 2015 after he was accused of shoplifting.

When a search of the man's shopping bag uncovered no stolen items, the suit claims at least three Paramus police officers forced him into a corridor "open to the public" and pulled his pants down.

The officers were allegedly "openly laughing" while making fun of the man's genitals, accent and national origin.

The borough's attorney says he hasn't seen the lawsuit.

No Gun Found At Scene Where Police Officer Fatally Shot Man, Top Cop Says

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161124/west-englewood/police-shoot-man-involved-shootings-gun

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said investigators have been unable to find a gun near the scene where a police sergeant shot and killed a man who he said pointed a gun at him during a chase.

"There's still many unanswered questions," Johnson said during a Thursday afternoon press conference. "We are working diligently to find those answers."

Johnson said detectives were trying to find any surveillance video to help piece together what happened late Wednesday in West Englewood, where police have shot and killed two men within the last week.

According to a police statement issued overnight, an Englewood District sergeant responded to a call of a battery in the 1400 block of West 65th Street at 11:07 p.m. and found a man matching the description of the attacker, police said.

The man, who police have not identified, ran away and the sergeant began chasing him, police said.

During the chase, the man turned around and pointed a gun at the sergeant twice, the sergeant told detectives.

The sergeant then shot the man, police said.

The man was taken to an area hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Family identified him as 19-year-old Kajuan Raye of south suburban Dolton, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Raye's family disputed the police version of events, according to the Tribune.

"There was no gun," Raye's cousin Ahkeya White told the newspaper.

Around 11 a.m. Thursday, activist Eric Russell canvassed the shooting scene, looking for people who might have witnessed what happened. He's convinced police shot an unarmed man.

"Police don't get to be judge, jury and executioner," Russell said. "Once again we have an unarmed black boy that was executed... Every time they police our community, they police our community with deadly intent. So, once again, we have another dead kid. There was no weapon recovered."

According to the overnight police statement, detectives and internal affairs investigators were searching the shooting scene to try to find any evidence and the man's gun. But that search proved fruitless, Johnson said Thursday afternoon.

"We were not able to locate the weapon as of yet," he said.

After Johnson delivered his statement, Chicago-based activist Ja'Mal Green led a press conference calling for total reform in the Chicago Police Department.

"This is the same narrative being pushed on every situation," said Green, who was indicted in August on nine felony charges after prosecutors said he attacked multiple police officers at a protest. "Every situation they're a criminal. Every situation they have a gun. But now we've got them where we want them. ... In this situation, they said he had a gun, yet they can't recover a gun."

Green said the sergeant must be punished, claiming it's not the first time he has fired a weapon while on duty.

"This is not his first time shooting someone," Green said. "He needs to be stripped of his police powers immediately. That is what we're calling for... Why is he still on the streets? And why does he have the rank of a sergeant?"

The sergeant, who was not injured, will be placed on administrative leave for 30 days while the Independent Police Review Authority investigates the case.

IPRA officials were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) called on the community to "join me in withholding judgment until all the facts are presented by IPRA."

"We are all undoubtedly angered and frustrated by the events of last night," Lopez said. "Together we will address those facts as a community, with police, residents and leaders all at the table. We can and must move forward together."

The incident marked the second time in less than a week that police shot and killed a man in West Englewood. On Friday, police fatally shot 26-year-old Darius Jones after they saw him shoot another man, police said.

Update
 

Vigil for man killed by cop; autopsy says fatal shot was in back

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/man-shot-by-chicago-police-sgt-died-from-gunshot-wound-to-back/

Relatives of Kajuan Raye went to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office Friday afternoon to formally identify the body of the 19-year-old, who was shot dead Wednesday by a Chicago Police officer.

The group then drove to join a vigil at the West Englewood intersection where the teen was killed. There, they recalled the life of a teen who loved to play basketball, and adored dogs — a portrait that stands in stark contrast to the portrayal of Raye in police accounts of his final moments.

Police said a CPD sergeant shot the teen Wednesday night. The sergeant had given chase, thinking Raye matched the description of a battery suspect. Police say Raye was shot after the teen twice appeared to point a gun at the pursuing officer. Police said no gun had been found at shooting scene as of Thursday, and declined to say Friday whether a search of the surrounding area was still ongoing. The Medical Examiner’s office on Friday said an autopsy showed Raye was killed by a gunshot in the back.

Raye’s cousin, Ahkeya White, said the family was concerned about media attention paid to Raye’s prior arrest for theft, and said the teen was not doing anything wrong before police attempted to stop him Wednesday.

“Everybody got a story. Everybody got something they don’t want to put on TV,” White said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “That moment … two nights ago, whatever he did, he wasn’t doing it then, when they shot him down. And that officer didn’t know him.”

About 80 people crowded onto the sidewalk, some holding candles as they took turns at a microphone attached to a balky loudspeaker, remembering Raye’s life and calling for justice.

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday, attorney Jay Payne said he is representing the family, and planned to file a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Monday against the CPD and the officer who shot Raye.

“We will not wait on the IPRA investigation, we will not wait for the police,” Payne said. “We will seek justice for this family.”

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Thursday that police were searching for the weapon. Payne said he was at the shooting scene Thursday and watched investigators “packing up.”

“They’re done searching and they didn’t find a gun, because the kid didn’t have a gun,” Payne said. “If they come out and say they found a gun, 48 hours after the fact, it doesn’t look good for them. It smacks of a coverup.”

Johnson also said it was not clear if the officers involved in the chase and shooting were wearing body cameras, though the department announced in September that body cameras would be issued to all patrol officers in six police districts, including the 7th District-Englewood, where Raye was shot. A spokeswoman for the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigates police misconduct, said Thursday that officers in the 7th District had not yet been outfitted with body cameras.

IPRA, the city agency which investigates police shootings and allegations of misconduct, is reviewing the shooting. The sergeant who shot Raye has been placed on desk duty while the investigation is pending.

Surveillance camera video from a church near the shooting scene shows Raye sprinting away from a police officer, who trails the teen by a a half-dozen yards. The footage does not capture the shooting.

White, Raye’s cousin, addressed the prospect of the planned lawsuit in her remarks.

“We all work. It ain’t about no money, we don’t need money. Whatever they give … it won’t bring him back,” White said. “We’re trying to move forward… we’re going to do it by the book.”

Raye’s death was one of three fatal shootings by Chicago police officers in the last seven days, and the second in Englewood. Darius Dishaun Jones was gunned down in the 2000 block of West 69th Street, where police officers on patrol saw Jones shooting at a 26-year-old man. Police said officers opened fire after Jones ignored “repeated” orders to drop his weapon. Jones was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Hospital. The man he allegedly shot suffered a wound to the abdomen, and was in critical condition.

Early Friday, police said 37-year-old Cleotha Mitchell was shot by an officer in the 600 block of Central Park Avenue in Homan Square, after Mitchell had fatally shot 35-year-old Jeffrey Banks.

Raye’s mother, Karonisha Ramsey, said only a few sentences, thanking the crowd of mourners.

“And as for my baby, I guess, we gonna get justice,” she said.

In a phone interview several hours before the vigil, Ramsey said Raye had called her Wednesday not long before he was shot, and she said he was on his way to her Dolton home for Thanksgiving dinner, which Ramsey has always cooked up on the Wednesday before the official holiday.

Ramsey said Raye had only recently moved back to Chicago after she had sent him to live with his aunt and grandmother in Texas. The teen had been unmotivated and his grades were slipping at Thorton Fractional High School, Ramsey said, and she hoped a change of scene would help him.

“I just wanted to put him in a different environment,” Ramsey said. “He had perfect attendance (at Thorton), he just wasn’t doing the work.”

Raye moved back when he turned 18, and while he wasn’t in school, Ramsey said she insisted that he start working toward getting his General Equivalency Diploma, and Raye was trying to get a job at Dominos Pizza, where his sister works. Someday, the teen hoped to become a veterinarian.

“He just loved dogs, and he kept saying he wanted to be a veterinarian. All he watched was Animal Channel,” she said. “He was a happy person. He wasn’t ever a problem.”

Update
 

Former LCPD officers seen beating man cleared of charges

http://www.kvia.com/news/top-stories/former-las-cruces-police-officers-seen-beating-man-cleared-of-charges/185140889

Two Las Cruces Police Department officers who were seen beating a handcuffed man in a surveillance video will not go to trial after all.

Abc-7 confirmed Friday the District Attorney's office is not pursuing the aggravated battery charges against former officer Richard Garcia and Danny Salcido.

In a video obtained by Abc-7, Ross Fynn is seen being beaten by the two officers. Flynn suffered several broken facial bones and a cracked skull. Flynn was being arrested for allegedly threatening a neighbor with a gun. He was found not guilty but he was convicted of resisting arrest and is currently on probation.

Garcia went on trial last summer and the judge declared a mistrial, Salcido has yet to face a jury. Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya tells Abc-7 District Attorney Mark D'Antonio consulted with the state Attorney General's office and late Wednesday afternoon, a decision was made to drop the charges against both former officers.

Flynn is suing the City of Las Cruces for $12,000,000,000.

Teens sue Detroit cops over botched hooker sting

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/28/teens-sue-detroit-cops-over-botched-hooker-sting/94534522/

An undercover hooker. A coney island restaurant. Three teenage boys in a car.

Mix 'em up, and you have the makings of a civil rights lawsuit that's unfolding in federal court, where three suburban teenagers are suing six Detroit police officers over accusations of arresting and mistreating them during a summer prostitution sting that ended with the teens getting dropped off in an unfamiliar area of the city and ordered to walk home to Dearborn.

According to the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, the police engaged in misconduct of all sorts that August night. It alleges the officers drove the boys through neighborhoods at "reckless speeds" without activating emergency lights or sirens; impounded their car and said it would cost "thousands of dollars" to get it back; took a photo of one of the handcuffed boys and broadcast it on the Internet using the Snapchat app, and laughed and joked about the arrest.

All of this happened, the lawsuit claims, because the officers thought the teens were trying to flag down a relative and stop him from approaching an undercover prostitute outside the Caesars Coney Island on Warren in west Detroit. The teens were charged with interfering with police activity, but the charges were later dismissed.

"It was pretty outrageous," said defense attorney Amir Makled, who represented the teens after their arrest. "They charged these guys with interfering with police activity. In essence, they were accused of stopping prostitution in the making ... these officers were just out of control."

Makled disputes that the teens were trying to deter someone from picking up a prostitute, but argues that even if they were: "It's not a crime ... that's a First Amendment issue right there ... it’s not as if they were in the middle of an arrest."

The Detroit Police Department declined comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of Hassan Abdallah and Ibrahim Bazzi, both 17 of Dearborn; and Ali Chami, 18, of Romulus.

According to the police report, no force was used in the arrest and there was no video or audio of the incident. The report said a team of officers with the 6th Precinct was conducting an undercover prostitution sting in the area of Winthrop and Warren at 6:45 p.m. Aug. 26, when they spotted a group of males sitting in a Chevy Monte Carlo in the parking lot of the Caesars Coney Island.

"The males were yelling across the street and waving their arms to get the attention of an older Arabic male who was making his way toward our ... decoy. The males were yelling, 'Don't do it! Don't do it?' " the police report stated. "The males appeared to be discouraging the older Arabic male from talking with the decoy."

This interfered with the police operation, an officer wrote in the report, so the teenagers were arrested and their car was taken to a "staging area by the takedown." The vehicle was towed by Detroit Auto Tow for impound, the report said.

For plaintiffs attorney Nick Hadous, the police version of events sounded like hogwash.

"It sounds almost like something you’d see on TV, like 'Narkos' or 'Menace to Society,' where kids are dropped off far away from home. Something really didn’t sit well with me when I heard what happened," said Hadous, who filed a civil suit after getting contacted by the teens' parents. "They are outraged. They do not believe police should be treating anyone’s children that way."

Especially egregious is that police abandoned the teens in the middle of Detroit and told them to walk to Dearborn, said Hadous, who argues the teens did nothing wrong.

"What I heard that really offended me was that these kids were arrested on the basis of what seems to be more a speculative crime involving somebody else. There was no underlying crime," said Hadous, arguing the drop-off location was especially alarming. "Why would you drop them off at a Detroit location, especially when two of them were minors? Are their lives that worthless that you don’t even consider their safety? And putting it on Snapchat?"

According to the lawsuit, here's what happened on the night of the arrests:

Two teenagers were sitting in their car eating chips and drinking soda while waiting for their friend to get out of work at the coney island. When he got out, he joined them in the car. As they were about to leave the parking lot, one of the teens noticed a relative pull his car into a nearby CVS pharmacy and started to wave to the relative, who drove over and greeted them.

As soon as the relative left, the police officers stormed the coney island parking lot with their vehicles and surrounded the teenagers, who were handcuffed, searched and placed under arrest for an "imaginary offense," the lawsuit states. The officers drove the teens around town and dropped them off at Tireman and Abington in Detroit instead of a police station where their parents could safely pick them up," the lawsuit states.

The officers ordered the teens to walk home and "the boys complied," the lawsuit states.

Over the next few days, one of the teens — 17-year-old Hassan Abdallah — made several calls to find out where his car was towed. At one point, he was told that it would cost "thousands of dollars to get the car back," the lawsuit states, noting the teen's father intervened and ultimately paid hundreds of dollars to get the car back from a towing company.

Throughout this ordeal, the lawsuit states, the police refused to drop the charges and forced the teenagers to get lawyers. The criminal charges were ultimately dropped.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

"We want justice," Hadous said. "We want the department to be aware of what happened and maybe take any appropriate measures they deem warranted. This is something that shouldn’t be happening to anybody."

The reporting officers listed on the police report are Michael Carson and Joseph Machon — both of whom are named defendants in the lawsuit.

According to DPD spokesman Michael Woody, Carson and Machon still work at DPD, as do two other officers who are named in the lawsuit: Jordan Leavy and Ibrahim Abdul-Hamid. Two other officers are also being sued, but their full names were not listed in the lawsuit.

Voice appearing to be Philadelphia police officer responds to taunt

http://www.fox29.com/news/206931486-story

The whole video lasts just 44 seconds. We've blurred the faces of the officers because we've not been able to identify them for their side of the story. However, the audio-- difficult as it may be to hear-- tells the story. A FOX 29 viewer sent us the video.

The video shows two white Philadelphia police officers looking for information from several young black men on a city street corner. The conversation quickly goes sideways and the cops order the men to disperse.

On the video, one of the black men is heard to saying, "Come on y'all, they might be gonna shoot us."

Voice appearing to be Philadelphia police officer responds to taunt

A voice that appears to be one of the officers replies: "Not all of you-- just one." The camera turns so you can't see the person.

FOX 29 caught up with Police Commissioner Richard Ross at a Hero Thrill Show preview event and played him the video.

"There's no doubt the context is difficult to deny. We’ve going to have to figure out who made that comment and obviously it's highly inappropriate," said Commissioner Ross.

Consider the state of relations between police and the African-American community. On one hand, incidents in Tulsa and now Charlotte in which cops kill men who may or not be an actual threat. On the other, right here in Philadelphia, an officer targeted-- ambushed-- by a black man in January. And a police sergeant released from the hospital days after being ambushed by a black man in a shooting rampage last Friday night.

There is frustration on both sides.

"Oh, it's tough. We're under-manned, under equipped. The attitude toward police has changed everywhere around the country. We've seen that," said John McNesby, with the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police.

Maricopa Co. Attorney won't prosecute officers who pepper sprayed woman

http://www.12news.com/news/local/valley/maricopa-co-attorney-wont-prosecute-officers-who-pepper-sprayed-woman/358326406

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute two Phoenix police officers accused of lying about giving medical aid to a homeless woman they pepper sprayed last year. The decision comes despite the fact that the MCAO took it to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against the men and both were formally charged and arraigned. Clearly the process was well underway with pre-trial conferences and comprehensive trial conferences already scheduled to begin in January 2017.

Officers Chris Tiona and Logan Egnor told investigators that they had pepper sprayed an aggressive homeless woman in May of 2015 and stayed with her to treat her, but data from their vehicle locator and footage from their body cameras bring the medical aid into question.

Both officers were indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on October 25, on one felony count each for tampering with a public record. The indictment alleged Tiona and Egnor knowingly, with the intent to defraud or deceive made false written reports following the May 24, 2015 encounter with the homeless woman.

The footage also brings up the question of whether the pepper spray was necessary, as well as their characterization of the woman's aggressive behavior.

So why, then, did the prosecutor Ed Leiter change his mind? The State's motion to dismiss reflecting the decision to toss out the case has not yet been released, but MCAO spokesperson Amanda Jacinto released this statement to 12 News:

“Upon further review it was determined that based on the facts of the case the office declined prosecution as there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

Last week, 12 News reported that Tiona and Egnor were back under investigation by Phoenix PD. They previously served 240-hour unpaid suspensions of their peace officer certification after entering into consent agreements with the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which certifies all police officers in the state.

Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Howard said the department would continue its internal investigation and the officers would remain on administrative leave.

Bob Kavanagh, attorney for officer Tiona, acknowledged the State filed a motion to dismiss the case against his client. He went on to say that he has not seen an order from the judge granting the State's motion. Kavanagh tells 12 News, "I will not be commenting further."

We also contacted attorney Jess Lorona, who is defending Egnor. He did not appear to know the prosecutor moved to dismiss the case against his client but said he was going to find out. We have not yet heard back from Lorona.

Keith Lamont Scott killing: No charges against officer, DA says

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/30/us/keith-lamont-scott-case-brentley-vinson/index.html

Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN)[Breaking news update at 12:16 p.m. ET]
The announcement that no officers will be charged in the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott "doesn't end our inquiry," Scott family attorney Charles Monnett said Wednesday.

"We still have concerns," Monnett said. "We still have real questions about what decisions were made that day," such as whether police could have used better de-escalation techniques that may have prevented Scott's death.

[Breaking news update at 11:40 a.m. ET]
Charlotte police Officer Brentley Vinson's deadly use of force was lawful the day he killed Keith Lamont Scott, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said Wednesday.

He said no charges will be filed in the case, and that 15 prosecutors reached the decision unanimously.

Murray urged the community to remain calm.

"I know some are going to be frustrated," he said, but Vinson "was justified in shooting him."

The district attorney said he met with Scott's family before making the announcement, and that the family was "extremely gracious."

[Breaking news update at 11:16 a.m. ET]
In response to public speculation about whether Keith Lamont Scott was armed the day he was killed by police, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said "all the credible evidence" leads to the conclusion Scott was armed.

His DNA was found on the grip of a gun found at the scene, Murray said.

[Breaking news update at 11:04 a.m. ET]
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray is holding a news conference, describing new details from the day Keith Lamont Scott was killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Brentley Vinson.

Murray showed surveillance footage from a convenience store shortly before Scott was shot at an apartment complex. The footage showed a bulge around Scott's ankle. Murray said the bulge is consistent with the holster and gun later described by officers.

The district attorney also said at least three officers reported seeing Scott holding a gun before he was shot, though dashcam video did not show that detail.

[Previous story, published at 10:23 a.m. ET]
Two months after Keith Lamont Scott was killed by a police officer at a Charlotte apartment complex, the local district attorney is expected to announce whether the officer will be charged.

The 43-year-old black man's death sparked protests and added more fuel to the national debate over whether police are too quick to use deadly force, particularly against African-American men.

The officer who shot Scott, Officer Brentley Vinson, is also black.

Police said they were looking for someone with an outstanding warrant when Scott, 43, exited a vehicle with a gun.

Scott's family said the father of seven children didn't have a gun. But police say Vinson opened fire after Scott stepped out of a vehicle with a gun in his hand and didn't obey commands to drop it.

Scott's death led to public pressure on local police to release video of the shooting. The night after Scott's death, hundreds of protesters gathered. Many said they were angry about what they said was unnecessary police action. Some protests were peaceful, others turned violent.

In October, officials released footage of the incident. Video taken by Scott's widow shows a different perspective of what happened.

Dashcam footage shows an officer in plain clothes with his weapon drawn on Scott as Scott exits an SUV and begins walking backward. Vinson then shoots Scott four times.

Attorneys for Scott's family have said the videos show he wasn't aggressive when police surrounded him. Scott's daughter said her father was in his SUV reading a book, waiting for a son to come home from school. But police said no book was found at the scene.

Cell phone video recorded by Scott's wife, Rakeyia, shows a different angle of the incident. In that video, a man repeatedly yells for someone -- apparently Scott -- to "drop the gun."

"He doesn't have a gun. He has a TBI (traumatic brain injury)," Rakeyia Scott says, referencing an injury Scott sustained during a motorcycle accident. "He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine."

The videos don't clearly show whether Scott was armed. And critics say there's one key element missing from the body camera video released by police: sound.

An autopsy report later revealed the cause of Scott's death as gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Tests of Scott's blood indicated the presence of diazepam, amantadine, babapentin, nicotine, nordiazepam and promethazine. Scott's family attorney said the drugs were being used to treat Scott's traumatic brain injury.

Baltimore officer indicted on assault, misconduct charges

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-cop-indicted-20161202-story.html

Body camera footage helped a grand jury indict a Baltimore police officer who investigators say used unnecessary force to make an arrest.

Donald B. Gaff, a three-and-a-half-year veteran, faces assault and misconduct charges in the Sept. 11 incident near East Patapsco Avenue, police said.

Police said he used "unjustified force" but provided no details Friday on the case, including the type of force Gaff was said to have used.

Internal investigators were doing a "routine review" of body camera footage, when they saw the alleged abuse. The detectives presented their findings to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office for prosecution. Gaff's police powers have been suspended, police said. He was assigned to the Southern District.

"This incident again demonstrates our capacity and willingness to hold police officers engaged in misconduct accountable," Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said in a statement. "His actions do not represent the professionalism exhibited by the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department on a daily basis."

Police said they will not release the footage of the incident, and have turned it over to prosecutors.

A call to Baltimore police union president Lt. Gene Ryan was not immediately returned Friday afternoon, and no attorney was listed in court records representing Gaff.

In January 2015, Gaff fatally shot a man at a child's birthday party in the 1900 block of McHenry Street after he was flagged down by a resident. Police said a man was carrying a knife at the party and threatening to stab people. After being asked to drop the knife, police said, Gaff shot him once in the upper chest, killing him.

In that case, then-deputy police commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gaff had "courageously" confronted the man and was in the "right place at the right time."

"I think it's safe to say that through the officer's quick actions and the fact that the officer was deployed here and was able to quickly respond, this scene could've been a lot different," Rodriguez said at the time.

Retired Corrections Officer Claims Garden City Police Mistakenly Beat Him

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/12/02/corrections-officer-sues-garden-city-police/

A retired Nassau County corrections officer claims he was beaten by officers in a case of mistaken identity.

Ronald Lanier said he was shopping in the Western Beef Supermarket in Mineola on Nov. 30 when he was tackled, handcuffed and beaten by officers with the Garden City Police Department.

“I’ve never been cursed, physically abused, beaten and treated like a slave as I was two days ago,” Lanier said, breaking down as he described how he landed in handcuffs and in a hospital. “For somebody to grab me by the neck in the supermarket, and I’m telling you, ‘I’m one of you,’ and you disrespect it — it was like you’re just another black dude.”

“They cursed at him, they abused him verbally, they then start to beat him,” his attorney, Fred Brewington, told 1010 WINS. “He was taking blows with his hands cuffed behind him as he laid facedown.”

Lanier, who retired after two decades as a Nassau County corrections officer, claims he complied and explained to the officers that he was law enforcement, but they just laughed.

The officers, who are white, claimed they were searching for a black shoplifting suspect, who was later apprehended on the roof of the building.

“They didn’t have a good description of who they were looking for. That doesn’t give you the right to go into a store and grab the first black person you see and throw them to the ground,” his attorney, Fred Brewington, told 1010 WINS. “The fact that he happened to be a black male in the store does not make him a culprit, it does not make him a suspect.”

Lanier intends to sue the Garden City Police Department, accusing them of violating his civil rights. He wants the officers stripped of their badges.

“I’m tired of hearing officers constantly talking about we have to retrain. We don’t have to retrain, we got to let them be held accountable for their actions,” Lanier said. “Imagine if I had my gun at that time. It could have went either way.”

“We are hoping Garden City Police Department will come forward with respect, identifying their officers, disciplining their officers,” said Dennis Jones, with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

The Garden City Police Department declined to share its side of the story with CBS2, but provided context, saying they were chasing a fleeing shoplifting suspect who abandoned a getaway car on the railroad tracks and fled into the supermarket, Carolyn Gusoff reported.

Brewington said his client spent 20 minutes inside a squad car before he was let go without receiving an apology.

“The sergeant, without any apology or any other way of making it clear that they were acknowledging the mistake that they had made, just said cut him loose,” Brewington said.

Western Beef does have interior security cameras, but would not share the video with CBS2.

Former Roanoke police officer pleads no contest to sexually assaulting female prisoners

http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/roanoke/former-roanoke-police-officer-pleads-no-contest-to-sexually-assaulting/article_aead7093-cdae-5096-aa3b-a393cf8904bd.html

A former Roanoke police officer has resolved the two criminal cases against him, both involving sexual assault claims by prisoners who were in his custody.

Francisco Alberto Duarte, 30, was indicted earlier this year on charges of aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy.

He was due to go to trial on the former case on Thursday morning and on the latter case in January.

At a hearing Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Duarte pleaded no contest to amended counts of felony carnal knowledge with an inmate and misdemeanor sexual battery.

Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, Duarte received six months to serve on each charge, with five years in suspended time. He likely will end up serving about three months on the misdemeanor offense and another six on the felony. He was taken into custody as soon as the hearing ended.

Based on the statute under which Duarte was charged, he will not have to register as a sex offender, his lawyer said.

In a summary of the prosecution’s evidence, Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John McNeil said the two offenses occurred while Duarte was on duty and was taking female prisoners to the Roanoke City Jail.

In the first instance, which occurred Dec. 2, 2015, McNeil said security camera footage showed Duarte bringing a woman into the jail, talking with her briefly, then leaving with her and going back out to his car.

McNeil said the woman can be heard telling Duarte, “No one has to know.”

The woman later told investigators they rode a short distance from the jail, parked and then engaged in oral sex.

“The mere fact that she was in custody and he was a police officer made her feel like she had no choice in the matter,” McNeil said.

He said the woman reported the incident while she was being processed into custody. Duarte was interviewed by police officials and “taken off the road” within hours.

A police spokesman said earlier this year that Duarte’s last day with the force was Dec. 3, 2015, but he declined to elaborate, saying it was a personnel matter.

The second incident came to light in March. McNeil said a woman charged with a petty offense in Roanoke County told investigators that she had been arrested on a shoplifting charge in Roanoke in September 2015. While being taken to jail by Duarte, he had stopped in a motel parking lot where he parked, exposed himself and placed her hand on his privates, she said. McNeil said she rejected the advance and they continued on to jail from there.

Neither woman is being identified in this story because The Roanoke Times does not name victims of sexual assault.

“These are cases we have wrestled with for months,” McNeil told Judge David Carson. He said the circumstances of the cases complicated the prospects of going to trial. Both witnesses had expressed reluctance to testify, he said, and they approved of the agreement.

“They both want to move on,” he said.

Defense attorney David Damico added that there were “significant issues that would’ve potentially affected the credibility of the witnesses,” and that there was little evidence that force had been involved in either case.

Under the initial indictments, Duarte had faced the possibility of maximum sentences of life plus 20 years in prison.

“He exercised monumentally bad judgment,” Damico said. “We see this as a pragmatic solution to a difficult situation.”

Asked by Carson whether he wanted to make a statement before his conviction, Duarte declined.

Both sides in the case have exercised extreme discretion as the matter has moved forward through the courts. Most relevant court documents were placed under seal, and members of the media were barred from an evidentiary hearing in September — on a motion from the defense — while recordings were played. The windows of the courtroom doors were also covered during that hearing.

Video: Miami Cops Throw Legless Woman to Ground

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/07/video-miami-cops-throw-legless-woman-to-ground.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl

http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content...788.cached.jpg

Video emerged Wednesday of two Miami-Dade police officers handcuffing a legless woman and throwing her to the ground from her wheelchair. Mary Luis Brown, 52, was panhandling outside as gas station on Saturday night when cops arrived to ask her to leave. Bystanders filmed the unnamed officers manhandling Brown, cuffing her and throwing her to the ground as she shouted, “Stop hurting me!” The police department admits the two officers acted improperly and noted that “we need to provide our law enforcement officers additional resources to aid them in facilitating the transport of disabled individuals, so that situations such as these are handled in a more amicable manner in the future.” Brown was arrested for trespassing and transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Andrea: Clink link for video

Cops Gagged and Smothered a Man to Death, Then Fist-Bumped

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/08/cops-gagged-and-smothered-a-man-to-death-then-fist-bumped.html?via=desktop&source=twitter


Police handcuffed Ben Anthony C de Baca, threw him on his stomach, pulled a mask over his face, and planted their knees in his back. While he cried that he couldn’t breathe, the officers were busy laughing at a joke. They stopped laughing when they realized he’d gone limp.

“Anthony,” one officer said, wiggling the dead man’s arm. “Anthony.”

“Fuck,” another one said.

He was dead.

Twelve minutes after that, two officers fist-bumped.

Medical examiners ruled C de Baca’s Sept. 6, 2015 death a homicide from “excited delirium (cocaine intoxication) complicated by means of physical restraint.” An investigation by New Mexico’s Rio Rancho Police Department found no criminal intent by any of the three police agencies involved in the arrest. But C de Baca’s family says his death was a senseless act of police brutality and incompetence.

The family is planning a wrongful death suit against the three law enforcement agencies involved in his arrest, family attorney Ahmad Assed told The Daily Beast. Meanwhile, Sandoval County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor told The Daily Beast it is investigating C de Baca’s death for potential criminal charges.

C de Baca had a history of mental illness, his wife said, according to a police report. Doctors had recently changed his medication, and he had been “acting very paranoid all week,” she said. On the day of his death, his wife said he had experienced “schizophrenic episodes,” which came to a head at a McDonald’s.

While waiting in the drive-through line, C de Baca began acting irrationally, telling his wife that there were people in the trunk. She humored him, promising to check the trunk, at which point he flung his legs into the driver’s side of the car and slammed on the gas, sending the car speeding into another vehicle.

C de Baca then fled on foot to a nearby Wal-Mart, where he began throwing soda and smashing televisions. He shouted, “‘You are all murderers, you killed my kid’ and other things that didn’t make sense,” a Wal-Mart employee told police.

Workers called 911. Officers from three departments arrived on the scene, due to the Wal-Mart’s location near the intersection of three jurisdictions. An officer from the Rio Rancho Police Department responded to a report about C de Baca’s car crash outside the nearby McDonald’s, while officers from the neighboring Bernalillo and Santa Ana police departments responded to the call from inside the Wal-Mart. (The Rio Rancho Police Department decline to comment on this story. The Santa Ana and Bernalillo police departments did not return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.) Bernalillo and Santa Ana officers found C de Baca in the store, where they cuffed him on the floor, body camera footage shows.

“Stand up or we’re going to drag you out, one way or another,” an officer is seen telling the restrained man. But C de Baca continued to struggle, allegedly biting one officer on the leg.

“A fucking bite mark, dude,” the officer is heard telling another on camera. “This cunt fuck bit the fuck out of me, dude. I had to punch his ass off of me.”

Officers pulled C de Baca outside, where they placed him on his stomach in the parking lot, shackled his legs, and placed hands and knees on his back. They placed a spit sock over his head to prevent him from biting again, the police report says. An officer began questioning him, presumably for an incident report. C de Baca initially cooperated, giving his name. Then he cried for help.

“I can’t breathe,” he said.

“Anthony, what’s your date of birth?” the officer taking the report called.

“I can’t breathe,” C de Baca repeated.

“What’s your date of birth?” the officer asked again. His colleagues continued placing pressure on C de Baca’s back, pinning his cuffed hands behind him.

“I’m dying,” C de Baca pleads. No one appears to listen. The conversation returns to the bite mark on one of the officer’s pant legs.

“He hit bone?” an officer asked, alluding to the other cop’s penis.

“Always with the jokes,” the bitten officer said, confirming that the bite didn’t break the skin.

The officers were still laughing when they realized C de Baca had gone limp under their hands and knees. An officer shook his arm, then his shirt, attempting to rouse him. The “spit sock” was still over his face.

As police watched the paramedics attempt to revive him, one officer’s body camera showed two officers fist-bumping near the body, apparently in greeting. It was one of several casual gestures that may appear insensitive in the immediate aftermath of C de Baca’s death. Later, two different officers are seen discussing the man’s death.

“You alright?” one officer asked another several minutes after C de Baca’s pulse stopped.

“Yeah, I’m good, dude,” the second answered. “I fucking hate when people put us in a position like that.”

“No, I’m asking are you OK,” the first asked. “I don’t care about that,” he said in apparent reference to C de Baca’s death. “Are you OK?”

Assed, a lawyer for C de Baca’s family, said conversations suggest a fundamental lack of concern for C de Baca’s life.

“He’s telling him essentially that Mr. C de Baca has passed, and he’s like ‘I don’t care, I’m asking how you’re doing,’” Assed told The Daily Beast. “It’s really telling if you look at that particular part of the video.”

Assed said C de Baca’s family is preparing a civil suit against the three police departments involved in the arrest. But Assed said his primary concern is not the officers’ attitude on camera, but their treatment of C de Baca during what should have been a routine arrest.

“I’m really more concerned about why they hogtied him, dragged him out, placed him face down with three guys kneeing him in the back,” Assed said. “A guy is screaming for his life saying he can’t breathe and that he’s hurting, and then they claimed to put a spit sock on him for what reason I have no idea, because it doesn’t prevent anything.”

The use of the spit sock in C de Baca’s death is central to claims that the officers mishandled his arrest.

Spit socks are intended to prevent individuals from spitting at officers, but are not meant to prevent the person from biting, or to impair their breathing. But C de Baca’s case was unusual. Police placed the sock over his head after he allegedly bit an officer.

The spit sock was mesh, with a “thick cotton portion,” a sergeant reported during an investigation into C de Baca’s death. During C de Baca’s arrest, the spit sock’s cotton had covered C de Baca’s “face, nose, and mouth,” while the mesh bunched up around his forehead, the sergeant told investigators, adding that “he had not seen a spit sock used in that fashion before.”

An independent report by the New Mexico Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that an “improperly placed” spit sock has the potential to suffocate a person. The examiner wrote that they could not rule out suffocation as a contributing cause in C de Baca’s death.

“They used it in a different fashion than in the training I hope they received,” Assed said. “I doubt they received any training. If there was training, it certainly wasn’t consistent with how they used it.”

The Bernalillo Police Department, which placed the spit sock on C de Baca’s head, did not return a request for comment. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, a separate entity from the Bernalillo Police Department, outlines a standard spit hood policy in their officer manual.

“When Deputies are faced with prisoners who spit, have spat, or indicate they are likely to spit, the following procedures will be followed,” the document reads (PDF). “No other methods will be utilized to control or prevent this action. The Transportation Hood will only be used to deter spitting and will NOT be used for any other purpose.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s officer manual also outlines policies that could have saved C de Baca’s life. Police are required to pay special attention to individuals displaying signs of cocaine psychosis, which medical examiners identified as a contributor in C de Baca’s death.

“Deputies will seek immediate medical attention for the prisoner if signs or symptoms of cocaine psychosis, excited delirium or positional asphyxia are observed,” the manual reads.

The manual also warns against placing a handcuffed person on their stomach.

“Deputies must guard against leaving the individual or allowing the individual to go to the chest down position as this could cause Positional Asphyxia,” the manual says. The police sergeant who told investigators that the spit sock had been misapplied also said that he instructed officers to not to place C de Baca on his stomach, a suggestion that went ignored.

While law enforcement’s internal investigation into C de Baca’s death found no criminal intent by the officers involved, charges might still come from a district attorney in New Mexico’s Sandoval County.

David Foster, an attorney with New Mexico’s 13th Judicial District told The Daily Beast that the incident was under investigation, but could not comment on the nature of the ongoing probe.

But Assed said the family planned to sue all three police departments for wrongful death. The pending lawsuit will likely address the officers’ apparent lack of training about the spit sock, in addition to their overall conduct during the arrest.

“They placed it in a way that I believe wholeheartedly contributed to Mr. C de Baca’s death,” Assed said. “To place him on his face and place that spit sock on him, with three people on him, it’s ridiculous. It’s crazy."

UPDATE: 4 EPD officers suspended; termination recommended for 3

http://www.courierpress.com/story/news/crime/2016/11/04/state-police-investigating-claims-against-epd-officers/93282382/

Four Evansville police officers were suspended without pay following improper use of force during an arrest Oct. 29, Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin said at a press conference Friday.

Three officers were investigating a garage burglary in the 700 block of Florida Street early Saturday morning and arrested Mark Healy, 36, of Evansville. The case report indicates officers used force, so an on-duty motor patrol sergeant reviewed materials and reported the officers’ actions were justified.

On Monday, further review by another supervisor led to a formal investigation, which found information in the case report was inconsistent with what was shown on body camera video.

The case report claims Healy was running from police when an officer caught him and Healy poked the officer in the hand with a used, open syringe. The syringe allegedly contained liquid methamphetamine. The report also claims Healy struggled and pulled away from officers when they tried to handcuff him.

Body cam video released by police Friday contradicts the affadavit. It shows Healy was handcuffed without incident and an officer searching him poked his hand on a needle in Healy's pocket. The video, taken from the body camera worn by the officer who was poked, appears to show that officer throwing Healy to the ground and yelling at him.

The video is obscured and dark for about 18 seconds after Healy is thrown to the ground and later shows an officer holding his hand over Healy’s mouth and shaking the man’s head. Three officers were on-scene when this happened.

"Two officers are seen using force on Mr. Healy, while verbally insulting and screaming at him," Bolin said during the press conference. "The third officer watched the incident, but did nothing to intervene or stop the actions of the other officers."

Evansville police held a press conference related to three officers being suspended after involvement in use of force investigation.

The probable cause affidavit filed in the investigation indicates the three officers at the scene were Nick Henderson, Mark DeCamps and Marcus Craig. When asked to confirm the names, Bolin said he would have to wait for the Evansville Police Merit Commission, a civilian board responsible for final actions on discipline in the department, to release the names of the suspended officers and sergeant.

The three involved officers were suspended for 21 days without pay after the formal investigation was completed Thursday, with a recommendation that they be fired. The sergeant who initially reviewed the report was also suspended 21 days without pay, with a recommendation to the Merit Commission that he be demoted.

The three involved officers and the sergeant were placed on paid administrative leave Monday until the formal investigation was completed Thursday.

“Multiple department policy violations were discovered during the investigation,” Bolin said during the press conference.

At one point, Healy is taken out of handcuffs so he can turn out his pockets and take off the sweatshirt he is wearing over a t-shirt.

In the video, officers yell at Healy and ask him if there are more needles, then threaten him multiple times.

One officer says, “I’ll [expletive] shoot you in the [expletive] back if you run,” and another says, “I’m going to beat the holy [expletive] out of you again.”

The Evansville Police Department manual states deadly force – using firearms, for example – is only legally justified “when necessary in the defense of a member’s own life” or another person’s life, or “when necessary to prevent the escape of a felony suspect whom the member has probable cause to believe poses a significant threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others.”

Video shows another officer arriving and speaking with the three officers on scene. That officer has not been identified.

On Friday morning, Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle said his agency was asked to look into the case by Evansville police officials. Taking on such a request requires the approval of state police superintendent Doug Carter, which was granted Thursday, according to Ringle. He did not know when police department officials first asked state police to look into the incident.

"Typically," Ringle said, "when another agency requests that our agency investigate an incident, it's simply because there is a possibility of criminal charges being filed or that there had been some sort of crime that may have been committed."

The next regularly scheduled Police Merit Commission meeting is November 14. Police have indicated they will not release further information or comment on the case again before the meeting.

Unarmed man, 73, shot and killed by police in California

http://www.kcra.com/article/unarmed-man-73-shot-and-killed-by-police-in-california/8494248

Authorities in California say a Bakersfield police officer answering a report of a man with a gun shot and killed an unarmed 73-year-old as he stood in a neighbor's driveway. The man's family says he was in the early stages of dementia.

The Kern County coroner said in a statement that the man, 73-year-old Francisco Serna, was declared dead at the scene about 1:15 a.m. Monday.

Police Sgt. Gary Carruesco tells KBAK-TV and the Los Angeles Times that police had arrived about 12:30 a.m. and when a witness pointed to Serna, one officer fired several rounds and killed him.

Carruesco said no gun was turned up in a search of the scene.

Serna's son Rogelio Serna tells the Times his father was a retired grandfather who didn't own a gun. He says he was suffering from delusions and other early signs of dementia.

Cops Allow Police Dog to Bite Naked, Unarmed Man

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/Cops-Allow-Police-Dog-Bite-Naked-Unarmed-Man-406122445.html?cid=sm_tw&_osource=nbcnews_twitter

The NBC4 I-Team has obtained police body cam video — never before seen publicly — that shows cops allowing a canine to bite a naked, unarmed man, including for over 40 seconds after officers had him pinned to the ground.

Attorneys who’ve seen the video say it amounts to excessive force, and raises questions for all police departments about how they use canines.

The initial police call came out around 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday in August 2015. Patrol officers with the San Diego Police Department were asked to check on the welfare of a naked man screaming and running through a canyon in University City, a San Diego suburb near La Jolla, according to police reports obtained by the NBC4 I-Team.

It took some time for the officers to locate the man hiding in a rustic canyon area surrounded by homes and a high school. Officers believed the man was under the influence of a controlled substance, which the man later admitted to NBC4 was true.

In the police video, you see officers asking the naked man to walk up the hillside toward them. He complies with their commands until he gets to the top of the canyon.

You hear the officers ordering the man to "turn around, turn around." He says "no" several times in a defiant voice.

Just two seconds later, and without warning, the K9 officer gives his police dog the command to bite the subject.

The dog takes down the man immediately. Then four officers pinned the man to the ground, but allowed the dog to violently bite the man’s leg for 44 more seconds. Other San Diego Police Officers hold the subject down and cuff him.

"It wasn’t necessary to use the dog to begin with and it sure as hell wasn’t necessary or needed or appropriate to let the dog continue to bite," said noted civil rights attorney Donald W. Cook.

The NBC4 I-Team watched the video with Cook, who has represented hundreds of people bitten by police dogs over a 30-year career. He does not represent the man in the police video.

"It’s barbaric," he said.

The man, a 25-year-old businessman in San Diego for a convention, told NBC4 he ended up naked in that canyon after a night of hard partying.

"I take some responsibility because I was under the influence," said the man, who asked not to be named. "But nothing justifies the cops used of such force," he said.

Added attorney Cook, "It’s not just a San Diego problem. It’s a problem in any department where they’re letting a dog attack and bite non-dangerous suspect."

Cook, along with a group of other attorneys, sued the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1990s after another video of a police dog biting an unarmed suspect was released to the public. The City of Los Angeles settled that suit for $3.6 million and agreed to "revamp its policy for the use of force by dogs."

"The number of bites went way down," said Cook.

Despite his concerns, Cook says that police dogs can serve an important role in law enforcement, such as sniffing for bombs or finding hidden, armed suspects.

"But not to attack and mutilate people like you see in the video," said Cook.

San Diego Police Department policy states "if possible, give at least two warnings in a loud and clear manner" before allowing a dog to bite.

But the video shows that no warning was given and the K9 officer wrote in his official police report that, "due to the immediate threat I did not have an opportunity to give K9 warnings."

He went on to say that he believed the man "posed an immediate threat to officers due to the fact he was clinching his fists and walking towards them."

He also states that the subject "was under the influence of a controlled substance and was very agitated with officers."

Cook says that after watching the video he didn’t see any threatening behavior from the unarmed man toward police. And after reading the officers reports, he doesn’t believe they were justified in using the dog and says the force was excessive.

"Not only excessive, but animalistic," said Cook. "In this case, you had your subject, you had him surrounded. All you had to do was simply take him into custody."

The man in the video wasn’t charged with any crimes, and he sued the City of San Diego for excessive force. In the legal complaint, his attorney says the officers "acted with unnecessary, cruel and despicable conduct and in wanton disregard for the civil rights, health and safety" of his client.

In the city’s legal response, they wrote, "At all times, the conduct of the defendants was reasonable, lawful, based on probable cause and within the scope of their official duties and employment."

Last week, the San Diego City Council approved a $385,000 settlement.

But the man, who asked not to be named, told NBC4 by phone the incident has left his right leg partially and permanently disabled. "No dollar amount is worth having a disability for life," he said.

The NBC4 I-Team wanted to speak with the San Diego Police Department about this case and their procedures regarding the use of dogs. They declined to speak with us. The San Diego City Attorney didn’t respond to our request for an interview.

The man in the video told NBC4 that he was in the hospital for two weeks. He says the injuries sustained during the bite will cost him the full use of his right leg for the rest of his life.

Cook hopes the release of this video will change San Diego Police Department policy and make other law enforcement agencies take a hard look at their policies and practices on how they use canines.

"The officers seem oblivious to what we as the viewer can see in the video, which is this is horrific," said Cook. "How can you let this go on for so long?"

WARNING: This video is extremely graphic and disturbing. It includes footage of a police dog biting a subject’s leg until blood and other injuries are visible. We have not blurred the dog bite portion of video in this version. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. If you wish to see the full video, click here.

Two Alameda County Deputies Fired Over Suspect Beating

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/12/18/two-alameda-county-deputies-fired-over-suspect-beating/

Two Alameda County sheriff’s deputies seen on surveillance video beating a man with batons in San Francisco’s Mission District have been fired.

Alameda County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly says deputies Paul Wieber and Luis Santamaria are no longer with the Alameda County sheriff’s office as of 5 p.m. Friday.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/2gZVXDt) Kelly could not provide details on their departure, but Michael Rains, an attorney for Santamaria, said the deputies were fired for their role in the Nov. 12, 2015, beating.

The deputies were caught on surveillance video striking Stanislav Petrov more than 40 times with steel batons after a 38-minute car chase from Castro Valley and a foot chase into a dark alley in San Francisco.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office charged Wieber and Santamaria in May with assault with a deadly weapon, assault under the color of authority and battery. They pleaded not guilty.

Texas officer on restricted duty after videotaped arrests

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/23/texas-officer-restricted-duty-after-videotaped-arrests/95783018/

A white police officer in Texas was placed on restricted duty Thursday after a viral video surfaced on Facebook showing him wrestling a black woman after she called police to report that a man had allegedly assaulted her young son.

Forth Worth Police, who have not released the name of the officer, said they are conducting an internal investigation which also resulted in the arrest of the woman's two teenage daughters. The man the woman accused of assaulting her 7-year-old son was not arrested,

"We acknowledge that the initial appearance of the video may raise serious questions," the Forth Worth Police department statement said in a statement. "We ask that our investigators are given the time and opportunity to thoroughly examine the incident and to submit their findings."

In the video, the officer approaches Jacqueline Craig, who complained to the officer that a man had “grabbed and choked” her son for littering, according to the woman’s relatives. Relatives said that a neighbor grabbed the boy by the neck in an attempt to get him to pick up the trash.

During the conversation, the officer is heard asking Craig, "why don't you teach your son not to litter?" Craig says regardless of whether her son littered, the man did not have the right to “put his hands on him.” The officer says, “Why not?”

The officer engages Craig in a conversation that quickly escalates. He asks why she hadn’t taught her son not to litter. Craig says regardless of whether the boy littered, the man, who is white, did not have the right to “put his hands on him.” The officer says, “Why not?”

As the argument escalates, one of Craig’s daughters tries to push her mother away, but the officer forces Craig and the teen to the ground. He points a stun gun into Craig’s back and then at her daughter when she tries to approach.

Warning: Video contains graphic language

The attorney for the family, Lee Merritt said that the officer "physically, violently, and brutally escalated the situation” and added that the man who allegedly assaulted the 7-year-old should have been placed under arrest.

"She was questioned about why she did not teach her son not to litter,” Merritt says. He said he plans to “request the prosecutor pursue charges” against the man.

Thomas Glover, president of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, looked at the video and told News 8 he is disgusted and disappointed.

“The citizens ought to be outraged, the city council, the mayor, the city manager," Glover told News 8. "Anywhere it happens, it damages the strides we’ve made in bridging the gap, either real or perceived, that persists between the black community and police departments. And this is a big stain."

The video, viewed more than 1.1 million times, was posted on Facebook by a woman identified by The Dallas Morning News as Craig’s niece.

The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said in a statement Thursday that she’s disappointed the officer is being given 48 hours to prepare a report on the incident.

“This incident and countless others like them demonstrate that for people of color, showing anything less than absolute deference to police officers — regardless of the circumstances — can have unjust and often tragic consequences,” executive director Terri Burke said. “This fundamental injustice is also a threat to public safety.

"If a Black woman in Fort Worth can’t call the cops after her son is allegedly choked by a neighbor without getting arrested, why would she ever call the cops again?”