A grand jury decided Friday not to
indict the police officer who shot to death a 15-year-old boy armed
with a pellet gun, police said. When the shooting happened Oct. 24,
police said the boy, Courtney Williams, pointed a realistic-looking
weapon at them that later turned out to be a pellet gun. Some family
members said they doubted that. The officer who shot Williams, Scott
Mars, is a seven-year veteran. "This has been a difficult case for
everyone involved," Police Chief William McManus said. He said
documents from the case would be released once they had been reviewed.
The shooting happened after officers responded to a report of a person
with a gun in north Minneapolis. At least one witness heard an officer
order the person to drop the gun, McManus said at the time. Williams
first ran, then turned toward the officers with the gun and was shot,
according to a police report. Family members said Williams was a
student at Edison High School and an avid basketball player. They said
Williams was leaving his aunt's house and heading to a friend's for the
night with his usual group of friends when the shooting happened. [more] and [more] and [more]
Frank Jude Jr. suffered a brutal beating on a street in Milwaukee's Bay
View neighborhood early Oct. 24. Surrounded by a dozen men, he was
kicked repeatedly in the head, stripped naked and threatened with a
knife, his attorney said.Authorities knew right away who was involved,
but more than three months later no one has been charged or even
arrested. The suspects? Off-duty Milwaukee police officers who claimed
Jude stole one of their badges. The officers said they had to subdue
Jude because he fought with them. Witnesses tell a different story -
that Jude didn't steal anything, that he wasn't resisting, and that the
some of the crowd dragged him out of a truck and beat him maliciously.
Jude was arrested and taken by police wagon to the hospital - no
ambulance was called. Prosecutors did not file charges against him,
instead focusing on the off-duty officers' actions. In connection with
the incident, four off-duty officers were suspended by Chief Nannette
Hegerty, who declined to comment on the pending matter. The
investigation has been slowed by some officers who aren't fully
cooperating, the district attorney said. A secret John Doe
investigation was launched in an effort to get witnesses to talk. Jude,
26, has been interviewed extensively but can't identify his attackers,
said Deputy District Attorney Jon Reddin, the lead prosecutor. "He is
very little help of telling us what happened," he said. "He was beaten
within an inch of his life." Many officers won't tell all they know,
some because they committed crimes, others because of "misplaced
loyalty" to colleagues, said District Attorney E. Michael McCann, who
called Jude's case "horrendous" and compared it to the 1981 beating of
James Schoemperlen, whose skull was fractured by Milwaukee officers
after a car chase. [more] and [more]
A day after the city's Police
Commission cleared them of any wrongdoing, five white officers accused
of beating a black school principal in November returned to street duty
last night. Local officials of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League said last night they
will not be satisfied until a requested federal probe into the incident
is completed. Police Chief Paula C. Meara said yesterday that she
issued an order reassigning uniformed Officers Jeffrey M. Asher, James
F. Kervick, James M. Moriarty, James L. Shewchuk, and Richard D. Reid
from administrative work to regular patrol duties. She made the
decision after consulting with the city's Law Department. The Police
Commission voted 3-2 on Monday not to pursue disciplinary action
against the officers, following an internal investigation into a
complaint that they beat high school principal Douglas G. Greer on Nov.
4 at a South End gasoline station. Greer has said that he was suffering
a diabetic attack when officers dragged him out of his car, beat him,
and accused him of being a drug user while ignoring his pleas for
medical help. He has since filed a civil suit against the city, the
Police Department, and the officers. The officers contend that they
wrestled him to the ground and restrained him from flailing his arms
and legs for several minutes, but did not beat him. A heavily redacted
internal investigation report released to The Republican includes
several conflicting accounts from witnesses and people involved in the
incident. Boston lawyer Walter B. Prince, who is representing Greer in
the federal civil suit filed last month, expressed disappointment that
"the Police Department would ignore eyewitness testimony from three to
four witnesses who observed Mr. Greer being beaten by police." He said,
"All this does is strengthen our resolve in moving forward with the
litigation to see a just resolution from the judicial system."[more] and [more] and [more]
In video images shot in the Police Department lobby, three
people are seen talking to an officer behind the front desk window when
the situation suddenly explodes. Ten police officers descend on them
from two separate entrances to the lobby and Lt. Thomas M. Kelly puts
one man in a choke hold. Although no punches appear to be thrown in the
Sept. 28 incident, several officers wrestle the man to the ground.
Capt. Robert T. McFarlin, shift commander, billy club in hand, joins
the melee, and Lucy Jones, 52, ends up on the ground. At some point in
the scuffle, Jones comes out of her shoes.The three people involved
were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and resisting
arrest. Arrested were Jones of 1847 Parker St., William S. Owens Jr.,
31, of 837 State St., and Wilfred Godbolt, 43, of 65 Pendleton St.
Their trial is scheduled for April 5. They said they went to the police
station because police tried to deliver to Jones' home a warrant for
Owens and his sister Nicole Jones - an unsuccessful mayoral candidate
in 2001 - to appear in court as a victim and witness in an assault case
in which Owens was the victim. Owens does not live with his mother,
Lucy Jones, he said. Lucy Jones said police came to her house three
times that day and night. She did not open the door to them. Owens said
he went to the police station to get the warrant and to ask police not
to bother his mother. Jones, Owens and Godbolt said they did nothing to
provoke police, they were never asked to leave the station and they did
not resist arrest. But the police report filed in the District
Court case against the three residents says they were arrested after
Owens used profanity while complaining about police coming to his
mother's house "at these hours" looking for him. It says they refused
an order to leave, and Jones and Godbolt attempted to interfere with
the arrest of Owens by "thrashing their bodies at officers." McFarlin
said previously that Jones was arrested "without incident." On the tape
she is clearly seen hitting the floor, but it is not clear whether she
was pushed or fell. McFarlin appeared to be holding her just before she
hit the floor. [more]
A federal jury began hearing the
lawsuit brought by the family of a 24-year-old carpet layer who died in
2002 when he was shot 31 times by seven officers. Fatal shooting
violated civil rights, lawyer argues Alejandro Jimenez was
violent and troubled, but did he have to die riddled by police bullets
in a strip mall parking lot across from the county mental hospital
three years ago? A San Diego federal jury is being asked to decide that
question in a trial that began yesterday. A lawyer for Jimenez's wife
told them the March 22, 2002, Midway-area shooting was avoidable and a
violation of the man's civil rights. Seven San Diego police officers
shot the man 31 times as a result of "contagious fire," said Alvin
Gomez, describing a phenomenon in which several officers instinctively
fire their guns because they hear someone else shoot rather than size
up the situation on their own. The deadly confrontation began after
police were called to a candy store where Jimenez was banging a
broomstick against plate-glass windows. Officers tried to subdue him,
but Jimenez managed to wrest control of one of their expandable metal
batons and grabbed a discarded and empty police beanbag shotgun. When
he was shot, Jimenez was on the ground and could have been brought
under control without gunfire, Gomez told the jury. "Deadly force was
unnecessary," he said. While he didn't specify the damage amount he is
seeking, Gomez said an economist will testify that Jimenez, a
24-year-old carpet layer, would have earned $1.2 million to $1.8
million had he worked a full life. A lawyer for the city and the
officers said they had to shoot because Jimenez posed a fatal threat. [more] and [more]
Jeffrey
Turner stood in the street behind the closed Toledo Museum of
Art for nearly 40 minutes before a security guard called police. Almost
four hours after the 41-year-old was approached by police on a
suspicious-person call Monday night from the museum, he was dead. City
police shocked Turner five times with a Taser - a gun that
administers 50,000 volts of electricity to subdue a person - after he
refused to identify himself and did not comply with police
instructions.Police were sent to the museum on Monroe Street after
receiving a call about 5:30 p.m. from a security guard about a man
standing on Grove Place near the museum's rear entrance, said Jordan
Rundgren, a museum spokesman. Toledo police Officers Douglas Lewis and
Brian Young reported that they asked Turner for his identification.
When he said he did not have any, they asked him to move to their car
so they could conduct a standard pat search for weapons for officer
safety. Turner refused, police said. The officers grabbed Turner's arms
and took him to their car, where they told him to put his hands on the
trunk. He refused, pulled away, and swung elbows at both officers,
police said. Despite warnings they were going to shock him with a
Taser, the officers reported that Turner continued wrestling and
struggling with them. Turner was shocked five separate times, each a
five-second jolt, after he repeatedly refused to comply with police and
kicked them, police said. [more] and [more]
Pictured Above: Shawn Turner, with a photo of his brother, Jeffrey Turner, and his brother’s grandchild, says he and his family want answers.
A federal judge has dismissed the civil court claims brought by the
father of a 14-year-old girl shot to death by a federal drug agent
almost two years ago. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled last week
that state law bars Joey Villarreal from bringing a lawsuit against the
government over the death of his daughter, Ashley. The ruling does not
affect the civil suit brought by the girl's mother and grandmother.
Joey Villarreal is serving 19 years in federal prison for leading a San
Antonio-based cocaine-trafficking group. As part of his plea deal, he
agreed that the drug-dealing conspiracy lasted from Jan. 1, 2000, to
Feb. 10, 2003, the day he turned himself in. Drug Enforcement
Administration agent Bill Swierc shot Ashley Villarreal on Feb. 9,
2003, while he and other agents staked out the home of Joey
Villarreal's mother to arrest him. Texas law, the judge ruled, says
people convicted of a felony cannot sue for damages incurred during the
commission of the felony. "We're disappointed in the court's ruling,"
said attorney Phil Watkins, who represents Joey Villarreal, his mother
and other plaintiffs in the suit. "I'm in the process of speaking to my
client to advise him of his rights and see what he wants to do." In the
same ruling, Biery allowed Daniel "Danny" Robles, who was a passenger
in the car Ashley was driving when she was shot, to remain in the suit
to pursue his claims of assault, intentional infliction of emotional
distress and false imprisonment. [more]
Disciplinary action is recommended for a south suburban police officer
accused of using excessive force on a teenager. Calumet City's police
chief wants the police board to take action against Officer Louis
Picicco. The officer is accused of beating a 15-year-old Donald
Pennington, Junior, who was under arrest for jaywalking. Officials in
Calumet City originally promised the investigation would be wrapped-up
in a month or two, but it took five months. Donald Pennington,
Junior, 15, looked beaten, bruised, and bloodied after he spent some
time in an interrogation room at the Calumet City Police station.
"Put my head down and shook it. He came in and just started hitting me,
he didn't stop," said Donald Pennington, Jr. in August. The suburb's
police chief is now taking action against Officer Louis Picicco, filing
"administrative" charges of excessive force and conduct unbecoming an
officer. It'll be up to the city's police and fire board to decide if
Picicco is fired. What caused all this? That's my question. What
caused all of this, the beating? I still don't understand," said Vickie
Pennington, victim's mother. Donald Pennington and a group of friends
were walking home from Thornton Fractional North High School in August.
Police accused the 15-year-old of jay-walking. Once at the station,
Pennington admits to tapping his fingers on the interrogation room
wall, but that's it. Police claim he threw furniture at an
officer. Despite today's ruling, the teenager remains charged with
aggravated battery of an officer while Officer Pennington is not
charged with criminal conduct. [more]
and [more]
A Grand Rapids man accuses police officers of assaulting him because he
spoke out against them. Now, he's suing the city for more than a
million dollars. The story began June 13, 2003 when African-American
residents gathered at a Grand Rapids church to talk about their
relationship with the police chief and sheriff's department. The
meeting followed the death of a young black man at the Kent County Jail
and the subsequent violence that followed. One of the people who spoke
that night was Lance Mallett who complained about police harassment. At
one point while speaking to the crowd, Mallett got into a testy
exchange with the police chief. Two days later, police officers showed
up at his home and arrested him for failing to appear in court on a
housing code violation. Mallett says the officers cuffed him, beat him,
then sprayed him with mace. Witnesses 24 Hour News 8 found two weeks
after the incident back his story. “He sat on the floor and they
handcuffed him. Then they started to spray mace in his eyes…not no one
time or two times, but they just was like spraying it in his eyes,”
said one witness. “They just was like choking him and slamming around
on the car,” added another. Police deny beating him, but say Mallett
forced officers to take action because he resisted arrest. So, Mallett
filed a federal lawsuit, accusing police of excessive force and
violating his First Amendment rights. Mallet and his attorney say the
arrest was revenge for him speaking out at the meeting. [more]
Two East Palo Alto police officers and a teen volunteer with the
department were arraigned in San Mateo County Superior Court this
morning on charges relating to the allegedly unprovoked off-duty
beating of a suspected drug dealer in August. The men's arrest follows
a two-month investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney's
Office into the incident, which left the victim bleeding and
unconscious on a dark street in East Palo Alto. A grand jury handed up
an indictment against the three men Wednesday, after three days of
secret testimony presented by prosecutors. Officers Edward Arthur
Rivers Jr. and Johnny Taflinger Jr. and police Explorer Eddi Tapia
Torres were formally charged with felony assault on a citizen under
color of authority, felony assault with force likely to cause great
bodily injury and misdemeanor battery. According to sources familiar
with the investigation, late on Aug. 21 or early Aug. 22 the two
officers and the scout were sitting in a car outside a 7-Eleven on West
Bayshore Road in East Palo Alto, where they had gone to buy beer. The
off-duty officers were not in uniform. About midnight, the officers and the
scout noticed a man they thought to be dealing drugs. The youth told
investigators that the officers called the alleged dealer over to the
car. They asked him if he would sell them some ``dope,'' but when he
began to hand it to them, one of the officers allegedly tried to knock
it out of his hand, and the man ran. The men allegedly chased him down
and beat him with their hands and feet, according to the dealer. [more] and [more]
The judge in a civil case stemming from the beating death of man by a
Dillard’s security officer has granted the victim's family a new trial,
NewsChannel5 reported. The Plain Dealer reported that the judge thinks
it's only fair because she forced the family's attorney, Jeff Feiger,
off the case last week. Feiger is nationally known for representing Dr.
Jack Kevorkian, who is famous for his right-to-die case. Guy Wills was
beaten after an alleged shoplifting attempt at the Randall Park Mall
Dillard's at the hands of Jameel Talley, who was working off-duty as a
security guard. Talley is serving a three-year sentence for beating Guy
Wills to death during a shoplifting arrest in 2002. Talley was
convicted on involuntary manslaughter. The family is suing Dillard's
because they say the store didn't do a thorough background check on
Talley. Wills, who had a long history of drug abuse, was caught on
video trying to steal a leather jacket, but his attorney said he didn't
deserve to die. The lawsuit alleges Talley was not properly trained by
Dillards. [more]
It started as a shoving incident, and then one of the two girls was
suspended for two days. But then parents of the girl who wasn't
suspended simply were not satisfied with Cy-Fair's punishment so they
filed a complaint and had the other student arrested. "I don't know
what kind of games these guys are playing but you don't do that to an
11-year-old girl," said said W.R. Morris of Hispanic Policy Action. The
11-year-old girl was arrested, handcuffed, photographed and
fingerprinted after she was picked up from Walker Elementary. She and
her mom say there had been a shoving incident last week. She says the
other girl wound up with a bloody nose, that she was suspended for two
days and thought it would end there. "This girl has never been in
trouble," Morris of said. "At an administrative meeting the little girl
agreed that she had pushed her first and now she's on the receiving end
of all this." The fifth-grader told us what the deputy constable did
when she was arrested. "They made me put my hands behind my back and
then they put those things on me," she recalled. "I had to walk out of
school right next to the car and they handcuffed me next to the car and
then went inside the car." The mom said her daughter was shocked that
officers actually arrested and handcuffed her over the shoving incident
that resulted in a bloody nose to the other student. "Procedurally,
it's something we try to stay away from, but for the safety of the
officer and the child, handcuffs are a requirement by department
policy," said Lt .Tim Cannon with Precinct 4. KTRK legal analyst Joel
Androphy questions why the girl was arrested and handcuffed. "The
officers decide who's handcuffed and who's arrested," Androphy
explained. "You don't arrest an 11-year-old girl period. This girl's
not charged with murder, with some heinous felony. She's not a danger
and that will be clearly established later." The 11-year old girl was
charged with a class A misdemeanor. A juvenile judge will assess the
punishment. [more] and [more]
A state trooper who was sued for shooting and killing a
12-year-old in Uniontown in 2002 has been sued again in federal court,
this time by a man who was cited for making an obscene gesture.
Stephen B. Corey, 42, a US Airways flight attendant, said Trooper
Samuel Nassan gave him an illegal $75 traffic citation after saying
Corey gestured at him in traffic in Robinson last summer. Neither
Nassan nor his supervisor at the Pittsburgh barracks could be reached
yesterday. Corey said he was in his US Airways uniform and on his
way to work June 25 when Nassan pulled him over on the Parkway West and
cited him for following too closely and speeding. After that,
Corey said, Nassan told him, "I'm following you all the way to the
airport." Corey said he didn't argue but said, "Thank you,
officer, have a nice day." He said Nassan followed him for a
while and then started to turn off onto Business Route 60. Corey said
he then waved at the officer. Four days later, he said, he
received another citation in the mail for $75. Corey said he
"absolutely did not" make an obscene gesture. Even if he did, the
trooper had no business citing him for it, said his lawyer, Joel
Dresbold. "It really doesn't matter if he did it or not," said
Dresbold. "Either way it's an abuse of his constitutional
rights." Dresbold said making the gesture to police is protected
free speech under the First Amendment. The complaint comes at a
time when Nassan is fighting a much more serious federal suit over the
death of Michael Ellerbe. On Dec. 24, 2002, he shot the boy in the back
after he and his partner, Trooper Juan Curry, pursued Ellerbe following
a car chase in Uniontown. The troopers have been cleared of criminal
wrongdoing by the U.S. Department of Justice. But the civil suit, filed
by Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, is pending. [more]
A Fairfield man who claims he was clubbed to the ground by a police
officer during what started out as nothing more than a parking
complaint has filed a civil rights suit in federal court. Plaintiff
Bijon Lee Hughes names the city of Fairfield, Fairfield Police Officer
Jausiah Jacobsen and Fairfield Police Chief Bill Gresham in the suit,
which was filed in U.S. Eastern District Court in Sacramento on
Wednesday. Hughes, represented by Walnut Creek attorney Andrew C.
Schwartz, charges that he had just dropped his child off for day care
on Taylor Street the morning of Feb. 5, 2004, when he saw Officer
Jacobsen standing next to his car. Jacobsen reportedly told
Hughes that his vehicle was illegally parked, demanded his driver's
license and then ordered him to sit on the ground. In his
lawsuit, Hughes said he was dressed in clean business attire, did not
want to sit on the muddy ground and could see no reason to do so.
The suit relates that "despite the absence of any justification or
authority for such commands, Jacobsen repeatedly
yelled at plaintiff to get on the ground and threatened to strike
plaintiff with his baton if he did not do so. Jacobsen then struck
plaintiff repeatedly with his baton until plaintiff collapsed onto the
ground." Hughes later was taken to NorthBay Medical Center for care and
eventually later booked at Solano County Jail on a charge of resisting
officers. That charge later was thrown out of court for lack of
evidence. An African-American, Hughes alleges that Jacobsen's action
"was motivated by malicious racial bias and intolerance and that
Jacobsen directed plaintiff to sit on the ground for the purpose of
humiliating and embarrassing plaintiff." [more]
When viewed as a whole, the post 9/11 'security state' seems less about
protecting us from terrorism, and more about population control and
quelling dissent. In May of 2004 in Chicago, the home of May Molina, a
long time anti-police brutality and misconduct activist was raided by
the Chicago Police. Although Molina had no history of involvement with
drugs or drug dealing, the officers present claimed to have found 80
bags of heroin in her room and that of her son, Michael Ortiz. Both
were taken into custody, and sometime within the next 28 hours Molina
died. The coroners report claimed to have found bags of heroin lodged
in her esophagus, and the presence of heroin in her system. Three
strange things stand out in this case. The first, as previously
mentioned, was that Molina was an activist. People's Weekly reported,
"[Molina] worked with Families of the Wrongfully Convicted and Comite
Exijimos Justicia (the "We Demand Justice Committee"), which have for
several years accused the Chicago police, particularly the homicide
squad detectives at the Grand and Central police station on Chicago's
northwest side, of framing Latino and other young people. The second strange
thing was that the alleged heroin turned out to be candle wax. Chicago
IndyMedia reports, "On the day of May Molina's death, police leaked to
the press that 80 bags of heroin were found in their apartment. On June
16, Michael Ortiz [Molina's son] was released by a judge who said none
of the samples tested positive for any narcotics. Police now claim they
mistook candle-making supplies for drugs." The 22 days in which Ortiz
was held in custody over the possession of this wax caused him to miss
his mother's funeral. [more]
Former cop faces 10 years in prison in beating case
Lamont Koonce in Coma for 2 Months
A former Petersburg police
officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal civil rights charge in
the severe beating of a black man pulled over during a traffic stop.
The man spent more than two months in a coma. Michael Tweedy
pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law. He faces up
to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when sentenced April
28. "Those who have been sworn to protect the law have a special
duty to obey the law," U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said at a news
conference. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a
charge that Tweedy falsified a police report to cover up his and other
officers' roles in the beating. That charge carried a penalty of up to
20 years in prison. The Oct. 13, 2003, beating, which involved at
least four Petersburg police officers, left Lamont Koonce hospitalized
with a fractured skull, collapsed lung and other injuries.
According to court papers, Koonce was driving home from work at a meat
packing company without his lights on when he was pulled over. After
being pulled over, Koonce got out of his car and tried to run
away. Koonce eventually gave up and put his hands in the air.
Tweedy then sprayed Koonce with a "substantial" amount of pepper spray,
causing Koonce to fall, court papers said. Moments later, Tweedy
ran over to a handcuffed Koonce and "forcefully" stomped on his head
several times, court papers said. He then returned several times to
Koonce and delivered multiple blows to his head. Former officer
Michael Perkins, who is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 15, is
also charged with kicking and stomping Koonce. "It's hard to
prosecute one of your own, but right is right and wrong is wrong," said
Petersburg Commonwealth's Attorney Cassandra Burns. [more] and [more]
VA Police Officers charged in Beating of Black Man [more]
A man in Arizona was
hospitalized after he was hit by about 70 rounds fired by a pepper ball
gun when he resisted arrest, according to Local 6 News. A television
news crew captured the incident on videotape, showing Gabriel Gandara,
29, covering his face as pellets hit his chest. Eventually he hit the
ground, face down. Police had been summoned to the scene by people who
said they heard shots. Officers stopped a car leaving the area with
three men. Gandara got out, but he yelled at police and backed away,
police Sgt. Kerry Fuller said. Officers thought they saw a weapon and
fired the pepper balls, intended to immobilize suspects with the
irritating powder. Officers said they spotted something in Gabriel
Gandara's waistband, behind his back, they thought might be a weapon.
It turned out to be his underwear label, said Tucson police Sgt. Kerry
Fuller.Fuller would not say how many balls police fired. Gandara
was taken to a hospital for a reaction to the powder. He's jailed on
charges of assault, resisting arrest, criminal damage and marijuana
possession. No weapons were found at the scene, Fuller said, and police
were conducting a routine review to determine whether appropriate force
was used. Gandara's brother, Carlos, also was arrested. [more] and [more]
Sister Seeks $40 Milion in Wrongful Death of Aaron Shaw
Covington County Sheriff's Department Deputy Chris Inabinett, CCSO
Captain Walter Inabinett and the City of Florala have been named as
defendants in a federal lawsuit filed late this week. The suit is being
brought by the sister of a man who one of the above law enforcement
officials allegedly shot to death last fall, on October 28, 2004.
Margaret Shaw Henderson, acting on behalf of the estate of Aaron Shaw,
retained counsel in Montgomery to file the civil suit, which alleges
assault, battery, negligence and municipal liability on the part of
Florala, among other items. "Essentially, the allegations are that Mr.
Shaw was taken into police custody, beaten at least two times ... at
several locations by several officers," said Attorney Jay Lewis, lead
counsel for the prosecution in this case. "We contend that Chris
Inabinett and Walt Inabinett used excessive force and they denied
(Shaw) his rights to due proceedings." The suit, which is set to go
before a jury in the U.S. District Court System, alleges that the
deceased 47-year-old black male resident of Florala was "savagely"
beaten and subjected to "unreasonable and excessive force" during the
process of the man's arrest. Henderson's complaint also asserts that
Shaw was denied his constitutional rights and that the named defendants
acted "in a neglectful, unskillful, and careless manner as compared
with other police officers under the same or similar conditions," and
that Shaw was killed "as a direct and proximate result" of the
officials' alleged actions.
Compensatory and punitive damages being sought by the plaintiff total
$40 million. [more]
Witnesses say Shaw was beaten after he was cuffed. One
of those witnesses was city councilman Grady Hobbs. "So, I walked
across the field there, and I looked over there and there was three
officers on him. One was trying to kick his his feet in the car where
he could get into the car, and the other one had his head, bumping it"
(on the side of the patrol car).
Black Man Hog Tied and Shocked 5 Times Dead One of the deputies involved in
an altercation that led to the death of a Gwinnett inmate was placed on
administrative leave for his role in a separate incident -
the fatal
shooting of a dog in December, authorities said. According to the
Sheriff's Department and his attorney Officer Mustachio was one
of several
deputies involved in the May 2004 scuffle that culminated in the death
of inmate Frederick Williams. Williams, who had been arrested on a
domestic violence charge, started a fight with deputies and was shocked
five times with a Taser stun gun and placed in a restraint chair before
he died, according to the Sheriff's Department. District Attorney Danny
Porter said he is investigating Williams' death and may bring criminal
charges against some of the deputies involved. Porter said Wednesday he
is
reviewing a Gwinnett County police investigation into Williams' death
and plans to make a decision soon on whether to pursue charges.
Williams, a 31-year-old father of four children, died of brain damage
from a heart attack after the altercation, according to an autopsy
report. But investigators at the Gwinnett County medical examiner's
office were not able to determine what caused Williams' heart attack,
according to the report. Police were called to Williams' Lawrenceville
home May 25 by his family to settle a domestic dispute. According
to police, later, at the jail, Williams again started to fight with
deputies and
was shocked with the stun gun and then placed in a restraint chair,
according to the Sheriff's Department. In Williams' autopsy, the
Gwinnett medical examiner's officer concluded that five shocks to the chest with a Taser gun did not cause his death [more] and [more] and [more]
Frederick Williams
(with wife, Yanga) died on May 27, after being stunned with a Taser gun
by Gwinnett deputy sheriffs on May 25.
"Are we supposed to believe that a healthy 31-year-old Black man who was athletic, who did not drink or do drugs, who had no
history of heart problems, somehow died of a heart attack?" [more]
Black High Principal Beat Down During Diabetic Attack
The Springfield Police Commission has begun hearings into
allegations that a school principal was beaten by police while he was
having a diabetic attack. Commission Chairman Timothy J. Ryan said
heard six hours of testimony Wednesday at the probable cause hearing to
determine whether disciplinary charges should be brought against the
five officers. The hearing will continue on Friday, he said. Douglas
Greer, principal of the Robert M. Hughes Academy Charter School in
Springfield, has filed a federal lawsuit against the officers. He
claims that he started to feel disoriented, a symptom of the onset of a
diabetic attack, after pulling his BMW into a convenience store parking
lot on Nov. 4. A store clerk called the police after noticing Greer's
car had been parked for awhile. Greer, who is black, says the white
officers broke his car window, pulled him through the opening,and
kicked and choked him after accusing him of being on drugs. The
officers, Jeffrey M. Asher, James F. Kervick, James L. Shewchuck and
James M. Moriarty, and Richard D. Reid were placed on administrative
duty following an internal police investigation. [more]
