Justice Department begins preliminary review of Seattle police

/

The Justice Department has launched a preliminary review of the Seattle Police Department to determine whether its officers have engaged in a pattern of unnecessary force, particularly against minorities.

The federal review is in response to a request last month by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU) and 34 other community groups that asked the Justice Department to investigate police use of force in several recent high-profile incidents, including the fatal shooting of John T. Williams.

U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said Monday she met last week with officials from the Police Department and the office of Mayor Mike McGinn, representatives of the City Council and some of the community groups pushing for the investigation.

Durkan said attorneys from the federal department's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., will travel to Seattle in early February to begin the process.

The review will be broad and include Justice Department scrutiny of instances of alleged criminal civil-rights violations by individual officers as well as a "global" look at the department to determine whether, as the ACLU and others allege, there exists a "pattern and practice" of civil-rights violations by officers.

Read More

Split verdict for ex-cops accused of covering up immigrant's beating death

/

Three former Pennsylvania police officers accused of trying to cover up the investigation into the beating death of an undocumented Mexican immigrant were acquitted of the top charge of conspiracy.

A federal jury found former Shenandoah Police Chief Matthew Nestor and officers William Moyer and Jason Hayes not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation in the July 2008 death of Luis Ramirez, a court official told CNN. The official had knowledge of the verdict but was not authorized to speak.

Nestor was found guilty of falsifying reports and Moyer was convicted of lying to the FBI. Hayes, who was also accused of falsifying police reports, was acquitted of the two charges against him.

"I'd just like to thank all the supporters I had, especially my family, friends and neighbors. I had so many well-wishers from Shenandoah," Moyer said after the verdict, according to CNN affiliate WNEP.

Hayes said he will reapply for his job with the Shenandoah Police Department, WNEP reported.

Ramirez, a day laborer and father of two engaged to a woman from Shenandoah, died three days after he was beaten into a coma in a street fight with members of the small mining town's high school football team.

Read More

ACLU files suit against Lake County (FLA) Police for Detaining Honduran Woman for 8 Days

/

From [HERE] The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today in state and federal court against the Lake County Sheriff and the city of Tavares after they say illegally detained an undocumented woman in 2009.

The ACLU claims Rita Cote's constitutional rights were violated after Tavares police arrested her without charging her with a crime. Lawyers say Cote, an undocumented Honduran immigrant, was denied due process when she was jailed for more than a eight days and handed over to federal immigration officials.

"Local law enforcement agencies do not have any authority to enforce immigration laws and when they do it, it's illegal," said ACLU of Florida senior attorney Glenn Katon. "We hope this case will make clear what can happen when agencies engage in these illegal practices."

Read More

Black Man Stopped and Beaten by Minneapolis Police for NO Valid Reason

/

Beating caught on dashcam under investigation
MINNEAPOLIS (NBC) and [HERE] and [HERE] and [SEE U-TUBE] - It was a traffic stop like many others. Derryl Jenkins, 42, was pulled over in February as he drove through north Minneapolis, stopped for speeding as he allegedly went 15 miles over the limit.

The stop was recorded on a seven minute tape from the squad car of Officer Richard Walker.

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said he reviewed the arrest video and said Officer Walker's actions all appear to be very appropriate.

In a statement released Monday, Chief Dolan also said some of the actions of responding officers did give him concern and because of that he is asking for an outside review by the FBI.

"Additionally, the incident has been referred to my Internal Affairs and Training Units for a review of our arrest procedures in dealing with suspects resisting arrest," Dolan said.

Derryl Jenkins said Officer Walker refused to explain why he was stopped that night, and he asked for a police supervisor. When Walker said one wasn't available, Jenkins said he got out of the car to get his drivers license from his back pocket.

That's when he said Walker tried to tackle him. Backup arrived, and six officers helped Walker as Jenkins was punched, kicked and stunned three times with a Taser.

Read More

NAACP Concerned After Officer in Alonzo O'Kelley Shooting Goes Back on the Job

/

More than a month after 15 year old Alonzo O'Kelley was shot by Housing Authority Police the officer who fired the fatal shot is back on the job. Leaders in a community already distrustful of police, say his reinstatement only makes matters worse.

Alonzo O'Kelley's Mother Gloria Duncan says, "I just feel like my baby been murdered for no reason. They still haven't shown me where he did something wrong. All that I know is that my baby's gone."

Nearly six weeks after she lost her youngest son in a police shooting Duncan is a woman in crisis, "I just want some closure to what happened to my son."

Police say on July 1st 15 year old O'Kelley shot back at a passing car outside East Lake Courts.

Housing Authority Officer Lt. Erik Reeves responded to the shots fired and ordered O'Kelley to drop his gun.

Police say instead O'Kelley pointed his gun at the officer.

Autopsy reports show O'Kelley died of a single gun shot to the back shoulder. Now Lt. Reeves, the officer who fired that fatal shot, is back on the job...

Read More

Latino Man in Taser case claims he was tortured while handcuffed by Orange County Deputy

/

A man whom prosecutors say was tortured while handcuffed by an Orange County sheriff's deputy wants more than $5 million in damages, alleging that the deputy repeatedly used a Taser on him without provocation. Criminal charges were dropped in April against Deputy Christopher Hibbs, 45, of Corona, over the treatment of Ignacio Gomez Lares of Santa Ana after a jury deadlocked on whether Hibbs used excessive force in the Sept. 13, 2007, incident. Prosecutors blamed the mistrial on a "code of silence" among deputies, suggesting other deputies protected Hibbs in their testimony.

Hibbs, though, remains on paid administrative leave pending an internal Sheriff's Department probe.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Lares claims that Hibbs stunned him as "corporal punishment/torture" for running away from police officers.

Prosecutors have said the incident began when Hibbs and a deputy trainee spotted Ignacio Gomez Lares, wearing a trench coat and holding a beer bottle, as he walked down Ball Road toward Brookhurst Street, near the border of Stanton and Anaheim, around 2 a.m. Hibbs pulled over the patrol car, and got out and asked to search Lares, prosecutors have said. Lares said no, according to prosecutors, and got into a physical fight with the deputy. Hibbs was knocked to the ground, and Lares ran away.

Lares' lawsuit, filed by Newport Beach attorney Jerry Steering, says two deputies began searching Lares without good cause before Lares ran away. Hibbs caught up to Lares, and then stunned him in the neck with an "X-26" Taser for about 35 seconds, the lawsuit says. Lares claims he was not resisting Hibbs.

"While tasing Lares … defendant Hibbs was screaming at Lares to 'stop resisting'; not because Lares was 'resisting,' but because Hibbs was torturing Lares in public, and wanted to make sure that anyone seeing his torturing of Lares would be under the impression that there was some sort of legitimate reason" for the use of the stun gun, according to the lawsuit.

Read More

3 NYC police officers surrender in sodomy case

/

Three police officers surrendered Tuesday on felony charges stemming from claims by a tattoo parlor worker that he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment during an arrest. Officer Richard Kern has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault; Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales have been charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct, according to prosecutors. In addition to those felonies, all three were charged with misdemeanors, including falsifying records.

They were indicted last week by a grand jury investigating the shocking allegations. The officers turned themselves in at the Brooklyn district attorney's office Tuesday to be processed for a court appearance. A law enforcement official said the grand jury had been presented incriminating forensic evidence collected by investigators. That evidence, combined with the eyewitness account of a fellow officer, pointed to Kern as a primary suspect, according to the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the indictment was not yet unsealed.

Read More

Sean Bell vigil on 2nd anniversary of shooting

/

NEW YORK (AP) ― About 100 people gathered before dawn Tuesday for a candlelight vigil and prayer service on the second anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day that sparked outrage in the black community. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Sean Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, led the memorial on the street in Queens where the 23-year-old black man was killed outside a strip club on Nov. 25, 2006 after leaving his bachelor's party.

At precisely 4:10 a.m. -- the time of the shooting -- the mourners rang a large bell 50 times to mark the number of bullets fired at the Bell and two of his friends, who were seriously injured. After laying wreaths and flowers, the group marched half a mile to a church, where Sharpton held a prayer service. "The idea is to commemorate the second anniversary and to continue to push for a federal case," Sharpton said later.

Read More

No Appeal for Weehawken Officer who Beat Black Teen to Death

/

The state Supreme Court has ruled that it will not hear an appeal of the sentence of former Weehawken Police Officer Alejandro Jaramillo, who was convicted in the beating death of a Union City teenager, authorities said. Former Weehawken Police Officer Alejandro Jaramillo was convicted on May 1, 2006 of assaulting Jose Luis Ives Jr. in front of the boy's Union City home in July 2003 while off-duty. In July 2006 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In August a state appellate court upheld the sentence following Jaramillo's appeal in which he claimed the trial judge made mistakes when giving instructions to the jury. He also argued his sentence was excessive. The appeals court rejected those arguments. Witnesses said Jaramillo, who was off-duty at the time, punched Ives several times after a dispute involving Jaramillo's car. The boy suffered a fractured skull and died several days later. Jaramillo was sentenced to eight years in prison on the assault count, plus seven more years for filing false reports on the incident. The jury acquitted him of manslaughter.

The state Supreme Court said it would not take up the case in court papers filed on Nov. 19. [MORE]

Complaint filed over Long Island police policies

/

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — Hispanic advocates claimed Tuesday that the Long Island police department that investigated the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant fails to adequately investigate crimes committed by whites against Latinos. In a complaint to the U.S. Justice Department, the national advocacy group Latino Justice contended that the Suffolk County Police Department discourages Latinos from reporting crimes.

Police and county officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but they have repeatedly said since the Nov. 8 killing of Marcelo Lucero that crime victims are not asked about their residency status.
Seven Long Island teenagers have pleaded not guilty to charges including gang assault after police say they surrounded Lucero and another man near a train station. The men were targeted by the group because they were Hispanic, police said, and were only the latest victims in what authorities believe was a marauding spree by the teenagers. Lucero's companion fled and called for help, but the 37-year-old laborer was killed when he was stabbed once in the chest. The 17-year-old accused of inflicting the fatal blow is being held without bail, charged with murder as a hate crime.

Read More

Feds: Polk County Officers acted properly in shooting Black Man 68 times

/
The Department of Justice says SWAT team officers didn't use excessive force when they shot the suspected killer of a sheriff's deputy 68 times during a manhunt near Lakeland in 2006. Angilo Freeland was the man believed to have fatally shot a Polk County deputy and his police dog. Nine officers fired on the 27-year-old after finding him hiding in the woods the next morning. They say a sudden movement by the suspect caused them to fire. The Justice Department sent a letter to Sheriff Grady Judd this week saying an investigation had concluded that Freeland's civil rights had not been violated. Don Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter, says he still believes the number of shots fired at Freeland was excessive. He called it "profoundly disturbing."
Read More

Lima Officer Wants Tarika Wilson Shooting Death Trial Moved

/
tarika.jpg
May 29--LIMA, Ohio -- Attorneys for a Lima police sergeant charged in the shooting death of a Lima woman during a drug raid want his trial moved out of town.  In a motion filed Tuesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court, attorneys for Sgt. Joseph Chavalia asked that his upcoming jury trial be moved out of town because of extensive media coverage of the fatal shooting and subsequent indictment of Sergeant Chavalia. "This county has been so saturated with the facts underlying this case that it is impossible for defendant to receive a fair trial before a jury composed of impartial persons who learn of the case only through the evidence properly admitted during trial," attorney William Kluge wrote in the motion. Following a two-month investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation into the death of Tarika Wilson, 26, and wounding of her 1-year-old son, Sincere, Sergeant Chavalia was indicted by an Allen County grand jury on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He has been on paid leave from the police department since the Jan. 4 shooting. Mr. Kluge said yesterday that the change of venue is needed because of the media coverage and because of "the feelings in the community and all the issues pertinent to that."
Read More

Del Norte County Sheriff shooting death of Unarmed Black Man Probed

/
Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson has released the name of the deputy who shot and killed a man on May 16 earlier on the Hwy. 199 Hiouchi Bridge over Smith River. Meanwhile, retired English teacher Greg Jones, of Brookings, the father of Eric Jones, 27, who died at the scene, feels that perhaps unnecessary force was used. He said that it’s likely his son was not armed, and so he wonders why lethal force was used in the incident. His son was shot twice; and one of his two dogs also was shot twice. Eric Jones was a graduate of Brookings-Harbor School District. He suffered from a bipolar condition, his father said. The victim was hit with one shot in his abdomen and one in a shoulder with a “downward trajectory into his torso,” said Mike Riese, Del Norte County D.A. Riese said that his office’s investigation will take weeks, and may come down to determining if Deputy Ramsay Williamson had time after shooting the dog to transition into the use of nonlethal force against Jones. Eric Jones, after leading officers on a chase 199 on May 16, allegedly ordered his dog to attack a deputy from Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office (DNSO). “Unfortunately just because someone is unarmed does not mean they aren’t imposing a real threat,” Wilson said. He said that Williamson was carrying a Taser at the time of the shooting, but that it wasn’t clear whether he had a baton or pepper spray too. “Most of our officers carry mace, a Taser and normally a baton,” the sheriff said.
Read More

Pasadena Police Officers on Trial for Beating Latino Man to Death

/

garcia.jpg
The trial of two police officers accused of killing an inmate got under way in a downtown Houston courtroom Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported. Pasadena police officers J.W. Buckaloo and Christopher Jones are charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Pedro Gonzales Jr., 51, after his arrest on July 22. Gonzales' body was found in the Pasadena jail after the officers arrested him for public drunkenness.The Gonzales family said the trial is the beginning of what they hope is a long road to justice. Family members said they believe their loved one was murdered. "Honestly, I can't even look at them. I'm not mad at the entire police force. I'm only mad at two people. Two people took my father from me," said Adrian Gonzales, Pedro Gonzales' son. "It's been hard. It's been very hard," widow Diana Gonzales said. "He didn't deserve to die like that." Jurors will decide if the officers used excessive force or did what they had to in order to subdue Gonzales after the arrest. Buckaloo and Jones said they had to subdue Gonzales when he resisted arrest. The autopsy showed that Gonzales suffered broken bones, broken teeth and died from a perforated lung. The trial is expected to last one week. The officers are relieved of duty, pending the outcome. [MORE]

Family Claims 15 Yr. Old Black Boy Beaten by Macon Police

/
Police are conducting an internal investigation into the use of force in the arrest of a 15-year-old boy outside a Warner Robins bowling alley during the Memorial Day weekend. The boy's father claims that police abused their authority and beat his son. The boy, identified by his father as Jamarian K. Jenkins, was charged with felony obstruction and disorderly conduct after a scuffle Saturday night with police responding to a 911 call of a fight in the parking lot of the Gold Cup Bowling Center on Russell Parkway, Police Chief Brett Evans said today. The internal investigation is standard policy in such use of force, which in this case was a stun gun, Evans said. The boy, who was detained during the weekend at a Youth Detention Facility, was released on a two-week in-house detention after a hearing this afternoon in Houston County Juvenile Court, police Detective Karen Stokes said.
Read More

NY Cop went hunting for Latino homeless man & then Beat him Down, DA says

/
BUBARIS.jpg 
AP A suburban policeman hunted down a homeless, frequently arrested illegal immigrant, hit him hard and left him to die last year, a prosecutor told jurors in opening statements of his manslaughter trial Friday. Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone said Mount Kisco Officer George Bubaris later confided to a colleague, "I went out hunting or looking for Rene Perez. I found him. I took him to Byram Lake Road," where Perez was found. Perrone said that the next day, as it became known that Perez had died, Bubaris told the colleague, Officer Edward Dwyer, "You're the only one that knows, bro." Perez, 42, had a long history of drunkenness, arrests and 911 calls in Mount Kisco and neighboring Bedford, about 40 miles north of New York City. Defense attorney Andrew Quinn called the prosecution's case "medically absurd" because Perez often injured himself while drunk. He also said Dwyer, who is to testify, "had demons of his own." In April 2007, Perez called police from a coin laundry, possibly seeking a lift to a hospital. Prosecutors say Bubaris, 31, drove the intoxicated Guatemalan immigrant to an out-of-the-way area in Bedford and "inflicted blunt force trauma to Perez's abdomen," leaving him severely injured. Though the indictment does not say how the trauma was inflicted, a lawsuit filed by Perez's brother suggests a nightstick was used.
Read More

NY Cop went hunting for Latino homeless man & then Beat him Down, DA says

/
BUBARIS.jpg 
AP A suburban policeman hunted down a homeless, frequently arrested illegal immigrant, hit him hard and left him to die last year, a prosecutor told jurors in opening statements of his manslaughter trial Friday. Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone said Mount Kisco Officer George Bubaris later confided to a colleague, "I went out hunting or looking for Rene Perez. I found him. I took him to Byram Lake Road," where Perez was found. Perrone said that the next day, as it became known that Perez had died, Bubaris told the colleague, Officer Edward Dwyer, "You're the only one that knows, bro." Perez, 42, had a long history of drunkenness, arrests and 911 calls in Mount Kisco and neighboring Bedford, about 40 miles north of New York City. Defense attorney Andrew Quinn called the prosecution's case "medically absurd" because Perez often injured himself while drunk. He also said Dwyer, who is to testify, "had demons of his own." In April 2007, Perez called police from a coin laundry, possibly seeking a lift to a hospital. Prosecutors say Bubaris, 31, drove the intoxicated Guatemalan immigrant to an out-of-the-way area in Bedford and "inflicted blunt force trauma to Perez's abdomen," leaving him severely injured. Though the indictment does not say how the trauma was inflicted, a lawsuit filed by Perez's brother suggests a nightstick was used. [MORE]

Wrongful Death Suit Filed Over Black Man’s Death While in Chicago Police Custody - Family Disputes Police Story

/
antoniodampier.jpg
The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department have been hit with a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a man who allegedly died after falling out of a police wagon last weekend. The lawsuit claims that the police department is responsible for the death of Antonio Dampier by failing to properly secure him during transport. According to the suit, Dampier was able to climb onto the roof of the vehicle through an unsecured vent. He fell and landed on his head, the suit said. Dampier was arrested for a domestic disturbance after violating an order of protection. The police wagon was not moving at the time and Dampier was handcuffed during the fall. Authorities claim that the man was trying to escape and fell during the process. The Cook County medical examiner’s early report cited the cause of death as blunt head trauma. Initial reports indicated that Dampier's relatives said he died under different circumstances. They say he was taken from the scene in a squad car, and they do not know how the wagon ended up being involved. Relatives believe Dampier was beaten by police officers  [MORE] and [MORE]

Black Man alleges Moss Point Police Attacked him with Taser, NAACP Investigates

/
otisashford.jpg 
A Moss Point man said he was the victim of police brutality when a police officer repeatedly used a Taser gun to subdue him. Otis Ashford, 48, said he was hospitalized for two days after the April 18 incident at his sister's home on Westpine Street. At the time police were arresting Ashford on charges of resisting arrest and interfering with the duties of a police officer.  Moss Point Interim Police Chief Frederick Gaston confirmed Friday there was an investigation to determine whether the arresting officers acted inappropriately. Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, said his organization, too, is conducting an independent investigation and has put the city on notice. The NAACP, Clark said, informed the Moss Point Board of Aldermen of its investigation Tuesday night, and asked that the city reestablish its citizen review board to serve a watchdog role over police activity in the city. In the complaint Ashford said he was at his sister's house the night of April 18 when he heard a lot of noise and went outside to check it out. A man later identified as a police officer, Ashford said, yelled for him to go back inside but he stayed outside in a screened-in porch in the front of the house. Ashford and his sister were concerned at the time that a younger brother might have been the one they saw the police officer wrestling with and started yelling for him. The police officer left shortly after with the suspect in tow. Not long after, Ashford said, the police officer returned, bursting in through the front screen door to get to him for allegedly interfering with duties of a police officer. That's when Ashford said he was thrown against a wall and the officer pepper-sprayed him, with some of the spray hitting his sister, before another police officer showed up and repeatedly used a Taser to subdue him. Witnesses said Ashford was unconscious when he was taken from the house to the Moss Point Police Department and from there to Singing River Hospital.
Read More

Wrongful Death Suit Filed Over Black Man’s Death While in Chicago Police Custody - Family Disputes Police Story

/

antoniodampier.jpg
The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department have been hit with a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a man who allegedly died after falling out of a police wagon last weekend. The lawsuit claims that the police department is responsible for the death of Antonio Dampier by failing to properly secure him during transport. According to the suit, Dampier was able to climb onto the roof of the vehicle through an unsecured vent. He fell and landed on his head, the suit said. Dampier was arrested for a domestic disturbance after violating an order of protection. The police wagon was not moving at the time and Dampier was handcuffed during the fall. Authorities claim that the man was trying to escape and fell during the process. The Cook County medical examiner’s early report cited the cause of death as blunt head trauma. Initial reports indicated that Dampier's relatives said he died under different circumstances. They say he was taken from the scene in a squad car, and they do not know how the wagon ended up being involved. Relatives believe Dampier was beaten by police officers [MORE] and [MORE]