Defenseless Black Teen kicked by Seattle cop files claim against city

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SEATTLE -- The teenager who was kicked by an undercover officer during a drug bust in downtown Seattle has filed a claim against the city.  The 17-year-old suspect was kicked by an undercover officer inside a convenience store during the Oct. 18 incident, which was captured on tape. 

The video shows the plainclothes officer attacking the teen, who has his hands raised.  "Despite the fact that (name redacted), then 17 years of age, promptly raised his hands in surrender, Officer Lee kicked him in the ribs and then stomped on his face," the claim states. "(Name redacted) made no resistance at any time, and merely curled into the fetal position in an attempt to protect himself."

 That officer, James Lee, has been placed on leave. He is said to be a 10-year veteran. The teen is now seeking $450,000 for damages. The attorneys representing the teen said they intend to pursue a civil suit if the city doesn't pay. 

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Two Rutgers University students file lawsuit against New Brunswick police after alleged beating during raid

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Two Rutgers University students have filed a federal lawsuit accusing New Brunswick police of beating them and ransacking their room when officers raided their off-campus apartment house.

Jake Kostman, 20, of Stanhope and Kareem Najjar, 19, of Clifton say plainclothes police busted open the door to their Somerset Street rental house at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 10 and rushed into their bedroom yelling, but did not identify themselves as police officers.

The students, both sophomores, say they were punched and kicked by police, and their basement bedroom was ransacked, with books, notes and computers tossed on the floor the week before their final exams.

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Grand Jury To Convene In East Haven Police Bias Investigation Involving treatment of Latinos

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A federal criminal grand jury will begin hearing testimony Tuesday about longstanding allegations that some East Haven police officers have repeatedly harassed and assaulted Latinos in town.

At least 24 active town police officers have been subpoenaed to appear, according to a source familiar with the proceedings, which will take place in Bridgeport. It is unclear if those officers are targets of the investigation or witnesses who will be asked about the conduct of others. But in a court filing for a related matter, a lawyer for the town and police department said the apparent primary target of the investigation is East Haven Officer Dennis Spaulding.

Spaulding was one of two officers involved in the arrest last year of the Rev. James Manship, a Catholic priest who was videotaping what he said was harassment by officers. Spaulding also has been accused of beating and threatening suspects, taunting Latino residents and visitors, and trying to drive away Latino-owned businesses.

The criminal probe grew out of a civil complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice last March by Manship's church, St. Rose of Lima in New Haven, many of whose parishioners live or work in East Haven.

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Westchester (NY) Prosecutors Decide Not to File Criminal Charges Against Police: US will review death of Unarmed Black Student Killed by Police

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Police responded to the bar where many students had gathered after the homecoming game between Pace and Stonehill College. Henry, 20, a junior, was shot after he hit two officers with his car after refusing to stop, police allege.

Conflicting reports have surfaced from witnesses, who have said Henry was trying to move his car at the request of a police officer. A police officer mounted the hood and fired repeatedly through the front windshield, killing Henry.

The elder Henry also accused prosecutors of softballing the grand jury, not aggressively pursuing an indictment against the officers who shot his son, who played on the Pace football team.

“We firmly believe that we have a good handle on what happened,’’ he said. “We never believed for a second that this district attorney was pursuing an indictment, so we already contemplated going around her, which is why we’re going to the Justice Department.’’

The officers involved in the shooting have taken criticism from police specialists, who have said that there is no training module in policing that involves jumping on a moving car and firing at the driver. In a notice of claim filed with both communities

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4 Fort Wayne police officers cleared in Escobedo excessive force trial

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From [HERE] FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The federal judge in the excessive force trial against eight Fort Wayne police officers in the shooting death of Rudy Escobedo ruled Monday that the team that used tear gas and flash bangs to enter into Escobedo's apartment did not violate his constitutional rights.

The four officers, Scott Straub, Sgt. Tim Selvia, Brian Martin and Jason Brown are cleared of any wrongdoing in the case.

The defense will now present a case surrounding the supervising team that made the initial decision to go into the apartment.

Judge Theresa Springmann will rule on whether the court should decide the trial's outcome or if the jury will offer a verdict once the defense rests its case. The defense had filed for a directed verdict. That is when the judge makes a ruling, often because one side didn't prove its case, as was the decision to rule in favor for the entry team.

Minneapolis Sued for Retaliatory Police Killing of Black Radio DJ

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In November 2008, a Minneapolis man named Quincy DeShawn Smith got the good news that an appeals court had reinstated his lawsuit accusing city police officers of excessive force.

Three weeks later, he was dead. The 24-year-old former disc jockey died after he was chased and subdued by five Minneapolis police officers who allegedly punched him, kneed him in the ribs, hit him with the butt of a shotgun and zapped him with a Taser at least seven times.

Smith's mother is now suing the city and the five officers. She claims her son's death stemmed, in part, from officer Timothy Devick's retaliation against Smith for suing him in the excessive-force case.

"Defendant Devick's retaliatory conduct was intentional, deliberate, willful and conducted in callous disregard of, and gross indifference to, Smith's constitutional rights," says the wrongful-death and civil-rights suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

The suit says that because of the retaliation, Smith suffered "embarrassment, emotional distress, humiliation, loss, indignity and, ultimately, he lost his life."

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Recording Atlanta Police 'OK,' Lawsuit Decides

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ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - About a year ago, Marlon Kautz pulled out his cell phone and started shooting video of Atlanta police making an arrest.  "...and they told us they were not allowed to record them, that we needed to stop recording them," he said.

 But that's what Kautz, a member of the group CopWatch, does. He records police. When he refused to stop, he says officers got a bit more insistent. "Eventually they got my arm twisted behind my back, and basically they tried to pry the phone out of my hand. Eventually they were able to."

 Kautz sued, and this week settled for $40,000. WABE legal analyst Page Pate:

 "If you're standing at a distance and not interfering with what the officer is doing, you have every right to be there and every right to videotape it." The Atlanta City Council must first approve the settlement. 

Jon Burge: A Bully with a Badge

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In the 1980s, allegations began to surface that suspects were being beaten and forced into confessions in high-profile cases in Chicago. These were not matters of hitting or kicking suspects in some television docudrama moment of heated interrogation, but involved such things as putting a gun into one suspect’s mouth, putting a plastic bag over the head of another and, in several cases, using a cattle prod against suspects.

Burge and others were accused of taking part in more than 200 such interrogations — including several coerced confessions that put people on death row.

Although a jury acquitted Burge of police brutality charges in 1989, an internal police investigation determined he had used torture tactics and he was fired. Similarly, a special prosecution investigation that cost $17 million indicated there had been wrong-doing, but there were no charges filed because of the statute of limitations.

Meanwhile, Burge — who denies any involvement in the tortures — retired to the sunny climes of Apollo Beach, Florida. About four years after being dumped from the force, his pension kicked in.

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Suit alleging dangerous conditions in LA County jail moves forward

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A Los Angeles County Jail inmate who says he was stabbed 23 times during an outbreak of racial violence five years ago can sue Sheriff Lee Baca for "deliberate indifference" to the dangerous conditions in the jail, a divided federal appeals court panel ruled Friday.

Baca knew or should have known about the unconstitutional conditions prevailing in the jail and cited by investigators in previous incidents of death or injury to inmates, former prisoner Dion Starr alleged in his complaint against the sheriff. 

The earlier incidents included five inmate-on-inmate killings during a six-month period and numerous outbreaks of racial gang violence ignored or abetted by sheriff's deputies, Starr said in appealing a federal judge's decision in 2008 that Baca was immune from prosecution

On Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Starr's lawsuit in a 2-1 decision, saying a U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting officials from liability for illegal actions by subordinates doesn't extend to rights violations against those in custody when the supervisor had "knowledge of and acquiescence in unconstitutional conduct."

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Wrongful Death Settlement Approved for Unarmed Black Woman Killed by Lima Police (OH) During House Raid

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LIMA, Ohio -- A judge has approved a $2.5 million wrongful death settlement in the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman by a police officer. The shooting during a drug raid in 2008 set off protests about police treatment of minorities.

An Allen County Probate Court judge on Thursday approved the payment from the city of Lima's insurance company to the family of Tarika Wilson, The Lima News reported. The black woman was shot by a white police officer when police raided her home in the northwest Ohio city on Jan. 4, 2008. Officers were looking for Wilson's boyfriend, who later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

Wilson, the 26-year-old mother of six children, was holding her 1-year-old son, Sincere. He was shot in the shoulder and hand.

Lima police Sgt. Joseph Chavalia was acquitted of charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault in the shooting. He testified that he heard gunfire and thought his life was in danger. The shots came from officers shooting at dogs in another part of the home.

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Houston Mayor says she Hid Police Brutality Video from Public so Officers could get a Fair Trial

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  • Quanell X Releases New tape that shows second HPD beating [MORE]
  • Chad Holley's Police Beating Is Subject of an Angry NAACP Town Hall Meeting [HERE]

HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Annise Parker says in hindsight she probably would not have withheld a video that appears to show Houston police officers beating a handcuffed teenager last March.

But she said it was the correct legal move.

Community leaders expressed anger that it took almost a year for the video to be released during a town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. They also called for a federal investigation.

During the meeting, Parker also apologized to community activist Quanell X for suggesting that the person who released the tape should be prosecuted.

On Wednesday, Parker acknowledged that she did not anticipate the anger that the images would cause within the Houston community. The mayor and the district attorney have repeatedly said that they didn’t want the video to come out before the officers’ trial so the jury pool wouldn’t be tainted.

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NYC Settles Civil Suit in Correctional Officers Murder of Clarence Mobley

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The City of New York has agreed to pay over half a million dollars to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a South Carolina man who was killed while in custody on Rikers Island in 2009.

The man, Clarence Mobley, 60, was found dead in a cell at the Anna M. Kross Center; his death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office.

Rudy Velez, a lawyer for Mr. Mobley’s family, said the $525,000 settlement, which was finalized in Bronx County Surrogate’s Court last month, had brought little solace to relatives.

“In no uncertain terms,” Mr. Velez said, “they felt the officers murdered Mr. Mobley.”

No criminal charges have been filed against the correction officers implicated in the lawsuit, which had sought $10 million, said Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office. The status of the investigation into the death was unclear on Wednesday.

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No Criminal Charges for Oakland Cops in Derrick Jones shooting - Unarmed Black Man Killed by Police

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From[HERE] The two Oakland officers who shot and killed a well known barber and father last November will not be charged according to the Oakland Tribune. The paper is citing a source close to the investigation into the death of Derrick Jones.

The 37-year-old was shot and killed on November 8 after a brief foot chase on Trask Street. The officers were trying to detain Jones after domestic disturbance call. Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza Quiroz say Jones kept reaching toward his waistband during the chase and at one point they saw a shiny object. That turned out to be a scale.

Jones was unarmed when he was shot. The Alameda County District Attorney's office has been investigating the incident for three months. The District Attorney's office has not released the official results of its investigation.

Jury Selected in Escobedo trial - Ft. Wayne Police Face Criminal Charges for Killing Latino Man

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The jury now must decide whether specific officers, including command staff and members of the city’s emergency response team, used excessive force in the decision to storm Escobedo’s apartment.

After the jury was selected, attorneys for both sides presented their opening statements, laying out the evidence and testimony they plan to present.

According to attorneys for the plaintiff, both sides agree there was a breakdown in communication between Escobedo and police.

But while the police claim Escobedo was responsible for that, the plaintiffs contend it was the police who cut off communication without giving the situation enough time to play out safely, making the decision to “assault” the apartment.

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Uncertified Breath Machines and Faulty Police Testimony Force DC to Drop Drunk Driving Cases

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The District's attorney general has dropped dozens of drunken driving cases since Jan. 31 and hundreds of others could be dropped as the police department shuts down its troubled alcohol breath-test program. Problems dating back more than three years with the city's breath analyzers were first revealed in February 2010, when it was discovered the machines' results were inaccurate. Since then, the D.C. medical examiner's office has refused to sign off on the accuracy tests of new analysis machines, officials said.

"The alcohol breath-analysis program? It doesn't exist anymore," said Ilmar Paegle, who discovered problems with the Intoxilyzer 5000s soon after he took over the city's breath-analysis program on Feb. 1, 2010. Paegle's contract ended last week. As he left, he said, the police department pulled off the street the Intoximeter, which replaced the Intoxilyzer last spring. "It's a royal mess," Paegle said.

A spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan said he couldn't be pulled from a meeting to comment Tuesday. Nathan dropped eight more drunken driving cases Tuesday.

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Congressman asks Justice Department to Investigate Houston Police Beating of Handcuffed Black Teen

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From [HERE] Representative Al Green, a Houston Democrat, on Monday asked the Justice Department to begin a civil rights investigation after a videotape surfaced that shows Houston police officers beating and kicking a 15-year-old burglary suspect last March as he lay on the ground. Four officers are awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges of official repression in the case, but prosecutors had blocked release of the tape, arguing that it would taint a trial. An ABC television affiliate, KTRK, obtained a copy and broadcast it on Wednesday, reigniting anger over the arrest. On the video, the teenager appears to be clipped by a police car during a chase. He falls, flips onto his stomach and puts his hands behind his head. Several officers rush in, punching and kicking him as they arrest him. “We are outraged at what occurred,” Mr. Green said. The teenager, Chad Holley, was later sentenced to probation for burglary.

Houston Police - a History of Excessive Conduct in Minority Communities

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Roughly half of the nearly 14,000 complaints brought against Houston police officers in the past six years have been upheld by the department's Internal Affairs Division, covering allegations ranging from misconduct or wrecking a police unit to breaking the law or lying to supervisors.

Over the past six years, an average of 2,300 complaints have been lodged annually against Houston police officers, brought either by their supervisors or residents. That equates to about six complaints per day.

A Houston Chronicle examination of HPD's internal affairs data provides a rare look into an issue concerning many residents in light of the March beating of Chad Holley, a 15-year-old African-American fleeing police after a burglary. After surveillance video of Holley's violent arrest surfaced, Chief Charles McClelland ordered an internal affairs inquiry and later disciplined 12 officers accused of being involved in the beating, firing seven of them.

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Federal Prosecutors oppose New Orleans Cop's Request for a New Trial

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  • William Tanner's burned car, in which the remains of Henry Glover were found, on the banks of the Mississippi River. On 12/10/10 a jury found that police murdered Glover and then Officer McRae burned his body [MORE] 

From [HERE] NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal prosecutors are urging a judge to reject a New Orleans police officer's bid to overturn his convictions for burning the body of a man who was fatally shot by a different officer in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said the jury made a "rational and credible" decision to convict Officer Gregory McRae of federal crimes in burning the body of 31-year-old Henry Glover.

McRae's lawyer is asking U.S. District Judge Lance Africk to throw out his convictions or order a new trial.

The attorney, Frank DeSalvo, says jurors didn't hear evidence to rationally conclude that his client tried to obstruct a probe of a police shooting.

Two other current or former officers who were convicted in the case also are asking Africk for post-trial acquittals or new trials.

Illinois Attorney General Suing to Prevent Burge from Getting Pension

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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Monday to stop a former Chicago police official convicted of lying about the torture of suspects from getting his $3,000-a-month pension.

Madigan's suit names Jon Burge and the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, claiming that the board violated the state's pension code last month when it voted not to terminate Burge's benefits.

Burge was sentenced last month to 4 1/2 years in prison after being convicted in June of lying in a civil lawsuit when he said he'd never participated in or witnessed the physical abuse of suspects. A subsequent pension board vote on terminating Burge's pension failed by one vote, 4-4. It needed five votes to pass.

The four board members who voted to allow Burge to keep the pension said his convictions for perjury and obstruction of justice weren't directly related to his job as a police officer and that he didn't have any law enforcement duties when he was accused of making the false statements in 2003.

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ACLU Witnesses LA County Deputy Beating Unconscious Prisoner

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Sheriff's officials launched an internal criminal investigation Tuesday into the alleged beating of a Los Angeles County jail inmate by deputies that was witnessed by an ACLU staffer last month.

Spokesman Steve Whitmore said the sheriff's office of independent review will look into the incident, in which two deputies allegedly hit and kicked an unconscious man on Jan. 24.

He said an administrative review was under way when ACLU attorney Esther Lim filed a court declaration Monday describing the brutal beating of inmate James Parker, which she saw through a window while meeting with another inmate at Twin Towers jail.

The sheriff's log entry on the use-of-force incident said Parker punched deputies and fought until he was hit with a stun gun.

In the court declaration, Lim said the two deputies beat Parker for two minutes even though he was unconscious and not fighting back.

"Mr. Parker looked like he was a mannequin that was being used as a punching bag," Lim wrote. "I thought he was knocked out, or perhaps even dead."

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