From [HERE] SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A jury in Puerto Rico has acquitted two police officers of being accessories to murder for not stopping a colleague from shooting to death an unarmed man in an incident that was captured on a widely broadcast video.

Officers Carlos Sustache Sustache and Zulma Diaz de Leon were at the scene when a third officer shot and killed Miguel Caceres Cruz during an August 2007 struggle. Prosecutors said the two could have prevented the slaying, an argument the jury rejected in a verdict late Friday.

Defense lawyers said the officers had no time to prevent the shooting and were stunned by their colleague’s actions.

Evelyn Ramirez, the widow of the slain man, told reporters outside court she was shocked by the verdict.

“I’m never going to forgive them” she told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia. “They are police, trained to save and protect people’s lives.”

In an earlier trial, the officer who fired the shots, Officer Javier Pagan Cruz, was convicted of murder and a weapons charge and sentenced to 109 years in prison.

From [HERE] and [HERE] CHICAGO (STMW) - A federal lawsuit was filed Friday by a Chicago man claiming that federal agents used excessive force when he was falsely arrested and mistaken for a Colorado man.

Jose Quiroz claims that he was at home April 19, 2009 with his wife and four-year-old son when federal agent Robert Hall and other unknown officers from the FBI and ATF came to his door with guns drawn, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The agents searched and did not find any narcotics in the home and were looking for a man nicknamed “Chu” who had tattoos on his back, according to the suit.  The agents had recordings of telephone conversations from an out-of-state location implicating “Chu,” who lived in Colorado, in illegal activities, the suit said.

The suit claims that Quiroz never used the nickname “Chu,” doesn’t not have tattoos on his back, and never lived or visited Colorado.  He has lived in and worked as construction worker employed by the city of Chicago for nine years.  Quiroz was working at the time the recorded telephone calls occurred and it was not Quiroz’s voice on the telephone recordings, according to the suit. He claims that although the Bureau knew he was innocent, they stood by as he was indicted and prosecuted for more than 18 months in a major drug case that he had nothing to do with.

Thousands of citizens are convicted every day of driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08% — based entirely upon the readings of these machines.  In a "trial by machine", the results of these devices legally establish a rebuttable presumption of guilt and are considered proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  See Whatever Happened to the Presumption of Innocence? and Trial by Machine. 

Philadelphia, PA.  March 25 — A day after Philadelphia police announced that miscalibrated breathalyzers had compromised 1,147 drunken-driving cases, District Attorney Seth Williams  declared he would conduct a wholesale review of all DUI cases during the 15 months in question.

Philadelphia police file 8,000 to 10,000 drunken-driving cases each year, so the review announced Thursday by Williams’ office will involve a staggering amount of work that will take months to complete. 

Deputy District Attorney Edward McCann, chief of the Criminal Division, decided to launch the review, said Williams’ spokeswoman, Tasha Jamerson. Assistant District Attorney Lynn Nichols will lead a team of prosecutors and staff that will examine the cases from September 2009 to November 2010.

Besides the cost of reviewing thousands of DUI prosecutions and likely retrying some, the police and city could face civil lawsuits by people wrongly convicted – some of whom may have lost their driver’s license, their job, or their freedom.

From [HERE] The family of a man shot and killed last month by a county police officer outside the City Place Mall in Silver Spring filed a $10 million wrongful death claim Friday against the Montgomery County Police Department.

Private Civil Rights Attorney Brian K. McDaniel filed the lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Emmanuel O. Okutuga, a 26-year-old Bowie State University student who was shot and killed Feb. 19 by Officer Christopher Jordan outside the City Place Mall in downtown Silver Spring.

Police said the shooting occurred at 5:15 p.m., when Jordan arrived at the City Place Mall after reports that Okutuga had assaulted a mall security guard inside the mall. Jordan confronted Okutuga outside the mall, where Okutuga was wielding an ice pick, according to police, who said Jordan shot Okutuga twice after Okutuga repeatedly refused to drop the ice pick.

From [HERE] DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- The parents of a Norcross man who died after police shocked him with Tasers have filed a wrongful death suit against DeKalb County police.

“It doesn’t make sense. It’s just what they did is wrong. It’s plain wrong,” said Anne Davis. Davis choked back tears as she spoke with Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Regan about the sudden death of her son, Audrecas Davis, on May 9, 2010. He suffered a seizure at a DeKalb County motel.

Police had answered a call from paramedics about an unruly patient. Officers shocked the 29-year-old man six times. The police report said two officers used their 50,000-volt weapons when Davis resisted being handcuffed to a stretcher, became combative and flailed his arms.

“My son was not a threat to them at all. There was no crime involved. He was sick, he truly needed medical attention,” said Davis. The patient’s sister questions if the repeated shocks were necessary.

Passenger says Henry Complied with Orders - Mount Pleasant (NY) Police Fatally Shoot Unarmed Black College Student [MORE] 

From [HERE] Prosecutors have dropped charges against four Pace University football players who were arrested after their teammate was fatally shot by a police officer.

Prosecutors had said convicting the four would "not serve the ends of justice."

They say the defendants' actions following the Oct. 17 shooting of 20-year-old Danroy Henry resulted from "youthful visceral reactions to the sudden, unexpected shooting of their friend."

Three had been accused of misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct and obstruction. One was accused of criminal mischief. Henry's mother said after the hearing that the four young men "tried to save their dying friend." Defense lawyers said they will proceed with a civil suit against several departments, including Mount Pleasant police.

A grand jury recently declined to indict the police officer who fatally shot Henry as he drove away from a bar in Thornwood, just north of New York City.

From [HERE] DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit Police looking for a dangerous suspect instead are met at the door by his elderly grandfather, who police say had a gun.  The retired Ford worker was shot.  We're told police fired in self defense.

"Very bang, bang, quick situation.  The officers encountered the gentleman armed.  They took action that they felt was necessary to defend themselves," said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

Officers with the Detroit Police Department's Northeastern District came to a home on Adeline just before one o'clock Thursday afternoon looking for a man wanted for firing at police during another incident.  He wasn't there.  Instead, family members tell FOX 2 an 83-year-old man was inside with his elderly wife and a family friend.

"I do believe what may have happened is when they busted in the doors, my father, who's 83 years old, probably was frightened because it is a bad neighborhood, and more than likely he probably reached for his shotgun, which probably caused the shooting to occur," said daughter Charlotte Phelps.

From [HERE] and [HERE]  PHOENIX - A Phoenix police officer charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting an unarmed suspect last year has been fired.

Richard Chrisman, 36, allegedly pulled his pistol, put it against 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez's head and told him he didn't need a warrant when Rodriguez ordered him out of his house on October 5. During the next few minutes, Chrisman shocked Rodriguez with a stun gun, shot his pit bull, then fatally shot Rodriguez, according to a court document.

The Phoenix Police Department said that at a Loudermill Hearing Wednesday, "the decision was made to terminate Officer Chrisman's employment." A Loudermill hearing provides an employee an opportunity to present his or her version of the circumstances prior to the employer making a final decision on disciplinary action.

From [HERE] The NAACP is getting involved in the controversy surrounding some e-mails East Hampton police chief Matt Reimondo sent last year from a town computer.

Reimondo is under fire over what some residents are calling racist emails. One email depicts President Obama as a witchdoctor. Another shows a rap musician with spiky braids and suggests he was shot like a deer.

Reimondo sent the emails last year but they came to light last week when a former city councilor filed a complaint A letter of reprimand was sent to the chief and made public at Tuesday's city council meeting.

Reimondo has apologized, but NAACP officials said the town’s investigation didn't go far enough and they might ask state and federal lawmakers to cut the town's funding.

From [HERE] MIAMI — The video, shot with a hand-held camera, shows brawny Miami police officers breaking down doors and hauling handcuffed African-American suspects off some of the city’s toughest streets. “We hunt,” one officer says in the five-and-a-half-minute clip. “I like to hunt.”

But it was not a source of embarrassment for Miami’s police chief, Miguel A. Exposito. The video was part of a reality television pilot, “Miami’s Finest SOS,” a project with the enthusiastic backing of Chief Exposito. “Our guys were proactively going out there, like predators,” he says during his cameo in the video, which surfaced online in January.

A few weeks later, a Miami police officer shot and killed a black man during a traffic stop at North Miami Avenue and 75th Street in the Little Haiti neighborhood. The man, Travis McNeil, 28, was unarmed and never left the driver’s seat of his rental car when he was shot once in the chest, members of his family said.

Mr. McNeil was the seventh African-American man to be shot and killed by Miami police officers in eight months. The shootings in this racially polarized city have led to marches on the Police Department’s headquarters and calls for a Justice Department investigation, and the city manager has initiated an investigation into the chief’s record.

The prosecution claims Sylvester Villasana did not have knife when he got out of his car, after leading police on a chase. However, the defense said Villasana not only had a knife, but also had "suicide by cops syndrome," saying the man had told others, in the weeks before the shooting that if police ever came after him he would want officers to take him down.

In court, witness Javier Hernandez said he saw officer Sanders taze Villasana.

"He put his taser down, pulled out a revolver and started shouting orders," Villasana said. He said he saw a phone in one of Villasana's hands and said the other one was empty.

He said, he saw sanders shoot Villasana three times, and that Villasana never lunged forward.

From [HERE] and [HERE] CHARLOTTE, N.C. --  Sharon Allen can't sleep. The images of Sunday morning keep haunting her.

"They were beating, kicking him," she said. "The gun was nowhere. He was laying in a ditch. And three cops were basically beating the crap out of him for five or seven minutes, maybe more," Allen said.

20-year-old Malcolm Xavier Springs is the man police allegedly beat. Minutes before the alleged incident, police say Springs shot officer Brent Harrison. Harrison was released from the hospital Sunday evening.

Allen says she understands why police were angry.

"Yes I do. But what can you do if a person is handcuffed and shot and they're basically laying in a ditch?" She says there were three officers beating Springs. "There was an officer sitting here with his dog watching. I can't recall anyone saying anything or any cop trying to stop it," she said.

Garza, 44, was found guilty of false reports and official misconduct in January.

He was the leader of an aggressive unit designed to combat the city's homicide rate. Prosecutors say he took the role too far by breaking into an abandoned house on West 26th Street with no warrant in August 2009, then approving a bogus burglary report to cover his tracks.

Garza almost immediately took off his belt and his sky blue necktie, handing both to the bailiffs, when the verdict was read. He didn't wait to be asked.

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Brooklyn man says he was left with a painful reminder from an encounter with NYPD cops: A prong from a Taser had to be surgically removed from his back. Jonathan Zimmerman, 26, is suing the city and the two officers, saying that after he double-parked, he suffered through an excruciating Tasering that left him with a dime-sized scar. "I was hurt because I don't think I should have gone through what I went through that night," he said of the April 2010 ordeal.

Zimmerman, a security guard, said he was sitting in his car with a female friend outside her Bedford-Stuyvesant home when uniformed cops wrote him a ticket for double-parking. After he and the woman started to argue with the cops about the summons, one officer ordered him out of the car. He refused.

He says the cop yanked the keys from the ignition and Maced him while he was still strapped in his seat belt. Next Zimmerman felt something "very, very painful," he recalled. He was zapped, pulled out of his car and Tasered two more times, he said.

An NYPD spokesman said cops ordered Zimmerman to move his car but he instead talked back and had to be restrained. Doctors later dislodged an inch-long spur from his back. All charges against him, including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct,were dismissed.

The charges filed by the city's prosecutor's office said that Officer's Lentz, Smith, Randolph and Crawford, all hired in 2008, attacked Edward Henderson after he was detained, and withheld information from police investigators.

Henderson, 40, of Cleveland Heights said he was beaten by police on Jan. 1. The pursuit began when an officer knocked on Henderson's car window when he was stopped at a traffic light late at night. Henderson said he had no idea it was a police officer. He says he panicked and took off. Once he knew police were giving chase, he says he finally pulled over and got down on the ground.

He said that after he was handcuffed, he was held down by police, kicked and kneed in the head. Henderson, severely beaten, suffered a detached retina, broken eye socket and nose.  In all, 28 police cars and 41 officers responded to the chase. The city has refused to turn over the video from the police helicopter that Henderson says will show he was beaten by police.

The trio of officers were acting reasonably when they fatally shot David Arnulfo Lopez, 27, following reports of domestic violence in the Vista Terraces Mobile Home Park on Oct. 21, 2006, the jury found.

Many jurors lingered after being dismissed Thursday to thank the deputies for their service, including one woman who said she hoped those deputies would respond if she ever called 911, said Deputy County Counsel David Axtmann, who represented the deputies.

The shooting was one of several over the span of a few years that raised the community’s concerns over the Sheriff’s Department’s use of force against Latino men.

Especially troubling to some was the revelation that most of the 12 bullets that struck Lopez hit him in the back, while one hit him in the side, according to court records. The family’s attorneys argued that was an indication he was fleeing, not fighting, when shot.

“This was always a difficult case because of the facts,” said Victor Torres, attorney for Lopez’s 10-year-old daughter and spokesman for El Grupo, a Latino rights organization.

From [HERE] The mother of a Phoenix man senselessly shot by Phoenix police Officer Richard Chrisman last year has filed a $30 million notice of claim against the officer, the city of Phoenix, and the Phoenix Police Department for the wrongful death of her son.

Daniel Rodriguez -- and his dog -- were fatally shot by Chrisman when he and another officer responded to a domestic violence call at the victim's home. The call was placed by Rodriguez's mother, Elvira Fernandez, who according to the notice of claim, called police after she and her son got into an argument about a vehicle and he threw something into a wall.

"Every day, every hour, every minute and every second, since October 5, 2010, I regretted ever making that 9-1-1 call," Fernandez says.

According to the notice of claim, prior to police showing up, Fernandez told a 9-1-1 operator no guns were in the house, but that didn't stop Chrisman from allegedly entering the house without permission and holding a gun to Rodriguez's head so hard that it left bruising visible during an autopsy --and that was before fatally shooting the unarmed man. 

The DOJ report [HERE] found from 2009 to 2010 (does not include Katrina info) all 27 incidents of NOPD deadly force were against African Americans, and in 2009  the department arrested 500 black and 8 white males under age of 17, which diverges "severely" from national data.

The report states "indeed, the limited arrest data that the Department collects points to racial disparities in arrests of whites and African Americans in virtually all categories, with particularly dramatic disparity for African-American youth under the age of 17. Arrest data provided by NOPD indicates that in 2009, the Department arrested 500 African-American males and eight white males under the age of 17 for serious offenses, which range from homicide to larceny over fifty dollars. During this same period the Department arrested 65 African-American females and one white female in this same age group. Adjusting for population, these figures mean that the ratio of arrest rates for both African-American males to white males, and African-American females to white females, was nearly 16 to 1.

Although a significant disparity in arrest rates for this age group exists nationwide, it is not nearly as extreme as the disparity found in New Orleans. Nationally in 2009, among those agencies reporting data, the arrest ratio of African-American youth to white youth, for the same offenses, was approximately 3 to 1. The level of disparity for youth in New Orleans is so severe and so divergent from nationally reported data that it cannot plausibly be attributed entirely to the underlying rates at which these youth commit crimes, and unquestionably warrants a searching review and a meaningful response from the Department.

From [HERE] Miami police have rejected a demand from a citizens’ oversight panel to turn over all information on last summer’s police shooting death of DeCarlos Moore, likely leading to a courtroom showdown that could determine just how much power the publicly created panel can wield.

Two weeks ago the 11-member City of Miami Civilian Investigative Panel ordered Police Chief Miguel Exposito to turn over all records related to the July 5 shooting of Moore, the first of seven black men shot and killed by police in the inner city over a seven-month period. The panel gave Exposito 10 days to deliver the records.

With the passing of that deadline Wednesday, police department attorney George Wysong wrote the CIP saying the records would not be turned over because Moore’s shooting is still being investigated by police and the state attorney’s office.

Moore, who had no weapon, was shot and killed by Miami police officer Joseph Marin during a traffic stop in Overtown on July 5 after disobeying an order and returning to his car. Police killings of three other men in a six-week period over the summer led to tensions in the black community and among top city officials.