Archive for the 'Police' Category

News from Utah:

SALT LAKE CITY — Should police officers have to prove to a court that they are, in fact, acting as police officers every time they brandish their guns while performing their duties?

Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge, believes that’s the broader issue the justices of the Utah Supreme Court are currently deciding. And that decision could affect Utah law enforcers statewide, even those in uniform and on duty, he contends.

On Friday, attorneys arguing the case of former Unified police officer Lance Bess went before the state’s highest court to make their arguments.

On Sept. 3, 2015, Bess, 36, of West Jordan, was duck hunting while off duty with a group of people at the Bear River Bird Refuge. Another group of hunters was nearby. But one of the hunters in the other group was inexperienced, according to court documents.

At one point, that inexperienced hunter fired several shots at a duck without regard to his backstop. Those shots came close to Bess’ group.

Unsure what was happening and why his group was being shot at, Bess unholstered his police service weapon and held it by his knee. He also had his hunting shotgun over his arm as he approached the other group that had fired toward them.

Bess angrily yelled at the hunters, using expletives, as he came upon them.

According to a Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office report, members of that group said they asked Bess multiple times to put his gun away as they tried to explain that the shots were a mistake and that they felt threatened by him.

When a deputy responded to the scene, he told Bess he shouldn’t have unholstered his gun.

“I explained that I understood things where he works are a bit more crazy, in our area we deal with these things differently,” the deputy wrote in the report.

The deputy noted that because five to 10 minutes had passed from the time Bess’ group was shot at until Bess confronted them, the imminent danger had passed and Bess did not need to draw his gun.

Because of that, Bess was charged and in May 2017, the officer was convicted in 1st District Court of threatening to use a dangerous weapon during a fight, a class A misdemeanor. Judge Brandon Maynard ordered Bess to serve two days in jail, in addition to probation. Bess has since served his jail time.

Because of the conviction, Bess resigned from his certified law enforcement position at the Unified Police Department, but he was later hired back as a civilian employee. He then appealed his conviction, asking it be thrown out and he be given a new trial.

The Utah Court of Appeals agreed the case should be sent to the Utah Supreme Court for consideration.

A key issue the Supreme Court must decide is whether the jury in Bess’ original trial was given proper instructions in a timely manner. Cassell said it was important for the jury to know that a police officer is expected, and authorized, to perform police officer duties even when not officially on duty.

When jurors were given preliminary instructions at the start of the trial in this case, that part was left out, Cassell said. It wasn’t until final jury instructions were given — after witnesses had been called to the stand — that jurors were told to consider the expectations of an off-duty officer.

“The problem was that they weren’t told during the three-day trial to be listening for the defenses as they were being presented,” Cassell said. “They didn’t know up front that a police officer performing his duties is entitled to brandish a firearm. They weren’t told that at the beginning, so as a result the trial was fundamentally unfair.

Good Lord.

So let’s cover some facts.  He wasn’t performing any duties as a LEO.  He was pissed off, and so he unholstered his weapon.  Second, he had no right to go up to anyone brandishing a weapon.  He could have been shot, and he should have been shot.  This pissed off hot head actually came upon some folks who were acting fairly reasonably and stated, as they should have, that they “felt threatened.”

Third, they had no way of knowing that this person was a LEO.  I can claim that too, and it would be a lie.  Many people lie, and some people dress like LEOs as they invade homes.  No one has to believe the assertion that the person in front of them is a LEO.  Fourth, he chose to use expletives, he didn’t have to do that.  That was voluntary, no necessary or an essential part of the event that day.

Finally, should police officers have to prove to a court that they are “performing their duties?”  Yes, among other things.  They should have to prove they are LEOs, that they have enough sense to have a weapon, that they aren’t a danger to those around them, that they acted constitutionally, that they didn’t violate any laws, that they applied the law without prejudice or bias, and a whole host of other things, and I’d prefer to see them prove these things every second of every day.

From WiscoDave, this sad tale.

MARIANNA — Prosecutors are dropping charges in at least two dozen cases initiated by a former Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputy who’s under investigation for allegedly planting drugs on people during traffic stops.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed Wednesday it opened an investigation Aug. 1 into Deputy Zachary Wester at the request of the Sheriff’s Office, located in Marianna. The investigation into allegations of official misconduct is still open, and no charges have been filed against Wester.

The Sheriff’s Office fired him Sept. 10 for violating agency policy, according to FDLE records.

State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit said FDLE briefed him and senior prosecutors about the Wester investigation several weeks ago. He formed his own opinion about Wester after seeing a body camera video of his arrest of a Cottondale woman earlier this year on charges of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

“The investigation is not complete,” Hess said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. “However, I saw a video and I saw still photographs captured from that video that caused me to lose confidence in the cases that the deputy has made.”

Wester, 26, of Marianna, could not be reached for comment. Neither could his attorney, Steve Meadows of Panama City. Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts declined to comment and referred questions to FDLE.

Wester was hired in May 2016 and worked as a patrol deputy. He worked as a Liberty County Sheriff’s Office deputy from August 2015 until he joined JCSO.

After learning of the investigation, Hess said he notified the defense bar in Jackson County. He said he did so to comport with pretrial discovery rules that require prosecutors to disclose information that may exonerate a defendant.

“It is an unfortunate situation,” Hess said. “However, as the state attorney, I have a responsibility to make it right.”

Hess sent letters to lawyers with clients in 15 cases involving Wester, he said. The Democrat obtained a copy of one of the letters, which was sent Sept. 6.

“Please be advised that our office has information that an investigation into the professional conduct of Deputy Zachary Wester is underway,” Hess wrote. “No conclusions have been reached, nonetheless, you should be aware of its existence.”

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked Circuit Judge Christopher Patterson in open court to vacate the sentence of Teresa Odom, the woman whose drug possession arrest was caught on body camera video. Patterson agreed.

According to court records, Odom was on pretrial release from an earlier stolen property charge when Wester arrested her on Feb. 15. The new arrest prompted a judge to revoke her bail, which kept her behind bars until resolution of the drug case. She pleaded no contest to the drug charges March 6 and was sentenced to four years of probation.

Hess said that after notifying defense attorneys of a potential problem with Wester, his office began reviewing dozens of cases involving the deputy that were opened since Jan. 1. He said he’s waiting for a final investigative report from FDLE.

“We felt like we had to do something pending receipt of that report,” he said. “When we get that report, we will read the report, and we’ll see if there are other things we need to do.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many other defendants may be in jail or prison as a result of alleged misconduct by Wester.

“Basically, we’re dealing with possession of controlled substances,” Hess said. “So I would expect that the people affected would at worst be on probation. Nevertheless, we are looking at all of the cases and their outcomes.”

Prosecutors also dropped charges last week against Monica Willis, who was arrested by Wester on March 28 after a traffic stop. Wester’s arrest report says he found two silver colored spoons in her purse along with a baggie that field-tested positive for meth. She said she was two weeks pregnant at the time of the arrest, Wester noted.

She also was on probation for earlier charges in both Jackson and Calhoun counties, said her lawyer, Robin Myers of Bristol. He was able to arrange her release from jail Wednesday morning.

“The M.O. seems to be that there’s a traffic stop in which either a request to search the car is made or the deputy determines probable cause to search the car,” Myers said. “And then upon searching the car, narcotics are located. At which point the deputy gives the defendant the choice to either work as a confidential informant or go to jail.”

Myers contends the traffic stop itself was illegal. He said he isn’t sure whether Wester planted evidence in Willis’ case. But, he said, “That’s what appears to be happening in multiple cases.”

A former prosecutor himself, Myers said he believes law enforcement officers play by the rules, by and large.

“The foundation for our system is the integrity of our law enforcement officers,” he said. “So I sure hope he’s just a (single) bad apple. And I believe that. The sad part is you wonder how many people were arrested by him and just took a plea to get out of jail when they had done nothing wrong.”

The foundations of social order have to do with the authority of the Scriptures, the adherence to Biblical law, and the moral constitution of men.  LEOs have nothing to do with it.

How many wrongful convictions and imprisonment can be accounted to this sort of abomination?  You know he isn’t the only one.  And how long with dull, stolid, slow-witted juries believe what LEOs tell them?

ABC13:

WAYNE COUNTY, North Carolina (KTRK) — A woman in North Carolina was arrested after trying to save pets during Hurricane Florence.

With severe flooding on the way, Tammie Hedges said she took in more than two dozen pets when their owners evacuated.

She runs an animal rescue called “Crazy’s Claws ‘n Paws,” but had not yet finished building her shelter.

She said she took the animals in anyways so they’d have a dry place to stay.

“Their owners were just going to leave them in a flood zone on chains. We don’t want that,” she said.

Animal services has since taken the pets and are now trying to find their owners.

Tammie has also been charged with practicing medicine without a veterinary license.

Better to have let them perish than risk the officers’ lives effecting the arrest.  If I was them, I would have sent in the SWAT team, shot all the dogs, and beaten the hell out of her for good measure.

I’m just glad the cops all went home safely at the end of their shift.  That’s what really matters here.

Via Insty:

A police search warrant team going after a drug dealer targeted the wrong address and burst into the apartment of an innocent resident who shot and wounded two officers believing they were home invaders, Prince George’s law enforcement officials said.

Police Chief Hank Stawinski apologized for the error Thursday and said he has halted executing search warrants until the department reviews how it corroborates information to confirm addresses and the location of investigative targets.

As soon as officers entered the apartment, the man inside immediately surrendered when he realized police were on the other side of the door, Stawinski said.

The man yelled, “‘You’ve got the wrong address! Don’t shoot my daughter!’ ” according to Stawinski.

No criminal charges will be filed against the resident, who fired at police with a shotgun, said Stawinski, adding that police “did not draw the right conclusion” about their target.

Here is the report.  Glenn Reynolds adds, “This is how it should be handled.”

No, it’s not.  Here’s a note to LEOs.  I don’t believe in your war on drugs.  In fact, I don’t believe in law enforcement in America conducting a war on anything at all, except invasion from foreign countries, a job which isn’t going so well.

The process isn’t over.  Now it’s time for the LEOs involved to be fired and charged with destruction of private property, trespassing, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Then perhaps these idiotic home invasions by LEOs will begin to subside.  Otherwise, it will turn into a war on something else, like LEOs.  Get my drift?

Via Fred Tippens, this strange report.

The attorney of a Chattanooga police officer says her client intentionally shot a man who had just committed suicide – directly contradicting a previous police report claiming it was an accident.

The Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) says officers responded Sunday morning to a situation at the Cross Creek Villas involving a man threatening to commit suicide with a gun.

According to attorney Janie Varnell of David & Hoss, P.C., Officer Brian Cottell followed his extensive training in hostage negotiations and tried to talk the man into dropping the weapon.

The CPD report says the man did not follow officers’ orders, and then shot and killed himself. That is when CPD says the officer fired his gun three times, striking the man’s body with one of the bullets.

The CPD report says that the firing of the gun was an accident – the attorney’s statement disputes this.

“Contrary to previous reports, Officer Cottell did not discharge his service weapon unintentionally,” the statement reads. “He did not accidentally shoot a man who was deceased. He purposefully discharged his weapon to protect himself and other officers as he was trained to do in these types of situations.”

The statement continues that Cottell, standing about 15 feet away from the man, fired at almost the same time as the man did.

Varnell says Officer Cottell has a 20-year career in law enforcement, is a military veteran, and has extensive training in critical incidents involving suicidal parties, hostage negotiations, and high-intensity situations.

Um, what?

Let’s see if we can unpack this.  So the police officer was being protected by himself and perhaps his partner, neither of whom wanted to face the music with the public when they found out the stupidity of shooting a man holding a gun to his head, and claimed that it was essentially a negligent discharge.

But wait.  This might indicate that he nervously pulled the trigger when he heard loud noises, thus making him unfit for his job even with the goobers on the police force.  So then they amended their claim to assert that the shooting was intentional.

Highly trained, he was.  High-intensity situations.  Hostage negotiations.  A Ninja warrior all the way around.  He followed procedure, a stupid procedure that must say to shoot people holding a gun to their head.

Meaning that he perjured himself on the original police report.

And so the people of Chattanooga feel safer tonight that an “only-one” followed his procedures.  I’m not sure anyone can say for sure if the man was dead or not, or that he wouldn’t have lived through the injuries he inflicted upon himself.  But the good news is that the Ninja warrior got to go home safely that night.  That’s the only thing that matters.

In other news, you’d better not try to commit suicide in Chattanooga.  The cops will fill you full of holes.

Via WiscoDave, this sad news.

“It was a mistake of the heart he will have to deal with the rest of his life,” said Holbrook.  Oh sod off, you bastard.

The most interesting thing we learn from the report isn’t that officer Hurt is a sociopath, or that Holbrook is corrupt, but this tidbit that Holbrook thought might be exonerating.

Other handlers also left dogs inside vehicles because they could be needed for a call on a moment’s notice …

Officers who used that as an excuse are liars, plain and simple.  It’s no more time to grab your dog and head to the car than it is to run there yourself.  Anyone who knows and loves dogs knows you cannot leave dogs in heat like that.  They have no way of discharging heat except to pant – that’s how they sweat, dumbass.  They aren’t designed like you and me.

So your other officers there that day are sociopaths as well.  Thanks for the warning.

Also via WiscoDave, let’s do a little compare and contrast.

A Nebraska woman was arrested, charged with animal cruelty, and sentenced to a year in prison after leaving two dogs to die in a hot car.

Ashley Alberts-Roach, 38, of Bellevue, Nebraska was arrested and charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty after she left her boyfriend’s two dogs – Paco, a 4-year-old Pit Bull/Lab mix, and Rosie, a 3-year-old Pit Bull mix locked inside her vehicle for 4 hours in August of 2016.

Alberts-Roach put the dogs inside her car around 10 a.m. on Aug. 5, 2016, because she didn’t want them in her house, prosecutor Gage Cobb said. Her 11-year-old daughter later told her the dogs were in distress, but Alberts-Roach left them there.

Feel free to weigh in with comments and let us know what these two reports tell us.

Chicago Tribune:

When Martha Al-Bishara went on a walk near her home in northern Georgia last week, she was on a quest for dandelions. The stroll would end in her getting stunned by a Taser and arrested by police officers.

The 87-year-old woman often ventured outside – with a kitchen knife and a plastic bag in hand – to cut and collect the plants for cooking, her family said. She was doing just that last Friday afternoon when she crossed the street from her home in Chatsworth, Georgia, and arrived at a partially fenced lot belonging to a branch of the Boys and Girls Club. There, she began gathering the plants she needed.

Someone on the property, however, called 911 to report a woman in a blue dress and a brown headscarf on their site.

“She told me she doesn’t speak English and she’s walking up our bike trail with a knife towards me,” a man said in a 911 call obtained by WRCB News. “She’s old so she can’t get around too well, but … looks like she’s walking around looking for something like vegetation to cut down or something. She has a bag, too.”

The 911 caller added that the woman “didn’t try to attack anybody or anything.”

Soon afterward, at around 4:30 p.m., two officers and the chief of the Chatsworth Police Department arrived at the scene, according to a police report. There, a Boys and Girls Club staff member escorted them to the back of the property, where they spotted Al-Bishara standing on a hill, still holding a “a white plastic bag in her left hand and a steak knife in her right hand.”

It was unclear if the officers realized Al-Bishara did not speak English but, according to police, the woman did not respond to multiple verbal requests to put down her knife. Instead, she reportedly continued walking and collecting dandelions.

“While we were approaching the female she bent down to the ground and cut a weed and stood back up holding the weed in her left hand with the plastic bag,” the police report stated. ” We kept telling her to drop the knife. The female would look at us. Her demeanor was calm even seeing us with our guns out.”

The Chatsworth police chief at one point threw his own pocket knife on the ground “in an attempt to show the female that we wanted her to drop the knife,” according to the report. When Al-Bishara still didn’t respond and began walking down the hill toward the police, one of the officers turned on his Taser and pointed it at the woman, the report said.

When she about five yards away, with the same “calm” demeanor and facial expression, the officer shot his Taser, striking Al-Bishara in the chest and sending her to the ground, the report said.

If you’re afraid of an 87-year-old woman cutting dandelions, you may be a pussy.  In fact, if you are prone to call the police and say something like this:

“She told me she doesn’t speak English and she’s walking up our bike trail with a knife towards me,” a man said in a 911 call obtained by WRCB News. “She’s old so she can’t get around too well, but … looks like she’s walking around looking for something like vegetation to cut down or something. She has a bag, too.”  [she] “didn’t try to attack anybody or anything.”

You may be a pussy.

America is full of pussies, making it ripe for takeover by barbarian hordes.  But the good news is that at least the old woman now knows her boundaries.

Don’t know the language – too bad.  Can’t hear – too bad.  Have dementia – too bad.  You’d better be cognizant enough to obey the commands of the lords and masters, “Officer Safety!”

I don’t know.  That’s a damn good question.

RALEIGH – A police officer stopped an SUV, which had been reported stolen, at a busy Southeast Raleigh intersection after 4 p.m. Monday.

The Supreme Court decision in Tennessee versus Garner was handed down for situations just such as this, where there is a presumed crime, but no trial and no conviction.

Under these circumstances, the SCOTUS said that shooting and killing someone – even a fleeing inmate – bypasses the right of due process, and so LEOs cannot discharge weapons unless their life is in danger (just like you and me).

Of course, no district attorney is going to bring charges against a LEO since they are all on the same side, rendering the SCOTUS decision meaningless.  So LEOs are just like you and me, only better.

Again.

Guns were drawn, even on small children, when Chicago officers raided a family’s home. Dave Savini is investigating why this happened and how this family will never be the same.

“One guy said you better shut the F up if you know any better,” said Peter Mendez.

Peter was 9 when the trauma began. It was dinner time when Chicago police busted his front door open, invading his family’s home.

“Assault rifles, maybe like a few pistols,” Peter recalled.

His little brother Jack was by his side that night shaking with fear. Savini also spoke with Jack.

Savini: “They pointed a gun at your Dad and your Mom?”
Jack: “Yeah”
Savini: “and then did they point a gun at your brother?”
Jack nodded yes.
Savini: “What was it like when that gun was pointed at you?”
Peter: “It was like my life just flashed before my eyes.”

Mom and Dad say cops screamed profanities at the family as they tore the house apart and ordered them all to the floor at gunpoint.

Savini: “You never thought a police officer would do that to you?”
Peter: “No.”

“I could hear my babies screaming, ‘Don’t shoot my Dad. Don’t kill my Dad. Leave my Dad alone. What did my Dad do?’” said Peter’s father, Gilbert Mendez.

Peter’s dad Gilbert Mendez says his family did nothing wrong and what’s even worse the police had no right to even be there because they were raiding the wrong home and now the Mendez’s say police are trying to cover it up.

The CBS 2 investigators found officers from the 11th district used a search warrant filled with mistakes, even the judge’s printed name as required by police order is missing.

In fact, police tell CBS2 they don’t even have their own copy of the warrant or any record the warrant even exists.

I guess it got their rocks off to point guns at little kids.  And the imperative ” … you better shut the F up if you know any better” makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  What is that – gibberish or “Pig Latin”?

The worst thing of all is that no cops got shot.  Cops getting shot pulling idiotic stunts like this might bring an end to violations of the fourth amendment to the constitution.

News from California:

A former Beaumont cop who blinded a woman when he fired a pepper spray pistol inches from her face during a DUI arrest pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor charge under an agreement negotiated with
Riverside County prosecutors.

Enoch “Jeremy” Clark, 43, entered his plea to a charge of assault by a public officer, and in exchange for his admission, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop a felony count of assault by a peace officer causing injury, along with a sentence-enhancing great bodily injury
allegation.

The D.A.’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reasoning behind the plea deal, which was announced during a pretrial status hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Superior Court Judge John Molloy scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 31. Clark is free on his own recognizance.

The defendant was first tried in May 2014, when a Riverside jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting him. A retrial started in January 2017, but after less than a week of testimony, Judge Michael Donner brought a halt to proceedings because of defense allegations that the prosecution had not met its obligation to share documents produced during discovery.

Clark could have faced up to four years in state prison had he been convicted of the felony charge and enhancement.

According to Deputy District Attorney Mike Carney, the defendant discharged a pepper gun into the eyes of then-32-year-old Monique Hernandez on the night of Feb. 21, 2012, after he became “annoyed” with her because she wouldn’t comply with his commands to stop resisting arrest.

The woman’s corneas were shredded and her optic nerve irreparably damaged, according to trial testimony.

Carney said Clark was completely unjustified when he pulled the trigger on the JPX Jet Protector pepper spray gun, which discharges propellant at 400 miles per hour. The device was less than 10 inches from Hernandez’s face, and the contents penetrated her eyes, dispersing into her skull, according to the prosecutor.

He said the defendant lied to cover up his actions, telling investigators that he felt his life was threatened and he was “slipping off balance” while holding the gun, causing it to fire prematurely.

The defense blamed Clark’s superiors, inadequate training on the weapon’s use, unclear instructions on how to operate it and other factors for what transpired.

If he wasn’t an “only one,” in other words, if this were me or you, we’d be on the receiving end of felony charged, and we’d be convicted.

Be careful how you use this stuff if you have it.