Injustice Everywhere

Sorry this one is a bit late, I had a pretty hectic day yesterday and sort of fell asleep while working on the daily report last night/this morning.

Also, while I was able to finally pay our phone bill, we have other bills I’m nowhere near close to being able to pay and I’m worried I might have to shut down for a while if I can’t pay and service gets cut. While we’re looking through our things for more stuff we can sell, please consider donating if you haven’t already. Thanks!

Anyway, here are the 19 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for Tuesday, September 7, 2010:

• Arvada Colorado has settled a lawsuit for $100,000 to a family who claimed that police illegally entered their home over a noise complaint and, when asked to leave, they began beating and tasering a teenage family member because he asked for badge numbers (some of that was caught on video), punched a female family member in the face, and then arrested all of them on false charges as an attempt to cover all of it up. The judge who dismissed the charges against them had some angry words for the officers involved, rebuking one cop who tried to justify the illegal warrantless entry as a “preemptive strike by responding that it might work on international politics, but it’s illegal for the Arvada Police. It should be noted that only one officer involved in this case was also involved in another excessive force case that resulted in four officers resigning from that department recently. [4]

• Four Melrose Park Illinois police officers have been named in a lawsuit alleging that the officers repeatedly tasered and assaulted two teenagers while they falsely arrested five people while responding to the scene of a fight that none of those who were arrested were involved with. [4]

• The University of Florida has reached a settlement deal with a disabled grad student who was shot in the face by police when they confronted him while he was delusional in his room. The settlement was for an unspecified amount that lawyers say will allow him to receive additional surgery to repair the damage and finish his graduate studies. The supervising officer was fired for deploying a tactical response team to deal with the student instead of a team trained for dealing with those having psychological problems. [1]

• An Emmett Idaho police officer and her roommate have been charged with two counts of felony injury to a child after the roommate’s 3-year-old got the officer’s gun that was unsecured and fired a round that injured him, a 2-year-old child, and the roommate. [1]

• A Prince George’s County Maryland police officer was arrested on assault charges after he was accused of putting his gun in a tow truck driver’s face and threatening him while off duty in an argument over a towed car. [0]

• An Orlando Florida police officer who made national news when he groped a lactating mother’s breast and milked her while wearing a rubber glove has taken a plea deal that resulted in a sentence of time served and the loss of his law enforcement certification. [0]

• A Pittston Pennsylvania police officer has been sentenced to 1-2 years in prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman and taking explicit pictures of her while he did it. [0]

• The Seminole County Florida sheriff’s office is being sued by an innocent woman who was strip-searched, deloused and jailed for 24 hours on a warrant made out for another woman who apparently stole this woman’s identity. All this was apparently after officers already realized their mistake. [4]

• The New York NY police deputy chief who is the subject of a suit filed by an officer who says he was forcibly put in a mental hospital when he tried to go public with allegations that the department was fudging crime statistics is now facing a 30 day suspension himself over a 2007 investigation for abusing steroids. [1]

• A Marion County South Carolina deputy has resigned after being arrested on a domestic violence charge for hitting his wife with a computer monitor that he threw. [0]

• The Rutherford County Tennessee sheriff is the subject of two lawsuits that may turn into a class-action case for illegally detaining suspected immigrants well beyond the time he was allowed to detain them on an immigration hold. [2]

• A Los Angeles County California deputy is suing the sheriff’s office on allegations that he was retaliated against for refusing to remove details about Mel Gibson’s racially-charged rant from his report when he was arrested on drunk driving charges. [1]

• A Knott County Kentucky constable was arrested on two drug trafficking charges after he was caught in a sting selling hydrocodone to undercover cops. [0]

• An Indiana State trooper who resigned during a probe into missing checks is now facing a suit to freeze his bank account under allegations that he embezzled $89,000 in taxpayer funds. [0]

• The police chief of Amsterdam New York has hired a former Schenectady police officer who resigned under threat of termination for his role in an excessive force case where he was caught on video kicking a suspect. The chief says he wanted to give him a second chance. [0]

• A Bernalillo New Mexico police officer is accused of putting an undercover Rio Rancho police officer in an arm bar and throwing him out of a wine festival after that undercover cop called for backup while he tried to stop a domestic violence incident. [3]

• A Bosque Farms New Mexico police officer has been sentenced to time served and probation for attempted human smuggling when he tried to bring a woman across the US/Mexico border using that woman’s sister’s ID. [0]

• And finally, a Billings Montana police officer has received a deferred sentence in a plea deal to a disorderly conduct charge for exposing himself and then urinating on a crowd during a concert. [0]

That’s it for today, stay safe out there.

As I figured, it would be a slow news cycle on this Labor Day, but it did give me a chance to finish up a bit of research I’ve been wanting to do all week about Denver Colorado’s excessive force rate as a counter to that city’s police chief’s claims that they didn’t have any problems with officer behavior in Denver in spite of a string of reports last month. So a few slow days was a good thing in a way.

Also, I hate to mention it but we do have some bills coming due this week for our internet access and other necessities and, unfortunately, this site is still our sole source of income as I continue to struggle to find work. So, if possible, please consider donating to help us keep this project going if you haven’t donated already.

Anyway, with all that said, here are the 7 reports of police misconduct that we tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Labor Day holiday Monday, September 6, 2010:

• Five Sandusky Ohio police officers are the subject of an investigation over complaints of excessive force after the officers were accused of hitting one woman in the face with a flashlight and pepperspraying an entire crowd of people who just got off of a Lake Erie cruise boat. One of the nine people the officers arrested in that incident was pregnant and officers were also accused of ignoring that fact when she was peppersprayed and arrested. [1]

• An Orlando Florida police officer is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a resident of an exclusive high-rise who was shown on surveillance video being thrown against the wall of an elevated while cuffed when he was arrested over a dispute he had with the building’s security guard. While the officer claimed he was resisting as justification for going hands-on, the video appears to contradict that claim, even though the use of force doesn’t seem too severe. [2]

• The town of Las Vegas New Mexico has settled a lawsuit for $31,000 to a woman who claims that an officer abused her in custody, leaving her bruised from the mistreatment. The officer who was the subject of the suit claims he is planning to file suit against the town for releasing information about the investigation into the incident. [0]

• The Jonesboro Arkansas police have reached an agreement with a man who was arrested after he called a police officer a nazi while he videotaped a traffic stop outside of his home. The agreement dropped the charges against him in exchange for him agreeing not to file suit against the police for illegally entering his garage and arresting him on false charges. The incident, of course, was captured on video which went viral after being released. [3]

• A Pinellas County Florida sheriff’s department child protection investigator has been arrested on “simple dating violence battery” charges after she allegedly punched someone in the face she was dating. That victim apparently didn’t want to press charges against her but, during the investigation, police claim they identified a second victim. [2]

• A Lakeland Florida police officer was arrested on a domestic violence charge on allegations that she assaulted her estranged husband who came to pick up a car per  cop arrested on domestic violence charge for allegedly assaulting her estranged husband when he tried to take a vehicle that was on her property and she didn’t want him to have it. [1]

• A Honolulu Hawaii police officer who is already facing trial on allegations that he hit a pedestrian with his car while drunk is now facing additional charges after he was spotted driving on his now-suspended license on at least two occasions. [0]

That’s it for today, stay safe out there.

Since I’m still unemployed, unfortunately, I lost track of when the typical non-working holidays occurred and neglected to remember that this was Labor Day weekend. As long-time followers know, weekends are slow news cycles not because police don’t commit acts of misconduct on weekends, but because news outlets don’t do much new reporting over weekends… and they do even less over holiday weekends.

So, with that in mind, here are the 8 reports of police misconduct tracked in the National Police Misconduct News Feed for this weekend, September 4-5, 2010

• Wake County North Carolina officials may be reviewing their use of force policies for police officers stationed at public schools after a school resource officer tasered an 8th grade girl while trying to break up a fight between the girl and a younger boy. Officials said at the time that any use of force that is permissible for use against an adult is also permitted for use against a child, no matter how young. [1]

• A Gretna Florida police officer has been arrested on a sexual battery by a custodian charge on allegations that he raped a woman at the Gretna police station after arresting her during a traffic stop over a suspended license and then offering her an out if she had sex with him. [0]

• A Maine State trooper has been placed on paid leave while he is under investigation on allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman, who wasn’t charged with any crime, while he transported her to a homeless shelter while he was on-duty. [1]

• A now-former Albuquerque New Mexico police detective with a history of giving false testimony including one case that settled involving a wrongfully convicted man is now being sued by another man claiming that the officer lied under oath when he reported that he heard that man confess to harming his child and then recanted that testimony during a later hearing since, according to the man filing the suit, no such confession ever occurred. [2]

• The police chief of Frazee Minnesota is on paid leave while investigated on allegations that he stalked and harassed a woman for months, even going so far to have officers stop her on false pretenses and issue her a ticket. [1]

• A Philadelphia Pennsylvania police officer is under investigation after he recanted at the last minute prior to a preliminary hearing against a man that he had previously ID’d as the shooter in a murder case he claimed he witnessed while off-duty. The officer claims that he is no longer certain that he picked out the correct person in the photo line-up that was presented to him. [1]

• A Detroit Michigan police officer is the subject of an internal investigation after being arrested on a driving while intoxicated charge. [1]

• And finally, three Warren Michigan police officers are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they were negligent and violated the rights of an innocent couple who’s car was hit by a man who was fleeing police in a high-speed chase over the theft of a television set that started in Warren and ended in Detroit, well outside of the Warren Police Department’s jurisdiction. The couple claims this was an egregious case since the man they were chasing never presented a threat to them or the public, especially since he allegedly committed a non-violent offense. [2]

That’s it for this weekend, stay safe out there!

Since I was unable to scan for reports for extended periods of time today the number of reports for this Friday are lower than normal. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick the ones I missed up over the weekend.

With that in mind, here are the 15 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Friday, September 3, 2010:

• Seven Burkburnett Texas police officers are the subject of a federal civil rights pattern and practice lawsuit that was filed by four different people who joined their various excessive force and false arrest complaints into a single suit.

• A now-former Ravenna Nebraska police officer has been sentenced to 30-60 years in prison after convicted on five counts of 1st degree sexual assault and one count of sexual assault on a child involving a girl who was 15 when he began a sexual relationship with her that lasted about two years. This was the officer’s third trial in this case after the first two trials ended with hung juries. [0]

• A now-former Norwalk Connecticut police lieutenant has been sentenced to 30 days in jail in a plea deal for misdemeanor interfering with an investigation, coercion, and reckless endangerment charges related to allegations that he had sex with two 15-year-old boys and attempted to lure a third boy to his apartment in order to have sex. The deal came after the sexual assault case fell apart when questions about whether one of the boys was 16 at the time of the incident arose while another boy backed out of testifying, saying that he was worried about the effect it would have on his family. [1]

• Officials in Middletown Connecticut are allegedly reviewing their policies after two police officers tasered a 17-year-old student while attempting to arrest him on allegations that he stole a “Jamaican pattie” from the school cafeteria during lunch. [2]

• In an update to a story we covered yesterday, another Arvada Colorado police officer has resigned in association with an investigation into an alleged excessive force incident. This brings the total resignations associated with this case up to four officers with a fifth officer still on paid leave while under investigation. While officials are apparently refusing to release any specific details involving the case it appears as though only one of the officers engaged in excessive force but the others attempted to cover it up by failing to report it or even lying on their reports about the incident. Incidentally, two other officers have also resigned from the department recently as well but officials say those two were unrelated to this case, but refuse to say what those were about. [3]

• A Will County Illinois deputy has resigned while under investigation on allegations that sexually harassed a woman, forcibly kissing her on the mouth at one point, after she called police for help in handling problems she was having with her ex-husband. The same deputy faced similar allegations in 2007 when a woman who had shown him some apartments 15 days after he was hired complained that he attempted to kiss and grope her inside the woman’s office. No charges were filed and the sheriff refused to discipline the deputy since the conduct occurred while he was off-duty. [0]

• A Riverside County California deputy is on paid leave after being arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and spousal battery after an alleged brawl he had with a fellow deputy that left that man seriously injured with a broken jaw and several broken teeth. The spousal battery charge allegedly stems from the deputy shoving his own wife when she tried to intervene and stop the argument when it started becoming physical. [1]

• A Michigan State trooper is facing a felony assault and battery charge on allegations that he attacked a fellow trooper while both were on-duty attending a training session. No specifics about the incident have been released though. [1]

• The police chief of Quincy Illinois is accused of targeting a reporter after he wrote an article that was critical of how the police there handled a murder investigation. Public records requests appear to have yielded information that backs his claims in that the chief of police was recorded looking up DMV information on the reporter days before he was stopped for an alleged traffic violation and police radio traffic on that day appears to indicate that the officer who stopped and arrested him was actually waiting for him to get into his car and drive. [4]

• Police in Romeoville Illinois are accused of sexually harassing a former stripper who claims that officers asked her if her breasts were real when they arrested her on allegations that she made threats via text messages to someone. She further alleges that officers looked at nude pictures she had of herself on her cell phone and that she wants it back out of fear that those images might make their way onto the Internet. While the chief insists nobody looked at any images on her phone, she claims she heard the officers laugh and comment about the photos while she was being booked. [2]

• A Washington County Virginia deputy is on paid leave after a juvenile female relative filed assault and battery along with destruction of property charges against him saying that he ripped a bag that she had packed and threw her to the ground during a domestic dispute. The alleged incident is under investigation by the Department of Social Services while an internal investigation is also underway. [0]

• A Monroe County New York deputy who had previously lost a brother to a drunk driver has been charged with a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated himself after he allegedly sent his car airborne and crashed into a clump of trees while drunk, injuring a female passenger. [0]

• A Catoosa County Georgia deputy has been placed on paid leave after being arrested on drunk driving charges when he crashed into a utility pole while off-duty. [0]

• A New Brunswick New Jersey police officer has been charged with election law violations for voting in four general elections when he lived in a different town and on theft by deception charges on allegations that he defrauded an insurance company out of $500 by failing to report his divorce while continuing to list his former wife as his spouse for about two years. [0]

• And finally, a New Haven Connecticut police officer has turned himself in on a warrant for a 2nd degree harassment charge over allegations that he placed over 70 hang-up calls to a fellow officer’s cell phone over a period of several weeks. Officials are refusing to identify the alleged victim or give out any other details in the case. [1]

That’s all for today, stay safe out there!

Just a note before we head into the weekend when traffic to the site typically drops. We do rely on reader donations to survive at the moment, quite literally. So if you’re a new visitor to the site and would like to see this project continue please consider donating today. Thank you!

With that said, here are the 28 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for Thursday, September 2, 2010:

• In Federal Way Washington police claim that they were forced to open fire and fatally shoot a man suspected of stealing a car when he allegedly started to back the truck he was driving towards officers after a chase. However, a woman who witnessed the incident and videotaped it claims that the officers were never under threat when officers opened fire. [3]

• In Springfield Massachusetts an alleged victim of a videotaped beating has filed criminal charges against four of the officers who were involved by himself since the alleged investigation into the incident by the police has gone nowhere since the incident occurred last year. [4]

• A Fort Worth Texas police officer has been fired after he was apparently caught on video from a police helicopter performing a take-down maneuver on a woman who surrendered and was complying with orders after a brief chase. The officer then apparently began to punch and knee the woman while she was on the ground, giving her a bloody nose and breaking her teeth. [0]

• Three Arvada Colorado police officers have resigned and two others are on paid leave while under investigation for an alleged excessive force incident where one of the officers was accused of unnecessarily striking a suspect while the others witnessed it and either didn’t report it or lied about it. [2]

• A now-former Saint Louis County Missouri police officer is under investigation may face 3rd degree assault charges after he allegedly beat a detainee bad enough that the person had to be treated for injuries at the hospital. A spokesperson for the department says the incident happened last month and the officer retired afterward. [1]

• Two Sherwood Arkansas police officers were found to have used excessive force by a jury that awarded $190,000 in damages to a man who was thrown to the ground while cuffed and then tasered while one of the officers was on his back. [2]

• An Ogunquit Maine police officer and a Wells Maine police officer were both found to be negligent for injuries caused to a man they arrested by a jury that awarded $125,000 in damages to the victim who alleged that his knee sustained catastrophic damage when one of the officers repeatedly kicked his leg. However, the jury did not rule that this was a case of excessive force, which may limit the actual damages the man can receive to $10,000. [1]

• A now-former McDonald County Missouri deputy has pled guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child pornography charges involving at least two minors. He had also faced statutory rape and sodomy charges as well involving 15 and 16-year-old girls and witness tampering charges as well. The child pornography charges apparently stem from his taking sexually explicit photos of at least one of the girls as well. While the article states he was a former Noel Missouri police officer, he had been fired from that job and returned to be a McDonald County deputy when he was arrested. [0]

• A Minneapolis Minnesota police officer who worked as a school resource officer has been charged with four counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two women who are accusing him of molesting them when one was age 12 and the other since age 5. [1] (Update, apparently he’s accused of molesting 3 female relatives, one of the girls alleges the molestation started at age 5 and lasted for 13 years. He also allegedly admitted to it when confronted by family during a church meeting).

• A Detroit Michigan police officer is accused of panicking and firing her gun uncontrollably by a witness who watched as she fired 12 rounds at a pit bull that apparently escaped while animal control officers were trying to capture it. The officer hit the animal control officer with two of those shots instead, injuring his leg and buttocks. Two of the three pit bulls they intended to capture ended up getting away. [2]

• The police chief of Chillicothe Illinois has been arrested on domestic battery & trespass charges involving a woman he had relationship with who suffered injuries to her wrist when he allegedly slammed her arm in a door. [0]

• A Forsyth Georgia police officer was fired after an investigation into domestic violence allegations and he may still face criminal charges now that the internal investigation results have been forwarded to the district attorney. [1]

• An Eureka Springs Arkansas police reserve officer has been arrested for conspiracy to commit murder after he allegedly payed a man to kill his wife without knowing that man was an FBI agent. [0]

• The infamous sheriff of Maricopa County Arizona is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice over his apparent refusal to cooperate with a federal investigation into allegations of civil rights violations and discrimination. The county stands to lose several millions in federal funding because of that refusal since federal funding comes with a stipulation that departments must submit to any investigation by the DOJ. DOJ officials say he’s the first law enforcement official to refuse to cooperate with an investigation in the last 30 years. [4]

• A Wenona Illinois police officer received a fine and non-reporting probation for his plea deal that reduced a felony charge to misdemeanor official misconduct after he attempted to extort someone out of over $2,000 by threatening to arrest him for videotaping a discussion he had while on-duty if he didn’t pay up. [1]

• Philadelphia Pennsylvania police officers are accused of falsely arresting eight men on firearms charges even though they were legally carrying those weapons using special out-of-state permits. While the city is negotiating settlement officers with those men the police department is defending the arrests by claiming that officer safety trumps anyone else’s civil rights. [3]

• A Riviera Beach Florida police officer who used to be the president of the police union has been fired on allegations that he supplied gangs with information about where his fellow police officers lived when the gangs were allegedly upset with the police over recent crackdowns. [0]

• A now-former Atlanta Georgia police officer has pled guilty to federal corruption and drug charges for agreeing to protect people he believed were drug traffickers during drug deals while he was in uniform and in his marked patrol car in exchange for $2,000. However, the people he offered to protect were actually part of a federal sting operation. [0]

• Two Daytona Beach Florida police officers have been arrested  on felony criminal mischief charges after they were allegedly seen breaking into and damaging a woman’s home while she was away without a warrant or cause. Apparently the officers went to the home earlier in the day to look for the woman’s boyfriend who wasn’t there. But a neighbor says she saw them break into the woman’s home while she was out that night, where they busted a door, a window, and knocked holes in the walls without any apparent reason. [0]

• Two West Palm Beach Florida police officers were arrested on felony criminal mischief charges and may face attempted car theft charges after they were allegedly caught in a parking garage while off-duty damaging several cars in an apparent attempt to break into them. [0]

• A Milwaukee Wisconsin police officer who also worked as a state drug agent has been sentenced to three months of house arrest for stealing $1,100 during a drug investigation that ended up being a federal sting operation targeting suspected corrupt cops. [0]

• The Columbus Mississippi police department and the Lowndes County Mississippi sheriff’s office are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the owner of a bar who alleges that police continually harassed him and his business. The suit includes allegations that officers were spreading false rumors saying he was arrested for various crimes that he wasn’t arrested for and that officers dressed in riot gear entered his business one night alleging that they were there to raid an illegal bar upstairs that didn’t exist. [2]

• A Palos Verdes Estates California police officer has been charged with grand theft and embezzlement for allegedly stealing $19,000 from his own police union. [0]

• A Seattle Washington police officer with a long history of alleged misconduct incidents that include allegations that he pistol-whipped a man during a road rage incident, beat a homeless man so badly that he almost died in custody because his spleen had burst, and that he threw a woman against a wall after he hit her with his motorcycle in a crowded alley and then shot an attorney in the resulting melee has been convicted on a DUI charge where he was accused of trying to pressure the arresting trooper to reconsider arresting him because he was a police officer and should be afforded “professional courtesy”. There was no word on whether he’ll face any disciplinary action over the conviction. As a side note, he was represented by his sister who was only just recently reinstated after being disbarred for dishonesty. [2]

• A Waynesboro Georgia police officer has been placed on paid leave after being arrested for racing. Apparently the other truck he had been racing ended up rolling over and crashing in someone’s yard, injuring a 15-year-old kid who was inside the truck. [0]

• A Montgomery Alabama police officer was arrested on a reckless driving charge after leading police on a high-speed motorcycle chase at speeds apparently exceeding 115mph. [0]

• And finally, via our @InjusticeNews2 detainee and prisoner rights feed is a really odd twist to a story we covered previously involving the now-former King County Washington deputy Paul Schene who was fired after caught on video beating a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell. Apparently, even though two different juries couldn’t agree to convict him for that incident, his own police union is now refusing to represent him in his fight to win his job back after he was fired for lying about that incident. While this incredibly rare, and I mean really really rare, turn of events means that he cannot use an arbitrator to force the county to rehire him, he can still attempt to file a lawsuit to appeal his firing. While this update doesn’t qualify as a new entry in our database, it is still an interesting development to note in the ongoing Paul Schene saga.

That’s it for today, stay safe out there!

Here are the 28 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Wednesday, the first of September, 2010:

• A Boise Idaho police officer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in an apparent plea deal to a single charge sexual battery of a child despite his confessing to sexually assaulting at least 13 children, many,if not all, of them infants and toddlers and prosecutors say they suspect he may have molested at least 20 children. The officer served as a school resource officer at several different area schools before he confessed to a fellow officer who urged him to turn himself in but kept quiet until the officer finally confessed after he retired. The 58-year-old officer will be eligible for parole in 12.5 years. [0]

• A Kershaw County Florida deputy has been fired for his role in a videotaped beating with a metal baton by another deputy which left a handcuffed detainee with a broken leg. The deputy shown beating the detainee was fired shortly after the video made it out to the public but, while officials refuse to specify which deputy this recently fired officer was, it’s suspected that he was the deputy shown on the video shoving the detainee back towards the deputy that was attacking him when he tried to get away from the deputy that was assailing him. [1]

• A Corpus Christi Texas police officer was placed on paid leave on Friday after being accused of fondling an underage girl and is now the subject of similar allegations by another woman who says he molested her at school when she was in 6th grade 8 years ago. [1]

• The sheriff of Spokane County Washington is the subject of heavy criticism after promising a swift and extensive investigation into a fatal officer-involved shooting incident that left a well-liked pastor dead but then allowing the deputy who shot the pastor to go on vacation out of the area a day after the shooting without questioning the deputy first. [3]

• An Emmett Idaho police officer has been suspended with pay pending the results of an investigation into how her roomate’s 3-year-old child fired the officer’s weapon, injuring himself, another 2-year-old child, and the children’s mother. Authorities caught criticism for keeping details about the incident a secret since early last month. [3]

• A San Antonio Texas police officer has been arrested on a charge of official oppression on allegations that he groped a woman during a traffic stop. [0]

• A Kermit Texas police officer received probation in a plea deal for his official oppression charge for groping an employee at a donut shop and then committing an unspecified lewd act in the shop’s restroom. Officials have refused to provide any specifics about what happened or if it involved any donuts. [1]

• A New Orleans Louisiana police officer received a suspended sentence and was fined $12,000 (the cost of a police dog) in exchange for his plea to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge for leaving his K9 partner in a locked in a hot car until it died from heat exhaustion. [0]

• An Indiana State Trooper has been charged with official oppression and two counts of battery after an investigation into an unspecified incident. Officials refuse to elaborate. (Update: It appears as though he’s accused of groping a 19-year-old woman during a traffic stop). [2]

• A Lynn Massachusetts police officer has been indicted on assault and intimidation of a witness charges while his girlfriend has also been charged with two counts of intimidating a witness as well. While officials refuse to elaborate on what the charges are about, yet again, the alleged victim apparently told one news source that it involved a road rage incident. [2]

• A Doraville Georgia police captain has resigned after an investigation into unspecified allegations. While, again, officials refuse to divulge what the investigation was about, the officer was hired shortly after he resigned as a state trooper in 2001 in an incident involving sex in a public restroom. [4]

• A Washtenaw County Michigan deputy has agreed to a plea deal on a reduced disorderly person charge for exposing himself to a massage therapist and asking for sex while fondling himself and offering her “a tip”. Apparently this massage therapist wasn’t that kind of “therapist”. [0]

• A Port Allen Louisiana police chief and the mayor were both indicted on a number of federal racketeering charges involving bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud, ticket fixing, providing confidential police information and other RICO Act violations.   [0]

• A New Jersey State trooper has been arrested on allegations that she assaulted a Berlin New Jersey police officer who responded to a domestic dispute call at the trooper’s home. The trooper, incidentally, is the plaintiff of a lawsuit she filed against her supervisor alleging sexual harassment and discrimination. [1]

• A Detroit Michigan police officer is facing a number of felony charges for his role in an embezzlement scheme involving school funds. From what I can gather, the officer grabbed about $95,000 in funds. [0]

• A South Gate California police K9 officer is on paid leave after being arrested on suspicion of soliciting an act of prostitution. [1]

• A Las Vegas Nevada police officer has been convicted on a misdemeanor imitation firearm charge regarding an incident where she was caught on video shooting a bb gun at her neighbor’s surveillance camera and then repeatedly lying about it even though she was caught on video. The judge in this case called the officer’s testimony “laughable” and entirely unbelievable. The officer was exonerated during an internal investigation into the incident but the department claims that they are reopening that investigation in light of the conviction. [2]

• A Statesville North Carolina police officer has been convicted of larceny for stealing weight bench outside of a Salvation Army donation site while he was on-duty, putting it into the trunk of his police cruiser. The officer claimed as his defense that the bench was close to a trash bin so he assumed it was just garbage. [0]

• A Texas DPS trooper was among three people arrested on conspiracy to produce illegal identification charges on allegations that they were selling fraudulent identification to illegal immigrants at $3,000 a pop. [0]

• An Alachua County Florida deputy has been indicted on federal charges for soliciting and accepting bribes in addition to four counts of unlawful access to police databases. [0]

• A Bridgeport Connecticut police detective has been arrested on insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit arson charges for having her car torched in order to get insurance money. [0]

• A Bridgewater Massachusetts police officer is accused of dumping stolen political signs that voiced opposition to a tax hike meant to save about a dozen police jobs at a cost of $400 per year for each taxpayer. The ballot measure passed and, according to how the article read, the police department appeared rather reluctant to investigation the allegations for some reason. [4]

• A Flathead County Montana sheriff’s corporal received a ticket for driving under the influence and was allowed to go on his way after he was accused of hitting a homeless man with his truck. The Sheriff’s office spokesperson says the incident is under investigation because they aren’t sure if the transient who was hospitalized after allegedly struck was actually hit by the truck or had just passed out from being drunk. Hmmm… Really? [1]

• A Seneca County New York deputy has been arrested for driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly ran a stop sign and crashed into a ditch then fled the scene. [0]

• The soon-to-be former police chief of Bastrop Texas will be allowed to hold off his resignation until the end of October so that he can retire with full benefits after his second arrest on drunk driving charges. [1]

• The town of Boynton Oklahoma is the subject of an investigation on allegations that the town’s government has violated state open meeting laws, practiced nepotism by allowing council members to hire relatives on a newly formed police department, and for allowing that police department to issue traffic tickets in excess of the amount allowed by law for a municipality that does not have an official judge. In other words, it looks like that town is under investigation for establishing a police force designed to do nothing more than issue tickets without any due process as a source of revenue and then hiding that fact from the public. [5]

• The Albany New York police department is being sued by the NYCLU after that department refused to release their policy regarding the use of tasers to a public records request. That department is one of only two departments that refused to release such records, the other department lost a civil suit filed over their refusal. [4]

• And finally, if you noticed an increase in the number of reports where officials refuse to elaborate on the allegations of misconduct involving their police officers you can thank law enforcement agencies like those in the state of Virginia who are aggressively, and apparently successfully, lobbying against efforts to keep records about police misconduct open to public records requests. Is it misconduct? Well, consider this, how can the public be certain that police are held accountable when there is no real transparency? [5]

That’s it for today’s reports, until next time, stay safe out there!