National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 03-31-10

I know, I said I’m doing away with these daily news reviews due to lack of interest and because it’s redundant to put them on the feed then re-post them here… but I figured I would do one more to round out the month before I put a stop to it.

So, here are the 19 reports of police misconduct that were tracked by our National Police Misconduct News Feed on March 31, 2010…

2 Martinsville Indiana police officers have been suspended with pay while under investigation on allegations that they tasered a 10 year old boy and slapped him in the face when they were called to help control him while he was throwing a tantrum at a day care facility. Apparently the boy has a known history of tantrums but, seriously, two grown men should have been able to physically restrain him without shocking and slapping him into compliance. The chief also appears to think that there were probably better ways for the officers to have handled the situation… especially since even the manufacturer of the taser recommends against using it on kids that young.

In a surprisingly biased article from The Herald News that seems to have been written by a cop instead of a journalist, 3 Joliet Illinois police officers are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a man claiming they beat him during traffic stop after searching him. He was a passenger in a car stopped for unspecified reasons and was charged with resisting, obstruction, and assaulting an officer, those charges were later dismissed in court though.

A Baton Rouge Louisiana police officer was arrested for domestic battery after an investigation into a February incident that left his wife with eye injuries. She called 911 to report the attack and was treated at the hospital, as was her husband who suffered bite injuries in the incident. The officer is currently on desk duty.

Several Tulsa Oklahoma police officers were the subject of a complaint filed by a man who was later found dead of undetermined causes a few days after the incident. The man posted a copy of the complaint on his blog where he claims the officers roughly tried to place him in a cruiser, but after they couldn’t because of his size, they then dragged him across the pavement on his stomach and punched him in the crotch several times. Afterward they ridiculed him for his weight and for his sexual orientation. He wasn’t charged but was taken to the hospital for treatment. He was found dead in an acquaintance’s apartment and an autopsy is pending.

Also in Tulsa Oklahoma, a federal prosecutor has alleged that a Tulsa police officer and an ATF agent lied about a drug bust and paid an informant to fake a drug buy in a case that sent a man and his daughter to prison. The ATF agent has since left his job but the Tulsa officer is still on duty and no charges have been filed yet. In the meantime, the man and his daughter have been freed from prison and a wider ranging corruption investigation into the Tulsa police department is ongoing.

And yet again in Tulsa Oklahoma, a Tulsa Community College police officer (yes, many college cops are sworn officers) has been accused of pulling a gun on a group of skateboarders in a videotaped incident where one of the skateboarders was thrown to the ground and arrested because he didn’t have an ID with him at the time. The incident is apparently under investigation.
6 Fort Worth Texas police officers are under investigation and one has resigned over allegations that they altered citations in order to fraudulently take advantage of state funds that pay of overtime during state-sponsored ticketing drives for things like “click it or ticket”. The department has suspended participation in these state programs and thousands of tickets are being reviewed in the case.

A Houston County Georgia deputy faces charges for allegedly warning a friend that there was a warrant out for his arrest on probation violations and helping him flee the state to avoid arrest by giving him cash. He has been suspended without pay and may be fired over the incident.

A Rogers County Oklahoma deputy was arrested for pawning unspecified property that belonged to the sheriff’s department. No word on what the property was or if it was property given to him or that he had stolen from the department.

23 Lincoln Nebraska police officers and 5 police sergeants are facing suspensions of up to 10 days in length for watching videos and sports events while on-duty at a police substation in that city. I’m sure the taxpayers were happy to pay for movie fun time for their public servants.

The NYPD has settled a suit for $40,000 to two people for asserting their rights by complaining about officers who were cutting locks off bikes and confiscating them because they were locked to lightposts and for arresting the other person for filming the incident. The city says the total cost after lawyer and legal fees will be almost double that at $72,000.

A San Antonio Texas police officer is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that he was texting while speeding when he caused an accident that killed one woman and left another injured. sued for allegedly texting while speeding in crash that killed one and left another injured.

A Harlingen Texas police officer has been indicted for telling a teenage girl that he needed to search her family’s apartment for drugs while she was home alone as a rouse to molest her. We actually reported on this last year when he was fired over the incident, but it apparently took this long to actually get a criminal indictment against him.

The city of Dumfries Virginia has hired a former cop to investigate a number of unspecified allegations of misconduct while a second officer hired by the city is already running an investigation into a separate set of unspecified allegations. A few weeks ago the police chief and an officer working in the Internet Crimes Against Children division were both suspended with pay for unknown reasons. It seems to me that all these secrets would be more scary to the residents in that town than would be an open explanation of what was happening there. Corruption loves the darkness of secrecy though.

The police chief of the Frankfort New York police department is facing a lawsuit filed by one of his own officers who alleges that the chief choked him over the hood of a police cruiser because he refused to change his testimony in another case against the chief. The chief is facing a number of other suits over his allegedly violent tendencies including one by the local coroner for assaulting him when he tried to investigate a suspicious death that the chief told him he didn’t need to investigate.

A Newark New Jersey police officer was returned to duty from his paid leave despite being charged with stealing drugs from drug dealers and paying money to have sex with minors and lying about it. The city claims he was returned to duty because it was costing them too much to keep him on paid vacation while also paying other cops overtime to cover for his absence. To which most readers seem to suggest it would be better to suspend him without pay and then sort it out later… but the police union would never allow that.

A Providence Rhode Island police sergeant has been suspended while he’s the subject of an investigation into timesheet fraud. He’s the fifth police sergeant to be suspended for alleged cheating on his time sheet so far.

An East Orange New Jersey police officer has been arrested on charges of theft by deception, arson & insurance fraud after he was investigated on allegations that he torched his own car to scam some insurance money.

Finally, a California Highway Patrol officer was accused of assaulting NFL player that he arrested for DUI and assault on an officer. The charges against the athlete were dropped as media outlets are now delving into the trooper’s past which apparently includes a DUI arrest of his own.

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