National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 07-20-10

I know, I was supposed to take my entire birthday off and relax, but the day just got progressively more depressing as it went on that I decided I might as well just work on getting the news feed caught up. I figured if I was going to be depressed anyway, might as well deal with all the depressing reports out there while I was at it.

So, here are the 31 police misconduct reports captured in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for Monday and Tuesday, July 19 and 20, 2010:

• Five Tulsa Oklahoma police officers have been indicted as part of a federal probe into police corruption within that police department. One of the officers faces 58 counts including perjury, conspiracy to distribute drugs, and witness tampering. In addition to the drug trafficking charges and charges that they threatened a federal agent, most of the charges deal with allegations of drug plants used to justify false arrests and cases are still being reviewed after 11 people have been freed so far. Officials say the lengthy investigation is still ongoing and more charges may be forthcoming.

• Montgomery County Maryland police are accused of using excessive force and unlawful entry when they allegedly bursted into the home of a 65-year-old woman and broke her arm while they were serving a warrant for her son over a misdemeanor charge. The woman also alleges that when she went to the police station to complain that the officer there gave her a flier and told her to send her complaint in the mail.

• A Brooklyn Illinois police officer is under investigation and may face criminal charges after he allegedly assaulted a handcuffed detainee. The department is refusing to release any more details about the incident but claims that they are merely gathering information to hand over to an outside agency that will perform a formal investigation.

• A Concord New Hampshire police officer was sentenced to spend 45 days of a year-long suspended sentence in jail for assaulting a woman during arrest and then warning her to not report an incident where he groped her and another woman outside of a bar the previous year.

• An unspecified number of Prince George’s County Maryland police commanders have now been included in the investigation into the videotaped beating of a college student while University of Maryland celebrated their basketball team’s victory in the streets. The investigation is now looking into the possibility that commanders had attempted to cover up the incident.

• A Caro Michigan police officer is the subject of a lawsuit alleging excessive force and false arrest for using pepperspray on the family of a man wanted on domestic violence charges then arresting the man’s father after walking the man out of his home while in a choke hold for touching the officer’s arm. The suit also alleges the officer refused to show them the warrant he was allegedly serving. The man’s father was later acquitted of resisting arrest and obstruction in that case.

• A Saline County Illinois chief deputy was arrested on four official misconduct charges and four criminal sexual assault charges on unspecified charges involving a 17-year-old girl. Officials are hinting that more charges may yet be filed.

• The Grand Junction Colorado police department is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims that one of their police officers had raped her and that the department was responsible due to lax discipline. The officer in question committed suicide shortly after he was fired and arrested on sexual assault charges over the incident.

• A Maryland State Department of Natural Resources police officer has been suspended without pay after arrested on 13 counts of sexual abuse, indecent assault, and corruption of a minor involving a 13-year-old girl from Pennsylvania. Maryland DNR police are sworn officers.

• A now-former and now-convicted Marysville Pennsylvania police officer who is already in the pen for 10-26 years for molesting and attempting to solicit sex from 15 juveniles is back in court yet again on allegations that he had a sexual relationship with yet another teen girl while he was a cop and that he attempted to coerce the girl into lying on the stand during the trial that convicted him.

• A Dallas Texas police officer was arrested on child pornography charges after he was caught up in a sting operation allegedly attempting to solicit sex with a 12-year-old. The charges so far only indicate that he possessed child pornography and made it available to others.

• A Maryland State Trooper has been suspended without pay after he was arrested on possession of child pornography charges when over 3,000 alleged images of child porn were found on his computer. Police are asking if anyone had been in contact with the officer online through his email accounts; “poledeepin@aol.com” or “longpolein@aol.com”, that they contact the Baltimore police.

• A now-retired Illinois State Trooper has been arraigned on felony child pornography and official misconduct charges after he was nabbed by federal agents as part of an investigation into a child porn distribution ring. He’s accused of surfing child porn since at least 2003, using his department-issued laptop to do so prior to his retirement. He apparently admitted to it, saying he started doing it because he was bored and continued to do it until his retirement in March of this year.

• A Central Point Oregon police officer has been fired and may face criminal charges over his relationship with his now-pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend who used to go to the school where he worked as a school resource officer. While the officer insists the pair didn’t have sex until she was 18 and graduated, he did admit that the relationship had developed since they met when she was in the 4th grade and attended his DARE class.

• A Milwaukee Wisconsin police officer was suspended after arrested on allegations that he pulled a gun on several people in an SUV and threatened to shoot one of them in the head during an apparent case of drunken road rage.

• A New York NY police officer has been charged with assault, reckless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. He and his partner were apparently caught on surveillance camera hitting a bicyclist then getting out of their police cruiser, dragging him to a curb, then handing him a tissue before they left the scene without even calling an ambulance or reporting the incident. The cyclist suffered a fractured wrist along with several cuts and bruises. Both officers were suspended without pay.

• Two Bloomfield New Jersey police officers are under investigation after they had a fight in the police station parking lot that sent one of the pair into the hospital. The fight apparently began when one of the officers hit the other officer’s cruiser with a trash can. However, the police chief says the results of the investigation and any disciplinary action will be kept secret.

• An East Kingston New Hampshire police officer was arrested along with a friend after the pair were stopped in their truck and caught with blood on their shoes in the aftermath of an off-duty fight where the pair allegedly beat a man unconscious then repeated kicked him in the head while he laid in a pool of his own blood.

• A Leighton Alabama police officer was arrested on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence, reckless endangerment, and illegal possession of prescription medication after he allegedly fired a gun inside his apartment while having an argument with his girlfriend.

• A Tulsa Oklahoma police officer who is currently part of a federal corruption case against several officers was arrested on domestic violence charges after he was accused of yanking his girlfriend into his car when she tried to leave during an argument and then repeatedly bashing her head into the dashboard. He was then accused of injuring her again when he shoved her out of the car once they arrived at her apartment.

• A now-former Southport North Carolina police officer has been indicted on obstruction, misdemeanor larceny, destruction of evidence, and embezzlement charges on allegations that he stole money while performing a search of a suspected crack dealer’s home. The officer resigned while he was under investigation over the incident.

• A San Antonio Texas police officer is under investigation after a local news station received photographs that appear to show him sleeping in his police cruiser. The person who took the photos says the officer sat parked near his home with his car running for at least 30 minutes and didn’t even flinch while he stood next to the officers door taking photos. While a case like this usually wouldn’t be serious enough to add to the database, the person who took the photos has a point when he says that the officer put himself at risk by doing that and that anyone could have walked up on him.

• A Stoughton Massachusetts police officer resigned while facing disciplinary action for leaving his patrol so that he could meet the “world’s smallest porn star” at a strip club while he was on-duty during a graveyard shift.

• A Dallas County Texas sheriff’s lieutenant has been fired after an internal investigation found that he was using surveillance cameras to watch female detainees shower at the jail. The sworn officer, aside from being an 18-year veteran, was also the instructor for a sheriff’s academy training course called “Ethics in a Correctional Setting”.

• A Baltimore Maryland police officer is under investigation after a woman complained that the officer offered to get rid of her traffic ticket if she performed a sexual act for him during a traffic stop.

• The Orange County Florida sheriff’s major who leaked details about a questionable kidnapping charge against a teenage boy who claimed he was trying to help a 3-year-old girl find her mom in a store was demoted. He apparently gave his daughter details about the case so she could post a comment to defend the sheriff’s department’s actions in that case in a newspaper comment thread, a comment that he allegedly proof-read before she posted it.

• The Norwich Connecticut police department is refusing to disclose why a police officer who was suspended for 45 days in January for misusing a police database and other misconduct related to that incident is still on unpaid leave.

• A North Carolina State Highway Patrol sergeant is on desk duty while she’s the subject of a criminal investigation into unspecified misconduct allegations.

• A Hailey Idaho police officer has resigned after he was stopped by police and issued a misdemeanor driving under the influence citation, but not arrested.

• Clarksville Tennessee has settled a lawsuit for $117,900 with two soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell who were injured when their SUV was struck by a police cruiser that ran a red light while taking part in a high speed pursuit of robbery suspects. Apparently, while Tennessee state law allows police to run red lights while in pursuit, they must slow down first and assure that they drive with due regard for public safety.

• Baltimore Maryland police officer Salvatore “Dude” Rivieri of 2007 YouTube fame where he was caught on video throwing around a 14-year-old skateboarder and berating the boy for calling him dude in an angry rant has been cleared of all but one minor administrative charge by a 3-member (fellow officers) disciplinary panel for failing to give the kid a “citizen contact receipt” after a 3-year-long internal investigation into the incident that the police used as an excuse to implement policies that kept the identity of officers accused of misconduct a secret from the public.

That’s it for these last two days, stay safe out there.