National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 07-26-10

Here are the 16 reports of police misconduct recorded in our National Police Misconduct News Feed on Monday, July 26, 2010:

• The Hawthorn California city council will vote on a proposed $300,000 settlement in response to a lawsuit alleging that a police officer tasered a 12-year-old autistic boy at school. Not only that, but police came back to the school to handcuff and arrest the boy almost a week later after the family filed a complaint about the incident. It is very rare for such a vote to go against a settlement recommendation.

• Seminole County Oklahoma sheriff’s deputies are the subject of a lawsuit on allegations that they subjected a woman to a strip search shortly after she was arrested by a Wewoka OK police officer later fired for mistreating female suspects, and then strip searched her again when they called her back to the jail a few days after her release on a misdemeanor driving under the influence of drugs charge… drugs that were prescribed to her by her doctor.

• Three Pittsburg California police officers were found to have used excessive force by a federal jury that awarded a man $250,000 in damages, plus attorney fees and punitive damages, when all three officers tasered the man at the same time, causing him to break his eye socket when he struck the ground, where he was tasered once more by one of the officers. The city has already announced that they intend to appeal.

• Spokane Washington police are being sued by the family of a suicidal man who jumped to his death from a bridge after a 20 hour long standoff with police when two taser attempts failed to incapacitate him when he stepped away from the ledge to urinate. The suit also alleges that the police version of events was contradicted by video taken of the incident and that his family should have been consulted before the failed attempt.

• An Ocean City New Jersey police officer is accused of needlessly shooting a family’s 8-year-old pet Rottweiler who, a neighbor who witnessed the incident claims, had never shown any aggressive tendencies in her life. The dog’s owners say that the officer shot the dog twice while it was in their yard and that the officer risked shooting family members who were near the dog when the shooting occurred. The officer was responding to a call about a fight down the street with his K9 partner, the shooting scattered the group and nobody was arrested. The dog is expected to live, a bullet grazed her face and another shattered a bone in her leg.

• The police chief of Frankfort New York has retired and one of his officers has been fired after a series of allegations against the chief that included an incident where he was accused of choking one of his own officers because he refused to change his planned testimony in an upcoming civil suit against the chief. The officer was also facing several allegations of misconduct including allegations that he attempted to acquire the phone records of the officer who the chief was accused of choking.

• A Lee County Florida deputy is now the subject of an internal investigation over his failure to follow orders when he apparently failed to stand down during a high-speed chase that resulted in his unmarked SUV fatally crashing into an innocent motorist at 84mph in a 45mph zone. The deputy in question has been involved in seven on-duty accidents in his 11-year career with the department, two of which resulted in reprimands and one involved another pursuit where he apparently wasn’t using his emergency lights or siren. Departmental policy prohibits the use of unmarked units in high-speed pursuits except in dire circumstances where armed and dangerous suspects present an immediate threat to the public.

• Mount Vernon New York has settled a lawsuit for $35,000 to a man who alleged that police used physical force and harassment during his interrogation in an attempt to elicit a false confession from him for a murder that he didn’t commit. Police never charged him with anything and eventually convicted another man for the crime.

• As part of the same article as the piece above, Yonkers New York has settled a lawsuit for $10,000 to a man who claims officers beat him when they took him to the city jail. Part of the incident was captured on jail cameras which showed one officer grab the handcuffed man by the throat and shake his head back and forth.

• The former sheriff of Montague County, who died almost two months after he pled guilty to using his authority to force a man’s girlfriend to have sex with him, is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by three women who claim they were sexually assaulted and harassed by him.

• A Danville Virginia police officer has been charged with contempt of court for failing to appear as a witness in the reckless driving trial of a Henry County deputy who allegedly caused a fatal head-on collision with a car driven by a 21-year-old man when he crossed the center line of the road.

• The Delaware Ohio police department is conducting an internal investigation to determine why the daughter of a police officer wasn’t given a field sobriety test after she crashed into two parked cars and her own mother called 911 reporting that her daughter had been drinking and was involved in an accident… not only that but the the owner of one of the cars told police that the woman even admitted to had been drinking with some friends on her Facebook page. The woman was charged with failure to control and paid a $130 fine.

• The now-retired sheriff of Cuyahoga County Ohio has been sentenced to one year of home confinement and will have to pay $21,000 in fines as well as $130,000 in restitution after he plead guilty to stealing cash from his campaign fund, forcing his officers to work for his fundraisers while on-duty, and for breaking ethics laws when he appointed his son as a special deputy. He was the longest serving sheriff in that county’s history with nearly 30 years in office.

• A Los Angeles California police officer won a $700,000 jury trial judgment on allegations that he was subjected to discrimination and sexual harassment that was based on false allegations by his fellow officers that he was gay and that, when he attempted to report the abuse, his badge was taken away.

• The Nazareth Pennsylvania police department is being sued by a female Puerto Rican officer who alleges that she suffered both sexual harassment and racial discrimination during her time there. The suit names the former chief, current chief, and a police detective as defendants.

• The Hobbs New Mexico police department is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a former officer who claims that he was wrongfully forced to resign after his supervisors found out he was dating white women because he’s black. The department counters that the officer was fired being “disrespectful and drunk” while off-duty at a movie theater and other allegations involving reckless operation of his police cruiser. Either way, there’s some sort of misconduct involved I suppose.

That’s it for this Monday, as always, stay safe out there!