National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 07-29-10

Here are the 23 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for Thursday, July 29, 2010:

• Two more New Orleans Louisiana police officers have been indicted in relation to a post-Katrina fatality, bringing the total of Katrina-related police indictments to 18 so far. This time one officer is accused of beating a man to death in the aftermath of that storm and the other officer is facing obstruction charges for helping that officer cover up the incident.

• A Chambersburg Pennsylvania police officer is, maybe, under investigation after a woman filed a complaint claiming that when she told a bicycle cop in her neighborhood that she saw a police officer almost hit a pedestrian while speeding down her road without lights or siren that the officer she complained about came to her home and began to yell at her and told her to mind her own business. After she yelled back and went into her home she claims the officer went in after her, dragged her out, then threatened her and a friend with a taser before cuffing her and arresting her on a public intoxication charge. The woman claims she filed her complaint a month ago but hadn’t heard anything since and the chief refuses to say what happened.

• In Chandler Arizona, a woman claims that officers pulled her over in an unmarked car shortly after a shoot-out between undercover officers and suspected drug traffickers in an undercover sting that went wrong and left 3 officers shot and 2 others dead. The officers, armed with assault rifles, then allegedly handcuffed the woman at gunpoint, shoved her in the passenger side, and then took her car and used it to pursue suspects in the aftermath of the shooting, and then interrogated her as if she was a part of the incident. While officers later released her without charges, they kept the car she had been driving, that belongs to her mom, and never told her why.

• A Grover Beach California police officer’s version of events that led up to his attempt to taser an 82-year-old man have apparently been contradicted by the officer’s own taser camera which recorded what happened after he drew his taser when police caught up with the man who was accused of taking a woman’s baby. The officer claimed that the man in question refused to hand over the baby when ordered and then resisted when ordered out of his car that was parked in his garage at the time. However, the taser camera showed the opposite, the man obeying all orders and then, while being escorted away by another officer, the cop deployed his taser at the man’s back, but the probes bounced off the man’s belt instead. The charges against the man were later reduced to a minor disturbing the peace charge when it became apparent that he didn’t actually kidnap the baby as it belonged to a woman he was allowing to stay with him.

• A Diboll Texas police officer is under investigation after he pulled over two elderly men for speeding, smashed the driver’s window with his handgun, and detained them at gunpoint for an hour and a half, calling them fugitives and bandits while screaming at them. The men were speeding because one of them, hooked up to an oxygen tank, was suffering a medical emergency and was expected at the hospital. The department has paid to have the window replaced and dropped all charges against the men but they say that’s not good enough, especially since the one man’s medical condition was allegedly exacerbated due to the delay of treatment caused by the incident.

• Two now-former Albuquerque New Mexico police officers with a history of misconduct have cost that city $275,000 in a settlement to a man who was tasered six times in the back of a police cruiser who then lied to a grand jury about the incident where they claimed the man assaulted a police horse.

• In a reversal from a previous report we covered, the Austin Texas city council voted to scrap a proposed $750,000 settlement to the family of an 18-year-old man who was shot to death by a police officer who startled him while he was asleep in a car. While the police union, which pressured council members to fight the case, was pleased with the vote it sparked anger in the community, especially after revelations that an outside review of the incident that was kept secret until it leaked out called the officer’s actions that night negligent, bordering criminal, even though the internal investigation cleared the officer. The case will now go to trial sometime next year.

• A now-former Anchorage Alaska police officer was sentenced to time served after he was convicted of sexually abusing and exploiting his daughter when she was 14-years-old and for possession of child pornography that included photos of his daughter and another teenage girl. The officer was specifically sentenced to 12 years with 8 of those years suspended, which, because he already served almost three years under detention awaiting trial he’ll go straight to probation.

• A Palm Beach County corrections deputy has been arrested on charges of sexual battery on a person between 16 and 17 years of age. Police say the alleged victim was someone the officer knew but refused to say anything else about the case. While we don’t record cases involving non-sworn officers like corrections officers, corrections deputies are generally considered sworn officers that have to obtain the same certification as other deputies.

• A Warren County Mississippi deputy has been arrested on charges of incest and sexual assault without consent involving an unspecified person. The deputy was fired after an internal investigation into the unspecified incident(s) prior to his indictment.

• A Felicity Ohio police officer has been arrested on a felony evidence tampering charge after a multi-agency investigation. However, officials are refusing to divulge exactly what kind of evidence or anything else about the case. (new details are suggesting that drugs he was confiscating from people weren’t making it into evidence)

• Three Mount Pleasant Texas police officers have been suspended following a federal investigation that resulted in one of those officers being charged with illegal firearms sales charges for selling weapons and ammo to an illegal alien and a convicted felon. All three officers worked in the department’s narcotics division.

• A Humble Texas police officer has been indicted on a misdemeanor official oppression charge on allegations that he used unnecessary force during an unspecified incident that was investigated after the complain was received and found to be sustained.

• A Saratoga Springs New York police officer has been arrested on a misdemeanor stalking charge based on a woman’s complaint but officials are refusing to divulge any further details in that case.

• A Bethlehem Pennsylvania police officer was given a 20 day suspension for on and off duty misconduct but officials refuse to discuss exactly what kind of misconduct the officer was disciplined for. See a pattern yet?

• The sheriff of Rich County Idaho has been found to be 30% responsible for a $3,700,000 civil suit judgment in favor of a man who was left paralyzed after a suspect being pursued by that sheriff across three states crashed into his car.

• A Saint Lucie County Florida corrections deputy has been fired after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by a female clerk who claims he rubbed his crotch against her while she was making copies. The investigation also alleged that the deputy then lied to investigators about the incident.

• Two now-former Carteret County North Carolina deputies have pled guilty to embezzlement charges for stealing drug money in a case that also involved the now-former sheriff and two other deputies. The sheriff is set to be sentenced for his role in September.

• A now-former Burlington North Carolina police lieutenant has been found guilty of a drunken driving charge, mostly because of witness testimony that she was heard to have said “I messed up” shortly after the accident. Otherwise, says the judge, the case might very well have fell through because none of the officers at the scene had bothered to ask if she had been driving that night her car ended up in a ditch.

• A now-former Womelsdorf Pennsylvania police officer has been charged with unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and possession of an instrument of crime on allegations that he falsified his time sheets and improperly used a departmental fuel card to fill up his personal vehicle.

• A Saint Joseph County Indiana police captain has been charged with criminal mischief for allegedly vandalizing a boat belonging to her ex-boyfriend, also a police officer for the county, by damaging it with tools, scratching “The Cheater” into the hull, and filling it with dog feces.

• A Doraville Georgia police officer has been accused of having sex while on duty with the wife of a man who says that his complaints about the incidents were ignored. The man’s wife admitted the affair and says that they met for sex several times while he was in uniform and on duty. She now says that she thinks he was misusing his position and should be disciplined for what they did.

• The city of Sarasota Florida has settled a lawsuit filed by the ACLU for $50,000 to men who were issued a citation for violating that town’s loud music ordinance and had their car impounded because of it. The ACLU contended that the incident was a violation of the men’s first amendment rights to free speech and that the impounding of the car was excessive and selectively enforced, especially since the car in question only had stock audio equipment.

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