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Only a few bad apples huh?...Bad Cops Thread

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.24ec307948e3

Brothers sentenced in police station shooting that left undercover officer dead


A Maryland man convicted of murder for launching an attack on a police station that left an undercover narcotics detective dead was sentenced to 195 years in prison Thursday.

The sentencing of Michael Deandre Ford, 25, comes almost three years after he engaged Prince George’s County police in a shooting that fatally wounded officer Jacai Colson, 28.

Although Colson was killed by a fellow officer who mistook him as the gunman firing at the station, a Prince George’s County jury convicted Ford in November of second-degree murder for creating the conditions that led to the deadly shooting.

Before Colson’s mother and father told the court how the killing has affected them, they placed a framed photo of their son in his dress uniform on display.

Sheila Colson said she had hoped for the past three years that her son’s death was just a bad dream. “I stand here and reality keeps setting in,” she said. “It’s not a dream; it’s constant pain.”

As she described the grief she’s endured and what her son meant to his friends, family and colleagues, sheriff’s deputies passed around boxes of tissues to the roomful of sniffling and teary-eyed officers.

Between her own bouts of crying, Sheila Colson shook with rage, offering a searing rebuke of Prince George’s County officials who did not charge the officer she called “careless” and “reckless” who fired on her son.

Two of Ford’s younger brothers, who drove him to the police station in Palmer Park, Md., and recorded the shooting, also were sentenced Thursday in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. Elijah Ford, 21, was sentenced to 12 years after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Malik Ford, 24, was sentenced to 20 years for attempted second-
degree murder, use of a handgun in commission of a felony and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

In addition to murder, Michael Ford was found guilty of 30 counts of assault and weapons charges after an eight-day trial.

Prosecutors argued Michael Ford “created a combat zone” outside the station that resulted in Colson’s killing on March 13, 2016. They said he was seeking infamy and had instructed his brothers to post video of the shooting on a viral video website.

Michael Ford testified that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone but himself. He told the jury that he was suffering from suicidal thoughts the morning of the shooting and fired at the station to draw gunfire and die at the hands of police.

On Thursday, he apologized for his actions, saying that because his mental-health issues went untreated, “a good man” is dead.

“That man does not deserve to be dead,” he said. “I should be dead.”

During his trial testimony, Ford said that he went to the police station and opened fire because he believed police shoot black men and would shoot him.

But Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Lawrence V. Hill dismissed that explanation. Hill said Ford fired at a black mother and child, a black man who was driving by the station and at an ambulance that serves a mostly black community in Palmer Park.

“Don’t make this about race when you showed less concern for your own race,” Hill said.

Hill laid responsibility for Colson’s death on Ford.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “The ripple effects of what you did that day cannot be calculated. . . . There are a number of people whose lives are not going to be saved because Jacai Colson is not here.”

Ford had recorded what he said were his last words before heading to the police station in his red Honda Accord with his brothers. Video aired at trial showed that once Ford was outside the station, he fired at the doors of the building, passing cars, officers responding to the scene and at an ambulance.

Colson arrived at the scene moments into the shooting, according to trial testimony.

The undercover drug officer in street clothes had been heading into work for an overtime shift and immediately began to engage Ford in a gun battle. The gunfire exchanged between Ford and Colson allowed other officers to get into position to take down Ford, police and prosecutors said.

But shortly after coming on scene, Colson collapsed.

Officer Taylor Krauss, who testified he believed that the plainclothes detective was the gunman ambushing the police station, fired a single fatal shot at Colson.

“Had I known it was a police officer, I never would have taken a shot,” testified Krauss, who was cleared by a grand jury in Colson’s shooting.

Krauss testified that he heard a description of the gunman attacking the police station — a “number one male,” or police vernacular for a male African American. Krauss said he shot at Colson because he matched the attacker’s description.

Colson’s family has a pending civil suit against the county and Krauss.

The lawsuit asserts Colson had his badge in hand and was yelling “Police!” when he was shot. The lawsuit also claims Colson did not match the description of the gunman attacking the police station.

Calls to 911 about the shooting described a heavyset black man with dreadlocks and in a black jacket, the lawsuit states, but Colson had an athletic build and wore a short Afro and beard.

At the sentencing hearing Thursday, Colson’s mother said she and her husband, James, said Krauss should have been taken off the force and charged in their son’s killing. “I could not for the life of me understand why Taylor Krauss shot my son,” Sheila Colson said. “I had come to the realization that Jacai was murdered because he was black.”

Krauss declined to comment through the police union.

The Colsons said they were initially led to believe their son died in police crossfire during the chaos. But they said they later learned that their son was shot after Ford was subdued and a cease-fire declared on police radio.

During the sentencing, Ford’s attorney played audio in court of gunfire from that day. Gunshots are heard that Ford’s attorney described as the exchange between Ford and officers. Then after a pause of about 30 seconds — after Ford was in custody — a loud bang sounded of the shot that killed Colson.

Colson’s mother addressed Ford on Thursday. “Michael, no you did not kill Jacai,” she said. “He survived a gun battle with you only to lose his life to a careless, reckless colleague.”

The police department did not address the Colsons’ accusations made in court but issued a statement from Chief Hank Stawinski.

“The sentences as rendered today can never assuage the pain, loss and the years of healing that remain before us all. I appreciate deeply the decisions that the citizens of Prince George’s County have made in these matters on behalf of their defenders,” Stawinski said. “I wish peace upon the Colson family, this institution, and our community.”

Angela Alsobrooks, who now is the county executive but had been state’s attorney, said as the chief prosecutor, she handled each case “with the utmost integrity and transparency. I spent many hours walking the Colsons through every piece of evidence, walking the crime scene with them, and we answered every question they had.”

Ultimately a county grand jury reviewed the evidence and declined to indict Krauss, she noted. “ I can never begin to understand what they feel as grieving parents, and my thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Colson family,” Alsobrooks said.
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https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article224680225.html

A cop kicked at a suspect’s head and another covered his bodycam. Now, it’s under review.

Ravon Boyd was cornered in an alley between homes in an Overtown development known as “The Skittles.” As police raced to the robbery suspect, Boyd put his hands in the air, then lowered himself with his face toward the ground, hands outstretched on the turf in front of him.

Just then, an officer ran up to him and kicked at Boyd’s face. That was followed by other officers pummeling him as he kept his hands up trying to protect himself.

Yet when the officers filled out use-of-force reports and were questioned by Internal Affairs investigators, all had the same story: When they reached Boyd, his hands were under his body and they feared for their lives, believing he was “reaching for a weapon.”

Body camera footage obtained by the Miami Herald appears to contradict their claims. It shows Boyd with his hands in the air trying to surrender as officers approach and as Miami Police Sgt. Claude Adam rushes toward him and kicks his right foot at the suspect’s head. He then appears to knee Boyd in the face, steps on the suspect’s left foot and tumbles to the ground.

As Adam delivers his kick, someone can be heard saying, “I’m gonna kick you in your f------ mouth, you f------ piece of s---.”

Internal Affairs cleared Adam of any wrongdoing. He claimed his foot never made contact and he was kicking at a dark object on the ground. He told investigators that he “kicked the black item out of the reach of the subject.” After Adam’s kick, several officers can be seen converging on and flailing at Boyd before he’s taken into custody.

Police determined that one of them, officer Brian Castro, covered his body camera with his hand during a pivotal sequence while officers were taking Boyd into custody. Castro resigned while the department was processing paperwork to fire him over the incident. The two other officers listed as using force by the city were Juan Casiano and Alan Perez.

For 25 seconds during Boyd’s arrest, the screen is blank. During that time a series of loud grunts can be heard, but it’s unclear if they came from Boyd or from any of the officers who were out of breath after running to the scene.

Now, almost two years after the incident — long after the video was discovered by Miami’s virtual policing unit and turned over to Internal Affairs — Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel, whose main task is police oversight, is examining the case.

“It appears to me they didn’t discern what was truly seen on the video. They didn’t hear what we heard, which required some careful listening,” said Cristina Beamud, the panel’s executive director. “They didn’t explore the notion that there was no object and it appeared that [Adam] made contact with [Boyd’s] head.”

Beamud and the Civilian Investigative Panel investigator looking into the case are expected to forward their findings to the full panel in February.

Miami Police Maj. Jesus Ibalmea, who commands Internal Affairs, said before clearing Adam the department reached out to the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office twice and that both times he was told the incident didn’t seem to warrant a criminal charge. He also said Boyd’s attorney Andrew Rier turned down a request to come forward and provide a statement.

Ibalmea agreed Boyd placed his hands in the air and went to the ground as police approached. But Ibalmea said it’s not clear what happened during the 25 seconds that Castro covered his body camera, just as Boyd seems to be protecting himself while being pummeled and curls into a fetal position before he’s handcuffed. Two other officers were assigned body cameras that day as well, Ibalmea said, but Castro’s offered the best view of the confrontation between police and Boyd.

“It’s very difficult to tell conclusively if Boyd is struck or not” by Adam, Ibalmea said. “He said he was kicking at a black object. We kind of took that at face value. If Boyd comes forward and gives us a statement, I’ll be happy to reopen the case.”

Boyd’s attorney Rier said he turned down the opportunity to give a statement because he was told by prosecutors that anything said by his client could or would be used at trial. He also said he never got the video during the discovery phase of Boyd’s trial. Boyd was convicted of strong-arm robbery and is currently serving a 44-month prison sentence.

After seeing the video for the first time last week, Rier said he would contact Boyd’s mother with the intention of speaking to internal affairs.

“He clearly gave himself up. He was laying in a prone position. He was covering his head,” Rier said. “The video shows no effort to secure the suspect. It shows a singular effort to beat the suspect and a deliberate effort to conceal the beating.”

The kick by Adam is similar to an incident that occurred in Overtown last May and led to the firing of Miami Police Officer Mario Figueroa, who was charged with assault. Figueroa was caught on video racing toward a carjacking suspect and kicking at his head. The kick missed, but the difference, Ibalmea said, was that the suspect in the Figueroa incident was already in custody and lying flat on the ground when the officer acted.

The messy incident involving Boyd began at a Sunoco Gas Station on the corner of Northwest Second Avenue and 36th Street, on a May afternoon in 2017. That’s when, a man told police, he had just walked out of the store after paying for gas and was assaulted by two men.. One of them, later identified as Daniel Copeland, rushed at him, he said, knocking him down and kicking him in the head. As he was being beaten, Boyd grabbed money out of his pocket, the man told police.

The beating victim managed to get the license of the white Toyota Rav4 that Copeland and Boyd got into as they drove off. Police matched it to the plate seen on video surveillance at the gas station, they said. Three hours later Miami police officers Casiano and his partner Castro spotted the SUV parked at 1990 NW Fifth Pl. They waited until Copeland and Boyd made their way to the vehicle, then along with other officers, tried to take the men into custody.

Boyd ran, according to police, and was cornered a short while later in an alley behind a home at 360 NW 20th St. Police said he was wearing a black tactical vest that he dumped during the chase. The vest was never found.

Then, Casiano wrote in Boyd’s arrest affidavit, “The defendant was tucking his hands under his body not allowing officers to place hand restraints on the defendant. After a brief struggle the defendant’s hands became free and I was able to place him into custody.”

It’s that half minute or so that led to internal affairs clearing Adam of any wrongdoing. Though audible grunts can be heard, Castro had covered his camera lens and it’s unclear exactly what took place.

“Absolutely,” Ibalmea said. “The problem is what we can’t see.”

What you hear, said Rier, “are guttural grunts of men beating another man.” Then, Rier said you can hear an officer say, “are you sorry now?”

The video was discovered in November of 2017, six months after the incident, when the police department’s Virtual Policing Unit was responding to a subpoena in the case. It was passed on to Internal Affairs which concluded its investigation and cleared Adam of any wrongdoing in August, 2018. An investigator with Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel began looking into officer’s actions last September after receiving an anonymous tip.

Boyd was initially charged with resisting arrest without violence and possessing less than 20 grams of marijuana. On a separate arrest form the same day, he was charged with strong-arm robbery. At trial, facing a probation violation for his actions from the May 12 incident in 2017, Boyd was sentenced to 44 months in prison.

There is no mention in Boyd’s arrest reports or in the use-of-force reports that he was kicked at or that he had his hands in the air or was going to the ground when police converged on him. And despite the video showing several officers striking Boyd’s upper body as he was on the ground and a picture of Boyd taken by police after the altercation showing a large swollen bruise on the right side of his face, several of the officers who were at the scene said in their reports that Boyd showed no signs of injury.

None of the nine officers involved in Boyd’s arrest admitted to seeing Adam kick at the suspect’s head.

“Does it look bad? Absolutely,” said Ibalmea, the internal affairs commander. “At the end of the day we want to do what’s right.”
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https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...s-enough-HPD-union-chief-doubles-13578031.php

‘Enough is enough’: HPD union chief doubles down with fiery comments on Fox News


Two days after his controversial comments sparked pushback, Houston Police union chief Joe Gamaldi doubled down in a fiery tirade Wednesday on Fox & Friends.

"I'm talking to the activists who have severely made our officers the enemy," he told the national news outlet. "They've put targets on our backs."

A botched drug raid on Monday left two residents dead and five Houston Police officers wounded in an incident Gamaldi framed as the result of anti-police rhetoric. In a five-minute interview, he laid the blame for police shootings on activists and media figures who "drive a wedge" between communities and police.

"We're sick and tired," he said, "and enough is enough."

After bursting in the front door of 7815 Harding, an undercover narcotics officer shot to death a pit bull, setting off a gun battle with the couple who lived there. The attempted raid stemmed from an earlier undercover heroin buy at the home. Police walked away with guns, marijuana and an unidentified powder.

Both Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas died in the shoot-out. Police said that Tuttle — a Navy veteran — snuck around the back of the house and opened fire on officers, while Nicholas reached for a shot officer's gun.

Though the operation was intended to target drug dealers, the couple's friends and family have consistently maintained that they weren't using or selling heroin.

Still, the incident provoked a strong reaction from union brass. First, Gamaldi lashed out in a Monday press conference, telling anyone "spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy" that "we've got your number."

"We're sick and tired of having targets on our backs," he continued. "We are sick and tired of having dirtbags trying to take our lives when all we're trying to do is protect this community and our families."

Alarmed by the seemingly accusatory comments, local activist Ashton Woods struck back.

"We have a freedom of speech," he told the Chronicle on Tuesday. "We don't need you blaming us for what happened."

Yet, on Wednesday, Gamaldi reinforced his earlier statements during his TV interview, calling out activists and "talking heads" for "harmful narratives." He dismissed the idea that police could act with bias toward minorities, and blamed the activist upsurge following Michael Brown's killing in Ferguson for a subsequent increase in police deaths.

"What was that seminal moment that changed it all?" he said. "Well, 2014 when we had hands-up-don't-shoot which by the way was a completely false narrative and they continue to beat the drum on that."

As Gamaldi's comments made the rounds on social media and sparked outrage online, on Thursday HPD Chief Art Acevedo announced a press conference at 3 p.m.

And again, Woods struck back, this time calling for Gamaldi to retract his statements and resing.

"He should be held accountable," Woods told the Chronicle. "He needs to apologize."
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https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...utors-say-no-charges-will-be-brought-in-taser

California prosecutors say no charges will be brought in Taser-related death of unarmed black man


Prosecutors in California announced Friday that sheriff’s deputies who tased an unarmed black man to death in October will not face charges.

The San Mateo County district attorney’s office will not seek charges against the deputies related to the death of 36-year-old Chinedu Okobi, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the officers’ use of force was justified. He spoke with deputies and witnesses, viewed video recordings of the encounter and reviewed he coroner’s report.

“This is not a case where I am trying to put any blame on Mr. Okobi,” Wagstaffe said Friday. “This was a tragic event and I don’t want to do anything to demonize these deputies or Mr. Okobi in any manner.”

A 30-minute video of the incident, released on Friday, shows that Okobi was being approached by a deputy while walking down El Camino Real in Millbrae, the newspaper reported.

Deputy Joshua Wang initially tried to stop Okobi after he crossed the street against a red light. Okobi allegedly refused to cooperate and the deputy called for help. Three more deputies and a sergeant arrived.

“You’re gonna get tased, get on the ground now,” Wang says in the video.

Deputies tried to tase Okobi seven times as he tried to stumble away and call for help.

“What’d I do?” Okobi can be heard asking while deputies command him to roll over onto his stomach.

Wang is seen hitting Okobi with a baton and Okobi strikes Wang in the face.

Sgt. David Weidner can be heard on the video telling paramedics that Okobi had "probably got a lot of drugs on board, which explains why he was fighting so hard.”

A toxicology report, however, did not find any drugs or alcohol in Okobi’s system, according to the newspaper.

His cause of death was listed cardiac arrest following physical exertion, physical restraint and electro-muscular disruption from the Taser shocks.

Okobi suffered from an enlarged heart, the newspaper noted.

His manner of death was classified as a homicide, Wagstaffe said.

Since the officers could not restrain Okobi, use of the Taser was the appropriate next step, Wagstaffe said.

“Unanimous opinion of my team was in accord with the expert we hired, that under these circumstances, it was a reasonable use of force,” Wagstaffe said. “There’s not an ethical prosecutor in this state that would have found a reason to charge the deputies.”

Okobi’s family, however, has decried the actions of the officers and they plan to file a lawsuit, the newspaper noted.

“It’s clear the district attorney doesn’t intend for there to be any consequences at all,” said Ebele Okobi, Chinedu Okobi’s sister. “We feel that the district attorney is completely unwilling to protect citizens and the sheriff is completely uninterested in ensuring police officers don’t kill unarmed citizens.”

This case is San Mateo County's third Taser death in a year.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...nuscule-number-of-racial-profiling-complaints

California Police Report Minuscule Number Of Racial Profiling Complaints

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s first-in-the-nation attempt to track racial profiling complaints against police produced numbers so unrealistically small that the board overseeing the tally wants departments to make changes to encourage more people to come forward.


The panel’s most recent report found 17 percent of California’s law enforcement agencies reported not a single complaint in 2017.

And of 659 profiling complaints that were filed in a state of nearly 40 million people, just 10 were sustained. Three-quarters of the profiling complaints involve race or ethnicity, but they can also include age, gender, religion, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.

The people who share leadership of the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board are divided over the seriousness of the problem and whether changes are needed based on the results of the second annual report.

Andrea Guerrero, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance San Diego, doesn’t believe the numbers and thinks it might be the result of police protecting their own.

“We know we have a profiling problem in the state,” she said.

Her co-chair, Kings County Sheriff David Robinson, disputed that. He said the numbers reflect the reality that it’s “so rare and far between that someone is racist.”

Under current standards, people who lodge formal complaints generally must use their name to report concerns that can range from an officer being rude or disrespectful up to false arrests or racially targeted traffic stops. And often they must go to a police station and fill out a form.

Robinson said most people prefer a more informal process that often doesn’t show up in official statistics, like having a police supervisor hear the complaint and talk to the officer.

The panel has recommended that local agencies allow anonymous and third-party complaints to shield victims from retaliation, while making it easier to file complaints, including by providing materials in many languages.

There should be follow-ups so complainants don’t feel they’re being ignored, Guerrero said, and civilian oversight panels with “teeth in them” should oversee complaint investigations.

Plumas County sheriff’s Deputy Ed Obayashi, an expert on use-of-force policies who teaches other law enforcement personnel around the state, said the racial numbers don’t reflect reality, but he discounted any nefarious intent.

In Southern California, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, where Obayashi used to work, reported just one racial profiling complaint in 2017, while the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department had seven. About 3.34 million people live in San Diego County, while the population of Riverside County, which includes the cities of Riverside and Palm Springs, is around 2.42 million.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the United States’ largest sheriff’s agency, recorded 31.

“There’s no way,” Obayashi said. “People who see this report are going to say, ‘They’re covering this up.'”

He and others blamed conservative reporting policies that leave out informal complaints, coupled with “complaint fatigue” by people who are too frightened to complain or believe they’ll be ignored.

Proving a complaint is even tougher, he said.

“To sustain a complaint would require the officer to say, ‘I stopped that motorist because he was black or Hispanic.’ And what officer is going to admit to that?” Obayashi said.

The 7,400-officer California Highway Patrol reported just 24 profiling complaints from nearly 4 million contacts with the public. None was substantiated by the department, which board member Warren Stanley, the CHP’s first black commissioner, said shows the professionalism of the agency’s personnel.

Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing, who represents police chiefs on the board, said he isn’t surprised by the low reported statewide numbers.

“There are some that may have, or had, a perception that there are more racial or identity profiles being made, but the data that we have doesn’t bear that out,” Swing said.

In Sacramento, the department reported 18 civilian complaints in 2017, none of them alleging racial or identity profiling.

“We actually get a lot more than that,” acknowledged Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Vance Chandler. But the department counts only formal complaints that under state law could result in an officer being disciplined, omitting what it calls informal inquiries.

The department plans to provide more accurate information on the number of complaints and their outcome as part of reform efforts, Chandler said.

Betty Williams, president of the NAACP branch in Sacramento, said racial profiling is “undersold and underreported in such a shameless fashion.”

She feels the low numbers are reported “so you won’t have stronger policies and procedures and laws in place that will give a little more protection from law enforcement.”

The next statewide report in January will for the first time include statistics from California’s eight largest police agencies on the perceived race, gender, sexual orientation and other characteristics of motorists during traffic stops.

In December, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department suspended operations of a team of deputies who targeted vehicles on Interstate 5, the main West Coast highway between Mexico and Canada, for drugs and other contraband. The decision came amid accusations of racial profiling after a Los Angeles Times investigation found 69 percent of drivers stopped were Latino and that two-thirds had their vehicles searched, a far higher rate than other racial and ethnic groups.

At the federal level, legislation twice proposed by New York U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, most recently with her fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would require federal border agents to track and report why they conduct stops and searches that critics fear are frequently based on racial profiling.

Eugene O’Donnell, a former New York City police officer, prosecutor and now a policing expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, fears that well-intended efforts by “elite critics, including politicians” to discourage racial profiling will ultimately discourage law enforcement efforts and dissuade recruits from becoming police officers.

“It’s essentially inviting people to make a very serious allegation against officers who are acting in good faith, that they’re profiling people,” he said.
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http://time.com/5542424/new-york-police-officer-makes-guns-arrested/

New York City Police Officer Arrested for Making and Selling Guns
(PLATTEKILL, N.Y.) — A police officer with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has been arrested on charges of manufacturing guns at his upstate home and selling them to motorcycle gang members.

Thirty-eight-year-old Gregg Marinelli is also charged with tipping off a suspect in a major drug investigation, state police and the Orange County district attorney’s office said.

Marinelli, a sergeant in the DEP police, was arrested Thursday at his home in Plattekill.

Police say Marinelli assembled dozens of handguns and assault rifles and sold them to “individuals who are legally barred from possessing such weapons” including members of outlaw motorcycle clubs. Many of the guns Marinelli sold had no serial numbers and would be difficult to trace, authorities said.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports that Marinelli was arraigned Friday on charges including criminal sale of a firearm, hindering prosecution and conspiracy.

Police said they learned about Marinelli’s crimes during a cocaine- and fentanyl-trafficking investigation dubbed “Operation: Bread, White and Blues” that resulted in more than two dozen arrests. Marinelli tipped off “one of the major people” in that case, Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said Friday.

“This has to be one of the most egregious breaches of trust that I have encountered,” Hoovler said. “I am furious. Number 1, about the leak in the case; and number 2, the conduct, the possibility of putting untraceable guns on the street.”

It’s not clear if Marinelli has an attorney who can speak for him.

A spokesman for the New York City DEP said Saturday that the alleged crimes “betray the oath that this officer took to protect the public.”

Plattekill is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of New York City. The city DEP deploys officers to the area to protect the city’s water supply system.
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https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow...va-reinstate-deputy-force-20190403-story.html

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva reinstates a second deputy fired for misconduct

The deputy charged onto the scene and kicked the door of a truck, threatening to shoot the man inside. After yanking the man onto the ground, the lawman punched him several times in his back and shoulders as other officers wrangled the suspect onto his stomach and into handcuffs, according to law enforcement reports.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fired the deputy, Michael Courtial, last June, concluding he used unreasonable force and failed to use de-escalation techniques in the 2016 incident in Lancaster.

Now, Courtial has been newly granted a badge and gun after Sheriff Alex Villanueva reinstated him as a deputy during his first few months in office, the Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday in response to inquiries by The Times.

Villanueva has faced sharp criticism over his rehiring in recent months of another deputy, Caren Carl Mandoyan, who was discharged for violating department policies regarding domestic violence and making false statements to internal investigators.

Villanueva told the Board of Supervisors on March 12 that he had only reinstated one deputy — Mandoyan — and that he would hold off on any other reinstatements.

While some deputies have hailed the new sheriff's actions, others including county supervisors and department watchdogs have expressed alarm that he may be moving away from reforms imposed after a massive corruption scandal rocked the department several years ago.

Villanueva, in a statement, said the division-level process to reinstate Courtial followed a long-standing policy and included the input of county counsel. Officials decided Courtial’s actions did not justify the discipline that was originally imposed, the statement said.

“While the video and actions of my deputy sheriff should have been more in line with the policies and standards that I expect, I believe that a fair review of the case was conducted and that the appropriate administration action was taken,” Villanueva said, referring to footage cited by investigators.

Villanueva, in his statement, said the settlement was done without his involvement. Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said she could not immediately say on which date Courtial was reinstated.

Courtial’s attorney, Adam Marangell, said his client reached a settlement with the Sheriff’s Department and subsequently withdrew an appeal of his firing from the Civil Service Commission on Feb. 21. The commission did not hear Courtial’s case or make a determination on it.

“I believe Deputy Courtial was not afforded the due process under the previous sheriff that was to be expected and his reinstatement was completely justified,” Marangell said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken the unprecedented step of going to court to try to block Mandoyan’s rehiring, arguing that the sheriff doesn’t have the authority to override decisions by the county Civil Service Commission, which upheld the deputy’s termination. Mandoyan had served as a volunteer on Villanueva’s election campaign, though the sheriff denies any quid pro quo. It has become a heated political issue since The Times revealed Mandoyan's rehiring and the circumstances of his dismissal in 2016.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl says Villanueva also doesn’t have the power to circumvent the board by entering into a legal settlement to give a fired deputy his job back, regardless of whether the Civil Service Commission weighed in on the case.

“I’m disappointed the sheriff hired back someone who committed this excessive force, and that the sheriff doesn’t understand he cannot settle these cases and rehire people on his own,” said Kuehl. She said only the board can authorize those types of settlements.

Courtial was one of several deputies who responded to a call just after midnight on July 21, 2016, about a man who was seen trying to break into vehicles along Elm Avenue in Lancaster. A witness called 911 after the man, who was acting belligerently, entered the back of an occupied pickup truck, according to a memo by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Two deputies approached the truck, ready to deploy a Taser, and requested backup because of the man’s large size, the memo says.

Courtial suddenly charged toward the vehicle and kicked it without acknowledging the other deputies, according to the memo. He opened a door to the truck and ordered the man not to move, shouting that he would shoot him if he disobeyed. Courtial told one of his fellow deputies to use the Taser on the man, and the deputy complied, before Courtial dragged the man out of the truck and onto the ground, the memo says.

Courtial punched the man several times as he yanked him out of the truck and continued striking him in the back and shoulders when the man was on his stomach, according to the document. The man was resisting deputies and had his right hand under his body, the memo says.

The man, who was found to have a blood-alcohol level of .209, was hospitalized and treated for a traumatic brain injury, scrapes, a bone chip fracture and Taser dart wounds. The memo said it was impossible to know whether all of the injuries were caused by the deputies because man said he head-butted someone while riding a bicycle just before the incident.

The district attorney’s office declined to prosecute Courtial for assault under color of authority or vandalism, finding that the man was actively resisting deputies when Courtial used force. Prosecutors also noted Courtial’s kicking of the truck “could reasonably be construed as part of the suspect’s arrest,” reasoning that there was insufficient evidence to show the deputy acted maliciously, according to the memo.

Still, the district attorney’s office found Courtial’s actions to be excessive.

“It must be noted that Courtial’s unilateral and unnecessary property damage and initiation of force, while ultimately lawful, was unnecessary in the situation with which he was confronted. The scene which he entered was already secured by two other deputies whom Courtial ignored to act on his own,” prosecutors wrote.

The Sheriff’s Department found Courtial violated several department policies, including ones governing de-escalation and unreasonable force.

“You used force which was unreasonable and/or unnecessary and/or excessive … when you punched [the man] numerous times after throwing him to the ground while there were adequate personnel on scene to control [him],” wrote North Patrol Division Chief John Benedict in a disciplinary letter to Courtial, which is partially redacted.

The letter was released Wednesday by the Civil Service Commission under a landmark transparency law that opens up some records of police misconduct, including cases involving serious use of force.

Villanueva often spoke during his campaign of creating a “truth and reconciliation” panel to hear the cases of deputies and members of the public who believed they’d been wronged by the Sheriff’s Department. Mandoyan’s case was reviewed by such a panel, but the Sheriff’s Department said Courtial’s was not.

Courtial is now assigned to the Palmdale station.
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https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_6dfac50a-5c08-11e9-bb3c-274d51a157a0.html

Baton Rouge civil service board again agrees to postpone Blane Salamoni's appeal hearing

The local civil service board has approved a request to further delay an appeal hearing for former Baton Rouge police officer Blane Salamoni, who was fired for violating department policies during the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling in 2016.

Salamoni opened fire during a struggle with Sterling, whose death ignited nationwide protests about police brutality after videos of the incident circulated on social media.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced the termination decision last spring, and Salamoni appealed it before the civil service board, which oversees discipline for city police and firefighters.

The hearing — when the board will vote to either uphold or overturn the termination — has already been rescheduled multiple times. It was most recently slated for next week.

The board discussed setting a new hearing date during its meeting Thursday morning. The most recent joint motion to postpone it requested a new date within 60 days, but instead of setting a date immediately, board members decided to continue discussions at their regularly scheduled April board meeting next week.

Both parties could reach an alternative agreement before the next hearing date, which would allow the matter to be resolved without an appeal hearing.

Howie Lake II, the other officer who responded the night of Sterling's death, was issued an unpaid suspension but has returned to the force. He used a stun gun on Sterling, who was found to be armed, but did not discharge his firearm.

Lake has also appealed his discipline, but board members have agreed that his hearing should take place after Salamoni's because of overlapping information.

Salamoni is also facing a civil suit filed in 2017 on behalf of Alton Sterling's five children. That also remains unresolved, but attorneys said this week they have begun preliminary settlement talks and are hoping to avoid taking the case to trial.
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https://www.apnews.com/e53e8526ce304805baa4741d40fba6f1

Officers shoot man after telling him to drop gun

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Police video released Monday shows an officer in Charlotte, North Carolina, fatally shooting a man who was armed but didn’t point his weapon at authorities.

The body camera footage shows two officers approaching 27-year-old Danquirs Napoleon Franklin outside a Burger King on March 25 after witnesses called 911 to report a man with a gun acting in a threatening manner.

The police video shows officers repeatedly yelling for Franklin, who is black, to put his gun down. He’s seen squatting by the open door of a car, facing someone in the passenger seat.

“Sir, put the gun down,” says the officer wearing the body camera. “Drop the gun!”

Franklin doesn’t move as police approach him, the video shows. As they shout at him, Franklin can be seen raising his right hand with an object in it, still facing the person in the passenger seat.

He lowers his hand right around the time when the first of two shots by the officer can be heard, according to the video. “Shots fired!” the officer yells into her radio. About 40 seconds had passed from the time the officer exited her cruiser to when Franklin was shot.

She then reaches under his body and can be seen picking up a handgun, saying: “I gotta pick up the gun.”

The officers tell the person in the passenger seat, “Let me see your hands,” and the person holds them out on the dashboard. Police have not released that person’s identity.

Before the release of the footage, Charlotte leaders held a news conference to urge community members to be calm after seeing what’s on it. They noted that protests had been planned even before the video’s release. No protesters were observed at the Burger King on Monday afternoon, shortly after the video came out.

Mayor Vi Lyles urged the community to engage in a peaceful discourse about what happened.

“It is in moments like this that we can open for a discussion and discourse. We can talk about what’s on that video,” she said. “But what I always think about is how we respond as a community will reflect how we honor the memory of Danquirs Franklin.”

Police Chief Kerr Putney said the video is hard to watch, but it shows that Franklin was armed.

“There is clear and compelling evidence that Mr. Franklin is armed. You will see that” on the video, Putney said at a news conference.

Putney said Monday that the video is consistent with what police have said all along, that Franklin refused to drop his weapon and an officer fired after perceiving a lethal threat.

Before the shooting, one witness who called 911 said that an armed man had entered Burger King and tried to start a fight with employees.

“Can you please send somebody quickly? Please. He got a gun. ... He’s pointing it,” she said.

But since the shooting, some have questioned whether police were too quick to use lethal force, including students who walked out of a school to protest the shooting days after it happened.

The officer who shot Franklin was identified as Officer Wende Kerl, who has worked for the department since 1995. She has been placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by detectives, who will turn their findings over to the district attorney. A department spokesman has declined to release Kerl’s race.

The video was released Monday by a judge in response to a media petition.

Franklin’s death came less than three years after another fatal shooting by a police officer sparked several days of civil unrest in Charlotte, including injuries and property damage. A prosecutor later cleared the officer in the September 2016 shooting of Keith Lamont Scott after reviewing evidence including surveillance footage indicating he had a holstered gun on his ankle.
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