Glynn County Georgia And Carter County Tennessee Sheriff’s Department Piss Away Tax Dollars In Attempt To Serve 80 Year Old Warrant

ELIZABETHTON, TENNESSEE – The Carter County Sheriff’s Department is trying to serve an 80-year-old warrant for the arrest of a man who wrote a $30 bad check, although unsure if he is alive. The warrant, issued in August 1928, calls for the arrest of J.A. Rowland. It says he owes $30 for the bad check, $2 for the arrest fee and 50 cents each for the affidavit and warrant.

Clerks at the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office in Brunswick, Ga., recently found the warrant buried in a records storage room while cleaning and mailed it to Tennessee.

Current Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes told The Elizabethton Star he is still under a legal obligation to find Rowland.

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Crazed Central Connecticut State University Police Investigate Student Who Avocated Carrying Guns On Campus In Oral Presentation

CRAZY IN CONNECTICUT – For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor.

On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police “requested his presence”. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

They told Wahlberg that they had received a complaint from his professor that his presentation was making students feel “scared and uncomfortable”.

“I was a bit nervous when I walked into the police station,” Wahlberg said, “but I felt a general sense of disbelief once the officer actually began to list the firearms registered in my name. I was never worried however, because as a law-abiding gun owner, I have a thorough understanding of state gun laws as well as unwavering safety practices.”

Professor Anderson refused to comment directly on the situation and deferred further comment.

“It is also my responsibility as a teacher to protect the well being of our students, and the campus community at all times,” she wrote in a statement submitted to The Recorder. “As such, when deemed necessary because of any perceived risks, I seek guidance and consultation from the Chair of my Department, the Dean and any relevant University officials.”

Wahlberg believes that her complaint was filed without good reason.

“I don’t think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police over a clearly nonthreatening matter. Although the topic of discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to label me as a threat,” Wahlberg said in response. “The actions of Professor Anderson made me so uncomfortable, that I didn’t attend several classes. The only appropriate action taken by the Professor was to excuse my absences.”

The university police were unavailable for comment.

“If you can’t talk about the Second Amendment, what happened to the First Amendment?” asked Sara Adler, president of the Riflery and Marksmanship club on campus. “After all, a university campus is a place for the free and open exchange of ideas.”

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Glynn County Georgia And Carter County Tennessee Sheriff’s Department Piss Away Tax Dollars In Attempt To Serve 80 Year Old Warrant

ELIZABETHTON, TENNESSEE – The Carter County Sheriff’s Department is trying to serve an 80-year-old warrant for the arrest of a man who wrote a $30 bad check, although unsure if he is alive. The warrant, issued in August 1928, calls for the arrest of J.A. Rowland. It says he owes $30 for the bad check, $2 for the arrest fee and 50 cents each for the affidavit and warrant.

Clerks at the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office in Brunswick, Ga., recently found the warrant buried in a records storage room while cleaning and mailed it to Tennessee.

Current Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes told The Elizabethton Star he is still under a legal obligation to find Rowland.

Appeared Here

Crazed Central Connecticut State University Police Investigate Student Who Avocated Carrying Guns On Campus In Oral Presentation

CRAZY IN CONNECTICUT – For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor.

On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police “requested his presence”. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

They told Wahlberg that they had received a complaint from his professor that his presentation was making students feel “scared and uncomfortable”.

“I was a bit nervous when I walked into the police station,” Wahlberg said, “but I felt a general sense of disbelief once the officer actually began to list the firearms registered in my name. I was never worried however, because as a law-abiding gun owner, I have a thorough understanding of state gun laws as well as unwavering safety practices.”

Professor Anderson refused to comment directly on the situation and deferred further comment.

“It is also my responsibility as a teacher to protect the well being of our students, and the campus community at all times,” she wrote in a statement submitted to The Recorder. “As such, when deemed necessary because of any perceived risks, I seek guidance and consultation from the Chair of my Department, the Dean and any relevant University officials.”

Wahlberg believes that her complaint was filed without good reason.

“I don’t think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police over a clearly nonthreatening matter. Although the topic of discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to label me as a threat,” Wahlberg said in response. “The actions of Professor Anderson made me so uncomfortable, that I didn’t attend several classes. The only appropriate action taken by the Professor was to excuse my absences.”

The university police were unavailable for comment.

“If you can’t talk about the Second Amendment, what happened to the First Amendment?” asked Sara Adler, president of the Riflery and Marksmanship club on campus. “After all, a university campus is a place for the free and open exchange of ideas.”

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Hamilton County Ohio Morgue Attendant Had Sex With Corpses – Possibly Over A Hundred

HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO – On many nights over 16 years, Kenneth Douglas engaged in his own personal macabre workplace party.

He often brought drugs or alcohol to work and sometimes had sex with women.

At least three of those women were dead, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Thursday.

But if Douglas is to be believed, he could have had sex with as many as “over a hundred” bodies in the 16 years he worked as night attendant at the Hamilton County morgue.

“I am sure there are more (victims). I’m certain of it,” Deters said Thursday in announcing new indictments against Douglas.

“This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.”

Douglas, 55, of Westwood, already is serving a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to abuse of a corpse. He admitted he had sex with the nearly beheaded body of 19-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982.

Thursday, Douglas was indicted on two more counts of abuse of a corpse after DNA evidence, Deters said, showed Douglas’ semen was in the bodies of two women who were killed in 1991 and stored at the morgue awaiting autopsies:

Charlene Edwards, also known as Charlene Apling, who was six months pregnant.

She was strangled to death Oct. 1, 1991, by Mark Chambers, now 47, in Chambers’ Avondale home. Chambers originally was charged with murder but accepted a plea bargain and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sent to prison for 10-25 years. He was paroled in 2000.

Angel Hicks, 24, of Westwood.

Tyrone Williams, 59, was charged with murder in the December 1991 death of Hicks. He was acquitted months later at trial. There was a question whether Hicks was killed or committed suicide.

Deters said he was stunned by so many aspects of the case: sex with a corpse, sex with violently mutilated or damaged bodies, sex with dozens of bodies.

“Frankly, it’s frightening. His numbers when he’s (talked to authorities) go from one to three or four to ‘a lot’ to maybe over a hundred,” Deters said, quoting Douglas. “I think it’s fair to speculate that he’s been doing this all the time, when he’s able and had the opportunity.”

After Douglas admitted abusing Range’s corpse last year, prosecutors said they suspected there were other victims. They called area law enforcement agencies asking for cases to investigate.

That evidence was mostly vaginal swabs taken from the bodies during autopsies.

Officials came up with 15 cases they believe could have involved Douglas. DNA could be found on 12 of them. Of those, two showed the semen belonged to Douglas.

“We’ll never know” how many victims there are, Deters said, “because (Douglas) doesn’t know. We probably won’t (ever) know the scope of his abuse.”

“It doesn’t surprise me there are other victims. What’s surprising is we were able to demonstrate it,” Deters said. Eighteen years ago DNA was in its infancy as an investigative tool.

Deters’ office contacted the family members of Edwards and Hicks to tell them of the new accusations against Douglas.

“It’s fair to say they were devastated by this news,” Deters said. “I feel badly for the families who are never going to know.”

Douglas, Deters added, told officials he remembered having sex with Range but didn’t recall Edwards or Hicks.

“No one ever saw this man do anything,” Deters said.

The closest, he believes, was an incident in which an assistant coroner tried to get into a room with bodies and found it locked. A few minutes after the doctor knocked, Deters said, “Douglas walked out.”

Deters supports a pending bill that increases the crime of abuse of a corpse – specifically having sex with a corpse – from one year in prison to five years in prison.

The crime at the time of the alleged 1991 incidents called for a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. That means the charges filed against Douglas on Thursday carry a maximum prison sentence of three years.

Douglas was caught when he violated his probation on a previous conviction, and his DNA was taken by officials and placed in a database. The database showed Douglas’ DNA matched that of the semen left in Range’s body.

“I hope,” Deters said, “I never see anybody like Kenneth Douglas again.”

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High Tech UK Police Helicopter And Raid Uncovers Wood Burning Stove – No-Brain Cops Zeroed In On "Heat Source" In A Home

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire – When an infra-red camera on the police helicopter identified a suspicious heat pattern coming from Colin Rowe’s workshop, officers were convinced it was the site of a cannabis factory.

They obtained the necessary search warrant and forced the door to raid the property while the owner was out.

But instead of finding an illicit drugs operation, the officers discovered nothing more sinister than a wood-burning stove.

Upset: Colin Rowe with the door police smashed, left, and the workshop stove, which, as a heat source, led police to believe Mr Rowe was growing cannabis

The heat source police regarded as highly suspicious was simply a stove used to warm the garage workshop where Mr Rowe restores cars in his spare time.

Not surprisingly Mr Rowe was furious when he returned home to find the damaged door and the warrant, which had been posted through his letterbox without an apology.

‘I find it quite disturbing that Wild West Yorkshire Police can do what they want. I think it is disgraceful, I didn’t think the police would treat anyone like this without good reason,’ he said.

‘My dad was a police officer for 40 years and he’s disgusted about this.’

College technician Mr Rowe, 41, who has no previous convictions, added:’I think it’s a pretty poor way for them to behave given that I’m not the sort of person who’s known to the police.’

Commenting on the damage, he said:’There was a big hole in the door which was large enough to get your arm through, the hinges were bent, there were bits of wood on the floor and one of my plant pots was broken.

‘There was a brush and shovel right by the door so, if they’d had any compassion, they would have at least swept up the mess.’

Mr Rowe went to his local police station in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to complain and spoke to the policewoman who applied for the warrant. She said a police helicopter ‘had noted the heat source from my home.’

It appears Mr Rowe’s sensible crime prevention measures may have also heightened the police’s suspicions.

‘She said they sent a patrol to my house and found I had bars on the windows at the back. That’s to prevent burglary – I don’t think it’s excessive.

‘I’ve been given a form to claim compensation and I hope the police will pay for the damage.’

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed officers executed a drugs warrant at 9.45 am last Friday. ‘During the execution of the warrant a door to an external building was forced. Officers located no drugs and arrangements were made for the door to be left secure.

‘No entry was made by officers into the main house itself. It is standard policy that we will pay for repairs in such circumstances and we would be happy to discuss any concerns Mr Rowe has.’

Mr Rowe shares the house with wife Beth, a 40-year-old health visitor. The door has cost £200 to repair and he has had to take time off work because of the police raid.

He said he had taken a car restoration course and enjoyed doing DIY jobs in the workshop at the back of the garage. Mr Rowe said police sent to investigate his premises claimed they could smell cannabis at the back.

They were also suspicious that he had bars on the windows, which were painted so no one could see inside.

‘That’s because I have expensive tools in there and it’s a sensible crime prevention measure,’ he said.

‘I was astonished they carried out this raid, I don’t see how they had sufficient evidence to get a search warrant.’

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UK Paramedic Fired After Refusing To Interrupt His Lunch Break To Help A Man With A Broken Back

LEWES, EAST SUSSEX – A paramedic who refused to help a man with a broken back because he was on his lunch break escaped any punishment yesterday.

Robert Chambers was found guilty of misconduct by the Health Professions Council.

Tribunal chairman Colin Allies said: ‘This was a big professional mistake but he has shown insight into his behaviour.

‘We are satisfied that his fitness to practice is not impaired.’

Chambers, who had admitted a lack of competence, was filling up his ambulance at a petrol station in Lewes, East Sussex, when he was approached by the injured man’s friends on Boxing Day in 2006.

The patient had been on a Boxing Day fox hunt when he injured his back in a Land Rover. His friends had tried to get him out the car but he was in such pain it was impossible to move him.

When asked to help, Chambers said: ‘Sorry – I’m off duty.’

The man remained in agony for 40 minutes as he waited for another ambulance to come from 15 miles away. He had to be given morphine- which Chambers had in his vehicle.

The patient had fractured a vertebrae and was off work for three months.

A paramedic for 18 years, Chambers told South East Ambulance Service bosses at an internal hearing he ‘felt he could ignore’ the request as he was on a break.

But he told the tribunal it was the ‘biggest cock-up of my life’.

‘I should have gone to see the patient. It doesn’t sit comfortably with me,’ he said.

Chris Ford, a project manager for South East Ambulance Service told the hearing: ‘It’s generally understood that if a paramedic is approached by a member of the public, even if he is doing something different, it’s incumbent on him to respond to that incident. If he happens to be at the incident, then it’s appropriate to respond.’

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Murder Charges Dropped After Dumbass Milwaukee County Wisconsin Sheriff’s Deputies Put Witness In Jail Cell With Killer

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a man suspected in a fatal 2007 tavern robbery, after an admitted accomplice reneged on a promise to testify against him.

The witness’ change of heart came after deputies mistakenly put both men in the same room at the Milwaukee County Jail before a key court hearing.

As a result, prosecutors dropped first-degree homicide charges against Joel Rivera, and a judge on Thursday sentenced Christian Colon to 46 years for his role in the crime, far more than he had expected from his original plea deal.

Both men had been charged in the January 2007 robbery and shooting death at Marty’s Party, 3735 W. National Ave., that took the life of customer Nicholas Knutowski.

Colon, 21, was charged in March 2007. He was brought this month to the Milwaukee County Jail from the state prison in Green Bay to testify at the preliminary hearing for Rivera, 20, who was charged in December.

But Colon wound up in the same area with Rivera and then refused to testify.

“It was his mom, his aunt and his brother he was concerned about,” said Colon’s attorney, Nik Kostich. “The Riveras and the Colons all live in the same area. He didn’t want them to take revenge on his family.”

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said Thursday he was livid that the two men were put in the same holding area but added that he doubted that the error led to Colon’s decision not to testify. Nonetheless, he said the matter is under investigation and he would refer it to the district attorney for possible charges against two deputies.

“A court order is a court order,” Clarke said, referring to directives that Colon and Rivera be kept apart. “We have to obey court orders just like anybody.”

District Attorney John Chisholm said there was no excuse for housing the two men together, but that defendants often get cold feet before testifying for the state.

The wrinkle did not set Rivera free; in February 2008, he pleaded guilty to two armed robberies and is serving five years at the Racine Correctional Institute.

Colon will spend much longer in prison. In February 2008, he agreed to plead guilty to felony murder and two counts of armed robbery, while prosecutors dismissed four felony counts from other robberies.

In court Thursday, Assistant District Attorney William Molitor said Colon had been involved in thefts and other relatively minor crimes before joining Rivera at age 18 because he was out of work and needed money to buy diapers for his two young children.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Colon went with Rivera and others on a spree of three business robberies. They all wore masks, and during one robbery, Colon fired two shots from a 45-caliber pistol, according to Molitor.

But at the Marty’s Party robbery, he told police, he had a BB gun, while Rivera was at the door with a loaded pistol, Molitor said.

According to Molitor, Colon said that Rivera told him: “I’ll be at the door. If anyone moves, leave it to me.”

Colon, Rivera and a 14-year-old boy went into the bar, Molitor said, all wearing masks. Knutowski and two female bartenders were there. A shot was fired at the jukebox, and Knutowski moved toward the shooter and was shot twice. The women had dived behind the bar and into a second room and were not hit. The robbers fled.

Colon acknowledged his role in the crimes and had cooperated with police – until he was locked up with Rivera.

Jesse Knutowski told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Patricia McMahon that the killing of his brother, Nicholas, had deeply affected his entire family.

“The affect of Nick’s murder is with us every day,” Jesse Knutowski said. “A day doesn’t go by when we don’t think of him. It affects us differently – some are angry, some want revenge, some have spiraled into depression. It’s changed how we see people, the world and ourselves.”

Colon apologized to the Knutowski family.

“I wish I could go back to that night,” Colon said. “I never meant for this man to get hurt.”

While prosecutors had initially agreed to recommend leniency for Colon, Molitor suggested Thursday that he get the heavier sentence.

McMahon gave Colon 22 years plus six years’ supervision for felony murder, and 12 years plus four years’ supervision on each of the two robbery counts, each to be served consecutively.

“You think nothing of taking things from other people,” McMahon said. “We are known by our acts, by what we do.”

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Hamilton County Ohio Morgue Attendant Had Sex With Corpses – Possibly Over A Hundred

HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO – On many nights over 16 years, Kenneth Douglas engaged in his own personal macabre workplace party.

He often brought drugs or alcohol to work and sometimes had sex with women.

At least three of those women were dead, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Thursday.

But if Douglas is to be believed, he could have had sex with as many as “over a hundred” bodies in the 16 years he worked as night attendant at the Hamilton County morgue.

“I am sure there are more (victims). I’m certain of it,” Deters said Thursday in announcing new indictments against Douglas.

“This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.”

Douglas, 55, of Westwood, already is serving a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to abuse of a corpse. He admitted he had sex with the nearly beheaded body of 19-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982.

Thursday, Douglas was indicted on two more counts of abuse of a corpse after DNA evidence, Deters said, showed Douglas’ semen was in the bodies of two women who were killed in 1991 and stored at the morgue awaiting autopsies:

Charlene Edwards, also known as Charlene Apling, who was six months pregnant.

She was strangled to death Oct. 1, 1991, by Mark Chambers, now 47, in Chambers’ Avondale home. Chambers originally was charged with murder but accepted a plea bargain and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sent to prison for 10-25 years. He was paroled in 2000.

Angel Hicks, 24, of Westwood.

Tyrone Williams, 59, was charged with murder in the December 1991 death of Hicks. He was acquitted months later at trial. There was a question whether Hicks was killed or committed suicide.

Deters said he was stunned by so many aspects of the case: sex with a corpse, sex with violently mutilated or damaged bodies, sex with dozens of bodies.

“Frankly, it’s frightening. His numbers when he’s (talked to authorities) go from one to three or four to ‘a lot’ to maybe over a hundred,” Deters said, quoting Douglas. “I think it’s fair to speculate that he’s been doing this all the time, when he’s able and had the opportunity.”

After Douglas admitted abusing Range’s corpse last year, prosecutors said they suspected there were other victims. They called area law enforcement agencies asking for cases to investigate.

That evidence was mostly vaginal swabs taken from the bodies during autopsies.

Officials came up with 15 cases they believe could have involved Douglas. DNA could be found on 12 of them. Of those, two showed the semen belonged to Douglas.

“We’ll never know” how many victims there are, Deters said, “because (Douglas) doesn’t know. We probably won’t (ever) know the scope of his abuse.”

“It doesn’t surprise me there are other victims. What’s surprising is we were able to demonstrate it,” Deters said. Eighteen years ago DNA was in its infancy as an investigative tool.

Deters’ office contacted the family members of Edwards and Hicks to tell them of the new accusations against Douglas.

“It’s fair to say they were devastated by this news,” Deters said. “I feel badly for the families who are never going to know.”

Douglas, Deters added, told officials he remembered having sex with Range but didn’t recall Edwards or Hicks.

“No one ever saw this man do anything,” Deters said.

The closest, he believes, was an incident in which an assistant coroner tried to get into a room with bodies and found it locked. A few minutes after the doctor knocked, Deters said, “Douglas walked out.”

Deters supports a pending bill that increases the crime of abuse of a corpse – specifically having sex with a corpse – from one year in prison to five years in prison.

The crime at the time of the alleged 1991 incidents called for a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. That means the charges filed against Douglas on Thursday carry a maximum prison sentence of three years.

Douglas was caught when he violated his probation on a previous conviction, and his DNA was taken by officials and placed in a database. The database showed Douglas’ DNA matched that of the semen left in Range’s body.

“I hope,” Deters said, “I never see anybody like Kenneth Douglas again.”

Appeared Here

High Tech UK Police Helicopter And Raid Uncovers Wood Burning Stove – No-Brain Cops Zeroed In On "Heat Source" In A Home

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire – When an infra-red camera on the police helicopter identified a suspicious heat pattern coming from Colin Rowe’s workshop, officers were convinced it was the site of a cannabis factory.

They obtained the necessary search warrant and forced the door to raid the property while the owner was out.

But instead of finding an illicit drugs operation, the officers discovered nothing more sinister than a wood-burning stove.

Upset: Colin Rowe with the door police smashed, left, and the workshop stove, which, as a heat source, led police to believe Mr Rowe was growing cannabis

The heat source police regarded as highly suspicious was simply a stove used to warm the garage workshop where Mr Rowe restores cars in his spare time.

Not surprisingly Mr Rowe was furious when he returned home to find the damaged door and the warrant, which had been posted through his letterbox without an apology.

‘I find it quite disturbing that Wild West Yorkshire Police can do what they want. I think it is disgraceful, I didn’t think the police would treat anyone like this without good reason,’ he said.

‘My dad was a police officer for 40 years and he’s disgusted about this.’

College technician Mr Rowe, 41, who has no previous convictions, added:’I think it’s a pretty poor way for them to behave given that I’m not the sort of person who’s known to the police.’

Commenting on the damage, he said:’There was a big hole in the door which was large enough to get your arm through, the hinges were bent, there were bits of wood on the floor and one of my plant pots was broken.

‘There was a brush and shovel right by the door so, if they’d had any compassion, they would have at least swept up the mess.’

Mr Rowe went to his local police station in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to complain and spoke to the policewoman who applied for the warrant. She said a police helicopter ‘had noted the heat source from my home.’

It appears Mr Rowe’s sensible crime prevention measures may have also heightened the police’s suspicions.

‘She said they sent a patrol to my house and found I had bars on the windows at the back. That’s to prevent burglary – I don’t think it’s excessive.

‘I’ve been given a form to claim compensation and I hope the police will pay for the damage.’

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed officers executed a drugs warrant at 9.45 am last Friday. ‘During the execution of the warrant a door to an external building was forced. Officers located no drugs and arrangements were made for the door to be left secure.

‘No entry was made by officers into the main house itself. It is standard policy that we will pay for repairs in such circumstances and we would be happy to discuss any concerns Mr Rowe has.’

Mr Rowe shares the house with wife Beth, a 40-year-old health visitor. The door has cost £200 to repair and he has had to take time off work because of the police raid.

He said he had taken a car restoration course and enjoyed doing DIY jobs in the workshop at the back of the garage. Mr Rowe said police sent to investigate his premises claimed they could smell cannabis at the back.

They were also suspicious that he had bars on the windows, which were painted so no one could see inside.

‘That’s because I have expensive tools in there and it’s a sensible crime prevention measure,’ he said.

‘I was astonished they carried out this raid, I don’t see how they had sufficient evidence to get a search warrant.’

Appeared Here

UK Paramedic Fired After Refusing To Interrupt His Lunch Break To Help A Man With A Broken Back

LEWES, EAST SUSSEX – A paramedic who refused to help a man with a broken back because he was on his lunch break escaped any punishment yesterday.

Robert Chambers was found guilty of misconduct by the Health Professions Council.

Tribunal chairman Colin Allies said: ‘This was a big professional mistake but he has shown insight into his behaviour.

‘We are satisfied that his fitness to practice is not impaired.’

Chambers, who had admitted a lack of competence, was filling up his ambulance at a petrol station in Lewes, East Sussex, when he was approached by the injured man’s friends on Boxing Day in 2006.

The patient had been on a Boxing Day fox hunt when he injured his back in a Land Rover. His friends had tried to get him out the car but he was in such pain it was impossible to move him.

When asked to help, Chambers said: ‘Sorry – I’m off duty.’

The man remained in agony for 40 minutes as he waited for another ambulance to come from 15 miles away. He had to be given morphine- which Chambers had in his vehicle.

The patient had fractured a vertebrae and was off work for three months.

A paramedic for 18 years, Chambers told South East Ambulance Service bosses at an internal hearing he ‘felt he could ignore’ the request as he was on a break.

But he told the tribunal it was the ‘biggest cock-up of my life’.

‘I should have gone to see the patient. It doesn’t sit comfortably with me,’ he said.

Chris Ford, a project manager for South East Ambulance Service told the hearing: ‘It’s generally understood that if a paramedic is approached by a member of the public, even if he is doing something different, it’s incumbent on him to respond to that incident. If he happens to be at the incident, then it’s appropriate to respond.’

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Murder Charges Dropped After Dumbass Milwaukee County Wisconsin Sheriff’s Deputies Put Witness In Jail Cell With Killer

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a man suspected in a fatal 2007 tavern robbery, after an admitted accomplice reneged on a promise to testify against him.

The witness’ change of heart came after deputies mistakenly put both men in the same room at the Milwaukee County Jail before a key court hearing.

As a result, prosecutors dropped first-degree homicide charges against Joel Rivera, and a judge on Thursday sentenced Christian Colon to 46 years for his role in the crime, far more than he had expected from his original plea deal.

Both men had been charged in the January 2007 robbery and shooting death at Marty’s Party, 3735 W. National Ave., that took the life of customer Nicholas Knutowski.

Colon, 21, was charged in March 2007. He was brought this month to the Milwaukee County Jail from the state prison in Green Bay to testify at the preliminary hearing for Rivera, 20, who was charged in December.

But Colon wound up in the same area with Rivera and then refused to testify.

“It was his mom, his aunt and his brother he was concerned about,” said Colon’s attorney, Nik Kostich. “The Riveras and the Colons all live in the same area. He didn’t want them to take revenge on his family.”

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said Thursday he was livid that the two men were put in the same holding area but added that he doubted that the error led to Colon’s decision not to testify. Nonetheless, he said the matter is under investigation and he would refer it to the district attorney for possible charges against two deputies.

“A court order is a court order,” Clarke said, referring to directives that Colon and Rivera be kept apart. “We have to obey court orders just like anybody.”

District Attorney John Chisholm said there was no excuse for housing the two men together, but that defendants often get cold feet before testifying for the state.

The wrinkle did not set Rivera free; in February 2008, he pleaded guilty to two armed robberies and is serving five years at the Racine Correctional Institute.

Colon will spend much longer in prison. In February 2008, he agreed to plead guilty to felony murder and two counts of armed robbery, while prosecutors dismissed four felony counts from other robberies.

In court Thursday, Assistant District Attorney William Molitor said Colon had been involved in thefts and other relatively minor crimes before joining Rivera at age 18 because he was out of work and needed money to buy diapers for his two young children.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Colon went with Rivera and others on a spree of three business robberies. They all wore masks, and during one robbery, Colon fired two shots from a 45-caliber pistol, according to Molitor.

But at the Marty’s Party robbery, he told police, he had a BB gun, while Rivera was at the door with a loaded pistol, Molitor said.

According to Molitor, Colon said that Rivera told him: “I’ll be at the door. If anyone moves, leave it to me.”

Colon, Rivera and a 14-year-old boy went into the bar, Molitor said, all wearing masks. Knutowski and two female bartenders were there. A shot was fired at the jukebox, and Knutowski moved toward the shooter and was shot twice. The women had dived behind the bar and into a second room and were not hit. The robbers fled.

Colon acknowledged his role in the crimes and had cooperated with police – until he was locked up with Rivera.

Jesse Knutowski told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Patricia McMahon that the killing of his brother, Nicholas, had deeply affected his entire family.

“The affect of Nick’s murder is with us every day,” Jesse Knutowski said. “A day doesn’t go by when we don’t think of him. It affects us differently – some are angry, some want revenge, some have spiraled into depression. It’s changed how we see people, the world and ourselves.”

Colon apologized to the Knutowski family.

“I wish I could go back to that night,” Colon said. “I never meant for this man to get hurt.”

While prosecutors had initially agreed to recommend leniency for Colon, Molitor suggested Thursday that he get the heavier sentence.

McMahon gave Colon 22 years plus six years’ supervision for felony murder, and 12 years plus four years’ supervision on each of the two robbery counts, each to be served consecutively.

“You think nothing of taking things from other people,” McMahon said. “We are known by our acts, by what we do.”

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Los Angeles California Motorists Must Pay Tickets From Illegal Red Light Cameras

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – The Appellate Division of the Superior Court in Los Angeles County, California on Monday disagreed with its appellate colleagues to the south over the legality of red light camera tickets issued by companies under a financial incentive to produce more tickets. The court upheld a citation generated by a machine on July 8, 2007 at the intersection of Avenue L and 20th Street in Lancaster. The automated camera snapped a photo of a 2004 Honda making a left-hand turn just 0.18 seconds after the light had turned red.

The defendant in the case argued that this ticket was invalid because it had been issued by a private company and the city of Lancaster who were operating together under an arrangement specifically forbidden by the state’s red light camera statute. The law requires that camera contractors be compensated on a flat-rate basis to remove the financial incentive for the company to issue more tickets. Lancaster is one of dozens of California cities ignoring this mandate by using a “cost neutral” formula that adjusts the rate paid based on whether the number of tickets issued falls within a certain range.

The Orange County appellate court in December struck down photo tickets issued in the city of Fullerton because it used a similar payment scheme (view decision). The Los Angeles appellate court, however, refused to consider whether or not the Lancaster arrangement violated the law. It insisted that this question was irrelevant.

“Had the legislature intended for such compliance or contract language to be conditions precedent to the issuance of citations, part of the prosecution’s prima facie case, or a basis for the exclusion of evidence, it would have simply included the appropriate language reflecting its intent in the statute,” Judge Patti Jo McKay wrote for the three-judge panel.

In effect, McKay ruled that if a municipality refuses to follow the law by using a contract based upon bounty payments, nothing can be done about it. McKay also refused to overturn the ticket on the grounds that the city had refused to provide to the defendant inspection, calibration and maintenance records for both the traffic light and the red light camera. The appellate court ruled that it was appropriate to conceal this information because the defendant failed to prove that the unseen documents contained exculpatory evidence.

“Other than speculation, there is no basis to conclude that the calibration and maintenance report contained information favorable to the defendant,” McKay wrote.

Both the Orange County and Los Angeles courts draw millions in revenue from “court costs” imposed on the $400 camera ticket. Despite this, the Orange County court has been consistently more skeptical of the procedures used in automated ticketing. The split between the courts can only be resolved by referring a case to the California Court of Appeal or Supreme Court. In 2005, the high court sided with the Orange County court’s reasoning and declined to reopen a decision that tossed a photo ticket over a city’s failure to follow warning requirements. The decision was left unpublished, denying it precedential value, until the same defendant filed an identical case that was ordered published earlier this month.

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Crazed Virginia Authorities Think That Color Photos On Driver’s Licenses Are A "Security Threat"

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Do you like to apply a little rouge and lipstick before getting your new driver’s license? It soon won’t matter in Virginia, which apparently thinks color makes you a security threat.

There’s something missing from the new Virginia driver’s licenses…

The Department of Motor Vehicles is rolling out a new look for Virginia licenses, and that look includes a lot of black and white.

Starting in March, the state will begin issuing new licenses and ID cards with black-and-white photos intended to improve security and blunt counterfeiting. How does a non-color photo make us more secure? Good question.

While current licenses are made of layers of plastic, the new licenses have no layers to be stripped away and photographs are laser engraved. Frickin’ lasers! Apparently, however, the lasers don’t engrave in color. We’ve been to the moon… to the moon… sigh.

Anyway, the new licenses have other security features, such as microprinting and a transparent second photograph, which is also black and white and can be see from both the front and the back of the card.

At least the card itself has some color to it, helping to offset the new card’s notion that Virginia is the most boring state in the U.S.

Driver’s licenses and ID cards issued prior to implementation of the new format remain valid until expiration, so enjoy the color while it lasts.

And remember, the DMV reserves the right to refuse to issue a driver’s license or ID card to any applicant who appears for photographing in a disguise or intentionally distorts their face to alter their appearance. According to the DMV, a disguise includes, but is not limited to, unusual makeup, paint, wig, sunglasses or false facial hair. Facial distortion includes, but is not limited to, deliberately crossing or squinting eyes, or opening or twisting mouth.

McLovin’, we’re looking in your direction…

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Jacksonville Florida Police Officer Marcus Kilpatrick Was Going 98 Miles Per Hour When He Struck And Killed Innocent Elderly Motorist

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – A Jacksonville traffic cop was speeding after a vehicle with excessive window tint when the officer plowed into a pickup truck, killing an 86-year-old man last month, the Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday night.

Officer Marcus Kilpatrick was driving an estimated 98 mph when his patrol car struck the truck driven by Matthew Brice Ogden Jr. on Merrill Road Jan. 14. Ogden, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown through the passenger window of his vehicle and died at the scene. The road has a posted speed limit of 40 mph.

Lt. Bill Leeper, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol, said a traffic homicide investigator told him Tuesday night about the traffic violation targeted by Kilpatrick. Having windows dark enough to obstruct the driver’s view or be a safety issue for police is a civil infraction under state law. There are different measurements of tint for side and rear windows. The infraction is considered a nonmoving violation.

Leeper declined to comment further on the case, which is still under investigation by the Highway Patrol and the State Attorney’s Office. The investigation includes questions over some witness accounts that Kilpatrick was not using his emergency lights or siren. Kilpatrick told investigators he’d activated the lights but not the siren, his police union attorney said.

The vehicle Kilpatrick was trying to catch was not stopped. Kilpatrick’s estimated speed was recorded on a computer in his car. The computer records data similar to a plane’s black box.

Ogden’s stepson, Douglas Berreth, said he received a call Tuesday night from the Highway Patrol about the tint violation. Berreth said he was appalled by the news.

“It’s ridiculous that someone loses their life and an officer needs to chase someone for bad window tint at 98 miles per hour,” Berreth said. “That’s preposterous.”

Kilpatrick, who remains on duty as a traffic enforcement officer, has referred calls to the Fraternal Order of Police. Police union attorney Paul Daragjati said Kilpatrick acted properly with the information he had at the time.

“I’ve known Marcus for quite a while and he always uses good judgment,” Daragjati said. “I think that in this unfortunate incident that he, for whatever reason, felt that this particular individual needed to be stopped.”

Kilpatrick, an officer since 2004, remains on duty as a traffic enforcement officer. The Sheriff’s Office has yet to hold an administrative hearing into the matter because the investigation is ongoing.

The patrol car, going west on Merrill Road, struck Ogden’s eastbound pickup truck as it was turning from the center lane into a parking lot about 1 p.m. Both cars spun and the truck then struck the patrol car. The patrol car then drove into the driver’s side of a stopped car about to leave the parking lot.

Kilpatrick, 29, suffered minor injuries, as did the driver of the stopped vehicle, Robyn McCormick, 33.

McCormick’s lawyer, Henry Gare, said Ogden’s insurance agents told him witnesses saw Kilpatrick driving without his emergency equipment on. Under state law, when an officer exceeds the speed limit to catch a traffic violator, he must use emergency equipment and consider whether he is endangering the public.

Gare’s account reflects a report by the Highway Patrol that some witnesses contradicted initial indications that Kilpatrick’s emergency lights were on.

Gare said McCormick did not see the police car coming.

“It was still a violent collision with her [McCormick’s] car, that’s just how incredibly fast he was going,” Gare said. “There are reasons why they need lights and sirens on so tragedies like this don’t happen.”

McCormick suffered a shoulder injury that will require months of therapy, Gare said. He said he has notified the city that he is investigating the accident. Berreth said he is considering hiring a lawyer to investigate the case.

State and court records show that Kilpatrick was cited for speeding twice in 1998 and once in 2000, before he joined the Sheriff’s Office. Department records show that Kilpatrick has had one accident, when he backed into a parked vehicle in 2006. Records also show he was cited for failing to observe a stop sign in 1999 and was operating a vehicle with defective equipment in 2005. As for Ogden, records show he received a speeding and seat belt citation last year, 10 years since his last citation.

Kilpatrick’s evaluations are full of praise from his superiors. He is described as a enthusiastic team player who is kind and caring toward the public.

“Officer Kilpatrick is a hard worker that quietly does a very good job,” concluded his latest evaluation in September 2008.

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Gainesville Florida Authorities Ticket A Car 7 Times With A Dead Body In The Back Seat

The identity of man found dead inside a car in College Park on Monday afternoon has been confirmed as that of a Gainesville engineer missing since Feb. 11.

Now city employees are answering questions about why the man’s car was ticketed seven times by city employees, beginning the day after he was last seen alive.

Gainesville police said that a preliminary autopsy on the body found in the backseat of the 2001 silver BMW 330i confirmed that it was John Waldo, 42, an engineer at AvMed, who was last seen alive Feb. 11 at Calico Jack’s Oyster Bar, 3502 SW 2nd Ave., in Gainesville.

“But the autopsy was inconclusive — there was no obvious cause of death,” said Gainesville Police spokesman Keith Kameg. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results, which may take up to six weeks, before they will likely narrow their focus in trying to determine the cause of Waldo’s death.

At 4 p.m. Monday, a resident of College Park called police about a car that had been parked in the 1900 block of NW 2nd Avenue for several days and had been ticketed seven times by city employees.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA – Police detective Bennie Smith said Waldo was seated face-forward on the passenger side of the back seat, was fully clothed and had the car’s ignition key in his possession when he was found. A loaded pistol was found inside the trunk of the car.

“We don’t expect the cause of death to be foul play,” Smith told The Sun on Wednesday afternoon.

City records show a ticket officer issued seven tickets to Waldo’s BMW, with the first ticket being issued Feb. 12, the day after Waldo was last seen alive.

According to Kameg, Smith said the reason the ticket officers apparently did not notice someone slumped over in the BMW may have been because the window tint on the car was illegally dark.

“Even the person who called this in was not real sure if they had seen him clearly,” said Kameg.

Bob Woods, spokesman for the city of Gainesville, said that the city’s ticket officers are not trained police officers but work out of the city’s public works department. The police department had been charged with enforcing parking in the city until January 2008, when the duty was assigned to public works.

Woods said that after three parking tickets are issued, a car is flagged for additional enforcement such as booting or towing, However, Woods said it could take several days for the system to register the tickets, which was apparently the case for Waldo’s BMW.

According to Woods, the city will now make a point of alerting ticket officers about specific vehicles that police are looking for.

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Three Atlanta Georgia Police Officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler Sentenced To Federal Prison – A Slap On The Wrists For Murdering A 92 Year Old Woman During Botched Drug Raid – Planted Drugs And Got An Informant To Lie

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – The federal sentencing of three ex-Atlanta police officers for the illegal drug raid that left a 92-year-old woman dead closes only one chapter in the tragic case, the Atlanta Police Department said Wednesday.

“Restoring trust and confidence as well as healing the communities we serve are paramount in our efforts to rebuild a positive relationship with citizens of Atlanta,” the department said in a statement.

Atlanta police also will continue to review a report submitted by the FBI, which investigated the force after Kathryn Johnston’s shooting, “and take the appropriate action where necessary,” the department said.

The department statement came a day after a federal judge sent three fallen cops to prison for their roles in the raid on Johnston’s Neal Street home.

The judge said performance quotas influenced the officers’ behavior.

“It is my fervent hope the Atlanta Police Department will take to heart what has happened here,” U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes said. After conducting an emotional two-day hearing, Carnes sentenced former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler to between five and 10 years in prison.

At the hearing, Tesler’s lawyer provided examples of other Atlanta police officers who broke the rules or violated the law and said a disturbing culture of misconduct pervades the force.

Following the sentencings, state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), who represents Johnston’s neighborhood, called on Atlanta police to release the FBI report. Federal prosecutors have said it contains recommendations that could lead to some officers being disciplined, fired or indicted on state charges.

“The public ought to know what that report says,” Fort said.

Carnes imposed the most severe sentence — 10 years — on Smith, 36, who obtained the illegal, no-knock search warrant allowing officers to batter down Johnston’s door.

A terrified Johnston, thinking she was victimized by a home invasion, fired a warning shot through the door. Narcotics officers responded with a hail of gunfire, killing her.

Carnes sentenced Junnier, 42, to six years in prison. Junnier, the most experienced officer, was the first to cross the “blue line” — the unspoken code of silence among police — and divulge to the FBI what really happened at Neal Street and how the officers concocted a sophisticated coverup.

For Junnier’s cooperation, Carnes cut his time from the 10 years recommended by sentencing guidelines.

The judge gave the biggest break to Tesler, saying prosecutors’ recommendation of a 10- to 14-year term was “unduly harsh” because, overall, he played a “minor role.” She sentenced Tesler, 42, to five years in prison.

There is no parole in the federal system, but inmates can carve 15 percent off their time with good behavior. Junnier and Smith are to be sentenced March 5 in Fulton County on state charges, including voluntary manslaughter. Those sentences are to run concurrently with the federal time.

Tesler’s lawyer, Bill McKenney, told Carnes his client was being made “a sacrificial lamb and a scapegoat.” A former military man and a rookie on the squad, Tesler followed orders — including adhering to the script Smith provided for a cover story, the lawyer said.

After the shooting, Smith planted marijuana in Johnston’s home to make it look like a drug house.

In court, McKenney divulged details of an FBI report forwarded to Atlanta Police that shows how other officers broke rules.

McKenney said the FBI found that at least two other officers took “handoffs” from Junnier.

A “handoff” occurs when one officer collects information on a drug case and passes it on to another officer, who then falsely swears on a search warrant affidavit as if he or she had firsthand information about it.

Another officer, McKenney said, split a rock of crack cocaine seized in one case and used it for another case. One officer, he said, padded expense vouchers and used the cash to buy tinted windows for surveillance cars.

The FBI also found performance quotas of nine arrests and two search warrants a month expected of officers, McKenney said. Officers who failed to meet their quotas risked being transferred, he said.

This helped explain, Carnes said, why Smith, Junnier and Tesler — devoted family men and who gave selflessly to the communities — began cutting corners through lies.

“The pressures brought to bear” by the quotas had an impact on Smith, Junnier and Tesler, as well as other officers, Carnes said.

Following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias noted the Johnston tragedy prompted Atlanta Police to require new training and to revamp the narcotics unit. The prison terms also send a strong message to other officers who may think the “ends justify the means” by taking shortcuts or telling lies, he said.

Carnes also ordered all three former officers to reimburse Johnston’s estate the $8,180 it cost to bury her

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Infant Found In Toilet At Peach County Georgia Jail

FORT VALLEY, GEORGIA — Peach County authorities say a newborn girl was found in the toilet of a jail cell.

According to Sheriff Terry Deese, 25-year-old Cornelia Kornegay of Roberta had the infant in a holding cell Wednesday morning and told jailers her baby was in the toilet.

Deese said deputies found the infant upside down submerged in water, but the toddler survived. He said jailers were unaware that Kornegay was pregnant.

Kornegay likely will face a charge of felony cruelty to children and other offenses. She was already being held at the facility for violating probation.

Deese said the infant, a 7 pound, 6-ounce girl was taken to a local hospital and was listed in good condition.

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Coweta Georgia Judge Thomas Crossroads Takes A Job At Wendys

COWETA, GEORGIA – Recent customers at the Thomas Crossroads Wendy’s may have done a double take when they saw who was handing them their food through the drive-thru window.

Coweta State Court Solicitor Robert Stokely took a minimum wage job at Wendy’s in late January, he says, to make ends meet after his expected cost-of-living raise was withheld.

Stokely was asked about the job after someone contacted The Times-Herald to say she had seen the solicitor at the restaurant three times.

Stokely’s salary is based on a percentage of the salary paid to superior court judges.

Last fall, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided to hold back a raise for judges because of state budget constraints. The raise for Stokely “is sitting in the budget” for his office, he said, but Coweta County officials decided not to give him the raise. That decision is entirely in their rights, Stokely said.

Most county employees did get the cost-of-living raise, said Patricia Palmer, Coweta County public information officer, but several employees whose job is partially governed by the state did not, she said. That included state court and superior court judges.

When Stokely found out he wasn’t getting the raise, “I looked at my personal budget. I said, I’ve got commitments I’ve made to people that I will help them with what they are doing, and I’ve got bills to pay, and I am not breaking my word to those people,” Stokely said. “I went out and got the best job I could find.”

Though Stokely’s annual salary is a little more than $93,000, “it just comes down that with the cost of living and looking at where my financial situation is — I can’t stagnate,” he said.

“I know somebody is going to say, golly, he is lucky” to be making that much money, Stokely said. “I consider myself a very fortunate person, but I’ve worked very hard to get where I’m at,” he said. “I think the fact that I work for minimum wage shows I am willing to work.”

“Instead of whining” or reneging on his charitable commitments, “I said, OK, get out there and get a second job,” Stokely said.

Several years ago, Stokely started driving a transport truck on the weekends to pay the salary of an assistant in his office. But these days, the trucking industry is slow. Plus, that job required too much commitment of time.

The Wendy’s restaurant is near his home, and “I’m the filler guy on the schedule,” Stokely said. “I have made it very clear that I don’t want somebody else’s job cut short just for me.”

The job doesn’t cut into the time he spends as solicitor, Stokely said. “What I do on my time is my business as long as it doesn’t conflict with my duties.”

Stokely was asked whether he might be taking a job away from someone who needs the money.

Stokely said he can’t take responsibility for something like that. “I’m sure Wendy’s didn’t hire me just to give the solicitor a $7.25 supplement. That door is open for them to go and apply just like it was for me,” he said.

“If somebody doesn’t have a job and they are upset that I am out there trying to work two jobs, then they have got to be upset with a lot of people, because I am not alone.”

Stokely said he applied to 10 or 12 jobs before he was hired to work at Wendy’s. He said he got quite a few strange looks when he told prospective employers about his day job.

“I know how tough it is out there finding jobs, and I’m sorry if anybody doesn’t have a job,” Stokely said.

“But I’m just doing what it takes for me to make a living in life and pay my bills.”

The job has given him a whole new appreciation for those who work in the fast- food industry.

“It is hard work and you’ve got to be fast afoot and fast with your mind,” he said. “People work hard for what they make and I am really impressed,” he said. “I have really learned a lot of management strategy down there, to be honest.”

It has also been pretty rewarding. “I feel extremely appreciated when I go into Wendy’s and go behind the counter. They tell me when I do a good job,” he said. “They act like it makes a difference what I do down there every day.”

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Clarke County Georgia Assistant District Attorney William Michael Olson Quits In Disgrace After Attempt To Steal A Hot Dog From A Street Vendor

CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA – A Clarke County assistant district attorney resigned Wednesday morning, hours after he allegedly tussled with a street vendor downtown and refused to pay for a hot dog.

William Michael Olson, 36, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and theft of services, Athens-Clarke police said.

Olson posted a $500 bond, was released from jail and resigned during a meeting with Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin.

“Billy is a good man and I think the world of him,” Mauldin said. “This is a very unfortunate situation, and I can only wish him the best and keep him in my thoughts and prayers.”

A police officer responded to a 1:25 a.m. report of a fight at the corner of East Broad Street and College Avenue, police said.

A street vendor told the officer that Olson ate a hot dog and walked away without paying; he also put his hands on the vendor’s chest two times, according to police.

When the officer caught up with Olson, the prosecutor said he didn’t know anything about a hot dog, though he had ketchup and mustard on his shirt, police said.

Olson’s speech was slurred and his eyes bloodshot, and his language was laced with profanities, the officer wrote in a report.

When the officer threatened to arrest him if he refused to pay $2.50 for the hot dog, Olson pulled out his wallet and flashed his assistant district attorney badge, police said.

He “told me I needed to be careful” and asked “was I was sure that I wanted to do this,” the officer wrote in the report.

Olson was incredulous when the officer said he would arrest him.

“You are going to lock me up for a f—ng hot dog, a dollar hot dog?” the officer quoted Olson in his report.

When a police supervisor arrived, Olson admitted to the officers that he’d been drinking, but told them he couldn’t recall details of what just happened, police said.

Mauldin would not say if he asked Olson to resign, but said his former assistant is a likable person and a diligent attorney.

“I think he has some matters he needs to address, and I’m sure he’ll be working through them,” Mauldin said.

Olson is respected among local defense attorneys, and his alleged behavior was out of character for the man they saw in court, according to Kim T. Stephens, who represented clients in several cases that Olson prosecuted.

“He was very professional and fair, and always seemed just in the cases he handled,” Stephens said. “My thoughts about him wouldn’t change just because of this incident.”

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North Vancouver Canada Police Officer Darren Baker Receives A Slap On The Wrist For Drunk Driving

NORTH VANCOUVER, CANADA – A North Vancouver police officer has been punished following an RCMP disciplinary hearing Thursday for drunk driving.

Cpl. Darren Baker was ordered Thursday to forfeit 10 days’ pay after he admitted at the hearing to driving under the influence of alcohol in December 2007.

The punishment is the most severe Baker could have received without being fired or demoted.

Still, it could have been a lot worse.

The officer was facing a criminal charge of impaired driving last year after he was pulled over for erratic driving in West Vancouver.

The charge was eventually stayed in January because Crown prosecutors overlooked a request by the defence to provide a key piece of evidence — a videotape of the West Vancouver police cellblock where Baker’s breathalyzer sample was taken.

By the time the mistake was realized, the tape had been recycled.

B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said in January he was disappointed by the stayed charges.

The case gained prominence because RCMP headquarters only revealed last October that Baker had been charged with impaired driving, 10 months after the incident. They blamed the delay in disclosure on a communications breakdown.

The case was one of four incidents involving Lower Mainland-area police officers that were revealed last fall.

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Los Angeles California Motorists Must Pay Tickets From Illegal Red Light Cameras

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – The Appellate Division of the Superior Court in Los Angeles County, California on Monday disagreed with its appellate colleagues to the south over the legality of red light camera tickets issued by companies under a financial incentive to produce more tickets. The court upheld a citation generated by a machine on July 8, 2007 at the intersection of Avenue L and 20th Street in Lancaster. The automated camera snapped a photo of a 2004 Honda making a left-hand turn just 0.18 seconds after the light had turned red.

The defendant in the case argued that this ticket was invalid because it had been issued by a private company and the city of Lancaster who were operating together under an arrangement specifically forbidden by the state’s red light camera statute. The law requires that camera contractors be compensated on a flat-rate basis to remove the financial incentive for the company to issue more tickets. Lancaster is one of dozens of California cities ignoring this mandate by using a “cost neutral” formula that adjusts the rate paid based on whether the number of tickets issued falls within a certain range.

The Orange County appellate court in December struck down photo tickets issued in the city of Fullerton because it used a similar payment scheme (view decision). The Los Angeles appellate court, however, refused to consider whether or not the Lancaster arrangement violated the law. It insisted that this question was irrelevant.

“Had the legislature intended for such compliance or contract language to be conditions precedent to the issuance of citations, part of the prosecution’s prima facie case, or a basis for the exclusion of evidence, it would have simply included the appropriate language reflecting its intent in the statute,” Judge Patti Jo McKay wrote for the three-judge panel.

In effect, McKay ruled that if a municipality refuses to follow the law by using a contract based upon bounty payments, nothing can be done about it. McKay also refused to overturn the ticket on the grounds that the city had refused to provide to the defendant inspection, calibration and maintenance records for both the traffic light and the red light camera. The appellate court ruled that it was appropriate to conceal this information because the defendant failed to prove that the unseen documents contained exculpatory evidence.

“Other than speculation, there is no basis to conclude that the calibration and maintenance report contained information favorable to the defendant,” McKay wrote.

Both the Orange County and Los Angeles courts draw millions in revenue from “court costs” imposed on the $400 camera ticket. Despite this, the Orange County court has been consistently more skeptical of the procedures used in automated ticketing. The split between the courts can only be resolved by referring a case to the California Court of Appeal or Supreme Court. In 2005, the high court sided with the Orange County court’s reasoning and declined to reopen a decision that tossed a photo ticket over a city’s failure to follow warning requirements. The decision was left unpublished, denying it precedential value, until the same defendant filed an identical case that was ordered published earlier this month.

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Crazed Virginia Authorities Think That Color Photos On Driver’s Licenses Are A "Security Threat"

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Do you like to apply a little rouge and lipstick before getting your new driver’s license? It soon won’t matter in Virginia, which apparently thinks color makes you a security threat.

There’s something missing from the new Virginia driver’s licenses…

The Department of Motor Vehicles is rolling out a new look for Virginia licenses, and that look includes a lot of black and white.

Starting in March, the state will begin issuing new licenses and ID cards with black-and-white photos intended to improve security and blunt counterfeiting. How does a non-color photo make us more secure? Good question.

While current licenses are made of layers of plastic, the new licenses have no layers to be stripped away and photographs are laser engraved. Frickin’ lasers! Apparently, however, the lasers don’t engrave in color. We’ve been to the moon… to the moon… sigh.

Anyway, the new licenses have other security features, such as microprinting and a transparent second photograph, which is also black and white and can be see from both the front and the back of the card.

At least the card itself has some color to it, helping to offset the new card’s notion that Virginia is the most boring state in the U.S.

Driver’s licenses and ID cards issued prior to implementation of the new format remain valid until expiration, so enjoy the color while it lasts.

And remember, the DMV reserves the right to refuse to issue a driver’s license or ID card to any applicant who appears for photographing in a disguise or intentionally distorts their face to alter their appearance. According to the DMV, a disguise includes, but is not limited to, unusual makeup, paint, wig, sunglasses or false facial hair. Facial distortion includes, but is not limited to, deliberately crossing or squinting eyes, or opening or twisting mouth.

McLovin’, we’re looking in your direction…

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Jacksonville Florida Police Officer Marcus Kilpatrick Was Going 98 Miles Per Hour When He Struck And Killed Innocent Elderly Motorist

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – A Jacksonville traffic cop was speeding after a vehicle with excessive window tint when the officer plowed into a pickup truck, killing an 86-year-old man last month, the Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday night.

Officer Marcus Kilpatrick was driving an estimated 98 mph when his patrol car struck the truck driven by Matthew Brice Ogden Jr. on Merrill Road Jan. 14. Ogden, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown through the passenger window of his vehicle and died at the scene. The road has a posted speed limit of 40 mph.

Lt. Bill Leeper, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol, said a traffic homicide investigator told him Tuesday night about the traffic violation targeted by Kilpatrick. Having windows dark enough to obstruct the driver’s view or be a safety issue for police is a civil infraction under state law. There are different measurements of tint for side and rear windows. The infraction is considered a nonmoving violation.

Leeper declined to comment further on the case, which is still under investigation by the Highway Patrol and the State Attorney’s Office. The investigation includes questions over some witness accounts that Kilpatrick was not using his emergency lights or siren. Kilpatrick told investigators he’d activated the lights but not the siren, his police union attorney said.

The vehicle Kilpatrick was trying to catch was not stopped. Kilpatrick’s estimated speed was recorded on a computer in his car. The computer records data similar to a plane’s black box.

Ogden’s stepson, Douglas Berreth, said he received a call Tuesday night from the Highway Patrol about the tint violation. Berreth said he was appalled by the news.

“It’s ridiculous that someone loses their life and an officer needs to chase someone for bad window tint at 98 miles per hour,” Berreth said. “That’s preposterous.”

Kilpatrick, who remains on duty as a traffic enforcement officer, has referred calls to the Fraternal Order of Police. Police union attorney Paul Daragjati said Kilpatrick acted properly with the information he had at the time.

“I’ve known Marcus for quite a while and he always uses good judgment,” Daragjati said. “I think that in this unfortunate incident that he, for whatever reason, felt that this particular individual needed to be stopped.”

Kilpatrick, an officer since 2004, remains on duty as a traffic enforcement officer. The Sheriff’s Office has yet to hold an administrative hearing into the matter because the investigation is ongoing.

The patrol car, going west on Merrill Road, struck Ogden’s eastbound pickup truck as it was turning from the center lane into a parking lot about 1 p.m. Both cars spun and the truck then struck the patrol car. The patrol car then drove into the driver’s side of a stopped car about to leave the parking lot.

Kilpatrick, 29, suffered minor injuries, as did the driver of the stopped vehicle, Robyn McCormick, 33.

McCormick’s lawyer, Henry Gare, said Ogden’s insurance agents told him witnesses saw Kilpatrick driving without his emergency equipment on. Under state law, when an officer exceeds the speed limit to catch a traffic violator, he must use emergency equipment and consider whether he is endangering the public.

Gare’s account reflects a report by the Highway Patrol that some witnesses contradicted initial indications that Kilpatrick’s emergency lights were on.

Gare said McCormick did not see the police car coming.

“It was still a violent collision with her [McCormick’s] car, that’s just how incredibly fast he was going,” Gare said. “There are reasons why they need lights and sirens on so tragedies like this don’t happen.”

McCormick suffered a shoulder injury that will require months of therapy, Gare said. He said he has notified the city that he is investigating the accident. Berreth said he is considering hiring a lawyer to investigate the case.

State and court records show that Kilpatrick was cited for speeding twice in 1998 and once in 2000, before he joined the Sheriff’s Office. Department records show that Kilpatrick has had one accident, when he backed into a parked vehicle in 2006. Records also show he was cited for failing to observe a stop sign in 1999 and was operating a vehicle with defective equipment in 2005. As for Ogden, records show he received a speeding and seat belt citation last year, 10 years since his last citation.

Kilpatrick’s evaluations are full of praise from his superiors. He is described as a enthusiastic team player who is kind and caring toward the public.

“Officer Kilpatrick is a hard worker that quietly does a very good job,” concluded his latest evaluation in September 2008.

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Gainesville Florida Authorities Ticket A Car 7 Times With A Dead Body In The Back Seat

The identity of man found dead inside a car in College Park on Monday afternoon has been confirmed as that of a Gainesville engineer missing since Feb. 11.

Now city employees are answering questions about why the man’s car was ticketed seven times by city employees, beginning the day after he was last seen alive.

Gainesville police said that a preliminary autopsy on the body found in the backseat of the 2001 silver BMW 330i confirmed that it was John Waldo, 42, an engineer at AvMed, who was last seen alive Feb. 11 at Calico Jack’s Oyster Bar, 3502 SW 2nd Ave., in Gainesville.

“But the autopsy was inconclusive — there was no obvious cause of death,” said Gainesville Police spokesman Keith Kameg. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results, which may take up to six weeks, before they will likely narrow their focus in trying to determine the cause of Waldo’s death.

At 4 p.m. Monday, a resident of College Park called police about a car that had been parked in the 1900 block of NW 2nd Avenue for several days and had been ticketed seven times by city employees.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA – Police detective Bennie Smith said Waldo was seated face-forward on the passenger side of the back seat, was fully clothed and had the car’s ignition key in his possession when he was found. A loaded pistol was found inside the trunk of the car.

“We don’t expect the cause of death to be foul play,” Smith told The Sun on Wednesday afternoon.

City records show a ticket officer issued seven tickets to Waldo’s BMW, with the first ticket being issued Feb. 12, the day after Waldo was last seen alive.

According to Kameg, Smith said the reason the ticket officers apparently did not notice someone slumped over in the BMW may have been because the window tint on the car was illegally dark.

“Even the person who called this in was not real sure if they had seen him clearly,” said Kameg.

Bob Woods, spokesman for the city of Gainesville, said that the city’s ticket officers are not trained police officers but work out of the city’s public works department. The police department had been charged with enforcing parking in the city until January 2008, when the duty was assigned to public works.

Woods said that after three parking tickets are issued, a car is flagged for additional enforcement such as booting or towing, However, Woods said it could take several days for the system to register the tickets, which was apparently the case for Waldo’s BMW.

According to Woods, the city will now make a point of alerting ticket officers about specific vehicles that police are looking for.

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Three Atlanta Georgia Police Officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler Sentenced To Federal Prison – A Slap On The Wrists For Murdering A 92 Year Old Woman During Botched Drug Raid – Planted Drugs And Got An Informant To Lie

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – The federal sentencing of three ex-Atlanta police officers for the illegal drug raid that left a 92-year-old woman dead closes only one chapter in the tragic case, the Atlanta Police Department said Wednesday.

“Restoring trust and confidence as well as healing the communities we serve are paramount in our efforts to rebuild a positive relationship with citizens of Atlanta,” the department said in a statement.

Atlanta police also will continue to review a report submitted by the FBI, which investigated the force after Kathryn Johnston’s shooting, “and take the appropriate action where necessary,” the department said.

The department statement came a day after a federal judge sent three fallen cops to prison for their roles in the raid on Johnston’s Neal Street home.

The judge said performance quotas influenced the officers’ behavior.

“It is my fervent hope the Atlanta Police Department will take to heart what has happened here,” U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes said. After conducting an emotional two-day hearing, Carnes sentenced former officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Bruce Tesler to between five and 10 years in prison.

At the hearing, Tesler’s lawyer provided examples of other Atlanta police officers who broke the rules or violated the law and said a disturbing culture of misconduct pervades the force.

Following the sentencings, state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), who represents Johnston’s neighborhood, called on Atlanta police to release the FBI report. Federal prosecutors have said it contains recommendations that could lead to some officers being disciplined, fired or indicted on state charges.

“The public ought to know what that report says,” Fort said.

Carnes imposed the most severe sentence — 10 years — on Smith, 36, who obtained the illegal, no-knock search warrant allowing officers to batter down Johnston’s door.

A terrified Johnston, thinking she was victimized by a home invasion, fired a warning shot through the door. Narcotics officers responded with a hail of gunfire, killing her.

Carnes sentenced Junnier, 42, to six years in prison. Junnier, the most experienced officer, was the first to cross the “blue line” — the unspoken code of silence among police — and divulge to the FBI what really happened at Neal Street and how the officers concocted a sophisticated coverup.

For Junnier’s cooperation, Carnes cut his time from the 10 years recommended by sentencing guidelines.

The judge gave the biggest break to Tesler, saying prosecutors’ recommendation of a 10- to 14-year term was “unduly harsh” because, overall, he played a “minor role.” She sentenced Tesler, 42, to five years in prison.

There is no parole in the federal system, but inmates can carve 15 percent off their time with good behavior. Junnier and Smith are to be sentenced March 5 in Fulton County on state charges, including voluntary manslaughter. Those sentences are to run concurrently with the federal time.

Tesler’s lawyer, Bill McKenney, told Carnes his client was being made “a sacrificial lamb and a scapegoat.” A former military man and a rookie on the squad, Tesler followed orders — including adhering to the script Smith provided for a cover story, the lawyer said.

After the shooting, Smith planted marijuana in Johnston’s home to make it look like a drug house.

In court, McKenney divulged details of an FBI report forwarded to Atlanta Police that shows how other officers broke rules.

McKenney said the FBI found that at least two other officers took “handoffs” from Junnier.

A “handoff” occurs when one officer collects information on a drug case and passes it on to another officer, who then falsely swears on a search warrant affidavit as if he or she had firsthand information about it.

Another officer, McKenney said, split a rock of crack cocaine seized in one case and used it for another case. One officer, he said, padded expense vouchers and used the cash to buy tinted windows for surveillance cars.

The FBI also found performance quotas of nine arrests and two search warrants a month expected of officers, McKenney said. Officers who failed to meet their quotas risked being transferred, he said.

This helped explain, Carnes said, why Smith, Junnier and Tesler — devoted family men and who gave selflessly to the communities — began cutting corners through lies.

“The pressures brought to bear” by the quotas had an impact on Smith, Junnier and Tesler, as well as other officers, Carnes said.

Following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias noted the Johnston tragedy prompted Atlanta Police to require new training and to revamp the narcotics unit. The prison terms also send a strong message to other officers who may think the “ends justify the means” by taking shortcuts or telling lies, he said.

Carnes also ordered all three former officers to reimburse Johnston’s estate the $8,180 it cost to bury her

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Infant Found In Toilet At Peach County Georgia Jail

FORT VALLEY, GEORGIA — Peach County authorities say a newborn girl was found in the toilet of a jail cell.

According to Sheriff Terry Deese, 25-year-old Cornelia Kornegay of Roberta had the infant in a holding cell Wednesday morning and told jailers her baby was in the toilet.

Deese said deputies found the infant upside down submerged in water, but the toddler survived. He said jailers were unaware that Kornegay was pregnant.

Kornegay likely will face a charge of felony cruelty to children and other offenses. She was already being held at the facility for violating probation.

Deese said the infant, a 7 pound, 6-ounce girl was taken to a local hospital and was listed in good condition.

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Coweta Georgia Judge Thomas Crossroads Takes A Job At Wendys

COWETA, GEORGIA – Recent customers at the Thomas Crossroads Wendy’s may have done a double take when they saw who was handing them their food through the drive-thru window.

Coweta State Court Solicitor Robert Stokely took a minimum wage job at Wendy’s in late January, he says, to make ends meet after his expected cost-of-living raise was withheld.

Stokely was asked about the job after someone contacted The Times-Herald to say she had seen the solicitor at the restaurant three times.

Stokely’s salary is based on a percentage of the salary paid to superior court judges.

Last fall, Gov. Sonny Perdue decided to hold back a raise for judges because of state budget constraints. The raise for Stokely “is sitting in the budget” for his office, he said, but Coweta County officials decided not to give him the raise. That decision is entirely in their rights, Stokely said.

Most county employees did get the cost-of-living raise, said Patricia Palmer, Coweta County public information officer, but several employees whose job is partially governed by the state did not, she said. That included state court and superior court judges.

When Stokely found out he wasn’t getting the raise, “I looked at my personal budget. I said, I’ve got commitments I’ve made to people that I will help them with what they are doing, and I’ve got bills to pay, and I am not breaking my word to those people,” Stokely said. “I went out and got the best job I could find.”

Though Stokely’s annual salary is a little more than $93,000, “it just comes down that with the cost of living and looking at where my financial situation is — I can’t stagnate,” he said.

“I know somebody is going to say, golly, he is lucky” to be making that much money, Stokely said. “I consider myself a very fortunate person, but I’ve worked very hard to get where I’m at,” he said. “I think the fact that I work for minimum wage shows I am willing to work.”

“Instead of whining” or reneging on his charitable commitments, “I said, OK, get out there and get a second job,” Stokely said.

Several years ago, Stokely started driving a transport truck on the weekends to pay the salary of an assistant in his office. But these days, the trucking industry is slow. Plus, that job required too much commitment of time.

The Wendy’s restaurant is near his home, and “I’m the filler guy on the schedule,” Stokely said. “I have made it very clear that I don’t want somebody else’s job cut short just for me.”

The job doesn’t cut into the time he spends as solicitor, Stokely said. “What I do on my time is my business as long as it doesn’t conflict with my duties.”

Stokely was asked whether he might be taking a job away from someone who needs the money.

Stokely said he can’t take responsibility for something like that. “I’m sure Wendy’s didn’t hire me just to give the solicitor a $7.25 supplement. That door is open for them to go and apply just like it was for me,” he said.

“If somebody doesn’t have a job and they are upset that I am out there trying to work two jobs, then they have got to be upset with a lot of people, because I am not alone.”

Stokely said he applied to 10 or 12 jobs before he was hired to work at Wendy’s. He said he got quite a few strange looks when he told prospective employers about his day job.

“I know how tough it is out there finding jobs, and I’m sorry if anybody doesn’t have a job,” Stokely said.

“But I’m just doing what it takes for me to make a living in life and pay my bills.”

The job has given him a whole new appreciation for those who work in the fast- food industry.

“It is hard work and you’ve got to be fast afoot and fast with your mind,” he said. “People work hard for what they make and I am really impressed,” he said. “I have really learned a lot of management strategy down there, to be honest.”

It has also been pretty rewarding. “I feel extremely appreciated when I go into Wendy’s and go behind the counter. They tell me when I do a good job,” he said. “They act like it makes a difference what I do down there every day.”

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Clarke County Georgia Assistant District Attorney William Michael Olson Quits In Disgrace After Attempt To Steal A Hot Dog From A Street Vendor

CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA – A Clarke County assistant district attorney resigned Wednesday morning, hours after he allegedly tussled with a street vendor downtown and refused to pay for a hot dog.

William Michael Olson, 36, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and theft of services, Athens-Clarke police said.

Olson posted a $500 bond, was released from jail and resigned during a meeting with Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin.

“Billy is a good man and I think the world of him,” Mauldin said. “This is a very unfortunate situation, and I can only wish him the best and keep him in my thoughts and prayers.”

A police officer responded to a 1:25 a.m. report of a fight at the corner of East Broad Street and College Avenue, police said.

A street vendor told the officer that Olson ate a hot dog and walked away without paying; he also put his hands on the vendor’s chest two times, according to police.

When the officer caught up with Olson, the prosecutor said he didn’t know anything about a hot dog, though he had ketchup and mustard on his shirt, police said.

Olson’s speech was slurred and his eyes bloodshot, and his language was laced with profanities, the officer wrote in a report.

When the officer threatened to arrest him if he refused to pay $2.50 for the hot dog, Olson pulled out his wallet and flashed his assistant district attorney badge, police said.

He “told me I needed to be careful” and asked “was I was sure that I wanted to do this,” the officer wrote in the report.

Olson was incredulous when the officer said he would arrest him.

“You are going to lock me up for a f—ng hot dog, a dollar hot dog?” the officer quoted Olson in his report.

When a police supervisor arrived, Olson admitted to the officers that he’d been drinking, but told them he couldn’t recall details of what just happened, police said.

Mauldin would not say if he asked Olson to resign, but said his former assistant is a likable person and a diligent attorney.

“I think he has some matters he needs to address, and I’m sure he’ll be working through them,” Mauldin said.

Olson is respected among local defense attorneys, and his alleged behavior was out of character for the man they saw in court, according to Kim T. Stephens, who represented clients in several cases that Olson prosecuted.

“He was very professional and fair, and always seemed just in the cases he handled,” Stephens said. “My thoughts about him wouldn’t change just because of this incident.”

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North Vancouver Canada Police Officer Darren Baker Receives A Slap On The Wrist For Drunk Driving

NORTH VANCOUVER, CANADA – A North Vancouver police officer has been punished following an RCMP disciplinary hearing Thursday for drunk driving.

Cpl. Darren Baker was ordered Thursday to forfeit 10 days’ pay after he admitted at the hearing to driving under the influence of alcohol in December 2007.

The punishment is the most severe Baker could have received without being fired or demoted.

Still, it could have been a lot worse.

The officer was facing a criminal charge of impaired driving last year after he was pulled over for erratic driving in West Vancouver.

The charge was eventually stayed in January because Crown prosecutors overlooked a request by the defence to provide a key piece of evidence — a videotape of the West Vancouver police cellblock where Baker’s breathalyzer sample was taken.

By the time the mistake was realized, the tape had been recycled.

B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said in January he was disappointed by the stayed charges.

The case gained prominence because RCMP headquarters only revealed last October that Baker had been charged with impaired driving, 10 months after the incident. They blamed the delay in disclosure on a communications breakdown.

The case was one of four incidents involving Lower Mainland-area police officers that were revealed last fall.

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Charleston West Virginia Police Officer Sean Patrick Arrested, Jailed, Charged After Seeking Sex From A Child Online

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA – New graphic details have been released in the arrest of a Charleston Police Officer, accused of soliciting a young girl over the Internet.

WSAZ.com obtained a copy of the search warrant used in the case against Patrolman Sean Patrick.

There are some new details that a lot of people will probably find disturbing.

We were there when Patrick was taken off to jail Friday night. At that time, we knew he was arrested as the result of an FBI investigation.

Accused of soliciting a 14-year-old girl from virginia for sex on the Internet. Now: the search warrant details the investigation.

Just some of the things we’ve learned from this paperwork are:

* The victim was actually a police officer from Virginia posing as a 14-year-old girl as part of an undercover sting, much like you see on Dateline’s to catch a predator.
* Patrick is accused of having sexual chats with the decoy in a chat room on Yahoo! The chats were explicit involving sexual acts.
* According to the warrant, Patrick also e-mailed a picture of his nude genitals to the girl.
* The paperwork also says Patrick made plans to meet with the 14-year-old in Virgina, where she said she lived.

Investigators say this went on for a couple of week and the officer made repeated contact with the 14-year-old girl, apparently having no idea it was actually all part of that undercover sting.

An extradition hearing for Patrick has been set for this Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

WEB EXTRA: Click on the link above to read the uncensored warrant.
WARNING: the information contained within the warrant is very graphic.

UPDATE at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — Charleston Police Officer Sean Patrick remained behind bars Monday — accused of taking part in an online chat that went way too far.

Patrick is wanted in Virginia where a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is accused of soliciting sex with a person he believed to be a 14-year old girl. He’s in jail in Charleston, waiting to be sent to Virginia to face these charges.

While WSAZ was the first on the scene Friday night after Patrick was arrested, the judge wouldn’t allow us inside the courtroom for Patrick’s hearing. No one other than police were allowed in that night, and the doors were locked. Tim Halloran, the magistrate in charge of the case, is now facing some scrutiny.

Here at WSAZ, we are questioning Halloran’s decision to keep us out of Patrick’s hearing friday. We filed a complaint with the judicial investigation commission.

The commission will decide if Halloran’s actions were justified.
The criminal complaint filed against Patrick also wasn’t released on Friday. But judges do have the right to hold onto documents until they are filed with the court clerk. That didn’t happen until Monday.

Original Story
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A Charleston Police officer is in jail after he was arrested Friday night on sex charges out of Virginia.

Officer Sean Patrick, 30, is accused of soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet. He is facing state charges and was arrested as the result of an FBI investigation that also involved the sheriff’s department in Loudoun County, Virginia.

In a news release from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office, Patrick allegedly propositioned over the internet someone he understood to be a 14-year-old girl.

He covered his face as he headed from the Kanawha County Courthouse to a police vehicle Friday night. WSAZ.com was the only news crew to get video of the person believed to be Patrick.

He is a patrolman who’s been on the police force since 2005.

A warrant was issued and officer Patrick was arrested when he showed up for his regular shift at the Charleston Police Department Friday night.

Patrick’s arraignment at the Kanawha County Courthouse was sealed off from the media. Magistrate Tim Halloran refused any access to the courtroom or paperwork, telling WSAZ that we can pick it up on Monday. WSAZ’s crew was told that Halloran ordered the doors locked and no one allowed access to the courtroom.

Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster tells WSAZ that Patrick will be suspended without pay and an internal investigation has already been launched.

Webster also says that he does not have reason to believe that any police department computers were involved in any of the alleged activity, but that will be also part of the investigation.

The charge against Patrick is: usage of a communications system or other electronic means, for the purpose of soliciting, with lascivious intent, a person he knew or had reason to believe was a child under the age of 15. If found guilty, he can face 1 to 10 years behind bars and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

Appeared Here

Charleston West Virginia Police Officer Sean Patrick Arrested, Jailed, Charged After Seeking Sex From A Child Online

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA – New graphic details have been released in the arrest of a Charleston Police Officer, accused of soliciting a young girl over the Internet.

WSAZ.com obtained a copy of the search warrant used in the case against Patrolman Sean Patrick.

There are some new details that a lot of people will probably find disturbing.

We were there when Patrick was taken off to jail Friday night. At that time, we knew he was arrested as the result of an FBI investigation.

Accused of soliciting a 14-year-old girl from virginia for sex on the Internet. Now: the search warrant details the investigation.

Just some of the things we’ve learned from this paperwork are:

* The victim was actually a police officer from Virginia posing as a 14-year-old girl as part of an undercover sting, much like you see on Dateline’s to catch a predator.
* Patrick is accused of having sexual chats with the decoy in a chat room on Yahoo! The chats were explicit involving sexual acts.
* According to the warrant, Patrick also e-mailed a picture of his nude genitals to the girl.
* The paperwork also says Patrick made plans to meet with the 14-year-old in Virgina, where she said she lived.

Investigators say this went on for a couple of week and the officer made repeated contact with the 14-year-old girl, apparently having no idea it was actually all part of that undercover sting.

An extradition hearing for Patrick has been set for this Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

WEB EXTRA: Click on the link above to read the uncensored warrant.
WARNING: the information contained within the warrant is very graphic.

UPDATE at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — Charleston Police Officer Sean Patrick remained behind bars Monday — accused of taking part in an online chat that went way too far.

Patrick is wanted in Virginia where a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is accused of soliciting sex with a person he believed to be a 14-year old girl. He’s in jail in Charleston, waiting to be sent to Virginia to face these charges.

While WSAZ was the first on the scene Friday night after Patrick was arrested, the judge wouldn’t allow us inside the courtroom for Patrick’s hearing. No one other than police were allowed in that night, and the doors were locked. Tim Halloran, the magistrate in charge of the case, is now facing some scrutiny.

Here at WSAZ, we are questioning Halloran’s decision to keep us out of Patrick’s hearing friday. We filed a complaint with the judicial investigation commission.

The commission will decide if Halloran’s actions were justified.
The criminal complaint filed against Patrick also wasn’t released on Friday. But judges do have the right to hold onto documents until they are filed with the court clerk. That didn’t happen until Monday.

Original Story
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A Charleston Police officer is in jail after he was arrested Friday night on sex charges out of Virginia.

Officer Sean Patrick, 30, is accused of soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet. He is facing state charges and was arrested as the result of an FBI investigation that also involved the sheriff’s department in Loudoun County, Virginia.

In a news release from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office, Patrick allegedly propositioned over the internet someone he understood to be a 14-year-old girl.

He covered his face as he headed from the Kanawha County Courthouse to a police vehicle Friday night. WSAZ.com was the only news crew to get video of the person believed to be Patrick.

He is a patrolman who’s been on the police force since 2005.

A warrant was issued and officer Patrick was arrested when he showed up for his regular shift at the Charleston Police Department Friday night.

Patrick’s arraignment at the Kanawha County Courthouse was sealed off from the media. Magistrate Tim Halloran refused any access to the courtroom or paperwork, telling WSAZ that we can pick it up on Monday. WSAZ’s crew was told that Halloran ordered the doors locked and no one allowed access to the courtroom.

Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster tells WSAZ that Patrick will be suspended without pay and an internal investigation has already been launched.

Webster also says that he does not have reason to believe that any police department computers were involved in any of the alleged activity, but that will be also part of the investigation.

The charge against Patrick is: usage of a communications system or other electronic means, for the purpose of soliciting, with lascivious intent, a person he knew or had reason to believe was a child under the age of 15. If found guilty, he can face 1 to 10 years behind bars and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

Appeared Here

Bremerton Washington Teen Girl Slips Out Of Handcuffs And Escapes From Patrol Car

BREMERTON, OREGON – A Bremerton teen who slipped out of the back seat of a police patrol car en route to the Kitsap County jail was quickly apprehended Sunday, according to Bremerton Police reports.

The girl, whose age was unknown, was contacted by police when she passed out at an East Bremerton house. Police took her to Harrison Medical Center; they later learned that she had a warrant for her arrest.

After doctors cleared her, officers put her in a patrol car — despite her resistance — and headed to jail. She complained of being dizzy, so an officer rolled a window down to give her some fresh air.

A few minutes later, the officer driving and an officer who was a passenger in the car heard a noise from the backseat and saw her reaching out the window and opening the door from the outside, police said.

By the time they stopped the car, she had taken off, with a handcuff still attached to her left hand, reports said.

One officer attempting to catch her fired a Taser, but it was unsuccessful at stopping her. Another nearby patrolling officer found her near the intersection of Sixth Street and Montgomery Avenue and the handcuffs were reapplied.

She then pretended she was unconscious, but was booked into the Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Center on the warrant, for drug possession. Bail was set at $250.

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Crazed St. Paul Minnesota Police Officer Bob Winsor Stops Traffic For 30 Minutes So A Bird Could Eat

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA - After 20-plus years as a St. Paul police officer, Bob Winsor has seen just about everything. But what happened at Snelling and Ashland Friday was certainly a first.

Officer Winsor blocked a couple lanes of traffic for 30 minutes to protect a bird that was feasting on a pigeon in the middle of the road. His reasoning was simple: “Anything that kills pigeons is good with me.”

But Winsor soon learned he was protecting a rare peregrine falcon, which is the fastest bird in the world.

“It’s a great success story,” says Lori Naumann with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources.

It’s unusual to see a peregrine in the middle of a busy road, Naumann says, but they are becoming more common in the Twin Cities. And it wasn’t always that way.

“In the 1950s and 60s, they were almost extinct,” she says. “They were placed on the endangered species list.”

Thanks to intense restoration projects that started in the 1970s and 80s, Minnesota now has more than 50 peregrine pairs, which raised 93 young last year.

“The population is doing really, really well,” Naumann says.

The U.S. ban on D.D.T. was another reason for the peregrine’s comeback. It was removed from the U.S. endangered species list in 1999. It remains on the state’s threatened species list, but Naumann says it could be removed in the next couple years.

Because the peregrine on Snelling had a band around its leg with the code “27A,” we know she was born in 2007 and is named Elspeth. She’s named after the granddaughter of Bud Tordoff, the man behind Minnesota’s peregrine restoration.

“Dr. Tordoff passed away last year, so it was pretty special to see that this was a bird that’s still surviving,” Naumann says.

Elspeth is simply a sign of his success, which is good news for peregrines, but bad news for pigeons.

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Dumbass Iowa City Police Officer Sgt. Sid Jackson Arrested, Charged With Drunk Driving – Tracks In Snow Proved He Is A Liar

IOWA CITY, IOWA – An Iowa City Police sergeant was arrested early Saturday by the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety after allegedly driving drunk.

Sgt. Sid Jackson faces charges of drunken driving and interference with official acts.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine said Jackson was off duty at the time of his arrest.

Hargadine said an Iowa City Police on-duty officer was the first one to come across Jackson. The officer requested assistance and University of Iowa Department of Public Safety officers arrived. The University of Iowa officers made the arrest, he said.

According to the Department of Public Safety complaints, an officer observed Jackson sitting in his vehicle with the door open at the intersection of Iowa and Muscatine avenues at 3:54 a.m. Saturday.

Jackson denied driving but admitted he had been drinking, according to the complaints. There were tracks in the fresh snow leading from the front and rear tires, according to the complaints.

According to the complaints, Jackson walked away from the officer and refused to cooperate with testing. He also refused to get in the patrol vehicle and pulled away from officers as he was being placed in handcuffs, according to the complaints.

Jackson was injured during the incident, according to the complaints.

Two calls to a home phone number listed online for Jackson were not answered Saturday night.

Jackson is one of three late-night watch commanders who work 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for the Iowa City Police department, according to the Iowa City Police Web site.

“He is on administrative leave” pending the outcome of the internal affairs investigation, Hargadine said.

The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety will investigate the criminal matter, and when Iowa City Police receive the paperwork Monday, the internal affairs team will open an independent investigation, Hargadine said.

Hargadine said Jackson is a 20-plus year veteran of the Iowa City Police department.

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Veteran Springfield Massachusetts Police Officer Pedro J. Martinez Arrested, Jailed, And Charged With Child Rape And Incest

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS – A 20-year- veteran of the Springfield Police Department was arrested at police headquarters Monday afternoon on child rape and incest charges.

Pedro J. Martinez, an officer with the squad A uniformed patrol, was arrested at the end of his shift at 3 p.m., said Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Commissioner William J. Fitchet.

Martinez was charged with three counts of forcible rape of a child and three counts of incest.

Delaney said Martinez was allowed to change out of his police uniform before he was booked and placed in the police lock up.

The arrest was made by acting Deputy Chief Charles Arpin, Capt. Kevin M. Dudley and Lt. Cheryl C. Clapprood of the Special Victims Unit.

The investigation remains ongoing, Delaney said.

Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said that Martinez has been suspended immediately without pay for 5 days pending a grand jury indictment.

When the indictment comes in, Martinez will be suspended indefinitely without pay pending the outcome of a trial, Delaney said.

Martinez was appointed to the Springfield Police Department on Nov. 14, 1988.

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Bremerton Washington Teen Girl Slips Out Of Handcuffs And Escapes From Patrol Car

BREMERTON, OREGON – A Bremerton teen who slipped out of the back seat of a police patrol car en route to the Kitsap County jail was quickly apprehended Sunday, according to Bremerton Police reports.

The girl, whose age was unknown, was contacted by police when she passed out at an East Bremerton house. Police took her to Harrison Medical Center; they later learned that she had a warrant for her arrest.

After doctors cleared her, officers put her in a patrol car — despite her resistance — and headed to jail. She complained of being dizzy, so an officer rolled a window down to give her some fresh air.

A few minutes later, the officer driving and an officer who was a passenger in the car heard a noise from the backseat and saw her reaching out the window and opening the door from the outside, police said.

By the time they stopped the car, she had taken off, with a handcuff still attached to her left hand, reports said.

One officer attempting to catch her fired a Taser, but it was unsuccessful at stopping her. Another nearby patrolling officer found her near the intersection of Sixth Street and Montgomery Avenue and the handcuffs were reapplied.

She then pretended she was unconscious, but was booked into the Kitsap County Juvenile Detention Center on the warrant, for drug possession. Bail was set at $250.

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Crazed St. Paul Minnesota Police Officer Bob Winsor Stops Traffic For 30 Minutes So A Bird Could Eat

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA - After 20-plus years as a St. Paul police officer, Bob Winsor has seen just about everything. But what happened at Snelling and Ashland Friday was certainly a first.

Officer Winsor blocked a couple lanes of traffic for 30 minutes to protect a bird that was feasting on a pigeon in the middle of the road. His reasoning was simple: “Anything that kills pigeons is good with me.”

But Winsor soon learned he was protecting a rare peregrine falcon, which is the fastest bird in the world.

“It’s a great success story,” says Lori Naumann with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources.

It’s unusual to see a peregrine in the middle of a busy road, Naumann says, but they are becoming more common in the Twin Cities. And it wasn’t always that way.

“In the 1950s and 60s, they were almost extinct,” she says. “They were placed on the endangered species list.”

Thanks to intense restoration projects that started in the 1970s and 80s, Minnesota now has more than 50 peregrine pairs, which raised 93 young last year.

“The population is doing really, really well,” Naumann says.

The U.S. ban on D.D.T. was another reason for the peregrine’s comeback. It was removed from the U.S. endangered species list in 1999. It remains on the state’s threatened species list, but Naumann says it could be removed in the next couple years.

Because the peregrine on Snelling had a band around its leg with the code “27A,” we know she was born in 2007 and is named Elspeth. She’s named after the granddaughter of Bud Tordoff, the man behind Minnesota’s peregrine restoration.

“Dr. Tordoff passed away last year, so it was pretty special to see that this was a bird that’s still surviving,” Naumann says.

Elspeth is simply a sign of his success, which is good news for peregrines, but bad news for pigeons.

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Dumbass Iowa City Police Officer Sgt. Sid Jackson Arrested, Charged With Drunk Driving – Tracks In Snow Proved He Is A Liar

IOWA CITY, IOWA – An Iowa City Police sergeant was arrested early Saturday by the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety after allegedly driving drunk.

Sgt. Sid Jackson faces charges of drunken driving and interference with official acts.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine said Jackson was off duty at the time of his arrest.

Hargadine said an Iowa City Police on-duty officer was the first one to come across Jackson. The officer requested assistance and University of Iowa Department of Public Safety officers arrived. The University of Iowa officers made the arrest, he said.

According to the Department of Public Safety complaints, an officer observed Jackson sitting in his vehicle with the door open at the intersection of Iowa and Muscatine avenues at 3:54 a.m. Saturday.

Jackson denied driving but admitted he had been drinking, according to the complaints. There were tracks in the fresh snow leading from the front and rear tires, according to the complaints.

According to the complaints, Jackson walked away from the officer and refused to cooperate with testing. He also refused to get in the patrol vehicle and pulled away from officers as he was being placed in handcuffs, according to the complaints.

Jackson was injured during the incident, according to the complaints.

Two calls to a home phone number listed online for Jackson were not answered Saturday night.

Jackson is one of three late-night watch commanders who work 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for the Iowa City Police department, according to the Iowa City Police Web site.

“He is on administrative leave” pending the outcome of the internal affairs investigation, Hargadine said.

The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety will investigate the criminal matter, and when Iowa City Police receive the paperwork Monday, the internal affairs team will open an independent investigation, Hargadine said.

Hargadine said Jackson is a 20-plus year veteran of the Iowa City Police department.

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Veteran Springfield Massachusetts Police Officer Pedro J. Martinez Arrested, Jailed, And Charged With Child Rape And Incest

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS – A 20-year- veteran of the Springfield Police Department was arrested at police headquarters Monday afternoon on child rape and incest charges.

Pedro J. Martinez, an officer with the squad A uniformed patrol, was arrested at the end of his shift at 3 p.m., said Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Commissioner William J. Fitchet.

Martinez was charged with three counts of forcible rape of a child and three counts of incest.

Delaney said Martinez was allowed to change out of his police uniform before he was booked and placed in the police lock up.

The arrest was made by acting Deputy Chief Charles Arpin, Capt. Kevin M. Dudley and Lt. Cheryl C. Clapprood of the Special Victims Unit.

The investigation remains ongoing, Delaney said.

Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said that Martinez has been suspended immediately without pay for 5 days pending a grand jury indictment.

When the indictment comes in, Martinez will be suspended indefinitely without pay pending the outcome of a trial, Delaney said.

Martinez was appointed to the Springfield Police Department on Nov. 14, 1988.

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Taser Weapon Use By Trigger Happy Massachusetts Police Officers Soars

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – The use of Tasers by police in Massachusetts has soared in recent years.

The Boston Globe reports police used Tasers in 229 incidents between September 2007 and September 2008. That’s a fourfold increase from three years ago.

Fall River police reported 45 Tasers incidents last year, the most in the state, at one point firing the weapon 11 times to subdue a man his family described as mentally ill.

Police say Tasers, which deliver a five second, 50,000-volt shock, are an effective, non-lethal way to subdue violent suspects.

Amnesty International said at least 334 people across the United States died after police used Tasers on them since 2001. The human rights group said it’s difficult to know if the Tasers caused the deaths.

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Taser Weapon Use By Trigger Happy Massachusetts Police Officers Soars

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – The use of Tasers by police in Massachusetts has soared in recent years.

The Boston Globe reports police used Tasers in 229 incidents between September 2007 and September 2008. That’s a fourfold increase from three years ago.

Fall River police reported 45 Tasers incidents last year, the most in the state, at one point firing the weapon 11 times to subdue a man his family described as mentally ill.

Police say Tasers, which deliver a five second, 50,000-volt shock, are an effective, non-lethal way to subdue violent suspects.

Amnesty International said at least 334 people across the United States died after police used Tasers on them since 2001. The human rights group said it’s difficult to know if the Tasers caused the deaths.

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One Third Of Atlanta Georgia Police Academy Graduates Have Criminal Records

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Keovongsa Siharath was arrested in Henry County on charges he punched his stepfather.

Jeffrey Churchill was charged with assault in an altercation with a woman in a mall parking lot.

Calvin Thomas was taken into custody in DeKalb County on a concealed weapons charge.

All three are now officers with the Atlanta Police Department.

More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime, according to a review of their job applications. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault. More than one-third of the officers had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, and more than half of the recruits admitted using marijuana.

“On its face, it’s troubling and disturbing,” said Vincent Fort, a state senator from Atlanta. “It would be very troubling that people might be hitting the streets to serve and protect and they have histories that have made them unqualified to serve on other departments.”

But Atlanta police say it’s not so simple. Officials have been trying without success for more than a decade to grow the department

to 2,000 officers, an effort hurt by this year’s budget crisis. With competition for recruits intense among law enforcement agencies, Atlanta has had to make concessions.

“We would like, in an ideal world, to see every applicant with a clean record, but obviously that’s not reality,” said Atlanta police Lt. Elder Dancy, who runs the department’s recruitment unit. “I don’t think you’ll find any departments who hire only applicants with squeaky-clean records.”

Three decades ago, a police officer with a criminal record was much less common than it is now, said Robert Friedmann, a criminal justice professor at Georgia State University. But times have changed and many agencies have had to relax their hiring policies, Friedmann said.

Other local police agencies have hiring guidelines similar to Atlanta’s. Police departments for Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties don’t hire recruits with felony convictions but do hire those with misdemeanor arrests, on a case-by-case basis.

Dancy would not divulge all of Atlanta’s restrictions but said the department won’t hire anyone with felony convictions, or those with convictions for obstruction of justice, sex or domestic crimes.

Even so, police documents show that many of their recruits have blemishes on their records.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, through an Open Records Act request, asked in mid-August for the job applications of the Atlanta Police Department’s two most recent graduating classes. The department provided 36 applications for police recruits who graduated June 10 and Aug. 4. All the graduates are currently Atlanta police officers.

The most revealing portion of the application is a questionnaire that includes some probing questions:

Have you ever used marijuana?

Have you ever been with a prostitute?

Have you ever driven under the influence of alcohol or drugs?

And: Have you ever been physically arrested or cited with criminal charges?

Twelve out of 33 officers — 36 percent — said they have been arrested or cited with a criminal offense.

“It does not mean they’re not a quality candidate,” Dancy said, adding that the department runs criminal background checks on all recruits. “It just means they made a mistake in their past.”

Officer Siharath was taken to the Henry County Jail in December 2005 after an altercation with his stepfather at his family’s home in Stockbridge, according to a police report.

Siharath, then 24, returned home to find his stepfather moving his belongings back into his mother’s house. He told his stepfather to leave, but the older man refused, the report said.

They argued, then Siharath pushed the man onto the floor and punched him in the head, the stepfather and Siharath’s mother told police. The battery charge against Siharath was later dropped in court.

Siharath could not be reached for comment on the incident, and Atlanta police would not make him available for an interview.

A decade earlier, Officer Thomas was arrested during a traffic stop in DeKalb County on charges of having a concealed weapon, he wrote in his job application.

The officer asked Thomas “if I had any weapons in the car, [and] I stated yes,” he wrote. “The officer asked where, and I told him under the seat. I was arrested for a misdemeanor — carrying a concealed weapon.”

Thomas, who paid a fine and spent a year on probation, declined to comment for this article.

Officer Churchill wrote that he was arrested in December 1995 on a charge of fourth-degree assault. Without getting into much detail, he wrote that he got into an argument with a woman in a mall parking lot, received two years of probation and an order to pay a $71 fine. Churchill could not be reached for comment on the incident, and Atlanta police would not make him available for an interview.

Friedmann, the criminal justice professor, said he “would have hoped the number [of recruits with prior arrests or criminal citations] would be lower.”

He and another criminal justice professor, Peter Fenton of Kennesaw State University, say the arrest numbers are not as significant when three factors are considered: the severity of the incident, how long ago it happened and whether it resulted in conviction.

With those factors considered, “your numbers will probably drop to about half of that,” Friedmann said.

The AJC could not analyze all those factors because recruits sometimes gave incomplete answers on the application.

Fenton, a former Cobb County police officer, said he was more concerned with the AJC’s next finding: Twelve out of 33 graduates — 36 percent — acknowledged that they had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, including some in metro Atlanta.

“That, frankly, is more troubling to me — especially when these people have been rejected by multiple agencies,” he said.

Three officers’ rejections stemmed from failing the psychiatric or psychological portion of police agencies’ screening processes. Others were turned away because they failed lie-detector tests or offered conflicting statements about issues such as drug use.

Dancy said those issues raise red flags, but what matters most is whether recruits can pass the Atlanta Police Department’s tests and interviews.

When asked whether the department was getting top-shelf candidates, Dancy said, “as long as those applicants meet the guidelines, then we feel like we are hiring the type of officers who are [fit to be] Atlanta police officers.”

Officer Mark Moore applied for jobs with other police agencies before graduating from the Atlanta Police Academy. He tried to get a job with Atlanta police in 2004 but was rejected. He also failed a written test for the Knoxville police.

When he applied to another police department in 2002, “their psychologist deemed me to be ‘psychologicaly incompatable’ [sic] for the L.A.P.D.,” he wrote in his Atlanta job application.

Moore declined to comment when reached by phone.

More than half the graduates admitted using marijuana, though many said they did it only a few times during their high school or college years.

News researchers Nisa Asokan and Sharon Gaus and former data analyst Megan Clarke contributed to this report.

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One Third Of Atlanta Georgia Police Academy Graduates Have Criminal Records

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Keovongsa Siharath was arrested in Henry County on charges he punched his stepfather.

Jeffrey Churchill was charged with assault in an altercation with a woman in a mall parking lot.

Calvin Thomas was taken into custody in DeKalb County on a concealed weapons charge.

All three are now officers with the Atlanta Police Department.

More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime, according to a review of their job applications. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault. More than one-third of the officers had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, and more than half of the recruits admitted using marijuana.

“On its face, it’s troubling and disturbing,” said Vincent Fort, a state senator from Atlanta. “It would be very troubling that people might be hitting the streets to serve and protect and they have histories that have made them unqualified to serve on other departments.”

But Atlanta police say it’s not so simple. Officials have been trying without success for more than a decade to grow the department

to 2,000 officers, an effort hurt by this year’s budget crisis. With competition for recruits intense among law enforcement agencies, Atlanta has had to make concessions.

“We would like, in an ideal world, to see every applicant with a clean record, but obviously that’s not reality,” said Atlanta police Lt. Elder Dancy, who runs the department’s recruitment unit. “I don’t think you’ll find any departments who hire only applicants with squeaky-clean records.”

Three decades ago, a police officer with a criminal record was much less common than it is now, said Robert Friedmann, a criminal justice professor at Georgia State University. But times have changed and many agencies have had to relax their hiring policies, Friedmann said.

Other local police agencies have hiring guidelines similar to Atlanta’s. Police departments for Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties don’t hire recruits with felony convictions but do hire those with misdemeanor arrests, on a case-by-case basis.

Dancy would not divulge all of Atlanta’s restrictions but said the department won’t hire anyone with felony convictions, or those with convictions for obstruction of justice, sex or domestic crimes.

Even so, police documents show that many of their recruits have blemishes on their records.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, through an Open Records Act request, asked in mid-August for the job applications of the Atlanta Police Department’s two most recent graduating classes. The department provided 36 applications for police recruits who graduated June 10 and Aug. 4. All the graduates are currently Atlanta police officers.

The most revealing portion of the application is a questionnaire that includes some probing questions:

Have you ever used marijuana?

Have you ever been with a prostitute?

Have you ever driven under the influence of alcohol or drugs?

And: Have you ever been physically arrested or cited with criminal charges?

Twelve out of 33 officers — 36 percent — said they have been arrested or cited with a criminal offense.

“It does not mean they’re not a quality candidate,” Dancy said, adding that the department runs criminal background checks on all recruits. “It just means they made a mistake in their past.”

Officer Siharath was taken to the Henry County Jail in December 2005 after an altercation with his stepfather at his family’s home in Stockbridge, according to a police report.

Siharath, then 24, returned home to find his stepfather moving his belongings back into his mother’s house. He told his stepfather to leave, but the older man refused, the report said.

They argued, then Siharath pushed the man onto the floor and punched him in the head, the stepfather and Siharath’s mother told police. The battery charge against Siharath was later dropped in court.

Siharath could not be reached for comment on the incident, and Atlanta police would not make him available for an interview.

A decade earlier, Officer Thomas was arrested during a traffic stop in DeKalb County on charges of having a concealed weapon, he wrote in his job application.

The officer asked Thomas “if I had any weapons in the car, [and] I stated yes,” he wrote. “The officer asked where, and I told him under the seat. I was arrested for a misdemeanor — carrying a concealed weapon.”

Thomas, who paid a fine and spent a year on probation, declined to comment for this article.

Officer Churchill wrote that he was arrested in December 1995 on a charge of fourth-degree assault. Without getting into much detail, he wrote that he got into an argument with a woman in a mall parking lot, received two years of probation and an order to pay a $71 fine. Churchill could not be reached for comment on the incident, and Atlanta police would not make him available for an interview.

Friedmann, the criminal justice professor, said he “would have hoped the number [of recruits with prior arrests or criminal citations] would be lower.”

He and another criminal justice professor, Peter Fenton of Kennesaw State University, say the arrest numbers are not as significant when three factors are considered: the severity of the incident, how long ago it happened and whether it resulted in conviction.

With those factors considered, “your numbers will probably drop to about half of that,” Friedmann said.

The AJC could not analyze all those factors because recruits sometimes gave incomplete answers on the application.

Fenton, a former Cobb County police officer, said he was more concerned with the AJC’s next finding: Twelve out of 33 graduates — 36 percent — acknowledged that they had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, including some in metro Atlanta.

“That, frankly, is more troubling to me — especially when these people have been rejected by multiple agencies,” he said.

Three officers’ rejections stemmed from failing the psychiatric or psychological portion of police agencies’ screening processes. Others were turned away because they failed lie-detector tests or offered conflicting statements about issues such as drug use.

Dancy said those issues raise red flags, but what matters most is whether recruits can pass the Atlanta Police Department’s tests and interviews.

When asked whether the department was getting top-shelf candidates, Dancy said, “as long as those applicants meet the guidelines, then we feel like we are hiring the type of officers who are [fit to be] Atlanta police officers.”

Officer Mark Moore applied for jobs with other police agencies before graduating from the Atlanta Police Academy. He tried to get a job with Atlanta police in 2004 but was rejected. He also failed a written test for the Knoxville police.

When he applied to another police department in 2002, “their psychologist deemed me to be ‘psychologicaly incompatable’ [sic] for the L.A.P.D.,” he wrote in his Atlanta job application.

Moore declined to comment when reached by phone.

More than half the graduates admitted using marijuana, though many said they did it only a few times during their high school or college years.

News researchers Nisa Asokan and Sharon Gaus and former data analyst Megan Clarke contributed to this report.

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Police Delay Disneyland Opening After Suspicious Powder (Sand) Is Found On Ticket Booths

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - Ticket booths at the Disneyland Resort were temporarily shut down Sunday morning after authorities became alarmed over a suspicious powder stuck to their windows.

The park reopened after the substance was determined to be fine-grained sand.

Police were summoned after cleaning crews spotted the powdery substance on windows of several ticket booths.

Some guests entered the park when it opened at 8 a.m., but the booths were later shut down while police investigated. The booths reopened at 9:45 a.m.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video.

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Drunk Driving Morris County New Jersey Judge George Korpita Suspended, Kicked Off The Bench, Loses License And Right To Hold Public Office

MORRIS COUNTY, NEW JERSEY – The state Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a former Morris County municipal judge who threatened a police officer during a driving while intoxicated stop in 2007.

The state attorney Disciplinary Review Board recommended that George Korpita only be censured, but the high court handed down a three-month suspension for the “unethical behavior,” according to a Feb. 2 order that was released today.

Korpita was a municipal judge of Dover, Rockaway Borough and Victory Gardens when he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Roxbury in November 2007.

He pleaded guilty in December 2007 in Superior Court in Morristown to driving while intoxicated and to threatening a public servant. Korpita admitted he flashed his municipal judge identification and mentioned several times he was a municipal court judge.

“I’m a judge. I’m okay, bro. I’m okay,” he said, according to the arrest report. Korpita failed five sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08.

When the officers refused to back off the arrest, Korpita threatened to take action against them if they appeared in one of his courts, Korpita admitted. Officers routinely appear in municipal courts to help prosecute tickets and complaints they sign against people.

Korpita was sentenced in February 2008 to three years of probation, to never serve in public office again and to never seek to have his record expunged. He also was ordered to perform community service, to attend an in-house substance-abuse program, to lose his driver’s license for a year and to pay $1,000 in fines.

While awaiting sentencing in the Roxbury case, Korpita was charged with driving while intoxicated in Sparta. He has pleaded not guilty in Sparta and that case is pending.

Prior to having his attorney’s license reinstated, Korpita also must submit proof of his mental-health fitness and periodic reports of his sobriety to the state Office of Attorney Ethics, the Supreme Court order states.

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Police Delay Disneyland Opening After Suspicious Powder (Sand) Is Found On Ticket Booths

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - Ticket booths at the Disneyland Resort were temporarily shut down Sunday morning after authorities became alarmed over a suspicious powder stuck to their windows.

The park reopened after the substance was determined to be fine-grained sand.

Police were summoned after cleaning crews spotted the powdery substance on windows of several ticket booths.

Some guests entered the park when it opened at 8 a.m., but the booths were later shut down while police investigated. The booths reopened at 9:45 a.m.

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video.

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Drunk Driving Morris County New Jersey Judge George Korpita Suspended, Kicked Off The Bench, Loses License And Right To Hold Public Office

MORRIS COUNTY, NEW JERSEY – The state Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a former Morris County municipal judge who threatened a police officer during a driving while intoxicated stop in 2007.

The state attorney Disciplinary Review Board recommended that George Korpita only be censured, but the high court handed down a three-month suspension for the “unethical behavior,” according to a Feb. 2 order that was released today.

Korpita was a municipal judge of Dover, Rockaway Borough and Victory Gardens when he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Roxbury in November 2007.

He pleaded guilty in December 2007 in Superior Court in Morristown to driving while intoxicated and to threatening a public servant. Korpita admitted he flashed his municipal judge identification and mentioned several times he was a municipal court judge.

“I’m a judge. I’m okay, bro. I’m okay,” he said, according to the arrest report. Korpita failed five sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08.

When the officers refused to back off the arrest, Korpita threatened to take action against them if they appeared in one of his courts, Korpita admitted. Officers routinely appear in municipal courts to help prosecute tickets and complaints they sign against people.

Korpita was sentenced in February 2008 to three years of probation, to never serve in public office again and to never seek to have his record expunged. He also was ordered to perform community service, to attend an in-house substance-abuse program, to lose his driver’s license for a year and to pay $1,000 in fines.

While awaiting sentencing in the Roxbury case, Korpita was charged with driving while intoxicated in Sparta. He has pleaded not guilty in Sparta and that case is pending.

Prior to having his attorney’s license reinstated, Korpita also must submit proof of his mental-health fitness and periodic reports of his sobriety to the state Office of Attorney Ethics, the Supreme Court order states.

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Okaloosa County Florida Sheriff’s Department And Bay County Bomb Squad Close Park And Piss Away Tax Dollars After Finding A Power Supply For A Guitar Amplifier

DESTIN, FLORIDA – A suspicious pipe contraption spotted Friday night in Destin Commons was not a bomb but rather a “homemade power source” for a transient guitar player, sheriff’s deputies said Saturday.

Still, portions of the Commons were cordoned off late Friday after security found the device.

It was leaning on a wall of Panera Bread around 9 p.m., where Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies responded and called a Bay County bomb squad to the site.

The 18-inch pipe had electrical tape over both ends and a wire extending from one side, said Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson.

The bomb team said the device wasn’t dangerous. By 1:30 a.m., the scene was cleared.

On Saturday, investigators said witnesses reported a “transient” in the area earlier that evening, playing an electric guitar with an amplifier. The Sheriff’s Office suspects the pipe was simply his power source.

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Norfolk Virginia Assistant State Attorney General Steven F. Lederman Arrested, Suspended, Charged With Drugs And Weapons

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA – An assistant state attorney general, Steven F. Lederman, has been arrested by Norfolk narcotics investigators on drug and weapons charges.

Lederman works in Norfolk on child-support enforcement matters. He has worked in the attorney general’s office since 1997.

David Clementson, a spokesman in the Attorney General’s office, said Lederman has been suspended without pay, pending the results of an investigation.

Lederman, 46, was arrested around 5 p.m. Thursday in Norfolk. The Norfolk resident was charged with one count of felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana and one count of a misdemeanor offense of carrying a concealed weapon. Norfolk police said they made the arrest after acting on information alleging illegal drug activity.

According to The Associated Press, a search warrant affidavit filed in Norfolk Circuit Court said police found marijuana in Lederman’s van after being alerted by a drug-sniffing dog.

The affidavit said the marijuana was inside the bag, wrapped in a Christmas present.

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