Nutcase U.S Park Ranger In California Attacked Man Walking Dogs Without Leashes With Taser Weapon

CALIFORNIA – A Montara man walking two lapdogs off leash was hit with an electric-shock gun by a National Park Service ranger after allegedly giving a false name and trying to walk away, authorities said Monday.

The park ranger encountered Gary Hesterberg with his two small dogs Sunday afternoon at Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was recently incorporated into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said Howard Levitt, a spokesman for the park service.

Hesterberg, who said he didn’t have identification with him, allegedly gave the ranger a false name, Levitt said.

The ranger, who wasn’t identified, asked Hesterberg to remain at the scene, Levitt said. He tried several times to leave, and finally the ranger “pursued him a little bit and she did deploy her” electric-shock weapon, Levitt said. “That did stop him.”

San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies and paramedics then arrived and Hesterberg gave his real name, the park spokesman said.

Hesterberg, whose age was not available, was arrested on suspicion of failing to obey a lawful order, having dogs off-leash and knowingly providing false information, Levitt said.

He was then released. He did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Witnesses said the use of a stun gun and the arrest seemed excessive for someone walking two small dogs off leash.

“It was really scary,” said Michelle Babcock, who said she had seen the incident as she and her husband were walking their two border collies. “I just felt so bad for him.”

Babcock said Hesterberg had repeatedly asked the ranger why he was being detained. She didn’t answer him, Babcock said.

“He just tried to walk away. She never gave him a reason,” Babcock said.

The ranger shot Hesterberg in the back with her shock weapon as he walked off, Babcock said.

“We were like in disbelief,” she said. “It didn’t make any sense.”

Rancho Corral de Tierra has long been an off-leash walking spot for local dog owners. In December, the area became part of the national park system, which requires that all dogs be on a leash, Levitt said.

The ranger was trying to educate residents of the rule, Levitt said.

The park service is investigating the incident, he said.

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Gulf Shores Alabama Police Empoyee Barry Martin Arrested After Stealing Guns, Drugs, And Electronics From Evidence Room

GULF SHORES, Alabama — A 58-year-old civilian employee of the Gulf Shores Police Department has been arrested for allegedly stealing guns, electronics and prescription drugs from the agency’s evidence room, law enforcement officials said today.

Barry Martin of Gulf Shores remained in the Baldwin County Corrections Center, charged with one count of second-degree theft of property and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, according to Gulf Shores police Chief Ed Delmore.

Martin has been placed on administrative leave and termination proceedings are in progress, according to Lt. Bill Cowan, Gulf Shores police spokesman.

“We’re not talking about a number of employees,” Delmore said. “This is one employee who did something very egregious. And someone who we were completely surprised by. This is a real kick in the teeth to us. But it should not reflect on the entire agency filled with dedicated professionals.”

Martin has been employed with the Police Department since 1999 as a detention officer and in July 2010 was also made the custodian of the evidence room. In a joint investigation by Gulf Shores police, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, Martin was arrested five days after the local police were notified of the potential discrepancies in the evidence room, according to Delmore.

About 100 or fewer cases could be affected by the thefts, and the District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the files and cases to compare items to what was seized, according to District Attorney Hallie Dixon. “We’re starting with the drug cases. There are 11 Gulf Shores drug cases pending and all have been indicted. We have additional cases pending” that have not been indicted.

Maj. Anthony Lowery of the Sheriff’s Office said the case does not involve the drug task force cases since those are handled through the Sheriff’s Office in Robertsdale.

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Crazed Burbank California Police Charge Child With Pointing Toy Gun

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA – A 10-year-old boy was arrested Sunday after reportedly pointing a toy gun at a woman who believed it was a real weapon.

The boy knocked on the front door of the woman’s house and allegedly pointed the plastic gun at a 67-year-old woman who answered the door, according to the Burbank Leader. The boy picked the house because the woman’s grandson reportedly beat up his friend at school, Burbank police Lt. John Dilibert told the paper.

The boy yelled “you suck” at the woman while pointing the gun at her, then running away, Dilibert said.

Police determined the gun was a toy after speaking with the child’s mother and searching their home.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a weapon, but was released to his parents, Dilibert said.

The toy looks like an Airsoft gun, which come in silver and black, with an orange tip that some children take off or cover with black marker, he said. Dilibert did not see if the orange tip of the toy gun in question was removed or colored over.

“They’re replicas,” Dilibert said. “They look just like the real thing. It shoots soft pellets, like a BB gun.”

The toy was likely booked as evidence, he said. Photos of the toy would not be released.

The boy’s identity was not released because he is a minor. He was issued a citation and will have to appear in court within 30 days.

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East Haven Connecticut Police Chief Leonard Gallo Quits In Disgrace For Handling Of Latino Abuse Allegations That Led To Arrest Of 4 Of His Officers

EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT – A police chief under fire for his handling of anti-Latino abuse allegations that led to the arrests of four officers last week is retiring from office, the mayor said Monday, describing his departure as a “selfless act” intended to help the town heal.

Leonard Gallo, chief of the East Haven Police Department, has been chastised by federal civil rights investigators for creating a hostile environment for witnesses, and his lawyer has acknowledged that last week’s indictment refers to him as an unnamed co-conspirator.

Gallo, 64, had been suspended as police chief in April 2010 after the FBI launched the criminal investigation, but he was reinstated to the post in November after his friend Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. took office.

“His decision to retire at this time is a selfless act, designed to assist in the healing process,” said Maturo, who described Gallo as a devoted public servant who “performed admirably in both his personal and professional life.”

The four officers, who were arrested Jan. 24 by the FBI, are accused of waging a campaign against Latino residents that included beatings, false arrests and harassment of those who threatened to report misconduct. They face charges including deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice; all of them have pleaded not guilty.

Maturo is also facing heavy criticism for saying last week that he “might have tacos” as a way to do something for the Latino community in the wake of the arrests. He later apologized for the remark.

Frederick Brow, chairman of the town’s police commission, said Monday that the commission is preparing to vote Tuesday night on whether to recommend to the mayor that Gallo be fired. He said he believes Gallo should not be allowed to retire.

“It’s been a general breakdown in control in that department for quite a while and it’s time for Gallo to be terminated,” Brow said.

He estimated that in retirement, Gallo would receive a severance lump sum of $130,000 to $150,000, plus an annual pension of $27,000 to $28,000. Brow said Gallo should not be rewarded for his conduct.

If the commission voted to recommend that Gallo be fired and Maturo agreed to fire him, Gallo would still get the pension but lose the severance pay, Brow said.

The FBI also is targeting additional suspects, and state officials say they are preparing for the possibility of widespread arrests that could cripple the town’s police department.

An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division, which was separate from the criminal probe, noted concerns in a December report that Gallo had helped created a hostile environment for people who cooperated with federal investigators. It said Gallo had warned staff that the Justice Department had agreed to provide him with the names of individuals who cooperated with the investigation, even though that was not the case.

The federal indictment refers to Gallo as co-conspirator 1, accusing him of blocking efforts by the police commission to investigate misconduct. Gallo’s attorney, Jon Einhorn, has denied those allegations.

Einhorn said Gallo is retiring because he does not want to be a distraction for the town, and his departure is not an admission of guilt. He said Gallo is the target of a lawsuit and could face charges in the criminal probe. He said his client will be vindicated and he does not believe criminal charges would be justified.

He said waiting until the end of the week will give the town time to settle on a retirement package for Gallo. Maturo said the retirement takes effect Friday, and a search for a new chief will begin immediately. Until a new chief is selected, Deputy Chief John Mannion will assume the duties.

More than 15,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Maturo to replace Gallo. The petition was started by Reform Immigration for America, the same group that sent hundreds of tacos to Maturo’s office to protest his remark.

State Rep. Andres Ayala Jr., D-Bridgeport, said he and members of the state Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission met with Maturo on Monday morning, but he declined to elaborate. Ayala and commission members are calling for the resignations of Maturo and Gallo.

“I think it’s the mayor’s responsibility that the police department represent everyone in the community,” Ayala said.

Maturo was mayor from 1997 to 2007 and was re-elected in the fall. After taking office in November, he reinstated Gallo, saying at the time that he did not believe the abuse allegations were true. The previous mayor, April Capone Almon, placed Gallo on administrative leave in April 2010.

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Pedophile Santa Maria California Police Officer Shot And Killed While On Duty And By Offiers In His Own Department

SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA – A police officer under investigation for sexual misconduct with a teenage minor was shot and killed while on duty by fellow officers Saturday as they tried to arrest him on California’s central coast, authorities said.

The officer was manning a DUI checkpoint when the shooting occurred shortly after 1 a.m. He was declared dead after emergency surgery at Marian Medical Center, Santa Maria police Chief Danny Macagni said in a statement.

The officer, a four-year Santa Maria department veteran, had just learned of the internal investigation of an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, and it became necessary to arrest him immediately, Macagni said.

“We had no choice,” Macagni said in video of an afternoon news conference posted by KCOY-TV. He said investigators had evidence “that demanded that we go out and take this officer off the street immediately.”

Supervising officers were sent to make a felony arrest, but he struggled with them when they arrived, first putting up a physical fight, then firing his gun but hitting no one, Macagni said.

“He chose to resist, he drew his weapon, a fight ensued, he fired his weapon,” the chief said.

Several officers came to help the police making the arrest, and one of them shot the suspected officer in the chest once, Macagni said.

Detectives had begun investigating the alleged relationship on Thursday night, and minutes before the shooting had confirmed that an “inappropriate” and “very explicit” relationship had been going on, Macagni said.

He said he could not give details because of the sensitivity of the investigation, but “there was some witness intimidation involved” and the arrest couldn’t wait for a more proper time or place.

“The information that we had in hand demanded that we not let him leave that scene, get in a car, drive somewhere, it would put the public at risk,” Macagni said at the news conference. “We just did not know what was going to happen, we did not expect him to react the way that he did.”

Macagni said police had expressed condolences to the officer’s family.

The officer who fired the fatal shot, an eight-year department veteran, has been placed on administrative leave, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department was investigating the shooting, Macagni said.

The name of the officer killed has not been released because some family members were still being notified, and the name of the officer who fired the shot was withheld while the incident was under investigation, police said.

Santa Maria is a city of some 100,000 people about 60 miles northwest of Santa Barbara and 160 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

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Fort Lauderdale Police “Peacemaker” Intimidates And Harasses Residents

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – Tania Ouaknine is convinced the police are watching her.

She’s not paranoid — it says as much on the red sign painted along the side on the hulking armored truck that’s been parked in front of her eight-room Parisian Motel for several days.

“Warning: You are under video surveillance,” reads the bold message on the side of the truck.

From the front bumper of the menacing vehicle, another sign taunts: “Whatcha gonna do when we come for you?”

The truck is a new weapon for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in the fight against drugs and neighborhood nuisances, and it looks like a Winnebago on steroids. They call it “The Peacemaker,” and it may be a first in South Florida.

Mixing high tech with simplicity, the in-your-face strategy is straightforward: load an out-of-service armored truck with some of the latest surveillance equipment available and decorate it with police emblems. Then, simply leave it parked in front of trouble spots.

“Make no mistakes about it,” said Detective Travis Mandell. “We want people to know that we are watching the bad guys.”

In August, police got the first of their two Peacemakers after paying the Brinks company $10 for a discontinued armored bank truck. They retrofitted the vehicle with cameras that can stream live video back to headquarters. With its cameras hoisted on each bullet-proof window, the truck can gather panoramic footage for up to 700 hours.

Last month the department added a second truck to its arsenal, converting a former SWAT vehicle into the second Peacemaker. Police park the unmanned trucks in front of the homes of suspected drug dealers and at crime-plagued street corners.

On a recent afternoon, a Peacemaker had at least one of its eight cameras trained on Ouaknine’s one-story establishment.

“They say I am running a whorehouse,” said the 60-year-old innkeeper. “I run a motel. The only thing that I don’t have is the five stars.”

Police wouldn’t say why they parked the Peacemaker last week in an abandoned lot directly across Ouaknine’s Parisian Motel in the 500 block of Northwest 23rd Avenue.

Police and city records show Ouaknine and her motel had been the subject of an undercover operation targeting prostitution starting in September. Ouaknine was arrested on Oct. 28 on three counts of renting rooms to prostitutes for $20 an hour. Her case is pending.

The city’s nuisance abatement board sent her a warning letter and summoned her to appear for a hearing in February based on the investigation. It’s the second time since 2008 that the board has targeted the motel, city records show.

She says she’s doing nothing illegal.

“They’ve tried everything to shut me down and have failed,” she said. “Now they bring this truck to intimidate me and my customers.”

Some neighbors surrounding the Parisian Motel say the truck is another form of constant police harassment.

On a recent afternoon, Leo Cooper watched as two undercover street-crime officers jumped out of an unmarked Ford Crown Victoria just yards from the Peacemaker. They began questioning a group of men gathered at the corner. Within minutes, one of the men ran away. A second man was charged with loitering.

“This is what happens here every day. We can’t sit outside without being harassed,” said Cooper, 27. “Now we have that truck. Most of us are not doing anything wrong. We can’t be outside?”

The police department has met the allegations of harassment with skepticism.

“People who are abiding by the law should have no problems with this,” said Mandell. “People may feel that their privacy is being infringed on, but when you think about it, every day you walk down the street you are being watched by 20 to 30 cameras from private businesses and homes.”

The feedback is much different in a neighborhood less than a mile east of the motel, close to where Sistrunk Boulevard is undergoing a major refurbishing project. In December, residents rallied at city meetings to get more police presence after a rash of daytime home burglaries, including one on New Year’s Day, said Anthony Lucicero, a neighborhood leader.

“We had all sorts of people walking up and down this street at all hours,” he said. “Prostitutes, junkies, everyone.”

In early January, police parked the Peacemaker at an empty lot on Northwest Fifth Court between 10th and 11th avenues. Neighbors say it’s already making a difference.

“Before the truck, we were afraid to go to work knowing your house might be robbed in the middle of the afternoon,” said Lucicero’s neighbor, Tangerine Davis. “Now we go to work in peace.”

Their biggest worry now, they say, is what happens when the Peacemaker drives away and the police are no longer watching.

“I wish they had another one out here,” Lucicero said. “I have an empty lot right there they can use.”

A check with the region’s major law enforcement agencies indicate Fort Lauderdale’s Peacemakers may be the first in South Florida, but not the first in the nation. News reports show that agencies in Green Bay, Wis., Lafayette, La. and St. Louis, Mo., have been using them for at least a year.

“We are definitely not doing something like that right now,” said Deputy Eric Davis, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. “I would love to see this for myself. Sounds pretty novel.”

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Secret Service Pisses Away Taxpayer Dollors Investigating Shot-Up Obama T-Shirt Photo

WASHINGTON, DC – A post on the Facebook page of a veteran Peoria police sergeant depicting the photo of seven Centennial High School students in Peoria, four with guns and one holding up a T-shirt with a bullet-riddled image of President Barack Obama, was brought to the U.S. Secret Service’s attention by a citizen and an “appropriate follow-up” is being conducted, a Washington D.C-based spokesman for the federal agency told The Republic Friday.

“Any time information like this is brought to our attention we have to conduct a follow-up,” Max Milien, spokesman for the Secret Service, said.

Milien described the Facebook post in the category of “unusual direction of interest,” which would merit an agency follow-up, he said.

“We understand an individual’s right to free speech but we also have the right to speak to the individual to determine what their intent is,” Milien added.

Pat Shearer, the 25-year Peoria police sergeant, who remains on active duty, also faces an internal investigation on the matter. An administrative investigation was prompted after they got word the Secret Service was looking into the photograph, Peoria police spokesman Jay Davies said.

“We were made aware of that situation today and we have opened an administrative investigation to determine if there are any policy violations that took place,” Davies said Thursday.

In an e-mailed statement Friday, Peoria spokesman Bo Larsen said that the “city values a high standard of professional conduct and ethical behavior. These are expectations we have of all our employees.”

Danielle Airey, a spokeswoman for the Peoria Unified School District, confirmed Friday that all seven young men in the photo are Centennial High students.

“We’re going to continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigation and gather information so our administration is well versed,” Airey said. “While the incident did not occur on our campus, it is an unfortunate event that happens to involve students and adults. It does not represent what we are as a school or district or community.”

The photo has since been removed from Shearer’s page.

It was posted Jan. 20, before the president’s visit to the Valley on Wednesday.

Both Larsen and Davies declined further comment on the matter pending the investigation.

“Until the investigation is complete and any appeals are exhausted, I cannot discuss the details,” Davies said.

Jon Meck, president of the City of Peoria Police Supervisors Association, said Shearer has been advised by the association’s attorney not to make any public statements and he also declined comment on the matter.

“For his privacy and for the integrity of the investigation by the department I won’t make any statement,” Meck said.

Meck added that Shearer has a great reputation as a police officer.

“The people he supervises respect him, his peers respect him,” Meck said.

The New York Times described the picture as showing seven young men, four posing with weapons and one holding the T-shirt, “with small holes and gashes,” bearing a likeness of the president above the word “Hope.”

The Times reported the image was also posted on the Facebook page of one of the young men in the picture posing with a gun.

According to the Peoria Police Department’s social-media policy, which includes social-networking sites, “employees shall not post, transmit, reproduce and/or disseminate information (text, pictures, video, audio, etc.) to the Internet or any other forum (public or private) that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the department or any of the department’s employees.”

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Crazed Hercules California School Officials Accuse 6 Year Old With Bogus Sexual Assault Charge – Held In Principal’s Office 2 Hours Until He “Confessed”

HERCULES, CALIFORNIA – An East Bay dad claims a game of tag on the playground resulted in his 6-year-old son being accused of sexual assault – a decision he said was an overreaction by school officials.

The parent, who asked only to be identified as Oswin, said his son was accused of brushing his best friend’s leg or groin while the two were playing on the playground at Lupine Hills Elementary in Hercules two months ago.

Oswin said his child was kept in the principal’s office for two hours until he confessed. He was suspended, and a sexual battery charge was placed on his permanent school record.

“To me, I think it’s an overreaction,” said Marilyn Cheeks, a Lupine Hills Elementary parent

Legally, there’s no such thing as sexual assault for a six year-old in California.

It wasn’t until Oswin and his wife got a lawyer that the school backed off. District officials declined to discuss specifics. They did confirm that an investigation was conducted, and that the child could not be charged with sexual battery. The claim was removed from the boy’s record.

Oswin’s son is attending another school now. He said he only hopes no one else will have to go through what his family did.

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FBI Wants Lots More Stuff To Use To Spy On American Citizens

WASHINGTON, DC – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a tool to mine social media for intelligence tips.

The US domestic law enforcement agency is asking information technology contractors about the feasibility of building a tool that would “enhance its techniques for collecting and sharing ‘open source’ actionable intelligence.”

The January 19 open request was published on a website offering federal business opportunities and was first reported by New Scientist magazine.

The FBI said it is seeking an “open source and social media alert, mapping and analysis application solution” for its Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC).

“Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations,” the FBI request said.

“Intelligence analysts will often use social media to receive the first tip-off that a crisis has occurred,” it said.

The FBI said the tool “must have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identity, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats.”

It would need to be able to “instantly search and monitor key words and strings in all ‘publicly available’ tweets across the Twitter site and any other ‘publicly available’ social networking sites/forums.”

It would also need the ability to “search the data across a myriad of parameters and view terrorist activities by location, terrorist group, and type of attack and see trends and analytics.”

In addition, it would have to be able “to immediately translate into English, tweets and any other open forum publically available social media captured in a foreign language.”

Interested parties have until February 10 to respond to the FBI request.

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Tuscaloosa Alabama Police Officer Robert Ashley Fourt Arrested, Suspended, And Charged With Domestic Violence And Criminal Mischief

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — A Tuscaloosa police officer has been placed on administrative leave after being arrested in a Tuesday night incident.

According to police, Robert Ashley Fourt, 54, of Tuscaloosa was arrested by investigators for domestic violence and third-degree criminal mischief.

Fourt is a sergeant in the patrol division of the Tuscaloosa Police Department, where he has been employed since 2003, Tuscaloosa police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley said. Blankley said Fourt was placed on administrative leave after his arrest.

Officers responded to a residence in the 4600 block of Woodland Hills Drive Tuesday at 6 p.m. on a domestic call.

“The victim told officers that the suspect was highly intoxicated and destroying items inside the residence,” Blankley said.

Fourt was taken into custody without incident by officers. A small fire that police said was set by Fourt in the residence’s garage was put out by the Tuscaloosa Fire Department.

Blankley said the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit was contacted to investigate the incident because Fourt was a Tuscaloosa police officer. No TPD investigators were called to the scene, Blankley said.

Fourt was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center to be treated for a cut to his head. He was booked into the Tuscaloosa County Jail Thursday.

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Man Awarded 22 Million After Being Held 2 Years In Solitary Confinement Without Seeing A Judge Or Doctor By Dona Ana County New Mexico Authorities – For DWI…

DONA ANA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO – A man who spent two years in solitary confinement after getting arrested for DWI was awarded $22 million for suffering inhumane treatment in New Mexico’s Dona Ana County Jail.

Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, according to NBC station KOB.com. He said he never got a trial and spent the entire time languishing in solitary, even pulling his own tooth when he was denied dental care.

“‘[Prison officials were] walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate,” he said. “Day after day after day, they did nothing, nothing at all, to get me any help.”

Slevin said he made countless requests to see a doctor to get medication for his depression, but wasn’t allowed to see one until only a few weeks before his release. He also never got to see a judge.

The $22 million settlement, awarded by a federal jury on Tuesday, is one of the largest prisoner civil rights settlements in U.S. history, according to KOB.com.

“I wanted people to know that there are people at The Dona Ana County Jail that are doing things like this to people and getting away with it,” Slevin, who now suffers from PTSD and believes he will have to take medication for life as a result, said. “Why they did what they did, I have no idea.”

Neither the county nor Slevin’s attorney returned phone calls from msnbc.com, but Slevin’s attorney, Matt Coyte, told KOB.com, “I have never been with or seen a braver man who stood up to these guys for what they did to him … [This case] It affects everybody and it’s not good for this country. It’s not good for Mr. Slevin for sure and it’s not good for this country. It has to stop.”

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Retired Ontario Canada State Police Officer And Pastor Arrested After Seeking Sex In Gay Sex Sting At Park

POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA – Four men, including a pastor and a retired cop, were arrested this week in an undercover sex sting at a Polk County park.

The men arrested Wednesday at Peace River Park south of Bartow are accused of soliciting sex from a male undercover officer, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

One suspect, 33-year-old Matthew Clark, told detectives that he is the senior pastor at the Blessed Assurance Temple in Bartow. Clark was charged with soliciting a lewd act.

Another suspect, Carl Kitchen, said he is a retired Ontario Canada State Police officer.

Kitchen, 72, is accused of exposing himself and soliciting a lewd act.

Roger Griffin, 63, an unemployed disabled Lakeland resident, was also charged with exposing himself and soliciting a lewd act.

Paul L. Wright, 41, of Dade City told detectives that he works for Allied, Inc., and comes to the park on lunch breaks to perform sex acts with men, the Sheriff’s Office said.

He was charged with soliciting a lewd act.

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Dekalb County Georgia “Officer Of The Month” Ghayth Abdul-Mughnee Arrested, Fired, Charged With Drugs And Stealing From Those He Arrested

DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA – A DeKalb County police “Officer of the Month” who was charged with stealing from people he had arrested has been fired, the department said Thursday.

Officer Ghayth Abdul-Mughnee, on the force for four years, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with theft by taking, possession of marijuana and violation of his oath of office. He was taken to DeKalb police headquarters in handcuffs.

Asked if he stole, the 30-year-old Abdul-Mughnee told Channel 2 Action News, “No, I’m innocent.”

“My girlfriend is setting me up,” he said.

The officer had been placed on administrative leave, and additional charges were pending, police said.

The investigation against him began when officers responded to a domestic call shortly after 2 a.m. Monday at the Abdul-Mughnee’s Lithonia home. The officer’s live-in girlfriend, Shawte White, told police about the alleged thefts as she was being arrested for simple assault.

Police said Abdul-Mughnee would bring items home from work that belong to people he arrested. Investigators said they found in the officer’s home a laptop computer, cell phone and iPod, as well as several bank cards and banking information.

The 33-year-old White also told investigators her boyfriend brought home marijuana he had seized from suspects, police said.

A police car Abdul-Mughnee had been allowed to take home as part of his Officer of the Month commendation for December was impounded as evidence.

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Hutchins Texas Police Officer Sgt. Gregory McKinley Arrested, Suspended, Charged With Assault After Domestic Violence Incident

HUTCHINS, TEXAS – A North Texas police officer is on administrative leave following his arrest earlier this week on an assault charge.

Hutchins police Sgt. Gregory McKinley was taken into custody Monday by Wylie police. The charge stems from an incident that happened at his home last week.

The 42-year-old was was booked into the Collin County Jail on a charge of assault causing bodily injury, a third-degree felony.

Hutchins Police Chief Frank McElligott announced that McKinley will remain on administrative leave until an internal affairs investigation is complete.

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Elsewhere:

Wylie Police have released the name of the person involved in a SWAT incident March 9.

Charles Gregory McKinley, a resident of Wylie and a police officer in Hutchins, is being held at the Collin County Detention Facility on charges of Assault-Family Violence-Impede Breath or Circulation, according to Wylie Det. Venece Perepiczka.

About 10 p.m. March 9, WPD was dispatched to the 2800 block of Sutters Mill Way in reference to a domestic disturbance call. When the officers arrived on the scene, they were told by the person who had made the call that McKinley was a Hutchins officer and that he had made statements indicating he may be suicidal. He had also indicated there were weapons in the house.

Attempts to contact McKinley were unsuccessful and, due to the mention of weapons and suicidal statements, Wylie SWAT and negotiator teams were sent to the residence, Perepiczka said. “Continued attempts to make contact with McKinley were unsuccessful. Officers obtained house keys and went into the residence. McKinley was found unconscious but breathing by the Wylie SWAT team, and he was transported to the hospital by EMS for a possible overdose,” she said.

McKinley was released from the hospital March 14, and he was taken into custody and transported to the Collin County Detention Facility on the familiy violence warrant. The charge is a third degree felony. McKinley’s bond has been set at $200,000.

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Veteran Wylie Texas Police Officer Suspended After Child Pornography And Lewd Images Found On His Home Computer – Female Dispatcher And Another Civilian Employee Also Suspended

WYLIE, TEXAS – The Wylie Police Department put a veteran patrolman on paid administrative leave on Tuesday after questions of lewd behavior and child pornography surfaced late Monday night.

The pictures allegedly taken from the policeman’s home computer aren’t just personal, they’re pornographic.

“It’s absolutely not reflective of this agency or the police profession,” said Det. Venece Perepiczka a Wylie Police spokeswoman.

Images posted on the internet show what appears to be the officer in a sexual act with a woman. Another picture shows a woman posing naked next to a Wylie police badge and doing an obscene act with a Glock pistol.

But even more concerning are pictures of child porn.

They’re all believed to have been stolen from the policeman’s personal computer and then sent to every e-mail address in his contact list on Monday night.

Even though Wylie named its officer under investigation, News 8 has decided not to reveal his identity, since he has not been charged with a crime.

In addition to suspending him, Wylie also put a female dispatcher and another civilian employee on paid administrative leave because they appeared in some pictures.

“What Wylie administration will be investigating is the officer’s conduct and how that relates to him being a police officer here,” Det. Perepiczka added.

But Wylie also asked the Texas Rangers to launch an investigation, along with the Garland Police Department, since the Wylie officer actually lives there.

“We contacted him at his home,” explained Ofc. Joe Harn, a Garland Police spokesman. “He was very cooperative. He gave us consent… and we did take his computer.”

The veteran patrolman has worked at Wylie for 13 years.

He used to be a sergeant but was demoted to an officer, Det. Perepiczka confirmed, though it’s uncertain why.

The policeman’s telephone is disconnected and he did not immediately respond to an e-mail Tuesday night.

Garland Police said officers will get a search warrant to look at the officer’s computer, but it might be a couple weeks until they figure out what, if anything, is on the hard drive.

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Veteran New York City Police Officer Michael Daragjati Expected To Plead Guilty In Federal Court After Charging Man With Bogus Crimes

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – An eight-year NYPD veteran is expected to plead guilty to using a racial slur while bragging that he had falsely charged a black man with resisting arrest after stopping and frisking him on Staten Island last spring.

Michael Daragjati, 32, is expected to enter the plea in federal court in Downtown Brooklyn Tuesday morning.

Daragjati, who is white, was charged with arresting a 31-year-old black man who objected to being stopped and frisked on Targee Street last April.

He claimed in a police report that the man flailed his arms and kicked his legs during the arrest, causing him to be detained for about 36 hours before being released.

The next day, Daragjati allegedly used a racial slur in describing the suspect in a conversation with a female friend.

Daragjati was also charged in connection with two other incidents.

The case highlighted civil rights advocates’ concerns about the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, which they say disproportionately singles out blacks and Latinos.

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East Haven Connecticut Police Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller Arrested By Feds For Harassing And Assaulting Illegal Immigrants

EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT – Four police officers, including the president of the local police union, were arrested Tuesday by the FBI on charges that they assaulted illegal immigrants and covered up abuses in a New Haven suburb where a federal investigation found life was made miserable for Hispanics.

The East Haven officers assaulted individuals while they were handcuffed, unlawfully searched Latino businesses, and harassed and intimidated individuals, including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or abuse the officers committed, according to the federal indictment.

Federal authorities began investigating police in 2009 in East Haven, where the federal probe last month documented a pattern of abuse. The Hispanic population had doubled in the past decade to more than 10 percent of the seaside city’s 28,000 people, but Latino business owners said rough treatment by police drove away many newcomers from Mexico and Ecuador.

The arrests were welcomed by Hispanic business owners in East Haven, including Luis Rodriguez, an immigrant from Ecuador who had complained of harassment by police at his Los Amigos Grocery store.

“They should have to pay, not with many years, but enough to make an example of them. They should not abuse their power,” Rodriguez said. “All I ever wanted was to be left in peace.”

Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller, president of the police union, are charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice.

Federal officials say the officers denied Latino residents and their advocates the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to not be arrested and detained without probable cause and the right to not be arrested on false and misleading evidence.

“In simple terms, these defendants behaved like bullies with badges,” said Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director of the New York office of the FBI.

Zullo allegedly described taking joy in singling out Latinos, telling Spaulding in a 2008 exchange quoted by the indictment that he liked harassing drivers and referred to “persons who have drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings and are now residing” in East Haven.

Miller repeatedly slapped a man handcuffed in his car, while Spaulding threw a man to the ground and repeatedly kicked him while he was handcuffed, according to the indictment. Mayor Joseph Maturo said the four men were arrested around 6 a.m. Tuesday at their homes and at the police department.

Donald Cretella, Miller’s lawyer, said his client has been honored with awards and risked his life in shootouts.

“John Miller is a hero in East Haven,” he said. “He’s decorated. He’s a wonderful family man. Hopefully, we’ll clear his name.”

Frank Riccio Jr., Spaulding’s attorney, said his client is an exemplary police officer.

“At this early stage it’s our position Mr. Spaulding is not guilty of the charges. He’s been nothing but an exemplary police officer. That’s why this is shocking.”

It wasn’t immediately clear who was representing Cari and Zullo.

The indictment says Miller reported to a police department leader described as a co-conspirator who blocked efforts by the police commission to investigate Miller’s misconduct. That refers to Chief Leonard Gallo, according to his attorney, Jon Einhorn, who denied that Gallo blocked the investigation.

“It’s unfair that he is mentioned in this regard when he isn’t even indicted,” Einhorn said.

The indictment also accuses unnamed union leaders of intimidation and interference to protect the officers, including a depiction of a rat posted on a bulletin board and a cartoon saying “You know what we do with snitches?” in a police locker room.

The U.S. attorney for Connecticut, David Fein, said the investigation is still looking into other incidents and individuals. Officials said no more arrests were expected Tuesday.

Maturo, a Republican who took office Nov. 19, recently reinstated Gallo as police chief. Gallo had been on paid administrative leave since federal authorities began investigating in 2010. Maturo said he backs the police.

“I stand behind the police department,” he said. “We have a great police department.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, which has pledged to reach out to the police department to work on reforms, said last month that the department engaged in a pattern of discrimination against Latino residents. Investigators said their probe was complicated by efforts to interfere with witnesses and by police silence.

Nearly half or a third of the drivers pulled over by certain officers were Latino, and the number of Latinos pulled over by certain squads was “extraordinarily high,” said Roy Austin Jr., deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division. Latinos who were stopped for minor violations were subjected to harsher punishments, such as arrest or vehicle towing, than were non-Latinos.

The East Haven Police Department of some 50 officers has come under scrutiny previously for civil rights issues. A federal jury ruled in 2003 that a white officer used excessive force and violated the rights of a black man he fatally shot after a chase.

Some officers involved in that case kept their jobs and were promoted, and there was no evidence that anyone received training to prevent similar confrontations in the future, Austin said.

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul Detained By TSA Agents In Nashville, Tennessee – Candidate Ron Paul’s Son

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s press secretary Moira Bagley tweeted on Monday that Transportation Security Administration officials were detaining her boss in Nashville, Tenn.

“Just got a call from @senrandpaul,” Bagley tweeted at about 10 a.m. on Monday. “He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”

Texas Congressman and current Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – Sen. Rand Paul’s father – placed a post on Facebook about the news as well. “My son Rand is currently being detained by the TSA at the Nashville Airport,” Ron Paul posted. “I’ll share more details as the situation unfolds.”

Ron Paul adds, via Twitter, that the TSA detained his son “for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner.”

Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook page has a post about the incident too. “Senator Paul is being detained at the Nashville Airport by the TSA,” Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook post reads. “We will update you as the situation develops.”

Sen. Rand Paul’s chief of staff Doug Stafford told The Daily Caller the Senator “was detained by the TSA after their scanner had an ‘anomaly’ on the first scan.”

“He offered to go through again,” Stafford said in an email. “The TSA said he could only have a full body pat down. He would not consent to it. He offered to go through the scanner again. The situation is ongoing.”

Sen. Rand Paul has previously referred to the TSA’s use of full body pat downs as the “universality of insult,” and he called on the agency to end the tactic.

“I think you ought to get rid of the random pat-downs,” Sen. Rand Paul said in June 2011. “The American public is unhappy with them, they’re unhappy with the invasiveness of them.”

Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, have not returned requests for comment.

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Violent Savage Felon Released Under Obama’s Failing Immigration Amnesty Programs Killed Three, Including a 15 Year Old Girl, Then Killed Himself

FLORIDA – When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti.

That never happened.

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.

DNA on a rifle found inside the house and cellphone tracking technology later linked Dufrene to the Jan. 2, 2011, slayings.

But North Miami detectives never got to interrogate him. Just 18 days after the murders, Dufrene shot and killed himself when he was cornered by Manatee County sheriff’s deputies in Bradenton after an unrelated break-in and shooting there.

The episode is a black eye for U.S. authorities, who by law could not detain Dufrene indefinitely after the Obama administration ordered a temporary halt of deportations to the island nation. The deportations were halted because of the carnage wrought by Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.

“Because of the moratorium on removals to Haiti in effect when Dufrene came into ICE custody, his removal to Haiti was not likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said in a statement Friday.

For North Miami detectives, the case remains an enigma. Dufrene, a drifter who lived in Manatee County, had no connection to the North Miami house, the family or the South Florida area other than his brief stay at the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade.

“Although a subject has been identified in this case, I believe someone else or several people could be involved with him in this homicide,” said North Miami police Detective Stacina Jones, the lead detective.

The failure to deport Dufrene infuriates the victims’ family members. “This guy shouldn’t have been in America,” said Audrey Hansack, 37, who moved back to her native Nicaragua after the murder of her daughter Ashley Chow. “I’m so upset with the whole situation. Because of immigration, my daughter is not alive.”

Ashley, a North Miami High School student who aspired to become a lawyer, lived in the house in the 400 block of Northwest 134th Street. Her mother owned the house, and rented an attached efficiency to a family friend, Harlen Peralta, 25, and her boyfriend, Israel Rincon, 35.

Peralta worked at a beauty salon. Rincon, who had recently separated from his wife of 10 years, coached youth baseball.

“His love was baseball. In his free time, he would train kids for no charge,” said Alicia Rincon, his former wife. “He was hoping that one day one of his kids would go to the major leagues.”

It was on Jan. 2, 2011, that worried relatives called police to check on the family. About 3:30 p.m., officers and paramedics entered the house to discover the gruesome scene — all three shot to death.

The murders baffled investigators. At first, they suspected the deaths might have been a murder-suicide, but the crime-scene evidence did not back up that theory.

Other clues were just as puzzling. Detectives suspected the killings took place between 3 and 6 a.m., but neighbors reported no sounds of gunfire. As the sun rose, a mysterious man knocked on a bleary-eyed neighbor’s door and asked for directions to a Metrorail station.

Initially, North Miami police did not find a weapon in the house, but family members later discovered a rifle — which did not belong to anyone in the house — wrapped in a towel and hidden under a mattress.

Two months later, Miami-Dade’s police laboratory notified North Miami detectives that the rifle had tested positive for the DNA of two of the victims and of Dufrene, 23.

Dufrene, a native of Haiti, had a long history of arrests in Manatee County — nine in all, his first at age 14 for battery on a teacher.

In February 2006, Dufrene was on probation for stealing a car when he was rearrested, this time for burglary. He was found hiding in a bedroom closet in a vacant house in Manatee County. Neighbors wrestled him down and held him until police arrived. Dufrene claimed he was cold and looking for shelter.

In July 2006, deputies again arrested him after a homeowner surprised him inside another Manatee County home. Five months later, Dufrene pleaded guilty to one of the burglaries and violating probation, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In August 2007, records show, a U.S. immigration judge ordered him deported. He was released from state prison in September 2010, and handed over to immigration custody at West Miami-Dade’s Krome Detention Center.

The federal government annually deported hundreds of Haitians convicted of felonies in the United States.

But after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Obama administration announced it was indefinitely halting deportations to the country.

“Under binding Supreme Court precedent, ICE’s authority to detain any individual is limited when the removal of that individual is not likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” the immigration agency’s statement said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 and 2005 that foreign nationals who cannot be deported may not be held in detention longer than six months. Deportations resumed in mid-January 2011 — three months after Dufrene was released from custody under ICE supervision. The agency did not specify what that supervision entailed.

ICE did not say how many convicted criminals like Dufrene were put back on the streets during the moratorium.

Police believed Dufrene’s mother picked him up in South Florida, bringing him back to Bradenton, where he promptly disappeared again. At that time, he was using a cellphone paid for by his mother, police said.

On the last day of 2010, cellphone records showed, that phone was used in Bradenton. The next day, however, Dufrene used the phone in North Miami — around the time the murders were believed to have taken place.

“The mystery is, how did he get here?” Detective Jones said. “And why did he choose this house?”

The records also showed that Dufrene returned to the Bradenton area the next day, as detectives back in North Miami were discovering the dead bodies. That night, Jan. 2, 2011, someone broke into a Sarasota house, stole a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver and test fired one bullet into a mattress.

The revolver would not go missing for long. According to Manatee County deputies, on Jan. 19, 2011, a shotgun-wielding Bradenton resident, Lance Harden, surprised Dufrene breaking into a neighbor’s house.

Dufrene shot Harden in the shoulder, swiped the man’s shotgun and ran away. Harden survived. The Manatee SWAT team cornered the man in Dufrene’s father’s home not far away.

By then it was too late. Deputies found Dufrene on the floor of the master bedroom, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Detectives back in North Miami were left with more questions than answers.

Dufrene had a history of breaking into homes, but was the North Miami house even his target? Did someone send him to the house?

The rifle used in the killings had not been reported stolen, and there were no records of who owned it. Dufrene probably stashed it under the mattress to avoid being seen in the breaking daylight fleeing with the long weapon. But then, who gave him the weapon?

Relatives of the dead say they want answers.

“I honestly don’t think he acted alone,” said Alicia Rincon, Israel’s former wife. “It’s very strange how he got there. Out of all the houses in Miami, why did he end up there?”

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Police Illegally Tracked US Citizens With GPS Trackers And Without Warrant – Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, DC – The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

The GPS device helped authorities link Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction.

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said that the government’s installation of a GPS device, and its use to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a search, meaning that a warrant is required.

“By attaching the device to the Jeep” that Jones was using, “officers encroached on a protected area,” Scalia wrote.

All nine justices agreed that the placement of the GPS on the Jeep violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Scalia wrote the main opinion of three in the case. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor also wrote one of the two concurring opinions that agreed with the outcome in the Jones case for different reasons.

Justice Samuel Alito also wrote a concurring opinion in which he said the court should have gone further and dealt with GPS tracking of wireless devices, like mobile phones. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

A federal appeals court in Washington had overturned Jones’s drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.

The case is U.S. v. Jones, 10-1259.

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Illegal Immigrant Involved In Deadly Hit And Run – Killed Moron Riding Moped On South Carolina Interstate

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA – The man accused of hitting and killing a moped driver on I-26 early Saturday morning is being held in jail with no bond because officials say he is in the country illegally.

Authorities say 29-year-old Lyson Soram has been charged with leaving the scene with death after troopers say he hit a woman riding on a moped at about 4 a.m. on I-26 near I-20, and then drove away in his 2002 Dodge minivan. The crash shut down the eastbound lanes of I-26 for about 5 hours.

Coroner Harry Harman identified the victim as 31-year-old Miranda Senn of West Columbia. Harman said Senn died at the scene.

Senn’s funeral will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday at Brookland United Methodist Church. Burial will follow in Celestial Memorial Gardens.

The mother of two was a member of Brookland United Methodist Church and a 1998 graduate of Brookland-Cayce High School.

Sorem is being held at the Lexington County Detention Center. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement has a hold on him because deputies say he entered the country illegally.

The collision is still under investigation by the Highway Patrol MAIT Team.

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On Duty New York City Police Officer Kills Himself While Talking To Girlfriend On Cellphone

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A police officer with the NYPD ended his life with a gun shot to the face late Thursday night, said an NYPD official.

The 28-year-old cop was reportedly on his cell phone with his girlfriend when he turned his gun on himself in Hollis Hills.

He was rushed to Long Island Jewish Hospital where he died at about 11 p.m.

His identity is being withheld pending family notification.

The officer was responding with his partner to a call about several vehicle break-ins when he committed suicide, the NY Daily News reported Friday.

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Dumbass Arkansas State Prison Guard Hassled Convicted Murderer Over Shoes – Ended Up Dead

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS – A convicted murderer stabbed a female guard to death at an east Arkansas prison Friday while she was investigating whether he had an unauthorized pair of shoes, a prison spokeswoman said.

Sgt. Barbara Ester, 47, was stabbed in the side, abdomen and chest at about 12:30 p.m., said Shea Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Correction. Ester died about 3 p.m. at a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., about 40 miles away.

Ester, a 12-year veteran of the correction department, was a property officer who investigated whether inmates had contraband items. Wilson said the guard had received a report that Johnson had a pair of contraband shoes.

“This is obviously very difficult for the department when something tragic like this happens,” Wilson said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Sgt. Ester’s family. These officers — it’s a tight-knit workplace. They look out for each other and are there together for a lot of hours of the day, so this is very difficult for everyone.”

Wilson said the prison was locked down after the attack and that the inmate, Latavious Johnson, was being moved to the state’s maximum-security unit at Varner. She said all the other inmates have been accounted for.

Johnson, 30, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder out of Jefferson County. He was sentenced in 2000 for killing his father. Prosecutors said Johnson was 18 at the time of the crime.

Wilson said Johnson had had several disciplinary infractions, including one this week for not obeying orders, but hadn’t previously attacked a guard.

“We will move him to the supermax (prison) so he will be out of that environment … He needed to be out of that environment,” Wilson said.

Arkansas State Police and the prison’s internal affairs staff were investigating the stabbing. Wilson said authorities would turn over their information to prosecutors, who will determine whether to file charges against the inmate.

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TSA Agents At Dallas/Fort Worth Texas Airport Allowed Handgun onto Airliner In Woman’s Carry-On Bag

GRAPEVINE, TEXAS – A plane left the gate at DFW Airport with a gun on board before transportation officials alerted the pilot about the problem, FOX 4 has learned.

Airport spokesman David Magana said a 65-year-old woman from Little Elm, Texas had a gun in her carry-on bag that got through the security checkpoint .

By the time the woman took her bag and walked away, a TSA agent scanning the D-30 checkpoint noticed the .38-caliber handgun.

Magana said the TSA shut down only the security checkpoint, not the entire terminal, and began searching the D concourse and other terminals for the woman.

At least 90 minutes elapsed before she was in custody, Magana said.

The plane, American Airlines flight 2385 to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, returned to the gate before it got on the runway.

It’s not clear if the gun in the luggage was loaded.

The woman, identified as Judith P. Kenny, told police she had forgotten the gun was in her bag. She was arrested on weapons charges and released a few hours later.

TSA spokesman Luis Casanova told FOX 4 that no review of procedures was needed and that standard operating procedures were followed. No harm came to anyone, he said.

But airport passengers were clearly concerned and puzzled.

“It is amazing for the liquids they remove and the scrutiny they put you through. For something as blatant as a pistol to get through is unacceptable,” one passenger said.

“You got toothpaste or anything they will stop you real quick, but a gun? They got to figure something out,” another passenger said.

The security breach comes on the same day that the Homeland Security Department acknowledged that some TSA agents went too far by strip-searching two elderly women in New York.

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TSA Apologizes After Humiliating Strip Searches Of Sick Elderly Women At Kennedy Airport

NEW YORK – In an about-face, the feds have admitted wrongdoing in the cases of two elderly women who say they were strip-searched at Kennedy Airport by overzealous screeners.

Federal officials had initially insisted that all “screening procedures were followed” after Ruth Sherman, 89, and Lenore Zimmerman, 85, went public with separate accounts of humiliating strip searches.

But in a letter obtained by the Daily News, the Homeland Security Department acknowledges that screeners violated standard practice in their treatment of the ailing octogenarians last November.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Betsy Markey concedes to state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) that Sherman was forced to show security agents her colostomy bag — a violation of policy.

“It is not standard operating procedure for colostomy devices to be visually inspected, and [the Transportation Security Administration\] apologizes for this employee’s action,” Markey wrote.

The letter says that Sherman, who uses a wheelchair, was escorted into a private area after she voluntarily lowered her pants to show screeners the device.

In the private room, she was patted down and told to show agents the colostomy bag, the letter says.

Markey still maintained that the Florida-based Sherman was never asked to remove her clothing.

“They asked me to pull my sweatpants down, and now they’re not telling you the truth,” Sherman fumed Monday.

Markey also denied that Zimmerman had been strip-searched, but did apologize for the conduct of a TSA agent who violated policy by scanning the Long Island granny’s back brace.

Zimmerman had told The News two female agents removed her clothes — instead of just patting her down — after she revealed that she was wearing a defibrillator.

“They’re lying,” said Zimmerman. “I don’t have a problem with [screeners checking\] the back brace. I have a problem with being strip-searched.”

Gianaris, who wrote to the TSA requesting a full investigation, said the feds’ account is still full of holes.

“It’s obvious that something went wrong, so its nice to see the TSA admit that their procedures were violated,” Gianaris said, “but they’re still falling short of admitting that these women’s dignity was violated by asking them to remove their clothes.”

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San Francisco California’s New Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Arrested, Charged With Domestic Violence

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco’s new sheriff is facing misdemeanor charges over an alleged domestic abuse incident on New Year’s Eve, authorities said.

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who was sworn in Monday, said Friday he will not resign.

“We are cooperating with law enforcement and the district attorney’s office and will, of course, continue to do so,” he told reporters.

The charges were announced by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, who also took office Monday.

Mirkarimi is accused of domestic violence with battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness.

Gascon said there were a series of text messages between the sheriff and his wife, Eliana Lopez, the alleged victim, about the incident.

Lopez, standing next to her husband, called the charges “unbelievable” and said the couple would fight them.

“I don’t have any complaint against my husband,” Lopez said. “We are together. … this is completely wrong.”

Mirkarimi was booked and released on bail, San Francisco police said.

Mayor Edwin M. Lee called the charges “extremely serious and troubling.”

“As elected officials, our primary responsibility and focus must always be to fulfill our duties to the people of San Francisco,” Lee said in a statement.

He said he would review options under the city charter, but “ensure that we do not take steps that undermine the integrity of the criminal justice proceedings under way.”

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Federal Goverment Hiding Data On Domestic Use Of Drone Aircraft

WASHINGTON, DC – The domestic use of stealth drones to survey America from the skies is no joke. The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that the US government has used the planes on the home front for years, but why and how is largely unknown.

An advocacy group aims to change that.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit based out of San Francisco, California, filed a Freedom of Information Act request back in April to learn more about domestic drone use in America. Eight months later, the Department of Transportation (and its subdivision that deals directly with domestic drones, the Federal Aviation Administration), has failed to follow through. On Tuesday this week, the EFF responded by formally filing a suit against the DoT, “Demanding data on certifications and authorizations the agency has issued for the operation of unmanned aircraft, also known as drones.”

Aside from what is leaked out of the Pentagon to the media, much isn’t clear about drone use except for a seemingly endless series of misadventures that have plagued the Department of Defense in recent months. As the US military continues drone operations overseas, the craft fleets have been linked to the firing of missiles, the monitoring of both insurgents and civilians and escalating tensions between the US and Iran. In terms of military use, drone operations have yielded widespread opposition from the likes of constitutional rights advocates, presidential candidate Ron Paul and the American Civil Liberties Union. Regardless, the government is only adding an arsenal of more and more craft to its fleet every month, adding international bases and investing billions in new unmanned planes.

American drone missions overseas are being launched for obvious reasons, despite how the government describes it. Domestic use, however, is largely kept in the shadows and is rarely discussed. San Francisco’s EFF says that at least 285 missions have occurred in America, but they want to know more about them. The US government, however, is being far from accommodation in regards to their request.

With the filing of the suit on Tuesday, the EFF hopes that they will be able to finally let the public understand why spy planes are being flown through American skies without the people of the country given any reason or warning as to why.

“There is currently no information available to the public on which specific public and civil entities have applied for, been granted or been denied certificates or authorizations to fly unmanned aircraft in the United States,” the EFF’s complaint says. In April they filed their FOIA request for information, and with no response nearly a year later, they have determined that by September of 2011, almost 300 missions by 85 separate users were certified by the FAA in all. The FAA, a component of the DOT, approves all domestic drone missions. A recent report revealed that the they are currently in the works to approve non-federal use of the spy craft planes in the US, drafting a legislation that will umbrella any local law enforcement unit to deploy drones as they would a street cruiser or bike cop.

“This is a tool that many law enforcement agencies never imagined they could have,” Steven Gitlin of AeroVironment Inc. told the Los Angeles Times in November. His company is already in the works to supply law enforcement agencies with 18,000 of small drone crafts once the FAA grants them clearance.

In the meantime, however, the federal government continues to operate these missions without explaining why. Such a shadowy-nature has only increased paranoia for Americans skeptic of the Big Brother branding near synonymous with the Obama administration, and an ongoing assault on the civil liberties of citizens is driving those previously unaware of drones to disavow the use.

“The use of drones in American airspace could dramatically increase the physical tracking of citizens – tracking that can reveal deeply personal details about our private lives,” EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch says in a statement. “Drones give the government and other unmanned aircraft operators a powerful new surveillance tool to gather extensive and intrusive data on Americans’ movements and activities,” she adds, noting that the usage rises “significant privacy concerns.”

“We’re asking the DOT to follow the law and respond to our FOIA request so we can learn more about who is flying the drones and why,” Lynch pleads in explaining the suit.

While America waits for the truth, they are left with only one option: to prefer for the worst and cover their tracks.

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JFK Airport TSA Officers Headed For Jail After Pleading Guilty To Stealing $40,000 From Checked Bag

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Two former Transportation Security Administration officers based at John F. Kennedy Airport are going to jail after admitting to stealing $40,000 in cash from a checked bag.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office says 44-year-old Coumar Persad, of Queens, and 31-year-old Davon Webb, of the Bronx, were sentenced on Tuesday to six months jail and five years’ probation.

Both had pleaded guilty to grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct, the Associated Press reports.

The money was all reportedly stolen from one passenger’s baggage.

Prosecutors said Persad X-rayed a piece of baggage on January 30 last year and noticed money inside. He then phoned Webb, who was in a baggage belt area, to tell him about the discovery.

Authorities said Webb showed up and marked the bag with tape. Persad then intercepted it in another handling area, and removed cash from the bag.

The pair later met in the bathroom to divide the money and hide it in their clothing.

Police say $39,980 was recovered from the suspects’ homes in connection with the investigation.

Persad’s attorney has said his client understands he made a mistake and wishes to move on with his life.

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Los Angeles County California Deputy Sheriff Brutally Beat Special Needs Woman On Bus – Threatened Soldier Who Caught It On Video

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – When Jermaine Green and his fiancee Violet Roberts got on a Metro bus in Bellflower Monday night, they took notice of another passenger.

“The lady got on the bus with a stroller full of pillows, she was very polite, said hello to everyone and sat down,” Green said.

At the next stop, two LA County sheriff’s deputies, one male and one female, boarded the bus and called the passenger by name.

“They said get off the bus. She then started cursing at (the female deputy). You could tell she had special needs. After that they grab her, she curses him out, calls him a big shot, next thing you know he gives her a big shot,” Green said.

“It was like they were tired of dealing with her so they didn’t try to talk to her or anything,” Roberts said.

“I couldn’t believe it. He seen me taping. He looked up at the camera a few times, and he still hit her like that, and I can’t believe he didn’t try to diffuse the situation at all,” Green said.

Green recently returned home from serving six years in the Army, including tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In the Army, they gave us extensive training for rules of engagement. There’s proper protocols and steps you take. This lady didn’t do anything, she wasn’t combative and he actually turned combative on her,” Green said.

Green claims the deputies then tried to intimidate him when he refused to hand over his cell phone.

“He comes to me and says you can be under arrest if you don’t give me that video,” Green said.

Green said the deputy then asked if he had any warrants.

“I said no, I’m a veteran, I just came back, I have six years, I have no record, and he said ‘We’ll see about that.'”

Why didn’t Green want to hand over this video to the deputies involved?

“I think they would try to cover it up. I think a lot of things get covered up and people need to come forward if they see something, report it because it can’t be fixed unless it’s brought to the public’s attention,” Green said.

A sheriff’s department spokesman told NBCLA over the phone the department would not comment on this case and would not look at the videotape, but the spokesman said the department does investigate all use of force claims.

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U.S. State Department Security Officer James Cafferty Pleads Guilty To Child Pornography

WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of State diplomatic security officer recently snared in an undercover FBI child pornography investigation yesterday pleaded guilty to a single felony count, pursuant to a deal struck with federal prosecutors.

By copping to transporting child porn, James Cafferty, 45, now faces a mandatory minimum prison term of five years (though a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years in custody). Cafferty, who most recently was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in London, is seen in the mug shot at right.

In a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Cafferty admitted that when he returned to the U.S. from England in August, he carried three hard drives containing up to 15,000 child porn images (both photos and videos). Digital storage media found in Cafferty’s Largo, Florida home during a law enforcement search contained more than 30,000 child porn images.

During questioning by federal agents, Cafferty “admitted ‘photo-shopping’ himself into scenes constituting child pornography.”

Cafferty, who is scheduled to be sentenced on March 23, first came to the attention of federal agents in the course of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement probe that was launched in April 2006. The ICE investigation identified 5000 U.S. residents, including Cafferty, who had paid to subscribe to web sites offering child pornography. According to the plea agreement, Cafferty “was flagged” as a State Department employee who had purchased access to several of the illicit sites, including “Sick Room.”

In mid-2011, Department of Defense investigators enlisted the FBI’s help in its probe of Cafferty. Since the security officer’s subscriptions dated back several years, agents “reinitiated the investigation to determine if Cafferty was still utilizing the Internet via his Yahoo email accounts to access child pornography.”

That “reinitiation” involved an undercover FBI web site purporting to offer illicit videos for free. As detailed by TSG four months ago, that operation targeted Cafferty, who was reeled in by federal agents after he logged into the undercover site (from an IP address in London) and sought to download a video purporting to depict “a 9-10 y.o. girl and man” engaged in a variety of sexual activity.

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Louisville Kentucky Police File Charges Against Dead Man

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – Louisville Metro Police are filing charges against a dead man. Last month, police say two officers were hurt when Norman Smith opened fire on them near the intersection of 10th Street and Jefferson Street.

Police say Smith later committed suicide and he was found in his car. WDRB News has learned that police have posthumously charged Smith with four counts of attempted murder and four counts of criminal mischief.

Officers responded to calls on December 20th of shots fired around 12:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of west Jefferson. When officers arrived, they got behind a white SUV suspected in the incident.

“He shot at our officers, and he got back in his vehicle and took off and we went after him. When he shot at our officers is when we had all the glass explosion. I think it was a shot gun if I am not mistaken that did most of the damage,” Ishmon Burks, the interim LMPD Police Chief, said at the time.

Police say Smith led them on a chase to an alley in the 1800 block of Nelligan Alley, located in the Portland area. Authorities say more shots were fired.

“We heard a bunch of cops come down. I heard brakes lock up behind that building over there. Seen him get out of the truck shooting,” said witness Charles Sanislow.

Two officers were injured. A bullet grazed one officer’s face. Another officer suffered injuries from shattered glass.

Smith had just been released from prison in November.

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Fayetteville North Carolina Police Officer Matthew U’ren Arrested And Suspended After Drunken Wreck/Hit And Run

FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA – A Fayetteville police officer was arrested early Friday and charged with driving while impaired, misdemeanor hit and run and reckless driving after he wrecked his car and failed to contact police, officials with the Fayetteville Police Department said.

Investigators say Matthew U’ren, 25, crashed his personal car, a 2004 Chevrolet Impala, into a guardrail at the end of Camden Road, near Whitfield Street, around 11 p.m. Thursday.

U’ren called a private towing company and had his vehicle removed from the scene. Neither he nor the towing company notified a law enforcement agency, investigators said.

“They have 24 hours to notify the city that they have towed a vehicle inside our jurisdiction,” said Sgt. Todd Joyce, who declined to release the name of the towing company.

Police say U’ren called a friend to drive him home and that person called police. Officers arrested U’ren at his home and took him to the Cumberland County Detention Center, where he registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.12. Under North Carolina law, a driver is considered impaired with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08.

He was released on a promise to appear in court.

U’ren has been employed with the Fayetteville Police Department for a year and a half and was assigned to the Cross Creek district. He has been placed on administrative leave, without pay, pending an internal investigation.

“We’re not going to turn our heads away from that, just because he’s an officer here at the department,” Joyce said. “He’s held in a higher standard, you know. We’re going to treat the matter just as we would had it been any other citizen involved in an accident.”

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MARTA Police Officer Willie Clarence Lee Jr. Arrested In DeKalb County, Charged With Child Molestation And Sexual Exploitation

DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA – The DeKalb County Police Department’s Special Victim’s Unit on Wednesday arrested MARTA police officer Willie Clarence Lee Jr., 46, on charges of child molestation and sexual exploitation. The unit began its investigation after text messages and a pornographic image were found on the cellphone of a 14-year-old girl, according to a DeKalb police press release.

The girl’s caretaker filed a report with DeKalb Police on Monday. Investigators believe that Lee, an ex-boyfriend of a family member of the victim, has been involved with the girl for five years, police said. He was given a $10,000 bond at a court appearance Wednesday. Clayton County Police assisted in the investigation.

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Pedophile Taylorsville Georgia Mayor Cary Rhodes Arrested By FBI On Child Molestation And Child Pornography Charges While Seeking Sex From A Child

TAYLORSVILLE, FLORIDA – Taylorsville Mayor Cary Rhodes, 57, of 46 Euharlee St., Taylorsville, has been arrested following an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Rhodes was arrested Thursday after coming to the attention of undercover officers of the FBI’s Northwest Georgia Safe Child Task Force. The arrest was made after Rhodes attempted to meet with a minor child for the purposes of committing sexual acts.

Rhodes has been charged by the state with criminal attempt to commit child molestation and computer or electronic pornography and child exploitation.

Aggravated child molestation is defined as “when such person commits an offense of child molestation which act physically injures the child or involves an act of sodomy.”

According to the Georgia Codes, a person convicted of aggravated child molestation may be punished by imprisonment for not less than 10 years and no more than 30 years.

A self-employed engineer, and Taylorsville Baptist Church’s secretary and chief financial officer, the small town mayor has been denied bond by a magistrate court judge and is currently being held in the Murray County jail.

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