Update: Longview Texas Police Officer Aulderson Franklin Jr. Arrested, Suspended, And Charged With Assaulting A Family Member After Choking His Wife

LONGVIEW, TEXAS – The City of Longview launches an internal investigation after Officer Aulderson Franklin, Jr. was arrested for choking his wife. CBS 19’s Abby Broyles spoke with people in Longview about the arrest and has the latest on the investigation tonight from the Longview Police Department.

City leaders say Officer Franklin was hired on at the Longview Police Dept back at the end of January, so he’s only been on the job here for about 6 months. News of his arrest spread quickly in the community, and people we spoke with today say they’re shocked and disappointed at what Officer Franklin is accused of.

Residents in Longview are concerned after one its police officers lands on the wrong side of law.

“That kind of rage from a police officer, it does concern me,” Kathy Rowan says, “you think these people are supposed to be protecting us and looking out for us and you know, they’re not really protecting their loved ones.”

Upshur County deputies arrested 42-year old Officer Aulderson Levi Franklin, Jr. late Saturday night. He’s charged with assault of a family member for impeding breath, a third degree felony.

Deputies arrested Franklin after a domestic disturbance call from a home in Big Sandy. Arrest records show witnesses told investigators Franklin was trying to choke his wife.

“No man should go after a woman like that, I don’t care if they’re married 100 years,” Rowan said.

Officer Franklin is now free on a $5,000 bond. He’s on paid administrative leave, and the City of Longview has launched an internal investigation.

“Our staff will look at the situation, look at what all the circumstances are and determine what will happen moving forward whether that’s whatever discipline take place, or what happens to his employment,” City spokesman Shawn Hara said.

Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd tells CBS 19 the case has not reached his office yet. We’re told the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating, and until that investigation is complete, city leaders say they won’t be able to make a long-term decision as far as Franklin’s future here as an officer in Longview.

CBS19 is working to speak with officer Franklin but he has not gotten back in touch with us.

If convicted, Franklin faces a two to ten year sentence. No word yet on his court date.

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Video Shows Owasso Police Officer Lt. Mike Denton’s Brutal And Violent Attack On Handcuffed Man – Douchebag Was Fired And Then Reinstated By Arbitrator

OWASSO, OKLAHOMA – KRMG News has obtained the lapel-camera video shot in June last year when Owasso Police Lieutenant Mike Denton gave 3 elbows to the face of a man being arrested for public intoxication.

The City of Owasso fired Lt. Denton in November 2011, citing ‘excessive force’ during the arrest of Bryan Scott Spradlin of Collinsville. Spradlin later pleaded guilty to the public intoxication charge.

KRMG News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the video from the Owasso Police Department in November 2011. That video was finally released Monday.

In a grievance hearing in March, an arbitrator reduced Denton’s firing to a written reprimand and reinstated the officer to the Owasso Police Department.

On June 30, 2011, Bryan Spradlin was arrested at an apartment complex in Owasso for public intoxication.

Officers went to the apartment on a disturbance call.

The arrest was videotaped from a camera on the officer’s lapel.

The clip shows Spradlin refusing to stand up while in handcuffs.

Lt. Mike Denton then drags him into jail.

You can hear Lt. Denton say, “Are you ready to walk? Can you get up and walk? You want to act like a big boy?”

Next, you can see Lt. Denton throwing three elbows into the suspect’s face.

The officer was fired for using excessive force.

Chief Dan Yancey spoke to KRMG in November.

Yancey said he was concerned about excessive force after viewing the video.

He said, “There’s a definite line, drawn in the sand if you will, as to what officers have the right to do, and if you cross that line intentionally, I think there should be severe consequences.”

In March, an arbitrator rehired Lt. Denton and gave him a written warning.

KRMG News made a Freedom of Information request for the video.

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New York City Police Officer Kofi Nsafoah Arrested And Charged After Choking His Wife

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – An off-duty city cop was arrested early Tuesday for allegedly choking his wife, police said.

Kofi Nsafoah, 36, was taken into custody at 2:30 a.m. after an apparent fight with his wife, cops said.

Police said the altercation happened in the vicinity of the 61st Precinct, which polices Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach and Gerritsen Beach. They declined to provide a specific address.

It was unclear how seriously the woman was injured.

Nsafoah was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing, police said.

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Three On One: Video Catches San Antonio Texas Police Officers Beating Handcuffed Pregnant Woman

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Did San Antonio Police Officers use excessive force on a pregnant woman? That’s what the Department is looking into tonight, after a Fox San Antonio viewer shot video of three officers holding down a pregnant woman. One of those officers hits her repeatedly.

It was the sound of a woman screaming that caught Lorenzo Rios’s attention. “All I heard was her yelling to get off me, I heard her yell I’m pregnant,” said Rios. So, he started to record this video with his cell phone. “She was already cuffed and they started to beat her, which I don’t think was right. It was pretty messed up. She was already down and pretty small compared to the other officers.”

According to a police report, 21-year-old Destiny Rios was arrested for prostitution and resisting arrest. She’s 5’1, 126 pounds and pregnant. “She did look pregnant, she looked about two months pregnant,” said Rios. It was the 4th of July around 5:30 p.m., when an officer saw Rios walking on Culebra. When he stopped to ask her name, he found out she had an active warrant for prostitution. When he started to arrest her, she fought back.

“Size makes no difference, it’s the amount of fight in the person,” said Chief William McManus, San Antonio Police. Fox San Antonio gave the police department a copy of the video, but the Chief says he didn’t see it. When we offered to show him, he said he didn’t need to see it. “What’s on the video is in my understanding is what the officer reported.” But, we found inconsistencies. We counted eight hits in the video, but the police report only says there were four or five. “Whether it was four or five or whether it was 8, it’s really irrelevant if the officer felt he needed to strike her 8 times in order to get her to comply and put handcuffs on, then that’s how many times he struck her,” said McManus.

Rios also told police she used heroin the day before. The man behind the camera says no one deserves this. “She didn’t need to be beaten like that like, she was small, she was already cuffed, she wasn’t resisting but for them to come and jump on her and punch her not once, but 9 times that was pretty messed up,” said Rios.

The police report says once handcuffs were on her, she was not struck. The Chief says he’s looking into all of this, but right now all of the officers are still on regular duty. Rios suffered minor injuries. Tonight, she’s still in the Bexar County Jail.

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US Taxpayers Taking A Hit For $40 Million Communications Link Between American Torture Prison In Cuba And United States

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be getting an estimated $40 million communications upgrade, signaling it will continue its mission of holding top suspected terrorists and as a major humanitarian aid base in the region.

The base, also known as Gitmo, will upgrade its limited satellite communications system to an underwater fiber optic line that will stretch from the base to the coast of Florida, according to Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale.

The United States has alerted the Cuban government that it intends on starting the project this summer with a survey ship operating off the eastern coast of the country evaluating the expected route, but actual work of installing the cable will being within a couple of years.

The outdated satellite communications system was overburdened with the military court hearing the cases of the top 9/11 plotters and other war-on-terrorism suspects, as well as the ongoing detention operations.

Upgrading to a fiber optic line allows much more bandwidth and a more secure line during bad weather that can hamper satellite communications, according to Breasseale.

While close to the United States, the base is still remote in southeastern Cuba, and is often in the path of severe weather. It generally houses about 6,000 troops and civilians.

“The project will bring the base online with communication technology equal to that of the Department of Defense footprint around the world,” Breasseale said.

While the 45-square-mile base has become well known for holding terrorism suspects since early 2002, the base has been controlled by the United States for over 100 years, though its role has shrunk considerably over the decades.

But the United States also uses it as a major contingency base for humanitarian aid operations, most recently using it as a staging ground to bring relief into earthquake-stricken Haiti in 2010. In the 1990s the base was also used to house refugees from Haitian political unrest.

With large swaths of open land, the base is prepared to take on thousands who could be housed in tents, according to Breasseale.

“The need for humanitarian aid is not going away, and this base is needed for that,” Breasseale said.

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$1 Million Claim Filed Against Long Beach California Police After Brutally Assaulting Employee During Medical Marijuana Dispensary Raid – Police Smashed Surveillance Cameras And Caused 10’s Of Thousands Of Dollars In Damage

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – Lawyers for a medical marijuana dispensary worker wounded in a police raid at a Long Beach shop filed a claim on Thursday seeking $1 million in damages from the city of Long Beach.

The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, alleges that a police raid of a pot shop June 19 was illegal and that the officers involved used excessive force.

“In terms of the excessive force claim, we will investigate that aspect of it,” said Long Beach City Attorney Robert E. Shannon.

Shannon said that the Long Beach Police Department is also mulling whether to open a criminal investigation into the activities of the medical marijuana dispensary and police are considering an internal investigation into the officers’ conduct during the raid, Shannon said.

The claim, filed Thursday with the Long Beach City Clerk’s office, alleges officers injured a volunteer employee, violated his civil rights, and violated the state’s disabled persons act.

It also alleges officers “engaged in conduct that violated various provisions of the state and federal constitutions,” the claim alleges.

The claim stems from a YouTube video that shows officers smashing surveillance cameras and stepping on a suspect at THC Downtown Collective in the 300 block of Atlantic Boulevard. The video was posted by user “Long Beach Raids” on July 1. Officials said they learned about the video on July 3.

An advocate for medical marijuana dispensary owners and workers criticized the officers’ conduct.

“That behavior is so blatant it cannot be the first time,” said Steven Downing, a retired Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief and current board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.”It was arrogant. It was unnecessary and it was brutal.”

The claim seeks damages in excess $1 million for medical treatment and mental counseling.

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Washington DC Police Using Pointless Firearm Registration To Harass, Arrest, And Jail Servicemen – US Army Veteran Brutalized, Home Searched Without A Warrant, Property Seized Without, Home Destroyed, And Jailed On 10 Bogus Charges

WASHINGTON, DC – The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) seems to have it out for our military. The department is using the city’s pointless firearm registration mandate to harass, arrest and jail servicemen.

Army 1st Sergeant Matthew Corrigan was woken in the middle of the night, forced out of his home, arrested, had his home ransacked, had his guns seized and was thrown in jail — where he was lost in the prison system for two weeks — all because the District refuses to recognize the meaning of the Second Amendment. This week, the city dropped all charges against Sgt. Corrigan, but the damage done to this reservist cannot be so easily erased.

This story will describe how Sgt. Corrigan went from sleeping at home at night to arrested. Subsequent installments of the series will cover the home raid without a warrant, the long-term imprisonment and the coverup by MPD.

Sgt. Corrigan, 35, and his attorney Richard Gardiner appeared before Judge Michael Ryan at D.C. Superior Court on Monday. The District’s assistant attorney general moved to dismiss all ten charges against him – three for unregistered firearms and seven for possession of ammunition in different calibers.

Wearing a blue suit and black-rimmed glasses, Sgt. Corrigan looked unemotional after the hearing that ended his two-year ordeal. Outside the courtroom, I asked him how he felt. I expected some vindication or, at least, relief. Instead, he was weighed down by the losses and trauma of the experience. “For court, I put on a face showing I’m okay,” he said. “Overall, this has broken me.”

Nighttime Raid

Sgt. Corrigan was asleep in rented apartment on North Capitol Street in the Stonghold neighborhood at 4am on Feb. 3, 2010, when he heard his name being called on a bullhorn from outside. There was a heavy snow falling — the first storm of what became known that winter as “snowmageddon.”

Flood lights glared through the front and back windows and doors of his English basement apartment. “Matt Corrigan, We’re here to help you, Matt,” the voice said in the darkness. An experienced combat soldier, he assumed a bunker mentality and hid in the dark room.

dogHe turned on his cell phone and a police detective immediately phoned and said, “Matt, don’t you think this is a good time to walk your dog?” The SWAT team outside could obviously see the 11-year old pit bull, Matrix, a rescue from dog fighting, who had been with Sgt. Corrigan since graduate school in Northern California.

“I’ll come to the window and show myself,” he offered on the phone. Sgt. Corrigan still didn’t know why his house was surrounded, but he knew exactly what he should do in such situations. “I’ve been on the other end of that rifle trying to get someone out,” he explained.

He said that the cop on the phone answered that, “‘It’s gone beyond that now.’”

Iraq

Sgt. Corrigan volunteered to serve for a year in Iraq from 2005-2006. He’s an Army reservist in a drill sergeant unit based in Alexandria. By day, he is a statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

His unit would generally never be needed overseas, but the Army need people to train the Iraqi soldiers. So, the then-drill sergeant signed up for the deployment because he thought it would be good for his military career.

iraqThe reservist and nine other soldiers were embedded with the Iraqi army to train them to be a functional military force. He was stationed in Fallujah during the transition from the assault on the city to allowing the civilian population to move back in and through the elections.

The team was spread out over 4 or 5 locations so that each Iraqi company could have a very different tasking from the Marines who operated that battlespace.

Among other duties, the sergeant would go out on patrol with the Iraqis, clear routes of IEDs, prevent new IEDs from being placed in the urban areas. During patrols, he would search for any detail in the street that had changed in a way that would indicate a possible new explosive, then he would scan the horizon for the enemy with the detonator.

He says that in his daily life now, he’s still looking for the “IED triggerman.” He was awarded the bronze star.

His twelve months of service ended without much time to re-adjust to civilian life. “In 20 days, I went from being shot at to sitting in a cube wearing a suit,” he recalled of the difficult transition returning to his statistician job. “Your body is in America. Your head is in Iraq.”

Night of the arrest

Sgt. Corrigan never fully recovered emotionally from the combat and continues to have vivid nightmares that gave him insomnia. The Veterans’ Affairs (VA) hospital gave him medication to help him sleep, but by early 2010, he started having new dreams.

bronze“I kept seeing my own dead body with my friend and family standing over me, looking disappointed. Sometimes I died in Iraq, sometimes here,” he recalled. “I didn’t sleep for four or five nights in a row.”

At the same time, he was tasked to prepare a mental health manual for his soldiers on mild traumatic brain injury and suicide prevention. On a pamphlet from VA hospital, he saw a link to a website VeteransCrisisLine.net. On it, he found a number for a counseling hotline, which turned out to be a suicide hotline.

When he called it a little before midnight, he asked to speak to someone about the bad dreams and sleeplessness. The woman asked for his name, address, phone number, whether he was active duty, if he was using alcohol or drugs, and his unit. Then she asked if he had any firearms.

Sgt. Corrigan had three personal guns for protection and for competition in his home. He had recently moved from Virginia to the District, but had not registered them because he thought the process was too convoluted and risky.

“It didn’t sound right that I could just carry my guns to the police station and not get arrested.” He recalled thinking that, “I’ll just wait for them to clear up this complicated process and do it then.”

The only places in the United States that require citizens to register every single gun they own with the government are Hawaii, New York City, Chicago and the District.

After the police raided his home that night, they took the three firearms: a Sig 226 in .40 caliber, a Smith and Wesson 5904 in 9mm and a M1A Springfield Armory Scout Squad rifle.

courtAt the Monday hearing at D.C. Superior Court, Mr. Gardiner petitioned the court to return the property. It took two years for the firearms’ attorney’s other active-duty veteran client, Lt. Augustine Kim, to get his guns returned.

Judge Ryan gave the attorney general’s office three days to file a document in opposition to the release, and he said he will make a decision by the end of this week.

When asked by the VA hospital counselor on the night of Feb. 2 whether he owned guns, Sgt. Corrigan answered truthfully.

The woman answering the suicide hotline would not listen to him. “I told her, ‘I don’t have the gun out.’ And she kept saying, ‘Put down the gun.’ She talked like I had the gun in one hand and my cell phone in the other.”

“She insisted I repeat the words, ‘The guns are down,’” he said. “I finally got agitated and said, ‘I shouldn’t have called’ and hung up.” Then, Sgt. Corrigan took a prescribed sleeping pill and went to bed.

Attack and Surrender

After being jolted awake four hours later, Sgt. Corrigan agreed to exit his home to show that he was fine. As he walked out his front door, he turned the lock on the knob so that it would lock when he closed it. He had a stow-away key in a box outside.

When he opened the door, he saw about 25 officers in full body armor and kevlar helmets, carrying M4 assault weapons. SWAT and explosive ordinance disposal teams were on all sides. Streets were barricaded for blocks. “They were prepared to be blown up or attacked,” Sgt. Corrigan remembered. Experienced in combat, he knew how to surrender with the least chance of being hurt. He put his hands over his head and spun around so they could clearly see he was unarmed.

matt2In the dark, snowy night, the Iraq vet was an easy target. “I looked down at saw 10 jiggly red dots all over my chest,” he said, appearing afraid at the memory. “I crumbled.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one officer ready to tackle him, so he dropped to his knees and crossed his ankles to demonstrate complete defenselessness.

“They immediately zip-tied me tighter than I would have been allowed to zip-tie an Iraqi,” Sgt. Corrigan said, pulling up his dress shirt cuff to show his wrist. “We had to check to fit two fingers between the tie and the Iraqi’s wrist so we weren’t cutting off circulation. They tied mine so tight that they hurt.”

Mr. Gardiner, the defense attorney, still questions whether this initial arrest was legal, since there were no charges against him at this point. The only thing the police had was the word of a VA operator saying he claimed to be a gun owner. He was not read his rights. MPD spokesman, Gwendolyn Crump, would not comment on the case.

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Gang Of 20 Hooded Savage Black Beasts With Clubs And Knives Stormed North London UK Bar, Dragged Random Man Outside And Stabbed Him To Death

NORTH LONDON, UK – A gang of 20 hooded youths stormed a pub after the Champions League final before dragging away a 25-year old man and stabbing him to death in scenes ‘like a horror film’, friends said today.

‘True gent’ Luke Fitzpatrick was killed and his father Bernard, who threw himself on top of his son in a desperate attempt to shield him, remains in a critical condition in hospital after being stabbed four times.

The pair were attacked when a gang armed with bats and knives stormed the north London pub after father and son had watched Chelsea win the cup together at on Saturday.

A forensic tent remained at the scene of the tragedy just yards from the pub near his Dollis Hill home.

Friend Katy McKeon, 22, who has known him growing up, said: ‘Luke was one of the nicest guys around, always looking after people, he actually cared about people, a really nice, funny guy.

‘The amount of flowers that are here just shows how loved he was, this has ruined this community.

‘I was there on Saturday and it was like something out of a horror film.

‘There were about 20 young black guys all with their hoods up armed with sticks and bats and knives. They just ran in the pub and started trying to attack people.

‘It was really frightening. But it should not have happened to Luke, it shouldn’t have happened to anyone, but he was a complete innocent.’

His mother Constance, 56, and brother Ryan, 21, were in Majorca and had to rush home.

Bernard, 56, is out of intensive care and has mumbled a few words but is not fully conscious, Miss McKeon said.

She added: ‘He was just watching the football, but it had nothing to do with the game – Luke was an Arsenal fan.

‘Everyone in the pub knows each other, we all grew up together, we are a really close community.

‘It was such a good atmosphere in the pub then within a minute it was changed by a minority just looking for trouble.

‘A couple of them had tried to start an argument with someone in the shop about two hours before this happened, but it was nothing to do with Luke.

‘Then they rounded all their mates up and stormed the pub. I didn’t see exactly what happened to Luke, but at 17 why have they got knives? It is disgusting. He was a true gent.’

Three people including two 17-year-olds were arrested and have since been bailed. Today a fourth man remained in custody after being arrested an address in Wembley yesterday.

The gang of youths often hung around the shops where the argument took place and three weeks ago an elderly man had been punched in the face as he got off a bus, she said.

Luke’s best friend, Ricci Whiteside, 25, said: ‘There was an argument in the shop opposite the pub at half-time.

‘Luke wasn’t anything to do with it, but we all heard that something had gone on.

‘A group of black guys arrived at the door of the pub with bats and knives and they were looking for someone who had been outside the shop earlier.

‘People were throwing chairs at the door to try and stop them from coming in.

‘There was a lot of confusion. They got Luke and dragged him outside. They were pulling him up the road.

‘His dad was running after them. But by the time he got to Luke he was already on the floor. Bernie threw himself on top of Luke. He was trying to protect him, but it was too late.”

Tess Fitzpatrick, Bernard’s sister, said: ‘The men who came for Luke were like a pack of wolves. My brother ran after them as they were dragging Luke up the street.

‘He covered him with his body, but they had already stabbed Luke all over.’

Pal of the roofer Michael O’Rourke, 25, added: ‘There is not one person who would say one bad word about him, he was one of the most loved people here.

‘He had never done a bad thing in his life but he can’t even go to the pub with his dad and have a pint without getting murdered. Luke was just the nicest guy you could imagine, an absolute gent.

‘Bad things happen to good people. None of the scum bags who did this could ever live up to our friend. It is heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.’

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Former Houston Texas Plice Officer Andrew Blomberg Acquitted By All White Jury After Being Caught On Video Brutally Beating Black Child Along With At Least 6 Other Officers

HOUSTON, TEXAS – The day after an all-white jury acquitted a former Houston police officer for his role in the beating of a 15-year-old African American burglary suspect, community activists rallied a crowd of at least 200 people on the courthouse steps to protest.

Andrew Blomberg was acquitted by a jury in Houston on Wednesday in the alleged beating and stomping of Chad Holley two years ago.

The verdict was criticized by the Houston Police Department on Thursday.

“I understand the jury’s verdict, I just have to respectfully disagree,” Police Chief Charles McClelland said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Protesters carrying signs with slogans like, “No justice, no peace. Stop the racist police,” and “Justice for Trayvon Martin” circled in front of the Harris County Courthouse and a phalanx of media cameras.

Some of them chanted that Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos have to go — even though both officials issued statements saying they disagreed with the verdict.

Blomberg, 29, was one of four officers fired for their role in the beating of Holley in March 2010 when police apprehended him while he was apparently fleeing a burglary.

His acquittal came amid heightened tension after the fatal shooting of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman earlier this year.

Court docs: Trayvon Martin shooting ‘ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman’

Prosecutors have released hundreds of pages of new evidence including witness interviews, crime scene photos, and the medical examiner’s report. NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports.

Holley’s beating was videotaped by a security camera at a nearby business showing at least seven officers involved, kicking and stomping him as he lay face down on the ground.

All seven were fired, but four, including Blomberg, were charged with official oppression.

The remaining three defendants will learn of their court dates on Monday. Holley, who was convicted of burglary and sentenced to probation, has filed civil suits against the officers involved.

After the acquittal, Lykos said she respectfully disagreed with the verdict and said prosecutors were “prepared to go to trial on the three remaining cases.”

Blomberg told media after the verdict was rendered the incident had nothing to do with race, and that Holley was simply a “fleeing burglary suspect.”

But community activists disagreed, and spoke out angrily against police brutality at the courthouse rally on Thursday.

“The cops standing on the street corner, the ones who cower in the lobby of the courthouse — those no good bastards are never going to change unless you make them change,” said activist Quanell X.

Quanell X told the crowd that two black jurors out of a pool of 75 were stricken, and encouraged the black community to respond to jury summons in the future.

“All-white juries can never happen again,” he said.

Other activists present at the rally asked people to sign a petition for an independent civilian review board to examine cases of police oppression and brutality.

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, Lykos pointed out that jury pools are created randomly from prospective jurors who say they can be impartial. She also highlighted that Blomberg’s defense team struck the two black jurors from the jury pool.

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Douchebag Milwaukee Wisconsin Police Officer Richard Schoen Fired After Attack On Woman Motorist – Punched Handcuffed Woman In Patrol Car, Pulled Her Out By Her Hair, And Ended With Knee To Her Abdomen

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – A Milwaukee police officer has been fired for using excessive force on a woman arrested during a traffic stop, the department announced on a website Monday evening.

Richard Schoen, 42, punched the woman in her face while she was handcuffed in his squad car before pulling her out by the hair and striking her with his knee, according to a posting on a department website, The Source.

Police Chief Edward Flynn fired Schoen on May 1, according to the website. Schoen had been with the department nine years.

Schoen pulled the woman over about 9 p.m. on Sept. 22 in the 4100 block of N. 51st Blvd. The reason she was pulled over was not disclosed. The woman was arrested after becoming argumentative and using profanity and was taken to the District 7 police station, the website states.

After arriving at the station’s garage the woman began to stomp on the floor of the squad, complaining that her left leg hurt. Schoen opened the rear passenger door and tried to pull her out by the bottom of her shirt.

He then entered the rear passenger compartment and struck the woman in the face before pulling her out of the car by her hair. When the woman was on the floor of the garage, Schoen struck her in the abdomen with his knee, according to the website posting.

The posting also did not identify the woman nor state whether she was charged with any offense as a result of her arrest.

It cited the department’s code of conduct, which states, “We use the minimum force and authority necessary to accomplish a proper police purpose. We demonstrate self-discipline, even when no one is listening or watching.”

The department posted the announcement at 6:13 p.m.

Although the posting did not state whether Schoen would be charged criminally, the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office did not file charges, according to Anne Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Police Department.

Contacted by email Monday night, Schwartz said she was not at her office and could not provide more information.

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Windsor Ontario Police Officer Det. David Van Buskirk Pleads Guilty After Brutally Beating Blind Doctor

WINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA – CBC News has obtained video that shows a Windsor, Ont., police officer beating a doctor who is legally blind.

Det. David Van Buskirk, who attacked Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan on April 22, 2010, pleaded guilty Thursday to assault causing bodily harm.

Video cameras at the Jackson Park Health Centre captured the beating, although much of the physical altercation is slightly out of frame. Afterwards, Van Buskirk wrote in his report that the doctor “”immediately reached out and grabbed my throat and pushed me backward.”

In pleading guilty, Van Buskirk admitted that Abouhassan “did not strike him at all.” He also confirmed that all of the doctor’s reaction “was in lawful resistance to being assaulted by the accused.”
David Van Buskirk has pleaded guilty to assault.David Van Buskirk has pleaded guilty to assault. (CBC News)

Julian Falconer, the lawyer representing Abouhassan, told CBC News that “in the face of denials by this officer and allegations that my client attacked, I think it’s essential that the public see this.”

Abouhassan, who is legally blind, suffered a broken nose, bruised ribs, a torn eyelid and detached retina in the beating.

Adding insult to injury, he was subsequently charged with assaulting a peace officer following the initial investigation by Windsor police, including Det.-Sgts. Paul Bridgeman and Patrick Keane.

Bridgeman watched the video between eight and 10 times before endorsing assault charges against Abouhassan, according to the office of the independent review director.

Both Bridgeman and Keane were charged with discreditable conduct for trying to prevent Abouhassan from filing criminal charges against Van Buskirk. Both were later exonerated.

Falconer said this case is the poster child for the failure of the police disciplinary hearings and a huge embarrassment for Windsor police.

“This was a vicious beating of an innocent doctor-turned-cover-up-turned-conspiracy, pure and simple. And our discipline apparatus couldn’t do a thing about it,” Falconer said.

Abouhassan has filed a lawsuit seeking more that $14 million in damages from the Windsor Police Department, seven of its officers and Smith, the former chief.

Van Buskirk is due to be sentenced on the assault charge Wednesday. Acting police chief Al Frederick has reserved comment until then.

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Video Catches Brutal Beating Of Subdued Man By Meriden Connecticut Police Officer Evan Cossette – Police Chief’s Sun – Faces At Least Two Other Brutality Complaints

MERIDIAN, CONNECTICUT – A Connecticut police officer has been captured on video throwing several punches at a subdued man on the floor and then proceeding to Taser him while another officer holds him.

The officer, Evan Cossette, who works in Meriden, is being sued by the man, Joey Bryans, after the 30-year old claimed that the video evidence showed police brutality.

The grainy and out of focus video-tape from the early morning of January 23 of this year shows Bryans leaving MidSate Medical Centre for a cigarette.

According to police reports, the hospital staff were worried Bryans might injure himself because he was drunk and contacted Cossette and another Meriden police officer, Mark Nowak

The pair were already at the hospital as part of an unrelated call.

Walking out into the hospital car-lot wearing only a white T-shirt, Bryans is seen to be followed by Cossette and Nowak.

Unfortunately, the camera goes out of focus and moves away from the scene for around 10-12 seconds.

When it returns, Cossette’s right arm can be viewed hitting Bryans at least five times while Nowak holds his legs.

The video then features Cosette reaching into his belt for a Taser and shocking Bryans twice, the first for nine seconds and the second time for four seconds according to police records.

However, the official report of the incident differs from the account seen on the video.
Watched by the hospital security guards the police officers continue to work to subdue Bryan allegedly using excessive force

Watched by the hospital security guards the police officers continue to work to subdue Bryan allegedly using excessive force

Cossette wrote that Bryans was running away from the hospital when he is clearly walking and says that both he and Nowak shouted several verbal commands to Bryans to stop running.

In addition, Cossette reported that Bryans ‘tensed his arms and body up, forming fists maintaining an aggressive fighting posture.’

He also claims that Bryans ‘spun around and engaged him in a physical altercation’ which meant that the pair were ‘forced to bring him to the ground’.

The gap in the grainy and inconclusive video between Nowak first grabbing Bryans to when Cossette is clearly punching him is 12 seconds.

Meaning that the ‘aggressive fighting posture’ by Bryans must have occurred during that time period.

Cossette wrote in his report that the punches had ‘little to no effect’, which forced him to use the Taser

Already under investigation by a federal grand jury, Officer Evan Cossette has had three police brutality complaints made against him in just over a year and received a written warning for one.

However, in this case the Internal Affairs investigator at Meriden police ruled that Cossette had not violated any police procedures.

Bryans’ attorney, Sally A. Roberts, declined to comment at length, saying only that the video ‘speaks for itself.’

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Utah Highway Patrol Officer Sgt. Andrew Davenport Fired After Brutally Beating 60 Year Old Female Motorist – Now An Ogden Police Officer, But Faces “Possible Decertification” By State

UTAH – A seasoned police officer has been terminated for repeatedly punching a woman in the head with a closed fist at a traffic stop.

Utah Highway Patrol Sergeant Andrew Davenport pulled over 60-year-old Darla Wright after a police chase through Ogden in August, 2010.

Davenport, 37, claimed he was using ‘distraction blows’ because the woman refused to get out of her vehicle, and had disputed allegations he used excessive force.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Davenport was dismissed on January 19, 2011 after a five-month internal investigation. He appealed the decision to the board and was put on paid administrative leave.

A Utah Career Service Review Board report was released to the newspaper after a state open-records request.

According to the report, the board on October 26 upheld the firing of Davenport, who now works as an Ogden patrol officer.

The board found Davenport ‘violated numerous department polices regarding use of force, ethical conduct, use of mobile recording equipment and assault’, according to the Tribune.

The report said that Davenport failed basic skills on how and when to use force, and ‘could not be trusted to use it properly in the future.’

Officers claimed in an incident report that Wright was driving erratically and tried to avoid being pulled over.

During the chase, they finally managed to spin her vehicle to a halt by hitting the back of her car and sandwiched it between two police cars.

Dash camera footage shows Davenport running up to Wright’s vehicle, shouting, ‘Get out of the car!’ and asking her to roll down the window; but she refused to let go of the steering wheel.

‘The suspect was still trying to escape, she had the accelerator floored and engine revving in an attempt to push our vehicles out of the way,’ Davenport wrote in the incident report.

It was then that the video shows him smashing the driver’s side window and beginning to punch the woman, striking her repeatedly in the head and face.

Another officer is seen pointing a Taser at the startled woman from the back window.

The shocking images were captured by the camera on the police vehicle dashboard were released by the Utah Department of Public Safety in January, 2011.

‘She refused to comply with commands to give us her hands’, Sergeant Davenport wrote in his police report.

‘Due to my close proximity to the suspect and my experience with Taser failure at such close distances, I delivered three close hand strikes to her head in an attempt to gain compliance with our commands.

‘I did this to distract and stun her and to stop her from trying to drive off and strike our vehicles or possibly run us over. The strikes worked and we were able to grab her hands,’ he added.

According to the board report, Davenport shut off his microphone during the incident, and did not give directions to troopers about how to approach the vehicle.

One trooper is seen jumping over the hood of Wright’s car with a handgun, pointing it at her with Davenport in the line of fire.

Another trooper pointed a Taser in Wright’s direction through the back passenger side window.

The board said that closed-fist punches were not encouraged in the force, although strikes with a forearm or open hand are viewed as acceptable in force is needed to get someone out of a vehicle.

Wright was taken into custody on suspicion of DUI, reckless driving, eluding police, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. She was taken to hospital and required stitches.

The charges against her were dismissed in January, 2011; she reached a reported $25,000 out-of-court settlement with the state.

Davenport was employed by the Utah Highway Patrol as a trooper for ‘several years’ and was promoted to sergeant in 2007, according to the Tribune.

A spokesman for the board said the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council was looking into Davenport’s conduct for possible decertification; however, no criminal charges have been filed.

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Task Force Faults University Of California Police For Attacks On Protesters – While Chief Stood Around Filming Their Efforts With Her Cellphone

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – The long-awaited task force report on the pepper-spraying incident at the UC Davis campus in November was released Wednesday, and it includes a number of criticisms against police and campus administrators.

The conclusion of the task force was that the Nov. 18 incident “should and could have been prevented.”

The 13-member task force had plenty of blame to go around, finding Chancellor Linda Katehi and her administration responsible for a breakdown in communication and finding Chief of Police Annette Spicuzza at fault for a lack of leadership.

The report cites one officer whose name was redacted as saying while officers pepper sprayed seated students and protesters “the chief was standing in the surrounding crowd filming the actions with her cell phone.”

Task force investigators also found fault with the officers wielding the pepper spray, specifically the most recognized officer, Lt. John Pike. Though they were not allowed to interview Pike for the report “the task force found no justification for the officers’ use of pepper spray.”

The task force also didn’t buy the officers’ initial claim they felt surrounded by a hostile crowd because officers could easily be seen walking those arrested through the crowd.

Nikko Reynoso was part of the crowd pepper-spayed that day.

“I hope people are going to be accountable,” she said. “I didn’t think it would affect me, but it did. It carried. It was thick it was in my mouth on my clothes in my eyes.

But not everyone agrees with the report, or the blame.

“As someone who was there, I saw repeated warnings of students who were sitting in a line,” Nelson Harris said. “I think to not comply with that, they got exactly what they deserved.”

The 190-page “Reynoso Task Force Report” said the decision to use pepper spray against students who had gathered on the quad for an “Occupy UC Davis” protest against tuition costs “not supported by objective evidence and not authorized by policy.”

Among the other findings in the report:

The incident was not managed according to plan.
The pepper spray used (MK-9) was not an authorized weapon for UC Davis police offiers and officers were not trained in how to use it.
Chancellor Katehi bears responsibility for deploying police at 3 p.m. to remove tents rather than earlier in the day or the night before
Chancellor Katehi bears primary responsibility for failing to communicate her position that physical force should be avoided.
Lt. JPike bears responsibility for the use of pepper spray on the students.

The report is highly critical of the actions of Police Chief Spicuzza before and after the incident and states “the command and leadership structure of the UCDPD is very dysfunctional.”

Spicuzza and Pike were placed on administrative leave after the incident.

RAW VIDEO: Police Pepper Spray Students

UC President Mark Yudof issued a statement after the report’s release saying in part that, “Even a cursory reading of the report confirms what we have known from the start: Friday, Nov. 18 was a bad day for the UC Davis community and for the entire UC system.

“We can and must do better. I look forward to working with Chancellor Katehi to repair the damage caused by this incident and to move this great campus forward.”

The release of the report was delayed after the UC Davis police union sued to block it, saying including names of officers would subject them to harassment. A judge OK’d the release of the report after names of most of the officers were redacted.

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Henderson Nevada Police Officers Caught On Video Brutally Beating Unresisting Man In A Diabetic Shock – Attackers Names Hidden From The Public

HENDERSON, NEVADA – Adam Greene is on his stomach as a pack of police officers pile on him, driving their knees into his back and wrenching his arms and legs. One officer knees him in the ribs; another kicks him in the face.

“Stop resisting,” officers on the video yell, but Greene, his face pushed into the pavement, hasn’t resisted. He doesn’t even move — maybe can’t move — because he’s gone into diabetic shock caused by low blood sugar.

The video, recorded more than a year ago by a police car dashboard camera, was released Tuesday by Greene’s lawyers. The same night, the Henderson City Council approved a settlement of $158,500 for Greene. His wife received $99,000 from Henderson, which is just under the minimum amount that requires council approval.

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers also participated in the traffic stop but do not appear to kick or knee Greene on the video. The state has agreed to pay $35,000 to Greene for a total of $292,500 between the two agencies.

It was a Highway Patrol vehicle camera that captured the incident.

CAUGHT ON TAPE

A Highway Patrol trooper enters the scene first, gun drawn, and kicks the driver’s window of Greene’s four-door sedan. After several moments, the trooper opens the door.

The trooper, his gun still raised, then gives Greene conflicting commands. He first tells him not to move, then tells him to come forward.

A second trooper quickly cuffs Greene’s wrist and pulls him from the car, which rolls forward until an officer stops it.

Greene flops to the ground, clearly dazed as five officers rush him. A sixth officer, with Henderson police, enters the frame late and delivers five well-placed kicks to Greene’s face.

“Stop resisting mother (expletive)!” one officer yells.

Greene doesn’t scream until a second Henderson officer knees him in the midsection — and then does it three more times. Greene was later treated for fractured ribs.

Police suspected Greene was intoxicated as he weaved among lanes about 4 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2010, and finally stopped his car near Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway in Henderson.

But that wasn’t the case, which they soon discovered after they searched Greene.

“Call in medical,” one officer says in the video. “We found some insulin in his pocket. … He’s semiconscious.”

“Let’s get medical out here. He’s a diabetic, he’s probably in shock,” the officer later tells dispatch.

Greene’s lawsuit said officers then forced him to stand by a patrol car in handcuffs and blow into a Breathalyzer, despite being injured. Paramedics later arrived and treated him for low blood sugar.

Greene was released without a citation, and officers apologized to him for “beating him up,” the lawsuit said.

He immediately went to a hospital, where he was treated for the broken ribs and the bruises to his hands, neck, face and scalp, the lawsuit said.

One of the harsher moments in the video comes near the end of the clip, when one officer can be heard laughing loudly.

One officer notes that Greene “was not a small guy.” An officer laughs and says, “I couldn’t take him by myself.”

OFFICERS NOT IDENTIFIED

None of the officers was named in the lawsuit, and authorities have not released their names.

Henderson police said a sergeant involved was disciplined. The sergeant remains employed with the department.

Greene’s lawyers were planning to hold a news conference today about the incident.

Greene’s case, while shocking, is not unique.

Alan Yatvin, a legal advocate for the American Diabetes Association and a Philadelphia attorney, said police across the country frequently mistake low blood sugar — called hypoglycemia when blood sugar is exceptionally low — for intoxication in people with diabetes.

A Web search on the issue returns dozens of video clips and stories similar to Greene’s.

Symptoms of hypoglycemia include shakiness, dizziness, hunger, pale skin, moodiness, aggressive behavior, loss of consciousness and even seizures.

“You need police to be trained in what to look for,” Yatvin said. “The problem is, there’s no authority over all police departments. Every department has its own procedures, and states have different rules and training regimens.”

Henderson police said in a statement that the department’s use-of-force methods were modified after the Greene incident. The statement noted a 30 percent reduction in use-of-force incidents from 2010 to 2011. The specific policy changes were not detailed.

William Sousa, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said training for crisis issues is not consistent through departments. Some departments train every officer, and some departments train just a few.

And it is unknown how effective crisis training is, Sousa said.

“Anecdotal evidence is that even officers trained for this will come upon situations they have to diagnose quickly, and act quickly, and those result in cases where you have something (like Greene’s case),” he said.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with diabetes wear a bracelet indicating their condition, but “police still have to look,” Yatvin said.

It is unknown whether Greene was wearing a medical bracelet, but it wasn’t mentioned in the lawsuit.

Yatvin, who specializes in police misconduct cases, added that it is “very troubling” for the average citizen to think police could arrest or assault them because of a medical condition.

“I have a hard time imagining a scenario where it’s necessary to kick an unarmed man and break his ribs,” he said.

The scenario likely would not have been seen at all had the Highway Patrol camera not been rolling.

At the time of the incident, Henderson police did not have dashboard cameras. Those were added to Henderson police vehicles in June, more than eight months after the incident with Greene.

Such an event would not have been captured on video in Las Vegas because the Metropolitan Police Department doesn’t have cameras in cars.

Sousa said the trend with agencies has been moving toward dashboard cameras.

“It works both ways,” he said. “There’s usually resistance from officers at first, but as years go by it may become no big deal, because you get an objective recording that often helps the officers.”

This wasn’t the first high-profile incident involving a medical episode in Clark County. In both cases, the Highway Patrol was involved.

Las Vegas doctor Ryan Rich, 33, died in January 2008 after trooper Loren Lazoff used a Taser on him five times.

Rich’s vehicle had crashed into two vehicles and then the center median on Interstate 15.

Lazoff said Rich appeared intoxicated, dazed and was combative, but an autopsy later revealed he only had seizure medication in his system. Rich had been diagnosed with the seizure disorder shortly before he died.

The Clark County Coroner’s inquest jury ruled the death excusable.

Rich’s family sued Taser International last year. The Highway Patrol was not named in the lawsuit.

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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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Buckeye Arizona Police Claim They Will Investigate Officer Who Brutally Attacked Elderly Man At Walmart

BUCKEYE, ARIZONA – An Arizona police department will conduct an investigation into the bloody arrest of a 54-year-old grandfather during a Black Friday sale at a Walmart, an assistant police chief said Saturday.

Jerald Newman, 54, was released Saturday from a Maricopa County jail, his wife, Pamela, told CNN. He has been charged with resisting arrest and shoplifting.

“(He is) as good as expected … but he is emotionally and mentally a wreck,” she said.

Newman was among a throng of shoppers crammed into a Buckeye, Arizona, Walmart soon after it opened late the night of Thanksgiving.

“They were just letting people in; there was nowhere to walk,” said his daughter, Berneta Sanchez, who was also in the store. “Teenagers and adults were fighting for these games, taking them away from little kids and away from my father.”

The suspect’s grandson, Nicholas Nava, told CNN affiliate KNXV that Newman had grabbed one video game and put it under his shirt so that others jostling for the game didn’t take it from him. One person alerted a police officer, who then approached Newman.

David Chadd, a CNN iReporter from Las Vegas, was among the crowd shopping for video games set up in the Walmart’s grocery section. He said Newman “was not resisting” arrest as he was led away from the crowd by a police officer.

That officer, Chadd said, then suddenly hooked the suspect around the leg, grabbed him and “slammed him face first into the ground.”

“It was like a bowling ball hitting the ground, that’s how bad it was,” he said.

Video, recorded by Chadd and later posted on CNN’s iReport, shows an apparently unconscious Newman head-down on the floor in a pool of blood. As he’s turned over, Buckeye police officers appear to try to revive him — at which point his face, covered mostly in blood, is revealed.

Several voices, apparently those of fellow shoppers, are heard saying, “Why would you throw him down so hard? All he did was shoplifting and you threw him down like that?” Another person says, “They threw him down. He wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Two citizens then appear to come to Newman’s aid by applying paper towels to the man’s nose. Chadd estimated Newman was knocked out for about 10 minutes, all the while gushing blood and handcuffed.

Buckeye Assistant Police Chief Larry Hall said Saturday that Newman’s case is “basically in the court’s hands right now, as far as the resisting arrest and shoplifting goes.”

The department will conduct an investigation to assess if the actions of the police officer involved in the arrest were “within reason,” based on “our policy and also the law.” He said that probe would happen soon, adding it was “days away.”

“We may have an independent agency conduct the inquiry, just to show transparency,” Hall said.

As to the criminal charges, Todd Nolan — the attorney representing Newman — said his office will conduct discovery procedures Monday with police “to gather evidence proving my client is innocent.”

The suspect himself plans to speak to the media later next week, his lawyer said.

Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said the retail giant was aware of the incident.

“We are concerned whenever there is an incident involving a customer at one of our stores,” Hardie said. “We are in contact with the local police and are sharing any information we have with them.”

Sanchez described her father as “a really nice man,” saying he is a custom furniture-maker who preaches through the California prison system. He has raised his grandson from birth and, even while in the hospital, Sanchez said the boy was her father’s chief concern.

Whatever happens, Sanchez vowed that next year she won’t be shopping in the wee hours of the Friday morning after Thanksgiving.

“I will never leave my house again on Black Friday, because I don’t want to put my daughter through that again,” she said, noting her daughter was there to see police standing over her bloody grandfather. “I’d rather stay home. And if they have Black Friday, they need more security.”

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Hero To Zero: Douche-Bag University Of California Davis Police Officer John Pike “Honored For Service” Prior To Brutal Pepper Spray Attack On Peaceful Protesters

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – The police officer who pepper-sprayed a row of peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters at a California university last week is a retired U.S. Marine sergeant who has been honored for his police work on campus, but he also figured in a discrimination lawsuit against the university.

Lt. John Pike has risen swiftly through the ranks of the University of California, Davis, police force over the last decade. Now, as one of four lieutenants, the 39-year-old supervises more than one-third of the sworn officers on the suburban campus near Sacramento, including the investigations unit.

Linda Katehi, University of California, Davis Chancellor, says she was horrified by video showing students pepper-sprayed by a campus police officers. She also refused calls to resign. (Nov. 21)

Linda Katehi, University of California, Davis Chancellor, says she was horrified by video showing students pepper-sprayed by a campus police officers. She also refused calls to resign. (Nov. 21)

Footage of Pike and another officer clad in riot gear casually spraying an orange cloud at protesters’ heads has sparked national outrage since it began circulating online Friday night. Students gathered on campus Tuesday for the second time in as many days to condemn the violence, and they urged university officials to require police to attend sensitivity trainings.

Pike has twice been honored by the university for exceptional police work, including a 2006 incident in which he tackled a scissor-wielding hospital patient who was threatening fellow officers. Afterward, he said he decided against using pepper spray because it might harm his colleagues or other hospital patients.

But an alleged anti-gay slur by Pike also figured in a racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit a former police officer filed against the department, which ended in a $240,000 settlement in 2008. Officer Calvin Chang’s 2003 discrimination complaint against the university’s police chief and the UC Board of Regents alleged he was systematically marginalized as the result of anti-gay and racist attitudes on the force, and he specifically claimed Pike described him using a profane anti-gay epithet.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi identified Pike as one of the officers involved in the pepper-spray incident in an interview with the campus television station Sunday, and university communications staff confirmed his role Tuesday morning.

As the controversy over the spraying incident has grown, images of the lieutenant have become the subject of a popular blog, which features his image superimposed on famous paintings and spraying famous figures, from Gandhi to John F. Kennedy. The handcraft site Etsy.com also is selling a T-shirt emblazoned with Pike’s image but showing flowers coming out of his spray can.

Over the weekend, the hacker group Anonymous, which is affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, posted on its website Pike’s phone number and other personal details.

Pike did not immediately return a message left Tuesday at a home address listed in Roseville, a Sacramento suburb.

Records show Pike joined the Marines in November 1989, and by the time he left, he had been promoted to sergeant.

In 2003, two years after Pike joined the campus police force, he received his first meritorious service award for using his patrol car to bump a suspect’s vehicle onto a local highway ramp, stopping the man from driving the wrong way.

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Anonymous Publishes Contact Information On Douche-Bag University Of California At Davis Police Officer Who Attacked Peaceful Protesters With Pepper Spray

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – The online “hacktivist” group Anonymous published the personal contact details on Monday of a California university policeman who used pepper spray on protesters, and it urged supporters to flood him with phone calls and emails.

YouTube videos of Friday’s incident on the campus of the University of California, Davis have gone viral and led to the suspension of the college police chief, two police officers and calls for the chancellor to step down.

In the YouTube videos, one of which has received 1.44 million views, two university police officers in riot gear are seen spraying an orange mist on protesters sitting peacefully on the ground.

Following the spraying, the crowd begins chanting “Shame on you!”

A YouTube video on Monday purportedly from Anonymous published the home address, the home telephone number, the cellphone number and the email address of one of the policeman who allegedly used the pepper spray on protestors.

In the video, an artificially altered voice tells the “police forces of the world” that “brutalization of our citizens is both unjust and uncalled for.”

Specifically addressing the officer involved in the Davis incident, it said: “You are a coward, and a bully.”

“Flood his phones, email and mailbox to voice your anger,” it said.

A call to the cellphone number listed identified it as that of the police officer involved and said his voicemail box was full.

Anonymous has been involved in scores of hacking exploits including the recent defacing of a website of Syria’s Ministry of Defense to protest a bloody crackdown on anti-government protestors.

Last year, the shadowy group launched retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

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Called On To Resign, University Of California Davis Head Linda P.B. Katehi Apologizes For Her Police Officers Attack On Peaceful Protesters – Police Chief And Officers Suspended

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – The chancellor of the University of California Davis expressed her regrets Monday before a crowd of thousands over the use of pepper spray against Occupy Davis protesters by police last week.

“I am here to apologize,” were the first words Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said through a microphone after climbing onto a small stage erected on the university’s “quad” for Occupy supporters. “I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday.”

Video of police pepper-spraying nonviolent demonstrators at a sitting protest Friday on the UC Davis campus has sparked widespread criticism, including calls for Katehi’s resignation.

“If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had on Friday,” Katehi said, “I’m just telling you I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”

The statement triggered cries of “Resign!” from the crowd.

The university said it has placed two police officers and the police chief on administrative leave in the wake of the incident, while officials investigate officers’ use of pepper spray against protesters.

Katehi saw the measure as “a necessary step toward restoring trust on our campus,” she said.

The chancellor was scheduled to create a task force Monday to review the incident and issue recommendations within 30 days.

In a written statement Sunday, Katehi said she shared the “outrage” of students and was “deeply saddened” by the use of the chemical irritant by campus police.

“I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident,” she said. “However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Katehi made reference to her own past as a student protester when addressing the crowd of Monday.

“There is a plaque out there that speaks about 17th of November of 1973, and I was there, and I don’t want to forget that,” she said in an apparent reference to a student uprising in Greece against the military junta that ruled when she attended university there.

A group of about a dozen protesters sat on a path with their arms interlocked as police moved in to clear out a protest encampment affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement Friday. Most of the protesters had their heads down as a campus police officer walked down the line, spraying them in their faces in a sweeping motion.

“I was shocked,” Sophia Kamran, one of the protesters subjected to the spray, said Saturday. “When students are sitting on the ground and no way of moving to be violent, being totally peaceful, I don’t understand the use of pepper spray against them.”

The school said 10 protesters arrested were given misdemeanor citations for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. Eleven were treated for the effects of pepper spray, which burns the eyes and nose, causing coughing, gagging and shortness of breath.

The Davis Faculty Association, citing incidents at other campuses, demanded “that the chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress nonviolent political protests.”

It called for greater attention to cuts in state funding to education and rising tuition. Its board demanded Katehi resign, saying she exhibited “gross failure of leadership.”

Saturday, Katehi called the officers’ actions “chilling” and said the video “raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.” But she refused calls from faculty members and others for her to step down, saying she did not violate campus policies.

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U.C. Davis Police Officers Suspended After Attacks On Peaceful Protesters

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – The University of California at Davis has placed two police officers on administrative leave after video of them pepper-spraying non-violent protesters at point-blank range sparked outrage at school officials.

Friday’s incident has led to calls for the resignation of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who announced the action in a written statement Sunday. Katehi said she shares the “outrage” of students and was “deeply saddened” by the use of the chemical irritant by campus police.

“I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident,” she said. “However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again.”

And Annette Spicuzza, the campus police chief, told CNN that putting the officers on leave “is the right thing to do at this time.” They will be sidelined until an investigation is complete, and “hopefully that won’t take too long,” she said.

Katehi said that investigation, initially announced Saturday, would be sped up. Katehi said the task force established to conduct the probe will now report in 30 days, instead of 90. And she said she will hold talks with students, faculty and staff “to listen to their concerns and hear their ideas for restoring civil discourse to the campus.”
Police spray seated Occupy protesters

A group of about a dozen protesters sat on a path with their arms interlocked as police moved in to clear out a protest encampment affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement Friday. Most of the protesters had their heads down as a campus police officer walked down the line, spraying them in their faces in a sweeping motion.

“I was shocked,” Sophia Kamran, one of the protesters subjected to the spray, said Saturday. “When students are sitting on the ground and no way of moving to be violent, being totally peaceful, I don’t understand the use of pepper spray against them.”

The school said 10 protesters arrested were given misdemeanor citations for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. Eleven were treated for the effects of pepper spray, which burns the eyes and nose, causing coughing, gagging and shortness of breath.

Occupy roundup: A fallout, a silent protest and a new encampment

Earlier, UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain said police used pepper spray after protesters encircled them and blocked them from leaving. Cut off from backup, the officers determined the situation was not safe and asked people several times to make room, Morain said.

But Spicuzza said the officers were put on leave after “discussion and reviews and time to contact these officers.”

“We’re going to continue to do our jobs here on campus, which is to keep this campus and community safe,” she said. “And the officers will be given their due process.”

The the incident set off a flood of comments on the school’s Facebook page, most of them critical of police and the administration. The Davis Faculty Association, citing incidents at other campuses, demanded “that the chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress nonviolent political protests.”

It called for greater attention to cuts in state funding to education and rising tuition. Its board demanded Katehi resign, saying she exhibited “gross failure of leadership.”

Saturday, Katehi called the officers’ actions “chilling” and said the video “raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.” But she refused calls from faculty members and others for her to step down, saying she did not violate campus policies.

Saturday evening, as Katehi left campus, dozens of students sat cross-legged and with their arms linked in a silent protest.

A reporter asked Katehi, “Do you still feel threatened by the students?”

“No,” she replied. “No.”

Time: Watch video of police pepper-spraying and arresting students

Morain told CNN that 25 tents were in place Friday afternoon despite fliers explaining the campus prohibits overnight camping. It does so for security and health reasons, Katehi said.

After written and verbal warnings, officers reminded the protesters they would be subject to arrest if they did not move their tents from the quad, Morain said. Many protesters did decide to remove their tents and equipment, officials said.

Critics took issue with the college’s account, saying the seated protesters did not pose a threat to the officers.

“Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students,” wrote Nathan Brown, an assistant professor in the college’s English Department, in an open letter to the chancellor. He said that police then used batons to separate the students, kneeled on their bodies and pushed their heads to the ground.

“When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats,” Brown wrote.

He called on Katehi to resign.

“I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis.”

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University Of California Probing Brutal Davis Campus Police Pepper Spray Attack On Peaceful Seated Protesters

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA – Under pressure to resign, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, established a task force Saturday to look into an incident where a police officer sprayed seated protesters with pepper spray at point blank range.

Linda Katehi told CNN’s Don Lemon that she considered the police action on Friday “unacceptable,” but stressed she has no plans to step down.

“We really want to look into this very carefully and take action … make sure that it will never happen again on our campus,” she said.

Katehi said the task force made of faculty, students and staff will review the events and provide a report within 90 days.

“This report will help inform our policies and processes within the university administration and the Police Department to help us avoid similar outcomes in the future,” she said.

The campus protests were affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

One of the protesters hit by the spray told CNN’s Lemon that she was still feeling some after-effects Saturday evening.

“I was shocked,” said Sophia Kamran. “When students are sitting on the ground and no way of moving to be violent, being totally peaceful, I don’t understand the use of pepper spray against them.”

A campus police officer, in a sweeping motion, sprayed protesters point blank on Friday before other officers moved in.

Eleven people were treated on site for effects of the yellow spray. Two of them were sent to the hospital, university officials said.

The incident set off a flood of comments on the school’s Facebook page, most of them critical of police and the administration.

In response, Katehi first released a statement, then held a news conference Saturday.

“Yesterday was not a day that would make anyone on our campus proud,” Katehi said in her statement.

At the news conference, she called the use of pepper spray “chilling.”

“The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this,” she said.

But Katehi refused calls from faculty members and others for her to step down, saying she did not violate campus policies.

The Davis Faculty Association, citing incidents at other campuses, demanded “that the chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress nonviolent political protests.”

It called for greater attention to cuts in state funding to education and rising tuition. Its board demanded Katehi resign, saying she exhibited “gross failure of leadership.”

Saturday evening, as Katehi left campus, dozens of students sat cross-legged and with their arms linked in a silent protest.

A reporter asked Katehi, “Do you still feel threatened by the students?”

“No,” she replied. “No.”

Time: Watch video of police pepper-spraying and arresting students

UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain told CNN that 25 tents were in place Friday afternoon — despite fliers explaining the campus prohibits overnight camping. It does so for security and health reasons, Katehi said.

After written and verbal warnings, officers reminded the protesters they would be subject to arrest if they did not move their tents from the quad, Morain said. Many protesters did decide to remove their tents and equipment, officials said.

A group of about a dozen protesters sat on a path with their arms interlocked as police moved in to remove additional tents. Most of the protesters had their heads down.

At one point, protesters encircled the officers and blocked them from leaving, Morain said.

Cut off from backup, the officers determined the situation was not safe and asked people several times to make room, Morain said. One officer used pepper spray when a couple of protesters and some of the 200 bystanders moved in, she added.

A use of force review will “determine whether we made all the right decisions and handled it the way we should have handled it,” Annette Spicuzza, chief of campus police, told reporters.

Critics took issue with the college’s account, saying the seated protesters did not pose a threat to the officers.

“Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students” wrote Nathan Brown, an assistant professor in the college’s English Department, in an open letter to the chancellor.

He said that police then used batons to separate the students, kneeled on their bodies and pushed their heads to the ground.

“When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats,” Brown wrote.

He called on Katehi to resign.

“I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis.”

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Aransas County Texas Judge William Adams Under Investigation After Career-Ending Video Surfaces Of Him Brutally Beating His Daughter – 2.3 Million Hits On YouTube Before State Took Action…

McALLEN, TEXAS – As his adult daughter took to national television, the career of the Texas judge now infamous for the violent beating he gave her as a teenager began to look less certain Thursday. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced that it had opened an investigation into the video, now viewed more than 2.3 million times on YouTube, that shows Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams beating his then 16-year-old daughter with a belt for using an illegal file-sharing program. carrer

County officials said Thursday that Adams would not hear any cases related to Child Protective Services for at least the next two weeks. And the top administrator in Aransas County cast doubt on whether Adams could credibly return to the bench.

“I would think it would be very difficult,” said Aransas County Judge C.H. “Burt” Mills Jr. “Personally I don’t see how he can recover from this.”

Calls to Adams’ office and that of his attorney were not immediately returned Thursday.

Hillary Adams, 23, says the outpouring of support and encouragement she’s received since posting the 2004 video online last week is tempered by the sadness that it’s her father lashing her 17 times with a belt and threatening to beat her “into submission.”

“I’m experiencing some regret because I just pulled the covers off my own father’s misbehavior after so many people thought he was such a good person. … But so many people are also telling me I did the right thing,” she told The Associated Press outside her mother’s home in the Gulf Coast town of Portland, near Corpus Christi Wednesday.

“He’s supposed to be a judge who exercises fit judgment,” she said

And she said the videoed attack was not a one-off. “It did happen regularly for a period of time,” she told NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday.

In the same interview, Hallie Adams blamed her ex-husband’s bouts of violence on his “addiction,” calling it a “family secret.” She did not elaborate. Their 22-year marriage ended in 2007.

Police in Rockport, where the 51-year-old judge lives, opened an investigation Wednesday after receiving calls from several concerned citizens, Police Chief Tim Jayroe said.

Adams, Aransas County’s top judge, was elected in 2001 and has dealt with at least 349 family law cases in the past year alone, nearly 50 of which involved state caseworkers seeking determine whether parents were fit to raise their children.

Aransas County Attorney Richard Bianchi said Thursday that a visiting judge would be handling CPS cases on Adams’ docket for the next two weeks. The agreement between the judges was only on those specific cases, but Bianchi said the visiting judge should take on all of them.

“It makes sense to me that as long as he’s (the visiting judge) here, he’ll be travelling from San Antonio, that it might be just as well that he go ahead and handle the whole docket,” Bianchi said.

Asked if he had concerns about Adams’ ability to handle future cases, or about the impact on cases already processed in Adams’ court, Bianchi said his top concern was the integrity of the process going forward.

“We have to do everything we can to protect that process,” he said.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not immediately provide comment, but Bianchi said the agency was involved in the decision to bring in a visiting judge to handle those cases.

Corpus Christi television station KZTV caught up with the judge Wednesday, and he confirmed it was him in the video. But he said it “looks worse than it is” and that he doesn’t expect to be disciplined.

“In my mind, I haven’t done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing,” Adams said. “And I did lose my temper, but I’ve since apologized.”

When told of her father’s comments, Hillary Adams said, “it’s a shining perfect example of his personality and he believes he can do no wrong. … He will cover up rather than admit to what he did and try to come clean.”

The 13-member Commission on Judicial Conduct comprises judges, lawyers and regular citizens. If this initial investigation leads to a formal proceeding, Adams would have an opportunity to make his case to the commission in a hearing. After that hearing the commission has the authority to censure a judge or recommend to the Texas Supreme Court that the judge be suspended or removed. The Supreme Court would then form a tribunal of appellate judges to review the case and make a determination.

Rockport Police and the Texas Rangers are conducting their own investigation. If criminal charges are brought against Adams, the commission could suspend him.

If the judicial commission and police investigations do not amount to anything, Adams could be safe in his seat on the bench for another three years. The last time he ran for re-election he faced no opposition.

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Phoenix Arizona Police Officer Caught On Video And Suspended Amid Criminal Investigation After Brutal Attack On 15 Year Old Gir

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Phoenix Police are investigating the arrest of a 15-year-old girl who was seen on tape being slammed to the ground by the arresting officer.

Officer Patrick Larrison has been placed on administrative leave while police carry out both an internal and criminal investigation into the arrest.

A YouTube video captured the Jan. 25 arrest on camera, but police didn’t become aware of the video until this Tuesday. Someone in the police department saw the video and reported it.

“That type of video is very concerning to us,” said Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump at a press conference Thursday. “What you see in the video is of great concern to the Phoenix Police Department about how a member of this community was treated.”

The 15-year-old and her family have not been identified. The three-minute-long video starts with the girl having a fight in public with a woman who police identified as her mother. The mother has her daughter pinned to the ground in the parking lot of Charter East, part of the Ombudsman Charter Schools in Phoenix. The girl was reportedly intoxicated and sharing alcohol at the school, ABC Affiliate KNXV reported.

The charter school works with at-risk students.

The girl, wearing denim shorts and a T-shirt, fights her mother’s hold, eventually getting up. The mother keeps trying to grab the girl, nearly pulling her shirt off.

When the police arrive, the girl is walking away from her mother. Officer Larrison can be seen on camera trying to catch up with the girl. He picks up speed. As she turns around to see him, he body-slams her, sending her to the ground.

“A charge here in what we’re looking at, is there evidence of an aggravated assault or not,” said Crump. “We have notified the County Attorney’s Office of the video.”

Officer Larrison is a six-and-a-half-year veteran of the Phoenix police force.

The girl was charged with aggravated assault for striking a school employee along with making threats to officers, police said.

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Federal Lawsuit Charges Sandy Utah Police Officers Thomas Tuft, Cody Stromberg and Matt Dominguez With Beating Good Samaritan

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — An apparent Good Samaritan who attempted to render first aid at an accident scene claims in a federal lawsuit that three Sandy police officers beat him up.

Returning to his Sandy home on May 2, 2009, Andrew Mismash, 42, came across a crash involving a motorcycle and a truck in front of his yard. He asked the motorcyclist, who was bleeding profusely from his head, if he needed help and then retrieved first aid supplies from his house, according to the complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Mismash, the suit says, was helping the man when a Sandy police officer started verbally abusing the victim. The motorcyclist asked the officer to call for medical assistance, but the officer told him to shut up, the lawsuit states.

Mismash, too, requested that police call for medical help and was told to leave the scene, the suit says.

As he walked toward his house, two officers pushed him from behind onto the tailgate of a truck parked in his driveway, according to the suit. A third officer then punched him in the back before the other two slammed him to the ground. An officer, the suit says, continued to strike him in the back, grab and pull at his arms, and then drove a knee into his calves.

“Mr. Mismash had not done anything, other than rendering first aid to the injured motorcyclist,” according to the complaint.

Names in the complaint are the city of Sandy, Sandy Police Department, Chief Stephen Chapman and officers Thomas Tuft, Cody Stromberg and Matt Dominguez. The suit seeks an unspecified amount for violations of Mishmash’s civil rights, medical expenses, lost wages and general damages and at least $50,000 in punitive damages.

Sandy police spokesman Sgt. John Arnold said he recalled the incident but was not aware of the lawsuit.

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Video Catches Atlanta Police Officers Violent Attack On Women Dining At IHOP Restaurant

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – The four women who were part of a scuffle with an off-duty Atlanta police officer had barely sat down at a table at the Buckhead IHOP when the confrontation started, one of them said.

“It was just four girls, just a regular night out, going to get something to eat,” Cynthia Freeman said.

Freeman said she noticed two guys dressed as characters from the Star Wars trilogy.

“Wow, they got the helmet … they’ve got everything, what are you guys doing?” Freeman said she asked early that morning.

Minutes later, she said a man in a blue shirt came over to their table.

“He tells me, shut up, be quiet, you need to leave,” an emotional Freeman said.

The incident was captured on video, the Atlanta Police Department confirmed. The video also shows the officer punching another woman, Ashley Leavell. Freeman said she had never met Leavell before the incident and added that she had been dining at another table.

“She was trying to get the officer to back off,” Freeman said.

Freeman was among four arrested in the 4 a.m. Saturday incident, according to Atlanta attorney Bobby Aniekwu. He told the AJC he is representing three of the women in what he considers a case of “excessive force.”

Cynthia Freeman is one of Aniekwu’s clients. He said she is charged with obstruction of justice, criminal trespass and simple battery.

Leavell was charged with obstruction, public drunkeness and simple battery.

Freeman spoke to the AJC Wednesday at Aniekwu’s office in downtown Atlanta. She said she did not realize the man who approached her table was a police officer.

“When we walked in, I didn’t pay anybody no attention. I just sat down,” she said.

“I looked at his face, I didn’t look at what he had on or anything because everything happened so fast,” Freeman said. “I didn’t know what he was until he pulled out those cuffs.” Freeman said the officer pulled on her hair to the point that some of it came out.

Her friend, Roberta Caban, said the officer never identified himself before the incident.

It is not yet known if the women will sue.

Aniekwu said he has to review a copy of the police report, which he hasn’t yet received.

“As I sit here today, there’s a great likelihood we will start some litigation,” he said.

What started the melee is unclear. Freeman said she and her friends were seated at the first table near the front door of the IHOP. She was speaking to her friends about two nearby restaurant patrons who were dressed like characters — Boba Fett and a Storm Trooper — from the Star Wars films before the off-duty APD officer approached.

“He just attacked me,” Freeman said, “And I said, ‘What did I do? What did I do? I didn’t do anything.”

“I’m sitting with my friends, and I’m talking to the Darth Vadar guys, just on a casual conversation … and then he just out of nowhere came to me, out of all of the people, came to me,” she said later.

“I didn’t touch this man, never, not once,” she said. “I didn’t pay him any attention what he had on. I was just looking at his face because he was yelling.”

According to several videos posted on YouTube.com, the officer, whose name police have not provided, shouted at a woman sitting in the corner of a booth near the door and then he lunged at her. A woman wearing a black dress appeared to be trying to separate the officer and her friend when the officer slapped her. The woman in the black dress hit him back, and he punched her in the face.

A second officer came up just as the struggle began. He got involved when it became physical between the first cop and the woman in the black dress, apparently trying to separate them. The first officer pulled the woman away from the table, threw her onto the floor and laid on top of her while trying to get handcuffs on one wrist. The second wrist was cuffed when she turned over on her stomach.

Within moments, a female officer appeared to hold back the crowd while the woman in the black dress, shoeless, was led out of the restaurant.

The officer involved in the incident has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, an Atlanta police spokesman said.

“The officer involved in the arrest and confrontation with a patron at the IHOP in Buckhead has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation by the department’s Office of Professional Standards. Use of force by police officers is a matter the department takes seriously, and the OPS investigation will determine if the officer acted within established guidelines. Chief Turner has pledged to have the OPS investigation concluded in 10 business days.”

Caban said the officer went overboard.

“I felt so bad for her, for anybody to go through that,” Caban told Channel 2 Action News.

“No one would tell us why we were arrested, no one would tell us anything,” she added. “And we wind up spending over 24 hours in jail.”

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Veteran San Juan County New Mexico Deputy Sheriff Dale Frazier Fired After Being Caught On Video Beating An American Indian With A Flashlight

AZTEC, NEW MEXICO – The Sheriff’s deputy who was caught on camera beating a man in the head with a Maglight flashlight was fired for violating the agency’s use of force policy.

Dale Frazier, a nearly five-year veteran of the department, was captured on video striking Donovan Tanner, 22, in the head and neck with his department-issued flashlight during a St. Patrick’s Day incident.

The announcement came Monday from Sheriff Ken Christesen following an internal investigation that lasted more than three weeks.

The incident sparked an internal investigation March 30 — the same day it came to the attention of administration — and Frazier was placed on paid administrative leave April 6, Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Black previously said.

Christesen declined to comment on the termination because it is considered a personnel issue, he said.

He also declined to comment on the flashlight incident because of pending litigation.

“I think it is absolutely the right thing to do,” said Arlon Stoker, Tanner’s attorney. “I appreciate the Sheriff wanting to do a thorough investigation, but in this case I don’t think there is any other conclusion you can come to.”

Stoker, on Thursday, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the county, Frazier, Sheriff’s deputy Terry McCoy, Farmington Police Officer Misty Taylor and the Farmington Police Department.

Asserting numerous civil rights violations motivated largely by race, Tanner contends his rights were violated when he was unlawfully detained and arrested by Frazier.

Christesen adamantly denies there were past excessive use of force accusations against Frazier or allegations that Frazier demonstrated a racist attitude.

Moreover, Christesen denies there exists any issues of racism among deputies at the Sheriff’s Office.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

Leonard Gorman, the executive director of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, condemned the beating, calling it an example of the type of discrimination faced by American Indians in Farmington.

Frazier, whose official last day was Friday, has 10 days to file a grievance for the termination per county policy, County Attorney Jim Durrett said.

“It gives the person an opportunity to be heard and have an independent third party make a decision on the validity of the action taken by the sheriff or department head,” Durrett said.

Should Frazier file an appeal, both parties would present evidence to an impartial third party — an appointed local attorney who is not a county employee — who will decide the outcome of the hearing.

The hearing officer “can do just about anything he wants to,” Durrett said, including upholding the termination or imposing lesser disciplinary action.

If Frazier opts not to file a grievance within the 10 days, the sheriff’s decision would be final.

Despite Frazier’s termination, the county will continue to represent him in the civil suit because he was employed at the time the incident occurred, Durrett said.

It remains unclear if Frazier will face criminal charges for the flashlight beating.

District Attorney Rick Tedrow asked the Department of Public Safety to review the incident, specifically to determine whether the force Frazier used was excessive.

Following the review from the Department of Public Safety, “the next determination would be whether there was criminal liability based on what occurred,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O’Brien said.

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Memphis Tennessee Police Officer Mutima Winters Arrested, Suspended, Charged With Brutally Beating Her 6 Year Old Daughter

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – Memphis Police Officer Mutima Winters is due in court Monday to face a charge of Aggravated Child Abuse.

Officer Winters, who is assigned to the Old Allen Station, has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation. She’s been on the force since December, 2008. She is currently out on bond.

The investigation started last week, after police responded to a call at Kate Bond Elementary School. According to the police report, a six-year-old said her mom “whipped her with a belt striking her in the face.” The police report says the girl had injuries to her “face and back, bruising to both thighs and healed welt type injuries to her back.”

The police report also says Officer Winters admitted to “striking the six-year-old with a belt on 3/31/2001.”

A woman at the address Winters gave police after her arrest told WREG News Channel 3 Winters did not live at the home.

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