Federal Lawsuit Targets Spying By New York City Police Department In The City And New Jersey

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Eight Muslims filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in New Jersey to force the New York Police Department to end its surveillance and other intelligence-gathering practices targeting Muslims in the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The lawsuit alleged that the police activities were unconstitutional because they focused on people’s religion, national origin and race.

It is the first lawsuit to directly challenge the NYPD’s surveillance programs, which were the subject of an investigative series by The Associated Press since last year. Based on internal NYPD reports and interviews with officials involved in the programs, the AP reported that the NYPD conducted wholesale surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling daily life including where people ate, prayed and got their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more.

Syed Farhaj Hassan, one of the plaintiffs, stopped attending one mosque as often after he learned it was one of four where he worships that were included in NYPD files. Those mosques were located along the East Coast from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs, but none was linked to terrorism, either publicly or in the confidential NYPD documents.

Hassan, an Army reservist from a small town outside of New Brunswick, N.J., said he was concerned that anything linking his life to potential terrorism would hurt his military security clearance.

“Guilt by association was forced on me,” Hassan said.

The NYPD did not respond to questions about the lawsuit but noted the New Jersey attorney general determined last month that NYPD activities in New Jersey were legal.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said his department is obligated to do this type of surveillance in order to protect New York from another 9/11. Kelly has said the 2001 attacks proved that New Yorkers could not rely solely on the federal government for protection, and the NYPD needed to enhance its efforts.

Hassan said he served in Iraq in 2003 to stop the atrocities of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s secret police.

“I didn’t know they had one across the Hudson,” he said, referring to the NYPD intelligence division.

California-based Muslim Advocates, a civil rights organization that meets regularly with representatives of the Obama administration, is representing the plaintiffs in the case for free.

“The NYPD program is founded upon a false and constitutionally impermissible premise: that Muslim religious identity is a legitimate criterion for selection of law-enforcement surveillance targets,” the lawsuit said.

New Jersey lawmakers were outraged earlier this year when they learned of the surveillance. But after a three-month review, the state’s attorney general found that the NYPD did not violate any state laws when it spied on Muslim neighborhoods and organizations. The attorney general found no recourse for the state of New Jersey to stop the NYPD from infiltrating Muslim student groups, video-taping mosque-goers or collecting their license plate numbers as they prayed.

No court has ruled that the NYPD programs were illegal. But the division operates without significant oversight: The New York City Council does not believe it has the expertise to oversee the intelligence division, and Congress believes the NYPD is not part of its jurisdiction even though the police department receives billions in federal funding each year.

Members of Congress and civil rights groups have urged the Justice Department to investigate the NYPD’s practices. A Justice Department spokeswoman said they are still reviewing the requests. Federal investigations into police departments typically focus on police abuse or racial profiling in arrests. Since 9/11, the Justice Department has never publicly investigated a police department for its surveillance in national security investigations.

Because of widespread civil rights abuses during the 1950s and 1960s, the NYPD has been limited by a court order in what intelligence it can gather on innocent people. Lawyers in that case have questioned whether the post-9/11 spying violates that order. The lawsuit filed Wednesday is a separate legal challenge.

The NYPD and New York officials have said the surveillance programs violated no one’s constitutional rights, and the NYPD is allowed to travel anywhere to collect information. Officials have said NYPD lawyers closely review the intelligence division’s programs.

“The constitutional violation that the NYPD did commit was blanket surveillance of a group based on religion,” said Glenn Katon, Muslim Advocate’s legal director. He said a program that treats people differently based on religion, national origin or race is subject to the Constitution. “That’s the crux of our claim,” he said.

A George Washington University law professor, Jonathan Turley, said it would be a challenge to convince the government that the NYPD’s practices were illegal because the courts and Congress have allowed more and more surveillance in the years since 9/11. But, he said, most of these questions have been handled in policy debates and not in the court systems.

Nineteen-year-old Moiz Mohammed, a sophomore at Rutgers University, said he was moved to join the lawsuit after reading reports that the NYPD had conducted surveillance of Muslim student groups at colleges across the Northeast, including his own. He said the revelations had made him nervous to pray in public or engage in lively debates with fellow students — a practice he said he once most enjoyed about the college atmosphere.

“It’s such an unfair thing going on: Here I am, I am an American citizen, I was born here, I am law abiding, I volunteer in my community, I have dialogues and good relationships with Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and the NYPD here is surveilling people like me?”

“We feel as though it was a violation of our constitutional and our civil and our human rights,” said Abdul Kareem Muhammad, one of the plaintiff’s in the case. Muhammad is the imam of the Newark mosque, Masjid al-Haqq. That mosque was listed and pictured in a September 2007 NYPD report on Newark.

“We have a very strong objection to that,” Muhammad said. “We condemn and denounce every form of terrorism.”

Muhammad said he and other Muslim community leaders have not been given assurances that the NYPD is no longer conducting surveillance on their communities.

“That’s become very disturbing, too,” Muhammad said. “There’s a possibility that this is still going on.”

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Victim’s Family Awarded $2 Million By Federal Court After California Highway Patrol Officers Shot And Killed Unarmed Driver

CALIFORNIA – A Sacramento federal judge has ordered damages of more than $2 million assessed against two California Highway Patrol officers, the agency itself, and the state in the death of a 21-year-old Stockton man.

In a four-page order and judgment Monday, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller said she interprets a somewhat ambiguous jury verdict in January to reflect the panel’s intention to assess economic damages of $6,000 and non-economic damages of $1 million against each of the officers, Michael Walling and Stephen Coffman, for shooting to death Joseph Pinasco Jr.

She also ruled that the CHP and the state are jointly liable for the $2,012,000 in judgments against Walling and Coffman.

In court papers and oral arguments since the verdict, the two sides differed on how to decipher the trial’s outcome, and Mueller sided with Arnold Wolf, attorney for Pinasco’s parents, Joseph and Toni Pinasco, who sued over their son’s death.

The parents own a Stockton plumbing and heating company.

Attorneys for the defendants argued the award should be reduced based on a comparative-fault analysis, in which the young man presumably would be found partially to blame.

But Mueller said, “A fair reading of the verdict is that the jury based its wrongful death determination on the officers’ wrongful acts. Accordingly, principles of comparative fault are inapplicable.”

The state is expected to appeal.

Walling and Coffman are still CHP officers, and Walling was promoted to sergeant after the incident.

They responded in the early hours of Aug. 24, 2008, to reports of street racing. Pinasco, who had been drinking with friends that night, was sitting in a parked pickup in the vicinity of the purported racing. As the officers approached in their car, he pulled away and led them on a high-speed chase. The pickup spun out of control on a dirt road and got stuck in a ditch in a rural area of eastern San Joaquin County.

Walling and Coffman exited their car and drew their guns. Pinasco was still seated behind the steering wheel of the truck and, as Walling approached, he started accelerating and rocking the pickup in an attempt to escape the ditch.

The officers yelled commands for Pinasco to stop and show his hands and Walling banged on the pickup’s windshield with his flashlight, but the truck continued to rock and the officers perceived it was getting traction in Coffman’s direction.

Both officers fired their weapons at Pinasco. They did so, they say, based on a shared fear that Coffman would be seriously injured or killed.

In one of the few differences on the facts, Wolf claims in court papers that the truck was traveling away from the officers as Pinasco began to extricate it from the ditch. It traveled 19 feet before coming to rest against a fence.

Of the 23 shots fired by the officers, six hit Pinasco in the head, face and neck, and one hit his left thigh. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His blood-alcohol level was measured at nearly three times the legal limit for driving.

In early 2009, the CHP’s investigative services unit issued a report concluding the shooting was justified because the pickup was moving toward Coffman. In April 2009, the San Joaquin County district attorney issued a report with the same finding.

According to Wolf’s trial brief, “Neither report bears any resemblance to (another unit of the CHP’s) reconstruction of the pickup truck’s movement before and during the shooting,” or to the state Department of Justice’s analysis of the bullets’ trajectory, “neither of which suggested that the pickup’s movement ever jeopardized Coffman.”

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Pampered US Department Of Labor Employees Upset That They’ll Now Have To Pay Parking Rates ‘Slightly Below’ Average In Washington DC Area

WASHINGTON, DC – Alex Bastani, president of the local 12 chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), told union members that they are filing a complaint against the Department of Labor that may develop into a class action lawsuit.

AFGE is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, a mega-union that has endorsed President Obama, but parking rate increases at DOL have Local 12 up in arms against the Obama administration.

“Management has made it clear that it intends to move forward on July 1st with the parking increase without the involvement of the Union and despite any hardship expressed by the employees,” Bastani wrote to union members in an email obtained by The Washington Examiner.

The union is angry about losing a $35 per month parking fee as the DOL turns management of its parking spaces over to a private contractor. “The eventual contractor will charge ‘slightly below’ the average Washington rate of ‘$220 to $260/month,'” The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard explained, per Labor Department official Al Stewart’s announcement of the change.

“We will be filing a complaint with the Federal Service Impasses Panel requesting an order that the United States Department of Labor be compelled to bargain with us over its decision to contract out the parking, [and the] increase in rates,” Bastani told members.

Local 12 will also attempt to haul the Obama administration before the Federal Labor Relations Board, and may file a civil lawsuit against the Labor Department. “We will also explore whether a class action can be filed pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act for those employees who are disabled and park in the Frances Perkins Building Garage,” Bastani wrote.

In the meantime, they will organize more public protests.

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Class Action Lawsuit Charges Florida Highway Patrol With Illegally Ticketing More Than 10,429 Innocent Motorists

TAMPA, FLORIDA – When the Florida Highway Patrol pulls someone over on the highway, it’s usually because they were speeding.

But Eric Campbell was pulled over and ticketed while he was driving the speed limit.

Campbell says, “I was coming up the Veterans Expressway and I notice two Florida Highway Patrol Cars sitting on the side of the road in the median, with lights off.”

Campbell says he did what he always does: flashed his lights on and off to warn drivers coming from the other direction that there was speed trap ahead.

According to Campbell, 60 seconds after passing the trooper, “They were on my tail and they pulled me over.”

Campbell says the FHP trooper wrote him a ticket for improper flashing of high beams. Campbell says the trooper told him what he had done was illegal.

But later Campbell learned that is not the case. He filed a class action suit which says “Florida Statue 316.2397” — under which Campbell was cited — “does not prohibit the flashing of headlights as a means of communications, nor does it in any way reference flashing headlights or the use of high beams.”

However, the FHP trooper who wrote the ticket either didn’t know or didn’t care. “You could tell in his voice he was upset,” Campbell says. “He was professional, he wasn’t rude… but you could tell he was irritated.”

However, the lawsuit says the FHP is well aware they are wrongfully applying the state law and they are doing it as a means of generating revenue. In 2005, a court order was even issued saying the state law doesn’t prohibit the flashing of vehicle headlights.

Campbell isn’t the only one. Since 2005, FHP records show more than 10,429 drivers have been cited under the statute.

In addition to seeking the refund of the $100 ticket, the lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $15,000.

What’s that costing you?

If each person illegally cited was awarded $15,000 that would be $156,435,000 in damages if the suit is successful. Then you would throw in at least another $1,042,900 in ticket refunds, all because it appears troopers don’t like motorists warning others about speed traps.

Campbell says he felt as if the trooper thought it was a personal affront. According to Campbell, the trooper did not like the fact somebody was ratting him out.

The Florida Highway Patrol says it can’t comment because of the pending lawsuit.

Campbell says FHP had no right to ticket him or anyone under the current law and he adds the agency is not being honest when it says it doesn’t write tickets to increase revenue or punish people, but rather to get the motorist to slow down on the highway. If that were true, Campbell says the FHP should be delighted with him, because drivers did slow down before troopers could give them a ticket.

The suit evolved out the fact that Campbell says “I don’t like what the government is dong especially now when most people have a hard time affording gas and now they have to defend themselves against a made up charge that doesn’t exist.”

The state will have to come up with the money for damages if the suit is successful, and guess where the money is coming from: your taxes.

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Department Of Justice Still Hiding Documents, Won’t Pay Claim, After FBI Agent Wrecked $750,000 Ferrari During Joyride

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – An FBI agent assigned to move a rare Ferrari wrecked it during a short drive in Kentucky, and its owner is now suing the U.S. Justice Department, which has refused to pay $750,000 for the car.

The Justice Department recently responded to the lawsuit by saying it’s not liable for certain goods when they’re in the hands of law enforcement. The government also has refused to release most documents related to the crash.

The Ferrari F50 was stolen in 2003 from a dealer in Rosemont, Pa., and discovered five years later. The FBI kept it in Lexington, Ky., as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

FBI agent Fred Kingston was to move the Ferrari from a garage in May 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson said Kingston invited him on a “short ride.”

“Just a few seconds after we left the parking lot, we went around a curve and the rear of the car began sliding,” Thompson said in an email released to Motors Insurance Co., the dealer’s insurer.

“The agent tried to regain control but the car fishtailed and slid sideways up onto the curb. The vehicle came to rest against a row of bushes and a small tree,” Thompson said.

He was not hurt, but Kingston needed a few stitches for a cut on his head.

Motors Insurance took ownership of the car after it paid the dealer for the theft. The company told the government that the 1995 Ferrari, one of only 50 in the U.S., suffered substantial damage in the Kentucky crash and is a “total loss.”

“At heart, it is a race vehicle” and is not built like a typical car, truck or SUV, the insurer said in a claim for payment, partly explaining why it sought $750,000.

The Southfield, Mich.-based company filed a lawsuit in March after the Justice Department refused to pay. Motors Insurance has also filed a lawsuit to try to get records about the incident through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The government has been secretive, saying most records are exempt. It only released Thompson’s email.

“We don’t really know what happened. We’ve asked for a lot of information,” Motors Insurance attorney Richard Kraus said in an interview this week.

A judge has set a June 13 hearing in the case.

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Woman Awarded $82,000 After Arrest For Trying To Read Portland Oregon Police Officer’s Name Tag, Asking For ID

PORTLAND, OREGON – A Portland jury has awarded a woman $82,000, after she was arrested when asking a police officer for a business card.

The woman, Shei’Meka Newmann, had sued the Portland police department, after she had watched the arrest of a man in 2009, questioned the arrest, asked an officer for a business card, and was arrested herself, The Oregonian reported.

“I think that police need to be reminded that it’s part of their job to de-escalate and defuse situations,” juror Chris Bolles told the paper after the trial Thursday. Jurors also said it would have taken just a few seconds for the officer to give Newmann his card.

Newmann had thought the arrest of the man, at a Portland light-rail station, was rough, and had sought the identities of the officers involved. But when she asked for a business card and tried to read an officer’s name on his uniform, she was arrested, the paper reported.

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Lawsuit Charges Denver Colorado TSA With Sexual Assault – TSA Agent Concentrated Only On Man’s Genitals After Trying To Force Man Into Body Scanner

DENVER, COLORADO – Geoff Biddulph of Berthoud, Colo. is a frequent flyer. He travels at least 30 times a year for business and has been “pat down” by airport security all across the world.

But he says he has never experienced anything like the pat down he got at Denver International Airport on April 5th.

“I felt like I was sexually assaulted,” he said.

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Biddulph says he was line at the security checkpoint waiting to go through the metal detector when a Transportation Security Administration agent tried to force him to go through the body scanner.

“A TSA agent literally started pushing me towards this other line,” he told us.

Biddulph asked the TSA agent why he was being moved, and that’s when he says the agent called a supervisor, threatened to kick him out of the airport and began an “inappropriate pat down.”

Biddulph says the TSA agent rubbed his groin area, buttocks and stuck his hand down his pants.

“He was only focused on my private parts,” Biddulph said.

Biddulph filed a report with Denver Police and filed a complaint with the TSA.

He received a response from a TSA customer service representative that said, in part, “I regret this incident and the rude behavior you have described is unacceptable. I have forwarded your report to our operations managers. I have asked them to investigate and act as appropriate.”

Still, Biddulph believes TSA needs to take a closer look at their pat down procedures.

“We have the right to reasonable search and seizures. This is not reasonable. It’s not reasonable to have somebody shoving his hands down your pants,” he said.

TSA spokesperson Carrie Harmon tells FOX 31 News they have received 898 complaints about pat downs from November 2010 to March of 2011.

She points out over 251 million people passed through the nation’s airports during that span of time.

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Hillsborough Florida Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen Allows Lawsuit Case To Proceed Under Islamic In A U.S. Court…

TAMPA, FLORIDA –  The question of what law applies in any Florida courtroom usually comes down to two choices: federal or state.

But Hillsborough Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen is being attacked by conservative bloggers after he ruled in a lawsuit March 3 that, to resolve one crucial issue in the case, he will consult a different source.

“This case,” the judge wrote, “will proceed under Ecclesiastical Islamic Law.”

Nielsen said he will decide in a lawsuit against a local mosque, the Islamic Education Center of Tampa, whether the parties in the litigation properly followed the teachings of the Koran in obtaining an arbitration decision from an Islamic scholar.

The suit was filed by several men who say they were improperly ousted as trustees in 2002. The dispute may decide who controls $2.2 million the center received from the state after some of its land was used in a road project.

But attorney Paul Thanasides last week appealed Nielson’s decision with the 2nd District Court of Appeal, saying religion has no place in a secular court.

His client: the mosque.

“The mosque believes wholeheartedly in the Koran and its teachings,” Thanasides said Monday. “They certainly follow Islamic law in connection with their spiritual endeavors. But with respect to secular endeavors, they believe Florida law should apply in Florida courts.”

The four ex-trustees suing the center did not return calls for comment. And attorneys representing them declined comment.

Nielsen, an appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush in 2000 who was subsequently elected, also did not return calls for comment.

The judge’s ruling comes as conservative lawmakers in Florida and around the nation are increasingly discussing legislation to ban or curtail the use of Islamic law, sometimes called sharia law, in U.S. courts.

Two Florida Republicans, Sen. Alan Hays and Rep. Larry Metz, this month announced legislation to prevent Islamic law, or any foreign legal code, from being applied in state courts.

The Tampa case is drawing attention from some who cite it as proof judges are improperly using foreign law.

“Florida has joined the march towards Sharia,” a writer on the Constitution Club blog said.

Markus Wagner, a professor of international law at the University of Miami School of Law, said it is not improper for a judge to use foreign law in an arbitration if all the parties agree to do so.

“If we both sign a contract agreeing to be governed by German law, then Florida courts will interpret German law,” he said.

Others are less certain, including Neelofer Syed, a Tampa immigration lawyer who is a guest lecturer on Islamic law at Stetson University College of Law.

The mosque, she said, is incorporated under the laws of Florida and so is ruled by state law.

“I think the judge’s ruling is flawed,” Syed said. “If you live in a country, you are subject to that country’s laws.”

Just about everything involving the arbitration is in dispute.

An a’lim, a Muslim scholar trained in Islam and Islamic law, said the parties agreed to his arbitration if the lawsuit against individual trustees was dismissed. This occurred, though the ousted trustees then re-filed against the mosque itself.

Thanasides said the mosque’s directors would have to appoint a representative to participate in any legally binding arbitration.

That, he said, didn’t happen because the board was never notified of the arbitration.

Thanasides said the arbitration was not binding on the mosque for a litany of reasons. He said the mosque was not properly notified of the proceeding and did not participate. He questioned whether the a’lim had proper standing to decide anything.

He also questioned whether the arbitration actually took place, noting two participants the a’lim said were present were overseas at the time.

The a’lim ruled in a Dec. 28 decision that the ex-trustees were ousted improperly.

The ex-trustees then asked Judge Nielsen to enforce the arbitration award, which could wrest control of the money from the mosque’s current leaders.

Thanasides said using Islamic law to decide the issue violates the U.S. Constitution. He said existing Florida law governs arbitration findings. At a hearing in January, Nielsen disagreed.

“It appears that the Koran provides that where two or more brothers have a dispute, they are first required to try to resolve the dispute among themselves,” the judge told attorneys, according to a transcript of proceedings.

“If that does not occur, they can agree to present the dispute to the greater community of brothers within the mosque or the Muslim community. And if that is not done, or does not result in a resolution of the dispute, then it is to be presented to an Islamic judge …

“The next question is whether the proper procedures have occurred. … Did they properly invoke the use of … an Islamic judge or an Islamic A’lim?”

In an appeal of the judge’s decision, Thanasides wrote, “The First Amendment restricts courts’ authority to review, interpret and apply religious law because these actions interfere with a party’s right to choose, free from state involvement, the religious dogma it will follow.”

The judge said he would use Islamic law to decide only the legitimacy of arbitration.

“What law would we be applying (at) trial?” Thanasides asked.

“That trial would be civil law,” the judge said. “Florida law.”

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$5 Million Federal Lawsuit Charges Whitfield County Georgia Deputies With Torturing 29 Inmates At County Jail

WHITFIELD COUNTY, GEORGIA – Twenty-nine northwest Georgia inmates were forced to rub cream on their bodies and stand in their cells naked for 12 hours, according to federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed against the Whitfield County sheriff’s office in U.S. District Court in Rome, seeks $5 million in punitive damages, The Daily Citizen in Dalton reported. The suit contends the inmates were humiliated while behind bars at the Whitfield County jail in October.

A sheriff’s office captain told the newspaper the cream was an anti-lice treatment. Two members of the jail staff were disciplined following the incident, according to the report.

“They came into the dorm and told us to strip, and never told us why,” David Bennett, one of the two inmates that filed the suit, told the newspaper. “They said it’d be for a couple of hours with no covering. I’ve been in prison, but this had never happened. It seemed absurd to me. I was physically sick for a week afterward from the cold, and all because they think some 18-year-old kid who had left the day before had lice.”

Bennett has been arrested and booked 35 times at the Whitfield County jail since 1999, according to documents provided by the sheriff’s office. His most recent arrest in October was for sale of methamphetamine, use of a communication facility in drug transactions, felony probation violation and giving false information to officers, the newspaper reported.

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Dumbass Atlanta Georgia 911 Operator Gina Conteh Sends Ambulance To Wrong Address And Man Dies – So She Sues County For $10.5 Million

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – A 911 operator fired after sending an ambulance to the wrong address, is now suing the Fulton County government, its former 911 director, and three other employees for $10.5 million.

Gina Conteh said the county made her a scapegoat when Johns Creek resident Darlene Dukes died after waiting an hour for that ambulance.

“The Fulton County director, and other upper management team members clearly knew she was not capable of handling that position,” said Conteh’s attorney Rory Starkey.

The lawsuit claims “discipline in this case was political” and “intense media scrutiny called for a termination.”

An audit revealed systemic problems in the 911 center and then director, Rocky Moore, quit after a Channel 2 Action News investigation exposed that at the time of the incident, Conteh was working a more complicated dispatcher job, for which managers had deemed her unqualified and refused her a promotion.

Channel 2’s Jodie Fleischer obtained Conteh’s time sheet for that week, which showed that she’d already worked 62 hours, with back-to-back double shifts in the days before the incident.

“To have a person in that position who’s responsible for lives, not to be properly managed, to be working out of class, to be working the overtime my client and other 911 operators were working, is irresponsible,” said Starkey.

He admitted that Conteh made mistakes when she misunderstood the caller’s street address, and sent the ambulance to Sandy Springs instead of Johns Creek. The county’s procedure for dispatching ambulances had changed the day before the incident, and records showed several dispatchers had problems in the first few days. The county audit criticized the 911 center’s management, training, equipment, and staffing.

“It was of some concern. However as a result of all of this we’ve made some significant changes and things are a lot better,” said County Commissioner Robb Pitts.

The new director has already filled staffing vacancies and made equipment changes. A new report released earlier this year commended the center on its improvement.

The lawsuit claims Conteh was improperly fired and that the county wrongly denied her unemployment benefits. She later won them back in court.

Pitts said the county plans to fight the suit vigorously.

“It’s my understanding that we the county, the personnel department in particular, followed all of our procedures to the letter of the law,” he said.

But Starkey contests that claim.

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Lawsuit Charging Detroit Michigan Police With Killing 7 Year Old Girl In Violent SWAT Raid On Home Highlights Lies By Police Officers

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Calling law enforcement accounts “absurd,” a Michigan attorney sued
police Tuesday in the death of 7-year-old girl killed during a raid in
Detroit.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said members of the Detroit
Police Special Response Team acted out of line when they conducted a
raid on the family home of Aiyana Jones, who was severely burned and
then killed by an officer’s bullet. She died Sunday.

“This type
of activity by a police force is unacceptable in America,” Fieger said
at a news conference in his office. “What is equally unacceptable is the
cover-up that has occurred.”

Fieger filed both state and federal
lawsuits alleging gross negligence, a violation of civil rights and a
conspiracy to cover up the violation of civil rights.

Detroit
Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee has said that preliminary
information indicated that officers approached the house with a search
warrant for the girl’s uncle in connection with the shooting of a high
school student Friday.

Godbee said the officer’s gun discharged
accidentally inside the home after an altercation and physical contact
with the girl’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones.

Jones denied such an
altercation Tuesday. Fieger said he plans to file another lawsuit for
false arrest and accused the police of covering up their own mistakes by
blaming the family.

Fieger said videotape of the incident shows
that the shooting was not accidental. In an interview Monday, he told
CNN affiliate WDIV that a crew was filming the raid for the A&E
network’s show, “The First 48.” The program documents police
investigations in the first 48 hours after a homicide.

Tuesday,
Fieger recounted the events shown on the video that he said led to the
girl’s death. At times, he had to pause, his voice drowned out by
sobbing family members.

Fieger said officers tossed a smoke bomb
— described by police as a “flash bang device” to distract occupants —
into the house, severely burning Aiyana, who was on the couch in the
front room with her grandmother. She was then struck in the neck by a
bullet fired from outside the house, he said.

Godbee has said he
doesn’t know how Fieger saw the video, according to WDIV.

“If Mr.
Fieger has access to anything that would be evidence in this case, he
should, as an officer of the court, get it immediately to the Michigan
State Police, which will be investigating,” he said in a statement.

Fieger
said the police and the city owe apologies to the family, especially to
Mertilla Jones for trying to blame her for her granddaughter’s death.
He said officers need to be held to account just as anyone else would.

“The people of the city of Detroit have got to believe the police
will protect them, and not kill them,” Fieger said.

“This is an opportunity to come together, not to tear
us apart,” he said. “Apologize now and we can start the road to
healing.”

Family of Michigan child killed in raid sues police – CNN.com

$50 Million San Francisco California Lawsuit Targets Bay Area Rapid Transit Police After Fatal Shooting Involving Officers Having An Affair

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – Did an affair between two BART police officers sent to quell a New Year’s disturbance at the Fruitvale Station set the stage for the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by their fellow Officer Johannes Mehserle?

That’s the claim attorney John Burris makes in the wrongful-death lawsuit against the transit agency that he filed on the Grant family’s behalf.

The family is seeking $50 million, an unlikely amount even given the gravity of the case. But Burris’ play doesn’t look to be the courtroom – he’s angling for a hefty settlement from BART in advance, largely by putting political pressure on the agency.

Toward that end, Burris – a master at such lawsuits – has been steadily stoking the public relations fire under BART’s cloth seat.

Last week, Burris filed documents in Alameda County Superior Court claiming that the events leading up to Grant’s shooting were the result of an “unprofessional relationship” between two BART police officers who responded that night to reports of a fight on a train.

According to the March 2 complaint, a female officer “got in the face of the young men (suspected of being in the fight) and repeatedly pointed her Taser at them, threatening to tase them in the face.”

One of them, Grant, got right back in her face, prompting a male officer to rush over and push him to the ground “while threatening to Taser him,” the complaint says.

More words were exchanged, prompting Mehserle to come over to assist in restraining Grant, pull his gun and fire once into Grant’s back.

Now, Mehserle faces murder charges and BART is enduring perhaps its worst public relations debacle ever.

Burris doesn’t directly connect the dots. But it’s plain that he’s prepared to argue that the male officer’s rush to assist the female cop was prompted by misplaced chivalry.

It’s not the first time Burris has raised the issue.

In a February letter to BART Police Chief Gary Gee, Burris wrote that “a number of sources, some within your department,” had informed Grant’s family that the two officers had a “nonprofessional relationship” that influenced their conduct.

“It is said that the relationship is an ‘open secret’ within the department,” Burris wrote. “We are concerned that the relationship may have contributed to the circumstances surrounding the shooting.”

Burris went on to ask for an internal affairs investigation into the supposed relationship.

Gee never replied to Burris, and Burris has yet to name names.

But in his letter to the chief, he wrote, “We will provide names if asked.”

Dale Allen, the attorney representing BART in the case, called the claims regarding the unnamed officers “unseemly and salacious.”

“I will not dignify them with a comment,” Allen said.

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$50 Million San Francisco California Lawsuit Targets Bay Area Rapid Transit Police After Fatal Shooting Involving Officers Having An Affair

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – Did an affair between two BART police officers sent to quell a New Year’s disturbance at the Fruitvale Station set the stage for the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by their fellow Officer Johannes Mehserle?

That’s the claim attorney John Burris makes in the wrongful-death lawsuit against the transit agency that he filed on the Grant family’s behalf.

The family is seeking $50 million, an unlikely amount even given the gravity of the case. But Burris’ play doesn’t look to be the courtroom – he’s angling for a hefty settlement from BART in advance, largely by putting political pressure on the agency.

Toward that end, Burris – a master at such lawsuits – has been steadily stoking the public relations fire under BART’s cloth seat.

Last week, Burris filed documents in Alameda County Superior Court claiming that the events leading up to Grant’s shooting were the result of an “unprofessional relationship” between two BART police officers who responded that night to reports of a fight on a train.

According to the March 2 complaint, a female officer “got in the face of the young men (suspected of being in the fight) and repeatedly pointed her Taser at them, threatening to tase them in the face.”

One of them, Grant, got right back in her face, prompting a male officer to rush over and push him to the ground “while threatening to Taser him,” the complaint says.

More words were exchanged, prompting Mehserle to come over to assist in restraining Grant, pull his gun and fire once into Grant’s back.

Now, Mehserle faces murder charges and BART is enduring perhaps its worst public relations debacle ever.

Burris doesn’t directly connect the dots. But it’s plain that he’s prepared to argue that the male officer’s rush to assist the female cop was prompted by misplaced chivalry.

It’s not the first time Burris has raised the issue.

In a February letter to BART Police Chief Gary Gee, Burris wrote that “a number of sources, some within your department,” had informed Grant’s family that the two officers had a “nonprofessional relationship” that influenced their conduct.

“It is said that the relationship is an ‘open secret’ within the department,” Burris wrote. “We are concerned that the relationship may have contributed to the circumstances surrounding the shooting.”

Burris went on to ask for an internal affairs investigation into the supposed relationship.

Gee never replied to Burris, and Burris has yet to name names.

But in his letter to the chief, he wrote, “We will provide names if asked.”

Dale Allen, the attorney representing BART in the case, called the claims regarding the unnamed officers “unseemly and salacious.”

“I will not dignify them with a comment,” Allen said.

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$10 Million Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Charges Yellowstone County Montana With Interfering With Man’s Religion, Denying Him Medical Care, Etc.

YELLOWSTONE COUNTY, MONTANA – A Billings man in prison for drug possession has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against Yellowstone County for alleged civil-rights violations, including interference with his satanic religious practices.

Jason Paul Indreland claims in the U.S. District Court lawsuit that county jail staff took from him a religious medallion, denied him access to religious material and ridiculed and punished him for his religious beliefs.

The lawsuit also alleges that Indreland was denied medical care for his drug addiction, that he was placed in situations where violence was expected and that he suffered harassment and retaliation while incarcerated.

Indreland said he has been a practicing Satanist for the past decade and the confiscated medallion was a “protective symbol” in his religion. The lawsuit claims jail staff refused to return the medallion or allow Indreland access to a “Satanic Bible or Book of Satanic Rituals.”
Indreland, 35, is incarcerated at Montana State Prison for a term of five years, with two years suspended, for felony drug possession. Indreland was convicted of the crime after Billings police found him with 15 grams of methamphetamine in March 2007.

Indreland has previous felony convictions in Yellowstone and Stillwater counties for bad checks and theft.

Indreland is not represented by an attorney in his suit. An attorney for the county, Kevin Gillen, said the county has not been served with the claim and could not comment.

Indreland initially filed the handwritten federal lawsuit last March while he was still held at the county jail. The lawsuit names as defendants the Yellowstone County Board of Commissioners, Sheriff Chuck Maxwell, Undersheriff Jay Bell and Sheriff’s Capt. Dennis McCave, who oversees county jail operations.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby reviewed the complaint and in October issued an order permitting Indreland to file an amended complaint. Ostby said in the order that there were several legal flaws in the original claim and it would be dismissed if not amended to comply with her order.

Indreland filed the amended complaint Nov. 12. In that document, Indreland named numerous members of the jail staff he alleges participated in violating his civil rights. Among the claims, Indreland alleges jail staff placed “Christian natured greeting cards under (his) cell door describing how he was going to undertake a huge change in his life and how Jesus was ready to save and accept him.”

The lawsuit seeks $3 million for alleged civil-rights violations, $2 million for “the deprivation of his rights and injuries both mental and physical,” and $5 million in punitive damages.

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$10 Million Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Charges Yellowstone County Montana With Interfering With Man’s Religion, Denying Him Medical Care, Etc.

YELLOWSTONE COUNTY, MONTANA – A Billings man in prison for drug possession has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against Yellowstone County for alleged civil-rights violations, including interference with his satanic religious practices.

Jason Paul Indreland claims in the U.S. District Court lawsuit that county jail staff took from him a religious medallion, denied him access to religious material and ridiculed and punished him for his religious beliefs.

The lawsuit also alleges that Indreland was denied medical care for his drug addiction, that he was placed in situations where violence was expected and that he suffered harassment and retaliation while incarcerated.

Indreland said he has been a practicing Satanist for the past decade and the confiscated medallion was a “protective symbol” in his religion. The lawsuit claims jail staff refused to return the medallion or allow Indreland access to a “Satanic Bible or Book of Satanic Rituals.”
Indreland, 35, is incarcerated at Montana State Prison for a term of five years, with two years suspended, for felony drug possession. Indreland was convicted of the crime after Billings police found him with 15 grams of methamphetamine in March 2007.

Indreland has previous felony convictions in Yellowstone and Stillwater counties for bad checks and theft.

Indreland is not represented by an attorney in his suit. An attorney for the county, Kevin Gillen, said the county has not been served with the claim and could not comment.

Indreland initially filed the handwritten federal lawsuit last March while he was still held at the county jail. The lawsuit names as defendants the Yellowstone County Board of Commissioners, Sheriff Chuck Maxwell, Undersheriff Jay Bell and Sheriff’s Capt. Dennis McCave, who oversees county jail operations.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby reviewed the complaint and in October issued an order permitting Indreland to file an amended complaint. Ostby said in the order that there were several legal flaws in the original claim and it would be dismissed if not amended to comply with her order.

Indreland filed the amended complaint Nov. 12. In that document, Indreland named numerous members of the jail staff he alleges participated in violating his civil rights. Among the claims, Indreland alleges jail staff placed “Christian natured greeting cards under (his) cell door describing how he was going to undertake a huge change in his life and how Jesus was ready to save and accept him.”

The lawsuit seeks $3 million for alleged civil-rights violations, $2 million for “the deprivation of his rights and injuries both mental and physical,” and $5 million in punitive damages.

Appeared Here

Lawsuit Charges Trigger-Happy Carmel Indiana Police Officer Matthew Kinkade With Repeated Taser Weapon Attack On 90 Pound 14 Year Old Boy

CARMEL, INDIANA – A middle-school student with autism was Tased twice by a Carmel police officer, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents against the Police Department, one of its officers and a local school district.

According to the suit, the electrical bursts temporarily knocked the 90-pound boy unconscious during a confrontation at Creekside Middle School. The boy, who was 14 at the time, was taken to a local hospital before being released to his mother.
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The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, seeks damages for medical expenses, pain, suffering and mental anguish. The defendants are the Carmel Police Department, officer Matthew Kinkade and Carmel Clay Schools.

Carmel Clay Superintendent Barbara Underwood declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. Efforts to contact Kinkade and a spokesman for the Carmel Police Department were not successful Thursday.

According to the lawsuit:

On March 11, the boy, who is not named in the complaint, was dropped off at Creekside by his mother, Dianne Bell, who called to tell school officials her son was going to be late.

At the end of the day, the boy was told he was going to receive detention. At that point, the boy, who is described as having “affective disorder and has been diagnosed with autism, manic-depressive disorder and bipolar disorder,” became “frustrated and began to act out.”

“During this outburst he is saying outrageous things,” said the Bells’ attorney, Ronald Frazier, noting that the boy threatened to call members of his gang to retaliate against the teachers.

“They know there is no gang there,” Frazier said. “They know he has no way of acting on what he is saying. They are taking these idle threats and calling police.”

The Bells contend the school district failed to follow the guidelines they had set up to deal with the boy’s outbursts — techniques the family says would have given the boy a chance to cool off.

“When a child like (the Bells’ son) starts to have emotional problems, the (individual procedure) is supposed to be followed,” Frazier said. “It has specific steps that are to be taken in order to keep the child from melting totally down.”

Instead, school officials dialed 911.

Officer Kinkade arrived, according to the complaint, and reacted to the boy’s outbursts by grabbing him and forcing him to a bench in the school lobby.

When the physical force failed to control the 5-foot boy, Kinkade drew his Taser and shocked the boy two times until he lost consciousness, according to the complaint.

“Officer Kinkade used unreasonable and excessive force by failing to follow policies and procedures that were in place for dealing with autistic children,” the suit alleges.

Frazier contends in the suit that although school officials say they advised police about the boy’s condition, the Police Department says that’s not so.

The Police Department has an autism response team, but it was not dispatched. Kinkade is not a member of that team, according to the suit.

“Autistic children have a great difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they don’t understand social cues,” Frazier said. “(The Bell child) gets confronted with violence, with Tasers, and he is flipping out because of his sensory overload.”

The suit contends Carmel police were “grossly negligent in the training of Matthew Kinkade,” who joined the department in January 2006.

Noblesville Police Department Lt. Bruce Barnes, an instructor in the use of Tasers, said officers are trained to use the devices when lesser-force options are not available.

“You can use the Taser anytime anybody is punching, kicking or threatening to punch or kick,” Barnes said. “We can use it when we tell someone to do something, they refuse, lesser-force options are not available and they are a credible threat to you.”

Barnes declined to comment on whether the boy could have posed a credible threat to a police officer, saying he did not know the full circumstances of the incident.

Sheila Wolfe, director of the Indianapolis-based Autism Education and Training Center, said the reaction of school officials and the police officer agitated the boy.

“You need to step away and leave them alone so that they can decompress,” said Wolfe, who has an autistic son in middle school in Carmel Clay. “I have a hard time believing that a trained officer would Taser a child with a disability if they fully understood the situation they were walking into.

“I know from experience that the people in Carmel (Clay schools) know better. As a school system, they have the expertise and they have the people available that know better. I’m surprised.”

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Lawsuit Charges Trigger-Happy Carmel Indiana Police Officer Matthew Kinkade With Repeated Taser Weapon Attack On 90 Pound 14 Year Old Boy

CARMEL, INDIANA – A middle-school student with autism was Tased twice by a Carmel police officer, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents against the Police Department, one of its officers and a local school district.

According to the suit, the electrical bursts temporarily knocked the 90-pound boy unconscious during a confrontation at Creekside Middle School. The boy, who was 14 at the time, was taken to a local hospital before being released to his mother.
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The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, seeks damages for medical expenses, pain, suffering and mental anguish. The defendants are the Carmel Police Department, officer Matthew Kinkade and Carmel Clay Schools.

Carmel Clay Superintendent Barbara Underwood declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. Efforts to contact Kinkade and a spokesman for the Carmel Police Department were not successful Thursday.

According to the lawsuit:

On March 11, the boy, who is not named in the complaint, was dropped off at Creekside by his mother, Dianne Bell, who called to tell school officials her son was going to be late.

At the end of the day, the boy was told he was going to receive detention. At that point, the boy, who is described as having “affective disorder and has been diagnosed with autism, manic-depressive disorder and bipolar disorder,” became “frustrated and began to act out.”

“During this outburst he is saying outrageous things,” said the Bells’ attorney, Ronald Frazier, noting that the boy threatened to call members of his gang to retaliate against the teachers.

“They know there is no gang there,” Frazier said. “They know he has no way of acting on what he is saying. They are taking these idle threats and calling police.”

The Bells contend the school district failed to follow the guidelines they had set up to deal with the boy’s outbursts — techniques the family says would have given the boy a chance to cool off.

“When a child like (the Bells’ son) starts to have emotional problems, the (individual procedure) is supposed to be followed,” Frazier said. “It has specific steps that are to be taken in order to keep the child from melting totally down.”

Instead, school officials dialed 911.

Officer Kinkade arrived, according to the complaint, and reacted to the boy’s outbursts by grabbing him and forcing him to a bench in the school lobby.

When the physical force failed to control the 5-foot boy, Kinkade drew his Taser and shocked the boy two times until he lost consciousness, according to the complaint.

“Officer Kinkade used unreasonable and excessive force by failing to follow policies and procedures that were in place for dealing with autistic children,” the suit alleges.

Frazier contends in the suit that although school officials say they advised police about the boy’s condition, the Police Department says that’s not so.

The Police Department has an autism response team, but it was not dispatched. Kinkade is not a member of that team, according to the suit.

“Autistic children have a great difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they don’t understand social cues,” Frazier said. “(The Bell child) gets confronted with violence, with Tasers, and he is flipping out because of his sensory overload.”

The suit contends Carmel police were “grossly negligent in the training of Matthew Kinkade,” who joined the department in January 2006.

Noblesville Police Department Lt. Bruce Barnes, an instructor in the use of Tasers, said officers are trained to use the devices when lesser-force options are not available.

“You can use the Taser anytime anybody is punching, kicking or threatening to punch or kick,” Barnes said. “We can use it when we tell someone to do something, they refuse, lesser-force options are not available and they are a credible threat to you.”

Barnes declined to comment on whether the boy could have posed a credible threat to a police officer, saying he did not know the full circumstances of the incident.

Sheila Wolfe, director of the Indianapolis-based Autism Education and Training Center, said the reaction of school officials and the police officer agitated the boy.

“You need to step away and leave them alone so that they can decompress,” said Wolfe, who has an autistic son in middle school in Carmel Clay. “I have a hard time believing that a trained officer would Taser a child with a disability if they fully understood the situation they were walking into.

“I know from experience that the people in Carmel (Clay schools) know better. As a school system, they have the expertise and they have the people available that know better. I’m surprised.”

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Disgraced Former Washington DC Judge Roy L. Pearson Loses Final Appeal After Bogus $54 Million Lawsuit Over Pair Of Pants At Cleaners

WASHINGTON, DC – Roy L. Pearson, the former administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaner for $54 million over a misplaced pair of pants, lost his final appeal in the District’s highest court.

“Appellant failed to establish either that the Chungs’ ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ and ‘Same Day Service’ signs constituted false or misleading statements, or that they lost his pants.

“Thus, the judgment for the Chungs on the fraud and CPPA claims was proper. Further, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motions for a jury trial,” says the D.C.’s Court of Appeals ruling.

The saga involving the missing pants started when Pearson filed a civil suit against Jin Nam and Ki Chung, the owners of Custom Cleaners in Northeast.

Back in June 2007, Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the Chungs did not violate the consumer protection law by failing to live up to Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store.

After losing his case in court, Pearson lost his job as a judge in the District when a supervising panel said his lawsuit showed bad judgment and reflected poorly on the city. He initially calculated his losses at $67 million but later lowered them to $54 million.

The recent Court of Appeals ruling says, “Pearson, however, offers no support for this interpretation of the ‘Same Day Service’ sign, which frankly defies logic.”

The Chungs sold the business because of the revenue losses and emotional toll the family suffered after the lawsuit.

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Disgraced Former Washington DC Judge Roy L. Pearson Loses Final Appeal After Bogus $54 Million Lawsuit Over Pair Of Pants At Cleaners

WASHINGTON, DC – Roy L. Pearson, the former administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaner for $54 million over a misplaced pair of pants, lost his final appeal in the District’s highest court.

“Appellant failed to establish either that the Chungs’ ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ and ‘Same Day Service’ signs constituted false or misleading statements, or that they lost his pants.

“Thus, the judgment for the Chungs on the fraud and CPPA claims was proper. Further, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motions for a jury trial,” says the D.C.’s Court of Appeals ruling.

The saga involving the missing pants started when Pearson filed a civil suit against Jin Nam and Ki Chung, the owners of Custom Cleaners in Northeast.

Back in June 2007, Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the Chungs did not violate the consumer protection law by failing to live up to Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store.

After losing his case in court, Pearson lost his job as a judge in the District when a supervising panel said his lawsuit showed bad judgment and reflected poorly on the city. He initially calculated his losses at $67 million but later lowered them to $54 million.

The recent Court of Appeals ruling says, “Pearson, however, offers no support for this interpretation of the ‘Same Day Service’ sign, which frankly defies logic.”

The Chungs sold the business because of the revenue losses and emotional toll the family suffered after the lawsuit.

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