Stupid, Dumb and Just Plain Ignorant Cop Thread

[tay]

$7M verdict against cops upheld; framed a mentally challenged 15-year-old








26 Years in Prison



"The DNA exonerated him by confirming what we already knew — that an innocent 15-year-old was railroaded," Heyer said. "The jurors vindicated him and now the appeals court has vindicated him."

The jury verdict awarded Caravella $2.5 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages of $4.5 million against the officers — plus his lawyers' fees and costs. Jurors found Mantesta liable for $4 million and Pierson liable for the remaining $3 million.

The same jury found former Miramar officer Bill Guess and retired Broward Sheriff's Major Tony Fantigrassi not liable. The judge threw out a related claim against the city.

Caravella was arrested by Mantesta and Pierson on Dec. 28, 1983, on a juvenile case that alleged he stole a bicycle and didn't show up for court.

Over the next week, while in juvenile custody, Caravella gave a series of statements to the officers that culminated in him confessing to the murder.

Heyer said Caravella trusted Mantesta and the officers, who spent hours alone with him, fed him information about the crime scene and got him to repeat it back to them.

Caravella and his childhood friend, Dawn Simone Herron, testified in the 2013 civil trial that the officers coerced Caravella into falsely incriminating himself by telling him that if he gave a statement they would free the 16-year-old girl who was with him when he was arrested.

In 1984, a Broward jury found him guilty of the murder and rape but voted 11-1 to spare him the death penalty, which was still legal for juveniles. The jurors recommended he spend the rest of his life in prison.

Caravella lost his appeal and seemed doomed to die in prison until 2001 when his brother Larry Dunlap called the Sun Sentinel and reporters examined the case. Troubled by what they found, they contacted the Broward Public Defender's Office. Chief Assistant Public Defender Diane Cuddihy took on the case and fought for years to overturn the conviction.

A first round of DNA testing in 2001 reported no useful results but Cuddihy kept pushing and further DNA testing eventually excluded Caravella as a suspect.

The same DNA tests that exonerated Caravella linked another man to the vicious crime — Anthony Martinez, the victim's neighbor and the last person seen alive with her. Martinez and Jankowski left a bar together shortly before she was raped, stabbed more than two dozen times, strangled and left on the grounds of Miramar Elementary School.

Martinez, who was 17, was the detectives' prime suspect, but they dropped him when he and his mother stopped cooperating.

Martinez died of natural causes in upstate New York in November 2010, two months after the Broward State Attorney's Office and Miramar police named him a "person of interest" in the murder.




more

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-anthony-caravella-dna-7-million-20150122-story.html

 

[gopher]

New Jersey cop in trouble for shooting unarmed man - video taped by his own camera:


Video shows NJ cops gunned down unarmed black man as he tried to surrender during traffic stop


''Dashboard footage from a fatal police shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey confirm eyewitness accounts that the victim was stepping out of the car with his arms raised when officers shot and killed him, the Press of Atlantic City reports.

“Show me your hands. Show me your f—— hands,” Days said, before quickly adding, “Get him out of the car, Rog[er Worley], we got a gun in his glove compartment.”

After the gun is retrieved, Days continued to yell at Reid. “I tell you, I’m going to shoot you,” he shouted. “You’re gonna be f—— dead. You reach for something, you’re going to be f—— dead.”

Reid then attempted to exit the vehicle with his hands raised, at which point Officer Days yelled, “Don’t you f—— move!” before he and Worley opened fire, discharging their weapons at least six times.

Conrad Benedetto, the attorney for the Reid family, said after viewing the video on Tuesday that “you see that there was no threat to the officer, and no weapons in the victim’s hands.”




Another huge lawsuit to follow ...

 

[spaminator]

Video of police smashing man's head against window leads to charge
Harold Carmichael, QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:05 AM EST | Updated: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:12 AM EST
SUDBURY, Ont. -- A city cop was charged with assault Monday related to the release last month of a video showing a man in custody at police headquarters having his head smashed against a window.
Const. Christopher Labreche was facing an allegation of assault following the June 8 incident.
The closed hearing lasted about one hour and was conducted by an out-of-town justice of the peace.
Tanner Currie, 20, alleged he was simply placing his hand at his waist after having it freed from a set of cuffs when an officer slammed his head into the window, shattering the glass and leaving him with a sore neck for weeks.
It was caught on the station's closed-circuit camera.
Currie was in custody after being arrested for public drunkenness and resisting arrest.
Currie has said he wasn't even drunk and offered to take a breathalyzer test, but was denied.
Currie's lawyer, Trent Falldien, said he is ecstatic with the ruling.
"From my perspective, this demonstrates access to justice," he said. "The Greater Sudbury Police exonerated Const. Labreche, but when we brought this incident forward, there was a decision in our favour. This reflects well on the accountability of the justice system."
Labreche, who was cleared of any wrongdoing by the force, will make his first court appearance March 11.
Sudbury Police acknowledged the laying of the charge, but said in a statement Monday it cannot make any further comments at this time.
Falldien said he was looking to proceed on charges of assault and aggravated assault against Labreche, but opted to proceed with assault to allow for a private instead of a Crown prosecution.
He said when the justice of the peace gave his decision the Crown exercised its right of discretion to act as prosecutor.
"We have some concerns about that: allegations of bias," said Falldien. "The Crown refused us access to the (police) video for over a month, twice from Sudbury and once from Toronto.
“And Tanner was asked to pay for the window by the Crown attorney here. There was an attempt at a coverup ... (but) there's nothing I can do to stop it."
Currie could not be reached for comment Monday.
Tanner Currie (Gino Donato/QMI Agency)

Video of police smashing man's head against window leads to charge | Ontario | N

 

[grumpydigger]

Quebec teen raped by sex offender in police vehicle suing for 'gross misconduct' - Montreal - CBC News A young woman from an Inuit village in northern Quebec is suing for $400,000 after she was left handcuffed in a police vehicle with a repeat sexual offender and sexually assaulted.
The woman, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, says she has suffered post-traumatic stress since the September 2011 attack in Tasiujaq, a lakeside community west of Ungava Bay that is only accessible by airplane, snowmobile or boat.
The lawsuit, which names the officer involved as well as the local police service and the regional government, alleges "a serious lack of professionalism and gross negligence," on behalf of the Kativik regional police.
It also states the officer's actions "show an incredible lack of concern for the safety of the plaintiff."
Neither the Kativik regional government nor the police force will comment on the events, citing the ongoing court case.
Inexperienced officer

Police had been called to remove the woman, who had been drinking while visiting relatives, from the premises at the request of the homeowner.
According to civil lawsuit documents filed at Quebec Superior Court last fall and initially obtained by La Presse, the woman was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car with a man who had been arrested earlier for causing a disturbance at another residence.
The man, Joe Kritik, had already been convicted of four sexual assaults at the time and was listed on the sexual offender registry.
He was not handcuffed.
The lone officer responsible, who had been on the job less than a month and was not authorized to carry a handgun, left the two in the back of the vehicle while she gathered details about the young woman from the complainant.
'The plaintiff was unable to defend herself'

According to the court documents, the officer returned and found Kritik with his pants down on top of the woman. The young woman testified in court that she was sexually assaulted.
“The plaintiff was unable to defend herself, being handcuffed in her back and unable to leave the vehicle, the doors being locked,” the lawsuit claims.
The officer opened the door and pulled Kritik off her.
Both the young woman and Kritik were taken to the police station and put in different cells.
The lawsuit claims the same officer, the only one on duty at the time, slammed the cell door in the woman’s face, breaking her tooth. No rape kit was performed and the woman’s parents were not contacted.
Kritik eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and was sentenced to 39 months.
The constable was suspended and later resigned. However, an internal investigation by the Kativik regional police Force cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.

 

[spaminator]

Two Philadelphia police officers charged with brutality of motorist
Reuters
First posted: Thursday, February 05, 2015 12:25 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, February 05, 2015 12:31 PM EST
PHILADELPHIA – Two Philadelphia police officers were charged with aggravated assault and other criminal counts in an alleged assault on a motor scooter rider, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
A grand jury brought the brutality charges against officers Sean McKnight and Kevin Robinson, finding they allegedly knocked Najee Rivera off his scooter and beat him with fists and batons in 2013, the Philadelphia district attorney said.
Surveillance footage from a business recorded at least some of the beating, said the district attorney's office in Philadelphia.
Prosecutors said the officers later lied about the attack, accusing the victim of assaulting Robinson.
Rivera suffered a fractured orbital bone and numerous head lacerations, the prosecutor said.
Philadelphia police officers officers Sean McKnight, left, and Kevin Robinson, right, are charged with aggravated assault and other criminal counts in an alleged assault on Najee Rivera, centre. (Philadelphia Police Department handout)

Two Philadelphia police officers charged with brutality of motorist | World | Ne

 

[spaminator]

Former Connecticut police officers sentenced for beating suspect
Richard Weizel, REUTERS First posted: Thursday, February 05, 2015 05:24 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, February 05, 2015 05:30 PM EST
BRIDGEPORT, Conn.- Two former Connecticut police officers caught on video tasering and kicking a Hispanic man in a city park were sentenced on Thursday to three months in prison for violating the suspect's civil rights.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Meyer imposed the sentence on former Bridgeport police officers Elson Morales and Joseph Lawlor, who each pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges. They were among three officers accused of stomping on and beating Orlando Lopez-Soto on May 20, 2011, after a car chase through the state's largest city.
The judge denied requests by Morales, 43, and Lawlor, 42, to be spared time in prison, despite pleas by their crying relatives and more than a dozen officers who came in a show of support.
Meyer said such "brutal attacks" by police undermine the community's trust and "make it necessary and appropriate to impose a serious sentence that includes some time in prison."
Each officer could have received up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, as federal prosecutors sought.
"I want to apologize to OLS (Lopez-Soto), the citizens of Bridgeport and my fellow officers," Morales told Meyer before sentencing. "What I did was illegal and wrong, and I take full responsibility."
Lawlor, a U.S. Army veteran and former corrections officer, told the judge he was overcome by "the stress of a high-speed chase, combined with my anger, fear and adrenaline."
Lawyers for each man had asked the judge to impose a sentence of only probation.
Meyer said the two had "crossed the constitutional line and every police officer must know the consequences are not just loss of employment, but also loss of liberty."
The third officer involved, Clive Higgins, was found not guilty of criminal charges last month.
Lopez-Soto is serving five years in prison after pleading guilty to drug and gun charges.
Morales and Lawlor each pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights.
Former Connecticut police officers sentenced for beating suspect | World | News

Three cops probed for alleged sex assault of parking officer
By Chris Doucette, Toronto Sun First posted: Thursday, February 05, 2015 03:52 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, February 05, 2015 07:21 PM EST
TORONTO - Three Toronto cops have been suspended from duty in the wake of allegations a female parking enforcement officer was sexually assaulted.


Toronto Police said Thursday they are not legally allowed to comment on active investigations, so they are unable to confirm or deny that such a probe is under way.


However, several sources told the Toronto Sun the three male officers are under investigation for an alleged incident involving a blue hornet in mid-January at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel on Queen’s Quay E. near Yonge St.


The sources, who spoke under condition of anonymity and did not name the officers involved, said the trio work out of 51 Division at Parliament and Front Sts.


Police spokesman Mark Pugash agreed to speak only in generalities about why officers may be suspended while they are under investigation.


“Suspensions are not a punishment or a finding, they are a mechanism that enables an investigation to continue,” he said Thursday.


He also explained that such investigations can end in one of three ways.


“An investigation can end in criminal charges, in which case we would identify the accused,” Pugash said. “It could also result in Police Services Act charges, which would lead to a tribunal that would be open to public and the maximum penalty could be dismissal.”


“Or it could end in a finding of insufficient evidence, which would mean be no criminal or Police Services Act charges are laid,” he said.


The police union released a statement Thursday regarding the unidentified officers, who are not facing any charges at this point.


“The Toronto Police Association is aware of the sexual assault allegations made against three of our officers,” TPA president Mike McCormack said. “The officers have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.”


He pointed out that everyone involved — the accused and the alleged victim — are members of the TPA.


“We will not be making any further comment until the complaint has been fully investigated,” McCormack said.


chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca
Three cops probed for alleged sex assault of parking officer | Toronto & GTA | N

 

[tay]

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (KMSP) -

A man is suing a Brooklyn Park police officer for shooting him more than a year ago, and about four minutes of dash cam video might help prove whether the police or this man's side of the story is more accurate. However his attorney says that video is nowhere to be found.

It was a Valentine's Day party at a Brooklyn Park banquet hall that turned into a fight. The police responded, one officer shooting Shoua Yang three times. A massive scar and criminal charges against him would follow. The complaint said officers saw three men run into a car, yelling at them to stop and talk, but that the driver put the car in reverse, driving toward Officer Jason Chadbourne at a high speed. That's when he fired multiple times.

Last month, a jury acquitted Yang on all charges. The other side of the story in a new lawsuit against the officer is that Yang never knew the police were even there on the dark, snowy night and was just pulling out to leave. Attorney Bob Bennett filed suit against the officer.

“We don't let hunters shoot at game they can't identify. The same should be for police officers. You fire at three individuals in a car without being able to see what they're doing, where they are, or whether they pose any danger to you at all,” he said.

Dashcam video may answer some of those questions, and the lawsuit says the camera had three hours of recordings, just not the crucial four minutes needed to complete the story.

According to the lawsuit, "Chadbourne shut the squad's camera and his microphone off at some point,” although it later turned back on. The suit says "Brooklyn Park police policy mandates […] officers utilize the devices to record all stops and contacts with the public."

Other departments told Fox 9 that lights and sirens automatically trigger the cameras, but on this night, the officer kept the lights off.


The Brooklyn Park police said they can't comment on ongoing lawsuits and said they'd provide their dashcam policy manual, but we have not yet received it. The officer who pulled the trigger remains an employee there.


video




4 minutes of crucial dash cam video missing in man's case - KMSP-TV

 

[tay]

Good Samaritan tackles off-duty LMPD officer during alleged beating : "I noticed he had her in a choke hold and he was standing behind her and her feet were barely touching the ground and I didn't know if he was trying to kill her or what."


It was the night of the Super Bowl when Mossey said he was driving through Sellersburg and the car in front of him crashed into the parking lot of a John Deer Store. He said the two occupants quickly got out, at which point he heard the male passenger yelling and cursing at the female driver.



"The next thing I knew, he took two steps toward her and punched her in the jaw," Mossey said.


Mossey said the force knocked her to the ground. While calling for help, Mossey said he attempted to approach the couple.


"Before I knew it, she was trying to get up off her knees and he took two steps forward her and kicked her right in the head. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it," Mossey said. "I noticed he had her in a choke hold and he was standing behind her and her feet were barely touching the ground and I didn't know if he was trying to kill her or what."


Mossey said it was then he tackled Osborne to the ground, breaking his own wrist in the process. He positioned himself on top of Osborne while waiting for more help.


"I sat there for about 10 minutes, waiting for the cops to get there," Mossey said.


He said it took two police officers to subdue Osborne, who suffered cuts and bruises.


Osborne remains in jail on $30,000 bond. He's expected in court Thursday morning to face official charges.




more



Good Samaritan tackles off-duty LMPD officer during alleged beating

 

[personal touch]

bad managers

 

[spaminator]

Man partially paralyzed following run-in with Alabama police
February 13, 2015
An Alabama man says his father went for a walk, but never returned. The older man was visiting from India when he had an alleged run-in with police. It ended with the man hospitalized and partially paralyzed. Correspondent Melissa Riopka has more on this story.
Man partially paralyzed following run-in with Alabama police | CityNews

 

[Cannuck]

Updated: Motorcyclist who sued Dallas County Sheriff’s deputy for $1 million settled over helmet-cam seizure | Dallas Morning News

 

[grumpydigger]

17 Abbotsford police officers targeted in corruption probe - British Columbia - CBC News A constable with the Abbotsford Police Department in B.C. is facing criminal charges and 16 other officers are under investigation for allegations related to the integrity of statements used in a number of criminal cases to obtain search warrants.
Const. Christopher Nicholson has been charged with breach of trust, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance, the Office of the Police Complaints Commission (OPCC) said in a statement released Wednesday.
Nicholson was arrested and charged in May 2013, but the OPCC said the disclosure was delayed until now in order to complete a number of "sensitive investigative steps."
Abbotsford police Chief Bob Rich said the probe started with information a police officer was supplying information to a drug dealer so the dealer could avoid being arrested.
The investigation was handed over to the Vancouver Police Department.
VPD Chief Jim Chu said its eight-month investigation determined an Abbotsford police officer was supplying false information to other officers in order to obtain search warrants for private homes.
"He [Nicholson] also allegedly conspired with a confidential informant to have drugs delivered to a residence and have other police officers conduct a search warrant soon after," Chu said.
Court cases may have been compromised

The OPCC said the Vancouver Police Department investigation uncovered further allegations of misconduct against 16 other members of the Abbotsford Police Department.
It also determined many of the allegations against officers deal with the information provided to judicial officials in order to obtain search warrants.
"Furthermore, what remains an active concern to the OPCC is the extent to which the search warrants in issue may have contributed to potentially unsafe prosecutions," said the statement.

The OPCC probe into 17 members of the Abbotsford police force relates primarily to concerns over sworn statements to obtain search warrants. (CBC)

The OPCC said it has not been able to adequately determine the extent to which prosecutions may have been compromised "due to the lack of adequate disclosure from the police."
It said that delay is due to legal impediments arising from the complexity of the case and the sheer magnitude of investigative materials.
"Several investigations have been suspended pending the disclosure of the investigative materials in order to ensure that the related criminal proceedings are not prejudiced," said the OPCC statement.
After he was charged in May 2013, Nicholson made his first appearance in B.C. Supreme Court in July.
Nicholson's trial date has been set for May 26, 2016. His next scheduled court appearance is Aug 28.
The OPCC will release a summary report to the public once its investigation is complete.

 

[spaminator]

3 Toronto cops charged in gang sex assault
By Irene Thomaidis, Toronto Sun First posted: Thursday, February 19, 2015 11:02 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, February 19, 2015 12:16 PM EST
TORONTO - Three Toronto Police officers from have been charged with gang sexual assault in an alleged attack on a woman last month.
Constables Leslie Nyznik, 38, Joshua Cabero, 28, and Sameer Kara, 31, each face a charge of sexual assault and gang sexual assault, police said in a released Thursday.
The officers were off duty at the time of the alleged Jan. 17 assault.
All three appeared in court Thursday.
Get the latest below.
(Click here for a mobile-friendly link.)
3 Toronto cops charged in gang sex assault | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

N.L. cop made indecent calls asking woman for oral sex
QMI Agency
First posted: Thursday, February 19, 2015 03:31 PM EST
A Royal Newfoundland Constabulary cop has been found guilty of making indecent calls to a young woman from his police-issue cellphone, asking for oral sex, and later blaming someone else for the calls.
Const. Sean Kelly anonymously called the victim at the store where she worked on Oct. 17, 2012, indicated he'd seen her wearing a purple blouse (which she was) and knew she was alone (which she was), he also commented about her breasts and asked her to meet for sex.
After the calls were traced to his phone, he concocted a story that he met with a man he'd been "developing" as a possible informant that morning and had loaned the man his phone.
In a decision Thursday, Judge Wayne Gorman said Kelly "consistently and deliberately lied to police investigators" and convicted him on charges of making an indecent telephone call and making a false statement to mislead the police.
Kelly remains suspended without pay while the RNC reviews his conduct.
N.L. cop made indecent calls asking woman for oral sex | Canada | News | Toronto

 

[tay]

How Chicago police condemned the innocent: a trail of coerced confessions






Shackled by his wrist to the wall and by his ankle to the floor, Lathierial Boyd waited for the detective to return to the Chicago police station. In what he considered a sign he had nothing to hide, the 24-year-old Boyd had given the white detective permission to search his swank loft. It would be clear, he thought, that Boyd was no murderer.


Yes, Boyd had sold drugs when he was younger. But he had turned a corner with his life, and the contents of his briefcase, which Boyd had also handed over, could prove where his money came from. His business papers were in order: contracts for his real-estate business, tax documents, the forgettable dealings of a successful man – hardly what a killer might carry. As soon as Detective Richard Zuley came back, Boyd thought, he’d be free.


A quarter-century later, Boyd remembered Zuley’s words when the detective returned from his well-heeled home: “No ****** is supposed to live like this.”


Thanks to the police work of Dick Zuley, whom Boyd describes as “evil”, an innocent man was found guilty of murder. The evidence connecting Boyd to the shooting of two men was non-existent: a suspicious piece of paper, eyewitnesses ruling him out from the scene, evidence ignored.


The detective and the convicted businessman would see each other again: at a 2004 court hearing, Zuley described himself as “on a leave of absence” from the Chicago police department, “assigned to the Joint Task Force at Guantánamo”.


And then, in 2013, after Boyd lived half his life in prison, the state of Illinois exonerated him, admitting that he should never have been prosecuted in the first place.


A Guardian investigation into Zuley’s police record and thousands of court documents – forgotten paperwork from old cases in Chicago, a new civil-rights lawsuit in federal court and the detective’s interrogation work for the US military at Guantánamo Bay – has found that Boyd was far from alone in facing brutality and manipulated justice. If anything, he is alone in going free.


During his 30 years as a detective on Chicago’s north side and his time inside the wartime prison at Guantánamo, Zuley wanted confessions. Whether they were true or not is less definitive.


In conversations with the Guardian from jail, three other people Zuley sent to prison – people who insist upon their innocence – describe being shackled through eyebolts for hours on end to precinct walls, giving Zuley’s police work in Chicago echoes of his interrogation work at Guantánamo. Zuley pursued murder suspects, often poor and black, who were flimsily linked to crime. With Lathierial Boyd, he appears to have hidden disconfirming evidence. With another man, Lee Harris, he turned on his own informant.




more




How Chicago police condemned the innocent: a trail of coerced confessions | US news | The Guardian

 

[spaminator]

Retired police officer kills daughters, self in N.Y. suburb: Report
REUTERS
First posted: Saturday, February 21, 2015 11:59 PM EST | Updated: Sunday, February 22, 2015 12:02 AM EST
A recently retired suburban New York police office shot and killed his two daughters before killing himself at the family's home, media and authorities said on Saturday.
Glen Hochman, 52, who retired from the White Plains police force last month, killed two daughters, ages 17 and 13, before killing himself in Harrison, an affluent town about 15 miles northeast of New York City, newspapers and broadcasters reported, citing police sources.
Hochman's wife and an older daughter were not home at the time.
"The department is shocked and horrified by the news of this unfathomable tragedy," David Chong, White Plains' public safety commissioner, said in a statement. Hochman served 22 years on the White Plains police force, he said.
Police in Harrison could not be reached for official confirmation or details of the killings.
Harrison schools superintendent Louis Wool released a statement on the girls' deaths.
"In this awful moment, let us remember how proud we are of them, and how much they have helped others," he said.
The head of the school attended by one of the victims also issued a statement offering condolences. Friends of the slain teenagers expressed their shock on Twitter.
Retired police officer kills daughters, self in N.Y. suburb: Report | World | Ne

 

[tay]

Billy Dean Rowe, who lives near Albion, Michigan is a meat cutter by trade and a married father of four who spent three nights in jail for child porn — a crime he didn’t commit.

“I was in the cell,” Rowe, 50, told Target 8. “I just laid in the bed all the time. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do nothing. I just did a lot of praying.”

Billy Joe Rowe, 41, of Clio, who police say confessed to the ***** ****, never was charged and — because of mistakes made by Michigan State Police — never will be.

“I didn’t know nothing about it,” Billy Joe Rowe, 41, said when asked if he knew about the false arrest of the other Rowe.

So how is it that Michigan State Police confused two men with different middle names, who live 120 miles from each other and who are 9 years apart in age?

“It was crazy,” the falsely arrested Rowe said. “There was no way I would do something like that.”

Billy Dean Rowe and his wife have sued the state police. The state admitted making mistakes but claimed governmental immunity and asked the state Court of Appeals to dismiss the suit. The court denied that request earlier this month, sending the case back to Calhoun County Circuit Court.

“It was their own fault. They should pay the penalty, not me,” Rowe said.

The case started in March 2005, when state police Trooper Dennis Milburn of the Flint Post seized a computer from Billy Joe Rowe’s brother in Mount Morris, near Flint, according to reports obtained by Target 8. The brother told him that Rowe had downloaded ***** ****.

The trooper questioned Billy Joe Rowe, who, according to reports, admitted to it.

“Rowe stated at that time he did search for ***** ****ography on the Internet and the images on the hard drive were his,” the police report states.

But Trooper Milburn’s original police report misidentified the suspect as Billy Dean Rowe, the innocent man.

He is 5-foot-4 and weighs 185 lbs. Billy Joe Rowe, the man who police say admitted to the crime, is 6-foot-1 and weighs 200 lbs.

For nearly six years, nothing happened. It’s not clear why, but perhaps because the original detective retired in 2007.

The computer sat at the state police Computer Crimes Unit in Lansing without being forensically examined. A note in the file in 2007 shows state police couldn’t find the search warrant or consent form to search it. By 2008, records show, state police were considering destroying the evidence after a review of the complaint showed issues over “burden of proof.”

Then in March 2011, MSP Detective Sgt. Ronald Ainslie picked up the case, pushing for charges just weeks before the six-year statute of limitations would expire, reports show.

The MSP lab finally examined the computer and found “numerous” images of ***** ****.

Nine days later, on March 11, 2011, the wrong Billy Rowe was at his home in Homer, getting ready for his job as a meat cutter at Meijer in Jackson.

“They just showed up to my door and they asked me if i was Billy Rowe and I said yes,” he said.

He said the trooper had an 8-by-10 photograph of him, which he believes he’d gotten from AAA, of which Rowe was a member.

“He said, ‘Well, we have a warrant for your arrest out of Flint,’ and I says, ‘Out of Flint? I’ve never been to Flint.’ … I asked him what it was for and they told me they couldn’t say. When I said, ‘Why am I going to Flint?’ he says, ‘You’ll find out when you get there.’”

The man who had never been in trouble before spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday locked up at the Calhoun County Jail.

“The guys in the jail asked me what I was in there for. I said I had no idea,” he said. “I was looking at going to prison. All it took was for me to walk in front of the judge and say you’re guilty and I’m done.”

At 1 a.m. Monday, March 14, 2011 — exactly six years after the alleged crime was originally discovered — a trooper drove Rowe 110 miles to the MSP Flint Post, where he was locked up in a holding cell. Rowe said his hands were cuffed behind his back.

“They put me in a jail cell with a drunk, and handcuff me to the wall and left me sit there for like five hours,” he said.

That, he said, is when he learned he was being charged with possession of ***** **** — a felony with a penalty of up to four years in prison. He said he tried to convince state police they had the wrong guy.

“They asked me, ‘Did you have an apartment with your mother in Flint?’ I said, ‘No, my mother’s dead, and she’d been dead a year before that even happened.”’

“Rowe stated he didn’t know why he was being held and that he had never even been in Flint,” Sgt. Ainslie wrote in his report. “I advised Rowe that he was being held for ***** ****ography from the 2005 incident in Mount Morris. Rowe stated he had never heard of Mount Morris and had no idea what I was talking about.”

“I became a bit concerned,” Ainslie wrote.

Sgt. Ainslie took Billy Dean Rowe’s photograph to the mom and brother of Billy Joe Rowe in Mount Morris. They told him he had the wrong man.

A judge immediately set Billy Dean Rowe free. Rowe said he lost his job, though Meijer later re-instated him.

“They said, ‘Oops, We got the wrong guy,’ and that was it; no apology, no nothing,” Rowe said.

Prosecutors refused to sign a warrant against the real suspect because the statute of limitations had expired, records show.

It wasn’t difficult to find the real suspect. Target 8 had to knock on only one door in Clio.

Billy Joe Rowe, who has no criminal record, denied downloading ***** ****.

“I never admitted to nothing,” he told Target 8.

State police spokeswoman Shanon Banner acknowledged the original report misidentified the suspect, though she said it’s not clear how that happened. She wouldn’t say why state police waited six years to examine the computer, though she called it “atypical.”

She said Ainslie, the sergeant who got the warrant to arrest Billy Dean Rowe, retired in 2013.










Wrong man jailed for child porn; real suspect can’t be charged | WWLP.com

 

[gopher]

There was a report on local TV about those cameras cops wear - now some of them cannot be turned off. This means cops cannot hide when they commit crimes against innocents. Moreover, people are now turning all kinds of hand held camera videos all over the country and the cops are screwing themselves whenever they harm civilians.

Maybe some day soon police violence and abuses will be a thing of the past. Let's hope so.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Massive cultural change will be necessary. I can't get over the feeling that someone is telling new police recruits that they are at war and that the enemy is potentially any of us.

Knock it off, for god's sake. You're all just like us civilians.

 

[tay]

In a statement released Thursday, Sheriff Craig Roberts says, "We made a mistake."




The pony known as Gir was kept on a piece of property along Highway 213. It was on that property that the family said Gir got out and ended up in a neighbor's yard.


Crista Fitzgerald, who owned Gir, said all of it happened on Feb. 19. That's when she said the pony they've had for about five years got out of a fenced area.


Gir ended up on a nearby neighbor's front yard and because they didn't know to whom the pony belonged, they contacted the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.


That homeowner also thought the pony had been hit by a car and was severely injured. According to the sheriff's office's report, the deputy found the pony nursing one front leg and a rear leg.


The deputy reported that he tried numerous times to get the pony to stand but it continued to fall over.


The report continued to say that the deputy believed the pony was beyond medical help and so he contacted the Oregon Humane Society and a local veterinarian, who told him to put the pony down.

However, the Oregon Humane Society said they were never contacted by the sheriff's deputy that day. The family also said they checked with the local veterinarian who told them they offered the deputy medical assistance, but he declined it.


The family said even though Gir was about 30 years old and had arthritis in his legs, he was always there for the family and was a spunky little pony.


"Gir was stubborn. If he wasn't in the mood to stand then he wouldn't stand, and we would just let him do what he wanted. He was in his retirement years," said Fitzgerald.


Oregon State University conducted a necropsy on Gir and determined that his body was in excellent condition. It also found that the severe degenerative joint disease (arthritis) present was not interfering with his willingness or ability to eat.


Read more: Clackamas Co. sheriff on deputy shooting pony: 'We made a mistak - KPTV - FOX 12