Kangaroo clemency hearing for death row prisoner Samuel Lopez
Kangaroo clemency hearing for death row prisoner Samuel LopezDefense lawyer leaves Samuel Lopez's clemency hearing
She takes issue with Brewer appointees
by Michael Kiefer and Bob Ortega - May. 7, 2012 09:53 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A defense attorney walked out of a clemency hearing for a death-row prisoner Monday, claiming that Gov. Jan Brewer violated state statutes in appointing three new members to the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency.
Samuel Lopez is scheduled for execution May 16. But his attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry, told the clemency board that she could not go ahead with the hearing until it was determined whether the board was authorized to hear the case. To do so, she said, would essentially waive her client's right to a fair hearing.
Among Henry's allegations are that the new members have not completed training required by state statute, that their interviews violated open meeting laws by taking place behind closed doors, and that one new member is a lobbyist for a police association that advocates the death penalty.
Henry intended to file a writ of mandamus in Maricopa County Superior Court by this morning, asking for a stay of execution until the questions can be cleared up.
If the court were to rule that the board members were improperly appointed, it could call into question 56 decisions the board has made since the new members began considering clemency, parole and parole revocation cases April 23. Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the appointments were in full accordance with the law.
Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the brutal 1986 murder of a Phoenix woman. According to court records, on Oct. 29, 1986, Lopez gagged and blindfolded Estefana Holmes, 59, raped and sodomized her, stabbed her more than 20 times in the chest and head, then slit her throat. The disarray in her apartment showed "evidence of a terrible and prolonged struggle," the record said. He was convicted and sentenced to death the next year.
Henry, his current appeals attorney, had intended to present expert testimony that Lopez suffered brain damage from huffing glue, and to argue that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel in his trial because his lawyer did not present mitigating evidence that might have persuaded a judge not to sentence him to death. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims are a recurring question before the U.S. Supreme Court, with several recent rulings on the subject, particularly regarding claims that are not raised during the prisoner's first appeals.
Instead, Henry confronted the board with 16 apparent violations of state statute stemming from the appointments last month of clemency board members Brian Livingston, Mel Thomas and the new chairman, Jesse Hernandez.
Henry said the commission that appointed the new members appeared to have violated state laws by not notifying the public or the candidates in advance that the interviews would be held in executive session; by not telling the appointees they could choose to be interviewed in open session; by not holding a public vote on going into executive session; by not considering enough candidates for each position; and by not sending the governor three candidates for each position as specified by statute.
Though state statutes require the board to send the governor three candidates for each position, records show the commission interviewed just eight candidates in total. According to Benson, the commission sent Brewer at most five candidates for the three positions, which he termed standard practice. Benson declined to speak to the conflict-of-interest allegations raised by Henry, but said the governor was entitled to staff the board "with people with whom she's comfortable."
Henry also argued that Brewer violated state laws by appointing the three and having them sign loyalty oaths before they were confirmed by the Arizona Senate.
Copies of the oaths show they were signed April 9 and 10, more than a week before the their appointments were confirmed.
"We believe, at this point, that this renders the appointment of the three new members null and void," said Henry. "That means you don't have the authority to take any action at this time." While the statutes allow the chairman to declare a quorum with just two members, she told Hernandez that because his appointment wasn't legal: "Our position is that you don't have the authority to declare a quorum."
Henry also said the new board members had not received the four weeks of training specified in state law.
While the statute does not specify whether the training must be completed before board members vote, she said that given the life-or-death decision facing the board, such training is essential.
By a 3 to 2 vote, with the new members in the majority, the board retired to "executive session" Monday to discuss the matter with an attorney from the Arizona Attorney General's Office, then returned to continue the hearing.
Henry claimed that to present her case for reprieve would invalidate any further claims to receive a fair hearing. She left and the hearing was adjourned.
The board members were uncertain what would happen next. Veteran board member Jack LaSota, a former Arizona Attorney General, at first opined that Lopez had effectively waived his right to a clemency hearing.
"This is tantamount to, they don't want a hearing," he said.
Hernandez vacillated in his response.
"They were offered a process, they declined it," he said at first.
Interviewed after the hearing, Hernandez claimed he did not know details of how he was appointed to the board.
And he said the new members already had undergone 80 hours of the required training in the first two weeks of their tenure.
He suggested he would consult with the Governor's Office, then denied he took direction from the governor.
The outgoing board members have already said that they were not reappointed because of Brewer's displeasure with some of their decisions.
In the end, Hernandez said he expected Lopez to get his clemency hearing after all.
LaSota took it further. "I don't think (Lopez will) be executed on the 16th," LaSota said.
A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix, meanwhile, on Monday denied a request by Lopez's legal team to stay his execution because of recurring lapses in the Arizona Department of Correction's execution protocol.
The Federal Public Defender's Office has already filed noticed that it will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
12 News reporter Chris Hrapsky contributed to this article.
Bullied teen who carried stun gun expelled
by Carrie Ritchie - May. 8, 2012 10:15 AM
Indianapolis Star
INDIANAPOLIS -- A 17-year-old Arsenal Tech High School student who brought a stun gun to school to scare away bullies has been expelled.
Darnell "Dynasty" Young and his mother, Chelisa Grimes, found out late Monday that an independent arbitrator who presided over an expulsion hearing Wednesday decided to expel him until Jan. 7, 2013. He cannot finish his junior year and he will miss the first semester of his senior year.
"I couldn't believe that they did it," Grimes said. "They really kicked him out."
Grimes and Young can appeal to the Indianapolis Public Schools school board and the courts if necessary, but Grimes said they're still weighing their options. Young said he plans to get his GED and go to college.
Young, who's openly gay, was suspended pending expulsion April 16 after he brought a stun gun to school, raised it in the air and fired it to scare away six kids who threatened to beat him up.
Grimes said she gave him the stun gun to protect himself from students who repeatedly called him names and threatened to beat him up. Some students threw rocks at him as he walked home from his after-school job one day.
Grimes said she and her son complained to the school staff about bullying several times throughout the school year, but staff members told them that Young called attention to himself because he liked to accessorize his outfits with Grimes' jewelry and purses.
Young and Grimes have appeared on CNN and "Good Morning America." Kris Jenner, the mother of the Kardashian sisters, tweeted a message of support Sunday to Young.
Young said he has been overwhelmed with the support he has received. Some of his supporters here are planning a rally May 15 before a school board meeting to raise awareness of Young's case and to pressure the school board to take more steps to prevent bullying.
School board member Samantha Adair-White has called for an independent investigation into the incident but said last week she's not sure if enough school board members will support her request to proceed. A schools spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.
This makes me think of the quote by H. L. Mencken
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
New al-Qaida underwear bomb studied
by Adam Goldman - May. 8, 2012 07:09 AM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- U.S. bomb experts are picking apart a sophisticated new al-Qaida improvised explosive device, a top Obama administration counterterrorism official said Tuesday, to determine if it could have slipped past airport security and taken down a commercial airplane.
Officials told The Associated Press a day earlier that discovery of the unexploded bomb represented an intelligence prize resulting from a covert CIA operation in Yemen, saying that the intercept thwarted a suicide mission around the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it. The device is an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. Officials said this new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser, said Tuesday the discovery shows al-Qaida remains a threat to U.S. security a year after bin Laden's assassination. And he attributed the breakthrough to "very close cooperation with our international partners."
"We're continuing to investigate who might have been associated with the construction of it as well as plans to carry out an attack," Brennan said. "And so we're confident that this device and any individual that might have been designed to use it are no longer a threat to the American people."
On the question of whether the device could have been gone undetected through airport security, Brennan said, "It was a threat from a standpoint of the design." He also said there was no intelligence indicating it was going to be used in an attack to coincide with the May 2 anniversary of bin Laden's death.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that "a number of countries" provided information and cooperation that helped foil the plot. He said he had no information on the would-be bomber, but that White House officials had told him "He is no longer of concern," meaning no longer any threat to the U.S.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters Monday night that she had been briefed Monday about an "undetectable" device that was "going to be on a U.S.-bound airliner."
There were no immediate plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.
U.S. officials declined to say where the CIA seized the bomb. The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or purchased plane tickets when the CIA seized the bomb, officials said. It was not immediately clear what happened to the would-be bomber.
President Barack Obama had been monitoring the operation since last month, the White House said Monday evening. White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the president was assured the device posed no threat to the public.
"The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand," Hayden said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said: "The device did not appear to pose a threat to the public air service, but the plot itself indicates that these terrorist keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people. And it a reminder of how we have to keep vigilant." Clinton spoke during a news conference Tuesday in New Delhi with Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.
The operation unfolded even as the White House and Homeland Security Department assured the public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden's death.
On May 1, the Homeland Security Department said, "We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death."
The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish a story immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.
The FBI and Homeland Security acknowledged the existence of the bomb late Monday. Other officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the plot, many of which the U.S. has not officially acknowledged.
It's not clear who built the bomb, but because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas Day bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.
Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.
The new underwear bomb operation is a reminder of al-Qaida's ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group's branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.
On Monday, al-Qaida militants staged a surprise attack on a Yemeni army base in the south, killing 22 soldiers and capturing at least 25. The militants managed to reach the base both from the sea and by land, gunning down troops and making away with weapons and other military hardware after the blitz, Yemeni military officials said.
But the group has also suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.
Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.
Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group's head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.
The new Yemeni president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has promised improved cooperation with the U.S. to combat the militants. On Saturday, he said the fight against al-Qaida was in its early stages. Hadi took over in February from longtime authoritarian leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Brennan appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," the "CBS This Morning" show and NBC's "Today" show. King was interviewed on CNN.
In this article Lisa Mederos was probably murdered while she was talking to the police on a 911 call.
Gilbert seeking to soothe pain after killings; 911 calls released
by Parker Leavitt - May. 7, 2012 11:30 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
As families prepare funerals and investigators pour over evidence, Gilbert police hope to begin a community conversation later this week that can start the healing in the aftermath of last week's rampage that left five people dead.
Town officials were working on details Monday, but police said they want to discuss the shooting that left a quiet Gilbert neighborhood and the surrounding community traumatized. Underscoring their intent to use the meeting to allay residents' fears, police indicated they likely will restrict media attendance.
Word of the meeting came as police released chilling recordings of two 911 calls from the house on Tumbleweed Road where the shooting took place and a third call from a neighbor who witnessed part of the grim aftermath that claimed the lives of Lisa Mederos, 47; her daughter Amber Mederos, 23; and Amber's 15-month-old daughter, Lilly. Jim Hiott, Amber's 24-year-old fiance, was also gunned down before the suspected shooter, border vigilante J.T. Ready, is believed to have killed himself.
In a 911 call made around 1:07 p.m. Wednesday -- just moments before her death -- Lisa Mederos can be heard telling a police operator before the first shot was fired that Ready was "going ballistic in the house."
In the recording, Lisa, who identified Ready as her boyfriend, calmly asks for help with a "domestic violence" incident.
"What is it he's doing?" the dispatcher said. "What is it he's doing, ma'am?"
The next sound is a gunshot. As Lisa tries to answer the dispatcher's question, she suddenly says, "Oh, my God. He's ... "
Lisa screams after a second gunshot, and the call abruptly ends. When dispatchers tried to redial her number, the call went to Lisa's voice mail.
Ready had apparently flown into a rage because Mederos, who was his girlfriend and the owner of the house, and her daughters wanted him to move out, and they had confronted him at a family meeting about it, said Hugo Mederos, Lisa's ex-husband and father to Amber and Brittany Mederos.
"The whole family decided that," Hugo told The Arizona Republic on Monday. "That's one reason my daughter (Amber) showed up, to give her mother support."
Brittany, 19, the lone survivor, was in a bedroom when she heard the shouting and the gunshots. She called 911 from her bedroom at 1:09 p.m. The police tape of the call depicts a sobbing young woman who is uncertain of what has happened and is apparently unaware that Ready was dead at the time she was calling.
Nonetheless, she answers a police dispatcher's detailed questions for nearly 10 minutes, maintaining enough composure to identify the car Ready drove, where guns were located in the house and where she was hiding.
"There were gunshots, and my mom and my niece and my sister are all on the floor," Brittany told the dispatcher. "They were fighting. They were screaming. I was in my room, and now they're all dead."
Ready had been living with the Mederos family and was unemployed, Brittany told the dispatch. "He goes to the border with his guns, and they go and try to find Mexicans and narcotics," she said. "He doesn't work at all. He just sits at my house."
Brittany mustered enough courage to stay on the line answering questions until police officers at the scene ascertained that Ready was dead and they made their way to her in her bedroom.
A third distress call came at 1:13 p.m. from a neighbor, Budd Moyer, who reported hearing six gunshots before walking outside. He saw two men, one who appeared to be dressed in a law-enforcement uniform, "dying on the front doorstep."
"It looked like both of them had blood coming from their heads," Moyer told a police dispatcher, adding that he thought Ready was a Border Patrol agent.
Ready was a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a heavily armed vigilante group that patrolled the desert along the Mexican border. He was also preparing to run for Pinal County sheriff. Police had been called to the home five times since 2009: once when Amber threatened suicide, once when her car was burglarized, once when Ready reported suspicious activity in the neighborhood, and twice for incidents of alleged domestic violence.
Hugo Mederos said Monday that Brittany has since gone into emotional "lock-down mode."
"When she left the house, she didn't even know she had gone over two bodies," he said, referring to Ready and Hiott.
Hugo said he has not spoken in detail to Brittany about the incident because she is so traumatized. "When she's ready to talk, I'll talk about it," he said.
The community meeting may be held Thursday evening. It would be just hours after private services for the three members of the Mederos family, which are scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at Vineyard Community Church in Gilbert.
Ready's body was released to Abel Funeral Services in Phoenix, according to a Maricopa County medical examiner spokeswoman, but the funeral home said the family does not want to release any additional information. Details were not available about funeral services for Hiott.
Republic reporters Michael Kiefer, Srianthi Perera and Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this article.
Of of course the voter information on cops and judges is secret and nobody can see it - Certain voters' information -- law-enforcement officers, code-enforcement officers, judges ... is sealed.
The political parties Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Greens also have access to all this information.
Political parties mining Arizona voters' personal data
by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - May. 7, 2012 11:29 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Arizonans filling out voter-registration forms this election season will hand over personal information that, under state law, will be distributed to political parties and ultimately sold to candidates' campaigns.
Unknown to most would-be voters: They have the option of not providing many of the requested details, including the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number, the father's name or mother's maiden name, e-mail address and occupation.
Even marking a party preference is optional, Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said. People who select independent or leave the space empty will be categorized as "party not designated."
Though they can't require the additional information, election officials benefit from having more detail on voters because it makes it easier to verify voters' identities.
Political parties, meanwhile, want the information to help their candidates target voters and win at the ballot box.
As indicated on the registration form, voter-registration requirements in Arizona are basic: Voters must have U.S. citizenship, be a resident of Arizona and the county on the form, and be 18 or older "on or before the day of the next regular General Election."
That means county election departments need only the registrant's name, birth date, address, proof of citizenship and signature, Osborne said.
The Maricopa County Elections Department finds it more helpful for voters to fill out the entire registration form so that election officials can accurately distinguish among the 2.1 million voters in the database, said Jasper Altaha, county voter-registration manager.
"We try to let everybody know that we want them -- if they can -- to complete the whole form," Altaha said.
Election officials must ensure that voter information is not duplicated, a tricky task when it involves twins and others with similar names and personal information, he said.
The information maintained by the county is protected from commercial use. Voters can view their own information.
Law enforcement can also access it. Certain voters' information -- law-enforcement officers, code-enforcement officers, judges and domestic-violence victims who have a court order -- is sealed.
"This (database) is not for process servers. It is not for businesses to get a way to sell magazines. It's the only semi-closed piece of information that government has," Osborne said.
Yet Arizona statutes require that county recorders hand over certain voter information to recognized state and county political party chairmen: full name and title, party preference, date of registration, residence or mailing address, ZIP code, voting history for the past four years, and, if given, phone number, birth year and occupation.
The statute also requires counties to give "any other" public information about the voter that is electronically maintained by the county, city or town clerk, as well as "all data" relating to permanent and non-permanent early voters, including their ballot requests and ballot returns.
The Arizona Secretary of State's Office maintains the same voter information but does not disseminate it.
In the hands of savvy political operatives, such information can be useful.
Political parties often enhance the data they receive and create mailing, phone or walking lists.
Candidates and political campaigns purchase the data from the parties and sign an agreement that prohibits them from using the information for commercial ends. Information supplied by the parties tends to be more detailed and costs less than the raw data that can be purchased for election purposes from county recorders for a penny per voter name.
The Arizona Republican Party has three official databases. Once the party receives voter information from counties, it sends the data to the Republican National Committee. The RNC then feeds it into a database of every jurisdiction in the country called Voter Vault. The Arizona party has access to that database and can add other information mainly from surveys, said Shane Wikfors, an Arizona Republican Party spokesman.
Candidates, precinct committeemen, county party chairmen and legislative district chairmen can create lists for calling or visiting voters based on the information.
Using a system called First Tuesday in November, or FTIN, party officials collecting petition signatures or doing polling can add issues and candidate affiliations using laptops or smart devices to create a more complete profile of a voter. People with access to the database can see the information in real time as it is entered.
Using Voter Vault and another system, Victory 2012, which manipulates demographic data from counties, the party is able to identify certain characteristics about every voter, said Teresa Martinez, southern Arizona director of the Arizona Republican Party who oversees the system. For example, they can track sisters living in the same house and distinguish between them by age and political affiliation.
Candidates access information on the candidates whom voters supported in the past and use that to tailor campaign materials to those voters.
Precinct committeemen sign a disclaimer saying they will not use the data for personal reasons and only for election or party purposes, said Anthony Miller, Republican precinct committeeman and former district chairman in Legislative District 20.
The Arizona Democratic Party also works with the Democratic National Committee to create a database through the Voter Activation Network, or VAN, a contracted company. The party uses social, demographic and consumer data to enhance the voter-registration information provided by the counties, said Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party.
The party uses a combination of information, including magazine subscriptions, to enhance its database, Heredia said. The party uses the information to make its best guess at a voter's race, income and other demographic characteristics based on that information, he said.
The party also maintains voter histories going back several election cycles, a key indicator of voter turnout. If a voter lives in an affluent area or a precinct with high turnout, that also could affect turnout probability, he said.
"As more and more information is uploaded, we get a better picture of our electorate," Heredia said.
Not all political parties are eager to compile additional information on voters. The Arizona Libertarian Party does not maintain a database beyond that provided by the counties, said Barry Hess, spokesman for the party. And the party does not enhance the county's raw data with surveys or polls, he said.
"There's not a lot of enthusiasm ... to even worry about those lists. We simply use them to pull out the Libertarians and communicate with them," Hess said. "We're all about the privacy of the individual."
Thomas, Aubuchon to appeal ruling on lack of immunity
by Michael Kiefer - May. 7, 2012 09:34 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his deputy Lisa Aubuchon have filed notice in U.S. District Court that they intend to appeal a judge's ruling that they do not enjoy absolute prosecutorial immunity against lawsuits for actions they took while in office.
The two are among the defendants in five remaining civil lawsuits brought by Superior Court judges and county officials that stem from the so-called corruption cases investigated by the county Sheriff's Office and prosecuted by Thomas' office.
Thomas and Aubuchon feel they cannot be sued over a federal civil racketeering lawsuit they filed against the judges and officials or for charges filed against a judge and two supervisors because they did so over the course of their duties as prosecutors.
Judge Neil Wake ruled that they did not have absolute immunity as prosecutors and allowed the lawsuits to go forward. Several of the original plaintiffs have already settled their cases with the county, and Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox's settlement claim is in dispute.
Thomas and Aubuchon plan to appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They have asked Wake for a stay in the case pending that appeal. Wake has scheduled a hearing for June 1.
Both attorneys were disbarred last month for ethical violations stemming from the same prosecutions and investigations.
Phoenix man gets 15 years in child-porn case
May. 8, 2012 11:31 AM
Associated Press
A pharmacy supervisor has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for printing and paying for child pornography at the suburban Phoenix store where he worked.
Police said that 51-year-old Michael Brown of Phoenix downloaded, printed and paid for at least 13 pornographic images on June 21, 2010, at a CVS pharmacy in Fountain Hills.
All of the photos showed children apparently under the age of 14.
A manager at the pharmacy found the photos in the queue of a photo kiosk while he was trying to fix the printer.
As part of a plea agreement, Brown pleaded guilty to five counts of attempting to commit sexual exploitation of a minor.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Connie Contes on Tuesday sentenced him to 15 years in prison and lifetime probation.
Kelly Thomas: Medics, not cops, to blame for death, defense says
May 8, 2012 | 11:04 am
The lawyer for one of the Fullerton policemen charged in the beating of a mentally ill homeless man suggested Tuesday that it was medical professionals –- not police officers -– who are to blame for the death of Kelly Thomas.
In the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether two police officers should be ordered to stand trial for killing Thomas outside a bus depot in July, defense attorney John Barnett questioned a trauma surgeon about the treatment the beating victim received after he was rushed to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.
Dr. Michael Lekawa acknowledged under questioning from Barnett that paramedics had informed him that doctors at St. Jude hospital had struggled to insert a breathing tube in Thomas following the July 5 incident. Lekawa said that if a breathing tube is not inserted quickly it can lead to a low oxygen level in the blood, and eventually death.
But Lekawa, the chief trauma surgeon at UCI -- where Thomas was later transfered -- said records did not show such a problem.
"They did everything right," he testified.
A coroner's report found that Kelly had suffered mechanical compression –- pressure on the body leading to a lack of oxygen and eventual brain death.
Officer Manuel Ramos and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli are charged in Kelly’s death -– Ramos with second-degree murder and Cicinelli with involuntary manslaughter. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The surgeon said he was not initially aware of the officers' actions in the field but once he saw what had occurred he understood how Thomas could have sustained enough compression by the weight of the officers that it caused a lack of oxygen to the brain.
The testimony comes a day after a dramatic video of Thomas’ encounter with police was shown in court.
The grainy black-and-white video of Thomas’ violent tangle with police is the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case that the officers escalated a standard police encounter with a homeless man into a fatal beating.
At one point, Thomas –- a 37-year-old mentally ill homeless man who was a familiar face in the city’s downtown -– screams out: “Dad, they are killing me.”
The video and the sound of fists and a baton connecting with Thomas was graphic enough that several spectators in the courtroom left and the judge paused the video at one point as some in the audience began to groan.
He cautioned that those who couldn’t stomach the video should leave.
The case has rocked the north Orange County city, where scores of people have protested, staged memorials and even held a recent public birthday for Kelly Thomas.
I wouldn't be surprised if the police all over the USA, routinely demanded that power companies give them the names and addresses of people with suspiciously high electric bills.
An unusually high electricity meter reading led Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators to a Diamond Bar house where they seized more than 1,000 marijuana plants.
Sheriff busts pot-growing operation in Diamond Bar home
May 8, 2012 | 8:16 am
An unusually high electricity meter reading led Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators to a Diamond Bar house where they seized more than 1,000 marijuana plants from an indoor growing operation, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Investigators shut down the greenhouse operation and arrested two men at a $1-million home in the 24000 block of Highcrest Drive, the station reported.
“It’s pretty surprising. It’s a pretty nice community so you wouldn’t expect that to happen here,” neighbor Chris Cadiz told the station.
Sheriff’s investigators said they have made 30 such busts in the last year in the San Gabriel Valley. They estimated there were more than 2,000 plants -– each worth about $2,000 -– at the Diamond Bar house.
Detectives were led there by a tip from Southern California Edison after a technician picked up on the high power reading. They said the house, which they believe was rented, was outfitted with powerful grow lights and an air-filtering system to conceal smells.
“They did a good job concealing it, but you can’t hide that forever,” said Lt. Nick Tippings of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
Federal appeals court bans enforcement of Illinois eavesdropping law
By Ryan Haggerty Tribune reporter
12:51 p.m. CDT, May 8, 2012
A federal appeals court in Chicago ruled today that Illinois’ eavesdropping law “likely violates” the First Amendment and ordered that authorities be banned from enforcing it.
The ruling from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago is the strongest blow yet to the law, which is one of the strictest in the country and makes it illegal for people to audio record police officers in public without their consent.
The ruling follows last month’s announcement by Chicago officials that they would not enforce the law during the May 20-21 NATO summit when potentially thousands of people armed with smart phones and video cameras are expected to demonstrate in the city.
The ruling from the appeals court stems from a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. The suit sought a preliminary injunction barring Cook County prosecutors from enforcing the law.
A federal judge denied the request, prompting the ACLU to appeal to the 7th Circuit. In its ruling today, the appeals court agreed with the ACLU, saying, “The Illinois eavesdropping statute restricts far more speech than necessary to protect legitimate privacy interests.”
The ACLU of Illinois welcomed the ruling. Its legal director, Harvey Grossman, said that the “widespread accessibility of new technologies make the recording and dissemination of pictures and sound inexpensive, efficient and easy to accomplish.”
“In order to make the rights of free expression and petition effective, individuals and organizations must be able to freely gather and record information about the conduct of government and their agents – especially the police,” Grossman said in a statement.
Public debate over Illinois’ law has been simmering since last summer.
In August, a Cook County jury acquitted a woman who had been charged for recording Chicago police internal affairs investigators she believed were trying to dissuade her from filing a sexual harassment complaint against a patrol officer.
Judges in Cook and Crawford counties later declared the law unconstitutional, and the McLean County state's attorney cited flaws in the law when he dropped charges in February against a man accused of recording an officer during a traffic stop.
Officials at the Cook County state’s attorney’s office were still reviewing the 66-page ruling and were not yet prepared to comment on it, spokeswoman Sally Daly said.
Meanwhile, state legislators are considering a bill that would allow people to record police officers working in public.
rhaggerty@tribune.com
It sounds like the plane passengers were searched after the plane left California and arrived in Phoenix.
Sadly the "war on terror" seems to be a front for the "war on drugs". Most of the people arrested at airports by the TSA thugs are not arrested for terrorist crimes but for victimless drug war crimes.
Threat prompts rescreening of 2 Phoenix Southwest flights
by John Genovese - May. 8, 2012 11:08 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
A threat Tuesday night prompted authorities to rescreen passengers and luggage aboard two Southwest Airlines flights destined for Phoenix, airline officials said.
Flight 1184 arrived at Sky Harbor International Airport from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., but did not dock at the terminal, according to Ashley Dillon, a Southwest Airlines spokeswoman. Due to a non-specific threat, Dillon said, all passengers and bags aboard the Boeing 737 aircraft were rescreened.
Flight 811 was also scheduled to depart Orange County for Phoenix but was halted in Califonia for similar reasons, Dillon said. A third plane, flight 372, arrived to Phoenix on Tuesday night from John Wayne Airport without incident or further investigation, she said.
The reported 126 passengers stalled at Sky Harbor were transported by bus back to Terminal 4. Most were ending their trips in Phoenix, but others who were scheduled to continue to Tulsa, Okla., the plane's final destination, were reboarded, Dillon said.
Flight 811 was sent back to the gate in Orange County and would not be ready for a new flight before the airport's 11 p.m. curfew, she said, forcing passengers to continue to Phoenix on Wednesday morning. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, a bomb threat was made against the flight.
Teddy Rodriguez, a passenger aboard flight 1184, told 12 News the captain intentionally parked the plane at the far southeast corner of the Sky Harbor tarmac because there "was a threat to the plane."
He said after waiting 45 minutes, passengers were individually questioned and released.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was not immediately available for comm
"But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the plot unfold"
"We had the device in our control, and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public"
"Of dozens of AQAP fighters with Saudi backgrounds, “at least five or eight of them are undercover”" - So from that quote it sounds like a large number of these alleged terrorists are actually government snitches working either for the CIA or the Saudi government.
Sadly almost all of the bomb plots I can remember that were busted by the FBI where also created by the FBI.
CIA unraveled bomb plot from within
By Greg Miller, Published: May 8
The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including an agent who posed as a willing suicide bomber — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
The Saudi intelligence service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials, who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.
The foiled underwear bomb plot in Yemen serves as a stark reminder of al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP's, primary mission - bring down an American plane, reports John Miller.
The foiled underwear bomb plot in Yemen serves as a stark reminder of al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP's, primary mission - bring down an American plane, reports John Miller.
Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated the terrorist group posing as a bomber and then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.
But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the plot unfold.
“We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We had the device in our control, and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”
The bomb arrived at an FBI laboratory in Quantico about a week ago and is being examined by explosives technicians, law enforcement officials said. One said the explosive was made from a chemical compound that was “built to get around U.S. security and had the potential to do that.”
The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what U.S. officials have come to regard as the most critical counterterrorism front.
The plot shows that al-Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen remains committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.
The disruption of the threat also indicates that the CIA and other agencies have gained significant traction on their target two years after President Obama began deploying more spies, eavesdropping equipment and armed drones to the Arabian Peninsula.
CIA officials declined to comment on the mission. Other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of intelligence operations.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said spy agencies were able to keep tabs on the location of the bomb, as well as those involved in plotting how it would be used, before it was intercepted in another country in the Middle East, thought to be Saudi Arabia.
“We know the route this thing took in terms of its movement,” the official said.
The device was described as an updated version of a design that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has used in a series of plots, including an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
The U.S. intelligence official declined to discuss what he described as “the disposition of the individual involved” in transporting the bomb before it was seized. Other officials indicated that the bomb handler was cooperating with the CIA and the Saudi spy service and is in protective custody.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with recent operations against AQAP said the Saudi spy service has furnished a steady stream of intelligence to the CIA.
“They’ve had someone on the inside of [AQAP] for some time,” the former official said. The Saudi source has provided intelligence on previous plots, including the tip that enabled authorities to disrupt al-Qaeda’s attempt to mail parcels packed with explosives to addresses in Chicago in 2010.
Efforts by the CIA and the Saudi intelligence service to protect that source and enable him to remain in place make it unlikely that he was used to deliver the bomb, according to former officials, who said it is more likely that a lower-ranking operative was used in that role.
As part of an expanding collaboration with the CIA, the Saudi spy service has taken advantage of long-standing informant networks and tribal relationships in Yemen, exploiting them for intelligence on an al-Qaeda franchise that has many Saudis in its ranks. Among them is Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the bombmaker suspected of designing the latest device.
Of dozens of AQAP fighters with Saudi backgrounds, “at least five or eight of them are undercover” working for the Saudi service at any point, said a Middle Eastern official. “The Saudis have always had a network” of sources in Yemen, the official said. “Now they are expanding its objectives.”
The deepening cooperation reflects the extent to which Saudi Arabia regards AQAP as a security threat. The country’s chief counterterrorism official, Mohammed bin Nayef, narrowly survived a 2009 attempt on his life by an AQAP operative.
The CIA established a new drone base on the Arabian Peninsula last year, and the National Security Agency has deployed officers and equipment to monitor the cellphone and e-mail communications of AQAP.
Both agencies work alongside the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, an elite military force that operates its own fleet of armed drones and recently resumed providing trainers to Yemen’s counterterrorism units.
The pace of U.S. airstrikes has quickened dramatically this year, according to data compiled by the Web site Long War Journal. Of the 31 U.S. airstrikes in Yemen since 2002, 14 have come in the past five months.
The most recent strike killed an alleged operations planner wanted in connection with the attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen in 2000. U.S. officials said that Fahd al-Quso was probably involved in directing the plot but that the drone strike was ordered because of his larger role in AQAP.
Staff writers Karen DeYoung and Sari Horwitz and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Each time a car reached Majestic, officers received several hundred dollars.
Some [police officers] damaged the cars more to increase the insurance payout.
Baltimore Police Scandal Spotlights Leader’s Fight to Root Out Corruption
BALTIMORE — Tucked behind a liquor store, opposite a flooring company, Majestic Body Shop was an unremarkable sight amid a blur of commercial properties just east of the city limits. But the police cars that always seemed to be parked at the repair shop caught the eyes of passing drivers. The F.B.I. noticed as well — agents were videotaping Majestic and tapping its phone.
What the investigation revealed was startling: a bribery racket suspected to involve kickbacks to dozens of Baltimore police officers.
The scheme to divert cars damaged in traffic accidents to the body shop in return for payoffs resulted in one of the widest police corruption scandals in Baltimore history. This week, a 10th officer will be sentenced to prison, one of 14 officers who pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges. One trial ended in conviction, another officer pleaded guilty in state court and at least 14 suspended officers still face departmental discipline and possible state charges.
The scandal delivered a body blow to a police force that has struggled to win public confidence. The sheer number of officers involved stunned department veterans and civilians alike.
In the aftermath, Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III — who invited the F.B.I. to investigate the force — brought in Grayling G. Williams, the Department of Homeland Security’s former counternarcotics chief, to head the division charged with rooting out corruption. The previous director had been ousted for socializing with an officer indicted on a charge of heroin trafficking. “We want to do a better job,” Mr. Williams said, “and we want this to be the Police Department that the public wants.”
Mr. Bealefeld, 49, who recently announced plans to retire in August after 31 years on the force, will almost certainly be remembered for reducing the city’s crime and murder rates as well as for his aggressive anticorruption efforts, including the Majestic case. He acknowledged that the corruption cases during his five years as commissioner had been trying, but said “it comes with the territory.”
And he made no apologies for his efforts to change the department’s direction and shed its troubled image reinforced — unfairly, Mr. Bealefeld contended — by the fictional television drama “The Wire.”
“I made clear from the very beginning that I would hold bad cops accountable,” he said.
The Baltimore case was unusual for the large number of officers involved; police corruption typically involves only a small number of officers.
“The big takedowns, the pervasive corruption” are uncommon, said Kevin L. Perkins, the F.B.I.’s acting executive assistant director for criminal and cyber operations.
The scheme began when Officer Jhonn S. Corona struck a deal to bring business to two brothers, Hernan Moreno Mejia and Edwin Mejia, the body shop’s owners. All three have pleaded guilty; Mr. Corona received a sentence of two and a half years last month.
The plan worked like this: Officers who summon a tow truck to accident scenes are required to use so-called medallion tow trucks authorized by the city; instead, they would call the Mejia brothers, who would send a nonmedallion truck.
Each time a car reached Majestic, officers received several hundred dollars. Some damaged the cars more to increase the insurance payout. The scheme grew as Mr. Corona recruited other officers, who in turn brought in more colleagues, until at least 51 were involved. Court documents from one defendant suggest 59 officers made calls to the brothers.
Even before the Majestic case came to light, Mr. Bealefeld had worried that internal oversight was failing and had turned to the F.B.I. because of rumors of criminality on the force, including the officer who was eventually indicted on a charge of dealing heroin.
The turning point came after Paula Protani, an employee of a medallion towing company and the vice president of a towing association, filed a complaint in August 2009 that the police passed to the F.B.I. The agency began recording calls between the brothers and officers. Bank records revealed that the brothers paid between $200,000 and $1 million to the officers.
“It was quick, easy money in their pockets,” Ms. Protani said.
As the operation continued, the scope of the graft took shape. Rather than play down the case, Mr. Bealefeld sought to make an example of the officers.
When the time came last year to make arrests in the case, Mr. Bealefeld and federal agents lured the 17 officers facing federal charges to the police academy, where Mr. Bealefeld confronted them and stripped them of their badges before agents led them away in handcuffs. To ensure that future officers knew about it, he summoned two academy recruits to watch.
The commissioner has been aggressive in his efforts to mend the department’s reputation, said Rod J. Rosenstein, the United States attorney for Maryland.
“He knows that there has been a problem,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “He’s personally committed to doing everything he can to hold accountable corrupt police officers in order to change the culture of the organization.”
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, whose predecessor stepped down in a plea deal related to corruption, said the Majestic case had been a “double-edged sword,” revealing graft to prove that the city did not sweep it under the rug.
“I understand the risks in all of that,” she said, “but I know that in the long run, it’s the best thing for the city.”
Idaho sheriff candidate hosts cross burning
May. 9, 2012 10:29 AM
Associated Press
SANDPOINT, Idaho -- A white power activist campaigning to be the next Bonner County sheriff hosted a cross burning last week with fellow Ku Klux Klan members and is defending the ceremony as a historic Christian ritual.
Shaun Winkler, 33, said mainstream society misses the point about cross-lighting rituals, seeing them only as a symbol of hate and racial intolerance.
"We look at it more as a religious symbol," Winkler told the Bonner County Daily Bee.
Winkler allowed media to attend the cross burning ceremony, held Friday at his property near Priest River. He said the north Idaho Ku Klux Klan holds cross burnings about once a month.
Winkler said the religious component of the ceremony has roots in Scotland, where clan members used it as a means of communication. He also considers it a Christian symbol, a representation of Jesus Christ's light spreading to the rest of the world.
Still, it's impossible to separate historic cross burnings from their more modern association with racism, terror and prejudice stemming from 20th century KKK activities in the South and other parts of the country, said Brenda Hammond of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.
"It shows the need for the human rights task force has not gone away," she said. "Many of us on the task force have really regretted Bonner County's reputation for harboring racism when the vast majority of us don't think like that."
Winkler also has past ties to the Aryan Nations and has taken part in racially charged protests in Kootenai County. He picketed Mexican food vendors in nearby Coeur d'Alene in 2011, and protested the annual Martin Luther King Jr. events at North Idaho College in January.
Winkler is courting Bonner County voters in hopes of becoming the next sheriff and has vowed to keep his personal beliefs separate from any future law enforcement responsibilities.
He has framed his campaign around the message of cracking down on methamphetamine producers and sex offenders, telling people at a candidate forum this week he favors immediate hangings for those convicted of being sexual predators.
"Most people don't know that we don't just oppose the Jews and the negroes," Winkler said, according to the newspaper. "We also oppose sexual predators and drugs of any kind."
Winkler is running in the GOP primary against Sheriff Daryl Wheeler and Ponderay police officer Tim Fry. The winner will face independent Rocky Jordan in the November election.
Feds to pursue lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
by JJ Hensley - May. 10, 2012 07:29 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Department of Justice called a 10 a.m. news conference in Phoenix where the head of the agency's civil-rights division will announce a lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office after the two sides were unable to resolve allegations that the agency discriminates against Hispanic residents.
The Justice Department released the findings of a three-year investigation in December that included numerous allegations that the Sheriff's Office fostered a culture of discrimination that resulted in deputies and detention officers violating the constitutional rights of Hispanic residents during the sheriff's patrol and jail operations.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his supporters have called the investigation a ploy by President Barack Obama's administration to curry favor with Hispanic voters and say the findings concentrate on several isolated incidents but fail to demonstrate a pattern of discrimination.
Representatives for the Sheriff's Office and the Justice Department were scheduled to negotiate a settlement to the claims, which would like include increased training and some court-mandated oversight of the settlement, but the negotiations stalled when the Sheriff's Office refused to consider the government's desire to appoint a monitor to oversee the decision.
The Justice Department will now bring their allegations before a federal judge who will rule on their merits and determine what remedies are necessary in the Sheriff's Office to correct any deficiencies in the agency.
Arpaio case: Justice Department plans to sue sheriff
by JJ Hensley - May. 9, 2012 10:16 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
On the eve of the U.S. Justice Department's anticipated filing of a lawsuit alleging racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Joe Arpaio unveiled the most public effort to overhaul the office since he took the job nearly 20 years ago.
A source close to the federal investigation said the Justice Department expected to file a civil lawsuit Thursday against the Sheriff's Office, and the federal government made that intention known again to Arpaio with a two-paragraph letter delivered Wednesday that noted stalled negotiations between Arpaio's representatives and the department.
Sheriff's officials were under no impression that the reform plan unveiled Wednesday would stop the Justice Department from taking legal action. But they hope the initiative will provide a framework for improvement within the Sheriff's Office while the legal dispute makes its way through court.
The sheriff's initiative, highlighted in a 17-page document, focuses on community outreach, accountability within the agency, transparency in how the office conducts its operations and more robust data collection. The overall goal is to improve the Sheriff's Office and build trust within certain segments of the community.
"We've been talking about this philosophy for months, and we finally decided -- the sheriff decided -- it's no longer time to sit on our hands waiting for the Department of Justice to take us to court. Let's do something about it," Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan said.
The Justice Department in December released findings of a three-year investigation into the Sheriff's Office. It accused Arpaio's agency of widespread discrimination against Hispanic residents in the sheriff's patrol and jail operations. The two sides were scheduled to begin negotiating a resolution to the discrimination claims, with the threat of a lawsuit lingering if they could not reach agreement.
The sheriff's proposal mirrors many of the recommendations contained in a 128-page draft agreement that federal officials shared with the Sheriff's Office earlier this year.
That document was supposed to serve as the basis for negotiations as the two sides worked to resolve the discrimination allegations. But talks broke down before they got started, as Arpaio's team refused to meet the Justice Department's demand for a court-appointed monitor to oversee whatever agreement was reached.
Though the sheriff's proposal mentions someone who would "monitor enforcement actions and jail practices for adherence to constitutional requirements," Sheridan said the sheriff envisions that position having a relatively limited role within his agency.
Arpaio's representatives have contended that the Justice Department's definition of a monitor was someone with day-to-day oversight of all operations in the Sheriff's Office. The monitor envisioned in the sheriff's initiative would answer to Arpaio, Sheridan said.
"I've been in contact with the county manager about hiring an internal monitor that works for the sheriff, reports to the sheriff," Sheridan said. "We also have opened recruitment for a jail monitor, two weeks ago, to do that, and those would be the two people that I would consider to do the internal monitor.
"The issue that we had with the Department of Justice was very clear: They wanted an external monitor that we had to go through to do any changes in the Sheriff's Office."
Sheriff's officials concede the agency made mistakes in the past, particularly mismanaging sex-crime investigations from 2004 through 2008 and failing to nurture relations with the Hispanic community. The reform initiative discussed Wednesday is the office's attempt to publicly discuss improvement efforts.
But the agency has 20 years of history with Arpaio to overcome, said Alessandra Soler-Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, whose group has filed several lawsuits against the Sheriff's Office alleging racial profiling.
The document Arpaio revealed Wednesday would have carried more weight had it included input from the Justice Department -- or, at the very least, an independent, court-appointed monitor, she said.
"The same person who has condoned and implemented these racially discriminatory practices is in no position to lead a community-relations effort to build trust," she said. "I have absolutely no confidence that any of this is going to happen, given who is in charge of implementing it."
The Sheriff's Office said its internal-reform effort began several weeks ago and relied on a cadre of patrol supervisors, jail commanders and office administrators to together identify what they viewed as the agency's most pressing needs.
The results break down into a few basic areas that need improvement: oversight within the office, data collection and community relations.
A computer-management system being installed in the sheriff's new $80 million headquarters/dispatch center, under construction at Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street, will address the agency's data-collection needs. Efforts to secure money from the county to hire an outside monitor should help meet the need for oversight.
The biggest challenge might be getting a skeptical public to accept the sincerity of the sheriff's reform efforts, particularly when he has accused the federal investigation of being politically motivated. Even Arpaio admits it is a tough sell.
"When you're talking about this sensitive problem called illegal immigration, you can't make everyone happy," Arpiao said. "Everyone has their own ideas. ... I'm not going to stop enforcing those laws as long as I'm the sheriff. You have to try to let the public know that, (and) the Hispanic community, and try to educate them and let them know what we're doing. It's difficult sometimes to get the message across."
Sure I don't like government tyrant Mark Mitchell or
his dad Harry Mitchell, but still it's a waste tax dollars to investigate a 30
year old crime that might have occurred between two minors.
Mark Mitchell cries foul over 1983 abuse allegation
Abuse claim from childhood levied as Tempe vote nears
by Dennis Wagner, and Dianna M. Náñez - May. 9, 2012 10:13 PM
The Republic| azcentral.com
Less than a week before election day, Tempe mayoral candidate Mark Mitchell is battling allegations that he sexually abused a neighbor girl nearly three decades ago when he was a 13- or 14-year-old baby-sitter.
Mitchell says the charges are untrue and part of a political smear. The allegations, which have been the subject of anonymous e-mails and rumors for weeks, became public Wednesday after they were mentioned by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery at a news conference.
Montgomery, who has endorsed Mitchell's opponent, Michael Monti, recused himself from the investigation and turned it over to Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.
The accusation, made to police in February, comes from a woman who is now about 39 years old and whose name is redacted from public records so that it was not immediately possible to check her credibility.
Police referred their findings to prosecutors with recommended felony charges but said they made no arrest due to the youth of those involved and the amount of time that has elapsed.
To date, no complaint has been filed, and experts said the prospects for a conviction may be remote given the purported victim's murky account, the lack of other evidence and myriad legal issues.
What is clear, however, is that the accusation spiraled into political intrigue early on, with Monti's campaign backers pressing for media coverage even before police completed their inquiry.
At the same time, police reports indicate that Mitchell, through his attorney, repeatedly delayed when detectives asked to question him as Tuesday's election drew near. However, he submitted to a police interview Monday and spoke with The Republic on Wednesday.
"Let me be perfectly clear: I've done nothing wrong," he told the newspaper. "Not now and not 30 years ago, even when I was a child."
Mitchell is a 12-year City Council member and son of former U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, who previously served as mayor.
Mark Mitchell said that he has no criminal record or history of allegations and that he believes the inquiry is politically motivated.
"I don't know who is behind this, but what else am I to think?" he said. "I'm deeply hurt and disappointed. More than that, I'm disgusted at having to deny something so awful that never happened.
"I'm 100 percent innocent. No sexual contact of any kind occurred, ever."
According to heavily redacted police reports, the woman said Mitchell fondled her on several occasions in 1983 while they were watching TV with her younger brother. She described other sexual contact that allegedly occurred in a shed outside Mitchell's home, where she said he kept a drum set.
The accuser told police that she believed Mitchell was about 16 and she was 10. Mitchell, 42, would have been no older than 14 in 1983.
The woman said she asked her mother how someone becomes pregnant at the time and told her about the sexual incidents. Authorities were not contacted. The mother recently gave contradictory statements to police but said she recalled speaking with Mitchell's parents and putting an end to the baby-sitting.
Mitchell's legal counsel on Wednesday sent a letter to the Yavapai County Attorney's Office saying the accusations are false and salacious.
Attorneys Lee Stein and Jean-Jacques Cabou contend that the criminal accusation is a "transparent attempt on the part of Mr. Mitchell's political enemies to deprive the voters of Tempe of a fair, honest mayoral election." It disputes numerous facts and allegations as presented in the police report.
The case was investigated by Phoenix detectives because the woman made her initial allegation Feb. 18 to officers in that city while she was being interviewed in connection with an unrelated investigation.
Investigators with the department's Conspiracy Unit put Mitchell under surveillance on April 5 after persuading the woman to confront him while wearing a wire and to subsequently call him for a secretly recorded conversation. According to police reports, Mitchell said during the phone conversation that "they were young and experimenting and that he never meant to hurt her and he apologized."
The report says when a detective first called and asked for an interview, Mark Mitchell asked the name of his accuser and denied knowing her. Political opponents have asserted that Mitchell's answer was a lie. Mitchell said that the alleged victim had married and taken on a new name that he did not initially recognize. When police provided further information during the interview, he acknowledged knowing her.
The police report recommends five felonies - three counts of sexual conduct with a minor; one of sexual abuse; and one of child molestation.
Mitchell said he was questioned by a television news reporter about the case before Phoenix detectives contacted him for an interview. During the probe, Mitchell's attorney complained to police that someone anonymously leaked information about the case in an e-mail to Tempe City Council members.
Monti issued a statement declaring that neither he nor anyone associated with his campaign had any part in the accusations against his opponent.
"The situation is truly regrettable," he said. "We must place our trust in law enforcement. They have recommended charges against Mitchell. He should be given the rights every citizen ..."
Jason Rose, a spokesman for the Monti campaign, denied any role and said he learned of the accusations from the anonymous e-mail.
"We had nothing to do with it, period," Rose said of the criminal allegation. "No one knows why this woman stepped forward when she did. It has nothing to do with our campaign."
Rose complained that media shied from the story for weeks. "The only suspect timing here is, it's not about who we've talked to, why this took so long to come out. There's been 15,000 people who've already voted (via mail-in ballots) in Tempe."
Doug Cole, a veteran Arizona Republican political consultant not affiliated with either candidate in the Tempe race, said most voters will see through the eleventh-hour campaign tactics. He also noted that many Tempe voters will have already mailed in their ballots by now.
"These types of last-minute drive-by shootings are what turn so many off about the political process," Cole said. "From what I've seen Mark Mitchell has handled it very well. Unfortunately, it's part of the rough-and-tumble of modern-day politics. Both families that are running here are big Tempe names - Mitchell and Monti - and it's a shame that this race has degenerated in such a fashion."
Republic reporter Michael Kiefer contributed to this article.
18-month-old baby pulled from flight, parents interviewed by TSA
By Eric Pfeiffer
18-month-old Riyanna was pulled from a JetBlue flight (WPBF.com) The parents of an 18-month-old girl say they were "humiliated" after being pulled off a plane and told their young child had been placed on a no-fly list.
After boarding a JetBlue flight in Ft. Lauderdale, the parents of young Riyanna, who asked to remain anonymous over fears of repercussions, were told the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) wanted to interview their toddler.
"And I said, 'For what?'" Riyanna's mother told ABC affiliate WPBF 25 News on Wednesday. "And he said, 'Well, it's not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly.' I said, 'Excuse me?'"
Whoever is to blame, the parents say they believe the incident began because they are both of Middle Eastern descent and because the wife wears a hijab, a traditional headscarf. A 2011 poll from the Pew Research Center found that Muslim Americans say they believe they are disproportionately singled out by airport security officers.
Eventually, the couple were given their boarding passes back. Interesting, both JetBlue and the TSA tell WPBF they weren't responsible for the incident. The TSA says that because the couple and their child were eventually issued boarding passes, Riyanna could not have been on the no-fly list.
"TSA did not flag this child as being on the No Fly list," the group said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "TSA was called to the gate by the airline and after talking to the parents and confirming through our vetting system, TSA determined the airline had mistakenly indicated the child was on a government watch list."
JetBlue told WPBF that both the airline and the TSA are investigating the incident.
"We were humiliated. We were embarrassed. We were picked on," Riyanna's father told the station.
The family decided to leave the airport rather than return to the flight.
In a similar incident that occurred in Long Beach a plane that violated Emperor Obama's airspace was illegally searched and the pilot was arrested after marijuana was found
Source
F-16s intercept plane that strays into Obama's L.A. airspace
By Michael Winter, USA TODAY
For the second time in three months, U.S. fighter jets have intercepted a small plane that strayed into President Obama's airspace during fundraising trips to Los Angeles.
Two F-16s swooped down on the single-engine Piper 28 northeast of Los Angeles about 9:45 a.m. PT (12:45 p.m. ET) and shadowed it to a landing five minutes later, the North American Aerospace Defense Command reports.
The plane landed at the small airport in El Monte, and the pilot was detained and questioned by the Secret Service, police Lt. Dan Burlingham told the Associated Press.
"It appears, as far as we know, that it was just a mistake," he said.
NBC News says the pilot was a student and was released after questioning. But the Los Angeles Times, citing a law enforcement source, said the pilot was arrested.
The intrusion occurred as Obama was about to leave Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One after his record-breaking fundraiser at the Studio City home of actor George Clooney. The president departed at 9:53 a.m. for Reno, where he spoke about the economy.
On Feb. 16, two F-16s were scrambled from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County after a Cessna 182 entered restricted airspace as the president's helicopter was ferrying him back to LAX. Authorities found 40 pounds of marijuana on the plane when it landed in Long Beach and arrested the pilot.
Pilot who violated Obama's airspace arrested, sources say
May 11, 2012 | 12:19 pm
President Barack Obama returns a salute as he steps off the Marine One helicopter prior to boarding Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles.
Two F-16 military fighter jets intercepted a general aviation airplane that violated airspace restrictions as President Obama was leaving Los Angeles on Friday and guided the plane to El Monte Airport.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that Secret Service agents interviewed the pilot at El Monte Airport and that he has been arrested.
The sources said the incident appears to have been unintentional. The pilot's name was not released.
"The fighters responded to a temporary flight restriction violation by a Piper 28 aircraft," the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement. "After intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s followed it until it landed without incident, at approximately [9:50 a.m. PST] where the plane was met by local law enforcement."
Obama arrived at LAX from Cheviot Hills by helicopter, then left LAX on Air Force One at 9:53 a.m. Large parts of L.A.'s airspace were under flight restrictions because of the president's trip.
In February, a small-plane pilot who strayed into Obama’s airspace was also intercepted.
Long Beach police officials said “a large amount of marijuana” was found on board that plane.
Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted the Cessna 182 after air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilot.
The pilot did not respond and eventually landed -– with escorts -- at Long Beach Airport.
Authorities have told The Times that as much as 10 kilograms of marijuana aboard the plane was seized.
Despite concerns about traffic nightmares and possible protests, Obama's fundraiser at the home of actor George Clooney in Studio City went off without a hitch.
People, some cheering, lined the route of Obama's motorcade near Clooney's home. Some noted the president's announcement this week that he supported gay marriage.
Inside, Obama addressed the issue in his remarks at the fundraiser.
"Obviously, yesterday we made some news," he said to applause. "But the truth is it was a logical extension of what America is supposed to be. It grew directly out of this difference in visions. Are we a country that includes everybody and gives everybody a shot and treats everybody fairly, and is that going to make us stronger? Are we welcoming to immigrants? Are we welcoming to people who aren't like us -- does that make us stronger? I believe it does. So that's what's at stake."
Even in the celebrity-laden neighborhood, a presidential motorcade rolling down the street was something special.
About 200 people gathered at the corner of Fryman Canyon Road and Iredell Street to cheer as Obama glided past in a long line of black SUVs, California Highway Patrol motorcycles and other vehicles. The problem was figuring out which one the president was in.
Ex-LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus gets 27 years to life for murder
May 11, 2012 | 9:14 am
Former Los Angeles Police Det. Stephanie Lazarus was sentenced Friday to 27 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole for killing her ex-boyfriend's wife nearly three decades ago in a fit of rage and jealousy.
Prosecutors said in a "statement of views" filed in court that "Lazarus misused her police training in the most profound way imaginable by utilizing that training and experience to commit murder and to cover up her crime. Lazarus betrayed the trust placed in her by the Los Angeles Police Department and by people of Los Angeles in order to pursue her own murderous ends."
"Lazarus' profound narcissism led her to kill and continues to motivate her denial of responsibility."
Lazarus was convicted in March of first-degree murder in the death of Sherri Rae Rasmussen, who was shot three times in the chest in her Van Nuys home on Feb. 24, 1986. Several months before the attack, Rasmussen, a 29-year-old hospital nursing director, had married John Ruetten, who had also dated Lazarus casually for a few years before the wedding.
Los Angeles County prosecutors had asked Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry to sentence Lazarus to at least 27 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole.
The sentence came after emotionally charged statements from the friends and family of Rasmussen.
The case garnered national attention for its sensational story line of a lovelorn cop killing a woman she viewed as a romantic rival, and then for decades harboring the dark secret. Adding to the drama, detectives ignored pleas by Rasmussen's father at the time of the killing to look at Lazarus as a possible suspect.
Instead, investigators stuck to their early theory that Rasmussen must have been killed by unidentified Latino male suspects during a botched burglary. That theory eventually would be proven wrong by DNA in a saliva sample gathered from a bite mark on the victim’s left forearm.
But it would take a generation, a revolution in forensics technology and a second LAPD investigation before Lazarus, who had become a respected art theft detective, officially emerged as the prime suspect in the case.
Rasmussen family attorney John C. Taylor, who praised the work of current LAPD detectives, said in March that the family would address the handling of the original police investigation.
The case against Lazarus came down to "a bite, a bullet, a gun barrel and a broken heart,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Shannon Presby said in his opening statement. Presby and co-counsel Paul Nunez sought to hammer home those points throughout the five-week trial, in which more than 60 witnesses testified and 400 exhibits were presented from the state and the defense.
Defense attorney Mark Overland countered by repeatedly questioning the integrity of the DNA bite mark evidence -- arguing that the vial it was stored in was not properly sealed and the envelope containing the sample was ripped.
He also noted that a blood smear from an unidentified male was analyzed for DNA and did not match either the blood of Lazarus or Rasmussen, suggesting the possibility of another suspect. During cross-examination, Overland tried to show his client was not the obsessed, jilted lover portrayed by prosecutors.
In fact, Overland said, her former boyfriend Ruetten continued to pursue Lazarus after becoming engaged.
In the end, the DNA evidence proved too difficult to overcome. After little more than a day of deliberation, the panel of eight women and four men found Lazarus guilty.
U.S. launches airstrike in Yemen as new details surface about bomb plot
By Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, Published: May 10
The United States launched airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday that killed as many as seven militants, the second American missile attack in the country since the CIA and other spy agencies disrupted an al-Qaeda airline bomb plot, U.S. officials said.
The strike came as new details surfaced about the foiling of the plot, including the disclosure that the operative who posed as a willing suicide bomber and later turned the device over to authorities was a British citizen, according to Western officials.
The operative’s background as a Saudi with a British passport helps to explain why he may have been selected by al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen to smuggle an advanced explosive onto a U.S.-bound flight. In reality, officials said, the operative was working as part of an elaborate espionage mission directed by the CIA and its Saudi counterpart.
The CIA declined to comment on any aspect of the mission or the airstrike. But officials confirmed details about the operative’s background, including that he held a British passport, and did not dispute accounts in the British press about his recruitment by MI5, that country’s equivalent of the FBI.
Officials said the operative had been in place for months and had gained the confidence of senior al-Qaeda figures, who sought to take advantage of his Western passport and other travel documents.
A Western intelligence official described the operation as a “joint venture” that relied on cooperation among multiple agencies to put the operative in position to penetrate al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
After taking possession of the bomb, the operative turned it over to Saudi handlers in Yemen before leaving the country. The device is in FBI custody in the United States and is being examined to determine whether it would have been detected by airport security systems.
The operative was among a network of informants in Yemen working on behalf of the CIA as well as the Saudi and Yemeni spy services. The informants have provided intelligence used in targeting for an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes.
The latest strikes, aimed at al-Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen, bring the total this year to at least 15, about as many as in the previous 10 years combined. U.S. officials said it was too early to determine whether any high-value targets had been killed in the Thursday attack and declined to say whether it had been carried out by the CIA or the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, which also patrols Yemen with armed drones and conventional aircraft.
A strike Sunday killed a senior operations leader in AQAP, Fahd al-Quso, who is thought to have been involved in the airline plot and was wanted for his role in the 2000 bombing of a U.S. warship on Yemen’s shore, U.S. officials said.
The bombmaker suspected of designing the latest device, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, has eluded U.S. and Yemeni authorities.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday that disclosures about the bomb plot have hurt intelligence efforts and that he supports the decision by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. to open an investigation into the leaks.
To counter the al-Qaeda threat, “you have to protect” the agents who are used to penetrate such organizations, Panetta said, “and you have to protect the confidence” that foreign intelligence services have in their collaborations with the CIA.
Panetta also defended the administration’s assertions that it has weakened AQAP, despite the al-Qaeda affiliate’s expansion in southern Yemen over the past year and its ability to continue to plot attacks against the United States.
“We have been very successful at going after the leadership,” Panetta said. “But, you know, they are a threat.”
Staff writer Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Screw the idea that government is supposed to protect the rights of citizens. In this case government is flushing the rights of citizens down the toilet to protect our royal government masters.
Metra NATO plans: Stations closed, baggage checked, limits on what you can carry
By Richard Wronski Tribune reporter
2:39 p.m. CDT, May 11, 2012
Metra plans to close five stations around McCormick Place during the NATO summit May 19-21, and is advising passengers on all its lines they will be subject to screening and baggage checks and severe restrictions on what they can carry on trains those three days.
The stations are the the 47th Street, 27th Street, McCormick Place, 18th Street and 11th Street/Museum Campus stations.
In addition, on Monday May 21, the entire Blue Island branch of Metra Electric line on the Far South Side will be closed so the agency can focus its manpower on other lines.
Metra will close the five close-in Electric District stations during all three days of the NATO summit and a total of 26 stations on Monday alone, including the entire Blue Island branch.
The only Electric District stations that will be open Monday will be three Hyde Park area stations, five on the South Chicago branch, and all mainline suburban stations out to University Park.
Riders on all Metra lines will be subject to screening and baggage checks, with more extensive screening on Electric District trains, which run under McCormick Place where the summit is being held. Metra Electric riders should arrive at stations at least 15 minutes before departure to allow for the extra screening.
During the three days of the summit, all Metra riders will be allowed to carry only one bag and it cannot exceed 15 inches square and 4 inches deep.
Riders will not be able to carry boxes, parcels, luggage, backpacks and bicycles. And liquid and food will be prohibited on all trains.
Also prohibited will be tools, including pipes and stakes, as well as pocket knives and pepper spray.
All law enforcement personnel must identify themselves and present their credentials and any weapons to Metra. Security guards will not be allowed to carry weapons.
Metra said it believes the measures are reasonable, given the security concerns. "We've tried to be sensitive to our customers" Metra CEO Alex Clifford said at a board meeting today.
The Secret Service has given Amtrak, Metra and the South Shore Railroad the OK to run trains under McCormick Place during the summit but had cautioned that passengers will face delays due to "necessary security measures."
Amtrak runs six trains a day on tracks under McCormick Place. Metra's Electric District line has 172 inbound and outbound trains on weekdays and 40 trains on Sundays. The South Shore operates 37 inbound and outbound trains each weekday and 18 on Sundays.
Both Amtrak and Metra police departments have their own canine units. Metra's units have been increasingly visible at Union Station in recent weeks, riders have noted.
Probably. And of course it helps her get the vote of cops, prosecutors, prison guards and the folks that make millions building prisons for the state of Arizona!!!
Source
Arizona prisoners rarely granted clemency
Governor seldom uses sentencing 'safety valve'
by Bob Ortega - May. 12, 2012 11:03 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
By his 14th birthday, Tommy Londo was addicted to crack cocaine. With both parents in prison, he grew up on the streets of Phoenix, homeless and uneducated. He spent his teens in and out of mental hospitals and shelters.
After he was arrested in 2004 for selling a $20 lump of crack to an undercover police officer, prosecutor Eric Rothblum described him as "a clear societal liability." Londo was sentenced to 15 years and nine months in prison.
Seven years later, in 2011, Arizona's Board of Executive Clemency unanimously agreed that Londo had turned his life around. He was working on his GED, was drug-free and had earned a certificate for good behavior in prison.
The board recommended commuting Londo's sentence to five years, stating in a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer that Londo was someone who "has made outstanding progress." The board noted, too, that the judge who sentenced Londo had called the prison term required by Arizona's mandatory-sentencing laws "excessively harsh" given the situation.
Brewer denied Londo clemency without comment last June.
Londo has plenty of company. Statistically, if you are convicted of a felony in Arizona, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than granted clemency by the governor. Excluding the cases of inmates nearing the end of a terminal illness, Brewer is on track to grant the fewest clemency cases in more than two decades -- even when a judge and unanimous board recommend a shorter sentence.
Recent board members interviewed by The Arizona Republic believe clemency will be granted even less frequently in the future.
Indeed, Brewer's decision to replace three of the five clemency-board members at once last month has led to legal and political turmoil: Departing board members say they were ousted for voting to grant clemency; and attorneys for an inmate scheduled to be executed Wednesday will be in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday, seeking a court order to nullify the appointments, arguing that they violated state laws. If the court agrees, it would invalidate dozens of board decisions from the past three weeks and could stall the clemency process.
Clemency is a way to correct an injustice, reduce an unfair sentence or give a second chance to someone who merits it. Sometimes called the criminal-justice system's "safety valve," it can take the form of a commutation, which reduces a sentence, or a pardon, which absolves a felon of the legal consequences of his or her conviction. But as Arizona adopted increasingly inflexible mandatory sentences over the last 30 years, a period that has seen the state's prison population soar eight-fold, governors' use of that safety valve steadily decreased.
Budget cuts have reduced the number of clemency cases the board can hear to one-fourth as many as three years ago, creating a nearly two-year, 900-case backlog.
This withering of clemency brings both personal fallout, in ruined lives and separated families, and a financial cost to taxpayers, who pay to house and feed inmates who could otherwise be working and paying taxes. In Londo's case, it will cost taxpayers at least $200,000, based on Department of Corrections per-inmate prison-cost estimates of $22,166 a year.
"It's very worrisome because we have a system now in which almost nobody has discretion to fix an injustice," says Rachel Barkow, a professor at the New York University School of Law who has written extensively on clemency. "With mandatory sentencing, the judge can't do anything; the jury isn't told what the sentence will be. The only check on the system, the only safety valve, is clemency."
From 1913, when Arizona established a board of pardons and paroles, until 1993, fewer than 60 inmates a year applied for commutation, on average. In 1993, the state adopted so-called "truth in sentencing" laws, which effectively abolished parole. The new code requires offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for community supervision; for many felonies, 100 percent of the sentence must be served. The laws, along with mandatory minimums that took discretion in sentencing out of the hands of judges, left commutation as the only avenue for most offenders to seek a reduced sentence. By 2005, commutation applications soared to more than 1,200 a year.
The clemency board can recommend commutations, pardons, reprieves to temporarily delay a punishment, and the release of terminally ill inmates. Any inmate facing execution is automatically offered a clemency hearing. The board's recommendations are forwarded to the governor.
Brewer is the first governor in at least 34 years who has not issued a single pardon. She has denied each of the clemency board's 13 recommendations. By comparison, Janet Napolitano issued 22 pardons over six years, Jane Dee Hull issued seven over 5.3 years, Fife Symington issued 13 over 6.5 years, and Rose Mofford granted 13 over three years.
Neither Brewer nor her four predecessors commuted a death sentence. In the 31 executions since 1992, the board has never recommended a commutation.
Citing "the futility of the process," Thomas Kemp, 63, didn't ask for a hearing before his execution on April 25 for a 1992 murder. In a letter written a week before his execution, the unrepentant Kemp said a hearing would merely bring "public humiliation of the prisoner without any chance" of his death penalty being reduced to a life term.
There is an exception to Brewer's aversion to clemency: She has granted 19 requests to release inmates medically judged to have only days or weeks to live and who weren't considered a public-safety threat. Otherwise, in her three years and four months in office, she has routinely denied unanimous board recommendations for clemency, leaving scores of prisoners serving longer sentences than the board found they deserved.
Brewer declined requests for an interview. Her spokesman, Matthew Benson, issued a statement saying that every case is reviewed and that Brewer "fulfills this solemn responsibility with the seriousness owed, and always mindful of the victims harmed by these crimes."
The effect: Arizona's justice system has no safety valve, says Henry J. Florence, a Phoenix defense attorney for more than 40 years. More than 76,000 felony criminal cases a year are filed across the state. Nearly 96 percent are settled by plea bargains, according to state court statistics. Those plea-bargain sentences are driven by the long mandatory minimums in state law, Florence says. And, he notes, when cases do go to trial, the law bars jurors from being told how long a sentence a charge will carry.
Sentences defended
Prosecutors fiercely defend mandatory sentencing. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who says his prosecutorial policy is not much different from those of predecessors Andrew Thomas and Rick Romley, rejects defense-attorney accusations that his office uses the long mandatory sentences to compel tough plea bargains. "It's never the ace card," he says, adding that since a defendant must agree to the length of sentence in any plea bargain, "we're not going to agree it's unduly harsh, or we wouldn't have pushed for it in the first place."
But those being offered the plea bargains -- and sometimes the judges imposing the sentences -- see it differently.
Evaluating whether a sentence merits clemency can be thorny. Consider Christopher Lindquist's case. On Oct. 11, 2009, Lindquist, then 22, drove home drunk from a friend's birthday party. Speeding and weaving, he ignored the sirens and lights of a policeman on a motorcycle until he pulled into his parents' carport. He got out of the car holding a knife with metal spikes along a brass-knuckle-type handle. Officer Eric Thrower, standing behind his motorcycle at the foot of the driveway, drew his gun and ordered Lindquist to drop the knife. Lindquist stepped forward, out of the carport, and following the officer's second command to drop the weapon, threw the knife into some bushes and ran into the house. His parents brought him back outside, where he was arrested.
"Why he had the knife in his hand, I couldn't tell you," said his father, Steven Lindquist. "He couldn't tell me."
He said the prosecutor's only offer was a sentence of 71/2 years.
The Lindquists chose to go to trial. Christopher Lindquist was convicted and given the mandatory 101/2 years for aggravated assault.
"The jury didn't know he was going to get 101/2 years, or I think they would have voted for a lesser charge," says Steven Lindquist.
In a written order, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Pendleton Gaines called the sentence "clearly excessive and disproportionately harsh" for "a one-time incident of defendant's intoxication and an assault, consisting of the display of a knife, in which there was no physical injury." Noting Lindquist's consistent remorse, unclear evidence over whether the incident amounted to an assault, a lack of prior criminal history and other factors, Gaines issued an order at sentencing allowing Lindquist to expedite his case to the clemency board within 90 days.
In his petition to the board, Christopher Lindquist wrote that his behavior that night was "completely out of character for me. ... I would like the board and Governor to know how sincerely remorseful I am. I want to apologize to my family, friends, co-workers and especially to Officer Thrower. Not a day has passed that I haven't thought about the events that I caused that night."
He had one prior conviction, for driving under the influence. He promised never to drink again.
In November 2010, the board unanimously recommended that his sentence be reduced to three years. The governor denied commutation in March 2011.
"We had a lot of hope," said Steven Lindquist. "To see the governor deny him, and then to see her boasting on TV that she never grants such things, what's the point?"
Immediate clemency rare
Despite defense attorneys and judges' frequent complaints about the harshness of mandatory sentencing, they rarely push for immediate clemency, says Donna Hamm, who with her husband runs Middle Ground Prison Reform, a prisoner-advocacy organization. Even when they consider a sentence grossly disproportionate, few judges regularly issue what are called 603(L) orders. Named for the statute they fall under, such orders allow the defendant to petition the clemency board within 90 days for a commutation. Otherwise, inmates must wait two years.
It is rare for judges to issue 603(L) orders, and few of those granted ever reach the governor. Arizona judges have issued only 49 in the last three years, and of those 19 made it to Brewer's desk. She has granted only two and has denied all 14 that have been submitted since October 2009. By comparison, Hull granted one in three such cases and Napolitano granted one in six.
Among those denials is Shannon Connely, a 42-year-old real-estate agent who had no prior arrests or convictions before a run-in with police on May 7, 2009. He was asleep, at home, when a police officer looking for a missing child pulled up in front of his house. Awakened by squealing tires and barking dogs, and worried because of a recent attempted burglary, Connely said, he grabbed his holstered handgun and ran out the front door. The officer drew his weapon and ordered Connely to drop the gun. Instead, according to witnesses, Connely cursed at the officer, pointed out that his gun was holstered, and ordered him off the property. The officer shouted at him again to drop the gun and lie on the ground. Connely did so; the officer shot him with a Taser and then arrested him.
Offered probation if he pleaded guilty to a felony, Connely opted to go to trial. He was convicted of aggravated assault and given the mandatory 101/2-year sentence.
Montgomery defends the sentence as appropriate. "We ask police officers to put their lives on the line every day and to make difficult decisions. When someone threatens them, we sanction that with a severe sentence," he said. "I will say that if this individual had dropped the weapon at the first command, it would have been a very different case, if it had been a case at all."
At the August 2010 sentencing, Superior Court Commissioner Steven Lynch noted that Connely had never removed his gun from the holster or pointed it at the officer. He said the sentence "is clearly excessive" and issued a 603(L) order.
At his clemency hearing, Connely acknowledged the seriousness of his mistake, apologized and expressed remorse. Among many other letters, his daughter Danielle, 16, wrote to the board describing how the family lost its home because of what happened. "I have had to move away from my school and friends I have had since 3rd grade," she wrote. She said she needs her dad's help and advice, ending by writing, "I NEED MY FATHER!"
In April 2011, the board unanimously recommended Connely's sentence be commuted to the seven months already served, that he be put under community supervision and complete an anger-management program.
"We were ecstatic," recalls Joy Ardolino, his sister-in-law. "It was a unanimous decision; they saw what the case was and agreed that the sentence was outrageous."
Brewer denied the commutation last October.
"Why have a clemency board if you aren't going to follow their recommendations?" asks Ardolino. "The governor was in the middle of a campaign and it's a police issue, so she's going to say no. I think it's atrocious."
Independent decision
Hamm, the reform advocate and a former state judge, said she understands the frustration that prisoners' families feel. But, she says, "Executive clemency is an act of grace -- to correct a manifest injustice, to recognize a special case in which there has been extraordinary movement towards rehabilitation or some other extraordinary circumstance. ... It seems logical you should have a good chance if you get five votes from the board, but the governor is well within her authority to do her own investigation and make a completely independent decision." Hamm's husband, James, had his murder sentence commuted by Mofford and went on to graduate from Arizona State University's law school.
Perhaps the most-debated commutation rejected by Brewer is the case of William Macumber, who was convicted in 1975 of a 1962 double homicide and sentenced to life in prison. In a unanimous recommendation three years ago, the board said he had served excessive time in prison and had a record of behavior showing he is not a threat to society. Most importantly, the board called his conviction a miscarriage of justice, saying that "the evidence that now exists certainly casts serious doubt on Mr. Macumber's conviction."
Former state Judge Thomas O'Toole told the board that another man confessed to committing the murders to him in 1967, but attorney-client privilege required him to remain silent about the confession until after his client died.
Montgomery's office strenuously opposed Macumber's clemency petition, calling his petition misleading.
Brewer denied commutation in November 2009, sparking critical national-media coverage. In October 2010, Brewer fled her own televised news conference after Macumber's son asked the governor about her decision.
"The parole board says he's innocent, yet she still won't do anything," says P.S. Ruckman Jr., an Illinois political-science professor who publishes a blog on clemency, pardonpower.com. He is highly critical of Brewer and other governors who he says don't appear to take their pardon powers seriously. "Sometimes the law has a disproportionate impact and may be too rigid. That's what the pardon power is for," he says. "Brewer has the power and discretion to have a larger sense of justice and to do something about it. That's her duty."
Governors avoid it
Brewer's reluctance to grant clemency isn't unique. Before the advent of mandatory-sentencing and "truth in sentencing" laws in recent decades, roughly one in four or five clemency applications would be approved, according to a 2010 Duke Law School study. But increasingly, governors around the country avoid it, says NYU Law School professor Barkow.
"It's common among Democrats and Republicans alike," Barkow said, noting that President Barack Obama's clemency rates also are at historic lows.
Officials fear the potential political nightmare of releasing from prison someone who goes on to commit a violent crime, she said. She noted the 2000 commutation in Arkansas by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee of an inmate, subsequently granted parole, who gunned down four police officers in Parkland, Wash., in 2009 before he was shot to death. Though the inmate had been in and out of prison and jail in Washington state and was out on bail, the media focused on the commutation by Huckabee, who had been a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
"Every time something like that happens, every politician takes note," said Barkow, adding that, politically, the potential downside can far outweigh the fact that some commutations are warranted in the interests of fairness and justice.
Since taking office, Brewer has granted five commutations, aside from those for inmates at death's door. Four of these reduced sentences by less than 21/2 years. The biggest reduction was for Christopher E. Patten, who was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter as the driver of a vehicle in a 2005 drive-by shooting in Phoenix. The judge noted that Patten was forced at gunpoint to drive the vehicle, turned himself in to police and testified against the shooters at the risk of his life. He served just under two years before the governor granted a commutation in October 2009. Aside from those granted to dying inmates, Brewer hasn't granted any commutations in the last 17 months and has rejected 39 recommended by the board, out of 1,180 applications, according to board records. That does not include the nearly 900 cases in the backlog.
Effects of budget cuts
Budget woes brought on by the recession have reduced the board's ability to handle commutation requests. Two years ago, as part of broader cuts, Arizona's Legislature made four of the five board positions part-time instead of full-time, and slashed the board's budget.
Duane Belcher, who was until recently the board's chairman and executive director, says the cuts forced him to reduce the number of commutation hearings to 25 a month from 100. That led to the two-year backlog and to a plunge in applications to 346 last year, less than half as many as two years ago, Belcher said.
Brewer recently replaced Belcher, who served as chairman for 20 years, and two other board members: 2010 Brewer appointee Marilyn Wilkens and 2007 Napolitano appointee Ellen Stenson. The ousted board members expressed shock at being pushed out all at once. Board members' terms are staggered, and typically one new member is appointed each year.
Belcher and Stenson attributed their departures to the governor's displeasure with their votes to grant clemency in the Macumber case; Wilkens said the governor's aides grilled her over her vote in another case.
The manner in which Brewer replaced the three also has ignited a legal fight. Attorneys for Samuel Lopez, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a brutal 1986 murder, will argue in court Monday that the appointments of three new board members, Bill Livingston, Melvin Thomas and the new chairman, Jesse Hernandez, should be declared null and void. In court filings last week, the attorneys argued that the committee that recommended the appointments violated the state Open Meeting Law and other statutes. They included a statement from Wilkens declaring that her interview by the committee, conducted in executive session, didn't comply with state statutes.
Stenson said Friday that she hadn't spoken with Lopez's attorney but that she, too, wasn't told in advance that she would be interviewed in executive session, and wasn't told she could object to the closed-door venue.
"It doesn't make any sense" to replace three board members at once, said Stenson, adding that it makes it difficult for new members "to learn the procedures before their vote is needed. This makes it hard on the new members and the old members, and it's unfair to the inmates, the families or to anyone."
Lopez's attorneys also are seeking a stay of his execution until the court determines whether the board is legally constituted. A spokesman for the governor said the appointments complied with state law.
If Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer were to nullify the appointments, Brewer's office would have to begin the process from scratch, potentially leaving the two remaining board members to handle cases on their own for days or weeks. Then, because state law specified that only the chairman can declare a quorum of two, Brewer either would have to make one of the existing members the chair, or leave the board unable to hear cases until a new round of appointments was complete.
In any event, Belcher, the former chairman, said last week that it's clear to him that the governor wishes to see fewer clemency cases land on her desk.
Commutations and pardons:
Gov. Rose Mofford (April 4, 1988 to March 6, 1991): 13 pardons, 2 commutations.
Gov. Fife Symington III (March 6, 1991 to Sept. 5, 1997): 13 pardons, 16 commutations.
Gov. Jane Dee Hull (Sept. 5, 1997 to Jan 6, 2003): 7 pardons, 28 commutations.
Gov. Janet Napolitano (Jan. 6, 2003 to Jan. 21, 2009): 22 pardons, 34 commutations (including 9 "imminent danger of death" cases).
Gov. Jan Brewer (since Jan. 21, 2009): 0 pardons, 24 commutations (including 19 "imminent danger of death" cases).
Except for "imminent danger of death" cases, Brewer has not granted a commutation since Dec. 15, 2010.
Three types of clemency hearings
Arizona's Board of Executive Clemency conducts three types of clemency hearings: commutations, pardons and reprieves. If a majority of the board approves a clemency request, its recommendation is sent to the governor, who makes the final decision. In Arizona, the governor can't grant clemency without a board recommendation.
A commutation reduces a sentence. Inmates facing imminent execution automatically are granted a commutation hearing. Other inmates can apply for commutation after they have been in prison two years and have at least one more year to serve. A judge who considers a mandatory sentence too harsh in a particular case can issue a 603(L) order, which allows an inmate to request a commutation hearing within 90 days. Terminally ill inmates also can request a commutation if they can submit medical documentation that they're expected to die in less than six months.
A pardon absolves a convicted felon of the legal consequences of the crime and conviction. Pardons most often are granted to people who already have completed their sentence and who are seeking to have their civil rights, such as the right to bear arms, restored.
A reprieve is a delay or temporary suspension of the carrying out of a sentence.
The board also can act on its own authority to grant absolute discharges or parole for people convicted under sentencing laws in effect before Jan. 1, 1994. An absolute discharge can grant release from imprisonment; but it is more often used, on the recommendation of the Community Corrections division, to end parole early for someone who has shown exceptional performance while under supervision.
Claim is filed over deadly Scottsdale police shooting
by Ofelia Madrid - May. 11, 2012 09:42 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The family of the former Marine shot and killed by a Scottsdale police officer in a January incident has filed a $5 million notice of claim against the city.
Scottsdale police Lt. Ron Bayne shot and killed Jason Prostrollo, 25, "without justification" Jan. 28 after police were called to the home of an acquaintance of Prostrollo's, the claim said.
Bayne shot Prostrollo just as a trained police dog was released to attack Prostrollo. Bayne fired two shots, one hit and injured the dog and another killed Prostrollo, who was holding two halves of a pool cue, according to police records.
The notice of claim was filed April 27 by attorney Joel B. Robbins on behalf of Warren Prostrollo, Jason's father.
A notice of claim is the first step before filing a lawsuit. The claim states that "the shooting was wrongful and should not have occurred."
"This is a tragic case that didn't need to happen," Robbins said. "His (blood-alcohol) was above 0.40. There's no doubt the dog would have been able to do his job."
A Scottsdale spokesman declined comment on the pending litigation. A call to Warren Prostrollo of Paradise Valley was not returned.
According to the 244-page police report released a few weeks after the shooting, Bayne opened fire on Jason Prostrollo in the early morning of Jan. 28 after he appeared in the doorway of a friend's house holding two halves of a pool cue.
Earlier that evening, Prostrollo had returned to the home of two friends to play pool and drink.
At about 3 a.m., the friend called Prostrollo a cab. The cabdriver later called police and said a man had held him at knifepoint and ordered him to return to the friend's home.
The friends called police when they started to feel threatened by Prostrollo, who they said was holding a large hunting knife.
Police saw Prostrollo exiting the home slowly with the pool-cue halves in each hand. When he refused a police order to stop, the dog was released. Bayne shot at the same time, fatally wounding Prostrollo.
The claim states that officers had a non-lethal alternative to firearms in their Tasers, and "the dog should have been given a chance to do its job before lethal force was used."
The day after the shooting, a police spokesman said officers could not use a Taser on Prostrollo because of windy conditions. The report says the officers were armed with Tasers and several officers mentioned windy conditions that night, but the report does not specify that as the reason a Taser was not used.
Jason Prostrollo was a former Marine who completed two tours of duty in Iraq and was honorably discharged in 2010.
He was working at hotel and had recently re-enrolled at Scottsdale Community College, his father said in an interview with The Republic after his son's death.
He had also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the father said.
Sure the guy sounds like a real scum bag. But the state of Arizona should at least obey it's laws and give the guy a fair hearing before they execute him.
Of course I suspect the royal rulers of Arizona think they are above the laws which they expect us serfs to obey.
Death-row prisoner's lawyers to make final push
by Michael Kiefer - May. 13, 2012 08:52 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Lawyers in Phoenix and San Francisco Monday will make a final push to keep death-row prisoner Samuel Lopez from being executed on Wednesday.
Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the murder of a Phoenix woman in 1986. Estefana Holmes was raped and sodomized in her apartment and stabbed more than 20 times before Lopez slit her throat.
But lawyers will argue in Maricopa County Superior Court that Lopez was not allowed a fair hearing for reprieve or commutation of his death sentence because new members on the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency were not qualified and were not legally appointed. His attorney walked out of his hearing in protest on May 7.
And more lawyers will appear before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to claim that the state's corrections department cannot be trusted to follow its own rules in carrying out the execution. In a second hearing, they will argue that Lopez did not have effective legal assistance during his two murder trials or during his early appeals.
The first of the hearings is the most likely to buy time for Lopez. Members of the clemency board have suggested Lopez will get another chance to make his case for a life sentence. But with an execution slated for Wednesday, time is running out.
The 9th Circuit has issued warnings to the Arizona Department of Corrections over its variances in execution protocol, although it has allowed executions to go forward. Attorneys for Lopez will call the judges' attention to further lapses since the last of such hearing.
But courts are hesitant to stop executions, especially after so many years of appeals -- in this case 25 -- have failed to spare a prisoner's life.
Lopez's attorneys will argue that mitigating evidence of his horrific life was not adequately presented in trial or post-conviction hearings.
Lopez grew up in abject poverty in southwest Phoenix. His mother, Concha, was born in Texas, but was thrown out of her parents' house after she became pregnant. She came to Phoenix, where she worked in the fields, and there she met Lopez' father.
Arcadio Lopez, who was born in Tombstone, drove the bus that took the workers to the fields. He took a liking to Concha. He moved into her home against her wishes and stayed long enough to father eight children.
A drunk, he would beat Concha and the children. They were relieved when he finally moved to California, where he drank himself to death.
The new man who moved into Concha's life forced her children out of the house. Samuel Lopez dropped out of school in the ninth grade and lived in fields and a cemetery. He robbed houses to get by, and he sniffed paint and glue to get high, which caused brain damage. And like his father and brothers, he became a drunk; the court record shows that his behavior became even more erratic when he drank.
Lopez was 25 when he murdered Holmes; she was 59. Nothing in the court record explains why he was in her home. But on Oct. 29, 1986, he gagged her and blindfolded her, raped her, then stabbed her repeatedly in the head and chest. The apartment was bloodied and torn apart, indicating "a terrible and prolonged struggle," according to court records.
In 1987, Lopez was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, two counts of sexual assault and burglary. Lopez was sentenced to death.
The death sentence was overturned on appeal, but his re-sentencing trial ended the same way.
On the 4th page of the online article it says:
What is suspect is that some judges will rubber stamp any search warrant, and that the cops know who these judges are and go to them when they have dubious search warrants that a honest judge would reject.
The article is at this
URL.
It was written by Stephen Lemons on May 10 2012
Well unless it's about the jobs program the drug war has created
for over paid police thugs, prosecutors, judges and prison guards,
all who love the "drug war" and the high paying jobs it gives them.
Drug war's latest toll: 49 headless bodies
May. 14, 2012 09:54 AM
AP
MONTERREY, Mexico -- Authorities struggled Monday to identify the 49 people found mutilated and scattered in a pool of blood in a region near the U.S .border where Mexico's two dominant drug cartels are trying to outdo each other in bloodshed while warring over smuggling routes.
The bodies of 43 men and six women with their heads, hands and feet chopped off were dumped at the entrance to the town of San Juan, on a highway that connects the industrial city of Monterrey with Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.
At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies before dawn Sunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors to the town was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters -- an apparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that was founded by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces.
Only one couple looking for their missing daughter visited the morgue in Monterrey where autopsies were being performed Sunday, a state police investigator said. Authorities said at least a few of the latest victims had tattoos of the Santa Muerte cult popular among drug traffickers.
The bodies, some of them in plastic garbage bags, were most likely brought to the spot and dropped from the back of a dump truck, Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said.
Domene said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads, hands and feet, which have not been found. The remains were taken to a Monterrey auditorium for DNA tests.
The victims could have been killed as long as two days ago at another location, then transported to San Juan, a town in the municipality of Cadereyta, about 105 miles (175 kilometers) west-southwest of McAllen, Texas, and 75 miles (125 kilometers) southwest of the Roma, Texas, border crossing, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said. San Juan is known as the cradle of baseball in Mexico.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said none of the six female bodies matched the missing daughter's description. He said some of the bodies were badly decomposed and some had their whole arms or lower legs missing.
De la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants. Authorities said they also may have been brought from other states, because there had been no recent reports of mass disappearances in in Nuevo Leon state.
The killings appeared to be the latest salvo in a gruesome game of tit-for-tat in fighting between the Zetas and the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
Mass body dumpings have increased around Mexico in the last six months of escalating fighting between the Zetas and Sinaloa, which is led by fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and its allies, the federal Attorney General's Office said in statement late Sunday.
The two cartels have committed "irrational acts of inhumane and inadmissible violence in their dispute," the office said, reiterating it is offering $2 million rewards for information leading to the arrests of Guzman, Ismael Zambada, another Sinaloa cartel leader, and Zetas' leaders Heriberto Lazacano Lazcano and Miguel Trevino.
Under President Felipe Calderon's nearly six-year offensive against organized crime, the two cartels have emerged as Mexico's two most powerful gangs and are battling over strategic transport routes and territory, including along the northern border with the U.S. and in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.
Cadereyta has been the scene of escalating drug violence, authorities said Monday. Killings in the municipality stood at 74 through April, compared to 27 over the same period in 2011, and 7 in 2010.
Across Mexico, in less than a month, the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo, 23 people were found hanged or decapitated in the same border city and 18 dismembered bodied were left near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara. Nuevo Laredo, like Monterrey, is considered Zeta territory, while Guadalajara has long been controlled by gangs loyal to Sinaloa.
"This is the most definitive of all the cartel wars," said Raul Benitez Manaut, a security expert at Mexico's National Autonomous University.
The Zetas are a transient gang without real territory or a secure stream of income, unlike Sinaloa with its lucrative cocaine trade and control of smuggling routes and territory, Benitez said. But the Zetas are heavily armed while Sinaloa has a weak enforcement arm, he said.
The government's success in killing or arresting cartel leaders has fractured other once big cartels into weaker, quarreling bands that in many cases are lining up with either the Zetas or Sinaloa. At least one of those two cartels is present in nearly all of Mexico's 32 states.
A year ago this month, more than two dozen people -- most of them Zetas -- were killed when they tried to infiltrate the Sinaloa's territory in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit.
But their war started in earnest last fall in Veracruz, a strategic smuggling state with a giant Gulf port.
A drug gang allied with Sinaloa left 35 bodies on a main boulevard in the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas.
Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and Sinaloa.
Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since Calderon launched a stepped-up offensive when he took office in December 2006.
Mexico is now in the midst of presidential race to replace Calderon, who by law can't run for re-election. Drug violence seems to be escalating, but none of the major candidates has referred directly to mass killings. All say they will stop the violence and make Mexico a more secure place, but offer few details on how their plans would differ from Calderon's.
Benitez said the wave of violence has nothing to do with the presidential election.
"It has the dynamic of a war between cartels," he said.
15 bodies found in vans near Mexican tourist lake
May. 9, 2012 12:52 PM
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- At least 15 bodies have been found hacked up and stuffed into two vans near Lake Chapala, an area frequented by tourists just south of the city of Guadalajara in western Jalisco state, police in Mexico said Wednesday.
State Prosecutor said Tomas Coronado said the count is preliminary, because 15 severed human heads were found, meaning that at least that many people, but possibly more, had been cut up and put in the vans.
"The bodies are dismembered," Coronado said in an interview broadcast by the Notisistema radio station.
The two vehicles were found by the side of a highway early Wednesday; the vehicles were towed to government offices to unload the bodies.
The two vehicles were found just a few miles from Lake Chapala, an area popular with tourists and American retirees.
Mexican drug cartels frequently dismember the bodies of their victims or leave them stuffed into vehicles, but there was no immediate evidence of drug gang involvement at the crime scene Wednesday.
The area has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco New Generation gang and the Zetas drug cartel.
I guess you can't rely on the government to give you a fair trial or even abide by their own rules and give you a fair clemency hearing.
Judge doubts clemency hearing's fairness, can't block execution
by Craig Harris - May. 14, 2012 09:21 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that death-row inmate Samuel Lopez may not have received a fair state clemency-board hearing, but he added that he did not have the power to stop Wednesday's scheduled execution.
Judge Joseph Kreamer partially agreed with Lopez's attorneys' challenge of actions by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, and he set a July 16 hearing on the matter. But the judge added that only the state Supreme Court could halt Lopez's execution.
A July hearing on that case against the clemency board will be moot if Lopez's execution occurs as scheduled. The state Attorney General's Office said it would ask to have the hearing vacated, because there would no longer be a plaintiff with legal standing if Lopez is executed Wednesday.
Lopez also had hearings Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, where it was argued that the state's Corrections Department cannot be trusted to follow its own rules in carrying out the execution. In a second hearing, it was argued that Lopez did not receive effective legal assistance during his two murder trials or during his early appeals. Both also sought to delay Wednesday's execution.
The federal court had not issued a decision late Monday.
Lopez, 49, was sentenced to death for the murder of a Phoenix woman in 1986. Estefana Holmes was raped and sodomized in her apartment and stabbed more than 20 times before Lopez slit her throat.
Julie Hall, an attorney for Lopez, argued in state court Monday that her client did not get a fair hearing before the clemency board because its members were not qualified and their appointments did not follow state law. His hearing ended in protest May 7.
Kreamer agreed that Lopez's attorneys had "established a strong likelihood of success" on the claim the state failed to comply with the minimal requirements of the law and that his due-process rights were violated because he was "not afforded a hearing in a substantial sense."
Kreamer set a hearing for July to determine if the clemency board was illegally constituted.
At issue is whether three new appointed members -- Brian Livingston, Mel Thomas and new chairman Jesse Hernandez -- had received the four weeks of training required by state law before they considered Lopez's case.
Another issue, according to the judge, is whether Hernandez had demonstrated an interest in the state's correctional programs, as required by law, and was qualified to be on the board.
Gov. Jan Brewer's office has denied any violations in the appointment process and said state law does not specify that the four weeks of training must be completed before board members consider cases.
aaa7_police.html#texasexecutesinnocentman
Don't hold your breath waiting for that, they probably won't even get the usual slap on the wrist government bureaucrats get.
Wrong man was executed in Texas, probe says
AFP
By Chantal Valery | AFP
He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found.
Even "all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them," and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman.
Liebman and five of his students at Columbia School of Law spent almost five years poring over details of a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure.
DeLuna, 27, was put to death after "a very incomplete investigation. No question that the investigation is a failure," Liebman said.
The report's authors found "numerous missteps, missed clues and missed opportunities that let authorities prosecute Carlos DeLuna for the crime of murder, despite evidence not only that he did not commit the crime but that another individual, Carlos Hernandez, did," the 780-page investigation found.
The report, entitled "Los Tocayos Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution," traces the facts surrounding the February 1983 murder of Wanda Lopez, a single mother who was stabbed in the gas station where she worked in a quiet corner of the Texas coastal city of Corpus Christi.
"Everything went wrong in this case," Liebman said.
That night Lopez called police for help twice to protect her from an individual with a switchblade.
"They could have saved her, they said 'we made this arrest immediately' to overcome the embarrassment," Liebman said.
Forty minutes after the crime Carlos DeLuna was arrested not far from the gas station.
He was identified by only one eyewitness who saw a Hispanic male running from the gas station. But DeLuna had just shaved and was wearing a white dress shirt -- unlike the killer, who an eyewitness said had a mustache and was wearing a grey flannel shirt.
Even though witnesses accounts were contradictory -- the killer was seen fleeing towards the north, while DeLuna was caught in the east -- DeLuna was arrested.
"I didn't do it, but I know who did," DeLuna said at the time, saying that he saw Carlos Hernandez entering the service station.
DeLuna said he ran from police because he was on parole and had been drinking.
Hernandez, known for using a blade in his attacks, was later jailed for murdering a woman with the same knife. But in the trial, the lead prosecutor told the jury that Hernandez was nothing but a "phantom" of DeLuna's imagination.
DeLuna's budget attorney even said that it was probable that Carlos Hernandez never existed.
However in 1986 a local newspaper published a photograph of Hernandez in an article on the DeLuna case, Liebman said.
Following hasty trial DeLuna was executed by lethal injection in 1989.
Up to the day he died in prison of cirrhosis of the liver, Hernandez repeatedly admitted to murdering Wanda Lopez, Liebman said.
"Unfortunately, the flaws in the system that wrongfully convicted and executed DeLuna -- faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation and prosecutorial misconduct -- continue to send innocent men to their death today," read a statement that accompanies the report.
Retired supervisors describe violence by jail deputies
By Jack Leonard and Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2012, 9:55 p.m.
Two retired Los Angeles County sheriff's supervisors painted a violent picture of life inside Men's Central Jail on Monday, recounting tales of deputies beating prisoners, ignoring bosses, forming cliques and engaging in off-duty misconduct.
The former sergeant and lieutenant, who both retired in 2007, told a county jail commission that they felt their efforts to discipline wayward deputies were undermined by a top manager they accused of ordering supervisors to "coddle" young deputies in the jail.
Daniel Pollaro, the former sergeant, complained that deputies used inappropriate force against inmates as a form of discipline. He cited one example in which he learned that a deputy beat an inmate being moved to a cell on the floor where Pollaro worked. The deputy, he said, left the bloodied inmate without reporting the incident or seeking medical attention for him. The inmate's injuries were discovered during a later shift and the deputy was suspended, Pollaro said.
Some deputies, he said, routinely arrived late for work and ignored orders from direct supervisors, preferring instead to listen to rank-and-file deputies who had worked the jails for several years and earned the informal title of "OG," short for "Original Gangster."
Alfred Gonzales, a retired lieutenant, echoed Pollaro's testimony about insubordination and excessive force, telling commissioners that one hard-core gang member broke down during an interview about how a deputy had broken his jaw while he was handcuffed. "I didn't deserve this," Gonzales said the gang member told him.
He said he grew alarmed by the off-duty behavior of some deputies, including several arrested for assault and drunk driving, and by how large numbers of deputies assigned to the same floor made it a habit to arrive and leave work together and would not mix with colleagues from other floors.
Gonzales recalled being so concerned that he compared the cliques to gangs in one conversation he had with a young deputy.
"I said, 'You guys, this is reminiscent of a gang…. This is how gang members act,' " he told the commission.
The commission, which is investigating allegations of jail violence, was created by the Board of Supervisors soon after news broke last year that the FBI was investigating allegations of inmate abuse and other jail misconduct.
Gonzales began his testimony by explaining that he had agreed to speak "not to malign or bring discredit upon the Sheriff's Department" but to show what was occurring at the nation's largest local detention facility from 2003 to 2007, when he was assigned to the jail. He said the vast majority of deputies perform well.
He and Pollaro said they believed Undersheriff Paul Tanaka undermined jail managers' efforts to prevent the deputy cliques and deal with insubordination.
They cited a 2006 proposal to regularly move deputies around the jail as an effort to break up the cliques. Tanaka, who was then an assistant sheriff, blocked the move after complaints from deputies. The commission made public an email forwarded by several deputies in which they complained that the change "would anger and force many to leave."
Gonzales and Pollaro said Tanaka later met with all of the jail's supervisors and told them they were too strict with deputies and had to "coddle" them.
"How are we going to supervise deputy personnel that know that they can email the assistant sheriff and at their whim he's going to come over to the jail and tell them, 'Don't listen, you do what you want,' " Pollaro said.
Gonzales told the commission: "The chain of command was totally broken…. These were good men. They just needed strong leadership."
The captain who proposed the job rotation, however, has said under oath that the change was not meant to address deputy cliques or groups, which he didn't believe existed. Tanaka has said that he opposed the change because it would have disrupted hundreds of deputies for the sake of a few problematic ones, a move that would have faced serious opposition from the deputies' union.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said deputies contacting Tanaka by email would not violate department rules. Sheriff Lee Baca, he said, has an open door policy that allows any employee to contact the sheriff or his top executives directly without reprisal.
Whitmore said Baca and Tanaka plan to wait until the commission releases its final report, which is scheduled for later this year, before commenting on any specific testimony.
Among others who testified Monday was retired Cmdr. Bob Olmsted, who said he twice tried to tell Baca about excessive force and deputy cliques in the jail but was ignored.
Amid the jails' misconduct scandal, Baca last year set up a task force to look at ways to reform his jails. But Olmsted noted that the sheriff has not taken public action against some of his top executives who oversaw the jails' problems.
"When will you start rolling some heads from the top?" he asked.
jack.leonard@latimes.com
robert.faturechi@latimes.com
I wonder if a civilian or non-police officer could use that lame excuse to beat a rape charge????
Ex-detective accused of rape to blame attack on antidepressant
By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2012, 9:29 p.m.
Attorneys for a former Westminster police detective will try to persuade a jury that he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft and not responsible for the kidnap and rape of a woman in 2010.
Det. Anthony Nicholas Orban was so overwhelmed by the prescription drug that he was mentally "unconscious" and "totally unaware of his actions," attorney James Blatt said outside a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom where his client's trial began Monday.
"But for the use of Zoloft, Mr. Orban would not have committed these acts," Blatt said. "Here you have a police officer and former Marine who for the last 10 years has been dedicated to protecting his country and protecting his community … this was totally out of character."
Orban's push for acquittal will have to overcome juror skepticism that has accompanied such defenses, as well as gripping testimony by the victim during her four hours on the stand Monday.
The detective is accused of abducting the then-25-year-old waitress, identified only as "Jane Doe," on a Saturday evening as she walked to her car after leaving work at Ontario Mills mall. San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Ploghaus told the jury that Orban, with his police service weapon drawn, forced the victim to drive her car up Interstate 15 to a self-storage lot in Fontana.
"I said, "Can I go now?," the victim said, recounting what happened when she parked. "He said there is something you need to do first. I think you know what it is."
For the next hour, she said, Orban sexually brutalized her in her SUV. At one point, the victim said, Orban snapped pictures with his iPhone, telling her to "smile for the camera," then sending the photos to a friend. He put a round in the chamber of his gun, then dragged the barrel down her cheek before sticking it in her mouth, punching her in the face and pulling her hair, she said. All the while, cars and pedestrians passed within feet of them, a security video from the storage lot showed.
When Orban took a call, she bolted from the car to a nearby liquor store, where the owner called police.
"I've had two years to think about this every day," she said at the end of the day's testimony.
Ontario police investigators found Orban's police service weapon, with his name on it, inside the victim's car.
Monday's trial began when Orban's attorney told the court he intended to present a "not guilty by reason of unconsciousness" defense, a change in strategy that appeared to take the prosecution and judge by surprise. Blatt had been expected to present a "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense, which would require a separate hearing to determine Orban's mental capacity if the jury found him guilty.
The difference is significant. If declared insane, Orban would be placed in a state hospital. If found not guilty by reason of unconsciousness, he would walk out a free man.
San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Shahla S. Sabet barred Orban's attorney from introducing the unconsciousness defense until a special hearing can be held, possibly later this week. If that strategy is unsuccessful, Orban can still use the insanity defense.
Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Leonard Levine said attempts to prove temporary insanity, or temporary mental defect, are rarely successful.
"What you're really asking the jury to do is let you go free," said Levine, who has no ties to the case. "That's why, most of the time, juries are skeptical."
In 2004, a Santa Cruz man who beat a friend over the sale of a bike was acquitted of an attempted murder charge after his attorney argued that he had had an adverse reaction to Zoloft. A year later, a jury rejected a similar Zoloft defense in the case of a 15-year-old South Carolina boy who shot his grandparents.
Chris Loder, a spokesman for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, said in a statement that the antidepressant has been studied for two decades and that there was an "extensive body of science on its safety and its use."
A glimpse of the defense strategy became apparent during Monday's testimony when the victim told the jury that, toward the end of the attack, Orban started anxiously scanning the area outside the car.
"Then he looked at me and said: "Who are you? How did I get here? Whose car is this?" the woman testified. "He told me to put my clothes back on."
But a few minutes later, he sexually assaulted her again, she said.
That defense will be tested by one of the prosecution's witnesses, Jeff Thomas Jelinek, who was a corrections officer at the California Institution for Men in Chino and a close friend of Orban. Jelinek was standing next to Orban when he abducted the woman at gunpoint, and shortly before had been drinking with Orban at the mall, according to investigators and the prosecution.
Jelinek picked Orban up at the scene of the sexual assault and drove him back to Ontario Mills. Jelinek in 2011 pleaded guilty to being an accessory and agreed to testify against his friend.
phil.willon@latimes.com
After 20 years in prison, man cleared in '86 Waukegan rape
By Dan Hinkel Tribune reporter
10:09 a.m. CDT, May 15, 2012
Lake County prosecutors have dropped rape charges against Bennie Starks, who spent 20 years in prison before DNA pointed away from him.
Assistant State's Attorney Jim Newman appeared at a brief hearing and dropped the sexual assault charges.
"He is a free man and he is not guilty," said Starks' lawyer, Jed Stone.
Starks, dressed in a burgundy sport coat and black and white checked shirt, accepted a hug around the shoulder from another of his lawyers, Vanessa Potkin from the New York-based Innocence Project.
"This has been a great day," Starks said.
As to his plans, he said, "Spend time with my grandkids and just...living."
Starks, 52, of Chicago was convicted in 1986 of raping a 69-year-old woman in Waukegan. He was in the middle of a 60-year sentence when the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006 and he was released on bond. As with three other recent Lake County cases, prosecutors insisted on his guilt even after DNA pointed toward someone else as the attacker.
The possibility of a retrial had been thrown into doubt by court rulings barring prosecutors from using the testimony of the victim, who identified Starks as the rapist.
She died several years ago, and a Lake County judge ruled in January 2011 that prosecutors could not use her past testimony at the retrial.
The state appeals court affirmed that decision in February, writing that Starks' lawyers would not have a fair shot at cross-examining her and holding that the original cross-examination was inadequate.
Since February’s ruling, Starks has waited to learn whether prosecutors planned to retry him.
After the conflicting DNA evidence became public in the early 2000s, prosecutors responded much as they did to other cases involving forensic evidence suggesting a suspect's innocence.
Prosecutors argued that the DNA did not clear Starks because the woman could have had consensual sex with someone else, although she said at trial she had not had sex in the weeks before the attack.
The woman identified him as the man who pulled her into a ravine and beat, bit and raped her. A dentist said bite marks on the victim matched Starks, and his jacket was found at the scene.
Starks said the jacket and money were stolen from him after he passed the evening in a local tavern, and the defense attorneys have called the scientific rigor of the bite-mark evidence into question.
In the early 2000s, testing turned up a genetic profile from another man on the victim’s underwear. Later, testing on a vaginal swab found DNA that didn’t come from Starks, and the appeals court ordered a new trial in 2006.
Starks was also convicted of battery in the 1986 attack, and his attorneys hope to have that conviction vacated.
dhinkel@tribune.com
In this case Michael Tillman spent 23 years in prison after admitting under torture to committing a rape he didn't do.
County pays $600,000 to get out of Burge torture case
By Hal Dardick, Chicago Tribune reporter
9:56 p.m. CDT, May 14, 2012
Cook County commissioners agreed Monday to pay $600,000 to settle the county's portion of a lawsuit brought by a freed prison inmate whose allegations of police torture have shined a spotlight on former Mayor Richard Daley.
By voting to settle, commissioners removed county government as a defendant in the case brought by Michael Tillman, who alleges that detectives working for then-Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge tortured a confession out of him in a 1986 rape and murder case.
The allegations against the city, Burge, other officers and Daley remain in court. Daley, who has denied all allegations against him, is accused in the civil suit of conspiring to cover up torture both as state's attorney when Tillman was first convicted and later as mayor.
"I want to commend President (Toni) Preckwinkle and the County Board for fairly and reasonably reaching this rather small but important part of the case," said Flint Taylor, an attorney for Tillman.
In November, Tillman won a rare federal court ruling that kept Daley as a defendant. As a result, a July 13 date has been set for a deposition.
After more than 23 years behind bars, Tillman was freed in January 2010 when a special prosecutor said his conviction depended on "coerced statements."
According to Tillman's lawsuit, former Assistant State's Attorney Timothy Frenzer was in a South Side police station during most of Tillman's interrogation and knew Tillman was "being subjected to torture and abuse," the lawsuit alleged.
The settlement removed Frenzer as a defendant. The county admitted no liability.
Burge is in federal prison after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying in a civil lawsuit that he ever knew about or used torture to obtain confessions.
The city is paying for Daley's defense. It has shelled out more than $30 million in legal fees and settlement payments in cases alleging torture under Burge in the 1970s and '80s.
In other County Board action, Preckwinkle proposed an ordinance to extend county ethics rules on lobbying, conflicts of interest, nepotism and political contributions to appointed members of boards and commissions.
The proposal, which was referred to committee, comes after county Inspector General Patrick Blanchard reported that three appointed trustees for the Northfield Woods Sanitary District paid themselves nearly $264,000 in a period of less than four years.
"As a result of some questionable conduct on the part of folks in some of these commissions, we thought it was appropriate to apply our ethics requirements to everybody," Preckwinkle said.
hdardick@tribune.com Twitter @ReporterHal
About 10 years ago Mark Mitchell's brother Sgt. Robert Mitchell
falsely arrested me for about 2 hours because I took the 5th and
refused to answer his questions and questions from his partner
James Jandreau.
I later filed a lawsuit in Federal Court suing the city of Tempe,
Sgt. Robert Mitchel and James Jandreau for false arrest and
civil rights violations.
Report: Mark Mitchell declines police queries on decades-old claim
by Dianna M. Náñez - May. 15, 2012 09:41 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
In an interview with Phoenix police last week, Mark Mitchell declined to answer questions about decades-old sexual-abuse allegations but did give a statement denying them, according to a police report released Tuesday.
The report was released the same day voters went to the polls to elect Mitchell or opponent Michael Monti as Tempe's new mayor.
Mitchell, a three-term councilman and vice president of a Tempe flooring company, has spent the past week combating the allegations, which he has called false and a "vile" political ploy to destroy his reputation and cost him the election.
"I've been clear, I've done nothing wrong. Not now and not 30 years ago when I was a boy," he said in a statement and video to voters posted last weekend on his campaign website. "But I'm sending this because you deserve to know the truth from me personally. Just as Tempe deserves a race for mayor based not on personal attacks, but on the issues."
Monti, a longtime downtown Tempe restaurateur, also issued a statement last Thursday lashing out at Mitchell for tying him and his campaign to the allegations.
"I did not wish to comment on this, but I am forced to because Mr. Mitchell is actually trying to blame our issues-based campaign for this chain of events," he said. "Neither I nor anyone associated with my campaign had anything to do with the criminal investigation of Mr. Mitchell."
Earlier this month, police referred their investigation into the allegations to prosecutors with recommended felony charges, but said they made no arrest due to the length of time that has passed since the alleged offense, and the ages of those involved at the time.
Police tried for weeks to schedule an interview with Mitchell. Mitchell's attorneys ultimately scheduled the interview for last Monday after police informed them on April 30 that the case could be referred to prosecutors without his statement. Despite securing a date for the interview, police referred their findings absent Mitchell's statement to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who has endorsed Monti, recused himself from the investigation and turned it over to Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.
Yavapai officials said they expect to finish reviewing the investigation by June. Phoenix police have referred Mitchell's interview to Yavapai.
The allegations surfaced in February, one month before Tempe's March primary, from a 39-year-old Tempe woman whose name was redacted from the public record.
She told police the abuse occurred four times in 1983 when she was 10 and Mitchell was about 16. Mitchell, 42, would have been no older than 14 in 1983.
Investigators secretly recorded an April 5 conversation between the alleged victim and Mitchell. According to police reports, Mitchell apologized to her and said that they were young and experimenting and that he never meant to hurt her.
Santae Tribble’s 1980 murder conviction overturned by D.C. judge
By Spencer S. Hsu, Wednesday, May 16, 9:07 AM
A D.C. Superior Court judge has overturned the conviction of a District man who wrongly served 28 years in prison for the killing of a taxi driver.
Santae A. Tribble, now 51, had maintained his innocence since the crime in 1978. In a telephone interview Tuesday morning, Tribble said, “I’m overjoyed. I always felt like it would happen, but it took so long I started to wonder.”
Although the judge’s ruling threw out Tribble’s 1980 conviction and said he never could be tried on the charge again, it does not exonerate him. Tribble’s D.C. Public Defender Service lawyer requested time to file papers and, if necessary, have a separate hearing next month to determine innocence.
DNA evidence and information from police files that was never disclosed at trial clear Tribble, his attorneys said.
“Mr. Tribble’s struggle for justice is not yet over. He will now seek a certificate of innocence from the court,” said Sandra K. Levick, chief of special litigation for the D.C. Public Defender Service.
In a one-page court order signed Friday, filed Monday and received by Tribble’s attorneys late Tuesday, Judge Laura Cordero did not opine on Tribble’s case in vacating his conviction and dismissing the underlying charges.
U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. on April 27 cited DNA evidence in agreeing to drop the murder charge against Tribble and never try him again.
Tribble was found guilty of murdering a District taxi driver in an early morning robbery on July 26, 1978. The Washington Post featured Tribble’s case in a series of articles in April that reported that Justice Department officials have known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people.
In addition, the Justice Department reviewed only a limited number of cases and focused on the work of one scientist at the FBI lab, despite warnings that problems were far more widespread and could affect potentially thousands of cases in federal, state and local courts.
As a result, hundreds of defendants nationwide remain in prison or on parole for crimes that might merit exoneration, a retrial or a retesting of evidence using DNA because FBI hair and fiber experts may have misidentified them as suspects.
In Tribble’s case, prosecutors and the FBI laboratory were incorrect in linking a hair found near the murder scene to Tribble, according to recent DNA test results and The Post’s inquiry.
Machen’s office declined to comment, referring to the April 27 filing. In that filing, prosecutors said the DNA results raise substantial doubt about the defendant’s guilt. However, they stopped short of joining his bid for innocence.
Tribble has asked the court for full exoneration under the D.C. Innocence Protection Act.
Retired LAPD homicide detective charged with killing his wife
A retired Los Angeles Police Department detective who worked on several high-profile homicide cases was in a Hawaiian jail Wednesday after he was formally charged with murder for allegedly killing his wife in 2006.
Dan DeJarnette, 59, appeared Tuesday in a Hawaii courtroom after a grand jury indicted him in the slaying of his wife, Yu DeJarnette. He was arrested Monday at his home on the Big Island.
He said at the time of his wife's November 2006 death that he had awakened and found her lying on a lava embankment about 20 feet from the couple’s home in Ka'u on the southern end of island.
She suffered severe head trauma and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. DeJarnette told patrol officers his 56-year-old wife had been hurt in an accident. But an autopsy determined she died from head trauma, and the retired officer was booked on suspicion of murder — and then released because of lack of evidence.
But authorities took a new look at the case in January. After additional investigation that included testing of DNA evidence, prosecutors secured an indictment against DeJarnette from a Hawaii grand jury, according to sources familiar with the case. They declined to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
The indictment comes just days after former LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole for killing her ex-boyfriend's wife nearly three decades ago in a fit of rage and jealousy.
LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman had no immediate comment on the DeJarnette case because he said DeJarnette is retired and the LAPD is not handling the criminal investigation.
After joining the LAPD in 1982, DeJarnette worked as a homicide detective at the Van Nuys Division and investigated rape cases while assigned to the department’s Robbery Homicide Division-Rape Special Section.
During his tenure, he handled several high-profile investigations, including a fatal Christmas night shooting at an Echo Park pizza parlor in 1990, the 1993 stabbing death of a woman and her unborn baby at an automated teller machine in Sherman Oaks, and a 1981 cold-case murder of a newlywed in her Sherman Oaks home by a serial rapist.
DeJarnette moved to the Big Island after his retirement in 2003 from the LAPD. He was being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
NY judge gives class-action status to lawsuit challenging NYPD stop-and-frisk practices
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, May 16, 10:26 AM
NEW YORK — Finding the city’s attitude “deeply troubling,” a judge granted class action status Wednesday to a 2008 lawsuit accusing the New York Police Department of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with its stop-and-frisk policies aimed at reducing crime.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan said in a written ruling that there was “overwhelming evidence” that a centralized stop-and-frisk program has led to thousands of unlawful stops. She noted that the vast majority of New Yorkers who are unlawfully stopped will never file a lawsuit in response, and she said class-action status was created for just these kinds of court cases.
The lawsuit alleged that the police department purposefully engaged in a widespread practice of concentrating its stop-and-frisk activity on black and Hispanic neighborhoods based on their racial composition rather than legitimate non-racial factors. The lawsuit said officers are pressured to meet quotas as part of the program and they are punished if they do not.
Scheindlin said she found it “disturbing” that the city responded to the lawsuit by saying a court order to stop the practice would amount to “judicial intrusion,” and that no injunction could guarantee that suspicionless stops would never occur or would only occur in a certain percentage of encounters.
“First, suspicionless stops should never occur,” Scheindlin wrote. She said the police department’s “cavalier attitude towards the prospect of a ‘widespread practice of suspicionless stops’ displays a deeply troubling apathy towards New Yorkers’ most fundamental constitutional rights.”
She called it “rather audacious” of the police department to argue that legislators already would have passed necessary laws if it were possible to protect people from unlawful searches and seizures.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he couldn’t comment directly on the ruling because he hadn’t seen it, but he did defend the stop and frisk program, saying it had helped the city prevent thousands of deaths — largely of black and Hispanic New Yorkers, who are far more likely to be murder victims than their white counterparts.
“Nobody should ask Ray Kelly to apologize — he’s not going to and neither am I — for saving 5,600 lives. And I think it’s fair to say that stop, question and frisk has been an essential part of the NYPD’s work; it’s taken more than 6,000 guns off the streets in the last eight years, and this year we are on pace to have the lowest number of murders in recorded history. ... We’re not going to do anything that undermines that trend and threatens public safety.”
The city law office said in a statement: “We respectfully disagree with the decision and are reviewing our legal options.”
Darius Charney, who argued the case on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal organization, said: “We’re very pleased. We think she clearly got everything right on the law.”
He said the ruling “reinforces that this is a citywide problem the NYPD needs to address.”
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a release that the ruling “is a wake-up call - and it is time for the city to face the damage done by this divisive policy.”
In 2002, there were 97,296 stops. Last year, there were 685,724 stops, while there were 601,055 in 2010 and 575,304 in 2009.
The Police Department has said it made 203,500 street stops during the first three months of 2012, up from 183,326 in the first three months of 2011.
The RAND Corp. research organization, in a study commissioned by the NYPD and released in 2007, concluded the raw data “distorts the magnitude and, at times, the existence of racially biased policing.”
The study acknowledged that “black pedestrians were stopped at a rate that is 50 percent greater than their representation in the residential census.” But it said using the census as a benchmark was unreliable because it failed to factor in variables such as a higher arrest rate and more crime-suspect descriptions involving minorities.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Hays and Samantha Gross contributed to this story.
7 deputies from L.A. County sheriff's gang unit placed on leave
By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times
May 17, 2012
The move is a sign of the intensifying nature of the investigation of the "Jump Out Boys." Suspicion about the group's existence was sparked several weeks ago when a supervisor found a pamphlet describing the group's creed, which promoted aggressive policing and portrayed officer shootings in a positive light.
Days after The Times reported on the discovery of the pamphlet, the captain of the division gathered his deputies for a private briefing, during which he told them that they had shamed the department by forming the group and urged those responsible to identify themselves, a source with knowledge of the unit's inner workings said.
At some point, one deputy came forward, and named six others, said sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
All seven of those deputies were placed on leave with pay sometime this week. Internal affairs investigators are trying to determine whether the deputies violated Sheriff's Department rules or committed serious misconduct.
The deputies under scrutiny have all worked on the Gang Enforcement Team, a unit divided into two platoons of relatively autonomous deputies who target neighborhoods where gang violence is high, locate armed gang members and take their guns away.
Investigators are looking at whether the deputies sported matching tattoos. The suspected design of the tattoo was obtained by The Times and confirmed by two sources: It includes an oversize skull with a wide, toothy grimace and glowing red eyes. A bandanna is wrapped around the skull, imprinted with the letters "OSS" — representing Operation Safe Streets, the name of the larger unit that the Gang Enforcement Team is part of. A bony hand clasps a revolver. Investigators suspect that smoke might be tattooed over the gun's barrel after a member is involved in a shooting.
One source compared the notion of modifying the tattoo after a shooting to a celebratory "high five."
Despite the disturbing allegations, sources say there is currently no evidence that the men were involved in improper shootings or other misconduct. Still, the revelations have heightened concerns. What investigators are most concerned about isn't the alleged tattoos, but the suspected admiration they show for officer-involved shootings, which are expected to be events of last resort.
The department has long grappled with unsanctioned cliques inside its ranks. Last year, the department fired half a dozen deputies who worked on the third, or "3000," floor of Men's Central Jail after the group fought two fellow deputies at an employee Christmas party and allegedly punched a female deputy in the face.
Sheriff's officials later said the men had formed an aggressive "3000" clique that used gang-like three-finger hand signs. A former top jail commander told The Times that jailers would "earn their ink" by assaulting inmates. This week, two former jail supervisors told a county commission created to examine jail abuse about troubling deputy behavior.
One said jailers ignored orders from direct supervisors, preferring instead to listen to rank-and-file deputies who had worked at the jails for several years and earned the informal title of "OG," short for "Original Gangster."
Another testified about becoming alarmed by how large numbers of deputies assigned to the same floor made it a habit to arrive and leave work together and not mix with colleagues from other floors. "This is reminiscent of a gang…. This is how gang members act," said retired Lt. Alfred Gonzales.
The Jump Out Boys, sources said, was a name coined by Compton-area gang members alluding to how quickly deputies from the unit would jump out of patrol vehicles to stop them.
One source with knowledge of the inner workings of Operation Safe Streets said the deputies placed on leave this week consist of current and former Gang Enforcement Team members.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore confirmed that seven deputies were placed on leave, but declined to discuss the details of the probe. "We took the appropriate action and we will continue to take the appropriate action," he said. "It's still early in the investigation."
Whitmore said placing so many deputies on leave over one incident hasn't happened since the 2010 Christmas party fight involving the "3000" deputies. He said the action is one of the largest mass leaves ever ordered by the department.
robert.faturechi@latimes.com
'Forensic findings' lead to new suspect in 1994 killing
Case is one of 3 upended this week in Lake County
By Dan Hinkel and Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune reporters
10:55 p.m. CDT, May 16, 2012
Two months after Fred Reckling was beaten to death at his Waukegan appliance store in 1994, Hezekiah Whitfield was arrested in connection with armed robberies on the North Shore.
At the time, police did not suspect he might be connected to a more serious crime.
While Whitfield served prison time for the robberies, another inmate, James Edwards, struggled to prove he didn't kill Reckling, 71. As Edwards served a life sentence, he sometimes worked as his own lawyer, asking the courts to test blood evidence from the scene. One of his motions succeeded in 2010, and the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the tests.
On Tuesday, prosecutors announced that "forensic findings" guided an investigation that led to Whitfield, and he was arrested, charged in the Reckling slaying and ordered held on $3 million bail.
The lawyer who now represents Edwards, Paul DeLuca, said he'd never had a client whose prior legal work from prison appeared to help sink the case against him. Lake County prosecutors fought Edwards' efforts to compel testing, arguing the blood was meaningless.
"He just was insistent," DeLuca said. "He said, 'They'll never find anything on me in that murder case because I never did it.'"
The case against Edwards was one of three upended Tuesday when prosecutors simultaneously announced the new charges in the Reckling killing and a separate double slaying and dropped charges in a rape case. In all three cases, prosecutors spent years insisting the suspects were guilty despite forensic evidence suggesting their innocence.
Along with Whitfield, prosecutors charged former Marine Jorge Torrez, 23, with killing Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in a Zion park in 2005. Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs, sat in jail for five years awaiting trial for that crime before he was cleared.
Prosecutors also dropped charges against Bennie Starks, 52, who spent 20 years in prison for the 1986 rape of a woman in Waukegan. Starks had been freed on bond in 2006 after appeals judges ordered a new trial, citing DNA evidence pointing away from him.
In Edwards' case, prosecutors had always known blood at the crime scene didn't come from him or Reckling, but they argued the blood could have dripped from a store employee with a minor wound. Edwards had confessed to the killing but later said he was coerced.
The man prosecutors now blame for the crime carries a long arrest record.
Whitfield was in prison for armed robbery until he was paroled in July 2009.
His landlord, James J. Shepherd, said he was "shocked and hurting" to learn of Whitfield's arrest. Shepherd described Whitfield as a devoted Muslim who asked him to remove a picture containing an alcohol bottle in the apartment in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood.
"He was real honorable, real humble," Shepherd said.
In the wake of Whitfield's arrest, Assistant State's Attorney Steve Scheller said "common sense" dictated charges would be dropped against Edwards. Edwards will not be released because he still faces a 15-year sentence for a separate robbery and a life sentence for a 1974 Ohio murder.
DeLuca said he hopes a judge will apply the time Edwards spent in prison for the Reckling slaying to his robbery conviction. And Edwards' lawyers will likely use the new revelations in the Reckling case to attack his confession in the Ohio case, DeLuca said.
Hobbs had also confessed to murder. He learned in a phone call from his mother late Tuesday that Torrez had been charged.
"I'm just glad they're all going in the right direction with it now," Hobbs said.
Defense lawyers knew by 2007 that semen in Hobbs' daughter didn't match him. But prosecutors argued that didn't clear him because couples sometimes had sex in the woods, and the girl could have touched some semen and then wiped herself.
Hobbs was released in August 2010 only after the DNA was linked to Torrez, according to court records. Along with the new Lake County charges, Torrez, formerly of Zion, is serving five life sentences for a string of brutal attacks on women in Virginia in 2010. He's also charged with killing a Navy petty officer in her barracks in 2009.
Hobbs is suing Lake County authorities. His attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said the charging of Torrez strengthens his civil case.
"There's no way now to argue that Hobbs did it," she said.
Tribune reporter Jim Jaworski and freelance reporter Ruth Fuller contributed.
dhinkel@tribune.com
lblack@tribune.com
From this article it sounds like the American military, in Honduras along with in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the world is now part of the American governments "war on drugs".
And of course anybody who is paying attention knows that the "war on drugs" is really a war on the Bill of Rights and a war on the American people. Sadly that "war on drugs" has also is a war on the citizens of the world.
D.E.A.’s Agents Join Counternarcotics Efforts in Honduras
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and THOM SHANKER
Published: May 16, 2012
WASHINGTON — A commando-style squad of Drug Enforcement Administration agents accompanied the Honduran counternarcotics police during two firefights with cocaine smugglers in the jungles of the Central American country this month, according to officials in both countries who were briefed on the matter. One of the fights, which occurred last week, left as many as four people dead and has set off a backlash against the American presence there.
It remains unclear whether the D.E.A. agents took part in the shooting during either episode, the first in the early hours of May 6 and the second early last Friday. In an initial account of the second episode, the Honduran government told local reporters that two drug traffickers had been killed and a large shipment of cocaine seized; he did not mention any American involvement. Several American officials said the D.E.A. agents did not return fire during the encounter.
But this week, a local mayor and a Honduran lawmaker said that four innocent bystanders had been killed and called for an investigation into what the Honduran news media are now portraying as a botched D.E.A. operation.
Lucio Baquedano, the mayor of Ahuas, a small town near the incident, told El Tiempo, a Honduran newspaper, that a helicopter-borne unit consisting of both Honduran police officers and D.E.A. agents was pursuing a boatload of drug smugglers when it mistakenly opened fire on another boat carrying villagers. Four people died — including two pregnant women — and four others were wounded, he said.
Honduras is a growing focus of American counternarcotics efforts aimed at the drug cartels that have increasingly sought to use its ungoverned spaces as a way point in shipping cocaine from South America to the United States.
But the murky circumstances surrounding the firefights underscore the potential successes and risks in the United States’ escalating efforts to help small Central American governments battle well-armed and financed transnational narcotics smugglers by adapting counterinsurgency techniques honed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The challenge has been to help bolster local security forces without raising a nationalist backlash fueled by memories of interventions by the United States during the cold war.
The American efforts include the use of D.E.A. commando squads — called FAST, or Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team — to train and work along side specially vetted local forces in the Western Hemisphere. This year, the military built three “forward operating bases” in isolated areas of Honduras to prestage helicopter-borne units so they could more quickly respond.
Dawn Dearden, a D.E.A. spokeswoman, confirmed that American agents had been present alongside Honduran counterparts at both episodes. She said the D.E.A. worked “hand in hand with our Honduran counterparts” but were “involved in a supportive role only” during the two operations.
She declined to comment further, citing the delicacy of the matter. But other officials said that government forces in the two operations seized more than a ton of cocaine that had just been flown in on small planes from Venezuela and was probably bound for the United States. They also said door gunners for the helicopters were Honduran.
The episode last Friday began when an American intelligence task force detected a plane from Venezuela headed for a remote airstrip in Honduras. The military sent a Navy P-3 surveillance plane — developed for anti-submarine warfare in the cold war — high over the site, where it detected about 30 people unloading cargo from the plane into a vehicle, according to officials briefed on the matter.
The smugglers, they said, then drove to a nearby river and loaded the materials into a canoe. It is a standard technique for smugglers to ferry their contraband in canoes, which glide under triple-canopy rain forest to the coast, where the cargo is put into fast boats or submersibles for the trip north to the United States.
Meanwhile, helicopters were scrambling from one of several “forward operating bases” that the United States military has recently built, this one at Puerto Castilla on the coast. The helicopters carried a Honduran strike force along with members of a FAST unit.
The helicopters, officials said, landed and seized the boat along with its cargo, about 2,000 pounds of cocaine. American and Honduran officials have said a second boat arrived and opened fire on the government agents, and a brief but intense shootout ensued in which government forces on the ground killed two drug traffickers.
But Mr. Baquedano told El Tiempo that the helicopter was pursuing the drug traffickers when they mistook another boat, filled with villagers and traveling with a light on, for the traffickers, whose boat was unlighted. He said gunners on the helicopter fired on the villagers’ boat, while the smugglers abandoned their boat and escaped. Mr. Baquedan said the four slain villagers were innocent bystanders.
Just as in operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen, it is often difficult to distinguish insurgents from villagers when combating drugs in Central America. One official said it is a common practice for smugglers to pay thousands of dollars to a poor village if its people will help bring a shipment through the jungle to the coast.
The FAST teams were created in 2005 to help Afghan forces go after drug traffickers in the war zone who were helping to finance the Taliban. Most of them were military veterans and received Special Operations-style training from the military. The D.E.A. had a similar program during the 1980s and early 1990s in which agents worked alongside Latin American police and military officials to go after jungle labs and smuggling planes. That program was ended early in the Clinton administration after complaints that it was not having enough of an impact to justify its risks.
Because they are considered law enforcement agents, not soldiers, their presence on another country’s soil may raise fewer sensitivities about sovereignty. The American military personnel deployed in Honduras, for example, are barred from responding with force even if Honduran or D.E.A. agents are in danger. But if their Honduran counterparts come under fire, FAST teams may shoot back. For similar reasons, the helicopters are part of a State Department counternarcotics program — and not military.
A FAST team was involved in a firefight in Honduras in March 2011 in which a Honduran officer was wounded and two drug traffickers were killed. In that case, the presence of the team was fortuitous — it had been on a training exercise with Honduran counterparts nearby when a smuggling plane was detected coming into a remote airstrip. On the May 6 mission, an American intelligence task force identified a plane leaving Venezuela and heading toward Honduras. A surveillance plane spotted the single-engine airplane as it landed in the wilderness of Miskito Indian country of eastern Honduras, and watched as about 100 people unloaded bales of cargo into several vehicles, officials said.
The landing strip was less than 30 miles from one of the new outposts, called Forward Operating Base Mocoron. A joint Honduran-D.E.A. squad arrived on a State Department helicopter as two vehicles were leaving the landing zone. Drug smugglers on the ground, officials said, opened fire on the helicopter, and the government forces returned fire. In that episode, officials said, the drug smugglers fled into the rain forest, and there were no casualties.
Federal judge: Terror law violates 1st Amendment
Associated Press
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Wednesday struck down a portion of a law giving the government wide powers to regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists, saying it left journalists, scholars and political activists facing the prospect of indefinite detention for exercising First Amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan said in a written ruling that a single page of the law has a "chilling impact on First Amendment rights." She cited testimony by journalists that they feared their association with certain individuals overseas could result in their arrest because a provision of the law subjects to indefinite detention anyone who "substantially" or "directly" provides "support" to forces such as al-Qaida or the Taliban. She said the wording was too vague and encouraged Congress to change it.
"An individual could run the risk of substantially supporting or directly supporting an associated force without even being aware that he or she was doing so," the judge said.
She said the law also gave the government authority to move against individuals who engage in political speech with views that "may be extreme and unpopular as measured against views of an average individual.
"That, however, is precisely what the First Amendment protects," Forrest wrote.
She called the fears of journalists in particular real and reasonable, citing testimony at a March hearing by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges, who has interviewed al-Qaida members, conversed with members of the Taliban during speaking engagements overseas and reported on 17 groups named on a list prepared by the State Department of known terrorist organizations. He testified that the law has led him to consider altering speeches where members of al-Qaida or the Taliban might be present.
Hedges called Forrest's ruling "a tremendous step forward for the restoration of due process and the rule of law."
He said: "Ever since the law has come out, and because the law is so amorphous, the problem is you're not sure what you can say, what you can do and what context you can have."
Hedges was among seven individuals and one organization that challenged the law with a January lawsuit. The National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law in December, allowing for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism. Wednesday's ruling does not affect another part of the law that enables the United States to indefinitely detain members of terrorist organizations, and the judge said the government has other legal authority it can use to detain those who support terrorists.
A message left Wednesday with a spokeswoman for government lawyers was not immediately returned.
Bruce Afran, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the ruling a "great victory for free speech."
"She's held that the government cannot subject people to indefinite imprisonment for engaging in speech, journalism or advocacy, regardless of how unpopular those ideas might be to some people," he said.
Attorney Carl Mayer, speaking for plaintiffs at oral arguments earlier this year, had noted that even President Barack Obama expressed reservations about certain aspects of the bill when he signed it into law.
After the ruling, Mayer called on the Obama administration to drop its decision to enforce the law. He also called on Congress to change it "to make it the law of the land that U.S. citizens are entitled to trial by jury. They are not subject to military detention, policing and tribunals, all the things we fought a revolution to make sure would never happen in this land."
The government had argued that the law did not change the practices of the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to sue.
In March, the judge seemed sympathetic to the government's arguments until she asked a government attorney if he could assure the plaintiffs that they would not face detention under the law for their work.
She wrote Wednesday that the failure of the government to make such a representation required her to assume that government takes the position that the law covers "a wide swath of expressive and associational conduct."
19 years later, 'strong proof' of innocence
May 17, 2012
A decade ago, Cook County prosecutors took a long second look at the case against Daniel Taylor, who'd been sentenced to life in prison without parole for a 1992 double murder. Their review assured them they'd gotten it right the first time.
We disagreed then. We disagree now. And the evidence is still mounting.
Late last year, a federal appellate court granted Taylor permission to file a new appeal, which could lead to another trial. Since that ruling, more documents have surfaced that could have helped Taylor fight the charges in his 1995 trial.
Cook County's rare reinvestigation was prompted by the Tribune's 2001 "Cops and Confessions" series, which raised questions about the circumstances surrounding Taylor's confession and offered evidence to support the alibi that prosecutors had shot down at trial: Taylor was in a police lockup when the murders took place.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that evidence compelling. The court said the evidence produced at trial, combined with "testimony of a newly revealed witness and the newly disclosed police reports" is "strong proof" that Taylor couldn't have participated in the crime. His confession, the judges wrote, was "suspect."
The evidence on which that decision was based wasn't new. It was available before the trial, but prosecutors didn't share it with Taylor's attorneys.
The Illinois attorney general's office, which is handling the case in federal court, has since discovered more documents that apparently weren't turned over, either. That evidence, too, could have bolstered Taylor's story.
Taylor was 17 at the time of the murders. There were no fingerprints or DNA to link him to the crime scene. No weapon was recovered. But jurors couldn't reconcile the teenager's alibi against the 25-page confession he signed two weeks after the murders.
Seven others were arrested and charged in the murders. All of them confessed and implicated the others, though all but one have since maintained they are innocent. Dennis Mixon, who admits he was involved in the murders, says Taylor wasn't there.
Taylor's alibi seemed unimpeachable. Shortly after he signed the confession, he recalled that he'd been locked up on a disorderly conduct charge that night. An arrest report showed he was booked at 6:45 p.m. and bonded out at 10 p.m. The murders occurred around 8:45 p.m.
Two weeks after Taylor asserted his alibi, though, two Chicago cops filed a report saying they'd encountered him on the street around 9:30 p.m. that night. Another new witness, a convicted drug dealer and rival gang member, said he'd seen Taylor in Clarendon Park around 7:30 p.m. At trial, prosecutors accused the cops who ran the lockup of shoddy record keeping.
Paperwork, they asserted, isn't foolproof. But confessions are.
By now it's well established that confessions are far from foolproof. Young or mentally impaired suspects are vulnerable to suggestion by investigators. Abuse, torture or prolonged questioning can lead to false confessions.
"Considerable empirical research shows that the potential for false confessions increases markedly when the defendant is a juvenile, placed in isolation and sleep deprived," the appellate decision notes.
Taylor said investigators yelled at him, hit him with a flashlight and told him they'd let him go if he confessed. So he did.
But jurors couldn't get their minds around the notion of a false confession. They found it easier to believe that the cops had messed up the paperwork. "Who knew if he was really in jail?" one told a reporter later.
They might have believed otherwise if they'd seen the evidence that didn't make it to trial. Police reports named a man who was in lockup the night of the murders. Taylor's attorney could have tracked him down — as Tribune reporters did years later — to corroborate the alibi. But the defense attorney said he never saw those reports.
The attorney general's office, which is handling the federal appeal, recently came across handwritten notes from interviews with the officers that ran the lockup that night. Those notes could have been used to support Taylor's alibi, but it doesn't appear that they were shared with his lawyers. The attorney general passed them along to Taylor's current attorney at Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions.
So what of that vaunted 2002 reinvestigation? A Tribune review of those documents suggests the exercise focused more on supporting Taylor's conviction than on exploring evidence of his innocence. Investigators didn't interview the cops who worked the lockup the night of the murders or the detectives who obtained the confessions. They were only two-thirds of the way through the investigation when they announced their conclusion that Taylor's conviction was solid.
Like the jurors, they took more stock in Taylor's confession than in the records and witnesses that called it into question.
The federal appellate panel saw things differently. But Taylor, who has spent more than half of his life behind bars, could be years from learning whether he'll get another trial. His attorney, Karen Daniel, has called for prosecutors to vacate the charges and release him instead — something we called for back in 2001. At the very least, they ought to drop all roadblocks to a new trial. It's clearer than ever that Taylor didn't get a fair shake the first time.
2 U.S. citizens, 2 ethnicities, 2 accounts of jail treatment
by Daniel González - May. 17, 2012 10:46 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Jovana Renteria and Jessica Davenport are both Americans born in the United States.
But Renteria is Hispanic and Davenport is not. The two women believe that explains why Renteria's identity and citizenship were scrutinized more closely than Davenport's following their arrests April 25 on suspicion of blocking Central Avenue during a protest of Arizona's controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070.
The circumstances of their arrests were identical. Both decided beforehand to get arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Both were sitting on the pavement and refused to move when ordered by the police. And both intentionally carried no form of identification.
Yet their accounts of the 18 hours they spent in custody before being released the next day suggest Phoenix police officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took extra steps to verify Renteria's identity and citizenship, but were quick to accept that Davenport, an Arizona State University student with fair skin and blond hair, was an American.
Phoenix police and ICE officials say ethnicity plays no role in the way prisoners are booked or screened at the jail.
The disparate treatment described by the two women, however, highlights one of the main legal arguments of opponents of SB 1070: that the law violates the Constitution by leading -- without any other influencing factors -- to heightened scrutiny of Latinos, including those who are U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, by police officers trying to identify people in the country illegally.
It also provides a possible glimpse at what could happen on a larger scale should the U.S. Supreme Court uphold all or parts of the law when it rules in late June.
"This seems to me to be the logical consequence of SB 1070, which pretty clearly was aimed at the unauthorized immigration population from a particular country," said Gabriel "Jack" Chin, a University of California-Davis School of Law professor who studied SB 1070 while teaching at the University of Arizona. "SB 1070 was in some fundamental way about Mexican immigration and so it's certainly not surprising that law-enforcement agencies responsible for enforcing SB 1070 would focus on the population it was meant to deal with."
Renteria, 32, is a community activist for Puente, a Phoenix-based group that advocates for immigrants.
She was born in Phoenix and identifies herself as third-generation Chicana. Her great-grandparents came from Mexico and Spain. At the Phoenix Police Department's central-booking facility, she said she gave officers her name and date of birth, as requested. But since she wasn't carrying any identification, officers took her into a room and electronically scanned her thumbprints before placing her in a cell while they apparently tried to verify her identity.
At one point, Renteria said, she heard the officers say her thumbprints had come up "negative" and they were going to book her under the name "Jane Doe."
"They wanted to book me under Jane Doe when I actually gave them my (first) name, my last name and my birth date," Renteria said.
Renteria said she thought that it was odd that she did not show up in the system because she used to work in the pharmaceutical industry and had provided her fingerprints in the past for a background check.
After being fingerprinted again, Renteria said, she waited more than two hours in the cell until she was finally transferred to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix.
Police handed her an arrest report showing her name, date of birth and her charges. At the Fourth Avenue Jail, Renteria said, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers asked her where she was born along with the first three numbers of her Social Security number. Renteria said she refused to answer out of protest.
"I believed they should not be in the county jail, anyways, so I refused to give that information," Renteria said.
Besides, she said, she had shown them the arrest record with her name and Social Security number.
Meanwhile, Davenport was also being processed by police. Like Renteria, the 20-year-old, who was born in Mesa and is mostly of Irish and English descent, was not carrying ID when she was arrested. But her booking went more smoothly.
She said Phoenix police didn't scan her thumbprints and never placed her in a cell. She said Phoenix police simply verified her identity by radioing for her driver's license number after she provided her name, date of birth and other personal information as requested.
At the Fourth Avenue Jail, Davenport said she was prepared to tell ICE officers she was born in Mesa after hearing them ask some of the Hispanic protesters where they were born. But she said the ICE officers never asked her that question.
"They were calling us up one by one, and they asked me for my name and the last four digits of my Social, and I was never asked what city I was born in," Davenport said.
Standard police protocol
Officer James Holmes, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, said officers follow a standard protocol when booking suspects who have been arrested. They do not discriminate or profile based on race or ethnicity, he said.
He said that during booking, suspects are asked where they were born. If they answer somewhere outside the U.S., they are asked if they are a U.S. citizen.
"We ask that of everybody. It doesn't matter if you are Hispanic, Black, White," Holmes said. "It doesn't make any difference. It's a standard question that's on our booking form."
Holmes said police conduct thumbprint screenings when suspects arrive without identification and police can't verify their identity. The prints are run through a nationwide database system.
"The thumbprint goes through the fingerprint database to see if we have ever had any contact with you or whether you have ever been imprinted before," he said.
Holmes could not explain why Davenport's thumbprints were not scanned since she was not carrying an ID.
"They should have," he said.
But he said in cases where police are able to verify a suspect's identity by looking up their driver's license number, "then there is no need" to conduct a thumbprint check.
He said any differences in the way the protesters were treated depended on their individual circumstances and the answers they gave, not their ethnicity.
"They were treated according to their arrests," Holmes said. "It all depends on the circumstances of their arrest, the information they provided and their identification."
He could not explain why Renteria was held for several hours in police custody, but he said verifying a prisoner's identity sometimes takes time.
Amber Cargile, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would not agree to an interview.
She issued a written statement that said all suspects booked into the jail are screened by ICE officers regardless of their race, ethnicity or language as part of the federal Criminal Alien Program, which is designed to identify and deport immigrants who pose a public threat.
"The questions posed during the screening may include where the individual was born and their country of citizenship," the statement said.
ICE officers at the jail question suspects to determine their citizenship and whether they should be held for possible immigration enforcement later, she said.
She said the protesters arrested during the April 25 demonstration were screened by ICE officers, who determined they were U.S. citizens, she said.
Protesters' experiences vary
Renteria and Davenport were part of a group of six protesters who made plans to be arrested the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments in a federal lawsuit against Senate Bill 1070, most of which has been put on hold by two lower courts.
Renteria was among four Hispanics arrested. The others also are all U.S. citizens born in this country: Sandra Castro Solis, 24, of Phoenix; Danielle Nieto, 31, of Tempe; and Tony Verdugo, 22, of Tempe. Verdugo, an ASU student who carried his U.S. passport, was the only one of the four with identification.
According to their accounts, some of the other Hispanics arrested also experienced increased scrutiny by police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, though to a lesser extent than Renteria.
All of the Hispanics said they had their thumbprints scanned so that police could verify their identity, including Verdugo, even though he was carrying his passport.
Davenport was one of two non-Hispanics protesters arrested. The other was Amy McMullen, 52, of Gold Canyon. McMullen had her Arizona driver's license on her when she was arrested.
Davenport and McMullen described other instances where police appeared to give them more favorable treatment than the Hispanic members of the group.
After they were arrested and placed in a van, they said police officers repeatedly addressed Davenport and McMullen first before talking to the others.
Facing misdemeanor counts
On Thursday, the six protesters had their first hearing in Phoenix Municipal Court.
They were among hundreds who marched through downtown before unfurling a large anti-SB 1070 banner in the middle of Central Avenue and blocking Phoenix's largest thoroughfare for half an hour during rush hour in front of a Homeland Security Building that houses ICE's immigration detention center.
The six protesters were charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct-fighting and blocking a public street. The cases have been continued to June 13.
Prosecutors are offering to drop the more severe disorderly-conduct charge if the protesters plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a public street and agree to a sentence of 12 months probation and 1 day in jail, which they have already served.
Of course the real solution to the problem is to legalize all drugs and end the insane, unconstitutional war on drugs.
House OKs bill on smuggling tunnels
May. 17, 2012 09:27 PM
Associated Press
The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday aimed at combating a rise in the number of drug-smuggling tunnels under the U.S.-Mexican border.
The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., passed 416-4. It would penalize people who conspire to build tunnels, supplementing a law that punishes those who construct them. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison. The Senate has passed a similar version, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law.
The Border Patrol has found tunnels in Arizona and California built by smugglers to circumvent border security.
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down????
So the idiots in the government have spent millions trying to hunt down some guy who mails "nontoxic white powder" to people. Jesus, don't these cops have any real criminals to hunt down???
On the other hand I suspect the cops and firemen LOVE this guy. He has created a jobs program that has allowed cops and firemen to be paid millions in overtime for the risk free job of hunting down some guy that mails people "nontoxic white powder".
Worst white powder mailing case in US history ties up first responders, costs millions
DALLAS - Federal authorities are tracking what they call the most prolific mailer of white powder in U.S. history with an eye toward solving a case that has tied up first responders and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Officials with the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service believe the same person has sent nearly 400 letters containing nontoxic white powder across the U.S. and abroad from Texas.
A day after upping the reward in the case from $100,000 to $150,000, officials stressed that each incident diverts police, fire personnel and other valuable resources from genuine emergencies, increasing the urgency of finding the perpetrator.
"We're certainly hopeful that someone will do the right thing and come forward, even if it's just to allow these first responders to do what they're supposed to do," said Amanda McMurrey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Authorities increased the reward in the ongoing investigation after the suspect sent out another batch of letters, some targeting schools. However, McMurrey said two suspicious letters reported Thursday in the Dallas area, including one at the federal court house, weren't connected to the case.
According to the FBI, the computer-generated letters can be linked through similar phrases, including repeated references to subjects such as al Qaeda and the Nazi SS, apparently for shock value. However, the author has taken steps to hide his identity, including avoiding leaving fingerprints, the FBI said.
McMurrey said most of the letters went through the same suburban Dallas postal center, meaning they were mailed from one of four ZIP codes in the area.
Investigators also found similarities in the way the letters were addressed and what was inside, she said.
"This person is very particular in how he mails (his letters), and we are able to identify him based on the internal workings of the envelopes," McMurrey said, declining to elaborate on what the evidence shows.
Postal processing plants have biohazard detection systems that can find toxic substances, but first responders are typically called when letters with white powder are delivered — a result of the anthrax attacks in 2001.
"It's an expensive response, but necessary in today's world," McMurrey said.
Jason Evans, a spokesman for the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department, said hazardous material teams of 10 to 16 respond to white powder calls. Each response, which can last about two hours, requires about $1,500 an hour in fuel and other equipment-related costs on top of salaries, Evans said.
McMurrey said officials believe they are tracking the most severe white powder case since Richard Goyette was found to have sent 65 threatening hoax letters to banks and federal offices in 2008.
Goyette, also known as Michael Jurek, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $87,734 in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of sending threatening material through the mail.
Small state police force loads up on overtime
Ryan Gabrielson, Agustin Armendariz, California Watch
Friday, May 18, 2012
For months after the Agnews Developmental Center in San Jose was closed, a special state-run police force patrolled the grounds of the board-and-care hospital and collected overtime for guarding a nearly empty facility, state records reveal.
The officers were among several dozen statewide who have significantly boosted their paychecks, or even doubled their salaries, with overtime pay, enabling some to earn more than $150,000 a year, a California Watch investigation has found. The state-run police force, called the Office of Protective Services, last year paid about $2 million in overtime to 80 of its officers.
The officers work at five facilities that house about 1,800 patients with intellectual disabilities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Tulare and Sonoma counties. In San Jose, patrol officers at Agnews claimed hundreds of hours of overtime after the institution closed in March 2009, finance reports show.
In total, the police department's payroll has increased 50 percent through overtime in the past four years. Several of the officers' overtime payouts would have required them to work 70 to 100 hours a week the entire year to earn the extra cash.
Twenty-two officers, about one-fourth of the entire police force, have claimed enough overtime to double their salaries - a rare occurrence at other large and small police agencies. The average salary, including overtime, for the 22 officers is about $124,000 a year.
One officer working at the state's center in Tulare County acknowledged in an interview that he received overtime pay for hours spent sleeping at work.
Quality questioned
As the Office of Protective Services has accumulated overtime, questions have been raised about the quality of the work taxpayers have received from the police force.
A recent California Watch investigation found that over the past decade, the Office of Protective Services failed to conduct basic police work even when patients died under mysterious circumstances. State officials have documented hundreds of cases at the facilities of abuse and unexplained injuries, almost none of which have led to arrests.
At the Agnews Developmental Center in San Jose, individual officers accumulated 200 to 460 hours in overtime pay to patrol nearly empty buildings in the three months after the facility shuttered.
The Department of Developmental Services operated a day outpatient clinic at Agnews, open for limited hours for two years after the closure. In a written statement, state officials said the agency "remained responsible for the safety and security" of the center as long as it owned the property.
Overtime called necessary
State officials said the Agnews overtime was necessary, "as the two full-time peace officers employed were insufficient to cover the required 24-hour schedule seven days per week."
The Office of Protective Services currently has 27 vacant jobs out of 94 positions, but most of the shifts are covered by increased overtime and by hiring retired officers for temporary duty.
The base pay for the force averages about $44,000 - relatively low compared with departments of similar size. At the Vallejo Police Department, for example, the average base pay is $98,000.
Safety and security
Terri Delgadillo, director of the Department of Developmental Services, declined to comment on her department's overtime payouts. But in a statement, the department said overtime was required "to meet the safety and security needs of the 24-hour licensed residential health care facilities" amid a state hiring freeze and worker furloughs.
"These residents require constant and immediate law enforcement supervision for all court hearings, community outings and medical appointments outside of the secure treatment area," the department said.
At the same time, the department said it has moved to curb overtime payouts. In 2009, it implemented a new policy that requires police supervisors to approve overtime requests in advance and to assess whether officers' workloads are reasonable.
Patricia Flannery, the official who oversees operations at California's developmental centers, that year also ordered an internal audit of police overtime. Documents from the audit, obtained through a public records request, do not show any attempt to evaluate whether the officers actually worked the hours on their timesheets.
Between 2009 and 2011, overtime payouts at the Office of Protective Services declined about 25 percent. State officials said their "aggressive actions" to curb overtime - as well as using closed-circuit cameras to monitor patients instead of security towers - has led to the drop in overtime.
Despite the changes, seven officers at developmental centers still managed to double their pay in 2011.
No one has claimed more overtime than Thomas Lopez, an entry-level patrolman at the Porterville Developmental Center in Tulare County. On top of his base salary of $54,133, Lopez's paychecks have included at least $80,000 in overtime every year for much of the past decade, doubling and tripling his compensation.
In 2008, Lopez collected $208,000 in pay, including $146,000 through overtime. To achieve that income level, Lopez would have had to work 107 hours each week for the entire year, without any vacation or leave time.
Sleeping on the job
Lopez acknowledged that his paychecks are large. "If I were investigating overtime, I'd be the top suspect," said Lopez, who owns seven houses worth $1.2 million and two classic cars valued at $50,000 each, according to two car auction websites.
When asked if he sometimes sleeps during overtime shifts, Lopez replied: "Yes."
City police and sheriff departments often generate large overtime bills. But the Office of Protective Services far outpaces other California law enforcement agencies in overtime, according to state and local payroll data of five agencies reviewed by California Watch.
Overtime accounted for 28 percent of all Office of Protective Services compensation in the fiscal year that ended in June 2010. Eleven officers doubled their salaries with overtime. By comparison, overtime was 12 percent of pay for police officers in Vallejo and at similarly sized Santa Cruz Police Department.
At larger agencies, such as the California Highway Patrol and the San Jose and San Francisco police departments, the percentage of overtime hovers between 6 and 10 percent of pay, an analysis of local pay data shows.
California Watch
(www.californiawatch.org),
the state's largest investigative reporting team, is part of the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. rgabrielson@cironline.org.
Phoenix hearing to focus on drugs at border
by Erin Kelly - May. 18, 2012 08:49 PM
Republic Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - A congressional panel will meet Monday in Phoenix to talk about ways to improve information-sharing among government agencies to thwart the flow of illicit drugs from Mexico into Arizona.
"Phoenix is really ground zero," said Quayle, who will lead the hearing as vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's 12-member subcommittee on border issues.
Quayle said he wants subcommittee members to get a better feel for the seriousness and complexity of the drug problem by hearing from Arizona-based law-enforcement officials and visiting the state.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is one of the panel members expected to attend the hearing, which will begin at 10 a.m. at the Arizona National Guard's Building M5101, Russell Auditorium, 5636 E. McDowell Road.
"I'm really hoping that the other members of Congress can talk to and learn from the Arizonans who will be there," Quayle said.
Monday's hearing will feature witnesses from federal and state agencies talking about their efforts to improve intelligence-sharing to fight the cartels.
During the hearing, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement will point to more than a dozen major programs and scores of smaller ones in which they work with local, state and international agencies to target drug smuggling.
Arizona examples include Operation Pipeline Express, a multi-agency investigation that dismantled a huge drug-trafficking organization suspected of smuggling more than $33 million worth of narcotics a month through Arizona's western desert.
That operation led to the creation in January of the West Desert Task Force, which is led by Homeland Security Investigations and the Border Patrol and includes the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, the Tohono O'odham Police Department and the Bureau of Land Management.
Quayle said he has heard mixed reviews from state law-enforcement officials about interagency cooperation.
Mandatory sentence: 20 years for warning shot
by Mitch Stacy - May. 19, 2012 09:33 AM
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. -- Critics of mandatory-minimum sentencing laws are upset over a 20-year prison term imposed on a Florida woman for firing a warning shot to try to scare off her threatening husband.
Civil rights groups and other advocates say the sentencing of 31-year-old Marissa Alexander last week shows how stripping judges of discretion can result in unfair sentences. About two-thirds of the states have mandatory-minimum sentencing laws, usually for drug crimes.
Alexander tried unsuccessfully to invoke Florida's "stand your ground" law and rejected a plea deal for a lesser sentence after she was charged in a dispute with her husband. No one was hurt. A jury convicted her of aggravated battery with a firearm.
Florida's "10-20-life" law that targets gun crimes required the judge sentence her to 20 years.
'Phonehenge' builder must perform community service, repay county
By Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2012
An Acton man convicted of building-code violations for constructing an elaborate home complex dubbed "Phonehenge West" was ordered by a judge Friday to perform two months of community service and repay Los Angeles County at least $83,488.
Alan Kimble Fahey, 60, a retired phone company technician, was found guilty last June of a dozen building code violations because he did not obtain proper permits to construct the ornate Acton property, which many of his supporters considered a work of art.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daviann L. Mitchell ordered Fahey to perform 63 days of community service, "of which a minimum of five days must be served at the L.A. County or Kern County morgue," Mitchell said. In addition to the $83,488, he must pay still-to-be-calculated fines and court fees.
Fahey, who was forced to tear down Phonehenge, now lives in the Kern County city of Tehachapi.
"I feel it was an enormous waste, not only of the county's time but of taxpayer money," Fahey said of his prosecution. "Why do I have to go to a morgue for five days … for a treehouse?"
Fahey's attorney, Jerry E. Lennon, noted that the judge chose not to give Fahey serious jail time and that some fines may be reduced when he completes his community service.
Fahey's sentencing was delayed at least half a dozen times because of illness or the judge's decision to grant him additional time to demolish Phonehenge. He said he was pleased to finally get a judgment because it would allow him to move forward with an appeal. Lennon confirmed he would file paperwork on Fahey's behalf within the next week.
Fahey spent almost three decades constructing Phonehenge, a 20,000-square-foot labyrinth of interconnected structures, some made from telephone poles. The highlight was a 70-foot tower. Fahey, his wife, Pat, and his teenage son, Leo, lived in a building he called "the barn." Shelves and rafters contained more than 20,000 books and a mountain of curios that Fahey planned to put inside a museum, library and gift shop. Turkeys, chickens and a peacock were among the livestock that roamed the yard.
County code enforcement officers argued that Fahey's creation wasn't structurally sound and was a fire and earthquake risk. In August, workers began to tear down the unpermitted buildings.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick David Campbell told the court Friday the demolition was completed March 2. During a three-week period, the county transported four truckloads of telephone poles totaling 53 tons and steel and debris weighing 280 tons. The cleanup cost the county $83,488, Campbell said.
The judge ordered Fahey, who lives on an $800 monthly pension, to repay the Department of Public Works $50 a month beginning June 1. She also instructed him to complete a financial evaluation form in order to determine his ability to increase the amount of monthly restitution. The Acton property — now in foreclosure — should also be listed, Mitchell said.
"It saddens me that Kim's dream of 30 years has been destroyed by the county," said Bill Guild, vice president of the Antelope Valley Truckers Assn. and among the dozen or so supporters who attended the sentencing. "I go back to the county's motto, 'To enrich lives through effective and caring service.' Tell me, whose life has been enriched? The coffers of L.A. County has been enriched."
ann.simmons@latimes.com
Also per the US Telecommunication Act which was passed around 1997 the manufacturers of telephone switches are required by law to make it easy for the cops to tap the voice on your phone line. All it takes to tap you phone is a few keystroke on a computer terminal and the police will be monitoring the audio of all your calls.
Most newer cell phones have GPS chips in them that tell the police your location. And even if your phone doesn't have a GPS chip in it the cops can get your location by triangulating it from the cell phone towers that receive your phones signal.
Last but not least with cell phones everything you do is broadcast on the airwaves and ANYBODY including the police can listen to your calls if they are close to the cell phone tower that is processing your call.
I certainly don't think you should be murdering and robbing people like in this article. But sadly most of the people in the USA are arrested not for real crimes, but for victimless drug war crimes which if you ask me should be legalized.
Slain USC student's cellphone signal led to suspected killers
May 19, 2012 | 7:30 am
The cellphone of one of two USC graduate student slain last month helped lead police to their alleged killers, law enforcement sources told The Times.
The sources said one of the suspects arrested Friday took a cellphone from one of the victims and detectives were able to locate him by tracking signals sent by the device.
Authorities also identified a signal from a second cellphone in proximity to the victim's phone, they said.
The second phone was identified as belonging to the suspect.
At a news conference Friday evening, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck identified the suspects as Bryan Barnes, 20, of Los Angeles and Javier Bolden, 19.
Barnes was taken into custody Friday afternoon by a team of LAPD SWAT officers, along with FBI and other federal agents, who raided an apartment near the USC campus.
Bolden was arrested by the same team three hours later in Victorville and flown back to L.A. by helicopter.
Beck offered few details about the arrests. But police sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation, said Barnes was the suspected gunman in the April 11 slaying of electronic engineering students Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23.
Bolden was believed to have been present when the students were gunned down during a robbery while sitting in Qu's parked BMW in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue, the sources said.
The suspects were being held without bail and were expected to be booked on suspicion of murder late Friday. They are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
Beck said the suspects did not have extensive criminal records but were believed to have been involved in two earlier attempted slayings.
"Early on, forensic evidence made us suspect quite strongly that this was a part of a series of crimes committed by the same men," the chief said.
Ballistics tests on shell casings recovered at the scene of the shooting show they were fired from the same gun used in two other shootings, police sources said.
Detectives working on the two previous shootings had followed some "very tenuous" leads that they believed tied the earlier incidents to the primary suspect in the USC case, a police source said.
Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised detectives for their work.
Villaraigoisa portrayed the arrests as a sign of how seriously the city takes public safety and sought to reassure an international audience, in Spanish and English, that Los Angeles is not a dangerous destination.
"Safety is priority No. 1 in this city," he said. "Students at our city's universities should feel safe in and around our campuses."
The mayor, the father of a college-age daughter, said his heart went out to the Chinese students' parents.
If you ask me it's insane for the TSA thugs to arrest an airplane pilot for carrying a gun.
But again this isn't about making air travel safer, it's about creating a jobs program for TSA and Homeland Security thugs.
Pilot accused of traveling with loaded revolver is arrested
By Dalina Castellanos
May 18, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
The latest in a string of bizarre events involving air travel -- and in some cases, flight crews -- comes in the form of a loaded gun. At the center of this incident, which involved a .357 Magnum, was a pilot for Piedmont Airlines.
The pilot was detained and charged Friday for allegedly trying to board a flight in Buffalo for New York City with a loaded revolver in his bag, the Associated Press reported.
Brett Dieter, 52, of Virginia was charged with the possession of a concealed firearm when a Transportation Security Administration agent noticed a .357 Magnum loaded with five rounds of ammunition in his bag at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, according to the Buffalo News.
A spokesman for US Airways, which contracts with Piedmont for its US Airways Express fleet, told the Los Angeles Times that the company would conduct an internal investigation and referred all other questions to Buffalo law enforcement.
Investigators believe Dieter had made seven flights with the gun since Wednesday, when he flew from Charlottesville, Va., to New York City without running the bag through X-rays, the AP reported.
The year has been off to a rough start for airline employees and travelers alike.
On April 19, a Delta Air Lines jet bound for Los Angeles made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after taking off when birds were sucked into one of its engines.
Five days later, a JetBlue flight bound for Florida returned to Westchester Airport north of New York City minutes after it hit two Canada geese upon takeoff.
On March 9, an American Airlines jet returned to the gate in Dallas after an attendant let out a blood-curdling scream and began ranting about a crash as the plane prepared to take off.
On March 28, Jet Blue pilot Clayton Osbon began ranting and acting erratically as his flight headed from New York to Las Vegas, forcing the copilot to lock him out of the cockpit and make an emergency landing. Osbon was removed from the flight after having been tackled by passengers and strapped down with their belts.
As for this week's case, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Dieter could face a maximum 10 years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Last but not least the program is a government welfare program for cops, because cops, like Babeu are selling off this equipment to raise money for themselves and their departments, along with giving it away to special interest groups. All of which is illegal.
Pinal Sheriff's Office stockpiles, prepares to sell military equipment
Pinal sheriff acquiring millions in equipment
by Dennis Wagner - May. 19, 2012 11:22 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office has collected millions of dollars' worth of surplus military equipment that is intended for law-enforcement use and distributed some of the gear to non-police agencies while preparing to sell other property as a budget booster. Both practices are banned by the Pentagon.
According to records obtained by The Arizona Republic, in the past two years, Sheriff Paul Babeu's office has received more than $7 million worth of Humvees, fire trucks, guns, defibrillators, barber chairs, underwear, thermal-imaging scopes, computers, motor scooters and other items through the Defense Logistics Agency, which provides the excess military property free to crime-fighting agencies.
The merchandise is made available to more than 17,000 police and sheriff's departments nationwide as a way of improving public safety while saving taxpayer dollars. Last year, nearly $500 million worth of new and used items were distributed by the agency -- more than double what was requisitioned in fiscal 2010.
Federal regulations require the surplus items to be issued and used exclusively for law-enforcement purposes, especially counterdrug and counterterrorism efforts.
Yet the Sheriff's Office, which helps oversee the program in Arizona, has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment that it never used to non-police agencies and a business, saying the items are merely on "loan" and might occasionally be used to assist deputies.
The rules also allow police to dispose of or sell some goods after at least one year of usage but strictly ban them from obtaining the hand-me-down equipment for the purpose of fundraising.
But internal e-mails obtained through public-records requests by The Republic show sheriff's officials touting their ability to get products from the Defense Department at no cost and to fortify their finances by selling the goods at auction. In a budget presentation to Pinal County supervisors in March, Babeu said he intends to balance his budget in part by auctioning equipment procured from the military.
Sheriff's e-mails also show that a top aide to Babeu encouraged employees from Southwest Ambulance, a private company, to visit the Sheriff's Office to see "how much stuff is available" from the Defense Department. A subsequent message contained a photograph of Babeu standing behind a pair of defibrillators the company received free from the Sheriff's Office, shaking hands with a Southwest manager.
The Pinal County sheriff's employee responsible for acquiring military surplus helps oversee the program in Arizona, authorizing his own requisitions along with those of other agencies statewide.
Babeu and his staff declined interview requests but defended the program in e-mails, saying military supplies reduce the burden on taxpayers while making police work safer and more effective -- especially for deputies working dangerous anti-smuggling missions in remote areas.
Tim Gaffney, Babeu's communications and grants director, said the merchandise has been a boon to other Pinal County departments and non-profit agencies. He noted that the sheriff's program got a glowing audit last year from the Defense Logistics Agency, which filmed a demonstration video for Congress showing how Pinal County benefits from excess military gear.
There is no question that the Sheriff's Office has put many items to law-enforcement use. A military helicopter, night-vision goggles, an armored vehicle and up to 18 Humvees were acquired to hunt smugglers and illegal immigrants in the desert. Kitchen equipment, blankets and medical supplies are used in the county jail.
But critics say Babeu, who is seeking re-election and until last month was a candidate for Congress, also has played a benefactor role to curry political favor with key community leaders, handing off equipment to their agencies and non-profit organizations.
One example of the largesse: Steve Kerber, chief of the Regional Fire and Rescue Department of Pinal County, said the sheriff recently delivered a truckload of military equipment to a meeting of area fire chiefs, inviting them to grab whatever they wanted.
"That's advertising for Paul Babeu because he's now the Santa Claus of the neighborhood," said Norman Jones, a retired DPS officer who monitors the Sheriff's Office as a citizen watchdog. "Why are you procuring farm tractors? ... It's an abuse."
Jones and other critics say that by requisitioning unneeded supplies the Sheriff's Office may be depriving other police agencies of equipment.
Matt Van Camp, a Payson police detective, was appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2008 and reappointed a year later by Gov. Jan Brewer to coordinate distribution of military surplus in Arizona. After being advised last month of some of The Republic's findings, he said he would raise questions with Pinal County but insisted Babeu's operation is "in full compliance" with the program.
"They use the equipment properly," he said. "They dispose of it properly. They're just very good."
On Friday, Van Camp said he does not know of any police agency utilizing the program as Pinal County does. He said The Republic's inquiries had spawned a policy review. "It's a good discussion we're having nationally, and I think there's going to be guidance coming," he added.
Earlier this month, after the newspaper began raising questions about Pinal County's use of surplus military gear, the Defense Logistics Agency, which is responsible for program oversight, gave Babeu's office an award for "Superior Achievement in Fiscal Stewardship."
An agency spokesman did not answer when asked if such an award had ever previously been issued. The agency also has yet to respond to a request for public records concerning the award.
However, after learning about The Republic's findings, agency public-affairs chief Kenneth MacNevin sent an e-mail saying the Defense Logistics Agency is looking at Pinal County's use of the program.
"If it appears policies or processes of our program were not being adhered to we will undertake a more formal inquiry to determine the cause and then take appropriate action to resolve the matter," MacNevin said. "We will not speculate on the matter until more is known."
He said documents obtained by The Republic may suggest "potential violations of 1033 program," but e-mails can be misunderstood or taken out of context.
He said more than 30 Arizona police agencies have been suspended or terminated for failing to meet program standards and nine remain under suspension. Federal officials did not identify those agencies.
One example
In e-mails last August, sheriff's spokesman Gaffney advised Holly Walter, communications and media manager for Southwest Ambulance, that Babeu's office had just obtained defibrillators for her company.
"Usually about twice a month we are getting surplus equipment from the military and giving it to other entities," Gaffney wrote. "If there's anything else you can use, let us know. This includes furniture, or any other medical equipment. It's easy to get and best of all it is free."
Southwest Ambulance, a for-profit subsidiary of Rural/Metro Corp., provides medical transportation for more than 40 communities in Arizona. It is not a law-enforcement entity.
E-mails indicate the company agreed to paint a 5-ton military truck acquired by the sheriff from the Defense Department. In one message, a sheriff's employee asked Walter for a design scheme similar to patrol cars, adding, "We would like 'Sheriff Paul Babeu' painted on both sides of the hood."
Walter replied, "Not a problem at all."
In an interview, she said her company received a Humvee and a truck, as well as medical equipment -- all with the understanding that Southwest Ambulance sometimes might use the supplies to assist the Sheriff's Office on search-and-rescue missions, at Country Thunder and other events.
She says the company has not yet painted the sheriff's military truck.
In a written explanation to The Republic, Gaffney described Southwest Ambulance as a "public safety partner."
He said deputies sometimes are allowed to conduct training in the company's Mesa headquarters, and the company might need furniture for those sessions.
A lot of stuff
Just over 100 Arizona law-enforcement agencies have signed up for military surplus through the so-called 1033 Program overseen by the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency. Last fiscal year, state records show, the agencies acquired more than $14.6 million in merchandise usually referred to by the acronym DRMO. (The Defense Logistics Agency used to be known as the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office.)
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office, which began acquiring items in 2010, has taken in so much military gear -- more than $7 million worth -- that Babeu's staff requisitioned through the program a diesel truck, multiple trailers and a forklift to transport the gear from military depots nationwide.
Gaffney acknowledged that the sheriff has placed surplus vehicles and equipment with non-government organizations that don't enforce laws. But he said that property remains part of the sheriff's inventory and is "on loan" to other agencies -- "strategically placed" around the county for use in emergencies. He said the borrowing agencies provide vehicle insurance.
An 11-page agreement that Babeu signed to participate in the military-surplus program says merchandise may be procured only by agencies "whose primary function is the enforcement of applicable federal, state and local laws and whose compensated law-enforcement officers have powers of arrest and apprehension."
When asked if the practice by the Sheriff's Office of loaning equipment to other agencies comported with program rules, a spokesman for the Defense Logistics Agency said, "Property should not initially be provided to other agencies unless they are also involved in law enforcement."
Officials at eight other police agencies contacted by The Republic said they do not requisition surplus military items for non-law-enforcement agencies and don't acquire gear to supplement budgets.
Maj. Leon Wilmot said the Sheriff's Office in Yuma County, which is adjacent to Pinal County, obtains about $250,000 in equipment annually -- patrol rifles, Humvees, ballistic helmets. None of the items is passed on to non-police organizations, Wilmot said, adding, "It's a cost-saver, and that's why we use it."
Phil Case, budget director for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said his agency has requisitioned $2.1 million in military-surplus goods since the early 1990s. DPS has not lent items or augmented its budget by selling surplus military gear: "We have never contemplated that, and I am not aware that it would be permissible," Case said.
A distinct advantage?
Surplus military equipment is listed online at a secure Defense Department website, and requests must be approved by designated state officers as well as the federal Law Enforcement Support Office in Battle Creek, Mich., which is part of the Defense Logistics Agency.
Babeu appears to have an advantage over other law-enforcement officials in acquiring surplus military gear: His grants administrator, Tom Gaupel, was appointed by Van Camp, the Payson police detective, last year to help oversee and authorize military-surplus requisitions in Arizona.
In a September e-mail obtained under Arizona's Public Records Law, Gaffney advised a colleague that Gaupel would be able to cherry-pick excess military gear because it is requisitioned on a first-come, first-served basis.
"This will benefit us greatly as we can start approving our own requests (for merchandise)," Gaffney wrote in his message to Chief Deputy Steve Henry. "Tom usually is up at midnight when stuff becomes available (online). ... We can apply and approve within minutes of items becoming available."
Gaffney added that the Sheriff's Office anticipated getting so much Defense Department equipment that a detention aide would be needed full time to pick up the property from around the country. "The financial impact for us would be tremendous," he wrote.
Van Camp said he does not believe Pinal County has an improper advantage in obtaining military supplies. He said Gaupel was appointed to be Arizona's "point of contact" for surplus acquisitions because of his even-handedness.
Selling the stuff
Nationally, the military-surplus program has come under criticism for various reasons. Federal investigators previously have found the program to be riddled with fraud and abuse.
Keeping track of the equipment is another concern. In 2003, a Defense Department inspector general's audit declared 1033 Program records were not reliable after finding incorrect or inadequate documentation in about three-quarters of the transactions analyzed.
Two years later, a report by the Government Accountability Office -- the research arm of Congress -- concluded that the Pentagon "does not have management controls in place" to avert waste, abuse and fraud in its reutilization program. Investigators identified "hundreds of millions of dollars in reported lost, damaged, or stolen excess property ... which contributed to reutilization program waste and inefficiency."
The 1033 Program regulations as spelled out in Arizona's "Plan of Operation" say the procured equipment must be used by agencies within six months and remain in use for at least a year. The surplus property is available exclusively "for the current use of authorized program participants (and) it will not be issued for speculative/possible future use. Property will not be obtained for the purpose of sale ... or to otherwise supplement normal LEA (law enforcement agency) budgets," the document says.
Babeu, who retired from the Arizona Army National Guard as a major two years ago, signed a document agreeing to the rules. Yet public records and e-mails suggest plans by his department to auction items obtained through the program.
In a January e-mail to Gaupel and the sheriff's budget director, Gaffney asked about progress setting up auctions and wondered if military property could be sold on eBay. "It would help our budget greatly if we can start selling items," he said.
In February, Gaupel advised Gaffney that a semitruck and 40-foot trailer available from the military depot in Tucson were in great condition, adding, "We can use them for one year and sell for big money. I am leaving my house at 4 am to beat any other agency."
In March, Babeu told Pinal County supervisors that he had acquired a huge amount of military goods that would be sold to help balance his office's $47 million budget. He said auctions were to begin in April, and proceeds "could crest 200,000 (to) a half-million (dollars) in a period of six months."
Jones, the retired DPS officer, said the Pinal County practice is outrageous. "They hoard stuff," he said. "They've opened up a little swap meet."
Steve Gagnon, Colorado's 1033 Program coordinator, said no agency in his state makes money selling surplus military items. "That would be inappropriate," he said. "You're not supposed to pick it up just to turn around and sell it."
Wilmot, of Yuma County, agreed: "You're not allowed to do that."
Questions of oversight
State and local officials are required to maintain an "audit trail" for each item and conduct periodic inventory checks to ensure that federal properties have not been sold, stolen or misappropriated.
The 1033 Program also requires police agencies to declare the intended law-enforcement use for each item. Records supplied by the Sheriff's Office and Van Camp, the Arizona program coordinator, do not explain the need for many of the items acquired -- from computers to meat slicers to motor scooters.
In addition, federal regulations require guns, certain vehicles and other equipment to be returned to the Defense Department after use. Records show that as of mid-April, the Sheriff's Office had not returned a single item. It is unknown how much is still in use.
In response to questions, the Defense Logistics Agency reiterated via e-mail the written rules of the program. A spokesman said that for security reasons information is not subject to public review even though the intended use of the equipment never references specific tactics or law-enforcement investigations.
Van Camp said he conducts "spot check" inventories by phone, asking Arizona agencies to confirm that items have not been misused, lost or stolen. However, he said, there are no resources to visit police departments to verify that information.
He also cautioned that even items with no obvious crime-fighting purpose may have legitimate policing value. For example, he said, deputies could use a requisitioned barber chair for haircuts in a break room. Or they might need 1,800 T-shirts for training exercises that damage clothing.
Free firetruck
During a single week in August, records show Gaupel, an official over Arizona surplus requisitions, procured a semirig, bulldozer and other expensive gear for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. "I also was awarded this awesome fire truck worth $175,000," he said in an e-mail to Gaffney which included a photo of the shiny, yellow engine.
Gaffney answered, "Great job Tom this will make for another great pool car...hahaha... This week alone sounds like you brought in nearly 1.7 million through DRMO."
The Pierce Dash pumper, obtained from Puget Sound Navy Shipyard in Washington state, had been driven just over 50,000 miles.
Gaffney asked how the sheriff would use a fire engine: "Whats (sic) the plans for the fire truck?"
The pumper did not spend one day in the sheriff's custody. Instead, it went straight to the Regional Fire & Rescue Department of Pinal County. "We ran up there and got the truck and drove it back," said Kerber, the fire chief, adding that his department is paying for insurance on the vehicle.
Regional Fire & Rescue is a non-profit agency that charges an annual subscription to about 8,000 residential and commercial clients.
Kerber said he has the vehicle on loan for a year, after which the Sheriff's Office will transfer title to the fire department. He said Babeu's generosity has been "a blessing," rendered without any request for political support.
To date, according to Gaffney, firefighting organizations in Casa Grande, Florence, Apache Junction and a dozen other communities have received military surplus equipment from the sheriff.
Asked to explain the law-enforcement purpose of a pumper truck, Gaffney said it might be deployed if a deputy is injured in the line of duty, or if the sheriff's helicopter crashes at the airport.
Capt. Mike Waring, who coordinates the New Mexico State Police military-surplus program, said he can't imagine requisitioning a firetruck from the military.
"The program is specifically for law enforcement," he said. "You can't arrest a fire."
I doubt they read the classified ad in the Republic or the Tribune, but I am suspect they read the adult oriented papers like Bachelors Beat, again looking for victimless crimes.
Adult services ads are targeted
Backpage.com facing growing criticism
by JJ Hensley - May. 19, 2012 09:53 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The online ads are short and simple, promoting girls like "Cinnamon" and her quest for a male companion.
"French and black bored looking for fun plus seeking generous male I love," read an ad posted Wednesday by Cinnamon, 21, asking men to meet her in central Phoenix.
To activists trying to elevate awareness of human trafficking, the ads at Backpage .com are, at best, a conduit for prostitution. But some see them as more malignant, suggesting that the ads are a way for Village Voice Media to profit off teens who are being trafficked and sexually exploited.
The critics have recently become more vocal, aiming full-page ads and boycotts at Phoenix-based Village Voice Media, the alternative-media conglomerate that owns New York's Village Voice, weeklies in many U.S. cities including Phoenix New Times, and the online classified website, which hosts ads for services in hundreds of cities in 43 states, 11 foreign countries and a handful of Caribbean islands.
Police do not take so radical a view as to believe that Village Voice Media would knowingly become involved in promoting criminal activity -- but, Backpage is one constant in Valley prostitution investigations, according to officers.
"The Phoenix Police Department is not in a position to say that Backpage or any other website is complicit in any form of human trafficking. We get the vast majority of our work from monitoring Backpage and other sites, because that's where the victims are," said Lt. Jim Gallagher, a commander in the Phoenix vice unit. "We can't avoid the obvious, which is, Backpage is a common thread in our investigations."
Police nationwide say Backpage employees have been cooperative with law-enforcement officers investigating prostitution and human trafficking, and the company occasionally volunteers information that has been useful to police in their work.
Advertising adult services
The recent arrest of Rachael Dawn Kellogg Swank, 23, opens a window into the world of Backpage and illustrates why police often focus on the advertising venue. Swank is alleged to have prostituted a 15-year-old runaway in Phoenix.
Officers saturated known prostitution tracks and websites promoting "adult services" during a two-day sweep in April. The plan was to offer suspected prostitutes enrollment in a diversion program that could provide immediate counseling and keep the arrest off every suspect's record.
An undercover detective contacted a woman he found on Backpage and arranged to meet her at a Mesa hotel, where the detective would pay $100 each for sex with two different women, according to police records. Detectives also learned that a 15-year-old girl was possibly being advertised online as an escort.
When detectives arrived at the hotel and met Swank, who was allegedly the woman arranging sex online, they found her with the 15-year-old runaway, according to court documents.
"During an interview with the 15-year-old, I learned that she had never prostituted prior to meeting (Swank), and she told me that (Swank) taught her all about how to be a prostitute. Which included placing the ad for escorting on the Internet," court documents said.
Swank pleaded not guilty in her initial court appearance.
The 15-year-old later told a detective she had sex with two men for $80 each, according to records. She said she met Swank on a Mesa street and the conversation eventually turned to prostitution, which is not unusual for teenage runaways, said Phoenix police Detective Heidi Chance.
"Unfortunately a lot of the runaways do fall in this lifestyle for some reason, maybe they're preyed upon," she said. "It's not unique or different than anything I've seen before. The only difference may be that her family was still actively seeing detectives."
In the weeks after the sweep, due in part to heavier saturation on the streets, detectives arrested six underage girls working as prostitutes, Gallagher said. Many of the girls were advertised on websites like Backpage, according to police.
Conflicting estimates
But no one can say with any authority how many cases like that are out there. Estimates vary widely.
Anti-trafficking awareness groups estimate there are as many as 300,000 men, women and children who are the victims of human trafficking, many of whom would work as prostitutes.
Law-enforcement statistics are less jarring: Between 2005 and 2011, local law-enforcement agencies submitted 36 cases to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in which suspects were said to have violated human-trafficking statutes.
Last year, Village Voice Media publications ran a story entitled "Real Men Get Their Facts Straight," which, in the eyes of many critics, tried to minimize the problem.
"Law-enforcement records show that there were only 8,263 arrests across America for child prostitution during the most recent decade," the authors wrote. "That's 827 arrests per year."
But since then, Village Voice Media has hired Liz McDougall, an attorney who formerly worked with Craigslist when that website also came under attack for allegedly facilitating sexual exploitation. McDougall's mandate: fight human trafficking and try to develop a comprehensive approach to adult-services advertisements that can be implemented throughout the industry. That includes McDougall having final say on what the publisher prints about Backpage and its critics, she said.
"Village Voice Media came out swinging in its defense, consistent with its journalistic history, but that didn't do any favors to the work Backpage is trying to do to proactively address the problem," she said. "I simply don't believe that taking down an adult category is the right answer to fighting human trafficking."
Working toward those twin goals -- reforming the online adult-services industry and keeping Backpage alive -- McDougall said she is internally streamlining posting procedures to make it easier for Backpage staff members to spot potential pimps. The website also added a link to an emergency help line in case someone posting an ad decides they want to get out of prostitution.
The company also has 80 people committed to policing the site. It makes an average of 400 reports per month to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children when it finds ads for women who are under 21 years old, she said.
Those efforts are not enough for critics like Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, a professor at Arizona State University's School of Social Work who focuses, in part, on girls and women involved in prostitution.
"Almost all of the hundreds of victims of sex trafficking I have worked with in the past two years have been put on Backpage.com, some by their pimps, some by their mothers, some by their best friends," Roe-Sepowitz said. "This is an ugly issue, one that we must not turn away from to allow for free enterprise."
Company refuses to end ads
But McDougall said simply removing adult content from the website is not a viable solution to the human-trafficking problem Backpage's critics have seized on.
"My greatest concern is that the activity will just be driven to offshore websites," McDougall said.
"Understandably, people want a silver bullet to this horrible problem," she said. "Craigslist did shut down its adult category, but it wasn't the silver bullet. The ads migrated elsewhere to the Craigslist website and then a large portion of the ads migrated to Backpage. Then the movement, the anti-trafficking movement, just shifted. They got what they said they wanted from Craigslist and then they moved on to Backpage."
McDougall said that if the ads move offshore, the advertisers move outside the jurisdiction of most U.S. law-enforcement agencies, and policing the activity on their websites or asking operators to cooperate with investigators becomes impossible.
Yet critics claim there are other reasons Village Voice Media will not shut down the site.
A consulting company estimated adult ads on Backpage generated $2.6 million in online revenue during March, a figure McDougall would not confirm, citing the Village Voice Media's status as a private company.
The company's long history of taking a stand in the face of fierce opposition also plays a role, McDougall said, noting: "The company has historically had the backbone to stand on principle against substantial pressure -- political, public, economic -- that's the intention right now."
The pressure Village Voice Media faces is not unique, said Tim McGuire, an ASU professor of business and ethics in journalism. McGuire said both sides in the controversy are making arguments that are fundamentally true, but the ultimate decision rests with readers and advertisers.
"The cops are correct, but the fact is the Internet is a giant uncontrollable blob. Institutions like police and newspapers and major corporations have lost control. To think that one player, like the New Times, is going to change the cops' problems, I think is naive," McGuire said. "Both are arguably true, and you as a publisher have to make that call and contend with the consequences. It may be fewer people picking up the publication, it may be advertisers choosing not to advertise."
Regardless of the outcome, the controversy with Backpage has again focused attention on the topic of human trafficking, an interest that began, McDougall believes, with the focus on Craigslist advertising.
That attention is not necessarily a bad thing, according to law-enforcement officers and anti-trafficking advocates.
Groups including former state Sen. Russell Pearce's Ban Amnesty Now, which previously focused on driving undocumented immigrants out of the U.S., has developed a new interest in fighting human trafficking thanks in part to Pearce's disdain for the New Times. The former lawmaker has been a frequent target of the publication's political screeds.
Pearce's group has taken credit for the departures this year of several New Times advertisers, but the controversy has not been all bad for Backpage. Though McDougall would not confirm it, one survey reported that unique visitors to the site increased by more than 8 percent in March.
Don't hold your breath waiting for any fixes!!!! After all the Homeland Security is a jobs program for government bureaucrats, not something the American public needs.
Federal Diary: House subcommittee looks into Homeland Security corruption
By Joe Davidson, Published: May 17
On a gorgeous spring Thursday, kids on class trips were all over the Capitol grounds, many in matching T-shirts, posing for pictures on the granite steps.
They were having a great time learning history and about how government works. If they had crossed Independence Avenue and squeezed into a Cannon House Office Building hearing room, they also would have witnessed how government is not supposed to work.
A House subcommittee hearing Thursday examined Department of Homeland Security ethics standards and found them repeatedly violated. Make no mistake: Everyone who spoke stressed that almost all workers are honest and law-abiding.
“There are over 220,000 Department of Homeland Security employees who work every day to secure our homeland from dangerous threats and natural disasters,” said Rep. William R. Keating (Mass.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. “I would like to thank them for their service.” [You mean like the TSA thugs who take toe nail clippers from 70 year old ladies? Or the TSA thugs who strip search 18 month old children?]
But that isn’t good enough, not for federal agencies under the eye of Congress. A few crooked or foolish staffers draw attention from everyone else, as General Services Administration and Secret Service scandals recently have demonstrated. Keating said the number of allegations against employees investigated by just one DHS office “is staggering.”
Plus, as Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the full committee, said in a statement: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Testimony pointed to several weak links in the DHS chain.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on oversight, investigations and management, set the tone for the hearing in his opening statement: “There have been many reports of federal employees wasting taxpayer dollars, and in some cases committing crimes, which erodes the trust American people have in our government. . . . We have also found criminal activity in our bureaucracies; Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel collaborating with drug smugglers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel filing fraudulent travel claims and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel stealing personal belongings of passengers.”
According to information released at the hearing: 138 CBP agents have been charged with corruption since 2004; during that same period, more than 2,000 CBP employees have been charged in other criminal cases; an ICE agent pleaded guilty to 21 criminal counts in February; a former ICE intelligence chief is accused of embezzling more than $180,000, and four other ICE employees have pleaded guilty in the scheme; and a recent 22-count indictment says Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees in Los Angeles took bribes to allow drug couriers safe passage through airport security.
Mexican drug cartels are particularly interested in getting help with border smuggling. Charles K. Edwards, the department’s acting inspector general, said “the drug trafficking organizations have turned to recruiting and corrupting DHS employees. The obvious targets of corruption are Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers who can facilitate and aid in smuggling; less obvious are those employees who can provide access to sensitive law enforcement and intelligence information, allowing the cartels to track investigative activity or vet their members against law enforcement databases.”
It’s not always a matter of turning a good officer bad. Sometimes, the bad pretend to be good just to get on the inside. “In some cases, I believe that their sole purpose in wanting to become a Customs and Border Protection officer or Border Patrol officer is to infiltrate us,” said acting CBP Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski.
McCaul and Keating were pleased that Winkowski appeared to represent his agency, but they were not happy that TSA and ICE sent lower-level officials. They all emphasized what their agencies are doing to fight corruption.
To Keating, the absence of top administrators “says something about how seriously they are taking this issue, or how not seriously they’re taking this issue.”
McCaul expressed his “extreme disappointment.”
In response, DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said by e-mail that the department sent “senior agency officials, including those responsible for the day to day oversight of ethical standards and professional conduct for this hearing. . . . The Department respects Congressional oversight and we look forward to continuing to work with the Committee on this important issue.”
The hearing indicated there’s lots of work to do.
Although all allegations about DHS vice have not been proven, Keating said “they are a testament to the fact that eliminating public corruption at the Department of Homeland Security is in dire need of improvement.”
Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson. Follow the Federal Diary on Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP
Supreme Court to consider case on secret international wiretapping
By David G. Savage
May 21, 2012, 7:54 a.m.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider blocking a constitutional challenge to the government’s secret wiretapping of international phone calls and emails.
At issue is whether Americans who have regular dealings with overseas clients and co-workers can sue to challenge the sweep of this surveillance if they have a “reasonable fear” their calls will be monitored.
The case, to be heard in the fall, will put a spotlight on a secret surveillance program that won congressional approval in the last year of President George W. Bush’s presidency.
Prior to 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act said the government must obtain a search warrant from a judge before it listened to phone calls. Generally, this required officials to show the target was a suspected spy or terrorist.
Bush bypassed this requirement after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and ordered the intelligence agencies to scan international phone calls and emails in an effort to detect new and emerging plots.
When this program was revealed, critics said this “warrantless wiretapping” was illegal and unconstitutional.
But in 2008, Congress revised the law to give intelligence agencies broad power to monitor electronic communications, so long as their targets were foreigners who were believed to be outside the United States. The new law said the attorney general and the director of National Intelligence may order the “mass acquisition” of electronic traffic from certain foreign persons or groups.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued, alleging this “dragnet surveillance” threatened the privacy rights of Americans and violated the 4th Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. The plaintiffs were lawyers, journalists and human rights activists who said they regularly spoke on the phone or exchanged emails with persons who could be targets of the surveillance.
The ACLU said it was troubled by the potential sweep of these secret orders. They could seek “all telephone and e-mail communications to and from countries of foreign policy interest — for example, Russia, Venezuela or Israel — including communications made to and from U.S. citizens and residents.”
The government’s lawyers called that “speculation” not based on facts or evidence, but the orders remain secret.
The lawsuit, however, is still in its preliminary stages. A federal judge in New York threw out the claim on the grounds that the plaintiffs could not show they had suffered an injury. The law made clear they were not the targets of the surveillance.
But last year, a closely divided 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York cleared the case to proceed. Its judges ruled the plaintiffs had a “reasonable fear” their private calls and emails would be picked up by intelligence agents.
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli appealed on behalf of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and urged the high court to throw out the suit as a threat to national security.
The justices said they had voted to hear Clapper vs. Amnesty International and decide whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue.
david.savage@latimes.com
I suspect that is only the tip of the iceberg, because most of these cases were high profile murder cases where lots of money and effort were spent to get the people who were framed by the police off of death row.
Police, prosecutors and elected officials tell us that they would rather have 100 guilty people go free then have one innocent person go to jail, but that is 100 percent BS!
People are routinely framed by the police for crimes they didn't commit. People routinely accept plea bargains for crimes they are innocent of rather the fact draconian penalties if they go to trial and fight a charge they are innocent of. I know two of these people who accepted plea bargains for crimes they didn't commit. They are Laro Nicol and Kevin Walsh.
I was framed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety for selling drugs.
I was not convicted of the crime and I didn't spend any time in prison for it.
Originally I suspected my arrest was a case of mistaken identity but I later found
out by accident I was intentionally framed by the police because they
"thought" I was selling drugs.
Study: 2,000 convicted then exonerated in 23 years
(AP) WASHINGTON - More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities.
There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled.
The database compiled and analyzed by the researchers contains information on 873 exonerations for which they have the most detailed evidence. The researchers are aware of nearly 1,200 other exonerations, for which they have less data.
They found that those 873 exonerated defendants spent a combined total of more than 10,000 years in prison, an average of more than 11 years each. Nine out of 10 of them are men and half are African-American.
Nearly half of the 873 exonerations were homicide cases, including 101 death sentences. Over one-third of the cases were sexual assaults.
DNA evidence led to exoneration in nearly one-third of the 416 homicides and in nearly two-thirds of the 305 sexual assaults.
Researchers estimate the total number of felony convictions in the United States is nearly a million a year.
The overall registry/list begins at the start of 1989. It gives an unprecedented view of the scope of the problem of wrongful convictions in the United States and the figure of more than 2,000 exonerations "is a good start," said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
"We know there are many more that we haven't found," added University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross, the editor of the newly opened National Registry of Exonerations.
Counties such as San Bernardino in California and Bexar County in Texas are heavily populated, yet seemingly have no exonerations, a circumstance that the academics say cannot possibly be correct.
The registry excludes at least 1,170 additional defendants. Their convictions were thrown out starting in 1995 amid the periodic exposures of 13 major police scandals around the country. In all the cases, police officers fabricated crimes, usually by planting drugs or guns on innocent defendants.
Regarding the 1,170 additional defendants who were left out of the registry, "we have only sketchy information about most of these cases," the report said. "Some of these group exonerations are well known; most are comparatively obscure. We began to notice them by accident, as a byproduct of searches for individual cases."
In half of the 873 exonerations studied in detail, the most common factor leading to false convictions was perjured testimony or false accusations. Forty-three percent of the cases involved mistaken eyewitness identification, and 24 percent of the cases involved false or misleading forensic evidence.
In two out of three homicides, perjury or false accusation was the most common factor leading to false conviction. In four out of five sexual assaults, mistaken eyewitness identification was the leading cause of false conviction.
Seven percent of the exonerations were drug, white-collar and other nonviolent crimes, 5 percent were robberies and 5 percent were other types of violent crimes.
"It used to be that almost all the exonerations we knew about were murder and rape cases. We're finally beginning to see beyond that. This is a sea change," said Gross.
Exonerations often take place with no public fanfare and the 106-page report that coincides with the opening of the registry explains why.
On TV, an exoneration looks like a singular victory for a criminal defense attorney, "but there's usually someone to blame for the underlying tragedy, often more than one person, and the common culprits include defense lawyers as well as police officers, prosecutors and judges. In many cases, everybody involved has egg on their face," according to the report.
Despite a claim of wrongful conviction that was widely publicized last week, a Texas convict executed two decades ago is not in the database because he has not been officially exonerated. Carlos deLuna was executed for the fatal stabbing of a Corpus Christi convenience store clerk. A team headed by a Columbia University law professor just published a 400-page report that contends DeLuna didn't kill the clerk, Wanda Jean Lopez.
Hey, it ain't about public safety, it's about creating jobs for overpaid and under worked cops!
The only people that need a "psychological evaluation" are pigs that took the 911 call,
the pigs that arrested the guy, and the dumb ass judge that ordered the artist to have
a "psychological evaluation".
Artist arrested while hanging ‘I ♥ NY’ bags from streetlights, charged with ‘planting bombs’
By Dylan Stableford | The Sideshow
Takeshi Miyakawa, the 50-year-old Tokyo-born artist, was arrested at 2 a.m. in Brooklyn while he was hanging one of the bags from a tree, according to his website. The NYPD bomb squad was alerted after a passerby noticed one of Miyakawa's installations on Friday morning and called to report "a suspicious package attached to a tree."
Police cleared the area for two hours, according to the Daily News. They later observed Miyakawa on top of a ladder with "an assembly consisting of a plastic box containing wires which was connected by a wire to a plastic bag containing a battery suspended from a metal rod."
The installation project was intended to be part of NY Design Week 2012.
On Sunday, a judge ordered Miyakawa held for a mental evaluation, "extending his detainment for an additional 30 days," his lawyer said.
A Facebook group called "Free Takeshi Miyakawa" launched within hours of the judge's ruling. It was more than 1,200 members.
"Takeshi loves New York, he loves this city," Louis Lim, Miyakawa's friend, told Gothamist.com. "All his installations are nonevasive. He doesn't drill into things ... We had no idea that his designs were being misinterpreted at this level. And if anything he does offends or bothers anyone, Takeshi always apologizes profusely. He's very traditional that way."
According to Gothamist, the person who purportedly reported Miyakawa to police did not intend to: "I called 311 asking how to get that thing off my tree, if it was my responsibility or the city's ... the 311 woman put me through to 911 then the cops came. I left for work."
I never dreamed I would read an article about appointed White House bureaucrats sitting around having meetings in which they decide which of their enemies to murder with drone strikes.
Sure I don't like Emperor Obama any more then I liked Emperor Bush, but I was hoping Emperor Obama would be less of a war monger then Emperor Bush, but sadly I was wrong about that too.
My next question is when will these White House staff meeting start deciding to murder suspected drug dealers in the USA with drone strikes?
Sure the White House will admit it's unconstitutional to murder drug dealers in the USA, just like it is unconstitutional to murder suspected terrorists in the rest of the world, but they will come up with some cockamamie excuse to justify it like they always do.
U.S. drone strike policy refined
White House takes lead in targeting terrorists
by Kimberly Dozier - May. 22, 2012 12:21 AM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in guiding the debate on which terror leaders will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure to vet both military and CIA targets.
The move concentrates power at the White House over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones.
The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan's staff consults the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the list, making a previous military-run review process in place since 2009 less relevant, according to two current and three former U.S. officials aware of the evolution in how the government targets terrorists.
In describing Brennan's arrangement to the Associated Press, the officials provided the first detailed description of the military's previous review process that set a schedule for killing or capturing terror leaders around the Arab world and beyond. They spoke on condition of anonymity because U.S. officials are not allowed to publicly describe the classified targeting program.
One senior administration official argues that Brennan's move adds another layer of review that augments rather than detracts from the Pentagon's role. The official says that, in fact, there will be more people at the table making the decisions, including representatives from every agency involved in counterterrorism, before they are reviewed by senior officials and ultimately the president.
The CIA's process remains unchanged but never included the large number of interagency players the Pentagon brought to the table for its debates.
And the move gives Brennan greater input earlier in the process, before senior officials make the final recommendation to President Barack Obama. Officials outside the White House expressed concern that drawing more of the decision-making process to Brennan's office could turn it into a pseudo-military headquarters, entrusting the fate of al-Qaida targets to a small number of senior officials. Previously, targets were first discussed in meetings run by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, with Brennan being just one of the voices in the debate.
The new Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has been more focused on shrinking the U.S. military as the Afghan war winds down and less on the covert wars overseas. With Dempsey less involved, Brennan believed there was an even greater need to draw together different agencies' viewpoints, showing the American public that al-Qaida targets are chosen only after painstaking and exhaustive debate, the senior administration official said.
But some of the officials carrying out the policy are equally leery of "how easy it has become to kill someone," one said. The U.S. is targeting al-Qaida operatives for reasons such as being heard in an intercepted conversation plotting to attack a U.S. ambassador overseas, the official said. Stateside, that conversation could trigger an investigation by the Secret Service or FBI.
Defense Department spokesman George Little said the department is "entirely comfortable with the process by which American counterterrorism operations are managed."
The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.
Drone strikes are highly controversial in Pakistan, too. Obama met briefly on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Chicago on Monday with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan has closed key routes used by NATO to send supplies to troops in Afghanistan in response to a U.S. airstrike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
An example of a recent Pentagon-led drone strike was the fatal attack in January on al-Qaida commander Bilal al-Berjawi in Somalia. U.S. intelligence and military forces had been watching him for days. When his car reached the outskirts of Mogadishu, the drones fired a volley of missiles, obliterating his vehicle and killing him instantly.
The drones belonged to the elite U.S. Joint Special Operations Command. Berjawi, a British-Lebanese citizen, ended up on the command's list after a studied debate run by the Pentagon.
The Defense Department's list of potential drone or raid targets is about two dozen names long, the officials said. The previous process for vetting them, now mostly defunct, was established by Mullen early in the Obama administration, with a major revamp in the spring of 2011, two officials said.
Drone attacks were split between the command and the CIA, which keeps a separate list of targets, although it overlaps with the Pentagon list. By law, the CIA can target only al-Qaida operatives or affiliates who directly threaten the U.S. The command has a little more leeway, allowed by statute to target members of the larger al-Qaida network.
Under the old Pentagon-run review, the first step was to gather evidence on a potential target. The case would be discussed over an interagency secure video teleconference, involving the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department, among other agencies. Among the data considered: Is the target a member of al-Qaida or its affiliates; and is he engaged in activities aimed at the U.S. overseas or at home?
If a target isn't captured or killed within 30 days after he is chosen, his case must be reviewed to see if he's still a threat.
The CIA's process is more insular. Only a select number of high-ranking staff can preside over the debates by the agency's Covert Action Review Group, which passes the list to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center to carry out the drone strikes. Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper is briefed on those actions, one official said.
Berjawi's name was technically on both lists, the Pentagon's and the CIA's. In areas where both the command and the CIA operate, the military task-force commander and CIA chief of station confer, together with representatives of U.S. law enforcement, on how best to hit the target. If it's deemed possible to grab the target for interrogation or simply to gather DNA to prove the identity of a deceased person, a special team is sent.
"Two F-15 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the flight over the Atlantic"
Fighter jets scrambled to intercept U.S.-bound flight
US Airways flight diverted after passenger claims to have device surgically implanted inside her
By Dylan Stableford | The Lookout
A flight from Paris bound for Charlotte was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after reports say a passenger claimed to have a device surgically implanted device inside.
US Airways flight 787--which left Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time en route to Charlotte Douglas International--was rerouted to Bangor, Maine, shortly after noon ET, CNN reported. The Boeing 767 was carrying 179 passengers and a crew of nine, a spokesman for the airline said, confirming that there had been an unspecified "security issue."
A Homeland Security official told NBC News that the flight was diverted because a "passenger was acting suspiciously."
According to CNN, a French woman on board the
flight handed a note to a flight attendant,
claiming that she had a surgically implanted explosive inside of her.
Two F-15 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the flight over the Atlantic,
NORAD said.
The plane landed safely in Bangor.
Doctors on board the flight examined the woman and
"saw no sign of recent scars,"
according to House Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King's office.
The woman, a French citizen from Cameroon,
had planned a 10-day visit to the United States,
CNN added. She was traveling alone and had no checked baggage.
"[We are] aware of reports of a passenger
who exhibited suspicious behavior during flight,"
the TSA said in a statement.
"Out of an abundance of caution the flight was
diverted to BGR where it was met by law enforcement."
The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force
is assisting with the investigation,
but officials told the network they did not believe it was a terrorist threat.
According to US Airways, the flight was scheduled to leave Bangor at 1:00 p.m.
and arrive in Charlotte at 3:27 p.m. ET, though as of 1:50 p.m.
was still shown sitting on the tarmac.
It's not the first time a flight from Paris has been diverted to Bangor.
In 2010, a Delta flight from Paris to Atlanta was diverted to Bangor
after a man claimed to be carrying dynamite in his luggage.
The man, Derek Stansberry, a 26-year-old Air Force veteran from Florida,
was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Just last week, a US Airways flight from Maine to Philadelphia was interrupted when a man allegedly tried to enter the cockpit.
That flight was diverted to Boston, and the man was arrested.
Hey if the state of Arizona claims to have a lawful right to kill
these people what's the harm of letting the public know the details???
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has appointed a kangaroo parole board
that will rubber stamp all her executions, so if it's all legal and above the
board what's the problem with telling the public why the kangaroo parole
board approved the state sponsored murderes.
Ariz. among states shielding part of executions
by Rebecca Boone - May. 23, 2012 07:22 AM
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho -- A U.S. appeals court ruled in 2002 that every aspect of an execution should be open to witnesses, from the moment the condemned enters the death chamber to his or her final heartbeat.
The ruling established what was expected of the nine Western states within the court's jurisdiction. A decade later, five of the states have kept part of each execution away from public view, according to an Associated Press review and death penalty experts.
Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Montana and Nevada have conducted 15 lethal injections since the ruling, and half of each procedure has been behind closed doors.
That means that a small group of witnesses, including members of news organizations who act as representatives of the public, do not see, for instance, the insertion of the IVs that deliver the fatal drug mixture.
The practice comes at a time when the method itself has drawn greater scrutiny, from whether the drugs are effective to whether the execution personnel are properly trained.
The states that limit access say they do so to protect the anonymity of the execution team, which may include emergency medical technicians, military medics or others trained to insert IVs. Open government and journalism groups argue that witnessing all aspects of an execution is the only way to determine if it is being properly carried out.
The AP and 16 other organizations on Tuesday sued the state of Idaho to force officials to open the entirety of their executions, arguing that the news media, and by extension the public, has a First Amendment right to view all steps of lethal injections.
"This lawsuit is really all about obtaining access to the entire execution process for viewing purposes," said Chuck Brown, the attorney representing the news organizations. "It's very important in a society such as ours to have full transparency in regards to the exercise of government authority."
Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said late Tuesday the department had not yet had a chance to review the lawsuit, and that the state's attorneys would respond to the claims in court.
When made aware of the 2002 court ruling, state officials said previously that the decision did not apply to their procedures. "The circumstances of the case are unique to California," said Idaho deputy attorney general for prisons, Mark Kubinski.
Kubinski said the protocol balances the public's right to witness executions with the state's obligation to carry it out "in a safe and professional manner, while maintaining respect and dignity for all parties."
Several high-profile cases since 2006 have raised questions about the way states conduct lethal injections.
In two instances in Ohio, one of the few states that allow witnesses to see the entire process, corrections staff couldn't find a vein. In one of those cases, officials halted the execution and the inmate remains on death row. With news organizations present, the experiences of the inmate, Romell Broom, were widely reported.
In another case, in Florida in 2006, which does not allow viewing of the IV insertions, executioners pushed the needles through Angel Nieves Diaz's target veins and into the soft tissue beneath. He had to be given a second dose and took 34 minutes to die -- more than twice the normal time.
Historically, the public was able to watch executions from start to finish, said Trina Seitz, a death penalty expert at Appalachian State University.
Over time, executions became more private as technology advanced. Electrocutions, for example, can't be done in a rainy prison yard for safety reasons, so they were moved inside, said Stuart Banner, a legal historian at UCLA's School of Law.
Still, journalists have always been reserved a spot among the witnesses, Seitz said, so they could report the death back to the public.
In the 1990s, several news organizations attempted to get on the witness list for the lethal injection of William Bonin in California. Bonin was dubbed the "Freeway Killer" for the serial murders of 14 young men and boys.
Those who did witness the execution were unsure about what they saw.
Bonin was already strapped to a gurney with IV tubes attached when the death chamber's curtains were drawn open. He barely moved, and his eyes were closed. A few silent minutes passed, and then he was pronounced dead.
The California First Amendment Coalition sued, saying the limited access violated the public's First Amendment rights to view executions. California officials argued the restriction was necessary to preserve the execution team's anonymity.
In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument, saying there were other ways to protect their identity. Execution team members could wear surgical masks, hats and gloves, the court noted.
"Independent public scrutiny -- made possible by the public and media witnesses to an execution -- plays a significant role in the proper functioning of capital punishment," the judges ruled.
The ruling applies to a region that stretches from Montana to Hawaii and Alaska. Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands do not have the death penalty, and Oregon currently has a moratorium on executions. Only California has followed the ruling.
Outside the region, 27 states use lethal injection. Ohio changed its rules in 2004 after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue. For 25 years, Georgia has allowed a reporter to act as a "monitor" during the process, while other witnesses enter the viewing chamber later.
During Idaho's most recent execution, Paul Ezra Rhoades, who was convicted of killing three people in 1987, could not be seen as he was brought into the death chamber. When the curtains were drawn, IVs were already connected.
When asked by a reporter about what happened before the curtains were opened, the corrections director, Brent Reinke, said the procedure was somber and professional and described how the IVs and other equipment was inserted.
Rhoades' attorneys sued in federal court, arguing that Idaho's death penalty protocol created the opportunity for several excruciating errors. Of most concern was incorrect IV placement, which could leave him paralyzed but conscious.
The legal scholars contacted by the AP who reviewed the California court case said it would be difficult to find a ruling that applies more closely to Idaho's policies.
Jen Moreno, a staff attorney with the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California's Berkeley Law, said the ruling sets precedent for all states within the 9th Circuit and that the non-complying states would likely be forced to change their policies if they were challenged in federal court.
Moreno said the process of setting the IVs is the most crucial part of lethal injection because, if it is done incorrectly, the rest of the execution can go awry.
"The fact that the states are hiding one of the most important parts of the execution, setting the IV, really means that what the public does see is not going to be very telling of whether it was a humane execution," she said.
If the government is going to put people in prisons it should at least make the prison a safe environment where the inmates won't be kill or beaten up by other inmates.
But sadly most of the people in American prisons are not there for real crimes which hurt other people like robbery, rape, or murder. Most of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes that didn't hurt anyone.
Family of inmate in prison assault seeks damages
by Bob Ortega - May. 22, 2012 08:30 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The family of an inmate left severely brain-damaged after a prison beating last November says a correctional officer was complicit in the assault. This week, they filed a notice seeking $12 million to settle their claims against Arizona's Department of Corrections.
Tyson White, 37, arrived at the Lewis state prison in Buckeye on Nov. 18. Eight days later he was assaulted by three inmates who threw him to the ground and repeatedly kicked and stomped on his head and neck. The three were members of a prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, according to correctional reports obtained by the family's attorney, Scott Zillinger, through a lawsuit against Corrections.
White apparently had sought the gang's protection, claiming affiliation with the gang during a prior prison stint. According to department reports, the gang members asked an inmate who served as a "porter," or clerk, for Corrections Officer Doreen Neu, to check White's claims. According to Corrections investigators, Neu accessed White's computer records on Nov. 22, which showed that he was not affiliated with any prison gangs. Four days later, White was assaulted by the gang.
Corrections officials declined to comment on the allegations, or to say whether Neu received any disciplinary sanctions. In their report, Corrections investigators note allegations that Neu's porter regularly supplied information from confidential state records to other inmates. It would be a criminal offense for Neu to allow any inmate to view another inmate's records. Neu could not be reached for comment.
White has been in treatment at St. Joseph's Hospital since the assault, with permanent brain damage that leaves him unable to walk, use the bathroom or take care of basic needs without assistance. He was serving a two-year sentence for aggravated DUI.
The attack on White was one of 62 inmate-on-inmate assaults reported by Corrections that month. There were also 34 incidents of inmates assaulting staff last November.
If you ask me this Obama birth certificate thing sounds like a lame excuse for some of Sheriff Joe's thugs to take a vacation in Hawaii that is paid for by the taxpayers.
Arpaio using deputy to help in Obama birth investigation
by JJ Hensley - May. 22, 2012 09:49 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's volunteer investigation into documents pertaining to President Barack Obama's place of birth and citizenship now includes the services of a taxpayer-funded deputy, according to Arpaio.
The deputy joined Mike Zullo, a volunteer member of Arpaio's cold-case posse, in Hawaii this week in part due to "security issues," according to Arpaio, and because the investigation has progressed.
"It's one deputy, so what? We have security issues, too, that I can't get into," Arpaio said on Friday. "For six months, we were not spending any money. When you're doing investigations, sometimes things change, you put more resources into it."
The cold-case posse has spent about $40,000 on the investigation so far, according to the Sheriff's Office. The posse is funded through donations.
Arpaio has in the past touted the investigation's total reliance on donated funds and volunteers, but he said the investigation now requires the use of a sworn deputy. Arpaio said the volunteer posse is in the midst of a criminal investigation but refused to discuss details of the probe or what drove the posse member and deputy to Hawaii.
The Sheriff's Office also had to cover the costs of airfare and hotel rooms for the deputy, Arpaio said, but he expects the posse to reimburse the agency for those costs.
The detective assigned to the Obama investigation works in the sheriff's threats unit and continues to work on other cases while assisting with the posse's investigation, according to the Sheriff's Office.
"He's not going to make any arrests," Arpaio said. "I didn't say we're going to keep using him. We're not going to use him constantly. He's not assigned to it. For this trip, I feel it's important to have a deputy there. He's just a liaison to give advice if needed. He's not doing anything. The posse's been doing the research. I'm not going to say what other trips they've been taking, but they haven't had a deputy with them."
Arpaio is not the only Arizona official with an election-year interest in discussing records related to Obama's birth.
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett recently asked for confirmation of President Obama's birth as he worked to confirm the President is illegible to be on the Arizona ballot. Bennett recieved verification Tuesday night and said the matter is closed.
The sheriff's investigation was launched last year, Arpaio said, at the request of 250 members of the Surprise Tea Party.
In March, the sheriff held a news conference with Zullo; author Jerry Corsi, whose research initially guided the investigation; and members of the Surprise Tea Party. Zullo detailed the posse's allegations that Obama's birth certificate and Selective Service card were fraudulent.
The White House pointed to documents available on the government's website that verify the president's birth in Hawaii. Copies of those documents were what Zullo relied on in the investigation.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil-rights lawsuit alleging that the Sheriff's Office has discriminated against Latinos in jail and patrol operations and that his office has retaliated against people who speak out against Arpaio and his policies.
Arpaio has denied that the Obama investigation is politically motivated, though critics have pointed out that other skeptics and many mainstream Republicans long ago abandoned the topic.
Arpaio said his investigation isn't focused on Obama's birthplace, but rather the potential that some of the documents produced to verify his birth are fraudulent.
"I have enough deputies around to spare one," Arpaio said. "One deputy out of 900 and we're going to have problems? No way."
Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this article.
Is the war on terrorism a lame excuse to expand the "war on drugs", and use terrorism as a lame excuse to flush the Constitution down the toilet when fighting the "drug war". I suspect it probably is.
In this article about a drug bust in Chandler they mention a
Chandler mother, sons lead police to major drug ring
Clues emerge from investigation of family
by Laurie Merrill - May. 23, 2012 06:16 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
What ended as the multi-agency smashup of an international conspiracy to sell millions of dollars of Mexican narcotics to Arizona prisoners began as the simple probe of a Chandler mom and her sons, police say.
Ultimately, the investigation was called "Operation Family Tradition" and the mother and her sons the "Lara-Valencia Syndicate."
At least 44 suspects were arrested on more than 300 drug- and gang-related charges during two different sweeps, one of which was Friday.
Multiple indictments were handed down by the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
In all, 32 pounds of heroin and 5 pounds of cocaine were seized with a combined estimated street value of $1.7 million.
The drugs wound up on the streets of the East Valley as well as Arizona prisons, Chandler police Detective Seth Tyler said.
"It was available to anyone with an appetite for it," he said Monday.
It all started more than a year ago, in early 2011, when the Chandler police Narcotics Unit began investigating Grace Valencia and two of her nine sons, Ricky and Jonathan, who resided on the 200 block of South Dakota Street, Tyler said.
"Eight of the boys are involved" in the drug trade, Tyler said.
"Six are already in the state Department of Corrections."
Three of Valencia's sons -- Vincent Lara, 38; Angel Lara, 35; and Daniel Lara, 31 -- are serving sentences ranging from 10 to 14 years for a kidnapping conviction, according to reports.
Chandler police soon suspected that Valencia and her sons were part of a larger organization with gang and possibly international ties.
First, they called in the Chandler police Gang Unit.
Next, they called Arizona Department of Public Safety State Gang Task Force came on board.
DPS and Chandler investigators then learned the family and associates bought drugs directly from Mexico, smuggled them into prison and sold them to East Valley residents.
One prison visitor was apprehended trying to smuggle black tar heroin inside a sock, officials said.
Street and prison gang members and illegal-drug trade criminals comprised the organization, Tyler said.
As the enormity of what they were investigating was revealed, the investigators decided they required help from organizations with more resources.
They called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Gang Investigations Group, the DPS Highway Patrol, the Arizona Department of Corrections Security Threat Group Unit and the state Attorney General's Office to help with the investigation.
"The family was definitely part of the distribution of drugs," Tyler said. "They were not small time. They were better organized. They were getting the drugs from Mexico."
The Attorney General's Office has named Ricky Valencia as one of the kingpins of the organization.
He was charged with a total of 107 counts.
Cop broke into home to do laundry, police say
May. 23, 2012 09:29 AM
Associated Press
AVALON, Pa. -- Dirty clothes have a Pittsburgh-area police officer in hot water.
Rankin police Officer Jason Rocco is charged with trespassing and criminal mischief for allegedly breaking into a neighbor's home to wash his clothes.
Rocco was arraigned Saturday and released on his own recognizance.
WPXI-TV reports the home's owner noticed his electric bill was unusually high, given that he hadn't lived in the house for months. When the owner visited, investigators say he found the dryer running with Rocco's clothes inside.
Avalon police who questioned Rocco say he told investigators the home's back door was already broken and he "just had to do some laundry."
A phone listing for Rocco could not be located Wednesday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Crown King man accused of violating evacuation order
by John Genovese - May. 23, 2012 03:39 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
Authorities say a Crown King man has been taken into custody after violating a fire evacuation order by leaving his home to buy cigarettes and beer.
Fire crews spotted William Tiffany, 53, in various public areas of the town despite a mandatory evacuation order issued May 13 that required him to remain on his Crown King property if he chose not to evacuate, according to Dwight D'Evelyn, a Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman. Deputies had previously warned Tiffany about the restriction, D'Evelyn said.
The Gladiator Fire forced the evacuation of Crown King, Battle Flat, Pine Flat and Turkey Creek. As of Tuesday night, the blaze had consumed 15,622 acres and burned six structures, including two this week. It is 26 percent contained.
On Monday, D'Evelyn said deputies were notified that Tiffany had gone to the Crown King store to purchase cigarettes and beer.
The 53-year-old was arrested on suspicion of violating a lawful evacuation order, a misdemeanor.
The Sheriff's office said Tuesday that Tiffany remained in custody at the Camp Verde Detention Center.
Wittmann woman in 2010 animal hoarding case arrested; more cats found
by Jane Lednovich - May. 23, 2012 03:45 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
An 81-year-old Wittmann woman again faces trouble for animal hoarding.
Lucienne Touboul was arrested Wednesday morning on suspicion of 26 counts of animal neglect and cruelty after it was discovered she was hoarding 64 cats, a Maricopa Country Sheriff's Office spokesman said.
The arrest comes nearly two years after authorities found Touboul with more than 104 cats in her home. Most of those cats had to be euthanized as authorities said they carried a feline virus.
[of course if the pigs had not arrested her the cats would not have been killed by the government]
Three years before that, a judge had ordered Touboul to give up all but a handful of cats.
This go-around, deputies searched Touboul's home on the 21800 block of Griffin Avenue and found 64 cats, Sgt. Brandon Jones said.
The cats were evaluated by a veterinarian and are being transferred to the Sheriff's Office Animal Safe House in the old First Avenue Jail, police said.
Deputies went to the home about 6 a.m. because Touboul had an outstanding warrant related to the incident two years ago.
In the 2010 case, the cats showed signs of severe respiratory disease, were severely underweight, and had ruptured eyes due to ulcers, Jones said. Nine dead cats were found in freezers. There was evidence that some of the cats were used for human consumption, he said.
[People eat chickens, cows, fish and snails, so what's the big deal about eating cats, even if it is a bit unusual???]
Jones said Touboul admitted to police at the time that she would use the dead cats to make soup.
[Again, so what!!! People eat chickens, cows, fish and snails, so what's the big deal about eating cats, even if it is a bit unusual???]
Sheriff Joe Arpaio issued a statement Wednesday saying that during his 50 years in law enforcement, he has never seen or heard anything so bizarre or disgraceful as eating cats.
Touboul in 2010 had told The Republic that she froze the deceased cats until a friend visited to help her properly bury them.
After the 2010 case, the Sheriff's Office notified Code Enforcement, Maricopa County Environmental Services, and Adult Protective Services, but Touboul refused help.
Jones said Touboul fits the profile of an animal hoarder.
Gary Patronek, who founded a research consortium in Boston to study animal hoarders, previously told The Republic that hoarding can be a coping mechanism.
He said animal hoarders often lack the insight to see what others do. They don't see the filth, dead animals and unlivable conditions obvious to everyone else.
[OK, then maybe the lady is mentally ill. But she certainly isn't a criminal who deserves to be arrested!]
Touboul previously told The Republic she was born in North Africa and that her husband and five sons were beheaded in Morocco years ago.
Her claim is unconfirmed, although Morocco underwent a violent nationalist movement in the 1970s.
Touboul moved from France and eventually to Arizona, where she worked as a nurse. She's lived in her Wittmann home for 13 years.
Touboul is in custody in the Fourth Avenue Jail.
Maricopa County sets $4 mil for death penalty appeals
County funds to cover post-conviction cases
by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - May. 23, 2012 10:08 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has unanimously agreed to spend up to $4 million to pay for post-conviction appeals for defendants in local death-penalty cases.
The board voted Wednesday to dedicate the money from the general fund to the county Office of Public Defender, which pays for post-conviction relief appeals of death-penalty cases.
The Arizona Supreme Court's recent decision to reduce the required number of attorneys in post-conviction relief appellate cases from two to one allowed more cases to move through the appeals process, said Cari Gerchick, county spokeswoman.
In addition, Maricopa County currently has a high number of death-penalty cases that could result in post-conviction appeals, many from former County Attorney Andrew Thomas' term in office from 2005 to April 2010,Gerchick said. The county attorney has statutory power to seek the death penalty.
"We saw that during the Andrew Thomas years, he charged a number of people and said he had wanted the death penalty. So, there was an unprecedented spike of death-penalty cases during his time in office," Gerchick said.
The county Public Defender's Office will use the money to pay for representation of defendants sentenced to death, anticipating more cases will begin moving through the post-conviction appeals process.
"It takes awhile to work through the trial process, the appeals process and the post-conviction process," Gerchick said.
The budget for capital cases is adjusted at the end of each fiscal year. This change applies to fiscal 2011. There were no adjustments for fiscal 2012.
Supervisor Andy Kunasek said Wednesday's decision is another step in the process of working out issues that remain from the Thomas administration.
Thomas resigned as county attorney in April 2010 to run for state attorney general. Last month, he was disbarred for ethical misconduct. His disbarment, effective earlier this month, was ordered by a three-member ethics panel of the Arizona Supreme Court. Thomas opted not to appeal the order.
"Against the advice of his own senior prosecutors, Thomas was going out and ordering the death penalty," Kunasek said. "It was another sense of just disregarding, over and over, the wise counsel of professional prosecutors."
Chief uses 10 cops for son's iPhone search
May. 24, 2012 07:31 AM
Associated Press
BERKELEY, Calif. -- The police chief of the California college town of Berkeley is defending using 10 officers -- some on overtime -- to search for his teenage son's stolen iPhone.
Police Chief Michael Meehan told the Oakland Tribune on Wednesday no preferential treatment was given when the officers, including three detectives and a sergeant, searched for the phone, which was taken from a school locker in January.
Meehan says field supervisors decide how many officers to put on a case and he's confident the search was properly handled.
The police chief also came under scrutiny in March after ordering an officer to a reporter's home to ask for changes to an online story about a community meeting criticizing the alleged slow police response to an elderly man's beating death. Meehan apologized.
The article was written by Carolyn Short, the Chairman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the organization that led the opposition to Prop 203.
Short: State thumbs nose at federal warning on “medical” pot
Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:14 am
Guest commentary by Carolyn Short
It’s still a federal crime to grow, sell or possess marijuana, and it’s also a crime to help anyone doing those things. So state employees who license patients or dispensaries to grow, sell or possess marijuana are federal criminals. [Then how come NO state employees in any of the states that allow medical marijuana have been arrested and prosecuted by the Feds for these alleged crimes?] Landlords who rent to growers or dispensaries are federal criminals. [Sadly the Feds are trying to steal the property of private landlords who rent to people in the medial marijuana business] And those who lend money to marijuana businesses are federal criminals.
Several U.S. Attorneys have written letters warning that state employees, landlords, and financiers who help others violate the federal Controlled Substances Act can be prosecuted. Possible consequences include fines, jail time and forfeiture of property. [But again, NO state employees in any of the states that allow medical marijuana have been arrested and prosecuted by the Feds for these alleged crimes?]
When Democratic governors in Washington and Delaware received this warning, they shut down their dispensary programs immediately. As Washington Governor Christine Gregoire said, “No state employee should be required to violate federal criminal laws.” She believed it would be “irresponsible for her to leave her workers vulnerable.”
She’s right. Even if no one is prosecuting state employees now, nobody knows what a future administration (or even this one) might do, and the statute of limitations leaves state workers vulnerable for many years. If a future administration decides to prosecute, the state can’t pay the fine or go to jail for the employee.
However, when Republican Governor Jan Brewer received the exact same warning from Arizona’s U.S. Attorney, she ignored the warning, kept the letter secret from Attorney General Tom Horne, and continued with her plan to license dispensaries. Why?
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne filed a lawsuit in federal court asking Judge Bolton to advise him whether federal law preempts Prop 203, but he didn’t take a position for or against. Judge Bolton told the AG’s office to file an amended complaint taking a position, or she would dismiss the lawsuit. If he had taken a position, the judge would have overturned Prop 203, but Horne never filed an amended complaint. Why not? [That lawsuit was almost certainly a frivolous lawsuit. If it had any merit at all, drug war tyrants Governor Jan Brewer, Health Department Director Will Humble and Attorney General Tom Horne would have appealed it]
Last May, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery advised county employees not to issue licenses or permits under Prop 203, because they’d be violating federal law. Montgomery urged Tom Horne to issue a similar opinion to protect state employees, but Horne hasn’t acted. Why won’t he?
Governor Brewer, or our state legislative leaders, Senate President Steve Pierce and House Speaker Andy Tobin, could insist that Tom Horne issue that opinion. Why haven’t they?
These actions would be prudent and reasonable, and would bring Prop 203 to a grinding halt, but our state leaders refuse to act. Voter protection is no excuse because unconstitutional laws aren’t voter protected. [Again many legal scholars say that ALL the Federal drug war laws are unconstitutional per the 10th Amendment] For example, if Arizona’s voters decided that women couldn’t vote, a federal court would strike it down even if 99 percent of Arizonans voted in favor. So Horne, Brewer, Pierce and Tobin have every right and reason to halt the entire program. Why won’t they? [Look, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in all 50 states. The 18th Amendment gave the Feds the power to regulate liquor. But there never has been a constitutional amendment allowing the Feds to regulate marijuana or any other drug.]
Do our Republican leaders dislike President Obama and the federal government so much they’re opposing them on this issue even when they know the feds are right? That would be ironic because they’re fighting them over SB 1070, Arizona’s attempt to enforce federal law. Now they’re fighting them over Prop 203, Arizona’s attempt to violate federal law.
Elected officials should care equally about enforcing federal drug laws and federal immigration laws. Instead, they appear to despise illegal immigrants while embracing illegal drug users. Perhaps our well-intentioned leaders are getting bad advice.
Arizona now has the most lax marijuana law in the nation. [That is 100 percent BS! In California you can get a medical marijuana prescription or recommendation as it's called for having a headache, in Arizona you can't!!!] It’s clearly unconstitutional. The courts and the Obama administration have told our Republican leaders exactly how and why to get rid of it. What’s stopping them?
Carolyn Short, retired lawyer and Chairman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the organization that led the opposition to Prop 203.
OK, he didn't actually say that, but I suspect that is how he feels.
Caught Violating Weekend Copter Ban, Bloomberg Will Alter Flight Plans
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: May 23, 2012 107 Comments
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is rich, and New Yorkers often forgive him for it. His life of weekend homes in Bermuda and private jet flights to Paris has not stopped him from earning the votes of constituents who give him credit for competence and leadership.
But being a billionaire is one thing, and breaking the rules another. So it was on Wednesday that Mr. Bloomberg, an experienced pilot, found himself under fire after he was discovered flying his private helicopter where he was not supposed to.
An amateur video, filmed by an annoyed Manhattanite and broadcast Tuesday on WABC-TV, showed the mayor landing and taking off several times over the weekend from the East 34th Street helipad, where trips on Saturday and Sunday have been expressly banned for more than a decade.
On Wednesday, a City Hall spokesman said Mr. Bloomberg would not be flying from the helipad on weekends any longer.
“While the heliport’s waiting rooms are closed on weekends and you can’t get fuel, we always thought that pilots could still take off and land — a courtesy that, it turns out, had been extended to mayors over the years,” the spokesman, Stu Loeser, wrote in an e-mailed statement. Asked whether the mayor intended to continue using the helipad on weekends, Mr. Loeser answered, simply, “No.”
Previous mayors traveled on copters owned by the Police Department, and almost always on official city business. Mr. Bloomberg, however, is not like other mayors. He is the first denizen of City Hall to own a private helicopter, and he routinely uses it for his weekend getaways — he owns multiple vacation homes, including in Westchester County and the Hamptons.
The mayor’s office would not say where Mr. Bloomberg had been traveling last weekend, or why his helicopter apparently took off from or landed at the 34th Street helipad eight times in two days. The mayor had no official events scheduled for the weekend, but he did attend the wedding of the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, on Saturday evening in Manhattan’s meatpacking district.
Mr. Bloomberg was accompanied on at least one flight by his companion, Diana L. Taylor, and the couple’s two yellow Labradors, Bonnie and Clyde.
This is, for sure, a rarefied cookie jar to get one’s hand caught in. The weekend ban has been in place since 1998, prompted by years of complaints from nearby residents about noise pollution.
The city, led by Mr. Bloomberg’s predecessor, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, fought in court to reduce the disruption of earsplitting helicopter flights from the heliport, which was built before a thicket of residential buildings sprung up in the area along the East River. The weekend ban is policed by the helipad’s operator, which has a contract with the city, although there are no formal fines or penalties for violations.
Officials in the city’s helicopter industry said New York mayors had long had continuous access to Manhattan’s several heliports. “All of New York’s heliports have always been open after hours for emergency or public service use,” said Jeff Smith, chairman of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council.
Gale Brewer, a council member who has worked for years to reduce helicopter flights in and around Manhattan, said Mr. Bloomberg had rarely been supportive of those efforts. She said she was disappointed to hear about his weekend flights.
“You have to follow the rules,” she said. “When you read that the mayor takes off at times that are restricted, I think it’s shocking.”
Dr. Ron Sticco, 50, a physician whose footage of Mr. Bloomberg’s flights, taken from his high-rise apartment overlooking the helipad, led to the report on WABC, said Wednesday that the mayor did not understand the disturbances that his flights had caused.
“There are times it’s so noisy I have to go in my bathroom to talk on the telephone,” Dr. Sticco said in an interview. “I don’t doubt the mayor has essential business to perform. But, going back to Fiorello La Guardia, they didn’t need the perpetual use of a heliport to govern the city.”
Some critics viewed the mayor’s copter trips as evidence of his disconnect from the average New Yorker. But Kenneth Sherrill, a professor of political science at Hunter College, said something else was afoot.
“This is, on a very trivial matter, about the arrogance of power,” Dr. Sherrill said. “It’s the type of thing you do when you stop thinking about the political and public consequences of what you’re doing.”
Dr. Sherrill paused and laughed, saying that he had bumped into Mr. Bloomberg on a subway car on Tuesday morning. (The mayor often says he prefers mass transit for short trips.) “To think,” the professor said, “this is the guy I saw on the subway only yesterday.”
Of course if you end the drug war these murders would stop the next day,
just like they did when American's war on liquor called the Prohibition ended.
The bootleggers went out of business because they could not compete
with legal liquor sold at legal store.
If marijuana and other drugs are legalized the drug cartels will also go
out of business because they won't be able to compete with drugs sold
at Wal-Mart, Walgreen's and other chains.
Killing of Sonora police chief stirs alarm
Cartel violence appears to be edging close to Arizona
by Daniel Gonzalez - May. 24, 2012 11:22 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The killing of the police chief in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, last weekend has alarmed officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border and raised fears that the vicious drug-cartel violence that has plagued other regions may be spreading to an area that, for the most part, has been spared the bloodshed.
Luis Fredy Rodriguez Soqui, 40, a former federal prosecutor who became director of public safety two years ago, was killed days before the city was scheduled to be recognized as one of the safest in Sonora, the state south of Arizona.
He is the first police chief killed in Sonora in recent memory, Mexican officials said.
"Obviously, this is some violence that hits pretty close to home," Yuma Police Chief John Lekan said. Until now, drug-cartel violence "seems to have avoided our neck of the woods, so it's a cause of concern."
San Luis Rio Colorado is just across the border from San Luis, Ariz., and about 26 miles south of Yuma.
The fourth-largest city in Sonora, San Luis Rio Colorado is home to about two dozen maquiladoras, foreign-owned plants that take advantage of cheaper Mexican labor to assemble products for export, including a plant for Bose speakers.
The city is also the gateway for tourists from Arizona and California who travel to beaches along the Golfo de Santa Clara. The city's downtown, located just steps from the border, is lined with pharmacies and dental offices. Many Americans shop, buy prescription drugs and have dental work done there.
Rodriguez Soqui was credited by Mexican officials with reducing crime in San Luis and keeping the city safe from cartel violence.
He was driving from his home Saturday night when two gunman in a Dodge Durango SUV opened fire with high-powered assault-style rifles, according to Mexican authorities. Rodriguez Soqui was hit 18 times in the face and other parts of his body. He was killed instantly, authorities said.
As of Thursday, no one had been arrested.
"Safety has a price, and I believe (the police chief) has paid the price for turning San Luis into the safest city in Sonora," Mayor Joel Ricardo Aguirre Yescas said in a written statement.
Vow to maintain peace
According to news accounts, the killing of the police chief prompted more than 100 residents to take to the streets Monday evening, calling on government officials to prevent the city of 160,000 from turning into another Juarez or Nuevo Laredo, two cities along the Texas border where thousands have been killed in cartel-related violence.
Such killings are rare in Sonora compared with other border states. There were 320 cartel-related homicides in Sonora in 2011, compared with 2,925 in neighboring Chihuahua the same year, according to a March report by the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute.
San Luis also has a low homicide rate compared with other cities in Sonora, according to the Sonora Attorney General's Office. In 2011, the city had a homicide rate of 3.9 per 100,000 compared with 4.3 in Hermosillo, the capital, 9.8 in Obregon, the second-largest city, and 20.9 in Nogales, the third-largest. Rocky Point, a popular beach resort, had a homicide rate of 8.9 last year.
On Tuesday, San Luis' mayor promised to maintain peace after meeting with state and federal prosecutors and members of the Mexican military.
Santiago Barroso, the city's director of social communications, called the police chief's killing an "isolated incident." He said city officials want to assure investors and U.S. tourists that the city remains safe.
"What happened was really awful, but until now, this has been a very safe city," Barroso said. "It's been many years since anything like this happened."
Concerns rekindled
Police officials in Arizona said the killing of the police chief in San Luis Rio Colorado rekindled concerns of cartel violence spilling across the border.
Within an hour of the chief's death, Mexican authorities forwarded a description of the suspects' vehicle to law-enforcement agencies in Arizona, Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said.
"One of our biggest concerns was that the suspect would enter the U.S.," he said.
Ogden said several recent heroin seizures suggest that tighter border security in the Nogales and western-desert areas is pushing drug trafficking into the Yuma area following years of declines there in both drug and human smuggling.
"We have had indications that the drugs have been moving this way," he said.
Lekan, the Yuma police chief, said crime in the city has fallen in recent years or remained stable. Yuma, which has a population of about 88,000, had three murders in 2010, up from two in 2009, according to the most recent FBI crime statistics. Yuma had a total of 550 violent crimes in 2010, down from 570 the year before.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in cartel-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calder�n launched a crackdown in 2006. Most of the violence is related to cartels battling with the government or with other cartels over control of smuggling routes into the U.S.
In Sonora, drug trafficking is controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, which is headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, said Elizabeth Kempshall, director of the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal program that coordinates drug-control efforts among local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.
Kempshall speculated that Rodriguez Soqui was killed because he refused to cooperate with the cartel or "didn't do something that he promised he would do."
Police killings rise
Rodriguez Soqui is the latest victim in a string of high-ranking police officials killed in Mexico in recent months.
In January, gunmen killed the director of public safety in Zacatepec, in the central state of Morelos.
In February, the director of police investigations in Culiacan, Sinaloa, and his brother were gunned down in a parking lot.
In March, the bullet-riddled body of the police chief of the city of Juan Aldama in Zacatecas was found in the neighboring state of Durango.
Officers have been targeted in Sonora, as well.
In 2011, the deputy police chief in Nogales and a Sonoran state police officer were killed. In 2010, the police chief in Rocky Point and his bodyguard were shot in an ambush but survived.
Ernesto Munro Palacio, Sonora's secretary for public safety, said several officers have been killed in Sonora in the past few years. But he said this was the first time in recent memory a police chief has been killed.
Munro Palacio said he had seen Rodriguez Soqui five days before he was killed, at a meeting in Hermosillo. He characterized Rodriguez Soqui, a father of three, as a dedicated police officer and credited him with making San Luis one of the safest cities in Sonora. He speculated that the police chief may have been targeted for his anti-drug smuggling work.
"We have bad eggs and good eggs, and this was one of the good ones," Munro Palacio said. "Probably he was trying to stop the drugs from going to the U.S., and they killed him."
Carlos Navarro, attorney general of Sonora, declined to speculate on a motive.
"There are many ideas floating around at the moment," Navarro said.
Mexican and U.S. news outlets reported that the attack was captured by video-surveillance cameras mounted in the neighborhood where the police chief lived, but Navarro could not confirm that. At the scene, investigators found more than fifty 7.62x39mm shell casings fired from an AK-47-style assault rifle, he said.
The number of police officers killed by drug-cartel violence in Mexico has escalated in recent years, according to the Trans-Border Institute report. Since 2008, the year the newspaper Reforma began tallying police deaths, 2,147 officers have been killed in clashes with organized criminals, the report said. Last year, 572 officers were killed, down from 718 the year before but up from 475 killed in 2009 and 385 killed in 2008, the report said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the San Luis City Council unanimously approved a replacement for the slain Rodriguez Soqui.
During a special meeting, Ramon Armando Leon Feliz, 45, a San Luis native, was sworn in as the new police chief. Leon Feliz has been a member of the city's Police Department since 1997 and most recently served as commander.
According to this article it has taken a lawsuit 35 years to get the Maricopa County jail to treat and house prisoners in a legal constitutional way.
If our government masters refuse to obey the laws and treat us in a way required by the constitution why should us serfs be required to obey the laws????
Judge: MCSO jail conditions better
Sheriff's Office's improvements end court-ordered oversight
by JJ Hensley - May. 24, 2012 10:02 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has sufficiently corrected jail deficiencies like overcrowding and poor sanitation to emerge in part from under a 35-year-old federal civil-rights lawsuit.
The decision by a federal judge will effectively end court-ordered oversight of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail facilities when it comes to food quality, sanitary conditions and overcrowding in holding areas. But attorneys representing a class of not-yet-sentenced inmates in the decades-old lawsuit say the county's health-care system in the jails and the Sheriff's Office still have plenty of work to do to bring their facilities and programs into compliance with constitutional standards.
Arpaio on Thursday touted U.S. District Judge Neil Wake's approval of the sheriff's efforts to improve his jails.
"As the years went by, we've improved out internal procedures. We're always trying to improve our jail system," Arpaio said. "I will repeat again: We run an excellent jail system, even though I may have some get-tough policies running those jails."
The lawsuit was filed in 1977 by three inmates living in the old First Avenue Jail when Jerry Hill was Maricopa County sheriff. The jails, inmates and sheriffs have continued to change through the years, but many issues related to sanitary conditions, food quality and access to recreation have remained, according to inmates and their attorneys.
Courts have generally agreed. The first judgment against the Sheriff's Office was handed down in 1981. Fourteen years later, the Sheriff's Office and inmates' attorneys entered into a negotiated agreement that stipulated changes in jail conditions. By 1998, the Sheriff's Office decided it had complied and tried to terminate the lawsuit. The matter languished for a decade before Wake took up the case and in 2008 ruled that conditions in the jails still fell below minimum requirements.
Wake's 2008 ruling focused on a dozen specific areas, and the Sheriff's Office spent the last four years trying to satisfy the court by reducing overcrowding in holding cells, providing cleaning supplies for inmates in the Durango Jail, modifying recreation areas to allow for more inmates to be out of their cells, and bringing the sheriff's famously spartan menu into compliance with federal dietary guidelines that required Arpaio to provide inmates with an average of 2,600 calories each day. A dietician was hired to ensure compliance.
"(Local attorneys) continue to say I promote a culture of cruelty in the jails, and I presume if that was true, with all the inmates they have interviewed throughout the years, they never found any culture of cruelty in our jails," Arpaio said.
Larry Hammond, an attorney with a Phoenix firm that represented inmates in recent years, said while Arpaio will claim victory, Wake's influence played a vital role in improving the jail conditions.
"The people complained so bitterly about the federal courts getting involved in matters that ought to be left to the local level," Hammond said. "Were it not for this federal court, the extraordinary result that came out of this case I'm just convinced would never have occurred."
Reaction from Maricopa County officials was mixed.
Supervisor Max Wilson said Wake's ruling demonstrated the positive results that can come from the sheriff's cooperation with county officials. But Mary Rose Wilcox, a frequent critic of Arpaio's, was less enthusiastic.
"This is an important first step," Wilcox said. "We have much further to go."
The plaintiffs' attorneys and court-appointed experts would agree with Wilcox.
With the issues in the sheriff's facilities largely resolved, sheriff's administrators will focus with county officials on improving inmate access to medical and mental-health care in an effort to satisfy those portions of Wake's ruling.
A pair of court-appointed experts visited the jails in April. While they noted the increased staffing levels and reduced mortality rates in the jails, the experts still had serious concerns about inmates' access to mental-health care and the ability of detention officers, nurses, doctors and psychiatrists to communicate with each other.
One expert also reviewed the case of Ernest "Marty" Atencio, who died in December after Phoenix police and Maricopa County detention officers had an altercation with Atencio at the Fourth Avenue Jail and deployed a Taser.
Atencio's case highlights the need for more training, particularly when patients with potential mental illness or those going through drug or alcohol withdrawal come into the system.
Some of those issues will be addressed when the county installs an electronic health-record system, the report notes, and others are the result of inherent flaws in the way mentally ill inmates are treated.
"(Correctional Health Services) has investigated many options/opportunities to secure more timely access to psychiatric hospitalization but have been stymied by the bounds of Arizona's civil commitment laws, local court interpretation, criminal court processes, defense attorney strategy and frankly, the larger political decision of the courts/counties to use the jail rather than a psychiatric hospital for competency assessment and restoration," wrote Kathryn Burns, a court-appointed expert.
But officials will have to work within those restrictions to improve access to medical and mental-health care if they want to emerge from under that portion of Wake's judgment, said an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, which represents the inmates.
"The sheriff, like the county, as defendants, are required to comply with the medical and mental-health provisions of the judgment. As of now, neither the sheriff nor the county are in compliance with those," said Gabe Eber. "The court has treated them both as co-defendants. There are clearly areas the sheriff needs to be involved in. ... There are going to be areas of access to care where the sheriff needs to cooperate with CHS and make changes."
"Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan ... cited an employee survey and said that nearly 60 percent of the agency’s workers indicated they would report unethical behavior"
Which means 40 percent of the Secret Service cops won't report their fellow cops for committing crimes.
Not everyone is comfortable reporting unethical behavior, survey indicates
By Joe Davidson, Published: May 24
When Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan appeared before a Senate committee investigating the Colombia prostitution scandal, he cited an employee survey and said that nearly 60 percent of the agency’s workers indicated they would report unethical behavior.
Sullivan was referring to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management.
The director, who appeared to be operating from memory when he mentioned the survey, was close on its findings. Among Secret Service employees, 55.5 percent gave a positive response to the question: “I can disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule, or regulation without fear of reprisal.”
Put another way, 45 percent apparently would fear reprisal, and that’s much too high.
The 55.5 percent places the agency a little below the government-wide average of 59.9 percent on that question, according to John Palguta, a vice president of the Partnership for Public Service, a good-government group that focuses on the federal workforce. The partnership has a content-sharing relationship with The Washington Post.
“We want to improve that number so it’s 100 percent,” Sullivan said at Wednesday’s hearing. Unethical behavior, “we want that to be reported to us.”
The way the question was worded, many employees would probably think of reprisal as something a manager might do, such as denying a promotion or a bonus, Palguta said. But reprisal also could be in the form of peer pressure, which is what Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, seemed to have in mind when he asked “what the Secret Service is doing . . . to ensure that no code of silence exists among agents and officers.”
Palguta is familiar with the Viewpoint Survey because the Partnership uses the OPM data to develop the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report.
Overall, Palguta said “employees gave the Secret Service a decent score as a good place to work compared to other federal organizations” in the survey.
The below-average score on disclosing violations, however, indicates that this is a problem the agency needs to address.
<SNIP>
A 10-year nightmare over rape conviction is over
Brian Banks spent years in prison, branded a rapist. Then his accuser provided the key to getting his conviction dismissed.
By Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times
May 25, 2012
Brian Banks logged onto Facebook last year, and a new friend request startled him.
It was the woman who, nearly a decade ago, accused him of rape when they were both students at Long Beach Poly High School.
Banks had served five years in prison for the alleged rape, and now he was unemployed and weary. So he replied to Wanetta Gibson with a question: Would she meet with him and a private investigator? She agreed.
At the meeting, which was secretly recorded, Gibson said she had lied. "No," she was quoted as saying, "he did not rape me."
That admission set off an extraordinary chain of events that culminated Thursday morning. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed Banks' conviction, ending 10 years of turmoil in a hearing that lasted less than a minute.
Banks, 26, bowed his head and trembled, his eyes flooding with tears. His girlfriend, Pamela Soladar, yelped with joy. They made their way to each other and embraced; Banks was too overwhelmed to speak.
"You made it," she whispered to him.
It had been a long, maddening journey.
In the summer of 2002, Banks was considered a top college football prospect. A 6-foot-4, 225-pound middle linebacker at Long Beach Poly High, Banks said he had been courted by USC, UCLA and other football powerhouses.
He was attending summer school, and asked his teacher for permission to leave class so he could make a phone call, according to court papers. Then Banks, a senior, ran into Gibson, a sophomore.
Banks said they fooled around, but that their sexual contact was consensual. His mother, Leomia Myers, believed him, and said she sold her condo and her car to pay for his defense.
"I knew I didn't raise my son to do something so horrendous," she said.
Gibson's version shifted over the years. She could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Initially, court papers show, she told a classmate in a note rife with misspellings: "he picked me up and put me in the elevator and he took me down stairs and he pulled my pants down and he rapped me and he didn't have an condom on and I was a virgin now Im not." Gibson later told authorities a similar, more detailed story.
But when she testified during Banks' preliminary hearing, Gibson faced the rigorous questioning typical in sexual assault cases. She changed some details and added others, Banks' attorneys alleged in court documents.
Banks had a choice: He could take the he said-she said case to trial and, if convicted, risk being sentenced to 41 years to life in prison. Or, as his lawyer advised, he could accept a plea deal.
Banks pleaded no contest to one count of forcible rape, spent five years in prison and, upon his release, was forced to register as a sex offender and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. At one point, he begged the California Innocence Project in San Diego for help, but he was told that without new evidence, there was nothing its attorneys could do.
"It's been a struggle, it's been a nightmare," he said. "It's more than I can describe, the things that I've been through."
Meanwhile Gibson and her family sued the Long Beach schools. They settled the case for $1.5 million. Gibson's mother, Wanda Rhodes, could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Had Gibson not contacted Banks via Facebook, it's unlikely their paths would have crossed again. But she felt guilty that he had lost out on going to college and playing football and had "a desire to make amends," Banks' attorneys said in court documents.
When Banks heard from her, he recalled, "I stopped what I was doing and got down on my knees and prayed to God to help me play my cards right."
According to Banks and his private investigator, Gibson refused to tell prosecutors that she had lied, so that she wouldn't have to return the money she and her family had won in court.
She also said she feared it would affect her relationship with her children, Banks' attorney alleged in court papers.
But her taped admission was enough to interest the Innocence Project attorneys, who said they had never before taken the case of someone already released from prison. When they reexamined Banks' case, said Innocence Project attorney Justin Brooks, investigators also found other evidence to back up his claims.
After the alleged rape, no male DNA had been detected on Gibson's underwear, his attorneys said. Also, the classmate Gibson first told about the alleged attack — via the note — said Gibson later admitted to making up the story so her mother wouldn't find out she was sexually active, attorneys said.
More recently, Gibson has backed off her recantation, Brooks said. Nevertheless, when presented with the Innocence Project's findings, Los Angeles County prosecutors agreed that the case should be thrown out.
"It's not our job to maintain a conviction at any cost," Deputy Dist. Atty. Brentford Ferreira said. "It's our job to do justice."
He said prosecutors had no plans to charge Gibson, saying it would be a difficult case to prove.
Banks walked out of Thursday's hearing as if in a daze. Someone handed him a black hooded sweat shirt with the word "innocent" in bold white letters.
He led a parade of supporters and cameramen outside the Long Beach courthouse, where he shared his hopes for restarting his football career. At one point, he grabbed his attorney's hand and raised both their arms into the air, the pose of an athlete who has just clinched victory.
ashley.powers@latimes.com
It's nice to see the newspapers are skeptical about this confession of the 30 year old crime of the murder of Etan Patz.
Almost all police agencies in America use the "9 Step Reid Method" to get confessions. The "9 Step Reid Method" works like a psychological version of beating the suspect with a mental rubber hose till he confesses. Innocent people routinely give false confessions to the police when questioned using the "9 Step Reid Method".
The four kids from Tucson who falsely confessed to the Buddhist Tempe Murders in the west Phoenix area were questioned using the "9 Step Reid Method".
Publicity First, Evidence Later in Patz Arrest
By JIM DWYER
Published: May 24, 2012 86 Comments
Back from London, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, stepped in front of the cameras in prime time Thursday evening to announce that the police were accusing Pedro Hernandez of killing Etan Patz in 1979.
The mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, had weighed in a few hours earlier, declaring that “we” had a suspect in custody. That wasn’t even the first word of the day: the police commissioner had beaten the mayor to it, issuing a statement at 6:30 in the morning, before he got on a jet in London.
The boy disappeared 33 years ago, the suspect had been in custody for barely a day, after decades of false starts, but already the publicity engine was outracing the actual investigation or filing of charges. “People heard the word ‘confession’ and they think that’s it, the case is solved,” a law enforcement official involved in the case said.
Is it?
“If this was a baseball game, we would be in the first inning,” the official, who would not be identified, said. “He is lucid, he’s persuasive. But there is not a lot of corroborating information.”
So far, the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has not filed charges, though officials suggested that that would happen on Friday, if Mr. Hernandez’s story held up. Mr. Vance did not appear at the police commissioner’s news conference or with the mayor earlier in the day. The attitude among prosecutors was that while Mr. Hernandez had told a compelling story, there was absolutely no need to rush, and many good reasons to be cautious.
Indeed, Mr. Hernandez was not the first to be implicated, nor even the first to implicate himself.
In 1932, more than 200 people came forward to confess that they had kidnapped the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, the aviators. It was around that time that the police made a practice of keeping secret a few facts about a crime, as a way of weeding out people who felt compelled to claim that they had done something they had not.
Whether such details exist in the disappearance of Etan Patz is not known. Asked if Mr. Hernandez had volunteered any, Mr. Kelly did not answer directly. Because the boy disappeared without any known trace or witnesses, it may be that no such details are in the hands of the police. That makes the task of verifying Mr. Hernandez’s confession a great deal more complicated, but no less urgent.
The law enforcement official involved in the case said that investigators were now trying to find reasons to trust Mr. Hernandez’s story. Why would a man with no known history of pedophilia or murderous impulses lure a boy into a bodega basement and strangle him?
“He doesn’t give any motivation in the statement,” the official said. “The admission was totally unsolicited.”
All through the rainy spring afternoon, investigators were chasing down family members and others who had contact with Mr. Hernandez. They were trying to see if he had a pattern of falsely claiming to have done other terrible things, or if he had a psychiatric history.
Asked a number of times why the confession was trustworthy, Mr. Kelly said “the detectives” had credited it, and cited its length of over three hours. But he said in answer to many questions that the detectives were still investigating.
The news conference had come first, while the investigation into many basic facts would have to catch up. The disappearance of Etan Patz in 1979 was seared into the fabric of New York life, and whenever it seems to have vanished from public discussion, a new suspect or theory emerges. A solution to the crime, which Mr. Hernandez may well have provided, could be a source of balm. But would anything have been lost by making sure they had the right person before hauling out the trumpets?
“Wasn’t it just last month that we were digging up a basement and were sure that it was another guy?” the law enforcement official said. “There’ll be plenty of time for a victory lap, if it’s warranted.”
E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com
N.J. official: NYPD Muslim surveillance legal
Muslim residents have no recourse to halt police spying, state AG says
by Samantha Henry - May. 24, 2012 08:50 PM
Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. - New York City police did not violate New Jersey laws when they conducted surveillance of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups, Gov. Chris Christie's administration said Thursday following a three-month review, a finding that angered Muslim leaders who had sought a clampdown on the cross-border police operations.
The conclusion by Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a Christie appointee asked by the governor to look into the spying, means New Jersey Muslims have no state recourse to stop the New York Police Department from infiltrating student groups, videotaping mosque-goers or collecting their license plate numbers as they pray.
Such operations were part of a widespread NYPD program to collect intelligence on Muslim communities both inside New York and beyond. Undercover officers and informants eavesdropped in Muslim cafes and monitored sermons, even when there was no evidence of a crime. The result was that many innocent business owners, students and others were cataloged in police files.
The interstate surveillance efforts, revealed by the Associated Press earlier this year, angered many Muslims and New Jersey officials. Some, like Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the state's top FBI official, criticized the tactics. Others, like Christie, focused on the fact that the NYPD didn't tell New Jersey exactly what it was up to.
In response, Chiesa launched what he described as a fact-finding review. That review concluded that the NYPD's operations violated no state laws, either civil or criminal.
Further, authorities found that New Jersey has no laws barring outside law-enforcement agencies from secretly conducting operations in the state, representatives of the attorney general's office told the AP. However, New York police have agreed to meet with New Jersey law enforcement regularly to discuss counterterrorism intelligence and operations, the attorney general said.
Chiesa, the governor's former chief counsel and a longtime confidante, outlined the state's findings in closed-door meetings Thursday afternoon with Muslim leaders.
Muslim leaders said they were told that every instance of NYPD activity in New Jersey had been justified by a lead, but that the attorney general would not provide any details on the nature of any of those leads, saying the fact-finding was ongoing.
Mexico's 2 major crime cartels are now at war
by William Booth - May. 24, 2012 11:46 AM
Washington Post
MEXICO CITY -- The two most important criminal organizations in Mexico are engaged in all-out war, and the most spectacular battles are being fought for the cameras as the combatants pursue a strategy of intimidation and propaganda by dumping ever greater numbers of headless bodies in public view -- the victims most likely innocents.
No longer limiting themselves to regional skirmishes, the older, established drug-smuggling Sinaloa cartel is now fighting the brash, young paramilitary Zetas crime organization across multiple front lines in Mexico in a desperate fight, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and security analysts on both sides of the border.
The two gangs and their surrogates continue to quietly kill each other, but they are also staging public massacres in order to terrify civilians, cow authorities and taunt outgoing President Felipe Calderon, who has made his U.S.-backed confrontation against the cartels a centerpiece of his administration.
"What was once viewed as extreme is now normal. So these gangs must find new extremes. And the only real limit is their imagination, and you do not want to know what is the limit of psychopaths," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst with the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, a nonpartisan think tank.
In the past month alone, in what authorities describe as gruesome version of text messaging, the two criminal groups and their allies deposited 14 headless bodies in front of city hall in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, and hung nine people, including four women, from a bridge in the same city.
They have left 18 dismembered bodies in vans near Lake Chapala, an area frequented by tourists and U.S. retirees outside Guadalajara. They used a dump truck to unload 49 more corpses, missing not only heads but also feet and hands, outside Monterrey, Mexico's main industrial city.
To guarantee the widest possible audience, they posted a video of themselves dumping the bodies, plus a banner: "Gulf cartel, Sinaloa cartel, marines and soldiers, nobody can do anything against us or they will lose. . . . "
It was signed with names of Zeta leaders.
"We've had over recent weeks these despicable inhuman acts in different parts of the country that are part of an irrational struggle mainly between two of the existing criminal organizations and their criminal allies," said Mexico's interior minister, Alejandro Poire.
Many of the victims have not been identified, and in the case of the 49 decapitated corpses, their heads have not yet been recovered. It appears likely the victims might not have been members of the warring groups but street criminals, addicts, civilians or migrants just passing through on their way to the United States.
"The killings are done to draw a response from the media, from the government, to bring in the military. So these victims, they are not members of the organizations. They are just random guys. All the evidence suggests this," said Jorge Chabat of the Center for Investigation and Economic Studies, an expert on the drug trade.
"They have never been very careful about who they kill," Chabat said. "They just kill."
For the past few months, based on wiretaps, intelligence from informants and arrests, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents say they have been watching the Zetas make incursions deep into the Sinaloa cartel's traditional territories -- even in Sierra Madre towns such as Badiraguato and Choix, once thought as impregnable strongholds for Sinaloa's leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the most wanted man in Mexico.
The motivation behind the massacres? "These acts show force. They tell the world, the government, their opponents, that 'I am alive! You have not defeated me. I still am here.' They show muscle," said Martin Barron, an expert on security at the National Institute of Criminal Science.
"Now why have things gone so far? Such brutality? Why cut off the heads, hands and feet? Previously, these organizations settled matters with a bullet in the head. Not anymore. Now there is a psychopathology at work. Some of these people obviously enjoy this, and they are teaching their surrogates, teenagers, to enjoy it," Barron said.
To bolster their defense of regions they control, and to destabilize their opponents, both groups have taken the fight to the other's territory. Part of this strategy is to "heat up the plaza" -- a plaza being a city or town where a criminal group controls corrupt officials and police as well as smuggling routes, a network of safe houses, armories of stashed weapons, and teams dedicated to spying, collecting money and killing.
By heating up a plaza, the warring sides hope to bring in a forceful response by the authorities -- sending in the army or marines, who round up local crime cells and put pressure on the dominant group.
The assassins almost always leave "narcomantas," neatly printed manifestos full of expletives and obscure rants that claim authorship for the killing.
Sometimes the manifestos are accurate; other times they are designed to confuse. In the case of the 49 mutilated bodies left last week outside Monterrey, the Zetas first asserted responsibility for the massacre, then denied it in other banners hung across the state, then finally took credit, perhaps reluctantly, when Mexican military forces arrested Daniel Elizondo, alias "The Madman," a leader of the local Zetas cell.
Elizondo told authorities he had been ordered by the Zeta leadership to dump the bodies in the center of in Cadereyta, an industrial town on the outskirts of Monterrey, but that he became frightened and put them on the highway leading outside of town.
There is no way to know whether Elizondo's confession was true or made under duress. Those arrested for massacres are never tried in open court, the records are almost impossible to obtain, and most are never put before a judge but sent to jail and eventually released. Mexico's prosecution rate for homicides is low.
U.S. law enforcement and Mexican analysts say the outbreak of war is not designed to directly influence the July 1 presidential election.
But front-runner Enrique Pea Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which hopes to return to power after 12 years, has stressed that he is more interested in lowering violence than in drug trafficking.
This would put Pea Nieto squarely against the Zetas, who specialize more in carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and smuggling migrants than in smuggling cocaine and marijuana.
Post researcher Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.
On the other hand I think this is a great example of why we should replace
the government run public schools, which are really government schools,
with privately run schools
Mississippi school district agrees not to handcuff students
by Jeff Amy - May. 25, 2012 11:42 PM
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - Public schools in Jackson, Miss., will no longer handcuff students to poles or other objects and will train staff at its alternative school on better methods of discipline.
Mississippi's second-largest school district agreed Friday to the settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which had sued over the practice of shackling students to a pole at the district's Capital City Alternative School.
Nationwide, a report from the U.S. Department of Education showed tens of thousands of students, 70 percent of them disabled, were strapped down or physically restrained in school in 2009-10. Advocates for disabled students say restraints are often abused, causing injury and sometimes death.
The Mississippi lawsuit was filed in June 2011 by Jeanette Murry on behalf of her then-16-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It said staffers routinely restrained students for hours for offenses as minor as dress-code violations, forcing them to eat lunch while chained to a stair railing and to shout for help when they needed to go to the bathroom.
The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, says all district employees will stop handcuffing students younger than 13 and can only handcuff older students for crimes. In no case will employees shackle a student to a fixed object such as a railing, a pole, a desk or a chair.
"It's apparent there were severe problems that we hope now are being addressed and will be alleviated," Lee told lawyers in court Friday.
"My ID's my gun, (expletive deleted) ... I'll shoot you"
Mesa police to release results of misconduct investigation in road-rage incident
by Jim Walsh - May. 25, 2012 09:47 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Four months after a road-rage incident in northeast Mesa, police have concluded that a veteran officer was to blame, not the man he arrested.
Aggravated-assault charges against Randy Smyers were dropped after an investigation found inconsistencies in statements by Sgt. Mike Duke, who was off-duty when the incident occurred.
Mesa Police Chief Frank Milstead said Friday that police believe it was Duke who landed the first blow during the incident. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is reviewing the investigation, which was handled by Scottsdale police to avoid a conflict of interest, and will decide whether Duke will be charged with any crimes.
"This conduct falls far below the standards of the police department and the community,'' Milstead said. "We were less than accurate in the reporting of this original incident.''
Milstead said any disciplinary action against Duke would be determined after the County Attorney's decision and the completion of an internal-affairs investigation.
"Mike Duke served the police department for 19 years," Milstead said. "What happened this day was very unfortunate and it will probably change his life forever.'
Jerry Cobb, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, confirmed that his office has received an investigative report from the Scottsdale police. He said the matter is under review and no charges have been filed.
But the Mesa Police Association, which represents Duke, said Duke was driving off-duty on a Sunday morning to an urgent-care center with his three sons "when he encountered an aggressive man engaging in road rage.''
The MPA press release said Smyers stopped his car in the middle of a street and approached Duke's car "in a threatening manner.''
The MPA said Duke was in pain and that he acted to protect himself, his children and the public's safety. Duke had suffered a knee injury while playing baseball and was driving to an urgent-care facility to seek medical treatment.
"Officers are compelled to act on and off duty,'' Sgt. Ryan Russell, president of the association, said in a statement. "Sgt. Duke could have fled the area, but I don't think that's what the public expects of their police officers. Duke clearly felt his children and the public were threatened by Randy Smyer's erratic actions.''
The incident occurred about 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 18. According to court documents released at the time, Smyers became angry because he felt that Duke was tailgating him in his van, according to court document released by police after the incident.
Duke identified himself as a police officer and asked Smyers twice to move his car, but Smyers refused, shouted profanities at Duke and walked toward Duke's van, the report said.
But on a 911 tape released Friday by the department, it is Duke that is heard yelling profanities at Smyers, while Smyers asks Duke several times to identify himself.
"My ID's my gun, (expletive deleted),'' Duke told Smyers at one point. "I'll shoot you.''
Jerry Smyers, Randy's brother, told police that Randy just wanted Duke to drive around him when he stopped his pickup in the street, according to a police report.
Duke and Randy Smyers eventually got into a fight, during which Smyers suffered facial injuries and Duke injured his knee, the report said.
Debbie Spinner, Mesa's city attorney, said the city decided to negotiate a financial settlement with Randy and Jerry Smyers after they filed a notice of claim, a legal requirement before a lawsuit can be filed against a city.
Spinner said the settlements have not been completed.
A deputy city attorney said Mesa reached a $62,500 settlement with Jerry Smyers and negotiations with Randy Smyers are ongoing.
The police association said Duke's duties have included serving as a gang detective and gang-enforcement sergeant.
Posted: Friday, May 25, 2012 5:13 pm
By Mike Sakal, Tribune
A veteran Mesa police officer remains on paid administrative leave and the focus of an internal affairs investigation into accusations of using excessive force against two men during a traffic altercation.
The Scottsdale Police Department, which investigated the incident involving Sgt. Michael Duke and brothers Randy and Jerry Smyers, has submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Mesa Police announced on Friday. Scottsdale handled the investigation at Mesa’s request to avoid bias or conflict of interest.
During a well-attended press conference, Mesa police Chief Frank Milstead said he believes that at some point during a traffic altercation in Mesa about 7:30 a.m. Dec. 18, 2011, Duke held one of the men at gunpoint and assaulted one of the men first. That information conflicted with what Duke initially reported that led to the arrest of Randy Smyers, 47, on suspicion of aggravated assault on a police officer, Milstead said.
Duke was placed on paid administrative leave the day following the incident once the brothers started informing the city of what happened.
“These allegations are always taken very seriously. The initial stages of the investigation indicated there may have been criminal misconduct,” Milstead said.
Duke was driving to an urgent care center with his children in the car and encountered an aggressive man engaging in road rage, according to the Mesa Police Association, the union representing the officer. Randy Smyers became angry because he felt that Duke was tailgating him in his van, according to documents released by police.
According to the Mesa Police Association, the man identified as Randy Smyers, stopped his car in the middle of a street and approached Duke’s car “in a threatening manner.”
Duke identified himself as a police officer and asked Smyers twice to move his car, but Smyers refused, shouted profanities at Duke and walked toward Duke’s van, according to a Mesa police report.
Duke drew his weapon and called 911. The two men eventually got into an altercation, during which Smyers suffered facial injuries and Duke injured his knee, according to the report.
Randy Smyers’ brother, Jerry, was also injured during the traffic altercation. Randy Smyers, who was accused of aggravated assault on a police officer, was booked into jail, but later released and exonerated of any wrongdoing, Milstead said.
No charges are expected to be filed against either of the Smyers, Milstead said.
“This officer’s conduct fell far below the standards of the police department,” Milstead said. “We have fallen down in this endeavor, and there was information in this report less than correct, and that has been rectified.”
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokesman Jerry Cobb said on Friday the office has received the case from the Scottsdale police. The case is under review and no charges have been filed.
Nor has Duke been arrested in connection to the incident.
So far, one of the Smyers’ claims has been settled with the city, but the monetary figure is not known, and another claim is under consideration, Milstead said.
“Officers are compelled to act — on and off duty,” Sgt. Ryan Russell, president of the Mesa Police Association said in a statement issued by the union. “Sgt. Duke could have fled the area, but I don’t think that’s what the public expects of their police officers. Duke clearly felt his children and the public were threatened by Randy Smyers’ erratic actions.”
Duke has served as a gang detective and as a gang enforcement sergeant. He was a U.S. Army paratrooper in the first Gulf War, according to information from the MPA.
Near the end of the press conference, Milstead said, “What happened that day is unfortunate. It will impact his (Duke’s) career and his life forever. The outcome of the criminal investigation has a lot to do with whether he could stay on the force.”
Contact writer: (480) 898-6533 or msakal@evtrib.com
PLEA or Phoenix Law Enforcement Association is the union that represents Phoenix cops.
Phoenix union-funding case moves forward
by Lynh Bui - May. 25, 2012 06:06 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A Superior Court judge expects to issue an opinion late next week on whether Phoenix should temporarily suspend the practice of funding "release time" for city police officers to conduct union business.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper heard three hours of testimony from witnesses in the case on Friday.
The request for a preliminary injunction is part of a lawsuit brought by the Goldwater Institute against the city of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.
The Goldwater Institute contends the city has been violating the gift clause of the Arizona constitution by using taxpayer money to fund salaries of union and labor association leaders who represent city employees. Goldwater filed the complaint in late 2011 on behalf of Phoenix residents and "tea party" activists William Cheatham and Marcus Huey.
If Cooper issues the injunction, it would stop the release-time practice for the remainder of the current labor contract Phoenix has with PLEA, which ends June 30. Phoenix pays about $1 million for six full-time positions dedicated to lobby and conduct union business on behalf of PLEA.
During Friday's hearing, Goldwater attorney Clint Bolick attempted to show that the city couldn't quantify the direct benefits it receives for what it spends on release time for the officers who conduct union business.
The gift clause requires the city to prove it receives direct, tangible benefits from money it gives to a private entity, he said.
Bolick also said the city didn't have a clear way of tracking how union officers spend their release time.
"The union has hijacked the city's treasury to fulfill its responsibilities," Bolick said.
Michael Napier, the attorney representing the city, maintained that release time serves a vital function for the city and the community by protecting police officers.
He tried to show the practices saves the city money as the union officers on release help resolve personnel and labor conflicts at a lower level before they escalate into costly litigation.
He also said the cooperative relationship between the city and PLEA has helped the city when it comes to lobbying the Arizona lawmakers against cuts to state-shared revenue or finding ways to save money working together to overhaul healthcare benefits for retiring employees.
"The harm is with the city, with the officers and with the community" if the practice of release time is eliminated," Napier said.
Earlier this month, the Phoenix City Council approved a new two-year labor contract for PLEA. The contract, set to begin July 1, continues the release time practice despite the pending lawsuit.
Usually city governments are the ones that raise the revenue with DUI arrests. I am not quite sure what government entities will get the loot from shaking down these travelers in the Grand Canyon since that is probably Federal land.
I used to think DUI was a really bad crime, but since the legal level of intoxication is .08, that is only two beers for me, and I am certainly not drunk after two beers. For a petite woman like Paris Hilton who was popped for DUI, that is a measly ONE beer. And I certainly don't think a person should be busted for DUI after drinking one lousy beer.
When DUI was invented the level was .15. Now at .15 I certainly am drunk.
It takes about 5 beers for me to get to that level.
But over the years, mostly due to laws passed at the Federal level
the legal standard of DUI dropped to .10 and then .08.
These laws force the states to set the DUI level to .08 in order
to get money from the Feds for highway projects.
Holiday DUI checkpoints at Grand Canyon
May. 26, 2012 07:24 AM
Associated Press
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK -- Travelers heading to the Grand Canyon during the holiday weekend should expect to go through safety stops.
Rangers in Grand Canyon National Park will be setting up sobriety checkpoints ahead of the Memorial Day weekend to for all park visitors and residents.
Park authorities say the dates and locations will be randomly selected.
More than 600 people were arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol statewide during Memorial Day weekend last year.
Sure the guy is a harmless pervert, but it is a waste of our tax dollars to lock up a harmless pervert for emailing a nude photo of himself to a woman.
I think it costs some where between $25,000 to $50,000 a year to put a person in prison. This man's prison sentence is going to cost the taxpayers of Arizona between $75,000 and $150,000 and that is a waste of money for a victimless crime that didn't harm anyone!!!
Mesa man gets 3-year prison term in sexting case
Posted: Friday, May 25, 2012 2:16 pm
Associated Press
A Mesa man has been sentenced to three years in prison for sending nude pictures of himself to a young girl’s cell phone.
Maricopa County prosecutors say 24-year-old Jonathan Knight also was sentenced Thursday to lifetime probation with sex offender terms.
Knight pleaded guilty last month to two counts of furnishing obscene or harmful items to a minor and one count of luring of a minor.
Authorities say Knight was a Tae Kwon Do instructor in Gilbert when he was accused of sending naked photos of himself to a 12-year-old student.
A meeting was set up between Knight and Gilbert police who impersonated the girl.
Phoenix TV station KPHO says Knight was arrested near the girl’s home last Oct. 27. Police say he admitted “sexting” the pictures to the girl.
Scottsdale debates the costs of public safety
Scottsdale fire, police only division not cut
by Beth Duckett - May. 28, 2012 07:35 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Scottsdale officials are debating the cost of offering top-notch police and fire protection to citizens, a service that consumes the biggest chunk of the city's budget for basic operations.
Some elected officials have questioned the high price tag of the public-safety division, saying the city has cut back in other departments but hasn't considered streamlining police and fire.
Critics cite a statistic that show Scottsdale outranks all major Valley cities except for Phoenix in public-safety employees per capita.
Scottsdale has 4.3 public-safety employees per 1,000 residents, compared with 4.1 in Tempe, 3.9 in Glendale and 3.8 in Mesa, data compiled by Scottsdale shows.
"The point is, how much public safety can the city afford? How much should they afford?" Scottsdale City Councilman Ron McCullagh said at a recent council meeting. "Let's look at it from the standpoint of the budget."
McCullagh said there is a distinction between fewer employees and lower pay. High pay is necessary to attract and retain top officers, he has said.
Councilman Bob Littlefield opposes any cuts to public safety.
In Scottsdale, the crime rate fell by 14 percent during the first two months of 2012 compared with the same time in 2011.
"Scottsdale's low crime rate is due precisely to the resources we currently invest," Littlefield said.
Police representatives said now is the time to invest dollars in the department, which is losing trained police personnel to other Valley cities with better pay and benefits.
Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane said the crux of the concern lies in the starting salary for police officers, noting that mid- and upper-end salaries "are not really in trouble."
A Scottsdale compensation study showed the city's police officers take home the lowest starting pay of any major Valley city.
Scottsdale pays its rookie officers an average of $49,878. Gilbert is next lowest, paying its new officers $50,544.
"What we're seeing is we're no longer competitive," said Jim Hill, president of the Police Officers of Scottsdale Association, at a council meeting.
Since 2009-10, the police department has eliminated 63 positions. Another 10 positions are on the chopping block in 2012-13, police officials said.
In 2009, Scottsdale implemented a 2 percent, across-the-board pay cut. Since then, the city has frozen pay and raised the amount that all employees pay toward their health care.
With the economy in recovery mode, the Scottsdale City Council tentatively has backed a plan to spend $3.3 million on raises and salary adjustments for eligible employees next fiscal year.
The plan would offer merit pay raises to high-qualifying workers and bump up the salaries of about 420 workers whose pay lags others in the market.
Lane said he would like to consider another approach where the city could give out 2 percent raises to the employees who took pay cuts in 2009, while the remaining dollars could go to department heads to spend on pay as they see fit.
But Jim Nolan, president of the Scottsdale Fraternal Order of Police, said Lane's proposal would "be completely counterproductive to the improved retention we're aiming for."
Public safety in the Valley
Phoenix ranks highest in the number of public-safety employees per 1,000 residents. The 2011-12 numbers are based on preliminary data compiled by Scottsdale.
Cities and their public-safety employees per 1,000 residents:
Pentagon: Pinal must account for surplus military gear
by Dennis Wagner - May. 29, 2012 10:53 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Pentagon office responsible for distribution of surplus military gear to law-enforcement agencies nationwide has asked the Pinal County Sheriff's Office for an accounting of vehicles and other equipment that it lent to non-police organizations.
Representatives of the Defense Logistics Agency and Sheriff Paul Babeu confirmed that the request for documentation came in the aftermath of a May 20Arizona Republic article about an estimated $7 million worth of excess military merchandise that the Sheriff's Office has obtained free in the past two years.
Under federal regulations, police are able to requisition excess Humvees, firearms, binoculars, clothing, computers and hundreds of other items at no charge. The surplus merchandise, known in military jargon as DRMO, must be used at least one year for law-enforcement purposes.
More than 17,000 police departments took part in the program during fiscal 2011, acquiring $500 million worth of gear.
The Republic story focused on Babeu's practice of distributing vehicles and other equipment to public-safety agencies that do not enforce laws. It also called into question plans by the Sheriff's Office to sell surplus military gear at auction, bringing in revenue that Babeu said might crest $500,000 in just six months, according to a budget presentation the sheriff gave to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors in March.
Federal regulations strictly prohibit requisitioning demilitarized equipment for the purpose of budget enhancement.
The so-called 1033 Program is overseen by the Defense Logistics Agency's Law Enforcement Support Office. In an e-mail, Tim Hoyle, public-affairs specialist for the agency, said federal officials are "working with the (Sheriff's Office) on ways to improve property control and accountability." He did not elaborate.
Elias Johnson, a public-information officer for Babeu, said initial indications were that the sheriff would be asked to return surplus items, but the agency instead asked for records verifying what equipment has been lent to other organizations.
"They just wanted to make sure we have documents and on-hand proof of where they (DRMO items) are," Johnson said. "We've turned over kind of our books to them. We're just waiting to hear back."
In the past two years, sheriff's officials have distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of vehicles and medical equipment to organizations in Pinal County. A Humvee, a 5-ton truck and defibrillators were lent to Southwest Ambulance, a private business. A $175,000 firetruck and other gear went to the county's Regional Fire and Rescue Department.
Critics said that practice violates rules of the 1033 Program, allows the sheriff to curry political favor by playing "Santa Claus" with military surplus and deprives other law-enforcement agencies that may need the items for their own use.
An 11-page agreement that Babeu signed to participate in the military-surplus program says merchandise may be procured only by agencies "whose primary function is the enforcement of applicable federal, state and local laws and whose compensated law-enforcement officers have powers of arrest and apprehension."
Babeu, who this month dropped his candidacy for Congress and announced that he is seeking re-election as sheriff, has declined interview requests.
Tim Gaffney, the Sheriff's Office's director of communications, said in e-mails that the practice of "loaning" gear to public-safety partners saves taxpayers' money and enhances public service. He said vehicles and medical equipment remain on the sheriff's inventory but have been "strategically placed" countywide to support the Sheriff's Office in case of emergencies.
Matt Van Camp, a Payson Police Department detective who coordinates the 1033 Program in Arizona, said the Defense Department is trying to determine whether the distribution of surplus military gear to emergency-response organizations should be allowed.
"They're reviewing the loaning practice to see how it fits into the program," Van Camp said. "I think it is a gray area. ... As of this date, nothing has come down to change. I think the question is: 'Can we do this?' I don't have the answer."
Of more than 100 Arizona law-enforcement agencies participating in the program, Van Camp said he does not know of any other that operates like the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. He agreed with Gaffney that the sharing of equipment with non-police organizations ultimately reduces public expense and improves public safety. However, he also said the lending of equipment creates questions of accountability that need to be resolved.
Van Camp said he is urging the logistics agency to push for legislation that would expand the use of military surplus beyond law enforcement so that fire departments and other emergency-response organizations would qualify. He noted that the General Services Administration operates a separate enterprise, the 1122 Program, that allows public-safety organization to use federal buying power to acquire merchandise at discount rates using the broader guidelines. Van Camp said he does not know if the agency supports that proposal.
Hoyle, the public-affairs specialist with the agency, could not be reached late Tuesday for comment.
Remember the jackbooted thugs at the Department of Homeland Security are reading every word you type in an email letter, search for using Google, post onto a web page, or use on Facebook or other websites.
And of course if you get this in an email from me, remember the police state thugs at Homeland Security will probably read the email before you see it.
Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')
By Daniel Miller
PUBLISHED: 04:32 EST, 26 May 2012 | UPDATED: 12:46 EST, 26 May 2012
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.
Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.
The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.
Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.
However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.
As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.
The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.
In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.
Threat detection: Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats
Threat detection: Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats
They point out that it includes 'vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters.'
A senior Homeland Security official told the Huffington Post that the manual 'is a starting point, not the endgame' in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats and denied that the government was monitoring signs of dissent.
However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.
Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program.'
This URL contains a list of the words that the Homeland Security looks for when they read our email:
scribd.com/doc/82701103/Analyst-Desktop-Binder-REDACTED
The document is called the "The Analysts Desktop Binder" and the keywords are on pages 20 thru 23.
If I get the full list of words I will put them here:
Jesus, don't these government nannies have any real criminals to hunt down????
NYC eyes ban on sale of oversized sodas
by Samantha Gross - May. 31, 2012 07:07 AM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks in the city's restaurants, delis and movie theaters in the hopes of combating obesity -- an expansion of his administration's efforts to encourage healthy behavior by limiting residents' choices.
The proposal -- expected to be announced formally on Thursday in a City Hall briefing -- would take 20-ounce soda bottles off the shelves of the city's delis and eliminate super-sized sugary soft drinks from fast-food menus. It is the latest health effort by the administration to spark accusations that the city's officials are overstepping into matters that should be left in the hands of individual consumers.
"There they go again," said Stefan Friedman, spokesman for the New York City Beverage Association, who called the proposal "zealous" in a statement. "The New York City Health Department's unhealthy obsession with attacking soft drinks is again pushing them over the top. The city is not going to address the obesity issue by attacking soda because soda is not driving the obesity rates."
But City Hall officials, citing a 2006 study, argue that sugary drinks are the largest driver of rising calorie consumption and obesity. They note that sweet drinks are linked to long-term weight gain and increased rates of diabetes and heart disease.
The administration's proposal would impose a 16-ounce limit on the size of sugary drinks sold at food service establishments, including restaurants, movie theaters, sports venues and street carts. It would apply to bottled drinks as well as fountain sodas.
The ban would apply only to drinks that contain more than 25 calories per 8 ounces. It would not apply to diet soda or any other calorie-free drink. Any drink that is at least half milk or milk substitute would be exempted.
The ban, which could take effect as soon as March, would not apply to drinks sold in grocery or convenience stores that don't serve prepared food. Establishments that don't downsize would face fines of $200 after a three-month grace period.
The proposal requires the approval of the city's Board of Health -- considered likely because its members are all appointed by Bloomberg.
Under the three-term mayor, the city has campaigned aggressively against obesity, outlawing trans-fats in restaurant food and forcing chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus. The mayor has also led efforts to ban smoking in the city's bars, restaurants, parks and beaches.
Bloomberg often cites the city's rising life expectancy numbers as proof the approach is working, but his efforts have drawn criticism from others who accuse him of instituting a "nanny state."
His administration has tried other ways to make soda consumption less appealing. The mayor supported a state tax on sodas, but the measure died in Albany, and he tried to restrict the use of food stamps to buy sodas, an idea federal regulators rejected.
City Hall's latest proposal does not require approval beyond the Board of Health, although public hearings will be held.
Column: Domestic use of drones? Bad idea
By Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot.
Today: Domestic use of drones.
Bob:President Obama and Congress recently signaled their willingness to allow wider use of drones — the pilotless aircraft used in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia against Islamic terrorists — for domestic purposes. This is Big Brother at its worst. The ACLU and privacy groups have demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration address the "unique threat" posed by drones, as well they should.
Cal: Hold onto your ACLU card, Bob. I'm with you and civil liberties organizations that are deeply worried about government seizing this kind of intrusive and invasive power for itself.
Bob: Now there's a first, Cal agreeing with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cal: Not really. I've sided with them on various issues, including the freedom of expression and even some religious matters. But back to the drones. While these planes have performed well in killing terrorists overseas, they are the last thing we need flying over America. The technology is so good that they can operate undetected and low enough to identify people attending your backyard barbecue.
Bob: I'm surprised how little we've heard from Congress, besides a letter of concern to the FAA from Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas.
Cal: Maybe that's because there's a congressional "drone caucus," which has 58 members. Many of them have received generous campaign contributions from defense contractors, including General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin (a major manufacturer of drones and missiles that can be attached to them) and Raytheon.
Bob: Once again, money wins out over an important principle: the right to privacy. The news media tend to report actions by drones when they bomb terrorists, but the planes have several other significant capabilities. They can also see and capture pictures in the smallest detail from thousands of feet in the sky. They can detect cellphone conversations and other means of communications.
Cal: Bad things are often ushered in with good intentions. As constitutional attorney John Whitehead commented, "Certainly these unmanned vehicles could be used for legitimate purposes, such as search-and-rescue missions, etc., but living as we do already in a semi-surveillance state with our constitutional rights in peril at every turn, these drones, which can be armed with surveillance devices, as well as weapons, are yet another building block in a total control society."
Bob: Whitehead is right. Already we have millions of surveillance cameras watching us when we're in public places, not to mention the Patriot Act, which gives the FBI unprecedented powers to enter homes without notice, look at our library cards and much more. These drones are usually operated by the CIA against terrorists abroad. The law expressly forbids the CIA to operate within U.S. borders.
Cal: Here's something else to consider: In 2009, insurgents in Iraq hijacked Predator drones with a software program that cost $26. They gained access to footage shot by the spy planes. Another potential danger, which even the FAA acknowledges, is whether drones would add to the air traffic congestion already experienced at major airports. Commercial airline pilots, who also rely on visual flight rules, are concerned about safety hazards from unmanned drones.
Bob: Good point. Let's hope that the FAA listens to the suggestions for privacy and safety rules from privacy groups — and let's hope, too, that members of Congress put our constitutional rights above special interest money and speak up. President Obama should do so as well.
Cal: We are already further along with drones than the public may know. The FAA reform act requires the FAA to create a comprehensive program to safely integrate drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts there could be 30,000 drones crisscrossing American skies by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth $12 billion a year. Dwight Eisenhower was right to warn us against the "military-industrial complex." Drones are just the latest example of the industry's intrusions into our liberties.
Bob: That's right. In this case, the section of the FAA reform act that permits drones in our domestic airspace was written by a lobbyist for the contractors who build drones. I will guarantee you that the members of Congress who inserted that provision in the FAA act have all received political contributions from the makers of drones.
Cal: Granted, there can be legitimate uses of drone technology. They can cut costs for police departments and are more effective than helicopters in locating and apprehending armed and dangerous suspects. Since 2005, drones have been used along our lengthy border with Mexico to deter immigrants from entering our country illegally. But permitting the domestic use of drones for these purposes allows the camel's nose under the tent. Do we want our government collecting a constant stream of information on our whereabouts? Drones equipped with Tasers and beanbag guns could fly over political demonstrations, sporting events and concert arenas. The ability of these machines to collect information is almost unlimited — and if we allow it to happen, we will have accepted the Orwellian vision of Big Brother. Trying to recover liberties after losing them is like trying to regain your lost virginity.
Bob: In fact, drones have already been deployed to assist local police departments, which on its face may seem like a good idea. But local police don't control the drones; that's done by trained drone pilots in the U.S. military. So police departments may request assistance on a local crime issue, but who knows what other information is being collected by the U.S. government while the drone is flying over a particular area? On the subject of using drones for domestic purposes, Cal, we have found complete common ground.
Cal: A few groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are pushing back. They are filing lawsuits against the FAA, demanding records of the drone certificates that the FAA has issued to various government agencies and research groups. But, says constitutional attorney Whitehead, "It is unlikely that the implementation of this technology can be stopped. Based upon the government's positions on wiretapping, GPS tracking devices, and Internet tracking technologies, it is also unlikely that our elected officials will do anything to protect the American people from the prying eye of the American government."
Bob: The potential for abuse from government and law enforcement domestic surveillance by drones is terrifying. And if we're worried about congested air space, just wait until the commercial industry gets into the act. Already drone manufacturers are envisioning use by private companies where the technology might be used for journalistic purposes or disaster relief. But do we really want this technology in the hands of private companies?
Cal: And drones aren't the only threat. As The New York Times reported recently, while Google was roaming the world's streets with special cameras attached to car roofs for their Street View project, they were also collecting data such as e-mails, chat and instant messages, postings on websites and social networks — all sorts of private Internet communications. The company says the data collection was a mistake. But combine that technology with domestic drones, and the possibilities for Big Brother intrusion seem limitless. That's what scares me.
State public safety officer charged with stealing gasoline
May 31, 2012 | 7:41 am
City prosecutors charged a California Department of Public Safety officer assigned to Exposition Park with misusing a state gas card, authorities said Thursday.
Officer Cletton Jourdan, 44, was charged with one count of theft for filling up his private vehicle with his state-issued gas card. He is due in court June 18 for arraignment.
“Taxpayers must have confidence that their taxes are being wisely and lawfully used, and that there are serious consequences for any criminal misuse,” City Atty. Carmen A. Trutanich said in a statement.
The charge comes just days after the L.A. County district attorney's office charged three men -- including a veteran city Recreation and Parks employee -- with multiple felony counts for allegedly selling thousands of dollars of city-owned gasoline on the black market.
Michael Lee, a 12-year veteran of the Recreation and Parks Department, faces one count of embezzlement and two counts of grand theft. Shane Gansterer and Howard Lee James each were charged with one count of receiving stolen property. All have pleaded not guilty.
According to LAPD officials, Lee was allegedly pilfering gas from two police pumps and a Department of Transportation fueling station.
LAPD detectives were tipped to the alleged scheme in early April when a caller reported seeing a man selling fuel from the back of a city truck near the corner of 109th Street and Vermont Avenue. The woman alerted police after seeing a televised news conference in which City Controller Wendy Greuel announced the city was missing $7 million worth of fuel.
In the latest case involving the state employee, state prosecutors said Jourdan bought $80.41 worth of gas for his state vehicle on Dec. 1, 2011, prosecutors said. He returned to the same gas station 10 minutes later and allegedly purchased $40.59 in fuel, using the same state-issued gas card, for a private vehicle driven by his friend.
Both receipts were turned in to his department. A supervisor launched an investigation after noticing the charges during a routine check. As part of the probe, officials found the transactions were captured on the gas station’s surveillance cameras.
Charges dropped against judicial candidate charged with stealing campaign signs
By Jeremy Gorner Tribune reporter
6:00 a.m. CDT, May 31, 2012
A misdemeanor theft charge was dropped Wednesday against a candidate for Cook County judge who was accused of stealing campaign signs of an opponent he defeated in the March primary election.
Boyd still faces three traffic-related charges stemming from the March 19 arrest by Chicago police, who accused him of being in possession of 12 signs promoting Slaughter. Boyd won in a landslide over Slaughter and two other candidates the following day with more than half of the vote.
Boyd, who is running unopposed for sub circuit judge in the November election, later declined to comment on the dismissal of the charge.
“We’ll take it at that. We’re grateful for that. However, we were prepared to go to trial,” Boyd’s lawyer, Steven Watkins, said outside the courtroom.
Slaughter was unavailable for comment after Wednesday’s hearing.
A Chicago police sergeant saw Boyd removing Slaughter signs and placing them in the trunk of his BMW near 119th and Halsted streets, according to a police report. Although the report doesn’t specify from where the signs were taken, it said police recovered 12 of Slaughter's campaign signs from Boyd’s car.
The next day, Boyd swept to victory, garnering more than 19,000 votes, more than his three opponents’ combined tally, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Slaughter finished last with 12 percent of the vote.
jgorner@tribune.com
Stop Following a Failed Policy
Otto Pérez Molina
May 30, 2012
In 1961 the international community signed a United Nations treaty that reflected an inter-governmental consensus on how to fight drugs all over the world. Basically, the consensus was the following: drug consumption is very damaging for human beings, and the best way for preventing this type of consumption is to prohibit the production, trafficking and use of drugs.
Today, 51 years after reaching this consensus, something is pretty clear: drugs are prohibited but drugs continue to be consumed in quantities so large that the global market is calculated in hundreds of billions of dollars. In other words, the global consensus is far from being successful. Actually, I prefer to call it what it really is: a failure.
We need to rigorously evaluate the impact of what we are doing, and analyze other policy options we can implement, including drug regulation.
Unfortunately, the global consensus failure is not just expressed in the existence of a huge and incredibly profitable drug market. Big money has also brought greater violence. So the drug market has both increased in its supply of dollars, as well as in its demand for blood.
My home country, Guatemala, as well as other countries in Central America and the Caribbean are suffering this bloodshed, the same bloodshed that is present in many poor urban neighborhoods in the United States, which affects disproportionately young black and Latino Americans.
My government has called for an open dialogue on global drug policy based on a simple assumption: we cannot continue to expect different results if we continue to do the same things. Something is wrong with our global strategy, and in order to know better what is wrong we need an evidence-based approach to drug policy and not an ideological one. This means that we need to evaluate rigorously what is the impact of what we are doing, and analyze carefully what other policy options we can implement.
Moving beyond ideology may involve discussing different policy alternatives. Some people (not my government) may call for full-fledged liberalization of the drug market, as opposed to the current full-fledged prohibition scheme. I believe in a third way: drug regulation, which is a discrete and more nuanced approach that may allow for legal access to drugs currently prohibited, but using institutional and market-based regulatory frameworks. This third way may work best, but let us all be clear that only an evidence-based analysis will lead us to better policies.
Half a century is enough time for assessing the success or failure of a policy. Our children are demanding us to be responsible and to search for the best possible ways to protect them from drug abuse. Let us not waste our time anymore in doing what has proven to be wrong. While we deliver endless speeches on our commitment to a failed approach, more young people are becoming drug addicts who won´t be treated by our health system, but by our criminal justice institutions.
It is a sad story, but I am convinced it doesn´t need to be this way. We can certainly do better than this. And, by all means, we have to.
The "drug war" is also a lame excuse for the American government to give millions of dollars in foreign aid to tyrants and dictators in third world countries who murder and terrorize their citizens helping American with it's insane "drug war".
Despite Deaths in Honduran Raid, U.S. to Press Ahead With New Antidrug Policy
By DAMIEN CAVE, CHARLIE SAVAGE and THOM SHANKER
Published: May 31, 2012
WASHINGTON — After several villagers were killed on a Honduran river this month during a raid on drug smugglers by Honduran and American agents, a local backlash raised concerns that the United States’ expanding counternarcotics efforts in Central America might be going too far. But United States officials in charge of that policy see it differently.
Throughout 2011, counternarcotics officials watched their radar screens almost helplessly as more than 100 small planes flew from South America to isolated landing strips in Honduras. But this month — after establishing a new strategy emphasizing more cooperation across various United States departments and agencies — two smugglers’ flights were intercepted within a single week, a development that explains why American officials say they are determined to press forward with the approach.
“In the first four months of this year, I’d say we actually have gotten it together across the military, law enforcement and developmental communities,” said William R. Brownfield, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. “My guess is narcotics traffickers are hitting the pause button. For the first time in a decade, air shipments are being intercepted immediately upon landing.”
With Washington’s attention swinging from Iraq and Afghanistan — and with budget dollars similarly flowing in new directions — the United States is expanding and unifying its antidrug efforts in Central America, where violence has skyrocketed as enforcement efforts in the Caribbean, Colombia and Mexico have pushed cocaine traffic to smaller countries with weaker security forces.
As part of those efforts, the United States is pressing governments across Central America to work together against their shared threat — sharing intelligence and even allowing security forces from one nation to operate on the sovereign soil of another — an approach that was on display in the disputed raid. But reviews from Central America include uncertainty and skepticism.
Government leaders in Honduras — who came to power in a controversial election a few months after a 2009 coup — have strongly supported assistance from the United States, but skeptics contend that enthusiasm is in part because the partnership bolsters their fragile hold on power.
More broadly, there is discontent in Latin America with United States efforts that some leaders and independent experts see as too focused on dramatic seizures of shipments bound for North America rather than local drug-related murders, corruption and chaos.
“Violence has grown a lot; crimes connected to trafficking keep increasing — that’s Central America’s big complaint,” President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala said in an interview. He added that the drug cartels are better organized than they were 20 years ago and that “if there are no innovations, if we don’t see something truly different than what we have been doing, then this war is on the road to defeat.”
Mr. Pérez Molina, a former general, has been criticized by American officials for proposing a form of drug legalization, but he argues that his goal is to create discussion of new ideas — like compensating Central American countries for the drugs they confiscate, or creating a regional court for organized crime.
In the area of Honduras called the Mosquito Coast, where the two recent operations occurred, residents have simpler demands. “If you’re going to come to the Mosquito Coast, come to invest,” said Terry Martinez, the director of development programs for the Gracias a Dios area. “Help us get our legitimate goods to market. That will help secure the area.”
American officials say they know that interdiction alone is not enough. The number of United States officials assigned to programs that are designed to strengthen Central America’s weak criminal justice systems has quadrupled, to about 80 over the past five years.
And the United States Agency for International Development has, since 2009, helped open more than 70 outreach centers for young people, offering job training and places to go after school, officials report.
“If your drug policy is an exclusively ‘hard side’ negative policy, it will not succeed,” said Mr. Brownfield, a former ambassador to Colombia. “There has to be a positive side: providing alternative economic livelihoods, clinics, roads — the sorts of things that actually give poor communities a stake in their future so they do not participate in narcotics trafficking.”
Despite the shift that officials described, federal budgets and performance measures outlined in government documents show that the priorities of the drug war have not significantly changed. Even as cocaine consumption in the United States has fallen, the government’s antidrug efforts abroad continue to be heavily weighted toward seizing cocaine.
Most financing for the Central American Regional Security Initiative has gone to security and interdiction work, according to a recent Congressional report.
“The problem is that the budget doesn’t match the rhetoric,” said John Carnevale, who served as the director of planning, budget and research for the Office of National Drug Control Policy from 1989 to 2000. “The budget that is currently being funded for drug control is still very much like the one we’ve had for 10 or 12 years, or really over the past couple of decades.”
American officials counter that interdiction efforts include programs to increase the professionalism of local police units. And increasingly, Central American governments are helping to train one another’s forces, using common equipment, and sharing counternarcotics intelligence. United States agencies are also combining their efforts in new ways. Officials say the May 11 raid near the town of Ahuas — and another one earlier in May in Honduras, during which there was also a firefight but no one is believed to have been killed — illustrated that joint effort.
The May 11 raid started with Colombian intelligence passing along a tip about the plane to a joint intelligence task force under the American military’s Southern Command, which has its headquarters in Miami.
An American Navy surveillance aircraft then tracked the plane as it landed, leading to a raid that was carried out by four State Department helicopters. They flew out of one of three new forward operating bases built this year by the American military’s Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras.
Guatemalan pilots flew the aircraft — after overcoming some resistance from Honduran officials — because Honduras lacks qualified pilots. The helicopters carried a strike force of Honduran police officers who had been specially vetted and trained by United States Drug Enforcement Administration agents, several of whom are part of a special commando-style squad that was on board as advisers.
The helicopters struck about 2 a.m., after about 30 men had unloaded 17 bales of cocaine from the plane into a pickup truck, which had carried it to a boat in the nearby Patuca River. Men working on the boat scattered as the helicopters swooped down, and a ground force moved in to secure the cargo.
What happened next remains under investigation in Honduras. Officials say a second boat approached and opened fire on the agents on the ground. They and a door gunner aboard the helicopter returned fire in a quick burst.
But rather than hitting drug traffickers, villagers contend, the government forces instead hit another boat that was returning from a long trip upriver — killing four unarmed people, including two pregnant women. While the D.E.A.’s rules of engagement allowed agents to fire back to protect themselves and their counterparts, both United States and Honduran government officials insist that no Americans fired.
Nonetheless, broader questions remain. Even if the air route to Honduras is shut down, as long as the United States — and, increasingly, Africa and Europe — remains a lucrative market for cocaine, traffickers will continue to seek a way to move their product.
United States officials say they are already bolstering efforts in the Caribbean, anticipating another shift in direction for drugs.
Thursday, May. 31, 2012
Ohio man's littering ticket tossed after uproar
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- Prosecutors tossed out a $344 littering citation against a driver whose money fell to the ground after he reached through his open car window to hand it to a panhandler.
The city dropped the ticket because it decided the cash didn't qualify as trash, assistant city prosecutor Jonathan Cudnik said during a court hearing Thursday.
John Davis, of Elyria, had pleaded not guilty to the minor misdemeanor earlier in the week and said he was determined to fight the ticket.
He said he was trying to help someone in need when he handed the money to the panhandler, who was in a wheelchair at a busy intersection during rush hour on May 17. A police officer who was behind Davis saw the money hit the ground and cited him for littering.
Davis told reporters Thursday that he was glad the matter was now over, but he said he'd no longer give money to people along the road and instead would give to charities.
Cleveland police said it's illegal to solicit or give money at the side of a roadway, and that it's dangerous for those doing it and other drivers.
The police officer didn't ticket Davis for donating to a panhandler, which carries a smaller fine of about $160, but instead cited him for littering from a vehicle.
The man in the wheelchair was not cited for panhandling, but he has been many times in the past at the same spot and along other roadways, police said.
Ohioan: Helping panhandler led to littering ticket
By JOHN SEEWER
TOLEDO, Ohio
A driver who stopped to give a couple of bucks to a panhandler in a wheelchair at a busy freeway interchange was handed a $344 littering ticket by a Cleveland police officer after the cash fell to the ground.
The driver, who's now fighting the ticket, said he can't believe that his attempt to help someone in need might cost him a lot more.
"It's turned into a big hassle," John Davis, of Elyria, told WJW-TV after he pleaded not guilty to the minor misdemeanor Tuesday in court. He is due back in court Thursday, when he hopes the ticket will be thrown out.
The panhandler was at a busy intersection during rush hour on May 17, and it's illegal to solicit or give money at the side of a roadway, Cleveland police said.
"It's a huge safety issue," said police spokeswoman Jennifer Ciaccia. "The main issue was where it occurred."
Davis could have been ticketed for donating to a panhandler, which carries a smaller fine of about $160, but instead was cited for littering from a vehicle.
Ciaccia said she could not talk about why the officer handed out the littering ticket now that the issue is in court.
The man in the wheelchair was not cited for panhandling, but he has been many times in the past at the same spot and along other roadways, Ciaccia said.
Davis could not be reached for comment Wednesday. There was no current home telephone listing and court records did not list whether he has an attorney.
The city's code on littering says occupants of motor vehicles can't throw, drop, discard or deposit litter onto any street, road or highway, regardless of the intent. Among the items considered litter, according to the city code, are garbage, trash, waste, rubbish, ashes, bottles, paper and anything of an unsightly or unsanitary nature. Money is not listed, according to the section on littering from a motor vehicle.
Cleveland police said they've received a lot of questions about the issue.
"Although we certainly understand the confusion regarding this situation, it is important to understand that the media and social media discussions primarily represent only the statement of the individual who received the citation," a statement said. "He will have an opportunity to contest the citation in court and the officer will be required to justify the citation."
Arizona prison system sees high number of deaths
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 2, 2012 11:26 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Arizona's prison system has two death rows.
One is made up of the 126 inmates officially sentenced to death -- 123 men at the Eyman state prison in Florence and three women at Perryville. Seven convicted killers from that group have been executed over the last two years.
The other death row, the unofficial one, reaches into every prison in Arizona's sprawling correctional system. No judge or jury condemned anyone in this group to death. They die as victims of prison violence, neglect and mistreatment.
Over the past two years, this death row has claimed the lives of at least 37 inmates, more than five times the number executed from the official death row. Among them are mentally ill prisoners locked in solitary confinement who committed suicide, inmates who overdosed on drugs smuggled into prison, those with untreated medical conditions and inmates murdered by other inmates.
Unlike state executions, these deaths rarely draw much notice. Each receives a terse announcement by the Department of Corrections and then is largely forgotten.
But correctional officers and other staff who work with inmates say many of these deaths are needless and preventable.
Arizona will spend $1.1 billion this year to lock up its 40,000 prisoners.
But there is another cost, one measured not in dollars but in human lives.
Over four days, an Arizona Republic investigation will reveal a prison system that houses inmates under brutal conditions that can foster self-harm, allows deadly drugs to flow in from the outside, leaves inmates to die from treatable medical conditions and fails to protect inmates from prison predators.
Today, The Republic focuses on suicides in the prison system, where there have been at least 19 in the past two years. Arizona's official prison-suicide rate during that period was 60 percent higher than the national average. But suicides in prison are likely underreported, according to critics.
More than half of the suicides involved inmates in solitary confinement, including some with serious mental illnesses.
Critics: 'Maximum security' a factor in prison suicide rate
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 2, 2012 11:31 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Nearly every day, an inmate in an Arizona prison attempts suicide. In the past two years, 19 succeeded.
Among those who died:
Otto Munster hanged himself with his shoelaces while in solitary confinement.
Tony Lester slashed his throat, arms and groin with a razor blade he wasn't supposed to have because he was categorized as mentally ill. He bled to death.
Rosario Rodriguez-Bojorquez killed himself while in solitary after being denied a request to be moved to protect him from other inmates.
Duron Cunningham killed himself six days after Rodriguez-Bojorquez, while in solitary in the same unit, also after being denied a move into protective segregation. He had been raped and assaulted, according to prison reports.
Karot Phothong hanged himself with a bedsheet while in solitary confinement, or "maximum security," the term used by the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Corrections data and internal reports obtained by The Arizona Republic show 470 attempts by inmates to harm themselves or commit suicide in the 11 months through the end of May. Self-harm includes inmates slashing their arms, swallowing razor blades, repeatedly banging their heads against the wall and similar incidents.
The result: Arizona's official prison-suicide rate was 60 percent higher than the national average for the past two years, according to federal Bureau of Justice statistics.
A majority of the suicides -- 11 -- involved inmates locked in maximum security, where they are kept alone in windowless units with the lights on 24 hours a day and are allowed to leave their cells only a few times a week to shower or exercise by themselves.
While more than half of the suicides in Arizona prisons were by inmates in maximum-security solitary confinement, "max" inmates make up less than 9 percent of the total prison population of about 40,000.
Corrections officials defend the use of maximum security, saying it's necessary to protect inmates and maintain order.
But academic and human-rights critics believe the suicide figures reveal a problematic use of solitary confinement. They attribute Arizona's high suicide rate to three overlapping practices: the use of solitary confinement to house mentally ill prisoners, inmates who are unruly rather than violent and inmates who may be targeted by other prisoners.
"High rates of suicide in solitary units is a widespread problem; that's why many states no longer house mentally ill inmates in solitary," said Craig Haney, a psychologist at the University of California-Santa Cruz who studies the effects of incarceration. "The severity of the conditions in those units ... most mentally healthy people who go in are adversely affected. People can become so despairing, so desperate that they take their own lives."
Solitary as discipline
Arizona puts more prisoners in solitary for longer stretches than most states and the federal government. While many Arizona inmates are in maximum security because they are violent and present a threat to staff and other prisoners, 35 percent of the inmates currently in max were imprisoned for non-violent crimes, according to the state's own data. Corrections officials routinely assign non-violent prisoners to maximum security for disruptive behavior or for violating minor rules.
Carl ToersBijns, a retired deputy warden who served at Eyman state prison, among other places, said that maximum-custody units are filled with people put there because of repetitive misconduct. He said they should be placed in treatment programs instead.
"If a deputy warden finds you to be problematic, they can manufacture a packet to place you in max custody for 12 months. It's a year's review, and central office rarely goes against a warden's recommendations," he said.
That's how many mentally ill inmates wind up in maximum security -- because they can't control their behavior, says Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist and former Harvard Medical School professor who has spent decades studying the effects of solitary confinement.
In Arizona, inmates sent to solitary for breaking rules have to show they can behave before they are allowed to get out. But this approach "is based on a false premise," says Grassian. "It's based on the notion that inmates in solitary can rationally calculate risks and benefits, that if you give them enough negative consequences they'll change their behavior in a positive direction. But the people who end up in solitary are precisely the least likely to be able to respond rationally."
Solitary "is a shortsighted, expedient approach to prisoner management," he said. "It's expensive; it's risky; and I don't believe there's a sufficient correctional justification for its use."
Many longtime correctional officials defend maximum custody and solitary as necessary to control dangerous or troublesome inmates. Ben Shaw, director of mental-health programs for Arizona's Department of Corrections, says that being in maximum custody doesn't in and of itself cause any decline in mental functioning.
Grassian disagrees. "Many people who didn't have a mental illness become psychotically ill as a result of being incarcerated in solitary confinement," says Grassian. And those who are already mentally ill become worse, he notes.
Haney said that inmates in solitary confinement can become more violent and less able to control themselves -- and more of a danger to the public when they're released.
An inmate's mental condition is usually established by the time he or she enters prison. Otto Munster, for example, was arrested for armed robbery in March 2011, and underwent three psychiatric evaluations before being deemed competent to enter a plea. At his sentencing, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Cari Harrison recommended that Corrections provide Munster with substance-abuse and mental-health treatment. Corrections officials declined to say whether Munster received treatment. He killed himself five months into a five-year prison sentence.
Many states, from California to Mississippi, no longer place mentally ill inmates in solitary because of what the clinical data shows about its impact and often because they stopped the practice to settle lawsuits.
In a suit filed in federal court March 6, a coalition of human-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, accuses Arizona's Department of Corrections of "gratuitous cruelty" in its use of solitary confinement. The suit seeks to restrict the use of solitary, particularly for minors and the mentally ill.
Effects of solitary
Those who have been held in isolation say it's hard for those who haven't to understand its impact.
Sarah Shourd, who spent 14 months in isolation in Iran's notorious Evin prison after being seized at the Iraqi Kurdish border with two other American hikers in 2009, said in recent interviews that in her small cell she suffered from insomnia and panic attacks and would lose control, screaming and beating the walls, unaware of what she was doing. Two years later, she still struggles with the psychological aftermath, finding crowds or loud noises unbearable. She has become an adamant foe of the use of solitary confinement, which she calls degrading and inhumane.
"When I got out I was shocked to find that the U.S. had more people in solitary confinement than any other country," she told writer James Ridgeway. "And in this country it is used routinely as an administrative practice, not as a very last resort, which is how it should be used."
Two-thirds of Arizona prisoners in solitary are held at Eyman state prison, in Florence. Former inmate Ruben Bermudez has done two stints in solitary there -- the first when he was 16. He recalls vividly his time in a windowless cell with nothing except a box of letters from his family.
"There was s--t splattered all over my cell and it never got cleaned up," he said. "You don't ever see the outside. You don't see anything, night after night and day after day. ... I was hiding under my bed, crying, flipped out, having nightmares. You just stare at things. I would pace back and forth, back and forth. ... I was having panic attacks. You have nothing. You get one book a month. You go nuts just staring at the walls."
In many cases, disciplinary charges will land an inmate in solitary. Most often, such charges are for refusing an order to share a cell with a particular inmate, says prisoner-rights advocate Margaret Plews, who has spent years tracking Arizona inmate deaths. She said inmates who fear for their lives in the general inmate population will often deliberately rack up disciplinary charges.
That fear can stem from gang affiliations, or the lack of an affiliation and the protection it can provide. When an inmate asks for "protective segregation," the standard procedure is to put that person in a solitary detention unit while the request is considered.
That's where Munster was when he killed himself. It's also where inmates Rodriguez-Bojorquez and Cunningham were when they committed suicide within days of each other in September 2010 at the Florence state prison.
According to another inmate, Rodriguez-Bojorquez had recently been denied protective segregation when he killed himself. Cunningham was seeking protective segregation after being assaulted and raped, according to his mother.
Corrections officials didn't respond by deadline to queries about the case.
Inmates who attempt to harm themselves, or even talk about it, are placed in isolation in watch cells where they are supposed to be checked on at least every 30 minutes, in some cases every 10 minutes, or even kept under continuous observation.
ToersBijns, the retired deputy warden, said that many officers "go above and beyond in dealing with very challenging conditions, and save lives; but you also have officers who go off and spend time in the office when they're supposed to be on suicide watch."
Some inmates need to be protected from themselves; some need to be protected from others. Jesse Cabonias, 49, hanged himself last July in a porter's closet at the Lewis state prison. Due to a miscount by officers, no one noticed him missing for seven hours. Other inmates told a Corrections investigator that Cabonias had been repeatedly raped by a cellmate. The autopsy showed methamphetamine in his system at the time he died. He had previously requested and been denied protective segregation.
Forrest Day, 19, was serving a 3.5-year sentence for child abuse, after her infant son drowned when she left him in a tub unattended when she was 16.
She used her shoelaces to hang herself at Perryville state prison on Jan. 27. Her father, James Day, reported to the Maricopa County medical examiner that shortly before she died, Forrest Day told him officers were forcing her to have sex with them. The medical examiner's spokesman, Mike Molzhon, said the examiner took genital swabs and turned them over to a Corrections Department investigator for testing but the department did not test the swabs.
Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said, "Nothing in the investigation or autopsy showed that a sexual assault occurred."
He declined to say whether investigators contacted James Day or interviewed other inmates or officers about the allegations. James Day couldn't be reached for comment.
More units planned
Arizona has long been more aggressive than most states in its use of solitary confinement.
In 1987, Arizona built the first prison designed from scratch for permanent lockdown, one that would become the prototype for "supermax" solitary-confinement prisons around the country: the SMU 1 ("special management unit") at Eyman state prison. It has no windows, no recreation yard, no common rooms. The perforated steel fronts and doors of the cells allow prisoners to be handcuffed while locked in their cells; each small "pod" of cells is monitored centrally, with fewer correctional officers than older prisons. Inmates exercise alone in a windowless concrete pen.
Haver, Nunn and Colamer, the Phoenix architectural firm that designed the prison, trumpeted it in the industry magazine Corrections Today as a living example "of how tomorrow's maximum-security prisons will be designed." The firm won contracts to build California's similar Pelican Bay prison and many others. A supermax building boom followed. By 1999, similar prisons sprang up in 30 states; by 2005, in 40 states. Arizona soon expanded SMU 1 and built a second SMU, now called the Browning Unit, at Eyman.
Corrections Director Charles Ryan plans more isolation units: Next year's state budget includes $20million to begin constructing another 500-bed maximum-security unit, at Lewis state prison. It's expected to cost $50million to complete.
Despite the ACLU lawsuit in March, and an April report by Amnesty International charging that Arizona's use of solitary violates international human-rights treaties, Corrections officials have rejected any calls to change how they classify and assign inmates.
Last fall, the Department of Corrections said it gave six hours of training in how to recognize and prevent suicides to 8,806 staff members. The training advised staff to take all suicide threats seriously and not to "dare the inmate to try it." Staff were also given guidance on what to do in instances of hanging or cutting, the most common methods inmates use to harm themselves.
The training followed a lawsuit filed by the family of inmate Tony Lester, a mentally ill inmate housed in a two-man cell at the Tucson state prison who bled to death in July 2010 while correctional officers stood outside his cell for more than 23 minutes. Orlando Pope, one of those officers, said he'd never been trained in how to apply pressure to a wound.
The Lester family is seeking $3 million.
On May 17, the U.S. Department of Justice announced new national standards that call for restricting the use of solitary- and maximum-custody units for inmates who ask for protective custody. Ryan said his department will respond to those standards within the required 14 months.
Ryan also says "boots on the ground" help prevent suicides and said Corrections will add 103 correctional-officer positions next fiscal year, on top of 306 positions restored this year and last after deep cuts in the mid-2000s. He sees evidence of success in the decline in successful suicides so far this fiscal year -- to six, from 13 last year.
The actual number of suicides both years is almost certainly higher. The state's figures don't include 10 deaths that the department lists as still under investigation, or eight other deaths in which inmates died at their own hands but that Corrections has deemed "accidental."
Meanwhile, the number of self-harm and suicide attempts continues to rise, from 449 last fiscal year to 470 in the first 11 months of this fiscal year.
Reach the reporter at bob.ortega@arizonarepublic.com.
DOC fails to list cause of death in 28 cases
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 2, 2012 11:30 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Arizona Department of Corrections listed no cause of death for 28 inmates who died during the past two years, stating only that the deaths were under investigation. No further information has been released.
In response to public-information requests submitted by The Arizona Republic seeking information about 36 inmate deaths, Corrections provided records for 10 cases. Those records often lack details such as how much time passed before medical responders were summoned and when they arrived to aid a prisoner.
Interviews with families, inmates and prison staff and records from county medical examiners and other sources yielded information about all but eight of the 36 inmate deaths. But Corrections officials have not released any information on those eight deaths, which include four that have been "under investigation" for more than 18 months.
In Arizona, correctional-death investigations are handled internally rather than by a police agency, as occurs in some states. The shift supervisor writes a draft report, which must be approved by administrators in the central office before it's published. The department's Office of the Inspector General assigns an investigator.
"The cleanup starts the moment the incident is reported: eliminating flag words, eliminating individuals who may be relevant to the situation, cut back the witness list," says Carl ToersBijns, a retired deputy warden who served at Eyman state prison. He emphasized that he doesn't believe reports are falsified but are written selectively.
"By the time it's finalized, the incident report is so clean and sterile you won't know what happened because it's already been filtered. The direction is given ... was it deliberate, accidental, suicide, homicide? They try to fix and create a summary for that report that they can defend," he says. "There's a couple of reports where the investigator had doubts and it was overwritten. A lot of drug overdoses are suicides; a lot of 'natural deaths' are people who have been suffering medical conditions but finally just expired. It's not reflected on those reports and never will be reflected in the news reports. Only the ones who were there know what happened."
Corrections officials say their reports are accurate.
Arizona prisons can be deadly for sick
5 inmate deaths tied to delays, lack of care
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 4, 2012 11:20 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
For two years, Ferdinand Dix repeatedly filed requests with Arizona's Tucson state prison staff, asking to be examined for a chronic cough, shortness of breath and loss of appetite.
When Dix, who was serving five years on forgery and drug charges, finally received a checkup, the doctor didn't notice cancer had caused his liver to swell to four times its normal size. He told Dix to drink energy shakes.
It wasn't until he was "nonresponsive" and had been transported to an outside hospital that Dix was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer. He died a few days later, on Feb. 11. He was 47.
Dix's case is cited in a federal lawsuit accusing the Arizona Department of Corrections of medical neglect. It's a charge the system has faced before, from activists, inmates' families and at least one Arizona lawmaker.
Citing the litigation, Corrections officials declined to discuss Dix's care.
A review by The Arizona Republic of deaths in state prisons over the past two fiscal years found at least four inmates, in addition to Dix, whose medical care was delayed or potentially inadequate leading up to their deaths. The records of these cases, together with interviews of officers, medical staff and inmates point to a system in which correctional officers routinely deny inmates access to timely care, and in which treatment sometimes falls short of accepted standards.
These deaths are among dozens of examples of preventable deaths uncovered in a broad investigation by The Republic into high rates of suicide, homicide and accidental deaths in state prisons.
Corrections Director Charles Ryan denies that health care in Arizona's prisons is inadequate or that there is an institutional indifference toward ailing inmates.
But Corrections officials do acknowledge that a long-planned privatization of prison medical care has made it difficult to fill vacancies. They also say care has been hobbled for more than a year by cuts to outside contractor payments, which state lawmakers imposed two years ago.
Allegations of substandard care, however, predate those developments. For example, the suit in which Dix is named -- filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Office of San Quentin, Calif., -- lists dozens of allegations of inmates waiting months for medicine or medical treatment, and suffering permanent damage and disfigurement as a result.
"Our correctional health care is shocking; it's unacceptable," Rep. Cecil Ash, a Mesa Republican, told his fellow lawmakers last year.
Ash warned that providing inadequate care not only harmed inmates, it also exposed the state to costly lawsuits. His effort to fund improved care for prisoners garnered little support in the Legislature.
"They're out of sight, out of mind. And they don't vote," he said of inmates.
There is also a general lack of public sympathy for prisoners, particularly those who have committed heinous crimes.
Take Carey Wheatley, a convicted child molester serving a life term. He was 49 when he died of pneumonia on April 24, 2011, while in solitary confinement at the Florence state prison. For days leading up to his death, nurses offered him only the pain reliever acetaminophen, according to the Pinal County medical examiner's report.
Medical experts say antibiotics or antivirals are the standard course of treatment for bronchial pneumonia.
When Daniel Porter, who shot to death two clerks at a Circle K store in Tucson in 1986, was sentenced in 1992 to life on two murder charges, he begged to be put to death. But the Superior Court judge ruled that the murders were the result of mental illness -- paranoid schizophrenia -- which caused Porter to believe the clerks were trying to poison him. He also noted that Porter had been beaten and sexually abused as a child by his father and stepfather, and had been in and out of mental hospitals beginning when he was 13.
When Porter died, it was the result of hyponatremia, a chronic sodium deficiency that causes excessive thirst. Porter drank gallon after gallon of water for days, while correctional officers yelled at him to stop drinking or occasionally hit him with pepper spray, according to a report by Corrections investigators. He died in solitary confinement at Eyman state prison on Feb. 20, having literally drunk himself to death with water. Corrections officials listed his death as "accidental."
"His sodium deficiency was well documented," said Porter's sister, Elaine Faith. "That he was allowed to go two, three days drinking that much water and they knew about it and didn't take him in because he needed IV therapy."
"I know nothing can bring my brother back, but prisoners deserve at least humane medical treatment," Faith said.
Kenneth Lucas, 65, died Oct. 4 at the Eyman state prison of a heart attack -- "natural causes," according to Corrections. But according to the same lawsuit that cites Dix's death, when Lucas collapsed in his housing unit the day before, other prisoners yelled to officers to contact medical staff but officers didn't take action.
Another inmate, finding no pulse, performed CPR, and Lucas began breathing again.
Officers then took him to the medical unit, where an appointment was set for a few days later. He died before he could be seen by medical staff.
The inmate who had performed CPR on Lucas was disciplined for breaking a rule that prohibits inmates from performing medical procedures, according to the lawsuit.
A Corrections spokesman declined comment on the case, citing the litigation.
Donna Hamm, a former state judge and prisoner advocate, said incarceration is the punishment for prisoners, not inadequate health care. And Arizona has a constitutionally mandated obligation to provide adequate care to prisoners, she said.
"The delays are just incredible," she says. "I've advocated for people who've been diagnosed with a lump or growth and who are supposed to be biopsied and have to wait six months, eight months, extraordinary amounts of time before being diagnosed."
A class-action ACLU suit alleges that medical and mental-health care in Arizona's prison system is so inadequate as to be unconstitutional and demands improvements in access to and quality of care, and "timely and competent" emergency response.
By the end of June, Wexford Health Sources Inc. of Pittsburgh will assume responsibility for medical and mental-health care at Arizona's state prisons under a three-year, $349 million contract. Wexford's contract includes performance standards for inmate care, including deadlines for inmates to be seen following a request for care and guarantees that prescriptions will be filled within a specific time.
The Department has struggled in the past two years with a medical-staff vacancy rate consistently higher than 20 percent, among other problems. Corrections spending on medical care fell 27 percent from fiscal 2009 to 2011, to $111.3 million, or an average of $3,258 an inmate.
Critics, though, citing Wexford's mixed record elsewhere, are skeptical about whether it will improve care. Regardless, Daniel Pochoda, the ACLU's Arizona director, said the change in management won't alter the legal demands for improvements in the suit.
Michelle Lependorf, the sister of Ferdinand Dix, said that she hopes the lawsuit leads to improved care.
"The real Ferdinand was loving, charming, fun to be around and caring," she said. Because of poor medical care, "the person they turned him into was angry, in pain, suffering and mistreated. ... He should have had a chance to live. They gave him none."
If you ever have a loved one who is misbehaving never call the cops. It will usually end up like this case with the cops murdering the person you love.
Of course cops will say "we were just doing our jobs".
Man shot by Phoenix officer had bipolar disorder, mother says
by Chelsey Davis - Jun. 5, 2012 12:01 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
Phoenix police have identified the man shot and killed by an officer at the Telephone Pioneer Park Pool on Monday afternoon.
Timothy Sean O'Brien, 25, was attempting to enter the park's pool near 19th Avenue and Union Hills Drive, but was denied entry for not wearing a bathing suit, said Sgt. Trent Crump with the Phoenix Police Department.
O'Brien's mother said Tuesday that her son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and while he occasionally had manic episodes, he was not a violent person.
"He was really sweet to everyone. When he was a little boy, he would run up to people and hug them just to make them smile," said O'Brien's mother, Lynn Korff. "He never lost that quality."
O'Brien spent Monday morning helping his mother plant a rose bush in front of the house they shared before she went to work, Korff said. She got a call later in the day from O'Brien's girlfriend who was worried because he failed to meet her at 11 a.m. as planned, Korff said.
"She was really worried and I said, 'Don't worry, Tim will sometimes be gone for an hour or so, but he always comes home'," Korff said. "That night there was a bagning on the door. I thought maybe it was Tim. It was Phoenix police detectives. They asked me if I had a son and I said, 'yes'."
Korff said that O'Brien last met with his Magellan case manager on Friday and had put down a deposit on an apartment he was scheduled to move into later this month.
"When he got manic, he would get agitated," Korff said. "Sometimes he would yell, but he didn't threaten people as far as I know."
A man visiting the pool with his 4-year-old daughter and another child called police after O'Brien became belligerent and threatened the man and his daughter with a bat outside the building, Crump said.
Two police officers told O'Brien to drop the bat and for the citizen to move away from him. O'Brien threw the bat to the ground briefly, but picked up the object heading toward the officers, Crump said.
Officers gave multiple warnings to stop and put the bat down, but he continued to moved toward them while swinging the bat. Both officers fired their guns multiple times when O'Brien was close enough to assault, Crump said.
Both officers are in their mid-30s and each has been with the Police Department about 10 years, neither were harmed in the shooting, Crump said.
Republic reporter JJ Hensley contributed to this report.
Arizona's prisons deadlier than most
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 5, 2012 11:18 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
At least seven Arizona inmates have been murdered over the past two years, a prison-homicide rate more than double the national average, an Arizona Republic investigation shows.
The killings have occurred amid rising violence behind bars. Between fiscal 2009 and 2011, as the state's prison population rose by less than 6 percent, inmate-on-inmate assaults jumped 90 percent, to 1,478, and assaults on corrections staff rose 18 percent, to 362.
The Republic investigation found two common threads in a majority of the killings: inmates housed with violent cell mates and inmates targeted by groups or gangs.
Among the victims was Eduardo Martinez, 51, who was beaten to death in the Yuma state prison in December, reportedly by the same men who six months earlier had assaulted him at the Florence state prison.
Martinez was serving time for writing bad checks, the result of his addiction to the painkiller Oxycontin, according to his mother, Helen Martinez. She says that her son had told her during his time at the Florence prison that he was being pressured to sell drugs for other inmates and that when he refused, the inmates had assaulted him, breaking his jaw. He thought he would be safe after he was moved to Yuma, but shortly before he was killed, he told Helen that the same men who assaulted him in Florence had been transferred to Yuma, she says.
Echoing the families of several prison-murder victims, Helen Martinez says she has been told little about the murder. "They haven't told me anything. I've asked and asked, and I get no response."
Corrections officials declined to comment on Martinez's death, saying only that they have referred the case to Yuma County for prosecution.
Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan denies the rising murder and assault rates indicate there's a problem with violence in the prison system.
He attributes the increase in assaults, in part, to staffing cuts before he became director in 2009 and to a change in how the department defines them. Ryan says his predecessor recorded assaults only that resulted in injury. The department now records a range of incidents as assaults, from inmates flinging urine or feces at officers through their cell's food slots, to attacks with crude weapons in which inmates or officers are badly injured.
Ryan predicted assault rates will remain the same or decline slightly for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Having more corrections officers will improve safety for inmates and officers, he said.
Arizona's prison-murder rate equates to 8.75 murders per 100,000 inmates, while the national rate is four. (There are about 40,000 inmates in Arizona prisons.)
In at least three inmate murders over the past two years, the victims were killed by their cell mates, according to the department.
Two murders took place in two-man maximum-security cells at Eyman state prison: Jeremy Pompeneo, 25, serving a life term for murder, was killed on May 31, 2011. Nolan Pierce, 23, serving 25.5 years for burglary and armed robbery, was strangled on March 16, according to the Corrections Department.
"I talked to him four days before, and he sounded like everything was fine," said Mackenzie Smith, Pierce's girlfriend. She said the warden at Eyman told her several weeks after Pierce's murder that they had a confession. But neither she nor Pierce's mother has heard anything more, she said. "If the cell mate admitted to murdering him, why is it taking so long for the investigation?" she asked.
Prison officials said they have referred Pierce's and Pompeneo's cases to prosecutors.
The third cell-mate victim was Shannon Palmer, 40, a mentally ill man sentenced to three years in prison for climbing a utility tower during a thunderstorm. He was placed in an isolation cell at the Lewis state prison with a murderer, Jasper Rushing, who later told a PhoenixNew Times reporter that he slit Palmer's throat and castrated him on Sept. 10, 2010, because Palmer wouldn't stop talking.
Ron Ozer, an attorney representing Palmer's family in a wrongful-death suit against the state, said corrections officers should never have put Palmer in a cell with Rushing, nor should they have given Rushing access to the razor blade he used to kill Palmer. "If the Department of Corrections had followed its own policies, this murder would never have taken place," Ozer said.
Margaret Plews, who runs the Arizona Prison Watch website and monitors prison deaths, agreed that corrections officials should not have housed a mentally ill inmate with a murderer.
A corrections spokesman declined to comment on Palmer's death, citing the family's lawsuit against the state. The department has disciplined three officers involved in placing Palmer with Rushing.
Little is known of the circumstances surrounding two prison murders.
Shon Wilder, 33, who was serving nearly 20 years for car theft and extortion, was murdered at Winslow state prison on April 20, according to officials.
James Jennings, 59, who was serving three years for assault, was originally listed as dying of "natural causes" at Eyman in September 2010. Corrections officials now say that Jennings died of "blunt-force trauma" and that the case was "referred to the County Attorney's Office. However, they declined prosecution."
County medical examiners refused to release the autopsy reports in these cases, citing homicide investigations. Family members of the victims couldn't be reached.
The seventh murder acknowledged by the department is that of Dana Seawright, who was found stabbed in his cell at the Lewis state prison on July 8, 2010. While the Corrections Department has not released other details, the inmate's mother, Kini Seawright, says her son, who was Black, was murdered by a Black prison gang because he failed to carry out their order to attack a Mexican inmate.
More murders may have occurred during the two years examined by The Republic, including one described by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office as "extremely suspicious for foul play."
The death of David Moreno, 40, who was serving a life term for murder when he died in his two-man cell at the Lewis state prison on Jan. 12, 2011, is listed as "under investigation." The autopsy report by the medical examiner notes that although Moreno was found hanging in his cell, and his cell mate claimed to be away using the phone at the time, "the cell mate's story was not consistent with the scene findings, and the cell mate had rope-type abrasions over his hands." The report also noted contusions on Moreno's mouth and arms, suggesting he had been hit, a mop and bucket with red fluid found in the unit, and other details that couldn't be explained by a supposed suicide.
Corrections officials declined to comment on the Moreno case.
Fights and assaults on inmates range widely. Daily incident reports obtained by The Republic for May listed, among many other incidents, a fight on May 18 at the Yuma state prison's Dakota unit, involving 75 prisoners. Order was restored in less than 10 minutes, and only one inmate was transported for medical treatment as a result of the incident, according to officials.
On May 8 an inmate at the Douglas prison was stabbed 10 times on his abdomen and arm with a homemade weapon, and an inmate at Florence's Central Unit had to be airlifted with a collapsed lung to a hospital after being stabbed with a 5-inch piece of wire. On May 31, in one of five assaults that day, an inmate at Florence's East Unit had his arm broken by two other inmates. None of the reports explained the attacks.
Pregnant woman Tasered by police during parking dispute
By William Lee and Andrew Zuick
10:44 a.m. CDT, June 6, 2012
Chicago police Tasered a pregnant woman before arresting her and her boyfriend during a dispute with officers in the parking lot of a Walgreens in the Roseland neighborhood Tuesday night, officials said, sparking an outcry from relatives of the couple.
Tiffany Rent, who relatives say is eight months pregnant, was taken to Roseland Community Hospital where a nursing supervisor said the baby appeared to be unharmed. Rent was treated and released, the supervisor said.
But Rent's family said the 30-year-old Rent has lost two babies in the past and they plan to have her undergo more tests. "I'm outraged, just livid. Who does that?" said Rent's sister, Shareeta Rent.
The incident occurred late Tuesday night when Rent was ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot at the Walgreens in the 10300 block of South Michigan Avenue, police said. Rent tore up the ticket and threw it at the officer and "attempted to take off," according to a source reading from the police report.
At some point, an officer used a Taser on Rent and took her into custody, police said. Her boyfriend and father of the child, Joseph Hobbs, was also arrested when he tried to intervene, police said. He suffered a dislocated elbow during the arrest, officials said.
The police source indicated the officer who used the Taser may not have known Rent was pregnant. Her sister said a female officer at the scene noticed Rent was pregnant and suggested she be taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Shereeta Rent said her sister was Tasered while sitting in the SUV and was pulled out of the car by officers. She said Rent was taunted while she was on the ground.
“She said she felt very dizzy and she remembered being on the ground and all of these officers standing around her cracking jokes,” Shareeta Rent said.
She added that the arrests were witnessed by Rent's 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, who Shareeta Rent said were left unattended in the car along with their mother's purse and other personal items.
"How could you do that to a pregnant woman?" Rent said. "My niece and nephew are in the back seat of the car crying. They did that in front of her kids."
Hobbs’ sister, Shahidah Hobbs said "the whole family is appalled because (neither) Tiffany nor Joseph are those type of people that are combative. They’re very laid back, very sociable…It’s ridiculous.”
Shareeta Rent said she hopes video surveillance from Walgreens caught the arrest. “Check the videotapes. The proof is in the pudding,” she said.
“We’re going to file complaints and go from there and hope to God something is done about this. This is ridiculous.,” she added.
Rent was charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and simple assault, and was cited for parking in a handicapped spot, police said. Hobbs was charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and simple assault.
Both families say they plan to attend a court hearing for the couple this morning at the police station at 727 E. 111th Street.
Will Lee is a reporter for the Tribune, and Andrew Zuick a reporter for WGN-TV
Police shoot boy, 14, in South San Francisco
Henry K. Lee
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
(06-06) 09:07 PDT SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- A South San Francisco police officer shot and critically wounded a 14-year-old boy after the teenager pulled a gun, authorities said Wednesday.
There were unconfirmed reports that the boy had died at a hospital. Police were not immediately able to provide details.
The incident began when an officer tried to contact the boy in the parking lot of an Arco gas station at 2300 Westborough Blvd. about 9 p.m. Tuesday, police said. They did not explain why the officer had been trying to contact the youth.
The boy ran and led the officer on a short chase, police said. As the officer caught up to him, the youth pulled out a gun, prompting the officer to shoot him once, authorities said.
The boy was taken to San Francisco General Hospital.
The shooting is under investigation by police and the San Mateo County district attorney's office.
Person shot by South San Francisco police dies, report says he was a teen
By Joshua Melvin and Eric Kurhi
Posted: 06/06/2012 08:22:53 AM PDT
A teen boy who was shot Tuesday night by a South San Francisco police officer died overnight after being taken to a hospital, according to police and media reports.
South San Francisco police did not provide the age of the person shot, but did confirm today the person died. Tuesday night, police said the officer was "within interviewing distance" to a man at a gas station when the he felt threatened enough to fire a single shot.
The person was struck and sent him to the hospital, where he died.
ABC7 is reporting that gas station employees and relatives say the shooting victim is 14 or 15 and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital.
At about 9 p.m., a solo officer arrived at the parking lot of the Arco gas station at 2300 Westborough Boulevard, got out of his vehicle and made contact with the suspect for reasons not immediately known, said South San Francisco police Sgt. Bruce McPhillips.
McPhillips said the officer believed that the suspect was armed and fired at him. But he had no further information as to the exact reason the officer felt his life was in danger.
The bullet hit the man in an undisclosed location, and he was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries considered life-threatening, police said.
A gun that the boy was believed to be carrying was found at the scene, police said.
[Hmmm I wonder, was the gun found, or planted!!!!
I worked with a computer programmer at Sperry Flight Systems who
also worked for free as a Phoenix reserve cop
and he said that some pigs carry stolen guns
to plant on the victims that they kill.
Of course we will never know what happened in this case]
No shots were fired from that weapon, and the officer was not hurt.
He was being interviewed by
investigators and crime lab technicians remained at the scene early Wednesday. McPhillips said more information would be available Wednesday morning.
Medical-pot dispensaries don't boost crime, study says
Jun. 6, 2012 11:34 AM
Robert Preidt, HealthDay
Neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries do not have higher crime rates than other neighborhoods, according to researchers who examined 95 different areas of Sacramento, Calif., in 2009.
As more U.S. states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons, some people have expressed concern that outlets that dispense the drug and their clients will become targets for crime.
But that's not the case, according to the study in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The researchers found no evidence that neighborhoods with a higher density of medical marijuana dispensaries had higher rates of violent crime or property crime than other neighborhoods.
The study authors added, however, that further research is needed because they looked at neighborhoods at only one point in time. A neighborhood's crime patterns could change over time as more medical marijuana dispensaries open.
"This study is a good first step," study leader Nancy Kepple, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a journal news release. "But it was not designed to address the bigger picture of how these dispensaries might be affecting neighborhoods."
She also noted that the findings are based on one city, and research in other cities may yield different results. Currently, 17 states and Washington, D.C., permit medical marijuana use.
"The more research that's done, the more complete a picture we'll have," Kepple said.
Medical marijuana was legalized for use in patients whose doctors recommend it for relief during treatment for cancer, AIDS, chronic pain and other conditions, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Obama invokes executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents
By Richard A. Serrano
June 20, 2012, 8:18 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Just as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was about to vote Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the flawed Fast and Furious gun-tracking case, President Obama asserted executive privilege and backed up the attorney general’s position in refusing to turn over the material.
The fast-moving events Wednesday morning at the White House and on Capitol Hill significantly ratcheted up a growing constitutional clash between the two branches of the federal government, one that ultimately may not be resolved until it reaches the courts.
The Republican-led committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), will ask the full House for a floor vote holding Holder in contempt and requesting the U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., or a special prosecutor to force the attorney general to produce the documents.
“The committee has uncovered serious wrongdoing by the Justice Department,” Issa said of his investigation into Fast and Furious, in which several thousand firearms were deliberately circulated along the Southwest border and ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. “That wrongdoing has cost lives on both sides of the border.”
Moments before the committee hearing, the White House announced that Obama had formally exerted executive privilege in the matter, giving Holder cover from releasing the material to the committee.
“We regret that we have arrived at this point,” Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole told Issa in a letter that arrived on the Hill just before the committee went into session.
He said making the documents public “would have significant, damaging consequences,” but he did not disclose whether Obama has been briefed or had another supervisory role in Fast and Furious.
In a separate letter that Holder wrote to Obama shortly before the committee session, asking for executive privilege, the attorney general said he had “concluded that you may properly assert executive privilege over the documents at issue, and I respectfully request you do so.” Holder also did not mention any involvement by Obama in Fast and Furious.
According to the Obama White House, President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege six times during his two terms, and President Bill Clinton 14 times during his eight years in Washington.
“In fact,” said Eric Schultz, an Obama White House spokesman, “dating back to President Reagan, presidents have asserted executive privilege 24 times. President Obama has gone longer without asserting the privilege in a congressional dispute than any president in the last three decades.”
Republicans said Obama's move raises serious questions.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked how Obama could assert executive privilege "if there is no White House involvement?"
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Obama's move "implies that White House officials were either involved in the 'Fast and Furious' operation or the cover-up that followed."
"The administration has always insisted that wasn't the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?" Brendan Buck said.
Staff writer Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report
What is executive privilege?
by Connie Cass - Jun. 20, 2012 02:55 PM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Presidents dating back to George Washington have claimed a murky power to keep the inner workings of their administrations secret from Congress.
That authority -- known as executive privilege -- isn't in the Constitution. It hasn't been clearly defined by the courts. Yet invoking it has proven effective for presidents determined to keep witnesses or documents away from congressional investigators.
President Barack Obama is the latest to assert the privilege: He refused Wednesday to turn over some Justice Department documents about a botched anti-smuggling operation that allowed hundreds of guns sold in Arizona to end up in Mexico. Because of the standoff, the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee then voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. The committee's recommendation next would go to the full House for a vote.
A look, in question and answer form, at executive privilege and the fuzzy state of the law regarding showdowns between Congress and a president:
Q: How can a president shrug off a subpoena from a congressional committee?
A: Presidents say they should be free to engage in private decision-making with their advisers without fearing how their words or internal memos might look to Congress or the public. Several presidents have argued that this authority also extends to the work of high-level agency officials, even if they weren't communicating with the president or White House about such work.
Q: Where does the idea of executive privilege come from?
A: It's a principle based on the constitutionally mandated separation of powers -- the idea that the executive branch, Congress and the courts operate independently of each other.
The concept of executive privilege dates at least to 1792, when Congress was probing a disastrous battle against American Indians that cost the lives of hundreds of U.S. soldiers. President George Washington and his Cabinet decided the president had the right to refuse to turn over some documents if disclosing them would harm the public. In the end, Washington gave lawmakers what they sought. But the idea of executive privilege took root.
Q: Didn't the Supreme Court settle the issue when it ordered President Richard Nixon to hand over the Watergate tapes recorded in the White House?
A: Not really. The court ordered Nixon to surrender the tapes in that case -- a criminal investigation. But the justices also found a constitutional basis for claims of executive privilege, leaving the door open for presidents to cite it in future clashes with Congress.
Q: Do presidents claim executive privilege often?
A: Most reach for it sparingly. Wednesday was Obama's first time in his 3 1 / 2years in office. His predecessor, George W. Bush, cited it six times in eight years. Bush's father invoked it only once in his single term.
The administration of President Bill Clinton, who faced investigation of his Whitewater land deals and then a sex-and-lies scandal, asserted executive privilege 14 times. Some of those claims were kept quiet and quickly dropped, however.
Q: What comes next for Obama?
A: Probably more negotiation. In the past, presidents and lawmakers have been loath to let an executive privilege fight escalate into a court battle.
Q: Why not go to court to settle questions about executive privilege once and for all?
A: There's too much risk. Presidents worry that if they lose, courts will take away a valuable tool and weaken the power of the office. If the lawmakers lose, they could permanently weaken Congress' subpoena power when it investigates executive branch blunders.
Q: What if the White House and Congress can't reach a compromise?
A: The next step is a contempt of Congress vote in the full Republican-controlled House. Full House approval would send the case to the local U.S. attorney for enforcement. Who is that U.S. attorney's boss? Holder and, ultimately, Obama, who appointed him.
That's why the Justice Department traditionally declines to pursue such criminal contempt of Congress cases.
Q: Is there something else Congress could do?
A: If, as history suggests, the Justice Department won't prosecute a criminal case against Holder, the House could hire its own lawyer and file a civil lawsuit in federal court in hopes of winning an order for Holder to turn over the documents. But in addition to the risk of losing, a court fight certainly would be long and drawn out, making that an unappealing option.
The Democratic-controlled House filed suit in 2008 seeking to compel testimony from a former White House counsel to George W. Bush. The lawsuit was dropped a year and a half later, after Bush's term ended and a newly elected Congress had been seated. Congress did get some of the documents it sought, however.
Judge bars Phoenix police from paying for work for union
by JJ Hensley - Jun. 6, 2012 11:05 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the Phoenix Police Department is violating Arizona's anti-gift clause by paying officers to function as full-time labor-union representatives.
The judge ordered a temporary halt to the practice.
The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, a labor group representing Phoenix police officers, was the target of the lawsuit brought by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think-tank and advocacy group, and two Phoenix taxpayers who claimed the $1.5 million in annual salaries paid to the union reps violated the state constitution.
The lawsuit was filed last December, several months after the Goldwater Institute released a report entitled "Money for Nothing" that was critical of Phoenix's contracts with seven labor groups.
"The subsidies were at their worst in the city's contract with the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association," according to the lawsuit.
Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper agreed in a ruling issued Tuesday, finding that the salaries for the union reps were not for a public purpose because the employees negotiate contracts for PLEA members, lobby for legislation that benefits police officers, attend union functions and other activities where the labor group is the direct beneficiary.
"Such activities promote the private interests of PLEA and, as a result, do not constitute public purposes," Cooper wrote.
Cooper also wrote that the Police Department could reallocate the money set aside for the labor group to another public purpose.
A police union representative was not immediately available for comment.
Fullerton council recall ahead, fueled by Kelly Thomas death
June 6, 2012 | 12:22 am
The beating death of a mentally ill homeless man by Fullerton police appeared to be upending local politics Tuesday as voters were on pace to recall three City Council members criticized for their tepid response to an incident that garnered national headlines.
In early returns, council members Richard “Dick” Jones, Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead were being beaten by 2-to-1 margins.
Leading in votes to replace them were Fullerton Planning Commissioner Travis Kiger, attorney Doug Chaffee and Greg Sebourn, a businessman and educator.
Jones, McKinley and Bankhead were criticized by many in the community for not aggressively dealing with the alleged police brutality caught on surveillance cameras. Eventually, Fullerton’s police chief stepped down, and two of the officers involved were criminally charged.
The recall campaign was bankrolled by businessman Tony Bushala, a Libertarian-leaning political activist and blogger often at odds with the council majority that was targeted. Some accused Bushala of exploiting Thomas’ death.
The early results showed the council majority shifting toward a Libertarian-leaning Republican slate backed by Bushala, who backed Kiger -- a blogger with Bushala's Friends for Fullerton's Future blog -- and Sebourn.
Chaffee, a Democrat, had run against Bankhead in the 2010 election and was narrowly defeated.
In an interview last week, Kiger said the sitting council members had been in the city for too long and were entrenched in power structures that "clouded their judgment."
“I think what we’re going to see if the recall is successful is a real changing of the guard,” he said. Part of that change involves chipping away the influence of the police and other public employee unions, Kiger said.
“I see them losing that influence for sure and the balance will tip back toward the taxpayer, which in my view is a good thing,” he said.
McKinley, who was police chief for 16 years before being elected to the council, said he was not sure there was anything the council members could have done to change voters' minds.
"People were so incensed by the [Kelly Thomas] incident, and they were looking for someone to hold accountable," he said.
McKinley said he wishes the winning candidates well.
"The electorate has spoken, and if I'm recalled, I'll go on my way," he said.
Fullerton voters clean house, oust three council members
June 6, 2012 | 11:55 am
A recall campaign in Fullerton that was driven in part by the death of a homeless man who was beaten by police has ended with the removal of three City Council members from office.
The council members, targeted after the violent confrontation between police and Kelly Thomas, were ousted by a hefty margin in Tuesday's election.
Dick Jones, Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley, who came under fire for their perceived inaction after the death of Thomas, were each voted out by a nearly identical margin of close to 66%.
Once the results are certified, the ousted leaders will be replaced by Travis Kiger, a planning commissioner and blogger for the site Friends for Fullerton's Future; Greg Sebourn, a land surveyor; and attorney Doug Chaffee.
Kiger and Sebourn are small-government conservatives aligned with Tony Bushala, a local businessman and owner of the Fullerton's Future blog who largely funded the recall effort. Chaffee is a Democrat.
Sebourn said he hopes the new council will look not only at the issues in the police department but at fiscal issues, including the structure of public safety pensions and obligations left over from the now-defunct redevelopment agency.
He said the council will also need to take a hard look at the city manager and city attorney, two positions appointed directly by the City Council. Both came under criticism, along with the three recalled council members, for their handling of the Thomas case.
"Since the people have spoken, I think the people don't like the direction the city manager and the city attorney have taken," Sebourn said.
Legal claim accuses Arizona AG Horne of cover-up, seeks $10 million
by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Craig Harris - Jun. 7, 2012 11:27 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A longtime state criminal investigator has accused Attorney General Tom Horne of engaging in a cover-up and attempting to destroy records that potentially show criminal activity.
Horne on Thursday denied the allegations contained in a $10 million legal claim filed by Margaret "Meg" Hinchey.
"The charges are false, absurd and completely without merit, and I'm confident the courts will see it that way," Horne said in a statement.
Federal and county law-enforcement officials have been investigating allegations that Horne collaborated with an independent expenditure committee to raise a significant sum for his 2010 bid for office. State law prohibits a candidate from having any involvement in the operation of an independent campaign committee.
Hinchey alleges that Horne and his staff sought to destroy investigative materials, that the office overlooked potentially criminal behavior by Horne and favored staff members, and that it retaliated against her after she reported the information to the FBI.
Hinchey's claim states that she has evidence of Horne's involvement in the illegal activity.
The notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, portrays the state's top prosecutor as a man willing to bend the rules -- and break the law -- in an effort to protect himself and his allies from prosecution.
Horne disputed that characterization, saying the charges are politically motivated.
"This is an attack from a partisan Democrat who enjoyed working under Democrats ... and resented working for a Republican who was elected by the people of Arizona," he said Thursday. "It is sad that good and honest people have to be dragged through the mud."
Horne said his office had refused a demand from Hinchey's attorney to stop an investigation into whether Hinchey had fabricated grand-jury evidence in an unrelated case. That investigation is ongoing.
Horne's remarks came from a written statement, and he would not answer questions Thursday about Hinchey's allegations or his political future. Political insiders have considered him a top contender for the GOP nomination for governor in 2014.
Hinchey's attorney, Suzanne Dallimore, a former assistant attorney general, said Horne's office is trying to discredit her to cover up the allegations. Dallimore would not allow Hinchey to be interviewed.
"It's a terrible abuse of office," Dallimore said.
Earlier this year, another Horne employee -- a former political ally -- also claimed Horne illegally collaborated with the independent expenditure committee. He also alleged that Horne promised a job to the leader of that committee and that Horne helped funnel money from his brother-in-law to the committee.
The Republic has learned that some of the FBI's information has been turned over to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which has issued grand-jury subpoenas. Neither agency on Thursday would confirm the existence of an investigation.
The 19-page claim says that Hinchey was the first to blow the whistle on potentially illegal conduct within Horne's office and that she was penalized by Horne and his allies for taking the information to federal agents. The claim says Hinchey stumbled upon the information about Horne's alleged involvement with the independent expenditure committee while investigating another matter.
One of the office's top investigators, Hinchey oversaw some of the agency's high-profile investigations, most recently its inquiries into illegal campaign contributions by high-level Fiesta Bowl employees and improprieties by county officials.
Don Conrad, who supervised her during his past tenure as the Arizona Attorney General's Office criminal-division chief, said Hinchey's reputation is "impeccable."
"I trust her with my life," Conrad said. "Anybody that would try to convince me that she is involved in wrongdoing of some kind -- or lying or misrepresenting facts -- would have a very tall hill to climb with me."
In July 2011, Horne handpicked Hinchey, a supervising special agent in the criminal division, to conduct "a confidential internal investigation," according to the claim. The Republic was told Horne wanted her specifically to determine if someone within the office had leaked information to the Phoenix New Times regarding his hiring of Carmen Chenal, a longtime Horne confidante and employee whose state Bar license had been suspended.
During that investigation, Hinchey learned of Horne's alleged involvement with an independent expenditure committee. Kathleen Winn, whom Horne hired to be his director of community and outreach and education, ran the committee called Business Leaders for Arizona.
"I did not ask Kathleen Winn to work on an independent expenditure. She decided on her own to do that. That is perfectly proper. This is the difference between something the FBI should investigate and something that it should not investigate," Horne said in Thursday's statement.
Hinchey's claim contains allegations that:
Horne retaliated against staff who were Democrats or who supported attorney Felecia Rotellini, his Democratic opponent in the 2010 election.
Prior to taking office, the claim said, Horne met with Attorney General's Office employees to "vet out" those "who may be members of the wrong party" or supported Rotellini. Hinchey changed her party affiliation on July 22, 2011, from Democrat to independent, fearing retaliation.
Horne, in his statement, said he does not pay attention to the political party of employees and fired no one upon taking office.
The office submitted to the Arizona Governor's Office a grant application that may have contained fraudulent information. Horne had been told of the allegations, the claim said, and he asked staff to look into it.
However, an employee discussing the application with Hinchey alleged that he or she was threatened with firing "if he or she brought this type of information forward in the future."
Hinchey, who served as a task-force officer in the FBI's Public Corruption Squad, reported the allegations to the FBI for further review.
Horne said the information Hinchey gave the FBI to start the investigation was "fabricated." A gubernatorial spokesman said late Thursday that the office had not yet identified the referenced grant application.
Around Sept. 27, 2011, Horne's spokeswoman, Amy Rezzonico, visited Hinchey's office "and through the course of the conversation spontaneously disclosed" that independent expenditures had occurred for Horne at his direction during the 2010 campaign.
"Rezzonico implied she thought Horne had already told ... Hinchey about this," the claim said. Previously, Rezzonico said she was unaware of any coordination between Horne's campaign and the independent expenditure committee. The FBI has interviewed her. Rezzonico could not be reached Thursday.
At first, Hinchey did not understand the significance of Rezzonico's statements. A day later, she met with Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne and learned it would be illegal for a campaign and an independent expenditure committee to coordinate activities.
On Thursday, Osborne told the newspaper that Hinchey's characterization of their meeting was accurate. Around Sept. 29, Hinchey was again told about the grant application and the campaign-finance allegations. She went to Chief Special Agent Andy Rubalcava. Together, they reported the information to then-criminal-division chief Jim Keppel.
The next day, Hinchey reported the newest allegations to the FBI.
Around Dec. 12, 2011, Hinchey learned Deputy Attorney General Rick Bistrow and Horne had asked Keppel whether they could destroy documents from Hinchey's internal investigation file and "wipe her computer of all related documents," the claim said.
Keppel told them it would be illegal to destroy public records. Bistrow asked if they could title Hinchey's documents as "drafts" or if they could place the records in a personnel file to prevent them from becoming public. Keppel said he did not believe that would change their status as public records. The next day, Hinchey made copies of her files fearing they might disappear. She gave a copy to law enforcement.
Though Bistrow asked her not to finish writing memos from interviews she had conducted in the probe, Hinchey did so anyway. On Jan. 11, 2012 -- the same day the FBI requested information from the Secretary of State's Office about Winn's independent expenditure committee -- Bistrow told Hinchey the internal investigation was "suspended" and that she should take no further action. Hinchey later learned Bistrow told another employee the opposite: to keep the investigation in an "open" status. Documents in an open case typically are not subject to public disclosure.
On about Jan. 23, the claim said, attorney and GOP supporter Mark Goldman told Horne he was under investigation by the FBI. Goldman on Thursday confirmed to The Republic that he told Horne he was under investigation and that he was questioned about a donation he made to the independent expenditure committee.
From mid-January through Feb. 3, Hinchey claims to have learned Horne had begun to make inquiries about her abilities, trustworthiness and loyalty to him. On Feb. 3, the claim alleges, Horne and Bistrow told Keppel that Hinchey "can't be trusted" but would not say why. Bistrow asked Keppel if he thought Hinchey would notice if her case-file notebook disappeared from her office. Keppel said she would: "She is not stupid."
The alleged smear campaign continued between Feb. 17 and Feb. 20, the claim states, when Horne called an assistant attorney general to talk about Hinchey. Horne, according to the claim, told the attorney that Hinchey was having a personal relationship with Rotellini. Hinchey has been in a committed relationship for 25 years and is a mother of three. Rotellini could not be reached Thursday.
During that weekend conversation, the claim said, Horne called her a "political hack." He also inquired about her party registration. On March 22, Horne and Bistrow told Keppel that Hinchey "cannot be trusted because she went to the FBI reporting alleged baseless criminal activity by AG Horne related to campaign finance."
Hinchey's attorney on March 23 demanded in a letter that Horne and Bistrow stop the smear campaign. Horne responded days later saying there was no smear campaign. On March 27, Keppel acknowledged to Bistrow that Hinchey had reported the alleged criminal activity to him and that the information had been relayed to the FBI. Keppel then handed two envelopes to Bistrow, one for him and one for their boss. The envelopes contained notice of Keppel's resignation.
On April 5, days after Horne first publicly denied allegations that he had engaged in illegal behavior, Hinchey's boss learned that three Phoenix police officers had filed a notice of claim against the state and Hinchey. The claim was tied to an investigation she had conducted involving overtime abuse. Horne's top aides, according to the claim, suggested an internal investigation to examine Hinchey's actions in the investigation. Hinchey's boss suggested the investigation should be performed internally, the normal process to examine the conduct of sworn agency personnel, the claim said.
According to a May 3 memo, the Attorney General's Office hired outside counsel, Dale Danneman of Lewis & Roca, to investigate Hinchey's conduct. The next day, Hinchey went on long-term medical leave. The claim states she has stress-related health issues.
In cities in Arizona cops are usually about 50 percent of the number of employees,
with firefighters following them by being around 25 percent of the employees.
Of course when you look at Arizona employees at the the county and state levels
cops are not such a high percent of the workers as they are at the city level,
and I don't have the numbers for the percent of government workers at the
county or state level whom are cops.
I think that in Arizona most of the cops and firefighters are represented by unions.
Of course Arizona is a right to work state and nobody can be forced to join a union,
so not all cops and firefighters are union members.
As I said before I am not against unions, but sadly most unions seem to behave
like criminal thugs and use violence and other crimes to help increase the wages
and benefits of the members. I certainly am against unions that do that.
Bad call by Wisconsin Dems
By Michael Barone
Friday, June 8, 2012
The results are in, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has beaten Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall election.
That’s in line with pre-election polling, though not the Election Day exit poll. Even before the results came in, we knew one thing, and that is that the Democrats and the public employee unions had already lost the battle of ideas over the issue that sparked the recall, Walker’s legislation to restrict the bargaining powers of public employee unions.
That’s supported by a Marquette University poll showing 75 percent of Wisconsin voters favoring increases in public employees’ contributions for health care and pensions. It also showed 55 percent for limiting collective bargaining for public employees and only 41 percent opposed.
But the strongest evidence is that Barrett and the Democrats avoided the issue. They had tried to make the election about anything else, such as an investigation of staffers for Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive.
A defeat in a state where public employee union bargaining was authorized in 1959 has national implications.
Unions spent $400 million in the 2008 election cycle to elect Barack Obama and other Democrats. More than half of all union members nationally are public employees.
Public employee unions insist that dues money be deducted from members’ paychecks and sent directly to union treasuries. So in practice, public employee unions are a mechanism for the involuntary transfer of taxpayers’ money to the Democratic Party.
Walker’s law ended this practice and gave public employees the choice of whether to pay union dues. The membership of AFSCME, the big union of state employees, fell from 62,818 to 28,785.
The battle of ideas in Wisconsin may have affected opinion nationally. The annual Education Next poll of opinion on teacher unions showed little change between 2009 and 2011, but this year the percentage with a positive view dropped from 29 percent to 21 percent. It dropped from 58 percent to 43 percent among teachers themselves.
The case for public employee unions has never been strong. Public unions’ institutional incentives are to increase pay and benefits, which costs taxpayers money, and to limit employee accountability, which tends to reduce the quality of public services.
Perhaps the weakness of the case for public employee unions kept Barack Obama from doing much to help them in Wisconsin. Or perhaps he was preoccupied by the faltering economy or fatigued by the six fundraisers he attended last Friday, when the dismal jobs numbers came out.
Whatever the reason, Obama did fly over Wisconsin from a Minneapolis fundraiser to his home in Chicago. And on Monday, he tweeted his “backing” of Tom Barrett, although he didn’t use the full 140 characters.
Now the public employee unions are threatened. Walker’s victory in Wisconsin shows that the case against powerful public employee unions can be not only defended but advanced, in a state with a long progressive tradition, which has not voted Republican for president since 1984.
That’s a lesson that may be taken to heart by governors, legislatures and voters in other states being pushed toward bankruptcy by union-negotiated benefits and pensions.
Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.
Division chief left AG's office because of Horne inquiry
Previously would not confirm the reason for his resignation
by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Jun. 8, 2012 02:56 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Jim Keppel, the former criminal division chief under Tom Horne, told The Arizona Republic on Friday that he left the agency because of an FBI investigation into Horne and others.
Keppel abruptly resigned from Horne's office in late March.
Up until Friday, he would not confirm the reason for his departure and would not discuss the events leading up to his resignation, saying he may be called as a witness in the ongoing probe.
He broke his silence amid allegations by state criminal investigator Margaret "Meg" Hinchey that accuse Horne and his top staff of attempting to cover up evidence regarding alleged illegal and unethical conduct.
Horne has denied the allegations.
In a 19-page notice of claim filed Thursday, Hinchey asks for $10 million for her damaged reputation. She alleges Horne and his staff sought to destroy investigative materials, that the office overlooked potentially criminal behavior by Horne and favored staff members, and that it retaliated against her after she reported the information to the FBI.
A notice of claim is pre-cursor to a lawsuit against a government entity.
Federal and county law enforcement officials are investigating her allegations.
Keppel played a key role in the events described in Hinchey's claim. He was portrayed as a supervisor who attempted to protect Hinchey from Horne and others who sought to bury information she had gathered against Horne and his staff.
"What was stated about my reasons for leaving in her claim are accurate," Keppel told The Republic. "The sequence of events leading up to my leaving are accurate. And generally, my reason for leaving was related to the fact of the FBI investigation and the way personnel in that office were responding to that situation."
During his 44-year career, Keppel worked as a prosecutor for the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, and he served as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge from 1996 to 2010.
In a statement Thursday, Horne called the charges "false, absurd and completely without merit."
"I'm confident the courts will see it that way," Horne said. He said the charges are politically motivated.
"This is an attack from a partisan Democrat who enjoyed working under Democrats ... and resented working for a Republican who was elected by the people of Arizona," he said Thursday. "It is sad that good and honest people have to be dragged through the mud."
Hinchey donated $53 in October 2010 to Felicia Rotellini, Horne's Democratic opponent in the 2010 election and prior to that, she had attended a weekend fundraiser for Rotellini "because she had prosecutorial experience," said Suzanne Dallimore, Hinchey's attorney.
Dallimore said Hinchey, as a representative of the Fraternal Order of Police, met with attorney general candidates from both parties. She did not meet with Horne because her child was sick, her attorney said.
Dallimore added that Hinchey also supported Rick Romley, a Republican, in his re-election bid for Maricopa County Attorney.
Dallimore said Hinchey has made one other political contribution: to her mom's school board election.
And of course those are the same reason the cops love to arrest people for victimless drug war crimes.
If you ask me the cops should be hunting down real criminals like robbers, rapists and murderers instead of shaking down harmless drunks!
San Jose to pay $225,000 over public drunkenness arrests
By John Woolfolk
jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com
Posted: 06/08/2012 10:21:35 AM PDT
For a fraction of the money initially sought, San Jose will settle two civil rights lawsuits that put a spotlight on the city's downtown policing practices and helped spur a host of changes.
San Jose will pay a total of $225,000 to settle civil rights lawsuits by four men, including a Southern California sports journalist, who claimed officers arrested them on groundless public drunkenness charges motivated more by racial bias.
An investigation by this newspaper after the initial lawsuit found the city under former police Chief Rob Davis made more public drunkenness arrests and prosecutions than other California cities and that those arrests disproportionately involved Latinos. The suits and reports prompted San Jose officials to revise arrest policies.
While the city admits no wrongdoing on behalf of its officers in the settlement, the Police Department has made changes to address the complaints.
Police Chief Chris Moore said officers now offer those arrested on public drunkenness charges an alcohol screening test to provide a record of intoxication levels supporting the charge. Supervisors must sign off on those arrests. Officers are trained to avoid jailing nonviolent drunks, to seek alternatives to ensure those stopped get home safely and to document cases involving forcible arrests. The department now tracks public drunkenness arrests to monitor trends.
"The key is to make sure we use best practices and explore all the
alternatives, that we document arrests and make sure they're signed off on," Moore said.
The settlement also includes a provision for the city to reach an additional agreement with the men on police policies, training, and monitoring regarding public drunkenness charges.
The settlements in the pair of federal lawsuits filed in 2008 and 2009 would pay the men far less than the $40 million they had sought in damages.
Under terms of the proposed agreement, which the City Council is expected to approve Tuesday, San Jose would pay the four men a total of $75,000 to be divided among them, and their attorney Anthony Boskovich $150,000.
"It's not as much money as we would have liked, but certainly the resolution is fair," Boskovich said. "The city and the department have forthrightly acknowledged what the issues are and taken steps to remedy the problem."
Charges against all four men were dropped.
City Attorney Rick Doyle said in a memorandum to the council that the proposed settlement "is reasonable to avoid the risks of litigation."
Paul Cicala, a Palm Springs television anchorman, filed suit in August 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California along with Enrico Sagullo, of San Mateo, and Erick Sanchez, of San Jose, alleging police violated their civil rights with wrongful public drunkenness arrests for which prosecutors declined to file charges. They sought $20 million in damages.
Cicala was downtown for the city's Grand Prix auto race in July 2007 when he was troubled by what he thought was a heavy-handed arrest and approached to record the event with his mobile phone. He claimed in the suit that the officer ordered him to stop, accused him of acting like "a lawyer" and then told a fellow officer to arrest him.
Sagullo said he was leaving a downtown nightclub in November 2006 and was arrested after approaching an officer to question the handling of an arrest. Sanchez said he was heading home from the club district and was arrested after making an obscene gesture toward a phalanx of officers herding them away from downtown.
Cicala and Sagullo claimed that police refused their requests to test them for intoxication so they could not prove their innocence.
Ronald Heiman, of San Jose, filed a separate lawsuit in June 2009 also in U.S. District Court seeking $20 million. His complaint alleged that in June 2007 he was in bed at his Hester Avenue apartment when police banged on the door and ordered him out. When he opened the door, they arrested him for alleged public drunkenness. It turned out police were responding to a weapons disturbance report and had gone to the wrong house. Prosecutors declined to file charges.
Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346.
NYPD fires Hasidic Jew over beard length
Jun. 9, 2012 12:40 PM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- An Orthodox Jew who was weeks away from becoming a New York City police officer said he has been kicked out of the police academy for refusing to trim his beard.
Former recruit Fishel Litzman of Monsey, New York, was fired Friday after multiple confrontations with the department over the length of his whiskers, he told the Daily News.
Litzman is Hasidic and believes that cutting his beard is forbidden by God.
NYPD rules usually require officers to be clean-shaven. The department makes exceptions for beards kept for religious purposes, but even then only allows 1 millimeter worth of growth.
"I don't understand what the problem would be," said Litzman.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the department's rules are reasonable and Litzman was aware of them when he signed up.
Litzman was first cited in January for his unkempt beard. He was a month away from receiving his shield when he was fired.
"I always wanted to be a police officer," said Litzman, a 38-year-old father of five who speaks Hebrew and Yiddish and was once a paramedic.
His attorney, Nathan Lewin, said the police department knew when Litzman applied that he would not trim his beard.
And now, said Lewin, it's a case of religious discrimination.
Lewin did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The department hired its first Hasidic officer in 2006 and the force now has at least two dozen Orthodox Jewish officers.
Like observant Muslim and Sikh officers, Hasidic officers are allowed to keep their beards for religious reasons but must keep them neat and trimmed.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer issued a statement Saturday saying he was "deeply troubled" by the firing.
"While the NYPD can exercise control over the personal appearance of its force in order to ensure that all officers are capable of performing their duties, they are also required to make a reasonable accommodation for religious beliefs," Stringer said.
He urged the police commissioner to reconsider the case.
But when I read about how the cops arrested White supremacists Dennis Mahon and his brother it sure sounds like they violated their civil rights and entrapped them.
And while the Mahon brothers sound like racist jerks there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that say they committed the bombing other then Rebecca Williams testimony. And of course she was was paid thousands of dollars by the government to help manufacture a case against the brothers.
Maybe the Mahon brothers are guilty, maybe they are not, but either way it seems like the government didn't treat them fairly.
Flagstaff woman worked undercover to nab White-supremacist bomber
by Richard Ruelas - Jun. 9, 2012 02:28 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
She was a single mother of two in her 30s, seeking out a living in northern Arizona hanging drywall and doing landscaping. That is, until the day the federal government asked Rebecca Williams to become Cooperating Individual No. 986 and help solve a hate crime.
Williams would transform herself into Becca Stevens, budding White supremacist and trailer-park dweller, who would become the love interest of the man suspected of sending a package bomb to a Black city official in Scottsdale in February 2004.
Tristan Moreland, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, suspected the bomb to be the work of Dennis Mahon, a White supremacist he had tracked for decades. But he needed proof. And he needed help.
He would get both.
In the hundreds of hours of taped conversations Williams would have with Mahon over the next five years, Mahon preached hatred and gave her step-by-step instructions on making explosives. His words were damning enough for a jury to convict him and a judge to sentence him last month to 40 years in federal prison.
Those tapes also recorded the words of a man falling in love with the woman he knew as Becca. Mahon's attorney would argue in court that the charade was unfair, calling Williams a "trailer-park Mata Hari," referencing the famous exotic dancer and accused spy from World War I. She said Williams, a former topless dancer, worked Mahon "like she once worked a pole."
Williams had no training in the art of espionage. But she instinctively felt she might be able to get Mahon talking about explosives if she could first win his heart.
"Just from being a woman, I guess," Williams said. "I was just being me."
***
The blast in the Scottsdale municipal building on Feb. 26, 2004, left behind blood, shattered glass and debris. But scant evidence.
The package was addressed to Don Logan, director of the Scottsdale Office of Diversity and Dialogue. He and two other employees, Renita Linyard and Jacque Belland, were injured in the pipe-bomb attack. Logan survived the blast only because, suspicious of the package, he held it away from him as he opened it.
Investigators started looking for enemies in Logan's life, the most common suspects of this rare type of violence.
But ATF agent Moreland suspected a hate crime. In a note left with the bomb, he spotted a reference to an obscure White-supremacist group. He also made the connection between language in the note that was similar to what had been used in threatening calls made recently to the diversity officer in neighboring Tempe.
Moreland suspected Mahon, a supremacist who had long preached violence in order to achieve his goal of an all-White society. After starting a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the Kansas City area, Mahon moved to Arizona and started a wing of the White Aryan Resistance in 2001. He hoped to capitalize on growing tensions regarding illegal immigration.
Mahon made a phone call to the Scottsdale Office of Diversity and Dialogue in September 2003. It was in response to a newspaper brief that mentioned the upcoming celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Mahon's message said that the "White Aryan Resistance is growing in Scottsdale. There's a few White people who are standing up."
The message was disturbing enough that Logan alerted Scottsdale police. When the recording of that call was listened to again after the bombing, it gave Moreland more reason to suspect Mahon.
Moreland wanted to find someone to infiltrate Mahon's life. The government sometimes finds informers in people facing criminal charges, sending them back into their world of drugs or gangs to get information for law enforcement. But Moreland liked casting his own informers from law-abiding society.
For this job, he needed a woman who was attractive but unrefined enough to fit into a rural setting; she also needed to be comfortable using her sexuality. An ATF informer who had worked with the agency on drug cases said his sister, Rebecca, might fit the bill.
Rebecca Williams was born and raised in central Phoenix, in the rough neighborhood near the state Capitol. She married and had two children, including one born severely autistic. For a time, her husband watched the children while she worked. She took a job bartending at a Phoenix topless club, but the lure of the money led her to become a dancer instead.
"It paid very well," she said.
She and her husband divorced after 17 years of marriage. Williams quit dancing and moved to northern Arizona, working as a landscaper and drywall hanger, relying on friends to watch her children. Then her brother approached her with the prospect of working undercover for government investigations. It offered large rewards if successful. But more enticing to Williams, it sounded exciting.
"I kind of wanted to be a cop," said Williams, 41. Her father was in law enforcement; so was an uncle. She felt the lure of cracking cases.
"I've always been like a detective in the sense of spying things," she said. "My eyes don't miss anything."
She met with Moreland in Phoenix. Through pictures, she got her first look at Dennis Mahon and his twin, Daniel, who lived with him, and whom Moreland suspected also had a role in the bombing. Moreland told Williams about the crime, about the package designed to explode and kill a Black man because he promoted racial diversity.
Williams took a night to consider the offer.
"The main thing I thought about was (that) I was being asked to do this for a reason," she said. "I felt if I could stop somebody else from being bombed or hurt, then I wanted to do that."
She agreed to the job. Initially, it was to be a two-week trip to Catossa, Okla., where the Mahons had moved a few months after the 2004 bombing. Agents would be nearby in case something went wrong. She couldn't tell anyone, save her brother, what she was up to. She would be paid for her time. And there was talk of a $100,000 reward if her information secured a conviction.
On the flight to Oklahoma in January 2005, Williams and Moreland worked out a cover story for Becca Stevens: There was a warrant out for her arrest, and she was on the run. She also was looking to get revenge -- perhaps with a bomb -- on a child-molester neighbor in California.
Moreland also told Williams that she needed to get comfortable with the N-word. She would need to hear it without blanching and say it without flinching, with some emotion behind it. On the flight, Williams said, she said the word over and over to herself.
At the airport, she met Shelly, the undercover ATF agent who would be her partner in the surveillance. Moreland drove the two to a spot where more agents were parked with the fifth-wheel trailer that would be home for "Becca" and Shelly. The trailer was outfitted with cameras and microphones and had a Confederate flag over the kitchen window.
Moreland gave Williams one last bit of advice: No matter how long it takes, don't approach the Mahons. Let them come to her instead.
Shelly drove the pickup hauling the trailer into the KOA campground. Williams saw Dennis and Daniel Mahon sitting outside their own trailer drinking beer.
Shelly parked opposite the Mahons' trailer and Williams stepped out. She was wearing shorts, a camouflage baseball cap and a T-shirt that advertised her love of firearms. She tried not to pay attention to the Mahons but hoped they noticed her.
They did. Within 30 seconds, Williams said, the Mahons walked over to meet their new neighbors. They giggled and stammered over their words as they asked if the two ladies needed help setting up the septic tank.
"They were goofier than goofy," Williams said.
The Mahons invited Becca to dinner, maybe some beers afterward. Becca declined, playing hard to get.
But the next day, the brothers took Becca and Shelly to lunch. Afterward, Becca invited Dennis Mahon into her trailer for some get-to-know-you chatter.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Becca spun the concocted sob story about the man in California she wanted to hurt, maybe with a bomb. She acted as if she didn't want to tell the tale, allowing Mahon to coax it out of her.
Mahon tried to calm her down. He urged her to call an attorney and said he and his brother knew several. But she made it clear she wanted to do something more radical. And over the next few nights, Mahon started talking about explosives.
On one night, according to court documents, Mahon talked about putting phosphorous into a gas tank to blow up a vehicle. The next night, he talked about blowing up a house using a propane tank.
By the third night, he started talking about a very specific type of package bomb.
"A one-by-five will mess a man up," he told her. The measurements he gave -- 1 inch by 5 inches -- were the same as those of the Scottsdale bomb. That measurement was a detail investigators had never released to the public.
A few days later, Becca pressed Mahon on whether he had ever made a bomb that worked. Mahon responded: "God-damn diversity officer in Scottsdale."
The normally vociferous Mahon would drop his voice to a whisper when talking about bombings, Williams said, possibly out of paranoia that he was being recorded. He also got nervous and looked around furtively.
Williams felt a rush of adrenaline during these talks. She knew she was getting the goods, that this might crack the case. She paced the trailer. Mahon would think she was thinking about the molester she wanted to kill. She really was trying to suppress smiles and laughter.
The tapes of those first few days also showed Mahon becoming infatuated with Becca.
"Can I put you to sleep?" he asked after one of their bomb-making discussions. "I just want to cuddle with you. You're so beautiful."
Mahon often would try to hold Becca's hand or caress her arm. Williams had to respond in a way that let him think she wasn't repulsed.
"I had to let him think I was interested," Williams said. "I never shut him down at any point."
But as he fell for her, Williams found herself resenting Mahon more deeply. Her initial impression of the man as goofy would grow to something she later testified bordered on contempt.
She sat through evenings of Mahon spewing hatred between shots of his favorite beverage, the grain alcohol Everclear.
"There were several times I just wanted to bash his face in," she said.
But Williams had to continue the ruse, pretending that she was a fellow White supremacist. During one visit to the Mahons' trailer, she spotted a DVD whose cover showed a Latina in a bikini.
"Hey, what's this all about?" she asked. "Isn't she a little dark?"
The brothers laughed and crudely pointed out specific attributes of the woman's body they liked, regardless of skin color. The joke helped build Becca's credibility.
"It really made my skin crawl to listen to some of the stuff," she said. "And the really crazy sad thing is I don't think they believe it."
At the end of the evenings, she would decompress with a debriefing. She could vent to agents. And Moreland would give her pointers for the next day.
After two weeks, Williams left Catoosa, saying that she needed to keep moving so authorities wouldn't catch up with her. She said she was taking Mahon up on his advice to move to Arizona, where he believed she would find people who shared their racial views.
She returned to the Flagstaff area, but the government opened up a post-office box for her in Wickenburg, making it appear she lived there. Agent Moreland would compose letters to Mahon for her to copy in her own hand.
Williams also called Mahon a few times each week, recording each call and sending the tapes to Moreland's office in Phoenix. She sent a lot of tapes.
"This is CI 986 calling Dennis Mahon," she said before a typical call, made in November 2006 and labeled in court as Exhibit No. 225. After some chitchat, she asked Mahon the difference between an igniter and a detonator.
"Not too much, really," Mahon said, giving her details he said he pulled from the book "The Poor Man's James Bond."
Williams was paid $400 each month for the calls and $100 a day during trips where she saw Mahon face-to-face.
She went to Tulsa in 2006, again accompanied by Moreland and other agents listening in on the conversations. That visit didn't yield much information, but it seemed to cement Mahon's feelings for her. In phone calls afterward, he talked about a future together, wanting to settle down with her and take care of her, maybe have some children.
In a November 2006 call, Mahon told Becca, "I do trust you. I really do."
He trusted her enough to visit the scene of the Scottsdale bombing in May 2007, when the Mahons came to Arizona to visit Daniel's son.
Williams picked the Mahons up for lunch but told them she needed to go to downtown Scottsdale to take care of a traffic ticket. She showed them a fake citation that agents had created using her alias. The Mahons, who were seat-belted in her pickup truck -- which was equipped with hidden cameras and microphones -- squirmed as they got closer to the complex of municipal offices.
As they went by the diversity office, Daniel pointed at it. His voice was barely audible on the recordings, but, according to government-provided transcripts read in court, he said to Dennis, "This is it here ... Logan's from."
Williams asked where the bombing happened. Dennis whispered to her: "I didn't plant the bomb. I just helped make it." It was as close to a confession as the brothers would make.
The ATF had set up cameras and microphones throughout a rental house in Scottsdale that served as Becca's home, hoping to capture the brothers' thoughts after seeing the bombing scene. The Mahons agreed to come over that night for a barbecue, she said, but a little later, abruptly canceled. Williams worried she had blown her cover.
But, the next day, the Mahons asked her to visit their motel in Tempe. She hung out poolside for the afternoon wearing a bikini whose top looked like Confederate flags.
She still had them on the hook.
But by this time, more than three years of being a confidential informer was taking a toll on Williams' personal life. She would tell herself that she wasn't lying to her mother and her children, just that she couldn't tell them the whole truth.
Her occasional weeklong trips to visit the Mahons interrupted being a mother to her teenage children. She relied on friends, left microwavable meals and checked in daily with phone calls. Because she wasn't able to say she was working to solve a crime, she said she was taking vacations. But as the years dragged on, her kids began to resent her time away.
And during the times she was home, she couldn't relax, feeling on call to become "Becca" at any time.
"The phone would ring and it's Dennis (Mahon)," she said. Sometimes she would let the call go to voice mail, but during crucial times in the investigation, she would take the call, instantly becoming her alter-ego -- that woman who was comfortable with racial epithets and had a curiosity about how to blow people up.
Being an informer also made dating difficult. Boyfriends figured she was cheating when she said she suddenly had to leave town for a while without saying why. She tried a different strategy, saying she was working as a government informer, but the truth didn't work any better.
In January 2008, Williams left for her final undercover meeting with the Mahons. It was in Rockford, Ill., where the twins had moved to take care of their ailing mother. She met the two for dinner, then went back to her motel room, which was bugged and next to a room full of agents. But Daniel said he was going home, leaving Dennis alone with her.
It would begin what Williams would later say was the "longest night of my life."
Mahon took a shower and emerged naked. Williams laughed and handed him a towel. He asked for a back rub. Instead, she gave him a foot rub as he lay face down on the bed. He started moving his towel, exposing his privates. Williams covered the camera with a towel. She thought she heard laughter coming from agents in the other room.
"It feels so good," Mahon said, according to a recording of the encounter. Williams told him: "Don't feel guilty about it. Just enjoy it."
She noticed scars on his skin and asked about them. He talked about decades-old bombings of abortion clinics and synagogues.
"He just sang like a bird," Williams said.
At bedtime, she lay down fully clothed on one end of the bed. He slept stretched out, sometimes pawing at her. She kept swatting his hand away, and said she didn't sleep a wink the entire night. Two days later, he left her an apologetic message, saying it had been three years since he had been with a woman.
As the years dragged on, Williams' conversations and time with Mahon were producing less and less information about the Scottsdale bombing. But Moreland knew they were deep into a shadowy world and he wanted to develop leads into other crimes.
"We knew this attack against Don Logan was not their life's work," Moreland said. "We knew there was an opportunity to advance the investigation beyond Dennis and Daniel Mahon."
During Williams' time undercover, she ended up talking to people she later discovered were top figures in the White-supremacy movement.
On Mahon's end, he was getting impatient with Becca, his protege in hate. She had told him she would start a White-supremacy group in Arizona and, during one call in March 2008, he was looking for progress.
"Get your cell going down there," he told her. "I want to get some results."
In May, agents armed with a warrant obtained a cheek swab from the Mahon brothers, hoping to match their DNA to components of the Scottsdale bomb. After the swab, according to court testimony, Dennis asked his brother, "I wonder if our little bitch had something to do with it."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Daniel said.
But Williams was able to evade suspicion. Spurred by Moreland, she told the Mahons to go into hiding, and she kept up the letters and phone calls. Plus, Moreland believed Mahon would always think Becca was safe because he had approached her in the beginning.
In June 2009, Mahon woke up about 6 a.m. as agents ordered him outside. He called Williams.
"They've got a warrant for my arrest, evidently," he told her, according to a recording of the call. "I'll kill the bastards. I should kill them, because they know I'm taking care of my mother here."
Among the evidence agents found on the Mahons' property were two explosive devices with ball bearings glued to the outside.
In addition to the Mahons, agents also arrested Robert Joos, a Missouri man whose rural property was dotted with caves. Mahon had told Williams it might be a good place to hide from law enforcement should she need. Joos had given Williams two tours of his property, including one with Moreland working undercover with Becca. State police told Moreland they had tried for years to get on the property with no luck.
With the Mahons in custody, Williams was free to tell family and friends the truth. Her mother and stepfather were proud of her work, she said, but not all her friends took it well. Maybe they were spooked to be around someone who had made notorious enemies. Maybe they didn't believe her.
"It's just really changed my life, and it's going to be that way for a long time," Williams said. "It's like I have to completely start over again."
Despite the toll, Williams said she would go undercover again if it meant justice triumphing over evil.
***
Williams no longer had to deal with the Mahons. Their attorneys were a different matter.
Dennis Mahon's attorney subpoenaed Williams, ordering her to bring clothes she had worn when she was with Mahon, hinting that her appearance would be made an issue.
Indeed, it was the first question the attorney asked her at trial. She showed a photo of Becca wearing jeans and a tank top, and asked whether Williams would say the jeans were tight.
Williams sighed. "Yes, ma'am, they're tight," she replied.
Mahon's attorney played selected clips of the motel foot rub, some with the camera covered, where the audio sounded damning, as if something more than a foot massage was taking place.
The attorney asked whether Williams was working Mahon's ego with her sexy attire.
"I don't know about his ego," she replied. "I was working for the ATF."
On the witness stand, Williams wore a series of business suits, her hair dyed dark and pulled back in a long ponytail. It was a purposeful look, she said. The jury needed to see her face and see her as more than the blond, flirtatious Becca.
Mahon sat nearly emotionless at the defense table, even as clips of himself professing desperate love of Williams played in the courtroom. He appeared to look down during much of Williams' testimony, but she said he did catch her eye once. But he looked away as soon as he saw she was looking at him.
Williams was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read; the jury found Dennis Mahon guilty on three felony counts. They found his brother, Daniel Mahon, not guilty on the single conspiracy count he faced.
But Williams wanted to be there for the sentencing.
She'd been mentioned a lot during the trial, becoming almost entirely the focus of the closing argument by Mahon's attorney, but Williams did not get much mention at the sentencing. Prosecutors praised the investigating agencies. And Logan, the injured diversity officer, in his statement as a victim, thanked his family and supporters, and he addressed Mahon directly.
But no one singled out the novice spy who infiltrated a corner of the White-supremacy movement and secured a conviction in a race-motivated crime.
After the sentencing -- 40 years in federal prison -- the crowd filed into the hallway, waiting to shake Logan's hand.
Williams greeted him and whispered who she was. Although she had felt a years-long connection to him, they had never met. He smiled and thanked her quietly.
A crowd of reporters and cameramen waiting outside the courthouse surrounded Logan as he exited the building. Williams figured she could leave without notice.
But at the door, a woman in a purple dress stopped her. It was Logan's mother, Doris. She wanted to speak to the young woman who helped nab the man who nearly killed her son.
"Thank you," she said, hugging Williams tightly. "You take care of yourself," she said, dabbing at a tear. "I'll always remember you."
Reach the reporter at richard.ruelas@arizonarepublic.com.
Opposing view: Drones are unlawful and dangerous
By Kirsty Wigglesworth, AP
Robert Grenier, the head of the CIA's counterterrorism center during the Bush administration, said last week that "we have been seduced" by drones, and that drone killings "are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield." He's right.
When our nation violates the law in the name of our national security, it gives propaganda tools to our enemies and alienates our allies. That is why the government's targeted killing program, which has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, is both unlawful and dangerous.
To be sure, targeted killing is not always illegal, nor is the use of drones. Under international law and our Constitution, the government can use lethal force when, for example, an individual takes up arms against the United States in an actual war, or against a person who poses an imminent threat to life and no means other than killing will prevent the threat. These are not the rules the government is following.
Today, our government is killing people in countries in which the United States is not at war. It reportedly adds suspected terrorists — including U.S. citizens — to "kill lists" for months at a time, which by definition cannot be limited to genuinely imminent threats. The New York Times disclosed that the government "counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants" unless intelligence proves them innocent — but only after they are dead.
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When mistakes are made, our nation refuses to acknowledge them and does not compensate victims. The first Yemeni missile strike President Obama authorized, in December 2009, targeted alleged militants but killed 21 children and 14 women. WikiLeaks revealed a secret agreement by Yemen to accept responsibility for the U.S. killing. Yemenis were enraged, but most Americans probably never heard about it.
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan admits that the U.S. targeted killing program sets a precedent. Russia, China or Iran may claim tomorrow, as our government does today, the power to declare individuals enemies of the state and kill them far from any battlefield, based on secret legal criteria, secret evidence and a secret process. That is the world we are unleashing unless the program is stopped.
Hina Shamsi is director of the ACLU's National Security Project.
ACLU threatens lawsuit against Pinal County Jail
Posted: Jun 12, 2012 2:40 PM Updated: Jun 12, 2012 3:37 PM
By Matt Longdon
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona is threatening to file a lawsuit if Pinal County Jail doesn't improve the living conditions or remove the immigration detainees.
The ACLU cited in a letter sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton claiming that a three-year investigation and interviews with detainees and jail staff found violations of rights, including lack of outdoor exercise, denial of face-to-face visits with family and friends, poor sanitation and access to personal hygiene items, according to the letter.
Detainees told investigators they are given insect-ridden food on dirty trays and unwashed and torn sheets and clothing, the letter stated.
The letter also claimed inmates are often physically and verbally abused and denied medical care.
ICE officials have said the the report publishes "unverified allegations."
The Pinal County Detention Center has had a contract with ICE since 2006.
Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought
By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, Published: June 8
As Sen. Sam Ervin completed his 20-year Senate career in 1974 and issued his final report as chairman of the Senate Watergate committee, he posed the question: “What was Watergate?”
Countless answers have been offered in the 40 years since June 17, 1972, when a team of burglars wearing business suits and rubber gloves was arrested at 2:30 a.m. at the headquarters of the Democratic Party in the Watergate office building in Washington. Four days afterward, the Nixon White House offered its answer: “Certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it was,” press secretary Ronald Ziegler scoffed, dismissing the incident as a “third-rate burglary.”
History proved that it was anything but. Two years later, Richard Nixon would become the first and only U.S. president to resign, his role in the criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice — the Watergate coverup — definitively established.
Another answer has since persisted, often unchallenged: the notion that the coverup was worse than the crime. This idea minimizes the scale and reach of Nixon’s criminal actions.
Ervin’s answer to his own question hints at the magnitude of Watergate: “To destroy, insofar as the presidential election of 1972 was concerned, the integrity of the process by which the President of the United States is nominated and elected.” Yet Watergate was far more than that. At its most virulent, Watergate was a brazen and daring assault, led by Nixon himself, against the heart of American democracy: the Constitution, our system of free elections, the rule of law.
Today, much more than when we first covered this story as young Washington Post reporters, an abundant record provides unambiguous answers and evidence about Watergate and its meaning. This record has expanded continuously over the decades with the transcription of hundreds of hours of Nixon’s secret tapes, adding detail and context to the hearings in the Senate and House of Representatives; the trials and guilty pleas of some 40 Nixon aides and associates who went to jail; and the memoirs of Nixon and his deputies. Such documentation makes it possible to trace the president’s personal dominance over a massive campaign of political espionage, sabotage and other illegal activities against his real or perceived opponents.
In the course of his five-and-a-half-year presidency, beginning in 1969, Nixon launched and managed five successive and overlapping wars — against the anti-Vietnam War movement, the news media, the Democrats, the justice system and, finally, against history itself. All reflected a mind-set and a pattern of behavior that were uniquely and pervasively Nixon’s: a willingness to disregard the law for political advantage, and a quest for dirt and secrets about his opponents as an organizing principle of his presidency.
Long before the Watergate break-in, gumshoeing, burglary, wiretapping and political sabotage had become a way of life in the Nixon White House.
Nixon’s first war was against the anti-Vietnam War movement. The president considered it subversive and thought it constrained his ability to prosecute the war in Southeast Asia on his terms. In 1970, he approved the top-secret Huston Plan, authorizing the CIA, the FBI and military intelligence units to intensify electronic surveillance of individuals identified as “domestic security threats.” The plan called for, among other things, intercepting mail and lifting restrictions on “surreptitious entry” — that is, break-ins or “black bag jobs.”
Thomas Charles Huston, the White House aide who devised the plan, informed Nixon that it was illegal, but the president approved it regardless. It was not formally rescinded until FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover objected — not on principle, but because he considered those types of activities the FBI’s turf. Undeterred, Nixon remained fixated on such operations.
In a memorandum dated March 3, 1970, presidential aide Patrick Buchanan wrote to Nixon about what he called the “institutionalized power of the left concentrated in the foundations that succor the Democratic Party.” Of particular concern was the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank with liberal leanings.
On June 17, 1971 — exactly one year before the Watergate break-in — Nixon met in the Oval Office with his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, and national security adviser Henry Kissinger. At issue was a file about former president Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the 1968 bombing halt in Vietnam.
“You can blackmail Johnson on this stuff, and it might be worth doing,” Haldeman said, according to the tape of the meeting.
“Yeah,” Kissinger said, “but Bob and I have been trying to put the damn thing together for three years.” They wanted the complete story of Johnson’s actions.
“Huston swears to God there’s a file on it at Brookings,” Haldeman said.
“Bob,” Nixon said, “now you remember Huston’s plan? Implement it. . . . I mean, I want it implemented on a thievery basis. God damn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.”
Nixon would not let the matter drop. Thirteen days later, according to another taped discussion with Haldeman and Kissinger, the president said: “Break in and take it out. You understand?”
The next morning, Nixon said: “Bob, get on the Brookings thing right away. I’ve got to get that safe cracked over there.” And later that morning, he persisted, “Who’s gonna break in the Brookings Institution?”
For reasons that have never been made clear, the break-in apparently was not carried out.
2. The war on the news media
Nixon’s second war was waged ceaselessly against the press, which was reporting more insistently on the faltering Vietnam War and the effectiveness of the antiwar movement. Although Hoover thought he had shut down the Huston Plan, it was in fact implemented by high-level Nixon deputies. A “Plumbers” unit and burglary team were set up under the direction of White House counsel John Ehrlichman and an assistant, Egil Krogh, and led by the operational chiefs of the future Watergate burglary, ex-CIA operative Howard Hunt and former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy. Hunt was hired as a consultant by Nixon political aide Charles Colson, whose take-no-prisoners sensibility matched the president’s.
SNIP
To read the full article go to the Washington Post.
U.S. reveals accusations against Secret Service
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. government on Friday revealed details of serious allegations against Secret Service agents and officers since 2004, including claims of involvement with prostitutes, leaking sensitive information, publishing pornography, sexual assault, illegal wiretaps, improper use of weapons and drunken behavior. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the accusations were confirmed to be true.
The heavily censored list, which runs 229 pages, was quietly released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to the Associated Press and other news organizations following the Secret Service prostitution scandal that erupted in April in Colombia. It describes accusations filed against Secret Service employees with the Homeland Security Department's inspector general.
Some of the accusations occurred as recently as last month. In many cases, the government noted that some of the claims were resolved administratively, and others were being formally investigated.
The new disclosures of so many serious accusations lend weight to concerns expressed by Congress that the prostitution scandal exposed a culture of misconduct within the Secret Service. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan apologized for the incident during a hearing in May but insisted that what happened in Colombia was an isolated case.
Secret Service officials did not immediately respond Friday to questions about the accusations.
The complaints included an alleged sexual assault reported in August 2011. In the heavily censored entry, an employee was accused of pushing a woman who also worked for the agency onto a bed during a work trip. The employee "got on top of (censored) attempting to have sex," even though the woman "told (censored) 'no' several times." The entry noted that supervisors described the accused as "a conscientious and dependable employee." The incident was closed with an "administrative disposition" in February.
They also included an anonymous complaint in October 2003 that a Secret Service agent "may have been involved with a prostitution ring," noting that two telephone numbers belonging to the agent, whose name was censored and who has since retired, turned up as part of an FBI investigation into a prostitution ring. In 2005, an employee was reported to the Washington field office for being arrested on a charge of solicitation in a park. Documents do not reveal the outcome of that case.
In 2008, an on-duty uniform division officer was arrested in a Washington prostitution sting. The officer, who was driving a marked Secret Service vehicle at the time, was placed on administrative leave, the records show. Sullivan said during the May hearing that the officer was later fired.
Some of the allegations were obviously spurious, such as a complaint in August 2010 that a Secret Service agent had performed experiments and implanted stimulators in a citizen's brain. The list also included dozens of complaints about fraudulent emails that circulate widely on the Internet and appear to come from the Secret Service.
A dozen Secret Service officers, agents and supervisors were implicated in the Colombia scandal and eight have been forced out of the agency. At least two employees are fighting to get their jobs back.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy estimates that the new ordinance will free up more than 20,000 hours of police time, which he estimates is the equivalent of about $1 million in savings.
Emanuel backs decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana
By Kristen Mack Tribune reporter
8:14 a.m. CDT, June 15, 2012
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is throwing his support behind a plan to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.
Under the proposed ordinance, police officers will have the discretion to issue tickets with fines ranging from $100 to $500 for people carrying 15 grams or less of pot.
Last fall, Ald. Danny Solis, 25th, introduced a similar plan, selling the idea as a way to raise revenue for the city and free up police to chase more serious criminals. Emanuel is backing a modified version of Solis' ordinance.
“When the ordinance was first introduced, I asked the Chicago Police Department to do a thorough analysis to determine if this reform balanced public safety and common-sense rules that save taxpayer dollars to reinvest in putting more officers on the street,” Emanuel said in a statement. “The result is an ordinance that allows us to observe the law, while reducing the processing time for minor possession of marijuana — ultimately freeing up police officers for the street.”
Currently people caught in possession face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,500 fine.
Chicago Police Department statistics indicate that last year there were 18,298 arrests for possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis, according to the mayor's office. Each case involves approximately four officers — two arresting and two transporting officers — and places an additional burden on the Cook County court and jail system.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy estimates that the new ordinance will free up more than 20,000 hours of police time, which he estimates is the equivalent of about $1 million in savings.
“I am pleased that Mayor Emanuel has taken this step to address this important issue," Solis said in a statement. "One of the most significant results of this ordinance is that it will allow our police officers to spend more time out policing our neighborhoods and less time processing minor offenses and filling out paperwork. Passing this ordinance will be a major victory in promoting safe neighborhoods and reducing crime."
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has previously expressed support for such a plan, saying that the Cook County Jail and courts are jammed with petty marijuana offenders. She has said: "Taxpayers deserve our resources to be spent more productively — on long-term infrastructure projects and on alternative diversion programs for our youth population who circulate through the criminal justice system."
kmack@tribune.com
Ariz. prisons are humane, secure despite criticism
by Steve Twist - Jun. 16, 2012 12:00 AM
My Turn
The opening sentence of the series states, "Arizona's prison system has two death rows," followed by a gross mischaracterization of an "unofficial" death row where inmates die as a result of prison violence and neglect. It compares the Arizona Department of Corrections' use of maximum security to house dangerous and violent inmates to "solitary confinement," citing the case of a woman held in a prison in Iran for 14 months who is now psychologically traumatized. There's something flagrantly malicious about using a prison experience in Iran as a comparison to an Arizona prison experience.
Having advocated for truth in sentencing, and wanting a prison system that focuses not only on the rights of inmates but also the rights of the victims of their crimes, I know firsthand that the term "solitary confinement" does not exist in the vocabulary of the Arizona Department of Corrections. DOC's practice is to employ multiple custody levels based on the nature of a crime and an inmate's assessment and behavior while in prison.
Maximum-security inmates, those who have committed brutally violent crimes, and those who have demonstrated predatory, unruly and violent behavior by being a danger to other inmates and staff, generally make up the population housed in high-security settings. No, they are not in dark isolation, deprived of human contact or anything comparable to solitary confinement. Nevertheless, these dangerous inmates are appropriately housed for the safety of the public, themselves, and other inmates and staff.
Certainly, some perspective is necessary in a discussion of the rate of inmate deaths in the Arizona prison system. In any population of 40,000, deaths will occur. Among those deaths will be a number due to serious illness, drug overdose, suicide and, tragically, even homicide.
I do not argue that those types of deaths in prisons are not proportionately higher than deaths that occur in a community with a population roughly matching that of our prison system.
But consider this: Unlike the vast majority of the people who live outside the system, a significant percentage of those who live in Arizona prisons are in poor health when they enter prison, suffering from a litany of maladies caused by years of a lack of health care and a basic understanding of taking care of oneself; drug addiction; physical abuse; and mental illness.
Moreover, prisoners frequently come from sociopathic and often violent backgrounds brought about by drugs, gang activity, or both, which have become so prevalent in our society. It is reasonable to assume that characteristics such as these are a major contributing factor in proportionately higher numbers of inmate deaths caused by illness, drug overdose, suicide or homicide.
We have a prison system in Arizona consisting of a variety of housing environments: dormitories, double-person cells, detention areas where inmates are temporarily segregated, and maximum-security single-person cells that are exclusively for problematic, dangerous inmates -- the worst of the worst. But in all cases, an inmate is able to interact with others. This includes the worst inmates, whose cells are in areas where they can speak with others in cells around them.
Critics of the Arizona Department of Corrections -- the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and inmate advocacy groups -- blindly blame maximum security as a cause of inmate deaths and want a less-restrictive environment in our prisons.
What we have now is a humane prison system that provides food and shelter, education, work programs, alcohol- and drug-addiction programs, and medical- and mental-health care that meet community standards.
Further, it is a system designed with emphasis on safety and security for inmates, staff, and, most of all, the public. Arizonans should want it no other way.
Steve Twist, a Phoenix lawyer, was chief assistant attorney general in Arizona from 1978 to 1991.
Also tyranny usually comes slowly as in this case.
First they required drug stores to lock up cold medicine. Then they required people to give ID when buying cold medicine. Now they are requiring store clerks to enter all purchases of cold medicine into a nation wide data bases so anybody that gets too sick and buys too many drugs can be questioned by the cold medicine cops.
If they went directly from no regulation of cold medicine purchases to requiring all purchasers of cold medicine to present a government issued photo ID and have their purchase information entered into a police data base people would probably have revolted and prevented the law from being passed. So the drug war tyrants did it one slow step at a time.
Computers to help limit sale of meth ingredients
by Alex Stuckey - Jun. 19, 2012 11:33 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Law-enforcement officials have long known small-time manufacturers of methamphetamine can acquire their raw materials in the aisles of a typical pharmacy.
As a result, their fight against the drug's spread has included limiting large or repeated purchases of over-the-counter cold and flu medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, drugs like Sudafed, Zyrtec-D and Claritin-D.
The paper logs that Arizona pharmacies have been required to maintain on such sales, however, have made the purchase limits difficult for pharmacists to track and easy for meth makers to skirt, experts say.
That's set to change because Arizona lawmakers recently passed a bill requiring the roughly 1,300 pharmacies in the state to use a national database to track such purchases. By January, pharmacists will be able to swipe customers' IDs and see if they have exceeded limits on purchasing such drugs in Arizona or elsewhere.
Pharmacists say it will be a vast improvement over the current system, which they say was only as effective as the employee's memory.
"Pharmacists have to remember the name and face because everything's on paper," said Hal Wand, executive director of the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy.
Law-enforcement officials say the new tracking system will give them one more tool in combating the drug.
But one lawmaker criticizes it for asking pharmacies "to be the police department."
Tracking 'smurfs'
Law-enforcement officials call them "smurfs," individuals who travel from store to store buying products that contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to use in making meth, a drug that causes brain damage, organ failure, stroke, open sores, rotting teeth and mania.
To combat the practice, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006 ordered stores to lock the products behind the counter and placed a limit on the amount a person can purchase: 3.6 grams per day or 9 grams per month. Stores were required to keep records of the purchases for at least two years.
When a customer wants to buy a box of Sudafed, for example, the pharmacist must record the customer's name, address and Social Security number in a log.
But pharmacists say there are problems with this system.
Without sifting through every name in the log, the pharmacist or staff members have only their memory to help identify a suspicious sale.
"No one really goes through the logs when a customer comes in," said Dennis Meyers, a pharmacist at Camelback Village Pharmacy in Phoenix.
And even if a pharmacist could remember every customer, the current system makes it impossible to track meth makers who travel from one city to another, let alone from state to state, to buy the drugs, said state Rep. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, who sponsored House Bill 2263, which calls for implementation of the electronic tracking.
"Someone could go from Scottsdale to north Phoenix, within 3 miles, and there's no mechanism in place to track the person across municipalities," Carter said.
With electronic tracking, not only will pharmacists know if the customer has exceeded the limits, law-enforcement officials will also have access to data on purchases in all states that have implemented the National Precursor Log Exchange, or NPLEx, system, said Charlie Cichon, executive director of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, administrator of the system.
Including Arizona, legislation to implement NPLEx has passed in 24 states, said Jim Acquisto, vice president of government affairs for Appriss, the system's creator. In addition, some national retail chains with pharmacies, such as CVS, Rite Aid and Target, use the system in their stores in states that don't require it, he said.
The system blocked sales for about 4,375 pounds of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products last year, according to Acquisto.
Any pharmacy that violates this new law could be charged with a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by fine only, according to the bill.
Kentucky was one of the first states to implement the system, in 2008, and Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain said the program works well.
"It's a valuable tool. ... We used to just chase the smurfs across state lines, and they would buy more (pseudoephedrine) there," Cain said. "But now, the states can talk to each other, and that won't happen anymore."
Not foolproof
Although NPLEx addresses weaknesses in the current system, it doesn't prevent meth makers from buying the ingredients.
For example, NPLEx cannot stop "smurfs" who send multiple people to purchase the drug -- something Teresa Stickler, a pharmacist at Melrose Pharmacy in Phoenix, has experienced several times.
"There have been some sprees where people are suspicious and come in back to back. ... Then, they all climb back into the same car and leave," Stickler said.
Law-enforcement officials statewide will be able to receive e-mail alerts when the system blocks a sale.
But Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman, is unsure if Phoenix will utilize the e-mail notifications.
"If our guys responded every time someone gets locked out in the computer, they wouldn't get anything else done," he said.
In Arizona, law-enforcement agencies seized 1,600 pounds of methamphetamine last year, said Elizabeth Kempshall, executive director of the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federal program that coordinates drug-control efforts among local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies.
Eight manufacturers of products containing meth ingredients fund the program, said Carlos Guiterrez, director of state-government affairs for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the over-the-counter drug companies.
Guiterrez said the companies do not have access to any personal information in the system and can't use it for marketing.
However, they can access aggregate numbers, such as how many sales were blocked.
"The only thing we do is pay the bill," Guiterrez said.
The National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators will forward transaction records to the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy, according to the Governor's Office. But the board won't do anything with the information, according to Wand of the Pharmacy Board.
State Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, said the funding blurs the line between government and private business.
"The government is telling private business (they) should do the government's job," he said. It amounts to "asking the retailer to be the police department, to restrict the sale."
But Carter said NPLEx is one way to prevent over-the-counter drugs of this kind from becoming prescription-only medications, as is the case in Oregon and Mississippi.
"We want to put as many checks and balances on for people who legitimately need to still use this while trying to make it less convenient for bad actors to use it to make meth," Carter said. "We don't want to take this medication to prescription, and this bill is a way around that."
Same goes with child porn. Plant a few dirty pictures of kids on an enemies computers and in Arizona they literally will be sent to prison for life.
Also it's an easy way for the police to jail people they consider to be criminals. Plant a kilo of weed in a suspects home or few photos of child porn on their computers and the courts will send the person to prison for many years.
Parents Accused of Planting Drugs on School Volunteer
6:34 a.m. PDT, June 20, 2012
IRVINE, Calif. (KTLA) -- A husband and wife have been arrested for allegedly planting drugs in the car of a volunteer at the school their son attends and calling police.
Kent Wycliffe Easter and Jill Bjorkholm Easter, both attorneys, are charged with conspiracy to procure the false arrest of the elementary-school parent volunteer, false imprisonment and conspiracy to falsely report a crime. If convicted, they could each face up to three years in state prison.
Prosecutors say it all started in in 2010 when Jill Easter became convinced that school volunteer Kelli Peters was not properly supervising the boy.
In retaliation, the Easters allegedly hatched a plot to have Peters arrested.
Prosecutors says Kent Easter drove to Peters' home on Feb. 16, 2011, and left a bag of prescription pain medication and marijuana in plain sight in her unlocked car.
He then allegedly called police from a public phone and told the dispatcher that he was a concerned parent who had witnessed an erratic driver park her car at the elementary school, according to prosecutors.
He also identified Peters by name and claimed to have witnessed her hide a bag of drugs behind her driver's seat, prosecutors said.
"They tried to make me look like the worst person you could be when you're involved with a school," Peters told KTLA.
"I wouldn't have seen my daughter again, I think. Those are the nightmares that I had."
Peters was detained by police for two hours until the investigating officers determined that she was in a classroom at the time the caller claimed to have seen her hiding the drugs in the car.
Authorities later turned their attention to the Easters.
Prosecutors said Kent Easter was caught on hotel's security cameras making the call to police, and that he and his wife called and texted one another on their mobile phones during that time.
The couple, who are free on $20,000 bail each, are scheduled to be arraigned next month in Orange County Superior Court.
If you don't play the government game they will frequently cut you out of the system.
A good example is the Phoenix New Times. They frequently expose the crimes committed by Sheriff Joe and as a result Sheriff Joe's
criminals don't invite the New Times to press release or share the same information with the New Times that they share with other journalists.
Hollywood gripped by pressure system from China
To appease China and gain access to moviegoers and financing, movies include positive references to the nation (no Chinese villains!) and face censorship.
By Steven Zeitchik and Jonathan Landreth, Los Angeles Times
June 12, 2012
When aliens besiege Earth in Universal Pictures' recent action film"Battleship,"it is the Chinese authorities in Hong Kong whom Washington credits with delivering the early proof that these invaders aren't exactly homegrown.
But those aren't the only Chinese do-gooders on screen these days.
In "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,"a romantic comedy about building a dam in the Mideast, Chinese hydroelectric engineers showed off their know-how; the original book included no such characters. In Columbia Pictures' disaster movie"2012," the White House chief of staff extolled the Chinese as visionaries after an ark built by the country's scientists saves civilization.
In fact, references to the Middle Kingdom are popping up with remarkable frequency in movies these days. Some are conspicuously flattering or gratuitous additions designed to satisfy Chinese business partners and court audiences in the largest moviegoing market outside the U.S. Others, filmmakers say, are simply organic reflections of the fact that China is a rising political, economic and cultural power.
Meanwhile, Chinese bad guys are vanishing — literally. Western studios are increasingly inclined to excise potentially negative references to China in the hope that the films can pass muster with Chinese censors and land one of several dozen coveted annual revenue-sharing import quota slots in Chinese cinemas.
MGM, the studio behind the remake of the 1984 movie "Red Dawn," last year digitally altered the invaders attacking the U.S. to make them North Koreans instead of Chinese, as originally shot.
When Sony's "Men in Black 3" was released in China last month, censors had the studio remove or shorten several scenes set in New York's Chinatown that they believed depicted Chinese Americans unflatteringly. (One portrayed Chinatown restaurant workers as alien monsters, and another showed bystanders of Chinese heritage having memories erased by a U.S. government agent / alien fighter played by Will Smith.)
Sony executives refused to comment publicly, and the scenes remained in versions of the film shown outside China. But privately, studio officials suggested they might have considered changing the locale from Chinatown to another New York ethnic enclave — thus altering the movie for audiences worldwide — had they been aware of the Chinese sensitivities before production.
"Hollywood these days is sometimes better at carrying water for the Chinese than the Chinese themselves," said Stanley Rosen, director of the East Asian Studies Center at USC and an expert on film and media. "We are doing all the heavy lifting for them."
A screenwriter on another Hollywood tentpole was told by the studio to steer clear of any Chinese villains in shaping his script.
The net effect is a situation that movie-business veterans say is unprecedented: The suppressive tendencies of a foreign nation are altering what is seen not just in one country but around the world.
"It's a clear-cut case — maybe the first I can think of in the history of Hollywood — where a foreign country's censorship board deeply affects what we produce," said a leading Hollywood producer who, like several others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to offend potential Chinese partners.
As overseas box office has become more important to Hollywood, studios have become more attuned to foreign cultures. The industry has been mindful, for instance, about offending Japan, which until recently was the largest foreign market (Japanese characters also play a big part in "Battleship").
With China, co-financing deals add to the pressure: Under those agreements, foreign films receive funding from Chinese entities and are allowed to bypass the quota system. But such films often must include some Chinese elements — positive ones. Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3," which recently began filming in locales including North Carolina and China, is expected to show a highly friendly side to the Chinese, because the production is accepting Chinese funds from the financing entity DMG.
"We look forward to working alongside DMG to bring 'Iron Man' to the Chinese marketplace in a significant way," Rob Steffens, general manager of operations and finance for Marvel, said when the deal was announced. "Adding a local flavor … will enhance the appeal and relevance of our characters inChina'sfast-growing film marketplace."
Some filmmakers say their inclusion of Chinese elements is a natural part of the creative process — such as a sequence in Disney's "The Muppets"last year in which Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Jack Black were portrayed as martial arts experts, with onscreen flashes of their names in Chinese characters. James Bond will be in Shanghai in the next 007 film, "Skyfall," though the production isn't receiving Chinese funding.
Simon Beaufoy, the writer of "Salmon Fishing," said he was under no obligation to reference China, but that the idea came to him spontaneously. "I wanted the biggest and most ambitious idea, and having the engineers from this dam achieved that," he said. "These days, if you want to put something in a film that's bold and ambitious, chances are you're going to end up with China."
Still, he was mindful of causing offense.
"I thought a lot about it and, yes, I probably was a little more careful" than he might otherwise have been, he said. "With the French and the Brits, for example, we know we can throw bricks at each other and it's all very cheerful. But with China we don't really know where the line is yet.... If you go over the line with the portrayal of any country, it can quickly turn into racism."
Mainland censors have long taken out scenes they deem culturally or politically offensive. In 2007, a Chinese pirate character played by Chow Yun-fat was removed from Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" for its release in China. The character is bald, has a long beard and long fingernails. At one point, he recites a poem in Cantonese, not Mandarin, which Beijing promotes as the nation's common language.
The last timeChina'sState Administration of Radio, Film and Television clarified its censorship guidelines was four years ago. Those guidelines were vague and broad, with prohibitions against "disturbing social orders and harming the social stability," "violations against the fundamental principle of the Constitution," and "promoting obsceneness, gambling and violence."
The rules also forbade content such as "murders, violence, horrors, ghosts and demons, supernaturalism … value orientations confusing the real and the fake, the innocent and the evil, and the beautiful and the ugly."
There's little public resistance. "Chinese will come to the theater even if they know in advance that a film's been cut," said Jimmy Wu, chief executive ofChina'sLumiere Pavilions theater chain. "They're coming for the big-screen experience."
A few years ago, comments on Chinese pop culture website douban.com and movie review site MTime.com regularly reflected the game of "gotcha" that Chinese film fans played with censors. People would buy pirated discs or download uncensored versions of Hollywood films, then comment online about what was missing from the versions in Chinese theaters.
Today, online comments about censorship are at a relative trickle, because, one cautious website executive said, "Chinese take censorship for granted. It's a surprise when a film comes in uncut." The censored "MIB3" took in a robust $48 million in its first 10 days in Chinese cinemas, according to Shanghai film industry consultants Artisan Gateway.
In fact, many Chinese moviegoers appreciate when Hollywood inserts elements that appeal to national pride. In "2012," when the White House staffer (played by Oliver Platt) sings the praises of Chinese scientists, audiences rose for standing ovations.
The effect of all this outside China is more fraught. USC's Rosen worries that a generation of moviegoers could emerge with a skewed, sanitized view of China in which human-rights abuses and even the grittiness of everyday life are swept under the rug.
"I don't think the average U.S. filmgoer is hugely aware of all of these small decisions," said Rosen. "But subliminally, it can start to have an effect."
But some in Hollywood say that collaborating with China doesn't present unmanageable hurdles.
"I'm not sure working with China is that different from working with a big studio," said Michael London, an independent film producer who has had discussions with Chinese entities on a co-production. "I'm being partly facetious, of course. But I do think most producers in this climate have long since stopped looking askance at any entity that can help get their movie made. There are always going to be challenges and compromises."
Even for those companies intent on playing to Chinese interests, though, it's not always simple to do so.
U.S.-based Relativity Media thought it had hit upon a savvy business strategy when it decided to accept Chinese co-financing on its film "21 and Over," a U.S. college comedy that had nothing to do with Asia. After shooting was nearly complete stateside, Relativity added in back story about a Chinese American character and, last fall, the production set out for China.
By shooting in China, the film would get some added production money and hopefully assure itself of a Chinese release.
But the company soon ran afoul of human-rights groups when it decided to shoot in the eastern city of Linyi, near where the blind dissident Chen Guangcheng was under house arrest. The activist group Human Rights Watch even urged a boycott of the film upon its release, prompting a fast back-pedal from Relativity Media. (The film is scheduled for release in the United States in November; no Chinese release date has been set.)
"I think the incident showed why China isn't going to be a simple cash cow," said a person associated with the project who was not authorized to speak publicly on its behalf. "People in Hollywood who want to do in business in China are going to learn this the hard way."
steve.zeitchik@latimes.com
Landreth reported from Beijing and Zeitchik from New York.
Of course if a civilian did the same thing to a cop, the civilian would be facing 20+ years in prison.
Former Phoenix police officer gets day of probation in assault
by JJ Hensley - Jun. 12, 2012 10:10 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A Phoenix police officer who resigned last year after being accused of assaulting a handcuffed inmate pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to one day of probation for his role in the incident.
Jason A. Brooks also surrendered his certification with the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board as part of the plea agreement, ensuring Brooks' career as a police officer in Arizona is over.
Brooks, 26, resigned in September after he was confronted with the accusation that he struck a suspect several times in the chest while the suspect's arms were handcuffed behind his back.
Charges that the suspect, Ervin Nez Jr., had assaulted Brooks were dropped in the fall at the request of prosecutors.
Another Phoenix officer was the subject of an internal investigation for initially failing to report Brooks' actions against Nez. A disciplinary board recommended that officer be suspended, but the officer still has the right to appeal that decision.
The allegations against Brooks arose after security guards called him and another officer to a Phoenix apartment complex near 29th Street and Greenway Parkway after the guards reported Nez as a transient.
When the officers arrived, Nez used racial slurs against Brooks, who is Black.
Brooks told investigators that suspects had referred to him with racial slurs in the past and he took no offense, but he said Nez's comments angered him.
"Brooks explained to me that he usually does not let people get to him, but there has been other issues going on in his life and he said ... the subject, 'just kind of set me off a little bit,' " police records said.
Purcell: Time to police the government
Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:04 am
Guest Commentary by Tom Purcell
The balance between the police and the policed is getting way out of whack — and we better restore it now.
I speak of a spate of new technologies — high-tech cameras, satellites and now, drones being flown over U.S. soil — that are giving police and government way too much power over the average Joe.
Our country was founded by people who were wary of government power, you see. They were wary of government do-gooders attaining too much control, as they knew that absolute power always corrupts absolutely.
So they implemented checks and balances to limit that power.
They knew, too, however, that human nature is imperfect — that there will always be crooks, murderers and con men and that government must provide average, law-abiding citizens with basic protections against those who seek to do them harm.
Thus, our Constitution was designed to strike a proper balance between police and government agencies and the citizens they police.
The Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, for instance, guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. It requires probable cause and a judicially sanctioned warrant before the police are permitted to enter one’s home.
The idea was to protect the liberties of the average Joe by putting the burden on police and government agencies. Better that 10 guilty men go free than to convict a single innocent man.
This proper balance between the police and the policed worked well for many years. But technology is upending that balance.
Consider: Back in the ’50s and ’60s, when my father was a young man, there were speed traps, just as there are now.
When one driver saw a police car hiding behind shrubs, he flashed his high beams at oncoming drivers to warn them to slow down. The policed collaborated against the police and all was well.
The police had it tough back then. To gauge a driver’s speed, an officer had to work a manual stopwatch, then do math. The process was so imprecise, the odds weren’t bad that the ticket would be tossed out in court or reduced to a lesser charge.
Now the police have precise VASCAR and radar technologies. Hidden speed cameras are popping up all over the place. New technologies are even making it possible to monitor speeds using satellites!
While such technologies may benefit drivers by slowing traffic at dangerous intersections, there is a downside: The average Joe will soon be helpless in the face of small-town police who use such technologies to establish lucrative, high-tech speed traps.
But as technology upends the balance between the police and the policed, that is the least of the average Joe’s worries.
Did you know our federal government is using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) — much like the drones it uses to monitor and kill enemies overseas — to monitor U.S. citizens?
Did you know, says Investor’s Business Daily, that the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers in Nebraska and Iowa, looking for violations of the Clean Water Act?
Did you know that the Federal Aviation Administration has loosened restrictions on the use of drones by the nation’s 18,000 local police departments?
How long will it be before quiet little planes monitor our speed and everything else we do?
How long before illegal searches, forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, are commonplace?
We must stop the drones now.
Flashing our high beams won’t matter a whit once the balance between the police and the policed gets that far out of whack.
It's not about justice, it's about proving prosecutors should be reelected by being tough on crime. Who cares if a few innocent people are jailed for life to make prosecutors look like heroes that are tough on crime. Well at least that's how the prosecutors feel about it.
Prosecutors often challenge DNA evidence that could clear the convicted
DNA is readily used to convict, but prosecutors often challenge results from convicts
By Steve Mills and Dan Hinkel, Chicago Tribune reporters
June 13, 2012
When Terrill Swift was released from prison after serving 15 years for rape and murder, he sought DNA testing because he wanted to prove his innocence. Cook County prosecutors opposed his efforts but relented last year after the Tribune made inquiries about Swift's request.
After the DNA from semen in the victim's body was matched to a convicted murderer and rapist, Swift went to court to get his conviction thrown out. But prosecutors opposed that effort, saying the DNA was meaningless, especially when considered against Swift's confession.
A judge turned aside prosecutors' arguments, saying the DNA was powerful evidence, and earlier this year the judge vacated Swift's conviction.
And last month, when Swift went to court to obtain a certificate of innocence to expunge the record of his arrest and conviction and clear the way for him to seek compensation from the state, prosecutors opposed that request, too, saying Swift's disputed confession outweighed the DNA.
Nearly a quarter-century into the DNA era, what has been called the gold standard of forensic evidence has fulfilled its promise to help police and prosecutors win convictions. Rare is the case in which DNA evidence, particularly in a rape or a murder, does not send a defendant to prison.
DNA's potential to free the innocent has been more elusive. That has been especially true in Cook and Lake counties, where prosecutors have opposed requests for DNA testing and then downplayed the results when they excluded their leading suspects or inmates trying to win their freedom.
"When we started doing this work 20 years ago, we received opposition on requests and motions to do post-conviction DNA testing in more than three-quarters of the cases," said Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project. "Today … the overwhelming majority of prosecutors do not oppose motions for DNA testing."
What's more, Neufeld said, prosecutors rarely challenge DNA results that appear to indicate a suspect's innocence. Prosecutors in Cook and Lake counties are part of a tiny group that consistently do that, he said.
"That kind of consistent rejection of logic and common sense," Neufeld said, "is fairly unequaled around the country."
Prosecutors counter that DNA is not the "end all" of evidence, as Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez once said, and say they are bound to consider all evidence in a case, not just the DNA. In the cases where DNA has failed to persuade prosecutors, the opposition frequently has been supported by a suspect's confession. For decades a building block of murder cases, confessions remain remarkably potent in spite of what DNA has revealed about their frailties.
"Generally speaking, the significance of DNA evidence varies from case to case," said Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for Alvarez. "In some cases, it may be critically important to a criminal investigation or a prosecution. In others, it can be relatively unimportant. It is the state's attorney's opinion and the general policy of this office that DNA evidence cannot be viewed in a vacuum, but rather examined in light of all of the other facts and evidence known at the time.
"DNA evidence certainly establishes a link between the donor of the DNA and a location or a piece of evidence, but it does not always establish the identity of the criminal," Daly added. "The significance of DNA evidence is dependent upon all other facts available in the totality of the investigation."
A series of cases in Lake County illustrate that standoff.
On May 15, Lake County prosecutors issued news releases announcing new murder charges in two cases — the bludgeoning of Fred Reckling, 71, in Waukegan in 1994 and the stabbings of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in Zion in 2005.
Both announcements credited "newly developed leads and forensic findings … actively pursued by law enforcement." The releases did not mention that the new sets of charges resulted from DNA tests that prosecutors had dismissed as either unnecessary or meaningless.
In the Reckling case, prosecutors fought for years to block post-conviction testing sought by James Edwards, who had confessed and was sentenced to life in prison.
Edwards, often working as his own lawyer, claimed his innocence could be proved by testing blood found at the scene from a then-unidentified man. Prosecutors argued at trial that the blood in Reckling's appliance store and car did not clear Edwards because it could have come from a store employee. They aimed to block post-conviction testing by noting that jurors were presented with that theory, and they still found Edwards guilty.
"Testing of this showing us who specifically (the blood came from) is not going to exculpate the defendant," said then-Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel, according to a court transcript. "The defendant is wasting the time of the criminal justice system because he has nothing else to do but write these motions."
After Edwards had spent 14 years in prison, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the DNA tests. Last month, prosecutors said forensic evidence had guided investigators toward Hezekiah Whitfield, 42, of Chicago, who is now charged with murder.
Prosecutors agreed to a new trial for Edwards and then immediately dropped the charges, though he remains jailed on separate convictions for armed robbery and murder.
"The Supreme Court says prosecutors have a duty to seek justice, not convictions," said Edwards' lawyer, Paul De Luca. "Doesn't it seem like they didn't abide by the rules?"
In the killing of the two girls in Zion in May 2005, lawyers for the original suspect — Jerry Hobbs, one victim's father — clashed with prosecutors over the timeline and procedures for both sides to assess the physical evidence. Immediately after the murders, authorities sent evidence to the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory, where analysis with a microscope found no semen evidence that would have indicated a sexual assault, according to the lab's report.
After Hobbs had spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial, the defense team's scientists reported the opposite — that semen from another man had been found in Laura Hobbs and on her clothes. Hobbs' lawyers argued this proved that his confession — given after some 24 hours of intermittent interrogation — was false. Prosecutors disagreed, arguing that the girls had been playing in the woods and the girl could have touched some semen and then wiped herself.
"The defense is … misleading the court," Mermel said in December 2008. "What they have is one errant sperm which is impossible to deposit by the offender or an offender. It's trace evidence."
After that hearing, Hobbs sat in jail for more than a year before the DNA was matched to Jorge Torrez, a onetime friend of Tobias' brother, according to court records. While Hobbs was jailed, prosecutors say, Torrez murdered a 20-year-old woman in 2009 and raped another in 2010, both in Virginia. Torrez is now serving five life sentences for a series of attacks on women, including the rape, and he faces trial in the Virginia murder case.
Hobbs was freed in August 2010, but nearly two years passed before the Lake County prosecutor's office tacitly acknowledged his confession was false by announcing that Torrez had been charged with the girls' murders. Mermel retired this year amid controversy over remarks he made to the media about the meaning of DNA. Lake County prosecutors could not be reached for comment. Mermel declined to comment.
Hobbs' attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said she would like to see legislation making confessions inadmissible in court unless they can be corroborated by physical evidence. Prosecutors, she said, repeatedly have proved reluctant to admit the faults of their favorite evidentiary tools.
"(DNA) takes away the power that a prosecutor would have to develop a case around an eyewitness or a confession … and I guess there's resistance to that," she said.
Zellner has another client fighting his case in which DNA calls into question the conviction. Though there is no confession, prosecutors say the DNA does not persuade them of his innocence. So far they have declined to vacate the man's conviction, although they say they are "actively investigating" the case.
Alprentiss Nash was convicted in the 1995 murder of a man named Leon Stroud during a home invasion and robbery and sentenced to 80 years in prison. Nash, according to prosecutors, put on a black ski mask before committing the crime, and the mask was found near the crime scene.
Cook County prosecutors under then-State's Attorney Dick Devine opposed Nash's request for testing, but the Illinois Appellate Court later ordered it. When the testing was done on skin cells found on the mask, the genetic profile was matched to an inmate who recently was paroled from prison after serving time for a drug conviction. Zellner requested additional testing, to which Alvarez's office agreed.
In an interview at Menard Correctional Center, where he is being held, Nash, 37, said he hoped the DNA results would lead to his release.
"I'm tired of doing time," he said of his 17 years in custody.
But Alvarez's prosecutors argue that the DNA evidence does not clear Nash, which has frustrated him and Zellner.
"They've got an exclusion. They've got the profile of the real killer," Zellner said. "And they're horsing around with it."
smmills@tribune.com
dhinkel@tribune.com
U.S. Security Has Beachhead at Foreign Airports
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: June 13, 2012
SHANNON, Ireland — An ocean away from the United States, travelers flying out of the international airport here on the west coast of Ireland are confronting one of the newest lines of defense in the war on terrorism: the United States border.
In a section of this airport carved out for the Department of Homeland Security, passengers are screened for explosives and cleared to enter the United States by American customs and border protection officers before boarding. When they land, the passengers walk straight off the plane into the terminal without going through border checks.
At other foreign airports, including those in Madrid, Panama City and Tokyo, American officers advise the local authorities. American programs in other cities expedite travel for passengers regarded as low-risk.
The programs reflect the Obama administration’s ambitious effort to tighten security in the face of repeated attempts by Al Qaeda and other terrorists to blow up planes headed to the United States from foreign airports.
The thinking is simple: By placing officers in foreign countries and effectively pushing the United States border thousands of miles beyond the country’s shores, Americans have more control over screening and security. And it is far better to sort out who is on a flight before it takes off than after a catastrophe occurs.
“It’s a really big deal — it would be like us saying you can have foreign law enforcement operating in a U.S. facility with all the privileges given to law enforcement, but we are going to do it on your territory and on our rules,” the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said on a flight back to the United States from the Middle East, where she negotiated with leaders in Israel and Jordan about joint airport security programs. “So you flip it around, and you realize it is a big deal for a country to agree to that. It is also an expensive proposition.”
Airports in 14 countries are participating in the programs, which have been expanded over the last several years and have required substantial concessions from foreign leaders. In many cases they have agreed to allow American officers to be placed in the heart of their airports and to give them the authority to carry weapons, detain passengers and pull them off flights.
Last December, the government of Abu Dhabi signed a letter of intent to build a terminal where American officers will clear passengers to enter the United States, the most ambitious agreement the United States has struck so far with an Arab country. On her recent trip to Jordan, Ms. Napolitano began negotiations with the ruling family there about similar efforts.
Peter T. King, the New York Republican who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, endorsed the overseas security efforts and said he hoped the department would expand them. “A lot of these attempts are coming from the Middle East,” he said, referring to terrorism plots, “and that drives home that we have an immediate problem and that we need to push for these programs there as hard as we can.”
The Obama administration sped up expansion of the programs, which cost about $115 million a year, after an Al Qaeda operative tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. The security at foreign airports drew fresh public attention last month after new reports that intelligence agencies thwarted another plot by Al Qaeda to detonate an underwear bomb on an American-bound airliner. After that news emerged, Ms. Napolitano said the new measures being put in place in foreign airports for flights to the United States would have stopped a terrorist from boarding a plane with such a bomb.
But critics of the department on Capitol Hill — particularly two Republican committee chairmen in the House, Darrell Issa of California and John L. Mica of Florida — questioned her claims and said that security in foreign airports is not robust enough.
Ms. Napolitano and other Obama administration officials praise the programs as essential to help protect the 80 million passengers a year who fly to the United States from 300 foreign airports, and a boon for travelers, who save time after landing,
Still, as with many other counterterrorism measures, it is hard to gauge the programs’ success or their impact on Al Qaeda and other terrorists. They have not foiled any major plots so far, and it is hard to imagine terrorists unaware of which airports had a robust American security presence and which were more vulnerable.
Homeland Security officials acknowledge that the United States cannot control security in every airport in the world. The focus, they said, was on expanding an American presence at airports with a significant number of United States-bound flights.
The officials said that of the roughly 30 million travelers who passed through foreign airports with American customs and border protection officers over the past two years, about 500 were deemed national security risks and were turned away or pulled aside for further questioning. Over the same period, about 18,000 air travelers were denied admission to the United States for reasons like having a criminal record or lacking a proper visa.
At Shannon, where American officers have checked passports since 1986, passengers bound for the United States first pass through the Irish government’s airport security and then through three levels of American security: One to check for explosives in shoes and carry-on luggage, then to get clearance to enter the United States, and finally to ensure that checked baggage does not contain contraband.
The biggest problem for the United States is that it cannot compel foreign governments to strengthen security at their airports. But the United States limits flights from foreign airports that do not meet minimum security standards and screen passengers using procedures modeled after those of the Transportation Security Administration.
American officers at foreign airports constitute the next level of security, and the “gold standard” is an arrangement like the one at Shannon, with comprehensive preboarding clearance.
There are still hundreds of airports where American officials have far less say. According to a Government Accountability Office report released last October, the T.S.A. “has identified serious or egregious noncompliance issues at a number of other foreign airports.”
Department officials, however, said in interviews that they were confident in the security at foreign airports because even those that do not have pre-clearance or American advisers are subject to audits by the T.S.A.
“There was an airport that a U.S. flight carrier wanted to use as a last point of departure two years ago, and we denied it because we couldn’t ensure that planes couldn’t be hit by a shoulder fired missile near the airport,” Ms. Napolitano said.
Method to Track Firearm Use Is Stalled by Foes
Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
By ERICA GOODE
Published: June 12, 2012 133 Comments
Identifying the firearm used in a crime is one of the biggest challenges for criminal investigators. But what if a shell casing picked up at a murder scene could immediately be tracked to the gun that fired it?
Todd Lizotte, an engineer who developed the microstamping technique in the 1990s, looking at casings. He says he wants the patents to lapse and the technology to be in the public domain.
A technique that uses laser technology and stamps a numeric code on shell casings can do just that. But the technology, called microstamping, has been swept up in the larger national debate over gun laws and Second Amendment rights, and efforts to require gun makers to use it have stalled across the nation.
“I think it is one of these things in law enforcement that would just take us from the Stone Age to the jet age in an instant,” said Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld III of the Baltimore Police Department. “I just can’t comprehend the opposition to it.”
But legislation proposed in several states to require manufacturers of semiautomatic weapons to use the technology has met with fierce opposition. Opponents, including the gun industry and the National Rifle Association, argue that microstamping is ineffective and its cost prohibitive. They say the proposed system would unfairly focus on legal gun owners when most crimes are committed with illegally obtained guns.
The issue has become so heated that in New York, where the State Assembly is expected to debate a microstamping bill as early as Wednesday, one gun maker, the Remington Arms Company, has threatened to pull its business out of the state if the bill becomes law.
“Such a mandate could force Remington to reconsider its commitment to the New York market altogether,” said Teddy Novin, a company spokesman.
In California, legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 has been held up while the attorney general’s office makes sure the technology is unencumbered by patents, as the microstamping law requires. A gun rights group, the Calguns Foundation, went so far as to pay a $555 fee to extend a lapsing patent held by the developer to further delay the law from taking effect.
“It was a lot cheaper to keep the patent in force than to litigate over the issues,” said Gene Hoffman, the chairman of the foundation, adding that he believed the law amounted to a gun ban in California.
Todd Lizotte, an engineer who developed the method in the 1990s, said he wanted the patents to lapse and the technology to be in the public domain.
Microstamping works much like an ink stamp. Lasers engrave a unique microscopic numeric code on the tip of a gun’s firing pin and breach face. When the gun is fired, the pressure transfers the markings to the shell casings. By reading the code imprinted on casings found at a crime scene, police officers can identify the gun and track it to the purchaser, even when the weapon is not recovered.
Advocates of microstamping say it offers advantages over ballistic analysis, which has been used for more than a century and depends on matching incidental tool marks on bullets and cartridge casings to show that a particular weapon was used.
Under this system, when a cartridge casing is found to match one already entered in a computer database, like the one maintained by the government’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a forensic examiner must confirm the match. And it is difficult to link the casings to a specific firearm unless the weapon is available.
Like other forensic methods, ballistic analysis has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, and its reliability has been challenged in court. A 2008 National Academy of Sciences report said there was not yet conclusive evidence that the markings produced by a gun are identical over time and under different conditions.
But Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade group, said microstamping was not reliable either.
“There’s no point in rolling out a technology that does not work,” he said.
Mr. Keane and other opponents point to two early studies finding that the full numeric code could be read only about half the time on shell casings. In addition, they say, criminals could file off the code or replace the firing pin. And the technology would not apply to revolvers, which do not discharge cartridge casings.
The N.R.A. did not respond to a request for a comment on the microstamping issue. But on its Web site, it calls the method an “unproven technology” and says it “is easily circumvented by criminals.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation has estimated that microstamping would increase the cost of a firearm by “well over $200,” according to a fact sheet it issued, but advocates say the cost to manufacturers would be less than $12 a gun — a cap imposed as a condition of the New York Assembly bill.
In response to the critics, Mr. Lizotte said that no new technology was tamper-proof, but that erasing the microscopic code was not easy. The technology is steadily evolving and becoming more reliable and cost-effective, he said, and waiting until it is foolproof makes no sense.
As for reading the numeric codes, Mr. Lizotte said a more recent study found that the full code could be read most of the time. Even when numbers are illegible, the code can be pieced together from other shell casings found at a scene or could be reconstructed much like missing license plate numbers.
The District of Columbia passed a microstamping law in 2009, but it, too, has yet to take effect. Bills introduced in at least four other states have made little headway.
In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said he supports microstamping legislation. “I’d like to see a microstamping bill passed,” he said last week at a news conference in Albany. “I’m not optimistic that it will pass.”
The trade group has worked steadily to block microstamping bills, spending $70,200 in lobbying expenses in New York in the first six months of 2010 to thwart an earlier version of the legislation, which was strongly backed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The N.R.A. spent $80,219 lobbying against gun control bills in the same period that year. The bill died in the State Senate.
Colin Weaver, deputy executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said microstamping was needed because the difficulty of tracing firearms made gun crimes more difficult to solve than crimes that did not involve guns. An analysis by his organization found that from 2007 to 2009 in New York State, for example, 48.5 percent of aggravated assaults involving a firearm were solved, compared with 67.6 percent of aggravated assaults that did not involve guns.
For his part, Mr. Lizotte said microstamping had nothing to do with gun rights.
“I’m a Second Amendment guy,” he said, adding that he is a member of the N.R.A. “I just want to be part of the solution of protecting rights, because every time something bad happens with a firearm, my rights get curtailed.”
Locked up but innocent?
A USA Today investigation
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.C. – Terrell McCullum did not commit a federal crime by carrying a shotgun and a rifle out of his ex-girlfriend's house.
But he is serving a federal prison sentence for it. And the fact that everyone — including the U.S.Justice Department— agrees that he is legally innocent might not be enough to set him free.
A USA TODAY investigation, based on court records and interviews with government officials and attorneys, found more than 60 men who went to prison for violating federal gun possession laws, even though courts have since determined that it was not a federal crime for them to have a gun.
Many of them don't even know they're innocent.
The legal issues underlying their situation are complicated, and are unique to North Carolina. But the bottom line is that each of them went to prison for breaking a law that makes it a federal crime for convicted felons to possess a gun. The problem is that none of them had criminal records serious enough to make them felons under federal law.
Still, the Justice Department has not attempted to identify the men, has made no effort to notify them, and, in a few cases in which the men have come forward on their own, has argued in court that they should not be released.
Justice Department officials said it is not their job to notify prisoners that they might be incarcerated for something that they now concede is not a crime. And although they have agreed in court filings that the men are innocent, they said they must still comply with federal laws that put strict limits on when and how people can challenge their convictions in court.
"We can't be outcome driven," said Anne Tompkins, the U.S. attorney in Charlotte. "We've got to make sure we follow the law, and people should want us to do that." She said her office is "looking diligently for ways, within the confines of the law, to recommend relief for defendants who are legally innocent."
These cases are largely unknown outside the courthouses here, but they have raised difficult questions about what, if anything, the government owes to innocent people locked in prisons.
"It's been tough," said Ripley Rand, the U.S. attorney in Greensboro, N.C. "We've spent a lot of time talking about issues of fundamental fairness, and what is justice."
It's also unusual. Wrongful conviction cases are seldom open-and-shut — usually they depend on DNA or other new evidence that undermines the government's case, but does not always prove someone is innocent. Yet in the North Carolina gun cases, it turns out, there simply were no federal crimes.
Using state and federal court records, USA TODAY identified 23 other men who had been sent to federal prison for having a firearm despite criminal records too minor to make that a federal crime. Nine of them remain in prison, serving sentences of up to 10 years; others are still serving federal probation. The newspaper's review was limited to only a small fraction of cases from one of the three federal court districts in North Carolina.
Federal public defenders have so far identified at least 39 others in additional court districts, and are certain to find more. And prosecutors have already agreed to drop dozens of cases in which prisoners' convictions were not yet final.
Some of the prisoners USA TODAY contacted — and their lawyers — were stunned to find out that they were imprisoned for something that turned out not to be a federal crime. And their lawyers said they were troubled by the idea that innocence alone might not get them out.
"If someone is innocent, I would think that would change the government's reaction, and it's sad that it hasn't," said Debra Graves, an assistant federal public defender in Raleigh. "I have trouble figuring out how you rationalize this. These are innocent people. That has to matter at some point."
WHO CAN HAVE A GUN?
Terrell McCullum conceded in interviews that he has made plenty of bad decisions — including having the two guns that sent him to federal prison. But there is little dispute that his criminal record wouldn't now be serious enough to make having the guns a federal crime.
Even so, government lawyers have said in court filings that he should remain in the Farmville, Va., jail where he is serving the end of his federal sentence.
"At most," the Justice Department said in an April court filing , McCullum "has become legally innocent of the charge against him." In other words, the law may have changed, but the facts of his case didn't — he did possess the gun, and he had a criminal record — so he isn't entitled to be released.
His request to be released is still pending. "I don't know what's going to happen," McCullum said during a recent phone call. "I'm just praying on it."
The key to McCullum's innocence lies at the complicated intersection of state and federal criminal laws.
Decades ago, Congress made it a federal crime for convicted felons to have a gun. The law proved to be a powerful tool for police and prosecutors to target repeat offenders who managed to escape stiff punishment in state courts. In some cases, federal courts can put people in prison for significantly longer for merely possessing a gun than state courts can for using the gun to shoot at someone.
To make that law work in every state, Congress wrote one national definition of who cannot own a gun: someone who has been convicted of a crime serious enough that he or she could have been sentenced to more than a year in prison.
Figuring out who fits that definition in North Carolina is not as simple as it sounds. In 1993, state lawmakers adopted a unique system called "structured sentencing" that changes the maximum prison term for a crime, based on the record of the person who committed it. People with relatively short criminal records who commit crimes such as distributing cocaine and writing bad checks face no more than a few months in jail; people with more extensive records face much longer sentences.
For years, federal courts in North Carolina said that did not matter. The courts said, in effect: If someone with a long record could have gone to prison for more than a year for the crime, then everyone who committed that crime is a felon, and all of them are legally barred from possessing a gun.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said federal courts (including itself) had been getting the law wrong. Only people who could have actually faced more than a year in prison for their crimes qualify as felons under federal law.
The 4th Circuit's decision came in a little-noticed drug case, United States v. Simmons, but its implications could be dramatic. For one thing, tens of thousands of people in North Carolina have criminal records that no longer make having a gun a federal crime. About half of the felony convictions in North Carolina's state courts over the past decade were for offenses that no longer count as felonies under federal law.
No one yet knows precisely how many people were incorrectly convicted for having a gun, but the number could be significant. Rand, the U.S. attorney in Greensboro, estimated that more than a third of the gun cases his office prosecuted might be in question, either because the defendants didn't commit a federal crime at all by possessing a gun or because their sentences were calculated incorrectly.
"We're going to be addressing this for a while," he said.
The Justice Department and federal courts moved quickly to clean up cases that were pending when the 4th Circuit announced its decision. Prosecutors dropped pending charges against people whose records no longer qualified them as felons; the 4th Circuit reversed convictions in more than 40 cases that were on appeal at the time. Some of the men were given shorter sentences; others were simply let go.
But the next question has proved far harder to answer: What should the government do with the prisoners whose legal cases were already over?
STILL LOCKED UP
The men in McCullum's position have little hope of inspiring much public sympathy. All had racked up at least modest criminal records, frequently for selling drugs. Many only wound up in federal court because police had already arrested them for breaking state laws (including a state law, not affected by the 4th Circuit's ruling, barring them from having guns).
One man went to federal prison after a shootout; another led police officers on a high-speed chase. One shot a police dog.
McCullum hadn't done anything so serious.
His mother, Rebecca Farris, concedes he had a knack for getting in trouble, but said he's still "softhearted." McCullum, now 26, has been diagnosed as mentally disabled, and quit school in the 11th grade after he was kicked out for fighting.
On a recent afternoon, Elizabethtown Police Chief Bobby Kinlaw squinted at the computer in his small office and rattled through an inventory of McCullum's frequent encounters with his officers, including arrests for larceny, fighting, making threats and driving without insurance. "He seemed to be on the radar on a regular basis," Kinlaw said.
McCullum's most serious scrape with the law came in September 2007, when he pleaded guilty to stealing a gun and was put on probation. Under North Carolina law, he could have been sentenced to no more than 10 months in prison.
A month later, McCullum broke up with his girlfriend and came to her small house to collect his things. The two quickly got into an argument, and McCullum knocked over a cocktail table and yanked a telephone cord out of the wall, Kinlaw said. His ex-girlfriend's son called the police, and an officer waited outside to keep the peace while McCullum carried his belongings out to his truck. He carried out his clothes. Then, while the officer watched, he carried out a .22-caliber rifle and a shotgun.
Police checked the guns' serial numbers and learned the shotgun had been reported stolen, so they arrested McCullum. (They didn't realize until later that the gun had been stolen nine years earlier, by someone else, when McCullum was 12.) When they found out McCullum had a criminal record, they charged him with possession of a firearm by a felon, and turned the case over to the federal government .
McCullum says the guns weren't loaded, and he insists he didn't know he wasn't supposed to have firearms. He kept them because they had belonged to his grandfather.
In 2009, McCullum went to federal court and pleaded guilty to the charge of illegally possessing a firearm. At the time, even his lawyers thought that his prior conviction for stealing a gun made him a felon under federal law. The judge sentenced him to a year and a day in custody, and the government sent him to Big Sandy, a high-security penitentiary in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
It was the first time McCullum had been to prison.
"I ain't no bad person. I made mistakes, but I ain't that bad," McCullum said. "I just was young back then, just made some stupid mistakes."
He got out in 2010 but quickly violated his supervised release by robbing a man. ("I saw him with a whole bunch of money and I just got him like that," McCullum said during one phone call.) The judge sent him back to prison. Now he's finishing his sentence at the local jail in Farmville, counting the days until he can go home.
SHUT OUT OF COURT?
Whether McCullum — or the dozens of others like him — can go home depends on federal laws that put strict limits on when and how people who have already been convicted of a crime can come back to court to plead their innocence.
Those laws let prisoners challenge their convictions if they uncover new evidence, or if the U.S. Supreme Court limits the sweep of a criminal law. But none of the exceptions is a clear fit, meaning that, innocent or not, they may not be able to get into court at all. Federal courts have so far split on whether they can even hear the prisoners' cases.
Habeas corpus — the main legal tool for challenging unlawful detention — is currently ill-suited to such cases, said Nancy King, a Vanderbilt Law School professor who has studied the issue. Habeas mainly safeguards people's constitutional right to a fair process, she said, and the problem is that "saying, 'I'm innocent' isn't, on its face, that type of constitutional claim."
Still, she said, "innocent people should be able to get out of prison."
Prosecutors don't disagree, though most said they are not convinced the law allows it.
Rand, the U.S. attorney in Greensboro, said he is "not aware of any procedural mechanism by which they can be afforded relief," though he said lawyers in his office "have not been pounding on the table" to keep the men in jail.
"No one wants anyone to spend time in jail who should not be there," said Thomas Walker, the U.S. attorney in Raleigh. That's why he said prosecutors were quick to dismiss charges that were pending when the 4th Circuit ruled. But cases in which convictions are already final "are in a totally different posture and require us to follow the existing statutory habeas law," he said.
But there's also an even more basic question: How would the prisoners even know?
Rand said he personally reviewed all of the gun-possession cases his office had filed in recent years, often bringing home stacks of documents to examine after his kids went to bed. A former state judge, he figured he would have the easiest time identifying problems. Some of the cases he looked at, he said, would no longer qualify as federal crimes.
But he said he did not notify those defendants.
Instead, courts have asked public defenders to seek them out. Those lawyers said the Justice Department should do more to help, because it has better information and more resources, an assertion prosecutors dispute.
"We're doing it with our hands tied," said Eric Placke, a federal public defender in Greensboro. "I appreciate the compelling considerations they have to deal with. But I do think in cases of actual innocence that it would be nice, to say the least, if they would be a little more proactive."
Placke and other public defenders said the reviews have been difficult because they often have limited access to records from the men's prior convictions, which has left them to hunt through files in courthouses across the state.
USA TODAY conducted a similar, though far more limited review, examining every gun conviction in western North Carolina between 2005 and 2011. The review was limited to people who had been convicted only of gun possession, and included only those cases in which federal prosecutors had specifically identified the prior offense that made possession a crime. USA TODAY used state court records to find those cases in which the men's prior convictions were, in hindsight, not serious enough to convict them of the federal crime.
'A BETTER LIFE'
Travis Bowman said he "got cold chills" when USA TODAY told him that he's innocent of the gun charge that landed him in a federal prison in Coleman, Fla., for 10 years. He said he'd never considered the possibility that what he did wasn't a federal crime. He pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a sawed-off shotgun.
He's not scheduled to get out of prison until 2016.
Police arrested Bowman in 2007 after a 110-mph chase through Murphy, N.C. It began when North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Wood pulled Bowman over for speeding, planning only to write him a warning. But a routine records check showed Bowman had been affiliated with a gang known as Folk Nation, and that he was wanted in Georgia. "I got a real eerie feeling," Wood said. He drew his gun and told Bowman to put his hands on the steering wheel.
Bowman took off.
With his pregnant, 15-year-old girlfriend in the seat next to him, he raced down the highway, swerved through a McDonald's parking lot and collided with four police cars. He didn't stop until his girlfriend threw the speeding car into park.
State officials didn't prosecute Bowman for the shotgun, or for the chase, or for crashing into the police cars, or for refusing to let his girlfriend out of the car. Instead, they turned the case over to the Justice Department, which sent him to prison for a decade just for having an unloaded shotgun on the floor behind the passenger seat. (Bowman said he was taking the gun to his brother.)
But Bowman's prior convictions — for habitual misdemeanor assault and having drugs in prison — aren't serious enough to make owning the gun a federal crime. Neither could have put him in prison for more than a year.
Bowman says he plans to ask a federal judge to declare him innocent and let him out.
"Hopefully I'll get the chance to be out there soon," Bowman wrote in an e-mail."I just want a better life than this. I have to prove to a lot of people that I'm not the old me. I want to be a person my kids will look up to and be proud of."
Going home is far from a safe bet. Even if a court ultimately decides to let Bowman out, he could still face all the charges state officials dropped when his case went to federal court.
Why are Phoenix cops in Maricopa County serving search warrants in Casa Grande which is in Pinal County for old farts that look at dirty pictures on the internet???
Since the arrest was made by the "Phoenix Police Department's Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task" I suspect these cops are just trolling the internet trying to entrap people into looking at dirty pictures of children.
Jesus don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down. You know like robbers, rapists, burglars and criminals that cause real crimes, not some pathetic lonely old fart that looks at dirty pictures on the internet?
Last but not least I think the penalties for violating this law are very draconian. I think the 10 pictures this guy was arrested with will easily get him life in prison with no parole.
Police: Casa Grande school-board member held; child porn found
by Haley Madden - Jun. 14, 2012 09:45 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
A Casa Grande school-board member was arrested Thursday morning after police found several items of child pornography at his business, police said.
Officers from the Phoenix Police Department's Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served Jere Hansen, 63, a search warrant for his business near Second and Florence streets, where they found several pieces of child pornography, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.
Officers arrested Hansen and booked him into Pinal County Jail.
He has been charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a Class 2 felony, Thompson said.
Hansen has a private accounting practice and has served as an official at youth soccer games in the Greater Phoenix area, according to the Casa Grande Elementary School District website.
Alameda County judge charged with elder theft
Henry K. Lee
Friday, June 15, 2012
ABC7 News
Judge Paul Seeman has been charged with 12 felonies following a two-year investigation.
Alameda County Judge Paul Seeman may have had good intentions when he offered to help the couple that lived across the street from him in Berkeley - an elderly pair with no family, no friends and a home made uninhabitable by years of hoarding.
But whatever his initial purpose, his actions turned criminal, authorities said Thursday after charging him with elder financial abuse and taking him into custody at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse where he presides in downtown Oakland.
After a two-year investigation, Berkeley police said Seeman, 57, stole thousands of dollars from his neighbor Anne Nutting after her husband died in 1999 at age 90, sold off her art and other possessions, tried to bar her from her own home, and used her garage to store his beloved 1957 Ford Thunderbird.
Seeman befriended Nutting after her husband suffered a fall in 1998, authorities said, and ended up embezzling thousands of dollars from her by 2010, when she died at the age of 97. The two lived on Santa Barbara Road, east of Arlington Avenue in the Berkeley hills.
The Alameda County district attorney charged Seeman with one count of elder theft and 11 counts of perjury, all felonies, as well as enhancements alleging that he stole at least $200,000. He was being held Thursday evening at a downtown Oakland jail in lieu of $525,000 bail.
"The alleged conduct of Judge Seeman is both disturbing and disappointing," said Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for her office. "His alleged conduct is in no way a reflection of the outstanding caliber of judicial officers serving Alameda County."
Superior Court officials declined to comment. A woman who answered the phone at Seeman's home hung up.
A neighbor, Eve Howard, expressed shock at the allegations, saying, "Paul is a great man, just a great guy, a great neighbor. On a scale of 1 to 10, would I ever have thought this, seen this, felt this could be the case? I'd give it absolutely zero."
She said acquaintances had described the judge as an altruistic person whom they believed was "extending a lot of help to a person who really appreciated it and needed it."
Differing opinions
Another neighbor, Anne Nesbet, agreed, saying, "Paul is a saint in this. I'm absolutely, 1,000 percent sure that Paul is on the side of the angels. He's the best man in the world."
Prosecutors disagree.
The case threatens the future of a veteran of the juvenile justice system who was appointed to the bench only three years ago. Among the defendants who came before him were four Occupy Cal protesters whom he ordered to stay away from UC Berkeley in March and, as a county court commissioner, two 16-year-old boys accused of taking part in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Alameda girl in a city park.
Court records released Thursday paint a picture of a neighbor who began trying to help Nutting and her husband and ended up allegedly preying on her, while having unrestricted access to her home.
In December 1998, Nutting's husband, Lee Nutting, fell inside his home. Anne Nutting called 911 for help, and after Berkeley firefighters arrived, they determined that the couple's home was "uninhabitable due to hoarding," Berkeley police wrote in a court document outlining the grounds for Seeman's arrest.
The Nuttings relocated to the Radisson Hotel at the Berkeley Marina. Seeman, who was then an attorney specializing in juvenile law, decided to help the couple even though he didn't know them well and had never been to their house, authorities said.
In January 1999, police said, Seeman obtained power-of-attorney for the couple after stating that he had found $1 million worth of stock certificates and uncashed dividend checks in their house.
After Lee Nutting died in December 1999, Seeman arranged the sale of two properties the couple owned in Santa Cruz, investigators said. They said Seeman handled Lee Nutting's estate in probate court but did not include the two Santa Cruz properties in the documents.
Millions in accounts
By August 2004, Seeman "had taken over almost all of the victim's financial affairs, putting his name on her bank accounts as joint tenant and on her investment accounts as TOD (transferee on death)," police wrote in the document. At the time, there was more than $2.2 million in the accounts, authorities said.
Seeman eventually sold off Anne Nutting's assets, including a Lionel train set and stamp and coin collections, authorities said.
In 2004, the same year he became a county court commissioner, Seeman persuaded her to loan him $250,000 - money that had been raised by auctioning part of her art collection. He executed a "simple promissory note," at 3 percent interest, to be paid monthly, investigators said. They said he made only eight payments.
Anne Nutting insisted on returning home in 2007 and sought the help of an attorney to remove Seeman from her affairs, authorities said. He refused to relinquish control, investigators said.
In 2010, a year after Seeman became a judge, the woman's attorney contacted police to report the suspected embezzlement. After police contacted him, Seeman repaid the $250,000 loan but refused to provide an accounting of his transactions, authorities said.
Prosecutors charged him with perjury for allegedly failing to disclose the loan on annual statements of economic interest that all judges must file. They said he also failed to report investments totaling more than $1.4 million in 40 local properties - investments made between 2003 and 2009.
Seeman, a graduate of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, was named to the bench by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. He had also previously served as a referee pro tem for the Juvenile Court and deputy counsel, all in Alameda County. He has also lectured in criminology and sociology of law at UC Santa Cruz, his alma mater.
Henry K. Lee is a San Fran- cisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee
Anybody want to infiltrate the Mesa Pig stye???
Of course remember if you do sign up they will almost certainly run you thru their computer looking for warrants.
And of course since the piggies read all the mail on this listserver they know I posted this message.
http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/mesa/article_8b80f7d8-ba6c-11e1-bbb1-001a4bcf887a.html
Mesa citizens: Sign up to serve and protect
Tim Hacker/Tribune
Mesa Police
Posted: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 1:14 pm
Tribune
To serve and protect: it’s not just for police officers, but everyday citizens, too.
Embracing that everyday partnership between its citizens and law enforcement personnel, the Mesa Police Department is now accepting applications for its next Citizens Police Academy, scheduled to begin in August, with graduation set for November.
Offering a mix of classroom presentations and hands-on experience, the course “gives students an insight and understanding of law enforcement’s role in our community.”
Presentations include topics such as traffic, civilian investigators, DUI, homicide, gangs, street crimes, narcotics, SWAT, aviation, and more. Potential candidates must be 19 years old and live in Mesa, along with meeting a series of other criteria. Applications and criteria can be found online at www.mesaaz.gov/police.
Phoenix prison worker charged with sex assault on inmates
by Bob Ortega - Jun. 20, 2012 09:49 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A former correctional employee at a federal prison north of Phoenix has been indicted on 13 counts of sexual abuse of inmates, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Joe A. Martinez, 48, was indicted by a federal grand jury and accused of sexually abusing two female inmates in 2008 and 2010 at the Federal Correctional Institution Phoenix, a medium-security prison 25 miles north of downtown Phoenix.
In a written statement, acting U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel said that a joint investigation by the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates the facility, led to the indictments.
The indictments charge that on various occasions Martinez sexually assaulted two female inmates. The assaults mostly occurred in or near a prison scrapyard, according to the indictments.
Martinez could not be reached for comment.
If convicted, he would face a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine or both on each count.
Personally I don't think should be a crime when minors have consensual sex with adults.
But if we are going to criminalize these victimless crimes cops who commit the crimes should receive the same sentences as non-cops. But of course we have a double standard here. Cops who commit the crimes get a slap on the wrist while not-cops get draconian sentences.
Ex-San Jose officer given house arrest in sex case with teens
By Eric Kurhi
ekurhi@mercurynews.com
Posted: 06/21/2012 06:07:03 AM PDT
A former San Jose officer was sentenced Wednesday to eight months of home arrest, three years of probation and a lifetime of being registered a sex offender after being convicted of sex acts with two teenage boys.
Patrick D'Arrigo, 44, faced a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison for two counts stemming from sexual encounters with a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old at his Gilroy home in 2008.
Stuart Scott, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said he "argued very aggressively for significant incarceration." He said that while he would have liked to see D'Arrigo locked up, Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero "gave a very well thought out, articulated explanation" of why he was not handing out jail time that involved "balancing the totality of the circumstances."
"Ultimately it's the discretion of the court, and I'm certainly not going to question his authority," he said. "We just disagree."
Scott said that though the acts were consensual, jail time is in order because of D'Arrigo's standing as a police officer.
"This is a guy who is different than other defendants, unlike someone who has no obligations, he put on a uniform, raised his right hand and swore an oath to protect and defend," he said. "He needs to be held to a higher standard, and that involves significant incarceration."
However, Scott said that D'Arrigo has already suffered "great penalties," as he has lost his job, lost his pension and will have to register as a sex offender his entire life.
D'Arrigo's attorney Brian Madden said late Wednesday that his client took responsibility for his actions and regrets them very deeply. He added that a report from a psychologist, a probation report and the judge all agreed that he is at low risk of reoffending.
"On the facts of this case, the court's sentence was completely justified and appropriate," he said.
According to grand jury transcripts, the teens testified that they had met the longtime campus officer at Leland High School in 2008 when D'Arrigo responded to a "Men Seeking Men" ad placed on Craigslist.
The record states that he partied with a group of teens at his Gilroy home, watching movies and giving them rum and sodas. He then engaged in sexual acts with two of them, and according to the transcripts, later gave the boys gift cards.
In March, D'Arrigo pleaded no contest to one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor age 14 or 15 and one count of oral copulation with a minor.
D'Arrigo was placed on administrative leave in August after his arrest and resigned from the police department in February.
I wonder how good that lame excuse would work if a civilian tried it. Yea, Officer I raped the woman because I was high on drugs. But since I was too stoned to know what I was doing so please don't arrest me. The rape wasn't my fault.
Ex-cop says he has no memory of rape
By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
June 21, 2012
A former Westminster police detective convicted of kidnapping and rape broke down on the witness stand on Wednesday, saying he had no memory of the attack because of a blackout triggered by the antidepressant Zoloft.
"It's absolutely horrendous," Anthony Orban told the jury, shielding his face with his hand. "I can't imagine doing this to another person."
Orban's testimony is crucial to his attempt to convince a San Bernardino County jury that he was legally insane when he abducted a young waitress from Ontario Mills Mall in April 2010 and then brutally raped her near a Fontana self-storage lot.
The prosecutor used her rapid-fire cross-examination to try to cast doubt on Orban's claim of being in a Zoloft-induced stupor, questioning parallels between his testimony and similar accounts in a magazine and book by a well-known critic of psychotropic drugs.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Ploghaus, glancing at the jury, also pressed Orban on the victim's testimony about the assault. The woman said that he had shoved his service weapon into her mouth, taken pictures with his cell phone as he brutalized her and threatened to "finish this" in the desert.
"I'm not denying her testimony,'' Orban said. "I don't remember."
One of the few times the prosecutor's jabs seemed to get under Orban's skin was when she implied that the victim resembled his wife, which he curtly disputed.
The jury charged with ruling on Orban's sanity is the same one that last week found him guilty, dismissing claims that Zoloft had rendered Orban mentally "unconscious" and therefore rendered him not responsible for his actions.
During the sanity phase of the trial, the defense has the burden to prove that Orban "more likely than not" was unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. If the jury finds he was insane, Orban would be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment. If not, he could face life in prison.
For defense attorney James Blatt, putting Orban on the witness stand was the only way to bolster his argument that a powerful dose of prescription Zoloft caused his client to have a psychotic break in the days before the attack.
Orban had been on the antidepressant, prescribed by his psychiatrist as the police officer and Iraq War veteran struggled with his failing marriage, financial woes and consuming depression. But he quit Zoloft for nearly a month, resuming the medications less than a week before the attack.
Within days, he said, he was overwhelmed, hearing voices at night, contemplating suicide and fantasizing about killing his wife and dog.
"I keep having this obsession with suicide. I had this drive of self-destruction," Orban testified. "I felt that I had to kill my wife. …It wasn't a matter of thinking about it, it was the way it had to be."
The prosecutor pressed the former detective to admit that his alleged Zoloft-induced fantasies were lifted from a Time magazine article about a returning Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who killed his wife, dogs and himself. And she asked whether the symptoms he claimed to suffer, including feeling "zombie-like," were lifted from a book called "Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications." The book's author, New York psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin, testified for the defense on Tuesday.
Orban acknowledged reading both works, but denied they had influenced his testimony.
Orban said his last memory before the attack was drinking three margaritas with a friend. He said he couldn't remember sending 45 text messages to a woman he had an affair with, groping a waitress or grabbing a man's crotch.
When he came to, he said, he was standing outside a Denny's near Interstate 15.
The prosecutor asked Orban if he thought he should be punished for kidnapping and raping the young woman.
"That's up to the jury to decide," he answered.
phil.willon@latimes.com
I suspect the real issue here is there are something like 3,500 cops on the Phoenix Police force. That may not sound like a lot, but in an election where only 5 percent of the registered voters show up to vote it is a lot and it's even enough to swing the election.
So the members of the Phoenix City Council know that if they give their cops pay raises or in this case give the police union free money all those cops will show up at the polls and re-elect the Phoenix City Council members that gave them money.
The sad thing is politicians and elected officials don't work for the tax payers or citizens, but rather work for the special interest groups that help get them elected, and in this case that is the Phoenix Police force.
Phoenix won't halt union practice
City seeks clarity on 'release time'
by Lynh Bui - Jun. 21, 2012 09:44 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Phoenix has no intention of ending its practice of using city money to pay for union officers' activity despite a judge's recent declaration that it may violate the state constitution.
Instead, Phoenix hopes to renegotiate with its seven labor groups to better define the benefits the city receives from the practice of "release time" and develop clearer accountability systems to track union officers' activities, said city Labor Relations Administrator Lori Steward.
Steward said she is in the middle of setting up meetings with the city's seven labor groups and unions to amend two-year labor contracts that take effect July 1, the start of the 2012-13 fiscal year.
"We've asked if they're willing to enter into some discussion to amend the contracts and do an addendum to comply with the injunction," Steward said. "It's being well-received."
The Goldwater Institute sued the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the labor group representing rank-and-file police officers, and the city to end the release-time practice. It won an injunction to end the practice as the case makes its way through the courts.
Steward declined to provide details of potential changes because the city could be entering into labor negotiations.
But, she said, the goal would be to clearly outline what the city gets in return for release time and how to track the work union officers do in an effort to comply with the court injunction.
Earlier this month, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper ruled that Phoenix's practice of allowing police officers to work full time for PLEA violates the gift clause of the Arizona Constitution.
The gift clause requires that public entities receive substantial benefit from any public funds they spend. Cooper said the taxpayer money that pays the officers' salaries was not used for a public purpose because PLEA officers often lobbied or did other activities that directly benefited the private interests of the labor association and not the city.
Goldwater attorney Clint Bolick said the institute would continue with the lawsuit if Phoenix doesn't end its release-time practices.
"We would be very disappointed if the city of Phoenix and the union attempt to put a fig leaf on a blatantly unconstitutional program," Bolick said. "The taxpayers should be getting every dollar of value for the money that they spend, and police officers should be doing police work, not union work."
Phoenix's 2012-14 labor agreements for all city unions allow more than 23,424 hours of release time for 22 union and labor-association officers.
The Goldwater Institute estimated the city spends about $4 million annually for union and labor-association officers.
Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio has been opposed to the practice and said the union officers' salaries should be paid for through membership dues instead of city money to make the process more transparent.
He said amending the contracts is just "another attempt to circumvent the law."
"The injunction was issued because the city was blatantly violating the constitution," DiCiccio said.
If the city and labor groups do agree to change the contracts, the City Council would have to vote on the amendments.
Steward said that vote likely wouldn't occur until after the City Council returns from summer break. The council's last meeting before the break is July 3.
Frank Piccioli, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 2960, said union officers actually save the city money by settling disagreements.
Piccioli said union officers train employees and mediate employee complaints that could help Phoenix avoid costly litigation.
Luis Schmidt, vice president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 2934, said he worries that no matter what conclusion the city and the labor groups reach, the critics still won't be satisfied.
But, "we are open to discussion with the city," he said.
Of course my question is when is the American Empire going to start using drone strikes to murder suspected "drug war" criminals.?
U.S. plans more drone flights over Caribbean
By Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau
June 23, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
WASHINGTON — After quietly testing Predator drones over the Bahamas for more than 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security plans to expand the unmanned surveillance flights into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to fight drug smuggling, according to U.S. officials.
The move would dramatically increase U.S. drone flights in the Western Hemisphere, more than doubling the number of square miles now covered by the department's fleet of nine surveillance drones, which are used primarily on the northern and southwestern U.S. borders.
But the high-tech aircraft have had limited success spotting drug runners in the open ocean. The drones have largely failed to impress veteran military, Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Agency officers charged with finding and boarding speedboats, fishing vessels and makeshift submarines ferrying tons of cocaine and marijuana to America's coasts.
"The question is: Will they be effective? We have no systematic evidence on how effective they are," said Bruce Bagley, who studies U.S. counter-narcotics efforts at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.
Despite that, a new control station will arrive this month in Corpus Christi, Texas, allowing Predators based there to cover more of the Gulf of Mexico. An additional drone will be delivered this year to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's base in Cocoa Beach, Fla., for operations in the Caribbean.
The Federal Aviation Administration has already approved a flight path for the drones to fly more than 1,000 miles to the Mona Passage, the strait between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
"There is a lot more going on in the deep Caribbean, and we would like to know more," said a law enforcement official familiar with the program who was not authorized to speak publicly. The official said drones may be based temporarily at airfields in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
The Predator B is best known as the drone used by the CIA to find and kill Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen. An unarmed version patrols the U.S. borders searching known overland smuggling routes.
On the ocean, however, there are no rutted trails or roads to follow. And the Predator cannot cover as much open water as larger, higher-flying surveillance aircraft, such as the Global Hawk.
"I'm not sure just because it's a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] that it will solve and fit in our problem set," the top military officer for the region, Air Force Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, said recently.
Fraser's command contributes ships and manned surveillance airplanes to the Joint Interagency Task Force South. Last year, the task force worked with U.S. agencies and other countries to seize 119 metric tons of cocaine, valued at $2.35 billion.
For the recent counter-narcotics flights over the Bahamas, border agents deployed a maritime variant of the Predator B called a Guardian with a SeaVue radar system that can scan large sections of open ocean. Drug agents can check a ship's unique radio pulse in databases to identify the boat and owner.
The planned drone flights are partly a response to demands from leaders in the western Caribbean to shift more drug agents, surveillance aircraft and ships into the area, as cartels have switched from the closely watched U.S.-Mexico border to seaborne routes. In the last four years, drug seizures in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico have increased 36%, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
"As we tighten the land borders, it squishes out to the seas," said the law enforcement official.
Over the last several years, however, drug-war personnel have been diverted from the Caribbean to the southwestern U.S. border. In Puerto Rico, for example, 1 out of 8 DEA positions is vacant.
The increase in drug traffic has contributed to an unprecedented rise in homicides in Puerto Rico, a major transit point for cocaine moving from Central America to northeastern U.S. cities. In 2011, the homicide rate hit a historic high of 1,136, with 8 out of 10 killings related to drug trafficking.
"We need help fighting this battle along the Caribbean border to protect U.S. citizens there being buffeted by violence," Puerto Rico's Gov. Luis Fortuno told a congressional panel this week.
Despite budget cuts in other areas, Customs and Border Protection has requested $5.8 million to push its drone operations farther into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
But test flights for the Guardian showed disappointing results in the Bahamas, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the program who were not authorized to speak publicly.
During more than 1,260 hours in the air off the southeastern coast of Florida, the Guardian assisted in only a handful of large-scale busts, the officials said.
One of the most recent occurred early Dec. 22, when a Guardian trained its infrared eye on a sailboat heading toward the south shoreline of New Providence island in the Bahamas. Photographs of the sloop and grid coordinates were relayed by the U.S. embassy in Nassau. The Royal Bahamas Defense Forces found no drugs, but arrested 23 men, five women and a boy. The passengers were believed to be migrants from Haiti.
The head of an interagency drug task force based in the Bahamas called the mission a "great case" in an internal email obtained by The Times. The mission proved "what we all suspect to be the case with a piece of equipment that has such promising capabilities and potential," wroteU.S. Coast GuardCmdr. Louie C. Parks Jr.
But federal officials who received the laudatory message said it only underscored that such success stories have been extremely rare.
brian.bennett@latimes.com
Jesus, don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down???
I find it amazing that the government is paying cops to sit around all day and troll the internet pretending to be horny underage girls who want to have sex with older men.
Virginia man arrested in Arizona luring case
by Haley Madden - Jun. 22, 2012 09:49 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 New Breaking News Team
A 43-year-old Virginia man was booked in a Maricopa County jail Thursday on suspicion of engaging in an online relationship with who he believed was a 14-year-old girl, police said Friday.
Beginning in August 2011, Phoenix police detectives from the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted an investigation that led them to Daniel Courtney of Chantilly, Va., said Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.
During the investigation, Courtney began an online relationship with a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force who was posing as a 14-year-old girl in Phoenix, Thompson said.
He sent her explicit, sexual language, exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, police said.
Detectives traveled to Virginia to interview Courtney where he admitted to engaging in those activities, police said.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office worked to have Courtney arrested in Virginia, and he was extradited to Phoenix with the help of U.S. Marshal Service, Thompson said.
Courtney was charged with numerous counts of luring and aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation, which are Class 2 felonies, and dangerous crimes against children, according to police.
Check out these previous
articles
on the police.
More
articles
on the police.
Bullied teen who carried stun gun expelled
I wonder if these government nannies ever have time to educate the children in their schools. And I guess they have also declared the 2nd Amendment null and void in their government schools!
Was stealth bomb "CIA propaganda"???
I wonder if this is just a bunch of made up propaganda to justify the Homeland Security in an attempt to scare the krap out of Americans who fly. I am sure if the cops had arrested anyone they would be parading him or her in front of the media bragging how smart and effective the Homeland Security cops are.
Dialing 911 won't protect you from criminals
This is a perfect example of how the police are powerless to protect us from dangerous criminals. And of course if the government takes our guns away from us we will also be powerless to protect ourselves from the same dangerous criminals.
Cops are given free access to your voter registration information
Law enforcement can also access [all your voter information and data].
You are accountable for your actions, prosecutors aren't???
The government expects YOU to be accountable for your actions. But prosecutors don't want to be held accountable for their actions!!!
15 years in prison for looking at dirty pictures
Wow! 15 years in prison for the victimless crime of looking at dirty pictures! Who says we don't live in a religious theocracy!!!
Fullerton pigs blame paramedics for beating death
Fullerton pigs blame paramedics for death of homeless man they beat up. Yea, we beat the living sh*t out of that homeless *sshole and then those incompetent paramedics let him die!
Bill electric bill? So that's what the cops busted into your home looking for marijuana plants?
If your electric bill is a little too high, the piggies may bust your doors down looking for marijuana!!!
Law making it illegal to video tape cops unconstitutiona
Source
TSA thugs search plane and passengers after it lands
I guess your 4th and 5th Amendment rights on airplanes are null and void!!!
CIA was involved in bomb plot it just busted up!!!!
So the American government was involved in the new stealth bomb plot which it bragged about busting up:
Cops make big bucks in bribes by sending cars to the Mejia brothers.
Officers who summon a tow truck to accident scenes
are required to use so-called medallion tow trucks authorized by the city;
instead, they would call the Mejia brothers
Idaho sheriff candidate hosts cross burning
Honest, I'm not a racist.
That burning cross is a religious thing.
Honest!
Feds to sue Sheriff Joe???
Don't hold your breath waiting for the Feds to punish Sheriff Joe, it ain't going on.
Sheriff Joe continues to shovel the BS
And Sheriff Joe continues to shovel the BS!!!
Tempe Councilman Mark Mitchell a rapist???
Tempe Councilman Mark Mitchell a child abuser and rapist???
TSA pulls dangerous 18-month-old baby from flight
Those dangerous 18 month old terrorists often hide AK-47s in the baby bottles.
Pilot arrested for violating Emperor Obama's air space????
The Constitution says America shall not have any royalty, but the way Emperor Obama is treat it sounds like that part of the Constitution has been flushed down the toilet.
Pilot who violated Emperor Obama's airspace arrested, sources say
Source
LA cops gets 27 years for murder
This is kind of unusual because cops rarely ever get arrested for crimes they commit.
US drone strike in Yemen murders 7
Source
NATO summit turns Chicago into a police state???
NATO summit turns Chicago into a police state???
Jan Brewer is a sadist who doesn't pardon anyone????
Jan Brewer is a sadistic government tyrant that gets her jollies punishing alleged criminals???
Claim is filed over deadly Scottsdale police shooting
Source
Death row prisoner not given a fair hearing???
Judges will rubber stamp any police request for a search warrant???
In this Phoenix New Times article titled
"Why Authorities Could've Prevented J.T. Ready's Murder Spree"
it sounds like judges will rubber stamp any police request for a search warrant.
"In his 20 years of law enforcement [with the Mesa Police Department], [Matson] Browning says, he never has had a judge turn down a request for a search warrant"
Jesus, you figure over 20 years at least one cop would have asked for an invalid search warrant!!!
Drug war brings us 49 headless bodies!!!!!
I thought our government masters said their "drug war" was going to
make the world a better place to live? I guess they were wrong on that!
15 chopped up bodies found in Lake Chapala
Next time a politician tells you how the drug war is making the world a better place to live remember this.
Clemency hearing biased, but guy will still be executed!!!!
Judge says clemency hearing was biased, but they are still going to execute the poor slob!
Wrong man was executed in Texas, probe says
Will the cops and prosecutors that caused this innocent man to be murdered be punished?
Retired supervisors describe violence by jail deputies
Source
Police Officer - Don't blame me for the rape, I was too stoned to be responsible!!!!
Cop - don't blame me for that rape, I was too stoned to be responsible for it!
DNA free man who spent 20 years in prison for rape!
DNA free man who spent 20 years in prison for rape!
Cook County pays half million to get out of police torture lawsuit
Cook County pays half million to get out of police torture lawsuit
Tempe City Councilman Mark Mitchell takes the 5th!!!!
Tempe City Councilman Mark Mitchell takes the 5th!!!!
DC man framed for murder released after 28 years in prison
Source
Retired LAPD homicide detective charged with killing his wife
Source
NYPD sued over stop and frisk program
NYPD is above the law!!! But hey, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defends the police state saying it prevents crime. I am sure Hitler would have said the same thing about his little program that arrested Jews!
With cops like these, who needs criminals????
7 deputies from L.A. County sheriff's gang unit placed on leave
Source
Seven deputies from the Los Angeles County sheriff's gang unit have been placed on leave on suspicion that they belong to a secret clique that celebrates shootings and brands its members with matching tattoos, sources confirmed.
'Forensic findings' lead to new suspect in 1994 killing
Another man spends 20 years in prison after being framed by Chicago cops!
More on those DEA thugs in Honduras
More on those DEA thugs in Honduras
Federal judge: Terror law violates 1st Amendment
I believe that this new law mentioned in this article is the
National Defense Authorization Act which
was signed into law in December,
allowing for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism.
19 years later, 'strong proof' of innocence
Source
Phoenix cops abuse Mexicans??? Probably!!!!
Source
Silly law makes drug tunnels illegal
This law ain't going to do jack shit to stop drug smuggling. But I suspect the government idiots that passed it will pat themselves on the back and praise themselves for attempting to stop the drug smugglers with this useless law.
Cops spend millions hunting guy that mails "nontoxic white powder"
Cops spend millions hunting guy that mails "nontoxic white powder"
Piggies collect overtime while sleeping on the job
Piggies pile up the overtime. Some sleep on the job while making $150,000 or more.
Congressman Ben Quayle is a drug war terrorist
Congressman Ben Quayle is a drug war terrorist
Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., said he pushed to have the field hearing in Phoenix because much of the marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine smuggled across the border ends up in Phoenix drophouses before being distributed nationwide.
Mandatory sentence: 20 years for warning shot
Politicians love to lie and say they are "public servants", when in fact they are "royal rulers".
From this law it seems like the elected officials in Florida are at war with the citizens they pretend to serve.
Messy yard cops tear down man's home!!!
Messy yard cops tear down man's home!!!
The police know everything you do on your cell phone!!!
Remember every phone number you dial and every key you touch on both your cell phone and land line phone the cops can find out about it. The police usually can get that info without court orders. Often crooked telephone companies will give crooked cops your data a court order is required. And many locations don't require a court order for the police to get this info.
TSA thugs arrest pilot with gun
If you ask me the best way to stop plane hijackings is to allow the pilots and passengers to carry guns.
A welfare program for cops??? Free guns and weapons.
It also sounds like the government is at war with it's citizens. Do the police really need all these guns and military equipment to protect themselves and our government rulers from us serfs???
Cops constantly monitor the internet looking for victimless crimes.
I wonder. Do the cops read the classified ads in the printed newspapers looking for criminals???
House subcommittee looks into Homeland Security corruption
House subcommittee looks into Homeland Security corruption
Supreme Court to consider case on secret international wiretapping
Source
2,000 people framed by the police have been exonerated
2,000 people framed by the police have been exonerated in the last 23 years
NYPD pigs accuse ‘I ♥ NY’ artist of being a mad bomber!!!!
Don't these pigs have any REAL criminals to hunt down????
An artist who installed illuminated plastic shopping bags emblazoned with the "I ♥ NY" logo on lampposts in Brooklyn was arrested over the weekend, charged with "planting false bombs" and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.
White House staff meetings decide who to murder with drone strikes
White House bureaucrats have meetings to decide which Arabs to murder with drone strikes.
Fighter jets scrambled to intercept U.S.-bound flight
My questions is what were the jets that intercepted the flight going to do?
Shoot it down and kill all 188 people on board because some nut job made a bomb threat????
Arizona doesn't want the public to know how it murders prison inmates???
From this article it sure sounds like our government rulers
in Arizona don't want the public to know the details of how
our royal government masters go about murdering prison inmates.
Family of inmate in prison assault seeks damages
Don't count on the government to protect your rights if you are in prison.
Obama birth certificate is a great excuse for cops to take a Hawaii vacation
Sheriff Joe is sending man to Hawaii to check out President Obama's birth certificate!
"War on terrorism" is just a lame excuse to expand the "war on drugs"????
The "war on terrorism" is just a lame excuse to expand the "war on drugs"????
"U.S. Department of Homeland Security Gang Investigations Group"
I can't see any reason on earth that Homeland Security which to pretends to protect us from foreign Muslim and Arab terrorists should be investigating local teenage gang bangers in Latino barrio in downtown Chandler. Well other then that the "war on terrorism" is really an extension of the "drug war"!!!
Pig breaks into neighbors home to save expenses on electric bill
Source
Don't these pigs have any REAL criminals to arrest???
Source
Death penalty - a jobs program for lawyers????
One thing people that support and are against the death penalty both seem to agree on is that the death penalty is super expensive. I like to call the death penalty a jobs program for lawyers, because lawyers are paid most of the tax dollars that are spent on the death penalty.
Chief uses 10 cops for son's iPhone search
Source
Another anti-marijuana drug article short on facts and full of baseless accusations
Another anti-marijuana drug article short on facts and full of baseless accusations!
Half of Arizona’s voters (49.9 percent) voted against “medical” marijuana, many suspecting it was just a scam to legalize pot. They’ve since been proved right. But what most opponents don’t know is that our elected officials could and should stop this law today. Prop 203 authorizes violations of federal law, and states can’t do that, not even by voter initiative. [Not really, many legal scholars say that ALL the Federal drug laws are unconstitutional per the 10th Amendment!]
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg - rules are for the serfs I rule over, not me????
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg - rules are for the serfs I rule over, not me????
Police Chief of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora murdered
San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora is the Mexican border town across the river from Yuma, Arizona.
It took 35 years to get Maricopa County jail to house prisoners in a legal, constitutional way??
Lets face it government doesn't work at all. Our government masters routinely disobey the laws they order us to obey.
Don't expect cops to snitch on fellow cops who commit crimes
Don't expect cops to snitch on fellow cops when they commit crimes.
It's often called the "Blue Wall of Silence".
Another man framed for a rape he didn't commit
This case is also a good example of why plea bargains are bad. This guy plead guilty to a rape he didn't commit in a plea bargain where he got 5 years rather then going to trial and risking getting 40 years in prison.
Another false confession???
NY Times is skeptical about the confession to the murder of Etan Patz
Another false confession???
N.J. official: NYPD Muslim surveillance legal
Source
Mexico's 2 major crime cartels are now at war
Legalized drugs and these murders and violence will end the next day!!!
Mississippi school district agrees not to handcuff students
Is this the Mississippi public school system or the Mississippi public prison system?
Either way I guess they have much more important things to do then educate the little children.
"My ID's my gun, (expletive deleted) ... I'll shoot you" - Sgt. Mike Duke, Mesa Police
Mesa Police Officer Sgt. Mike Duke response to being asked to identify himself:
Veteran Mesa cop at center of ‘excessive force’ investigation
Source
Veteran Mesa cop at center of ‘excessive force’ investigation
Lawsuit to stop Phoenix welfare program for police officers and police unions.
Goldwater Institute tries to stop Phoenix welfare program for police officers and police unions.
How do you spell revenue??? DUI checkpoints!!!!
Last year 600 people were busted for DUI on Memorial Day, that's a minimum of $600,000 in revenue since DUI fines start at about $1,000 for the lowest form of DUI. I think the minimum fine has risen to around $1,500.
3 years in prison for emailing a dirty picture????
Don't our government masters have any real criminals to put in jail??? This poor slob will be spending 3 years in prison for the victimless crime of sending a nude photo to a woman via email.
A jobs program for overpaid, under worked Scottsdale police officers???
Think of it as a jobs program for overpaid and under worked cops.
Phoenix: 4.5 Scottsdale: 4.3 Tempe: 4.1 Glendale: 3.9 Mesa: 3.8 Chandler: 2.9 Peoria: 2.9 Gilbert: 2.6
Feds give Sheriff Babeu a slap on the wrist for DRMO fraud
Feds give Sheriff Paul Babeu a slap on the wrist for violating the terms of their DRMO program. Of course if us normal folks did that we would go to prison for fraud and theft.
Keywords Homeland Security looks for when they read your email
Keywords Homeland Security searches for when they spy on your web use,
read your email, and do the other things government tyrants do to terrorize
the serfs they rule over.
homelandsecuritykeywords.html
Only criminals have soda's larger then 16 ounces!!!!
Only criminals have soda's larger then 16 ounces!!!!
Column: Domestic use of drones? Bad idea
I don't have a problem with civilian drones, but we don't need government nannies spying on us 24/7 with drones.
State public safety officer charged with stealing gasoline
LA piggy steals government gas for his personal car!
Charges dropped against judicial candidate charged with stealing campaign signs
It's interesting how when politicians are caught red handed
stealing their opponents campaign signs the charges are routinely
dropped! Wonder why????
Carl Boyd hugged and shook hands with about a dozen supporters who filled two rows of a Cook County courtroom on Chicago’s Far South Side after his opponent, Chester Slaughter, decided not to pursue the criminal complaint during a five-minute hearing before Judge Marvin Luckman.
Guatemalan President thinks the drug war is a dismal failure!!!
Otto Pérez Molina the president of Guatemala thinks the drug war is a dismal failure!!!
Full speed ahead with the insane drug war in Honduras
The insane and unconstitutional "drug war" is nothing more then a jobs program for overpaid government bureaucrats, cops and generals. Sadly it looks like it is moving full speed ahead according to this article.
Man gets littering ticket for giving money to homeless man
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down???
Lot's of preventable deaths in Arizona prison system
I don't believe in prison, but if the government is going to have them they should at least treat people humanely and give them any medical treatment they need. But sadly a large number of the pigs that run the prisons are sadists who get their jollies from torturing and even killing the inmates.
Arizona prisons can be deadly for sick
Think of it as a job perk that allows sadistic guards and prison administrators to torture and kill prison inmates. For the rest of us it's nothing short of state sanctioned murder.
How do cops deal with mentally ill people? Kill them!!!!
"Bipolar disorder" is the new politically correct term for "maniac depressive"
Arizona's prisons deadlier than most
If we are going to have prisons the inmates shouldn't have to worry about being murders by other inmates!!!
Pregnant woman Tasered by Chicago police during parking dispute
Source
Police
Was a toy guy? Or maybe a wallet? Or maybe the child was the wrong race, and the piggy was terrified for his life and had to shoot the child.
shoot murder boy, 14, in South San Francisco
S San Francisco piggies murder boy
Source
Drugs don't cause crime, the laws making drugs illegal cause crime!!!
Illegal drugs don't cause crime. It's the laws making drugs illegal that cause crime. Libertarians have said that for years and this study seems to prove the Libertarians are right.
F*ck those public record laws, I'm the President!!
Source
What is executive privilege?
Ain't no "executive privilege in the Constitution!!!
Judge bars Phoenix police from paying for work for union
Goldwater Institute shuts down Phoenix government welfare program for cops.
Fullerton city council recalled over Kelly Thomas murder
Source
Fullerton citizens boot pig loving city council members
Source
Legal claim accuses Arizona AG Tom Horne of cover-up
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" line from our government masters???
More then half of all union members are government employees??
According to this editorial more then half of all union members are
"public employees" which I think means government employees.
"More than half of all union members nationally are public employees".
I wonder what percent of those employees are cops?
I suspect a very large percent.
Jim Keppel, a division chief left AG's office because of Horne inquiry
Source
San Jose to pay $225,000 over public drunkenness arrests
I suspect the cops love to arrest people for the victimless crime of being drunk, first because they are easy arrests to make and second because they raise revenue for the city.
NYPD fires Hasidic Jew over beard length
Source
Where the Mahon brothers entrapped by the government???
First of all I don't advocate murdering government employees for the fun of it, nor am I a racist that advocates murdering people with dark skin.
Drones are unlawful and dangerous
Source
ACLU threatens lawsuit against Pinal County Jail
Looks like Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is following in the footsteps of his hero Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Source
Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate
Government hasn't change much since the corrupt Nixon White House days.
Source
U.S. reveals accusations against Secret Service
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our royal government masters.
Drug war is a jobs program for cops
I frequently says the the drug war is a jobs program for cops. This seems to confirm that:
Chicago Police Department statistics indicate that last year there were 18,298 arrests for possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis, according to the mayor's office. Each case involves approximately four officers — two arresting and two transporting officers — and places an additional burden on the Cook County court and jail system.
Last but not least Mayor Emanuel seems to want to decriminalize
marijuana for the wrong reason - to raise revenue, not because
the laws are unfair, unjust and unconstitutional.
Steve Twist - Still a police state fan!!!!
Source
Prisons are an easy target for the media. The case in point is the recent series of articles in The Arizona Republic about inmate deaths in the state prison system.
Big Brother Uncle Sam is tracking your cold medicine purchases
The drug war is also a jobs program for government bureaucrats in addition to being a jobs program for cops, prosecutors, judges and prison guards.
Drugs & Porn, easy tools to destroy the lives our your enemies
One evil side of the drug war is that it is an easy way to screw people you dislike. All you have to do is plant a little dope in an enemies car and you can send them off to prison for life.
Hollywood writers bend over to help tyrants
Journalists can and do help government tyrants with their propaganda.
Phoenix Police Officers gets 1 day of probation for beating up prisoner
Phoenix cop gets a slap on the wrist for beating up a prisoner. 24 hours probation!!! Now that will certainly send a message to other cops that they will be severely punished for beating up prisoners. Yea, sure!
Purcell: Time to police the government
Source
Prosecutors jail their mistakes for life!!!!!
Prosecutors like to bury their mistakes - or put them in prison for life!!!
U.S. Security Has Beachhead at Foreign Airports
Think of it as a jobs program for overpaid, under worked American cops in the Federal government. And nice cushy jobs in cool foreign countries.
Method to Track Firearm Use Is Stalled by Foes
Source
Locked up for gun crimes but innocent?
We are told that the cops and government protect us from dangerous criminals. But this sounds more like a jobs program for cops.
Phoenix "Internet Thought Police" bust old man in Casa Grande for looking at dirty pictures
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down????
Judge defrauds old folks out of thousands of dollars?
Source
xxx
Source
Phoenix prison worker charged with sex assault on inmates
Source
Cops who are sexual predators get a slap on the wrist???
A double standard for sexual predators that are cops? Damn right!!!
Ex-cop says he has no memory of rape
Hmmm ... This piggie says it was OK to rape a woman because he was high on drugs!!!!
Phoenix City Council Members - F*ck the law we are royal rulers
F*ck the law, we are royal government rulers and can do anything we want!!!
US to use drones in Caribbean "drug war"
US to use drones in Caribbean "drug war"
Phoenix cops troll internet pretending to be horny 14 year old girls
Phoenix cops pretending to be a hot 14 year old who likes to have sex with older men arrested a man from Virginia after he took up their offer to have sex with the imaginary 14 year old girl.