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Police officer shot man 'by mistake'
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Police officer shot man 'by mistake'
A police officer in Minnesota who thought he was using a stun gun to subdue a suspect mistakenly fired a bullet into the man's back, investigators say.
The victim, Christofar Atak, is said to be in a 'fair condition' after the incident.
Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson said investigation into the September 2 shooting found that Greg Siem thought he was holding a stun gun.
The stun guns used by the police force are said to look like handguns. They use an electric shock to temporarily incapacitate a person.
Atak, a refugee from civil war in Sudan, was drunk and acting violently at the time, police said.
"This family moved to get away from violence and they find themselves right back in it," said Atak's lawyer, William L French.
The police chief said he spoke with Atak to apologise and explain the findings of the investigation.
He added Siem and a second officer, who had both been on leave since the shooting, can return to work.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_670451.html?menu=news.quirkies
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
A police officer in Minnesota who thought he was using a stun gun to subdue a suspect mistakenly fired a bullet into the man's back, investigators say.
The victim, Christofar Atak, is said to be in a 'fair condition' after the incident.
Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson said investigation into the September 2 shooting found that Greg Siem thought he was holding a stun gun.
The stun guns used by the police force are said to look like handguns. They use an electric shock to temporarily incapacitate a person.
Atak, a refugee from civil war in Sudan, was drunk and acting violently at the time, police said.
"This family moved to get away from violence and they find themselves right back in it," said Atak's lawyer, William L French.
The police chief said he spoke with Atak to apologise and explain the findings of the investigation.
He added Siem and a second officer, who had both been on leave since the shooting, can return to work.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_670451.html?menu=news.quirkies
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
News-Journal wire services
MIAMI -- A retired Hialeah police officer was sentenced Thursday to more than 26 years in prison for setting up three robberies, one of them drug related, and beating hostages with a fellow officer.
Orestes DeSoto, 46, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release on eight counts of federal robbery, narcotics and firearms charges.
Suspended officer Cecilio Nunez, 39, was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison and supervised release on Wednesday on five similar federal charges.
A federal judge ordered Nunez to pay $22,169.93 in restitution, U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jimenez said.
The two were arrested in October for the robberies, which were committed in little more than a month in early 2000.
The investigation, nicknamed "Bad Apple," was organized by a task force of federal and state agents targeting corrupt officers. Hialeah police cooperated with the investigation.
In the most extreme case, a restaurant manager was abducted, beaten, robbed and threatened with a gun by DeSoto, who thought the man doubled as a cocaine dealer.
Investigators said the victim was stopped in a marked police car and handcuffed before a hood was placed over his head.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/2002/Sep/13/STAT6.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Man police shot is acquitted
By Associated Press
September 13, 2002
AURORA - A 50-year-old Aurora man who was shot by police and seriously injured has been cleared of a charge that he aimed his handgun at officers before the shooting.
An Arapahoe County jury on Wednesday acquitted Jerry Norris of felony menacing, finding that Norris could not have pointed his gun at one of two Aurora policemen on July 26, 2001.
Now Norris, who has described his life since the shooting as "hell," may seek compensation from Aurora police Officers Andrew Crowley and Adolpho Ramirez, who shot Norris twice.
"I presume we'll be filing a suit against the city of Aurora and the officers involved," said Robert Dill, Norris' attorney.
Prosecutor Phil Smith declined to comment on the case.
The officers had responded to Norris' house on a 911 hang-up call but they had been mistakenly sent to his address because of a computer error in the police emergency system. Norris was inside watching television and practicing handgun maneuvers.
The gun Norris was practicing with when officers confronted him was empty.
Norris, a Vietnam veteran and firearms expert, testified on his own behalf that he was trying to put his semiautomatic handgun down and was turning away from the officers when Ramirez opened fire.
That account was supported by testimony from Russell Jaicks, the trauma surgeon who operated on Norris after he was wounded.
http://www2.dailycamera.com/bdc/state_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2419_1414209,00.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Pals seek leniency for Connolly
by J.M. Lawrence
Friday, September 13, 2002
Ex-FBI agent John Connolly Jr.'s attorneys begged a federal judge yesterday for a lenient sentence, delivering 200 letters from retired agents, priests, relatives and business associates vouching for his character.
The unprecedented outpouring of support for the convicted racketeer facing sentencing on Monday promotes a glowing portrait of a selfless crime fighter now persecuted by a Justice Department.
He donates platelets for cancer victims, mentors a boy in a wheelchair and once rescued a stranger from drowning, the writers told U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro.
In a motion made public yesterday, Connolly's attorneys asked Tauro to reconsider his ruling earlier this week signifying a plan to give the agent 8-10 years in prison for racketeering with James ``Whitey'' Bulger.
They cited Connolly's battle with skin cancer, two hip replacements and the possibility of lasting psychological damage to his three young sons - twins age 11 and a 12-year-old - as arguments for a lesser sentence.
The judge also got a letter yesterday from a retired Boston police sergeant whom Connolly denigrated in a 1997 phony letter he mailed on police stationery to a federal judge.
Jurors convicted Connolly of sending the letter on behalf of Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi.
Frank Dewan alleged other instances of Connolly slandering cops and asked Tauro to lock him up Monday.
``To protect his illegal relationship, he caused me a great deal of embarrassment and humiliation, as well as denigrating the men and women of the Boston Police Department,'' Dewan wrote.
Among the letter writers asking for leniency:
Several former FBI agents - Vincent delaMontaigne said Connolly has suffered enough for getting too close to his informants and called Connolly's crimes ``Felony Stupid.''
Connolly's former FBI supervisor, Dennis O'Callaghan, cited the bureau's many commendations for his service.
``If the government had lived up to their agreement with Bulger and Flemmi in 1995, John Connolly would not have reacted as he did,'' he wrote.
Family - ``At least once he dove into the water at Carson Beach to save a man, a stranger, from drowning,'' wrote cousin Paul M. Connolly.
And from an 11-year-old girl in Stoneham, ``Uncle John is a good person and only bad people should go to jail.''
Business and charity associates - the former director of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans; the program director of the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club; the head of the North End Athletic Association.
Clergy - ``My earliest impressions of John still hold true - he was and is a man who supports every good cause in the So. Boston community,'' wrote the Rev. Monsignor Thomas J. McDonnell of St. Augustine's.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/conn09132002.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By John Ellement, Globe Staff, 9/13/2002
he Boston Police Patrolmen's Assocation yesterday called for Commissioner Paul F. Evans to resign, saying his planned restrictions on the use of deadly force - outlined after the fourth fatal police shooting this year - are ''deadly and irresponsible'' and could lead to ''officers killed in the line of duty.''
In a statement posted on its Web site, the union said Evans is ''unfit to lead this department'' because he wants to ban officers from shooting at moving vehicles. Evans announced the changes on Monday, a day after an officer shooting at a fleeing car killed a 25-year-old Dorchester woman who was riding in the back seat.
Despite their turbulent, often bitter relationship, the statement is the first time the union has asked Evans to step down since he became commissioner in 1994. BPPA president Thomas Nee could not be reached for additional comment last night.
Meanwhile yesterday, City Councilman Chuck Turner and activist Sadiki Kambon called for a federal investigation into the shooting of Eveline Barros-Cepeda and the seven other victims who were fatally shot by on-duty officers in the last 22 months. And friends and relatives of Barros-Cepeda held a candlelight vigil in the Uphams Corner section of Dorchester, where the police pursuit in which she was killed began early Sunday morning.
Barros-Cepeda died when the driver, allegedly fleeing police, allegedly tried to run over Officer Michael Paillat, who attempted to stop the car on Dunkeld Street. His partner, Officer Thomas Taylor Jr., fired five shots at the car as it sped away, according to authorities.
Kambon and Turner said that Evans and Mayor Thomas M. Menino have repeatedly ignored calls to rewrite the deadly-force rules using input from city residents, and they have asked US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan to step in.
Turner said he wants Sullivan to review the department's rules, equipment, and training and then recommend needed changes. He also said Sullivan should consider bringing criminal civil rights violation charges against the officers involved in the recent spate of shootings.
Turner applauded Evans for trying to overhaul the deadly-force rules, but acknowledged that the union may be a stumbling block to getting it done quickly. But Menino, he added, needs to ''sit down with the leadership of the community to look at how we can work together to try to end this tragic situation.''
Kambon also blamed the mayor for a ''lack of leadership'' and said Evans should resign if he can't revamp the regulations. Eight fatal police shootings in 22 months, he added, puts Boston at ''the top of the heap'' among departments nationwide.
Carole Brennan, Menino's spokeswoman, said yesterday that the mayor supports Evans ''100 percent'' and added that Evans and Menino are getting input from the community.
Yesterday's statement marks a low point between the commissioner and the largest of the three unions in the department. Evans and the BPPA have repeatedly tangled over disciplinary matters and work rules at the bargaining table, before the state Labor Relations Commission, and in the courts.
Boston Police spokesman Mariellen Burns said Evans has no intention of resigning and brushed aside the BPPA's statement. ''We're not even going to dignify that with a comment,'' she said.
Still, the BPPA statement said the union will spend the next three days drawing up a plan to block Evans's proposal on deadly force. The BPPA also called on the detectives' union and the superior officers' union to stand ''shoulder to shoulder'' with them.
When asked whether his union will back the BPPA, Tommy Montgomery, president of the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, answered: ''Absolutely not.'' Though some detectives fear Evans's move will encourage the ''bad guys'' to use cars as weapons, Montgomery said his union will resolve the issue at the bargaining table.
A spokesman for the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A spokeswoman for Sullivan, Samantha Martin, said Sullivan would not comment.
http://boston.com/dailyglobe2/256/metro/Union_calls_for_Evans_to_step_down+.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Chief assembles crack legal team
By LISA TEACHEY
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
Excerpts from Aguirre's hearing
Three high-profile lawyers hired to defend suspended Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford against a perjury charge said Thursday the chief did not lie under oath and released copies of a hearing transcript used to indict him.
Bradford admitted profanity is used in official police meetings but waffled on whether he called an assistant chief a vulgarity, according to the transcript from a May grievance hearing for Capt. Mark Aguirre.
After an initial court appearance Thursday on the aggravated perjury charge, Bradford, flanked by his attorneys Robert C. Bennett, George McCall "Mac" Secrest and Rusty Hardin, repeated his assertion that he is innocent.
"As I've said before, I have not committed perjury," Bradford said. "And as this case unfolds, the evidence will indicate that I am innocent."
The three lawyers, considered among the top in Houston, said they took Bradford's case because they believed in him.
"When this is said and done, the jurors who hear this case will be saying, `Why are we here?' This case, in my personal opinion, is an abuse of the system," Bennett said. "This guy will be able to show convincingly that there was no deceit, no lying, no perjury, therefore no crime."
Hardin released the transcript from the hearing, where Aguirre appealed a reprimand for using profane and threatening language toward his subordinates at a supervisory meeting Aug. 21, 2001. Aguirre recently was suspended in an unrelated case for ordering the mass arrests of hundreds of people at a westside Kmart.
A Harris County grand jury used the transcript to indict Bradford Sept. 6 on a charge of aggravated perjury -- a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The case was referred to the grand jury without charges after Aguirre asked the Harris County District Attorney's Office to investigate.
Bradford is the first Houston police chief in modern times to be charged with a crime.
According to the transcript, Bradford said he "thinks" profanity is used in some official police meetings but it is not directed at individuals or groups.
Aguirre was reprimanded for calling supervisors in the South Central patrol division, which he oversees, "sons of bitches" and "lazy bastards."
When Bradford was asked during the grievance hearing if he ever called Assistant Chief Joe Breshears a "mother
," Bradford seemed to hesitate.
"I don't remember calling Joe that in any casual term much less in a mandatorily called meeting where I'm talking to supervisors or subordinates. No, I categorically deny having done that. Do not have any recollection of it. And would be thoroughly embarrassed. And if I did it, I would be wrong, and it's still not acceptable," Bradford said at the hearing, according to the transcript.
When Aguirre's lawyer, Terry Yates, asked if Bradford was sure he did not say that in a meeting, Bradford replied, "I'm denying it even casually, because I know Joe. I can't think of any reason why I would have to call him that unless somebody's taking some comical context statement out of context or something, you know."
The quotes are taken from pages 56 through 60 of the transcript, the same pages on which prosecutor Don Smyth said the grand jury based its indictment.
During the same grievance hearing, Breshears told Yates, "Chief of police did call me a mother
, yes."
Breshears said he testified to that during another hearing for another captain.
When pressed whether Bradford called the assistant chief "a stupid mother
," Breshears said, "I don't recall using that term or him using that term. I don't recall what I testified to at that hearing. I testified to the truth. If I said stupid mother
then, that's what it was."
Breshears later said he did not consider the remark "terribly profane" because he was not in a church nor were his wife and children present.
"The chief has never contended that he has not used profanity in the past just as I have and everybody else and every swinging one of y'all have," Hardin said. "That's not the issue. The issue is whether he said something that was untrue with the intent to deceive people. He's testified truthfully as he believed it was throughout any hearing. He'll do it through all of these proceedings."
Bradford would not say who was paying for his defense.
State Bar rules prohibit lawyers from discussing how much they charge clients unless the client agrees to disclose it.
"We're obviously going to be compensated, but it's going to be at a reduced rate," Hardin said. "We're in it because we believe in his case, and we want to try to help."
City Attorney Anthony Hall said the city is not paying for any part of Bradford's defense.
All three have handled many high-profile cases.
Hardin represented Arthur Andersen in its Enron-related obstruction of justice trial. The company was found guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced next month. In a Houston probate court, Hardin successfully represented E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Houston oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, in his bid to stop his father's widow, Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, from inheriting her late husband's estate.
Bennett and Secrest are known for their trial and appellate work on behalf of accused public officials and others including executed pickax murderer Karla Faye Tucker.
Chronicle reporter Kristen Mack contributed to this story.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1572959
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The Associated Press
9/13/02 10:01 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A police investigation found that a retired deputy chief helped launder money from his son's sprawling cocaine ring for several years, a newspaper reported Friday.
In a confidential report, police investigators said Deputy Chief Maurice Moore, who retired earlier this year, acted on behalf of his son, who ran the drug operation from federal prison, the Los Angeles Times said.
"His misconduct represents the worst in public corruption," said the report, obtained by the Times.
Moore, 67, denied any wrongdoing through his attorney.
Investigators said in the internal report that they based their findings on real estate and escrow documents, court bond papers, city financial disclosure forms, statements from FBI informants and interviews with people connected to the drug ring.
Interim Police Chief Martin Pomeroy has requested more analysis before deciding whether to uphold six internal allegations against Moore, a police spokesman said. The allegations include laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars and violating department rules against maintaining improper relationships with people involved in an ongoing criminal enterprise.
Some of the allegations, if true, would constitute crimes, but the statute of limitations for many has passed. The only practical effect of the department recommendations, if sustained by Pomeroy, would be a retroactive reprimand of the retired deputy chief.
Moore's alleged criminal misconduct came to investigators' attention in the mid-1990s, when federal agents were investigating his son, Kevin Moore. Despite serving a 13-year sentence for cocaine trafficking in federal prison, Kevin Moore continued running a major drug network, which later led to a conviction.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0555_BC_OfficerInvestigated&&news&newsflash-national
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
(Filed: 14/09/2002)
As many as 30 British policemen have been identified as users of internet child pornography sites in the American investigation which led to the arrest of the liaison officer assigned to the family of Jessica Chapman.
Many dozens of others in sensitive jobs with access to children, including teachers, social workers and lawyers, have also been identified. The number of police officers arrested, however, remains in single figures, as forces around the country continue to investigate them.
Many of the suspects in the other professions also remain under investigation, though some have been arrested. The cases of Det Con Brian Stevens, 41, - who read a tribute poem at a service held in memory of Jessica and her friend Holly Wells - and another Cambridgeshire officer, Pc Antony Goodridge, 34, who was arrested in the same inquiry, have drawn attention to Operation Ore.
Last night both men were charged with offences relating to indecent images of children.
Full details of the charges will be revealed when the two men appear before magistrates at Bury St Edmunds this morning. Both officers have been formally suspended from duty pending the outcome of the case.
Operation Ore is emerging as one of the largest internet child pornography investigations in British policing history.
Details, such as credit cards numbers, addresses or emails, of more than 7,000 people have been given to British police by US Postal Inspection, which investigated the US-based, subscription-only websites.
As many as 80,000 people worldwide visited the sites over several years. The names have been channelled by the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the National Crime Squad to forces around the country. In a first stage of Ore, 30 British police forces arrested 36 people in May. There have been further arrests since, including seven policemen, as individuals have been identified.
The involvement of policemen, in a personal capacity, in visiting or using child pornography sites is an embarrassment for chief officers. However, sources suggested that police and other professionals were likely to be among those identified in the early stages of work through the US list. Policemen, lawyers, teachers and social workers are more easily identified because their details are on data bases.
One source added: "There are between 25 and 30 police officers. That seems high. But as the number of individuals identified grows, the percentage of them accounted for by police will diminish."
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/09/14/nporn14.xmlc Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878