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TX Police suspend 12 more officers in mass-arrest
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Police suspend 12 more officers in mass-arrest scandal
HOUSTON - Twelve more police supervisors have been suspended in connection with the department's handling of a trespassing raid that has prompted accusations of coercion against the captain who led the roundup and a $100 million lawsuit against the city.
Nine sergeants, two lieutenants and a captain were suspended with pay on Monday.
Last weekend, a Houston Police Department captain who ordered the arrests of 278 people at a Kmart parking lot in west Houston was suspended Saturday pending an internal affairs inquiry into the controversial bust.
Capt. Mark Aguirre, a 23-year veteran of the department and the force's highest-ranking Hispanic officer, was relieved of his duties after meeting with internal affairs officers, Aguirre's lawyer, Terry Yates, said earlier.
Police cited an investigation by HPD's internal affairs division in declining to comment on the latest suspensions.
But they confirmed that criminal allegations led to Saturday's suspension of Aguirre. Spokesmen for the department said Aguirre was suspended because of allegations that he tried to influence other officers' statements to investigators about the incident.
Many of those arrested said they were customers swept up in the raids and that police ignored evidence that they had done nothing wrong.
One of those arrested, Justin Esparza, filed a $100 million lawsuit in U.S. district court on Monday alleging that Aguirre and the city of Houston falsely arrested him for "attempted trespass."
Aguirre ordered the arrests Aug. 17 of hundreds of people gathered peacefully at a 24-hour Kmart Super Center parking lot on Westheimer or eating at the Sonic Drive-in next door. Most of those arrested were charged with trespassing.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/3947452.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
HOUSTON - Twelve more police supervisors have been suspended in connection with the department's handling of a trespassing raid that has prompted accusations of coercion against the captain who led the roundup and a $100 million lawsuit against the city.
Nine sergeants, two lieutenants and a captain were suspended with pay on Monday.
Last weekend, a Houston Police Department captain who ordered the arrests of 278 people at a Kmart parking lot in west Houston was suspended Saturday pending an internal affairs inquiry into the controversial bust.
Capt. Mark Aguirre, a 23-year veteran of the department and the force's highest-ranking Hispanic officer, was relieved of his duties after meeting with internal affairs officers, Aguirre's lawyer, Terry Yates, said earlier.
Police cited an investigation by HPD's internal affairs division in declining to comment on the latest suspensions.
But they confirmed that criminal allegations led to Saturday's suspension of Aguirre. Spokesmen for the department said Aguirre was suspended because of allegations that he tried to influence other officers' statements to investigators about the incident.
Many of those arrested said they were customers swept up in the raids and that police ignored evidence that they had done nothing wrong.
One of those arrested, Justin Esparza, filed a $100 million lawsuit in U.S. district court on Monday alleging that Aguirre and the city of Houston falsely arrested him for "attempted trespass."
Aguirre ordered the arrests Aug. 17 of hundreds of people gathered peacefully at a 24-hour Kmart Super Center parking lot on Westheimer or eating at the Sonic Drive-in next door. Most of those arrested were charged with trespassing.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/3947452.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
Comments
The Associated Press
8/26/02 10:36 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Nassau County authorities arrested a New York City police officer and another man on Monday in connection to the alleged sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman in the backyard of the officer's Long Island home.
Officer James Leghart, 32, of Levittown and John Vallone, 32, of Seaford, have been charged with first-degree sodomy, said Officer Robert Jones of the Nassau County Police Department. They were to be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Tuesday.
Jones said the incident took place around 3 a.m. Monday, when the woman was taken to Leghart's home by a male friend who knew the officer after she had a fight with her boyfriend.
Jones said that after dropping the woman off, the driver left to get gas. Vallone allegedly asked the woman for sexual favors, and Leghart allegedly exposed himself and attempted to force her to perform oral sex, Jones said.
The woman, who did not know either man, became distraught and one of the men called her friend, Jones said. The friend then picked the woman up and drove her to a gas station, where she phoned police.
She was taken to an area hospital to be examined.
Detective Louis Camacho, a spokesman for the NYPD, said Leghart had been suspended, but would not comment further.
A woman who answered the phone at Vallone's home hung up without commenting. Leghart could not be reached for comment.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?j0215_BC_NY--Officer-Sodomy&&news&newsflash-newjersey
"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
If I'm wrong please correct me, I won't be offended.
The sound of a 12 gauge pump clears a house fatser than Rosie O eats a Big Mac !
We recently saw a case where a POLICE OFFICER shot at a house with a MACHINE GUN and got probabtion.
Don't you just love the "justice" system?
\Man gets 15 years for shooting at house
HOMER: John Powell was angry at snowmachiners crossing his property.
By Tom Kizzia
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: August 27, 2002)
A backwoods loner who said he shot at his neighbors outside Homer because he was mad about snowmachiners crossing his property was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for assault.
John Powell, known to his neighbors in the Ohlson Mountain area as "Walking John" or "Dark Star," was sentenced to 20 years in prison with five years suspended as part of a plea agreement. He pleaded no contest to three counts of third-degree assault and one count of misconduct involving a weapon for firing into an occupied dwelling one night in April 2001.
Powell was a familiar, glowering figure as he walked the roads in the hills behind Homer with his big beard, matted hair and black Labrador at his side. He read a long statement at his sentencing in Kenai complaining about snowmachines crossing his land and damaging the environment, said assistant district attorney John Wolfe.
He told the court he fired into the house of two young neighbors because he heard them making rooster noises and thought the sounds were directed at him, Wolfe said.
His neighbors said they were terrified as bullets flew into their cabin one night. Powell also fired at a passing snowmachiner.
No one was injured in the incident, which ended when a state trooper persuaded Powell to surrender his gun. The victims, who fled into the moonlit night, had to be tracked down by trooper helicopter.
Reporter Tom Kizzia can be reached at tkizzia@adn.com or in Homer at 235-4244.
http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/1672789p-1789733c.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