Metro Officer Arrested for Second Time In a Week

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Another reason why only "the Police" should be armed.
Metro Officer Arrested for Second Time Within a Week
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A Metro police officer facing criminal charges has been arrested for the second time in only a week.

26-year-old Damian Hunt was arrested this weekend for criminal contempt by authorities in Madison County. Police told News 2 Hunt violated a protection order taken out by his girlfriend.

Last week, Hunt was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping in connection with his girlfriend.

Hunt has been stripped of all police powers. A departmental investigation into the case continues.

http://wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=922883&nav=1ugBB4LY





"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

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State's tiara still up in the air
Miss N.C. title returns to Revels


By ANDREA WEIGL, Staff Writer

RALEIGH - A Wake Superior Court judge temporarily reinstated Rebekah Chantay Revels as Miss North Carolina on Thursday, adding another twist to the question of who will represent the Tar Heel state in the Miss America pageant.

Last month, Revels, 24, of St. Pauls, said she was forced to resign after topless pictures taken by a former fiance surfaced. Officials with the local and national pageants insisted Revels voluntarily resigned after being told her contract could be terminated if it was determined the photos were considered "dishonest, immoral or indecent" activity.

"I'm at a loss for words. I'm elated," Revels said after learning of the judge's decision from her lawyer, Barry Nakell of Chapel Hill. "I'm very happy, but I'm just going to watch to see what happens. I'm going to pray for the best and pray for Misty."

Misty Clymer of Raleigh, the first runner-up in the Miss North Carolina contest, assumed the title after Revels resigned.

But in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Wake Superior Court, Revels accused the state pageant of breaching her contract by terminating her without cause. She asked a judge to reinstate her title until a hearing can be held next week.

Judge Abraham P. Jones granted Revels' request and set a hearing for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Wake County Courthouse. Jones invited Clymer and Miss America Organization officials to offer testimony.

Time is of the essence for Revels because preliminary events for the Miss America Pageant begin Sept. 6 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Neither pageant officials nor their lawyer, James K. Pendergrass Jr., could be reached for comment.

On July 19, Revels' former fiance, Tosh Welch, contacted Miss America officials by e-mail about the photos. In the e-mail message submitted Thursday as part of the court record, Welch told officials to ask Revels whether she has ever lived with her boyfriend and about the existence of nude photographs.

"Would you want to be represented by someone with a past?" wrote Welch, now an officer with the Cherokee Police Department. "Nude pics of Miss America bring in big bucks nowadays."

After a board meeting, Miss America officials decided it was best if Revels didn't continue to represent North Carolina, said George Bauer, the interim president and chief executive officer.

In an affidavit submitted Thursday, Alan Clouse, director of the Miss North Carolina pageant, said the state pageant's board then met and decided the photos and Revels' failure to reveal their existence "did not uphold and maintain the dignity and honor of the title of Miss North Carolina."

Bauer said Revels' resignation July 23 was voluntary. State pageant officials did allow Revels to keep the $12,000 in scholarship money.

But Revels contends that Clouse told her to resign or her title would be terminated. She wanted to use her title to educate the public about her Native American ancestry, the Lumbee tribe in Robeson County, and Alzheimer's disease, which claimed her maternal grandfather's life in 1984.

Revels said Welch had once surprised her by taking pictures of her topless while she changed clothes. Revels said her former boyfriend had physically and emotionally abused her.

Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848 or aweigl@newsobserver.com.
http://www.news-observer.com/news/story/1685604p-1705723c.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

Josey1

Seeking justice after police abuse
By THOM MARSHALL
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
You have a right to complain and seek justice if you or your kids have been victims of police abuse.

Scott Henson sent me a new manual he wrote: Stand Up! What to do if you are a victim of police abuse in Texas. Ironically, it came in the mail the same day our Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford was getting grilled by City Council about that big Kmart parking lot raid.

That botched operation turned into one of HPD's biggest headaches in years. More than 70 police took more than 270 people into custody, and 69 vehicles were towed. Charges were trespassing, although many say they were customers of the discount store or the adjacent restaurant. People are filing complaints and lawsuits, and it may take years for all the dust to settle.

This case stands out because it involves such large numbers. How common are cases of questionable police action that maybe involve just one or two people and don't get any publicity?


Options aren't well known
Henson, director of the police accountability project for the Texas ACLU in Austin, quoted a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics survey in which 32 percent of the respondents said they believe police misconduct occurs in their communities. That is about one-third of us.

While I haven't met Henson, I'm aware that his interest in justice matters is a family tradition because I knew his grandfather up in the old hometown. Back about 1960, a couple of high school buddies and I got caught swimming at the lake where it wasn't allowed and we had to go before Judge Henson. He let us off with a lecture.

Grandson Henson is not a lawyer, and he said he didn't write the manual as legal advice. Nor did he write it "out of animosity toward the police. We do not wish to promote the notion that all police officers are prone to abuse. They are not."

But when incidents of police misconduct occur, Henson said victims "are often not aware of the various options they have."

Many of us might be tempted to simply put an unpleasant experience with police misconduct behind us. We might convince ourselves it would be too much trouble to complain about it and wouldn't do any good anyway.

Henson said it is our duty to complain so that we may "prevent future abuses from occurring. If that officer treated you poorly, then he or she will likely treat others the same way."

He offers tips on how to gather information and evidence before filing a complaint, and he has advice about meeting with police: "Never consent to an interview alone, but take someone with you whom you trust, a friend or preferably a lawyer, to keep you from getting pushed around."

Filing the complaint isn't the end of it. Next thing you'll want to do, Henson said, is research the officer's background. If you discover a history of problems, "it can help you argue for significant action on your complaint."

One of my favorite parts of Henson's manual is where he said that attorneys may be giving bad advice when they tell clients not to talk to reporters.

He said that because police departments employ full-time PR people to deal with reporters when a story breaks, "the public quickly receives a very one-sided version of what happened unless the victims of police misconduct choose to speak out. That version typically blames the victim, not the officer, for any wrongdoing. Misconduct cases are inherently political, and their outcomes are not decided on the facts but on everything but the facts."

(The 32-page manual is available for $6.95 from Texas Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 1506 S. First St., Austin, Texas 78704.)


Complaints are a right, duty
So, what if you are convinced an officer committed a crime, and you have witnesses and evidence, but a police internal affairs investigation resulted in no action, and your pursuit of justice led to dead ends with the DA and feds?

Henson said you may decide to send your case "directly to the grand jury," which "can choose to investigate what it wants and can call witnesses or hear testimony on your case if the foreman and other jurors agree."

Yet another avenue to consider, Henson said, "is to file a claim against the officer and/or the department in small claims court," where you may recover up to $5,000 plus costs. "You will have to document actual damages, whether physical, emotional, financial, or by virtue of having had your constitutional rights violated."

You have a right to complain if you or your kids have been victims of police abuse. You also have a duty.

Thom Marshall's e-mail address is thom.marshall@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/marshall/1559928



"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

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Former policeman nabbed in drug sting gets almost six years in prison





SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A former Central Texas police officer caught in a drug sting has been sentenced to almost six years in prison for agreeing to protect cocaine shipments.

David Anthony Morales, who tried to commit suicide last month, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado on Wednesday to five years, 10 months in prison.

"I'm very sorry for what occurred," the 40-year-old said in a weak voice. "I did lose a lot."

Morales, 40, was one of 10 law-enforcement officers duped by undercover agents who posed as drug dealers intent on hiring badge-wearing bodyguards for drug transactions. Indicted last year, Morales quickly pleaded guilty.

Morales stood out as perhaps the most brazen of the rogue officers. Only he showed up to deliver drugs while in uniform and on duty. Agents once filmed him putting into his squad car a briefcase of what he believed was 22 pounds of cocaine.

Agents also recorded him talking about how he would be willing to stand guard outside a drug stash house - as long as he had an appropriate automatic rifle.

Morales' lawyer, Van Hilley, said his client has lost everything - his job, his reputation and his wife, also a police officer.

"Unlike Job, who had Satan to blame for his troubles, David Morales has nobody to blame except the guy he sees in the mirror every morning," Hilley told the San Antonio Express-News for its Thursday editions.

In a suicide note that Morales scrawled after swallowing all his prescription medication on Aug. 12, he said: "When you send me to jail, I am asking for life because I have nothing here in society."

In the next paragraph, Morales turned his bitterness on the undercover agents.

"I am not sorry for what occurred, because what the FBI (did) was wrong in violating my constitutional rights," he wrote.

Morales will remain in a psychiatric facility for evaluation until he can be assigned to a federal penitentiary, the judge said.

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/090502/upd_075-3872.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