A pair of former New Orleans Police narcotics detectives each were sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to working side jobs while on the clock for the city and taking cash that was supposed to go to drug informants, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr. announced Thursday (July 17).

Rafael Dobard, 39, and Quincy Jones, 33, also will have to repay $18,484 and $19,064 to the city, U.S. District Court Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown ordered.

The two detectives in February pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges, admitting they took money set aside for informants for themselves and other officers in their unit. They also admitted submitting timesheets that falsely showed they had been working for the NOPD during hours when they actually working security at New Orleans housing projects.

"The U.S. Attorney's Office is committed to ensuring that no one is above the law," Polite said in a press release. "These officers, both of whom swore to uphold and enforce our laws, instead broke the law by stealing public funds."

Two FDNY EMTs say they had to bodily intervene to stop four cops from hitting a handcuffed patient, documents obtained by the Daily News show. The violence broke out when the patient spit at the Emergency Service Unit officers and swore at them.

The emotionally disturbed patient was punched multiple times in the face by the cops on July 20, according to FDNY documents obtained by The News. The cops only stopped when the EMTs bodily intervened, the report said.

The violence broke out when the patient spit at the Emergency Service Unit officers and swore at them. The officers responded by hitting him in the face, hauling him off the stretcher to the ground and then tossing him back on the stretcher, the EMTs said in written statements submitted to the FDNY.

The two FDNY emergency medical technicians were called to Brooklyn's 67th Precinct stationhouse between Rogers and Nostrand Aves. in East Flatbush around 7:30 p.m. to bring the patient to a nearby hospital.

ESU arrived to restrain the man for transport. He was combative and banging his head against the wall, reports said.

"Pt. came out of the cell in cuffs. Pt. became combative with PD and (was) put on our stretcher," wrote one EMT in the Unusual Occurrence Report filed with FDNY brass.

"Pt. was struck in the face by an officer ... pt. spit in the face of an officer, whereupon the officer punched the pt. in the face multiple times," the report said.

When the patient spit at the cop again, more cops started beating him, the EMT said.

"Three cops began to punch the patient in the face, EMS (had) to get in the middle of it to intervene. Pt's. wounds and injuries cleaned in the (ambulance)," the report said.
The account was backed up by the second EMT, who noted that the patient was brought out by ESU in "handcuffs and foot shackles."

After the first round of punches, the patient was "taken off the stretcher to the ground and restrained again, pt. was thrown by ESU again on to my stretcher," the EMT wrote. "Pt. sustained injuries to face and head," the report said.

An FDNY spokesman confirmed there was a notification from the agency to the NYPD. The NYPD said the 67th Precinct incident is being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

The video starts off with an NYPD cop demanding ID from a young man. The young man’s friend then pushes him out of the way to save him from arrest and they walk off.

After smelling the blood in the water, this shark….ahem, cop, had to feed. He grabbed the closest person to him, which happened to be 16-year-old Nasheri, and demanded an ID, again. Having done nothing wrong, and not wanting to be assaulted, she told the accosting officer not to touch her.

Not receiving an instant submission to his ‘power’ was a direct blow to this officer’s authoritative ego; he must now throw a tyrannical temper tantrum.

As the power-tripping NYPD cop begins to manhandle a 90 lb teenage girl, her brother steps in to stop the injustice. As if they had been waiting for this glorious moment, the opportunity to escalate the violence had been granted; it was now time to bash some heads!

The court's decision basically makes everyone a suspect, even if they're suspected of nothing else than being in the relative proximity of someone a police officer suspects of committing a crime, or someone simply "matching the description." How does this work in practice? Gideon posits a single scenario, as interpreted by the person being (wrongly) detained and those doing the actual detaining.

First, imagine you are walking down a public street with your friend. You’re both on your way to the local grocery store to buy some hummus. The police pull up, take a look at you friend and mistakenly believe that he’s a notorious wanted criminal. They order him to stop. You, not wanting to be caught up in this police business, keep walking, but they order you to stop, even though they don’t know you, don’t suspect you and you haven’t done anything wrong. You have rights, dammit and you know the Fourth Amendment. Can they stop you and force you to give up your freedom?

The second is this: what I’ve just described above is a version of the events that transpired. They’re “facts” in a sense that they’re your recitation of the events. But that’s obviously not good enough, right? There is another version – that of the police officers. So who gets to decide which is the “truth”? Which is believable and accurate and should be relied upon? Because – and this is critical – the law is entirely fact-dependent. How the law applies depends on the nuances of the factual scenarios. And that is left entirely up to the trial judge: the judge that hears the evidence from you and the police officers and then decides what “actually” happened. That’s called fact-finding and will only be overturned if “clearly erroneous”. Meaning almost never. There is a deified deference paid to the trial court’s “findings of fact”.

It was last October when Daniel Stovall, of Perry, was pulled over for going over the center line, although police dashcam video doesn't show that he did.

Within minutes, Middlefield police brought in Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland and his drug-sniffing dog, Midge. The K-9 searched the van and didn't find any drugs. Police wound up arresting Stovall for not having a driver's license. It's a minor misdemeanor.

"You can't arrest someone for not having a valid drivers license," said Jim Flaiz, the Geauga County Prosecutor.

Stovall called his arrest more than excessive. "I didn't pose any threat to the officers," he said.

Stovall was handcuffed, placed in the back of a squad car, and taken to the Geauga County jail, where sheriff's deputies and police had a difference of opinion about whether Stovall should be incarcerated for a minor misdemeanor.

Deputies refused to put Stovall behind bars, which the prosecutor says was the right decision.

While all this was happening, Middlefield Police Chief Arnold Stanko drove Stovall's van to a public location at the police station, where it was left unsecured for about an hour and a half.

"Leaving the vehicle unsecured is a huge evidentiary issue and that was not known by my office," Flaiz said.

Police searched the van again and, this time, they say they found some cocaine, which Stovall says had to be planted.

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Tucholski was a lieutenant at the time of the arrest. He is seen on dashcam doing a pat-down search of Stovall and he is also the one who handcuffed Stovall. He intially denied making the arrest when questioned by Channel 3 News Investigator Tom Meyer.

When asked how he could arrest someone based on information from a suspect source, Tucholski refused to comment. He also said he was merely following Chief Stanko's orders.

Geauga County Judge David L. Fuhry decided to suppress the evidence this month for a number of reasons. He cited the use of an untrustworthy source, the unsecured van, and the failure of the K-9 to detect any drugs.

Flaiz said he had no choice but to dismiss drug charges against Stovall.

The FBI is hiring a contractor to grade news stories about the agency as “positive” “neutral” or “negative,” but the agency won’t say why officials need the information or what they plan to do with it.

FBI officials wouldn’t even reveal how they will go about assigning the grades, which were laid out in a recent contract solicitation. The contract tells potential bidders to “use their judgment” in scoring news coverage as part of a new “daily news briefing” service the agency is seeking as part of a contract that could last up to five years.

Nearly $13 million of the $16.7 million paid out by the city of Denver to settle legal claims in the past decade involved the police and sheriff departments, a Denver Post analysis has found.

Fifty-eight percent of that total payout was for cases where excessive force or civil rights violations were at issue.

Denver has had five years of below-average claims payouts, with no million-dollar settlements. That's about to change Monday.

The City Council will consider approval of $3.25 million to settle a federal lawsuit pressed by former jail inmate Jamal Hunter, who in 2011 was tortured by other inmates and, he says, choked by a jail deputy in another incident. He claimed another deputy facilitated and encouraged the inmates' brutal attack on him.

"One of the officers stopped me and insisted I was drinking. He asked for my name, too, but I didn't give him my name because I didn't commit any crime and that was my right not to give him my name," Marhal said.

Soon, Marhal was on the ground in handcuffs. Another friend took video with his phone as a sheriff's deputy appeared to put him in a choke hold.

"I was very scared when the officer put me in the choke hold and pulled me back because I couldn't breathe for a very long time because of how long he held the choke hold," Marhal said.

The Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office told WISN 12 News its officers said Marhal refused to remove his hands from his pockets and resisted even after handcuffs.

The department reviewed the video and said what Marhal thought was a choke hold was actually a shoulder hold and proper police protocol.

Police told WISN 12 News Marhal's breath test showed no sign of alcohol, but he will be ticketed for resisting arrest.

He said he will fight the ticket, and he's now considering a lawsuit against the deputy and Sheriff's Office for excessive use of force.

In the wake of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports exposing the agency's use of people with disabilities in such operations, the attorney for one defendant went to trial and made the difficult-to-prove argument that her client was entrapped by agents.

The jury agreed. Alexis Davis — who has an IQ of 59 and reads at a second-grade level — was found not guilty following a trial in July.

His acquittal is the latest blow to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' undercover stings, already under investigation by Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder has called the tactics "ridiculous" and vowed accountability. The ATF said it has stopped the stings until it can get them right.

Davis' attorney, Sharon Samek, conceded in the trial that her client was a felon who couldn't have a gun because of previous drug convictions. But she argued to the jury the ATF agents working in the Lakeland storefront persuaded Davis to get them guns.

"He never would have possessed the guns if they hadn't come up with that store," she said. "The agents just kept pressing."

Records show Davis came to the store to buy tire rims and later came looking for a loan on his truck.

Each time, the agents encouraged him to find them guns, but he didn't bring any. Later, Davis waited outside while another man sold guns inside the storefront, but the agents said it was Davis who was behind the deals.

Davis' disabilities were apparent at times on the ATF video. At one point, Davis picks up a Magic Eight Ball on the store counter and asks how it works.

ATF Special Agent Yannick DesLauriers says, "You ask it a question."

Davis says, "I got to whisper to it?"

Davis' attorney says the encounter demonstrates her client's limitations.

"When this 33-year-old man picks up a Magic Eight Ball and asks how it works, and should he whisper to it, the conversation is no longer just a comical aside, but a poignant reflection of Davis' intellectual limitations," Samek wrote in a court document.

Michael Lehman, a member of the jury that acquitted Davis, said it was clear based on the agents' actions and Davis' limitations that it was a case of entrapment.

"To me, this was not about fighting crime. There is a lot of crime going on in the world, you don't need to manipulate the circumstances in order to encourage people to do bad things, that they might or might not otherwise do," said Lehman, of St. Pete Beach, who owns a public art construction company.

"This was a guy with a very low IQ who was highly suggestible and how they kept redirecting him and pressuring him to get them guns....It seems like a very misguided way to use public funds to deal with real problems."

Former King County sheriff’s deputy Darrion Holiwell changed his plea to guilty Monday and was sentenced to 366 days in jail for promoting prostitution, theft and drug dealing.

Holiwell, who was arrested June 19 when he was still a deputy, apologized in court.

“Darrion Holiwell violated his oath, the trust of his fellow deputies, and the trust of the citizens of King County”, said King County Sheriff John Urquhart said on July 15 when he fired Holiwell. “He does not deserve to be a police officer.”

Holiwell has been on administrative leave since the investigation into his activities began in late April.

When the 24-year-old man defended himself, knocking the 47-year-old sergeant to the ground, prompting others to break up the fight, Morgan’s wife reached for her husband’s wallet and pulled out his badge – as if that would give him a free pass.

But Seminole police officers did not allow that to stop them from arresting him on a misdemeanor battery charge.

However, even after that, Morgan tried his best to use his law enforcement connections to “get him out of this mess,” according to arresting officer Jarret Romanello.

And he even tried to obtain the victim’s address so he could send a SWAT team over to “deal with him later,” according to Romanello, who works for the Seminole Police Department, which has jurisdiction in all Seminole tribal lands in South Florida, which includes the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.

The incident, which took place last August, was captured on surveillance video, which was obtained by Local 10.

Despite all the evidence against him, including several witness statements, Morgan was suspended with pay, meaning he has received more than $86,000 for doing nothing. He has also been allowed to use an unmarked departmental car during this time.

A family was traumatized when gun-wielding police officers walked onto their quiet property and shot their dog in the head while looking for a man who did not live there.

Megan Shimburski, 25, was spending a quiet afternoon with her children at her parents’ countryside East Concord residence on July 25, 2014. It was a normal day, she said, which involved watching her 5-year-old daughter play behind the house with their dog, as her infant son lied in a playpen inside the house.

Ms. Shimburski’s parents, John Shimburski and Martha Spaulding, were not at home when the day turned to chaos.

At around 2:00 p.m., Ms. Shimburski recalled that she ducked inside the house for a moment to use the restroom. She became alerted to something occurring when the family’s two dogs began barking; one was inside and one was outside the house.

Ms. Shimburski said that she looked out the window and saw two vehicles parked outside — a car and an SUV — along with unidentified men, one of whom had a gun drawn.

Panicked, she rushed outside toward danger to attend to her daughter, Makenna, who was accompanied by “Lady,” a 2-year-old Brindle Pit Bull.

The Shimburski family's "big baby," called Lady. (Source: Megan Shimburski) The Shimburski family’s “big baby,” called Lady. (Source: Megan Shimburski)
“I heard 2 shots fired, and Lady yelp, and my daughter scream,” Ms. Shimburski told Police State USA.

The armed stranger had just shot the family’s beloved pet in the head, with Makenna standing “20 feet behind [the dog] in the exact same direction.”

“He then proceeded to continue walking up the hill with his gun raised, and I screamed at him not to shoot his gun again,” she added.

Ms. Shimburski says that there was no clear indication of who the intruders were; there were no markings on the vehicles and the three men were not in uniforms. She described them as dressed in “business attire” — definitely not uniforms.

“I stated that I was going to call the police, and that’s when they said, ‘We are the Erie County Police,’” Ms. Shimburski recalled.

The men began then began to request to enter her parents’ home. Ms. Shimburski declined, and tended to her children and dogs. Lady was bleeding profusely. Makenna was cowering nearby crying, “The man shot Lady. He shot my dog.”

As Ms. Shimburski took her daughter inside, she discovered that two of the self-described “officers” had already entered her parents’ home, after she had explicitly told them to stay out.

“They were yelling at me to tell my daughter it was OK,” she said.

The young mom secured her daughter in a bedroom along with the second dog that had been indoors. Her parents quickly arrived after being notified about what had happened.

The reason for the intrusion was finally made known when they announced that they were looking for the father of Ms. Shimburski’s son. The family told the officers that the man they were seeking had never lived there, didn’t receive mail at the address, and that they should have tried looking for him at his own home.

The police had not brought a warrant, and said they only wanted to ask the man some questions. They continued to request a search of the home.

Meanwhile Lady, described as a “67-pound big baby,” was hiding under the deck, covered in blood. A bullet had traveled through the tissue on her head, neck, and shoulder. A large, open gash allowed blood to pour down her face into her eyes and nose. It was a shocking sight for the family.

“The officer stated that he had just ‘grazed’ her, and that she would be fine,” Ms. Shimburski recalled. “I looked at him and said, ‘You did not graze her!!’ His words were, ‘I didn’t mean to GRAZE her.’”

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Nadwornik, out drinking with friends for his 58th birthday, urinated in a corner of the empty parking lot because the bar was locked up.

Within seconds, two Barry Township police cars and three officers — two of them unpaid reserves — confronted him as he was zipping up his pants. What happened next is up for debate: Police said he resisted arrest. Nadwornick said he didn’t, and a waitress who was leaving work agreed.

What everyone does agree on is the aftermath: Nadwornik had a broken hand from a police baton, bloody elbows, and he had been kneed in the back. He was handcuffed, jailed and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, a two-year felony.

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The township's insurance company finally forced the police chief to make his small army of reserve officers stand down and confine themselves to special events (it also forced the town of Oakley, population 290, to put its army of 100 reserve officers on ice).

After a packed town meeting last night that had to be moved to the high school to accommodate attendees, the township board unanimously voted to review Pierce's continuing employment in a special meeting to be held tonight.* A notice of the meeting occupies the township Website's entire front page.

So, one small step in rolling back the militarization of modern policing? Or just the latest bit of evidence that law enforcement in the United States has gone full-on into occupying enemy territory mode?

That might depend on the outcome of the meeting.

A Sanford, Florida police officer was fired after he taunted a jailed inmate with McDonald’s french fries and later threatened the inmate with his service Taser while the inmate washed his patrol car, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

Nine-year-veteran Mickey Hinkley was placed on administrative leave when his superiors discovered the incidents on June 4, 2014, but was only fired yesterday after an investigation determined that he had violated departmental policy.

According to police documents obtained by The Sentinel, Hinkley forced inmate Victor Gonzaga Rivera to wash his patrol car. When Hinkley complained that Rivera had not put enough “tire shine” on his wheels, he also activated his service Taser, which caused an afraid Rivera to take off running.

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WILLOUGHBY, Ohio -- What are the chances you would get a break if you were caught driving and driving?

Veteran Willoughby Patrolman Steve Alemagno could have possibly arrested a fellow officer who had been drinking and driving. He could have given the officer a field sobriety test.

He did neither. Instead, he cut the officer a break and had him call a friend for a ride home.

Alemagno never stuck around long enough to see if off-duty Ashtabula Officer Wayne Howell ever got a ride. He didn't. Instead, he got back into his pick-up truck and drove away.

He was later stopped by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and arrested for OVI after his blood alcohol level was nearly two times the legal limit of .08.

Willoughby Police Chief Jack Beckwith suspended Alemagno for three days for making a bad decision.

But Beckwith admitted his officers have discretion in these types of cases. That drew a stunned reaction from Judy Liggett, from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

In the past 18 months, Denver sheriff's deputies have found themselves in trouble for all sorts of violations, ranging from the serious to the absurd, a Denver Post review of disciplinary letters issued since Jan. 1, 2013, shows.

Cases include a deputy who watched YouTube videos on her computer with jail inmates, one who abandoned her post because she wanted to leave early and two deputies who accidentally fired a bullet into the floor of an office at Denver Health Medical Center.

There was a deputy who kicked a basketball into an inmate's head, a deputy who lost a gun in a McDonald's bathroom and two employees who got mad during a cupcake fight at the office.

Because of deputy misconduct, inmates — and those who guard them — have had their safety jeopardized as officers failed to monitor the mentally ill, failed to properly escort violent prisoners or left unit doors wide open.

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Two law enforcement officers in Topeka were checked out at the hospital after their police vehicles collided shortly after midnight.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol crash report, the a Topeka Police Ford Explorer was trying to make a u-turn on a bridge, when it was struck by a Shawnee County Sheriff's Deputy's squad car.

The officer is identified as 27-year-old Anthony Palumbo, the deputy is identified as 24-year-old Aaron Schmidtlein.

The drivers were both taken to the hospital for treatment, but are expected to be okay. Both were wearing seat belts.