This week, former Trumball police officer William Ruscoe began a drastically reduced 30-month prison sentence for handcuffing and raping a teenage girl in his home.

The 45-year-old Ruscoe, who resigned from the police department following his arrest and later pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault, blamed his crime on financial problems that made it hard to support his wife and two children and a lack of support from the state’s criminal justice system- he claimed a man who threatened him with a gun was released on probation, according to Connecticut Postings.

During a sentencing hearing Ruscoe pleaded with the court to give him a downward departure in sentencing from the 6-year prison term he agreed to in his plea bargain.

“Please show them (his children) the justice system their daddy worked to uphold for nearly 20 years is also fair and compassionate,” Ruscoe urged the judge.

State’s Attorney John Smriga added that he felt the agreed upon plea deal of a 6-year sentence was appropriate for the crime committed by Ruscoe.


Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/off...7LX9tiqpgSR.99

Former Miami Police Officer Christopher Vital might have been 2014's craziest local cop of the year, but he won't face any charges. Instead, he'll be forced to hang up his badge for good.
In September, Vital was driving his BMW late at night with a lady friend when he roared past an accident scene on the MacArthur Causeway. Miami Beach cops gave chase, and Vital's speed reached the triple digits.

He eventually stopped but didn't give up.

Officers noticed his speech seemed slurred and his eyes bloodshot. A 25-year-old woman sat in the passenger seat. Marijuana and cocaine were found in the car, while another substance suspected to be heroin was also located.

The Miami Beach cops cuffed Vital and placed him in the back of a cruiser, where he began violently slamming his head against the partition.

"I'm going to blame you for the injuries on my head," he shouted. "I'm going to say you did this to me, and I'm going to hunt you down, you and your family, and I'm gonna have your job."

Vital then kicked out the cruiser's rear window. "It doesn't matter what you do to me -- as soon as I get out, I'm going to shoot myself," he later shouted.

After all of that, Vital will not face any criminal charges.

A Dane County sheriff’s deputy miraculously escaped charges of child pornography, despite being caught with child pornography, because of a cut and paste error on a warrant.

In a tragic example of the broken “justice” system, former Dane County sheriff’s deputy Jeffrey C. Hilgers, 43, had seven counts of possession of child pornography dismissed Wednesday. The judge ruled that there was a fatal cut-and-paste error on a search warrant, thereby making the discovery of the illegal images on the deputy’s computers, inadmissible.

According to the report, investigators inadvertently used a paragraph, which stated they were searching for child pornography, instead of one specifying the search was for evidence in an illicit relationship between Hilgers and a woman serving a jail sentence at home on electronic monitoring.

The error was insurmountable, Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson said, so he had to suppress the search warrant along with a subsequent search warrant that was issued after child pornography was initially discovered, which led to the discovery of even more child pornography.

e Resident on Campus Security (ROCS) program — which allows police officers to live rent- and utility-free in trailers on Broward County Public Schools campuses — is coming under fire after an internal audit determined that the program is “not adequately supervised,” “operating with an expired lease agreement,” and that almost 91 percent of the emergency calls from ROCS campuses are answered by local police departments instead of ROCS officers.

The ROCS program was founded in the 1980s to address theft, vandalism, and trespassing on school campuses, but according to the school board’s chief auditor, Patrick Reilly, even if it were adequately overseen, it would still be unnecessary.

“The existing technology of alarm systems and fire alarm systems, along with the implementation of single point of entry, surveillance cameras, [Broward District Schools Police Department] staff on call and an Alarm Monitoring Unit that monitors security alarms at all school sites 24 hours a day, 7 days per week,” makes the ROCS officers an expensive luxury.


According to WPLG, the program is “in shambles.”

The audit revealed that no data was compiled or maintained about the program since 2013, and that it has been operating with expired lease agreements since 2010. Moreover, ROCS management personnel had no means of determining whether the officers it oversaw complied with the terms of their agreement with their host school.

At one of the trailers, believed to be on the grounds of a Coral Springs elementary school, the officer moved out without notice — and rented it out to people without performing a background check...

City records for the past four years show the Police Department paid more than $3.3 million in settlements.

"Everyone should be outraged. That's a lot of money," said Lawanna Gelzer, with the National Action Network.

The settlements were related to 47 separate lawsuits filed against Orlando police during those years.

"Right away you think that's a high number. It sounds like a high number and I believe it is a high number," said law enforcement expert Chuck Drago.

The $3.3 million is enough money to hire 71 new police officers, according to records. Drago said although the amount seems high, it's important not to generalize.

"You have to look at each individual case and figure it out," said Drago.

The records show 14 lawsuits were for false arrest and nine were filed for use of excessive force.

A local man has filed the fifth civil lawsuit against former K-9 Police Officer Matthew Worden.

The latest suit, filed by Hartford attorney A. Paul Spinella, representing 39-year-old David McAlmond of Spruceland Road, claims Worden in March 2012 used a police-style baton found in McAlmond's car and "forcibly slammed the baton upwards between [McAlmond's] legs, violently striking [McAlmond's] groin area." The lawsuit also claims Worden issued a command to his K-9 which subsequently "aggressively attack[ed] [McAlmond], knocking him to the ground."

“I don’t think they needed to shoot me six times. I think there are non-lethal weapons. They could have pounced on me. They could have attacked me, tackled me.”

But Bramuchi explains that the officers knew exactly what they were doing.

That’s because late last year, Bramuchi reported that a veteran officer, Lt. Dan Dreslinski, had been having sex with her repeatedly while on the tax-payer’s dime.

Dreslinski decided to resign in order to avoid being fired for his actions while on duty.


“I think this is all part of the conspiracy,” Bramuchi explained. “I think it’s all part of the thing with Lt. Dreslinski.”

“I want people to know that the police shouldn’t be trusted and you have to be very, very, very careful,” Bramuchi cautioned others who wish to report police misconduct, implying that they too might find themselves shot in a scenario where police claim the “right” to gun down citizens in their own homes, even when they have committed no crimes.


...


Bramuchi explained to local CBS Atlanta News that she was on medication and sleeping pills. A friend of her’s was worried that she was suicidal, which she claims was incorrect. But because of the medication, she did not hear police at the door.

A police report in fact confirmed that officers did not make contact with he, so they violently forced their way in.

Bramuchi was roused from her sleep and grabbed an unloaded gun, to go investigate what was the matter.

That’s when Bramuchi says, “they shot me six times."

The incident, which occurred on Oct. 1, began when the inmate put his feet down while sitting in his wheelchair, preventing Ferrio from pushing him forward, according to the newspaper.

Ferrio reportedly put his arm around the inmate's neck and pulled him from his wheelchair before dumping him onto the floor, according to the release. When the inmate fell, his dentures were shattered and Ferrio reportedly hit him with his fists and knees while restraining him.

An investigation by the sheriff's office found the inmate hadn't provoked the attack or presented a threat to staff members. During the investigation, Ferrio admitted he shouldn't have used such force but, according to the release, "got caught up in the moment."

It started with an attempted traffic stop for a seat belt violation.

Less than a minute later, an innocent bystander was dead and another grim chapter was begun in the ongoing debate over the police chase.

A review of a silent dashcam video and investigative reports stemming from the July 3 crash shows a dispute over whether or not a state trooper ever triggered his lights and siren when he chased a car through Flint, according to reports obtained by The Flint Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.

The trooper claims he did, witnesses claim he did not.

A 22-year-old black man was mistakenly handcuffed and arrested after he was struck by a fleeing car during a police chase in St. Ann, Mo., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Friday.

St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez told the Post-Dispatch that he was sorry for the mistake; however, he maintained that his officers wouldn't be disciplined because it was an honest one.

Joseph Swink's car was reportedly struck by a car that St. Ann police officers were chasing on Thursday and spun out before crashing. Officers mistook Swink for the man they'd been pursuing and tackled him to the ground before handcuffing and arresting him, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Swink told the newspaper that he wanted the offending officers to lose their jobs for their mistake.