..This week alone, Baltimore agreed to pay $49,000 to man who sued over a violent arrest in 2010, Philadelphia agreed to pay $490,000 to a man who was abused and broke his neck while riding in a police van in 2011, and St. Paul agreed to pay $95,000 to a man who suffered a skull injury, a fractured eye socket, and a broken nose in 2012.

In 2013, Chicago paid out a stunning $84.6 million in police misconduct settlements, judgments, and legal fees. Bridgeport, Connecticut, paid a man $198,000 this past spring after video footage captured police shooting him twice with a stun gun, then stomping all over him as he lay on the ground. And in California, Oakland recently agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit a man filed after being shot in the head, leaving him with permanent brain damage. You get the picture.

It’s the taxpayer, not the law enforcement agency, who pays the price.

The thing is, these steep payments rarely come from the police department budgets—instead they’re financed through the city’s general coffers or the city’s insurance plan. It’s the taxpayer, not the law enforcement agency, who pays the price...

A judge who made headlines earlier this year for texting topless pictures of himself to a married bailiff has now been accused of getting a witness pregnant while presiding over her child support case.

Michigan Judge Wade McCree, who is married, allegedly had an affair with Geniene La'Shay Mott after she brought her ex-boyfriend into his court for failing to pay child support.

The lovers even allegedly exchanged text messages discussing potential punishments for her former boyfriend, Robert King, who served jail time following the case.
The accusations come just three months after McCree was forced to apologise - and barely held onto his job - after sending nude photographs of himself to a female colleague.

Coming forward with these latest claims, his alleged mistress told MyFoxDetroit.com: 'I met him as a litigant, a complaining witness in his courtroom, and he stayed around after the case was over and that's when... our relationship picked up.

'It went from being a summer fling and just something to do... to falling in love, promises of marriage, me getting pregnant, us buying a house together, name it.'
After McCree's wife found out about the baby, the couple separated but Mott said she will keep the child, despite McCree offering her 'anything she wanted' to have an abortion, she said.

She added that she decided to speak out about the affair after he went to the Wayne County prosecutor claiming she was stalking him. Investigators found his complaints baseless, Fox reported.

An Albuquerque police officer is accused of accessing a federal criminal database to find information on a friend's ex-wife and her new boyfriend.

Oversight Agency. The data Officer Regina Sanchez is accused of accessing is supposed to be used for official investigations only.

If true, the commission said those actions violate criminal law.

The complaint also alleges Sanchez lied to investigators when confronted about looking up the information.

It's unclear if any charges will be filed against Sanchez. The board decided there's enough evidence to pursue discipline, but that's up to police Chief Gorden Eden.

He hasn't received the complaint yet. According to a police department spokesperson, internal affairs is investigating the claims.

A Queens police officer who once earned Cop of the Year honors faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to cocaine trafficking charges in Florida.

Philip Leroy acted as security during the December trip from New York to Sunrise, Fla., where he and another man, Brian Espinal, went to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine for $200,000, authorities said.

But the drug deal turned out to be a sting, and Leroy, 28, and Espinal were arrested.
Florida cops found Leroy’s off-duty 9mm handgun under the seat of the Honda Pilot SUV the pair used to make the trip, according to court papers.

Leroy, the son of a retired detective, was lauded in 2012 for making more than two dozen arrests in the 114th Precinct where he worked, earning him the Cop of the Year recognition.

He has been in jail in Florida since his Dec. 1 arrest.

A man in Grand Prairie Texas is in jail after almost 20 years stubbornly defying city orders that he cut his lawn. Last summer, a warrant was issue for his arrest.

Rick Yoes turned himself into the Tarrant County jail on Saturday to do time on $1,700 in fines he'd incurred for overgrown brush in his front yard. Online media have called the penalty excessive, but local law enforcement said city officials had offered Yoes help with his lawn for years.

"I can assure you our city would never simply place a citizen in jail for failing to mow their grass," said Officer Mark Beseda with the Grand Prairie Police Department.

He said city code enforcement officers, responding to neighbor complaints, had visited Yoes' home 32 times since 1996, issuing 59 violations and six citations for the lawn. Officials with the City of Grand Prairie said citations are issued when grass and weeds exceed 12 inches and trees or shrubs obstruct sidewalks or streets. Photos taken by city officials show vines hanging from a tree, low enough to brush the windshield of a passing truck.

"The complaints from neighbors to the city and our attempts to work with him have been generated from his neighbors in an effort to protect their neighborhood integrity and property values," city officials said in a statement.

Yoes' violations since 1996 include "overhanging tree limbs," "dilapidated wood fence," "high grass," "inoperable vehicle," "junk in yard" and "swimming pool not maintained."

The Porter County prosecutor's office has dropped a felony fleeing charge filed against a Portage woman who drove less than a mile to lighted parking lot before pulling over for a traffic stop last month.

"At the time of the arrest, the officer had probable cause to support the filing of criminal charges," Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel said in a prepared statement.

"Upon review of the circumstances of the incident as well as information learned after the incident, it was determined that a dismissal of the charges was in the best interests of justice," he said.

The motorist, DelRea Good, was relieved by the news, but said she will remain concerned until the incident is completely removed from her record.

She fears the dismissal could show up during a background check and hurt her if she seeks a new nursing job.

The entire incident, including the arrest and treatment by the police officer, has also left her afraid to drive.

Good was taken into custody and charged with a felony count of resisting arrest after slowing her vehicle, turning on her emergency flashers, waiving her arm out the window and driving less than a mile to the lighted parking lot at the Kohl's store in Portage before pulling over for Porter County Sheriff's Department Patrolman William Marshall at 11:21 p.m. March 20.

She told the officer, and later The Times, she did not immediately pull over along the dark section of County Road 500 West (Airport Road) because -- as a 52-year-old woman traveling alone -- she was concerned for her safety.

Charges against a Knoxville police officer were dismissed due to failure to prosecute.

According to court documents, Woody Bingham, 36, was charged with driving under the influence and possession of a handgun while under the influence. Officers were called to the scene after a report of a hit-and-run.

Officers said they found Bingham’s car parked over a curb near the Waffle House on Lovell Road. He admitted to drinking at Cotton Eye Joe, did not recall hitting anything, but remembered driving.

A field sobriety test indicated Bingham was intoxicated and he was taken into custody. Officers found two loaded handguns in his side door and under the center seat.

Bingham was assigned to an administrative position. Darrell DeBusk with the Knoxville Police Department said he has no police powers and will remain in that position until the internal affairs investigation has been completed.

Slager initially said that he shot Walter Scott out of fear for his life, claiming that he had taken his stun gun, and police performed CPR immediately on the shooting victim. The video, which Scott said he received at a wake earlier this week, showed otherwise:

A Baltimore County police officer agreed Tuesday to resign after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors related to an attempted break-in in Dundalk last year.

Joseph Stanley Harden, 32, was accused in July 2014 of trying to kick in the door of a drug dealer who lived in an apartment on North Boundary Road. Prosecutors alleged he wanted to steal money and drugs.

Harden pleaded guilty to attempted fourth-degree burglary and possession of oxycodone.

Harden, a 10-year veteran who told investigators he was addicted to prescription drugs, initially faced seven charges, including attempted robbery. He asked for a bench trial Tuesday after rejecting a plea offer from the state.

But minutes into the trial, a key state's witness — Sean McKelvin, the man whose residence Harden allegedly tried to enter — became uncooperative on the stand, and Judge Ruth Jakubowski called a lunch break.


Later, the prosecution and defense announced that they had reached a plea agreement. As part of the deal, Harden must resign by April 14, and the state dropped five charges against him, including attempted robbery, a felony.

Harden is scheduled to be sentenced June 29 and faces a maximum sentence of seven years. Assistant State's Attorney Daniel Trimble said the state would seek jail time.

The NYPD has begun cracking down on people who sell churros in subway stations, DNAinfo reports.

The website reports that several women have been arrested or ticketed by cops for selling the crunchy pastries inside the city’s subway system. One woman told the site that after she was arrested, cops confiscated her churros, took her to a precinct station and snacked on the treats in front of her.



“They take the churros, saying they need them for evidence and that they will return them, but they don’t return them,” Ana Alvarado told DNAinfo in Spanish. “When they get to the precinct, whoever wants one grabs one, and whatever is left they put in a black bag.”

Alvarado, a 43-year-old who emigrated from Ecuador and lives in Queens, says she has been arrested seven times in the last two and a half years, but continues to hawk the snacks to feed herself and her two sons, ages 9 and 12. She said that once she gets arrested at one station, she has taken to moving to another.

Summary of Incident: Kennewick, Wa. The Kennewick Police were made aware late last week of a video of one of our officers on a traffic stop interacting with the driver and passenger. One of the citizens present at the traffic stop was recording the officer.

Since being made aware of the video, the Kennewick Police Department initiated an internal investigation of the officer involved in the incident. The video was posted on social media and we have viewed the video The officer involved is positively identified as Glenn Ball.

He is a 21 year veteran of the Kennewick Police He is still on active duty during this investigation.

Based on what we have seen in the video, the officer’s comments are not consistent with our values and are not consistent with our expectations of how our officers should interact with the public.

The city's police department would have been required to inform the county prosecutor and conduct an internal investigation both times Officer Pedro Abad was charged with drunken driving, according to the department's policies.

Authorities are investigating Abad's employment and driving history, after two past charges of driving while intoxicated came to light in the days following the March 20 Staten Island crash. Abad's Honda Civic hit a tractor-trailer head-on, killing two people, including a fellow officer.

Department officials have declined to comment on what was known about Abad's driving record or how his past two drunken driving charges were handled, but internal affairs policies shed some light on what the response may have included.

The otherwise low-key trial of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo saw some drama Wednesday, the third day of testimony, when a fellow police officer refused to testify.

Prosecutors got through just a couple basic questions about the identity and work history of Cleveland police officer Michael Demchak before Demchak invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on the witness stand.

According to a report from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Demchak was one of 13 officers that fired their guns one night in November 2012, when two unarmed suspects were killed. Investigators concluded Demchak fired his gun four times.

Brelo, 31, is on trial on two counts of manslaughter in the case of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were shot to death by police in a 1979 Chevy Malibu. Russell, the driver, had evaded police during a 22-minute car chase through Cleveland and East Cleveland on Nov. 29, 2012.

Demchak told the court he invoked his right based on the advice of his attorney and would not testify unless he is granted immunity by the prosecutor's office.