Three Cincinnati police officers face charges and have had their police powers suspended after the department's Internal Investigation Unit learned a March traffic accident wasn't handled properly, authorities say.

One of them is a Cincinnati police sergeant who shot and killed David "Bones" Hebert, a death that spurred community concern four years ago.

Sgt. Andrew Mitchell faces traffic charges after he was involved in a single-vehicle crash on March 22, police said. Two other officers, both Mitchell's subordinates, are accused of hindering the crash investigation process, ignoring witness statements and failing to take Mitchell into custody, according to court documents.

Cincinnati District 5 police officers Jason Cotterman and Sgt. Richard Sulfsted are charged with two counts each of dereliction of duty and three counts each of obstruction of justice, according to documents filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court.

While tending to Mitchell's crash scene, Sulfsted oversaw the departure of Mitchell from the crash scene before a full investigation could occur, court documents state. Neither city officials nor court documents state where the crash occurred or contain details of what happened.

Cotterman "did quickly remove him from the scene of a single-vehicle crash, conceal Andrew Mitchell from witnesses and other police officers, arrange for Andrew Mitchell to be transported to his residence and refuse to acknowledge witness statements or properly investigate the crash," according to a police affidavit filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court.

Sulfsted had his police powers suspended just two days after the crash while Cotterman lost his police powers May 1.

Mitchell was charged Friday -- more than three months after the accident -- with reckless operation of a vehicle, operation without reasonable control of a vehicle and a safety belt violation, authorities said.

Mitchell, whose police powers were suspended on Friday, is scheduled to appear in court July 10.

Sulfsted is facing an additional charge of illegal conveyance of weapons, drugs or other prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility, court documents state. It is not clear how or if those charges relate to the crash.

An NYPD sergeant has been suspended after a co-worker claimed he threw semen on her inside of police headquarters, police sources said Tuesday.

The sergeant, identified as Michael Iscenko, 54, allegedly tossed semen on the unidentified woman near a freight elevator at 1 Police Plaza, according to the reports.

The victim — who worked with Iscenko in the Organized Crime Control Bureau — reported the recent incident immediately after it happened, police sources said.

The substance that was splattered on her was tested and determined to be semen, a police source said. It had not yet been determined if it was Iscenko’s semen.

Iscenko had previously told the co-worker he liked her, a police source said.

The case of R.M.B, the Bedford County sixth-grader who was suspended from school for a year after an administrator caught him with a leaf that was not pot, appears one step closer to a trial in U.S. District Court.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Lynchburg rejected attempts by two Bedford County school administrators and a Bedford County sheriff’s deputy to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the boy and his schoolteacher parents.

The suit alleges the boy’s constitutional rights to due process were violated when he was suspended from school, and that R.M.B was maliciously prosecuted for marijuana possession despite three negative field tests on the leaf seized from his knapsack.

The suspension and subsequent criminal case, which Bedford County prosecutors later dropped for lack of evidence, wreaked havoc on the formerly happy-go-lucky boy’s psyche, according to his parents, Bruce and Linda Bays. He withdrew socially and sought treatment from a pediatric psychiatrist for panic attacks and depression.

The judge also ruled that compensation claims by the Bays – for money they’ve paid out in legal and medical fees and home-schooling expenses – can move forward.

Police had raided the house she shared with her boyfriend, Michael H. Williams. Backed by a seven-man squad from the department’s Violent Crimes Impact Division, police shot Tiny, tased another of their three dogs, and hauled Williams to jail on drug charges.

The police found two baggies of white powder—suspected cocaine—in a flower pot on the back porch, they said. They seized a couple of hunting rifles.

But it was all bogus, according to a lawsuit filed against the police officers. The drug raid was trumped up because a thief and confidential police informant named Terry Hubbell wanted his girlfriend—Catalano—back. And Hubbell’s pals and handlers—Detective Edgardo Hernandez and Johnson—went along with the plan to ruin Williams, the lawsuit alleges. The white powder turned out to be heroin.


The lawsuit raises questions about the way Baltimore Police officers are trained and disciplined, about the use and monitoring of confidential informants, and about the competence of the department’s Internal Affairs Division which, despite finding none of either Catalano or William’s DNA on the drug bag, failed to make a case against any of the police involved.

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Catalano has no prior criminal record...Hubbell’s arrest record comprises more than 30 cases since 1988, including theft, drug possession, identity theft, counterfeiting, forgery, unlicensed contracting, malicious property destruction, and arson. The vast majority of the cases were dropped. There is currently a warrant for his arrest on theft charges in Baltimore County. The online case file gives Hubbell’s address in Jacksonville, Florida.

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By then, Catalano had moved back in, reconciling with Williams and leaving Hubbell in her old place to pay the rent if he could. Hubbell became “angry and agitated,” the lawsuit alleges, and began to text Catalano increasingly threatening messages, to the effect that she would not want him as an enemy.

On June 13, Hernandez took an affidavit to District Court Judge Rachel Cogen, alleging that “Confidential Informant 3633” had bought cocaine from Williams at the house in a “controlled purchase.” Warrant in hand, Johnson, Hernandez and the seven-man VCIS squad hit the door of the Catalano/Williams house with a battering ram, then shot two of the three dogs, killing one.

“The anger and the hurt is never gonna go away,” Catalano says. “I try not to let it eat me alive. Michael took the brunt of it.”

The lawsuit says that police found no drugs or other contraband in their initial search of the house. Shackled on his living room floor, Williams demanded to know why they’d done it. “Defendant Hernandez responded in anger: ‘so that’s the way it is?’ And with that, Hernandez marched out of the room and returned immediately with drugs supposedly found in a flower pot on the back porch,” the complaint states.

“We had a flowerpot hanging from this hook right here,” Catalano says, pointing to the ceiling behind her. “This door was wide open. That’s always what drug dealers do, right?”

Catalano arrived to find her dog dead and asked a neighbor to clean up the blood. Hubbell texted her: “Sorry to hear about tiny he was a good boy.”

The drug charges caused Williams to be fired from his job. He went into a depression, the lawsuit says. He did not work for more than six months and, according to the complaint, “continues to suffer extreme depression, fear, embarrassment and emotional distress.” Catalano said she would ask Williams to speak to City Paper. Williams’ lawyer, Norman Smith, told the paper he advised his client not to speak to the press, and Williams did not.

The day after the raid, Catalano found her other dog, Junior, whimpering on the street, still dragging the Taser wire a cop had shot into him the night before, the complaint says. She rushed him to the vet. Hubbell, meanwhile, texted Catalano: “I really hope jr is OK and sorry to hear about tiny but Mike is at fault not me.”

Prosecutors dropped the drug case against Williams in November 2012, citing “a problem with the confidential informant,” the lawsuit says.

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Cops usually get a bad-rap when it comes doing anything for the public, and further more, anything that comes to light about their extracurricular activities usually doesn’t aid in their causes. Well one of these activities that has come to light not to long ago was a recent bust of a lone physician out of New Jersey who had been providing over 248 Cops and Firefighters from 53 different agencies a steady supply of Steroids, Growth Hormone and Testosterone to get these guys jacked.

This all came to light when the physician, Joseph Colao, who was 45-yrs old was found dead in his Jersey City apartment due to heart Failure and investigators began sorting through his office’s medical records and started to big up what was soon to become one of the largest illegal steroid and doping rings that involved law enforcement in history.

It was said that Colao (pictured above), according to records obtained from investigators from his Medical Office, had fraudulently provided over 248 officers and firefighters from 53 different agencies muscle-building drugs within a years span. These drugs or PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) were said to have been linked to “increased aggression, confusion and reckless behavior” according the NJ.com.

Furthermore, most if not all the prescriptions that Colao prescribed to all the officers were paid for through their Government health plans, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Throughout the year, Six of Colao’s patients in particular, 4 police officers and 2 Corrections officers, were named in lawsuits alleging excessive force or civil rights violations right around the time they received drugs from him or shortly afterwards.

Many others have been arrested, fired or suspended for off-duty infractions that included alleged behavior such as Assault, Domestic Abuse, Harassment and Drug possession, including 1 patient who was left nearly paralyzed after suffering a stroke that was attributed by the Growth Hormone Colao “prescribed” to him, according to his Doctor.

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The Post and The Guardian are relying on Fatal Encounters and Killed By Police, two independent websites that track police shootings, to compile their databases, according to The Marshall Project. Those websites are using Google News, which allows users to set up custom searches of news topics and email those findings via “alerts.”

In a way, the platform is keeping the cops more accountable than local, state and federal governments.

In more than four decades, The FBI has not counted more than 460 shootings in one year. In less than six months, The Post hit that number. That said, it is likely that the FBI has missed thousands of shootings over the years. Using news links from Killed By Police, The FiveThirtyEight estimated in August that cops kill at least 1000 people per year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics published a study in March claiming the FBI is only counting about half of the shootings that occurred between 2003-2009 and 2011, so the FiveThirtyEight’s estimates would seem to track.

There are some drawbacks to using Google News to get an accurate count of cop shootings.

The media isn’t a reliable counter of police shootings because, well, it isn’t their job. And there is a chance that local media aren’t covering every shooting, either. Google News was launched in 2006, so using the platform to count shootings before that time was impossible. And, as The Marshall Project noted, the farther back you search in Google News, the less thorough the results will be.

But, still, Google News is making the recent reporting we see in the Washington Post and The Guardian possible. At the same time, the dissemination of videos of cops killing citizens on social media is pressuring public officials to address the issue and compelling the media to cover these incidents properly, rather than just repeating the official line

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Only 2,700 out of 22,000 law enforcement agencies reported data on police-involved shootings in 2013, the latest year from which such data is available.

Last month, DaJuawn Wallace was given a choice: Plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit, or continue to fight the charge and take his chances in the criminal justice system.

At least that's the way county prosecutors in Saginaw, Michigan, laid it out for him following a preliminary hearing on June 12. Robertson, a 24-year-old graduate student at Saginaw Valley State University, had reason to consider caving. At issue was a felony count of fleeing and eluding police, a charge that carries a potential two-year jail sentence. Preparing a defense for a criminal trial is an expensive and time-consuming process, and it's difficult to predict the outcome of any case, even when the facts seem to be in your favor.

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Prosecutors dropped the charge earlier this week amid a flurry of media scrutiny, bringing an end to a ridiculous and needless legal standoff. But the fact that prosecutors tried to pressure Wallace into pleading guilty in a case they likely couldn't have won -- or perhaps never even intended to take to trial -- is a symptom of the broader problem with plea bargaining in the criminal justice system.

Much of the focus on this issue has been placed on the rampant use of plea bargains in settling federal criminal cases. According to a 2014 report by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in the New York Review of Books, 97 percent of all federal cases closed in 2013 were resolved through plea bargains, in part due to the incredible power many prosecutors now wield over the process thanks to mandatory minimum sentences and other strict sentencing guidelines. Critics claim this trend leads many innocent, often disadvantaged people to plead guilty to lesser charges in order to avoid the prospect of more severe punishment should the case go to trial. Rakoff estimates there are as many as 20,000 people in prison after pleading guilty to crimes they didn't actually commit.

Harlan, the former president of Local 1613, had made an appeal to the board to reinstate him as a union representative, but he was denied. After the meeting, he claims he and another agent, Everlyn Prado, were approached by Lopez and fellow board member Thomas Ward. They told Prado he was "skipping out on his bar tab." Harlan said he thought that was suspicious, since the union usually paid for the drinks. Whan Prado went inside, Harlan claims Lopez and Ward cornered him and began calling him a "liar." Harlan claims the man wanted to fight him, but he was able to walk away.

Later, as Harlan and Kourda walked through the parking lot, they saw Ward and Lopez leaning against a truck near Harlan's vehicle. Harlan claims they had an "aggressive manner," and he recalled that "Robert Lopez starts yelling vulgarities at me, and accuses me of calling him out, and we're gonna take care of it."

"And then Robert Lopez takes a swing at me. I do not recall whether it connected or not, [because] it happened so fast, but then he charged into me and with his chest, knocked me down. I lost my balance, hit the floor, and he started kicking me in the head, and then he straddled me and started wailing me with both fists on the sides of my head and my ears repeatedly, and there was nothing I could do to defend myself," said Harlan.

When the beating stopped, Harlan said he looked over to see his friend Kourda with a bloody face. Harlan did not see Ward deliver any blows.

Lopez told a different story in the declaration attached to his request for a temporary restraining order. He wrote that Harlan was "visibly intoxicated" and that Harlan and his friends were the aggressors, saying Harlan "used foul language" and charged Lopez. "I was forced to defend myself," he wrote.

"That's a lie," Harlan told Team 10. "If I charged him, why when I hit the ground did my back slam against a vehicle before I hit the ground?"

Since TRO requests were filed, the agents had to turn in their guns, making it hard to protect the nation's borders. On Tuesday, the five Border Patrol agents involved withdrew their civil claims against one another.

The case has been investigated by the San Diego Police Department, and is now under review by the San Diego City Attorney for potential charges.

The New Orleans Police Department has been investigating how Boys allegedly killed Holloway and escaped custody. It said in a statement Monday that an interview with the officer who initially arrested Boys for aggravated assault on June 20 revealed "sloppy police work"

Detectives allege Johnson "deliberately attempted" to leave a .40 caliber casing at the scene and "not process it for evidence," the force said in a statement. "In addition, detectives learned that Officer Johnson recovered a box of unused .40 caliber bullets at the scene and did not process it as evidence."

While Johnson told detectives he did not remember where he had left the box of bullets, "shortly after the interview, detectives observed Johnson removing the box of bullets from his vehicle and throwing them out of the window while driving," the statement said. "Johnson admitted to throwing the box of bullets out of his window," it added.

"I am extremely disgusted and outraged by the lack of professionalism and integrity shown by this officer," NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said. "This is an example of sloppy police work with a clear intent to cover it up, and it will not stand."

Johnson has been arrested for obstruction of justice, theft and malfeasance in office.

Three Oakland County children who refused to go to lunch with their father, as part of a bitter divorce and custody battle between their parents, are spending their summer in the county’s juvenile detention center, according to court records.

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The children — ranging in age from 9 to 15 — were deemed in contempt of court last month by Gorcyca for disobeying her orders to “have a healthy relationship with your father.

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An Oakland County circuit judge who sent three children to a juvenile detention facility for refusing to speak to their father compared the kids to cult leader Charles Manson.

Oakland Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca declared the children of Maya Tsimhoni in contempt of court last month and ordered them held at Oakland County Children’s Village until they attempt to have a relationship with their father or they turn 18.

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“I ordered you to talk to your father. You chose not to talk to your father. You defied a direct court order. It’s direct contempt so I’m finding you guilty of civil contempt.”

The boy responded: “But he was the one that (did) something wrong. I thought there (were) rules .. for not hitting someone.”

“You’re supposed to have a high IQ, which I’m doubting right now because of the way you act,” Gorcyca said.

“You’re very defiant. You have no manners … There is no reason why you do not have a relationship with your father . . .

It then got especially weird.

“You need to do a research program on Charlie Manson and the cult that he has … You have bought yourself living in Children’s Village, going to the bathroom in public, and maybe summer school.”

Gorcyca forbid the mother or anyone from her side of the family from visiting the boy.

A review hearing was scheduled for Sept. 8.

“You are so mentally messed up right now and it’s not because of your father,” Gorcyca said.

In one 8-hour shift, and on one stretch of I-275 in Livonia, Michigan State Police wrote over 300 tickets for speeding, seatbelt violations, and other miscellaneous “violations” designed to collect revenue from drivers.

According to the MSP, this was done for the safety of motorists. The tens of thousands of dollars in revenue generation for the department is but a mere bonus for these cops who are just doing their duty by extorting folks for not wearing their seatbelts.

Five people were arrested and 202 drivers got off with a minor scolding (verbal warning) instead of the standard practice of extortion.

The typical definition of a pirate, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is: someone who attacks and steals from a ship at sea. Attacking and stealing from a person on land, via a motorized vehicle, on a public road, would make someone a road pirate.

Road piracy in the US has reached epic proportions. It has gotten so bad that the Canadian government has issued a public service announcement for its citizens warning them that American police officers may very well rob them upon entry into the US.


The total number of people who receive speeding tickets only, is 41,000,000 a year with an average cost of $152.00 each. That is 1 in every 5 licensed drivers in the US.

The total number of speeding tickets paid each year $6,232,000,000. Tack on seat belt violations, license plate lights, window tint, rolling stop signs, and expired state-mandated documents and that number skyrockets.

It is, quite literally, highway robbery conducted on behalf of the ones who claim to keep us “safe.”

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police aren't justified in asking people they stop if they have a weapon -- if officers are only asking out of general concern for their own safety.

The high court threw out an unlawful-weapon conviction of a 19-year-old man stopped by an Oregon State Police trooper on Jan. 24, 2011 under suspicion of jaywalking at Southeast 122nd Avenue and Division Street in Portland.

The trooper asked Joseph Lucio Jimenez if he had any weapons on him, and Jimenez said yes, a gun, according to the court's summary of the case. Without being asked, Jimenez then put his arms on the hood of the trooper's car so he could be handcuffed.

The officer said he always asks pedestrians he stops if they have weapons for "officer safety reasons." But the Supreme Court said that isn't enough: To question pedestrians or drivers during traffic-related stops, police must have a good, specific reason that leads them to believe they might be in danger.