On Tuesday, Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves and his heroic team of militarized storm troopers descended on the home of a single mom and her four kids. Upon removing the mother and her four children from the house, police entered into a 20-hour-long standoff — with the empty house.

According to Sheriff Groves, police were looking for Doug Alexius, a suspect wanted on a misdemeanor count of assaulting a law enforcement officer and another drug-related charge. Upon entering the home, the team used a ‘hi-tech’ and expensive infrared camera that showed them Alexius was hiding in the attic. Incorrectly believing Alexius was in the attic, they backed out and a 20-hour long standoff ensued.

“Time is on our side,” the sheriff said during their heated standoff with an empty house. “We have the luxury of being able to rotate officers out. At some point, he’s going to have to come out of there.”

After not breaking things or killing anyone for 19 hours, the officers became restless, said to hell with the Sheriff’s strategy of waiting for him to come out, and proceeded to storm the home.

A SWAT truck with a battering ram attached was used to poke holes and tear apart the house in an attempt to drive the nonexistent suspect out. As deputies became unable to find him, they began taking their frustration out on couches, beds, lamps, clothing, toys, and even the family’s Christmas tree was ripped through a window and smashed to bits.

The entire time, Nita Lane, the homeowner, was trying to tell the cops that Alexius was not there and does not live there.

The sheriff, quite expectedly, remains unapologetic. Despite being told by the victim that Alexius was not in her house, Groves maintains that his officers acted in the best possible manner.

“It appeared using that tool [infra-red camera] there was somebody in the attic. As it turns out, now we know that was incorrect. But nonetheless that was the information we were operating under at the time,” said Groves.

“Some may suggest you just rush in, and we could have cleared that house in a matter of minutes. But if there was a suspect in there and would have shot one of our officers or something else happened, and he was able to breach the perimeter and jeopardize the safety of the residents nearby, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” Groves continued entirely missing his own point.

Groves did eventually “rush in and clear the house.” Just because it took him 20-hours to decide to do it, doesn’t change that fact at all.

Friends and neighbors like Vonda Macklin came to the aid of the family and were outside the next day picking up their belongings that were strewn across the yard.

“It’s like the destroying of your dream you know,” said Macklin. “Probably the hardest part is just seeing they ripped their Christmas tree apart, and out their window it goes.”

Instead of apologizing or offering to help clean up the mess he and his crony soldiers made, Groves refers the victim to some vague FBI program that allegedly cleans up after cops wrongly destroy a family’s home.

The Free Thought Project spoke with the victim’s neighbor, Vonda, who said the SWAT team, “left holes in ceiling, all the windows were smashed out, holes in were left in the side of the house” and they literally “ripped her Christmas tree apart,” using a set of claws on the front of a vehicle.

Christmas and the foreseeable future for this single mother and her four children, aged 3-15, are ruined – thanks to Galena’s finest.

Vonda tells the Free Thought Project that “Lane is the type of lady that won’t take anything from anyone.” However, we still want to help her.

The Free Thought Project has started a Go Fund Me Campaign to raise funds for Ms. Lane and her children.

A Baltimore Police officer has been banned from the city courthouses after an incident last month in which he was caught filming a witness and a television reporter in a courthouse hallway, the city sheriff's office confirmed.

The incident is the latest trouble for Officer Fabien Laronde, who has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits. A group of defense attorneys met Wednesday to begin an organized push to access his internal affairs file, which was turned over to one public defender but remains under seal.

"This officer is notorious," said assistant public defender Deborah Levi, who has the officer's file. "I have had hundreds of clients complaint to me that he stole money when he arrested them, that he plants evidence and was disrespectful and dehumanizing."

...

Laronde got in his latest trouble with the sheriff's office during a Nov. 30 hearing over his internal affairs file.

Levi, representing a man charged in a drug case, had called a witness from one of Laronde's internal affairs complaints to testify about the officer's credibility.

...

Laronde has been sued several times for on-duty incidents. In 2012, the city paid $155,000 to settle a case involving Laronde and two other officers in which a man said the officers illegally searched his car and strip searched him for drugs.

Also that year, a civil jury awarded a man $40,000 for an incident in which Laronde and another officer were accused of accosting a civil records clerk in the courthouse, accusing him of being a gang member and taking his picture. A supervisor in the records office intervened.

In July 2013, the city paid $1,500 to a man who alleged that Laronde stole $770 from him during a 2011 arrest, records show.

In October, Laronde was suspended with pay after an incident in a convenience store, though police declined to explain what type of incident occurred.

Internal affairs files are generally sealed and inaccessible to the public in Maryland, but attorneys have been able to obtain such files under seal for review and can petition a judge that certain information is relevant to the credibility of the officers.

"One judge has delivered [Laronde's] internal affairs file to me, while most of the other judges deny any access at all, while some are granting partial access," Levi said.

Levi said attorneys are "organizing our approach" to making the contents of Laronde's internal affairs file open to other attorneys. "They're withholding information that we are entitled to on this particular officer," she said.

Officer Nick Caniglia of the Omaha Police Department is in hot water after viral video surfaced Thursday showing him punching a student in the face repeatedly.

The video, which was posted to Twitter at approximately 4 PM Thursday afternoon, shows 15 seconds of a fight between students at Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, and OPD officer Caniglia forcing himself between a group of students to stop the fight. Then, without provocation, Caniglia starts punching a student in the face multiple times. According to the student who posted the video, the student getting punched wasn’t swinging during the fight.

In 2011, Marc Patrick O’Leary was arrested on charges that he’d viciously raped at least three women in the state of Colorado. In his home, police found underwear belonging to the victims, gloves and sneakers matching prints left behind in the victims’ homes, and a pink camera he’d stolen from one of the women. On the camera, among other things, were photographs of him raping a then-18-year-old girl, who had recently been prosecuted for filing a false police report about the rape.

The story isn’t new. In 2014, after O’Leary’s arrest, the 18-year-old victim—a young woman interchangeably referred to as “DM” and by her middle name, Marie—won a well-publicized $150,000 settlement from the county. But Marie’s account of her ordeal is new, and her story, summarized by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller for the Marshall Project, is horrifying. How could a young woman get raped, try to report her crime, and end up pleading guilty to filing a false report? Apparently, all too easily.

Because O’Leary—who is currently serving 327 years in prison for the attacks—followed the same MO for each of his victims: He’d break into his victim’s home, tie her up, rape her, and leave with her clothes and bedsheets. He’d take photographs of him assaulting the women and would threaten to release them on the internet if they reported the attack to police.

While there would eventually be at least four victims in all (one of whom managed to escape), Marie was his first, and she filed a report with the police that very same day.

Then, three days after she reported the assault, the investigating officers—Sgt. Jeffrey Mason and Sgt. Jerry Rittgarn—called Marie back to the station. They explained to Marie that they thought she was lying and wanted her to confess. After a long discussion, she wrote: “When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me.”
Finally she wrote a second statement, apologizing for making the story up. A few days later, she tried to recant that statement, saying she’d been coerced.
Marie ultimately left the police station without withdrawing her statement.

And then things got worse: She was charged with filing a false report. And to make matters even worse, Marie—who had grown up in foster care and was living on her own for the first time—did not have a lawyer. So she took a plea deal with probation that, among other things, required her to attend a mental health counselor for lying.

In the meantime, O’Leary continued to rape: First a 65-year-old fraternity house mother, then a 59-year-old widow. Then a 26-year-old student. He’d also tried to attack a 46-year-old artist, who escaped by jumping out a seven-foot window.

After a long and thorough investigation, detailed exhaustively in the Marshall Project report, police zeroed in on O’Leary. They’d had no idea Marie was a victim until they found the photos on his camera. One was a close-up of her driver’s license.

The two officers who charged her with lying were never disciplined, though Mason expressed regret for the way he handled the case, telling reporters, “It wasn’t her job to try to convince me. In hindsight, it was my job to get to the bottom of it — and I didn’t.” The police station says it follows new guidelines, among them: Investigators need “definitive proof” of lying to accuse the victim of filing a false report, and higher-ups have to approve false report charges.

But their actions hurt more than just Marie. O’Leary would later tell police, “If Washington had just paid attention a little bit more, I probably would have been a person of interest earlier on.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's recent transition to a new handgun for deputies has coincided with a sharp increase in accidental shootings, "putting officers and the public at risk," according to a newly released report.

Despite efforts to address the problem, the risk associated with the new Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm "remains substantial," according to the report by Los Angeles County Inspector General Max Huntsman.

"There is a continued risk that either LASD employees or civilians may be seriously wounded or killed by an unintended discharge," Huntsman wrote.

He said further study and steps to mitigate the problem are needed "before a tragedy occurs."

A handful of deputies have been injured in accidental shootings in recent years, according to the report. No suspects or bystanders have been hurt in the incidents.

The report, an advance copy of which was obtained by CNN, found that a sheriff's department training program for deputies converting to the new gun is inadequate.

"We conclude that the current training program is insufficient to overcome old habits learned on other handguns," the 52-page report states. "As a result, many deputies appear to be to undertrained for the weapon they are using."

Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers, a top aide to Sheriff Jim McDonnell, said in an interview Wednesday that department officials had noted the trend with accidental discharges associated with the gun prior to the IG's report and independently took steps to address the problem.

"We welcome the IG's input as to some things we can do better," Rogers said, "but we saw this coming before any outside pressure caused us to respond."

Rogers noted that accidents were down so far this year, which he attributed to the department's efforts to mitigate the problem.

The department went to the new gun, in part, because it is easier to handle and easier to shoot accurately, particularly for people with small hands. The gun comes with a smaller grip and requires significantly less pressure to pull the trigger than the Beretta 9mm that had been standard issue in the sheriff's department for years.

The LASD began issuing the Smith & Wesson to all new recruits going through the academy beginning in 2013. Veteran deputies were allowed to transition to the gun if they took an eight-hour training course. The department has since issued about 6,100 of the handguns to its deputies.

The IG found that "as soon as widespread use of the new gun by field deputies commenced, there was a marked increase in tactical unintended discharges -- that is, deputies firing weapons without intending to do so during police operations."

In 2014, "after substantial adoption of the new weapon in patrol settings," the report noted, accidental discharges in the field shot up by more than 500% -- from three in 2012 to 19.

Sixteen of the accidents involved deputies armed with handguns, the report found. Fifteen of those were carrying the Smith & Wesson.

So far in 2015, LASD deputies have been involved in 18 such shootings; 14 involved the Smith & Wesson, according to the report.

That figure is down from the dramatic increase in 2014, but still represents a 61% rise from the year before the gun was introduced, Huntsman's report states.

The IG's review found several factors that "apparently contributed" to accidents with the gun since its introduction:

--The weapon lacks an external safety;

--It's more sensitive than the Beretta;

--And a light mounted to the gun and activated by deputies squeezing a pressure switch on the handle has led to confusion in some incidents, with "a significant number of deputies reporting that they unintentionally pulled the trigger of their weapon when they intended only to turn on the light."

Adding to the problem was some deputies violating a basic firearms safety rule by placing their finger on the trigger prior to making the conscious decision to fire, the report states.

The IG recommended the sheriff beef up the department's training program for deputies converting to the gun beyond the eight hours currently given, noting that "few agencies consider that amount sufficient."

The IG also recommended an "in-depth" analysis to determine whether the pressure grip light switch was warranted.

A northwest suburb of Chicago has agreed to pay $875,000 to a woman who accused a police officer of using excessive force after a DUI arrest.

Court documents show two separate settlements have been reached with Cassandra Feuerstein, according to the Chicago Tribune. Feuerstein filed a lawsuit against the Skokie Police Department after she said former Officer Michael Hart seriously injured her during a drunk driving arrest in
March 2013.

Feuerstein, now 48, was arrested for DUI after officers found her pulled over at the side of the road and asleep behind the wheel.

Surveillance video released in 2013 attracted much attention, as it appeared to show the officer throwing Feuerstein back into her cell, launching her face-first into a cement bench.

Feuerstein claimed several bones were shattered in her face, and that she suffered nerve damage from the injury. She said she needed reconstructive surgery and a titanium plate in her cheek.

A written apology by Hart was read aloud before Judge Matthew Coghlan imposed the sentence.

"I did not intend to or want to harm you in any way," Hart said. "I acted in frustration and not out of anger or meanness.

"I'm sorry for the injuries I caused you," he said. "I hope you can accept my heartfelt apology."

A former Memphis police officer was found guilty of multiple rape and incest charges Thursday evening.

Cornelius Monger, 36, was found guilty by a jury of statutory rape by an authority figure, sexual battery by an authority figure, and incest. He will be sentenced on Jan. 15 by criminal court Judge Glenn Wright, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said in a press release.

The victim and witnesses testified during the trial that the abuse began when the victim was 15 and continued for years.

Monger's father, Henry Monger, is currently serving a 15-year sentence for raping the same victim and her siblings. Henry Monger, 64, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of rape of a child and one other rape charge. One of the victims said he began abusing her when she was 10-years-old, according to investigators.

Henry's wife Barbara is set for trial in February. She has been charged with allegedly telling the victims not to cooperate with officers investigating Henry's actions.

Cornelius Monger served at the Old Allen Station from 2006 to 2013, Weirich said. He was fired due to the allegations.

A New York police officer faces four years in jail for the felony charge of falsifying a statement after arresting an innocent man and accusing him of attacking officers.

Officer Jonathan Munoz, 32, accused Jason Disisto, 21, of punching him with a closed fist during an altercation in Manhattan's Washington Heights in 2014.

However, surveillance footage shows Disisto was merely trying to film Officer Munoz as he searched his friend's pockets without warning.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis released footage on Tuesday of a local police officer fatally shooting a mentally-ill homeless man almost instantly upon spotting him, while defending her decision not to press charges in connection with the incident, KGTV-TV reported.

Indicted on five counts, including felony murder and reckless homicide, Pike County Deputy Joel Jenkins was officially reinstated on Tuesday after the sheriff recently fired him for shooting his neighbor to death while drunk. Although the police union fought to reinstate the negligent deputy, the sheriff refuses to place him back on duty or issue him another paycheck.

At 11:40 p.m. on December 3, Deputy Jenkins called the non-emergency line at the sheriff’s office to report his neighbor, Jason Brady, 40, had been accidentally shot. Officers arrived to find Brady deceased with a bullet wound to the head. Clearly inebriated, Jenkins admitted to killing his neighbor while showing off a gun that he possibly received from Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk.

Charged with involuntary manslaughter, Jenkins was arrested the next day and fired later that weekend. On December 10, a special grand jury indicted Jenkins for reckless homicide, involuntary manslaughter, and tampering with evidence in the case of his neighbor’s death. According to neighbors, Brady used to feed and walk Jenkins’ police dog.

Jenkins was also charged with felony murder and reckless homicide for the March 28 death of Robert Rooker, 26. Officers began pursuing Rooker for driving 52-mph in a 45-mph zone. After crashing his vehicle, Rooker died after Jenkins reportedly shot him to death. Placed on paid administrative leave for his involvement in Rooker’s death, Jenkins was drunk and off-duty when he admittedly killed Brady a few months later.

Even though Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader fired Jenkins earlier this month, the police union representing the disgraced deputy fought to have Jenkins reinstated during a pre-disciplinary hearing on Tuesday. According to Catherine Brockman, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, Ohio Labor Council Inc., Sheriff Reader violated the union contract when he fired Jenkins without due process.

Although Reader declared he has no intention of ever paying Jenkins again, Pike County Labor Consultant Bob Cross stated, “We may owe the gentleman a few days pay.”

Determined to fire Jenkins again, Reader believes the union is merely attempting to preserve some pay for the fallen deputy. But Reader announced, “He will never work in this department again.”

On the night of December 4, Carol LaDue and her husband Richard were travelling along County Route 37 near Massena, when they saw an injured woman lying in the road.

The woman was 33-year-old Ashley McDonald, who’d just been hit by a car and was dying.

As the couple got out of their vehicle to render aid to McDonald, they were savagely attacked by McDonald’s husband, Bryan, a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Out of nowhere, the off-duty public servant rushes in on the Good Samaritans and begins brutally beating this elderly couple. The LaDues were nearly killed by this out of control maniac.

“I think he would have beat her to death, I really do, because there was no stopping the man. He was just out of control and very, very aggressive,” said Richard.

Richard suffered a broken nose and multiple lacerations, while his wife suffered a concussion, sprained hand, bruises and a massive head wound.

For the first time since this attack, the couple, who are in their 60’s, are speaking out in an interview with WNYF.

“He was really out of control. The next thing you know, I put my hands up, he popped me in the head and knocked me unconscious,” said Carol.

“His wife was laying in the road, and all we were doing was trying to help the guy and to have that kind of reaction, like he didn’t want anyone near the body,” said Richard.

The couple and authorities are now left with more questions than answers.

That night, Bryan McDonald was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault. He was almost immediately released under probation supervision and faced no other charges, in spite of the fact that authorities still have no idea why his wife was lying in the road that night.

Investigators only know that Ashley McDonald was lying in the road when she was struck and killed by a vehicle operated by 32-year-old Megan Phelix. Why she was in the road, remains a mystery.

“My big question is why was she in the road? Did she fall there? Did she walk out there and fall down? Did he hit her? Who knows? We don’t really know,” said Carol.

According to the LaDues, McDonald was not grieving or showing any signs of sadness or worry when they arrived. He was merely standing there silently before attacking them.

“I’m not sure it was all grief because it was just very unnatural because normally you would be over the body and crying or screaming or something and he was quiet when I got there, and he became angry as soon as I took a couple of steps forward and that’s when he came at me,” said Carol.

One can only imagine how Ashley McDonald ended up in the road that fateful night. However, one thing is clear, Bryan McDonald is more than willing to attack and savagely beat innocent and vulnerable individuals, who mean only to do good. And, this threat to society is out on the loose.

In 2004 the Republic of Georgia fired 30,000 police officers due to corruption and built glass police stations to encourage an image of transparency.

Since then crime in Georgia has dropped and the public confidence in the police has risen drastically.

Exonerated in the murders of two teenagers after almost 20 years in prison, Daniel Villegas claims El Paso police suppressed evidence of his innocence, coerced a false confession and “completely corrupted the investigative process.”

Villegas, 38, sued El Paso, former Chief of Police John Scagno, investigators Alfonso Marquez, Scott Graves, Earl Arbogast, Joe Laredo and four other officers who worked on the case, on Thursday in Federal Court.

He claims the officers used threats of inmate rape, death by electric chair and actual physical assaults to coerce a false statement from him and other teenagers who corroborated their bogus account of the 1993 crime.

Villegas was released from a Texas prison on bond last year after a judge threw out a confession and the state’s highest criminal court overturned his capital murder conviction and ordered a new trial.

Villegas was 16 years old in 1993 when Armando Lazo,17, and Robert England,18, were murdered walking home from a party around midnight on Good Friday. The drive-by killings shook the border town already besieged by gang violence, and filled the community with even more fear.

The case has drawn national attention and was featured on a recent episode of the NBC news show “Dateline.”

Although the jury hung at his first trial, a second jury convicted Villegas of the slayings in 1995 and sentenced him to life in prison.

Douglas County sheriff’s deputies got the call around 8:20 p.m. Monday. The security guard for a mobile home park in Douglasville, Ga., said he had just been held at gunpoint for 45 minutes as he made his evening rounds.

That was around the same time that Bobby Daniels, 48, got the frantic calls from loved ones — his 25-year-old son Bias was having an emotional breakdown, he had a gun and had just been holding a hostage.

Bobby Daniels beat the deputies there, and according to family members talked his despondent son into putting the weapon down on the hood of a car. Moments later, the father of five was shot twice — not by his son, but by a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy.

Daniels’ death is one of more than 960 fatal police shootings by on-duty police officers in 2015, according to a Washington Post database, and the 246th black person to be fatally shot by the police this year.

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A cop faces criminal charges after state police say the officer lied about being attacked on the job.

It was back in September when West Penn Township Police Officer Melissa Ruch claimed she was assaulted during a traffic stop, but now state police say she made it all up and she is now facing criminal charges.

Melissa Ruch is facing misdemeanor charges for lying to police. She's also suspended without pay from her job as a cop with the West Penn Township Police Department.

Ruch claimed she was attacked in September during a traffic stop on Route 309 south of Tamaqua. She ended up 20 feet down an embankment.

No one ever found the person who assaulted her. State police say that's because it never happened. Now she is facing charges for making up the whole thing.

West Penn Township Supervisor James Akins spoke with Ruch on Wednesday.

"I will say she is frustrated. She seems surprised with the timeliness of everything and she was taking it to the next level," said Akins.

State police determined Ruch was lying when they spoke with witnesses who never saw the dark-colored Nissan Maxima Ruch said she pulled over. Testing also determined that Ruch's Taser was never fired at a person like she claimed. Ruch also said her dashcam video wasn't working that day.

Since then, West Penn Township got new cameras for police cruisers.

"We've taken steps to ensure that that does not happen again."

A few days after the alleged attack, Ruch was honored on Patriot Day by Schuylkill County and state officials for her bravery during the attack. But at the event, she dodged our cameras and didn't want to talk.

The Department of Justice announced this week that it's suspending a controversial program that allows local police departments to keep a large portion of assets seized from citizens under federal law and funnel it into their own coffers.

The "equitable-sharing" program gives police the option of prosecuting asset forfeiture cases under federal instead of state law. Federal forfeiture policies are more permissive than many state policies, allowing police to keep up to 80 percent of assets they seize -- even if the people they took from are never charged with a crime.

The DOJ is suspending payments under this program due to budget cuts included in the recent spending bill.

...


Asset forfeiture has become an increasingly contentious practice in recent years. It lets police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted — and in many cases, never charged — with wrongdoing. Recent reports have found that the use of the practice has exploded in recent years, prompting concern that, in some cases, police are motivated more by profits and less by justice.

Criminal justice reformers are cheering the change. "This is a significant deal," said Lee McGrath, legislative counsel at the Institute for Justice, in an interview. "Local law enforcement responds to incentives. And it's clear that one of the biggest incentives is the relative payout from federal versus state forfeiture. And this announcement by the DOJ changes the playing field for which law state and local [law enforcement] is going to prefer."