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A 23-year veteran of Washington, DC's Metropolitan Police Department has pled guilty to secretly videotaping his adult stepdaughter while she was undressing. Detective Keith Tabron, who had been named a "Detective of the Year" in 2012, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of video surveillance with prurient intent in July. According to court records, Tabron spied his stepdaughter at least 50 times over the course of nine months, videotaping her in the bathroom as she was getting in and out of the shower, as well as in her bedroom as she was undressing. RT's Sam Sacks looks at the latest scandal to hit the police force in the nation's capital in the past month.

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BRIDGEPORT - Protesters in Bridgeport are demanding that criminal charges be filed against the police officer who accidentally shot himself at a bagel shop last week.

Officer Juan Santiago shot himself in the leg at the Bagel King on Main Street. Police say the gun used in the shooting was not his service weapon.

Demonstrators gathered outside police headquarters yesterday. They say officer Santiago should have been charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment.

Many of the protesters are licensed gun carriers. One resident, Elizabeth Drysdale, said, "Had that been me, my permit would have been revoked, my firearms would have been seized, and I would have been arrested on the spot."

City officials say state police are investigating the incident, and the officer is out on sick leave.

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United States military police are prohibited from enacting state police powers and domestic police officer powers under the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law passed in 1878.

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(STMW) – A veteran Chicago Police officer is accused of shoving an elderly gas station customer in Oak Lawn, leaving the 89-year-old man with a broken hip, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday, the Sun-Times is reporting.

David Barrett allegedly became upset on Dec. 12 when a pump began malfunctioning at a Shell gas station, near 105th Street and Cicero, and went inside to complain.

The victim, who was in line in front of the 58-year-old Barrett, asked him to calm down, prosecutors said. Barrett reacted by pushing the senior citizen in the chest with his hands, causing him to fall, prosecutors said.

The elderly man broke his right hip from the fall and required surgery, prosecutors said. He also tore his right rotator cuff as a result of the tumble...

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Tanner said shortly after deputies arrived, the man in handcuffs fell ill, and medical help was summoned. Deputies then removed the handcuffs from the man and performed CPR while waiting for medics to arrive. The man was transported by ambulance to Navarro Regional Hospital where he died. - See more at: Man dies after incident involving off-duty Malakoff officer » Latest News » Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas

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DALLAS — A Central Texas man accused of capital murder for killing a sheriff's deputy thought someone was breaking into his home when he grabbed his rifle and opened fire, the suspect's attorney said Monday.

Henry Goedrich Magee gunned down Sgt. Adam Sowders on Thursday while Sowders and other investigators executed a search warrant, the Burleson County Sheriff's Office said. A district attorney described the warrant as being drug-related.

But Magee's attorney, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, called the fatal shooting a tragic accident. He said Magee was asleep and didn't know sheriff's deputies were entering his rural home near Somerville, about 90 miles northwest of Houston.

"Hank, like any homeowner, defended himself and his pregnant girlfriend," DeGuerin said Monday.

DeGuerin said sheriff's deputies did not knock on the door or announce who they were when they entered the home just before 6 a.m. Thursday.

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Hear Charmie Gholson of Michigan Moms United tell the head shaking story of a family that had their young child taken by drug warriors. Learn how they successfully fought back and how families can protect themselves from Drug Warriors everywhere.

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McALLEN — On Tuesday morning, a federal judge ordered Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Jose "Joe" Padilla held until a detention hearing scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday.

Federal agents watched silently from the courtroom benches as Padilla acknowledged the indictment, which charged him with money laundering and conspiracy to possess and distribute 1,000 pounds of marijuana.

Filed Dec. 20, the indictment was unsealed Monday. It's a superseding indictment in a drug conspiracy case against Tomas R. "El Gallo" Gonzalez and 10 other men.

If convicted on the narcotics conspiracy charge, Padilla faces 10 years to life in federal prison and a maximum fine of $10 million.


UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Padilla also is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

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UPDATE 11:12 a.m.: Cmdr. Jose “Joe” Padilla is in federal court now. He was brought in through the back entrance. The charge is conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

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COMMODORE, Pa. (AP) - A western Pennsylvania man is jailed on charges he stole a pair of handcuffs he was wearing when he allegedly escaped from a state police cruiser.

Troopers say 29-year-old Douglas Lydic, of Commodore, was handcuffed but not yet charged while they searched a scene in his hometown for drugs Sunday night.

Police have yet to charge him in that case but say he climbed out a cruiser window while cuffed and wound up at his girlfriend's home miles away.

Court records don't list an attorney for Lydic, who also faces a charge of escape at a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 2.

He's been in the Indiana County Jail since he was re-arrested Monday morning at his girlfriend's home. She's being held on charges of hindering his apprehension by police.

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A recent Houston Chronicle investigation showed more than one-fourth of civilians shot by HPD from 2008 to 2012 were unarmed, and apparently none of the 121 shootings in that time frame were captured by dash cameras.

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(This story is somewhat long but I imagine it’s worth hearing and retelling. TL;DR at the bottom for your consideration)

Long time lurker and fan of the reddit community, this is one of my first posts. Don't know who else to turn to. Fox, NRA, and a handful of blogs and other pages haven't gotten back to me

I was recently back in NY visiting family for the holidays when I encountered the most horrific display of incompetence and borderline corruption from the NYPD that I have ever heard of. I grew up in Brooklyn and spent the majority of my life there until recently moving to Denver, CO this past July. While back for the holidays I was picking up some things that I had been meaning to bring out to Denver with me including two airsoft rifles that I had stored in Brooklyn after purchasing them in Pennsylvania. I brought them in a locked case to LaGuardia and went to check in at the counter. While legally I didn't actually have to declare them since they are not real firearms, I chose to notify the Delta employees of the contents of my bag and asked if I could check them as firearms so that TSA didn't pull me off my flight saying that there was something suspicious in my luggage. None of the Delta employees had ever checked a firearm before and didn't know what they were doing so they called over a Port Authority police officer to inspect my luggage. The Port Authority officer told me that it is illegal to possess airsoft guns in NYC and that I was being written a citation and the guns were being confiscated. I briefly tried to explain that what I was doing was actually not in violation of any laws because they had been in my possession for less than 24 hours, were being transported in a discreet and locked container, and were exiting the city (which could not be more obvious because I was standing at the Delta check in counter). The officer proceeded to unlawfully write me a citation and while doing so, told me I had a warrant out for my arrest from an unanswered summons over 2 years ago. This is where things start to get ridiculous.

The summons was for having a knife in "plain view" while actually I had a 1.5" folding pocket knife clipped on the inside of my pocket. The officer saw the clip alone and searched me (which I couldn't argue due to stop-and-frisk), took the knife, and wrote me a summons. When I went to the courthouse to answer for it over two years ago, I was told that they had no record of the charge and that it had either been dismissed already or the officer never filed the report. I assumed the latter and that he had just stolen my knife and had no way of knowing any better. In the years following I have passed multiple background checks for my jobs in the firearms industry, background checks for my rifle/shotgun permit in NYC, background checks for firearm purchases, and background checks for rental and apartment applications as well as a handful of other things totaling about 30 background checks in both in NYC and CO. I was NEVER notified of any warrant and passed every check. I also never received any mail from the state at my address which had not changed for the entirety of the time I lived in NYC after getting that charge.

Once it was brought to light that I had this warrant, I was put into handcuffs in front of my mother and sister who were seeing me off to my flight and taken to the Port Authority police station near LaGuardia. The officers proceeded to mock me for my "illegal toys" and I was detained there for several hours. I was then transferred over to central booking in Queens where I spent the rest of the night with a cast of delightful characters and sleeping on the concrete floor. I was told that I would have an arraignment at 9am and was moved to a holding cell adjacent to the courtroom at 830 where I then waited until 330pm.

My state appointed counsel told me she was hopeful that both charges would be dismissed. I stepped into the arraignment and the judge told me that the knife in plain view charge had been dismissed and I was being charged with a non criminal misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace which doesn't make any sense to me because I was in no way "disturbing any peace" but they didn't even know how to prosecute my charge and just gave me that.

My counsel told me that I could fight the charge but she wasn't sure if she could win and I would need to have multiple court dates going forward. This simply wasn't an option for me because I can't afford any more plane tickets; I'm barely making rent and car payments each month as it is. On top of that, I resume school on the 14th of January. I had no choice but to agree to pay $270 in fines under duress so I could return to Colorado to work and get ready for school to start. As one final insult I was told that my property would not be returned to me and with that I had to get to the airport as I was already running late for my new flight.

I honestly don’t know what can be done at this point if anything. I’d like to have my property returned to me here in Colorado if there is any way that anyone can assist or advise me but more so I would just like to let people know of this ridiculous story and hope that going forward some of the more ridiculous laws from the Bloomberg administration will eventually be tossed out.

TL;DR while legally transporting toy guns and taking every precaution possible to stay safe and within the law I wound up getting incarcerated, spent the night in bookings, got fined $270, lost over $1500 in personal property, and obviously had to get a new flight home. I hate Michael Bloomberg and slightly resent the NYPD

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A Torrance police officer who was fired in 1998 and filed a long-running series of legal actions in an attempt to win his job back has apparently exhausted his options.

The final legal tab for Torrance taxpayers was nearly $570,000, believed to be the largest amount ever spent by the city to defend itself against a former police officer.

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A Toronto police officer recently testified in court that he has stripped “hundreds” of people completely naked as part of routine searches, despite police policy stating that must not be done.

Const. Sasa Sljivo’s shocking admission came during a trial for Lerondo Smith, charged with drug trafficking and breaching conditions.

To strip someone completely naked is against rules laid out by the Supreme Court in 2001. Any evidence discovered during a fully naked search can be deemed a breach of charter rights and tossed from court, thereby jeopardizing a case.

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The checkpoint was among several being carried out in Pennsylvania by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

City Police Chief William M. Heim said the two federal agencies are trying to see what can be done about crashes and injuries, and the swabs were not to get DNA samples but to test for the presence of prescription drugs.

The checkpoint was supposed to be voluntary, but Nieves said he had to refuse several times over a five-minute period before the woman taking the survey let him go.

...

Heim said city police were hired for site security only, since the survey takers were paying money for answers and for the swabs.

But he said city police did not pull motorists over, nor ask any questions, and in fact were asked to stay away from the cars.

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Council members also were upset, and said if local police are there, it appears they are operating the checkpoint.

Councilman Dennis M. Sterner was livid that government can't pick up local drug dealers without a two-year investigation, but can stop motorists at random.

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The latest antics of the animal abusing psychopaths of the Philadelphia Gun Club (PGC) is the theft in broad daylight of signs belonging to Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). These thugs have the mayor, administrators and police in town of Bensalem, Pennsylvania so completely in their pockets, that they couldn't care less if their criminal behavior is filmed.

SHARK has demonstrated the corruption of Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo and the Bensalem Police Department for more than four years. Animal abusing cowards are allowed to cover their license plates, use their vehicles as weapons of intimidation, hit people on the Delaware River with shotgun blasts, and of course to commit outrageous violations of Pennsylvania humane law 5511, which prohibits the cruel treatment, neglect and abandonment of animals.

Mayor DiGirolamo and the police have refused to stop the criminal behavior of the rich psychopaths of the PGC. We at SHARK are hoping you might give the Bensalem Police a call and ask them why they are refusing to do their job and allowing the continued and escalating violations of civilian rights.

The phone number of the Bensalem Police Department is (215) 633-3700

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A dog in Volusia County is recovering after being shot by police, its owner said.

Richard Stotlar said Lady, which he rescued more than a year ago, is now stitched up and in pain after being shot three times about midnight Friday on Elsie Avenue in Holly Hill.

“I was sitting in there, watching TV, and all of a sudden we hear three gunshots,” Stotlar said.

Stotlar said he ran outside and saw officers in his backyard with Lady surrounded. Officers said the dog made an aggressive move.

“She is a big baby. She is not a vicious animal,” Stotlar said.

He said it started when officers came banging on his door, trying to serve a search warrant on a prostitute who Stotlar said doesn't live there.

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“They didn’t even investigate to see where this person lived. I Googled her on my phone, and she was arrested on Nov. 28, so she might still be in jail,” Stotlar said.

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The lawsuit alleges 40-year-old Antonio Johnson, of Glasgow Village, was shocked multiple times with a stun gun and beaten until he lost consciousness when he was arrested in July on suspicion of drunken driving.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the suit was filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court. It also says that Johnson was left handcuffed on the floor of the Hazelwood city jail for several hours before an ambulance was called.

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Boston police are clashing with the city's incoming mayor over a proposal to arm some officers with AR-15 rifles.

Mayor-elect Martin Walsh came out against the plan over the weekend. The Boston Police Department had been pushing for a limited number of officers to carry the high-powered rifles, in light of recent mass shootings as well as the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year.

But after the incoming mayor initially stayed mum on the idea, a spokeswoman for Walsh said he's not on board -- not yet, anyway.

"Mayor-elect Walsh is opposed to the AR-15 rifles," spokeswoman Kathryn Norton told FoxNews.com in an email. "Unless otherwise convinced by the Boston Police Department, he does not think they are necessary."

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Four suspects have been arrested after a bizarre, early-morning home invasion in Lincoln Heights on Saturday that ended with a resident tying up two of the armed men.

The suspects, armed with a shotgun and three handguns, allegedly entered a house on the 2600 block of Alta Street in Lincoln Heights, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department. The resident, who was the only person home at the time, saw the suspects on a home surveillance system and called 911 about 2:40 a.m., she said.

As police and SWAT units arrived, one suspect was seen fleeing the scene, and was immediately apprehended by officers.

Two other suspects remained in the house, while the fourth ran and hid, Eisenman said.

The two men inside then allegedly told the resident to identify them to police as victims too, and convinced the resident to tie them up in the home, according to police.

The resident obliged, and fled the home, telling the police what had happened while the two suspects remained tied up inside.

Police did not immediately enter the residence, Eisenman said. After some time the suspects “got tired of waiting” and emerged.

They were arrested shortly thereafter, and the fourth suspect was found hiding in the backyard by a canine unit.

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...Yet as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the sexual assault charges since Vagnini agreed to plead no contest to four felony charges and four misdemeanors. Vagnini will no longer have to register as a sex offender.

The serial abuser and his accomplices. The serial abuser and his accomplices.
In fact, all of the perpetrators were given plea deals and given light sentences.

Officer Jeffrey Dollhopf, 42, will face a $300 fine and and was ordered to 100 hours of community service for his involvement in the assaults. Since he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct as a party to the crime, most of his charges were wiped out. As part of his deal, he agreed to resign from the department. He spent one full year on paid leave from the department.

Officer Brian Kozelek, 34, was given a similar deal. After a full year of paid vacation, he now faces a $300 fine and a mere 20 hours community service. He also agreed to voluntarily resign his position at the department.

Officer Jacob Knight, 32, will actually face a small amount of jail time. He was sentenced to 20 days in the House of Correction, a $300 fine and 60 hours of community service after an extended amount of paid time off.

As for Officer Michael Vagnini, his record of molesting innocent people, illegal detainment, illegal searches, penetrating orifices for fun, framing people with false evidence and ruining their lives has come to a close. After terrorizing his community for years in a most disgusting and egregious way, he will face just over 2 years behind bars — 26 months.

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...Yet as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop the sexual assault charges since Vagnini agreed to plead no contest to four felony charges and four misdemeanors. Vagnini will no longer have to register as a sex offender.

The serial abuser and his accomplices. The serial abuser and his accomplices.
In fact, all of the perpetrators were given plea deals and given light sentences.

Officer Jeffrey Dollhopf, 42, will face a $300 fine and and was ordered to 100 hours of community service for his involvement in the assaults. Since he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct as a party to the crime, most of his charges were wiped out. As part of his deal, he agreed to resign from the department. He spent one full year on paid leave from the department.

Officer Brian Kozelek, 34, was given a similar deal. After a full year of paid vacation, he now faces a $300 fine and a mere 20 hours community service. He also agreed to voluntarily resign his position at the department.

Officer Jacob Knight, 32, will actually face a small amount of jail time. He was sentenced to 20 days in the House of Correction, a $300 fine and 60 hours of community service after an extended amount of paid time off.

As for Officer Michael Vagnini, his record of molesting innocent people, illegal detainment, illegal searches, penetrating orifices for fun, framing people with false evidence and ruining their lives has come to a close. After terrorizing his community for years in a most disgusting and egregious way, he will face just over 2 years behind bars — 26 months.

...

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Police officer Adhyl Polanco grew up with the constant crime and shootings of Washington Heights and always dreamt of becoming one of the "good guys." After the "1 arrest / 20 summons / 5 stop and frisks" monthly policy was mandated by the NYPD in 2009, Polanco reached a turning point in his career that compelled him to choose between his career and his morals.

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Michigan legislators have introduced a pair of bills that would reform the state’s asset forfeiture laws, which currently enable law enforcement agencies to seize property from innocent people easily and profitably. Michigan police departments and district attorneys have padded their budgets to the tune of $70 million in the last three years via forfeiture, according to Lee McGrath of the Institute for Justice,* a law firm that litigates asset forfeiture.

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Most people in jail in the U.S. have not been convicted of any crime. That is unless poverty can be considered an automatic-lockup offense.

Tour a jail in any county in the nation and chances are six of every 10 inmates are people legally presumed innocent and still awaiting trial. The majority of those inmates are stuck behind bars not based on their presumed risk to the outside community or likelihood to appear in court, but solely because they were unable to afford their bail bond.

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LOGAN — New Straitsville Police Chief Kevin Groves has pleaded innocent to seven felonies following his recent indictment by a grand jury in Hocking County.

One of his alleged victims is Hocking County Common Pleas Court Judge John Wallace, who recused himself from presiding over the case due to the conflict. A visiting judge will now be appointed.

Groves has been accused of tampering with records and providing false address information when registering vehicles on two separate occasions, as well as improperly accessing the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway four separate times. OLEG, as the system is commonly called by law enforcement, is used to track criminal history, evidence, missing children, gangs, protection orders and a myriad of other topics to solve and prevent crime. Groves is accused of improperly seeking the background information of four individuals, including Wallace.

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CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
An Elmwood Park police sergeant has been relieved of his police duties amid allegations he forged a $20,000 check from an elderly man with dementia, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Although no criminal charges have been filed, Sgt. John Wasilenko has been put on administrative leave, pending the investigation after being named in a citation to discover assets filed Dec. 20 by Cook County Public Guardian Robert F. Harris.

During the investigation, the 85-year-old victim admitted he gave about $2,000 in cash to Wasilenko, but couldn't remember when. He said Wasilenko "protected" him from "a lot of bad guys and politicians in Elmwood Park." He said he was giving Wasilenko money for a trip and was supposed to give him $6,000 over the next couple years, the citation said.

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DeBaun had been drinking and was carrying a pack of beer when Kuszaj stopped him near the intersection of Calvin and Holloway streets.

"DeBaun's attorney, Alex Charns, said DeBaun asked the officer, "Am I under arrest?"

"When the officer said no, Mr. DeBaun left," Charns said. "Mr. DeBaun was Tasered in the back and when the Taser deployed, he became paralyzed. He went face first into a concrete sidewalk."

Charns said DeBaun faces $40,000 in medical and reconstructive surgery bills as a result. He said DeBaun was found not guilty of disorderly conduct and being drunk and disruptive. The case has been in and out of court since.

The Court of Appeals will decide whether to overturn a previous decision and allow DeBaun to sue the city and let the case go to trial. DeBaun wants thousands in damages and also wants chances in the department policy allowing the use of Tasers.

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The city of Tulsa has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle its part of a lawsuit filed by a woman who was freed from federal prison after corruption within the Tulsa Police Department was uncovered, attorneys confirmed Thursday.

Larita Barnes had filed the case on Aug. 6, 2010, slightly more than a year after she was freed from custody.

She alleged that she was deprived of her rights and illegally incarcerated after Jeff Henderson, a former undercover officer in the Tulsa Police Department’s Special Investigations Division, and Brandon McFadden, a former agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, coached a drug informant and fabricated a drug buy in May 2007.

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