A city police officer was placed on administrative leave while department leaders try to sort out if he used excessive or improper force on a motorist who claimed to have shown the officer his middle finger.

Saratoga Springs Police Chief Gregory Veitch announced Monday that Nathan Baker had been put on leave while police brass examine the circumstances of a traffic stop the officer made near the Hampton Inn on Lake Avenue at 3:34 p.m. Saturday. During the stop, Baker arrested Adam Rupeka, 35, of Troy, and charged him with driving with an obstructed view, a traffic violation, and resisting arrest, a criminal misdemeanor, Veitch said.

Rupeka recorded part of the arrest, Veitch said, and the video was posted on YouTube and a Facebook page called Capital District Cop Block, which purports to promote police accountability. A person by the same name as Rupeka also writes on a separate Cop Block website, and wrote on the YouTube video page that he specifically drove to Saratoga County last weekend to test cops on how they would react to being shown the middle finger.

Kauffeld told reporters when he was being escorted out of the Pope County Courthouse in Russellville that officers shot at him first and Smith was shot “by one of the other officers.”

“Why did you fire at an officer?” a television reporter asked Kauffeld as he was loaded into a Pope County Sheriff’s Interceptor to take him back to the Detention Center.

“I didn't,” Kauffeld said. “He didn’t notify who he was. ... He started shooting at me.

“He said put your hands up?” the reporter asked.

“No they didn’t,” Kauffeld responded. “That … is ways off. He started shooting at me. I didn't shoot back at him.

“How did he get shot?” the reported asked.

“By one of the other officers.”

Read more: The Courier - Your Messenger for the River Valley - No bond for shooting suspect

The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a civil jury verdict against two Los Angeles police detectives for concealing evidence that kept an innocent man in jail for 27 months awaiting trial.

The justices turned down an appeal Monday from the Los Angeles city attorney who contended that because the innocent man was freed before his trial, the police officers could not be sued for withholding evidence.

The outcome puts police on notice that they may be sued if they have deliberately hidden information that clearly reveals a suspect is being wrongly held.

Michael Walker, who is now deceased, was standing in a store in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles in August 2005 when a store clerk thought he looked like the middle-aged black man who had robbed the store a few days before.

Police were called and Walker was arrested. He agreed to be interviewed and have his belongings searched.

No evidence was found to link him to the robbery, but the detectives saw him as the prime suspect in more than a dozen similar robberies in the area. Each time, the thief gave a cashier a handwritten note demanding money. Usually, the note misspelled the word "start" and threatened to "strat shooting."

While Walker denied the charges, two detectives -- Steven Moody and Robert Pulido -- said he should be held in jail while the investigation continued. To justify his detention and $1-million bail, they filed a report a month later telling prosecutors in bold print, "Since the arrest of Walker, the crime spree caused by the 'Demand Note Robber' has ceased."

That was not true. Two days after his arrest, a black male robbed the Golden Bird restaurant after presenting a note to the cashier. Later the same day, a Burger King was robbed the same way. The notes included the botched spelling of the word "start."

The detectives later testified they were aware of the subsequent robberies but did not tell prosecutors. When attorneys representing Walker learned that his fingerprints were not found at the store where he was arrested, they asked the LAPD for information on other robberies. The request was turned down on the grounds it would be too much of a burden.

Later, a judge ordered the information to be disclosed. Then, the attorneys learned another black man had been arrested in mid-September when fleeing from a store robbery. And his fingerprints were found at the scene of the store where Walker had been arrested.

When prosecutors learned of this, the charges against Walker were dropped and, after 27 months, he was released. A judge later pronounced him innocent of the crimes.

He sued the LAPD and its detectives, contending they violated his constitutional right against being deprived of liberty without due process of law. A jury agreed and awarded him $106,000 in compensation.

A Columbia County sheriff’s deputy was arrested late Monday and terminated after being caught driving under the influence.

Deputy Christopher Cody Connor, 28, of Martinez, was fired Tuesday morning after being charged with driving under the influence, speeding, failure to maintain lane and expired registration, according to information provided by sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris.

At about 11:30 p.m., a deputy saw a speeding vehicle on South Belair Road and the driver, later identified as Connor, was unable to maintain lane. The vehicle was pulled over near Holly Road. As the deputy approached the vehicle, he smelled alcohol on Connor, according to the press release.

Connor admitted that he’d had a few drinks and, based on visual cues, the deputy determined Connor was most likely impaired. He refused all standardized field sobriety tests, according to the release.

He was booked into the Columbia County Detention Center and was later released after posting a $4,400 bond.

The research revealed that the U.S. Department of Defense has provided 47 mine-resistant armored vehicles, also known as MRAPs, to dozens of police agencies throughout the state. MRAPs are designed specifically to withstand improvised explosive device attacks and ambushes by enemy forces in combat zones.

From 2007 through 2012, the Pentagon put more than 12,000 MRAPs into service in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Now many of those MRAPs are being unloaded to 780 domestic civilian law enforcement agencies, many of which are on waiting lists to receive the vehicles.

To receive an MRAP, a law enforcement agency has to meet certain criteria by providing justifications for use, such as shooting incidents, SWAT operations, and drug interdiction. Geographical area and multi-jurisdictional use are also factors, as is a department’s ability to pay for repairs and maintenance and guarantee security and restricted access to the vehicle, according to a 2014 National Defense magazine article.

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Of the 47 MRAPs delivered to Florida law enforcement agencies, 20 have been given to small and mid-sized municipal police departments. Here are some facts about where MRAPs are being used in Florida:

• Florida International University is the only state college with an MRAP on campus. The FIU Police Department received one last year when the Pentagon distributed MRAPs to 60 universities across the country.
• The Coral Gables and Fort Pierce police departments each have two MRAPs to deal with any possible insurgencies in their respective cities.
• Police departments in 10 Florida cities and towns where blacks and Hispanics account for more than 40 percent of the population received MRAPs.
• MRAPs have been deployed in 12 Florida cities and towns where the population is less than 50,000 people.
• The Department of Defense sent MRAPs to 14 police departments in towns and cities where the annual crime rate dropped by two percent or more, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s 2013 annual crime report, the most recent available.
• MRAPs were awarded to 16 police departments in municipalities where 15 percent to 35 percent of the population lives below the national poverty level.
• Eighteen MRAPs valued at $733,000 each were delivered to 17 law enforcement agencies between February and May 2014.

A federal grand jury has indicted former Newtown Police Sgt. Steven Santucci and seven other Connecticut men accused of distributing steroids and prescription drugs.

Authorities last week said the Waterbury resident received shipments of steroids and related materials from China since 2011 and had been manufacturing and distributing large quantities of steroids, oxycodone, Xanax and counterfeit Cialis.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut charged him and the others on April 29 and 30 following an investigation involving the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and other agencies. The probe included two months of wire-tapped cellphone conversations as well as surveillance of several steroid sales, according to the arrest affidavits.

Chicago taxpayers will shell out $415,000 to compensate an inebriated woman who accused two police officers of sexually assaulting her, only to have them plead guilty to a lesser charge.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez initially claimed that the 22-year-old victim was so intoxicated that she was “unable to give knowing consent” to the sex she had with Chicago Police Officers Juan Vasquez and Paul Clavijo, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The victim had a blood-alcohol level of .38 — nearly five times the legal limit for driving a car in Illinois — during the alleged March 30, 2011, assault.

“They victimized these women,” Alvarez said at the time. They not only violated, but they essentially destroyed their oath of office.”

Three years later, the state's attorney's office quietly agreed to a deal that allowed Clavijo and Vasquez to plead guilty to felony official misconduct. No sexual misconduct was alleged.

Both officers avoided prison time and were sentenced to two years probation. They resigned after their felony convictions disqualified them from working as police officers.

At the time, a spokesperson for the state's attorney's office called the plea deal “the best possible outcome” in the case “based on the circumstances.”

Wiggling while handcuffed. Bracing one hand on the steering wheel during the arrest. Yelling at an officer.

All these actions have led to people being prosecuted for “assaulting a police officer” in Washington, D.C., where the offense is defined as including not just physical assault but also “resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering” with law enforcement.

A five-month investigation by WAMU 88.5 News and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University — and co-produced by Reveal — documented and analyzed nearly 2,000 cases with charges of assaulting a police officer. The results raise concerns about the use or overuse of the charge. Some defense attorneys see troubling indicators in these numbers, alleging that the law is being used as a tactic to cover up police abuse and civil-rights violations. Police sources contend that this perspective overemphasizes troubling but rare incidents, and fails to account for the dangers police face on the job.

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A team of researchers and reporters analyzed thousands of court records from 2012 through 2014, including charging documents, case summaries and police affidavits.

The investigation found:

• Ninety percent of those charged with assaulting a police officer (APO) were black, although black residents comprise only half of the city’s population.
• Nearly two-thirds of those arrested for assaulting an officer weren’t charged with any other crime, raising questions about whether police had legal justification to stop the person.
• About 1 in 4 people charged with a misdemeanor for assaulting a police officer required medical attention after their arrest, a higher rate than the 1 in 5 officers reporting injury from the interactions.
• The District uses the charge of assaulting a police officer almost three times more than cities of comparable size, according to a 2013 FBI report and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) numbers.
• Prosecutors declined to press charges in more than 40 percent of the arrests for assaulting an officer.

D.C. Council member Mary Cheh proposed a crime bill two weeks ago that includes a measure to narrow the “assaulting a police officer” statute. After being briefed on the results of this investigation, Cheh felt moved to explore the possibility of emergency legislation.

The 37-year-old mathematician was officially leaving his job at National Institutes of Health and starting a new position at a private firm. Since he is terrified of flying he booked himself a sleeper car on Amtrak. Upon reaching Reno, Nevada, there was an unexpected knock at his door. “There was a DEA badge on the window,” he said. “Having a good reason to be making this trip and being a law abiding citizen, I opened the door and politely asked if there was a problem. The officer asked if I was Aaron Heuser, and then asked to see my ticket. He then told me that there were many red flags on my trip, mainly that I had a sleeper car, was traveling alone, and did not check my luggage.”

A sleeper car is a main Amtrak product! Plenty of people travel alone! Why would anyone with a whole sleeper-car compartment to themselves go through the hassle of checking luggage?

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The officer asked him why he was traveling, and at first seemed satisfied by his explanation. But he quickly changed his tone, began acting like he knew Heuser was guilty, and asked to search his room. Since Heuser had nothing to hide and felt intimidated a part of him wanted to comply. But as a fan of the ACLU and the son of hippie parents, he instead decided to assert his right to be free from unreasonable searches.

The DEA agent pressed the matter.

“After that he asked if he could bring a dog into my room to check out the bags, to which I again said ‘no,’” said Heuser, who hasn’t passed the bar but knows a little bit about Fourth Amendment law. “Finally he told me that he was going to bring a dog, walk it by my room, and that if alerted, my room would be searched. He told me that I could not argue this and that I was not allowed to be present for the search. His reasoning for violating my right to be present was that the dog might bite me.”

...

Forced to leave his room, he walked toward the dining car. En route another DEA agent tried to get him to step off the train where other law-enforcement officers were gathered. Heuser worried that if he got off the train they might not allow him back on before it left. “I asked if I was under arrest, and if I were free to go, then started walking to the dining car,” Heuser said. “The officer followed me, telling me that they know I am transporting drugs, and if I have any for personal use, they do not care, and it would be easier if I just told them. I said that was nice to know, then kept walking.”

Then a DEA agent lied in an attempt to gain permission to search the room.

“He told me that his partner could tell someone was hiding in my bathroom and wanted to check if anyone was in there,” Heuser recalls. “I told them that no police are allowed to enter, but if the conductor wants to enter and let them know that there is no one in the bathroom, it would be okay.” Minutes later, while Heuser was on his way back to his room, a DEA agent looked him in the eye and said, "You Oregonians may think that the green leafy stuff is harmless, but I know from my job that it kills people every day."

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Finally Heuser stepped back into his room.

“I found my backpack moved and open, and my wallet, which was set down on the room table, had $60 missing,” he said. “I told one of the dining car attendants that I felt Amtrak and the DEA violated my rights. She told me that Amtrak is forced to give passenger info to Feds, that the DEA comes on every trip, usually arresting someone in the sleeping car or taking all their money. When I asked for her name in case I needed it later she refused and told me Amtrak would fire her.”

One needn’t rely on her hearsay.

Last year, the Associated Press reported that the DEA “paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 over nearly 20 years to obtain confidential information about train passengers, which the DEA could have lawfully obtained for free through a law enforcement network.” (This was reportedly done so that the DEA could avoid sharing seized assets with Amtrak police, which hints at how lucrative such seizures are.)

Around the same time, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request after getting reports about Amtrak passengers having their rights violated. “This type of targeting constitutes a significant invasion of personal privacy,” an attorney wrote in the accompanying memo. “It suggests that Amtrak is sharing the travel-related data of thousands of its passengers who have engaged in no wrongdoing.”

Later an ACLU staffer reported on the results of the request. Amtrak employees are instructed to report conduct "indicative of criminal activity" to law enforcement.

Dale Lusian was no saint, he was allegedly caught breaking into vehicles and stealing parts in an auto junkyard. When the police K-9 found him hiding in a car, Lusian shot the dog three times.

Whether or not Lusian is a good person is irrelevant in this incident as it’s what police did to his dead body that is making waves in the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico State Police.

After the death of Lusian, police were mum on the details of what happened on March 21, 2014. Local News team, KRQE sued the department for the information related to the case. The details and subsequent video released through he suit was particularly disturbing.

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For hours, police recognized that Lusian was completely unresponsive and kept the barrage of flash bangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets. “He’s got a thousand-yard stare,” one officer said as they moved in.

Upon approaching the body of Lusian, an officer shot him in the face with the beanbag gun, three times at point blank range. Had the man been alive, this probably would have killed him.

State Police Sgt. Richard Mathews then walked up to Lusian, and someone says, “Did you flick his eyeballs?” as if eyeball flicking is a means of determining life.

Mathews responds by saying, “I’ll flick his eyeballs.”

He then bends down and begins flicking the open eyeballs of a clearly deceased man. But that wasn’t enough. Mathews then proceeded to stomp on the dead man’s groin.

A Greenville police officer is charged with murder in the shooting death of her husband.

Sgt. Kyvona Moore is being held in the Washington County jail under $300,000 bond. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether she has an attorney.

The Delta Democrat-Times reports (Moore charged with first-degree murder - ddtonline.com: News ) police responded to a call of a shooting late Saturday at the home where the 41-year-old Moore and her husband, 44-year-old Reginald Moore, were living.

He had been shot in the head and died early Sunday at Delta Regional Medical Center.

If convicted, Kyvona Moore faces life in prison. The case was turned over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

She is suspended without pay from her job as the police department's CrimeStoppers coordinator. She had earlier qualified to run for county supervisor this year.

Monday, a Texas grand jury chose not to indict a Grapevine Police Officer, Robert Clark, for the shooting death of an unarmed man. Ruben Garcia Villalpando, was killed by Clark as he had his hands on his head but was slowly moving towards the officer, contrary to the officer’s commands.

The officer’s dash cam video shows an initial police chase, as Villalpando attempts to evade Clark at high speeds, with Clark eventually holding him at gunpoint and orders him out of the vehicle after the chase concludes.

The officer then commanded Villalpando to put his hands on his head and walk backwards toward the front of the police cruiser. While Villalpando complies with the order to put his hands on his head, the obviously intoxicated suspect doesn’t comply with the demands to walk backwards.

Instead of walking backwards, the suspect slowly shuffles closer to the Clark, as the officer continually orders Villalpando to stop walking towards him.

As Villalpando stepped out of the camera’s view, Clark fired two rounds into him, subsequently killing Villalpando.

Toeing the standard blue line in cases such as this, Clark claimed that he feared for his life during the encounter and thus shot and killed Villalpando.

What is extremely troubling about this situation, aside from the fact that the grand jury didn’t see fit to indict and allow a jury to decide guilt or innocence, is that Villalpando, while not fully compliant, was not in any way violent or aggressive towards the officer.

Veteran of the Oklahoma City police department for 12 years, Sgt. Cecil Moss, was charged on Friday with “pointing a firearm at another. ”

According to the charges, Cecil Moss “willfully, knowingly, and without lawful cause, pointed a firearm at Kurt Ward, Paulette Henson” and a child “for the purpose of threatening and intimidating them.”

The incident happened on April 4th when an officer was called to an assault with a deadly weapon incident involving an off-duty cop.

Kurt Ward recently had a child with his now ex-girlfriend, who happens to be Moss’s daughter. Ward went home with his mother, Paulette Henson, and his other child, a 13-month-old baby who is also Moss’ grandchild, to visit his newborn.

Upon entering the house, he was confronted by Moss. According to Ward, he felt threatened and ran back to the car.