A Palm Springs man has been held in the Banning jail for nearly two weeks — released twice and then immediately re-arrested at the jailhouse gate — without ever being charged with a crime.

Loy Ramirez, 61, has asked a judge to order him freed. With the help of a public defender, Ramirez filed an emergency writ in the Riverside County Superior Court on Thursday.

"It is clearly not the intent of the Legislature that a government can play this game," said Tom Cavanaugh, head of the Public Defender's Office in Indio. "By this reasoning, you could incarcerate somebody for the rest of their life in this way."

Palm Springs police defended the repeat arrests, saying they were a "common procedure" when investigators need time to build a case. Department spokesman Sgt. William Hutchinson said the agency was re-arresting Ramirez to give them more time to gather evidence and contact the alleged victim.

“Our victim is homeless and it is often challenging to get in touch with the homeless because they do not always stay in the same place," Hutchinson said in an email. "In this case we have utilized a common procedure to re-arrest the suspect on two occasions in order to give us time to locate the victim and attempt to finalize the investigation for the DA."

District Attorney Mike Hestrin, who was unaware of Ramirez’s repeat arrests until he was contacted by The Desert Sun, said he was concerned by what police had done in the case.

Hestrin said it was not uncommon for suspects to be released while a case is being strengthened and then re-arrested weeks later when prosecutors are ready to file charges. In a few cases, suspects have been re-arrested at the jail gates because a clerical error had made the release unavoidable.

But Hestrin had never heard of a case where this was done twice to the same suspect.

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Police officers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, are lawyering up after the city council voted to rescind medals of valor handed out to the SWAT team in 2013.

What did the SWAT team do to earn those valorous medals? They stormed into the home of 107-year old Monroe Isadore, shot him to death—and then successfully dodged a state investigation of the incident.

Nearly three years after the incident, the city council voted unanimously this month to revoke the medals. As of Monday, however, the police force has yet to return the medals and is seeking legal counsel to challenge the city's decision, according to local TV station KATV."I don't understand the rationale, I don't understand why anyone would want a medal, who can you show it to? Oh, I have a medal of valor, well were you in the war? No, I killed a 107-year-old man...you know...who would want that?"Councilwoman Thelma Walker told KATV, the local ABC affiliate.

Walker sponsored the resolution, which said conferring medals and awards "in the aftermath of such a sensitive and emotionally charged event is unconscionable and reprehensible and should not be sanctioned by the City of Pine Bluff."

Awarding those medals seems to have been done in secret. Isadore's children were unaware the medals even existed until the city council voted to rescind them, and the city won't say how many were actually given or who made the decision to award them, according to KATV.

Asked about the city's decision to revoke the medals, Pine Bluff Police Chief Jeff Hubanks told the Pine Bluff Commercial the department was "going to talk to an attorney" and declined further comment.

It's unclear whether the city has the legal authority to strip the medals. City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott told theCommercial that the council resolution is not binding and lacks enforcement authority.

Recently released documents reveal a Hernando County stripper, who was not paid for sexual acts performed on a Citrus County deputy and his business partner, led to their arrests and the deputy's firing.

The woman first alleged Citrus County deputy John Grange and Dominic N. Spazioso took her to their business under the guise they would give her a a job application and instead raped her.

Surveillance video from inside Springleton Fun Park, located at 9227 County Line Road in Spring Hill, reportedly shows the woman willingly engaging in sex acts with both men simultaneously on a pool table and did not back up her accusations, Hernando County deputies say.

The video also reportedly shows Dhondt hugging and kissing both men after the sex acts took place.

According to deputies, Spazioso only appears on part of the tape because at one point he received so many text messages from his wife he left.

Hernando County deputies say the woman agreed to perform the sex acts in exchange for $200 but when the men did not pay her, she reported the sexual encounter as a rape, alleging she was also forced to urinate on one of the men.

That woman, Danielle Dhondt, is now charged with making a false police report.

Deputies say they became suspicious of Dhondt's claims when she refused a rape exam, insisted to showered thoroughly and had already washed the clothes she had on that night and declined to hand over her cell phone for analysis.

On July 20, Grange and Spazioso were arrested and charged with prostitution. Grange was subsequently fired from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

According to an arrest affidavit, Spazioso reportedly told investigators both he and Grange went to the Icon Gentleman's Club in Hudson July 4 where they drank alcohol and tipped strippers until closing time around 2 a.m.

Spazioso claims Grange was paying special attention to a stripper named "Honey" and invited her back to their business. Deputies confirm Dhondt uses the stage name Honey.

Deputies say Dhondt agreed to meet the men at a nearby convenience store and then followed them back to their business.

According to Spazioso, Grange asked him to get $200 out of the business's register to pay Dhondt but was unable to get any money because they spent it all at the strip club.

Spazioso gave Grange a debit card to use at an ATM along with the keys to the business, an arrest affidavit states.

Spazioso claims Dhondt called his business the next day and demanded $400. Deputies say she increased the price because she alleged Grange had her "do weird things."

The men agreed to pay the money and even offered for Dhondt to bring her children to the fun park to play games for free, an arrest affidavit states. However, Dhondt never showed up to collect the money, deputies say.

Grange, 31, had been with the Sheriff's Office for just about a year.

An internal investigation is also being conducted.

A divided Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday declared unconstitutional a law that made it illegal for police officers to have sex with minors simply on the basis of their profession.

The court ruled 4-3 that the law arbitrarily added police to a ban on professionals having sex with minors that includes people with authority over children such as teachers or coaches.

The government can't punish a class of professionals like police without making a connection between their job and the crime, Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor said, writing for the majority.

The law overturned by the court prohibited police officers from having sex with minors if the offenders were more than two years older than the victim.

At issue was the 2012 conviction of former suburban Cleveland police officer Matthew Mole, who was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy he met on a hookup app, according to Supreme Court documents.

Mole, then 35, was arrested and charged after the boy's mother found them together, Thursday's ruling said. The boy did not know Mole was a police officer at the time of the encounter, and the boy had told Mole he was 18, the ruling said.

It's illegal in Ohio for people 18 and older to have sex with people under 16, but a jury deadlocked on that charge against Mole. However, he was convicted under the law banning police officers from having sex with minors.

O'Connor said there was no evidence Mole used his status as an officer "to gain access to or bend the will" of the child or facilitate the sexual conduct.

Dissenting Justice Sharon Kennedy, a former police officer, said prohibiting police officers from having sex with minors serves a legitimate state purpose.

"If a peace officer discovered after the fact that the person with whom he engaged in sexual conduct was a minor, he would have a strong incentive to do whatever is necessary to ensure that his employer never found out, even to the point of compromising his integrity," Kennedy wrote.

Cuyahoga County, which prosecuted the case, was reviewing the decision and considering its options, said prosecutor's office spokesman Joe Frolik. A message was left for Mole's attorney.

s fake burping in gym class enough to get a seventh-grader arrested? Yes, according to a federal appeals court, which granted immunity to school officials sued by the kid’s family after the 13-year-old was hauled off to juvenile detention in handcuffs.

The officer's action was based on a New Mexico misdemeanor law that makes disrupting school activities a crime. In a 94-page opinion, the court backed the arrest, saying the law didn't forbid arresting someone for burping.

One judge on the panel wrote a pungent, four-page dissent explaining why that reasoning is wrong. But determining the correct outcome here is a little tricky. The arrest was clearly absurd. Yet it isn’t clear that the remedy for every stupid arrest is a federal lawsuit.

The incident behind the case took place in May 2011. It began when a student at the Cleveland Middle School in Albuquerque -- known in court documents as F.M. -- interrupted physical education class by fake burping repeatedly. (You can’t make this stuff up.) The teacher sent F.M. into the hall, but he continued to interrupt by poking his head back into the classroom and burping some more.

In more innocent times, this might have merited a trip to the principal’s office. Instead, the teacher called the “school resource officer,” Arthur Acosta, an officer in the Albuquerque police department assigned to the school. F.M. denied the burping -- some things never change -- but Acosta brought him to the school’s office and made him sit in a chair while he went to get his computer from his car.

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Three Wal-Mart employees involved in the apprehension of a suspected shoplifter earlier this year have been charged with contributing to the man’s death while in their custody.All three have been charged with manslaughter in the death of Kenneth E. Wisham, 64, of Lakeland. The charge is a second-degree felony.

The charges stem from an autopsy showing Wisham died of mechanical asphyxiation while being restrained, police said. The autopsy also revealed Wisham sustained 15 broken ribs during the altercation Feb. 7 outside of a Lakeland Wal-Mart on U.S. 98 North.

An investigation is underway after New Jersey State troopers shot a 76-year-old man inside his own home.

The situation was brought on by a series of misunderstandings by police and the victim.

Police responded to the home after dispatchers incorrectly traced a 911 call to Gerald Sykes house on the 300 block of Centerton Road in Upper Deerfield Township.

"Why was the first response to pump four rounds through a door?" said Ronald Lafalce.

Lafalce was shocked and outraged as he showed us the holes from police bullets that nearly killed his father-in law.

"Twice in the chest. Once in the groin. Collapsed lung. Internal bleeding," said Diana Lafalce, Sykes' stepdaughter.

Just before midnight on Friday, Sykes and his wife, Margot, were awakened by their dog's barks.

"They both stepped into the great room and saw two figures standing right at their French doors, right up against the door. Nothing said. No identification," said Diana Lafalce.

Diana Lafalce says as her stepdad was standing in the living room holding his shotgun when police fired four shots - three hit him.

"After he collapsed on the floor, he lifted the gun up and shot out the door not knowing who was there," said Ronald Lafalce.

Police aren't saying who shot first, but the Lafalces say troopers treated Sykes like a criminal, refusing to get him medical treatment for 45 minutes until he staggered outside where they flipped him over and handcuffed him.

He was flown to Cooper University Medical Center where he is listed in critical, but stable condition.

"The surgeon says it's a miracle he's alive," said Diana Lafalce.

Police say the troopers responding to a 911 call went to the wrong house. A statement says they identified themselves, but the Lafalces don't buy it, pointing Sykes has a deep respect for police, and didn't even know he had been shot by one until he awoke at the hospital.

"His eyes got big as saucers and he said, 'What? Those were state troopers? They never game me a warning. They shot me without even a warning," said Diana Lafalce.

Sykes wife was not hurt in the incident.

It's unclear why police thought the call came from Syke's home, but there is a cell phone tower on that property.

One of the troopers we're told received a graze wound. Both troopers were taken to Inspira Medical Center in Vineland, and later released.

The attorney general's office is handling the case, and they say they will release more information once the investigation is concluded.

Leaked text messages between one of Marilyn Mosby's deputies and a lead investigator in the Baltimore Police Department are raising new questions about whether the Freddie Gray case was about justice or politics.

A 27-year-old deputy was arrested after he admitted to getting drunk and unloadingpistols into a Presbyterian church. Instead of facing charges for dangerously discharging a firearm in public, Sommervell County Sheriff’s Deputy, William *** was set free.

The incident began on July 13 when officers responded to a 9-1-1 call about a maniac shooting up a church. When police arrived they found *** drunk in the parking lot, who immediately admitted to the crime.

*** is seen on an officer’s body cam saying he fired the shots “cause my boys are getting killed in Dallas” and said, “the black coon started killing my boys.”

*** attempted to justify his actions by claiming he needed to relieve some stress. His stress relief was to go into a residential neighborhood and endanger the lives of everyone near him by firing off guns in a church parking lot.
According to FOX 4, *** was charged with deadly conduct and taken to the Ellis County Jail. But on the same day he was arrested, the pastor signed an affidavit of non-prosecution. The pastor said he didn’t want charges filed because it’s all about forgiveness.

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Not only was he not charged, he was also not photographed for his mugshot. This special treatment has the Ellis County District Attorney furious.

Even though the pastor didn’t file charges, *** was still guilty of multiple crimes. However, because *** wears a badge, the department used their discretion and he was released.

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A former police officer killed himself Saturday night after a highway chase in New Jersey with state police, who later discovered the body of the man’s wife in the vehicle's trunk.

Franklin Osgood, 61, a former police officer in Providence, R.I., was pronounced dead about 11:30 p.m. at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. His wife, Mary Jo Osgood, was pronounced dead at the scene about two hours later.

Providence police said at a news conference Sunday they received a call from Osgood's daughter Saturday saying her father was missing and distraught. He had last been seen Friday morning.

At some point, Osgood called his daughter and told her he had harmed her mother, Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements told reporters.

Providence police put out an alert to law enforcement agencies across the country. Clements said an officer was in contact with Osgood by phone Saturday evening but that Osgood didn't reveal his location.

Police notified New Jersey State Police about 9 p.m. that Osgood was believed to be traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike in a 2007 black Dodge Charger.

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Troopers found Osgood with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when they approached the car. Mary Jo Osgood's body was discovered in the trunk.

Clements said Osgood retired from the force in 2007. He said Osgood and his wife had four children.

According to official reports, Grange and Spazioso spent several hours at Icon Gentlemen’s Club, located in Hudson, on the evening of July 4th into the early morning hours of July 5th. The two men purchased lap dances and spent a lot of money, according to Icon employee, 30-year-old Danielle Cherie Dhondt. And during their time at the club, Dhondt says Grange and Spazioso talked about their wives, children, and Grange’s employment with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office.

Just before 2:00 a.m. Dhondt agreed to follow the men back to Springleton to pick up a job application. At least that’s what she told Detectives during the investigation. What really transpired inside the business, say officials, was a three-way sexual encounter between Dhondt, Grange, and Spazioso.

Dhondt reported that when she entered the business both men sexually assaulted and held her against her will. Dhondt says Grange and Spazioso had oral, vaginal, and attempted ---- sex with her at the same time, on a pool table. She further explained that Grange asked her to follow him to the restroom where he demanded that she urinate into his mouth.

The following day, Dhondt contacted the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office to report that she was raped by Grange and Spazioso. Investigators quickly suspected that Dhonte was not being completely truthful because she was reluctant to turn over cell phone evidence or fully cooperate with investigators.

Grange and Spazioso volunteered to meet with detectives, where it was determined that the sexual encounter was pre-arranged for pay. Grange says he felt bad during the sexual encounter because he kept receiving so many text messages from his wife.

Confronted with video evidence that clearly showed the sexual encounter was consensual, Dhondt recanted her rape allegation and admitted that she lied, and was angry because the men did not pay her. The prearranged amount was supposed to be $200 each, according to reports.

At the conclusion of the interview, Dhondt said she desperately needed the money for rent and that she believed the two men were going to “make sweet passionate love to me.”

As originally reported, Grange was arrested and charged with one count of Engaging in Prostitution Solicitation and is free on a $1,000 bond. Spazioso faces the same charge and posted the same bond. Dhondt was arrested and charged with filing a false report to law enforcement – she is also free on a $1,000 bond.

It should be noted that the former owners, Bev and Chris Milano, sold the business last August and are no longer affiliated with Springleton Fun Park.

Former Montville Township, Ohio, police officer and former Wayne County probation officer, Carl Kannenberg, was charged with raping a 7-year-old girl while she was a patient at University Hospital in February.

According to the indictment cited by Cleveland 19, the former law enforcement officer “is charged with committing ---- penetration and with inappropriate sexual contact” for sexual assaults which Cleveland.com says occurred multiple times.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury charged Kannenberg with two counts of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition, and two counts of kidnapping.

According to the indictment, three of the sexual assaults occurred at the hospital— while his young victim wore a hospital gown — where Kannenberg was visiting another patient, and another incident happened prior to that at a separate but unnamed location.

Joe Frolik, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, told Cleveland.com that Kannenberg was not working for University Hospital at the time of those sexual assaults, but had been visiting another patient.

Frolik added that hospital personnel helped report the incidents to police.

The Free Thought Project tried to contact officials, however, neither Frolik nor the appropriate officials with Wayne County could be reached for comment Saturday.

“Patient safety is our highest priority. UH takes the safety of our patients very seriously,” University Hospitals Spokeswoman Alicia Reale said, refusing to comment directly on the case in question. “We are continually refining and strengthening our protocols to maintain a safe environment for our patients and their families.”

Inexplicably, Kannenberg, 34, who was arrested on July 12, has since been released pending arraignment on August 17.

With charges as explicitly, brutally violent in nature forcibly committed against such a young child in the further vulnerable position of being a hospital patient, Kannenberg’s freedom until his next court date defies both reason and any possible sense of safety or justice for his victim.

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A third Chicago police officer has been relieved of police powers after department brass made the preliminary determination that officer and two others violated policy when they fired their weapons in an incident that killed an 18-year-old man, a police spokesman said Saturday.

Three officers fired their weapons in the incident that left Paul O'Neal, 18, dead after police say he sideswiped a squad car and hit a parked car while driving a stolen Jaguar, injuring some officers about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the 7400 block of South Merrill Avenue. Police officials announced Friday that two of the officers were relieved of their police powers, and the third was relieved of police powers on Saturday, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

O'Neal died from a gunshot wound to the back, the Cook County medical examiner's office determined following an autopsy Saturday. The shooting was classified by medical examiner as a homicide -- meaning the killing of one person by another, rather than a shooting death in a suicide or accident.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson "spent most of (Friday) afternoon with top advisors and command staff reviewing the preliminary information from the incident. (Police) investigators determined 3 officers discharged their weapons in the course of their duties and given what is known thus far, it appears that departmental policies may have been violated by at least 2 of the police officers," Guglielmi in an email Friday night. Those two officers had their police powers taken away Friday.

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