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Two married San Diego Police officers convicted of drug sales and burglary charges were sentenced to three years in state prison in a downtown courtroom Friday.
Bryce Charpentier, 32, and Jennifer Charpentier, 41, admitted to selling and furnishing a narcotic substance, possession of a firearm by an addict, conspiracy to commit first-degree residential burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime and possession and sale of a controlled substance.

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The lone police officer on duty on the night of Sept. 19 had her hands full. Fresh out of police school, she had been on the job less than a month and was not even authorized to carry a sidearm.

But as she apprehended a 17-year-old girl who had become heavily intoxicated, Const. Danielle Gallant made a decision that would come back to haunt her.

According to court documents, she handcuffed the girl and placed her in the back of her Kativik Regional Police Force vehicle truck. Already in the backseat for having caused a disturbance — but not handcuffed — was Joe Kritik, who at age 24 already had four convictions for sexual assault and was listed on the national sex offender registry.

As the officer made a third stop, she left the two detainees alone, and Mr. Kritik pounced on the girl. “When Constable Gallant came back to her vehicle after a short period of time, she observed Mr. Kritik with his pants down while on top of the plaintiff,” a statement of claim filed by the victim states. “The plaintiff was unable to defend herself, being handcuffed in her back and unable to leave the vehicle, the doors being locked.”

Despite the assault, the girl was kept in a police cell overnight and was not given medical attention, the lawsuit says. Her parents were not contacted.

Kritik pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl in 2012 and was sentenced to 39 months in prison.

A lawsuit filed last year in Quebec Superior Court against Ms. Gallant, the Kativik Regional Police Force (KRPF) and the Kativik Regional Government is seeking $400,000 in damages for the victim, who cannot be identified.

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As so many cops have done in the past, Yellow Springs Police Sergeant Naomi Penrod snatched a camera from a woman’s hands who was recording her in public, figuring she would get away with it.

But now the Ohio cop is facing three misdemeanor charges.

And this after she was slapped with a two-day unpaid suspension from her department.

All for a two-second video where she tried to prevent a woman in a wheelchair from recording her.

..

Penrod was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and interfering with civil rights, an ironic set of charges considering interference is a very common charge used by cops against citizens who record them.

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The police aren't making too many friends these days. It seems like there isn't a day that goes by where some tragic and outrageous story doesn't come out involving the cops somehow violating someone's rights, or even killing them. But, no matter how much we see this behavior, no matter how frequent it becomes, there seems to be an army of ignorant, dependent, terrified people who will jump in to defend the police from any criticism, because, you know, they are heroes.... Next time you encounter somebody like that, show them this article, and if they still dismiss it, just move on. There's plenty of people with eyes to see and ears to hear if you aren't wasting your time with the willfully apathetic.

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Attorney Randall Richards also suggests in court documents that the former officer, Don Henry Johnson, set fire to his own house last year and has lied about evidence related to the wiretap case having been destroyed in the blaze.

Johnson was charged last month in 2nd District Court with two counts of second-degree felony drug distribution. Each count carries the possibility of one to 15 years in prison.

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The man struck another parked car and continued driving in an erratic manner, eventually striking the officer’s patrol car and breaking its headlight.

The officer told the driver he was under arrest and called for backup.

He tried to pull the 215-pound driver from the vehicle, which was in neutral, and the officer then used his Taser when the man leaned over toward the passenger seat.

The officer was able to subdue the man after a second shock from the Taser, police said.

Emergency crews called to the scene said the man appeared to be weak and quickly determined he was diabetic and suffering from low blood sugar.

Fire Chief Steve Achilles said diabetics in that condition can be combative or angry, and their condition often resembles drug or alcohol intoxication.

The deputy police chief said the incident was “regrettable,” but the officer was not aware the driver was suffering a medical emergency.

“Our police officers are not paramedics,” said Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald. “They are charged with bringing dangerous situations under control. This driver could just as easily have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or engaging in willful criminal conduct.”

The man’s handcuffs were removed so he could receive medical attention, and he was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

The driver was not charged in the incident, and police said damage to the other vehicles was minor.

The incident will be investigated by a use of force review committee.

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I was advised by Denton police that I am obligated to ride in a bicycle lane if one is available. Of course, there is no ordinance supporting this, but although we were traveling the speed limit, passing cars, the police believe we are required to ride in this shit:

https://i.imgur.com/5wW5Ktm.png

How embarrassing for me to take a group of cyclists from all over the country down to Denton to get a coffee, and have the police harass us. Sure, they will claim we were blocking traffic, but I assure you that elite level professional cyclists are able to maintain speeds in excess of 30mph on a flat road with relative ease.

This is why everyone hates the police. Just fuck-off and don't jack with anyone who isn't being a problem.

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Dustin Theoharis, who has had 12 surgeries since police shot him 16 times in 2011, is suing the Washington Department of Corrections for its involvement after agreeing to a $3 million settlement from King County in lieu of litigation. Both the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington DOC previously ruled the shooting justified, and both officers involved appear to remain employed.

...

Cole Harrison, who was at the house, described it this way: "They (the officers) rushed into that room like they were going to get somebody. I mean they rushed down there and then all of a sudden. Boom, boom, boom, boom.”

It’s estimated that the two officers fired more than 20 bullets; 16 hit Theoharis, who was lying in bed. The officers said they thought Theoharis was reaching for a gun. They later told investigators they weren’t sure how many bullets they fired.

"I thought he was going to try to kill us, there is no greater level of threat,” King County Deputy Aaron Thompson told investigators during an interview months after the shooting.

Theoharis didn’t have any weapons, but both the Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Corrections ruled the shooting justified and in compliance with policy.

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Twenty-eight inmates escaped from a Brazilian jail after three women in fantasy police costumes "seduced" prison wardens, it was reported today.

Police found three wardens naked and handcuffed inside the Nova Mutum public jail, near Cuiaba, central Brazil, the morning after the mass break-out.

The women reportedly drugged the prison guards by giving them spiked whisky after convincing them to take part in an orgy, according to investigators.

Inmates then left the prison through the main doors, even taking with them guns and munitions they had taken from prison caches.

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Police in a patrol car chase down a man on a scooter. The car stops, and two officers get out and beat the man with their fists and batons. His orbital bone fractures and he suffers lacerations on his head, yet he is the one who is charged with aggravated assault.

This week, the tables turned when a surveillance video from a nearby store led to charges of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and filing false reports against Philadelphia police officers Sean McKnight and Kevin Robinson in connection with the May 29, 2013, arrest of Najee Rivera.

“I will prosecute these two officers to the fullest extent of the law. Simply put, no one — not even police officers — is above the law,” said District Attorney Seth Williams.

Rivera’s girlfriend tracked down the surveillance tape, according to CNN Affiliate WPVI, and it became key evidence in a grand jury investigation, in which Rivera testified that he got scared and drove away on his scooter after McKnight and Robinson pulled him over, stepped out of their car with batons extended and said, “Come here!”

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The criminalization of minor student misconduct, and the effect it has on high school kids, is a topic Thomas Pedroni, an associate professor at Wayne State University's College of Education, is studying in partnership with the ACLU. "Police set up a different environment in a school," he explains. "It becomes less focused on nurturing and caring and growing, and more focused on control…It's sort of tough in the environment of police presence to go, 'Oh, no, we're really a community of trust.'"

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As the officer approached, the driver accelerated and fled, traveling south on Jefferson Davis Highway. In the ensuing chase the driver lost control of the car on the bridge just north of the intersection of Jefferson Davis and Chester Road. The car rolled several times, trapping the driver inside, police said.

The driver was the only occupant of the car, police said.

After being freed from the wreckage by police and firefighters, the man struggled with officers, police said.

One officer shot his TASER at the man in order to bring him under control and this ignited the man's clothing, which may have come in contact with gasoline in the crash, police said.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire and took the man to VCU Medical Center.
Police are not releasing his identity at this time.

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Apparently where there is smoke, there must be fire, at least that seems to be the thinking at Florida State University.

Heavily recruited Brian Bell had his scholarship withdrawn by the university. No official explanation has been released by the university. However, it is suspected by many to be the result of an intense social media campaign and his alleged involvement in the death of fellow Lowndes County High School student Kendrick Johnson. Johnson’s body was found in a rolled up wrestling mat inside the school gym. The condition of Johnson’s body and the circumstances surrounding his death have been the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice grand jury investigation.

The teen’s death caused national attention to be focused on Valdosta, Georgia, and has caused deep racial animosity to rise to the surface. The Johnson family recently filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit that names more than 30 defendants and the city of Valdosta. It is alleged in the lawsuit that Johnson was lured to the gym by an unidentified White female. It was there that Brian Bell and his brother are alleged to have assaulted Johnson. The lawsuit further alleges that the father of the boys, FBI agent Rick Bell, encouraged the boys to assault Johnson. Because of possible conflict of interest issues with the case, seven judges have recused themselves from hearing the lawsuit.

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Peace Officer is a documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of “Dub” Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.

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One of the officers named in the suit recently resigned during an investigation into alleged improper use of force against another inmate.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Federal grand juries have indicted five San Francisco police officers, charging two with stealing money and drugs seized as part of investigations, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

The officers were suspended without pay and had their guns taken away, Police Chief Greg Suhr said shortly after the indictments were announced.

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CAMDEN — Charges have been dropped or convictions vacated in 185 drug cases in one of the nation's most crime-ridden cities because information gathered in a criminal investigation of five police city officers suggests evidence could have been tainted, a prosecutor announced today.

One of the officers pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with other officers to deprive others of their civil rights. Kevin Parry, who has resigned from the department, admitted he planted drugs on suspects, conducted illegal searches, threatened additional charges for suspects who refused to cooperate, stole drugs and money from suspects, and paid informants — many of them prostitutes — with drugs in exchange for information.

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This guy was driving like a maniac behind me then split the lanes to pass. Threatened to get his "wand" and said I could not drive. Called the cops and they were never dispatched. One of there own?

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A King County sheriff’s deputy accused of threatening to kill his girlfriend was charged Wednesday with felony harassment, domestic violence.

Daniel J. Murphy, 35, was arrested on Sunday and released from jail on bail Monday in connection with the incident at the home he shares with his girlfriend near Issaquah.

According to charges, Murphy’s girlfriend was crying and upset when she called deputies to report the threat. The woman told the deputy who responded to their home that she had broken up with Murphy on Friday, but at around 3 a.m. Sunday he returned to the home and yelled at her for emailing his mother about the break-up.

The woman told deputies Murphy’s “face was red and his eyes were bulging.” She said she had “never seen him so angry,” charging documents said.

The woman said that Murphy threatened, “I will kill you – I’ve never been more close to physical violence on anyone before. I hope your family dies,” charges said. The woman said Murphy, her boyfriend of two and a half years, then left the house. The woman called a friend, who called for help.

After his arrest, Murphy denied threatening to kill the woman or her family. He said that the woman had threatened him with a gun in the past, according to the charges. “However, he never reported it or told anyone about it,” charging documents said.

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n officer first visited Allen’s home at 10:20 p.m. on Saturday, but there was no answer.

Gastonia police then contacted the Gastonia Fire Department and Gaston Emergency Medical Services at 11:30 p.m. and a “decision was made to enter the house, concerned that he may be inside in need of emergency assistance,” Helton said.

According to the chief, Gastonia police Officer Josh Lefevers announced himself before coming through the backdoor of the home, but Allen was pointing a gun at officers when they entered.

“He was challenged to lower the gun down,” Helton insisted. “The gun was pointed in the direction of the officers, and a shot was fired that fatally wounded him.”

The shooting left Allen’s family demanding answers.

“(He) probably woke up, someone’s breaking in on me, so when you’re by yourself you try to protect yourself,” Allen’s brother-in-law, Robert Battle, told WSOC.

Otis Thompson, a friend of Allen’s, said that his first reaction would have been to “grab a gun too.”

“You kicked the man’s door in,” Thompson remarked. “He’s disoriented and he’s in his own house, privacy of his own home.”

Sister Mary Battle said that she understood that police were probably frightened, but she pointed that her brother “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Helton told reporters that the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation had been asked to investigate the shooting. The Gastonia Police Department followed its standard procedure for officer involved shootings and placed Lefevers on administrative leave.

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A Texas Grand Jury failed to indict a cannabis grower over the death of a police SWAT team officer, after his defense successfully argued that he believed he was being burgled during a police raid.

Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders was shot dead in the early hours of December 19th, 2013, by Henry Goedrich Magee, while executing a search warrant on the man’s home. Law enforcement claimed they believed Magee had large amounts of “marijuana” in his property, as well as illegal firearms.

A jury heard how the SWAT team may have failed to make their presence known before bursting in to the house, and Magee immediately fired at the intruders, killing Sgt. Sowders in the process.

Remarkably the other officers did not return deadly fire and Magee was apprehended. No illegal firearms were uncovered, but they did find a small number of cannabis plants, which the defendant claims were for personal use.

He was indicted on both drug and weapons charges, despite his guns being legally owned, because in the presence of illegal drugs weapons automatically become an accessory to the crime.

The jury however would not indict him for the death of Sgt. Sowders because they could not be convinced that he was aware the intruders were law enforcement.

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A Kensington police detective was suspended earlier this week after allegedly having sex with a prostitute who stole his gun, badge, and ammo from a Reno hotel room while he slept.

In late May, Sergeant Keith Barrow allegedly paid $70 to have sex with a prostitute while he was off duty.

Barrow woke up to find his badge, two clips of ammunition, and his gun missing.
Barrow was never cited, and returned to work. He wasn’t suspended until earlier this week.

“It’s a career breaker, and it’s a really negative blot on somebody’s record. On the other hand, seems like if you’re paying somebody $186,000 a year there ought to be some accountability,” Mike Emery said.

Barrow’s stolen gun was later recovered by Reno police after the prostitute’s pimp shot himself in the leg with that gun.

It’s unclear how long Barrow’s suspension will last.

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A woman attempted to rob a bar in La Crosse, Wisconsin, but was thwarted by a customer with a taser. The police are making sure justice is served and have arrested the woman.

They arrested the man with the taser, too. That's because it's against the law in Wisconsin to carry a taser without a permit.

The incident took place in the early morning hours at King's Korner bar. A former employee pointed a gun at the bartender and demanded the money in the cash register. But customer Jeff Steele brandished his taser at the burglar, and she ran off. She was apprehended shortly thereafter.

Steele didn't actually use the taser, according to the batender. Still, he will face a felony weapons charge, according to WKBT:

Steele is being charged with possession of an electronic weapon, which is a felony, because he doesn't have a concealed carry permit for his Taser.

"You can have it in your home and on your private property without a concealed carry permit, but you do need to keep a concealed carry permit to carry it out in public," said Officer Lisa Barrix, with the La Crosse Police Department.

"When I bought it off the Internet it said basically that it's legal to have in the state of Wisconsin, but didn't go into any depth on it, so I assumed that it was legal to carry around, otherwise why would you buy one to leave it at home? How is it for defense then?" Steele said.

Barrix says because Steele tried help he wasn't immediately taken to jail.

What a great message—exercise your Constitutional rights and defend someone from a potentially violent crime and you won't be taken to jail immediately.

For his part, Steele claims he ordered the taser online and didn't know he was only allowed to keep it in his home. He lives in a rough neighborhood, and if he can't leave his house with the taser in tow, it defeats the entire purpose.

I hope he learned his lesson. About helping people. And protecting himself.

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A former Philadelphia police officer has been sentenced to one day in prison followed by six months of house arrest in what authorities called the improper detention of an Iraq War veteran last year.


Thirty-three-year-old Kevin Corcoran was acquitted of charges of false imprisonment and official oppression last fall but convicted of obstruction of justice, a second-degree misdemeanor.


Prosecutors said Corcoran drew criticism and some people began filming him after he allegedly made an illegal turn. They said Corcoran cuffed one of them, Roderick King of Lansdale, and drove him around before eventually releasing him.

Prosecutors sought a three-month minimum sentence, but Common Pleas judge Robert Coleman on Friday called the incident an aberration amid Corcoran's 10-year career. Corcoran was suspended from the force and later lost his job.

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Indiana: Traffic Cops May Not Open Pill Bottles
Indiana Court of Appeals rules that traffic cops may not look through the pill bottles of motorists without legitimate suspicion.

Judge Terry A. CronePolice have no business looking through the pill bottles belonging to a motorist stopped for a routine traffic violation. That was the conclusion of a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals, which last month reversed Antonio Garcia's conviction on drug charges because an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer violated the state constitution.

At around 9pm on August 6, 2012, Officer Philip Robinett saw a white Chevrolet Trailblazer that did not have its headlights on. The SUV pulled over and parked on the side of the street without signaling. Officer Robinett hit his lights and ordered Garcia to get back in the car. Garcia is not a US citizen, so he was arrested for driving without a license. A frisk revealed that Garcia had a pill bottle in his pocket, and the officer could not resist taking a look inside.

"Every time I've either -- I've located either some type of illegal substance or -- unless it is a pill that is properly prescribed," Officer Robinett testified. "That's the only time I've seen it to where the substance inside this cylinder is a legal substance."

The container held half a pill with markings indicating it was hydrocodone, a painkiller for which Garcia had no prescription -- a class D felony. Under federal case law, Officer Robinett's search would be considered valid, but Indiana offers greater protection to its residents.

"The degree of concern, knowledge, or suspicion that a criminal violation had occurred with respect to the pill vial was low prior to opening the container," Judge Terry A. Crone wrote for the three-judge panel. "Although there could be situations in which the police find an unfamiliar object on a person through a search incident to arrest that may justify further investigation, that situation did not occur here. There is no evidence in the record that Officer Robinett had any concern or suspicion that the container held anything that threatened his or the public's safety."

Prosecutors admit that they would not have had enough evidence to go to a judge and seek a warrant to open the container, as there was no reason to suspect Garcia had illegal drugs.

"There was no need for law enforcement to preserve evidence relating to the offense for which Garcia was arrested," Judge Crone wrote. "Also, there were no circumstances unrelated to the reason for the arrest that led Officer Robinett to suspect that Garcia was impaired, had engaged in any illegal drug use, or was involved in any illegal drug dealing."

Because the search was unreasonable, the court dismissed the drug possession charge.

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Police may not violate constitutional rights to obtain a drunk driving conviction, but the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) can. The North Carolina Court of Appeals came to that conclusion last week in reinstating the driver's license suspension of Myra Lynne Combs.

On January 6, 2013, Mount Airy Police Officer David Grubbs wrongly stopped Combs, who was behind the wheel of a blue SUV. An anonymous caller reported seeing a blue Ford Explorer weaving on Highway 52. Officer Grubs saw Combs, but her driving was just fine. She neither weaved nor committed any traffic violations. Officer Grubbs decided to stop her anyway once she had reached her destination.

Combs smelled of alcohol, and she was unable to pass the standard battery of field sobriety tests. Combs refused to undergo a breath test. Although she was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), the Surry County District Court tossed the criminal case because the officer violated the Constitution in stopping her illegally. The North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), however, was unwilling to let Combs off the hook. It revoked her driver's license based solely on the illicitly obtained evidence. The DMV argued that the exclusionary rule does not apply to a civil proceeding. Combs argued that this was unfair. The trial judge told the DMV it could not base its action on illegal evidence, but the appellate court disagreed.

"Combs's argument poses a fair question: how can law enforcement use evidence that was suppressed because of a Fourth Amendment violation to later revoke her driver's license?" Court of Appeals Judge Richard Dietz asked. "The answer, according to several published decisions of this court, is that the exclusionary rule -- a bedrock principle of criminal law -- does not apply to license revocation proceedings."

Since the three-judge panel accepted the evidence obtained as a result of the traffic stop, it concluded that the DMV had sufficient evidence that Combs refused to submit to a breath test, the penalty for which is license suspension. Combs may have good reason to seek further review of her case, as the appeals court was quoting itself in arriving at its decision.

"Our Supreme Court has not yet addressed this issue, but this court has," Judge Dietz wrote.

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The district attorney in Brooklyn has secured his fourth indictment against a cop in as many months. Peter Liang of the New York Police Department (NYPD) was indicted on a charge of manslaughter for shooting and killing Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a public housing project in Brooklyn. According to local news reports Liang and his partner weren’t sure exactly where the building they were patrolling was, and they had in fact been ordered not to patrol stairwells but to stay on the street, in the courtyards and when in the buildings, in the lobby only.

Liang did not call for medical assistance for at least six and a half minutes after shooting Gurley, opting to text his union representative first instead. The NYPD has maintained from the beginning that the shooting was accidental, and the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association said the same after news of the indictment broke. “It’s a tragic, tragic, tragic case,” Ed Mullins said. “I’m sad that he was indicted. I don’t know exactly what transpired in that hallway, but I believe it’s a truly accidental incident.”

Liang remains on the payroll even as he’s being arraigned tomorrow. He was placed on “modified duty” after the shooting but until his indictment he was exempt from being investigated by internal affairs.

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