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The sports our children play often generate passion among parents.

Few places exemplify the parent/child bond through sports like Texas, but now the police have stepped in and penalized a 32-year-old suburban wife and mother named Jessica Curs in a town just south of Dallas called Alvarado.

Alvarado Police Captain Gary Melson, the second-highest ranking member of the department, believed his rank gave him the authority to censor free speech in a public fora.

So the Texas police captain arrested Curs for saying “Dick” in public while coaching a basketball game between 9-year-olds in a public school gym – an allegation that Curs and the game’s referee deny ever took place.

But even if she had said the word “dick” in public, she still would not have broken the law, making the arrest a blatant form of censorship – an act that his own department admitted to earlier today in a long and winding statement on its Facebook page with the dramatic headline:

*warning, language may not be suitable for everyone*

Indeed, in Texas, the use of free speech or expressive behavior in public, and especially near the sensitive ears of cops, is a leading indicator of one’s likelihood to being arrested as you can see from another PINAC story this week in Texas.

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The city of Dearborn has agreed to pay $40,000 to a Detroit woman who was ticketed by a police officer because she had HIV.

Shalandra Jones of Detroit had sued the city of Dearborn in January 2014 after police Officer David Lacey berated her for not telling him earlier in a traffic stop that she had HIV. He expressed concern about contracting a disease, according to a video of the traffic stop in 2012 in the western part of Dearborn.

People with HIV are not required to tell police they have it. Jones told the officer she had HIV after he asked her about medication in her car that she uses to treat HIV. He ended up ticketing her on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge; she had a marijuana medical card, but it had expired. The charge was dismissed last year.

"We believe this was an isolated incident with a single officer and not reflective of the behavior of our police department," said Mary Laundroche, spokeswoman for the city of Dearborn. "Respect for everyone is emphasized in all police department training."

Lacey said he pulled over Jones and driver Mark Scott because "I just rolled up and saw the brake light out, and I thought, 'Well, you know, what? I’m kind of bored.' So, might as well, it’s worth a stop," according to a video of the traffic stop.

The officer searched the car after smelling marijuana

After finding out Jones had HIV, Lacey said: "You just made me mad."

Lacey said he "did not want to take any diseases home to his family." The officer added that "Dearborn does not have that many people living with HIV, and the police do not like people with HIV."

Lacey then said to Jones: "Honestly, if it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would have wrote anybody for anything. But that kind of really aggravated me, you know what I mean? You got to tell me right away. ... Because at that time, I wasn’t wearing any gloves."

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Fourteen French motorists who had been convicted of the crime of posting speed trap locations on Facebook were relieved Monday to learn of their acquittal on Monday. The Montpellier Appeals Court overturned the December 3, 2014 lower court decision that had found the leaders of a Facebook group guilty of violating a law banning radar detectors by regularly reporting on the locations of police ticketing traps.

"Between May 15, 2013 and July 27, 2013... [the defendants] used a device or product to avoid the detection of a road traffic offense, in this case equipping his mobile phone with the Facebook application to access 'The group that tells you where the police in Aveyron are' allowing him to escape detection of road traffic offenses," the charges stated.

A judge in the town of Rodez found the fourteen guilty as charged and imposed a one-month license suspension. Although the motorists successfully had these charges tossed out on appeal, their Facebook page remains unavailable.

Government officials wanted the popular page removed because it circulated memes mocking enforcement efforts as revenue raising expeditions. After the fourteen motorists were first charged, the constant media coverage helped the page nearly double in size to over 14,000 members. Prosecutors claimed the Facebook page was a "device" under French law. Since the page was accessible on the road through a mobile app, the page effectively allowed the public to know where the speed cameras were operating in the same way that an illegal radar detector does. The group's defense attorney argued that such a broad application of the law would have wide-ranging consequences beyond the social media website.

"If what they are doing is forbidden, then all warning radars should be banned, all newspapers and local radio stations that report radar locations should be closed," defense lawyer Remy Josseaume argued.

Josseaume's argument swayed the appellate court, which overturned the convictions on the simple grounds that Facebook is not a radar detector. Prosecutors have until the end of the week to appeal.

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A man who investigates the Chicago Police Department for a living was beaten by officers once they discovered what he did, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

George Roberts is a supervisor at the Independent Police Review Authority, the agency responsible for investigating claims of police misconduct and officer-involved shootings. On New Year’s Day 2015, Roberts was pulled over after he left a bar. One of six officers who stopped Roberts found his IPRA identification badge.

Immediately afterwards, the police dashcam recording the traffic stop cuts to black; Roberts alleges in his federal lawsuit against the police this is because another officer intentionally turned off the camera. Roberts’s attorney claims police paperwork did not even note any footage existed. In fact, police only admitted to its existence when Roberts’s criminal counsel discovered it during his trial for driving under the influence.

With no footage to contest their account of the incident, police told the media that Roberts was drunk and swerving his vehicle and that he refused to answer questions or to take a field-sobriety test. They arrested him for minor traffic violations and DUI. Police said he fell asleep in the back of the squad car and he soiled himself.

Roberts was acquitted on the DUI charge in a bench trial and he says police are lying about what really happened after the dashcam went dark—that he was thrown to the ground before he was handcuffed and put in the back of a squad car.

At 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, Roberts’s wrists were too large for the single pair of handcuffs police slapped on him, his lawyer says. When Roberts complained that even the slightest movement caused the cuffs to cut into his wrists Officer “R. Adams” allegedly taunted him with Eric Garner’s last words.

“What are you going to tell me next, you can’t breathe?”

Roberts, who is black, claims he was pulled out of the car and thrown to the ground again—a collision so violent that it made him lose control of his bowels. From there Roberts was taken to the lock-up, where he stayed overnight in his soiled clothes.

The only visit from an officer that night was borne not of concern but jubilation, according to Roberts. A white-shirt officer, which denotes high rank, peered in on Roberts as he sat defeated on the cell floor, then pointed and laughed.

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Years ago, members of my extended family were gangsters connected with the Genovese crime family. They had the ability, which they used, to place people in favored positions within the New York City Police Department. I know this, because my father was offered one of those slots.

...

The law enforcement connections continued and expanded. At the end of the 1960s, that crew pulled off an art heist that was elegant in execution, but went to hell pretty quickly. As it turned out the buyers they arranged were FBI agents. But the thieves were tipped off that the buyers were feds. And they were tipped off about a raid on a house where the paintings had been stored. As my father tells me, "they probably had a plant in the FBI as well." (If you're interested, and it's a hell of a tale, you can read the full story of the heist in Gallery of Fools.)

None of this is news to anybody who remembers Frank Serpico's revelations about the NYPD. But it's also something that doesn't go away. My father's brief opportunity for a law (non)enforcement career passed 60 years ago. The Knapp Commission convened over four decades ago. But the NYPD still faces allegations of corruption, including traditional ticket-fixing, outright theft of cash and jewels, and taking bribes to deliver accident reports to doctors and clinics who then market their services to the victims.

Honest cops who blow the whistle still suffer retaliation for their pains.

Not that the NYPD should be singled out. Baltimore cops have been accused of working as muscle for drug dealers. Cops elsewhere have been drug dealers, taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by their badges to shut down competitors in the illegal but highly profitable trade and keep the opportunities for themselves

And then there are the FBI agents who got tight with Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Some of this corruption overlaps with civil liberties violations committed in the course of police work. Those jewel-stealing cops mentioned above also gained a taste for gathering evidence in the absence of warrants. It's probably not surprising that police officers who engage in theft, accept bribes, and carve out illegal narcotics empires might find the Fourth Amendment an unimpressive barrier to further depredations.

There may be no way of doing entirely without professional police forces that are paid and empowered to enforce the laws to some extent (though I'm very willing to consider alternatives). Like many things in life, there's probably no perfect fix. But, so long as we have police forces, we're going to have a problem with police who abuse their positions and succumb to corruption. We'll also have a problem with people who become cops just so they can exploit the opportunity to engage in abuse and get an envelope stuffed with cash every week, offered by the likes of Uncle Puggy.

Asking police officers to suppress highly profitable activities where there's money to be had just for looking the other way is just begging for trouble.

That's enough reason to give extra thought to every job, tool, power, legal protection, and consideration given to police officers. And it's reason to turn a skeptical eye on the people we've hired to keep the peace. Because, in the end, the only people watching the watchers are those realistic enough to admit that it's necessary.

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Sergeant Cox says she is honored to be the department's first woman sergeant and she hopes to serve as a role model for others.

"If I can do something to encourage other young girls to dream and strive to attain their dreams and goals -- if I can in some kind of way be even the smallest inspiration to them ... even though this is the 21st century there are still firsts out there to be made for women," she says.

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A rural Wisconsin village will pay $35,000 to settle claims that it deleted profane Facebook comments that criticized its police as racist.

Thomas Smith brought the civil rights suit in question after he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for making disparaging remarks on the police department's Facebook page in 2012.

Smith had left the comments on a message Officer Nicholas Stroik had posted to Facebook, thanking Arena denizens for their assistance in the recent search for two suspects.

The post allegedly prompted backlash, with one commenter identifying "Stroik as the police officer who told her that the African-American suspects would stand out because they did not belong in Arena," according to the complaint.

Smith says he posted two comments: "Fuck the fucking cops they ant shit but fucking racist basturds an fucking all of y'all who is racist" and "Fuck them nigers bitchs wat you got on us not a dam thing so fuck off dicks." [Spelling in original].

There were also comments praising the police, and Smith says these remained on the website but that his posts, along with all other criticism, were deleted.

Smith confirmed having posted the comments when police contacted him, and he was then arrested for disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computer and telephone, according to the complaint.

Though a jury convicted Smith on some counts, an appeals court vacated the convictions last year.

In reply to Smith's civil pleadings, Arena and Stroik insisted that a First Amendment violation could not have occurred, since the Facebook page in question is not a village-sanctioned website.

Smith's attorney, Thomas Aquino, noted in a statement announcing the settlement Tuesday that the village abandoned this claim in subsequent pleadings.

Aquino praised the settlement agreement, adding that Smith is grateful to have the matter behind him more than three years after his wrongful arrest.

"In our country, we are entitled to criticize our government with passion," Aquino said in a statement. "The use of some four-letter words in the course of doing so is never a crime."

Meg Vergeront, an attorney for the village with Stafford Rosenbaum, described the settlement as simply a cash payment in exchange for a release of claims.

In settling, the village has not stipulated to changing how police monitor electronic communication, Vergeront said over the phone.

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The above instance of brutality involves Officer Ryan Clark, who has been named in the lawsuit alongside the City of Dubuque, as attorney David O’Brien claims that the newest case illustrates a ‘systematic’ use-of-force problem, either because it is being ignored or encouraged by police officials.

Clark was already given a four-day suspension for his use of force and language during the event seen in the video, yet is still employed as an active patrol officer, despite his criminal behavior.

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I was actually in Las Cruces today when I saw two Mesilla Police cars parked at a car wash and the two officers across the street searching the shrubbery at a local insurance office. I walked over to document the incident. These are the events that transpired.

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A Syracuse business owner is claiming police caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and misled the public when they raided his shop last week in a search for synthetic marijuana that proved to be futile.

Owner Ezzideen Alharbi of the Lodi Market at 308 N. Crouse Ave. claimed police burst into his shop Wednesday evening without a warrant and demanded to know where the "Spike" was. When employees denied having any, Alharbi said officers proceeded to raid the shop, sending merchandise across the floor and damaging valuable products.

In the end, police cited two of his employees with one misdemeanor untaxed-cigarette charge apiece. However, a news release distributed by the police department suggests that Lodi Market was involved in the sale of the drug.

...

Alharbi could not provide an exact dollar estimate, but he claimed police did a number on Lodi Market both by seizing cash and destroying merchandise and equipment. He provided photographs that he said corroborated some claims.

Alharbi claims Syracuse police:

Ripped cell phones from their cases and threw them on the floor;
Tossed merchandise into the aisles and stepped on it;
Destroyed his safe and cashiers despite employees' offers to open both safely;
Seized an "excessive" amount of cash and documents unrelated to the search; and
Destroyed camera evidence of the raid by ripping a hard drive from the wall and dropping it into a mop bucket
Alharbi is particularly concerned about the destroyed camera because, without it, there is no evidence of the raid. He also said there is now no way to prove his employees did nothing wrong.

Lt. Carr declined to address Alharbi's claims, saying the case was being prosecuted. He the search warrant was, as always, approved by a judge after police presented probable cause. He declined to say what that probable cause was.

"As to your other questions, due to the fact this case is still being prosecuted I am not able to answer any other questions regarding this matter," Carr said in an email Tuesday.

Syracuse City Court judge Rory McMahon signed the warrant Sept. 10. Court staff refused to provide the warrant.

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An IRS agent was arrested this week after he was caught attempting to con a Seattle marijuana shop owner out of $20,000.

The 42-year-old agent, Paul G. Hurley, reportedly demanded a $20,000 bribe from the shop owner, in exchange for a break on an audit. In fact, Hurley had said that he saved the business owner over a million dollars on his tax return, and that his current tax bill was just under $300,000.

The shop owner was not even concerned with getting a break, so when the agent left he contacted federal authorities who set up a sting operation wherein the shop owner gave the IRS agent money for the bribe.

Hurley met with the owner on several occasions during an audit and mentioned how he was unhappy with his job at the IRS and that he was living paycheck to paycheck. The two met at a nearby Starbucks on several different occasions to discuss the deal and each time the shop owner wore a wire and was followed by undercover police.

The agent allegedly threatened the owner with a massive tax bill, saying that he owed an obnoxious amount because he was involved in the marijuana industry which is illegal on the federal level. The agent asked for $20,000 up front, and at one point in the negotiation asked the owner to help him pay his student loans over time.

Hurley is currently facing up to 15 years in jail for charges of soliciting and agreeing to receive a bribe and two counts of receiving a bribe by a public official.

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The state failed to provide any evidence that any other vehicle, including the officer's squad car, was affected by Nelson's failure to signal. The judges, however, refused to suppress the obstruction charge.

"We cannot find that [Nelson's] alleged obstructive behavior to be the product of Officer Turnbough's illegal stop," Judge Hudson wrote. "[Nelson's] decision to behave as he did was an independent and voluntary act which broke the link to any taint caused by the illegal stop."

The judges noted that they had never before considered whether the common law right to resist an unlawful arrest applied to a traffic stop. They used this case to reject the idea.

"The typical motorist simply is not equipped to make a determination of whether there is a legal basis for a traffic stop," Judge Hudson concluded. "Whether the officer did, in hindsight, have probable cause to make the traffic stop should be resolved in a courtroom, not in the streets. To permit otherwise would effectively encourage drivers to engage in potentially explosive self-help methods. This, in turn, would increase the risk of escalating what should be a relatively benign interaction between law enforcement and a driver into a potentially dangerous or violent interaction."

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A judge granted a bond modification for Stephen Rankin after a request made by the defense.

The bond modification allows for former Portsmouth police officer, Stephen Rankin, to attend his father-in-law’s wedding in Duck, North Carolina. He is allowed to leave the area beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, September 25, 2015 and must return by 6 p.m. on Sunday, September 27, 2015.

Rankin has surrendered his passport.

A grand jury indicted Rankin on first-degree murder and weapons charges in the shooting death of William Chapman. The shooting took place in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Frederick Boulevard in April.

A trial date is scheduled for February 22, 2015.

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Rankin shot dead 18-year-old William Chapman at a Walmart last month, four years after he was barred from patrols for killing another citizen. But he is a good fit for a police force that goes to great lengths to attract military men

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“What’s the difference if it was one round or 11 rounds or 111 rounds?” he wrote, using the screen name ‘yourealythinkthat’. “When I was in Iraq, that would have been a good shoot,” he said later. “In fact, nobody would have really given it a second thought.”

Speaking under oath six months and 246 supportive comments later, Rankin, a US navy veteran, admitted that ‘yourealythinkthat’ was him.

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He was chided by police chiefs when he publicly referred on Facebook to his firearms case as “Rankin’s box of vengeance” and said it “would be better if i was dirtying them instead of cleaning them!”

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However, one officer who worked alongside Rankin said he was unsteady. “He was afraid of his own shadow,” said the officer, who has since left the department.

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And several complaints were filed about his use of force, according to a police supervisor in the department at the time. The retired supervisor told the Guardian that senior commanders were formally warned by Rankin’s lieutenant weeks before his first fatal shooting that he was “dangerous” and likely to cause someone harm.

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Delaware police officers shot and killed an armed man in a wheelchair after responding to a call that the man had a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Wilmington Police said in a news release that they encountered the man Wednesday afternoon "armed with a handgun" at Tulip and S Scott streets.

Authorities say "a departmental shooting ensued" and that the man died on the scene. The news release did not elaborate and police would not release any additional information when contacted by telephone.

According to a city spokeswoman, Police Chief Bobby L. Cummings went to the scene and met with neighbors and relatives.

Wilmington spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge also said that police told her the man had shot himself Wednesday before they arrived.

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A Florida cop once named "Officer of the Year" was arrested by federal agents for distributing child porn -- and uploading the smut on the job, court documents show.

Port St. Lucie Officer Michael Harding was charged Wednesday with sending and receiving child porn after undercover Homeland Security investigators discovered his filth-ridden account on the app Kik messenger, authorities said.

The 27-year-old married father of three posted explicit material to the Kik chatroom #toddlerf**k while stationed in his police vehicle on patrol on the overnight shift beginning on July 23, according to an affidavit.

A Homeland Security Investigator stumbled onto posts Harding made under the name destheabovee showing young girls in sex acts with men, the affidavit said. The account was later linked to Harding's IP address and cell phone number, investigators said.

A search of Harding's home found hundreds of child porn photos and videos on a thumb drive, which had been hidden in a gun case in the bedroom, the affidavit said. Another thumb drive showed 23 sexually explicit pictures had been deleted, investigators said.

The thumb drives had images of boys and girls between about pre-school age and prepubescence, investigators said.

Harding was taken into custody Tuesday evening and appointed a public defender Wednesday after telling a judge he had $3,000 in his bank account, WPTV reported. A judge did not set bond because Harding is considered a danger to the community.

Harding was named Officer of the Year while working for the Fort Pierce Police Department in 2011. He quit Fort Pierce to work for Port St. Lucie in August 2012, the department said. He did not provide proper notice of his resignation, leaving him not in good standing with Fort Pierce.

Harding was placed on administrative leave without pay pending an investigation after his arrest, Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Bolduc told reporters Wednesday. When the department first learned of the investigation Tuesday morning, he was placed on paid leave.

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A Fairview police officer has been charged with five felony counts of possession of child pornography and one felony count for violating the Computer Crimes Act for storing child pornography on a computer.

William Nathaniel “Nate” Meyer was placed on administrative leave Friday after Charles Gadd, Fairview's acting police chief, received allegations from a juvenile male that Meyer was communicating with the boy's girlfriend in a sexually explicit manner via text message, according to an affidavit.

Major County Attorney General Chris Boring filed the charges against Meyer on Wednesday.

According to the affidavit, a search warrant was served Monday for Meyer’s residence. At the time of the warrant, Meyer and his wife declined to be interviewed.

While searching the home, Dewey County Sheriff L. Clay Sander found more than 50 child sexual abuse images on a custom-built computer tower that contained seven individual hard drives, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit detailed five images and videos found on the computer, including a video of two prepubescent children touching each other while nude and engaging in intercourse.

After conducting the search, the Meyers were advised of their rights and were placed under arrest. At that time, according to the affidavit, Nate Meyer voluntarily stated he took responsibility and it was “all my fault.”

Bond was set at $50,000 for Nate Meyer. He bonded out shortly after, according to Major County Sheriff’s Department.

Gadd said as soon as his office became aware of the allegation, he immediately turned the investigation over to the District Attorney’s Office.

“We felt it was going to be better handled by an outside agency,” Gadd said. “I can say that there was an allegation of misconduct and it was turned over to the DA.”

Boring said no charges have been filed against Meyer's wife at this time. She has filed for a divorce, according to court documents. The two married in 2012.

Nate Meyer is a Cimarron High School graduate and was a member of Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Combat Brigade, according to his marriage announcement from 2012.

An arraignment hearing is set for 2:30 p.m. Friday in Major County.

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The State Personnel Board on Tuesday upheld the firing of a prison shift commander who failed to report an incident in which a kneeling, handcuffed inmate was struck in the head several times by another officer.

The beating was captured on video.

The officer who struck the inmate, Sgt. Juanice Cole, was also fired.

Lt. Edmond Cooper, who had worked for the Department of Corrections for about 13 years, admitted he was wrong not to report the incident but claimed that termination was too harsh, his lawyer told the Personnel Board.

"We're not saying that Mr. Cooper shouldn't be punished," lawyer Adam Morel said.

Morel said suspension or demotion would have been more appropriate.

The incident happened Dec. 11, 2014, in the shift commander's office at Elmore Correctional Facility.

DOC spokesman Bob Horton said the department launched an investigation as soon as it learned of the situation and placed the officers on administrative leave.

Horton said Cole was fired for inappropriate use of force and other violations of DOC rules. Cooper was fired for failing to report what happened.

A third prison officer who saw the incident resigned to avoid dismissal, according to the DOC.

The DOC said the inmate was not injured. The DOC would not release his name for security reasons, Horton said.

The video shows Cole escorting an inmate, hands cuffed behind him, into the shift commander's office.

After the inmate kneels, Cole strikes him in the face or head three times.

Cooper, working at a desktop computer a few feet away, does not visibly react. There is no audio.

Cole walks briefly out of view, then returns and speaks to Cooper, still at his desk. She again approaches the inmate, who is lying on his side, and appears to hit him again.

Cooper rises from his desk and walks out of the office while another employee, who also watched the incident, coaxes the inmate back to his feet.

Cooper returns to his desk, and the video ends.

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Bennett was shot Oct. 14, 2013, by then-Officer Cardan Spencer. Bennett’s mother had called police that day to help her deal with her son, who had a knife and was acting erratically. When Spencer and fellow Officer Christopher Watson got to Bennett’s home in Rylie, they found Bennett sitting in an office chair in a cul-de-sac.

The cops approached Bennett, who stood up but did not advance. They drew their guns and told him to drop the knife. After a pause, Spencer opened fire and hit Bennett, who collapsed.

At first, police charged Bennett with aggravated assault against a public servant. Watson, who did not fire his gun, said in an arrest warrant affidavit that Bennett had his “knife raised in an aggressive manner” and had stepped toward the officers.

The account was false. A neighbor’s surveillance video showed that Bennett stood still and never moved his feet forward.

Police had the video for several days, but kept Bennett in custody. After the neighbor’s surveillance video went public through the media, Chief David Brown announced the charges were dropped.

The video prompted Brown and a former Dallas police trainer to criticize Spencer’s tactics, particularly how he and Watson advanced on Bennett as soon as they got out of their squad car. Brown later fired Spencer and suspended Watson for 15 days. Spencer has been charged with aggravated assault by a public servant.

...

But Bennett, 54, said he isn’t fully satisfied with the $1.6 million settlement that the Dallas City Council approved Tuesday.

“The whole message never got out,” Bennett said. “I was hoping we could send a message that this type of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.”

Bennett said he will bank more than half of the settlement after significant bills, medical expenses and fees for Don Tittle, his lawyer. Tittle said the record settlement was too good to pass up.

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After the shooting, the driver fled in the Escalade and officers from the West Covina Police Department pursued the SUV for nearly an hour before to a dirt field in Fontana, where it appparently became bogged down, according to investigators.

Video shows a man standing outside the SUV before a police K9 jumped on him and took him to the ground and officers handcuffed him. He incurred bite wounds in addition to the earlier shooting wound and was hospitalized.

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A police officer who was charged with raping a woman while on duty was fired this week by the San Jose Police Department, authorities said.

The department Thursday confirmed 40-year-old Geoffrey Evatt Graves, who joined SJPD in 2008, was fired Wednesday. Officials offered no additional comment, citing personnel privacy laws.

Graves has been locked up in the Santa Clara County Main Jail since mid-March when a judge held him over for trial on charges he sexually assaulted a woman two years ago in a motel room after she requested to be taken there following a disturbance call at her house.

Graves also faces domestic violence charges in connection with his ex-girlfriend, a San Jose police dispatcher who testified in March that he blew up at her more than a dozen times, sometimes violently.

Graves' attorney Thursday described the termination as a rushed decision, noting that Graves is innocent until proven guilty. "I think it's premature to fire him,'' said Kristin Carter, the alternate public defender who represents Graves. "I'm feeling very confident about this case.''

It was not immediately clear if Graves would appeal his termination.

Santa Clara County prosecutor Carlos Vega declined to comment on the department's decision.

"We continue to be focused on the prosecution of the case,'' Vega said.

The police department's decision to dismiss Graves comes after Vega presented evidence that convinced Judge JoAnne

McCracken in March to declare him a flight risk and threat to public safety.

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It was a death sentence.

David Stojcevski, a 32-year-old resident of Roseville, Michigan, was arrested for failing to pay a $772 fine stemming from careless driving. A court ordered him to spend a month in the Macomb County jail.

Over the next 17 days of his incarceration in a brightly lit cell—where he was denied clothing—he lost 50 pounds, suffered convulsions, and eventually began to hallucinate. He died in agony, from a combination of obvious, untreated drug withdrawal and galling neglect.

Making matters worse (if anything could be worse than that), the entirety of his demise was captured on jail surveillance footage. Indeed, Stojcevski was under self-harm watch—stemming for a profound misdiagnosis of his condition, which was drug addiction, not mental instability—and jail officials were supposed to be watching him constantly. Either their vigilance was inadequate, or they watched and simply didn’t care.

WDIV's report on the story is a must-see, though it’s highly disturbing: the video shows clips from the jail footage while a medical expert offers commentary on the inhumanity of Stojcevski’s treatment.

Stojcevski was a drug addict, and was taking Methadone, Xanax, and Klonopin to treat his addiction. But without access to these prescriptions, he quickly went into withdrawal while in jail, according to WDIV's expert. Withdrawal caused him to behave irrationally, but jail officials ignored these obvious symptoms and instead placed him in a cell for the mentally unstable. He was stripped naked—so that he couldn’t hurt himself—and forced to languish under the unceasing bright lights (the jail doesn’t turn them off, even at night).

At one point, Stojcevski began fighting with another (naked) inmate, who was then moved out of the cell. Sometime later, completely alone, Stojcevski could be seen reenacting the fight—a clear sign of hallucination.

On his last day of life, the man refused to touch his food and was too weak to get up from the floor.

At the first, obvious sign of drug withdrawal, Stojcevski should have been given adequate medical treatment. He was not a violent criminal, or a danger to the public. He was a man who hadn’t paid a traffic ticket.

Stojcevski’s family is suing Macomb County. A lawyer for the county told WDIV that the suit “lacks legal merit,” and expects the family to lose when the case goes to trial. Macomb County has no plans to settle, according to the lawyer.

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Two NYPD officers were under investigation late Wednesday, after a warrant search in Westchester County that residents said felt like a home invasion.

As CBS2’s Lou Young reported, Geneva Smith of Mount Vernon said she heard rapping at her door last Tuesday morning.

“I heard a bang on the door,” Smith said. “It wasn’t a knock. It was a bang on the door.”

Smith said the men at her door Tuesday morning said they were NYPD officers with a search warrant. The problem is that she lives outside their jurisdiction in Westchester County.

Smith called her husband at work, opened the door a crack, and passed the phone through.

“I asked the officer for his full name and his shield number, and he refused to give it to me,” said Richard Smith. “He told me, he said, ‘All you need to know is that I’m a New York City police officer, and I’ve got an arrest warrant and a search warrant.”

Richard Smith said he called Mount Vernon police on another line as the men forced their way in, breaking the security chain on the door.

“They did knock me down after I wouldn’t open the door for them — after husband got off the phone with them and told them: ‘Mount Vernon police is on the way. Do not enter the house,’” Geneva Smith said.

But the men entered anyway, and never showed the warrant they said they had, she said.

By the time Mount Vernon police arrived, the men had searched the house and left. They did not find the person they were looking for.

Late Wednesday afternoon, local officials in Westchester County were demanding answers.

“I don’t care who, what the other police department it is,” said Mount Vernon City Council President Marcus Griffith. “They must confer – I’m demanding they confer with our police department before they invade our residents.”

“This is an incident we cannot tolerate and that we will not tolerate, and we will be talking to the Police Department of New York City,” said Mount Vernon Corporate Counsel Lauren Raysor.

This is now the second out-of-jurisdiction mishap for the NYPD in a matter of weeks. Last month, a Mount Vernon man died when an undercover city officer fired shots at a fleeing suspect in a gun buy gone bad.

It has taken a week for Mount Vernon to get any answers on the latest incident.
“If we were not people of color, corrective action would’ve already been taken,” Richard Smith said.

An NYPD spokesman confirmed that it was two Warrant Squad officers in Mount Vernon last week, and an internal investigation has been launched.

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The Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination would be breached if two insider trading suspects were forced to turn over the passcodes of their locked mobile phones to the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

"We find, as the SEC is not seeking business records but Defendants' personal thought processes, Defendants may properly invoke their Fifth Amendment right," US District Judge Mark Kearney of Pennsylvania wrote.

The decision comes amid a growing global debate about encryption and whether the tech sector should build backdoors into their wares to grant the authorities access to locked devices. Ars reported today that an Obama administration working group "considered four backdoors that tech companies could adopt to allow government investigators to decipher encrypted communications stored on phones of suspected terrorists or criminals."

Without this capability, the authorities are trying to get suspects to cough up their passwords instead. The Supreme Court has never ruled on the constitutionality of the issue. There's been a smattering of varying court rulings nationwide on the topic. In 2012, a federal appeals court said that forcing a child-porn suspect to decrypt password-protected hard drives would amount to a Fifth Amendment violation.

In the latest case, the SEC is investigating two former Capital One data analysts who allegedly used insider information associated with their jobs to trade stocks—in this case, a $150,000 investment allegedly turned into $2.8 million. Regulators suspect the mobile devices are holding evidence of insider trading and demanded that the two turn over their passcodes.

The defendants balked at supplying their passcodes, saying the Fifth Amendment protected them. The judge agreed and said that the government was going on a fishing expedition:

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A man who was “whipping his hand around” as though it were a gun was shot and killed by Baltimore County Police, authorities said Thursday. The man, whose name has not yet been released, was shot three times by police after trying to use a fake prescription to buy cough syrup at a pharmacy, the Guardian reports.

A statement released by the Baltimore County Government reports that the incident was caught on video by a nearby surveillance camera:

The footage shows the suspect aggressively advancing on a single officer, who retreats with his gun drawn. The footage shows the suspect reaching around to the small of his back and abruptly whipping his hand around and pointing it toward the officer, as if with a weapon. The officer fires his weapon as the suspect swiftly brings his hand forward from his waistband. On the ground, the suspect refuses to comply and keeps reaching into his waistband, as if for a weapon.

Officers confirmed that no weapon was found at the scene. The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave while the Baltimore County State’s Attorney investigates.

The incident occurred in Reistertown, a suburb of Baltimore close to where riots broke out earlier this year after 25-year-old Freddie Gray died of a spinal injury in the city. Gray, who was arrested for carrying what police say was a switchblade, died of his injuries while in police custody.

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PERTH AMBOY The city’s police chief, suspended without pay after being accused of stealing from taxpayers, has lost a bid to have his indictment dismissed.

Benjamin Ruiz was arrested in December after officials accused him of using public funds to buy parts for his motorcycle and using the municipal garage to repair his classic car and a car belonging to a friend.

Ruiz later was hit with further official misconduct and witness tampering charges after he allegedly tried to get a police sergeant to lie on his behalf.

Ruiz will face trial unless he reaches a plea deal with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

New details into the witness-tampering allegation — as well as the claim by authorities that Ruiz tried to cover his tracks after he was caught by cutting a personal check for the motorcycle parts — are being reported for the first time by MyCentralJersey.com.

In a motion to dismiss the grand jury indictment from February, Ruiz’s attorney, Brian Neary, argued that there was no evidence of witness tampering.

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In October, a Los Angeles police officer was caught on video kicking and hitting a man as he lay face-down on a South L.A. sidewalk.

Officer Richard Garcia's actions immediately drew concerns from police officials — one called the footage "horrific" — and prompted prosecutors to take the rare step of charging the officer with assault.

But a report made public Tuesday shows LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has also faulted the actions of other officers involved in Clinton Alford's arrest, including a second officer who the chief said used unreasonable force when he kicked Alford and stood on his feet.

The civilian commission that oversees the LAPD sided with Beck on Tuesday and found that Garcia and the second officer violated the department's force policies during the Oct. 16 arrest. Beck said he had viewed the video of the incident and concluded "that the force used was not reasonable, given Alford's limited and unapparent resistance," according to the report.

The names of the four officers who arrested Alford were redacted from the document, which was made public as a result of a request by The Times. Garcia, 35, was publicly identified in April when the district attorney's office charged him with assault under the color of authority. He has pleaded not guilty.

An LAPD spokesman declined to comment on the Police Commission's decision, saying it may trigger disciplinary proceedings that are kept private under state law.


Caree Harper, Alford's attorney, said actions should have been taken against the officers sooner, given what was seen on the video. She said her client wants the officers fired.

"What takes the chief almost a year to come up with a conclusion that could have been made instantaneously is beyond me," she said.

Robert Rico, who is representing Garcia in his criminal case, said he wasn't surprised by the Police Commission's ruling. He said he believed the board lost its credibility this year after its controversial decision to fault a police officer who fatally shot Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man, during a struggle over the officer's gun.

"I do not give that Police Commission any credence," Rico said. "In order for them to have come to that decision, they had to have ignored all the facts and all the other officer statements that said Mr. Alford was continuing to resist."

Beck's report outlines a narrative from the officers, who said Alford resisted their efforts to detain him and struggled even after he was handcuffed. Sources who saw the video have told The Times that Alford was not resisting the officers.

One source said Tuesday that the officers' comments were being further investigated as a result of the discrepancy. The recording, which was captured by a security camera on a nearby building, has not been made public.

It is now up to Beck to decide whether to discipline the officers, who could receive more training, face suspensions or lose their jobs. None have returned to work since the arrest, an LAPD spokesman said Tuesday.

Alford, now 23, previously told The Times that he was riding his bicycle along Avalon Boulevard near 55th Street when a car pulled up and a man yelled at him to stop — but did not identify himself as a police officer. Someone grabbed the back of the bike, Alford said, so he jumped off and ran.

Beck said in his report that the officers approached Alford at the request of a detective who was looking for potential robbery suspects in the neighborhoods covered by LAPD's Newton Division. The report said Alford matched the description of the suspect but did not include that description.

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A Kansas law criminalizing the refusal by motorists to submit to testing for alcohol or drugs is unconstitutional, Shawnee County District Judge Bill Ossmann ruled Wednesday.

Ossmann concluded the constitutional rights of former Topeka City Councilman Andrew Gray were consequently violated last year when he was arrested in connection with breaking that law.

Ossmann issued a memorandum decision dismissing a charge alleging Gray refused to submit to a test for alcohol or drugs as required by Kansas statute 8-1025.

KSA 8-1025 violates the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, Ossmann wrote, adding that the Doctrine of Unconstitutional Conditions also provides another basis upon which to find that law unconstitutional. That doctrine prohibits a government from imposing a condition on the granting of a benefit requiring the waiver of a constitutional right.

Ossmann indicated that in granting the request for dismissal filed by Gray’s attorney, Kevin Shepherd, he adopted reasoning put forth last year by Shawnee County District Judge Marc Braun.

Braun issued a 24-page ruling May 27, 2014, dismissing a charge that motorist Derick A. Wilson violated KSA 8-1025 when he refused to submit to a breath test. Braun concluded that Kansas law, which was enacted in 2012 and criminalized the refusal to submit to testing, was unconstitutional.

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FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (WUSA9) -- A video posted on Facebook has sparked a use of force investigation in Fairfax County, officials said.

The Fairfax County Police Department is investigating "the facts and circumstances which led to the deployment of a electronic control weapon (ECW) in the Rose Hill area of the Franconia district on Thursday September 24, 2015."

Police said the suspect refused treatment and was arrested in connection to a theft. He has been charged with larceny.

It is still unclear what lead up to the incident.

Should anyone have additional witness information, please contact the Fairfax County Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau at 703-246-2793.

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The city has paid $70,000 to a Staten Island resident after he filed a suit alleging the NYPD allowed footage of him being beaten by officers to be erased.

The SI Advance reports that 22-year-old Keashon Gillam filed a federal lawsuit stemming from an October 2011 incident in which he was allegedly brutally beaten outside the Stapleton Houses in the borough. The incident, which the suit says left Gillam with a concussion and medical staples in his head, was reportedly caught on an NYPD "VIPER" camera—however, Gillam claimed that the NYPD failed to follow procedure and flag the footage of the beating, allowing it to be erased after seven days.

According to the suit, the then 18-year-old Gillam was standing outside with his cousin that day when he was approached by police officers. He claimed he tried to walk away from the cops when they called after him, but officers then kicked him to the ground and bashed him in the head with a police radio after they cuffed him. "Me and my cousin, we're going home, we're not doing nothing, so we didn't think they were talking to us," he told the Advance, noting that he had a small amount of marijuana on him at the time. An officer, Daniel Magee, witnessed the incident on surveillance camera.
Per the suit:

Although it was procedure to do so, Magee should have prepared an incident report to flag the video of the incident, which was caught on camera. He purposely did not to protect [the arresting officer] and his brethren from being charged with excessive force.

Earlier this year, Gillam, who says a cop also called him a racial slur, was acquitted of resisting arrest stemming from that incident. The federal suit was dismissed in court yesterday, and Gillam was awarded the $70K settlement, which is more than double the average the city pays for NYPD-related civilian suits.

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A mentally ill black woman refused to let Phoenix police into her home because she was afraid they would shoot her, so they broke in and shot her to death, her mother claims in court.

The late Michelle Cusseaux suffered from “schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, prolonged post traumatic stress disorder, major depression, personality disorders, and otherwise was diagnosed as seriously mentally ill,” her mother Frances Garrett claims in her July 14 federal lawsuit.

A mental health facility asked police to do an “involuntary evaluation” of her, and she was alone in her home when police arrived, her mother, Frances Garrett says. In answer to its question, Garrett says, she told the mental health group that her daughter did not have a gun and never had.

When officers arrived, “Michelle told the PPD officers that she did not trust them and thought that they would shoot her,” her mother says in the complaint.

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The officers did not call for anyone with training in dealing with the mentally ill, Garrett says. They asked, through the door, if Michelle had any weapons, and she said she did not. Defendant Sgt. Percy Dupra then told Officer Elizabeth Anderson to pick the lock on the door, according to the complaint.

She did so, and the officers saw Michelle standing near the doorway with a hammer in her right hand. Dupra shot her in the chest and killed her, her mother says. She says two witnesses said “that they did not hear anything (e.g., orders to drop the hammer) before the gunshot.”

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Garrett says in the lawsuit that “Dupra and the other PPD officers on scene either had not received any training from the PPD or the City of Phoenix regarding appropriate, permissible interactions with and counseling of the mentally ill and emotionally disturbed, or had not been adequately trained in this regard.”

Dupra could have used a Taser or pepper spray instead of killing her, Michelle’s mother says. Or police could have simply kept her in her home until trained help arrived.

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The doctor had to pause her delivery twice in that brief time to unwrap Dana's daughter's umbilical cord, later saying that had she given birth on the side of the road the child would have died.

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During a Peaceful Streets Project cop watch in downtown Austin on the night of September 26, 2015, we observed criminal, coward, thug police officers Anderson #7401 and Holland #7608 assault an immobilized black man. The suspect was already on the ground, face down, with five cops on top of him. The suspect clearly wasn't resisting arrest, nor was he posing any threat to himself, the police, or anyone else.

According to APD policy, the cops are only supposed to use objectively reasonable force, meaning they are not supposed to use force beyond what is necessary to effect an arrest. When someone is face down on the ground, not resisting, the appropriate amount of force by competent cops would be simply grabbing the wrists and putting them behind his back.

However, Officer Holland felt that it would be fun to jump in the air and bring down all of his force with his knee to the back of the immobilized suspect. Meanwhile, Officer Anderson thought that he would get his jollies by repeatedly punching the immobilized suspect in the back and side. These are not the actions of cops who are interested in protecting and serving the public. These are the actions of thug, terrorist cops who enjoy abusing people who cannot fight back. Anderson and Holland are not uncommon amongst the criminal gang called the Austin Police Department.

Furthermore, as in every single instance that we have seen cops abusing people or violating their rights, there is not a single "good" cop to be found. The mythical creatures known as "good" cops always seem to be nowhere to be found when they have the opportunity to arrest a criminal cop who is harming a member of the public.

Instead of waiting around for a "good" cop to deal with all the coward and criminal cops, we will continue to film the police and encourage people to organize to expel the terrorist cops from their communities.

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Kodiak Police announced Tuesday that, until investigations are completed, the department will not comment on recent allegations of excessive force used in an incident with an autistic man last Wednesday.

Nick Pletnikoff's mother Judy said it all started when he left home to check the mail and ended up bruised, scraped and burning from pepper spray.

Joshua Fitzgerald, an attorney investigating the cause of Pletnikoff's injuries, said KPD's Monday statement describing the officers' use of force as "minimal and necessary" was far from the truth.

"If this individual gets this kind of treatment, I shudder to think what somebody who has a few drinks or someone who is lippy or mouthy or any of the things that are not present here, so it's concerning on that level," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said he believes Pletnikoff has never been in trouble with the law before and was not charged after what KPD described as "A Response to 911 Call Harassment and Theft of Vehicle".

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Chief Wallace confirmed officers do have body cameras, but denied Channel 2's request for footage from the incident.

Requests for copies of the department's officer training manual and use-of-force policy were also denied.

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In the city of Detroit, where 9-1-1 calls for real crimes and emergencies often go unanswered, the police conducted a drug raid where they were seen on video smashing up someone’s house for no reason.

Police busted through the resident’s windows and entered the house like storm troopers, even though the front door was wide open the entire time.

According to police, they were chasing a suspect and thought that he might be inside the home. Since they allegedly believed the home to be a “known drug house,” they felt that they had probable cause and could raid the house without a warrant.

“What they did last night was basically bust up a private residence in a very unprofessional manner and cause a lot of fear to lawful residents of that home,” attorney James Galen said.

One of the people who live in the home decided to take out their cellphone camera and record the scene.

After the incident, she told reporters that she decided to film because she is aware of “the types of things that police have been doing recently.”

In the video, police can be seen smashing through the windows with their feet and with large batons, shattering glass all over the inside of the home.

“If I would have broken into somebody’s house like that, I would have been shot, and if I would’ve been shot, nobody would have cared,” Samantha Sayranian told reporters.

Despite their claim of the people in the house hiding a suspect and running a drug operation, no drugs were found in the home and the person who police claimed had a weapon was unarmed.

The police say that they haven’t done anything wrong and have threatened to come back and evict the people who are living there because they have actually been squatting in the condemned house for nearly 4 years.

Squatting is fairly common in Detroit, where entire neighborhoods have fallen into disrepair and banks have foreclosed on much of the property.

It is common practice for police to be as destructive as possible during raids and searches. Whether it is a car search on the side of the road or a full on raid, police are known to throw things around and break things when dealing with any type of suspect.

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In Montgomery, Illinois, about 45 minutes outside of Chicago, two police officers have been caught on camera targeting, harassing, assaulting, and wrongfully arresting an African American family in the overwhelmingly white town—including calling the family a "bunch of fucking niggers."

But they were fired, right? Because this would be damning evidence of racial bias unfit for officers of the law, right?

Nah. Not even close. The officers were given a three-day suspension.

Yeah. For real.

Please see the horrendous video below, which shows George Taylor being illegally targeted by police over and over again.

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Inside the University of Miami’s dorms, administrative searches are commonplace, and students are warned days ahead of time so they can get rid of their bongs, beer bottles, and hotplates beforehand.

Last month, Jonathan Harrington thought he’d have some fun with the search. Before inspectors arrived, the 21-year-old English major left lines of white powder on the coffee table and kitchen counter, a rolled-up dollar bill, and seven white pills. Because the lines were just powdered sugar and the pills aspirin, Harrington figured everyone would get a good chuckle out of it and move on.

Instead, Harrington ended up handcuffed, dragged to jail, and charged with felony cocaine possession.

“It was indeed powdered sugar — 23.7 grams of the finest you can buy at Publix. I know the amount from the police report,” Harrington insists. “I doubt they’d believe me. To them it is more plausible that I left $1,500 worth of cocaine strewn around my apartment.”

The trouble began August 30 when housing officials discovered Harrington’s stash and — following protocol — phoned University of Miami Police to test the powder and pills. That’s when Harrington busted in and, according to the police report, said, “I guess you guys are here about the powdered-sugar prank!”

Police noted the white tablets were indeed marked as aspirin. But when they tested the white powder, it came back positive for cocaine. Harrington was arrested on the spot and spent the night and following day in jail, sleeping on hard plastic chairs and eating ham sandwiches.

What exactly happened? Harrington insists the drug field test yielded a false positive.

It’s not impossible. In fact, the quick drug tests used in the field are notoriously wonky. In 2009, a Kissimmee man was arrested after the breath mints in his car tested positive for crack cocaine. In 2011, a birdwatcher in Weston was arrested when her sage tested positive for marijuana. In 2013, police cuffed a 25-year-old Coney Island man after his Jolly Rancher candies tested positive for methamphetamine. In February, a Minnesota man was arrested when his vitamin powder tested positive for amphetamines.

Harrington’s roommate, Kritos Vasiloudes, backs up his story of a powdered-sugar prank. Vasiloudes told police that Harrington tipped him off about the prank and that he agreed to go along. But Vasiloudes says he was studying in his room when Harrington staged the scene.

For now, Harrington faces arraignment next week on one felony count of cocaine possession, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. At UM, he faces suspension but says those proceedings have been paused until the court matter is settled.

But he’s confident that a more sophisticated lab analysis will confirm his side of the story. Coral Gables PD says the powder has been sent to a lab but could take up to two months to process.

“I’m hoping the prosecutor’s office will drop it once they realize their error,” Harrington says.

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A South Florida detective who oversaw a youth police program has been arrested on accusations of engaging in sex acts with young girls.

Florida Department of Law officials had been investigating 47-year-old South Miami Police Detective Joe Mendez after a complaint alleged that he had sexual interactions with multiple female cadets.

Mendez was arrested without incident Tuesday and was charged with eight counts of possession of sexual performance by a minor and four counts of selling, giving or serving an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21. He is being held on a $42,000 bond. It's unclear whether he has an attorney to comment on the case.

Mendez coordinated the Police Explorer Program for five years for his agency, which teaches youths about crime prevention and allows them to participate in community events.

Authorities say they believe there may be additional victims.

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Minnesota police departments lost their bid Monday to classify most body-camera footage as private.

The commissioner for the Department of Administration rejected a request to temporarily wall off the data until state lawmakers pass body-camera regulations. A coalition of police departments had sought the data lockdown to avoid having to release footage they say could infringe on privacy of people officers interact with.

In a letter outlining his decision, Commissioner Matt Massman said it's outside of his authority to classify the information as private because current laws say the footage is public in the same way as written arrest data and police reports. Massman urged the police chiefs to approach the Legislature about clarifying data laws.

"Minnesota's data practices laws are designed to be neutral to technology," Massman wrote. "The reality is, however, that body cams have the potential to collect substantial amounts of video and audio in private and very sensitive circumstances."

Transparency watchdogs contend that making footage private would lessen the accountability aspect of body cameras.

Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell, who spearheaded the request, said the police departments knew the request was a longshot.

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Jamycheal Mitchell had stopped taking his schizophrenia medication before he walked into a 7-Eleven near his family’s Portsmouth, Va., home in April and allegedly stole a Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake totaling $5.05.

After the 24-year-old’s arrest, a judge ordered him to a state psychiatric hospital to get help. But like an increasing number of the mentally ill, he sat in jail for months as he waited for a bed to open.

Other inmates said Mitchell paced naked in a cell often covered in his own filth. Family members said they were told he sometimes refused to eat or take medication, and jail records show he manically yelled. He grew gaunt, and by Aug. 19 he was dead, having shed at least 36 pounds.

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LAPD Spends Hours and Hours, 20 cop cars, 30 cops, K-9's etc. Investigating Burglary Only To Find Out It Was A False Alarm - Tax Payer Dollars Hard At Work

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A faulty sex law in North Carolina may put away a teen for 10 years for sending naked pictures of himself.

High school quarterback Cormega Copening is facing felony charges and may have to register as a sex offender for exchanging nude photos with his girlfriend when they were both 16. Both were charged as adults.

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"You can be labeled a convicted sex offender as an adult at the age of 16, but you are a minor by being under the age of 18 to commit the offense in the first place," said attorney Karl Knudsen. "It really makes terrible sense logically but that's the way the law is written."
"The consequences for this young man are absolutely horrendous," he added.

Authorities became aware of the photos after they asked his mother's permission to examine his cell phone in 2014 as part of a statutory rape investigation in which the teen was not a suspect. Police say they did not target the teens, however, could not ignore the explicit images or the state's law.

Copening is due back in court Sept. 30, and if convicted, could face up to 10 years in prison and be registered as a sex offender.

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