Judge denies new trial for convicted Miami officers who Planted Weapons

A judge has denied a new trial for five Miami officers convicted in plots to cover up the planting of guns on unarmed suspects shot by police. The 28-page order issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Alan Gold opens the door to an appeal by four officers sentenced to prison following a 2003 trial and the sentencing of three officers convicted in an April retrial. Two other turncoat officers are awaiting sentencing on their guilty pleas. The judge said new eyewitness evidence offered by the defense did not "undermine my confidence in the verdict" since nobody saw a gun right after the wounding of a homeless man and an officer's fingerprints were on the planted gun. "We intend to raise every single one of these issues before the 11th Circuit and hopefully be back for a new trial in a year," Richard Sharpstein, attorney for two of the officers, said Wednesday. The convictions came in the biggest scandal to taint the Miami department in a generation. Varying groups of officers were accused of covering up guns planted after four shootings that left three men dead and one wounded from November 1995 to June 1997. Four officers were acquitted. Community outrage over the shootings sparked the hiring of a new police chief, the creation of a civilian police review board with subpoena powers and police shooting policy changes that resulted in a steep drop in officer-involved shootings. [more ]

Coroner's inquest to be held in fatal police shooting of Kermith Sonnier

For five months, Kermith Sonnier has wondered why the police shot his son in the back and why they were chasing him in the first place. "There's just a lot of unanswered questions," he said. His son, Kermith Sonnier Jr., a Louisiana native who had been living in the Washington County community of Denbo Heights, was killed by police gunfire on May 5 during a chase through Brownsville borough and township. A bullet hit him near his left shoulder blade. He died from the wound. Authorities are holding a coroner's inquest on Thursday into Sonnier Jr.'s death at the Fayette County Courthouse. [more ]

Chicago Mayor Daley Accused Of Ignoring Memo On Police Torture

Lawyers say he tortured their clients, forcing them to confess to crimes they didn't commit. Now attorneys for several former death row inmates say a memo warning about the alleged actions of former Police Commander Jon Burge had been sent to Mayor Richard M. Daley back when he was a prosecutor, and that memo was simply ignored. Mayor Daley has not said much publicly about the Burge allegations, and the 2 Investigators have learned the city wants to keep it that way. The fight to question Mayor Daley is intensifying as attorneys for alleged police torture victims pursue the case in court. The fight to question Mayor Daley is intensifying as attorneys for alleged police torture victims pursue the case in court. They claim Daley failed to take action against Burge as a far back as 1982 after a letter was written to him by former Police Superintendent Richard Brezcek. They say it was a warning to Daley of alleged brutality but nothing was done. Mayor Daley was Cook County State's Attorney during the time of at least 69 alleged torture cases and during a time when former Police Commander Jon Burge and Burge's alleged right-hand man John Byrne were accused of torturing murder suspects. [more ]

Minneapolis Police Smashed Windshield with Black Woman's Face, witnesses say

"They just pushed her head right through the back windshield!" a woman said as she shook her head rapidly back and forth, her voice rising. She waved her hands in the air and pointed at the police car parked in the middle of Bloomington Ave. Blood was smeared across the police car, its window shattered. Parallel to, and facing the opposite direction, was a second police car. Behind it sat an idling ambulance. According to reports, the woman had been involved in an altercation with a man several blocks from the scene. In the ensuing fracas a car crashed into a backyard damaging a fence and a picnic table. From there the woman ran down the street yelling for help. When she reached the corner of 31st and Bloomington, she spotted a squad car heading in the direction of the crash. When she reached the car, police claimed the woman tried to jump in the window and reach for the officer's gun. "The cops are saying she tried to grab his gun. How are you going to reach across and grab the gun?" said DeJuan Reid.[more ]

City of Richmond: $150,000 to settle lawsuit against Police

The city of Richmond has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing police of using excessive force and engaging in racially abusive behavior during a clash with Cinco de Mayo partygoers in 2002. The lawsuit, filed last year in U.S. District Court in Oakland, said Richmond police trampled a Mexican flag, assaulted bystanders and arrested people who defied officers' orders to leave. The suit said an officer struck Latino activist Andres Soto of Richmond in the back with a police flashlight after Soto had submitted to police officers. The case was settled Tuesday night during a closed session of the City Council, officials said. [more ]

Cincinnati Cops Push Black Minister Down Steps, Pounce on him

 

• Incident caught on audio tape - Officer says it was "kind of fun"
  

A local minister who says police roughed him up and then tried to cover it up will hear results of an investigation Monday night. The Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA) says Cincinnati police officers did indeed use excessive force against Reverend Donald Tye, and then took steps hide it. Reverend Donald Tye owns a car repair shop on May Street in Walnut Hills. Last march, a freshly painted Camaro sitting on the street caught the eye of a police officer, because Tye hadn't put the license plates back on yet. Tye says they "discussed" whether the officer had the right to tow the car, then he just moved it to his driveway a few houses down the street. Then a few officers got into an altercation with his son Donnie, who was still inside the shop, and they all wound up at Tye's front door. Tye says they forced their way in, telling him he was being arrested. "Guns are being drawn and I'm almost assured I'm gonna get shot, if I get shot, I'd rather them shoot me in the back, so I turn and I start to walk away," said Tye. According to Tye one of the officers pushed him down the steps. The officer, Douglas Smith, then jumped on Tye. On the police car's motor vehicle recorder, you can hear the officer talk about it. "Guess I got a use of force cause I knocked the old guy down the steps," was on the recorder.The officer is then heard on the recording saying, "kind of fun," to jump on Tye. [more ]

Dallas Police Face Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Beating Death of Latino Man

The wrongful death lawsuit names the City of Dallas and three of the seven officers involved in arresting Fernandez. His family said excessive force and pepper spray caused his death. "He didn't die of heart disease. He died of asphyxia. I think all that was a lot of smoke and mirrors on the part of the [Medical Examiner], and I'm pretty sure that was presented to the grand jury," family attorney Raul Loya said. That grand jury cleared all seven officers last Friday.Witnesses claim Pedro Fernandez was beaten with flashlights by the seven responding officers before he stopped breathing - and died. [more ]"One guy was on him like this and had him like this," said friend Daniel Martinez, clasping his hands to show a neck restraint. "They wouldn't get off of him, and he was saying 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe ... I'm getting a seizure.' They wouldn't let him up." Fernandez, who weighed more than 300 pounds, died a short time later after collapsing. Police said they were attempting to arrest him after a domestic violence dispute. Officers said he resisted arrest, so they used various police methods - including pepper spray - to subdue him. Even Fernandez' friends and neighbors said he was resisting arrest, but they said once he was on the ground he gave up and kept begging officers to stop. "He was just yelling like he was in pain," neighbor Heather Vasquez said. Paramedics were called to the scene and took Fernandez' vital signs, which police say were normal, but minutes later he collapsed. [more ]

• Man dies in Dallas police custody [more ] and [more]

Massive Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against Police and Taser Int'l Inc.

• Disabled man shocked with 450,000 Volts of Electricity from Tasers -- Family Seeks $570 Million

The death of a disabled man under dubious circumstances, the refusal to release public records, and the denial of any wrong doing by various Southampton and Suffolk County officials has prompted one family to take action. On Monday relatives of deceased Southampton resident David Glowczenski filed a $570 million lawsuit against the Southampton Village Police Department and Taser International, the manufacturers of taser guns. Seven months ago, Glowczenski who suffered from schizophrenia, was subdued and consequently killed under police custody. The cause of death is believed to have been the 450,000 volts of electricity shot through his body by way of taser.
"The Southampton Police simply killed this man with no regard for him or his family, and what makes it worse is that Suffolk County compounded the crime by intentionally withholding autopsy results and leaving this family in the dark about their loved one," said family attorney Frederick Brewington, of Hempstead.  Named in the lawsuit are Southampton Village Police Officers Brian Platt, Marla Donovan, Chris Wetter, and Arthur Schucht for excessive force, negligent assault, and false arrest without cause.[more ] and[more ]

Evanston Police Plead Not Guilty in Brutal Beating of Sayyid Qadri

 
Evanston Police Plead Not Guilty in Brutal Beating of Sayyid Qadri - partially caught on tape

Two Evanston police officers pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an indictment charging them with various crimes following the alleged beating and false prosecution of a 22-year-old Sayyid Qadri after a traffic stop in March. Rookie officer Michael Yorty and 12-year veteran Gus Horemis could face up to five years in prison if found guilty of using excessive force on Sayyid Qadri in a bathroom at the north suburban police station, then pressing charges of aggravated battery to a police officer against Qadri, Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine said.  Qadri's attorneys say a 20-minute videotape from police security cameras captured some of what happened.Horemis stopped Sayyid Qadri, 22, on March 10 for a traffic violation. Horemis handcuffed Qadri and took him to the police station.Prosecutors say Horemis took a handcuffed Qadri into a bathroom. Yorty followed. At some point, Horemis slammed Qadri's head into a wall, prosecutors say. After leaving the bathroom, Horemis "shoved the injured and bleeding Qadri onto a bench," authorities said. Horemis also allegedly pushed and choked Qadri.. Afterward, Yorty and Horemis made false statements regarding what happened at the station, pinning the incident on Qadri and signing a complaint for aggravated battery to a police officer, Devine said. On March 18, Yorty gave false testimony under oath at a preliminary hearing before Skokie Judge Timothy Chambers. In July, prosecutors dropped all charges against Qadri[more ] and[more ] and [more ]

• Images of beating [more ]
• see video [here ]
• Brutal Beating by Police Partially Caught on Tape [more

Judge Upholds Damage Award for NYC Police Shooting of Jose Garcia

• Dominican Immigrant's Death by Cops led to Riots in 1992

A state judge yesterday upheld a jury award of $170,000 to the family of a Dominican immigrant killed in a 1992 police shooting that sparked riots in Washington Heights. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich denied a motion by the city to throw out the 2003 verdict in a lawsuit filed by the mother of Jose (Kiko) Garcia, who was shot dead by Police Officer Michael O'Keefe on July 3, 1992. The shooting drew an angry response from people in the upper Manhattan neighborhood, who set fire to a building and threw debris from windows to protest what they said was an unjustified use of force by police. Then-Mayor David Dinkins angered the city's police officers by visiting the Garcia family to offer his condolences. A grand jury later cleared O'Keefe of any wrongdoing. The anti-crime cop testified that he stopped Garcia, a Dominican immigrant, because he suspected Garcia was carrying a gun. When Garcia fled into a building lobby on W.162nd St., O'Keefe said he pursued him. The cop said he fired after Garcia pulled out a gun. After the civil trial, jurors said cops lacked probable cause to arrest Garcia but did not violate his civil rights. The jury awarded Garcia's mother, Regina, $155,000 for the loss of her son's financial support, as well as $15,000 in punitive damages. [more ]and [more