Grand jury won't get evidence yet in Lollis case

Black Man fatally shot by Police
Evidence collected by the Seventh Judicial District Attorney's Office in the August shooting of Ron Lollis will not be presented to the current grand jury. Paul Scott, director of criminal investigations for the DA's office, said the investigation would not be ready until the fall grand jury is in place, after early October. Scott had originally hoped the information would be ready for the September grand jury. Scott said there was still evidence at the lab and officers were still filing investigative reports.The FBI is also conducting a separate investigation of the incident as a civil rights violation. Lollis died on Doty Road on Aug. 23. Sheriff Randy Maxwell has said the deputy was responding to a harassment call involving Lollis when Lollis pulled a gun on him. Residents of the Doty Road community have held several vigils and community meetings in support of the Lollis family. Many in the Ferriday community believe the incident was racially motivated. The Lollis family has said the state president of the NAACP is serving as their lawyer. [more ]

Deal offered Black man who claims police brutality

The prosecution offered a resolution Monday in its case against a Danville man, who is accused of attacking police and who has accused police of brutality. Robbie Houston, 43, will be back in Boyle District Court 1:30 p.m. Nov. 1. His Frankfort attorney, Willie Peale, asked the court Monday that Houston and his family be given time to consider the deal, the details of which were not disclosed. Houston has said that while being arrested in June officers treated him roughly, and he had to defend himself. He said he was hit with a metal baton, sprayed with chemicals, punched and kneed. He also said that a police officer drove his cruiser into another vehicle while trying to take him to jail. Houston has been charged with four felony counts of assaulting a police officer, and three misdemeanors, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.[more ]

Seattle will pay $25,000 to settle Taser complaint - Police Shocked Black Teen

A teenager who accused Seattle police of excessive force for shocking him with a Taser last year after a traffic stop has settled his claim with the city. The city has agreed to pay $25,000 to the family of the teen, who is now 17. The family's attorney, Fred Diamondstone, said the settlement was fair. "It's a good resolution," he said. "It's an acknowledgement that this was not a case that they (the city) wanted to try to defend in court." The incident took place about 1 a.m. July 5, 2003, when police pulled over the Ford Expedition in which the teen was riding, allegedly because the vehicle had a broken headlight. When officers stopped the vehicle, they saw the teen in the back seat fumbling with something and assumed he had a weapon. Officers ordered all occupants from the vehicle and frisked the teen, then tried to handcuff him. Diamondstone said his client is claustrophobic and resisted because of that. A struggle broke out and the officers wrestled the teen to the ground, one of them applying the Taser four times on his neck. After he was detained, the teen told police that his cell phone had gone off just as they pulled his friends over, and he was just trying to turn off his phone. In the end, police released the teenager to his mother, never charging him with any crime. And, on the police report detailing the incident, the officer requested that the teen not be charged. [more ]

Police shoot, kill man in Richmond's East End

Richmond police shot a young man to death Monday afternoon on an East End street after the man allegedly opened fire on an officer who confronted him.Police said the man may have been one of three suspects being sought in an armed robbery of a woman on North 24th Street, about six blocks away from the fatal encounter, which began at 1:30 p.m. near Mosby Street and Fairmount Avenue. Police said the man fired on an officer who gave chase. The chase ended with what Police Chief Andre Parker described as "an exchange of some gunfire" that left the man dead in an alley behind the Marketplace 14 convenience store on Mosby, across the street from Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. Yesterday's fatality marked the fourth police-related shooting this year and the 12th since June 2001. In eight of the 12 shootings, a suspect has died. Two years ago, Parker promised an independent study of his officers' use of force after a string of five fatal shootings between June 2001 and July 2002. Last month, however, Parker said the study had been called off on advice of the city attorney's office. [more ]

Trial for Police Killing of 14 Year old Eli Escobar Begins in Houston

A former Houston police officer is set to go on trial Monday for the high profile death of a teenager.  Arthur Carbonneau is accused of shooting and killing 14 year old Eli Escobar in November of last year.Jose Sanchez says police came to talk to him about a fight he was in earlier in the day. He says his friend Eli was not involved in that attack and that he tried to leave. That's when officers tried to restrain him and Escobar put up a fight. Sanchez said, "He went crazy. The cop grabbed him, threw him on the floor. He told him to calm down. He wouldn't and he just shot him in the head." Sanchez says Escobar did nothing to warrant the use of deadly force. Neighbor Patricia Ulmer agrees. She watched the shooting from the balcony just above, and says it looked like the officer deliberately wanted to kill the boy."It was so unnecessary." Another eyewitness Jesse Rodriguez  had accompanied the cops to the scene after reporting that another youth had punched his son. "They ignored me when I was telling them who had assaulted my son," he said. "They were too busy roughing up Eli, who didn't have anything to do with the assault." Rodriguez said that as the cops seized Escobar, "he was saying, "Help me! Help me! I didn't do anything. What did I do?' They had no mercy on him, no compassion."  "They're killing our children," added Diane Bossom of Copwatch, an anti-police brutality organization.  [more ]  and [more ] and [more ]

• The Houston Police slaying of Eli Escobar should not be confused with the Houston Police killing of Jose Vargas Jr., - a 15 year old teenager-- who was shot down by police a month earlier on 10/31/2003 [more ]
  
• Town hall urges more police accountability [more ]

Trial in Police Killing of Michael Newby Begins -- Shot 3 Times in the Back

• Louisville Police have Killed 7 Black Men in the last 5 Years
  

Nineteen-year-old Michael Newby was the seventh black man fatally shot by Louisville police in the last five years. The officer who shot him three times in the back is the first to face criminal charges. McKenzie Mattingly goes on trial for murder this week in a case that has sparked protests in Louisville. Many in the city's black community say holding a white police officer accountable for the killing of a black man is long overdue.Mattingly told prosecutors that he was "scared to death" when he shot Newby and believed that the 19-year-old was "trying to go for a weapon." Police say a .45-caliber gun was found in Newby's waistband after he was shot, but Mattingly told investigators he never saw the weapon before he fired.  Court documents confirm that Mattingly was wearing a wire but that his conversations were not being recorded.A wrongful death suit fied against Mattingly also alleges that Newby did not receive adequate medical attention and "died in the street with his hands handcuffed behind his back.[more ] and [more ] and [more ]

• Newby's death came just over a year after the December 2002 fatal shooting of 50-year-old James Taylor. Police shot Taylor 11 times in an apartment after he was handcuffed. Two white officers at the scene said Taylor, who was black, lunged at them with a boxcutter knife. After the officers were cleared of criminal charges by a grand jury, activists stepped up their protests, and Taylor's family filed a civil suit against one of the officers. [more ]

Monitors Fault Prince Georges County Police Reforms

PG Police force is known to be one of the most brutal and racist in the country
The Prince George's County Police Department is struggling to comply with some terms of a federal agreement it signed in January after long-running investigations found systemic abuses within the force, a report concludes.  In its initial evaluation of the department's compliance with the agreement, an independent monitoring team found that the agency has been slow to develop general orders, standard operating procedures and department-wide protocols that address the agreement's terms. The eight-member panel, made up mostly of law enforcement officials from across the country, also found disparities in the reporting of use of force by officers.  The report, parts of which were made public yesterday, is the first assessment of the pace at which the department implements 67 requirements outlined in the agreement, which was spurred largely by allegations of excessive use of force by officers and alleged civil rights violations. The agreement was a result of a top-to-bottom probe of the 1,200-member force that spanned three police chiefs. The report is to be made available today on the county's Web site, www.goprincegeorges.com. [more

Ex-trooper may face federal charges for Striking Unarmed Handcuffed Black Man

Federal authorities are considering charges against a former South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper sentenced to jail this week after being found guilty of assaulting two men during a traffic stop. Although Chad A. Williams was found guilty of two counts of simple assault, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Prince said Thursday that federal authorities are pondering the idea of charging the former trooper with civil rights violations and unnecessary use of excessive force. Williams, 29, was found guilty Tuesday of the two simple assault charges after a two-day trial. Those charges stemmed from a July 20, 2003, traffic stop. The incident was captured on two Highway Patrol dashboard police videotapes. Representing the U.S. Attorney's office in Columbia, Prince attended the trial, saying federal officials were interested in at least two aspects of the events that transpired on the videotape. The fact that two men were assaulted while handcuffed is one concern. Another is the amount of aggression Williams displayed toward the men. [more ] and [more ]

Boston Police Gunned Down Black Man -- Widow longs for `justice'

• Urban League says Bowen's rap sheet does not justify his death

Bowen, 40, was killed in  Roxbury by gunfire from two Boston police officers. Authorities said he threatened the cops with a .40-caliber firearm after a traffic stop and scuffle, but witnesses said he appeared unarmed as he attempted to flee on foot. Police recovered the weapon next to Bowen's body on Brookford Street. Dorothy Bowen said she wants answers from police. Community leaders in Roxbury and Dorchester also want to hear from authorities. Bert Bowen had a 12-page criminal record dating back to 1981 with 53 arraignments, many for armed robbery while armed with a handgun and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Records indicate he also had three restraining orders taken out against him by a woman who had children by Bowen. The Urban League's Williams said Bowen's rap sheet does not justify his death, which remains under investigation by both Boston police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley's office. ``Police do a tough job, but we need to look at the circumstances surrounding the incident rather than his background,'' Williams said [more ] and  [more ]

FBI Probes case of Handcuffed Black Man Attacked by Mountain View Police Dog

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether two Mountain View police officers violated the civil rights of a man bitten by a police dog Sept. 4. Patrick Terry of Jacksonville, Fla., has said he believes the officers targeted him because he is black. The FBI's inquiry, however, will focus on whether the police commanded the dog to attack Terry or sought to hurt him in any other way. FBI Agent Quy said the FBI routinely investigates cases in which police officers are accused of misconduct. The Mountain View Police Department also is investigating the incident and reviewing training for police dogs. Terry was arguing with his girlfriend two weeks ago when Reuben Gonzalez, an undercover police officer on a bicycle, stopped them and asked if everything was OK, according to a police report. Gonzalez thought the situation might involve domestic violence so he called for backup, and a canine unit drove up. Another officer, Scott Thomas, got out of the car to help Gonzalez handcuff Terry face-down. Seconds later, a police dog named Tino escaped from the car and started biting the back of Terry's thigh, Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer said.Terry, who had eight stitches removed Wednesday, accuses the officers of racial profiling and police brutality and has filed a complaint with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. [more