Houston Mayor says she Hid Police Brutality Video from Public so Officers could get a Fair Trial

• Quanell X Releases New tape that shows second HPD beating [MORE]

• Chad Holley's Police Beating Is Subject of an Angry NAACP Town Hall Meeting [HERE]

HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Annise Parker says in hindsight she probably would not have withheld a video that appears to show Houston police officers beating a handcuffed teenager last March.

But she said it was the correct legal move.

Community leaders expressed anger that it took almost a year for the video to be released during a town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. They also called for a federal investigation.

During the meeting, Parker also apologized to community activist Quanell X for suggesting that the person who released the tape should be prosecuted.

On Wednesday, Parker acknowledged that she did not anticipate the anger that the images would cause within the Houston community. The mayor and the district attorney have repeatedly said that they didn’t want the video to come out before the officers’ trial so the jury pool wouldn’t be tainted.

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NYC Settles Civil Suit in Correctional Officers Murder of Clarence Mobley

The City of New York has agreed to pay over half a million dollars to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a South Carolina man who was killed while in custody on Rikers Island in 2009.

The man, Clarence Mobley, 60, was found dead in a cell at the Anna M. Kross Center; his death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office.

Rudy Velez, a lawyer for Mr. Mobley’s family, said the $525,000 settlement, which was finalized in Bronx County Surrogate’s Court last month, had brought little solace to relatives.

“In no uncertain terms,” Mr. Velez said, “they felt the officers murdered Mr. Mobley.”

No criminal charges have been filed against the correction officers implicated in the lawsuit, which had sought $10 million, said Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx district attorney’s office. The status of the investigation into the death was unclear on Wednesday.

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No Criminal Charges for Oakland Cops in Derrick Jones shooting - Unarmed Black Man Killed by Police

From[HERE] The two Oakland officers who shot and killed a well known barber and father last November will not be charged according to the Oakland Tribune. The paper is citing a source close to the investigation into the death of Derrick Jones.

The 37-year-old was shot and killed on November 8 after a brief foot chase on Trask Street. The officers were trying to detain Jones after domestic disturbance call. Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza Quiroz say Jones kept reaching toward his waistband during the chase and at one point they saw a shiny object. That turned out to be a scale.

Jones was unarmed when he was shot. The Alameda County District Attorney's office has been investigating the incident for three months. The District Attorney's office has not released the official results of its investigation.

Jury Selected in Escobedo trial - Ft. Wayne Police Face Criminal Charges for Killing Latino Man

The jury now must decide whether specific officers, including command staff and members of the city’s emergency response team, used excessive force in the decision to storm Escobedo’s apartment.

After the jury was selected, attorneys for both sides presented their opening statements, laying out the evidence and testimony they plan to present.

According to attorneys for the plaintiff, both sides agree there was a breakdown in communication between Escobedo and police.

But while the police claim Escobedo was responsible for that, the plaintiffs contend it was the police who cut off communication without giving the situation enough time to play out safely, making the decision to “assault” the apartment.

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Uncertified Breath Machines and Faulty Police Testimony Force DC to Drop Drunk Driving Cases

The District's attorney general has dropped dozens of drunken driving cases since Jan. 31 and hundreds of others could be dropped as the police department shuts down its troubled alcohol breath-test program. Problems dating back more than three years with the city's breath analyzers were first revealed in February 2010, when it was discovered the machines' results were inaccurate. Since then, the D.C. medical examiner's office has refused to sign off on the accuracy tests of new analysis machines, officials said.

"The alcohol breath-analysis program? It doesn't exist anymore," said Ilmar Paegle, who discovered problems with the Intoxilyzer 5000s soon after he took over the city's breath-analysis program on Feb. 1, 2010. Paegle's contract ended last week. As he left, he said, the police department pulled off the street the Intoximeter, which replaced the Intoxilyzer last spring. "It's a royal mess," Paegle said.

A spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan said he couldn't be pulled from a meeting to comment Tuesday. Nathan dropped eight more drunken driving cases Tuesday.

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Congressman asks Justice Department to Investigate Houston Police Beating of Handcuffed Black Teen

From [HERE] Representative Al Green, a Houston Democrat, on Monday asked the Justice Department to begin a civil rights investigation after a videotape surfaced that shows Houston police officers beating and kicking a 15-year-old burglary suspect last March as he lay on the ground. Four officers are awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges of official repression in the case, but prosecutors had blocked release of the tape, arguing that it would taint a trial. An ABC television affiliate, KTRK, obtained a copy and broadcast it on Wednesday, reigniting anger over the arrest. On the video, the teenager appears to be clipped by a police car during a chase. He falls, flips onto his stomach and puts his hands behind his head. Several officers rush in, punching and kicking him as they arrest him. “We are outraged at what occurred,” Mr. Green said. The teenager, Chad Holley, was later sentenced to probation for burglary.

Houston Police - a History of Excessive Conduct in Minority Communities

Roughly half of the nearly 14,000 complaints brought against Houston police officers in the past six years have been upheld by the department's Internal Affairs Division, covering allegations ranging from misconduct or wrecking a police unit to breaking the law or lying to supervisors.

Over the past six years, an average of 2,300 complaints have been lodged annually against Houston police officers, brought either by their supervisors or residents. That equates to about six complaints per day.

A Houston Chronicle examination of HPD's internal affairs data provides a rare look into an issue concerning many residents in light of the March beating of Chad Holley, a 15-year-old African-American fleeing police after a burglary. After surveillance video of Holley's violent arrest surfaced, Chief Charles McClelland ordered an internal affairs inquiry and later disciplined 12 officers accused of being involved in the beating, firing seven of them.

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Federal Prosecutors oppose New Orleans Cop's Request for a New Trial

• William Tanner's burned car, in which the remains of Henry Glover were found, on the banks of the Mississippi River. On 12/10/10 a jury found that police murdered Glover and then Officer McRae burned his body [MORE] 

From [HERE] NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal prosecutors are urging a judge to reject a New Orleans police officer's bid to overturn his convictions for burning the body of a man who was fatally shot by a different officer in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said the jury made a "rational and credible" decision to convict Officer Gregory McRae of federal crimes in burning the body of 31-year-old Henry Glover.

McRae's lawyer is asking U.S. District Judge Lance Africk to throw out his convictions or order a new trial.

The attorney, Frank DeSalvo, says jurors didn't hear evidence to rationally conclude that his client tried to obstruct a probe of a police shooting.

Two other current or former officers who were convicted in the case also are asking Africk for post-trial acquittals or new trials.

Illinois Attorney General Suing to Prevent Burge from Getting Pension

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Monday to stop a former Chicago police official convicted of lying about the torture of suspects from getting his $3,000-a-month pension.

Madigan's suit names Jon Burge and the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, claiming that the board violated the state's pension code last month when it voted not to terminate Burge's benefits.

Burge was sentenced last month to 4 1/2 years in prison after being convicted in June of lying in a civil lawsuit when he said he'd never participated in or witnessed the physical abuse of suspects. A subsequent pension board vote on terminating Burge's pension failed by one vote, 4-4. It needed five votes to pass.

The four board members who voted to allow Burge to keep the pension said his convictions for perjury and obstruction of justice weren't directly related to his job as a police officer and that he didn't have any law enforcement duties when he was accused of making the false statements in 2003.

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ACLU Witnesses LA County Deputy Beating Unconscious Prisoner

Sheriff's officials launched an internal criminal investigation Tuesday into the alleged beating of a Los Angeles County jail inmate by deputies that was witnessed by an ACLU staffer last month.

Spokesman Steve Whitmore said the sheriff's office of independent review will look into the incident, in which two deputies allegedly hit and kicked an unconscious man on Jan. 24.

He said an administrative review was under way when ACLU attorney Esther Lim filed a court declaration Monday describing the brutal beating of inmate James Parker, which she saw through a window while meeting with another inmate at Twin Towers jail.

The sheriff's log entry on the use-of-force incident said Parker punched deputies and fought until he was hit with a stun gun.

In the court declaration, Lim said the two deputies beat Parker for two minutes even though he was unconscious and not fighting back.

"Mr. Parker looked like he was a mannequin that was being used as a punching bag," Lim wrote. "I thought he was knocked out, or perhaps even dead."

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