Parents Settle Suit against Shenandoah Police: Latino Teen Beaten to Death and Hung by Officers

From [HERE] and [HERE] The parents of a Hispanic teenager who died in police custody in eastern Pennsylvania have settled a lawsuit alleging officers beat their son to death. The federal complaint says Shenandoah police in 2004 beat 18-year-old David Vega to death and then hung his body in a holding cell to make it look like a suicide.

A judge dismissed the case Tuesday, citing a settlement. Terms were not disclosed. Lawyers did not immediately return requests for comment late Friday. The lawsuit named as defendants the borough, police Chief Matthew Nestor (in photo) and Capt. Jamie Gennarini. The officers denied wrongdoing. Nestor was convicted last year of falsifying a police report in a separate racially charged case involving the death of a Mexican immigrant.

Vega was a high school student on Nov. 28, 2004, when he and his younger brother fell into a heated verbal argument on their porch. Hearing the commotion, neighbors began stepping from their homes, one of whom called police. Two officers arrived and David began mouthing off. He was arrested. Two hours later he was dead. Police told his parents that he’d hanged himself in his cell. “That’s bullshit,” says Carlos, a former chef who was disabled in a 2000 car wreck. “David was going to college. He had a girlfriend. He had everything to live for. They beat him until he died.”

David didn’t have a shirt on when he was arrested. “There are 20 people who say he didn’t have a bruise on him when they cuffed him,” Carlos said. But when Carlos viewed the body, David was covered with bruises. The Schuylkill County coroner accepted Shenandoah police chief Matthew Nestor’s explanation that the bruises resulted from David’s resisting arrest. According to the lawsuit, a second autopsy confirmed David “suffered extensive, massive injuries consistent with a profound beating… The defendant did not die of hanging.”

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Latino Veteran Dies in Las Vegas Police Custody, Family Questions his Death

From [HERE] More questions than answers after a man dies in police custody. The family of the victim says police aren't telling the whole truth about the arrest. Glenn Ybanez, 33, was the passenger in a car pulled over Monday morning for a routine traffic stop that turned into a foot chase. Ybanez was a U.S. Army veteran born in Guam. He died after reportedly suffering from medical distress while in police custody.

Metro won't confirm where the incident happened, but his family says it was near Valley View and Tropicana. Although the family acknowledges Ybanez probably shouldn't have ran, they say what happened at the end of that chase is suspicious. They're questioning why he died. "They gave us no information whatsoever from the start," says Sylvio Ybanez, the victim's brother. "Police wouldn't answer, doctors wouldn't answer, they wouldn't even come to us. Nothing." He said the police are downplaying the incident asking, "Why are there bruises on his arms? He has a scratch on his forehead, his eye is popping out and his left eye is closed."

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NAACP reacts to Cop’s lie about shooting: North Charleston Police Officer Shot Himself, Blamed Black Men

From [HERE] On Friday, North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt met with the media to discuss an alleged shooting involving longtime officer, Sgt. Eddie Bullard. "When we were out there we stated getting uneasy about the case," Zumalt said.

According to Zumalt, the 15-year veteran claimed two black suspects confronted him and shot him while he was conducting a building search outside a carpet store on Rivers Avenue during the early morning hours of July 4th. "There wasn't any evidence of a struggle. We couldn't just find zero evidence. Nobody was calling us. We usually get tips," Zumalt said. Bullard was transported to the hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening and released the following day. Zumalt says Bullard eventually admitted to making the story up and that he actually shot himself. "He needs to be fired and should never be able to work in law enforcement again," said Dot Scott, the president for the Charleston branch of the NAACP. "A dishonest cop is a dangerous cop."

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