Latino Man who Offered to Translate at Traffic Stop Beat Down by Annapolis Cops

Two Annapolis men are suing the city, its police department, and two police officers in federal court, claiming they were assaulted and wrongfully arrested in 2005.

In the lawsuit, filed March 3, Jose Louis Meneses-Araiza, 27, and Quinton T. Smith, 32, allege that Officer Black and another officer were speaking to a group of Hispanic men they had stopped for a traffic violation and Mr. Meneses-Araiza walked up and offered to translate.

Officer Black ordered him to leave. When Mr. Meneses-Araiza continued to speak to the vehicle's occupants, Officer Black arrested him for disorderly conduct.

The lawsuit alleges that in the process of handcuffing Mr. Meneses-Araizaon in the street and later fingerprinting him at the police station, Officer Black repeatedly punched and kicked him in the chest. Mr. Meneses-Araiza eventually fell down, hit his head and lost consciousness inside the station.

Officers Black and Schreiber - who was taking the fingerprints - quickly called for an ambulance. The lawsuit, however, claims they never told dispatchers Mr. Meneses-Araiza hit his head, leading the paramedics to take him to Anne Arundel Medical Center for a suspected overdose.

At the hospital, a CT scan revealed a head injury and Mr. Meneses-Araiza was taken by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. There, he underwent a craniotomy.

The lawsuit alleges Officers Black and Schreiber "hatched a plan" to cover up the abuse after learning the extent of Mr. Meneses-Araiza injuries.

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Group protests alleged Police Brutality Against Hmong Man by Milwaukee Police

Hundreds of people marched for two hours Saturday to protest the injuries a man suffered during a traffic stop, saying police used excessive force.

An officer struck Koua Moua, 39, with a police radio and wrestled him to the ground during the traffic stop on Feb. 17, according to a criminal complaint. Police say Moua dragged the officer with his truck, and the officer feared for his life.

Marchers carried signs that showed Moua's battered face and swollen eye. He needed 10 stitches to close a wound under his eye, according to his attorney, Alan Eisenberg.

Some held signs that said "No room for police brutality." The crowd chanted, "No justice, no peace" in English and Hmong. Moua is Hmong, and the Hmong community has rallied around him.

Moua attended the rally but did not speak on the advice of his attorney. He has filed a complaint with the city's Fire and Police Commission along with a notice of claim against the city, usually a precursor to a lawsuit.

The protesters called for the officer, Kelly Parker, to be suspended and fired, for Moua to be paid damages and for police to be held accountable.

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Community Wants PA State Troopers Dismissed - Officers Liable for Killing 12 Yr. Old Black Boy

   
A Fayette County woman is organizing a rally to call for the dismissals of two state troopers involved in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe.

Kayme Downard, a Uniontown activist, said the rally is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 14 on the courthouse steps.

"I'm not insinuating that all cops are bad, or that the whole barracks is, but we are demanding Officers Curry and Nassan be fired immediately and face criminal charges," Downard said. "We are also asking federal prosecutors to investigate District Attorney Nancy Vernon and her handling of the case."

A jury in a federal civil rights case awarded more than $28 million in damages to Ellerbe's family. Ellerbe was shot in the back Christmas Eve 2002 while running from state Troopers Juan Curry and Samuel Nassan.

The verdict contradicted previous criminal investigations that found the troopers' actions were justified. The troopers said Nassan shot Ellerbe, who was running from a stolen sport utility vehicle, after Curry's gun accidentally discharged. The gunfire led Nassan to believe his partner had been shot.

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Jury says Beating was OK -- No Excess Force in Austin Police Beating of Handcuffed Latino Man Lying Faced Down

 
Hernandez loses civil rights case against officers in videotaped beating. [SEE VIDEO]
A federal jury on Thursday found that an Austin police officer and two former officers did not use excessive force against Ramon Hernandez, whom they were videotaped beating in September 2005.

The six-woman jury in U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Pitman's court deliberated for more than four hours.

After the verdict was read, one-armed hugs and backslaps were shared by officer Christopher Gray, who was suspended for 70 days after the incident, and former officers Joel Follmer, who was fired for his conduct that day, and William Bradley Heilman. Heilman quit the force after the incident and said he has been accepted to Baylor Law School.

"We're pretty excited," Heilman said.

Gray, who was videotaped punching Hernandez 14 times while the man lay facedown in handcuffs, said: "I am going to do my job Monday morning the same way I've always done it, and that is with the safety of Austin's citizens in mind."

Hernandez suffered cuts and bruises in the melee, which started when he fled the scene of a minor Burnet Road car accident. He disclosed during the four-day trial that he has schizophrenia and felt symptoms the day of the wreck and arrest.

He said he was proud he took the case to trial.

"It was a horrific event," the 27-year-old said, "but I survived."

During closing arguments, one of Hernandez's lawyers implored the jury to hold the officers accountable for roughing up Hernandez a block from the car accident, where he had fled with his Bible to pray.

"If what you saw on that video was not a violation of Ramon's civil rights, I don't know what is," Amber Vasquez Bode said.

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'Police did not Identify Themselves': Urban League Seeks Review of Richland County Sheriffs Raid & Shootout that Killed Black Man

Sheriff defends raid, fatal shooting
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott moved Thursday to dispel what he said were “rumors” that a man killed during a shootout with deputies a day earlier did not know he was shooting at officers.

Despite that reassurance, the head of the Columbia Urban League on Thursday called for an independent citizens’ review panel to look into the incident.

Larry D. Bosket was shot in the head, shoulder and abdomen and died at the scene after a brief firefight in his Pine Valley home, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.

“Deputy sheriffs did not go in that house to kill him,” Lott said. “That was not our mission. The mission was to go into the house and seize the drugs.”

Bosket’s wife, April Bosket, and a 12-year-old child were inside the house when Bosket was shot. She said deputies rushed into the house without warning.

Columbia Urban League president J.T. McLawhorn said Thursday he, too, was concerned about the way deputies conducted the operation.

He called for an independent citizens’ review panel — separate from the Citizens Advisory Council that Lott maintains for the Sheriff’s Department — to examine the case.

“If someone breaks into your house,” McLawhorn said, “the natural reaction is to protect yourself.”

He questioned whether the deputies’ belief that Bosket had drugs in the home warranted “that kind of use of force.”

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NYPD Cops Go Off: Beat Down Buddhists during Protest

During a Free Tibet protest near the UN on March 14th, some NYPD officers were documented threatening, arresting and clubbing activists seemingly without provocation. In the below video it appears the protesters do nothing more than carry flags, walk on the sidewalk and chant. Yet officers identified as Leroy, Delgado and Serano, and others are depicted clubbing them even when they're down. The cameraman stridently narrates while filming, saying, "Look at these cops, clubbing people in front of the UN, unbelievable, protesting to free Tibet, cops clubbing people in their legs on the sidewalk, in front of the UN in America, unbelievable, this is not China." He also notes that Officer Serano had threatened to kill two protesters, something the officer later admits to on tape. Don't cops learn about YouTube at the Police Academy these days? [SEE VIDEO]

Washtenaw County Deputies, Sergeant Indicted in Wrongful Death of Black Man - Suffocated & Crushed by Cops

 
Pictured above:  In the booking mug taken at the county jail after his arrest, Bruce Lee's eyes are bruised and swollen shut. Lee recalls being knocked to the ground from behind and beaten by Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies. He couldn't see his older brother, but says he heard Clifton "Pete" Lee Jr. telling the officers, "Y'all don't have to do him like that." The next day, from the Washtenaw County Jail, Bruce Lee learned his brother had died.  

Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies and a sergeant last week were indicted in two separate indictments by a federal grand jury in Detroit for violating the civil rights of two Ypsilanti Township men.

The indictments charge Deputy Joseph Eberle, 35, Deputy Eric Kelly, 37, and Sergeant Shawn Hoy, 37, for using unreasonable force against two brothers in the early morning hours of June 1, 2006.

United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy said last Monday that the men will be "vigorously prosecuted" for "abusing power with tragic consequences."

According to the indictment, Eberle is charged with intentionally using unreasonable force on Clifton Lee Jr., 45, who died as a result. The indictment says Eberle kneeled on Clifton's neck and struck him.

Kelly and Hoy are charged with intentionally using unreasonable force on Clifton's brother Bruce Lee who was kicked several times and sprayed with pepper spray in the face and mouth.

It is also alleged in the indictment that Hoy intentionally failed to prevent the use of unreasonable force by Kelly.

The June 2006 incident originally took place near the intersection of Eugene and Cayuga avenues in Ypsilanti Township. Clifton and Bruce responded to a family member who was pulled over by two deputies.

The cause of Clifton's death, reported by Dr. Bader Cassin, Washtenaw County's medical examiner, was asphyxia due to the weight of several people pressing his chest against the ground.

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Hmong Man Beat Down by Milwaukee Police after Drunk Stop

Calling it an "Asian Frank Jude" case, the attorney of a Hmong man with injuries to his face said on Wednesday that his client's condition is the result of police brutality.There's no denying that 39-year-old Koua Moua has injuries as the result of his arrest on Feb. 17 outside an apartment near North 63rd Street and West Florist Avenue, but whether those injuries were his fault, or that of police, remains an issue. 

Frank Jude is the Milwaukee man who was beaten by on and off-duty Milwaukee police officers outside a Bay View house party in 2004.

According to the criminal complaint, Moua was pulled over for drunken driving last month and began to drive off as an officer approached his vehicle. The officer struck Moua in an attempt to get him to stop and then pulled him from the car when he refused the officer's commands.

Moua's supporters said the man doesn't speak English.

"We believe this is a use of excessive force, which means police brutality has occurred or has happened to this Hmong man," said Kevin Her with the Hmong American Friendship Association.

Moua's attorney, Alan Eisenburg, said there was no justification for the stop or for the officer to strike Moua.
"Nobody should be treated this way," Eisenburg said. "If you have a large, armed police officer, and a 4 foot 10 or 11 tiny man, and you've already called for back-up, which, by the way, it (the criminal complaint) says he did, there's no reason why somebody should end up in this condition."

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Ramon Hernandez Brutality Suit Underway: Austin Officer says his 14 punches to Handcuffed Suspect's Back Justified

The man accusing three Austin police officers of violating his civil rights was back on the stand in federal court Tuesday.

Ramon Hernandez was beaten and stun-gunned by police officers after a traffic stop in September 2005.

The six-woman jury in U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Pitman's court viewed the video Tuesday.  As the use of force by the police officers escalated, some members of the jury grimaced. One juror held her hand to her mouth, while others simply sat and stared at the video screen. It shows him being held down face first by three officers and being struck by two while he is handcuffed.

In the dash-cam video, Hernandez can be heard screaming as the officers restrain him.

As the tape plays out, one of the officers can be heard telling Hernandez to "stop resisting."

Austin police Officer Christopher Gray, who delivered 14 punches to the back of a suspect who fled a car accident scene in 2005 in a beating captured by a patrol car video camera, testified today in a federal civil rights trial that his force was justified.

Gray said he punched Ramon Hernandez, 27, after he had been handcuffed behind a Central Austin transmission shop because he was fearful Hernandez would turn over and attack him or his fellow officers.

"You felt threatened?," asked Hernandez's lawyer, Amber Vasquez Bode.
"Yes, ma'am," Gray said.
"Was it because he was face down on his belly?"
"No, ma'am."
Gray said "it's the totality of the circumstances," explaining that he had witnessed Hernandez earlier putting his hands on then-Officer William Bradley Heilman's gun.

Bode paused the video while it depicted Gray kneeling on top of Hernandez's midsection and asked whether Gray considered Hernandez under control.

After a slight head and hip movement by Hernandez, Gray unleashed a flurry of 10 punches.
Bode asked why Gray didn't stop punching after two or three or four or five punches.

"I stopped punching when he stopped resisting."

Later on the video, Gray is seen punching Hernandez twice more. After another pause, he punched Hernandez two more times.

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Grand Jury to Review Case of Black Man Dragged to Death by Irontown Police

IRONTON -- The case involving the death and unexplained dragging of Guy Cameron Thomas for 10 blocks under an Ironton police cruiser in the snow will be presented to an upcoming session of the Lawrence County grand jury, Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr. said Monday.

Thomas, 46, of 914 S. 9th St., Ironton, was found dead March 8 beneath a police cruiser outside the Ironton Police Department. His body had been dragged about 10 blocks beneath the cruiser on a snowy and icy night.

On Monday, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigations turned over a file in the case to the prosecutor's office.

A preliminary autopsy report from the Franklin County Coroner's office showed Thomas died from asphyxiation and that his chest was crushed and several ribs broken, Collier said.

County Coroner Burton Payne said it isn't known whether the ribs were fractured before or after Thomas died.

"There was no evidence of an impact injury," Payne said.

Some findings could be consistent with a seizure, he said.

An Ohio Highway Patrol report showed Thomas had been lying on South 9th Street when his body became lodged under the cruiser.

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