Latino Man Allegedly Beaten to Death by Fall River (Mass) Police During Raid

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) - Police brutality claims are launched by friends and relatives of a Fall River man, who died while being served a drug warrant last week. Fall River and Massachusetts State Police are investigating last Friday's death of 22-year-old Dennis Mendez. Police forced their way into his 4th Street apartment Friday afternoon to arrest Mendez. 

His girlfriend, Tanya Gonzalez, admits Mendez swallowed crack cocaine.

Keila Lebron, Mendez's sister, says that's not what killed him.  She claims officers immediately began beating him, and that Mendez lost consciousness. Mendez was taken to St. Luke's Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The state medical examiner is conducting an autopsy.

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Oakland Police Officer who Fatally Shot Black Man Reinstated - with back pay

Civil rights attorney John Burris, who was hired by Woodfox's family for a lawsuit against the city over the shooting, called it "the worst police shooting I have ever been involved in" outside of the killing of Oscar Grant III, of Hayward. Grant was shot and killed by a BART police officer.

Burris had called for criminal prosecution against Jimenez and said he is horrified and disappointed by the decision to bring him back to the force. However, he acknowledged that little remains in the way of legal recourse.

Jimenez had also shot and killed another unarmed man seven months earlier, which Burris said shows "a propensity to shoot first and ask questions later" and "raises questions about his emotional stability."

"I know the deck is stacked in favor of the police, but this is such an egregious shooting," Burris said.

"He should not be rewarded for killing two people in such a short time and be welcomed back with open arms."

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Unarmed Black Man killed by Baltimore police was informant

From [HERE] and [HERE] Every month since her brother was shot and killed by police last year, Priscilla Johnson has gone back to the Northwest Baltimore neighborhood where he died to hand out fliers, begging for anyone who saw something to come forward.

What his family knows, gleaned largely from media reports, is that Dennis Gregory was a bystander who was shot by detectives who were aiming for his friend Glenn Brooks. And they know from the autopsy that Gregory was hit four times in the back.

What they didn’t know is that Gregory was acting as a confidential informant that night and that it was his call to police to report that Brooks had a handgun that summoned them to the scene in the first place . The revelation is contained for the first time in court documents filed in federal court late last month and obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

It’s the biggest breakthrough yet in the family’s quest to understand the events of that night. Calls to detectives and visits to police headquarters have gone unacknowledged, and they’ve found little cooperation from the neighborhood.

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Excessive Force Lawsuit Filed Against Dallas Police - Facebook Video Shows Officers Beating Unarmed, Handcuffed Black Man

[See Entire 19 minutes and 38 seconds of the traffic stop]

From [HERE] and [HERE] Last week, the Dallas Police Department used its Facebook page to show dash-cam footage from January 27 in which Officer Quaitemes Williams is seen kicking and pepper-spraying Rodarick Lyles, who'd been pulled over by another officer for driving with a suspended license. It shows Officer Williams punching a handcuffed Lyles with his fist and using a flashlight to beat the unarmed man.  Williams kicked Lyles in the head and sprayed pepper spray into his face. He also shocked Lyles with a Taser. Williams was fired last week, then promptly arrested on an official oppression charge and taken to Dallas County Jail.  He was then later released on a $1,000 bond. [MORE] Officer Hiram Soler, who'd initially stopped Lyles, was suspended for 10 days for entering inaccurate, false or improper information on a police report.

In a lawsuit filed in federal district court, Mr. Lyles argues his constitutional rights were violated and he has endured pain and suffering. Lyles and his family spoke out in a news conference.

Lyles and his mother, Ella Flowers,  think race was a factor, and they said it's a problem Dallas police need to face head-on. Flowers said, "they called him bad names, the n-word. You know they say words don't hurt you? Yes, they do. That messes with him at night. He jumps up. He can't sleep."The complaint alleges the officers did indeed use racial epithets and that one officer said to another after the beating, "You got your stripes tonight." 

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Mistrial declared in suit over LA County Deputy's slaying of Black Teenager: Govt. Withheld Evidence, Officer Lied

From [HERE] A judge abruptly declared a mistrial in the wrongful death case of a Compton teenager who was shot by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in 2009 after the attorney for the teenager's family announced he had a videotape that allegedly contradicted sworn statements made by the deputy.

The video was not played in court. But the attorney for Avery Cody Jr.'s family said it shows Deputy Sergio Reyes touching Cody's body after he shot the youth, even though Reyes said in sworn statements that he never touched Cody's body. A copy of the new video was reviewed by The Times on Friday.

The grainy, shaky footage appears to show a deputy, who cannot be definitively identified as Reyes but has a similar frame and skin tone, standing over Cody's body. The deputy in the footage, taken by a passerby, appears to briefly bend down twice to touch the body. It is unclear whether the deputy actually made contact with Cody's body or what exactly he was doing.

John Sweeney, the family's attorney, announced the existence of the video in court Wednesday — the first time the judge or defense attorneys had heard about it.

Evidence in trials typically needs to be shared with the opposing side in advance, and in the Cody case, the judge declared a mistrial Wednesday because the video hadn't been submitted to the defense and was mentioned in front of the jury, attorneys said.

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Son testifies in father's shooting; Enraged PG County Cop Beat Latino Man to Death

As Officer Jackson threw punches, his father tried to put his hands in front of his face, Espina Jacome said.

His father fell, and when he tried to get to his feet, Jackson took the metal police baton from his belt and struck Espina in the head, the face, and on his back and one of his legs, Espina Jacome testified.

Mooney asked whether Espina ever hit or tried to hit Jackson. "He couldn't do anything. How could he hit anyone, he couldn't even see," Espina Jacome testified. "He had no way of defending himself. [Jackson] was hitting my father very hard."

With one baton blow, Jackson knocked Espina down a set of stairs that led to the basement, Espina Jacome testified. Jackson continued striking Espina, and then the door to a basement apartment opened, Espina Jacome testified.

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Arrest Warrant Issued in Aiyana Jones homicide - Detroit Police Officer's Actions Unjustified in Shooting 7 Yr. Old Black Girl

From [HERE] and [HERE] and [HERE] The most significant development in many months concerning the shooting death of a 7 year old girl during a police raid last May occurred Thursday- the Michigan State Police submitted an arrest warrant request to the Wayne Prosecutor's Office for a male suspect.

Since it has long been established that the fatal bullet was fired by one Officer Joseph Weekley, the MSP has apparently found probable cause to believe that Weekley's shooting of the girl, Aiyana Jones, was unjustified and therefore criminal. Weekley has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.

Aiyana Jones was a casualty of a police raid on an east side duplex during the early morning hours of May 16, 2010. The Detroit Special Response Team, whose raid targeted murder suspect Chauncey Owens, arrested him in a different part of the duplex that morning. The raid was being filmed for the A&E cop reality series The First 48.

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Family, Coalition say more than a warrant due for Black girl killed in Detroit police raid

The coalition said more than one person should be charged. Ron Scott said the department has become "militarized" and that it has a "mindset that treats citizens as enemy combatants."

The coalition intends to seek documents related to the investigation and said it wanted answers to numerous questions, including learning who planned the raid, who gave the order to throw the grenade and who agreed to let the film crew go along.

"It was a production, a film production," said Sandra Hines, a coalition member. "Their concern wasn't police work; it was how they would look on 'First 48.'"

Jones' parents, represented by Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit that claims the police department engaged in a cover-up of the causes of her death. Fieger, who claimed he's seen a video recording of the shooting, also has sued the television show.

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Civilian Oversight Board Demands Records from Miami Police in Shooting of DeCarlos Moore

From [HERE] and [HERE] A civilian police oversight panel voted Friday to conduct a parallel investigation into one of last summer’s fatal shootings by Miami police, an unprecedented move that could make all records related to the case public — and exactly the kind of action law enforcement feared when it fought a decade ago against the creation of the public authority. The chief has until March 14 to produce documents, which are now under subpoena. Also, in 120 days, the panel will issue a report to Miami's commission.

The unanimous decision by Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel orders Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito to turn over all records related to the July 5 shooting death of DeCarlos Moore, the first of seven black men shot and killed by Miami police over a seven-month period. Moore, who had no weapon, was killed during a traffic stop after disobeying an order and returning to his car.

The CIP, a controversial board with subpoena power, was created with overwhelming public support in a November 2001 referendum on the heels of a slew of bad police shootings and attempted cover-ups. Traditionally the panel has waited until prosecutors close out investigations into possible police misconduct before beginning its own investigation. The Moore shooting investigation remains open.

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D.C. - Invalid breath-analysis results used in over 100 DWI guilty pleas

From [HERE] The D.C. Attorney General's Office used invalid alcohol breath test results when bargaining with defendants who then pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated charges.

For the past year, the city has struggled to get its alcohol breath analysis program in order. In February 2010, it was found that the breath analyzers were producing inaccurate results -- a problem internal police documents suggest could extend back a decade. In March 2010, the District replaced the breath analyzers. The chief toxicologist refused to sign off on their validity, documents show, but the police department continued to use them in the field. The Attorney General's Office stopped using the results as evidence during trial, though continued to use the results during plea bargaining.

"They flat out did it," attorney Bryan Brown told The Washington Examiner. "There could be in excess of 100 cases."

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