Posted on 03/29/2012 8:55:31 AM PDT by heartwood
Most every crime novel has a variation of this back-and-forth: Cop collars a suspected criminal. Suspect says the bust is unjust — but faces the uphill challenge of convincing a judge or jury.
But in the recent real-life case of a stranded motorist-turned-alleged felon, there was one juicy twist: The whole altercation was caught on tape under the most outlandish of circumstances.
As a result: Charges were dropped against the driver and prosecutors are investigating whether Coral Springs police officers Nicole Stasnek and Derek Fernandes filed false documents relating to the extraordinary encounter.
None of this would have happened if the driver — Susan Mait, a 60-year-old widow from Coral Springs — hadn’t dropped her phone to the floor of her SUV while the cops yanked her from the vehicle. Unbeknownst to any of them, the phone was still connected to a GEICO customer service rep, who, following company policy, recorded everything that happened.
The audio tape, made public this week, depicts a starkly different exchange than what Stasnek and Fernandes described in their reports and during questioning under oath.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Miss Mait needs to watch two videos, Chris Rock's How Not to Get Your A-- Kicked by Police, (not that she got her a-- kicked, just arrested) and Prof. James Duane's, Don't Talk to the Police (in Miss Mait's case, don't volunteer that she takes Xanax.)
And the police officers need to keep in mind that the truth is easier to keep straight than lies, if they are still police officers after this. Or even if not.
And the Geico representative, well, she needs to talk a lot faster, and remember that police officers standing in traffic get priority.
What an all-around screw-up.
Look at the case in Texas last week. A guy was in prison for 25 years for supposedly killing his wife. Turns out he WAS innocent. The prosecutors actually hid evidence at the time of the trial that would have proved his innocence without a doubt. Plus new DNA evidence proved he did not do it.
Now there are demands the prosecutors now be tried on criminal charges.
SOP when more than one bad cop is involved in a questionable arrest. One lies and the other one swears to it.
Did you read this story? The tape proves that the cops were marauding thugs. We have no evidence that anything took place the way the cops described. We do have an actual tape of the cops lying through their teeth from the word go. The article keeps citing that these two dopes never had any issues before. That is because no one was taping them before. This lady ought to sue these thug cops out of their job. They seem better suited doing something not involving people.
To make that Texas case even worse, the real killer went on to rape and murder a second young mother.
At this point in time, I fear the police much more than I fear the criminal element. I suppose that may be in part that from the police viewpoint, everyone but them s a criminal. They divide them into tow groups: Those that have been arrested and those that haven’t yet been arrested.
"I didn’t hear that. In my [internal affairs] statement, I’ll say I didn’t hear that..."
Just one little tidbit on why cops are deathly afraid of being taped and recorded as a matter of "public safety" or whatever official lie is being as the reason this week. What happens in Internal Affairs, stays in Internal Affairs.
What is the guy’s name?
If a prosecutor ever gets caugt purposely sending an innocent person to jail, or witholding evidence they know would clear them THEY SHOULD BE SHOT
Or at very least spend twice as much time in jail as the innocent person spent
What happened is that the woman first said (probably when asked) is that she takes Xanax. This is not recorded. But cops think abuse when they hear Xanax, and they think DUI.
Then she refused to drive on her rims to get out of the road. Fair enough. She refused a police tow because she thought she would save money with a tow through her insurance, the police wanted the police tow to save time.
She spent an ungodly long time on the phone with the insurance rep who was slooooow and kept asking for the same information instead of entering it when she first got it.
Miss Mait was asked for her driver’s license several times and kept waving off the officer - “Can’t you see I’m on the phone?” in a brassy blaring voice. She also insisted on arranging a rental car then instead of waiting until later.
So you have a self-centered, rude woman keeping officers in traffic, not giving up her license, not thinking about all the other drivers stuck behind her. She’d annoy pretty much anyone.
When the female officer got annoyed, she used the f-word and the s-word. Then Miss Mait instead of thinking, hmm, I have seriously annoyed this police officer, I had better defuse the situation and complain later, she starts yelling, I want your supervisor, I want your supervisor right!
No excuse for perjury and filing a false official statement on the police officer’s part. No excuse for not warning Mait that she was going to be arrested if she didn’t hang up and hand over her license right now - but it would have been a valid arrest if she hadn’t co-operated at that point.
I just thought it was interesting how even a middle-aged white woman in a Lexus can seriously tick off the police if she goes about it the right way.
“Did you read this story? The tape proves that the cops were marauding thugs.”
The advise to take away from this is when you are stopped, always call someone and leave the phone where that party can hear what’s going on. Cops: the nation’s union goons in blue. Never trust any of them. Like the old “Badge 714” TV show, when they had a line up the cops told the people viewing the lineup that they should not pay attention to the answers given because “they often lie.”
Same goes for the cops! For them lying is permissible. I’ve had a personal experience and our Chief of Police was supposedly a friend (until he lied for his officers).
Michael Morton. He was arrested within a few hours of the murder and 3-4 days after the murder, his wifes stolen CC were being used while he was in jail and the prosecutors knew this but kept it hidden.
Also as Heartwood pointed out the real killer killed another person 4-5 years later as they recently checked the dna from a bandana left behind at Mortons house and the later murder and it matched but they have yet to find the real killer.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57403613-10391709/life-after-prison-morton-reunites-with-family/
Recording audio from Geico who was on phone with victim : audio link
Makes me glad I dont live in FLA.
Listen yourself.
The audio tape, made public this week, depicts a starkly different exchange than what Stasnek and Fernandes described in their reports and during questioning under oath.
The tape is contradictory to the cops BS statement under oath.
The first victim’s young son who was four, IIRC, witnessed the killing and told his grandmother that the killer was a stranger, not Daddy. I’m not sure who she told - the prosecutor or the defense attorney, but this information was never acted on.
Sworn officers of the law should be executed for lying under oath. The death penalty for subverting the US government.
Hey - I listened to the tape - it took a very long time because of Mait and the Geico rep - I heard the officer ask her for her license and Mait say can’t you see I’m on the phone or words to that effect several times. I heard her keep trying to arrange for the rental. I also heard the officer use four-letter words, and not issue any warning that Mait could be arrested.
You shouldn’t be arrested for being rude and self-centered and slow - but you should understand that you’re going to annoy people and they will not be your friends.
I’m an EMT. After car accidents, the driver frequently gets caught up in a phone conversation - they’re shaken up, they can focus on only one thing. That’s nervous reaction. And some of them think they are the center of the universe. That’s character. You can get both going at the same time.
Lacking arrest powers, I can only say, I need you to get off the phone now so I can examine you. I haven’t cussed anyone out yet though I have been cussed.
“Sworn officers of the law should be executed for lying under oath. The death penalty for subverting the US government.”
But in this instance, as is usually the case, the PD “closes ranks behind their fellow officers” and thumbs their nose at the citizens. Time for this woman to sue the city of Coral Gables. The one thing they understand is having to pay out a large settlement for this kind of abuse. Some guy in Boston just received $170k for being arrested for filming the cops there in action. It took him five years. Now, there’s another suit for $1.4 million pending for the same abusive practice that will go forward now that the law is settled about being able to actually take pictures of cops “doing their jobs” there.
I should add that people can get very repetitive when they get shaken up - keep saying or asking the same thing - they can’t remember the answer - not always a sign of head injury but can be.
Police officers ought to be familiar with drivers in MVAs clinging to the phone and being slow.
Everyone in this situation handled it badly including the Geico rep - the police officers went over the line to criminal behavior.
It sort of struck me because of the Martin-Zimmerman case - the consequences of escalation even if you are the opposite of a young black man.
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