Free Republic

A Pittsburgh police officer's alleged use of excessive force at a Station Square nightclub is “strikingly similar” to allegations from an incident involving the same officer three years ago, a Pittsburgh lawyer said on Thursday. Edward Lojak Jr., 28, suffered a cracked rib, a broken nose and other injuries when Detective David Honick tackled him on Saturday outside Whim Night Club. Honick, who joined the force in November 2003, is similarly accused in a federal civil lawsuit of breaking an Apollo man's cheekbone in three places on Feb. 27, 2010, outside Saddle Ridge in Station Square. **** No action has...

Today the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "a court can presume" an alert by a drug-sniffing dog provides probable cause for a search "if a bona fide organization has certified a dog after testing his reliability in a controlled setting" or "if the dog has recently and successfully completed a training program that evaluated his proficiency in locating drugs." The justices overturned a 2011 decision in which the Florida Supreme Court said police must do more than assert that a dog has been properly trained. They deemed that court's evidentiary requirements too "rigid" for the "totality of the circumstances"...