Free Republic

The city of Henderson has done its darndest over the past week to erode the already depleted stores of public trust in government. First, we learn the city will pay a man $257,000 because he was in diabetic shock and driving erratically when he was pulled from his car by police at gunpoint, forcibly restrained on his stomach and then kicked in the head. We also learned the officer who did the kicking, Sgt. Brett Seekatz, kept his job and his rank. Next, as I reported last week, we learned that members of the City Council found out about the...

A motorist who was pulled over after driving erratically and was methodically kicked in the head by a Henderson Police officer — while being videotaped by a Nevada Highway Patrol dashboard camera — will receive a $158,000 settlement. The motorist said he was weaving because he was in diabetic shock. Police found a vial of insulin in his pocket. The settlement amount was blessed by the city attorney then approved by the Henderson City Council tonight.

Diboll police officer Grant Jones has resigned amid a flurry of debate surrounding a controversial traffic stop last week. Jones gave his formal resignation Tuesday afternoon at 2:30. "His resignation was short, and to the point," according to Diboll City Manager Dennis McDuffie. [...] Upon hearing of Jones' resignation, [victim] Johnny Hodge said it's good that Jones realized he was wrong and stepped down from his position. The city attorney for Diboll has promised to release the Diboll Police dash cam video on Wednesday. The stop in question occurred on July 27 as Tracey Lott was driving his friend, Johnny...

Former Obetz officer pleads guilty to sex charge Monday, January 25, 2010 11:02 AM By Bruce Cadwallader THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Former Obetz police officer Vernon Wolford, left, sits with attorney E. Scott Shaw. Tom Dodge | Dispatch Former Obetz police officer Vernon Wolford, left, sits with attorney E. Scott Shaw. A former Obetz police officer could spend five years in prison for forcing sex with a prisoner in his police cruiser before taking her to the Franklin County jail in November. The woman filed a complaint with deputies. In court today, Vernon Wolford, 32, of Westbear Court on the Far...

Minneapolis police officer Timothy Edward Carson's shift on Wednesday started at 9 a.m. But he wasn't there. By the time he told a supervisor he was running late at 9:30, the FBI says, Carson had robbed an Apple Valley bank and was well on his way to getting caught. Carson, 28, was arrested early Thursday and appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon, charged with bank robbery. More criminal charges are expected to follow; police sources familiar with the investigation say he could be connected to at least a dozen robberies in the metro area over the past two weeks. "The...

A Minneapolis police officer has been arrested in connection with a series of robberies in Apple Valley. Timothy Edward Carson, 28, was booked into the Dakota County Jail early Thursday morning on probable cause of first-degree aggravated robbery. Carson is assigned to the 3rd Precinct, and is a member of the SWAT team. "This is probably the most shocking thing I've seen in my 30 years, as far as what a police officer could have done," Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said in an interview on radio station WCCO. "This tops it all." Police said they have linked him to...

Chattanooga Police Det. Kenneth Freeman will not face charges in an incident in which he shoved a 71-year-old greeter at the Wal-Mart in Collegedale to the floor after he tried to stop him while doing a receipts check. > A police report says a customer then told Det. Freeman, "You can't push down an old man" and began struggling with him. It says Det. Freeman then shoved that man, Gholom Ghassedi, through a glass door. Officers found Mr. Ghassedi with blood on his neck, but he declined medical treatment. Sgt. McPherson broke up the fight between Det. Freeman and Mr....

He's the governor's ex-brother-in-law, and his job as an Alaska State Trooper is drawing scrutiny in a way rarely seen except in cases of killings by officers. ----snip---- He's a father of young children who has been married and divorced four times. ----snip---- "The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession," Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After...

Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo on the police raid on his home earlier this month: "The reality is that this happens all the time in this country and disproportionally in Prince Georges county and most of the people to whom it happens don't have the community support and the platform to speak out. So I appreciate you paying attention to our condition but I hope you'll also give attention to those who may not have the same platform and voice that we have." -snip- Here are a few excerpts from Calvo's letter to the Justice Department requesting that investigation:...

A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy who said he had always wanted to spend his life in law enforcement used a Taser on his wife then held his service pistol to her head before he was arrested and held for mental evaluation, deputies say. Carlos Thomas Tanner, 38, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was arrested at his Dover home about 1:45 a.m. Monday. He is charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor battery-domestic violence. Tanner was taken in under the state's Baker Act because he threatened to harm himself if he were arrested, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie...

RALEIGH - A hearing into the firing of a state trooper accused of mistreating his police dog opened today with a video of the officer kicking the dog as it was suspended from the railing of a loading dock. The 15-second video, taken by another trooper using his cell phone, shows Sgt. Charles L. Jones kicking the dog, Ricoh, five times. The dog was tied to the railing by its leash at the time, with its front paws in the air and its rear paws touching the ground. With each kick, the dog swung about two feet under the dock.

All John Clifford wanted was a peaceful ride to work on the 7:39 to Pennsylvania Station. He would get to the Long Island Rail Road station at Long Beach early every weekday morning, board the train, stake out a five-seat section to rest his bad back, and prepare to read his newspaper and eat his breakfast. But all around him, there would be chaos. One woman putting on full makeup while listening to her iPod and talking to friends. Another inviting guests to a barbecue and talking about personal problems. Men chatting on cellphones. They were treating the ride as...

HOUSTON — Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal apologized Friday for hurting his family, friends and co-workers when e-mails were released detailing his affectionate relationship with his secretary. The documents, which surfaced as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office, were posted online by the federal clerk's office before a judge resealed them Thursday. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt said he had only intended to make public Rosenthal's request that the notes sent from his county e-mail address be kept confidential. Earlier this week, Rosenthal called the disclosure "bare knuckle politics" engineered by Lloyd...

A veteran New York City police detective was arraigned on perjury charges in the Bronx yesterday after a suspect in an attempted murder case secretly recorded his interrogation with an MP3 player. Detective Christopher Perino is accused of lying 12 times during his sworn testimony in the April trial of the suspect, Erik Crespo, by saying that he did not conduct an interrogation of Mr. Crespo. At yesterday’s hearing in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, Detective Perino, 42, a member of the department for 19 years, pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of first-degree perjury. He made no further...

WARREN, Ohio (AP) -- A police officer accused of using a stun gun on a woman while she was handcuffed has been placed on paid administrative leave. Video taken from Patrolman Richard Kovach's cruiser shows him jolting a woman with a Taser gun at least twice after she was handcuffed, police and city administrators said. The woman, who had been ordered out of a bar, fell face-first to the pavement in the bar's parking lot after being struck the final time with the electrical disabling device, officials said. Mayor Michael O'Brien said Kovach was removed from street duty about a...

SAN BERNARDINO - Although he insists an ex-lawman violated police procedures throughout a car chase and the wounding of the car's passenger, a key prosecution expert says he would withdraw his criticism of the shooting if there is evidence that the officer was under attack. The final decision on whether an attack occurred is for the ex-officer's jury to decide, police procedures expert Joe Callanan acknowledged Tuesday. But he testified that he sees no evidence of an attack on former San Bernardino County Deputy Ivory Webb Jr. in a videotape of the January 2006 shooting. Webb, 46, is on trial...

GREENEVILLE - When those prison doors clang shut behind this dirty cop, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer wants the good guys to hear something else - praise. The way Greer sees it, the two-year prison term he doled out Tuesday for the former second highest-ranking law enforcer in Cocke County is as much a tribute to the good cop as it is an indictment of the bad. "Very simply put, Mr. (Patrick Allen) Taylor, a message needs to be sent," Greer told the former Cocke County Sheriff's Department chief deputy at his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court. "Honorable_law enforcement...

Bill Clinton is one shrewd politician. The former president has announced that he will campaign for Joe Lieberman in Connecticut. Bill Clinton has scheduled a July 24th appearance with Lieberman in Waterbury, Connecticut to campaign for Joe. Surprised? One shouldn't be. The two politicians have known each other since Clinton worked on Lieberman's first campaign for state Senate in 1970. But that has precious little to do with Bill Clinton's visit. Joe Lieberman's August 8 primary challenger Ned Lamont (D) has surged ahead of the incumbent Senator and now holds a razor-thin 51% to 47% lead among likely Democratic primary...

San Bernardino -- A sheriff's deputy videotaped shooting an unarmed Iraq war veteran after a high-speed chase will be charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter, authorities said Tuesday. The case against Deputy Ivory J. Webb, 45, includes the special allegations of infliction of great bodily injury and use of a firearm, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos told a news conference. It was the first time the county's prosecutors filed charges against a lawman for an on-duty shooting. Sheriff Gary Penrod said Webb, a 10-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, will remain on paid administrative leave as the investigation...

An officer with Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) ordered the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic to silence our voices tonight at our weekly support the troops demonstration outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center.The officer cited complaints from the neighborhood about the noise our voices make as we chastise the so-called antiwar protesters across the street at the main gate to Walter Reed.The officer went across the street and issued the same order to the Code Pinkos. We're not sure if the order applies to their singalong guitar player (who serenaded the wounded troops tonight with Bob Dylan's "Knocking on...