by TChris

In the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, incompetence is not viewed as justification for significant disclipline of employees -- even when the incompetence leads to dead inmates in the jail.

Los Angeles County sheriff's employees whose actions contributed to the deaths of five county jail inmates have received punishment ranging from a written reprimand to a 15-day suspension, according to a report released Monday.

The Office of Independent Review says the deputies were merely negligent, not malicious. Small comfort to the dead inmates.

The Sheriff says he's opposed to "symbolic harshness." If only the same philosophy applied at sentencing hearings in the criminal justice system.

The OIR also reports that deputies are being arrested for drunk driving more frequently than last year, and that they're involved in more shootings.

by TChris

After failing to appear in response to traffic citations issued in 1995 and 1996, Debra Fuentes was taken into custody and posted bail. She presented Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kevin Ross with a "Wrong Defendant Declaration" indicating that at least one of the citations was issued to someone else. The description on one citation matched Fuentes, but the other citation described "someone who was older, taller, and skinnier."

Nonetheless, Judge Ross concluded that the declaration was false, and ordered that Fuentes be charged under a statute that makes it a crime to provide false evidence of insurance -- a statute that plainly didn't apply to Fuentes. Fuentes sat in jail for two days until she could post bail on that charge. All charges against her have since been dismissed.

Now the judge is in hot water with the Commission on Judicial Performance. Apart from ordering Fuentes to be charged with a crime she clearly didn't commit, the judge took on the dual role of law enforcement officer and prosecutor by deciding that Fuentes should be taken into custody and charged with a crime.

To his credit, Judge Ross admits he erred. But he's also facing discipline for ordering a defense lawyer out of the courtroom while he sentenced her client and for having improper contact with another defendant outside the presence of the lawyers in the case.

by TChris

Did officers of the Covington County Sheriff's Office in Alabama administer a death penalty without awaiting a trial? Officials say that Aaron Shaw "kicked a glass window out of a patrol car after being arrested in Florala and subsequently took an officer's tazer gun and repeatedly shocked him with it." But Shaw was shot to death after what witnesses describe as two beatings.

Several people have claimed that they saw the 47-year-old black man being badly beaten on two separate occasions before he was shot. The first incident, allegedly involving three Florala Police officers, occurred on MLK Ave., and a second alleged beating from those officers took place near 9th Ave. and the Carver Center in Florala.

Shaw was killed near an electrical substation on Hwy. 55 in Lockhart. Relatives and friends held a candlelight vigil for him yesterday.

by TChris

Sometimes a prosecution witness, sensing that the case against the accused has gone south, decides to help the prosecutor with a little extra testimony, something calculated to turn the jury against the accused. Something like this, as described by Hennepin County, Minnesota District Court Judge Charles A. Porter Jr.:

It was clear from her preparation as a witness, as well as from her participation in the investigation, that Sgt. Murphy knew when she testified...that the case had been going well for the defense and that her testimony was going to be crucial in solidifying this prosecution for the State. Nevertheless, she chose to interject into this case a remark highlighting the existence of a prior record for the Defendant, which was totally inadmissible, had been so ruled by this Court, and could only lead to the declaration of a mistrial once it was said...

This is usually a win-win tactic for the witness. If the judge doesn't grant the mistrial, the inadmissible evidence may prop up a weak case and produce a guilty verdict. If the judge grants the mistrial, the prosecution gets out from under a bad trial and gains time to build a better case.

Not this time. In a blistering order, Judge Porter held that the government witness provoked the mistrial by attempting to thwart the accused's right to a fair trial. By causing a manifest injustice that forced the trial to end, the state forfeited its right to try the accused again. Judge Porter's courageous decision reminds the prosecution that the right to a fair trial trumps the government's desire to punish any particular defendant.

by TChris

TalkLeft reported in July that Jesselyn Radack lost her job with the Justice Department after objecting to the Department's ethical lapses in its prosecution of John Walker Lindh. Now Radack is fighting back.

In a federal lawsuit, the lawyer, Jesselyn Radack, accused Justice Department officials of destroying internal e-mail messages that spelled out her concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's interrogation of Mr. Lindh after he was captured with the Taliban in late 2001.

Radack says she complained about the Department's decision to interrogate Lindh in the absence of his lawyer. Radack's lawsuit contends that the Justice Department retaliated against her whistleblowing by giving her negative performance reviews and by forcing her to resign.

by TChris

Police officers enjoy distinct advantages when they decide to commit crimes. One example: the ability to disguise a robbery as a law enforcement raid.

A former police officer serving 15 years in prison on drug trafficking and weapon charges has admitted that he and other officers were behind a robbery spree that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars between 1998 and 2001. Ruben Palomares, 34, and his colleagues collected drugs, cash, guns and other items in robberies that sometimes turned brutally violent, according to a plea agreement and other documents, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Dressed in their uniforms and driving police cars, the LAPD officers were able to steal "more than 700 pounds of marijuana, 50 kilos of cocaine, and an assortment of firearms and jewelry." Sometimes they handcuffed their victims or shot them with stun guns. The majority of Palomares' crimes were committed while he was being investigated for his role in the Rampart scandal.

by TChris

TalkLeft has chronicled the antics of judges in Louisiana, including those who are drunk on the bench or impaired by drug use, and those who take bribes or extort campaign contributions. The latest Louisiana judge to misbehave is Timothy Ellender, who appeared at a Halloween party wearing blackface, an Afro wig, handcuffs, and a prison jumpsuit.

Ellender has admitted he wore the racially charged get-up last Halloween at a Houma seafood restaurant, but insists he meant no harm. The longtime Terrebonne Parish judge had asked that his punishment be limited to public censure, while the state Judiciary Commission recommended suspension for one year and one day without pay.

While Judge Ellender insists that he didn't mean to stereotype the people who come before him for sentencing, that is the unmistakable message that his costume conveyed. Does a man with such poor judgment deserve to be a judge?

A Judge in Troy, New York has been permanently removed from the bench after 11 years as a sitting judge. His offense:

[The Commission on Judicial Conduct ] charged Bauer with setting excessive bail and not affording defendants the right to counsel in order to coerce guilty pleas, among other judicial infractions. The Court of Appeals agreed that his conduct was too egregious for him to stay on the bench.

HaikuEsq has more and some context.

by TChris

After Tacoma's police chief, David Brame, killed his wife and then himself, a Washington State Patrol investigation uncovered a "culture of corruption" within the Tacoma Police Department. The City responded with its own investigation, but has made public only a few of its findings.

After months of refusing to make public an investigation of alleged misconduct by police and city employees, Tacoma City Manager Jim Walton released a heavily edited version of the report Tuesday. It includes the name of just one of the 32 individuals suspected of wrongdoing: David Brame .... It doesn’t identify anyone else, including a former employee whom Walton has determined improperly shared confidential medical records with his wife. And it blacks out descriptions of all but two of 33 allegations investigators examined.

Walton says that agreements with city employee and police unions prevent him from making more complete disclosures, as does the Public Disclosure Law, despite findings that sustained wrongdoing in twelve cases. A lawyer for Brame's deceased wife disagrees.

“The city’s not really being honest with the citizens of Tacoma when they say they can’t hand it out because of the Public Disclosure Act,” [Paul] Luvera said. “They got lawyers to go to court and prevent it from being disclosed. That’s the only reason it wasn’t disclosed.

The public's right to know extends to wrongdoing by public employees. Except, it seems, in Tacoma.

by TChris

The prevalence of surveillance cameras in our cities may bring Orwell to mind, but some champion their public presence as a valuable tool to help the police identify criminals. MTA police officer Michael Koenig might be unenthused about the law enforcement potential of surveillance cameras, having been captured on camera during an encounter with a homeless man at Penn Station. Witnesses confirm that Koenig hit the man in the head with his metal baton after ejecting him from the station.

Koenig has been charged with assault. Koenig and another officer are also charged with falsifying records by failing to report the misconduct.

by TChris

It isn't unusual for scientists employed by a government crime lab to make mistakes. It is unusual for a government scientist's problematic credibility to "tip the scales" in favor of a judge's decision to dismiss a prosecution.

Phillip Rawl has been tried twice on charges of vehicular homicide, based on a blood analysis showing that his blood alcohol content exceeded the legal limit after an accident that killed his passenger. Neither jury could reach a unanimous verdict. Before the third trial started, Rawl's attorney, David Kaloyanides, asked the judge to dismiss the charge because the prosecutor failed to disclose evidence that the crime lab chemist who tested the blood, Jeff Lowe, had been mistaken at least 27 times while performing a task as simple as weighing drugs.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus agreed that the district attorney's office should have disclosed the evidence, and cited the failure as a factor that "tipped the scales" in favor of dismissal. The judge added that there was no reason to believe a third jury would convict after the first two hung.

by TChris

Turns out that the old saying is true: cops have the best drugs.

For months, police officers in Weatherly complained of drugs that had been seized from suspects and then disappeared, of the unmistakable reek of marijuana smoke in the office and of finding pipes and other paraphernalia left in a desk drawer.

The target of their complaints was their boss — Police Chief Brian Cara. On Wednesday, he was arrested by state authorities and accused of using seized drugs while on duty.

It may have been more prudent to take the weed home rather than toking at work. It seems the chief began lighting up a half hour after the start of his 7:00 a.m. shift. Did he really think his subordinates wouldn't notice?