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03/09/10 Leaving prosecutions in limbo, the FBI informant who set off a probe leading to the arrest of 24 persons last June for looting Indian gravesites in Utah and New Mexico committed suicide. His death follows the suicide of two defendants in a case that many criticize as overreaching. 03/09/10 A Georgia grand jury indicted four elderly members of an assisted suicide project that helped a 52-year old cancer patient suffocate himself with helium. They had agreed to do the same for an undercover Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who pretended to be dying from cancer. 03/08/10 Federal agents arrested an Orange County (Calif.) man and sixteen of more than 100 foreign students who paid him and his helpers to attend class and take exams so they could stay in the U.S. Sixty driver licenses bearing test-taker photos and immigrant names were also seized. 03/08/10 In Memphis a 20-year private study suggests that when measured accurately and for a longer period, recidivism is worse than official statistics indicate, with nine out of ten released inmates being rearrested and eight out of ten reimprisoned. 03/05/10 Days after a fire burned down an apartment building, killing seven including four children, police secretly recorded its owner criticizing the maintenance man for setting the fire at the wrong time. They also discussed how much the maintenance man would be paid from insurance proceeds. 03/05/10 Deceased Pentagon shooter John Bedell, 36, was a manic-depressive and had been in and out of mental health clinics. A psychiatrist said that Bedell “self-medicated” with marijuana, making things worse. His parents recently warned police that he was dangerous and might have a gun. 03/05/10 Citing fears that officers would misuse Tasers and that they could cause heart attacks, the San Francisco Police Commission voted 4-3 to reject Chief Gascon’s proposal to develop guidelines for their use. Gascon said he was “extremely disappointed” but would drop the idea for now. 03/04/10 An analyst’s incorrect testimony that blood was found in a vehicle, which helped cause a wrongful conviction, is leading the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to reexamine thousands of old lab cases to check their accuracy. Related post 03/03/10 Maxwell Kennedy, son of murdered former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, blasted the LAPD for placing his father’s blood-soaked clothing on public display at a homicide investigators’ conference in Las Vegas, calling it a “macabre publicity stunt.” 03/03/10 Scott Holencik, warden of a Federal prison in Adelanto, CA, was indicted for revealing confidential information and lying to DOJ investigators, apparently for denying that he made derogatory postings about superiors on prisonofficer.org. Posting about this case (scroll to bottom) 03/03/10 Detroit cops must stop as many suspicious cars as possible to look for guns; officers who don’t face discipline. Although aggressive strategies like tactical teams, hot-spots and stop-and-frisk are drawing citizen complaints, the department vows that proactive policing will continue. 03/03/10 John Gardner, the registered sex offender arrested for abducting, raping and murdering San Diego teen Chelsea King, had served five years for a brutal attack on a 13-year old girl, a case in which a psychiatrist predicted Gardner would pose a “continued danger to underage girls.” 03/03/10 Serious misconduct by L.A. County probation officers routinely goes unpunished, officials admit, because there are only 14 internal investigators to cover a sworn staff of 4,400. In comparison LAPD fields twenty times that many internal affairs officers -- 271 -- for its 9,900 cops. 03/02/10 Financially-stricken Los Angeles County plans to trim nine percent of the Sheriff’s budget. About half would come from slashing deputy overtime and having uniformed administrators pitch in with patrol, and half by downsizing a jail and relocating its inmates. 03/02/10 Laws in California and other States let citizens carry guns openly (in California they can’t be loaded.) So gun rights advocates have been organizing “open carry” events, taking guns into coffee shops. Peet’s and CPK have banned guns, but at Starbuck’s it’s still OK. Brady Campaign 03/01/10 Four California men were Federally indicted for raking in $25 million by hacking into Ticketmaster and other ticketing websites and buying up huge blocks of tickets for popular events, then reselling them to the public through their business, “Wiseguy Tickets,” for hefty premiums. 02/27/10 Bell, California, has 36,000 residents. A neighbor, Maywood, has only 27,000. Yet each fields its own police department (Maywood also polices Cudahy, pop. 24,000.) To save administrative costs, they’re now inviting other cities in, to create one police department for all. 02/27/10 A rash of Federal prosecutions has revealed a long-standing pattern of corruption in the tomato-processing industry, with brokers for growers pawning off substandard and moldy products on major players including Kraft’s and Safeway by bribing their buyers. 02/26/10 Federal authorities charged Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay with plotting to help would-be terrorist Najibullah Zazi detonate liquid explosives on NYC subways during rush hour. According to the Government the three were trained by Al Qaeda during a 2008 trip to Pakistan. 02/26/10 New York Governor Paterson’s aide, David Johnson, is accused of repeatedly assaulting ex-girlfriends. One victim was telephoned by Paterson and visited by his State Police detail to smooth things over. Now that the details are out, Paterson says he won’t run for a full term. 02/25/10 New Orleans PD Lieutenant Michael Lohman pled guilty to Federal charges of obstructing justice for covering up the wrongful police killings of two men and the wounding of four others during Hurricane Katrina. Federal charges Details of conspiracy 02/24/10 Ruling in Maryland v. Shatzer, the Supreme Court held that a suspect allowed to return to his “accustomed surroundings and daily routine” after invoking his Miranda rights can be approached again after two weeks, and if he waives his rights his statements are admissible. 02/23/10 While President Obama signs legislation allowing guns in National Parks and defers acting on the gun show record-check loophole, States extend gun rights, expanding concealed-carry laws while repealing those, like one-gun a month, that are favored by gun control groups. 02/23/10 L.A. County prosecutors made good on a threat to go after medical marijuana clinics, charging the operator of a clinic that netted as much as $100,000 a month profit with multiple felonies. California law, they say, allows nonprofit cooperatives but not over-the-counter sales. 02/23/10 In Massachusetts, a paroled murderer kills again, reportedly the first time that’s happened in a decade. Although he had an extensive record, the inmate was sixty and thought unlikely to pose a threat. But he shot and killed a convenience store clerk, just like the first time around. 02/22/10 Najibullah Zazi, the Denver airport shuttle driver who was arrested in NYC in September 2009 after buying ingredients to make liquid explosives, pled guilty in Federal court to conspiring to set off the devices in the subway to mark the 9/11 attack. 02/22/10 In a trial harkening back to the infamous 1997 police assault of Abner Louima, NYPD officer Richard Kern was acquitted of using a baton to sodomize Michael Mineo, a man he caught smoking pot on a subway platform. Two other officers were acquitted of helping to cover it up. 02/22/10 Four Camden officers have been suspended and at least thirty convictions have been overturned as accusations swirl that they planted evidence and stole drugs and money. Some of the suspects had records and were told by their lawyers to plead guilty to avoid harsher sanctions. 02/22/10 Milwaukee police chief Edward Flynn is furious. Only after six MPD officers were shot in two years did he learn that the dealer where the guns originated, Badger Guns, was the nation’s #1 source of crime guns. Why did ATF keep mum? A Federal law: The Tiahrt Amendment. 02/21/10 Federal authorities investigating the burning of eleven rural Texas churches this year arrested two men for setting fire to a church near Tyler, Texas after receiving several tips. An ATF spokespeson said that one of the men has been connected to the fire through DNA. 02/19/10 A new California law that apparently gives non-violent inmates one day credit for each day served has led county jails to grant more than 2,000 early releases. Not in L.A. County, where, despite an Attorney General’s opinion, Sheriff Lee Baca insists the law doesn’t apply. PC 4019 02/18/10 Departing upwardly from the sentencing guidelines, a Federal judge gave former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik four years for not reporting a freeby home renovation on his taxes, and for making false statements on his application to be Director of Homeland Security. 02/17/10 Finding the evidence not credible, a three-judge panel convened by the newly-established North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission exonerated Greg Taylor for the 1993 murder of a prostitute. The current D.A. apologized to Taylor, who served seventeen years of a life term. 02/17/10 Forced by budget cuts to save on overtime costs, LAPD is shifting hundreds of officers from specialized units to patrol. 02/17/10 In view of an upsurge in officer-involved shootings, from nine in 2008 to sixteen in 2009, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca announced a new policy that directs deputies dealing with possibly armed suspects to “chase to contain” rather than to immediately apprehend. 02/17/10 The battle over the accuracy of crime reporting in New York City is heating up, with the Police Commissioner standing by the stat’s, two professors disagreeing, saying that Compstat distorts, and a citizen commission calling for an independent investigation. Related blog post 02/16/10 Timothy Masters, cleared by DNA after serving nine years in Colorado for a 1987 murder, settled for $4.1 million. Only fifteen at the time of the crime, he was arrested ten years later when a psychologist said that Masters’ youthful drawings demonstrated knowledge of the crime. 02/16/10 With local government coffers empty, police forces are retrenching, eliminating special units, getting rid of helicopters, laying off cops or not replacing them, and responding to fewer calls for service. Colorado Springs won’t be responding to property crimes unless there’s a suspect. 02/15/10 Aggressively marketed by a loose confederation of young Mexican drug pushers known as the “Xalisco boys,” black-tar heroin has been making a devastating inroad into the cities of middle America, leading to numerous overdoses and many deaths. Mexico drug war 02/15/10 Amy Bishop, the Alabama professor who shot her colleagues had a history of violence. As a teen she killed her brother in a suspicious shotgun accident, and while a graduate student was investigated in the mailing of pipe bombs to a professor with whom she apparently had a falling out. 02/13/10 Reviewing the shooting death of a suicidal man by a Portland police officer who mistakenly believed the victim posed a threat, a grand jury refused to indict the officer “for emotional reasons, when the legal reason indicated otherwise.” Grand jury letter 02/12/10 University of Alabama biology professor Amy Bishop was arrested for shooting five colleagues and a staff member at a department meeting. Three professors died and the others are in critical condition. The suspect, Amy Bishop, was apparently worried about being denied tenure. 02/11/10 Guillermo Peyro, aka Lalo, was a great informer who helped ICE make big drug busts and nail a crooked agent. Only problem is, he was also running drugs and participating in murders. Fired over the matter, a former Fed says his bosses knew about Lalo but looked the other way. 02/11/10 Hoping to become lawful residents some illegal immigrants become valuable informers for Federal agencies. But once their usefulness is over some agents don’t follow through with promises to help, or when they do, immigration judges, who have the final say, refuse to go along. 02/10/10 A newly amended California law (PC 4019) gives one-for-one credit for jailed non-violent offenders, and one-for-four for those in prison. As hundreds of inmates are released around the State, drawing protests from police and DA’s, one judge calls a halt, citing public safety concerns. 02/09/10 Thanks to the virtual end of a State-funded program that supplemented the pay of college-trained cops, Massachusetts officers are leaving their jobs at unprecedented rates, many to preserve their retirement. Meanwhile far fewer applicants are lining up to replace them. 02/09/10 Beset by citizen mistrust and a no-snitching mentality, Baltimore shifted its approach to community policing, disbanding its dedicated community policing team and trying to turn every officer into a community-minded cop. It’s a work in progress. 02/09/10 Pittsburgh’s most successful plainclothes anti-gun team has been suspended amidst claim that its three officers beat a youth during an arrest. Police took 1,121 guns from the streets in 2009, many by officers that prowl in unmarked cars watching for persons who may be armed. 02/08/10 Ailing from cancer and in Federal custody, a former “shot-caller” for an L.A. street gang whose main job was to extort drug dealers and send the money to the Mexican Mafia gave a chilling account of his activities, describing shootings, robberies and other crimes with clinical precision. 02/08/10 Michigan prosecutor accuses Governor, who has been releasing prison inmates “at a record rate” of making rushed, potentially unsafe decisions. While past early releasees were non-violent, current crop includes some convicted of murder. 02/08/10 Six gang members got life in Federal prison and many others received long terms as authorities continue dismantling the Florencia 13, a violent Los Angeles street gang connected with the Mexican Mafia. 02/07/10 Three apparently unrelated early-morning shootings in different areas of South Los Angeles left three men dead and a fourth clinging to life. At least two were gang-related. 02/07/10 A suspended NYPD officer accused the 81st. precinct and its commander (“The Shredder”) of destroying and refusing to take crime reports and of downgrading felonies to misdemeanors to look better. Reporter interviews with several crime victims backed him up. 02/07/10 According to retired NYPD officials pressures to show crime-fighting gains under Compstat led to chronic manipulation of the numbers, with commanders going so far as to visit crime scenes to get victims to downgrade index offenses. Related 2005 article 02/04/10 Freddie Peacock, 60, of Rochester, New York is the 250th. person to be exonerated by DNA evidence. Paroled in 1982 after serving six years for rape, he fought for 28 years to be cleared, the longest such effort by a freed man on record. 02/04/10 Seven churches in the Tyler, Texas area have been struck by arson this year, and three additional fires are deemed suspicious. Deemed hate crimes, the arsons, which happened within a span of three weeks, are under local and Federal investigation. 02/04/10 In an address to lawyers, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy called the influence of California prison guards in getting three-strikes passed “sick.” Bemoaning the vast sums spent on corrections, he also criticized America’s lengthy prison terms, which far exceed those in Europe. 02/02/10 In a column entitled “Jim Crow Policing,” NY Times’ Bob Herbert condemns NYPD for a stop-and-frisk campaign that he calls a “despicable, racially oriented tool of harassment.” A Federal lawsuit against the practice has been filed by an advocacy group. Floyd v. City of NY 02/02/10 Calling a trial court’s rejection of a 65-year term under sentencing guidelines “procedural error,” the 9th. Circuit struck down the 22-year term given to Ahmed Ressam, the man caught bringing in explosives in 2000 to use them in a “millenium plot” to bomb the L.A. Airport. 02/01/10 Financial woes are driving Mississippi’s criminal justice system to crisis. When legislators resisted cutting social programs Gov. Barbour threatened to release 4,000 inmates. After backlash from victims he said he would use Federal stimulus funds to bridge the gap in corrections funding. 02/01/10 According to the FBI, Umar Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who tried to blow up a jetliner, wasn’t given his Miranda rights until he had already stopped cooperating. But the question remains: with so much evidence against him available, why read him his rights at all? 01/29/10 Taking the stand, Scott Roeder testified that killed Missouri abortion doctor George Tiller to save the lives of unborn children. The judge refused a defense request to allow the jury to consider any verdict short of first-degree murder. Jurors returned a guilty verdict in 37 minutes. 01/28/10 Worried about the costs of shutting down and securing a good chunk of Manhattan for months, even years, and its impact on NYPD, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg withdrew his welcome to the forthcoming 9/11 trial, suggesting that it take place at a military base instead. 01/28/10 San Francisco PD doesn’t use Tasers. Newly-appointed Chief George Gascon wanted to know why. His just-released study indicates that five of fifteen shootings since 2005, involving subjects armed at most with knives, could have been avoided had officers carried stun guns. 01/28/10 Local and Federal officials arrested fifty members of East Side Riva, a Riverside, California gang known for dealing meth, its connections with the Mexican Mafia and violence against African Americans. Nineteen face Federal life terms due to the quantity of drugs involved. 01/27/10 Despite a budgetary crisis that is expected to cause 1,000 layoffs, activist pressure has led the Los Angeles City Council to authorize hiring eleven additional DNA analysts this fiscal year. Despite a $400 million deficit fifteen more DNA positions are on tap to be filled the following year. 01/26/10 Extending Melendez-Diaz, where it ruled that the Confrontation Clause requires that analysts (not certificates) present forensic evidence at trial, the Supreme Court held that analysts who identify drugs must also be made available for cross-examination. Briscoe v. Virginia 01/26/10 To slash its prison population by 6,500 in one year California will give prisoners more options for reducing their terms, stop revoking parole for minor infractions and eliminate supervision of nonviolent offenders. Parole agent caseloads are expected to fall from 70 to 48. 01/25/10 What happens when crime scene DNA is a close but not perfect match to a DNA profile in a State databank? Against the advice of civil libertarians, the New York State lab joins others, including California’s, that report “near hits” to police so they can investigate family members. 01/25/10 Nearly half the population of Glendale, California, a prosperous Los Angeles suburb, is of Armenian descent. Now four Armenian officers and a former officer are suing the city for years of alleged harassment and discrimination in promotion and assignment because of their heritage. 01/22/10 Determined to replace police officers who leave the force, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released a plan to trim the city’s civilian workforce by 1,000 positions. With revenues the worst since the Great Depression, others say that cuts would have to be twice as large. 01/21/10 Vowing to establish community and at-home treatment programs that will give judges viable options to incarcerating troubled teens, reducing delinquency and saving money, New York City shut down its juvenile justice agency and placed its functions under child welfare. 01/21/10 Twenty-two arms company executives, including S&W’s sales VP, were arrested by the FBI for paying bribes to agents posing as African officials so they could get contracts to outfit a pretend Presidential guard. A former arms industry executive was apparently used as an informant. 01/20/10 Virginia police are hunting a man who shot and killed eight persons, including his wife and son, then fired on a responding officer and at a police helicopter, puncturing its fuel tank and forcing it down. The suspect, Christopher Speight, 39, is reportedly hiding in a thickly wooded area. 01/19/10 As the FBI continues reviewing 2,500 cases where analysts used a now-discredited bullet lead comparison technique, judges continue releasing persons convicted on their evidence. Three recent beneficiaries were in prison for murder; one had already served ten years, another, twelve. 01/19/10 Wealthy cheats everywhere are feeling the heat as another former Swiss banker blows the whistle on how they hid loot to evade taxes in their home countries. Rudolf Elmer, formerly of Julius Baer bank, will soon be helping Germany get its fair share. American officials are watching. 01/18/10 To catch up with its DNA backlog LAPD’s lab needs 36 new analysts. But the city’s fiscal crisis has made hiring them impossible. “I’m a realist,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, accepting a compromise that would allow him to resume using private labs for two months. 01/18/10 Seventy-one percent of reforms agreed to by Detroit PD in 2003 are still not in place, a Federal monitor said. While there have been improvements, uses of force are not being consistently reported and a problem officer tracking system is yet to be implemented. 01/16/10 Debuting today, L.A. Gang Tours will take looky-loos on a guided motorcoach tour of gang-infested South Los Angeles. Its owner, former Florencia gang member Alfred Lomas, says that local gangs have agreed not to harass the coach. The fare is $65, including lunch. 01/14/10 While training as an Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood shooter, failed to meet standards for “physical fitness, appearance and work ethic.” He also had a tendency to proselytize. Yet he was graduated and promoted. His then-overseers now face discipline for failing to act. 01/14/10 Twenty-three years after confessing to murder, Michael Tillman walked out a free man. Federal authorities determined he was one of many tortured by detectives in Chicago Area 2 during the 1970’s and 80’s. Their former commander, Jon Burge, faces charges for lying about it. 01/13/10 After four hung juries the Feds dismissed their racketeering case against John Gotti Jr., son of the legendary “Teflon Don.” Some jurors believed his testimony that he had given up being a Mafioso; that and skepticism of the criminals who testified against him doomed the case. 01/13/10 Approving in principle a California plan to lower the State’s prison population by 40,000 in two years, a Federal three-judge panel stayed its order to implement remedies until the Supreme Court rules on the State’s objection to the Ninth Circuit’s intercession in penal affairs. 01/13/10 Using Federal stimulus funds, Chicago is embarking on a two-year, $60 million program to employ citizens to calm troubled schools and encourage attendance by patrolling surrounding areas, intervening to prevent violence, visiting truants and mentoring students most at risk. 01/12/10 Analyzing ten terror plots against the U.S. in 2009, the New York Times called them either “amateurish” or the handiwork of FBI informants. All but possibly one had no connection with Bin Laden, suggesting that the original Al Qaeda is in decline. 01/12/10 In 1982 seven Chicago residents died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. James Lewis served 12 years for trying to extort $1 million “to stop the killing.” Now he’s written a novel about poisoning. He also had to give up his DNA, as a Grand Jury is looking into the killings anew. 01/12/10 With its Governor vowing to sign a just-passed bill New Jersey will soon be the 14th. State to authorize marijuana’s medical use. Opposed by police, the law limits prescriptions to certain serious and terminal illnesses, controls distribution and forbids cultivation for personal use. 01/11/10 In a call for extensive reforms, the U.S. Justice Department severely criticizes Inglewood PD’s use of force policies, calling its rules outdated and internal investigations deeply flawed. 01/10/10 One inner-city housing project. Six weeks. Five murders. Zero arrests. While L.A. basks in falling crime rates the reality in the micro-environment of Nickerson Gardens is something altogether different, with residents so intimidated by gangsters that they refuse to help the police. 01/09/10 Long-time Maricopa County (Phoenix, Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, notorious for roughly treating inmates and conducting unsanctioned immigration sweeps, is being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury for abusing his power by investigating local officials with whom he disagrees. 01/08/10 Johannes Mehserle, the ex-San Francisco BART officer who shot an unarmed man to death one year ago appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court, where his murder trial was moved because of fears of bias. Mehserle contends he accidentally drew his gun instead of a Taser. 01/08/10 Baltimore is addressing pleas for more civil neighborhoods by hiring 50 officers with a $10 million Federal grant. Instead of sending them in to hot spots to fight crime directly they’ll be deployed on walking beats to discourage minor offending and improve the quality of everyday life. 01/07/10 A White House review blamed the failure to identify Abdulmutallab as a threat was caused in part by problems with the watchlist system and “a failure to...identify, correlate and fuse into a coherent story all of the pieces of intelligence” already available. President’s Order 01/07/10 Storming in with an assault rifle, a disgruntled employee killed three colleagues and wounded five others before killing himself. Timothy Hendron, the alleged gunman, was one of the plaintiffs in a Federal lawsuit against the St. Louis firm where he worked. 01/07/10 Would-be bomber Umar Abdulmutallab’s radical inclinations, as related by his father to the State Dept., were discovered by American officials during an in-depth review of the passenger manifest while the plane was enroute. He would have probably been questioned on arrival. 01/06/10 In a first-ever for the U.S.A., Nye County, one of the few places in Nevada where prostitution (but only by females) is legal, authorized the “Shady Lady Ranch” to offer the services of male sex workers as well. Nevada’s health department gave the go-ahead in December. 01/05/10 A $12 million settlement ends a lawsuit by two Iowa men who charged prosecutors with suborning perjury to wrongfully convict them of a 1977 murder. It’s also led to the dismissal of an accompanying Supreme Court case that would have decided the limits of prosecutorial immunity. 01/05/10 Facing “intractable institutional and structural obstacles” to reform, the American Law Institute, the nation’s preeminent legal advisory body, abandoned a decades-long effort to foster “minimally adequate” methods for administering the death penalty. 01/04/10 Nearly one in five of the more than 5,000 NYPD officers hired since July 2006 is foreign-born. The largest number is from the Dominican Republic, followed by Haiti, Jamaica and China. 01/04/10 Milwaukee ATF inspectors moved to revoke the license of a firearms dealer whose guns had killed several police officers. Instead the agency allowed the seller to reconstitute his business under a different name. “It is a perfect industry to do whatever you wish,” said a retired ATF agent. 01/04/10 Year-end crime counts show substantial drops in homicide for many violence-prone cities, including Washington DC, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Oakland. In Baltimore homicides increased by four, including several who succumbed to old wounds. Shooting victims actually fell by 130. 01/03/10 His appeal denied by the Supreme Court, Kevin Cooper, convicted for the 1983 murders of a California family, will soon be executed in a case riddled with so many evidentiary issues that it led a Federal judge to say that “the State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” 12/31/09 Concluding that the case relied on the defendants’ compelled statements to the State Department, a Federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five former Blackwater guards who killed 17 Iraqis and wounded 20 in an allegedly unprovoked 2007 incident. 12/30/09 A lopsided June 2009 House vote to severely limit the use of full-body scanners because of privacy concerns is complicating a new push to expand their deployment. Security officials say such a machine would have detected a recent would-be bomber and kept him off the aircraft. 12/29/09 Lancaster, a working-class community of 150,000 in the high desert 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles is requiring all businesses to use the Federal E-Verify program to confirm that new hires are legally in the U.S. Employers who don’t risk losing their business licenses. 12/28/09 Following his father’s phone call, US officials placed would-be aircraft bomber Umar Abdulmutallab on a database of terrorism suspects but not on the no-fly list, which has been cut due to complaints. His visa was flagged for a thorough investigation should he reapply when it expired. 12/27/09 Under terms of the Rampart consent decree LAPD gang and narcotics officers must make detailed financial disclosures. Imposed over objections of the officers’ union, the requirement has discouraged applicants to gang units, where service is limited to five years, leading to shortages. 12/26/09 A Nigerian youth tried to set off explosives taped to his body on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. His father had alerted the US Embassy of Umar Abdulmutallab’s radical views, but the man’s two-year US visitor visa, issued in London where he had studied, was still valid. 12/25/09 New fingerprinting requirements for California registered nurses licensed before 1990, when screening became mandatory, identified “dozens” with criminal records, mostly misdemeanors, but including a handful of serious felonies, ranging from sex crimes to murder. 12/25/09 A budgetary squeeze forced low-crime Colorado Springs to give up its police helicopters. To avoid laying off cops, high-crime Oakland has grounded its fleet. Facing operating costs of $500 an hour other cities are following track. One consequence: more criminals will get away. 12/23/09 To keep judges from being beholden to campaign contributors, retired Supreme Court justice Sandra O’Connor is spearheading a national effort to make judicial offices appointive rather than elective. But getting voters and special interests to change State laws poses a major challenge. 12/23/09 An L.A. Federal Grand Jury heard testimony this week that Cardinal Roger Mahony ordered reports of sexual abuse by former priest Michael Baker be withheld from police until two years after Baker was defrocked. Baker was convicted in 2007 and is now doing ten years. 12/22/09 An audit revealed that the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. grossly overspent its 2007-2008 overtime budget. More than 300 deputies worked six months’ overtime in one year, bringing into question their ability to do their jobs. Serious problems were also found in administering sick and bonus pay. 12/22/09 An investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that the 1,000 “non-violent, low level” prison inmates being released early to save $5 million include 40 burglars, 28 financial criminals, an attempted robber and 18 persons convicted of felony DUI. 12/22/09 Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas have been on a self-professed campaign to clean up county government. But Yavapai County D.A. Sheila Polk, whose help they had enlisted, is now charging them with “totalitarianism.” 12/21/09 According to the FBI all categories of crime fell during the first six months of 2009 as compared to 2008. Violent crime fell 4.5 percent and property crime fell 6.1 percent. Murder was down 10 percent, robbery was down 6.5 percent and aggravated assault was down 3.2 percent. 12/20/09 A Texas law intended to keep mentally ill juveniles from being warehoused is leading to the release of violent offenders, including teens who killed, within two years of their commitment, and with little or no followup. One out of five promptly recidivate. 12/18/09 He committed suicide more than a year ago but the legacy of a New York state crime lab worker who falsified reports for fifteen years to cover up his incompetence lives on. Not only are hundreds of his cases in doubt, but questions have arisen about the rest of the lab. Report 12/17/09 Police departments are recovering an increasing number of guns, including more assault weapons and large-caliber handguns, both of which have become significant threats to police. Chicago police recovered 7785 guns so far this year, nearly 900 more than in 2008. PERF report 12/16/09 Three small-town Pennsylvania police officers, including the chief, were Federally indicted for obstructing an investigation into the beating death of a Mexican youth by high school students. The chief and a subordinate are also accused of taking payoffs in an earlier case. 12/15/09 Calling the case a “mockery of justice,” a Federal judge tossed the stock backdating convictions of Broadcom’s co-founders and its CFO, ruling that their acts were at most accounting errors. The Government already admitted that one of its prosecutors intimidated a witness. 12/15/09 In Dallas, getting beat with a pipe is still a crime. But since 2007 police haven’t considered it an aggravated assault, meaning it’s not factored into yearly violent crime statistics. A newspaper investigation reveals that fifty percent of what the FBI requires be reported, isn’t. 12/15/09 Nearly forty years ago Philadelphia took over the bail system from private firms, which were considered corrupt. While the city now collects the ten percent, it lets those who repeatedly skip out post bail, allowing dangerous persons to avoid going to trial for years, if ever. 12/15/09 Federal authorities are buying Illinois’ near-empty Thomson Correctional Center. Located in a rural area 150 miles from Chicago, the prison will house Federal convicts and up to 100 Guantanamo detainees. 12/14/09 Preliminary 2009 data reveals that while on-duty deaths of law enforcement officers from all causes declined slightly from last year (127 to 122 as of today) those caused by gunfire increased nearly a quarter, from 38 to 48, a change attributable in part to several multiple killings. 12/12/09 In an escalating series of protests over fee hikes, police arrested eight persons for pelting the on-campus residence of a UC Berkeley Chancellor and responding police vehicles with rocks and torches. Dozens of demonstrators fled. Those taken into custody face felony charges.
12/11/09 Billed as the largest operation of its kind, a three-day sweep by Southern California ICE agents targeting illegal aliens with criminal records, persons who had been previously deported and snuck back in, and persons ignoring deportation orders yielded about 300 arrests. 12/10/09 After a day-long wait, police arrested thirteen students who chained themselves inside a San Francisco State building and thirteen more marching outside. Students were protesting thirty-percent tuition hikes. Coming near finals week, the blockade kept many students from class. 12/09/09 Pakistani authorities arrested five young American Muslims, including a dental student, on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The five, who have been missing from the D.C.-Virginia area for more than a month, had left behind a video praising Jihad. 12/09/09 An investigation is underway into the inadvertent release of TSA profiling indicators for airline passengers. The mistaken online posting of highly confidential screening procedures has led to an internal investigation and a rash of suspensions. 12/09/09 To conserve resources the Harris County (Houston) D.A.’s office will stop filing felony charges for possessing less than 1/100 gram of any drug. Those caught with crack pipes will get misdemeanor citations. Currently 30 percent of all felony filings involve amounts that small. 12/07/09 Former NY State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno was convicted in Federal Court on two counts of honest services fraud for taking payoffs from private firms to whom he steered State contracts and investments. Bruno was acquitted on two counts and a fifth was mistried. 12/07/09 David Headley, a Chicago resident accused in October of plotting with another man to attack a Danish newspaper for disrespecting Islam has been charged with conducting surveillance for the November 2008 assault that killed 170 in Mumbai. He is reportedly cooperating with the FBI. 12/07/09 Oregon is looking to sentencing to save money. A new law shaves ten percent off prison terms but was written so loosely that it’s benefitted dangerous inmates. A fix is planned. Implementation of another statute that stiffens sentences for repeat offenders has been delayed. 12/07/09 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reports increasing radicalization of U.S. Muslims, with a number of plots uncovered this year targeting both America and foreign countries. Meanwhile plans to combat the threat through education and outreach lag. 12/06/09 Right wing talk-radio radio host Hal Turner is pending trial for posting Internet threats against Federal judges. A previous FBI informer against white supremacists, he’s claiming that the threats were just for show. But the FBI says they released him in 2007 for being uncontrollabe. 12/05/09 Supplementing their earlier report on the Virginia Tech massacre, officials conceded that delays and errors in notification, including a premature release of students from their dorm to go to class, placed several in harm’s way and caused two to be shot dead. Addendum to report 12/04/09 A man who infiltrated the L.A. Islamic community on behalf of the FBI, leading to the arrest of a relative of Osama bin Laden, is suing the agency for allegedly reneging on promises. His cooperation already led the Feds to have his probation on theft charges terminated early. 12/03/09 Three Secret Service employees were placed on paid leave and face severe discipline for failing to exclude a couple from crashing a White House function. Neither the man nor his wife, both would-be reality-show contestants, appeared on the guest list but insist they were invited. 12/01/09 When he was Governor of Arkansas, FOX News personality Mike Huckabee’s frequent grants of clemency raised prosecutors’ ire. One of those, in 2000, was to Maurice Clemmons, a violent felon who would not have been eligible for parole until 2021. 12/01/09 Hitting hot-spots with a mobile tactical team, going after guns and increased patrol are the strategies being used by Detroit’s new police chief to tamp down violence. Things have improved, but experts warn that demographics and “entrenched poverty” limit what police can accomplish. 12/01/09 Maurice Clemmons, suspected killer of the four Lakewood officers, was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer during a confrontation next to a stolen vehicle. Clemmons, who was suffering from a stomach wound, possessed one of the Lakewood officers’ handguns.
11/29/09 18 USC 1346 is the “honest services” provision of 18 USC 1341, the Federal mail fraud statute. Used to prosecute corrupt public officials and corporate chiefs, it’s under attack on several fronts. Whether it’s too vague will soon be taken up by the Supreme Court in Skilling v. U.S. 11/28/09 New York City’s walk-in centers provide support to victims of domestic violence and encourage them to testify. But dependency and fear of retribution often forces prosecutors to rely on evidence such as photographs, 911 tapes and testimony by emergency responders. 11/27/09 Aircraft designer Dick Rutan is developing a manned plane to provide high-altitude video surveillance for the high-desert Los Angeles suburb of Lancaster. Intended to fly sixteen hours a day, the craft would record footage of areas selected by the Sheriff’s Department. 11/25/09 Until now Stun guns were illegal in New Jersey, even for police. New rules allow large-city agencies to have a maximum of four, to be used only for subduing persons who are armed and mentally disturbed. Small departments can only have one. 11/25/09 To stem the flow of guns and cash, Mexico is tightening entry checks at U.S. border crossings, scanning license plates, weighing vehicles and diverting those that arouse suspicion to secondary inspection. Naturally, the resulting delays are causing havoc for frequent crossers. 11/24/09 Within a week of taking over, LAPD chief Charlie Beck reorganized the top ranks, bumping an Assistant Chief down two levels to Commander and stripping the agency’s long-time number-two of a star, placing him in a slot where he’ll be reporting to a former subordinate. 11/24/09 At a hearing before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance (N. Dist. Ala.) complained that now that Federal sentencing guidelines are advisory inconsistency has increased, with some judges imposing excessively lenient sentences for white-collar crimes. 11/24/09 Since 2007 dozens of young Minnesota Somalis, most of whom immigrated to the U.S. as children, have been lured back to fight in a Jihad intended to install an Islamic state. So far the Feds have charged fourteen in the case, including two recruiters listed as fugitives. 11/23/09 San Francisco physicians are prescribing marijuana to treat youths as young as 14 diagnosed with ADHD. One says he has treated fifty under 18. A terrible idea, says UC Berkeley’s psychology chair, who argues that marijuana impairs cognition, the factor affected by ADHD. 11/23/09 The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) announced a $10,000 educational scholarship for sworn law enforcement officers enrolled in a criminal justice degree program. Filing deadline is April 9, 2010. Application form 11/23/09 Personnel shortages and a proliferation of specialized drug and gang units have left Atlanta patrol so short-staffed that officers arrive within five minutes at only nine percent of high-priority calls. An hour delay for a call of a man chasing and exposing himself to children was routine. 11/23/09 Rules requiring that Federal law enforcement stimulus funds be distributed to every State left Houston, which asked for 260 cops and scored a high 90.4 on a need basis empty-handed. Meanwhile, low-scoring cities such as Boise (need basis 50.4) got everything they asked for. 11/20/09 A coalition of gun-control groups has petitioned ATF and Justice Department to ban the importation of the gun and ammunition used in the Ft. Hood massacre, the FN Herstal Five-seveN pistol and 5.7X28 mm cartridge, calling them far too lethal to be suitable for sporting purposes. 11/20/09 Calling the shooter’s contacts with a radical Muslim cleric “disturbing,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a major, multi-faceted probe into the Ft. Hood massacre. A parallel inquiry by the Army will examine whether warning signs went unheeded. 11/19/09 Thanks to the recession, NYPD is being swamped with educated, high quality applicants. More than half the recruits now in the academy have four-year degrees. Only problem is, the department’s shrinking, so hiring is coming to a standstill. 11/19/09 Texas quit building prisons two years ago and its inmate prison is holding steady. Why? More in-house treatment, earlier parole and fewer violations thanks to more outpatient substance abuse treatment and short-term residential programs. Now Florida is seeking to copy the model. 11/19/09 One day after police arrested fourteen students at a meeting of the UC Board of Regents, several dozen others barricaded themselves inside a building on the UCLA campus. Their cause: to protest a $2,500 (32 percent) cost hike, raising annual fees to $10,302. 11/18/09 To help ex-cons land jobs, a Massachusetts bill would reduce the waiting period for sealing misdemeanor records from ten years to five, and for felony records from fifteen to ten. Questions about criminal history on initial application forms would also be prohibited. 11/17/09 Siding with the Los Angeles City Attorney, who condemned the City Council’s move to legalize cash pot sales by marijuana clinics (State law only permits distribution through nonprofit cooperatives), the L.A. County D.A. vowed to prosecute every clinic in the city. 11/16/09 How much is getting the “scoop” on the surrogate mother for a celebrity couple worth? Apparently a lot to two small-town Ohio police chiefs, who now face separate trials for allegedly burglarizing her home with a view to selling what they found to the tabloids. 11/16/09 Rejecting the Ninth Circuit’s “fanciful” view that hearing about Fernando Belmontes’ bad childhood might have swayed jurors, the Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence, for the third time. Two prior reversals had to do with the condemned man’s conversion to Christianity. 11/15/09 Federal officials are considering Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s offer to sell a maximum-security prison 150 miles from Chicago. Now nearly empty, the facility could house up to one-hundred Gitmo detainees and provide as many as 2,000 badly needed jobs for local residents. 11/14/09 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-admitted mastermind of the WTC bombing, and four associates will be tried in Manhattan Federal court. All are at Guantanamo. Five others, including the alleged planner of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, will face military commissions. 11/13/09 Former Louisiana Representative William Jefferson, convicted of using his position in the House Ways & Means Committee to benefit firms that paid him bribes got 13 years in prison. When Jefferson was arrested the $90,000 he received in an FBI sting operation was found in his freezer. 11/13/09 Two computer programmers formerly employed by Madoff were arrested by the FBI and accused of knowingly creating and supporting a process that simulated legitimate trading activity in his investment accounts, thus concealing the fraud and enabling it to persist. 11/12/09 LAPD’s Inspector General criticized internal affairs investigations into alleged instances of racial, gender and sexual orientation profiling, calling many that led to an exoneration shoddy and incomplete. But police officials say that determining an officer’s motive is often impossible. 11/12/09 To the dismay of often innocent citizens who are losing or paying fees to ransom vehicles and other valuables, Michigan police are enthusiastically confiscating property allegedly connected with a crime. For agencies facing severe budget cuts the proceeds from fines and sales is a lifeline. 11/11/09 Miami PD chief John Timoney, credited for reducing the number of officer-involved shootings and improving the professionalism of the troubled agency is being replaced by newly-elected Mayor Tomas Regalado, who has criticized Timoney’s poor relations with the police union. 11/11/09 An FBI-led intelligence task force that included a Defense Dept. investigator decided that Maj. Nidal Hasan’s e-mail exchange with a radical Muslim cleric need not be shared with the Army, thus depriving both of a fuller picture of the Ft. Hood killer’s state of mind before the shootings. 11/11/09 A before-after survey of thirty-two intersections where red lights cameras were installed revealed that accidents increased in twenty and decreased in nine. Much of the increase is in rear-end collisions apparently caused by motorists slamming on the brakes as lights change. 11/10/09 A Federal jury acquitted two Bear Sterns hedge-fund managers of purposely misleading investors about the safety of their funds and of insider training. First in an expected series of cases linked to the meltdown, the verdict highlights the difficulty of proving complex financial frauds. 11/10/09 Project HOPE, a celebrated Hawaii program that disciplines errant probationers with brief jail terms has been rocked by the arrest of clients for several murders. Some say the problem lies with a system too overwhelmed to allow the prompt arrests needed to make the program work. 11/10/09 Bucking a national trend, Killeen (Tex.), a city of 100,000 and the home of Fort Hood is experiencing an increase in crime and violence. Reasons given include the absence of spouses, leaving children less supervised, and the domestic stress of prolonged separations. 11/07/09 Should juveniles get life without parole for crimes if no one was killed? Florida, which has applied this sentence to incorrigible youths who commit grievous crimes, and far more often than any other State, says yes. Now the Supreme Court will decide. Report Case analysis 11/07/09 Federal authorities arrested more than a dozen employees of Wall Street hedge funds and law firms for passing and using insider information about forthcoming deals to time purchases and sales and make millions in unauthorized profits. Much of the evidence was collected with wiretaps. 11/06/09 “Blueprints,” a University of Colorado initiative, reviews the effectiveness of violence-prevention programs. Of more than eight-hundred studied only eleven meet the grade. Those criticized as ineffective include shock probation, which reportedly makes things worse. 11/05/09 An Army Major and psychiatrist opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire with two handguns, killing thirteen and wounding twenty-eight at a Ft. Hood (TX) soldier processing facility before being wounded in a gun battle with a police officer, who was also wounded. 11/05/09 Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik pled guilty to eight felonies, including lying on a loan application, making false statements to the Feds while being vetted for chief of Homeland Security, and tax fraud. He faces about two years in Federal prison. Blog entry 11/05/09 Would prosecutors “flinch” from their duties if they lost absolute immunity from civil suits? Some claim that would happen if the Supreme Court rules that misconduct during the investigative phase, such as coaching witnesses to lie, can open prosecutors to lawsuits by defendants. Case Note: lawsuit settled, Supreme Court case dismissed (see 1/5/10 entry.) 11/05/09 Thanks to Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Kimbrough) that made Federal sentencing guidelines advisory rather than mandatory, Federal judges have been issuing “wildly disparate” sentences in similar cases, particularly in white-collar crimes. Kimbrough v. U.S. analysis 11/05/09 Distinguishing his style from former chief Bratton’s, who supposedly preferred to work with management, LAPD’s new police chief Charlie Beck promised that his “wheelhouse” would be the rank and file, as “the only way an organization really changes is from the roots up.” 11/04/09 Cleveland police have so far found ten decomposed bodies plus a skull in the residence of registered sex offender Anthony Sowell, whose depredations went unnoticed by authorities for years. Five counts of murder have been added to the rape charge that led to the discoveries. 11/04/09 In 2008 nearly one-quarter of Colorado’s 548 traffic deaths involved unlicensed drivers. Why? Almost 200,000 drive illegally, including three out of every four whose license was suspended or revoked. 11/04/09 Indianapolis credits drop in murder, twenty less than at this time last year, to “greater cooperation” between police and neighborhoods. “Hard work by homicide detectives,” arrests of suspects in multiple murders and a crackdown on open-air drug markets are also mentioned. 11/03/09 Praising police and prosecutors for increased arrests and convictions, the New Orleans Crime Commission still criticizes police for spending too much time enforcing petty offenses such as “spitting on the sidewalk” and trespassing, thus distracting officers from tackling serious crime. 11/02/09 Charging that “freeway therapy” was being used to retaliate against union leaders, the L.A. County Association of Deputy D.A.’s sued D.A. Steve Cooley for unwarranted reassignments that placed well-regarded veteran prosecutors at undesirable posts far from their homes. 11/02/09 Forty-four pounds of marijuana may seem like a lot but it’s far short of the 500-pound minimum that overburdened Federal attorneys require to charge border drug runners. That’s led to a special program where this suspect and select others are being returned to Mexico for prosecution. 11/01/09 Senators, media representatives and Administration officials have agreed on the outlines of a shield law that would offer partial protection to journalists and bloggers from being forced to disclose their sources in Federal civil and criminal cases, most terrorism matters excepted. 10/30/09 Citing evidence that crack is far more addictive and dangerous, The Washington Post has come out in opposition to pending legislation, supported by the US Justice Department, that would equalize penalties for cocaine regardless of form. 2007 Sentencing Commission Report 10/30/09 Records of 6,500 juveniles will be expunged after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that their proceedings were tainted by the conduct of judge Mark Ciavarella. He and judge Michael Conahan await trial for taking $2.6 million in bribes from an owner of juvenile detention centers. 10/29/09 In response to an FOIA lawsuit, the FBI released guidelines allowing agents to “proactively” investigate potential security threats without specific information. Ethnicity and religion can be a factor. Agents are prohibited from leading groups “into criminal activity that otherwise probably would not have occurred.” FBI manual 10/28/09 A self-anointed Islamic preacher was shot and killed and a dozen associates were arrested by FBI agents investigating a years-long interstate stolen goods and gun trafficking conspiracy. Luqman Abdullah, 53 agitated for an Islamic republic within the U.S. that would follow Shariah law. 10/28/09 According to the Federal trustee, actual cash losses to victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme stand at $21.2 billion. Paper losses (what was supposedly in their accounts) are $65 billion. 10/28/09 Deputy US Marshal John Ambrose was sentenced to four years in Federal prison for tipping off convicted felon William Guide, an ex-Chicago cop with mob connections, that organized crime hit man Nicholas Calabrese was in the Federal witness protection program. 10/28/09 FBI agents arrested two middle-aged Chicago men with Pakistani ties for allegedly conspiring to kill a Danish cartoonist and his editor in connection with the 2005 publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper that allegedly defamed a Muslim prophet. 10/27/09 Embroiled in an election fight, Detroit’s mayor boasts that homicides during July-September dropped from 111 last year to 96, while clearance rates jumped from 27 to 60 percent. He attributes the gains to a new chief, invigorated policing, special squads and targeting hot spots. 10/27/09 In the past two years twenty Dallas officers ticketed 38 drivers for not speaking English, a non-existent offense. Five persons actually paid the $204 fines. Officers say they were confused by a computer menu entry relating to commercial vehicle operators that is only enforced by the Feds. 10/27/09 Three DEA special agents were among ten Americans killed in the crash of a helicopter returning from a counter-narcotics mission in Afghanistan. DEA has eighty agents in country battling illicit opium production that helps fund the Taliban. 10/26/09 A man woke up when an intruder kicked in the door of his apartment. When the suspect saw the resident he ran off. Like other incidents at homes and businesses where nothing is taken Dallas police classified it as vandalism, thus reducing its burglary count. FBI guidelines disagree. 10/24/09 Arizona is taking bids from private firms to take over nine of the State’s ten prisons, with cost savings to be split with the State. But whether private entities, which usually supervise low and medium-security prisoners, can (or want to) handle the most dangerous inmates is much in question. 10/22/09 Thanks to an invesigation by criminal justice students two Texas men, Claude Simmons and Christopher Scott were exonerated of a drug murder after serving 12 years due to faulty witness ID. It’s now believed that two other men were responsible; one has confessed. DNA was not used. 10/22/09 FBI agents and LAPD officers arresed dozens of members of the “Rolling 40’s” street gang in south Los Angeles on drug and gun charges. 10/22/09 In coordinated raids targeting Mexico’s “La Familia Michoacana” cartel, FBI, DEA and ATF agents swept up hundreds on charges including sales of drugs, guns, extortion and money laundering. Nearly 1,200 arrests have been made in the 3 1/2 year-long operation. 10/21/09 The FBI arrested Tarek Mehanna, 27 for conspiring with two others in a stillborn plot to attack U.S. shopping malls and American troops in Iraq. Mehanna had been arrested in 2006 for lying about the whereabouts of a suspect in an unrelated terrorism case. 10/21/09 Jury selection is set to begin in the Federal corruption and tax fraud trial of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik. A one-time Bush nominee to head Homeland Security, Kerik withdrew when it was revealed that he employed an illegal alien as a nanny. Related posting 10/19/19 Los Angeles’ attempt to limit the profusion of medical marijuana clinics by enacting a moratorium on new dispensaries was rejected by a judge, who ruled that the original 45-day ban had run its course under State law and couldn’t be extended. 10/19/09 To prevent cases with unknown suspects from becoming unprosecutable because the statute of limitations runs out, authorities are charging “John Does” when evidence yields identifiable DNA profiles. This technique has proven especially useful in rapes. 10/19/09 Forty-one law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 2008, seventeen less than in 2007 and a ten-year low. Thirty-five were killed with firearms, including 25 handguns, six rifles and four shotguns. 10/19/09 New DOJ guidelines strongly discourage local prosecutors from going after medical marijuana clinics that fully comply with State laws. Those that don’t remain targets, particularly if they are involved in other criminal activities or sell to minors. 10/18/09 Explaining why he and his deputies had been fooled, Larimer Co. (Colo.) Sheriff Jim Alderden, who is now seeking to prosecute the balloon boy family for perpetrating a hoax, said that dramatic instruction the Heenes got from a Hollywood company helped them put on a “good show.” 10/16/09 ICE will continue allowing selected police agencies to enforce immigration laws. The program, known as “287-g”, lets trained officers detain suspected illegal immigrants. Under new guidelines their authority will only extend to those suspected of serious crimes. 10/16/09 During the last six months, a Federal/local sweep of gangs involved in smuggling persons, drugs, guns and ID theft netted 1,785 arrests nationwide. The nearly 300 arrested in Los Angeles include members of the MS-13, Avenues, 18th. Street and Barrio Evil 13 gangs. 10/15/09 Texas Governor Rick Perry, who was in office in 2004 when Cameron Willingham was executed, calls the man now widely thought to be innocent a “monster” deserving of death. He’s also replaced members of a State commission investigating the case with his own appointees. 10/14/09 Victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme sued the Securities and Exchange Commission for admittedly failing to perform its duty to guard against fraud. Whether the failure was sufficiently severe to overcome the doctrine of sovereign immunity will be tested in court. 10/13/09 Las Vegas PD is revamping driving policies and implementing new training after police car wrecks killed two officers and seriously injured a third. Across the U.S. speeding and multi-tasking are being blamed for a wave of accidents that are killing officers and innocent citizens alike. 10/13/09 FBI agents corralled a fugitive believed to be in North Carolina after his old California driver license picture was run through the North Carolina driver license photo database using facial-recognition software. An analyst made the final match from a set of most likely candidates. 10/12/09 With no reliable system to verify their departure, Homeland Security estimates that “several hundred thousand” of the 2.9 million foreign visitors in 2008 overstayed their visas. One who did so in 2007, Hosam Smadi, was recently arrested for plotting to blow up a Dallas building. 10/8/09 By a vote of 281 to 146 the House sent forward legislation to include gender and sexual orientation in the definition of a Federal hate crime, allowing the Feds to investigate and prosecute in cases where States and localities fail to act. 10/8/09 Nearly all of the estimated 800 pot clinics in Los Angeles sell over-the-counter. But according to a California Supreme Court decision that’s illegal, or so say the District Attorney and City Attorney, who vow to prosecute each and every dispensary not run as a nonprofit collective. 10/7/09 Despite a series of phone calls from the arresting deputy’s home to gossip website TMZ, including two on the day of the incident, prosecutors declined to charge the officer for leaking extracts from Mel Gibson’s arrest report to TMZ, as the caller’s identity could not be established. 10/7/09 Dozens of suspects in the U.S. and Egypt have been indicted for running an Internet e-mail phishing scheme that fooled computer users into giving up their bank passwords under pretext that records needed to be updated. As one might expect, the victims’ accounts were then raided. 10/7/09 Dog scent lineups have led to convictions but are under attack as junk science. Among the critics is the Innocence Project of Texas, which points to the case of a former cop who was wrongly accused of murder after two bloodhounds followed a scent to his front door. NY Times story 10/6/09 Three LAPD officers who testified at a 2008 drug trial and preliminary hearing that the defendant threw away a bindle of cocaine were charged with perjury. A security camera recorded one officer telling another to be “creative” on the report. The drug case was dismissed. 10/6/09 To combat a wave of killings, Chicago schools will use a computer program to identify the 10,000 students most at risk based on a host of factors, then “saturate” them with programs and adult support, including a 24/7 contact. Those who participate are guaranteed a part-time job. 10/6/09 The Supreme Court declined to consider whether State juries may convict without an unanimous verdict, as allowed in Louisiana and Oregon. The case, Bowen v. Oregon, no. 08-1117, relates to a man who was convicted 10-2 for rape and sentenced to 17 years. ABA brief 10/5/09 Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group headed by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomerg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, released a report recommending that the Government strengthen ATF’s hand in dealer inspections, interstate gun trafficking and regulating gun shows. 10/5/09 Chinese nationals form the largest non-Hispanic ethnic group illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico. Those who succeed must work off smugglers’ fees of as high as $70,000 in East coast sweatshops. Ecuador is a staging area where thousands reportedly await their turn to cross. 10/4/09 Now under control of the state Attorney General, the Camden (NJ) PD is being pressed to be more proactive. “Compstat” meetings, close supervision and a focus on accountability are said to be showing results, but resentment from line officers and the police union is clearly evident. 10/3/09 Breaking up an organized-crime ring that they said infiltrated the city Building Department, New York City prosecutors indicted twenty-nine persons, including top members of the Luchese crime family on charges ranging from corruption by building inspectors to dealing in drugs and guns. 10/2/09 North Carolina paid $3.9 million to settle with former death-row inmate Alan Gell. A sloppy investigation and unreliable witnesses led to his 1998 conviction for a murder that actually occurred while he was in jail on unrelated charges. Gell was acquitted at a retrial in 2004. 10/2/09 Knowing that the TV host had sex with female coworkers, a CBS staffer dropped a note in David Letterman’s car demanding $2 million to keep quiet. Only problem is, Letterman went to police. The extortioner, reportedly a “48 Hours” producer, was arrested. 10/1/09 Following up on allegations of excessive force, including misuse of Taser and pepper spray, the FBI subpoenaed records relating to a dozen Burbank (Calif.) police officers. The troubled agency also faces lawsuits by seven current and past officers for discrimination and retaliation. 10/1/09 A report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) criticizes the National Park Service for a haphazard approach to providing security at park sites and protecting them from terrorist attack. One criticism, for example, is that the Statute of Liberty has no full-time security manager. 10/1/09 According to the New York Times, the FBI had no idea that alleged Denver/NYC terrorist plotter Najibullah Zazi was buying chemicals and trying to fashion bombs until they interviewed him and began following up leads. Home Top Permalink
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