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2010 News Clips Archive |
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06/30/10 Facing repeal of the city’s handgun ban in the wake of McDonald, Chicago politicians vow to continue battling gun violence by imposing tough restrictions on gun purchase, including background checks, training and liability insurance. 06/29/10 In 2000 Texas executed Claude Jones for a 1989 murder in which the evidence was the testimony of two companions (one later recanted) and a hair, which was said to probably be his. Now a judge has ordered authorities to release the hair for DNA analysis. (See 5/21/10 entry)
06/29/10 California’s Crime Lab Task Force was created in 2007 to review forensic science in the state and make recommendations for improvement. It issued a report in November 2009 and has now voted to disband. But some criticize the move, saying they should soldier on. Report 06/29/10 A Pennsylvania man paroled in 2006 after serving 15 years for a grisly knife murder struck again, stabbing to death his former girlfriend and three others. Michael Ballard, 36, was living in a halfway house after a 2008 revocation for not completing an anger management course. 06/28/10 Eleven Russian spies who had lived in the eastern U.S. for years, some as couples with children, were arrested by the FBI. A complaint alleges that they were here to be “Americanized” and used physical subterfuge and electronic means to communicate with their handlers. 06/28/10 Former Chicago PD Cmdr. Jon Burge, 62, was convicted in Federal court of falsely denying in a 2003 civil suit that he and other officers tortured confessions from suspects in the 80’s. Burge was fired in 1993 for similar behavior in another case but was never prosecuted.
06/28/10 According to the Baltimore Sun city police detectives unfound nearly one-third of rape complaints, more than anywhere else in the U.S. In addition, forty percent of 9-1-1 rape complaints are not referred for investigation. Police commissioner Frederick Bealefeld promises to investigate. 06/28/10 Complaining that hardened dealers are taking advantage of a loosening of the state’s drug laws, a New York prosecutor points to the example of a gang member with two drug sales convictions who was sentenced to marijuana rehabilitation for running a cocaine sales organization. 06/28/10 In McDonald v. City of Chicago the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that D.C. v. Heller, which confers an individual right to “keep and bear arms for lawful purposes, most notably for self-defense within the home,” applies to the States. The Justices emphasized that this right “is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” and that Heller “did not cast doubt on such long standing regulatory measures as prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.” 06/25/10 On trial for murdering an unarmed man that he and another officer were trying to search, a former transit cop tearfully said that he intended to use his Taser to get the man to quit resisting but mistakenly drew and fired his pistol instead. Related posting 06/25/10 Only hours apart presumed armed robbers hit two L.A. pot dispensaries, one in Hollywood, the other in nearby Echo Park. One employee was shot dead at each site. 06/24/10 A month after gang members shot and killed an innocent 14-year old, Boston police are posting pictures of gang members, hoping that the “shaming” will cause relatives to press them to straighten up. But civil libertarians are skeptical, and many others think the idea is silly. 06/24/10 L.A. Airport police responded at least 17 times in the last eighteen months to help police in nearby communities, according to a news investigation. In one case 27 officers left “for several hours” to help at a rave. Backups will continue but now require command approval, says the chief. 06/24/10 A report ordered by the New Jersey Supreme Court lays out the many weaknesses of eyewitness ID and recommends pretrial hearings whenever it may be used as evidence. Report 06/24/10 An $870,000 settlement for 14 plaintiffs has ended Baltimore PD’s campaign to stop and question young persons and arrest them for “quality of life” offenses such as loitering and littering. 06/24/10 In a ruling that the honest services mail fraud statute (18 USC 1346) is Constitutional but applies only to “bribery and kick-back” schemes, the Supreme Court held that it could not be one of the objects of the conspiracy for which Jeffrey Skilling was convicted in the Enron debacle. 06/23/10 L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called for the Feds to investigate the troubled Probation Department, which is beset by allegations of abusing juveniles and misusing funds. But he has failed to approve measures to strengthen oversight, allegedly to placate unions.
06/23/10 For 2009 DOJ reports a .2 percent decline (n=2941) in the State prisoner population, the first since 1972. A 3.4% increase (n=6838) in the Federal prison population yielded an overall .2 percent increase, the smallest this decade. 06/23/10 Beset by understaffing, lack of support, no training and poor equipment, Houston PD’s fingerprint unit remains in bad shape even after an infusion of money and hiring external contractors. Blame was placed on distractions caused by problems elsewhere in the crime lab. Related post 06/22/10 Frank DiPascali, admitted number-two man to convicted swindler Bernard Madoff, was released on $10 million bail pending sentencing. He faces 125 years in prison. 06/22/10 Lawsuits against police and loss of its liability insurance are forcing Maywood, an L.A. suburb of 27,000 to call it quits. As of July 1st. policing will be contracted with the Sheriff and all other services with an adjacent city. One-hundred workers are being laid off. See 6/6 entry. 06/22/10 New York collects DNA from convicted felons and some misdemeanants. Gov. David Paterson wants to include many more misdemeanor offenders. An Assembly bill targeting wrongful conviction would take DNA from all convicted persons and require interrogations be videotaped. 06/21/10 According to news sources David Brown Jr., the troubled son of Dallas Police chief David Brown, shot and killed a man at a Lancaster (Tex.) apartment complex, then shot and killed a responding police officer before other cops shot him dead. 06/21/10 Times Square bomber Faisal Shazhad pled guilty to all ten counts of the indictment. He also said that if the U.S. doesn’t leave Muslim areas “we will be attacking.” Presumably that meant his associates, as Shazhad faces life without parole. NY Times 06/21/10 Nashville police are accused of clearing domestic violence crimes as unfounded to improve the department’s statistics and “[make] it look like crime has diminished.” 06/21/10 The Supreme Court approved a Federal law that prohibits giving “material support” including nontangibles such as training and legal advice to foreign terrorist organizations as designated by the Secretary of State, even if the aid is intended for humanitarian purposes. 06/18/10 ATF agents executing search and arrest warrants in seven states rounded up more than two dozen members of the Oulaw motorcycle gang on racketeering and gun charges. One biker from Maine was shot and killed in a gunfight with an ATF SWAT team. 06/18/10 William Macumber has served 35 years for murder. A lawyer has come forward to swear that a past client who was convicted in a similar killing (he is now dead) said he did it. Arizona’s clemency board has recommended Macumber’s release. But Governor Jan Brewer says no. 06/18/10 A 56-year old California man with an assault record entered a fast-food restaurant armed with two pistols and shot four family members, killing his stepdaughter’s husband and their 6-year old son, and critically wounding his stepdaughter and a 5-year old son. He then committed suicide. 06/18/10 Ex-cop Johannes Mehserle is on trial for murder. “It was the result of anger taking over judgment and training. For that, this defendant must be held responsible,” said the prosecutor. But the defense says Mehserle mistakenly drew his gun instead of a Taser. Related post 1 Post 2 06/18/10 Twenty-five years after murdering a Utah man, Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was executed by his method of choice, a firing squad. But it’s the delay -- not the method -- that’s brought on furious criticism from both sides of the death penalty debate. 06/17/10 ICE, the agency that blended Immigration and Customs functions under one roof after 9/11, is trying to “rebrand” its immigration-heavy image with a reorganization plan that supposedly elevates money laundering and smuggling investigative functions to equal status. 06/17/10 In City of Ontario v. Quon, the Supreme Court ruled it permissible for a police chief troubled by high text-messaging bills to review transcripts of messages sent on city-owned pagers to determine if they were being used for official business. 06/10/10 Apologizing for the beating of a 15-year old boy during an arrest, Indianapolis PD chief Paul Ciesielski moved to fire an officer who kept striking the youth after he was handcuffed. Public safety director Frank Straub is setting up a community review board in response to the incident. 06/10/10 Four-hundred motorists convicted in DC of drunk driving since fall 2008 were tested on breath machines whose baseline BAC levels had been erroneously set 20 percent too high. In half the cases motorists served five days jail time. All are getting an opportunity to appeal. 06/09/10 Border Patrol agents killed a second Mexican citizen in less than two weeks. Sergio Huereca, 14, was shot after allegedly throwing rocks at agents who were making arrests near the Juarez-El Paso border. In the earlier incident a man died after being Tasered near San Ysidro. 06/08/10 Hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries set up after a 2007 Los Angeles moratorium on new clinics are closing in response to a new law that criminalizes unlicensed operations and sets penalties of $2,500 per day. Clinics must also be at least 1,000 feet from schools and parks. 06/07/10 A self-described Detroit “hit man” pled guilty to murdering seven alleged drug dealers and the wife of a police detective who wanted his spouse dead. Vincent Smothers, 29, was sentenced to fifty years. He said he only regretted killing the woman. Her husband later hanged himself. 06/07/10 Physicians for Human Rights alleges that medical professionals recruited for the “war on terror” violated their occupations’ ethical standards by experimenting on CIA detainees and advising how best to apply “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Report 06/07/10 A Florida man armed with a .45 pistol shot and killed his ex-girlfriend outside the restaurant where she worked, then burst inside and fired at five other women, killing three and critically wounding three before shooting himself dead. 06/07/10 Detroit police aggressively use stop-and-frisk and a mobile strike force to get guns off the street. They credit their approach for yielding 40 fewer homicides and 99 fewer shootings so far this year than last. But complaints about mistreatment and excessive force are mounting. 06/07/10 State youth prisons are shutting down around the U.S., partly because juvenile arrests dropped by one-third between 1997 and 2008. Budget issues have also encouraged a shift to community treatment, which may be more effective and less likely to harden youths. 06/06/10 Police shootings, excessive use of force and other issues in Maywood, an L.A.-area working-class community of 27,000 led its insurer to end liability and worker’s comp coverage as of July 1. Contracting or merging police services is being explored. (See 2/27/10 entry.) City website 06/06/10 Two US citizens were arrested at JFK airport as they were about to leave to join Islamic Jihadists in Somalia. Their preparatory activities, including physical and arms training, had been monitored by an undercover agent, who made many secret recordings detailing their intentions. 06/04/10 Crime in Phoenix plummeted during 2008-2009, and it’s now one of the safest four large cities in the U.S. The other three -- San Diego, El Paso and Austin, are also on the border. FBI data table 06/04/10 $9.9 million. That’s what New York City has agreed to pay Barry Gibbs, who served nineteen years in prison for murder after allegedly being framed by disgraced former NYPD detective Steven Eppolito, now in Federal prison for a mob-related conviction. 06/03/10 A reduction of 2.3 percent (n=17,196) in the U.S. jail inmate population between June 2008-June 2009 is the first drop since record-keeping began in 1982 according to BJS. Declines in large jails were especially pronounced, with Miami-Dade reporting 1,000 fewer inmates. 06/02/10 Hours after arguing with colleagues and vowing he wouldn’t be seen again a middle-aged taxi driver armed with a .22 rifle and shotgun drove down the northwest British coast, randomly shooting twelve dead and wounding twenty-five before taking his own life. 06/02/10 Weak gun laws and high rates of gun ownership mean higher rates of gun deaths says a report released by the Violence Policy Center. Its analysis is based on information about gun laws and gun ownership plus 2007 mortality data from the CDC. CDC/NCIPC injury mortality data 06/01/10 Responding to a request by the Los Angeles City Attorney, who wants its investigative powers for use in complex cases, the California Senate has passed a bill authorizing the agency, which can only prosecute misdemeanors, its own Grand Jury. But some think that’s overreaching. 06/01/10 Does remaining mute after being advised of Miranda mean that a suspect has invoked the right to remain silent? No, said the Supreme Court in Berghuis v. Thompkins, ruling that “a suspect’s Miranda right to counsel must be invoked “unambiguously.” 06/01/10 The Federal trial of ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is about to begin. Impeached and removed from office in January 2009, he and his brother are accused of a years-long pattern of extortion, including seeking money to appoint a successor to former Senator Barack Obama. 05/28/10 Brought in to “shake-up” an understaffed, embattled agency, Detroit PD chief Warren Evans deployed aggressive anti-crime teams and expanded the use of SWAT. But the recent accidental shooting of a 7-year old is causing the city to question his paramilitary approach. 05/27/10 California POST is decertifying 99 reserve deputies, reportedly businessmen and a celebrity, who were given badges by Sheriff Lee Baca after completing “training” that involved no testing and was conducted in non-traditional venues, at times on a yacht. 05/27/10 Should the U.S. actively work in Islamic communities to discourage extremist ideas from taking root? Britain’s “CONTEST” strategy, which does so, is on the Internet. But after a legacy of abuses such as Cointelpro, many Americans disagree. E.U. counterradicalization strategy 05/26/10 A state task force formed as result of the fatal shooting of a black off-duty NYPD cop by on-duty officers in 2009 revealed that in nine of ten such killings in the U.S. since 1982 the victim officers were black or Hispanic, suggesting that bias may play a role. Task force website Report 05/26/10 Jurors awarded a fired LAPD motorcycle cop $2 million for discrimination. Originally disciplined for leaving work five minutes early (it ballooned from there), the officer has also been reinstated. City lawyers say they lost the case because budget cuts left them short of investigators. 05/26/10 Since 1995 ATF has paid out more to settle discrimination claims than the far larger FBI. Agents who filed such complaints or blew the whistle over waste, fraud and mismanagement say that the agency retaliated by shunting them off to undesirable jobs or refused to grant promotions. 05/26/10 With the recent passage of a law in Alaska forty-eight states now provide for post-conviction DNA testing. In Alaska biological material must be retained for the duration of an inmate’s term (or fifty years, if there is no suspect) and testing must be paid for by the state. 05/26/10 Police chiefs from Arizona’s two major metro areas, Phoenix and Tucson, are meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to urge that he sue to invalidate the state’s new immigration law. Joining them are chiefs from other large cities, including Los Angeles, Houston and Minneapolis. 05/25/10 The Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to a Federal law that prohibits holding gun makers and distributors liable for gun misuse. A victim had sued Glock for recklessly making and RSR for recklessly selling many more guns than what’s needed to fill the legitimate demand. 05/25/10 Ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who served 99 days in jail in 2008 after pleading guilty to lying about his motives in firing two police officers, was sentenced to 18 months to five years in Federal prison for violating probation by hiding assets to avoid paying $1 million restitution. 05/25/10 Responding to calls for better security in the wake of the murder of an Arizona rancher, President Obama ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the southern border to help interdict drug trafficking. Obama also wants $500 million to hire agents and prosecutors and improve technology. 05/25/10 Secret recordings and other materials collected during the tenure of former Nashville PD Chief Ronal Serpas were reported stolen from a lawyer for officers who claimed that Serpas used CompStat to “manipulate” statistics and make it appear that crime on his watch had declined. 05/25/10 William Avery, convicted of a murder in 2005, was released by a Milwaukee judge after DNA matched Rodney Ellis, pending trial for killing seven prostitutes. With the state database missing thousands of DNA profiles, authorities are reviewing 2,100 homicide cases filed since 1992. 05/25/10 The Supreme Court agreed to decide if arbitrary decisions not to turn over DNA to defendants can be challenged in a Federal civil rights lawsuit (Skinner v. Switzer. See 3/25/10 entry). Circuit Court of Appeals case 05/24/10 A GAO study of TSA’s SPOT program, a visual screening process implemented after the 9-11 attack to “spot” potential terrorists at airports, criticizes it for lacking a scientific basis and recommends a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and comparison with other techniques. 05/24/10 Using lessons learned from DNA exonerations, Dallas’ conviction integrity unit is focusing on questionable convictions where there is no DNA to test. Double-guessing jury verdicts is an issue, but so is having an innocent in prison and a guilty person on the street. 05/24/10 Memphis PD proudly reports an 80 to 90-percent homicide clearance rate. But using FBI reporting standards it dips to 69.3 percent, very slightly above the national average. New York and Chicago, where the number of homicides is far higher, doesn’t report murder clearances. 05/24/10 Preliminary FBI statistics indicate that in 2009 property crime dropped 4.9 percent and violent crime dropped 5.5 percent when compared to 2008. Murder decreased 7.2 percent overall but increased slightly in midsize cities and rural areas. 05/24/10 In a Chicago suburb heroin overdose deaths have tripled. Authorities blame a potent form of the drug that’s flooding the U.S. market. With purity levels as high as eighty percent, the substance is enticing new users as it yields powerful highs even when smoked or snorted. 05/23/10 It’s alleged that for decades ex-Chicago PD Lt. Jon Burge and his officers tortured suspects to extract confessions. Although the statute on those acts has run, Burge, fired in 1993 for mistreating a prisoner, is set to go on Federal trial for falsely denying the abuse in a civil case. 05/22/10 The father-son duo who killed two Arkansas police officers were self-styled “patriots” who rejected government regulation. The father, who was recently arrested for unlicensed driving, gave seminars on debt-resolution and had posted YouTube videos threatening the I.R.S. NY Times 05/21/10 Car crashes involving pot smokers, flaky prescription practices, robberies of pot clinics and wholesale diversion of marijuana to the black market bedevil medical marijuana in Montana. 05/21/10 A Texas prosecutor is objecting to DNA testing of a hair used to help convict an alleged killer. Under Texas law only a defendant can ask for testing but Claude Jones, a violent man with a prior murder conviction, has already been executed. (Testing approved. See 6/29/10 entry.) 05/20/10 Complaining that powerful weapons from the U.S. are besetting his country, Mexican President Felipe Calderon implored the U.S. to improve regulation, stem gun running and ban assault rifles.
05/20/10 Moving to restore citizen confidence in his beleaguered agency, New Orleans PD’s new chief, Ronald Serpas, is opening weekly CompStat meetings to the public.
05/19/10 Facing a budget deficit, Dallas, which is striving to increase police coverage, is considering furloughs and pay cuts. But the police union favors stopping hiring and allowing attrition to occur. 05/19/10 A & E’s reality show “The First 48” was filming Detroit cops serving a search warrant looking for a murder suspect. Then, tragically, an officer’s gun discharged, accidentally killing a child. Now observers question whether cops were playing to the cameras. 05/19/10 A Senate Intelligence Committee report blames “systemic” intelligence lapses for allowing Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas Day bomber, to board the plane, including failures to revoke his visa and to place him on terrorist watch lists. 05/18/10 A seven-year old girl was accidentally shot and killed by a Detroit police officer who was helping serve a search warrant looking for a murder suspect. Chief Warren Evans apologized for the shooting, which will be investigated by State Police. Two lawsuits have already been filed. 05/18/10 Civil-liberties groups, legislators and newspaper editorial boards oppose Attorney General Eric Holder’s proposed watering down of Miranda in terrorism investigations. As Holder himself pointed out terrorists still talk after being Mirandized, so loosening the rules isn’t needed, they say. 05/17/10 With the nation’s most restrictive gun laws, New York City’s move to “simplify” its gun permit process is being seen as a way to pre-empt anticipated legal challenges. But a spokesperson insists that the Mayor isn’t against hunting, he’s only against “illegal guns that are killing people.” 05/17/10 A string of shootings led Miami PD to start enforcing a citywide juvenile curfew but only in a single high-crime district, thus displacing teens elsewhere. That’s fine with cops and the area’s councilman but not with the ACLU, which says that the move discriminates against minorities. 05/17/10 In two highly anticipated decisions, the Supreme Court said “no” to life without parole for juveniles who don’t kill, but “yes” to the indeterminate, post-imprisonment civil commitment of dangerous sexual offenders. Juveniles (Graham v. Florida) Sex offenders (US v. Comstock) 05/16/10 How to bring in parole violators the easy way? Why not send them a letter promising $200, amnesty and an immediate release from mandatory supervision? That’s what got 130 California parolees to surrender. When the handcuffs went on they found out it was all a ruse. 05/15/10 Facing huge deficits, Homeboy Industries, Father Gregory Boyles’ celebrated Los Angeles program that helps reintegrate former gang members and gives them work has laid off most of its staff and is at imminent risk of closure. 05/15/10 Insurmountable technical glitches are forcing the abandonment of expensive technological innovations intended to enhance border security, from a “virtual fence” that can’t tell between humans and blowing vegetation to chronically malfunctioning airport explosives detection machines. 05/15/10 Up to 12,000 persons arrested by Chicago PD during 1999-2008 will share in an $16.5 million settlement to a lawsuit that charged police with arresting persons without adequate cause for felonies, then brutally treating them while in custody, ostensibly to get them to confess. 05/14/10 Eight Houston officers were suspended last month over the alleged beating of a black 16-year old burglary suspect. Three days ago a jury acquitted an officer who shot and killed a black motorist mistakenly suspected of car theft. Now the chief, who happens to be black, must act. 05/14/10 The L.A. Police Commission reviews serious uses of force once the department’s internal investigation is done. Five years ago the Commission promised to make summaries of its findings public. But it never did. It now says that personnel shortages made that impossible. 05/14/10 One cause of the financial crisis was that extremely risky securities peddled by banks to institutional investors carried top-notch safety ratings. Now the NY Attorney General has opened a criminal investigation to determine if major banks falsified their data to fool the ratings agencies. 05/14/10 Minnesota authorities have charged a male nurse with aiding suicide. William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, frequented Internet suicide chat rooms and apparently encouraged numerous persons to kill themselves. His advice allegedly spurred two suicides, one in Britain and another in Canada. 05/13/10 Three Pakistanis were arrested on immigration charges as FBI agents following Shazhad’s money trail served search warrants in the Boston area, in Long Island and New Jersey. 05/13/10 Newburgh, a central New York state community of 29,000, is beset by gang violence, with the highest murder rate in the state. Early today 300-plus local, state and Federal officers fanned out to arrest dozens of members of the Bloods and Latin Kings street gangs on drug charges. 05/12/10 NYPD officers made more than 575,000 stop-and-frisks in 2009, arresting 34,000, seizing 762 guns and 6,000 other weapons. Minorities were stopped more frequently than whites, but arrested about as often. Police say it’s because the tactic was used mostly in high-crime areas. 05/12/10 Enjoying a surge in membership and increased public and political support the NRA is coming into this year’s convention with its head held high. Scheduled speakers include Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck and Chuck Norris. 05/10/10 Forty-eight law enforcement officers were murdered in 2009, seven more than in 2008 when 41 were feloniously killed. All but three were shot; 28 with handguns, 2 with shotguns and 15 with rifles (nine more than last year.) A full report will be published in the fall. 2008 LEOKA data 05/10/10 President Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. The administration’s chief spokesperson before the Court, she has never been a judge. But she has been dean of Harvard Law School, where Obama taught. A bitter confirmation fight is expected. 05/09/10 Attorney General Eric Holder proposed that Congress authorize investigators to question terrorism suspects without invoking Miranda. Times Square suspect Shazhad’s Miranda warning was delayed 3-4 hours under a public safety exception, but Holder wants even more flexibility. 05/07/10 Suggesting that the state’s public defender system is irretrievably broken, New York’s highest court allowed a civil lawsuit challenging it to proceed to trial. The outcome seems foreordained as New York Governor David Paterson recently called the system a “disgrace.” 05/07/10 A man angry over a domestic quarrel burst into an L.A.-area home and fired numerous rounds from an assault rifle, killing three including his ex-girlfriend and wounding two others. Deputies patrolling nearby responded and fired at the assailant, slightly wounding him. 05/06/10 NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked Congress to close the gap that lets suspected terrorists buy guns from dealers, while felons can’t. According to the GAO persons on terrorist watch lists bought guns and explosives over one-thousand times between 2006 and 2010. Report 05/05/10 Twenty-nine years after being imprisoned for raping an 11-year old girl and attacking her 12-year cousin Raymond Towler walked out a free man. In 1981 he got life after the victims identified him. But advanced DNA testing conclusively proved his innocence. Innocence Project 05/05/10 Faisal Shahzad, arrested in the Times Square bomb attempt, went to Pakistan in 2009, where he said he got explosives training. A pistol he bought shortly after returning was found in the vehicle he drove to the airport. Shahzad has reportedly claimed that he acted alone. 05/05/10 With U.S. immigration stepping up the deportation of legal resident aliens who acquire criminal records, New York Governor David Paterson is promising those who have reformed and have only minor arrests and convictions that he will grant them pardons. 05/04/10 439. That’s the number of Los Angeles marijuana clinics that set up shop after a 2007 moratorium and which the city has now ordered be closed. Those that don’t comply by June 7 will face fines and possible prosecution. About 130-140 properly registered clinics are presently open. 05/04/10 Laws require that certain criminal and disciplinary histories of police officers who testify in court be disclosed to defense lawyers. That has not happened in San Francisco, where upwards of eighty cops are affected. Countless past cases may be in jeopardy. 05/03/10 Federal agents arrested Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, for the attempted Times Square bombing. Shahzad, who had recently bought the SUV from its registered owner through an online ad, was taken off a plane just as it prepared to depart for Dubai. 05/03/10 Upholding absolute bans on marijuana clinics imposed by two southern California cities, a Federal judge ruled that since the drug can’t be prescribed under Federal law, the bans do not violate the American with Disabilities Act. 05/03/10 The American Board of Anesthesiology will revoke the certification of any physician who participates in an execution. At present more than a dozen States require doctors be present. Loss of certification disqualifies anesthesiologists from working in most hospitals. Board memorandum
05/02/10 Three propane canisters, two five-gallon gasoline cans with fireworks taped on the outside, two battery clocks and eight bags of fertilizer. That’s the “amateurish” device that smoldered inside an abandoned SUV at Times Square. Its plates were fictitious and one of the VIN numbers had been removed, but another was used to identify the owner, whose name wasn’t released. 04/30/10 The arrest of a man for attempted rape shortly after his early release from jail is one reason why California legislators are now set to repeal a money-saving measure that granted extra good time credits to jail and prison inmates (see 2/10/10 entry, below). 04/29/10 Calling Arizona’s immigration law “unpatriotic and unconstitutional,” L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged a boycott of the state. “No person should be treated differently in the eyes of the law,” he said. 04/28/10 A Chicago man shot and killed his pregnant wife, infant son, a pregnant 16-year old niece and a 3-year old niece and critically wounded his mother and a 13-year old nephew. He also tried to shoot another niece and a man. He then asked arriving cops to shoot him. They didn’t. 04/28/10 Frank Sterling was convicted of murder in 1982 thanks to a confession extracted under duress and with the use of hypnosis. He was freed today after DNA proved that the original suspect, who went to prison for killing a child two years later, was guilty. NY wrongful convictions Report 04/28/10 Mentioning Federal “crack house” laws, U.S. and State prosecutors warned officials of Reed College, a small Oregon institution known for its academics and permissiveness, to curtail the drug use that led two students to die from heroin overdoses in two years.
04/27/10 Phoenix police are frustrated by a growing problem: out-of-state agencies who refuse to extradite their wanted felons, usually because they can’t afford to. Since 2008, 820 out of 3,000 fugitives caught by Phoenix cops had to be let go, letting criminals walk the streets with impunity. 04/27/10 Since January Tulsa has laid off 89 officers, eleven percent of its force. Police are going back to the basics. Community policing, surveillance and traffic enforcement have been pulled back and many detectives are on patrol. Thanks to a weak economy it’s much the same across the U.S. 04/26/10 Police with a search warrant seized computer equipment from the home of Gizmodo web journalist Jason Chen. He had bought a prototype Apple iPhone from a man who took it after an Apple engineer allegedly left it behind at a beer garden. Stolen property charges may be possible. 04/26/10 With summer approaching, two Illinois lawmakers want to bring in the National Guard to help Chicago police prevent an expected upsurge in violence. But the mayor and police chief say no, that what’s needed are tougher laws to keep guns off the streets. 04/26/10 As Chicago seeks ways to reduce youth violence a researcher says that the problem isn’t a “brutal mindset” but the ready availability of guns, and that going after those being carried illegally is the best response. 04/23/10 Under new Arizona law police must when feasible ascertain the immigration status of persons who may be illegally in the U.S. Illegal aliens are “trespassers”; first offense is a misdemeanor, second a felony. Those convicted of any crime must also be turned over to immigration authorities once they are released or have paid their fine. Bill text 04/23/10 In 2008 334 persons, including 94 bystanders, were killed in police pursuits, says NHTSA. But since there is no systematic tally and crashes after police stop chasing aren’t counted, the toll could be far higher. Meanwhile pursuit policies around the country vary greatly. 04/22/10 A Department of Justice audit found that the FBI shifted resources between 2001 and 2009 from white-collar and violent crime to counter-terrorism, making it its highest priority. The other two top priorities are foreign counterintelligence and protection against cyberattack. 04/22/10 Arizona police told a Congressional panel that the shooting of rancher Robert Krentz is a sign of worsening border violence. Federal authorities agreed that the virtual border fence isn’t stopping drug and human smuggling. Senator John McCain proposed sending in the national guard. 04/21/10 Striking back at Cardinal Roger Mahony, who called his bill making immigration violations a state crime “Nazism,” Arizona senator Russell Pearce said “this guy has a history of protecting and moving predators around in order to avoid detection by the law. He has no room to talk.” 04/21/10 Instead of emotional responses such as “Three Strikes and You’re Out,” DOJ and academics are pushing for an “evidence-based” approach to policy formation. But budgetary issues, politics, citizen pressures and the need to act quickly make the strategy difficult to implement. 04/20/10 After years of unmet promises and false starts, LAPD is finally set to begin deploying video cameras in patrol cars. But with funding in hand for only one of four geographical bureaus and the city budget in tatters, the process promises to be painfully slow. 04/20/10 A poll reveals that 55 percent of Americans oppose legalizing marijuana. Thirty-three percent support it, and the remainder are neutral. However, sixty percent favor possession of small quantities for medical use. Health concerns about marijuana are widespread. Poll numbers 04/19/10 Dozens of armed protesters rallied in national parks in Virginia, across the river from the Capitol. Among them was Mike Vanderboegh, leader of the “three-percenters,” who had urged that bricks be thrown into the offices of Democratic legislators. Some had heeded his call. 04/19/10 Oklahoma commemorates the fifteen year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 04/19/10 Will ATF ever have a leader? With the NRA wielding veto power over gun control, the Administration’s yet to nominate a director more than a year into the President’s term. Meanwhile a law limiting the length of service of acting heads caused the agency’s current chief to step down. 04/18/10 Federal prosecutors charged the former president and four former top officers of defense contractor Blackwater (now Xe Services) with laundering machinegun purchases through a local sheriff’s office and with violating other laws on the registration and transfer of restricted weapons. 04/18/10 Against CHP recommendations, prosecutors declined to file manslaughter charges against a La Habra (Calif.) police officer who barreled through a red light at 62 mph while chasing a fleeing parolee, broadsiding a car and killing a middle-aged couple, the parents of three adults and a child. 04/17/10 Eight-hundred Federal agents descended on five Arizona-based shuttle van services that authorities claim were being used to smuggle thousands of illegal aliens into the U.S. Thirty employees and 17 aliens were arrested. It’s expected that the latter will stay in the U.S. to testify. 04/17/10 Thomas Drake, formerly a top official of the National Security Agency, was indicted for passing secret government documents and e-mails to a reporter. This information was used in news articles exposing a failed computerized intelligence analysis system that wasted billions of dollars. 04/16/10 High-tech hardware isn’t working out in Baltimore. Pole-mounted surveillance cameras are of such low resolution that faces are indistinguishable at 100 feet, while GPS ankle bracelets can’t be tracked beyond the wearer’s home. 04/16/10 Restrictions on cold medicines with pseudoephedrine did cut down the number of meth labs. But their replacement, “one-bottle” car labs where users cook their own meth and throw the waste out the window, are proving far more intractable, creating toxic nightmares on the roadside. 04/15/10 Calling it a “myth” that prisons are full of first-time drug offenders, Arizona prosecutors point to a new study that indicates non-violent or first time offenders are “a very small minority,” with 52 percent there for violent crimes, and 83 percent with at least one prior felony conviction. 04/14/10 Observers warn that cash-strapped Los Angeles will not be able to meet its police and fire pension obligations, which by 2015-2016 will amount to more than $1 billion per year. A former mayor has the answer: declare bankruptcy, and the sooner the better. 04/14/10 Intractable, “deep-seated” corruption and force problems with New Orleans officers, including guilty pleas from line and staff officers in killings and cover-ups, has led the Justice Department to consider suing the city for civil rights violations to gain control over its police. Update 04/14/10 Reacting to the rape/murder of 17-year old Chelsea King, allegedly by a convicted child molester, a California assemblyman introduced “Chelsea’s Law,” which would mandate life without parole in certain aggravated cases, and in others require lifetime GPS tracking after release. 04/14/10 An internal inquiry concluded that acting on instructions from superiors Riverside (Calif.) police officers failed to conduct a field sobriety test on then-police chief Russ Leach and drove him home rather than arresting him for drunk driving. Leach has since pled guilty to DUI and resigned. 04/13/10 Enhanced with chemical compounds ten to 800 times stronger than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, herbs, mostly imported from China, are legal in Nevada, where they’re sold at retail. A few states have enacted or considered laws banning the substances. 04/12/10 After two months of gang shootings, with seven wounded on a single day, Omaha police, State agents and the Feds have mounted a campaign to get guns off the street, flooding areas with cops, serving outstanding warrants and using Federal law to prosecute gun-carrying felons. 04/12/10 A critical shortage of overtime funds is forcing LAPD homicide detectives to take days off instead. At a time when killings are on the increase, that endangers clearances. In one area nine of 14 murders this year remain unsolved, an unprecedented proportion, officers say. 04/11/10 Hired two years ago to replace disgraced Orange County (Calif.) Sheriff Mike Carona, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has discovered that the best practices she brought over from the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, where she formerly worked, don’t fit the “values” of her new political home. 04/11/10 Reinstated by a judge six years after the Orange County (Calif.) D.A. fired him for investigating a wealthy supporter, investigator Lyle Wilson was fired again. And again he’s been ordered reinstated. Now the D.A. is exploring “all legal options” to reverse the judgment. 04/09/10 Baltimore PD suspended Compstat for thirty days, calling the weekly meetings badgering sessions, “a forum for finger-pointing and just running through a lot of numbers” that weren’t producing actionable strategies to fight crime. 04/07/10 To discourage outsiders from coming to skid row to deal drugs, Los Angeles is seeking an injunction targeting eighty known dealers, who could be arrested just for showing up. As proposed, the order would authorize police to add up to 300 more targets to the “no entry” list in the future. 04/07/10 Thanks to recent events the no-fly list is growing, as are the errors. “The entire federal government is leaning very far forward on putting people on lists,” an official testified. One of those named, a doctoral student, is suing to find out why. But secrecy rules make her prospects dim. 04/06/10 Two Desert Hot Springs cops -- one current and one former -- were arraigned on Federal civil rights charges for Tasering three handcuffed suspects in 2004-05. They were indicted in 2009. 04/06/10 Nevada has the highest murder and robbery rates in the U.S. says a new report, and its rape rate is 45 percent higher than the national average. Other high-crime rate states include New Mexico and Louisiana. At the opposite end are New Hampshire, Vermont and North Dakota. 04/06/10 A new Ohio law requires that felons submit DNA. To prevent wrongful conviction it encourages recording police interviews, mandates long-term preservation of DNA, and requires that photo lineups be blind or administered in a way that keeps officers unaware of the image sequence. 04/05/10 In Wisconsin harboring a wanted person or hiding or destroying evidence is a crime, unless it’s done by a relative, in which case they’re exempt. Despite a string of murders in which relatives hid suspects and stashed guns, attempts to change the law have stalled. 04/05/10 Disobeying its own rules, the Los Angeles County D.A. failed to publicize the prosecution of three deputy sheriffs last September for the 2006 assault of an inmate who supposedly “disrespected” them. The deputies are on leave without pay awaiting trial. 04/03/10 Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a Colorado mother expelled from Ireland for plotting with others to murder a Swedish cartoonist who offended Muslims, was arrested by the FBI for trying to attend a terrorist training camp with Pennsylvania mom Colleen La Rose, aka “Jihad Jane” (see 03/10/10). 04/02/10 Was a D.C. shooting that killed three and wounded four preventable? Police had linked the alleged triggerman to a recent murder, but prosecutors refused to seek a warrant. Another suspect, a juvenile, had nine convictions and had absconded from supervision. 04/02/10 Then only eleven, Jordan Brown used a shotgun to kill his father’s pregnant fiancee while she slept. He then went to school. Now that a judge has ordered he be tried as an adult, the twelve-year old would if convicted be the youngest person ever to get life without parole. 04/02/10 The practice of physically searching everyone traveling to the U.S. from suspect countries, installed after the Abdulmutallab affair, is being replaced by a system that reserves body searches for persons whose names, physical appearance or other characteristics fit actual intelligence alerts. 03/31/10 Ruling that warrantless wiretapping of calls in the U.S. is illegal even in national security cases, a Federal judge found the Government civilly liable to a defunct Oregon-based Islamic charity and its lawyers. They will be asking for damages for the 202 days that they were monitored. 03/31/10 Sixty percent of traffic citations in Chicago, including many gross speed violations, are settled as “court supervision,” keeping them off driver records. With police and insurance carriers angry, a bill is pending to prevent such outcomes when speed exceeds 40 mph over the limit. 03/31/10 A leaked ICE memo warning that deportations will reach less than half the 400,000 yearly quota and suggesting remedies was criticized by activists, who say the agency reneged on a promise to abandon quotas. ICE has disavowed the memo and says it will stay focused on criminal aliens. 03/31/10 Video cameras -- one pointing to the front, another to the back seat -- are now in 340 Chicago PD vehicles. In practice they mostly (but not always) exonerate cops, and some officers don’t turn them on. Soon the cameras will be modified to start rolling whenever the ignition is on. 03/29/10 Eighteen months ago a 12-year old girl found her father and nine-year old sister shot dead in their Los Angeles apartment. She and her mother moved to a nearby building. A few days ago the girl found her mother in the family car, parked in the carport. She had been shot dead. 03/29/10 Eight members of Michigan’s “Hutaree” Christian militia were arrested on Federal sedition and explosives charges, and one is being sought, for conspiring to set off a war against the Government by killing a police officer and bombing his funeral caravan. Group website Indictment 03/29/10 According to case files obtained by the ACLU, during 1992-2008 NYPD arrested more than one-hundred of its own cops each year. Most crimes were relatively minor, but one cop and his wife ran an organized-crime connected gambling empire. Internal Affairs reports Graphics 03/29/10 As many as 1,000 or more drug cases will likely be dismissed as an investigation of the San Francisco PD drug lab expands. Police suspect that a retired technician stole drugs, and there are concerns about other discrepancies, including supposedly tested drugs found in a still-sealed bag. 03/28/10 L.A. County sought to free up 2,000 jail beds through electronic home monitoring. But most inmates have serious or violent criminal records, and only 135 are now at home. “The myth of the low-security, nonviolent offender in jail is just that: a myth,” said a Sheriff’s spokesperson. 03/27/10 After his first nominee to head the TSA, a former FBI agent, pulled out over alleged improprieties, Obama picked a retired army intelligence general. Yesterday he withdrew because of accusations that he overcharged as a contractor in Iraq. Meanwhile the agency remains rudderless. 03/26/10 Setting aside a challenge to the District of Columbia’s new gun laws, enacted after the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision overturned its handgun ban, a Federal District Judge ruled it was permissible to require gun registration and to ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines. 03/26/10 Although they’re still lower than two years ago, shootings in New York City are up sharply over the same period in 2009, affecting most boroughs, from tony Manhattan, where murders have jumped from nine to sixteen, to the crime-ridden Bronx. 03/26/10 US Border Patrol agents are coordinating patrols along an 80-mile section of the Southern border with Mexican Federal police. Corruption in the Mexican police has stymied working relationships in the past, and for now intelligence sharing remains limited to what seems prudent. 03/26/10 David Headley, arrested in October 2009 for helping Al Qaeda plan an attack on a Danish newspaper for disrespecting Islam, had moved freely between the U.S., Pakistan and India for years and repeatedly attended a terrorist training camp. He is pleading guilty to avoid a death sentence. 03/25/10 A report on the 2008 shooting at Northern Illinois University that took the lives of five students plus the shooter, Steven Kazmierczak, reveals that he was repeatedly hospitalized for mental health problems as a youth and had attempted suicide. He bought all his guns at a gun store. 03/25/10 Formed by text messaging, “flash mobs” of poor black teens are intimidating pedestrians and causing fights and vandalism in downtown Philadelphia. Decried by the Mayor, the practice may lead to stiffer enforcement of curfew laws and a restriction on using bus passes to the daytime. 03/25/10 With only one hour to spare the Supreme Court halted the execution of Texas inmate Henry Skinner so it could review a Federal appellate court decision denying Skinner the opportunity to have DNA tested. Skinner was sentenced to death for killing three persons in 1995. 03/25/10 Thanks to $1.3 million from a wealthy marijuana “entrepreneur,” supporters of legalizing pot collected enough signatures to place an initiative in California’s November election. Obama’s drug policy chief is against the move, and stiff opposition is expected from law enforcement. 03/24/10 To close a $32 million budget gap the Illinois State Police will cut its force by thirty percent, using both retirements and layoffs. Investigative functions will suffer as troopers concentrate on accident response. A statewide methamphetamine task force will be eliminated. 03/23/10 With the arrest of two Newark men police say they have solved the mysterious disappearance of five boys in 1978. The victims were allegedly forced into a residence at gunpoint, then perished in a deliberately set fire. They had allegedly stolen a pound of marijuana. 03/23/10 A San Diego couple who confessed on the “Dr. Phil” TV show to being chronic shoplifters, leading FBI agents to recover hundreds of boxes of stolen toys from their home, were sentenced to prison. Calling Dr. Phil a “charlatan,” the judge pointed out that he sure didn’t help. 03/23/10 New York City will pay $33 million to compensate 100,000 persons who were strip searched while waiting to be arraigned for minor crimes between 1999 and 2007. A settlement of $40 million for the same misconduct was paid out in 2001. 03/23/10 Dave Kofoed, CSI Chief in Douglas County, Nebraska, was convicted of tampering with evidence for allegedly planting a blood drop that was used to tie two innocent men to a double murder. They were jailed for months before two teens confessed and said they acted alone. 03/23/10 Gun used by Amy Bishop to murder her university colleagues was bought for her husband in 1989 by a third party from a New Hampshire gun store. Why? Unlike Bishop’s state of residence, Massachusetts, New Hampshire had no waiting period for gun purchases. 03/22/10 Decried by the Chief, City officials and community groups, Philadelphia PD’s decades-old arbitration system, backed by an “extremely militant” union, consistently overturns disciplinary decisions, including most firings. 03/19/10 After a series of controversial police shootings and uses of force, a coalition of Portland (Ore.) citizens and organizations is pressing to directly involve the Police Review Commission in the disciplinary process and authorize it to independently initiate and conduct internal investigations. 03/18/10 A sweep of the Vagos, the largest outlaw motorcycle gang in California, netted thirty arrests, mostly for drug and weapons violations. Police suspect gang members with planting potentially lethal explosive and incendiary devices in Los Angeles-area gang task force offices. 03/17/10 Texas inmate Henry Skinner, sentenced to death for killing three persons in 1995, is to be executed next week. The state has refused to test DNA some say could prove him innocent. Governor Rick Perry, who allowed the execution of Cameron Willingham, is being asked to step in. 03/17/10 According to the PEW Center, the State prison inmate count dropped in 2009 by 5,739, a .4 percent reduction and the first since 1972. But the overall prison count still rose by 1,099 due to a sharp uptick in the number of Federal prisoners. 03/16/10 National Association of School Resource Officers announces $2,500 college scholarships for sworn school police officers. Membership in NASRO required. Application deadline May 1. 03/15/10 Donald Gates served 28 years for rape/murder based on an FBI analyst’s testimony that one of his hairs was found on the victim. Then DNA proved him innocent. DOJ, who knew since 1997 of such problems, is reviewing the work of six analysts. More than 100 cases are involved. 03/15/10 Johnnie Wicks, who killed a courthouse security officer in Las Vegas on January 4, and was then shot and killed in return, got his weapon privately. He had to, as he had a lengthy criminal record, including murder. Like Bedell, his gun once went through Memphis, at a Sheriff’s sale. 03/15/10 John Bedell, the California man killed in a March 4 shootout with Pentagon security, was mentally prohibited from having firearms. Both of his guns had repeatedly changed hands; one was auctioned to a dealer by Memphis police, then went through a private sale at a gun show. 03/14/10 Ford unveiled its next generation of police cars, the “Police Interceptor,” a modified version of the 2010 Taurus, with nearly as much interior space, better performance and 25 percent greater fuel efficiency than the beloved “Crown Vic,” whose production will cease next year. 03/13/10 A Massachusetts gun club that let an 8-year old boy participate in a machinegun shoot in October 2008, resulting in his accidental death, has pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter. Manslaughter trials of three club members, including an ex-police chief, are set for later this year. 03/13/10 Burbank (Calif.), home to TV and film studios, has its own police force. And it’s in meltdown, rocked by Federal investigations of brutality, cover-ups, discrimination against minority officers, retaliation against whistleblowers and, last October, the suicide of its SWAT sergeant. 03/12/10 With 4,000 employees coming on each year but insufficient resources to properly screen them, US Customs and Border Protection has concerns about integrity of new hires. Corrupt agents could be getting in, including some who might have been purposely planted by the cartels. 03/11/10 Acting New York State Police Superintendent Pedro Perez, who took over the agency when its chief recently quit, suddenly retired. Perez reportedly authorized a ranking officer to calm down the victim of a domestic assault allegedly perpetrated by a Governor’s aide. Blog post 03/10/10 Responding to the Chief Justice’s complaint that criticism of the Court in the State of the Union address made members in attendance uncomfortable, the White House press secretary replied that the real problem was its ruling allowing corporations and special interests to finance campaigns. 03/10/10 Pennsylvania resident Colleen La Rose, aka “Jihad Jane,” was indicted for conspiring with foreign terrorists to murder a Swedish cartoonist who defamed a Muslin prophet. Interviewed by the FBI in 2009 for her Internet Jihadist rantings, she later traveled to Europe to help in the plot. 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. Postings about this case 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.” Home Top Permalink 
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06/28/10 Three California Highway Patrol officers were struck and killed by cars in separate incidents this month. 
