Fugitive Fort Mill Police Officer Stephen Cleary Arrested in Florida

Authorities with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) in Florida have arrested a fugitive from South Carolina named Stephen James Cleary. Cleary is a former officer with the Fort Mill Police Department (FMPD). He was wanted on charges of "domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature" as well as kidnapping and unlawful neglect of a child. The mainstream media is reporting that Cleary's reason for fleeing to Florida is not clear, but we think those charges make the reason obvious. Officer Cleary was fired on Monday right after his own department responded to a call from his wife and turned the case over to the South Carolina Law Division (SLED) who quickly issued a warrant. Cleary had been with the department since March of 2019. The named victims in the case are Cleary's wife and kids. His wife alleges that he had a gun, grabbed her, and held her against her will for over an hour on Sunday before fleeing to a neighbor's house to call 911. She also said that he had physically assaulted her several times in recent weeks. The basis for the child neglect charge remains unknown, but it is common for crimes against mothers committed in front of children to lead to such charges. Cleary's motives remain unknown and although we don't normally speculate as to what happened in cases like these, the fact that a husband held his wife for over an hour against her will on Sunday in a Bible Belt state makes us think that religion could have played a role. Perhaps she had sinned and her husband wanted her to go to church, so he held her for over an hour hoping she would come with him and only let her escape after he knew the service was over. South Carolina is known for being a hotbed of conservative Christian fanaticism. Just recently one of that state's elected representatives said that he plans to object to Electoral College certification of the 2020 Presidential Election despite Joe Biden being the clear winner (https://ift.tt/2WYIYX2). We can only assume that people in his state have been depressed since early November and that such depression could have played a role in Officer Cleary's decision making. According to public records, Officer Cleary's only prior run-in with the law was a 2012 speeding ticket. He is 36 years old. We could not find a booking photo for Cleary on the Hillsborough County Jail website where no records for anyone by that name could be found despite media reports that he is being held there pending extradition to South Carolina, so we are using the above image of a man on the run wearing a stained wife beater for now with his face blurred out to protect the identity of the actor. Cleary also is not in the York County Jail according to their records. The Fort Mill City Jail does not appear to have an online inmate search feature, but we don't think he is there due to pending extradition proceedings and the fact that even if he waives extradition proceedings he would not likely be moved until at least next week due to the need to transport him across state lines. #stephencleary #domesticviolence #kidnapping #childabuse

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34368/fugitive-fort-mill-police-officer-stephen-cleary-arrested-in-florida

Church Point Officer Rasiem Fredericks Arrested for Domestic Violence

Church Point Police Officer Rasiem Fredericks was recently arrested for domestic violence and placed on paid administrative leave for the second time since 2018 by as many employers. While between jobs, Fredericks spent his time calling in bomb threats to 911, entering guilty pleas, receiving jail sentences, and looking for another department to hire him. In July of 2018, then Basile Police Officer Rasiem Alexis Fredericks was arrested on domestic violence charges and subsequently placed on paid administrative leave. Despite that he managed to make headlines for still carrying a gun despite a court order directing him to surrender his weapons. In September of 2019 he pled guilty to charges of resisting an officer, battery, and false impersonation of a police officer. He was sentenced to over a year in prison, but the judge suspended the sentence and placed him on probation. As part of his plea deal, the state dropped charges of making terroristic threats and conveying false information of a planned arson. Those charges were based on a phone call that Fredericks made to the St. Landry Parish 911 center in late 2018. During the phone call he gave his real name, identified himself as a police officer, and stated his intention to bomb the building. Those formed the basis for his charge of false impersonation of a police officer because he had by that time officially left the Basile Police Department. We are not sure exactly how he officially severed his ties with them, but the media reports that he was somehow re-instated to his position while his domestic violence case was still pending and then left on his own accord. By leaving on his own he could technically tell potential employers that he left his old job on good terms. He was recently hired by the Church Point Police Department (CPPD) and was still in his probationary period at the time of his arrest according to CPPD Chief Dale Thibodeaux. We are not sure exactly which probationary term Thibodeaux was referring to, but we think it was probably the probationary term new officers serve with the department and not the probationary term he was still serving with the court. Thibodeaux did not explain how someone on probation was able to get hired as a police officer with his department in the first place. Officers like Fredericks are commonly referred to as Gypsy Cops because they bounce from department to department to stay ahead of their pasts. They get into trouble one place, resign before the department has time to officially fire them, and then get hired elsewhere by a department that does not do their homework. That still does not explain how Fredericks could have passed a criminal background check during his application process unless there was none. This week Fredericks was arrested on new domestic violence charges. They involve an allegation that he slapped a six year old boy. The boy's mother called police after Fredericks sent her pictures of the boy looking beat up via social media. Fredericks claimed that he just put makeup on the kid to scare his mother as part of a prank, but the kid told police that no makeup was applied to his face and police noticed a visible red mark on his face. We believe that Fredericks had enough of the kid and decided to teach him a lesson. That lesson being that it is not a good idea for little kids to piss off sadistic cops. A valuable lesson that if learned could save his life someday. According to our background check, Officer Fredericks has a history of serious criminal charges predating 2018. According to our background check service he was arrested in 2016 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence in Hillsborough County, Florida. Fredericks was released on recognizance and the case was later closed without a conviction. We are uploading records from the Hillsborough County Court as a PDF with this report. #rasiemfredericks #domesticviolence #childabuse #gypsycops #threats

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34367/church-point-officer-rasiem-fredericks-arrested-for-domestic-violence

Hamilton County Jail Guard Damien Parker Arrested for DUI

Hamilton County Jail Corrections Officer Damien Parker was found passed out drunk in his vehicle after failing to show up for work. His absence was a cause of concern for co-workers who went looking for him. They found him "unresponsive" behind the wheel of his vehicle. 911 was called and EMS workers had to break into the vehicle just to check on him after attempts to wake him peacefully failed. The Chattanooga Police Department was among the agencies responding to the call. Their investigation led them to believe that alcohol was to blame for Parker's unconsciousness. They arrested him for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUI) and took him to jail. He has since been released. Parker was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. #damienparker #dui #hamiltoncountyjail

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34366/hamilton-county-jail-guard-damien-parker-arrested-for-dui

FBI Informant Stefan Halper Has Disappeared

Stefan Halper is a notorious FBI informant that spied on the Donald Trump presidential campaign and bragged about his connections to Russian intelligence. Halper's job was to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. His job included speaking with Trump campaign officials to find out if they knew of any efforts by Russia to interfere with the election. He then reported what he was told to Stephen M. Somma. It eventually became known that the Trump campaign was aware that Russian hackers had obtained some of Hillary Clinton's emails. Those emails were of course released right before the election and led to Trump's victory. Donald Trump tried to spin Halper's activities against the Democrats. He called the entire thing "Spygate" and said that Halper was really planted by the Obama Administration to help the Clinton campaign. That theory has since been discredited. At one point he claimed to have run a successful CIA operation that helped Ronald Reagan win the 1980 election. That activity involved giving the Reagan campaign information about the activities of President Carter. Halper was under the supervision of then CIA Directory George H.W. Bush at the time. Bush of course was Reagan's running mate. Halper is a former college professor and political scholar. In 2016 he was an emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge where he had also received his PhD. His exact whereabouts today are unknown. He has not been seen publicly since his name was exposed in 2017. His last known U.S. address was in Virginia where he was listed as a property owner until 2019. He later no-showed when subpoenaed by a Senate committee. He is probably in Europe where he has worked and lived for many years. When the FBI released the Mueller Report in 2019, his name was mysteriously redacted. #stefanhalper #fbi #stephensomma #spygate #famoussnitches

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34365/fbi-informant-stefan-halper-has-disappeared

Pima County CO Michael Flaminio Arrested for Assaulting Inmate

Pima County Corrections Officer Michael Flaminio was arrested this past week for assaulting an inmate at the Pima County Adult Detention complex back in August. He had been on paid administrative leave since August 15th after the Pima County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) determined that the inmate's complaint warranted further investigation. The case was eventually handed off to the Pima County Attorney's Office (PCAO). The PCAO refused to file felony charges against Flaminio, but did file two misdemeanor assault charges. No details about the specifics of the assault have been released to the public yet. Since the official findings of the investigation have not been released, we can only speculate as to what happened. Usually when an inmate accuses staff of assault their complaint is quickly dismissed by other staff members that never bother to really look into the merits of the complaint. Prison internal affairs units exist primarily to help officers avoid accountability, so we are always surprised to hear of a correctional officer actually being disciplined for assaulting an inmate. We believe that there must be clear and convincing video evidence in the inmate's favor. That is why a lot of correctional facilities don't make guards wear body cameras and some of them don't even record surveillance footage because if the only evidence is the word of an inmate versus the word of staff, the staff always win. We believe that the internal affairs unit must have seen Flaminio on surveillance or body camera video assaulting an inmate. According to public records, Michael Flaminio is 36 years old and might have a long history of run-ins with the law. We say "might have" because the online background check website we use lists him as having Arizona addresses as far back as 2013, but it also has him listed as residing in Chiloquin, Oregon as far back as 2002. Chiloquin is not far from Jackson County. That same background check website says that in 2011 one Michael Paul Flaminio was charged with First Degree and Second Degree Sex Abuse in Jackson County, Oregon (case number CJAC 114175FEDEF00001). That service also lists two parole violations with a release date of 7/11/2014 on those charges. There also appears to be another case also from Jackson County, Oregon listed as "Sex Abuse 1 New Attempt" and First Degree Possession of a Controlled Substance (case number 1695865), but it does not say which year. Then there is an arrest listed as "2nd Degree Sexual Assault Child/VOP sex Assault" with the arresting agency listed as the Merrill PD in Wisconsin, but that record does not contain a case number, date, disposition, or any other information. We struggled to determine if the man charted in those cases was in fact the same Michael Flaminio that was just arrested in Arizona. When we did a background check for people named Michael Flaminio in Oregon the name Michael Joseph Taylor came up in the results with the same criminal charges listed in his history. The case numbers were the same also. The most likely explanations are that Flaminio was Taylor's co-defendant at one point, that they were the same person, or some error with the background check service applied the same records to two different people. Their address histories intersect at times and they are listed as possible relatives of each other. According to news reports, Officer Flaminio has been a corrections officer for 12 years. If that is accurate we do not see how he could have been working as a corrections officer in Arizona while facing those types of charges in Oregon. This leads us to believe that either the news or the background check results are inaccurate. We have been using the same paid background check website for years and it is usually pretty accurate. Additionally, GovSalaries has records of Flaminio working for Pima County as far back as 2015 (https://ift.tt/37OQObN). That is consistent with our timeline that appears to put Flaminio in Oregon during and before 2014. There have been times when information provided by the background check website has not been completely accurate, but that usually is due to it being outdated and not flat out wrong or involving someone else's criminal charges under the wrong name. Since we cannot rule out the possibility that these results could be erroneous we ask that you not use them to make any conclusions regarding the character of Officer Flaminio. Just to be safe we made an effort to confirm this information with online services offered by Oregon courts. We approached that by doing Google searches for things like "Jackson County, Oregon court records" as well as various combinations of Michael Flaminio's name and the case numbers provided by our background check service, but all we found was proof that one "Michael P Flaminio" earned over $50,000 working as a corrections officer for Pima County in 2018 (https://ift.tt/2WPulp0) and that he lost an appeal of a suspension in 2019 (see PDF uploaded with this report). We typed the case numbers and his name into the only online resource from the state of Oregon that might permit us access to records for free (https://ift.tt/2gJqlAT) and the only results that came up were for three traffic violations from the early 2000s for someone named Michael Flaminio born in 1968. Those violations were not included in the results from our background check service probably because the year of birth does not match that of the Officer Flaminio that was arrested in Arizona. We also checked the Oregon Department of Corrections (https://ift.tt/3rpTm8h) and the Oregon Sex Offender Registry (https://ift.tt/34O1nKx), but found no hits for anyone named Flaminio. Positive results from those sites would have existed had Flaminio ever been to an Oregon state prison or if he were currently a registered sex offender in the state. This leads us to the conclusion that if Officer Flaminio was ever convicted of a sex crime in Oregon that the records must have been expunged. That would explain why the records are included with the online background check service we used and cannot be corroborated with court websites. The most likely explanation would be that the background check service aggregated the records when they were created, but never removed them even though they were removed from their source. That has been the case with this background check service in the past. A good example would be a mugshot we found of someone with no conviction on record capable of explaining the mugshot, but we knew they were in custody because that was the only explanation for the mugshot. When we checked Oregon court records we found results for Michael Joseph Taylor. Those results were consistent with the charges listed under Flaminio's name. Those records also list Taylor as being born the same year as Flaminio (https://ift.tt/2gJqlAT). At this point we started to think that Flaminio is just unlucky enough to be linked to Taylor in public records. Linked because they have shared addresses and appear to be related. That would mean at best that Officer Flaminio is related to a sex offender if not also alleged to be involved in his crimes. Finally, we found a mugshot of Taylor online (https://ift.tt/2WMsfpF) along with charges matching those listed under his and Flaminio's names. The mugshot looks nothing like Flaminio, so now we know that they are in fact different people and that Taylor is the one with those charges on his record permanently. This leaves us with the lingering question of how did Michael Flaminio's name get mixed up with Taylor's case? We do not know the answer to that. We also learned that Flaminio used to be a licensed security guard in California (https://ift.tt/2WOKECg). His California license expired in 2008. He was also licensed as an unarmed security guard by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, but their website says that license expired in 2009 (https://ift.tt/1UrKeeG). The timing of those licenses does not rule out the possibility of Flaminio being in Oregon in 2010, but it also does not rule out him being in Arizona at the same time. Taylor's address history includes the same Chiloquin address that Flamonio's history does at the same time. Taylor is currently a registered sex offender in California (https://ift.tt/2gMMdQ3). His address history includes the same Santee, California address that Flaminio used when getting his security guard license. Conclusion Michael Flaminio may or may not have been involved with Michael Taylor's crimes. If he was accused of them then that accusation was most likely dropped at some point. Despite that, the two of them appear to have been closely linked for quite some time. "Birds of a feather flock together" - proverb #michaelflaminio #pimacountydetentioncenter #michaeltaylor

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34364/pima-county-co-michael-flaminio-arrested-for-assaulting-inmate

Judicial system racism and discrimination

Judges Garza and Harlan failed to act accordingly based on supporting evidence to my felony cases as well as failure to report police brutality, misconduct, assault with a deadly weapon, racial injustice and allowed prosecution based on hearsay. #misconduct #harassment #failuretolistentosupportingevidence

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34363/judicial-system-racism-and-discrimination

Police brutality and attempted murder

June 30, 2018 Greenville police officers Gore and Hamilton beat me with baton bars and almost killed me and noone will help me ensure the safety of my life and the citizens of Texas. #misconduct #harassment #falsecharges #assaultwithadeadlyweapon

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34362/police-brutality-and-attempted-murder

Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy Suspended for Shooting Black Man

Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy has been suspended after shooting black man for holding a cell phone. The shooting took place yesterday (December 22nd). Body camera footage released by the Columbus Police Department and broadcast on several news broadcasts (see video below) clearly shows 47 year old Andrew Hill holding what was obviously a cell phone as he exited a garage. Neighbors had called police about seeing a suspicious person turning an SUV on and off in that garage who they could tell was not the home owner. What they could not tell was that Hill was an invited guest of the home owner. After shooting Hill, Officer Coy did not attempt CPR or otherwise render first aid despite Hill being in obvious pain. Instead Coy just left him laying there until medics arrived at least six minutes later. Hill later died at the hospital. This is not the first time that Officer Coy has faced misconduct accusations. In 2003, Officer Coy had nine complaints filed against him, four of which in just one month. He was ordered to undergo counseling. In 2012, the city of Columbus settled a lawsuit filed by a man that Coy pulled over. Video footage from Coy's dash camera shows him violently bang a man's head against the hood of a vehicle while he was arresting him for drunk driving. The city paid the man $45,000. Reporters trying to reach Officer Coy for comment claim to have discovered a brank new "no trespassing" sign at his house. We believe that house to be located at 257 West State Street in Milford Center, Ohio. We ask that nobody use that information for any criminal purpose. We do however encourage peaceful demonstrations. We are exempting Officer Coy from our usual courtesy of not posting home addresses of cops because of the heinousness of his crime, the obviousness of his guilt, and the fact that he refuses to talk to journalists that have knocked on his door. According to public records his full name is Adam Carl Coy, he is 44 years old, he has had several hunting permits, registered to vote without specifying a political party, and appears to be associated with a day care business called Lil Tykes Learning Childcare that is run at his home. We assume that the child care business is probably his wife's, so if you must make your voice heard there please leave her and any kids alone. #adamcoy #andrehill #cellphone #liltykeslearningchildcare

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34361/columbus-police-officer-adam-coy-suspended-for-shooting-black-man

Prichard Police Officer Jonathan Murphy Arrested for Murder and Fired

Prichard Police Officer Jonathan Murphy was arrested for murder last night and fired from his job earlier today. Murphy is charged with shooting and killing someone at an apartment complex in Mobile, Alabama while off duty. This is the second fatal shooting involving Officer Murphy in the past three years. In 2017, Officer Murphy shot and killed Lawrence Hawkins as he sat unarmed near his truck in front of his home after Murphy followed him with his lights off for awhile (https://ift.tt/3ph9UgD). A cell phone was found on his body. Officer Murphy had claimed that he thought Hawkins reached for a weapon, but when the smoke cleared the worst that could be said of Hawkins was that he might have reached for his phone. That incident led to a federal wrongful death lawsuit being filed by Hawkins' family. They said that the policies and customs of the Prichard Police Department enabled officers like Murphy to get away with using the type of excessive force that he used. Those customs and policies included not making officers wear body cameras. The end result was the word of Officer Murphy vs that of a relative who said "He (Hawkins) got out his truck, reached in there to get his cell phone. The police were saying something, and all i heard was pow pow pow." Such stories are the typical result of Officers with itchy trigger fingers that jump the gun whenever they think someone might be reaching for a gun. They never wait to see what they are really reaching for, which usually is not a gun (ex: unarmed woman shot reaching for car floor where her phone was https://ift.tt/2HmQO8j). Policies that permit officers to use force without seeing an actual weapon and failing to make them wear body cameras so that they can be held accountable are why these types of things happen. Last night, Officer Murphy gunned down Larry Taylor at the Avalon Plaza Apartments in Mobile, Alabama while off duty. Mobile Police officers quickly identified Murphy as the shooter and arrested him. He is currently being held at the Mobile County Metro Jail on a charge of murder. Not much is known about the shooting at this time. Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said that they had done the easy part by arresting him and now comes the hard part of convicting him. #jonathanmurphy #murder #lawrencehawkins #larrytaylor #bodycams

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34360/prichard-police-officer-jonathan-murphy-arrested-for-murder-and-fired

Paul Abel No Longer Working for Pittsburgh Police

Former Pittsburgh Police Officer Paul Abel was finally fired after years of making headlines with his own misconduct. Most recently, Abel was called out by a homeless man at a Farmers Market for disrespecting the American flag back in September. During that incident Officer Abel was wearing a Thin Blue Line mask. The Thin Blue Line mask featured an American flag that had been defaced to include a thin blue line in the center covering what had been a grayed out American flag. Officer Abel responded by asking the man for his ID, assaulting him under the guise of a false arrest, stealing marijuana from his bag, kidnapping him, and taking him to jail. He was subsequently suspended for conducting a retaliatory search, seizure, and arrest. In 2019, Officer Abel handcuffed and detained a black man just for filming him. Abel was being filmed after accusing the man of interfering with a police investigation just by being there. That man maintained that things only became heated between the two of them after Abel lashed out at him. He said that he was responding to a phone call from a frantic relative and that Abel accused him of obstruction, but never actually charged him. He later complained to the news saying that he was illegally searched and detained (https://ift.tt/34vHt6M). In 2017, Officer Abel arrested Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebackers' coach Joey Porter. Porter was accused of refusing to leave a night club and was caught on camera arguing with a bouncer while Officer Abel restrained him (https://ift.tt/34xiVKC). Officer Abel arrested Porter for assault with no evidence to back it up. Porter eventually pled guilty to disorderly conduct. In 2008, Officer Abel was arrested for aggravated assault after allegedly pistol whipping a man while off duty. The above incident account for just a few of over a dozen misconduct complaints filed against Officer Abel over the years. The Fraternal Order of Police says that they will fight the suspension. #paulabel #thinblueline #joeyporter #farmersmarket

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34359/paul-abel-no-longer-working-for-pittsburgh-police

Eastern Oregon Prison Guard Matthew Klimek Arrested for Sex Abuse

Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution (EOCI) Correctional Officer Matthew Klimek was arrested at EOCI on sex abuse charges Friday. According to the Oregon State Police (OSP), they were contacted by staff at EOCI on June 23rd to report allegations of stalking and harassment against Klimek. Not much has been released to the public regarding the basis for the charges. We are of course wondering if the victim was an inmate at EOCI because the only news report we could find about this incident thus far credits the prison for referring the case to OSP and if the victim were not an inmate we think he would have been arrested much sooner. Inmates are not usually believed by staff, so it takes more than just a complaint to the higher ups to get a guard into trouble. We believe that the higher-ups must have taken the rare step of actually investigating an inmate complaint against a staff member and did more than just interview the staff member being complained about. They were probably told about evidence and not only actually bothered to look at it, but also tried to figure out what it meant. One of the charges is listed as First Degree Sodomy (incest) which means that his victim probably was not an inmate because if it was known that he had a family member at that prison that person would have probably been transferred. This leads us to think that some poor member of his family may have complained to the prison. According to the Umatilla County Jail, CO Klimek is still incarcerated at that facility. He is almost certainly in protective custody as a close custody "walk alone" for his own safety. As such he will spend 23 hours a day in his cell by himself and his one hour out will also be by himself because most inmates would be happy to teach him why raping people is a bad idea. We found the following information about him on the Umatilla County Jail website: Age: 33 Sex: Male Race: White Height: 6' 1" Weight: 330 Hair: Brown Eyes: BROWN Build: Obese Complexion: LIGHT Booking Date: 12/18/2020 14:37 Arresting Agency: OSP Arrest Date: 12/18/2020 Arrest Location: EOCI PENDLETON Charges 1 count of 163.411- UNLAWFUL SEXUAL PENETRATION I [Felony] Bail: $150000 1 count of 163.405- SODOMY I (INCEST) [Felony] Bail: $0 1 count of 163.427- SEXUAL ABUSE I (ASLT W/OBJECT) [Felony] Bail: $0 2 counts of 163.425- SEXUAL ABUSE II (SEXUAL ASSAULT W/ OBJECT) [Felony] Bail: $0 1 count of 163.187- STRANGULATION (AGGRAVATED ASSAULT) [Felony] Bail: $0 Total Bail: $150000 #matthewklimek #eoci #sexoffenders #strangulation #sodomy

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34358/eastern-oregon-prison-guard-matthew-klimek-arrested-for-sex-abuse

Cannelton Police Officer Kyle Lutgring Arrested for Seducing Child

Former Cannelton Police Officer Kyle Lutgring has been arrested on child seduction charges. Lutgring was a Cannelton Police Officer back in June when he allegedly seduced a "woman" under the age of 18. An official investigation began back in September at which point Lutgring had already resigned. He was booked into the Perry County Jail, posted bond, and was released. According to public records Kyle Bryant Lutgring is 30 years old and lives in Tell City. Not much else is known to us about Lutgring at this time. We do not know exactly how old the victim was. The news just says she was under the age of 18 and Lutgring seduced her. That indicated to us that she was probably a high school chick. If she were a little kid under, prepubescent, or under 15 he probably would be facing more serious charges and would not have bailed out of jail so quickly or so easily. #kylelutgring #sexoffenders #statutoryrape

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34357/cannelton-police-officer-kyle-lutgring-arrested-for-seducing-child

Houston Police Captain Mark Aguirre Arrested for Aggravated Assault

Former Houston Police Captain has been arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for running a repair man off the road as what he claimed was a civilian investigation into voting fraud. He claimed that the man's truck was full of bogus ballots, but it was really full of air conditioner parts. After running the victim off the road, Aguirre held him at gun point. No ballots were found despite Aguirre's belief that the truck contained over 750,000 ballots. Aguirre was part of a group called the Liberty Center for God and Country (LibertyCGC). LibertyCGC appears to be a group of far right conservative Christian fanatics that support President Donald Trump. According to their website, "The purpose of Liberty Center for God & Country is to promote and protect our God-given, unalienable Constitutional rights and liberties through publications, conferences and events, as well as support legal efforts that protect these liberties." The incident in question took place on October 19th, but Aguirre was not arrested until recently. He is listed in public records as Mark Anthony Aguirre. He is 63 years old. He has a prior criminal charge for failure to appear in 2018 (case number E103066F). #markaguirre #voterfraud #libertycgc #assault #roadrage

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34356/houston-police-captain-mark-aguirre-arrested-for-aggravated-assault

Feds Lose Motion to Dismiss USP Victorville Brutality Lawsuit

United States District Judge Jennifer Zipps denied a Motion for Summary Judgment filed in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon by the United States in the case of Cyrus Andrew Sullivan v. United States of America (3:18-cv-00110-JGZ). Judge Zipps wrote in her order "Because the Court concludes that disputed issues of material fact exist as to Sullivan's claims, the Court will deny the Motion." The order is by no means the same as a finding of guilt against the United States, but it is a significant victory for Sullivan whose case will proceed much further than most excessive force lawsuits brought by former or current inmates. In July of 2015, Sullivan was a federal inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Victorville, California (USP Victorville). He was assigned the BOP inmate number 74198-065 (https://ift.tt/3kN7UdU). He was serving the latter part of a 24 month sentence for Assaulting a Federal Employee in violation of Title 18 United States Code Section 111(b). Earlier that month, Sullivan was involved in an altercation with a correctional officer at the metal detector outside the chow hall. The incident began with Sullivan's glasses repeatedly setting off the detector and an officer making him go through it repeatedly even though the only part of the detector that beeped was the part by his head. Sullivan argued with the guard after he repeatedly made him walk through the metal detector over and over again holding up the line. Eventually the guard grabbed Sullivan's arm and he reacted by elbowing him in the chest. He was they pounced on by all staff present, taken to the Special Housing Unit (SHU), and served a write-up for assault on staff. That incident is not related to Sullivan's lawsuit, but the Government maintains it is relevant to his history. After being in SHU for a couple of weeks, Sullivan and his cellmate were removed from their cell for an inspection during which staff found several contraband ink pens. Sullivan was using the pens to work on his ineffective counsel claim in his underlying case and objected to their seizure because the Court wanted all filings written in ink, so the pencils that SHU inmates were allowed was not good enough. The staff had not been enforcing the pen ban for some time, so Sullivan thought their sudden enforcement of it in his case was inappropriate. He refused to go back into the cell without his pens at which point Senior Officer Specialist Saul Luna twisted his wrist in an effort to coerce him into complying. Sullivan reacted by elbowing him. Luna then called Sullivan a "piece of sh*t," shoved Sullivan down the hallway, and took him to the ground after which a person or persons repeatedly punched him in the head. He apologized for the elbow and begged them to stop but they just kept punching him and yelling "stop resisting" even though he was laying face down with his hands cuffed behind his back the entire time. They later accused Sullivan of slipping his cuffs even though video evidence clearly shows that was not the case. Eventually a cut opened up on his scalp above his forehead, it bled profusely, and he still has a small scar (https://ift.tt/3pcr8vV). Sullivan was then taken to Observation Room 1 and tortured for some time. At first Senior Officer Specialist Tyler Oeltjenbruns twisted his ankle to the point of nearly breaking it (https://ift.tt/34d3sxd) while Senior Officer Armando Olmos urged him to "break it" (https://ift.tt/2OCskZQ). Then they cut off his paper jumpsuit and placed him in restraints that were applied bone tight at the direction of Lieutenant Scott Williams (https://ift.tt/2Kv4RKH). The restraints were so tight that Sullivan could not stand without experiencing excruciating pain and could not escape the pain by sitting still either. At one point Lt. Williams made Sullivan stand up at which point he fell to a seated position on a concrete slab and Williams punched him in the face before saying "I told you to stand." They then left Sullivan in that condition in the holding cell for about an hour, which seemed like an eternity to him because of the pain. When the next shift arrived they too refused to loosen the restraints saying that only medical could authorize that, but medical would not be coming to see Sullivan. Instead, they would be taking him to medical. The trip to medical from SHU is not far. It is typically only a 30 second walk from Observation Room 1 to medical because the SHU is next to medical. Unfortunately for Sullivan, that walk takes much longer for anyone in bone tight shackles that can barely walk. For him the walk took much longer than normal and seemed much longer from his perspective as he sloth'd down the hall inch by inch. Once in medical he was examined by Physican's Assistant Brigitte Wolverton. She cleaned the blood off his head and began to examine his hands. At that point she said "can you loosen this? This can't be moved." After that his restraints were finally loosened. The entire exam was caught on camera and although the footage is blurry one can still see that Sullivan's hands and feet were visibly darker due to lack of circulation right before the restraints were loosened. Eventually Sullivan was returned to his cell and an inmate worker was able to return his glasses to him after retrieving them from a trash can. Sullivan was written up for assault on staff and found guilty by Disciplinary Hearings Officer (DHO) Diana Elliott after the FBI declined prosecution. Sullivan conceded that although he did not have the right to elbow Luna that the elbowing did not justify the beating and torture, so that should have been considered punishment enough. DHO Elliott disagreed and sentenced him to 20 days loss of good conduct time, four months MP3 player restriction, and four months visiting restriction. Sullivan later filed a complaint with the prison documenting the abuse he suffered in SHU. That complaint was investigated by SIA Charles Alvarez. Alvarez came to interview Sullivan when he was back in SHU for making hooch in April of 2016 shortly before his release. Alvarez eventually issued findings in support of the officers in accordance with the common practices of internal affairs units. Sullivan filed a Tort Claim Notice which was rejected, so he subsequently filed suit against the United States for assault and battery under the Federal Tort Claims Act in 2018 while in custody as a pretrial detainee that eventually resulted in a guilty plea to Assauting a Federal Officer under 18 U.S.C. 111(a)(1) and a sentence of time served for throwing spicy chips at a guard (https://ift.tt/2TP0cUg). That incident coincidentally led to a second excessive force suit due to a deputy taking it upon himself to break Sullivan's arm while he was laying face down on a mattress at the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC). That too was a case of staff retaliation that illustrates the type of effect that Sullivan has on law enforcement. Sullivan has a habit of pushing their button and making them snap (https://ift.tt/3gNQJqk). In 2019 Sullivan finally received discovery from the government as part of his lawsuit. Unfortunately, the beating took place in a blind spot not visible to the closest camera and the officers successfully used their bodies to obstruct the view of a second camera down the hall. The result is footage of a man being taken to the ground after which officers pile on top of him. Had the incident taken place just a few feet further from the closest camera, the officers would have been caught on video punching Sullivan in the head from his left, but instead people just see the backs of a couple guards in the corner. There is however one guard with a guilty expression on his face looking up at the camera as if to make sure it can't see what the others are doing. Prison guards always memorize where blind spots are so that they can use them in the future to abuse inmates. The practice of piling on top of an inmate the way that they were seen doing on camera is a common practice meant to literally shield themselves from liability by obstructing the view of the cameras. This denies victims the ability to clearly show what happened, but it also denies the government the ability to clearly contradict the victims' claims at the summary judgement phase of a lawsuit, as Judge Zipps pointed out, "The videos do not clearly depict what occurred outside of Sullivan's cell." Therefore "The Court concludes that the video evidence does not blatantly contradict Sullivan's verified allegations as to the amount of force used and whether Sullivan suffered unnecessary pain as a result of its use... Sullivan's verified allegations, if believed by a jury, constitute evidence of assault and battery and use of force beyond what would be required under the circumstances." As to the abuse of ambulatory restraints, The Court said that the Government's "arguments are not persuasive in light of the applicable law... Sullivan alleges sufficient proof of his claims as it pertains to the application of ambulatory restraints. Sullivan does not allege that the mere use of ambulatory restraints constitutes battery. Rather, Sullivan alleges that the officers used excessive force in applying the restraints with malicious intent. Sullivan alleges that the officers applied the restraints, the officers twisted his knee and ankle to the point that he thought his ankle was going to break, that he was in 'agonizing pain as [he] lost feeling in [his] limbs," that he had "excruciating pain" when he walked, and that his "hands and feet turned purple." In addition, although medical staff do not observe any injuries to Sullivan's wrists or ankles, Sullivan alleges that when he touches his wrist he gets 'a weird, sometimes painful, shooting sensation,' that the restraints aggravated an old shoulder injury causing limited range of motion. Importantly, under the applicable law, 'an inmate who is gratuitously beaten by guards does not lost his ability to pursue an excessive force claim merely because he has the good fortune to escape without serious injury.' Wilkins, 559 U.S. at 38 (2010)." The Court also noted that the video outside the observation room "does not show much of what is occurring in the room... Additionally, much of the view is blocked when officers place a privacy screen across the entrance to the room." Sullivan argues that such screens are used not for the privacy of the inmates, but for the privacy of the staff while they decide what to do to the inmate. While torturing Sullivan in the observation room, the guards intentionally obstructed the view of the camera. The privacy shield did not obstruct the observation room entirely, but the bodies of the guards did the rest. At one point Lt. Williams is seen looking directly at the camera to the point that the viewer feels that he is making eye contact with them. Then he moved his body so that the frame of the cell door would block his left side. It was at that point that he punched Sullivan in the face, but because of the move he made the camera did not catch it. The Government also argued unsuccessfully that because Sullivan was found guilty of assaulting staff by DHO Elliott that his claims were barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994) because "they are related to the matters determined in the prison disciplinary proceedings which has not been overturned." Judge Zipps wrote, "In this action, Sullivan's claims would not necessarily imply the invalidity of the disciplinary findings that he assaulted Officer Luna, a finding that Sullivan does not challenge... Sullivan's claims are similar to those permitted to proceed in Smithart v. Towery, 79 F.3d 951, 952-53 (9th. Cir. 1996). There, Plaintiff Smithart brought a civil rights action, asserting claims for arrest without probably cause, unfounded prosecution, and excessive force applied during arrest. Smithart had pled guilty to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon based on his driving his pickup truck at officers who had made a traffic stop of Smithart's son on Smithart's property. Id. at 952. Smithart alleged that after he exited his vehicle, officers provoked him into a confrontation which they escalated beyond necessary measure, resulting in injuries to Smithart including broken legs, a broken arm, and internal injuries. Id. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Heck barred the claim for arrest without probably cause and unfounded prosecution, but found that Heck did not preclude Smithart's excessive force claim because a successful section 1983 action for excessive force would not necessarily imply the invalidity of Smithart's arrest or conviction for assault. Id at 952-53. Sullivan's California law claims for assault and battery are essentially identical to Smithart's 1983 claim for excessive force to the extent that the claims are evaluated utilizing the same liability standard. See Saman, 173 F.3d at 1156-57 (applying the same excessive force standard to both the 1983 and California tort claims); Munoz v. City of Union City, 16 Cal. Rptr. 3d, 539 ('A peace officer who uses unreasonable or excessive force in making a lawful arrest or detention commits a battery upon the person being arrested or detained as to such excessive force.' (citation omitted). And, like Smithart, Sullivan's claims would not necessarily imply the invalidity of the disciplinary determination that he assaulted Officer Luna in the first instance. Accordingly, the Court concludes that Heck does not bar Sullivan's claims for assault and battery. Judge Zipps then concluded correctly that evidence offered to support the assault and battery claim by means of excessive force does not constitute an Eighth Amendment claim of cruel and unusual punishment for which the United States is immune. Sullivan merely contend that if the United States were not immune to Constitutional claims they would have violated the Eighth Amendment in this case. Unfortunately, the only recourse for Sullivan on Constitutional grounds in this case case would to pursue a Bivens action against the individual guards, which he did file, but was dismissed for failure to prosecute by the United States District Court in the District of California after the Court sent Sullivan a notice to show cause why the claim should not be dismissed to Sullivan's P.O. box. The notice gave him a couple weeks notice to file a response and since Sullivan does not got to the post office very often he did not get the notice until after the deadline. He is currently looking at ways to revive that case. Conclusion Sullivan is happy to know that he will get his day in court. He in confident that the evidence will support his claims. The Government has yet to offer any explanation for his injuries that contradict his claims that they were intentionally inflicted by means of a beating and bone tight restraints. Sullivan would upload the video evidence to support his claims, but there is a protective order in place barring him from legally doing so. The basis of the order is the Government's position that any video or picture that shows the inside of a federal correctional facility is a threat to the security of that facility and therefore should not be publicly disclosed. The best Sullivan can do for now is explain that he id in fact suffer a laceration so high on his head that it could not have been caused by him being taken to the floor, he never slipped his cuffs, he was forced to walk in bone tight restraints, and the video of his medical exam clearly shows that his arms/legs were visibly darker below the restraints. Sullivan hopes that his case will serve as a good example for inmates seeking justice in the courts for damages inflicted on them by those charged with their custody. Most lawsuits brought by inmates are thrown out at the summary judgment phase just because those inmates do not know how to properly present their case to the court or have their access to the materials needed to prosecute a lawsuit obstructed by prison staff. Sullivan hopes that inmates will read this decision in their law libraries and realize that they need to sufficiently allege what the staff did, what their motives were, and that the alleged conduct is in fact tortious. About the Author Sullivan wrote this article about himself in the third person because he thinks it makes him look more like a professional journalist that just some dude writing about himself on the internet until people read this sentence. He is the founder of CopBlaster.com, a website created to expose the truth about law enforcement and those that aid them. He thanks Judge Zipps for her findings. #uspvictorville #scottwilliams #saulluna #jenniferzipps

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34355/feds-lose-motion-to-dismiss-usp-victorville-brutality-lawsuit

School Resource Officer Douglas Batchelder Busted for Coke at School

Douglas Charles Batchelder was arrested for cocaine possession on Monday and booked into the Clay County Jail. Batchelder had been working as a school resource officer for the Clay County Sheriff's Office at Middleburg High School when a K9 unit found cocaine in his vehicle on school grounds. We are not sure how Batchelder got the cocaine or if it was intended solely for personal use. He could have bought it off a student at the school or possibly confiscated it leaving some kid wondering why it was not reported and what happened to his drugs. Then again he may have been holding some of the coke for the students. There are few better ways to carry out a high school drug distribution operation than doing it as the school resource officer. What is for sure is that school resource officers are required to undergo 144 hours of training and pass a drug test, so he probably did not start using until after he started working at the school. Also known as "school guardians" school resource officers were mandated by the state of Florida as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act of 2018. Their primary purpose is to protect schools from active shooters, not shoot them up with drugs. Their official duties do not include giving highly addictive controlled substance to mentally unstable teenagers that just might push one of them over the edge. The state legislature never intended for "school guardians" to be guardians of the drug supply or to get so high that they can't shoot straight during the next school shooting. #douglasbatchelder #cocaine #middleburghighschool #drugs

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34354/school-resource-officer-douglas-batchelder-busted-for-coke-at-school

Jeremy Christian Appeals Wrongful Double Murder Conviction

Jeremy Joseph Christian, the autistic man that stabbed three people during a physical altercation on a Max train in 2017 is appealing his convictions. No court documents have been filed as of yet, but the mainstream press are reporting that he has a new lawyer and that lawyer confirms that he is appealing everything. This announcement comes almost five months after Jeremy received a true life sentence. As I have said before, I know Jeremy personally, followed his trial closely, and am a close student of the law. What is Jeremy Christian Really Like? I first met him at FCI Sheridan in late 2013. He had just been sent there for violating conditions of his federal supervision while staying at the Northwest Regional Re-Entry Center (NWRRC). I only recall speaking to him once. It was in the chow hall and I recall him warning me about the NWRRC. He was kicked out just for arguing with a staff member named Tim. The argument was over him being banned for the computers just for looking up stuff about comic books. Tim accused Jeremy of intimidating him during the argument. I was about to go to NWRRC myself, so I found his story very interesting. When I went to NWRRC and met Tim, I realized that Jeremy was probably telling the truth. Tim is the type of flaming gay guy that plays the intimidated victim during and after confrontations. What happened between Jeremy and Tim was most likely an argument in which Jeremy was quite vocal and Tim reacted by crying to his bosses about how intimidated he said he felt. I had a similar experience when I was banned from computers just for referring to someone else as a "bitch" to another inmate while in the computer room. That other person was not associated with NWRRC at all and had no way of knowing what I said, but just for that they took away the only tools available to look for work there. I can't help but think that if NWRRC did more to help people re-integrate into society instead of finding excuses to send them back to prison that Jeremy would have been too busy working to ride the Max drunk that day. My next encounter with Jeremy was in 2017 after my arm was broken by a jail deputy while I was doing time for violating my federal supervised release conditions. Because deputies accused me of assaulting them in an effort to justify breaking my arm, I was categorized as a security risk and placed in an administrative segregation unit. Administrative segregation units are used for inmates that are considered more dangerous or more vulnerable than other inmates. Jeremy was there because of how high profile his case was and how serious the charges were. Inmates frequently would enter the jail thinking he was a white supremacist that targeted kids, so they would get in his face and would have probably fought him had they not been on separate recreation schedules in administrative segregation. It was then that I started to actually get to know him a little bit. For about three weeks during late July and early August of 2017 I was in the 4C housing unit with him. During that time he talked about his case quite a bit. He talked about how the cell phone video of the incident would show that he was thrown on the ground by Micah Fletcher before responding with his knife. He insisted that he was defending himself and that he just reacted naturally. He felt that he was being prosecuted the way he was for political reasons. At one point I even got him to give me a customer testimonial to use in an affiliate advertisement promoting the type of knife he used (). He didn't have a problem doing that because he felt justified, but also I think it had to do with a manic side to him that uses humor as a coping mechanism. I eventually got into a dispute with a deputy and was sent back to a lockdown unit. After that I was hit with a new charge accusing me of assaulting federal officers and was moved to FDC Sheridan and later the Columbia County Jail as a pretrial detainee. In August of 2018 I finally received a reasonable plea offer from the feds that allowed me to admit to throwing chips at a guard without admitting to any of the false allegations of punching or kicking them (). At that point I had been banned from the Columbia County Jail, so MCDC was the only local facility contracted with the U.S. Marshals willing to house me. I was transferred to MCDC, entered my plea, and held there until my sentencing hearing. During that time I was housed in the 4B housing unit in a cell next door to Jeremy. Both of those cells had the same recreation schedule so every week Jeremy and I got to go to the basketball court that overlooks Terry Schrunk Plaza for over an hour. We spent most of that time talking and playing horse. I am embarrassed to say that he almost always won, but I did make him miss one day by pointing at the park and saying "is that Antifa?" Back in the until Jeremy and I almost always got out of our cells together for a couple hours a day . During that time I got to know him really well. The man I remember is not the same person I see on the news. Perhaps the most interesting observation I made of him was that he is not a white supremacist. He is a little racist, but not nearly as racist as any real white supremacist that I've ever done time with. Whenever black guys came to the unit and went off on him, he would explain to them that he is not white supremacist. That is something I've never seen a real white supremacist do in jail. He grew up in a black neighborhood, has black friends, and treats black inmates with respect. There was one case of a black inmate throwing his comics in the toilet and falsely accuse him of assault (), but that was disproven. I stopped by the trial one day and before a recess Jeremy turned to me and said "you're not going to want to miss this stuff." I stayed and for the first time heard the n-word come out of his mouth. It was on video when he was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car. I think he said it because a black cop put the restraints on him bone tight. That does not justify it, but it does provide context to the statement. That is why I have to admit he is a little racist, but for someone that has done as much time as he has, he is surprisingly less racist that I would expect. If he is a white supremacist then he is not like any other white supremacist that I did time with in the feds. I spent over a year in general population at USP Victorville with real Nazis, so I think I can tell the difference. When I first read Jeremy's psychological evaluation (https://ift.tt/3drTqfj) I knew he was on the spectrum. That evaluation stopped short at giving him an actual diagnosis, but due to my own experience with the spectrum I knew that his traits fit the diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome (AS). His niche interest in comic books that led him to collect thousands of them is a behavior typical of people with AS. His social deficiencies are also typical of people with AS. I have gotten some flak for saying this because people are quick to point out that violence is not a trait linked to AS. I agree with them, but I also agree with the diagnosis that Jeremy has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). That combination of AS and PTSD can lead directly to violent responses in emotionally charged situations such as the one on the train. Such responses typically occur before the brain has time to properly process everything that is going on. The mind of a person with AS works differently than a normal one. Some people with AS do really well on IQ tests, but at the same time the tester will typically note that they took the maximum amount of time allowed to answer each question. That is because unlike a normal person whose mind naturally gravitates towards one answer right away, the autistic mind always begins by considering all options before narrowing things down to the correct answer because they are considering all options including ones that a normal person would not consider. If the autistic person is forced to answer a question before they are done considering all options then they will often answer incorrectly. If an autistic person is thrown on the ground repeatedly and forced to answer the question "what do I do now?" Before they can analyze all options they might respond incorrectly and intensely before they have the time they need to form rational intent in the emotionally charged situation. That appears to have been case with Jeremy Christian. Jeremy's AS makes it much harder for him to manage his PTSD symptoms. His inability to make the correct decision during an emotionally charged situation combined with the "fight or flight" response typically experienced by people with PTSD explains why he reacted more violently than a typical person with AS would probably have. He was predisposed to react violently in the situation that he was in. That is why he is not guilty of murder. An autistic person that reacts suddenly in a situation such as the one Jeremy was in does not act with the culpable state of mind necessary to meet the intent requirements of murder statutes. That does not make him innocent, but it should have been enough to sustain the lesser charge of manslaughter (https://ift.tt/2uhKjgW). I was released in late November of 2018 after receiving a sentence of time served for throwing chips in the deputies faces. The week before my release Jeremy had a visit that lasted an entire day. I was not surprised when he said the visitor was an Asperger's specialist. After my release I never had any direct contact with Jeremy, but I did go to his trial a couple times. I wanted to see if the man I lived with for months was telling me the truth and from what I saw at that trial it appears that he was. To this day I have yet to catch him in a lie. Believe me when I say that things would be easier for me if I could say otherwise. I've been called a white supremacist just for defending someone I don't believe to be on just because other people think he is. People think that only a fascist would defend him, but what they don't realize is that the system being used against him is more dangerous than he could ever been. It is important that the system be kept in check and not allowed to be controlled by public opinion. I am also aware of his outburst such as "death to Antifa," "you call it terrorism I call it patriotism," and yelling "I should have killed you" at Demetria Hester at sentencing. I attribute those to his inability to cope with what is going on in his life. I see it as an effort to gain back some control over something, but I also see it as a somewhat manic freak out. A couple months back I met a woman that rode the Max behind Jeremy one day. She said he was drunk, speaking and arguing with people. She said he seemed manic. She also agreed with my assessment that he is a public troll. Like an internet troll, but someone that trolls people in public as a hobby. Even Judge Albrecht said at sentencing that she did not believe that he boarded the train that day intent on killing anyone. That rules out the white supremacist domestic terrorist theory. The truth is this was just a developmentally disabled man acting inappropriate. Issues for Appeal Judge Cheryl Albrecht erroneously allowed the Demetria Hester case to be tried with the Max stabbing case. I still think this jury would have convicted him of all the stabbing charges had they been tried separately, but I don't see how the stabbing case could not have prejudiced the Hester case. The Hester case stemmed from the night before the stabbing. In that incident Jeremy can be seen arguing with Hester on the train. Then they got off the train, Jeremy said something, and began to walk away when Hester attacked him with pepper spray. He then kept walking as she followed with the spray until Jeremy turned around and threw a plastic Gatorade bottle half full of sangria at her eye (https://ift.tt/2Ofuhe6). Hester was called out for publicly lying about what happened, but despite that the jury viewed her as credible (https://ift.tt/2SD93IJ). Jeremy was convicted of Assault II as a hate crime. A reasonable jury would not have reached that conclusion. Most of the evidence introduced to support the claim that Jeremy's actions were racially motivated came from the stabbing case. I did not see any evidence in the Hester case indicating that her being black had anything to do with Jeremy throwing that bottle. Judge Cheryl Albrecht refused to let the defense change their insanity defense to a diminished capacity defense during the trial (https://ift.tt/2BFNp1j). A person on trial is supposed to have the right to present all possible defenses, not just the defenses their attorneys decide to go with at the beginning of the trial. I always knew that Jeremy's insanity defense was a long shot because his case has always been one of diminished capacity. To prevail with an insanity defense one must show that a defendant was so mentally ill that they could not possibly be responsible for their actions at all. That has never been the case with Jeremy Christian. On the other hand, to prevail with a diminished capacity defense one must show that a defendant's disability prevented him from being able to make the right choice. That has always been the case with Jeremy Christian and he should have had the opportunity to argue that at trial. Judge Cheryl Albrecht refused Jeremy's change of venue request despite his case being one of the most covered cases in the history of Portland. At the time of his trial the likelihood of finding anyone in Portland over the age of 18 that did not hear of it was slim to none. Sure they found a group of 12 people that filled out a questionnaire (https://ift.tt/2KnUsAq), but do you really think they were not influenced by the media at all? It seems like all they cared about was whether or not he is racist. If he is racist find him guilty. That kind of activity exposes a flaw in the system where all a prosecutor must do to lock someone up is get an indictment and let an undesirable trait of theirs be known. The verdict does not fit the evidence and I think a jury someplace else in the state not impacted by the publicity as much would have reached a more reasonable decision. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Jeremy Christian's lawyers made mistakes that prejudice him. The biggest one was choosing to mount an insanity defense instead of a diminished capacity defense. I believe that the failure of his defense team to pursue a diminished capacity defense from the start fell below the level or representation expected of an attorney and as a result Jeremy was prejudiced by denying the jury the option to convict on a lesser charge based on it. His lawyers also failed to cross exam witnesses with the zealousness necessary in case like his. After Demetria Hester testified I was surprised not to see any mention of Hester's criminal record. I remembered Jeremy telling me something about it, so I did a background check and found out she had prior charges (https://ift.tt/2OdQjOo). Those charges included assault and prostitution. She was not convicted of prostitution, but she was picked up and charged with it. I do not recall Jeremy's lawyers presenting this to the jury. Convicted or not, there is a stigma associated with any woman picked up on a prostitution charge. That stigma of being a prostitute comes with it a common belief that such a person cannot be believed. After all if someone will sell their body for money they probably will do just about anything else. His lawyers should have done all they could to make her look like a whore. That would have destroyed her credibility to most people. Even if she was not convicted they still could have found a way to bring it up. Even if the judge were to tell the jury to disregard such information the jurors are human beings that probably could not forget about it if they tried. A competent lawyer would have done something to make the jurors aware of it. The energy of the defense team lacked enthusiasm in general too. They did not call many witnesses and the ones they did call were not impressive. At times it seemed like they were just going through the motions. They did a lot of good things too, but overall I was not impressed with his representation. I am glad that he has a new lawyer. Hopefully he can raise ineffective counsel on appeal. I personally raised one in federal court, but it was via habeas corpus after my appeal. Hopefully having a new lawyer (Marc Brown) is an indication that Jeremy intends to challenge the competence of his predecessors. Conclusion Jeremy Christian did not receive a fair trial because of the judge and his own lawyers. He should receive a new trial for reasons including failing to bifurcate the Hester case, failing to allow diminished capacity defense, refusing to change the venue, and ineffective assistance of counsel. The appropriate verdict in this case would be manslaughter. #jeremychristian #demetriahester #cherylalbrecht #nwrrc #autism

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34353/jeremy-christian-appeals-wrongful-double-murder-conviction

NJ Parole Officer Jorge Ortega Arrested for Switching Tags at Target

New Jersey Parole Officer Jorge Ortega was arrested Friday on theft by deception charges. According to prosecutors Ortega, 41, changed the labels on high value items at a Target store on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen several times between July and October of this year. He would then proceed to the checkout stand with the high value items. When cashiers scanned the items they charged Ortega lower prices because the price tags on them were for different cheaper items. We are not sure how Ortega was caught or if he had any accomplices. Our best guess is that someone noticed a discrepancy after he left the store one day, alerted security, reviewed footage, and noticed a man fitting his description purchasing a low value item that was never sold around the time that a high value item went missing. They probably called the cops and watched him like a hawk every time he entered the store. Then they probably caught him on camera switching a label, taking the high value item to the cashier, and being billed for a cheaper item. Again, we don't know how he was caught but when the truth comes out we think it will probably be as we just guessed. We are not sure why Ortega chose to engage in "ticket switch fraud" while gainfully employed as a parole officer by the state of New Jersey. Maybe he had more in common with his clients than a mutual disrespect for the law. We think he probably supervised someone that went to prison for switching labels and realized how easy it would be for him to do the same thing. That or maybe he overheard someone that works in loss prevention talk about having trouble busting label switchers. Maybe it was something darker. Was Ortega in bed with his clients? Were these clients mobsters, drug dealers, and prostitutes? They probably were. It wouldn't surprise us if he owed money to such people and resorted to retail theft to pay off those debts. Are we stretching things by suggesting that this busted criminal parole officer may have been dirtier than his recent arrest proves? We don't think so because he is human. As long as man's laws are enforced by man we will never see such a thing as a trustworthy law enforcement officer. All humans are subject to the same temptations and desires. Some don't find out that they lack the willpower to resist those temptations until they are in a position of authority and by that time they care more about maintaining their status than they do for society. That is because nobody really cares more about others than they do about themselves and anyone that claims not to is a liar. Everyone is a sinner, some are just better at hiding their sins. People that work in law enforcement are just as flawed as everyone else. This case is being prosecuted by Esther Suarez of the Hudson County Prosecutors Office. #jorgeortega #target #theft #fraud #esthersuarez

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34352/nj-parole-officer-jorge-ortega-arrested-for-switching-tags-at-target

Lawrence Ray: Snitch Notorious for Sarah Lawrence College Sex Cult

Before becoming infamous for his role in the Sarah Lawrence College sex cult scandal, Lawrence Ray snitched on his former best friend during a tax evasion case. That former best friend was former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik. Kerik was sentenced to three years in federal prison in 2010 in that case. In the video below Kerik told Inside Edition that Ray was the government's primary witness in that case and called him a danger to society to that should be in prison the rest of his life. The narrator said that Ray was the best man at Kerik's wedding. Several pictures are shows of Ray and Kerik together before they had a falling out due to Ray snitching. They had been friends since the 1990s. The Sarah Lawrence College case made headlines this past February after Ray's arrest on charges of sex trafficking, extortion, and forced labor. He is accused of using physical and psychological abuse to brainwash a group of his daughter's college friends. Once brainwashed some of the girls engaged in a commercial sex act while others gave Ray over a $1 million of their parents' money. The tactics used by Ray as described by the United States Attorney's Office (USAO) sound like something out of a Cold War spy flick. Tactics like sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, and torture by means of tying people up with plastic bags over their heads causing them to suffocate. If convicted Ray faces up to 20 years in federal prison as a snitch. The sex trafficking charges alone carry a mandatory minimum of 15 years. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Ray is currently a pre-trial detainee incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City (MCC New York). #lawrenceray #sarahlawrencecollege #berniekerik #mccnewyork

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34351/lawrence-ray-snitch-notorious-for-sarah-lawrence-college-sex-cult

Fort Worth Police Officer Gary Hawley Arrested for DUI at Grade School

Fort Worth Police Lieutenant Gary Hawley was found passed out drunk in a carpool lane with a kid in the backseat next to an elementary school at 3:30 in the afternoon in Grapevine, Texas recently. Grapevine Police arrested him on a charge of driving while intoxicated with a child under the age of 15. We are not sure if he was picking his kid up from Cannon Elementary School at the time or if the kid in the car was even his. The Grapevine Police booked him into jail and took the above mugshot. As you can see in the mugshot he appears to be totally wasted. Following his arrest, the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) confiscated Hawley's gun and badge after placing him on restricted duty status. While on restricted duty status he will not be allowed to act as an officer in any capacity. He has been with the FWPD for 14 years. An internal investigation has also been launched. #garyhawley #dui #drunkdriving #drunk #alcohol #duimugshot #mugshots

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34350/fort-worth-police-officer-gary-hawley-arrested-for-dui-at-grade-school

Trenton Police Officer Mike Wilson Arrested for Statutory Rape

Former Trenton Police Officer Mike Wilson has been arrested for statutory rape. Wilson was an officer in Trenton, Missouri not New Jersey since July of 2018. Trenton Police Chief Rex Ross announced the firing of Wilson before he was officially charged but said only that his firing was for violating department policy. The investigation was conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP). MSHP commonly investigates allegations of criminal wrongdoing by officers of other departments. The investigation began after Wilson sent shirtless pictures of himself to a minor on Snapchat. During the investigation MSHP learned that Wilson had sexual intercourse with a 15 year old girl at his home in Trenton on September 3rd. MSHP says that the victim claims to have told Wilson that she was a minor before having sex with him. They also say that Wilson confessed to having sex with the girl, but did not way whether he confirmed or denied knowing she was a minor. We were able to find public records for a 25 year old male named Michael Wilson in the Trenton area, but could not find an address in Trenton itself. #mikewilson #sexoffenders #statutoryrape #snapchat

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34349/trenton-police-officer-mike-wilson-arrested-for-statutory-rape

Fresno Police Officer Jeffrey Logue Arrested for Child Porn

Fresno Police Officer Jeffrey Logue was arrested at police headquarters yesterday on child pornography charges. The arrest was made by the Fresno County Sheriffs Office. He was taken directly to jail and booked on $20,000 bail. Searches of the Fresno County Jail inmate page did not produce any results for Officer Logue, so he is probably free on bail. Logue's attorney commented that his client has never "physically abused a child" which is easy to say when his client is accused of watching other people physically abuse children. A spokesperson for the Central Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force told CBS 47 (video below) that Logue possessed "something that was very clearly an image of a child in an inappropriate nature." Fresno Police Chief Andrew Hall immediately fired Logue and issues a statement denouncing his proclivities. #jeffreylogue #sexoffenders #childpornography

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34348/fresno-police-officer-jeffrey-logue-arrested-for-child-porn

Brandon Bernard Scheduled to be Executed Tomorrow in Indiana

We got an email from Change.org today asking us to sign the petition asking Donald Trump to commute the sentence of Brandon Bernard who is scheduled to be executed tomorrow at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana (USP Terra Haute). As we learned from a Democracy Now video on YouTube (embedded below) Mr. Bernard was just 18 years old when he was an accomplice to the murder of a white couple. He did not actually kill anyone himself, but received the death penalty just the same. Now hundreds of thousands of people online as well as jurors from his trial and the prosecutor are calling on President Trump to spare his life. Brandon Bernard was a getaway driver during a robbery gone bad in 1999. During that robbery his partner in crime killed Todd and Stacie Bagley of Killen, Texas. His partner in crime was Christopher Vialva. Vialva was executed at USP Terre Haute on September 24 the of this year for HIS crimes (https://ift.tt/3hUKnpr). Now it appears that Vialva's crimes will lead to the death of a third person that does not deserve to die. A third person that never thought that Vialva was going to hurt anyone and just drove away with him in the vehicle after he did it. Bernard's defense team did not make opening statements and in the penalty stage they called no witnesses. Former juror Gary McClung spoke to CBS News and some of those statements are in the Democracy Now video below. McClung said that "the death penalty is far too harsh" and that he regrets voting in favor of it back in the year 2000. McClung is one of five of nine surviving jurors that has spoken out publicly in support of sparing Bernard's life. Former Assistant United States Attorney Angela Moore wrote an op-ed for the Indianapolis Star (https://ift.tt/3fcTwtG) arguing that Bernard's life should be spared. She wrote that op-ed even though years earlier she was the one that prosecuted Bernard, convinced a jury to sentence him to death, and wrote appellate briefs defending the sentence. Kim Kardashian West called President Trump to plead for Bernard's life (https://ift.tt/3m3LMMH). We know that Trump does not listed to reason, but we do know that he listens to Kimye, so hopefully he still cares enough about them to spare Brandon Bernard. We were thinking that maybe Kimye and others should try pleading with other people not to execute Bernard. People like the jail staff whose jobs it is to actually kill him. We think that people should petition USP Terre Haute Warden Tom Watson (https://ift.tt/2JTCNAt) to order his employees not to carry out the execution. This author personally sent Warden Watson a message via LinkedIn asking him not to execute Bernard (screenshot above). We also think people should ask individual Terre Haute employee not to show up for work that day. If the prison has no staff then nobody can execute him. Perhaps a protest outside the prison capable of blocking access to it would be appropriate here. If you know anyone that works at USP Terre Haute please contact them and say "just say no." According to public records one Thomas J Watson age 53 resides in Terre Haute, Indiana. BOP records list the FCC Terre Haute Complex Warden as one T.J. Watson with the mailing address 1455 JUSTICE RD, TERRE HAUTE, IN 47802-9114. That address appears to be part of the FCC Terre Haute complex. Previous addresses listed all appear to be associated with other federal prisons. This indicates that unlike most BOP employees Warden Watson knows how to purchase or rent property through trusts so that his name is not linked to his home address in public records. We did however find a possible personal email address tomwatson1967[at]yahoo.com. #brandonbernard #uspterrehaute #donaldtrump #tomwatson

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34347/brandon-bernard-scheduled-to-be-executed-tomorrow-in-indiana

Mandan Police Officer Scott Warzecha Caught Filming Kid in Bathroom

Mandan Police Officer Scott Warzecha was arrested last month after a young teen girl found a camera in her bathroom pointed directly at her while she was showing. Then she found a cell phone that had been recording the footage from that camera an others. They had all been setup to film her as she went in and out of the shower. The telephone belonged to Officer Warzecha. Investigators discovered that one of the cameras was hidden in an exhaust fan that Warzecha had cut a small hole in to fit a small camera. Blood was found next to the hole, so investigators have requested a search warrant for his DNA to see if he cut himself while setting up the camera. He used that and the other cameras to record the girl showering in October and November of this year. Warzecha is charged with one count of using a minor in a sexual performance and two counts of surreptitious intrusion. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years i prison if convicted. He was fired by the Mandan Police Department (MPD) after the videos were discovered. Despite the seriousness of the charges he was allowed to bail out of jail for just $5,000 and allowed him to leave town. Public records contain the following information about Warzecha: Scott Michael Warzecha Gender: Male Age: 45 DOB: Aug 1975 Last Known Home Address: 2232 53RD ST MANDAN, ND 58554 We are listing that address so that people in the area know what he has been up to. We think that he might go back there for trial even though he is out of town at the moment. Please do not use this information to harm people or property. #scottwarzecha #sexoffenders #childpornography #spying #cameras

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34346/mandan-police-officer-scott-warzecha-caught-filming-kid-in-bathroom

Franklin County Deputy Jason Meade Shot Wrong Man During Manhunt

Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade shot and killed 23 year old Casey Goodson last Friday during a manhunt for someone else. The above images of Meade came from a story by Del Dunduit "My New Chapter" titled "Kick the Crap Out of the Bad Guys" that now returns a 404 error no doubt because Meade was hoping to keep people from finding pictures of him during the days between the shooting and when he was named. Fortunately Del Dunduit did not delete the cached copy of the page from Google so we were able to download the images and upload the original article as a PDF. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) was quick to call this murder justified based on the behavior of an innocent young man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time during a manhunt for someone else led by the U.S. Marshals Service. Police are quick to accuse Goodson of waving a gun as he drove by Deputy Meade who was sitting in an unmarked vehicle. Then they say Deputy Meade opened fire killing him. The fact that Meade was in an unmarked vehicle indicates that there was no way for Goodson to know that he was waving a gun in front of a cop during a manhunt. Waving a gun in public does not justify shooting someone. FCSO deputies conveniently do not wear body cameras so the likelihood of being able to prove Meade's guilt with the amount of scientific certainty necessary for police to hold one of their own accountable is impossible. According to Del Dunduit "He's a combination of John Wayne, Chuck Norris, and Sylvester Stallone." He was a United States Marine for 8 years, saw combat in Iraq in 2005, has been a deputy with the FCSO for the past 17 years, and was a member of the SWAT team. His combination of military training, and reckless disregard for human life manifested by him shooting at random people certainly appear to make him a real life combination of Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone. As the pastor at Rosedale Free Will Baptist Church just north of Columbus at the address above for several years he seems like a bit of a religious nut like John Wayne. #jasonmeade #usmarshalsservice #caseygoodson #bodycams #baptists

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34345/franklin-county-deputy-jason-meade-shot-wrong-man-during-manhunt

Tirso Martinez Sanchez Got a Light Sentence for Snitching on El Chapo

Tirso Martinez Sanchez received a slap on the wrist sentence despite making between $15 million and $20 million working with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa Drug Cartel. United States District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced him to 9 years in federal prison back in February, but allowed him credit for time served including pretrial detention in the United States and in a Mexico. That amounted to at least six years, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was also given the option to credit two additional years for prison time served in Mexico. As a result the BOP said that he would likely serve less than one more year. We checked the BOP inmate locator online and found no listings for anyone with his first name and any variation of his last that we could think of. This would not be the first time that the BOP has decided to omit the name of a rat from the public database that lists where inmates are or last did their time. According to media reports, Martinez Sanchez was known as El Chapo's "Train Daddy" when he served as head of transportation for the Sinaloa Cartel. The job involved managing a "cocaine train" between Mexico and New York City between 2000 and 2003 that generated revenues of at least $500 million. Sanchez told Judge Cogan that he felt remorse, but we don't believe him. The only thing he might feel remorse for would be ratting out his former co-workers to save himself a life sentence. We were not about to find any public records for anyone specifically named Tirso Martinez Sanchez in the state of New York which is not surprising since he extradited from Mexico in 2014 and did prison time there before that. We did however find a record for one Tirso M Sanchez that listed an apartment address in the Bronx during the same time period that Sanchez was working as head of transportation for the Sinaloa Cartel. We have no idea where he is now. #tirsomartinezsanchez #elchapo #sinaloa #drugs #mdcbrooklyn

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34344/tirso-martinez-sanchez-got-a-light-sentence-for-snitching-on-el-chapo

Ithaca Police Sergeant Kevin Slattery Suspended for Comments

Ithaca Police Sergeant Kevin Slattery has been suspended for confessing on camera to using excessive force years ago and joking about evidence tampering. The Ithaca Police Department (IPD) and City of Ithaca claim that his comments were fictitious. After reviewing the body camera footage we are not so sure and think that calling it fictitious seems to be the only way to get away with doing what Sgt. Slattery admits to doing on camera. In the video below we isolated the relevant portion of the footage released by the IPD. In that footage Sgt. Slattery can be heard telling a fellow officer a story about himself assaulting a man that he had just taken a DNA sample from a few minutes earlier. He says that he responded to some sort of disturbance where that man was in a room with easy access to a long gun in plain view. He said that he didn't want him to have access to the gun so he pinned him against a wall, suplexed him, took him to the ground, struck him with his knees several times, struck him in the neck, and handcuffed him. Then he says that the subject went dead weight and refused to move when officers tried to move him to the back seat of a patrol car. At that point Sgt. Slattery claims that he and a fellow officer grabbed both of his feet and "bounced him all the way down the stairs." Slattery's comments then turned to the DNA collection where jokingly talked about screwing with the suspect by saying "sealing it, we have to put in all the evidence first." The other officer can then be overheard saying that you really should let the suspect handle the sample and put it in the container so that you can't be accused of tampering with it, but then he says "with him asking questions at the end, I pry would have did it." Then Sgt. Slattery appears to realize his body camera is on, says "oh, hold up," and turns the camera off. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick and IPD Chief Dennis Nayor released a joint statement saying, "the Sergeant's apparently-fictitious comments remain entirely inappropriate and unacceptable." Chief Nayor added "I immediately ordered a thorough investigation and placed the involved member on suspension from duty." We hope that Nayor's department does in fact conduct a thorough investigation into the incident in which Slattery claims to have dragged a man down the stairs feet first. There are ways that officers are trained to deal with passive resistance such as a person going dead weight and forcing officers to move them. Such ways include grabbing the subject by the arms and dragging them head first so that the only parts of their body that is dragged are their feet. We think that Slattery's admission sounds like more than a joke, but at the same time we concede that the subsequent comment about the DNA evidence sounds more like a joke. Slattery's demeanor changes from what sounds like an honest admission of "I f*cked him up one night, years ago" to chuckling and joking about putting evidence in with the DNA sample. #kevinslattery #dennisnayor #svantemyrick #bodycams #assault #dna

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34343/ithaca-police-sergeant-kevin-slattery-suspended-for-comments

Portland Police Found in Contempt by Federal Judge Marco Hernandez

In a rare move United States District Judge Marco Antonio Hernandez of Beaverton, Oregon issued an opinion and order that at first glance might appear to have some interests of justice at heart. I say "rare move" and "appears" because based on my personal experiences with Hernandez he rarely has the interests of justice at heart and is far more likely to be motivated by ego when making decisions. That makes me wonder how much of his recent order was motivated by the behavior of Portland Police officers towards protesters and how much of it was motivated by the simple fact that he is a power hungry tyrant outraged that anyone would dare disobey the Great Marco The Magnificent Hernandez. The order in question involves a restraining order issued by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon this past summer. The order prohibited the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) from using tear gas and other less than always lethal crowd control munitions on protesters in ways not authorized by PPB Use of Force Directive 1010 and specifically stated that such munitions "shall not be used where people engaged in passive resistance are likely to be subjected to the force." He also specifically stated that when using pepper spray "members shall minimize exposure to non-targeted persons." The PPB Use of Force Directive 1010 limits the use of less lethal than lead munitions to situations in response to "active aggression" and to avoid using real guns. The Directive defined "active aggression" as "[a] threat or overt act of an assault (through physical or verbal means), coupled with the present ability to carry out the threat or assault, which reasonably indicates that an assault or injury to any person is about to happen, unless intervention occurs." He then reviewed several incidents in which the PPB is accused of violating his order before rejecting the Plaintiffs' claims in all but three incidents. That first incident recognized by Judge Hernandez as a violation involved Officer Brent Taylor. Brent Taylor is the notorious "Officer 12" known for being among the most brutal thugs ever to wear a uniform in the city of Portland (https://ift.tt/33TI4jn). Judge Hernandez ruled that "Officer Taylor did not use his FN303 in response to active aggression" when he fired 15 rounds from a FN303 Less Lethal Launcher at a group of protesters. Taylor argued that because the protesters had a banner that he had every right to believe that they were engaged in active aggression due to previous incidents of protesters using banners as weapons or as a means to conceal weapons. Judge Hernandez did not accept Taylor's explanation that would have set a dangerous precedent allowing cops to attack anyone carrying a banner just in case they were using it to conceal weapons or might to decide to use it as a weapon. Hernandez further found that an individual refusing to let go of a banner is at most engaged in "passive resistance" and not engaged in "active aggression." The second incident recognized by Judge Hernandez as a violation also involved Officer Brent Taylor. Officer Taylor fired 10 rounds from his FN 303 at protesters that were trying to pull an individual on roller skates back into the crowd. Taylor testified that he thought other officers were trying to arrest the person and that protesters were trying to unarrest the person. Hernandez found that video evidence of the incident did not support Officer Taylor's position. Hernandez wrote that video shows the person on roller skates fall down during a struggle over a banner and the crowd pulled the protester back into the crowd. No evidence shows any efforts being made to arrest the roller skater at the time. Hernandez also wrote that none of the protesters were engaged in verbal or physical acts that could be reasonably construed to constitute a threat of assault. The third incident recognized by Judge Hernandez as a violation involved an unknown officer using impact munitions on an individual that was trying to grab an unknown object on the street. Hernandez says that video shows a person approach an item between the police line and crowd when an unknown officer opened fire with a usually less than lethal weapon. PPB Officer Zachary Domka testified that the victim's behavior indicated that he or she may have intended to throw an object at the police. Judge Hernandez wrote "it simply cannot be that any attempt by an individual to pick up an item off the ground at a protest constitutes a threat of assault to officers or others." I couldn't agree with him more on those cases. Police injure and kill countless people every year just because they see them doing something they think might be a precursor to violence towards them. It can be something as innocent as not taking their hands out of their pockets, reaching for their glove compartment, or moving towards an object that an officer does not want to risk being hit with for them to shoot first and ask questions later. The worst thing that will usually happen to the officer is some time on paid administrative leave before his fellow officers find some excuse to justify whatever they did. Hernandez's findings are a step in the right direction, but they are still not good enough. I believe that Officer Taylor committed perjury. He should be fired and charged with perjury, but that will almost certainly never happen. The best sign of hope for any real justice in the case of Officer Taylor would be in Judge Hernandez's recitation of the federal contempt statute: "A court of the United States shall have power to punish by fine or imprisonment, or both, at its discretion, such contempt of its authority, and none other, as (1) Misbehavior of any person in its presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice; (2) Misbehavior of any of its officers in their official transactions; (3) Disobedience or resistance to its lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command." - Judge Marco Hernandez Judge Hernandez clearly wants the city of Portland to be on notice that further acts of contempt will result in imprisonment for those responsible. Based on my personal experience dealing with Hernandez for many years I know first hand that there are few things he hates more than disobedience. I believe that there is a good chance that if Officer Taylor violates Hernandez's order again that he will be personally jailed for it. That would certainly be the case if Hernandez had held Taylor in contempt personally, but instead he found the city in contempt based on his action, so there is a good chance that by having this municipal buffer between himself and Hernandez that he can avoid jail time for future violations. The city would most definitely face fines, but I doubt that Hernandez will actually jail an officer based on a restraining order issued to the city. The best chance anyone has to get him personally jailed would be to keep protesting, keep filming, and hope to catch Taylor violating the restraining order again. Only then might Taylor face real justice. As for the other cases, Hernandez failed to hold other officers responsible when he should have. Hernandez loves to make himself appear as though he is reaching a compromise between the parties even when that appearance of compromise comes at the expense of justice. A lot of judges do this because they expect their decisions to be challenged on appeal and want to be able to say that they considered the needs of both parties. I've seen this happen a lot when Hernandez sentences people in criminal cases. The prosecution will seek the high end of whatever they think they can justify while the defense will argue the low end. Then Hernandez will usually hand down a sentence in the middle absent extenuating circumstances justifying a minimal or maximum sentence. In this case Hernandez knew that if he sided with the police on everything that it would make him look bad publicly. Having more eyes on Hernandez is a good way to make sure that he does not side with the government on every issue. Otherwise the temptation to find excuses to support the police is too great for people like Hernandez. Just having a journalist follow a case can be enough to make sure that if you lose you can at least count on the outcome being no worse than a compromise. Hernandez is a narcissist that cares more about his image than justice. A just judge would have found the city in contempt in other cases as well. Two of those other cases involved nothing more than kicking smoke canisters back towards the police line before officers opened fire. A smoke canister is not the kind of object likely to cause injury to an officer in riot gear. An officer not wearing a gas mask might be able to argue fear of smoke inhalation causing damage to their respiratory system, but that is not the case with the officers in those cases. Hernandez appears to be relying on the loose definition of assault used in federal courts. In the federal system one can be found guilty simple assault simply by engaging in an intentional act that would cause someone in the alleged victim's shoes reasonable apprehension of bodily harm (https://ift.tt/30GdGXa). Under such laws people have been convicted of assault in federal courts simply by throwing harmless objects in someone's direction. One might argue that kicking the smoke canisters would cause an officer reasonable apprehension of harm. I would probably agree if the officer was not wearing riot gear because if you kick a canister in their face it would leave a mark, but I don't believe that a reasonable officer in riot gear would be placed in fear of bodily harm by someone kicking a smoke canister. Hernandez wrote "When kicked, smoke canisters can envelop officers in smoke, eliminating their line of sight and providing an opportunity for individuals to injure officers with projectiles." Nowhere in that justification does Hernandez say that fear of being struck with the canister is what met the criteria. Instead he relies on a fear that they would be vulnerable to other attacks with their vision obstructed. Reasonable apprehension of vulnerability to future attacks does not meet the reasonable apprehension of harm prong necessary to sustain an assault charge in federal court. Likewise I don't believe that the incident of someone picking up a smoke canister constitutes assault because one does not necessarily know what someone intends to do with it. Sure, a reasonable officer would apprehend that the person picking up the smoke canister might intend to throw it at them, but ultimately unless they can read their mind they do not know. Hernandez wrote that "kicking or throwing smoke canisters constitutes a threat or act of assault." The protester in this case did not kick or throw a smoke canister. A fear that someone might use pick up a smoke canister and use it to eliminate their line of sight is not an assault or an attempted assault. Hernandez says nothing to defend his position that officers did not violate the order by using impact munitions on somebody that was setting a dumpster on fire. Setting a dumpster on fire is a crime, but nobody is trying to argue that setting a dumpster on fire constitutes a threat of assault. The Directive does not include threat of property damage in its definition of active aggression. The final incident in which Hernandez sided with the PPB appears to be the only one in which officers were justified using force. It involved unknown objects actually being thrown at them. That usually constitutes assault and it has been well established that throwing heavy objects such as rocks constitutes assault. Conclusion Judge Hernandez was a prosecutor in Washington County before becoming a judge. His loyalties clearly still lie primarily with law enforcement. If he were a judge of the people with their interests at heart he would not defend officers that use force on people that do not present them with a clear threat of bodily harm. Hernandez only issued findings of contempt in cases so obvious that he would have made himself look like a fool in the eyes of the public and the Ninth Circuit had he not. Brent Taylor seems to have bruised Hernandez's ego just enough to be made an example of despite Hernandez's overwhelming loyalty to the state. Taylor's actions gave Hernandez the opportunity to make himself look reasonable to a sizeable portion of the public without doing enough to alienate his law enforcement allies. #marcohernandez #brenttaylor #zacharydomka #blacklivesmatter

source https://copblaster.com/blast/34342/portland-police-found-in-contempt-by-federal-judge-marco-hernandez