3 NYC police officers surrender in sodomy case

Three police officers surrendered Tuesday on felony charges stemming from claims by a tattoo parlor worker that he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment during an arrest. Officer Richard Kern has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault; Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales have been charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct, according to prosecutors. In addition to those felonies, all three were charged with misdemeanors, including falsifying records.

They were indicted last week by a grand jury investigating the shocking allegations. The officers turned themselves in at the Brooklyn district attorney's office Tuesday to be processed for a court appearance. A law enforcement official said the grand jury had been presented incriminating forensic evidence collected by investigators. That evidence, combined with the eyewitness account of a fellow officer, pointed to Kern as a primary suspect, according to the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the indictment was not yet unsealed.

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Sean Bell vigil on 2nd anniversary of shooting

NEW YORK (AP) ― About 100 people gathered before dawn Tuesday for a candlelight vigil and prayer service on the second anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day that sparked outrage in the black community. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Sean Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, led the memorial on the street in Queens where the 23-year-old black man was killed outside a strip club on Nov. 25, 2006 after leaving his bachelor's party.

At precisely 4:10 a.m. -- the time of the shooting -- the mourners rang a large bell 50 times to mark the number of bullets fired at the Bell and two of his friends, who were seriously injured. After laying wreaths and flowers, the group marched half a mile to a church, where Sharpton held a prayer service. "The idea is to commemorate the second anniversary and to continue to push for a federal case," Sharpton said later.

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No Appeal for Weehawken Officer who Beat Black Teen to Death

The state Supreme Court has ruled that it will not hear an appeal of the sentence of former Weehawken Police Officer Alejandro Jaramillo, who was convicted in the beating death of a Union City teenager, authorities said. Former Weehawken Police Officer Alejandro Jaramillo was convicted on May 1, 2006 of assaulting Jose Luis Ives Jr. in front of the boy's Union City home in July 2003 while off-duty. In July 2006 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In August a state appellate court upheld the sentence following Jaramillo's appeal in which he claimed the trial judge made mistakes when giving instructions to the jury. He also argued his sentence was excessive. The appeals court rejected those arguments. Witnesses said Jaramillo, who was off-duty at the time, punched Ives several times after a dispute involving Jaramillo's car. The boy suffered a fractured skull and died several days later. Jaramillo was sentenced to eight years in prison on the assault count, plus seven more years for filing false reports on the incident. The jury acquitted him of manslaughter.

The state Supreme Court said it would not take up the case in court papers filed on Nov. 19. [MORE]

Complaint filed over Long Island police policies

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — Hispanic advocates claimed Tuesday that the Long Island police department that investigated the killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant fails to adequately investigate crimes committed by whites against Latinos. In a complaint to the U.S. Justice Department, the national advocacy group Latino Justice contended that the Suffolk County Police Department discourages Latinos from reporting crimes.

Police and county officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but they have repeatedly said since the Nov. 8 killing of Marcelo Lucero that crime victims are not asked about their residency status.
Seven Long Island teenagers have pleaded not guilty to charges including gang assault after police say they surrounded Lucero and another man near a train station. The men were targeted by the group because they were Hispanic, police said, and were only the latest victims in what authorities believe was a marauding spree by the teenagers. Lucero's companion fled and called for help, but the 37-year-old laborer was killed when he was stabbed once in the chest. The 17-year-old accused of inflicting the fatal blow is being held without bail, charged with murder as a hate crime.

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Lima Officer Wants Tarika Wilson Shooting Death Trial Moved

May 29--LIMA, Ohio -- Attorneys for a Lima police sergeant charged in the shooting death of a Lima woman during a drug raid want his trial moved out of town.  In a motion filed Tuesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court, attorneys for Sgt. Joseph Chavalia asked that his upcoming jury trial be moved out of town because of extensive media coverage of the fatal shooting and subsequent indictment of Sergeant Chavalia. "This county has been so saturated with the facts underlying this case that it is impossible for defendant to receive a fair trial before a jury composed of impartial persons who learn of the case only through the evidence properly admitted during trial," attorney William Kluge wrote in the motion. Following a two-month investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation into the death of Tarika Wilson, 26, and wounding of her 1-year-old son, Sincere, Sergeant Chavalia was indicted by an Allen County grand jury on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He has been on paid leave from the police department since the Jan. 4 shooting. Mr. Kluge said yesterday that the change of venue is needed because of the media coverage and because of "the feelings in the community and all the issues pertinent to that."

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Del Norte County Sheriff shooting death of Unarmed Black Man Probed

Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson has released the name of the deputy who shot and killed a man on May 16 earlier on the Hwy. 199 Hiouchi Bridge over Smith River. Meanwhile, retired English teacher Greg Jones, of Brookings, the father of Eric Jones, 27, who died at the scene, feels that perhaps unnecessary force was used. He said that it’s likely his son was not armed, and so he wonders why lethal force was used in the incident. His son was shot twice; and one of his two dogs also was shot twice. Eric Jones was a graduate of Brookings-Harbor School District. He suffered from a bipolar condition, his father said. The victim was hit with one shot in his abdomen and one in a shoulder with a “downward trajectory into his torso,” said Mike Riese, Del Norte County D.A. Riese said that his office’s investigation will take weeks, and may come down to determining if Deputy Ramsay Williamson had time after shooting the dog to transition into the use of nonlethal force against Jones. Eric Jones, after leading officers on a chase 199 on May 16, allegedly ordered his dog to attack a deputy from Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office (DNSO). “Unfortunately just because someone is unarmed does not mean they aren’t imposing a real threat,” Wilson said. He said that Williamson was carrying a Taser at the time of the shooting, but that it wasn’t clear whether he had a baton or pepper spray too. “Most of our officers carry mace, a Taser and normally a baton,” the sheriff said.

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Pasadena Police Officers on Trial for Beating Latino Man to Death

The trial of two police officers accused of killing an inmate got under way in a downtown Houston courtroom Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported. Pasadena police officers J.W. Buckaloo and Christopher Jones are charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Pedro Gonzales Jr., 51, after his arrest on July 22. Gonzales' body was found in the Pasadena jail after the officers arrested him for public drunkenness.The Gonzales family said the trial is the beginning of what they hope is a long road to justice. Family members said they believe their loved one was murdered. "Honestly, I can't even look at them. I'm not mad at the entire police force. I'm only mad at two people. Two people took my father from me," said Adrian Gonzales, Pedro Gonzales' son. "It's been hard. It's been very hard," widow Diana Gonzales said. "He didn't deserve to die like that." Jurors will decide if the officers used excessive force or did what they had to in order to subdue Gonzales after the arrest. Buckaloo and Jones said they had to subdue Gonzales when he resisted arrest. The autopsy showed that Gonzales suffered broken bones, broken teeth and died from a perforated lung. The trial is expected to last one week. The officers are relieved of duty, pending the outcome. [MORE]

Family Claims 15 Yr. Old Black Boy Beaten by Macon Police

Police are conducting an internal investigation into the use of force in the arrest of a 15-year-old boy outside a Warner Robins bowling alley during the Memorial Day weekend. The boy's father claims that police abused their authority and beat his son. The boy, identified by his father as Jamarian K. Jenkins, was charged with felony obstruction and disorderly conduct after a scuffle Saturday night with police responding to a 911 call of a fight in the parking lot of the Gold Cup Bowling Center on Russell Parkway, Police Chief Brett Evans said today. The internal investigation is standard policy in such use of force, which in this case was a stun gun, Evans said. The boy, who was detained during the weekend at a Youth Detention Facility, was released on a two-week in-house detention after a hearing this afternoon in Houston County Juvenile Court, police Detective Karen Stokes said.

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NY Cop went hunting for Latino homeless man & then Beat him Down, DA says

 
AP A suburban policeman hunted down a homeless, frequently arrested illegal immigrant, hit him hard and left him to die last year, a prosecutor told jurors in opening statements of his manslaughter trial Friday. Assistant District Attorney Perry Perrone said Mount Kisco Officer George Bubaris later confided to a colleague, "I went out hunting or looking for Rene Perez. I found him. I took him to Byram Lake Road," where Perez was found. Perrone said that the next day, as it became known that Perez had died, Bubaris told the colleague, Officer Edward Dwyer, "You're the only one that knows, bro." Perez, 42, had a long history of drunkenness, arrests and 911 calls in Mount Kisco and neighboring Bedford, about 40 miles north of New York City. Defense attorney Andrew Quinn called the prosecution's case "medically absurd" because Perez often injured himself while drunk. He also said Dwyer, who is to testify, "had demons of his own." In April 2007, Perez called police from a coin laundry, possibly seeking a lift to a hospital. Prosecutors say Bubaris, 31, drove the intoxicated Guatemalan immigrant to an out-of-the-way area in Bedford and "inflicted blunt force trauma to Perez's abdomen," leaving him severely injured. Though the indictment does not say how the trauma was inflicted, a lawsuit filed by Perez's brother suggests a nightstick was used.

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Black Man alleges Moss Point Police Attacked him with Taser, NAACP Investigates

 

A Moss Point man said he was the victim of police brutality when a police officer repeatedly used a Taser gun to subdue him. Otis Ashford, 48, said he was hospitalized for two days after the April 18 incident at his sister's home on Westpine Street. At the time police were arresting Ashford on charges of resisting arrest and interfering with the duties of a police officer.  Moss Point Interim Police Chief Frederick Gaston confirmed Friday there was an investigation to determine whether the arresting officers acted inappropriately. Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, said his organization, too, is conducting an independent investigation and has put the city on notice. The NAACP, Clark said, informed the Moss Point Board of Aldermen of its investigation Tuesday night, and asked that the city reestablish its citizen review board to serve a watchdog role over police activity in the city. In the complaint Ashford said he was at his sister's house the night of April 18 when he heard a lot of noise and went outside to check it out. A man later identified as a police officer, Ashford said, yelled for him to go back inside but he stayed outside in a screened-in porch in the front of the house. Ashford and his sister were concerned at the time that a younger brother might have been the one they saw the police officer wrestling with and started yelling for him. The police officer left shortly after with the suspect in tow. Not long after, Ashford said, the police officer returned, bursting in through the front screen door to get to him for allegedly interfering with duties of a police officer. That's when Ashford said he was thrown against a wall and the officer pepper-sprayed him, with some of the spray hitting his sister, before another police officer showed up and repeatedly used a Taser to subdue him. Witnesses said Ashford was unconscious when he was taken from the house to the Moss Point Police Department and from there to Singing River Hospital.

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