Maryland Agrees to settlement in Central Booking Beating Death of Unarmed Black Man - Attacked by 25 Officers

The Maryland Attorney General's Office has agreed to a settlement with the relatives of a man who was beaten to death at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center after a struggle involving correctional officers.  Relatives of Raymond Smoot have agreed to drop their $130 million wrongful death lawsuit in exchange for the settlement. Dwight Pettit, an attorney who represents the family members, says it was the family's decision to settle. He wouldn't disclose the amount.  The settlement will have to be approved by the Board of Public Works.

Smoot was killed in May 2005 after a struggle broke out involving 25 to 30 correctional officers. Relatives of prisoner Raymond Keith Smoot said he was "savagely beaten" by guards. At a news conference they arranged at a niece's home, family members provided photos they took after Smoot's initial treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital; the photos show his face covered in bruises, his eyes blackened and blood-soaked gauze in his mouth.
"They cracked my uncle's skull," said the niece, Delvonna Smoot. "They crushed his face. This did not look like the Raymond Smoot we knew." [MORE] and [MORE]

Sharpton arrested (released) as hundreds protest NYC police shooting

The Rev. Al Sharpton was among dozens arrested Wednesday as demonstrators blocked traffic at the height of the evening rush hour to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day. Police said 216 people were arrested, including Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man's fiancee. They lined up and put their hands behind their backs as police arrested them on disorderly conduct charges.

Sharpton, the two survivors and the fiancee were released about four hours later, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger.

The demonstrators prayed, sang and chanted slogans including "no justice, no peace" as they converged on six heavily used bridges and tunnels that carry traffic to and from Manhattan island. The protests were part of a coordinated campaign to urge federal authorities to investigate the shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006.

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NFL Player says Austin Police Used Excessive Force

Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson believes officers used excessive force against him and plans to fight charges he operated a boat while intoxicated and resisted arrest on a Texas lake over the weekend. "He denies that he was intoxicated," attorney Brian Carney said Monday. "He denies that he resisted arrest."

Benson is scheduled to appear in Travis County Court on May 19 to face charges stemming from an incident Saturday night. Benson failed a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis near Austin and resisted arrest before being hit with pepper spray, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.

He was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Benson's version of what happened is drastically different from the police's description. "There was no resistance on my part," Benson told the Chicago Tribune. "Was I drunk? No."

Police say Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers when a Lower Colorado River Authority officer stopped him for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer's boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.

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TV video shows Philly officers kicking, hitting 3 suspects

A half-dozen police officers kicked and beat three men pulled from a car during a traffic stop as a TV helicopter taped the confrontation. The video, shot by WTXF-TV, shows three police cars stopping a car Monday, two days after a city officer was shot to death responding to a bank robbery.

The tape shows about a dozen officers gathering around the vehicle. About a half-dozen officers hold two of the men on the ground. Both are kicked repeatedly, while one is seen being punched; one also appears to be struck with a baton. The third man is also kicked and ends up on the ground. "On the surface it certainly does not look good in terms of the amount of force that was used," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "But we don't want to rush to judgment."

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Conyers vows thorough probe into NYPD Shooting of Sean Bell

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday met with the family of a man fatally shot by police just hours before his wedding, promising a thorough federal investigation of the incident.  Three New York police detectives were acquitted Friday on all counts in the case of Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a strip club on November 25, 2006. Bell's two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded in the shooting.

"We are going to be putting together the federal strategy," said Rep. John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a Michigan Democrat. "This is important." "We want to make sure that justice is served and that a message is sent out, not just to law enforcement but to the young people of this country, that these kinds of tragedies have to end in this country," he said. The Justice Department said it was conducting an independent investigation to determine if the trio's civil rights were violated.

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More Foul Tapes, Records of S.C. Troopers Using Excessive Force, Slurs Against Blacks

One case that hasn’t been investigated yet involves allegations that a black Columbia college student on his way to a new fast-food job was stopped and handcuffed to a guardrail on I-77 by a trooper, according to a letter from his mother to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, which was forwarded to DPS investigators. It also alleges that he was made to pull down his pants and remove his shoes and that he was taunted with a racial slur.

The allegations also include that officers ripped apart the dashboard of the car, which he had borrowed from his mother, and then gave him a $400 ticket when he couldn’t prove the car was covered by insurance, which she insisted it was, according to the records.  "Eric was devastated by the officer’s behavior and reminded me that I say they are there to protect and serve," Celeste Pinckney wrote March 7, according to a copy of a transcribed letter released Friday.

The officer was on a Patrol motorcycle, according to the letter, which isn’t equipped with video cameras.

The racial slur allegation came seven weeks after Gov. Mark Sanford withdrew his nomination of the current DPS director, Jim Schweitzer, after viewing a videotape showing a white state trooper using a racial slur and threatening a black man.

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Pressure on Black Governor of NY to Act in the Wake of the Sean Bell Case

Civil rights groups are aiming to rouse the activist side of Governor Paterson this week in the aftermath of a not guilty verdict for three detectives who killed an unarmed black man, Sean Bell.

Doubting that federal prosecutors will bring new civil rights charges against the detectives, the activists are resting their hopes for action on the former state senator from Harlem, who once protested alongside them after the 1999 shooting of another unarmed black man, Amadou Diallo.

Mr. Paterson was arrested for civil disobedience during the Diallo protests on almost the same spot where yesterday a civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel, a state senator, Eric Adams, and leaders of a civil rights group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, called on him to use his new power as governor to make changes to a system they say is ineffective in punishing police brutality.

Some of the changes proposed by the activists are ones Mr. Paterson himself has called for in the past, including the creation of a permanent post for an independent state prosecutor to investigate and prosecute police corruption and brutality - a post the governor has the power to create.

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Defense argues Immunity in Suit Alleging Excessive force at VA. Beach Jail: Mentally Ill, Restrained, Black Woman Brutally Beaten by Officers

A federal magistrate said he will recommend within two weeks whether a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged she was the victim of excessive force in the Virginia Beach jail should move forward. Janace Johnson, 60, who has schizoaffective disorder, in September sued the city of Virginia Beach, the state, Sheriff Paul Lanteigne, two sheriff’s deputies and a policeman.

A federal judge in March threw out all Johnson’s claims except for the ones alleging excessive force by sheriff’s deputies. The suit had alleged that she was wrongfully arrested and prosecuted. It also said Johnson did not receive necessary medical care and that law enforcement officers used excessive force against her while she was in the Virginia Beach jail. On Monday, a lawyer for Lanteigne and two sheriff’s deputies argued that his clients are protected by “qualified immunity,” which can shield government employees from claims of civil damages. Attorney Jeff Rosen said his clients were just doing their jobs when they wrestled Johnson to the ground after she refused to follow orders and after she hit a sheriff’s deputy in the face.

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NYPD is Probing Whether Officers Taunted, Prank Called Bell Family after Verdict

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating a cruel prank call to the family of Sean Bell's fiancée that originated from the Manhattan offices of a prominent police union, The Post has learned.
"Ha, ha, ha," someone said in a 1:15 p.m. Friday phone call to the home of Nicole Bell's father Les Paultre, according to a police source. The number for the Sergeants Benevolent Association came up on the caller ID.
"It was just horrible to get that phone call after coming back from the cemetery," said Nicole Bell. Her father said, "The guy was taunting us, laughing. It was horrible because we had just come back from the court and the cemetery." The president of the union, Edward Mullins, said, "If the accusations are true, we will deal with it." [MORE]

Outcome of Sean Bell Case leads to call for Special Prosecutor

A coalition of civil rights advocates on Sunday urged changes in the handling of police misconduct and brutality complaints after the acquittal of three officers involved in the shooting death of an unarmed man on his wedding day. They also called for a permanent state-level special prosecutor to investigate such cases.

"The verdict in the Sean Bell case proves it is almost impossible to successfully prosecute cases of police misconduct, especially in homicide cases," said lawyer Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The verdict underscores the need for systemic change in the way New York handles these important and at times high profile cases, and to improve community relations," said Siegel, an outspoken advocate on civil rights and law enforcement issues.

Three city police officers were cleared Friday in the November 2006 shooting death of Bell outside a night club where he had just left his bachelor party. Two friends were wounded in the volley of 50 shots fired by the undercover officers and two colleagues. The officers charged said they thought they were in mortal danger, but no gun was found in Bell's car.

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