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I--like an elephant in battle,
enduring an arrow shot from a bow--
will endure a false accusation,
for the mass of people
have no principles.
The tamed is the one
they take into assemblies.
The tamed is the one
the king mounts.
The tamed who endures a false accusation
is, among human beings,
the best.
-Dhammapada, 23, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
-Leonardo Da Vinci
Search others for virtues, thyself for vices.
- English proverb
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
- Andrew Carnegie, Scottish businessman, philanthropist (1835-1919)
If opportunity doesn`t knock, build a door.
- Milton Berle, comedian (1908-2002)
Lake Worth officer honored again for saving girl
From Palm Beach Post Staff Reports, Thursday, May 25, 2006
Lake Worth police Sgt. Mike Hall was honored at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., today for pulling an 8-year-old girl out of a trash bin where she'd been buried for seven hours.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others presented Hall with a 2006 National Missing Children's Law Enforcement Award. The girl and her mother also attended the ceremony.
Hall had already been honored in Washington earlier this month by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He won one of three National Missing Children's Awards for his successful efforts in the girl's recovery.
U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, who nominated Hall for that award months earlier, presented the officer with a plaque commemorating his efforts alongside the girl and her mother. Police say the girl was snatched from her home last May by Milagro Cunningham, 17, a friend of her family's. She was then taken to an abandoned landfill and left for dead. Nine agencies joined in the search for the missing child, which ended with Hall and Palm Beach County sheriff's Cpl. Bob Cresswell finding her covered by rocks and broken concrete in a yellow recycling bin. Cunningham is charged with attempted first-degree murder, sexual battery and other felonies in connection with the case.
Cunningham immigrated to the United States illegally from the Bahamas and had been arrested twice before but was never deported. Foley called the recovery an exemplary case - one that showed the value of getting information about missing children out quickly and having multiple enforcement agencies work together in the searches.
"That's the good news about missing children today," Foley said earlier this month. "No longer do you have to wait for days or hours for a lead. People get out on the field."
Retrieved May25, 2006 from http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/05/25/0525hall.html
In my own experience, the period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life. ...Through a difficult period, you can learn, you can develop inner strength, determination, and courage to face the problem. Who gives you this chance? Your enemy.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama
From "The Pocket Dalai Lama," edited by Mary Craig, 2002. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.
Be quick in doing
what's admirable.
Restrain your mind
from what's evil.
When you're slow
in making merit,
evil delights the mind.
-Dhammapada, 9, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Retrived May 22, 2006 from www.Beliefnet.com
Kardasz: The following story describes a lamplighter, a.k.a. whistleblower who suffered retaliation for exercising his right to free speech.
Restored officer to pursue lawsuit - Durant's assistant police chief fired in 2005 for speaking out
From the Clarion Ledger. May 21, 2006, By Jimmie E. Gates, jgates@clarionledger.com
More than a year after being fired, Durant (Mississippi) Assistant Police Chief John Haynes has been reinstated but still plans to pursue a federal lawsuit against the city, the mayor and others.
Haynes said he is continuing his suit, which sought reinstatement and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, because he was fired by the Durant Board of Aldermen in April 2005 after speaking out in a newspaper article about alleged corruption in the city.
"I have lost about $90,000 in savings and salary," said Haynes, who has been working as a police officer in Pickens.
He worked for the department about 11 years before his firing.
Haynes said the biggest thing about his firing was it hurt the image he tries to convey to young people.
"I tell them the biggest thing is to stand up for what is right and to be honest; they told me, 'See what happened to you,' " Haynes said.
The board, including new members, reinstated Haynes on Wednesday in a special meeting, a week after the lawsuit was filed.
Durant Mayor Johnny Pritchard would only say "we rehired him" and that Haynes was fired under another board.
Pritchard referred further comments to City Attorney John Gilmore, who couldn't be reached.
Haynes' attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, said Haynes' suit, which now only seeks damages, could be impacted by how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a California case about freedom of speech protections for public employees.
Haynes said he was informed in a letter from the board that he was being fired because of statements in a March 2, 2005, article in the Kosciusko Star-Herald.
"Plaintiff was an outstanding police officer and had no write-ups or job-related difficulties until he made statements protected by the United States Constitution," the lawsuit said.
"Specifically, plaintiff made statements concerning the integrity of certain public officials which were of public interest...."
Other defendants in the lawsuit are current and former aldermen Howard Roberts, Jim Ferguson, Isaiah Winters and Dora Parkinson.
Ferguson, reached at his home, had no comment. Others could not be reached for comment.
In the California case, which was reargued before the Supreme Court in March, a Los Angeles deputy district attorney filed a lawsuit against three supervisors alleging they retaliated against him for exercising his free speech rights.
The deputy district attorney said a sheriff may have lied in an affidavit for a search warrant in a murder case and sent a memo to superiors recommending the case be dismissed.
He later testified as a defense witness in the case.
The plaintiff said he wasn't promoted and wouldn't be allowed to work on future murder cases.
A U.S. district judge ruled against the deputy district attorney, saying the memo was purely job-related and he wasn't acting in the capacity of a citizen.
However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that the memo was protected speech because it was on a matter of public concern.
"It could do in a lot of cases I have," Waide said, if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the plaintiff in the California case.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which isn't a party to the lawsuit, argued in a friend of the court brief that public employees shouldn't enjoy blanket-free speech protection.
Retrieved May 21, 2006 from http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS/605210375/1002/NEWS01
Kardasz: Another disturbing story about a corrupt LAPD officer.
Suspended Officer Had a History of Accusations
Edward Zamora was linked to questionable evidence several times during his career.
By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer ,May 19, 2006
The LAPD officer suspended after being caught during an undercover sting last week had been accused several times over his 16-year career of planting evidence on suspects, with the city paying out $520,000 to settle two civil lawsuits filed against him.
The district attorney's office is deciding whether to file charges against Edward B. Zamora, who was the subject of an L.A. police investigation in which he was given the opportunity to arrest an undercover officer. Zamora allegedly claimed in his police report that the "suspect" dropped drugs during the arrest, when detectives secretly watching knew that Zamora had actually found the drugs on the ground, where they had been placed by the department.
The LAPD said it targeted Zamora, 44, for an ethics investigation based upon complaints about him and after noticing an unusual pattern of arrests.
The Times found that the city has been aware of accusations that he and officers working with him planted evidence.
In December, the City Council approved a $300,000 settlement of a lawsuit by a 42-year-old man whom Zamora and a partner arrested for possessing a rifle.
A criminal jury acquitted Jorge Hernandez in less than 20 minutes of being a felon in possession of a firearm, but not before he spent more than a year in jail, where he was beaten by fellow inmates.
Hernandez sued the LAPD in federal court, and in November a jury unanimously decided that Zamora and Officer Heriberto Arangure had falsely arrested him and prepared a false police report, court records show. The city settled the case before the jury agreed on a sum for damages.
A year before, the City Council approved a $220,000 settlement with Mauro Garcia, a South Los Angeles man who alleged that Zamora and other officers had planted a rifle and bag of drugs on him after they searched his home in November 1998 without a warrant.
During a deposition in that case, Zamora revealed that he was once briefly a partner of Rafael Perez, the officer at the center of the huge corruption scandal in the LAPD's Rampart Division in the late 1990s. Perez told investigators that he and other officers had routinely falsified evidence, framed suspects and covered up unjustified shootings. Zamora was not linked to that scandal.
LAPD Chief William J. Bratton has highlighted the Zamora case as evidence that the LAPD is taking seriously accusations of misconduct against officers. Officials said the investigation began six months ago.
"We review all the lawsuits and allegations concerning any misconduct by officers. We read every single personnel complaint," said Deputy Chief Michael Berkow. "No one factor led to this investigation, but the totality of the circumstances led to the launch of an integrity audit."
The sting was carried out by the Ethics Enforcement Section, a team created in 2001 as part of the reforms to help ferret out corruption in the wake of the Rampart scandal.
Zamora could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In addition to the two cases that the city settled, Zamora was a defendant in at least two other lawsuits in which defendants claimed that drugs were planted on them. At least one case was dismissed.
Robert Berke, who represented Hernandez, said his client originally pleaded no contest to the gun possession charge. But Berke said he urged Hernandez to change his plea after looking into the case further.
At trial, his attorneys showed that Hernandez's fingerprints were never on the weapon and claimed the officers framed him because he looked homeless.
The city initially offered $1,500 to settle Hernandez's civil suit over the rifle arrest, Berke said, but Hernandez refused.
"The jury in the federal court basically listened to Hernandez, a semi-homeless man, and believed him over the officers," Berke said. "That doesn't happen very often."
According to court records, defense attorneys presented evidence in the case showing that Zamora had been suspended for five days by the LAPD.
In January 2003, the department internally charged him with dishonesty, making false statements and falsifying his daily activity field report. Few details of the accusations are available. But an LAPD Board of Rights found him guilty of having a report log that did not match information on radio frequencies and a computer system, according to the court records.
The second settlement stems from the arrest of Garcia, 38, on Nov. 17, 1998, on suspicion of possessing a short-barrel shotgun and cocaine. Zamora was one of several officers on that case.
The officers said they went to Garcia's home after an informant told them he had just seen a man holding a shotgun there.
When they arrived, officers said, they saw Garcia duck down behind a car, and they then found the shotgun near him and a bag of cocaine in his pocket. Officers said Garcia gave them permission to search his home, where they said they found another weapon.
Garcia was found guilty. But a court of appeal in 2001 overturned his conviction. It said Garcia should have been able to present more evidence in his own defense, including a radio dispatch call from the officers that mentions a narcotics investigation but nothing about a man with a gun.
The court also said Garcia should have been able to show evidence that the officers ransacked his house.
Prosecutors did not refile the case after the appeals court's decision.
Retrieved May 21, 2006 from http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-rampart19may19,1,4470628.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.
- Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), German critic, philosopher. letter, Dec. 9, 1923, quoted in Susan Sontag, “Under the Sign of Saturn,” introductory essay to One-Way Street and Other Writings (1978). Briefe (Frankfurt, 1966), no. 126.
If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.
-Jonathan Winters
SCHENECTADY---An inspector with the Schenectady County Sheriff's Office who was deemed a hero in September for trying unsuccessfully to rescue two children from a burning house, has pleaded guilty to stealing money from an evidence locker at the police department.
Richard Vore, 51. a 27-year veteran of law enforcement, was initially charged with misdemeanor counts of petty larceny and official misconduct for allegedly taking $133 to pay off a gambling debt. He was fired from his $55,000 a year position.
Vore pleaded guilty to one count of petty larceny, a misdemeanor, Monday before Judge Guido Loyola in Schenectady City Court.
He received no jail time or probation but a simple $250 fine. He had already made restitution after being confronted by Buffardi. Prosecutors said the sentence was standard for first time offenders.
Sheriff Harry Buffardi had accused him of taking the money, saying the incident occurred on Nov. 11 and that when he confronted Vore about it on Nov. 22, that after first denying it, Vore allegedly admitted to Buffardi that he had taken the money but said he had repaid it.
Buffardi had audiotaped Vore and Vore could be heard on the tape referring to gambling debts.
However, in court Monday, Vore’s attorney, Cheryl Coleman denied that Vore’s gambling debts had been the motive but didn’t offer any other motive.
Vore has retired and is collecting his pension.
On Sept. 19, Vore had run into a blazing house on Strong St. in the city, attempting to save Paul Thomas, 3, and his 23-month old sister, Shadaya Thomas. The children died in the fire. Vore had collapsed and had to be rescued from the building.
Retrieved May 18, 2006 from http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041806HeroCop.html
Thursday, May 18, 2006, By Scott Hagen, shagen@citpat.com -- 768-4929
Michigan - One walked miles holding the leash of his K-9 dog, tracking suspects. The other spent hours enforcing traffic laws while also filling in as a detective and solving major crimes.
For their efforts, Jackson police Officer William Mills and Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Kuhl earned honors from their departments Wednesday night as county and city police agencies lauded their own at an annual banquet.
Sheriff Dan Heyns called Kuhl the "epitome of a police officer. ! He really has police work in his heart. It's the same piece of DNA in both (Kuhl and Mills). They are cops to their core."
Kuhl took on a wide range of assignments in 2005, from six months in the detective bureau, where he closed out several cases, to traffic patrol, where he handed out tickets to motorists.
"I was very honored and humbled to get it," said Kuhl, 30, a nine-year department veteran. "I love all aspects of this job. ! I love to be in the middle of it."
Mills, 37, a 15-year veteran of the department, gave credit to his partner, the police dog Beggy, for the duo's efforts in tracking suspects and searching houses and cars for drugs on the late-night shift, and at whatever time they're needed.
On Sunday, Beggy tracked a man who allegedly threatened three supermarket employees with a knife. He found the suspect in the attic of an abandoned house on Francis Street.
That morning Beggy discovered 85 grams of powder cocaine hidden in a Burger King bag inside a car.
Police Chief Ervin Portis said Mills was "a treasure. He's a guy that all those young officers look to for guidance. People in the community know him."
Both departments awarded commendations and meritorious citations to other deputies, officers, state troopers, corrections officers, dispatchers and reserves. Nearly 50 awards were handed out.
"These awards affirm who we are, and what we expect from each other," Heyns said. "I think it sets the standard, but I think by repeating it every year it's building a culture of integrity."
Retrieved May 18, 2006 from http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1147968450277890.xml&coll=3
New leader of State Police Foundation named
INDIANAPOLIS - The attorney general says he hopes a new director will restore the integrity of the Indiana State Police Memorial Foundation.
Former Indianapolis City-County Council president Beurt SerVaas is replacing former Indiana State Police officer Cody Johnson.
The foundation was investigated by Attorney General Steve Carter's officer after an audit found funding irregularities.
The audit showed that the Board inappropriately transferred nearly 93-thousand-dollars from a pension fund and another 47-thousand dollars was unaccounted for.
The foundation was set up in 2003 to benefit the families of slain officers and to maintain a memorial.
Retrieved May 18, 2006 from http://www.wishtv.com/global/story.asp?s=4917830&ClientType=Printable
Kardasz: This legislation is a step in the right direction. The American Library Association opposes it but based on my experience I would say that our libraries need this control.
Contact Jeff Urbanchuck of Congressman Fitzpatrick's office to voice your support: jeff.urbanchuk@mail.house.gov or 202-225-4276
From the web site of Representative Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. http://fitzpatrick.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=43424
Fitzpatrick Deletes Online Sexual Predators
Authors Legislation to Protect Students on Social Network Websites
Washington, May 9, 2006
Today, Congressman Michael G. Fitzpatrick introduced legislation to fight child predators attempting to contact children who use online social networks in schools and libraries. The legislation would require schools and libraries to implement security systems to prevent students from being exposed to obscene and objectionable material.
“Sites like Myspace and Facebook have opened the door to a new online community of social networks between friends, students and colleagues,” Fitzpatrick said. “However, this new technology has become a feeding ground for child predators that use these sites as just another way to do our children harm.”
Over 76 million people are registered on Myspace alone, which has become the sixth most popular English language website in the world in only three years. However, over 200,000 objective profiles have been removed from the site and age restrictions for registering can easily be foiled. Many profiles of students contain their names, photos, schedules and contact information – all dangerous opening for sexual predators to exploit.
Beyond addressing these sites in schools and libraries, Fitzpatrick’s legislation would mandate the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create a website with a distinctive Uniform Resource Locator to be used as a resource for parents, teachers, school officials and others regarding the dangers on the Internet to child users. This website would include information about MySpace and other social networking sites, how they are used and what should not be included in a user’s profile.
The FTC would also be responsible for issuing consumer alerts to parents, teachers, school officials and others regarding the potential dangers of internet child predators and their ability to contact children through MySpace.com and other social networking sites.
“As the father of 6 children, I hear about these websites on a daily basis,” Fitzpatrick said. “However, the majority of these networking sites lack proper controls to protect their younger users. Also, many parents lack the resources to protect their children from online predators. My legislation seeks to change that.”
The FTC has already published a list of tips for parents to use when discussing Internet use with their children. The tip sheet can be downloaded by visiting the FTC’s website at:
www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec14.htm
Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is serving his first term as Representative of the 8th District of Pennsylvania, which includes Bucks County and portions of Montgomery County and Philadelphia.
Read the bill at http://www.politechbot.com/docs/fitzpatrick.social.networking.051006.pdf
Kardasz: A sad case involving a victim whose abuse was not reported allegedly because of a code of silence among law enforcement officers.
Breaking a shameful code of silence - Whispers about sexual misconduct by Tualatin officers should have been brought forward by colleagues years before
Tuesday, May 16, 2006, The Oregonian
Standing in front of the Tualatin police station is a statue called "Tualatin Protector," depicting a police officer with two small children. On Sunday, The Oregonian's Luciana Lopez detailed how law enforcement officers in the community mocked that statue in some deplorable ways.
Lopez looked into the story of the three Tualatin police officers and a state trooper who resigned last year after investigators found the men had sexual contact with a teenage girl in the city Police Department's Explorer post. That episode was shocking enough, but what Lopez found was just as disturbing: More than a dozen of the department's 36 police officers had heard about the abuse at some point since it began in 1999, but none spoke out.
"The silence held for years," with officers gossiping among themselves about the abuse but with no one blowing the whistle, Lopez wrote. In February 2004, the whispers about the girl and one male officer finally reached a conscientious records technician, Lori Marsh, who instantly did the right thing. She went straight to the victim, who had by then turned 20, and then took the young woman's subsequent admission to her supervisor.
If only everyone in the Tualatin department had been as courageous and clear-thinking as Marsh. Instead, the alarm she raised resulted in a feeble internal inquiry against the lone male officer, who was merely admonished not to do any more ride-alongs with female Explorers.
The abuse stayed a poorly contained secret within the Tualatin department until July 2005. By then, word of it had spread to Hillsboro police. They fired off a letter to Tualatin Chief Kent Barker and notified the Oregon Department of Human Services, as required by law in abuse cases.
Then all hell broke loose. The officers who had been sexually involved with the girl, who would not cooperate with prosecutors, ended their careers in law enforcement. Numerous other officers, including Chief Barker, received suspensions or other discipline. And now the city is negotiating a $1 million settlement demand from the victim.
Lopez's story suggests all hell should have broken loose years before. And if it had, a young Explorer would have been spared at least some of the abuse she endured.
Tualatin is far from the first police agency to stumble badly over such a culture of silence. It's a harmful byproduct of law enforcement's time-honored code of loyalty, which in Tualatin's case became distorted into blind loyalty.
To his credit, Barker has set up a new program of ethics and professional-responsibility workshops for Tualatin officers. It will be successful if it instills among the ranks an understanding of how a culture of silence weakens discipline, leads to misconduct and erodes public confidence -- not just in police work, but in any organization.
For its failure to embrace that understanding, a small Oregon city must now strive with great vigor to restore credibility to the lofty promise of "Tualatin's Protector."
Retrieved May 17, 2006 from http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/editorial/1147739136170450.xml&coll=7
Kardasz: The following article is from the Houston, Texas Chronicle. It provides an interesting story about lamplighting, a.k.a. whistleblowing and the ramifications of being a person of integrity who provides information about the misconduct of others.
HPD whistleblowers alleging retaliation - But top police officials deny the existence of a code of silence
By HARVEY RICE - Houston Chronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com, May 13, 2006
Officer Troy Burnett didn't receive a reward or special recognition from the Houston Police Department after he gave an anonymous tip accusing a supervisor of falsely reporting overtime.
Instead, the 22-year veteran was labeled a "rat and a snitch" by his supervisors in the traffic enforcement division. HPD documents show that ostracism and harassment drove him to request a transfer to a less-desirable job.
Although it was disclosed recently that a retaliation complaint from Burnett led to the temporary suspensions of two supervisors, officers report that retaliation continues against those suspected of assisting Burnett. He also remains the target of an internal affairs investigation aimed at learning how the Houston Chronicle received a copy of his complaint.
A supervisor Burnett accused of retaliation was one of the department's top recipients of overtime pay in 2005, taking in $58,000 in the extra pay. Those involved in the allegations were members of the traffic division, where several of the top overtime earners in the department are employed, including an officer who received more than $100,000 in overtime last year for working drunken-driving cases.
Police and experts who study the issue say Burnett's case shows the continuation of a culture in which officers fear retaliation if they report wrongdoing — a "code of silence" cited by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999 in a Houston case. Yet, top police officials here continue to deny the existence of a code of silence.
Accusations of such a code are at the core of a pending federal lawsuit against the city and HPD, alleging retaliation, and another that ended in a $600,000 jury award last year for retaliation and sexual discrimination.
Burnett's retaliation complaint stemmed from anonymous phone calls he and several other officers made to the Internal Affairs Division, alleging criminal wrongdoing by Sgt. C.J. Klausner, who was relieved of duty last year and retired before disciplinary action could be taken.
OT said to be issue
HPD officials, citing department rules, refuse to discuss Klausner's alleged misconduct, but officers with knowledge of the investigation say that falsely reporting overtime was one of several accusations. City records show that Klausner received $36,000 in overtime pay in 2005, although he worked less than six months that year.
According to disciplinary letters and recordings of conversations between Burnett and his supervisors, Lt. Laurence Lakind sought to discover which officers made the anonymous calls about Klausner, and Sgt. Teresa Curry helped him identify Burnett. Once Burnett was identified, Sgt. Gerald Campbell told other officers that Burnett was a "snitch" and that Lakind was "not happy" with him, according to police documents.
In a recorded conversation with Burnett, a copy of which was obtained by the Chronicle, Curry also calls Burnett a "snitch" and appears to threaten him with demotion.
Suspended by chief
Chief Harold Hurtt suspended Lakind, 47, for 21 days and he will be transferred to a less-desirable job at the jail, department General Counsel Craig Ferrell said. Campbell, 51, was suspended for 15 days and has retired, Ferrell said.
Police spokesman John Cannon said the department has nearly finished an investigation into allegations against Curry, whose $58,318 in overtime pay for 2005 made her one of HPD's top overtime earners. Cannon said the Internal Affairs Division has not disclosed whether the investigation concerned the retaliation complaint or other allegations.
Campbell, Curry and Lakind could not be reached for comment . Officials with the police union, which provided attorneys for them, did not respond to requests for comment.
The outing of Burnett can only discourage other officers from coming forward, said Mark Stephens, who received 40 commendations while serving as an investigator for HPD's now-disbanded public integrity unit before resigning in 1999.
"Once they identify the person who makes the complaint, then you've defeated the whole system," said Stephens, now a private investigator.
The investigation absolved Lakind's supervisor, Capt. Michael H. Luiz, of wrongdoing, Ferrell said, although the disciplinary letter indicates that Luiz knew that Lakind had improperly discovered Burnett's name.
Luiz, who declined to comment for this report, also was the supervisor of a motorcycle unit in which Officer Beth Kreuzer and an entire shift of officers suffered retaliation after telling investigators that a supervisor was sexually harassing Kreuzer, according to trial testimony.
Kreuzer, who retired last year after winning a $600,000 jury verdict that the city is appealing, said a retaliatory shift change to penalize the officers for backing her continues even now.
Court opinion
In each case, officers say they were punished for breaking the code of silence. In its 1999 opinion, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said officers all the way up the Houston Police Department's chain of command knew that officer Patrice Sharp was suffering retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint, supporting a jury's conclusion that the department "had a policy, custom or practice of enforcing the code of silence."
"She presented evidence that any officer who complained about another officer inevitably suffered for it, socially and professionally," the court said.
Such retaliation persists in the department, according to a ranking officer who asked not to be named because he fears reprisal. He said other officers suspected of making anonymous allegations about wrongdoing by Klausner are suffering retaliation as well.
Chief Hurtt's concern about supervisors interfering in internal affairs investigations caused him to issue an order last year restricting access to investigative information. Although intended to protect victims of retaliation, that order is being used as a reason for the leak investigation targeting Burnett, according to Assistant Chief Michael Dirden, head of internal affairs.
Hurtt says he is concerned about retaliation, but agrees with Dirden and Ferrell, the general counsel, about the code of silence.
"Contrary to the myth, there is no code of silence in the Houston Police Department," Ferrell said, noting nearly 50 percent of complaints are internal.
But such denials put HPD officials at odds with several experts on police ethics.
"The Houston Police Department is the only one that has advertised that they think there is no code of silence," said Michael W. Quinn, a former Minneapolis police officer and author of a book on the subject, Walking with the Devil. "Most believe it's there and are trying to fight it"
Neal Trautman, a former Winter Park, Fla., police officer and head of the National Institute of Ethics, said it is "virtually unheard of" for any police agency not to have a code of silence.
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3860685.html
Kardasz: When improper conduct is suspected, law enforcement agencies will sometimes create situations that test the suspect/officers integrity.
From WorldNow and KESQ Channel 3. May 13, 2006
LOS ANGELES A veteran Los Angeles police detective and his partner assigned to the Rampart Division were suspended today after they failed an integrity test.
Sixteen-year veteran Officer Edward Zamora and his partner were sent home after failing an undercover "audit" of an arrest late Tuesday. Police officials did not immediately release the name of Zamora's partner or details of their conduct during the arrest.
The sting occurred after a six-month review of Zamora and his partner's work histories, including arrest reports, public claims, personnel complaints and other records.
A police statement says investigators from the department's Ethics Enforcement Section found a pattern of suspicious behavior and set up "a series of controlled situations to test Zamora's veracity."
The district attorney's office is reviewing the case to determine whether to file any charges. Officials say Zamora also will face disciplinary action within the police department.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Retrieved May 13, 2006 from http://www.kesq.com/global/story.asp?s=4898318&ClientType=Printable
April 5, 2006, Melissa DiPane, 6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Posing as a 13-year-old girl, investigator Tom Evans has been in a chat room for less than five minutes. He's already been asked for pictures and was sent pornographic images.
"The Internet makes it much more easy. They have a ready made pool of victims," Evans says. He's part of the Knoxville Police Department's Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. The wildly successful program has nabbed a lot of predators.
"The number of prosecutions increased over six years since the ICAC task force has been formed," Evans says. Tuesday's arrest of a homeland security employee should serve as an eye opener for parents.
"The interesting and frightening thing about a crime is that you can't look at an individual and determine if that's someone you need to be concerned about as far as your children go," Evans says. Investigators often pose as children in order to catch someone trying to seduce a minor.
Predators encountered by police are from all over the country, and even overseas. The person Evans is typing to on Wednesday is from a neighboring state. "We know that we save children. I mean literally save kids from further abuse on some cases we've worked. That's always a good feeling," he says.
Knoxville's Internet Crimes against Children Task Force has been so successful that even Gov. Bredesen gave them a thumbs up last week for their efforts.
Parents, you can keep you kids safe by keeping the computer in a central location. Also, it's not a good idea for kids to use a web cam. If your child is solicited online, save the email or the listing and contact police.
From WorldNow and WATE.
Retrieved June 11, 2006 from http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=4731605&ClientType=Printable
April 5, 2006, Contact Maredith Baumann, (617) 727-2543
BOSTON – Six people were charged for allegedly using the Internet to possess or disseminate child pornography. One person was arrested this morning, and criminal complaints have issued today against another five with individuals in connection with a lengthy investigation by the state-wide Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
For several months, State Police assigned to the Attorney General's Office along with Troopers assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force have been working cooperatively to build these cases.
The cases in which criminal complaints issued today involve the online possession and dissemination of child pornography. In four cases, peer-to-peer networks allegedly were used to view and disseminate images of children engaged in sexual activity. Peer-to-peer networks allow individual users to share movie and image files. In the other two cases, the defendants allegedly disseminated child pornography though online chat rooms.
In the four cases charged today involving peer-to-peer networks, a Massachusetts State Trooper attached to the ICAC Task Force used the peer-to-peer network to find movies or pictures that the investigating Trooper knew depicted an identified child engaged in sexual activity. The State Trooper then focused on the computers that he could identify as located in Massachusetts. In all four cases, State Police assigned to Attorney General Reilly’s office executed search warrants in the homes where the computers were located.
In the cases involving peer-to-peer networks, criminal complaints have issued against the following individuals:
Ross Ciulla, 22, of Hyde Park. Ciulla was arrested by State Police this morning and arraigned in West Roxbury District Court this afternoon on two counts each of child pornography with intent to disseminate, possession of obscene matter with intent to disseminate and possession of child pornography.
Robert Rich, 47, of Quincy. Complaints issued today out of Quincy District Court charging Rich with two counts each of child pornography with intent to disseminate, possession of obscene matter with intent to disseminate and possession of child pornography.
Joseph Jaena, 20, of Framingham. Complaints issued Framingham District Court charging Jaena with two counts each of possession of child pornography with intent to disseminate, possession of obscene matter with intent to disseminate and possession of child pornography.
Debashish Sircar, 19, of Bronx, New York. Complaints issued today from Cambridge District Court charging Sircar with two counts of possession of child pornography.
In another aspect of the online investigation, criminal complaints issued today against two men who allegedly posted child pornography in Internet chat rooms.
Criminal complaints issued in these Internet chat room cases today against:
Raymond Lefebvre, 39, of Woburn. Complaints issued out of Woburn District Court charging Lefebvre with one count each of possession of child pornography with intent to disseminate, possession of obscene matter with intent to disseminate and two counts of possession of child pornography.
Steven Bianchi, 49, of Waltham. Complaints issued out of Waltham District Court charging Bianchi with one count each of dissemination of child pornography and dissemination of obscene matter and two counts of possession of child pornography.
Rich, Jaena, Sircar, Lefebvre, and Bianchi will be summonsed to court for arraignment.
In the past several months AG Reilly has charged several other people as part of his ongoing investigation into the dissemination of child pornography on the Internet.
Raymond Boshears, 45, of Southbridge. Boshears was indicted by a Worcester County Grand Jury on March 15, 2006, for possession with intent to disseminate child pornography and possession of child pornography. Prosecution of Boshears stems from a complaint from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alleging that child pornography had been posted in a Yahoo chat room.
In February 2006, Michael Curley, 23, of Holliston, was arraigned in Framingham District Court on charges he allegedly disseminated child pornography on two occasions, in an online photo gallery and in an internet chat room.
Juan Aquino, 27, of Worcester, was charged in Worcester District Court in February 2006, with three counts each of possession of child pornography and intent to disseminate child pornography via a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
Julio Acevedo, 20, of Chelsea, was charged in Chelsea District Court in November 2005, with allegedly offering to share computer images of children engaged in sexual activity through a peer-to-peer network.
Victor Bialski, 58, of Brighton, was charged in Brighton District Court in November 2005, with one count each of possession with intent to disseminate child pornography, possession with intent to disseminate obscene material and possession of child pornography. Bialski allegedly offered to share computer images of children engaged in sexual activity through a peer-to-peer network.
Since 1999, the Attorney General's Office has focused both criminal and consumer efforts in the high tech area. The Corruption, Fraud and Computer Crime Division investigates and prosecutes crimes from computer hacking to online scams that defraud consumers and businesses. The unit also helps protect the safety of our children as they "surf the net" by targeting online predators. AG Reilly appointed the first state-wide Internet Crimes Against Children prosecutor and has appointed a full-time education coordinator to keep up with the tremendous demand of visiting schools around the state teaching children and parents about the Internet.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Assistant Attorneys General Dana Leccese, Ina Howard-Hogan, Marc Jones, Matthew Shea, and Douglas Rice, all of AG Reilly's Corruption, Fraud and Computer Crime Division, are prosecuting the cases. The cases were investigated by State Police assigned to the Attorney General's Office and the statewide Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with the assistance of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Seattle Washington Police, and the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Retrieved June 11, 2006 from http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=986&id=1644
By Lise Fisher, Apr 12, 2006, Sun staff writer
Online crimes against children can affect the best of families.
Gainesville Police Cpl. Mitch Nixon, the coordinator of the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, has seen it before. Parents who would never let their child talk to a stranger on the street still allow their son or daughter to communicate unsupervised via the computer on blogs, in chatrooms or through Web sites.
"This is where predators hang out," Nixon said. "This is a cyber public place. But they don't look at it that way."
Not only can anyone's child become a victim, Nixon said. Suspects accused of luring children through online chats come from all walks of life.
"The online victimization of children is one of those types of crimes that really have no common socioeconomic theme. You are just as likely to investigate a construction laborer or convenience store clerk as you are an insurance agent. We've had cases involving police officers. It's pretty much across the whole spectrum of people," he said.
Last week, officers arrested a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, Brian J. Doyle, 55. The Maryland man was accused of engaging in online sexual conversations with a Polk County undercover detective who was posing as a teenage girl.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, based at the Gainesville Police Department and also known as ICAC, was involved in the case and coordinated contact between the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Maryland law enforcement.
"It's an ICAC success story," Nixon said.
Officers in Polk County, which is in the 38-county district covered by the North Florida task force, contacted Nixon, who then put them in touch with the ICAC task force in Maryland, where Doyle lives.
"That's what we're designed to do. We can reach seven states away and reach another agency familiar with these investigations," Nixon said.
Before the creation of the task force, a case where the suspect didn't come to Florida probably would have been dropped because it would have been difficult to get law enforcement cooperation outside of the state, he said.
The area task force, started in 2003, is one of 46 nationwide, Nixon said.
In the past six months, task force members throughout North Florida have investigated more than 80 online enticement cases, 57 cases of distribution of child pornography and more than 170 cases of the manufacture, distribution and possession of child pornography, Nixon said. The cases have resulted in 56 arrests. Officers also identified five victims who were being used in the manufacture of child pornography.
Polk County Sheriff's detectives Sandy Scherer and Charlie Gates investigated the case against Doyle.
Investigators moved quickly because of concerns over what Doyle was saying online. He talked about his work with what he believed was a teenage girl, she said. "Part of our concern with this particular suspect was he had high security clearance. We were concerned with what else he was discussing with people on the Internet."
Doyle is now fighting extradition to Florida and has since resigned from his job, Scherer said.
Parents need to keep up with what their kids are interested in online to help keep them safe, Nixon said.
About two years ago, for example, kids were talking with friends in online chatrooms. Now, the popular trend is posting photos and information on Web sites like MySpace.com, facebook.com, friendster.com and others.
"The time kids spend in chatrooms is going down," Nixon said. "Time spent on blog sites or MySpace, that's going up. That's kind of the new meeting space."
Scherer said she has had four cases in the past two months involving MySpace accounts. "The predators are going to go where the kids are," she said. "It's such a subculture, and how they know about a Web site before law enforcement knows about it is beyond me."
The best way for parents to protect their kids is to know what their child is doing on the computer.
"There's no software, nothing that beats parental involvement," he said.
Lise Fisher can be reached at (352) 374-5092 or fisherl@gvillesun.com.
Retrieved June 11, 2006 from http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060413/LOCAL/204130336/1078/news&template=printart
Kardasz: The following report discusses a problem that is not unusual with some Internet service providers. The failure to preserve data about users results in sexual predators and child pornography traffickers escaping justice.
Comcast reportedly thwarted child-rape investigation
Rocky Mountain News, By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
April 6, 2006
Comcast, the nation's largest broadband provider, allegedly discarded computer records that could have led authorities to someone in Colorado who was distributing a movie of a 2-year-old child being raped, an investigator testified in Congress on Thursday.
Flint Waters, a lead special agent for the Wyoming task force on Internet Crimes Against Children, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that agents were thwarted as they tried to trace a movie that was sent via the Internet to an investigator in Florida in August 2005. The movie depicted the rape of the child.
"A check of previous ICAC investigative efforts led law enforcement to a computer in Colorado where it had been made available for distribution in April 2005, several months prior to any other known location on the Internet," Waters said in his prepared remarks.
"Just as ICAC investigators thought they were getting close to the potential origin of the movie, all hope was destroyed. The Internet service provider used to trade this movie did not maintain any records related to the use of the account," he said. "Efforts to find this child fell short, and there was nothing law enforcement could do about it."
Waters added, "I ask you to imagine the situation where a law enforcement officer can see the rape of a child taking place live on a Web camera and having an Internet service provider respond that they don't keep records to help us rescue that child."
The investigator identified the Internet provider as Comcast, Colorado's largest cable television provider that also provides broadband services to more than 8.5 million customers.
Comcast said it couldn't comment on this instance because Waters' testimony didn't include information like a specific date that the company needs to track down what information request he was referring to.
"Comcast is horrified by any act of violence inflicted upon a child and takes this issue very seriously," the company said in a statement. "Comcast promptly processes and responds to valid legal and law enforcement requests according to law and as described in our applicable privacy policy."
The case outraged Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, who serves on the committee.
"It just made you sick to think these children who are being raped and abused are being lost because of these delays," she said after the hearing.
DeGette said that the committee plans to call Comcast officials and other Internet service providers to testify, and that she and others are considering legislation that would force them to maintain records and provide them to investigators quickly.
Asked about privacy concerns, DeGette said, "Someone who's raping a child has no right to privacy. And somebody who possesses materials that show that kind of crime also has no right to privacy."
This week's congressional hearings have cast a spotlight on what's estimated to be a $20 billion per year industry, with an estimated 4.4 million illegal images floating around the Internet and in the possession of about 1.4 million people.
"We were all aware that Internet kiddie porn was going on," DeGette said. "We had no idea how it was just exploding and how the offenses are just getting more and more serious."
Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved. URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4600926,00.html
Officer charged after meeting Star
He wants his day in courtroom
Truth `may be painful' for police
May 5, 2006. 01:00 AM
BETSY POWELL - CRIME REPORTER
A senior Toronto police officer who faces a misconduct charge after meeting with a Toronto Star reporter probing police corruption says he looks forward to telling "why I did what I thought was right" even if it causes "pain" for the force.
"To me it's about the truth. I just hope that the Toronto police can stand up to having the truth out there," Jim Cassells, a 29-year police veteran, said yesterday.
"The truth may be painful for the Toronto police."
Cassells was part of an RCMP-led task force that investigated corruption within the Toronto Police Service leading to six drug squad officers facing charges of extortion, perjury and assault in 2004. A four-month preliminary hearing ended last week and the judge is expected to rule on whether to commit the accused to trial on May 26.
Cassells faces one count of misconduct under the Police Services Act "in that you did without proper authority, communicate to the media or to any unauthorized person any matter connected with the police force," reads the notice of hearing.
It is alleged Cassells shared information about an ongoing internal investigation with the Star's John Duncanson, identified as "J.D." in the notice of hearing.
The notice does not specify what information was allegedly leaked.
Duncanson met Detectives Jim Cassells and Darren Little at a popular Etobicoke restaurant last Nov. 21 where they sat in a booth and had lunch. Little has not been charged.
Just as Duncanson was going to pay the bill, several other plainclothes detectives got up from tables in the restaurant and approached the trio.
One of them identified himself as a detective with the force's professional standards branch, which includes internal affairs, and ordered Cassells and Little to report immediately back to their respective units and await further orders.
All the officers then left the restaurant without saying anything.
Cassells said he felt he had no choice but to go to the media because he felt something important was going to be "swept under the carpet"
"I made the decision based on my own moral values. I did what I thought was right and I'm going to stand by it," he said.
"I fully considered the consequences of my actions prior to doing it.
``And I'm not blaming the police department for doing what they're doing but that said I'm going to explain myself."
He is scheduled to make his first appearance in front of a police tribunal next Thursday.
Cassells, who has an unblemished record with the service and is eligible to retire this summer, was transferred from 22 Division to traffic services after the incident.
"I don't think you'll find anybody involved with the special task force . . . I'd be surprised if you'd find anybody who would do the job again."
In 2005, Duncanson won a National Newspaper Award for stories on police corruption.
Judge refuses to overturn $5 million awards to LAPD officers
Monday, May 8, 2006
(05-08) 21:18 PDT Santa Ana, Calif. (AP) --
A federal judge refused Monday to overturn awards of $5 million each to three police officers who claimed the city of Los Angeles made them scapegoats for the Rampart corruption scandal.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney upheld the February jury decision involving Officer Paul Harper, suspended Sgt. Edward Ortiz and former Sgt. Brian Liddy.
Carney also said he would not grant a new trial, finding there was enough evidence for the jury's conclusion that the LAPD "ruined the lives of three highly skilled" policemen and the department "had no probable cause" to arrest the men.
Dale Goldfarb, a private attorney who represents the city, said he plans to challenge the verdict.
The officers had been arrested in April 2000 on corruption charges. They had been implicated by former Officer Rafael Perez, who helped authorities expose a scandal in which anti-gang officers beat, robbed, framed and sometimes shot innocent people in the city's tough Rampart neighborhood near downtown.
Scores of convictions were thrown out and millions of dollars in settlements were paid as a result of the revelations.
A jury convicted the officers in 2000 of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the framing of two reputed gang members. A Superior Court judge threw out the convictions a month later, ruling instructions to the jury before deliberations had been misinterpreted.
After failing to persuade an appeals court to reverse the ruling, prosecutors said they could no longer proceed with the case because some witnesses had disappeared and others were in jail or engaging in activities that would damage their credibility. A judge dismissed the charges in 2004.
The policemen sued the city last August, claiming authorities had ignored problems with Perez's credibility and were eager to use them as an example of the Police Department's reform effort.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/05/08/state/n180952D45.DTL