Dr. Kardasz:

The following story of alleged police misconduct by Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune describes "integrity checks" used to test the honesty of officers suspected of theft. During "integrity checks" investigators leave money in situations where an unethical officer can make the wrong decision and steal the money.

Assuming that the allegations below are true, the accused have jeopardized their freedom, their good names and the future of themselves and their families. Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the alleged ethics violations would not have occurred.

Here is a link to a list of decision making process that may be useful to those who must educate others about ethics: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

----------------------------------------------------------------  

Corruption trial probes police procedure

August 24, 2008. By Rochelle Olson, Star Tribune

Minnesota - The federal case against two top aides and friends of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher will enter its second week today with more testimony about how the investigation unfolded.

Inside details of the investigation emerged Friday when a witness, FBI Special Agent Timothy Bisswurm, revealed that it began in spring of 2004 when he first spoke with Shawn Arvin of St. Paul, a former drug dealer who was working with the DEA to reduce a potential 17-year prison sentence.

In early November, Bisswurm used Arvin to set up the first "integrity check" designed to see whether St. Paul police officer Timothy Rehak would act lawfully when presented with money or valuables.

A federal indictment alleges Rehak, in concert with Mark Naylon, the spokesman for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, broke the law. Both men were working for Fletcher's Special Investigations Unit, although Naylon was not a peace officer. He was, however, the best man at Fletcher's second wedding.

Bisswurm last week introduced into evidence numerous recorded profanity-laden phone conversations between Arvin and Rehak, including the one in which Arvin set up the first "integrity check."

The FBI had left $13,500 cash at the Kelly Inn. Naylon and Rehak are seen on an FBI videotape pocketing $6,000 during a search warrant executed in the room rented at the Kelly Inn by the fictional Vincent Pellagatti, a supposed drug dealer. The defendants do not dispute they took the money. But their lawyers say the action was a practical joke on a third officer involved in the search.

The officers left a search warrant receipt in the room saying they recovered $7,500 from the search.

Later that night after being unable to locate the alleged drug dealer in state or national criminal databases, Naylon and Rehak called the third officer and told him they had found an additional $6,000 in the room.

That officer, Ramsey County Sgt. Rollie Martinez, testified he didn't press for details because he didn't believe they would give him the truth about where they found the money. He also said Naylon "made it perfectly clear he doesn't respond to anyone but his boss."

Agents went ahead with a second integrity check in the summer because of frequent contact between Rehak and Arvin.

On Thursday, the jury saw a 70-minute recording with video and profanity-filled audio of the two defendants searching a vehicle in July 2005, finding a stash of cash and making reference to another "set up."

Throughout the first week, prosecutors tried to show how the men breached law enforcement protocol in taking the $6,000 of alleged drug money. The defense tried to paint Rehak as a tough street cop who wasn't savvy about paperwork and was working for a sheriff's department with a reputation for playing "loose" with the rules.

Several officers took the stand to talk about the importance of proper procedure and accuracy, including Christopher Hoskin, a longtime St. Paul police officer who retired a couple of years ago as senior commander to Chief John Harrington. He was questioned about how officers handle seized property.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti asked whether it was appropriate for seized property to be handed over to a non-peace officer until it is logged into evidence. Hoskin said no.

The point may be significant because Naylon was not a peace officer. Rehak is shown in the November video handing the cash to him and Naylon is seen stuffing it deep into his jacket pocket.

On cross examination, Rehak's lawyer Paul Engh asked about his client's reputation as a cop with history and connections on the rugged East Side. He elicited that Rehak went to work for the Ramsey County unit at the behest of Fletcher but continued to be employed by the St. Paul Police Department.

"You knew Ramsey County was loose in procedures?" Engh asked, referring to a comment Hoskin made to the FBI in May 2008.

Hoskin said, "That is an opinion I had."

Asked about the claim of loose procedures, Fletcher's spokeswoman Holli Drinkwine said: "It would be inappropriate to comment in the midst of a trial."

Retrieved August 26 2008 from http://www.startribune.com/local/27338239.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 06:10 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.

Here is a link to a list of decision making process that may be useful to those who must educate others about ethics: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

------------------------------------------

South Tucson (Arizona) police officer fired after probe

June 19th, 2008. Associated Press

A South Tucson police officer has been fired after becoming the focus of an FBI and IRS probe.

Lieutenant Richard Garcia came under suspicion of cashing checks intended for the city and its police department. Garcia was the second-highest ranking officer in the department. He was fired last week.

City manager Enrique Serna says South Tucson officials became aware of the federal investigation about a month ago. Garcia was promoted to lieutenant in May and would have marked his 13th year with the department later this month, city officials said.

Retrieved June 20, 2008 from http://ktar.com/index.php?nid=6&sid=871757&r=1

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:14 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators in the story below had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the violations would not have occurred. 

Here is a link to a handy list of decision making process gathered from some knowledgeable sources: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Laredo, Texas - Ex-cops now reside in fed prisons 

05/12/2008 By Julian Aguilar, Laredo Morning Times (LMT online)

As Laredo waits to see who is chosen as police chief to bring integrity and unity back to the Laredo Police Department, three men responsible for LPD's recent woes find themselves hundreds of miles from the place they used to call home.Former police chief Agustin Dovalina, Sgt. Alfonso Santos and Lt. Eloy Rodriguez were each sentenced to about three years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen last February.
 
The trio all pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to commit in a scam that saw more than $95,000 in cash wrenched from owners and operators of popular maquinita gambling establishments that were paying out more than state law permits.

The policemen took the cash in exchange for protecting the businesses from law enforcement interference.

Dovalina
Chris Adams, the public information officer for the federal detention center El Reno-FCI in Oklahoma confirmed Dovalina, 52, is currently serving his time at the medium-security facility.
The prison has an adjacent satellite camp on its premises that houses minimum-security inmates. The unit the former chief is serving his time in is not public information, however, according to Adams.

The facility is in Central Oklahoma, about 950 miles away from Laredo. According to the Bureau of Prisons Web site, Dovalina's projected date of release is November 2010. Adams said the date is contingent upon Dovalina steering clear of any trouble while serving his time.

Adams said that according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons policy, information concerning whether an inmate is assigned any work detail or other related information is not made available to the public unless written permission is granted by the inmate.

Santos
Santos, 52, is scheduled to be released from the FPC Duluth detention facility in Minnesota in September 2010, according to T.K. Rhodes, a prison spokeswoman.
The federal prison camp houses minimum-security offenders and is located on what used to be the Duluth Air Force Base near Lake Superior.

The detention center is halfway between Minneapolis and the Canadian border with the U.S. and is about 1,560 miles from Laredo.

Rodriguez
According to the Bureau of Prisons Web site, Rodriguez, 45, is serving his time in the USP Leavenworth detention facility in Leavenworth, Kan.
The facility is a medium-security prison but also has an adjacent satellite camp where minimum-security offenders are housed. Rodriguez's projected release date, according to the Web site, is December 2010. The facility is about 25 miles north of Kansas City, Kan. and 960 miles from Laredo.

Like Dovalina's release date, Santos' and Rodriguez's release dates may also be changed should the inmates run afoul of the rules of their respective facilities.

The bribery deal
Santos and Rodriguez were the first officers arrested in July 2007. The two were charged with accepting the bribes on an almost weekly basis in 2006 until November of that year when the transactions abruptly ended. Linh "Larry" Tuan Do, the former owner of the popular Entertainment World who initially did business with Rodriguez and later Santos, began cooperating with federal authorities and provided the evidence that led to the cops' arrests.
Rodriguez was also charged with multiple counts of cocaine possession but he and Santos agreed to cooperate with authorities and all charges, with the exception of conspiracy to commit extortion, were dropped.

The indictment also mentioned an unnamed co-conspirator that many assumed to be Dovalina because of his close relationship with Santos.

In October, Dovalina abruptly resigned as the chief of the Laredo Police Department. Four days later, the 30-year veteran of the force walked into Judge Kazen's courtroom and pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Restoring integrity
Since the scandal, city leaders have worked in earnest not only to find a new chief, but also to help restore integrity to the force and the city.
During sentencing, Kazen openly admonished all three former cops for smearing the reputation of the entire police force, which he said, was predominantly comprised of legitimate and honest cops.

Months after the scandal broke; the popular game rooms were still operating openly throughout the city.

Crackdown
In January, however, the police department began cracking down on the gambling parlors, seizing machines and cash and making arrests of operators and owners.
Once popular establishments that used to have overflowing parking lots even before nightfall now sit empty and abandoned. Some have fading "For Lease" signs while others have been transformed into restaurants or other businesses.

While Laredoans forget that the buildings were once hotbeds for illegal gambling, city officials undoubtedly hope the memories of the scandal that made headlines statewide will also begin to fade with time.

(Julian Aguilar may be reached at 728-2557 or by e-mail at jaguilar@lmtonline.com)

Retrieved May 12, 2008 from http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19681280&BRD=2290&PAG=461&dept_id=569392&rfi=6
 

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:48 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.  Here is a link to a handy list of decision making process: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

------------------------------------------

Boston - MA - Crooked cop gets 18-year sentence

By Laurel J. Sweet, March 11, 2008. The Boston Herald

Nelson Carrasquillo stood behind his Boston police badge for 10 years, but for his failing grade on a test of loyalty, integrity and smarts, he’ll be staring at prison bars for nearly double that time.

The upbeat expression on a bulked-up Carrasquillo’s face soured rapidly yesterday when U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young sentenced to 18 years the defendant prosecutors dubbed the “middle man” of a trio of corrupt cops. That’s five years longer than the 13 years that fellow former officer Carlos Pizarro was slapped with by Young.

When Roberto “Kiko” Pulido, the ex-motorcycle cop who roped Carrasquillo and Pizarro into side jobs as hired muscle for drug dealers, stands before Young in May, assistant U.S. District Attorney John T. McNeil said yesterday he will recommend a sentence exceeding 20 years for the top-tier traitor.

“Any police officer who steps over the line from protecting people from criminals to being a criminal,” must face “very serious consequences,” McNeil said.

A courtroom packed with family and friends behind him, Carrasquillo apologized to the state “for my lack of judgment.”

Though he believes cops gone bad like Carrasquillo are “rare,” Young nevertheless told the disgraced lawman “the greatest danger” he posed to the public was “that they will come to think - because of what you did for greed and your own personal gratification - that somehow, that reflects on police officers everywhere.”

Carrasquillo pleaded guilty last year to federal indictments charging him with cocaine and heroin possession with intent to distribute. For one Sunday morning’s work keeping a vigil on a drug shipment in April 2006, McNeil said Carrasquillo was paid $10,000 and blew it on clothes, booze and entertainment.

Rather than at least put it toward his mortgage, McNeil said, Carrasquillo was spending his ill-gotten gains “to support his own celebratory habits.”

Retrieved March 11, 2008 from http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1079400

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:41 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.  Here is a link to a hand list of decision making process: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

------------------------------------------

California Judges Censured in Connection With DUI Cases

Pam Smith, The Recorder, 06-12-2006

Two Superior Court judges, both accused of driving under the influence and then trying to leverage their positions as judges to get special treatment, were censured by California's Commission on Judicial Performance Thursday.

Sonoma County Judge Elaine Rushing and Riverside County Judge Bernard Schwartz each avoided the possibility of a stiffer consequence -- removal from the bench -- by stipulating to the disciplinary charges against them.

Rushing was driving under the influence last June when she hit a residential wall in Santa Rosa and left the scene without telling the property owners, according to the decision in her case. About two miles down the road, she drove her car into a ditch.

When emergency personnel and highway patrol officers reached the scene, Rushing denied she had been the driver, making up a story about a man and a woman who had been with her but had left on foot. She also repeatedly told an officer that she was a Superior Court judge, and kept asking him to call her husband who, she informed him, was an appellate court justice.

Rushing -- who currently presides over civil matters -- told the officer he should not be arresting her because she was a judge, according to the decision.

Rushing's overall conduct here was "seriously at odds" with canons of ethics, as well as expected judicial behavior, the decision said, which was approved by seven commission members. But the commission also noted that Rushing had no prior discipline on her record and that "numerous people" had submitted letters supporting her. They included criminal defense attorney Cristina Arguedas and 4th District Court of Appeal Justice Eileen Moore.

Two other commission members had voted against the settlement, based on a belief that there should be a hearing to develop a full factual record before reaching any decision, commission Chairperson Marshall Grossman wrote.

Rushing's attorney, James Murphy, who works in the San Francisco office of Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney, said the judge doesn't recall the events that occurred. "We entered into the stipulation," he said, "because Judge Rushing wanted to resolve this matter. It has been very distracting to her." Rushing pleaded no contest last year to driving under the influence.

Schwartz, who has been on the bench in Riverside County since 2003, was pulled over by a Pismo Beach cop in July 2005 for veering out of his traffic lane, according to Schwartz's stipulation with the commission. When the officer asked him to take a test to screen for alcohol, Schwartz suggested the officer run his license. When the officer asked Schwartz if he was trying to say he was a police officer, he responded, "No, I'm a judge," the stipulation said.

Shortly after, the conversations were tape recorded, the stipulation said. On one of the multiple occasions when Schwartz suggested the officers just take him to his hotel and was refused, he said, "But, I'm all of a mile away from the hotel. ... I know you guys are doing your job, but this is not good for me. I'm running for election next year and this is not a good time."

As with Rushing, the commission decided that Schwartz had committed prejudicial, rather than willful, misconduct, because he was not acting in a judicial capacity when he attempted to get preferential treatment. He also had no prior discipline, Grossman wrote in the undisputed decision.

Retrieved June 11, 2006 from, http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1149843918528

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 12:52 AM | Permalink

By Robert Anglen. The Arizona Republic. 10/28/07

Maricopa Community Colleges chose the daughter of a member of Congress to run an outreach program over at least two applicants who were more educated and had more experience in fields described as crucial for the job.

College officials say they hired Laura Pastor because she was the most qualified of 51 applicants for the position and performed better in interviews than other candidates. She since has done a great job, officials say.

The college district denies Pastor got the position because her father, Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix, has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into the outreach program, including $1 million in federal grants at the time his daughter was being interviewed in 2005.

Pastor is now touting her leadership of the Achieving a College Education program in her bid for a hotly contested seat on the Phoenix City Council, which will be decided Nov. 6.

But newly released resumes and applications of the top three candidates for the job show that Pastor had the least experience in working with colleges or with outreach and scholarship programs. She has taken an unpaid leave of absence while she runs for office.

For months, the college district fought to keep private the names, resumes and applications of the other two finalists, saying the information is confidential. They later offered the resumes without names. A Maricopa Superior Court judge sided with The Arizona Republic and ordered the college to make all of the records public, which it did Oct. 16. The Republic since has tried to contact all three finalists; it reached Pastor and one other.

College spokeswoman Chris Chesrown said officials were trying to keep the records private to protect the hiring process for anyone applying for a college job. The district was not aiming to protect Pastor from scrutiny, she said.

"What are we supposed to do? Put a warning on applications saying these may become subject to a public-records request?" Chesrown said.

The scholarship program at South Mountain College gives at-risk high-school students a chance to earn a college degree by taking college classes prior to graduating.

Records show that Pastor was hired at a salary of nearly $66,000, which was $16,000 above the advertised maximum range for the director's job.

Chesrown referred questions about Pastor's hiring to South Mountain College President Ken Atwater. Atwater, who could not be reached for comment, has said that he gave Pastor the increased salary based on her qualifications and recommendations from a search committee. After interviewing three finalists, he said Pastor was "by far" the best candidate for the job.

"I wouldn't have applied for the job if I wasn't qualified," Pastor said Friday. "My qualifications speak for themselves."

The minimum qualifications listed for the job included experience with:
• Various high school, community college or university programs.
• Development, administration, promotion, coordination or evaluation of programs, including for at-risk students.
• Securing and monitoring grants.
• Scholarship-based programs.
• Supervising staff and directing work of subordinates.

Pastor has a master's degree in public administration and worked as a middle-school teacher in low-income districts.

In the two years before taking the college job, she worked in two midlevel state jobs with the Department of Economic Security and the Department of Insurance.

In her resume, Pastor highlighted a three-year stint managing a project with Chicago Public Schools to create partnerships with museums in the city.

"Having direct responsibility for developing, implementing and managing a $1.5 million program, securing grant funding, supervising personnel and four years of teaching middle-school students makes me an ideal candidate for this position," she wrote.

Unlike the other two finalists, Pastor's resume shows no experience with at-risk high-school students or any college-related work history.

Finalist Jennifer Steele spent three years directing a scholarship program at Maricopa Community Colleges when she applied for the job.

Steele, who has a master's degree in education leadership, focused on experience working with at-risk populations, including seven years as executive director of Safe Haven Children's Services.

"I have been involved in designing programs that meet the needs of at-risk populations for the last 15 years," she wrote.

The other finalist, Richard Daniel, has a doctorate in education leadership and policy studies and worked for three years as a researcher for a national student lender.

Before that, he was director of alumni relations at the University of Nevada at Reno and director of student affairs at Arizona State University.

Daniel noted that he once developed a program that linked ASU with four of Maricopa Community Colleges' 10 campuses and 10 area high schools. He had also supervised as many as 35 employees and managed a $3 million budget.

Now working for the University of Texas, Daniel said that he was never concerned about whether politics played a role in Pastor's selection.He said he didn't learn who had beaten him out of the job until a few weeks later, when he was hired by South Mountain to run a similar program.

"My outreach program helped support her outreach program and vice versa," he said.

Records show that two phone calls and a letter were lodged with the college over Pastor's selection, calling it favoritism. The college Equal Employment Opportunity officer dismissed the grievances as unfounded, saying there were no violations of laws or regulations.

Rep. Pastor, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, has denied that he pulled strings to get his daughter the job. He also said that he would have continued supporting the scholarship program whether or not she was hired.

Laura Pastor says that she has never used her father's connections to get ahead. She said she didn't know that the scholarship program owed its existence to her father when she applied for the job.

Pastor has run into similar allegations over campaign contributions, which show that she has pulled in thousands of dollars from employees and lobbyists for timber, airline and other industries connected to her father.

She said that she was unaware of the connections to her father and that all of the contributors are personal friends.

Reach the reporter at 602- 444-8694 or robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 02:07 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.  Here is a link to a hand list of decision making process: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

------------------------------------------

3 Chandler cops tied to steroid investigation

The Arizona Republic. By Eugene Scott and Venus Lee. 07/25/07

The Chandler Police Department confirmed Wednesday that three of its officers are now under investigation, part of a widening Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into steroid use among public safety personnel.

"From the information that was provided to us by the Drug Enforcement Administration, we have identified three city of Chandler police employees and we are conducting an investigation on our own at this time," said Sgt. Richard Griner, a Chandler police spokesman.

Griner said the employees are sworn officers, and that the department would not have any additional details on the investigation at this time.

Phoenix and Mesa police departments and Phoenix Fire have also been named in the investigation.

Phoenix police told The Arizona Republic that more than a dozen of their officers were linked to the investigation. The Mesa police department confirmed that one of its officers is under investigation.

A DEA spokeswoman said the agency is conducting an investigation regarding steroids and that the primary targets are not police, but doctors that improperly write prescriptions.

The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board oversees certification of all police officers in the state, though they do not conduct investigations.

"This (abuse of steroids among police officers) is all relatively new for us," said Bob Forry, the standards compliance unit manager of AZPOST.

They have had a total of six steroid cases since 2004. One case is still pending and the other five ended with officers losing their certification.

To combat the use of steroids among police officers, Forry said the board plans to partner with local departments to train investigators and will consider revising the administrative rules that do not explicitly state steroid usage and possession are grounds for dismissal. The document does not cover abuse of prescribed anabolic steroids.

Valley public safety agencies have had several instances of involvement with steroids.

In 2005, police found $1,200 worth of steroids in the home of Mesa firefighter Scott Bluemel. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge and resigned.

Mesa firefighter Jeff Hinrichs was caught smuggling steroids across the border. He resigned months after his sentencing, when supervisors discovered his felony conviction. At 34, Hinrichs set a world record for his age division by bench-pressing 562 pounds at the North American Bench and Dead Lift competition and won a gold medal at the Arizona Police/Fire Games for bench-pressing 540 pounds in 2005.

Last year, two Phoenix police officers were ordered to be tested for steroids. One of them, Officer Bob Dietrich, was terminated.

Retrieved July 25, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0725cr-steroids.html

----------------------------------------------------- 

Phoenix, Arizona -12 officers probed in steroid case

By William Hermann, The Arizona Republic, 07/22/07.

At least 12 Phoenix police officers are under investigation as part of a federal probe into the criminal use of anabolic steroids, a department commander said Saturday. The use of the steroids, a controlled substance, for non-legitimate medical reasons is both a violation of department policy and the law. The investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration apparently centers on Valley physicians who may be illegally dispensing or prescribing the anabolic steroids. Some of the patients, including police officers, got swept up in it, according to Phoenix police Cmdr. Chris Crockett. Crockett said that to his knowledge, the DEA probe has also turned up names of officers from other Valley police departments. He did not, however, know which other agencies might be involved. Attempts to reach the DEA for comment were unsuccessful Saturday. Crockett, commander of the department's Public Affairs Bureau, said that he did not have the names of the Phoenix officers involved in the investigation.

No officers charged
He said none of the officers has "been charged with anything yet, and as I understand it they are still on duty." Anabolic steroids are a controlled substance in the United States and many other countries. Steroids have been widely used by body builders for years because of the drug's ability to increase the growth of tissue, especially muscle. Phoenix police officers may not use anabolic steroids unless they have a legitimate medical reason, according to department policy. Police recruits are asked on their application form if they have used various drugs, including heroin, methamphetamines and steroids. Violations can bring about disciplinary measures ranging from suspensions to termination. Doctors have been prosecuted nationwide for handing out prescriptions for steroids to people who have no legitimate medical need for them but simply want to build muscle mass. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said Saturday he knew about the steroid investigation but said he did not know details. "I've been briefed on this by (police) management, and the department is conducting its own investigation," Gordon said. "I'm confident we'll take appropriate action."

'Ahead of other agencies'
Crockett said that, distressing as it might be for the department to be facing the problem of improper steroid use by officers, Phoenix "is to my knowledge way ahead of other agencies in being proactive on steroid use." "I spoke with the commander in charge of our professional standards bureau. He said no other agency routinely random-samples officers for steroid use. Only Phoenix." Crockett said that concern about officer steroid use was great enough that about one year ago the random test that is administered to officers for drug use was modified to test for steroids. Several officers have tested positive for steroids in the random tests, Crockett said, but he wasn't sure how many. He said he's aware of one officer who just this week was placed on 40 hours' suspension from duty for using steroids. "That 40 hours was the recommendation of the Discipline Review Board, and Chief (Jack) Harris concurred," Crockett said. Crockett said that there are concerns about officers using steroids that go beyond possibly using a controlled substance illegally. He said that while he is no authority on the subject of "roid rage" - the uncontrolled anger often associated with those who abuse anabolic steroids - "obviously, anybody who would not be able to act in a controlled manner is something we would be concerned about." "I know there have been stories of people using steroids and doing some pretty bad things," he said.

Retrieved July 22, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/0722steroids0722.html

---------------------------------------------------

Mesa officer in federal steroid probe reassigned

Jim Walsh. The Arizona Republic. 07/24/07
Mesa police are investigating whether one of their officers was illegally prescribed anabolic steroids as part of a federal investigation spreading through Valley police and fire departments.Police have declined to identify the patrol officer but said he was reassigned to administrative duties more than two weeks ago.Detective Chris Arvayo said Mesa police were notified by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration that the officer was listed as a patient of a doctor under investigation in the steroids probe. At least 12 Phoenix police and firefighters also have been named in the investigation.The internal affairs investigation will focus on the officer's relationship with the doctor and whether he was prescribed steroids. The DEA has said that doctors are the primary focus of their investigation, but the officers and firefighters may have violated their departments' drug policies.

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 03:46 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.  Here is a link to a hand list of decision making process: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

------------------------------------------

Female truckers' complaints raise questions about reform

By Brad Schrade, Staff Writer The Tennesean.com. 07/01/07

One female trucker says state trooper Sgt. Leon King ordered her into a secluded room at an Interstate 40 weigh station in January 2006 and propositioned her.

Another says King caressed her hands, arm and buttocks at that Weststate weigh station.

King stayed on the job four months during the first investigation. Days after the second incident, the patrol let him retire with his full pension. No investigation was done.

The handling of the complaints about King, and two other cases involving troopers and women, raise questions about whether agency reforms in 2006 took root.

Officials responding to the complaints were the ones put in place after Gov. Phil Bredesen pledged to end the patrol's history of cronyism and tolerating troopers' misconduct.

"This raises the specter of the 'good ole boy' system at its worst," said David Raybin, a former prosecutor who now represents a Fraternal Order of Police union. "That a police department would tolerate mistreatment of anyone, a woman for sex or anything. Their job is to protect the public. The idea that a police officer is using his position to hit on women is abhorrent."

Highway Patrol officials say that the cases involve a few bad apples and that they have responded aggressively.

When we have indications of inappropriate behavior, that is dealt with," Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said.

Intimidation claimed
The two female truck drivers from the 2006 incidents at the Brownsville weigh station say King scared and intimidated them, and they wished he had been prosecuted. He wasn't.

Complaint wasn't first
"It was an abuse of power," Serratto told the newspaper last week. "It was so blatant. You could tell it wasn't the first time because it was so natural for him. It was intimidation, his badge.

Serratto said Highway Patrol officials left her with the impression that King had been fired after her complaint.

Cooper, who said she still has nightmares from her episode with King, wants to know why the patrol leadership let him back on the job even as he was being investigated for the earlier complaint.

Woman's outrage lingers
" 'What do you mean he's retired and I should have no more incidents?' " Cooper recalled thinking when she saw the letter.

Rose Palermo, a Nashville attorney, said it is against the law for someone to touch another person in the manner described by Cooper.

The case should have at least been pursued and turned over to a district attorney to determine if there's a criminal case, Palermo said.

Such behavior could also fall under the category of official misconduct, according to Raybin.

After Cooper complained about the lack of action — and nearly a year after the incident — the patrol forwarded her case to the district attorney general in Haywood County.

The head of the patrol's parent agency at the time of both 2006 incidents was Gerald Nicely, whom Bredesen installed as interim state safety commissioner and put in charge of cleaning up the force.

In retrospect, Walker said, King probably should have been put on leave after Serratto complained in January 2006.

When he learned of accusations against King, the colonel said he pursued them vigorously, and he recommended on June 1, 2006, that King be suspended for 30 days, demoted and transferred to the Interstate 24 weigh station in Manchester.

King retired before the department could conduct an internal investigation on the second incident, he said.

The patrol this year created a new professional standards unit to investigate and root out troopers who are guilty of misconduct, the colonel noted.

The retired trooper has been a Brownsville alderman for some time, his attorney said, and had worked for the state since 1975.

A 10-day suspension was recommended for King in 1999 after he was accused of using his state position to track down contact information for a married woman he'd seen at a Huddle House restaurant. State records say King called the woman at home and asked her out on a date.

He said it may have been overturned, but the spokesman could not answer that definitively Friday.

Two other troopers have recently gotten in trouble over sex-related allegations. Trooper James Randy Moss received international attention in May when a porn actress said she performed oral sex on him during a traffic stop in exchange for his overlooking drugs in her car.

Just a week later, on June 6, Walker moved to fire Harold "Steve" Max, a West Tennessee trooper accused of showing up at a married woman's home while on duty on several occasions and propositioning her, allegedly grabbing her breast and her buttocks, records show.

Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/NEWS0201/707010400

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:41 PM | Permalink

Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking?  If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the ethics violations would not have occurred.  Here is a link to a hand list of decision making process: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html

----------------------------------------------------------- 

Madbury, New Hampshire - Chief loses police powers

Madbury N.H. (AP) - The longtime police chief in Madbury can no longer serve as a police officer in the state.

The New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council decertified Chief George Taylor after concluding he submitted false documents to the council.  The council was looking into questionable documents about firearm  qualifications, employee background checks and part-time officer working hours. Taylor has been Madbury's chief for more than 30 years. He met with the council last month, and on Tuesday its members voted to revoke his certification. Council officials will not discuss specifics. "As we teach all police officers, integrity and honesty are paramount in maintaining the public's confidence in the profession itself," said Michael Prozza Jr., Sullivan County Sheriff and council chairman. "While it is sad that police misconduct exists in the first place, this action should at the same time send an important message to the citizens of this great state that The Council takes such misconduct seriously." Taylor's name will now be entered into a nationwide database of decertified police officers. Madbury Lt. Joe McGann is filling in for Taylor.
Retrieved July 1, 2007 from http://www.sunjournal.com/story/219105-3/NewEnglandNews/NH_chief_loses_police_powers/

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:38 PM | Permalink

By David Usborne, nzherald.com.nz, 06/29/07

Drug trade and narcotics-realted violence are big issues in Mexico

Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police officers as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign to combat the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of narcotics-related violence. A total of 284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the country have been temporarily removed from their posts. Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers.

Since taking office last December, President Felipe Calderon has taken increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his country's most intractable problems - the unabated activities of the drug lords and the corruption within law enforcement that protects them from arrest. It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from mainstream Mexicans, who are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, and from the United States Government.

However, there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor has it quietened the violence. Replaced for now by agents who have already been extensively screened for their integrity, the suspended officers will be required to take drugs tests and undergo lie-detector tests. Meanwhile, their relatives and friends will be interrogated and their financial assets examined - all measures designed to detect any ties they may have to the underworld. The death toll last year from drugs-related killings reached 2000 and is on track to be even higher this year.

Corruption in the police, particularly at the local and state levels, is hardly a new problem in Mexico. It was highlighted in 2004 with the arrests of a regional intelligence director and 26 officers in Cancun following the killings of seven people, including three federal agents, in the city.

Calderon has deployed 24,000 army officers and federal agents to areas most impacted by violence. But critics doubt if the war can be won with so much money at stake. About 75 per cent of all the cocaine consumed in the US is smuggled through Mexico, generating up to US $24 billion ($31.4 billion) in profits. As much as US$3 billion of that is believed to be spent each year corrupting officials.

"The problem is the way the cartels are structured," said Alex Sanchez, a Mexico analyst at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "Taking out one guy, even a top leader, just leaves a vacuum that others fight to fill. There is a perpetual cycle of violence unless they can take down every single member of a cartel, from the top capos to the lowest drug runners."

- INDEPENDENT
Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10448554

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:37 PM | Permalink

He faces a six-month sentence after charges are reduced

By Paul Pinkham, The Florida Times-Union. Jacksonville.com. 06/29/07

A former Jacksonville police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing what he thought was drug money. His plea agreement calls for a six-month prison sentence.

John Feon Hairston, 36, declined comment after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of stealing government money. U.S. Magistrate Howard Snyder scheduled sentencing Aug. 28.

Hairston had faced up to 15 years in prison on felony charges of theft and lying to the FBI under color of law, but prosecutors agreed to drop those charges under the plea agreement. Hairston resigned from his patrolman job after his arrest in March and agreed under the plea to permanently relinquish any police certifications. The deal also requires him to repay $3,407 restitution to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and FBI.

Officers with the Sheriff's Office integrity unit set up an undercover sting in February to catch Hairston after getting tips that he was stealing money from criminal suspects, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scotland Morris said. They watched as Hairston responded to a call he thought involved a vehicle that had been abandoned by a fleeing suspect and pocketed $1,270 that integrity officers had placed inside.

A second sting was similar but involved $2,137 placed in a vehicle by the FBI. Morris said Hairston initially denied to FBI agents that there was cash in either vehicle but confessed after he was arrested. He said he spent some of the money on bills and clothes and gave some to his ex-wife for groceries.

"Hairston stated that he thought he was taking the money from dope boys," Morris said. Snyder said he would let lawyers on both sides know if he couldn't agree with the six-month sentence. Either side can back out of the plea if Snyder doesn't agree with the sentence. At the request of defense attorney Roland Falcon, Snyder relaxed Hairston's bail restrictions to allow him to travel to church functions in Georgia. Morris said the government didn't object. Hairston remains free on $10,000 bail.

paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107
Retrieved June 29, 2007 from http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062807/met_180566799.shtml

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:27 PM | Permalink

By Mike Carter. Seattle Times staff reporter. 06/24/07

For more than a year, the King County Prosecutor's Office on its own has tracked police officers and sheriff's deputies known to have credibility problems and has painstakingly compiled a list.

So far, the list has 11 names — four current Seattle police officers and seven current or former sheriff's deputies.

A review of disciplinary records and court files involving these officers reveals a host of issues that could threaten the prosecution of alleged criminals. Some of the officers lied. One destroyed documents. One used racial epithets. Another threatened to kill someone.

In any criminal case, prosecutors are required by law to alert the other side to relevant problems with officers, so that the accused can get fair treatment by being able to challenge their accusers' credibility.

The problems with officers on the list have led to serious criminal charges being dismissed in some cases — including one involving the alleged rape of a child.

That county prosecutors have built the list themselves spotlights the haphazard way prosecutors learn about officers whose credibility on the witness stand can be attacked.

All too often, from the prosecutors' point of view, they find out about problems just before trial, or during trial or plea bargaining, and they feel blindsided, unable to shore up weaknesses in their cases.

In many instances, prosecutors find out about problems with an officer at the last minute from a defense lawyer who has obtained the information from a public-records request, said Kathy Van Olst, deputy director of the King County prosecutor's criminal division.

"This is the worst way for us to find these things out," Van Olst said. "We would hope that we would find out from a department independently, but they've never done it."

Seattle Police Department Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer said the department does give prosecutors the names of officers with honesty issues.

However, none of the names of Seattle police officers on the prosecutor's list came from the department. Additionally, none of the names of sheriff's deputies was provided by the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said the prosecutor's office only recently asked for names of deputies with credibility issues and the office is working on an effective way to provide them.

Officer credibility and its impact on public safety have become a high-profile issue in Seattle in the wake of an investigation into the actions of two Seattle bicycle cops, Gregory Neubert and Michael Tietjen, who were accused of mistreating and planting drugs on a convicted drug dealer they arrested in January.

The officers were cleared of the most serious charges by the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), which oversees police internal investigations. Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske largely exonerated them during a news conference.

Even so, numerous discrepancies between the officers' reports and a videotape of the arrest called their honesty into question. The case against the drug dealer was dismissed.

The videotape in the drug case was turned over to prosecutors by Seattle police internal-affairs investigators because they thought it could be used as evidence against the drug dealer, said Deputy Chief Kimerer. He added that the department did not believe the tape raised any questions about the officers' honesty.

Nonetheless, after the initial drug case was dismissed, the prosecutor's office launched a review into dozens of other cases in which Neubert and Tietjen were involved. Two other felony cases were dismissed in March because of the investigation into the officers. The prosecutions of 30 other criminal cases are in jeopardy.

The prosecutor's office expects to add the officers to its list.

Last week the drug case caused a furor after a citizen-review board report accused Kerlikowske of interfering in the investigation of the officers. The chief blasted back, calling the allegations false and suggesting politics were at play.

Subsequently, Mayor Greg Nickels ordered the new head of the OPA to review the investigation, including the chief's role and the work of the citizen-review panel. Even that review is controversial, though: The OPA director will be reviewing her boss — the chief of police — and the review board, which monitors her work.

Supreme Court ruling
In February 2006, King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Mark Larson, chief of the office's criminal division, wrote a memo telling attorneys in the office to be diligent in keeping track of officers with credibility problems.

He reminded the attorneys of their responsibility to abide by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Brady v. Maryland. That 1963 ruling states a prosecutor is obliged to provide the accused with any evidence that might help his or her defense, including information that could be used to challenge the credibility of police officers or other witnesses.

If that information isn't handed over, cases could be dismissed, allowing suspects to go free. The lawyers could face discipline by the Washington State Bar Association.

Moreover, the law presumes that if one attorney in a prosecutor's office knows of a credibility issue with a law-enforcement officer, then the entire office is on notice, Larson wrote. The next time that officer's name comes up in a case, the prosecutor is obligated to turn information over if it is relevant. There is no excuse, even if some in the office don't know about it.

Larson's memo got prosecutors to begin compiling the list of "Brady cops."

But it wasn't until the Neubert and Tietjen investigation that the prosecutor's office started contacting local law-enforcement agencies to raise the question of better tracking of officers with credibility problems.

The Brady list is a legal obligation, Van Olst said, but that doesn't necessarily mean that every person on the list is a bad cop or that cases in which they were involved can't be successfully prosecuted.

For its part, the Police Department doesn't use a "Scarlet A" to single out officers who have made a mistake or error in judgment in the past, said Deputy Chief Kimerer.

At this point, nobody in law enforcement knows what sort of misconduct should trigger the addition of an officer's name to the prosecutor's list.

"It hasn't been on our radar," said sheriff's spokesman Urquhart. "I don't think it's been on the prosecutor's radar either, until now."

Kimerer said that "very few issues of honesty and integrity are present among officers who are currently working."

Indeed, the list is tiny compared to the numbers of officers and deputies. The Sheriff's Office has 750 deputies, and about 1,300 officers work on the police force, including the police chief and other administrators.

Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, says the bar for placing an officer on the list should be very high: a rare disciplinary finding of dishonesty against an officer.

But the prosecutor's office wants to know about more than just those officers who have been found to be dishonest. Already, it has included on its list some who were not disciplined by their employer. The standard for prosecutors is whether the defense could attack the credibility of the police officer or deputy.

Getting on the list
Among the incidents that have landed officers on the list:

In May 2005, Seattle police Detective Donna Stangeland was investigating allegations that a 42-year-old church janitor had a two-year sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl in the parish. During the investigation, Stangeland obtained a search warrant for files on the suspect's computer. Meantime, the man was charged with three counts of rape of a child.

A forensic computer expert told Stangeland that some of the recovered files appeared to contain private correspondence to the man's attorney and therefore were privileged and could not be looked at. Nevertheless, according to court documents, "curiosity got the better of her," and Stangeland read the letters.

Stangeland told her supervisor, Sgt. Richard Welch, about the letters and discussed the content. Neither Stangeland nor Welch told prosecutors, nor did she include the information in her report. At some point, she printed out copies of some of the documents.

Six months later, in November, the forensic expert told prosecutors that the privileged files had been included in the computer records Stangeland had been given. Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle found the detective had "intentionally read privileged documents, knowing they contained privileged attorney-client communications, and knowing she was not supposed to read them."

Indeed, according to court documents, Stangeland later said she had shredded the copies because she was "nervous."

Doyle dismissed the rape charges because of the credibility issues, and the man went free.

Larson referred the case to the department's Office of Professional Accountability. The office determined the problem was a training issue and did not discipline either officer. Both Stangeland and Welch are now on the prosecutor's list and both continue to work as detectives. Each declined comment.

In another case, King County sheriff's Deputy Denny Gulla admitted to internal investigators that in 2004 he had pulled over the husband of a woman he was having an affair with and threatened to kill him. Gulla, who was a sergeant, is still on the force as a patrol deputy. He declined comment.

In November 2004, a defense attorney preparing for a criminal case discovered that Deputy Keith Martin in 2000 had called a black teenager a "monkey boy" or "monkey butt" at Highline High School in Burien and in front of a school official and other witnesses. The statement could taint his credibility in cases involving African-American defendants. The Sheriff's Office had disciplined the deputy for the comments and for lying in another investigation the year before.

Prosecutors had not heard about the comments, or the discipline. The outcome of the 2004 case was not available, but this much is clear: His comments landed him on the prosecutor's list. Martin declined comment.

Seattle police Officer Christopher Garrett is also on the list. He was the arresting officer in a felony drug case set for trial in July 2004. The prosecutor asked for a continuance because Garrett had said he was out of town.

But he wasn't. The following month when he returned to court, he admitted to the prosecutor that he had lied and had been in town. The prosecutor told the judge, who passed the information along to the defendant, a man with multiple drug convictions who was acting as his own lawyer.

Garrett, a member of the department's elite Anti-Crime Team, took the witness stand.

"Do you consider yourself to be truthful most of the time, all of the time, or just some of the time?" the defendant asked him."All of the time," Garrett answered. "... Then why did you lie to the prosecutor saying you were on vacation and out of town?" the defendant asked.

The jury acquitted him. Attempts to contact Garrett were unsuccessful.

The fallout
When an officer has credibility problems, the impact can be wide reaching.

Last January, when the Police Department opened its internal investigation into Neubert and Tietjen, the two bike cops were potential witnesses in at least 22 drug- and weapons-related felony cases. The city had another 13 misdemeanor cases pending in which the officers were involved.

George "Troy" Patterson — a convicted felon with more than 20 drug-related arrests — claimed that the two officers had roughed him up and planted drugs on him during a nighttime arrest on a downtown corner.

A security-camera video of the arrest hardly resembled what the officers put in their reports: It does not appear they found drugs in the man's lap, where they said they did; they did not report they held Patterson in a painful compliance hold, twisting his arm high above his back for more than four minutes; and they didn't report the arrest and release of another man, or his claim that they took marijuana from him.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erin Becker, the head of the felony drug unit, watched the video and then dropped the charges against Patterson "in the interest of justice" on March 6.

Neubert and Tietjen have declined comment on the initial drug case, the investigation and the subsequent fallout.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Larson decided that the Brady rule would require the prosecutor's office to notify other defense attorneys whose cases with the two officers were approaching trial. Meanwhile, prosecutors agreed to drop the two most pressing cases in order to protect the Police Department's "sensitive and incomplete" internal probe.

One case involved drug charges against a convicted felon named Jabarie Phillips, whom Neubert and Tietjen had arrested for allegedly selling crack downtown.

On March 9, Phillips had tentatively agreed to a plea deal that would land him in prison for up to 10 years. Instead, he left court a free man. His lawyer, Lisa Dworkin, said it was "like Christmas."

Five days later, DeWayne West, 35, was gunned down on his West Seattle porch. A cellphone and a spent shotgun shell found at the scene led Seattle detectives to Phillips, who was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and jailed on $1 million bail.

According to prosecutors, Phillips might have been free at the time of West's death even if the drug case had gone forward because he had not been jailed after he was charged.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office continues to try to find an effective way of getting law-enforcement agencies to give it timely and complete disciplinary information about officers that may affect its prosecutions. Senior prosecutors and lawyers for the Seattle Police Department and other county police agencies are discussing the issue.

As recently as last month, however, prosecutors were caught unaware, again, about a 2005 case in which an officer's credibility was questioned.

The Seattle Police Department's Office of Professional Accountability, without naming names, described in a report earlier this year the case of an officer punished for violations of "arrest procedures" and "honesty" that in many ways resembled the controversial Patterson case:

A suspected drug dealer claimed he was improperly stopped downtown, allegedly roughed up by two officers and arrested.One of the two officers testified at trial that no force was used in the arrest, even though his handwritten incident report said force had been used. The next day, the officer disclosed his erroneous testimony to the prosecutor and the judge, who declared a mistrial. Internal investigators decided the officer's mistake was unintentional and should be handled as a "training issue." The officer received counseling from his supervisor. But records of the internal investigation obtained by The Times also showed that the other officer had arrested, handcuffed and released a second man at the scene, and failed to record that arrest in his report — disregarding the same department policy violated in the Patterson case.In this case, as in the Patterson case, that officer was Michael Tietjen. Prosecutor Van Olst knew nothing about the case until a reporter pointed it out to her. "We really need to communicate better," she said.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com

Retrieved June 24, 2007 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003760490&zsection_id=2002111777&slug=bradycops24m&date=20070624

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:06 AM | Permalink

Group demands no contact with lieutenant

From Seacoast online. By Elizabeth Dinan. edinan@seacoastonline.com. 06/23/07

Portsmouth - When Police Lt. Rodney McQuate grabbed a female officer's breast he displayed a "blatant disrespect of a female subordinate," according to four female members of the police detectives division who have requested McQuate have "no supervisory contact" with them "for any reason."

That request was made in a letter obtained by the Herald, addressed to Police Chief Michael Magnant and dated June 19. Signed by detectives Kristyn Bernier, Kimberly Sirr and Rebecca Hester, as well as administrative assistant Holly Fish, the women ask that McQuate communicate with them through specifically named third parties.

In their letter to the chief, the detectives and administrator call the breast-grabbing incident "appalling and egregious."

"We would like to express our dissatisfaction in not only McQuate's behavior but also the manner in which the Portsmouth Police Department chose to handle the situation," reads the memo. "This behavior was deliberate and absolutely unbecoming of an officer, let alone a lieutenant of the Portsmouth Police Department. This behavior and the disciplinary choice set forth would lead one to believe that respecting women in this department might not be a priority."

Magnant said McQuate was first suspended with pay for an unspecified period "pending the outcome of the investigation." The chief called the paid suspension "customary in serious internal investigation."

An unpaid suspension followed, according to the chief, who said the Herald's prior report that it was a three-day unpaid suspension is incorrect, though he declined the opportunity to correct the record.

"I'm informed that I am not allowed to release information contained in personnel files," he said.

Suggesting a union "fight" might have ensued "if a more aggressive stance was taken" with regard to McQuate's behavior, the four female police employees wrote to the chief that they "hope that the administration and police commission would have readily stood up and chosen to take on the fight to ensure that women in law enforcement are treated respectfully."

A notation indicates that Deputy Police Chief Len DiSesa and the city's board of police commissioners were copied.

"It is my hope to have them understand the constraints of the disciplinary system," said the police chief. "We're trying to be sensitive to the victim as well."

On May 16 the police commission voted unanimously to grant McQuate's permanent lieutenant status, following a one-year probationary period.

Police Capt. Janet Champlin is named as one of the intermediaries the women cited as preferring to communicate through, rather than having direct contact with McQuate. The captain told the Herald Friday she had no comment about the incident or resulting repercussions except for the following: "It is unfortunate that the public may form an opinion about the entire police department from one news story," said Champlin "It takes away from all of the good work that the men and women of the police department do every day."

Retrieved June 23, 2007 from http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS/706230330

--------------------------------------------------

RELATED FOLLOW-UP STORY

Commission: Lt. suspended for groping officer

By Elizabeth Dinan, edinan@seacoastonline.com. 06/22/07

Portsmouth — A 25-year veteran of the Police Department was suspended for three days without pay as punishment for grabbing a female officer's breast while both were attending National Police Week in Washington, D.C., in May. Police Commission Chairman Jack Kelly said Lt. Rodney McQuate was suspended "after the matter was looked into carefully by all concerned."

Kelly said the decision to reprimand McQuate with a three-day suspension was made by Police Chief Michael Magnant, who could not be reached for comment. "It's his call," said Kelly. The police commission chairman said the incident had "something to do with booze" while McQuate and members of the police department were in Washington May 13-16 attending the national event, which is publicized as a solemn gathering to honor fallen officers.

Deputy Police Chief Len DiSesa said "any allegation of sexual harassment is taken seriously and investigated thoroughly." The deputy chief said the discipline was appropriate and "the matter is closed." "Our policy is very thorough and it comes from the top. This is not a wink-and-a-nod policy," said DiSesa. "We have eight women working in the department, and they are equal to the men."

The police patrolman's union vice president, Mark Newport, said the union has no official comment on the matter "at this time, due to ongoing internal meetings." Union secretary/treasurer Steve Arnold told the Herald that, at the request of female members, he would "refrain from commenting at this time." "The female members of our union are trying to obtain answers to many questions through the police administration concerning the severity of the discipline," said Arnold.

McQuate was promoted to lieutenant in May 2006 by unanimous vote of the Police Commission. From 1988 to 1990, he was part of the detectives division and returned to detectives shortly before his promotion. He has served as senior training officer for new officers, team leader of the accident reconstruction team, founding member of the police Honor Guard and head of the motorcycle unit.

Retrieved June 23, 2007 from http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/NEWS/706220467

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:29 PM | Permalink

Firms That Hired Officers for Security Are Subpoenaed

By Ernesto Londono, Washington Post Staff Writer. 06/24/07

Montgomery County prosecutors have subpoenaed several companies that employ police officers as the county widens its criminal investigation into allegations that some officers allowed their county and off-duty security work shifts to overlap, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The subpoenas for payroll records broadened the scope of the inquiry beyond Grady Management Inc., the Silver Spring real estate company that alerted the county police department to the alleged double-dipping, according to a law enforcement source and others with knowledge of the case. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Nine officers were suspended with pay in May in connection with the investigation. Payroll records of an officer who recently retired and a handful of other officers who also worked for Grady but have not been suspended also have come under scrutiny.

The probe began this spring shortly after officer Victor Valerio lost his part-time job with Grady. After his departure, Grady officials contacted the police department to report their suspicion that some officers were double-dipping, which prompted a review of payroll records.

In some of the most flagrant cases, investigators looking at two years of payroll records found discrepancies totaling between $15,000 and $20,000, the sources said.

It could not be determined how many subpoenas have been issued to private companies where officers work or what period of time they cover.

The fallout from the case could be substantial for both the police department and that state's attorney's office, particularly if any officers are criminally charged. The investigation has left the Silver Spring police station, home to seven of the nine suspended officers, short-handed.

It could also imperil past and current prosecutions in which officers in the double-dipping investigation played key roles. In recent weeks, several defense attorneys have asked prosecutors whether any of the officers were involved in active cases. The names have not been disclosed, but defense attorneys have been told, on a case-by-case basis, whether any suspended officers played a major role in a case.

State's Attorney John McCarthy and Police Chief J. Thomas Manger have declined to discuss the investigation. But Manger said in a recent interview that the agencies are conducting a thorough probe, regardless of the potential problems for the department or the effect on its reputation.

"There is nobody who wants to sweep this under the rug," Manger said. "If we want to say with sincerity that we are an organization with integrity, the only way to do that is to take this investigation in any way the evidence goes."

Officers say one significant challenge investigators will probably face is the possibility that a large number of officers will come under scrutiny because of the department's practice of not formally recording compensatory time.

County officers routinely arrange to shave a few hours from their standard shifts when they have worked additional hours the previous day or have made other informal arrangements with supervisors. Permission to take comp time, which officers refer to as "book time," is frequently the result of an oral agreement and is not recorded.

A number of officers have been able to justify the overlap between their county and Grady shifts by explaining the "book time" arrangements they made with their supervisors, sources familiar with the case said.

Another investigative challenge is the sheer volume of part-time work records. Part-time jobs require the approval of the police chief and the county Ethics Commission, and permission is given either on a yearly or an indefinite basis. Ethics Commission officials approved more than 960 applications from officers to perform part-time jobs in the past three years.

Several have been authorized to work for numerous employers. In one extreme case, an officer was approved to work for more than 40 private employers during a four-year period, according to data compiled by the ethics group.

Part-time work by officers is common in the Washington area and nationally. Private security jobs, sometimes performed in uniform, are among the most coveted positions because they can pay up to $50 an hour. Some Montgomery officers say they couldn't comfortably raise a family in the community they serve on their government salary alone.

But the proliferation of part-time work by officers has raised concerns about perceived and actual conflicts of interest, particularly in cases where officers employ or recruit their colleagues for part-time jobs.

Retrieved June 23, 2007 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062300609.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 08:18 PM | Permalink

Ruling Suppresses Evidence In Drug Case

Associated Press. 06/21/07

Indianapolis -- Police officers violated a man's privacy rights when they grabbed him by the throat until he spit out a bag they suspected contained drugs, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

According to the court's ruling involving a case out of Marion County, officers stopped a driver in August 2005 for having an expired license plate and he was gagging after being ordered out of his car. When the man opened his mouth on command, offices noticed a clear plastic bag.

The man refused to spit it out, so an officer grabbed his throat and applied enough pressure to prevent the bag from being swallowed. After about 20 seconds, the man spit it out and he was subsequently charged with possession of cocaine.

The man claimed that his privacy rights had been violated and moved to have the bag and its contents excluded as evidence. The trial court denied the request but put the case on hold so the evidence motion could be considered by an appeals court. The Court of Appeals upheld the trial judge's ruling, but the state's high court did not.

The ruling cited a previous court decision that found a police choke-hold in a similar situation violated a person's bodily integrity, posed health and safety risks and was likely to incite violent resistance.

The state Supreme Court said the choke-hold in this case violated constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure. It ordered the evidence to be suppressed and returned the case to the lower court for further proceedings.

Retrieved June 22, 2007 from http://www.theindychannel.com/news/13547662/detail.html?rss=ind&psp=news

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Rise in border graft feared - Some think 6,000 additional patrol agents will make corruption problem worse

From The Houston Chronicle (online). By James Pinkerton, 06/17/07.

Border Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez first noticed the curious behavior of a longtime deputy last spring.

The Zapata County lawman wasn't coming to work very often. Then, he began wearing expensive clothing. More strangely, the deputy was spotted a few times in his unmarked car in border areas where narcotics traffickers were under surveillance. On Tuesday, the sheriff's suspicions seemed to be confirmed when ex-deputy Manuel Martinez, 43, was arrested by FBI agents on charges of extorting more than $20,000 in bribes from drug traffickers. Martinez, who took office in January as a justice of the peace, is also charged with passing on bribes to a county official and a building code inspector.

A spate of recent high-profile arrests not only have given border law officers a black eye, they are worried that corruption of lawmen is on the rise. Heightening that concern is the looming arrival — and potentially more corruption — of thousands of new law enforcement personnel on the border. ''You see a lot more of (the corruption) than before," said Gonzalez, whose office assisted in the FBI investigation of the three officials. ''If you look at it real closely, as time goes by, I guess everybody's morals and ethics are eroding away."

The arrests of the former deputy and two other Zapata County officials came a day after three Texas National Guardsmen — assigned to help Border Patrol agents with immigration control — were charged with smuggling 24 illegal immigrants in a van leased to the guard.

Also on Monday, a veteran Border Patrol agent was sentenced to 16 months in jail for transporting 11 illegal immigrants he picked up outside Laredo last July. In March, a U.S. Customs inspector was sentenced to 14 years in prison for taking bribes to allow drugs across a border bridge.

These recent cases were not isolated. The inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department reported last week that 282 employees of Customs and Border Protection stationed on the Southwest border have been investigated for corruption since fiscal year 2004. And 52 of those cases were investigated so far this year, compared with 66 in all of last year. There were 151 cases in Texas in that time.

The Bush administration last year stepped up recruitment efforts to boost the U.S. Border Patrol to 18,000 agents by December 2008, an increase of nearly 6,000 agents. On Thursday, President Bush called for $4.4 billion in immediate funding for border security proposed in the pending immigration bill. ''The graft and corruption will increase," said Robert Lee Maril, a sociologist who spent two years researching a book on Border Patrol operations in South Texas.

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke, though declining to comment on the Texas Guard and Border Patrol cases, said corruption in federal agencies is ''really quite rare." ''Even the finest law enforcement agency in the world is not immune to the potential bad apple," he said.

A fast-growing agency
Experts say that heightened border security has allowed human trafficking organizations to greatly increase their smuggling fees. The criminal cartels that control narcotics and human smuggling have ''astronomical" amounts of money to use on bribes, Maril said.

''They're tightening up the border, so the criminal organizations are finding it a little bit more difficult to get across," said Maril, who chairs the sociology department at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. ''So they're spending a little more to buy off Border Patrol agents and managers. It's just part of the overhead." Maril said the quick buildup in the agency may lead to further corruption. ''In this rush to graduate so many agents I think they have considerably lowered their standards, and I think that's going to come back to bite them," Maril said.

T.J. Bonner, head of the 11,000-member National Border Patrol union, predicts that stepped-up recruitment could result in less time to conduct thorough background investigations of new recruits. ''It's inevitable that we will see more of these cases, because the shortcuts are creating the perfect storm for corruption to flourish," said Bonner, a Border Patrol agent in San Diego. ''And from the standpoint of the men and women on the front lines — the overwhelming majority who are honest — it's a disaster because these corrupt individuals are our backup."

The impact of bribery
Knocke, the DHS spokesman, said the agency is on track to expand the current 13,500-agent Border Patrol force up to the 18,000 goal by late 2008.
''I can tell you we go to great lengths to ensure we are recruiting, hiring and training law enforcement professionals with the integrity and morality that Americans expect," Knocke said.

Don Clark, a security consultant who headed the Houston FBI office until 2000, said if the corruption isn't addressed now the problem will become more widespread. "Let's face it, these soldiers and Border Patrol agents, none of them get paid high-priced salaries," Clark said. ''Plus, they are waving money in their faces right and left." As an example, the U.S. Customs inspector who was sentenced in March pocketed $1 million in bribes.

Martinez, the ex-deputy, was jailed without bail until a June 20 detention hearing, U.S. court officials said. Attempts to contact his defense attorney were unsuccessful. Zapata County Judge Rosalva Guerra said Martinez was known in the small border community as a dedicated family man, as well as a veteran deputy before taking office as a justice of the peace. ''It was a sudden shock to all of us — we never expected this to happen," Guerra said.

Laredo defense lawyer Marcel Notzon, who is representing one of the Texas National Guard members charged with immigrant smuggling, said the chronic poverty along the border engenders corruption. ''In general, maybe it's because of the amount of money that's being offered, or that the economy is not as vibrant as it could be," he said.

New fear: infiltration
Notzon said his client, decorated Iraq war veteran Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco, will plead not guilty to federal charges that he was part of a ring that smuggled undocumented migrants from the border to San Antonio. ''I think the case was hastily put together," Notzon said.

Watching out for corruption is now part of the job description for federal law agencies, several officials said. ''We need to be ever vigilant on how smugglers will try and defeat any weakness in our defenses, including attempting to compromise law enforcement," said Alonzo Pena, who heads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Arizona.

The Zapata County sheriff fears cartel leaders are grooming members to join police agencies. ''The information we have is some of these cartels are trying to infiltrate local, state and federal law agencies on the border," Gonzalez said. ''They're trying to get some of their people to apply for jobs, so they will have control of operations on the border."

james.pinkerton@chron.com
Retrieved June 17, 2007 from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4896091.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 04:23 PM | Permalink

From The Washingtonpost.com. By Ruben Castaneda, Washington Post Staff Writer. 06/16/07

A Prince George's County prosecutor who questioned the truthfulness of a police officer in an attempted murder case has resigned after an internal investigation upheld the officer's veracity. The prosecutor, Nycole Grissett, told a judge in April that she did not believe key allegations about the weapons in a charging document sworn out by Pfc. Michael Soden, and the judge later dismissed the charges against the defendant.

The police union said this evidence photo shows that Pfc. Michael Soden was truthful when he alleged in a charging document that Darnell Williams attacked a man with a hammer and an eight-inch knife. Prosecutor Nycole Grissett said she did not believe Soden. The police union said this evidence photo shows that Pfc. Michael Soden was truthful when he alleged in a charging document that Darnell Williams attacked a man with a hammer and an eight-inch knife. Prosecutor Nycole Grissett said she did not believe Soden.Grissett said nothing to dispute Mooney's assertions, according to a court transcript.

When Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Whalen asked Grissett whether she believed that Williams had a hammer and a knife, she replied, "No," according to the transcript. She also pointed out that a fellow prosecutor who had once dated Soden had obtained a court order requiring Soden to stay away from her. The police union said this evidence photo shows that Pfc. Michael Soden was truthful when he alleged in a charging document that Darnell Williams attacked a man with a hammer and an eight-inch knife. Prosecutor Nycole Grissett said she did not believe Soden. The police union said this evidence photo shows that Pfc. Michael Soden was truthful when he alleged in a charging document that Darnell Williams attacked a man with a hammer and an eight-inch knife. Prosecutor Nycole Grissett said she did not believe Soden.

On May 3, a judge dismissed all charges against Williams at Grissett's request.

Alston alleged that Grissett questioned Soden's integrity because she is a friend of Assistant State's Attorney Renee Mortel. Mortel obtained the peace order against Soden on March 30. She alleged that Soden sent her harassing text messages after she broke up with him in February. In a court appearance that day, Soden denied harassing Mortel but agreed to stay away from her. Alston said there was no reason for Grissett to mention the peace order during a hearing in the attempted-murder case. Ivey agreed that the two issues are unrelated. Soden, who had been assigned to District 1 in Hyattsville as a patrol officer, is on administrative duty pending an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the peace order.

According to Alston, police also began an investigation into whether Soden made a false statement after The Post story on the attempted-murder case. At issue in the case was Soden's description of the weapons as an eight-inch knife and a five-pound hammer. The alleged victim later told prosecutors that the weapons were a stick and a pocketknife, and Grissett said in court that she did not believe Soden's charging document.

But after The Washington Post published a story about the case, the county police union provided The Post with a photograph of the hammer and knife that backed up Soden's description. State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey then conducted an investigation into the way the case was handled.

This week Ivey said, "Any statement about Soden not being honest is not borne out by the evidence in that case." Grissett's resignation is effective July 5, said Ramon Korionoff, Ivey's spokesman. She did not respond to requests for comment relayed by friends and co-workers. When Grissett questioned Soden's integrity, she was not aware that the officer had confiscated the alleged weapons, which were being kept by the state as evidence, Ivey said. "My understanding is she had not seen the evidence," Ivey said.

Percy Alston, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89, the union that represents Soden and most county officers, and Carey J. Hansel, Soden's attorney, said Grissett's resignation vindicates Soden. Alston and Hansel said they think Grissett questioned Soden's veracity because she is friends with the prosecutor who obtained a peace order against Soden in an unrelated case.

In the attempted murder case, Soden swore out a statement of charges against Darnell E. Williams, 25, who was charged with attempted murder and first- and second-degree assault in an alleged attack in Hyattsville on Oct. 3.

In an April 10 pretrial hearing, Thomas C. Mooney, Williams's attorney, alleged to a Circuit Court judge during a bench conference that Soden lied in the statement of charges when he wrote that Williams had brandished a knife and a hammer. The state's key witness, the alleged victim, said he was hit by a stick, Mooney said.

Retrieved June 17, 2007 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061502306_2.html

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 01:11 PM | Permalink

Detroit News Online. 06/12/07. By Norman Sinclair

Prosecutor says one Detroit commander tampered with evidence after colleague crashed car.

A veteran Detroit police commander faces felony charges for allegedly trying to cover up evidence that a second commander might have been driving drunk when he wrecked an unmarked police car. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy on Monday charged Cmdr. John Autrey, 54, with misconduct in office, tampering with evidence and willful neglect of duty by a public officer in connection with the early-morning April 28 accident involving Cmdr. Todd Bettison, 30. Both executives are assigned to the Northeast District and are suspended with pay.

Neither officer could be reached for comment Monday. Bettison was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence of liquor and possession of a firearm while under the influence of liquor. He was off-duty and alone driving a department-issued car when he crashed into a utility pole on Hayes at Seymour. Bettison was injured and was taken to St. John Hospital. The prosecutor said Autrey visited Bettison in the hospital later that morning before going to the crash scene where he was observed picking up small wine bottles from around and inside the wrecked car and disposing of them.

"I have to ask myself would Cmdr. Autry have sat still if someone under his command had engaged in this type of behavior? I think not," Worthy said. "The day we knowingly allow a police official to tamper with evidence is the day we have compromised the integrity of the entire criminal justice system." Misconduct in office is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Tampering with evidence is also a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. Willful neglect of duty by a public officer is a misdemeanor that carries one year in jail. The charges against Bettison are misdemeanors with penalties of 93 days in jail.

Bettison came under public scrutiny in 2005 when state elections officials said a Political Action Committee (PAC) he organized donated more than $25,000 to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's re-election campaign in violation of election rules. The contribution should have been $3,400 and the Kilpatrick re-election committee was ordered to return the excess money.

Both officers are expected to be arraigned on the charges Tuesday in 36th District Court in Detroit.

You can reach Norman Sinclair at (313) 222-2034 or nsinclair@detnews.com.

Retrieved June 12, 2007 from http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706120374&template=printart

Posted by Dr. Kardasz at 07:47 PM | Permalink

By: Jeffery Gold. 06/02/07. Associated Press

State Supreme Court Justice Roberto A. Rivera-Soto apologized yesterday for helping his teenage son in a dispute with a teammate, admitting that some of his actions created an "appearance of impropriety."

In a letter to a panel considering disciplinary action against him, Rivera-Soto said "that at no time did I intend to use my office to influence anyone" and was not interested in revenge for his son, who was involved in an incident with another teen on their high school football team.

"In hindsight, I realize that some of these actions have had the effect of creating the appearance of impropriety. Although I took those actions with innocent intent, I underestimated the capacity that my position has to influence others," wrote Rivera-Soto, the first Hispanic on the state's highest court.

He added that he should have "refrained" from such actions, which led to an ethics complaint against him _ only the second against a sitting justice since 1990.

"For my actions, and the effect they may have had, I am profoundly sorry," Rivera-Soto wrote to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, which issued the complaint May 11.

A message seeking comment yesteray from Rivera-Soto's lawyer, Bruce P. McMoran, was not immediately returned.

The ethics complaint charged that Rivera-Soto violated a court rule barring conduct "that brings the judicial office into disrepute," and three aspects of the Canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct, including one that "requires judges to avoid lending the prestige of their office to advance the private interests of others."

The alleged misconduct stemmed from a series of incidents last fall between Rivera-Soto's son, a sophomore, and a senior who was the captain of the Haddonfield Memorial High School team. The justice's son said the other teen harassed and struck him, according to the panel's complaint.

Rivera-Soto last month admitted that he spoke with school officials, the police chief, and court officials, but said he asked for no special treatment.
The justice signed a complaint of simple assault on behalf of his son against the other boy on Sept. 28. The matter was settled after a hearing before a state judge on Dec. 15, with agreement that the complaint would be dismissed if the teens had no further exchanges until June 19, according to the judicial panel.

In a formal response May 18 to the ethics complaint, Rivera-Soto denied misusing his position and urged the judicial conduct panel to recommend that his colleagues on the court dismiss the matter. Rivera-Soto "insisted at all times that (the) matter be treated in the ordinary course," according to that legal brief.

Yesterday Ri