Black man detained while moving into his own home and then harassed

A 61 year old veteran was held at gunpoint while moving. He was handcuffed at the scene and investigated.

After the incident, the police allegedly harassed him for weeks and his racial bias complaint was blocked by the police chief.

The man went to the ACLU of Kansas who is pursuing the case with the State.

Former police officer charged for child pornography

A former officer of the Bossier City Police Department, which had been placed in administrative leave for allegations of animal sex abuse has additional charges leveled against him.

The newer batch of charges surround allegations of possession of child pornography.

His is currently in a correctional facility while the charges are pending on over half-a-million dollars bond.

Washington DOL reduces time to request DOL hearing to 7 days

If you are charged with a DUI, do not forget that the DOL has reduced that time to request a DOL administrative hearing from 20 days to 7 days starting in 2019!

Police accused of turning off body cameras in bad faith

Lawmakers in Tennessee proposed legislation to make it a felony to turn off a body camera in bad faith.

This was in response to body cameras being turned off during the Martavious Banks shooting.

The Memphis Police Association called the proposed legislation "counter-productive" indicting that it would turn people off from being police officers and that they believed that it was already a felony to tamper with evidence. Whether turning a body camera off would be tampering with evidence is not currently very clear.

Vet gets "roughed up" for filming cop

A police officer in Vallejo, California went after  a former U.S. marine veteran for filming him during a separate investigation.

The officer mashed the former veteran's face into a wall and swung him into a pole. He was diagnosed with a concussion and his fingers were numb from the tightness of the handcuffs. The former veteran was later let go.

The officer had previously been sued for civil rights violations.

Two Detroit police charged with home invasion

Two Detroit police with the burglary task force were charged with home invasion. They allegedly kicked open a door of a house without a search warrant. The person they were looking for was not present and they arrested the homeowner.

The homeowner had told them they needed a warrant and shut the door. That is when they kicked his door in. He was held in custody for 36 hours and no charges were pressed against him.

Big Brother coming to a neighborhood near you

San Diego has rolled out police controlled public surveillance "streetlights." These cameras gather data for the exclusive use of law enforcement.

While there has generally been no expectation of privacy in public places, actual public surveillance is a step further. Soon, a CCTV system, like the one which exists in Britain, may be coming to the United States.

Cop lies in search warrant, 2 end up dead during search

Houston police discovered "material untruths or lies" in an affidavit that was used for a drug raid search warrant.

The officer may have fabricated information from a non-existent informant in order to get a Judge to sign the search warrant. 

In order to obtain a search warrant, an officer will typically write an affidavit for a Judge a review. If the warrant, by itself, provides probable cause for a search, such as a raid, then the Judge will sign it and approve the raid. The entire process depends almost entirely on the word of the officer.

Two people were killed during the raid and drugs and weapons were found in the home that was the target of the search.

Island County Judge dismisses case to due roving security cameras looking at peoples' notes

An Island County Judge, by happenstance, noticed that security cameras in the court room were looking around and focusing on certain areas where sensitive materials, such as jurors' notes, defense counsel's notes, and similar items were located.

The Judge informed a separate Judge, who was presiding over a jury trial. The Trial Judge reviewed the videos and dismissed the case. The Sheriff's Office was in charge of the in-court cameras.

Florida deputy puts multiple people in jail for drugs which were not drugs

A Martin County Florida deputy was fired after an investigation discovered that he had put multiple people in jail for drug charges of which they were innocent.

One man spent 41 days in jail on charges of trafficking heroin. However, the deputy tried to claim that he mistook laundry detergent 92 grams of heroin.

The deputy claimed that he field tested the drugs, a practice which has come under criticism for an alarming amount of false positives. It is unclear at this point if any charges will be filed against the deputy.

Deputy accused of planting drugs

119 cases have been dismissed in Jackson County, Florida after a deputy was accused of planting drugs on motorists.

A local public defender requested that pleas be set aside and judgments vacated in cases involving this deputy.

Part of the discovery was from the deputy's own body cam footage.

It also came from client's of public defenders informing their attorneys that he was crooked. A veteran prosecutor eventually took notice and started taking a closer look at his cases and discovered discrepancies and things that did not add up.

Police sting operations lead to two deaths

Police in Columbus, Ohio have engaged in sting operations to crackdown on armed robberies. This is not necessarily a bad idea. However, out of roughly 10 sting operations, they have killed two of the suspects. 

The police claim one of the suspects, a 16 year-old boy, had a gun and that is why they shot him. However, a witness says that the boy was not armed and instead, the police retrieved the fun from the house after they shot the boy. 

The police are now charging a 16 year-old girl who was involved in the incident with felony-murder, due to the police's shooting of the boy.

Hopefully, there is some sort of video or recording of the incident in order to clearly establish what happened.

US Border Patrol agent suspected of being serial killer

Border Patrol Officer Juan Ortiz is suspected of murdering four women. He has been branded a "serial killer" by local prosecutors. He had been with the border patrol for 10 years. Ortiz was apparently apprehended after a would-be fifth victim escaped and found a State Trooper. Ortiz fled when they police began to search for him and was located hiding in a truck 145 miles away.

Police accidentally arrest undercover police

Detroit police accidentally bust an undercover unit. An internal investigation has been launched into the incident, but it seems that there was a lack of communication.

Miami cop accused of molesting teen

A Miami-Dade police lieutenant is accused of molesting a young girl over the course of two years when she was 8 years old until she was 10 years old.

He has been charged with multiple offenses for this alleged conduct and was ordered to be held without bond.

LFO Calculator

There have been a lot of legal updates with reference to legal financial obligation in Washington.

As such, a group was given a grant in order to generate an "LFO Calculator" which breaks down mandatory and discretionary LFOs for courts in Washington.

So, if you are facing a misdemeanor or felony, you can try it out yourself. 

Cincinnati police officer gets convicted of sexually assaulting four women

A police officer had sex with two women that he met on Backpage.com as well as two arrestees. He arrived in uniform with the two prostitutes claiming to investigating various crimes. He was ultimately convicted for various offenses relating to this abuse of authority. He received a 43 year sentence.

Officers claim 18 year old consented to sex

In a recent article, two plainclothes police took turns having sex with an 18 year old who had presumably been arrested for minor offenses.

The 18 year old was in a car with two males and a small amount of marijuana when the narcotics officers pulled up.

The officers let the two male subjects leave and "arrested" the female subject. They did not issue any citations or take her to the police station.

Instead, they took turns having sex with her, which she says was non-consensual. There is then surveillance video of the police dropping the woman off on the side of the road.

Is big brother watching you?

Records of purchases from certain government agencies like ICE and the DEA suggest that they are buying surveillance equipment to install in things like street lights.

The question is who would be authorizing this surveillance and if there are any constitutional concerns. Countries like Britain have closed circuit television in public.

Is this good for society?

Washington Supreme Court Declares Juvenile Life Sentences Without the Possibility of Parole is Unconstitutional

In another major decision this month, the Washington Supreme Court in State v. Bassett, has declared that sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole or early release was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Washington Constitution.

This comes on the heels of another decision declaring the death penalty unconstitutional in Washington.

The driving force behind all of these decisions is advances in the knowledge of how the brain develops and that the juvenile brain is structured differently. The law is slowly coming around to the idea that a juvenile should not face a sentence that they can never recover from for something done as a child.