Tag: police accountability

Tony Timpa Wrongful Death Trial Ends With 2 Out of 3 Cops Getting Qualified Immunity

At the heart of the civil trial concerning Tony Timpa—who died during a mental health crisis after calling 911 in August 2016—was an appeal made to the jury by the lead defense counsel, Senior Assistant City Attorney Lindsay Wilson Gowin. “Justice here is truth,” she said. Then, invoking allegations that the Timpa family had not been transparent about various dark corners of Timpa’s life, she added: “That’s not how you find the truth.”

She had a point. But that statement, made during closing arguments Tuesday, was a bit ironic, particularly when considering the lengths the government went to in order to obscure basic transparency and keep the events of that summer night a secret. Indeed, the trial, which almost didn’t come to fruition, has come to symbolize how difficult it is for alleged victims of government abuse from stating their case, and the importance of allowing those claims a fair and public hearing, no matter the outcome.

Today, a federal jury rendered their verdict. The panel of eight found that Officer Dustin Dillard, Senior Cpl. Raymond Dominguez, and Officer Danny Vasquez did in fact violate Timpa’s constitutional rights during a roughly 15-minute interaction on Dallas’ Mockingbird Lane. But they gave Dillard and Vasquez qualified immunity, concluding that, while their actions were unlawful, a reasonable officer couldn’t have been expected to know as much. A fourth defendant, Sgt. Kevin Mansell, the highest-ranking officer supervising the scene that evening, was vindicated entirely.

The city will have to pay Timpa’s son $1 million in damages.

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Delaware state trooper tried to turn off body camera before ‘brutal’ assault on teen: prosecutors

A Delaware state trooper who allegedly “brutally beat” a 15-year-old boy who played a “ding-dong ditch” prank has been charged with multiple felonies, NBC 10 reported.

Dempsey R. Walters, 29, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony; deprivation of civil rights, a felony; two counts of third-degree assault, misdemeanors; and two counts of official misconduct, as well as other misdemeanors.

Officials say Walters was on duty when the incident occurred but turned off his body camera during the assault, but the device still captured video with no audio.

The video shows Walters walk up to the boy, who was handcuffed and sitting in a police car, and strike him in the face.

“Please tell me what I did? Please tell me what I did?” the boy asks.

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NYPD “TRANSPARENCY” SITE LEAVES OUT MISCONDUCT LAWSUITS SETTLED FOR MILLIONS

LAST YEAR, a series of headlines in New York City buzzed with excitement about a cop with the street nickname of “Bullethead.” 

New York Police Department Sgt. David Grieco — his actual name — had reached a milestone: Police misconduct lawsuits naming him as a defendant had exceeded $1 million in settlement payouts. Since the raft of news stories, Grieco has been named in at least two additional suits, according to publicly available information as of July, and payouts in complaints naming him have now reached $1,099,825. 

In the 13 years it took for Grieco to be named in 48 suits alleging police misconduct, he’s been promoted twice. In 2016, he was elevated from officer to detective and, a year later, to sergeant. 

The New York Police Department’s officer profile database, meanwhile, lists no applicable entries for disciplinary history in Grieco’s profile. 

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Charges filed against Broken Arrow police officer over dog attack caught on camera

Officer William Roy Golden is charged with cruelty to animals and acts resulting in gross injury/outraging public decency. 

An arrest warrant was issued Friday along with the charges.

The charges are related to an incident caught on camera Aug. 28 where an officer is seen following a dog around before using pepper spray on it.

The video was shared thousands of times before an investigation was launched.

The arrest report claims that Golden tazed the dog 8 times, pepper-sprayed the dog, and hit it in its head.

He is also accused of unholstering his gun.

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Houston Police Arrested an Animal Rights Protester and Detained Him for 16 Hours, Lawsuit Says

Animal rights activists Daraius Dubash and Faraz Harsini were peacefully demonstrating in a Houston, Texas, public park when park employees demanded they leave. When Dubash insisted that the pair had a First Amendment right to protest, officials called the police, who arrested Dubash and charged him with criminal trespass. 

While Dubash’s charge was eventually dismissed, the pair have now filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the city, arguing that city police clearly violated their Constitutional rights.

“No one should be handcuffed and detained for exercising his First Amendment rights,” said JT Morris, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment nonprofit group. “We’re suing because public parks belong to all Americans and their expressive rights, not the personal views of a few.” 

From April to July 2022, Dubash and Harsini demonstrated several times in Discovery Green, a Houston public park. According to their lawsuit, the pair—keeping in practice with Anonymous for the Voiceless, the animal-rights activist group the two pertained to—wore Guy Fawkes masks while playing clips from Dominion, a documentary showing the gruesome mistreatment of animals in factory farms. 

On three separate occasions, park employees asked the pair to leave the park, claiming that the park was private property. (Discovery Green is public property, though it is managed by a private company.) According to the complaint, the pair complied, fearing retaliation.

On July 23, 2022, Dubash and Harsini were approached again. This time, they refused to leave, and Dubash calmly told park employees that he had a right to demonstrate peacefully. However, a park security guard told Dubash that protests were allowed on a “case by case” basis, adding that his “manager is going to come and come look at it.”

According to the lawsuit, when the manager, Floyd Willis, arrived, Dubash informed him that, while the park was managed by a private conservancy, the park was still public property, meaning that the First Amendment applied.

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Colorado police face trial over death of Elijah McClain

Opening statements were due to begin Wednesday in the first of three trials over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was not suspected of any crime when Colorado police confronted him, placed him in a choke hold and called paramedics who gave him a sedative overdose.

McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police responding to a report he was acting suspiciously.

No Black jurors were among the 12 and two alternates on the panel chosen during a selection process that began Friday. This first trial involves city of Aurora police officer Randy Roedema and former officer Jason Rosenblatt, who are both charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

After police restrained McClain in a choke hold, he was injected with the powerful sedative ketamine by paramedics, then lapsed into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital. All the police and paramedics involved are white.

The McClain case drew national attention following the 2020 killing of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, which sparked a summer of global protests over the mistreatment of African Americans and other minorities by U.S. law enforcement.

Local prosecutors at first declined to press charges in McClain’s death. But a public outcry prompted Colorado’s governor to order the state attorney general to review the case. A grand jury charged three police officers and two paramedics in a 32-count indictment in September 2021, two years after the killing.

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Cops sued for zip tying and arresting 6-year-old girl

The family of a 6-year-old Florida girl who made headlines after she was arrested and had her wrists zip-tied in 2019 has filed a lawsuit, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Video of the incident showed Kaia Rolle sobbing while she was placed in zip ties after hitting and kicking staffers at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy Charter School.

Her grandmother says the now-10-year-old still has trauma from the incident.

“This is a lifelong mission of recovery for Kaia,” Meralyn Kirkland said. “This should not happen.”

The family is suing over the child’s “cruel, senseless and terrorizing arrest,” which they say was done to “instill fear and humiliation” in her, as well as excessive force, false arrest and malicious prosecution. It’s seeking $50,000 in damages.

In addition to damages, the family is demanding that the minimum arrest age be raised to 14.

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Probe launched after video shows Ohio cops threaten to arrest 11-year-old grooming victim

Two police officer in Ohio are under scrutiny after a viral video of them responding to a call about a minor being groomed shows them blaming the child, The New York Post reported.

The video shows two Columbus police officers on a porch talking to the father of an 11-year-old girl — six hours after he called them to report that a man had coerced his daughter to send pictures of herself.

The female officer can be heard telling the father that his daughter “could probably get charged with child porn.”

“Who? She can? She’s 11 years old,” he responds.

“She’s creating it, right?” the officer says.

“She’s 11 years old,” the father says in disbelief.

“Doesn’t matter. She’s still making porn,” the female officer replies.

“No. She’s being manipulated by a grown adult on the internet,” the father counters.

“Is she taking pictures, though?” she asks.

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He told on ‘badge bending’ and was fired. Now, former Vallejo cop will get nearly $1 million

A former police captain who alleges in a lawsuit that he was fired for whistleblowing on his colleagues and exposing corruption within the Vallejo Police Department will receive nearly $1 million in a settlement with the city.

John Whitney and his attorney, Jayme Walker, agreed to the settlement last week, in which the city will be required to pay Whitney $900,000 as well as all costs, liens and attorney fees.

“I feel vindicated by the settlement agreement because of the amount,” Whitney told The Times in an interview Monday. “You don’t settle for nearly $1 million if you did everything correct.”

Whitney alleges in a lawsuit filed against the city and his former employers in 2020 that he was fired after he told Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff, Mayor Bob Sampayan and then-City Atty. Claudia Quintana that members of the Police Department were bending the corners of their badges to commemorate every time an officer killed a civilian.

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Three Met Police officers who strip-searched 15-year-old schoolgirl wrongly accused of possessing cannabis could be sacked as watchdog announces misconduct hearing over scandal

Three Metropolitan Police officers could be fired after allegations of gross misconduct by carrying out a strip search on a 15-year-old schoolgirl wrongly accused of cannabis possession.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Thursday that the officers will face a misconduct hearing, and a fourth lesser misconduct meeting, over the treatment of Child Q.

The girl was strip-searched while on her period with no appropriate adult present, at a school in Hackney, east London in December 2020, after being accused of carrying drugs.

No drugs were found in her bags or outer clothing, and she was then strip-searched by two female officers with two male officers standing outside. Again no drugs were found.

Met bosses have been told by the IOPC that they should consider writing formal letters of apology to Child Q and her mother.

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