Tag: police accountability

SWAT Team Blows Up Innocent Woman’s Home, Tell Her that She Has to Pay the $50,000 Bill

In July of last year, Vicki Baker, 75, was excited to move on to the next chapter of her life in Montana by selling her home she owned for 12 years in McKinney, Texas. That sale would never take place on schedule, however, because the day before she was supposed to close, a SWAT team destroyed it.

After destroying her home, Baker was told by local government that she was on the hook for the $50,000 bill to repair it. After fighting for a year, however, she may finally see some justice after a federal court ruled this month that Baker can sue for damages and get back some of the money it took her to undo the destruction caused by the cops.

“The court recognized that the city of McKinney is not exempt from the Constitution,” said Institute for Justice Attorney Jeffrey Redfern. “This is the first step towards Vicki getting her due, but it’s a big one. The government must compensate individuals when it deliberately destroys their property.”

“At the motion to dismiss stage, it would be imprudent to foreclose Baker’s ability to recover based on the shaky reasoning recited in non-binding cases from other circuits—especially when both the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court have alluded that a taking could result from destructive police power,” United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Judge Amos Mazzant III wrote in the decision to throw out the city’s motion to dismiss the case.

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2020 Police violence report

Mapping Police Violence collected data on over 1,100 killings by police in 2020. Compiling information from media reports, obituaries, public records, and databases like Fatal Encounters and the WashingtonPost, this report represents the most comprehensive accounting of deadly police violence in 2020. Our analysis suggests the majority of killings by police in 2020 could have been prevented and that specific policies and practices might prevent police killings in the future.

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Dallas police to limit more details on crimes from public view

Public information used by news outlets to report breaking news and neighborhood groups to monitor crime will be harder to access in Dallas.

Names are being redacted from public reports, and there are plans to delay real-time information about active crimes in the city.

City staff started quietly changing what shows up in open records and only said an “incident” spurred it. But it’s still unclear what that incident was. At least one member of the city council wants answers.

Certain records aren’t as open on the city of Dallas’ open records website.

The city stopped putting in the personal information for people who report or witness crimes. And it plans to redact more information and even delay real-time active 911 call data for 24 hours. 

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‘Trooper of the Year’ Gets 17.5 Years for Producing Child Porn, Distributing It to His Own Network

In 2018, Louisiana State Police Trooper of 18 years, Jason Boyet received one of the department’s highest honors—Trooper of the Year. Fast forward two years, and this hero cop was thrown in a jail cell after being arrested on charges of production and distribution of child pornography. His crimes were apparently so depraved and sickening that his blue privilege ran out and he was sentenced this month to 17.5 years in prison.

This Trooper of the Year was alleged to have been running his own child porn network. Not only was he allegedly distributing the horrifying images and videos, he was producing them! Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to horrifying crimes against children as young as three years old.

Even more disturbing is the fact that Boyet is reportedly married and has three children. According to details in the DOJ report, some of the children in the images could have been his own kids.

According to the FBI, an undercover agent accessed a chat room which was known to appeal to “purveyors of digital files depicting the sexual victimization of children.” Boyet frequented the chat room where he would distribute the images of children being sexually assaulted. Indicating that they may have been his own children, Boyet claimed to have custody and control of at least one of the victims in the photos.

When Boyet was arrested, FBI determined that many of the photos being distributed of young children were taken with this monster’s own iPhone between December 19, 2019, and February 11, 2020.

When a search warrant was originally executed, the FBI accessed an online storage account where Boyet received at least 151 images and 195 videos depicting child sexual abuse as young as 1 year old.

As part of his sentence, Boyet must also serve 5 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender. A restitution hearing is scheduled for February 2, 2022.

In a Facebook post from 2018, LSP Troop L issued the following praise about their star trooper of they year.

Senior Trooper Jason Boyet was recognized as the Louisiana State Police Troop L Trooper of the Year at the annual Slidell Elks Law and Order Night. When considering candidates, S/T Boyet’s supervisors highlighted his job performance, initiative, professionalism, and most of all leadership.

We wonder if they still feel this way about this alleged child predator.

Peppering the Louisiana State Police Facebook page are dozens of images of mugshots from people accused of petty theft, drug possession and other small crimes. Absent from their page, however, is Boyet’s mug shot and any mention that their Trooper of the Year was accused and arrested for allegedly producing and distributing child pornography. Seems legit.

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Taxpayers Held Liable After Video Shows Cops Search Man’s Anal Cavity Over Window Tint Stop

What started out as a fishing expedition disguised as a window tint violation ended with two Hamilton County deputies placed on leave for strip searching and sodomizing a man suspected of possessing an illegal substance. Now, after the cops enjoy a months-long paid vacation, the taxpayers will be held accountable for their actions.

The victim in the incident, James Myron Mitchell has filed suit against the deputies, claiming the stop was for false allegations of a window tint violation which led to his horrifying treatment at the hands of two public servants.

As TFTP reported in July, deputies Daniel Wilkey and Bobby Brewer stopped Latisha Menifee (driver) and Mitchell (passenger) as they were driving in a Buick. As the stop began, Menifee was immediately handcuffed and brought to the rear of the vehicle. Mitchell was likewise handcuffed and brought to the front of the police cruiser and his following mistreatment was captured on dash cam footage. The stop, they were told, was over window tint. However, they would quickly realize this was not the case.

While in handcuffs Wilkey and Brewer can be seen groping Mitchell’s genitalia in an apparent search for drugs. Even though the traffic stop was reportedly about window tint, no tint meter appears to be used during the traffic stop.

The lawsuit says, “Wilkey then began to grab James’ genitals. When James told Wilkey that (he) had an untreated and large hernia and that Wilkey’s actions were causing (him) pain, Brewer and Wilkey jerked James’ arms high above his back, and slammed James face-down onto the hot engine hood, causing injury….”

Also of interest was how quickly officers escalated their use of force against Mitchell claiming the handcuffed man, who was doubled over their police cruiser, was somehow “resisting” arrest. Mitchell simply appeared to be squirming as he was handcuffed on the hood of a car and sodomized by cops in search of a substance deemed illegal by the state.

According to the lawsuit, the deputies then beat Mitchell with “fists, knees, and feet,” and slammed him to the ground. It was then, according to the lawsuit, that they removed his pants and shoes, while continuing to beat him.

As News 9 reports, the lawsuit says the deputies then picked Mitchell up and leaned him over the patrol car. It says Deputy Wilkey put on a set of gloves, pulled down his (Mitchell’s) underwear, and “conducted an anal cavity search of James.”

During the horrific event, the two law enforcement officers likely violated Mitchell’s 4th and 14th amendment rights as the search was provoked by a window tint violation. Mitchell was a passenger in the vehicle, not the driver, yet officers honed in on him.

According to the lawsuit, Menifee watched in horror as Mitchell was sodomized on the side of the road in search of a plant. She also stated that she was afraid the deputies were going to kill Mitchell.

Then, after Mitchell was put in the patrol car, according to the lawsuit, deputies approached Menifee and “told her that she did not see anything,” took off her cuffs and told her to leave.

A medical examination later revealed suffered “tearing in his anus, and multiple contusions,” along with an aggravation of a hernia that eventually required surgery, according to the lawsuit.

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Cops Shoot and Kill Mentally Ill Father of 3 for Holding a Broomstick

Since August 9, the family of Luis Manuel Garcia has been demanding answers from police as to why they shot and killed their mentally ill family member. This week, body camera footage was released which provided them with some of those answers — but the footage does not justify the use of deadly force against him — leaving them with even more questions.

“He was an innocent person who had a hard time in his life and didn’t give the police a reason to shoot him or kill him,” said Christian Garcia, Luis’ nephew.

She’s right too, on the day he was killed, Garcia had committed no crime. According to Sgt. Matthew Nunley of the Tustin Police Department, they received a call about a man “acting suspiciously” which does not happen to be a crime.

When police arrived at the Saddleback Mobilodge, three officers responded to a bush, in which Garcia was hiding. He was clearly in a state of mental illness but instead of receiving help he needed, he received deadly force.

“A male subject popped out of the bushes at them, holding an object,” Nunley told ABC 7 news after the shooting. “An officer-involved shooting occurred.”

That “object” appeared to be a broomstick and at no time did Garcia ever attempt to swing it or attack officers in any capacity. Instead, he appeared to be frightened and seemingly hiding behind the stick as he tried to run away. He would not make it.

As Garcia stepped out of the bushes, one officer tasered him before another fired two rounds at him, killing him.

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