Tag: police accountability

‘Entitled to reimbursement’: Trump DOJ says Jan. 6 defendants deserve to get restitution refunds after having cases ‘invalidated’

Certain Jan. 6 defendants who’ve had their cases “invalidated” and vacated by President Donald Trump‘s Justice Department deserve to get restitution refunds, the DOJ says — insisting Tuesday in a federal court filing that there’s “no longer any basis justifying the government’s retaining funds.”

Stacy Hager, an alleged rioter who was arrested in Texas, had been charged and convicted of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, according to his original DOJ complaint.

Trump’s mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters recognized Hager as one of more than 1,500 defendants who have been granted clemency since the president took office for a second time in January. The DOJ said Tuesday that what makes Hager’s situation unique — as well as others who had similar convictions like his “invalidated” — is that he was “not just pardoned” but instead told that the government was flat-out vacating his case while it was still on appeal.

“Here, Hager’s conviction was ‘invalidated’ when the D.C. Circuit vacated it, and thus ‘there is no longer any basis justifying the government’s retaining funds exacted only as a result of that conviction,’” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Dreher in response to a motion filed by Hager on Feb. 28 for reimbursement of fines, fees and restitution.

“This Court subsequently dismissed the case as moot,” Dreher said. “The government thus agrees that, so long as the Clerk of Court confirms that Hager in fact made the special assessment and restitution payments he seeks to have returned, Hager is entitled to reimbursement of those payments.”

According to Hager’s original Jan. 6 complaint, federal investigators found that he was boasting about his participation in the 2021 Capitol attack on his Facebook page, even posting pictures and videos of himself trespassing, the DOJ said.

“Hager also posted words to the effect of, ‘it’s war, don’t go quietly,’” his complaint alleged.

“The publicly available information on the subject account showed, among other things, a photograph of Hager and an unidentified male on the lawn in front of the U.S. Capitol on January 6,” the document added. “Hager was wearing a ‘Trump’ baseball cap, a gray outer jacket, a dark navy or black colored coverall and appeared to be waving a Texas state flag, with the other male waving a United States flag.”

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Police Chief Defends Use Of Lies And Torture To Obtain False Confession

A police chief in California has taken to social media to defend detectives who forced a man on medication for stress, depression and high blood pressure to confess to his own father’s murder — which never actually happened — through the use of what a federal judge called “psychological torture.”

“Were we perfect in how we handled the situation? Nobody ever is,” wrote Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey in a Nov. 7 statement posted to the department’s X account. “In situations like these, it is acceptable and perfectly legal to use different tactics and techniques, such as ruses, to elicit information from people suspected of potential criminal activity. That was done in this case in order to gain resolution.”

The problem: detectives were looking to gain resolution for a homicide that didn’t exist.

Thomas Perez Jr. was interrogated for 17 hours by the Fontana Police Department over the disappearance of his 71-year-old father in 2018, according to a civil rights lawsuit that he settled earlier this year with the city and an interview with CNN. He reported him missing on Aug. 8 of that year and was questioned that evening and the following day.

Detectives David Janusz and Kyle Guthrie claimed in a 2023 deposition for the civil case filed by Perez against the City of Fontana that their lieutenant had told them “something to the fact that they believed Thomas — or Mr. Perez — had killed his father.” The detectives both admitted that they had “a feeling” that Perez murdered his father but couldn’t prove it.

The pair allegedly took Perez to a coffee shop and drove him around town for hours while “berating” him about his dad’s disappearance and looking for places where he might have dumped a body, his suit said. They also allegedly denied requests by Perez to let him take medication he is prescribed for his stress, depression, high blood pressure and asthma.

At one point, the detectives even claimed to have recovered his dad’s remains, saying, “He has a toe tag on him,” according to the suit. Interrogation footage also shows them saying, “You know you killed him. You did.” A third cop, Detective Robert Miller, was also said to have been involved.

The City of Fontana wound up settling with Perez — paying him nearly $900,000 — after a federal judge in California’s Central District ruled in favor of letting his case move forward following a review of police footage from the interrogation.

“Perez’s mental state, among other factors, made him a vulnerable individual,” wrote Judge Dolly Gee, referring to the detectives’ interrogation tactics as “unconstitutional psychological torture” in her ruling.

“He was sleep deprived, mentally ill, and, significantly, undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his psychiatric medications,” Gee said. “He was berated, worn down, and pressured into a false confession after 17 hours of questioning. (The officers) did this with full awareness of his compromised mental and physical state and need for his medications.”

In his X statement, Chief Dorsey explained that while the City of Fontana was ready to end its beef with Perez and put his case to rest after half a decade, he was not.

“Our police department recently settled a lawsuit that generated misleading, one-sided headlines, telling the story from the point-of-view of the plaintiff’s attorney,” Dorsey said.

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Trump deletes database of federal police officer misconduct

The first database to track misconduct of federal officers has been shut down by President Donald Trump.

The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database was first proposed by Trump during his first term in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s death. It wasn’t until 2022 that the database was created under an executive order from former President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed the website was taken down and said that agencies could not look for or add any information to the database.

As of September 2024, there were 4,790 records of federal police misconduct between 2018 and 2023 in the database, according to a DOJ report released in December.

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Kentucky Cops Arrest Man for Shouting at Them

A Kentucky man is suing the police, claiming he was arrested in retaliation for shouting at a group of officers from an apartment balcony. In a complaint filed last month, Brandon Rettig alleges that he was arrested on bogus public intoxication charges after he angered the officers, who violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights. 

According to the lawsuit, on June 8, 2024, Brandon Rettig was at his girlfriend’s apartment in Newport, Kentucky, when a team of police officers responded to an unrelated incident outside the building. From the balcony, Rettig shouted at the officers. In a later interview, Rettig claimed to have shouted “go get ’em boys” at the officers. The lawsuit insists that while the officers were angered by the comments, “Rettig did not utter fighting words or threatened to harm anyone.”

The suit claims that soon after Rettig made the comments, Officer Ronald Lalumandier shouted up to him, “Keep it up, I’ll take your ass to jail,” adding “I got keys to your apartment.” Three police officers, including Lalumandier, then entered the apartment building using a key card, which Lalumandier had access to as a former tenant.

According to body camera footage, the three officers confronted Rettig in the hallway of the apartment building and arrested him after a short argument. 

“Are you serious? I live here,” Rettig told the officers.

“Yes, 100 percent. We told you out there, you didn’t listen,” responded one of the officers. “You shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing…doesn’t mean you can act the way you were acting.”

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Police Bodycam Footage Is Going Behind a Paywall

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law on Thursday changes to the state’s public records statute that allow law enforcement agencies to charge hundreds of dollars for body camera footage. Though such videos are central to watchdog reporting and police oversight, Ohio opted to join a handful of states that have made it easier for cops to put a steep price tag on transparency.

“Public bodies should be in the business of making it easier — not harder — for the public and the press to access important government records like body worn camera footage,” said Gunita Singh, an attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “There’s no need to impose vast sums of money onto requesters doing their part to foster transparency and accountability.”

Over the past decade, more law enforcement agencies have deployed body cameras — and the footage they provide has become central to covering cops and stemming police brutality. At the same time, law enforcement agencies and police unions have begun complaining about the time and expense of turning these videos over to the public when requested. Some states have responded by authorizing fees for processing footage: In 2023, Arizona passed a law allowing charges up to $46 “per video-hour reviewed.” In 2016, Indiana authorized fees as high as $150 per video.

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Alabama Teen Killed During ‘No-Knock’ Drug Raid Had His Hands Raised, Lawsuit Says

A 16-year-old teenager had his hands raised when he was fatally shot by police during an unauthorized “no-knock” drug raid in Mobile, Alabama, last year, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed by his mother in federal court earlier this month.

The lawsuit against the City of Mobile and several anonymous Mobile police officers says Randall Adjessom came out of his room holding a gun when he heard someone break down the front door of the house where he lived with his mother, grandmother, aunt, and sisters. When he realized the intruders were police, he put his hands in the air and stepped back, but a Mobile Police Department (MPD) SWAT officer shot him four times.

“The complaint is replete with revelations from our pre-suit investigation,” civil rights attorneys representing Adjessom’s mother said in a press release accompanying the suit, “perhaps none more repulsive than the fact that MPD body-worn camera (BWC) video of the shooting clearly shows Randall begin to retreat after realizing the intruders into his family home were members of the police force when he was repeatedly shot and killed in cold blood.”

And after he was shot, the suit says, police left Adjessom to bleed out on the floor for four minutes before half-heartedly rendering medical aid.

If true, the lawsuit’s narrative—which purports to be backed by video evidence, internal affairs reviews, and a recent independent audit of the Mobile Police Department—is another tragic example of what happens when the drug war, unregulated SWAT teams, and the Second Amendment right to self-defense mix.

An MPD SWAT team executed a “no-knock” search warrant on November 18, 2023, as part of an investigation into Adjessom’s older adult brother for suspected marijuana sales. However, the lawsuit says Adjessom’s brother did not live at the residence the MPD acquired a search warrant for—only Adjessom, who was a minor, and several women in his family.  

The lawsuit says there were numerous problems with the raid besides the absence of its only articulated target: MPD officers intentionally didn’t evaluate the risk to civilians in its pre-warrant threat assessment or note the presence of civilians in its search warrant affidavit; didn’t obtain authorization for a nighttime raid from a judge, supervisor, or prosecutor; and failed to announce themselves until after they had breached the front door and entered the house. 

All those errors became a force that swept together—like a malevolent current—the MPD SWAT officers and Randall Adjessom, who came out of his bedroom and turned into the hallway holding a gun with a laser sight.

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Mobile police officer arrested, terminated for stealing packages: MPD

A Mobile police officer was arrested and terminated Thursday after he was accused of stealing packages shipped and addressed to another individual at his apartment complex.

According to a Mobile Police Department news release, police officials learned Wednesday, Oct. 2, of an allegation made against a police officer at the Village at Midtown Apartments at 320 Stanton Road.

The allegation was that the officer and his wife had opened packages that had been shipped and addressed to another individual at their apartment complex.

Mobile police began investigating and ultimately terminated 23-year-old Patrick Dwayne Deas from the police department. He was later arrested and taken to Mobile Metro Jail.

Deas is charged with fourth-degree theft of property. He is scheduled for a bond hearing on Oct. 4.

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Jury Returns Mixed Verdict For 3 Former Memphis Officers Convicted in Fatal Beating of Black Motorist Tyre Nichols

A jury on Thursday returned a mixed verdict for three former Memphis police officers convicted in Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating.

Last September five ex-Memphis police officers were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the fatal beating of black motorist Tyre Nichols.

Last year, the state charged the five police officers with second-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Tyre Nichols.

The officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith – were fired after Tyre Nichols died following a violent confrontation during a January 7 traffic stop.

Three of the officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, were convicted of witness tampering but acquitted of federal charges.

Officers Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges.

Two of the officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., previously pleaded guilty to the same charges.

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FBI to pay more than $22 million to 34 women who claimed sexual harassment at training academy

The FBI has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit by paying more than $22 million to 34 female recruits alleging they were sexual harassed and dismissed from the agency’s Quantico, Virginia, training facility, according to news reports Monday.

They women allege having been routinely harassed by instructors with sexually charged comments about their breast size, false allegations of infidelity and the need to take contraception “to control their moods,” according to the Associated Press. 

The settlement is still subject to approval by a federal judge. But if the payout is approved, it would be among the largest lawsuit settlements in the history of the FBI, the wire service also reports.

“These problems are pervasive within the FBI and the attitudes that created them were learned at the academy,” said David J. Shaffer, the lawyer for the women. “This case will make important major changes in these attitudes.”

The suit was filed in 2019 and also contends the female recruits were judged more harshly than their male peers and “excessively targeted for correction and dismissal in tactical situations for perceived lack of judgment” and subjective “suitability” criteria.

The FBI did not immediately comment on the settlement. However, mny of the allegations in the lawsuit were confirmed in a 2022 internal watchdog report. 

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Former Houston Drug Cop Convicted of Murder After His Lies Resulted in Two Deaths

A jury on Wednesday convicted former Houston narcotics officer Gerald Goines of two murder charges for instigating a January 2019 drug raid that killed a middle-aged couple, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, he falsely accused of selling heroin. Goines admitted that he lied in the affidavit supporting the no-knock search warrant that authorized him and his colleagues to break into the couple’s home, describing a heroin purchase that never happened.

The prosecution argued that Goines’ lies made him criminally responsible for the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas, who were killed after Goines and several other officers broke down the front door and immediately shot the couple’s dog. Tuttle, who according to prosecutors was napping in a bedroom at the time, reacted to the tumult and gunfire by grabbing a revolver and shooting at the intruders, injuring four of them, including Goines. The cops responded with a hail of at least 40 bullets, killing Tuttle and Nicholas, who was unarmed but allegedly looked like she was about to grab a gun from an injured officer.

The two murder charges against Goines were based on a statute that applies when someone “commits or attempts to commit a felony” and “in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt…commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual.” That charge was inappropriate in this case, the defense argued, because Goines’ underlying felony—producing the fraudulent search warrant affidavit—did not cause the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas, which they brought on themselves.

“This case is overcharged,” defense attorney Mac Secrest told the jury during closing arguments on Tuesday. “It should never have been charged [as] felony murder,” he said while pointing at the prosecutors. “It got amped up to it because of the politics in their office, because of the media outcry, the pressure.”

Goines’ lawyers argued that Tuttle and Nicholas would still be alive if they had surrendered instead of resisting. While the prosecution emphasized that the cops fired first, Secrest emphasized that Tuttle fired “the first shot at a human being” (as opposed to the dog). “These officers didn’t fire upon anyone until they were fired upon themselves,” he said. “Nobody shot at Dennis Tuttle until he started putting bullets into peoples’ faces and necks.”

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