Police
Friends want probe of 77-year-old’s death after arrest
“Branson residents are questioning why city police arrested a 77-year-old man with health problems on an Arkansas bad check warrant from 1996 and held him in jail for five days. Shortly after his release from Taney County Jail, Evans E. Ray was found dead in his home. It’s unclear how long he was deceased in…
Read MoreConvicted murderer Jimmy Dac Ho had history of abuse, violence, documents show
Before he was handed a badge and a gun as a police officer for Florida Atlantic University, Jimmy Dac Ho was no stranger to trouble in South Florida. Fired from the Broward Sheriff’s Office in 2004 after a violent fight with his wife, Ho spent two years trying to get another job as a police…
Read MoreNo Jurisdiction, No Problem: Local Police Make Up Their Own Rules
The Richmond Public Housing Police Department’s web page claimed that “the department provides city-wide law enforcement authority which enables officers to make arrests on and off RRHA property.” But who granted the public housing police, authority to make arrests off public housing property? An investigation by WRIC-Richmond discovered the answer to that is – no…
Read MoreRepeat drunk drivers still able to get plea deals
Eleven years of data analyzed by the Columbus Dispatch showed that those charged multiple times with operating a vehicle while impaired were able to get their charges reduced through a plea deal almost as often as those who had no recent drunk driving charges. Some say repeat offenders know how to beat the system. Drivers can…
Read MoreFulton commissioners use on-duty police for rides to meetings, appearances
On-duty police officers routinely chauffeur Fulton County commissioners around town in apparent violation of the board’s own policy prohibiting the practice. Commissioners have asked officers to drive them to the airport, to concerts and to scores of other public events in recent years, even though county rules forbid using police officers to transport elected officials,…
Read MoreNew York State Police kept missing evidence scandal secret
The State Police kept secret an evidence-handling scandal that erupted in 2011 at a bustling barracks in Westchester County in which drugs and other evidence were lost, leading to botched prosecutions, the retirement of two senior investigators and the forced resignation of a trooper accused of lying to internal affairs investigators. The only person arrested…
Read MoreA star player accused, and a flawed rape investigation
Yet another university community has been accused of denying justice to a female sexual assault victim in order to protect a star male athlete. The New York Times today chronicled the shortcomings of an investigation by Tallahassee police into a reported sexual assault in which Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston was the alleged assailant. Police failed…
Read MoreMemphis Police Department inconsistent with rape kit testing
Newly released Memphis police records show detectives secured DNA testing within weeks of the 2003 home-invasion rape of a girl, then 12, now suing the city over its massive backlog of untested rape kits. In a story last month exploring early missed opportunities to stop serial rapist Anthony Alliano, The Commercial Appeal reported 12-year-old Madison…
Read MoreShootings involving combat veterans raise questions of police training
Gene Vela was supposed to graduate in May with a master’s degree in global policy studies. It would have been a milestone for Vela, who was among the first U.S. Marines involved in the initial invasion of Iraq. Vela, 30, battled post-traumatic stress disorder in the Marines and after leaving the military, and his struggles…
Read MoreFugitives Next Door: Police won’t chase 186,000 felony suspects
Across the United States, police and prosecutors are allowing tens of thousands of wanted felons — including more than 3,300 people accused of sexual assaults, robberies and homicides — to escape justice merely by crossing a state border, a USA TODAY investigation found. Those decisions, almost always made in secret, permit fugitives to go free…
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