Update Rachel Hoffman and TPD Chief Dennis Jones

Judge Dekker since at least August 12 has been trying to arrive at a decision as to whether or not to allow evidence in the Rachel Hoffman to be released.

This despite her comment, ""Almost what you're asking for is a blanket prohibition, and that does not seem to be authorized," Leon Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker said to Been.

So o.k. is it authorized or not? Whats the date? How long to arrive at this conclusion?

Is the judge like the she like State Attorney General Willie Megs who said his office would no longer prosecute DEA cases, trying to distance herself from this case. And is he also trying to distance himself from the Tallahassee Police Department.

Relating to open DUI cases having to be reviewed based on TPD officer Holly Loftlands giving false testimony at a trial, Meg's wrote TPD Chief Dennis Jones a letter dated July 9th, wherein
he states, "For many years Ms. Loftlands inappropriate behavior has gone unchecked." and,
"has been an ongoing problem for a very long time."

One has to wonder if the states attorneys office has been aware of Officer Loftlands "inappropriate" behavior for a long time, why did the states attorney not address the problem a "very long time" ago?

How many cases did they prosecute while knowing of Officer Loftlands "Inappropriate" mishandling of DUI arrests before they finally decided, "Oh hell, the shit is going to hit the fan and we best start covering our asses?"

But hell, since we are wondering, if the states attorney knew about "inappropriate" handling of DUI case for a "very long time" and went ahead and prosecuted them anyway (is that wrong?),
What else does the states attorney know about and is just hoping will go away?

You didn't get caught the "first time" you put your hand in the cookie jar did you?

Now this probably ain't happening but I can picture a judge pulling their hair out going "oh damn, we can't release this stuff." Which of course is just places my imagination takes me.

But you know it's amazing what will gush out of a septic tank when you unplug it.

Now to our update on Tallahassee Police Chief Jones,

YOU STILL AIN'T RESIGNED CHIEF,
Despite the EVIDENCE you are unable to manage YOUR department!

Should you care to write somebody about that little problem we provide the following addresses:

Governor Crist http://www.flgov.com/contact_governor

Florida Attorney General http://myfloridalegal.com/contact

Senator Lawson lawson.alfred.web@flsenate.gov

Mayor John Marks http://www.talgov.com/email.cfm?id=john.marks

Tallahassee Police Chief, Dennis Michael Jones

Tallahassee Commissioners: Use this link to contact all of them at once
http://www.talgov.com/email.cfm?id=commissioners

TALLAHSSEE DEMOCRAT
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CUSTOMERSERVICE03

Ride Free and hope that your wife, mother or daughter don't become victims while you remain silent.Add to Technorati Favorites

Russia copies us and we blame them

Remember our post on hypocrisy?

"insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected" George Bush

"this is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia where Russia can threaten its neighbors occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it, things have changed."
Condoleeza Rice

Ms. Rice is correct things have changed. It is now 2008 and America is mired down in a country whose sovereignty and territorial integrity we did not respect. Whom we threatened, invaded, overthrew and got a way with.

The one truth is, that both the U.S. and Russia want Georgia. For one Reason. Oil! The question becomes will we allow ourselves to be blown to smithereens over it? Ask Cheny.

See our post here. It is all about oil people. We ain't lied to ya yet!

The Condoleeza Rice comments were aired last night on CNN. I searched extensively to find them. The link above was the only place I could find the comments. Did somebody realize the stupidity of the remark? Best check em out quick.Add to Technorati Favorites

Updating Hope Steffy, Grand Jury finds no problem, what?

It was a while back when we first posted on Hope Steffy and wrote the Sheriff of Canton, Ohio and the Governor of Ohio. In this post here we outlined just how bizarre this case was/is.

We were beginning to believe justice would never be done in this case as the Ohio Attorney General was having his own problems. Since those problems led to his resignation and a new attorney general we thought "aha, now maybe justice". Well "Aha, we were freaking wrong".

Our post here detailed just how absurd the Hope Steffy case was becoming and kind of knew at that time Hope was not going to receive any justice from the state and the posting below in its entirety from "Shadmia's World" proves us right. It would appear Hope Steffy's last chance is the Federal government. It would appear she will be violated once again.

According to a grand jury, Stark County deputies committed no criminal acts while arresting Hope Steffey two years ago. Nancy H. Rogers, Ohio attorney general, issued a statement saying that a Stark County grand jury did not hand down any indictments after reviewing the evidence presented by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation Special Prosecution Sections.

The Steffey case was investigtated by Paul Scarsella, the Chief of the Special Prosecutions Section for the Attorney General’s Office where he manages 4 attorneys and support staff. He was assisted by Bridget Carty, Public Integrity Unit Coordinator, and an Assistant Attorney General in the Special Prosecutions Section.

The Special prosecutors, Paul Scarsella and Bridget Carty, said the incident, in which male and female deputies forcibly removed Steffey’s clothes at the Stark County jail, was a suicide precaution. They said the deputies were only following a medical order given by a doctor on duty to remove her clothes. Though the jail has suicide suits for inmates to wear, prosecutor Scarscella said Steffey was not immediately given one because even the suit was deemed too dangerous for her to have.

The Special prosecutors presented the results of their investigation to the grand jury without interviewing Hope Steffey. They said they were unwilling to interview her with her lawyers present, as she requested. Steffey did however appear before the grand jury. The grand jury declined to indict the deputies involved.

Steffey denied that she was suicidal or was given the opportunity to remove her clothes herself. There is no policy that prevents men from removing a female inmate’s clothes during a suicide precaution situation. Men are however prevented from strip-searching a female inmate.

However, the findings of this grand jury will have no bearing on the federal lawsuit that Hope Steffey filed on Oct. 2007, accusing Stark County deputies of violating her civil rights by assaulting, strip-searching and leaving her injured and naked for six hours in a Stark County jail cell. She had to use toilet paper to cover herself. Defendants in the case are Swanson, Deputy Sheriff Richard T. Gurlea Jr. and one to 15 other “John and Jane Does” employed at the Stark County Jail, and the Stark County commissioners. That case is scheduled to go to trial in December.

The following video is 6 minutes long. It may. it should be disturbing. Which is exactly why you should watch it and judge for yourself. Imagine it being your wife or daughter. Because then since then 4 other women have complained of the sane treatment as well as some teen aged girls. Guess they were all suicidal huh?

We cannot ride free while other remain oppressed.Add to Technorati Favorites

Update Palm Beach officers beat Hancuffed suspect

First posted here after West Palm Beach Police Officers were caught by their dash cam beating hand cuffed suspect. Edited for space. Hit link to see whole story.

MICHAEL LaFORGIA

Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — Two city police officers who were videotaped beating a handcuffed man in May were fired Tuesday after an internal investigation determined they used excessive force.

Officers Louis J. Schwartz, 29, and Jason Zangara, 34, were put on paid administrative leave Aug. 4, when West Palm Beach police internal investigators concluded a report on the beating, which happened during Memorial Day weekend at a CVS pharmacy at 6800 S. Dixie Highway.

If Zangara's firing is upheld, it wouldn't be the first time he left a law enforcement agency on bad terms.

In March 2006, a state judge found that Zangara, who hurt his right knee and ankle in a December 2003 accident while working as a Manatee County Sheriff's Office corrections deputy, altered a doctor's note to make it state he couldn't perform light duties while sitting down, lied about his medical restrictions to his employer and misrepresented his duties to his doctor, court records show.

Judge Diane Beck ordered Zangara to return $9,624.59 of the $14,219.51 in workers compensation payments he had received after the accident.

Whether West Palm Beach police officials knew about Zangara's then-ongoing litigation when he was hired in August 2004 wasn't clear Tuesday evening.Add to Technorati Favorites

Update on Hillsborough, Fl. Deputy who dumped wheelchair victim

Our original post on this incident on 02-08 can be found here:
The Video can be found here:

August 13, o8
Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones was charged with excessive or unnecessary force and she was charged with abusing a disabled adult in February. She resigned that month.

Cpl. Decondra Jones who assisted in searching wheelchair bound Brian Sterner after Officer Jones dumped him on the floor has been fired. Mr. Sterner, who is paralyzed, was dumped on the floor of the Hillsborough County Jail floor after after being brought in on a warrant for a "traffic violation." The officer apparently did not believe that Mr. Sterner was unable to stand.

Sterner said he repeatedly told Marshall-Jones he was a quadriplegic and that he was sitting calmly when he felt himself "being lunged forward but at a very rapid rate."

Another deputy has since resigned and five other jail employees were given suspensions.Add to Technorati Favorites

Updates Re: Police officer shoots Hells Angel in Sturgis

From an ever vigilant reader updating previous post: From Rapid City Journal

(edited for space)

Authorities identified the man injured in an Aug. 9 shooting in Sturgis as Joseph Patrick McGuire, 33, of Imperial Beach, Calif., and the shooter as Ronald Smith, 43, of Seattle, Wash.

The Seattle Police Department confirmed Sunday that one of its officers, who was vacationing at the rally with four fellow officers, was involved in the shooting at the Loud American Roadhouse bar shortly after 1 a.m. on Aug. 9.

According to The Associated Press, all five officers were relieved of duty pending an investigation by South Dakota authorities. The SPD sent a team of investigators to Sturgis to gather more information on the shooting. The vacationing officers have since returned to Washington, according to Seattle area media.

Twenty-five witnesses spent seven hours Sunday testifying before a Meade County grand jury about what they saw during the shooting at the crowded Main Street bar. Sondreal said the investigation may continue until the grand jury convenes again on Aug. 27.

A grand jury investigation was the best way to handle any charges that may result from the shooting, he said.

“Given the magnitude, complexity and number of out-of-state witnesses in this case, this was the only logical venue for the next step in the process,” he said.

Smith is a detective who works for the Seattle police Pawn Shop Squad and is a police guild board member. The officer also is known throughout the department as an avid motorcycle rider.

Seattle police declined to comment Monday on whether it was legal for Smith to have a gun on him in the Loud American Roadhouse, because he was off duty at the time.

The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 would technically allow Smith to have a concealed weapon at any time and would supersede any laws regarding concealed weapons in South Dakota.

However, that act would not apply if Smith was intoxicated, which is information that authorities have not released.

There also is a clause in the act that mentions disciplinary action disqualifying an officer from carrying a gun, but Seattle Police declined to comment on whether Smith’s past disciplinary record would disqualify him. The Seattle Post Intelligencer has reported that the police department disciplined for taunting fans at a football game and another time for allegedly threatening to shoot a restaurant manager who had asked him to leave.

South Dakota Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Sara Rabern said state authorities do not know yet if Smith would meet the requirements of the safety act.

The Post Intelligencer has reported that Seattle police union leaders believe a videotape taken at the scene will exonerate Smith of any wrongdoing in the altercation.

"I think it’s going to be pretty evident that the officer was fearful of his safety and life and that’s why he had to fire," Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild told the newspaper.

Time line from From Reporter scanners after the shooting:

At 1:32 a.m., a request was made for an airlift to Regional Hospital. Rapid City and Pennington County officers were directed to the Regional Hospital emergency room for "security issues." At 1:52 a.m., Black Hills LifeFlight advised that four people were on board coming from Sturgis and would be at Regional Hospital in eight minutes.

At 1:58 a.m., Sturgis police advised Rapid City dispatch that there were "two or three Angels going to be with their buddy" at the hospital. If more than four arrived, they were to be directed to park at the hospital's rehabilitation unit parking lot, where police were waiting.

Later in the night, police were tracking bikers on Interstate 90, checking for their gang "colors."

At 3:10 a.m., three more bikers arrived at the emergency room, and an officer said: "They are aware of the rules in the E.R. We're not expecting more, but you never know." Some officers were released from their security posts, and others were told to adjust their positions so they could see into the waiting room.

The Sturgis Police Department is investigating the shooting, along with federal, state and county law enforcement agencies.

Chief Bush said the last shooting that occurred in Sturgis during a rally was in 1990 inside Gunner's Lounge, also involving two motorcycle clubs.

Kinney said the fight and shooting were unusual for his bar.

"In the years we have been doing this, we have almost no trouble during the rally," Kinney said. "It was surreal, that's for sure."

Bush said the incident is not related to the biker-gang shooting in Custer State Park during the 2006 Sturgis motorcycle rally.

As a result of that incident, Hells Angels members Chad Wilson, 32, of Lynnwood, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, and John Midmore, 34, of Valparaiso, Ind., were arrested, accused of shooting at members of the Outlaws biker gang and others Aug. 8, 2006, at Legion Lake Resort in Custer State Park. Five people were wounded in that shooting, but all lived.Add to Technorati Favorites