Police Misconduct

Police Misconduct
Police misconduct happens more often than is reported. Often, it goes unducumented or it ends with the innocent getting convicted. Every month we learn of another person who was wrongfully accused of a crime or released from jail or even death row because the courts eventually determined that the person who was prosecuted was innocent. There have been many people like Abner Louima and Rodney King. Do you recall the three Duke University lacrosse team members who were wrongfully charged with rape? What chance do these people have of living a normal life after the police have so violated their constitutional rights?

Some police have withheld evidence, threatened witnesses and even coerced others to lie under oath and give other false testimony. Police misconduct includes but is not limited to intentionally making a false arrest, planting evidence, removing evidence, fabricating evidence,
threatening witnesses, harassing witnesses, and using excessive force.

When police violate the constitutional rights of a citizen, it is police misconduct and can subject the officer as well as the police department to both civil and criminal penalties. Perhaps the most common form of police misconduct is when an officer physically abuses a citizen. In the area of civil misconduct, it is unlawful for a police officer to engage in conduct that deprives a person of their constitutional rights. However, the victim must show that the act constitutes a pattern of misconduct and was not just a single isolated incident. A police officer is also prohibited from engaging in discriminatory practices. To be a victim of discrimination, you must be able to prove that there is a pattern of discriminatory misconduct rather than merely a single incident. Examples of civil discriminatory misconduct include: harassment; racial slurs; unjustified arrests; discriminatory traffic stops; and coercive sexual contact.

Examples of Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct

During the 1990′s, police in Huguenot, NY forced a 17-year-old Kevin K. to sign a confession to the murder of EA. (we are using the initials only in respect for the family). Kevin spent 18 months in jail before the local court suppressed the confession and dismissed the state’s case as lacking. Thereafter, in early 2009, a DNA test conclusively identified another person as EA’s rapist and killer.

Another example took place in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. For many years, Juveniles were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted less than two minutes, and were then sent to juvenile prison for months, even for minor offenses. Today, prosecutors claim it was a result of corruption on the bench. In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom bribery in the United States, two of the Pennsylvania judges have pled guilty to taking bribes of nearly $2.600,000 from two privately run youth detention centers in return for the court to sentence the juveniles to their facilities.

In Texas, police were accused of allegedly torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991, in order to force confessions.
Some of the people who confessed to murder were later granted new trials, and a few were even acquitted or pardoned.

Another example involves one of Chicago’s most feared Judges, Thomas J. Maloney. He was a judge in Cook County for 13 years until his indictment and conviction for taking money to fix murder cases. He was convicted of taking bribes to fix three separate murder trials as well as other charges. Mr. Maloney shared in $100,000 in bribes to acquit three New York gang members accused of killing a rival in Chicago’s Chinatown in 1981. He served 12 years and 3 months of a sentence of
roughly 15 years.

Also in Chicago, former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge was arrested because he and fellow offices who were under his command systematically tortured suspects to get confessions. The torture included suffocation, burns, electric shocks to the genitals, and heads slammed with phone books.

More recently, in 2008, in at least nine homicide, sex assault and burglary cases, Baltimore police detectives instructed crime lab technicians not to follow up on convicted criminals’ DNA found on evidence at crime scenes, According to Police Investigators, the
Baltimore police stated that they believed the DNA was not relevant in their criminal investigations. However, the police did not want to introduce the DNA because it would have meant that they wrongfully charged innocent people with the crimes. Baltimore State Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy has requested a complete review of cases handled by the lab, which is still being reviewed. She has been quoted as saying “We’re working on it.We don’t know the full extent of it.”

Furthermore, in 2008, longtime Virginia police crime lab director Edgar Koch was fired after the discovery that a dozen “unknown” genetic samples found in evidence actually turned out to be the DNA of lab employees. Defense attorneys and forensic experts said flaws that allowed such contamination to occur likely indicated more widespread problems at the lab. The Police and prosecutors would not provide details about the nine cases, which include six open homicide and sex assault cases and three closed burglary cases over the past seven years.

In another Maryland case, RJ spent four months in jail based on police provided testimony and other information that turned out to be false. In charging documents related to a burglary from earlier in 2008, county police Detective Tate wrote in an application for an arrest warrant that RJ’s fingerprints matched a set discovered at the crime scene. In fact, there was no match, and the county crime lab never indicated a match. It took another two weeks to dismiss the charge against Raymond before he was released.

The famous California Orange County case against J.O. in which he was convicted of robbing three restaurant workers is another example. It was later determined that the investigation was tainted as a result of police misconduct. Police manipulated the victims’ identification of JO and misrepresenting the responses of a police tracking dog; efforts by the DA’s office to bully crime lab scientists into lying about the DNA exclusion of James as the robber; and the inexcusable conduct of Judge Robert Fitzgerald in extorting a guilty plea from James by threatening him with life in prison.

In Ohio, a Mahoning County man was released from prison after the Summit County prosecutors asserted that Youngstown police ”compromised” ballistic evidence in the 2002 slaying of a 24-year-old in Akron Oho. The defendant, A.O. was charged in the Rogers slaying last October after Youngstown police previously tied him to that shooting by switching a shell casing from an unrelated drive-by shooting in November 2002, according to Summit County court records.Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Gregory W. Peacock stated in the court-filed dismissal action that ”A trial in this case would not be in the interest of justice for either the defendant or the victim’s
family….”.

In Texas, a man convicted of aggravated sexual assault, JES, served four and a half years in prison before a controversy at the Houston Crime Lab revealed that DNA evidence used by the prosecution in his trial may have been tainted. As a consequence, upon retesting of the DNA evidence, it was clearly established that Sutton could not have been the perpetrator of the crime for which he was convicted. He was released and is seeking a pardon from the Texas governor.

Additionally, in West Virginia, a controversy at a state crime lab resulted in an investigation of several convictions after it was discovered that a former serologist with the Division of Public Safety had been giving false testimony and misstating DNA test results.

Also, in Pennsylvania, prosecutors are reviewing hundreds of criminal cases after discovering significant inaccuracies in one analyst’s work. Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has faced accusations of producing shoddy scientific work and presenting inaccurate testimony with respect to DNA evidence.

If you have been a victim of police misconduct, you need strong intelligent advice. When the State accuses you of a crime, they come at you with full force. Whether you are guilty or not, the State has police, prosecutors, investigators, federal resources, and an unlimited budget. As a single criminal defendant, it is almost impossible to protect yourself against the states power alone. For this reason, if you have been wrongfully charged or convicted of a crime, or you have been the victim of police misconduct, you need a very skilled and experienced lawyer.

Share and Enjoy:
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct
  • services sprite Police Misconduct