Recently in bad cop Category

LOS ANGELES - Three Los Angeles Police Department officers who allegedly lied under oath about during a drug possession trial last year were charged today with conspiracy and perjury.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Hassett with the Justice System Integrity Division said former LAPD Officer Evan Samuel, and Officers Richard Amio and Manuel Ortiz are scheduled to surrender on Thursday for arraignment.

Hassett filed a felony complaint for arrest warrant on Monday charging 37-year-old Samuel, 30-year-old Amio, and 36-year-old Ortiz with one count each of conspiracy. In addition, Samuel is charged with three counts of perjury. Amio is charged with two counts of perjury and Ortiz is charged with one count of perjury. All are felonies.

During a preliminary hearing and later during the June 2008 trial for Guillermo Alarcon, the three allegedly falsely testified about seeing the defendant Alarcon throw away a black object near a trash bin that turned out to be cocaine base. Ortiz allegedly denied under oath that he was in fact the officer who found a package containing cocaine powder near a dumpster while the other officers were searching a laundry room for drugs.

Samuel and Amio also signed under penalty of perjury a police report that was allegedly false.

Alarcon's drug possession case was dismissed in June 2008 at the request of prosecutors after footage from the apartment building's security camera contradicted the sworn testimony of the officers.

All three are scheduled for arraignment after 1:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Criminal Justice Center, Department 30. Hassett is asking that bail be set at $120,000 for Samuel, $70,000 for Amio and $45,000 for Ortiz.

CANTON, Ohio -- The police chief of a northeast Ohio township has retired after a video became public showing him and a female office kissing and caressing in the front of a police cruiser while a prisoner was in the back seat.

Timothy Escola retired Tuesday night after four years with the Perry Township police department about 50 miles south of Cleveland. Law Director Charles Hall says Escola's retirement closes an internal investigation.

Hall says no charges are being considered against part-time officer Janine England, who was with Escola in the cruiser June 2.

Escola and England drove to the Cincinnati area to pick up a burglary suspect.

After Sherri Rae Rasmussen was beaten and shot to death in 1986, her father urged Los Angeles police to investigate a fellow officer who had had confrontations with his daughter in the months leading up to her death, according to attorneys for the victim's family.

But Nel Rasmussen's pleas, which he said he made during several interviews with police and in a letter to then-Chief Daryl F. Gates, apparently were ignored by detectives as they pursued a different theory of how his daughter had been killed.

This from LAObserved via the LA Times:

Stephanie Ilene Lazarus, 49, was arrested this morning at Parker Center. Cold case investigation into the 1986 beating death of the wife of her ex-boyfriend led to Lazarus, and her DNA was secretly gathered last week to help make the case.

In a City News story, the head of the Police Protective League is also quoted responding to the news:

Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said Lazarus'
arrest "is deeply disturbing to LAPD officers and the people of Los Angeles."
"If convicted, the actions of one police officer should not tarnish the trust and
respect the public has for the more than 9,800 dedicated police officers who serve and
protect the community and its residents every day," he said.

Here's the LATimes story archive on the case.

This from the DA's office:

LOS ANGELES - The District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division announced charges today against a former Glendora police officer accused of taking money.

Timothy Radogna, 33 (dob 07/10/75), is charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm, possession for sale of a controlled substance and grand theft exceeding $400.

Radogna could be arraigned as early as tomorrow in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. The defendant was charged in a felony complaint for arrest warrant on May 14. Radogna is being held on $150,000 bail.

If convicted as charged, the defendant faces a maximum term of nine years and eight months in state prison.

Serious questions need to be asked of the El Monte Police Department's brass.

Last Wednesday the department came under scrutiny after one of its officers kicked a prone suspect in the head. That the kick came at the end of a high-speed pursuit offers little -- if any -- justification.

Richard Rodriguez, 22, of El Monte, a tattooed member of the El Monte Flores street gang took the full force kick to the head in stunning hi-def on live television. Rodriguez was subsequently booked for parole violations, evading police and several other crimes. He is being held in Men's Central -- probably waiting for a bus back to state prison, where he belongs.

The officer who delivered the kick, identified as George Fierro, returned to work the next day. Fierro, come to find out, owns a clothing company that caters to gang members and glorifies the Mexican Mafia.

His "brand" so sickens good cops that at least one tried to warn California gang investigators about a potential rogue in their midst.

"Has anyone seen or know about this gang clothing that a police officer is selling to gangsters," LAPD Detective David Espinoza wrote. "I understand the gangs really love this cop. I understand the clothing has hiding places for contraband, guns and dope. Things that can hurt our real cops on the street."

It's hard to believe, El Monte police Chief Tom Armstrong had no knowledge of Fierro's extracurricular activities.

There are many other questions Armstrong needs to answer.

At a press conference the day following Rodriguez's beat down, Armstrong sent Lt. Ken Alva to face the music. He read from a prepared statement, took a limited number of queries, then retreated to the safety of the police station.

On Friday, Armstrong and Alva took the day off. That came despite the fact that both men are very highly paid public servants and their department is facing a crisis.

Armstrong refused Monday to release a tape of the pursuit, which is a public record.

Why?

Did Fierro have a reason other than the catch-all "parole violation" for pulling over Rodriguez? Certainly a tape would show that.

What about the department procedures regarding so-called "distraction blows?" The policy seems pretty vague compared to professional standards required by the LAPD and county Sheriff's Department.

The City Council also needs to be questioned. For too long those who have taken campaign cash from police department sources have done nothing to improve its image.

Those who don't get the money have been whining for years about public safety.

If there was ever a chance to clean house in El Monte, now's the time.

A couple of quick updates in El Monte police department beating of a prone suspect:

First of all, suspect Richie "Turtle" Rodriguez apparently had a rap sheet filled with minor, non-violent offenses. Police have said Turtle was a member of El Monte Flores.

In the LA Times, City Councilwoman Pat Wallach, a frequent and vocal critic of the department, refused to criticize the actions of the cop who did the kicking.

"We are waiting for reports before we make specific comments on what occurred," said Wallach.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown will unveil the findings of a 16-month probe into the Maywood Police Department this afternoon. Here's the AP's version of the story:

LOS ANGELES--A small police department that patrols two gritty cities engaged in widespread use of unlawful force and routinely lacked probable cause to justify arrests and searches, the state attorney general said Tuesday.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown released a lengthy report detailing the findings of a 16-month investigation of the Maywood Police Department.

The report slammed the department on several fronts, criticizing its hiring of officers with misdemeanor convictions and its fostering of what it called an endemic attitude of discourtesy, sexism and racial insensitivity.

"The Maywood Police Department engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprived persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution," the report states.

Maywood Police Chief Frank Hauptmann's executive assistant Evelyn Ruedas said the chief was declining comment on the report.

Jurors in the trial of former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona have reached a verdict, according Thom Mrozak with the U.S. Department of Justice. The verdict will be read at 11:45 a.m Pacific.

Carona, who grew up in Covina, is accused in a massive corruption case that led to the dismantling of his department. We'll have the verdict when it arrives.

* Cleared on all but one count. This from CBS 2:

A jury Friday acquitted former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona of all but one count of witness tampering in a lengthy corruption trial against the former head of the nation's fifth largest sheriffs department.

Carona, 53, who Larry King dubbed "America's sheriff" after the capture of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion's killer, was cleared of one count of conspiracy, three counts of mail fraud and a second count of witness tampering.

Witnesses to the hearing described Carona as "shaking and sobbing" when the verdict was read.

What was it Hunter S. Thompson said about North Las Vegas?

"North Las Vegas is where you go when you've f---ed up once too often on the Strip, and when you're not even welcome in the cut-rate downtown places. ... This is Nevada's answer to East St. Louis -- a slum and a graveyard, last stop before permanent exile to Ely or Winnemucca.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

North Las Vegas detectives arrested two of the department's own officers Thursday for misconduct during a December incident involving a casino patron.

One officer is accused of repeatedly striking the handcuffed California man in the face during the incident. Both officers are accused of lying on a police report.

Police said Mark Alan Miles and James F. Balelo, both 27, were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of filing a false report by a public officer, a gross misdemeanor. Miles also faces a felony charge of oppression under color of office. Both officers have been with the department for almost two years.

<snip>

The incident that led to the arrests occurred just before midnight Dec. 6 at the Cannery, 2121 E. Craig Road.

Miles and Balelo were called to the casino to deal with a rowdy bar patron from Diamond Bar, Calif. The 31-year-old man, identified in the officers' arrest report as Luis Enrique Vargas, was handcuffed in a holding cell at the casino after a citizen's arrest was made by security guards.

He was accused of slamming his beer bottle on the casino bar and punching the screen of a video poker machine.

The arrest reports Miles and Balelo filed against Vargas were vastly different than evidence from the actual video surveillance, according to the report filed against the officers.

While in the holding cell at the casino, Miles, without provocation, repeatedly slapped Vargas and baited him to fight, according to the report filed against the officers. Balelo threatened to "bust" Vargas in the face if Vargas didn't stop yelling at the hotel security guards who were standing outside the holding cell.

The reports the officers filed claimed that Vargas had threatened them and attempted to bite and spit on them. The officers also made up threatening quotes and attributed them to Vargas in the reports. The surveillance showed instead that he was compliant with the two officers' requests and did not make any threats, according to the report filed against the officers.