Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Officer Jose Ortiz Arrested by FBI

Jose Ortiz, a 20-year Boston Police officer has been arrested by the FBI.

The case against Ortiz begun on August 30, 2006, when the cop was caught on a security tape coming into a Boston business. He told the victim that he worked for the ‘Colombian people’ who wanted the victim to pay off an alleged drug debt of $260,000. He told the victim he would kill him and his family if he didn’t corporate. Instead the victim reported the incident to the authorities. For the next few months the victim gave Officer Ortiz thousands of dollars while he was in uniform.

When the FBI went to arrest Ortiz he began screaming, "I'm a cop!" as he was forced to his knees, his hands in the air. The FBI agents cuffed him and pushed him down onto the pavement. Ortiz tried again: "I'm a cop!" But this time, for the first time, that would not be enough to help him get off easy.

After Ortiz went down, Ed Davis joined Lieutenant Detective Frank Mancini, the arresting officer from the anti-corruption unit, in the room where Ortiz was being questioned and booked. For a minute or so, Davis glared at the disgraced cop in his BPD blues. Then he tore the badge off Ortiz's chest, snapping, "You are no longer a Boston police officer. You don't deserve to wear this."

But Davis now admits that Ortiz should have had his badge confiscated long before that day. Prior to his arrest, Ortiz had been suspended from the force six different times, for offenses that included swearing at a commanding officer, lying on police reports, double dipping into overtime, and stealing a sheet from a fellow officer's citation book to write a bothersome neighbor an illegal ticket. Yet for all these violations, Ortiz was never severely punished. The most serious disciplinary action he received was for forging detail slips, for which he got a 70-day unpaid suspension. And even then he served only 20 days.

Worse still, even if everything the FBI says is true, Ortiz is far from the only strike against the BPD, which has seen its reputation sullied by a string of recent scandals: Officer Edgardo Rodriguez pleads guilty to lying to a federal grand jury and distributing steroids. Officer Paul Durkin shoots a cop buddy who tried to take his keys after a night of drinking, and is forced to resign. In January, veteran officer Michael T. Jones is arrested for allegedly robbing a Roslindale gas station at gunpoint. The next month, detective Kevin Guy, a longtime narcotics cop, is hit with a 45-day suspension after testing positive for steroids. Two officers, Windell Josey, who worked with domestic violence victims, and David Murphy, are nabbed by other police departments—one in Randolph and one in Baltimore, Maryland—for allegedly assaulting their girlfriends. At the department's Hyde Park evidence warehouse, a facility only cops are allowed into, a probe finds that drugs from nearly 1,000 cases spanning 16 years have been stolen or improperly discarded.

Now, many law enforcement officials are bracing for the final sentencing hearing for a group of disgraced cops known in the department as "the Three Amigos." All three officers pleaded guilty to drug possession and trafficking charges. One of them, Carlos Pizarro, was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison in December. Another, Nelson Carrasquillo, was sentenced to 18 years last month. According to court documents, the suspected ringleader, Roberto Pulido, was also accused of (though never charged with) involvement in an identity fraud ring and helping to run an illegal after-hours club in Hyde Park, where strippers would perform lap dances for cops in a closed area called "the Boom-Boom Room." He is likely to receive his term in the coming months.

Meanwhile, even more sordid revelations may soon emerge. Pulido's 2002 shooting at the hands of a shadowy assailant will also be reviewed. And the U.S. Attorney's Office has initiated an investigation into allegations of widespread steroid abuse in the BPD.

Back in 2001, Commissioner Paul Evans walked into the District E-13 station house in Jamaica Plain for roll call and presented three awards for exemplary conduct. All three went to the same cop. According to one of the citations, which commended the officer for chasing down and apprehending a robber on Tremont Street, his actions were "indicative of the outstanding professionalism he displays no matter where or when called upon to perform his oath of office." That officer was Roberto Pulido.

Pulido, of course, would later become notorious for allegedly running a series of criminal enterprises that included selling steroids, protecting drug dealers, stealing motorists' identities, and helping manage the Boom-Boom Room in the illegal nightclub not far from the mayor's Hyde Park home. That all this culminated in the biggest BPD scandal in memory is well known. But now even an incident for which Pulido was lauded is getting another look.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil has issued subpoenas to up to a dozen Boston police officers to appear in front of a grand jury convened to hear evidence on steroid abuse in the BPD. According to a source, three officers, one of them a homicide detective, were transferred after receiving their subpoenas. Two BPD sources, including one with direct knowledge of the investigation, confirmed the ongoing grand jury—where what went on in Pulido's Boom-Boom Room is also likely to be reexamined. And the fact that Pulido's sentencing, originally slated for February, has been pushed back is causing some in the department to wonder whether he is giving up other officers in return for a reduced punishment.

SC Trooper used his car to ram suspect fleeing on foot

COLUMBIA, S.C.

Videos have surfaced showing two members of the South Carolina Highway Patrol using their cruisers to ram fleeing suspects, just weeks after two leaders of the agency resigned because of a furor over a trooper's use of a racial slur.

In one of the two new dash-cam videos, which were first reported Wednesday by The Post and Courier of Charleston, Lance Cpl. Steven C. Garren drives after a man on foot, striking him when he crosses in front of Garren's cruiser. The man flips over the car's hood and into high grass on the roadside.

"Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him," Garren, who is white, can be heard telling another trooper.

In the other, Lance Cpl. Alexander Richardson drives between apartment buildings, on sidewalks and past onlookers in an attempt to run down a suspect. After about a minute, Richardson's car bumps the man, who grabs the vehicle in an attempt to steady himself. The man doesn't fall and takes off running again.

Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said neither trooper was available for comment. A message left at a number for an Alexander Richardson was not immediately returned. Garren did not have a listed phone number.

The videos depicted isolated events, and the troopers involved had been punished, Gaulden said.

Garren received a three-day suspension, which he has appealed. Richardson was reprimanded and completed a stress management course, disciplinary records show.

Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminal justice professor who consults with police on pursuit policies, said using cars as battering rams shows poor decision making.

"They're just lazy," Alpert said. "Rather than get out of their car or get in a foot race, or tackle someone ... they'll just hit them with the car door, with the bumper, and hope they don't run them over."

Alpert said he had never seen any training materials that advised authorities to use cruisers to hit suspects on foot.

The suspects in both of the new videos are black. One of the troopers involved is white, and the other is black, Gaulden said.

The Post and Courier's report about the videos comes three weeks after Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark and his boss, Public Safety Director James Schweitzer, submitted their resignations over their handling of an incident in which a white trooper used racial slur during a traffic stop.

"You better run," then-Lance Cpl. Daniel C. Campbell said, using a derogatory term for blacks, "because I'm fixin' to kill you."

Campbell was reprimanded, suspended and ordered to undergo anger and diversity training. After Roark resigned, Campbell was reassigned to administrative duties. Gov. Mark Sanford said he should have been fired.

Schweitzer has said he would step down after his replacement is confirmed.

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Another typical, lazy ass cop disgraceful cop that needs to have his badge shoved up his ass. Thank goodness for dash-cams. Suspicion of crime and/or running from the police is no authorization to abuse suspects of any race.

Cops are only hurting themselves by doing this; the more they do this, the more people are going to hate them.

And this, my friends, is the epitome of why I don't respect cops as a whole anymore.

Video Link... http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/20/sc.troopers.investigation/

Policeman admits to drinking 18 beers and being on duty

A POLICE officer who admitted to drinking at least 18 beers before going on duty to carry out a breath test has not been disciplined.

Instead, Senior-Constable Adam Reedy has been promoted – despite telling a court last month about a wild night in Cunnamulla that ended with him knocked unconscious after trying to arrest a woman.

Reedy was at the Warrego Hotel about 10pm on May 14, 2005, when asked by colleagues to carry out a breath test.

After the test he drank two rums at the Club Hotel and about 12.45am declared himself on duty to arrest local woman Corrinne Mitchell, who he says spat on him, sparking a fight that ended in Reedy being flown to Toowoomba Hospital for treatment.

Three people pleaded guilty to charges over the incident but five others fought the charges, which were dropped last month when a judge ruled Reedy's evidence unreliable.

A police spokesman said the matter was being reviewed but "at this time the Queensland Police Service has not received any complaint about the matter".

Reedy, who is now a plainclothes detective in Cairns, admitted in the District Court in Charleville to drinking about two mid-strength beers per hour between 10am and 6pm while off-duty at a golf function.

From there, the then-constable went to a barbecue where he continued to consume alcohol, before moving on to the Warrego Hotel about 10pm.

In court, defence barrister Phil Hardcastle asked Reedy: "Now how many drinks did you have at the Warrego before you went back on duty to do this breath test?"

"Mate, it was just one drink all up," Reedy replied.

Mr Hardcastle says: "Then you drop into the Club Hotel. You have two rum and Cokes and you're called away by Senior Constable Lahey?"

"Yep," Reedy replies.

An attempt by Constable Lahey to take Reedy home failed – he returned instead to the Club Hotel where he was later assaulted by a group of people after he put himself back on duty and tried to arrest Ms Mitchell.

In court, Crown witnesses backed the defendants' claim that Reedy had directed racial comments at Aborigines in a bar and then dragged Ms Mitchell by her hair, pulling clumps out.

Reedy denied the claims.

A statement from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions states the charge of grievous bodily harm against Ms Mitchell and four others was thrown out because "the judge concluded that it would be unsafe to rely on the complainant's memory to establish guilt beyond doubt".

"The reasons for this were that the complainant had consumed a large amount of alcohol before the injuries were inflicted . . . and he had been knocked unconscious in the attack."

A police spokesman admitted a driver had been charged over the earlier breath test performed by Reedy.

Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said the public had the right to have their breath tests carried out by officers who were not affected by alcohol.

QPS policy states officers who have a blood alcohol content above .02 face disciplinary action.

Mr O'Gorman called for a Crime and Misconduct Commission inquiry into the police handling of the matter.

A police spokesman said Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson and Reedy were unavailable for comment.