Thursday, October 01, 2009

Officer Patrick Phillips Accused of Providing Alcohol to Minors

A Gaffney police officer has been suspended without pay after he was accused of providing alcohol to a minor.

Gaffney Police Chief Rick Turner said that the State Law Enforcement Division has been asked to investigate the allegations against Officer Patrick Phillips made earlier this week.

The report was filed with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office but the incident allegedly took place in Gaffney, so it was turned over the Gaffney Police Department.

Turner turned the investigation over to SLED after an internal investigation.

Boston Officer Accuses Another Officer of Rape

A Boston police officer who has accused another officer of raping her, then stalking her, testified today that her alleged attacker squeezed her throat and threatened her life during the assault.

The officer, whose name is being withheld by the Globe because the newspaper does not identify those who say they were sexual assaulted, testified in excruciating detail about the alleged rape before a Dorchester District Court judge as she sought to extend a restraining order against him.

In a soft voice, the petite woman told Judge David Weingarten that she fears the patrolman, a sniper in the department's SWAT team, because he had threatened to shoot her husband and "he has no qualms about killing people."

The accused officer stood only 10 feet away, dressed in a gray pin-stripe suit, his arms folded in front of him. The Globe is withholding his name because he not been officially charged with a crime. He did not testify today.

In the courtroom were at least half a dozen officers from the special operations division, an elite unit that includes the department's SWAT team and motorcycle squad.

During the tense, 90-minute hearing, the female officer repeatedly was asked to speak up as she tried to describe what happened on Aug. 25, when she said she joined her alleged attacker and another officer for a trip to Farmington, Conn. for a shooting competition.

After a night of heavy drinking, the three officers went back to their hotel, where they shared a room.

It was there that the female officer said she was raped.

"He grabbed my throat and squeezed really hard," she said. "I remember thinking I couldn't breathe."

He raped her twice that night, she said, as the other officer lay passed out on the floor.

The next day, she said, he demanded sex again and out of fear for her and her husband's life, she said she acquiesced. She said she was intimidated into having sex with him three more times during the next month.

Last week, after she fainted during a training, she learned she was pregnant, she testified.

On Thursday, she said she was called in by the department's internal affairs division about the incident.

"They came to her," her lawyer, John Swomley said, after the hearing. "She did not go to them."

The officer said a sergeant-detective in the domestic violence division told her not to file a restraining order. A cruiser has been assigned to guard her apartment, Swomley said, but he said he suspects members of the department's internal affairs division have been reporting her whereabouts to the accused officer.

After the hearing, Swomley recanted his statement, saying he misspoke. He said that the sergeant-detective in the domestic violence unit was giving information about his client's actions to the accused officer's lawyer, Thomas Drechsler.

Drechsler said his client has no power over superior officers.

"Sergeant detectives don't usually do what patrol officers tell them to do," he said.

After the hearing, Drechsler, standing next to his client, addressed reporters as the accused officer looked on calmly.

"He has, will and continues to deny the allegations," Drechsler said.

The restraining order was extended to next Monday, when the hearing will be continued.

Officer Shaun Barrett Arrested for Harassment & Trespassing

A Scappoose police officer with three years on the force was arrested Friday night in Polk County on misdemeanor physical harassment and criminal trespass charges.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Shaun Barrett, 45, at approximately 11:25 p.m. at the Spirit Mountain Casino, according to Scappoose Police Department Chief Doug Greisen.

Barrett had been booked and lodged in the Polk County Jail, and has since posted bail.

Greisen, who learned of the arrest on Saturday while attending a conference with the FBI in Sun River, said Barrett has been placed on paid administrative leave as his department examines details of the case.

Greisen said he will review today the Polk County Sheriff’s Office police report of the incident leading to the arrest, and said an internal affairs investigation would be launched if there is sufficient reason to believe Barrett violated departmental policies.

“We’re taking it very seriously,” Greisen said.

The Polk County sheriff and district attorney offices are pursuing criminal charges against Barrett, and representatives from both agencies said it is policy to not release police reports on pending cases.
Barrett is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Polk County Circuit Court on Oct. 15.

He was not immediately available for comment on this story.

Barrett came to the Scappoose Police Department after working for the Vernonia Police Department, also in Columbia County. He had additionally worked as a law enforcement officer in Columbia City, and held the position of animal control officer for Columbia County.

Greisen said this is the first time he’s ever had a problem with Barrett, and added that he was disappointed when he heard Barrett had been arrested.

“We haven’t had any other issues with him. This is the first,” he said.

Greisen said this is also the first time in his 10 years as chief he has had to place an officer on paid administrative leave.

Barrett was the subject of public criticism while working as the county’s animal control officer for his role in the shooting death of a black bear in the early 2000s that was pursued up a tree within the Scappoose city limits.
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Other Information:
http://www.kptv.com/news/21177657/detail.html

Officer Robert Colombo Charged with Stealing Drugs from Evidence Room

A former Lyndhurst police office was indicted Thursday on charges of drug possession, tampering with evidence, and theft in office.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said Robert Colombo, 40, stole drugs from an evidence room and replaced them with rock salt.

The evidence was confiscated from a vehicle involved in a crash on May, 19. Lyndhurst officers responded to the scene, found heroin and arrested two people.

They officers returned to the station to book the suspects. At the station, Colombo took the evidence to log it into the evidence room but instead replaced the evidence, investigators said.

Colombo was found the following day at his Summit County home with heroin. BCI conducted the investigation.

Travis County Offers $40,000 to Tasered Woman

Travis County has offered a $40,000 settlement to a 72-year-old Texas woman on whom a deputy constable used a Taser after a traffic stop in an incident recorded by a patrol car camera.

Video of the incident has been shown around the world.

Kathryn Winkfein dared the constable to use the Taser and ultimately he did during the traffic stop in May during which the woman became confrontational.

She wants $135,000 for pain and suffering, medical expenses and humiliation, but Travis County commissioners Tuesday approved $40,000 as their "firm" counteroffer.

The incident is being reviewed by the district attorney's office, and a resisting-arrest charge is pending, said Precinct 3 Constable Richard McCain.

An internal investigation found no violations by the deputy constable, McCain said.

Winkfein's lawyer Tom Tourtellotte said he would discuss the counteroffer with his client.

Lt Stephen Ray Gardner Arrested for Illegally Obtaining Prescription Drugs,

Stephen Ray Gardner, until Monday a lieutenant in the Youngsville Police Department, faces six counts of prohibited acts and false representation after his arrest on Monday by officers with the Louisiana State Police investigative unit.

"I had become aware that someone in our department may have been involved with illegal prescription drugs," said Youngsville Chief of Police Earl Menard. "At that time, I contacted the State Police investigative unit."

Gardner resigned his post as lieutenant at the time of his arrest.

He was arrested in the 300 block of West Main Street in Lafayette on a warrant for obtaining controlled dangerous substances by fraudulant means and was booked at 9 p.m. on Monday at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.

"The investigation is still pending, so we are not releasing more information at this time," said Sgt. David Anderson of the State Police. "But we did make an arrest on Monday."

The investigation is ongoing.

Capital Police Officer Thomas McMahon Arrested for Passing out Drunk in Woman's Bed


Police arrest a U.S. Capitol Police Officer after a woman came home to find him passed out drunk in her bed.

The woman lives in northern Virginia in the City of Arlington.

Police say 34-year-old Thomas McMahon was still sleeping when officers arrived at the home early Sunday morning. They arrested him and charged him with unlawful entry.

Police don't know why McMahon picked the woman's apartment to sleep in because he lives in Reston which is about 15 miles away.

He's on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

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