Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Officer Caught In Surveillance Photo Having Sex On Car: Report (GRAPHIC PHOTO)

A photo of what appears to be a police officer having sex with a woman on the hood of a car has caused an uproar in New Mexico.

Albuquerque, N.M. TV station KOB 4 and the Albuquerque Journal both identify the man as a uniformed officer.

The Santa Fe Sheriff's office released pictures to KOB in response to a public records request. The photos were taken from security footage at the Santa Fe Canyon Ranch.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia told the Journal that the photos were taken by a camera set up to catch graffiti taggers or other crimes.

Other uniformed policeman have been caught having sex on the job. Earlier this month, a Louisiana state public safety officer was suspended for reportedly having sex in his patrol car.

In January, a veteran officer resigned after he allegedly did the deed in his cruiser.

New Mexico State Police have not said whether the man pictured on the hood of the car will face any disciplinary measures, according to the Journal.

WATCH video with the GRAPHIC PHOTO:

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Officer Sheldon Czegledi Arrested for Prostitution

A Phoenix police officer was arrested during a prostitution sting in El Paso, Texas. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office Strike Team arrested Officer Sheldon Czegledi, 47, along with 14 others. According to a sheriff's office report, Czegledi approached a deputy working undercover as a decoy/female prostitute Friday night and solicited the deputy for sexual intercourse for a fee of $45. Czegledi then drove his vehicle into the parking lot of a motel. According to the report, he gave the deputy $5 as a deposit and stated he would return. Other deputies conducted a traffic stop and took Czegledi into custody. Czegledi is a 14-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department and is currently assigned as a patrol officer at Central City Precinct. Sgt. Steve Martos with the Phoenix Police Department said an administrative investigation will be launched.

Assistant Chief Brian Lee Kepler Arrested for pointing weapon at his wife

A small Craig County town is without an assistant police chief after the current officer was arrested Tuesday.

OSBI agents arrested Brian Lee Kepler Tuesday evening at the Amber Police Department.

Kepler, 35, was arrested for feloniously pointing a firearm.

Officials say the charge stems from an argument between he and his wife Aug. 24.

Kepler allegedly pointed his gun at his wife and spoke about a murder-suicide.

Agents say Kepler also waved the gun near the couple's two-year-old twin children and said, "Which one do you want me to shoot first?"

He was booked into the Grady County Jail Tuesday evening.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Officer Bradley Bickett Arrested for Drunk Driving

An Aurora police officer who was arrested for drinking and driving and speeding in Wyoming early this month has resigned from the force, officials announced Monday.

Officer Bradley Bickett was arrested in Goshen County, Wyoming on Aug. 10 after witnesses reported him driving recklessly in his marked police cruiser while a passenger threw trash -possibly beer cans- from a window.

Gerald Kirby, also an Aurora officer, was cited for littering.

Both were on their way to the funeral for one of two officers who were recently killed in Rapid City, South Dakota.

"It is unfortunate that a 31-year career of service in law enforcement was destroyed by a single day of poor judgment," said Chief Daniel J. Oates of Bickett’s resignation.

"I thank Brad for his decision. He made the honorable choice to retire. He has accepted responsibility. His apology will mean a great deal to his colleagues in the Department and will help put this unfortunate event behind us.”"

Kirby is on restricted duty pending a full Internal Affairs investigation, police said.

Sgt. Aisha Hackley Arrested for Scamming Elderly Woman

A District of Columbia police officer was charged Tuesday with scamming an elderly woman she was assigned to help, authorities said.

Sgt. Aisha Hackley was arrested on a theft charge at the police department’s Second District headquarters, where she works. The 35-year-old was released on personal recognizance and is due back in court later this month.

Hackley forged the signature of an 85-year-old woman she met last December during a fraud investigation, depositing 10 checks from the woman’s Bank of America account that totaled more than $43,000, according to court charging documents. Eight of the checks were made payable to Aisha Jackson, which authorities say is another name for Hackley, and two were written out to Kevin Jackson, her son.

The older woman contacted Bank of America on or about May 31 after noticing a series of suspicious checks charged against her account. She later told a fraud investigator that the signature on eight of the checks was not hers, that she would not have authorized the checks for the amounts written and that she did not know Aisha Jackson or Kevin Jackson, according to court records.

Hackley, when questioned by a bank investigator, said she had met the woman last December after the woman reported being a victim of a lottery scam. Hackley visited the woman’s home several times over the next few months and even helped her open a new PNC Bank account, the documents say.

Hackley’s attorney, Kenneth Auerbach, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said Hackley’s police powers have been revoked and that Hackley came under investigation after the Internal Affairs Division received a tip from a police officer in April.
Hackley’s next court date is June 30.

Hackley was recognized in December 2003, at the Capital Hotels Award Metropolitan Police Service Award Luncheon, for arresting two teenagers who were in a stolen car after she saw the vehicle make an illegal turn.

Cedar Rapids Officer Robyn Obadal arrested for Burglary

Officer Robyn L. Obadal, 36, was arrested on suspicion of third-degree burglary around 10 a.m. Thursday at police headquarters. She is accused of taking two dogs from a vacant house at 1201 10th St. NW on Saturday.

Obadal, a police officer in Cedar Rapids since 1997, was taken to the Linn County Jail, where she was booked and released on a promise to appear in court on Aug. 10. She has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, pending an internal investigation.

Officer Melissa Henderson, a police spokeswoman, said investigators believe Obadal took the dogs between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday while she was on duty. Homeowner Chad Ramey reported the burglary around 4:10 p.m. that same day.

Obadal strongly denied the allegations Thursday afternoon.

“I did not break into a house, and I didn’t steal somebody’s dogs,” Obadal said. “Anybody who knows me knows I always do the right thing. I don’t do the wrong thing.”

Obadal said she was on routine patrol Saturday morning when a woman on a bike stopped her and told her about two loose dogs. Obadal said one of the dogs was loose by the property, and the other was circling near the neighbor’s fence. Both were filthy, she said.

Obadal said she went onto the porch of the house, which was damaged in the 2008 flood, and saw that the dogs had gotten loose from their kennel.

“There was no way I could put them back into the kennel they came out of,” Obadal said. “It was in unsanitary condition.”

Instead, Obadal said she stretched her emergency blanket over the back seat and got the dogs in her patrol car.Dogs jump in a kennel at 1201 10th St. NW last week before Cedar Rapids police officer Robyn Obadal was accused of stealing them. Obadal said she took the photo to show the unsanitary conditions the dogs were living in and e-mailed it to animal control.

A few minutes later, she said a man came up to her car and said he would take the dogs and get them back to the owner, who he claimed to know. Obadal said she did not ask for man’s name, but agreed to let him have the dogs, which she said was acceptable practice when handling a loose dog call.

“I was covered in dog feces from head to toe, and my back seat was disgusting from the dogs,” Obadal said. “I had one thing on my mind, and that was getting home to wash up my uniform, wash off and scrub the back seat of my car.”

Obadal said she did not notify dispatchers while she was out with the loose dogs, but did go on the radio to say she was stopping at her residence to clean up. She said doesn’t know what the man actually did with the dogs, but thinks he might have been setting her up.

“What I believe is that someone in the neighborhood went over and let the dogs out, and just by chance, I pulled up and they were running loose,” Obadal said. “So I took the blame for the dogs being let loose…

“I was the perfect scapegoat.”

Ramey, the homeowner, said his brother arrived Saturday afternoon and realized the dogs were missing. He said the dogs – a three-year-old female pit bull named Shadow and a two-year-old female German shepherd named Sylvia – were found Sunday running loose along Ellis Boulevard NW.

“Animal Control found them over off of Ellis,” Ramey said. “They magically appeared the next day, after the burglary report was filed.”

Ramey, 27, said he kept the dogs in a kennel behind the house. He said he bought them in Texas, where he was serving in the Air Force, before coming home and buying the house in mid-2009. He said he is repairing the house so he and his wife can move in.

Ramey said he previously kept the dogs at his mother-in-law’s house, but built the kennel for them after it got too crowded there.

“I come over and feed them, clean it, and all that every day,” he said. “They get checked on every single day.”

Obadal said she was questioned by her superiors earlier in the week about the dogs, and told them her story. When she arrived for work Thursday, she was told she was being arrested. Obadal said she was “shocked” and “dumbfounded.”

“I was advised that disciplinary action could be taken even prior to going to court,” Obadal said. “I expect to be fired.”

Obadal’s arrest is the third embarrassing development for the Cedar Rapids Police Department since May. K-9 unit Officer Wayne Handeland, a 21-year-veteran, resigned after his squad car ended up at a Marion bar on May 5. Witnesses told SourceMedia Group he arrived at the bar in the squad car with two women, and appeared intoxicated.

Police conducted a seven-week internal investigation before Handeland stepped down.

Undisclosed disciplinary action was taken against another officer after he was photographed asleep in his squad car on the morning of May 10. The officer’s name was never released.

“Obviously, these are isolated incidents,” said Henderson, the police spokeswoman. “As a whole, I don’t think it’s a true reflection on the department. There are a lot of good things that happen here and a lot of good officers here. Unfortunately, we’ve had a run of bad incidents here.”

Former Trooper facing rape charges due in Logan Co. Court today

District Attorney Tom Lee announced Tuesday that he is charging former Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Patrick R. Venable with rape in the second degree.

Venable resigned from OHP back in July following an internal investigation into allegations that he had taken an intoxicated underage female into custody for DUI and then drove her from Oklahoma City to a residence in Guthrie to have sex.

Venable, who is due in a Logan County Courthouse at 1:30pm today, if found guilty could face up to fifteen years in prison.

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More Information

Monday, August 15, 2011

Colorado officer retires after alleged wild ride

A suburban Denver police officer allowed to represent his department at a South Dakota lawman's funeral has retired after authorities say he and a fellow officer took an alcohol-fueled ride through Wyoming on their way to the service.


In his letter of retirement, Officer Bradley B. Bickett apologized for his conduct.

"I offer my most sincere apologies to the Aurora Police Department, the citizens of Aurora, and all of law enforcement for this incident," he wrote, according to a police statement.

Bickett could not be reached for comment.

He and Gerald Kirby were accused of speeding past traffic with their emergency lights flashing and tossing trash from a window on their way to the South Dakota funeral of a fallen police officer.

Their squad car was pulled over Wednesday after authorities say a volunteer firefighter spotted the car driving erratically on a state highway outside Torrington, Wyo., about 50 miles northeast of Cheyenne. Bickett was charged with driving while impaired, careless driving and speeding, while Kirby was charged with littering.
Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates thanked Bickett for leaving the department.

"It is unfortunate that a 31-year career of service in law enforcement was destroyed by a single day of poor judgment. He made the honorable choice to retire," Oates said in his statement. "His apology will mean a great deal to his colleagues in the department and will help put this unfortunate event behind us."

Kirby remains on restricted duty pending a full internal affairs investigation.

Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said Friday that Bickett and Kirby received permission to travel to Rapid City, S.D., to represent their department at a funeral for one of two officers killed in a shootout earlier this month. Bickett knew an officer in the South Dakota department, Friel said.

Goshen County Sheriff Donald J. Murphy said Bickett's blood-alcohol level tested at 0.08 percent, the level at which he said a driver is presumed to be under the influence. Another test determined later his level was 0.077 percent, Murphy said. A beer cooler was found in the back seat.

Bickett's speech was described as "slurred" in a booking report posted on the Goshen County Sheriff's Department website. He was released on his own recognizance early Thursday.

The funeral for the fallen officer, Nick Armstrong, 27, was held Thursday. The officers never made it to the funeral. Two Aurora police officers went to Wyoming to pick up Bickett and Kirby. They were immediately placed on desk duty pending an internal investigation.

Armstrong and Officer J. Ryan McCandless were killed in an Aug. 2 shootout that erupted while they were trying to question four men walking with an open alcohol container, Rapid City police spokeswoman Tarah Heupel said. A third officer, Tim Doyle, was hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Officer Jonathan Kendall Arrested for Dealing in Child Porn

Harrington Police Department, was arrested by state police on March 10 on multiple charges of dealing in child pornography, state department of justice spokesman Jason Miller said.

Officer Jonathan Kendall, 37, an active member of the Miller said the Delaware Child Predator Task Force investigated Kendall and found evidence of child pornography after seizing a computer and “other evidence” from his Lincoln home on Jan. 19.

“It is certainly a sad day when one of our own has been arrested, and it is an disappointment,” Harrington Police Chief Norman Barlow said. “We want to assure the citizens of Harrington that we will diligently work hard to move our department past this incident and provide the police service they expect.”

Police also found evidence in Kendall’s vehicle and home after his arrest, Miller said.

Kendall has been charged with 27 counts of dealing in child pornography and one count each of hindering prosecution and official misconduct. He was committed to the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in lieu of $272,000 secured bond.

Kendall’s arrest is part of an ongoing offensive by the child predator task force that also led to the indictment of Shane Kiser, a Beebe Hospital nurse, on the same day.

“We will never let up from our efforts to protect our kids and we will never back down from the challenge of combating child predators,” Attorney General Beau Biden said.

Officer Ronald Jackson Arrested for DUI

A fired Jacksonville police officer spent a night behind bars after his arrest Friday on charges of driving under the influence. Two cars and a fence were hit prior to the DUI stop.

The arrest of Ronald Jackson, 45, comes two weeks after he was fired, ending an 11-year career with three pages of citizen and in-house complaints and disciplinary action, according to his personnel file.

Friday's incident started at Intuition Ale Works at 720 King St. where Jackson showed up for a job as a security officer whose company was hired by the business at 6:45 p.m., then drove off a few minutes later, according to the arrest report. A bit later, officers were called to two hit-and-runs on Ernest Street, a block from the bar. Witnesses told police that a black sport-utility vehicle hit a recycling bin, a pickup truck and a second vehicle and a fence before driving off, according to the police report.

Shortly after 7 p.m. police found a black Ford Explorer stopped on Riverside Avenue and then driving onto Forest Street. Its hood popped up, but the driver stopped and put it down. Officers followed the Explorer, which had a dented front end, until its hood popped up again.

The driver turned onto Magnolia Street, then hit a curb on Riverside Avenue. He got out and said, "Sarge, I'm sorry" to the sergeant who had followed him, ultimately refusing to take a field sobriety test before he was handcuffed and taken to jail just before 10 p.m., according to the arrest report.

Jackson was hired by the Sheriff's Office in April 1999 and has had 25 complaints filed against him, according to his summarized personnel report. Complaints of rudeness, unnecessary force and false arrest were made, most not sustained although he underwent informal counseling and received a supervisor's referral letter on some. In October 2010, he was suspended 20 days for unbecoming conduct and failing to be wholly candid, the records show.

But one final issue saw internal affairs recommend discipline that led to his firing.

On Jan. 20, Jackson disrupted a training academy class by arguing with an instructor over paperwork. Told to leave, he sent a classmate a text message threatening he was "gonna end it all," according to the internal affairs report. He also called the Sheriff's Office's communications center and told another officer he was going to "get his gun and blow his brains out."

Found by police, he was taken to Baptist Medical Center for involuntary examination. After being declared fit for duty on Jan. 28, he told internal affairs investigators that he had an anxiety attack and "snapped," according to the report.

The 23-page internal affairs report recommended charges of unbecoming conduct and failure to obey an order be filed against Jackson, and Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt fired him July 22. Jackson could not be reached for comment.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Officer Robb Gray Evans Arrested for Sexual Abuse

The Flagstaff Police Department (FPD)arrested Arizona DPS Officer Robb Gray Evans of Flagstaff late Saturday night. Officers responded to the Greenroom Bar in Flagstaff to a report of a male subject who had inappropriately touched a 30 year old female.

According to officers, they were contacted by the employees of the Greenroom Bar who were out with the alleged suspect. Speaking to the female victim, she told officers she was standing at the bar when the suspect had come up behind her and began inappropriately touching her. The woman said she confronted the male suspect and reported the incident to bar employees.

The suspect identified himself to police as an Arizona DPA Officer which was later confirmed by FPD officers.

Evans has been booked into the Coconino County Jail for one count of Sexual Abuse and is being held on $50,000 bond. According to the FPD, the investigation is still on going.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Sheriff Freedom Crawford arrested for Assault

An early morning bar fight lands a Montana sheriff on the wrong side of the law. He’s facing four misdemeanor charges. We talked with the man who says the sheriff walked up to him, tossed him into a window and took off.

The Roosevelt County sheriff was arrested after a bar fight in Lewistown early Tuesday morning.

Sheriff Freedom Crawford faces misdemeanor charges of assault, obstructing a peace officer, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

Lewistown Police Department says they were called to the Montana Tavern just after midnight. A bartender told them Sheriff Crawford threw another patron through a window, then ran away.

That 48-year-old Pennsylvania man was taken to the hospital, treated and released.