Friday, March 07, 2014

Retired Officer Walter Sasse Arrested for Sexual Assault of Teen Girl

A retired Philadelphia police officer has been arrested and charged with the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl.

According to Philly, Walter Sasse was charged on Wednesday with a number of crimes, including unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, sexual assault and indecent exposure. In total, he has been charged with nine crimes.

The charges stem from an alleged sexual assault that happened in 2011. However, authorities believe that the 75-year-old had a relationship with the teen for years.

WPVI has reported that Sasse met the victim when she was 15-years-old at Courtesy Stables, where she rode horses. The retired cop was employed by the stables and investigators said that the girl also began working there and that's when the alleged sexual contact started.

Police would not release any further details about the victim because of her age.

Sasse, who is a 20-year veteran of the force, was most recently assigned to the PPD’s mounted unit. He was released on $50,000 bond and is scheduled to be back in court on March 25th.

Corrections Officer Christopher Brunson Charged with Violating Civil Rights

Christopher Brunson, 38, of Perry, Florida, has been indicted for violating the civil rights of a Taylor County Correctional Institution inmate.  The indictment was announced by Pamela C. Marsh, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

The indictment alleges that on January 30, 2013, Brunson, who was then employed as a correctional officer at the Taylor Correctional Institution, struck and assaulted an inmate resulting in bodily injury.  Brunson was arraigned in federal court today and a trial date was scheduled for April 14, 2014.

If convicted, Brunson faces a maximum sentence of ten years in federal prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Florida Department of Corrections, Office of Inspector General.  It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rhew-Miller

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt.  All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Officer Clifton Gauthier Charged with Misconduct

Township Police Officer Clifton “Clif” Gauthier has been charged with official misconduct and other crimes for allegedly trying to get a relative’s driving while intoxicated ticket dismissed in 2012.

Gauthier, 34, of Sparta, was charged Monday by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office with official misconduct, obstruction, witness tampering and hindering prosecution of another, according to court records. Gauthier was hired in the township in July 2005 and, though now suspended, was earning $108,525 annually.

Township officials would not immediately specify whether Gauthier was suspended with or without pay. Neither Gauthier nor defense lawyer Scott Krasny could immediately be reached Friday.

A male relative of Gauthier was ticketed for DWI in Rockaway Township by a state trooper identified only as N.S. Gauthier allegedly contacted the trooper on Feb. 9, 2012, and “suggested” he didn’t need to appear in township Municipal Court for trial because the charge was resolved, according to court records and officials.

Denis Driscoll, who was municipal prosecutor at the time, contacted the trooper, who stated he was told not to appear, and the investigation commenced, according to officials.

Township Mayor Michael Dachisen said that Gauthier is a good officer who served several military tours in Iraq. He said the relative who Gauthier allegedly tried to assist is either a cousin or an uncle. He declined further comment.

Police Chief Walter Ardin Jr. could not be reached. Gauthier is due to appear next week in Superior Court to receive initial discovery on the charges. They allege that he committed an act that constituted an unauthorized exercise of his position by suggesting to the trooper that he not appear on the scheduled court date so he could try to help a relative obtain a dismissal of the charge.

The most serious offense of official misconduct is a second-degree crime punishable upon conviction by up to 10 years in prison and automatic forfeiture of a public job and future public employment.

Officer Ronald Taylor Charged with Assault & Harassment

 A police officer in the Bronx has been arrested and charged with an alleged assault from last summer.

According to court documents, Ronald Taylor, hit a man named Fernando Rios several times in the face back in August at an Exterior Street shopping complex.

He's facing charges of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment, and is due back in court on April 25.

Probation Officer Jeffrey Collins Charged with Groping Woman

A northwestern Pennsylvania probation officer has been suspended without pay after state police charged him with groping and sending lewd text messages to a woman he was supervising.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 37-year-old Warren County probation officer Jeffrey Collins, of Sheffield. The Associated Press could not locate a listed telephone number for Collins.

The (Warren) Times-Observer reports Collins has been charged with indecent assault, harassment by lewd communication and other crimes by state troopers in Warren.

Police say the woman reported the incidents happened between Feb. 10 and March 2.

The woman told police that Collins threatened to revoke her probation, which would put her in jail, unless she didn’t comply with his advances.

Collins wasn’t arrested. He’s been summoned to court April 2 to answer the charges.

Officer Steven Lupo Charged with Giving False Statements

A Philadelphia police officer has been charged with Perjury, False Swearing in Official Matters, Unsworn Falsification, False Reports to Law Enforcement and Obstructing Administration of Law.

Police began investigating 36-year-old officer Steven Lupo after a complaint was made to Internal Affairs about Lupo’s testimony in court on Oct. 18, 2011. It was alleged that Lupo, who was assigned to the 14th Police District, testified falsely during a hearing about circumstances surrounding the arrest of both Amiraria Farsi on Aug. 5, 2011 and Joseph Tuabma on Sept. 25, 2010.

In the case of Tuamba, Lupo was on the 100 block of E Chelten Avenue when he and his partner encountered a 2010 Lincoln SKS parked outside a Chinese store. The officers ultimately arrested both people in the car, Tuabma and Angel Huffman, and charged them with possession of narcotics. Though Lupo testified the car’s windows were tinted, three other witnesses testified in court that they were not.

In the Farsi trial, Lupo and his partner conducted a vehicle stop of a 1998 Buick Regal driven by Farsi near Baynton and High Streets after the car failed to stop at a stop sign. Lupo frisked the men in the car and searched the vehicle, uncovering narcotics; however, Lupo claimed he waited for a search warrant before doing so. That was determined to be false.

Lupo is expected to be suspended with intent to dismiss.

Detention Officer Keenon Daniels Arrested For Delivering Contraband to Inmates

A Smith County detention officer has been arrested for delivering contraband to inmates at the Smith County Low Risk Facility.

Sheriff Larry Smith said on Friday morning around 11, 24-year-old Keenon Daniels Olison, Jr. was arrested by the Smith County Sheriff's Office. The investigation into Olison has been going on for the past six weeks when they received a tip that he was smuggling controlled substances into the low risk facility.

Sheriff Smith placed Olison under surveillance after information was received by the Special Services Unit showing that the officer was responsible for smuggling illegal contraband and controlled substances into the facility.

"We will not move a problem, we will not transfer a problem. We will not just simply terminate somebody's employment who has done something unlawful. We will conduct a criminal investigation, we will for the district attorney's office or the U.S. Attorney's Office or whichever one is applicable to prosecute that individual to whatever the statutes allow," said Sheriff Smith.

After his arrest on Friday, Olison was charged with multiple counts related to possessing a controlled substance in a detention facility with intent to deliver the controlled substance to an inmate. He was charged with delivery of contraband to inmates.

Olison's arrest affidavit says he took marijuana into the Smith County Jail on Friday. Surveillance video also showed him providing a tobacco product to an inmate. He then gave a cell phone to that same inmate.

“When I ran for this office, I said that the Smith County Sheriff's Office would clean its own house and that each employee will be held to a higher standard than the general public, and that’s exactly what we continue to do as we have exhibited today,” said Sheriff Smith.
Olison has worked at both the low risk facility and the Smith County Jail. He was originally hired on May 20, 2012. Sheriff Smith said that Olison had disciplinary actions in his personnel file related to not following protocol and direction, but nothing criminal until now.

"One of the promises was that we were going to be held, not only law enforcement officers and the detention officers of the Smith County Sheriff's Office to a higher standard than the general public, and this is just a continuation of that," added Smith.

The Sheriff’s Office has been conducting this investigation in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office.

Deputy Marshal Donald Richardson Arrested for Stealing Money From Evidence Locker

A suspended Worthington Deputy Marshal Donald R. Richardson was arrested Thursday night after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Richardson is accused of stealing money from the evidence locker at the Worthington Police Department.

According to the Greene County Daily World, Richardson has worked at the Worthington Police Department for twelve years, but was demoted from marshal to a deputy last year after allegations of poor work performance and other unacceptable behaviors. The town council appointed Randy Raney to serve as marshal in October.

On November 30, Raney was reorganizing the evidence room when he discovered the keys to one of the lockers, was not where it should be. He found it in an ice cube tray on top of the refrigerator and when he opened the locker he discovered a large plastic bag that contained evidence from a 2012 case had been tore open.

Raney says he was familiar with the case Richardson had investigated and that $1,300 in cash was missing from the bag.

The Indiana State Police were called to investigate.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Indiana State Police Master Trooper Detective Stacy Brown, Rainey told police he searched the evidence room several time and could not locate the missing cash and the only person that had a key to the evidence room as well as a key to the police department door was Richardson. He also told the detective that Richardson had been going through a divorce and was having financial troubles, and that the town clerk had mentioned that Richardson had tried to get advances on overtime he had not worked.

Raney also found that the case file on that case was missing from the file cabinet it was supposed to be stored in, and there was no reason for anyone to have the file because the case was no longer an active investigation.

He also found that the computer file on the case had been modified on Nov. 17, 2013. The modification was on the amount of money taken into evidence.

The original document showed the amount to be $1,289.10 and the modified document showed it to be $1,089.10.

On the date the document was changed, Raney and Richardson were the only officers working for the department, and Richardson was the only officer working that day.

Detective Stacy interviewed Richardson on December 17, and reported that when he asked Richardson about the missing money Richardson became agitated and angry. And when told about the missing money, he claimed someone was attempting to "set him up."

Richardson told the detective the money was not missing, but stored in the refrigerator in the evidence room to eliminate the odor of marijuana on it. He also says he was hoping the department could seize the money to purchase new equipment for the department.

Both Stacy and Richardson then went to the refrigerator to look for the missing money. Richardson opened the refrigerator and without looking grabbed the top envelope on the top shelf and handed it to the detective.

Stacy reported that was suspicious since, Raney had searched the refrigerator several times and didn't find the missing money.

The envelope contained a smaller heat sealed bag with the proper case number and a dollar amount of $1,089.10 on it- $200 dollars short of the total listed in the original probable cause affidavit.

Richardson reportedly told Detective Stacy the amount listed in the original probable cause affidavit was incorrect and that the bag contained the correct amount.

When asked about the missing case file, Richardson said the printer was not working on the day he finished the report so he was unable to print a copy. When Stacy asked why he didn't print a copy after the printer was fixed, Richardson became upset and did not answer.

Richardson was then showed a copy of the modified probable cause affidavit and told him that the change was made on Nov. 17 when he was the only one working, Richardson allegedly said that he did not take the money and did not make changes to the affidavit.

Again Richardson claimed he was "being set up and they (Raney, the clerk-treasurer and deputy clerk and members of the Worthington town board) were trying to make it look like he stole the money."

Richardson requested that Stacy check the computer in the evidence room to see what the dollar amount it listed for the case was, and on Dec. 20 Stacy discovered that the file on that computer had been modified on the same day as the file on the computer in the front office.

Again, the amount of money had been changed from $1,289.10 to $1,089.10.

On Dec. 20, Stacy interviewed Worthington Deputy Clerk Debbie Dyer, who told him that she did not have keys to the police department or evidence room and that she had no problems with Don and was not part of a set-up against him.

On Jan. 13 of this year, Stacy spoke with Worthington Clerk-Treasurer Gloria Klass, who said she did not have the keys, either, and that she considered Richardson to be a friend. She allegedly stated that she had recently received messages and emails from Richardson asking for $650 in Operation Pull-Over (OPO) overtime he claimed to have worked and that she had told him the policy on OPO advances had changed, at which point he asked if they could reconsider so he could give his son a good Christmas.

Klass told Stacy that she loaned Richardson $600 and he agreed that she could have his OPO check when it arrived. She added that she recently learned he never worked those hours or submitted the overtime claims, and that she was very surprised Richardson lied to her and took $600 of her money.

On Jan. 17, Stacy talked with Brad Deckard, who was employed as a deputy sheriff at the Greene County Sheriff's Department when Richardson initially worked the case involving the missing money. Deckard said he remembered the case and that he verified the amount of money taken into evidence, but that he could only recall that it was over $1,000.

Deckard also allegedly told Stacy that Richardson had recently called him to tell him that he made a mistake on the dollar amount listed on the probable cause affidavit, and had requested that Deckard be a friend and cover for him. Deckard said that when he told Richardson he could not recall the dollar amount that was seized, Richardson asked him to lie to Stacy and tell him the dollar amount was $1,089.10.

Richardson is preliminarily charged with theft and official misconduct, both class D felonies. His bond will be set at $8,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed.

Former Officer Douglas Johnson Charged with Domestic Violence

A former Omak police officer was arrested in a domestic violence case involving his son's former girlfriend.

The Okanogan County sheriff's office says 47-year-old Douglas G. Johnson fired a rifle into the ground Thursday as the woman returned to the home near Tonasket where she had lived with her boyfriend and Johnson. She wanted to pick up her belongings.

A Tonasket woman was hit by gravel after the father of her ex-boyfriend allegedly fired a shot by her feet Thursday afternoon. Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers says 35 year old Brianna Hicks told deputies that she had broken up with her boyfriend, 23 year old Tyler Kion, earlier that day. She had been living with Kion and his father, 47 year old Douglas G. Johnson at a residence near Tonasket for several months.

 Rogers says Johnson, a former Omak police officer, reportedly did not say anything to Hicks before opening fire and was uncooperative with law enforcement at the scene. He was booked into the Okanogan County Jail on a charge of 1st Degree Assault-Domestic Violence.