Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Officer Edward Henry Arrested for Raping Hair Stylist

ORLANDO, Fla.

A reserve officer with the Oakland Police Department is on unpaid leave for allegedly raping his long-time hair stylist. Edward Henry was also working as a security guard for Disney.

A Disney spokesperson confirmed to Eyewitness News that Henry worked there as a security guard, but wouldn't give any other details. She said Disney takes the allegations very seriously and he is now on unpaid leave.

Oakland reserve officer Edward Henry was arrested by the Orlando Police Department after he was accused of raping his hairdresser. He asked his long-time stylist to come to his house to do his hair.

"She indicated her purpose was to color his hair, and to be taken advantage of, I mean, no means no, no matter what," said Sgt. Barbara Jones, Orlando Police Department.

When police confronted Henry, he tried to blame the hair stylist, but then later admitted he raped her.

The Oakland police chief told Eyewitness News, as soon as Henry was arrested he took away his badge, ID and gun. He's suspended from the force until the investigation is complete.

The corporal was on Oakland's bike unit. He's been part of the reserve unit for the past three years. Before that, Henry was also an officer with the Maitland and Eatonville police departments.

Aside from being a reserve officer, Henry also works at Disney and Columbia University as a security guard.

"Whether you're an officer or a civilian, the crime of rape is very violent and it can't be and will never be tolerated," Sgt. Jones said.

Henry's attorney said his client did have an intimate relationship with the woman many, many years ago. However, she said, for the past seven years they have only been friends.

Eyewitness News asked to get a copy of his personnel file and was told by the city of Maitland it will not be available until next week.

Officer Julio Morales Arrested for Sexual Battery

A San Jose police officer was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges that he sexually touched an 18-year-old woman while he was on duty.

Julio C. Morales, a 41-year-old patrol officer, was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery and false imprisonment — both felonies, according to police.

"In a police department of 1,400 officers, allegations are not uncommon,'' said Lt. Mark McIninch, head of the department's sex assault unit. "It's very important to the department and the people of San Jose that they know when an allegation is made it will be competently and completely investigated. We expect people to have that confidence in us.''

A warrant for Morales' arrest went out Tuesday, police said, and Morales surrendered to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. He was released after posting a $20,000 bond.

Police said Morales inappropriately touched the woman during a pat-down search Dec. 3 after detaining her near Third and Keyes streets.

They did not know each other. The officer then drove her in his patrol car to another location, where he left her.

Later that day, a man called the police department to say his niece had told him of the incident.

The officer, a 13-year veteran and former member of the police department's elite SWAT team, was later placed on administrative leave.

Police have no evidence Morales has done this before, but they are asking anyone who has information about any inappropriate behavior by the officer during his contacts with the public to call investigators at (408) 277-4102.

Officer Kevin Brown Arrested for DWI

OSWEGO, N.Y.

A Fulton police officer has been arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated in Oswego.

Officer Kevin Brown was ticketed for driving while intoxicated as well as leaving the scene of an accident after police say he hit a parked car Sunday night. Police arrested Brown at a Valero gas station.

Fulton Mayor Ron Woodward said he is aware of the situation and the matter is being investigated.

"We're not happy about it. But he's a human being. Made a judgment error obviously by getting in the vehicle after he consumed alcohol," said Woodward.

Officer Brown was not working Tuesday, but Fulton Police say it was his normally scheduled day off and they do expect him back later this week.

It is not known when Brown will appear in court.

Officer Ronald Hendrickson Arrested for Several Sex Crimes


A Newport News Police officer was charged Monday with several sex-related felonies in York County.

Ronald M. Hendrickson, 47, of Yorktown, was arrested Monday evening after turning himself in at the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office. He was charged with felony abduction with intent to defile, abduction, animate object penetration, and misdemeanor sexual battery, said York-Poquoson Sheriff's Lt. Penny Diggs, an investigator on the case.

Diggs said the victim in the case is known to Hendrickson, and the charges against him stem from an incident that was reported to the sheriff's office about 3:30 a.m. Monday.

Hendrickson is being held in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail without bond.

Newport News Police Department Spokesman Lou Thurston said Hendrickson — a lieutenant who has been with the Newport News Police Department for just under 23 years — has been placed on administrative leave with pay while an internal investigation is conducted.

At the time of his arrest, Hendrickson was assigned to the department's South Precinct patrol division in a supervisory position, Thurston said.


More Information: http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wavy_nn_police_officer_arrested_20081230

Officer Ryan Warme to Remain in Custody


A federal judge this afternoon ordered Niagara Falls police officer Ryan G. Warme remain in custody because there is reason to believe he poses a danger to the community and witnesses in the case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott issued the ruling at about 1:15 p.m., saying the serious charges against Warme, coupled with no other adequate confinement options that would reduce the risk to the public and witnesses, warranted he stay in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Warme was arrested Dec. 2 for alleged drug, gun and civil rights crimes.

His attorney, Joel L. Daniels, had argued during the detention hearing that Warme, 27, should be allowed to be released and confined to the Grand Island home of his father, Gordon, a retired Niagara Falls police captain.

Prosecutors have alleged Warme, who is awaiting trial, had threatened three witnesses prior to his arrest, including two witnesses who faced death threats.

Earlier, Daniels filed court papers conceding Warme did have sex with two women while on duty but Warme insists that the sex with both women was consensual.

Daniels contends that Warme has been wrongly accused of federal civil rights crimes against the women, identified only as Victim 1 and Victim 2.

Daniels filed 10 pages of court papers in Warme’s defense. The documents were filed in anticipation of a detention hearing scheduled for today in federal court.

“If accurate about the names of Victim 1 and Victim 2, [Warme] asserts the evidence will show not only an absence of violence in defendant’s conduct with these two alleged victims, but that no crime happened at all,” Daniels said.

“Simply put, [Warme] recalls having consensual sex with both ladies.”

Those admissions caught the interest of attorneys for the City of Niagara Falls, who are building an administrative case that they hope will lead to Warme’s termination and removal from the city payroll.

“Obviously, that is gross misconduct, whether consensual or not,” said Deputy Niagara Falls Corporation Counsel Christopher M. Mazur.

Federal prosecutors contend that Warme trafficked in cocaine — sometimes while on duty and in uniform — and that he used his gun and police powers to force two women to have sex with him.

The suspended officer has denied the allegations, pleading not guilty. He could face a lengthy prison term if convicted, particularly if found guilty of carrying his police handgun during civil rights crimes.

Daniels had also asked the judge to give him the names of alleged victims and witnesses in the case, so he can prepare a defense.

Warme believes he knows the identities of the women who have made allegations against him, Daniels said, but those names need to be provided so he can defend his client.

In his court papers, Daniels made the following allegations:

• Warme had a “one-time sexual tryst” with Victim 1, which was consensual, in September or October 2006, after the victim noticed Warme outside a Third Street tavern and told him he looked “hot” in his police uniform.

“Defendant was then on duty. . . . Defendant drove in his assigned police car to this young woman’s home,” Daniels wrote in court papers. “After the sex act, defendant got dressed, put on his police uniform, said goodbye and left. Defendant returned to patrol duty in the City of Niagara Falls.”

The woman tried later to establish a relationship with Warme, but he rejected it, Daniels wrote.

• Victim 2 was a woman who met Warme in early 2006. She invited him to her apartment and performed oral sex on him “countless” times.

According to Daniels, Warme was assigned to investigate a complaint the woman filed against an ex-boyfriend in September 2007. Warme went to the woman’s apartment to investigate the complaint, and she again performed oral sex on him. “There was no force, no gun, no nothing; all defendant had to do was ask,” the defense attorney wrote.

In charges filed against Warme, federal prosecutors and federal agents give a much different version of Warmes’ encounters with the two women.

In those charges, Warme is alleged to have used his position in the Police Department to intimidate and scare the women into having sex with him. He is alleged to have raped Victim 1 and, while holding his hand on his police gun, forced Victim 2 to perform oral sex.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce declined to comment in detail Monday about Daniels’ allegations concerning the two women. Bruce said prosecutors stand by their account of the events.

Bruce said Daniels has not responded to other allegations about Warme, including that he threatened other witnesses, sold and bought drugs, and gave the license plate numbers of undercover police cars to drug dealers.

Police arrested Warme after an investigation by his own department, the FBI, the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Bruce and Assistant U. S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti are prosecuting the case.

Warme has been jailed without bail since his arrest. He is currently on administrative leave but is still being paid because of vacation and personal time he had accrued before his arrest, according to Mazur.

Mazur said Warme’s base salary is more than $40,000 a year. “I believe he has about 25 more accrued days left,” he said. “After that, we will be filing administrative charges against him. He could then be suspended without pay for 20 days. After that, he could be reinstated [or] possibly terminated.”

Mazur said the city takes the charges against Warme “very seriously” and will seek to terminate him from his city employment.

Former Officer Geoff Jackson Jailed for 90 Days

A FORMER Metropolitan police officer who crashed a riot van he had taken from a high-security police station after a night out was today jailed for 90 days.

Geoff Jackson, who turned 28 yesterday, resigned from the force days after causing £2,300 worth of damage to the vehicle.

Today Jackson, of London Road, High Wycombe, pleaded with District Judge Daphne Wickham for leniency after admitting he had let “himself, his family, the police and the public” down.

But the judge told Jackson outside of work his “life was a mess”, after the defendant ran up gambling debts of £35,000.

She told Liverpudlian Jackson “something was clearly going wrong in your life”.

City of Westminster Magistrates' Court heard the defendant had consumed seven pints of Guinness, three whiskeys and a gin and tonic while on a night out with friends on January 18.

Emma Scheer, prosecuting, said Jackson had contacted his partner – who he has now split up from – to say he would get the last train from London back to High Wycombe.

She said: “Unfortunately he missed the last train and went back to Paddington Green police station, where he was based.

“He took a police carrier vehicle, which was required for operational duty the next day.”

Ms Scheer told the court Jackson drove along the A40 for around two and a half miles at speeds between 73 and 76 mph on a road with a speed limit of 50mph.

The front offside wheel collided with the road's central reservation, Ms Scheer said, and came off the van.

Jackson drove for a further kilometre before stopping the van. He twice attempted to restart the engine.

He then turned off the interior lights and fell asleep in the back of the van – meaning police officers called to the scene could not spot him.

CCTV footage at the police station proved Jackson had taken the vehicle.

But he was not found for a further five hours – after the van had been towed to a nearby garage.

Jackson was breathalysed and found to have a reading of 49 mg of alcohol in his bloodstream.

He opted to have a blood test, but this did not take place for another five and a half hours – by which time Jackson's blood-alcohol reading had dropped back below the legal drink-drive limit.

Jackson gave a no comment interview when spoken to by officers, before he resigned the following Monday morning, January 21.

The defendant told the court he had found work for a security firm and was awaiting the results of entry exams into the Oxfordshire fire brigade.

He said he would not be able to continue his work if he was banned from driving.

Accepting responsibility for what happened, he told the judge: “I have completely let myself down, I have let the Metropolitan police service down, I have let my family down and I have let the public down. What I did was wrong.

“A big part of my life was being a police officer. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed serving the public.

“One thing I have struggled with since is not being able to serve the public any more.”

He said he had tried to “shield” his court appearances from his family as he was ashamed of what had happened.

He told the court his family only found out about the crash after reading press reports.

Jackson's father is a retired police officer and his brother a serving one, he said.

“I don't believe I'm a bad person,” he said. “I am trying to rebuild my life.”

Sentencing Jackson, District Judge Wickham said: “With the massive lack of self awareness of your problems, it was almost inevitable something awful was going to happen.

“Fortunately that piece of careless driving did not hurt any member of the public or apparently yourself. Nothing else, I'm afraid, was positive.

“You did your day job extremely well but the other side of your life was a mess.”

She said Jackson faced “a long path to recovery”.

He was sentenced to 90 days in prison for taking a vehicle without consent. He will serve half that sentence.

Jackson was also disqualified from driving for six months and fined £500 for careless driving.

There was no separate charge for driving without insurance, which he had pleaded guilty to on his last appearance at court. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

He did not face drink-driving charges due to a lack of evidence.

Retired Trooper William Cotto Kills His Wife, then Himself


MARBLETOWN, N.Y.

A retired New York state trooper is suspected of killing his estranged wife and then turning a gun on himself.

Troopers went to a home in the Ulster County community of Marbletown after getting a report of a man with a gun early Wednesday morning. Family members told police that 53-year-old William Cotto entered the home with a shotgun and killed his wife, 49-year-old Isol Cotto.

Authorities found Cotto in the parking lot of a nearby gas station, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gun shot.

Cotto retired as a trooper assigned to the Thruway detail. He had been arrested Tuesday on unlawful imprisonment, menacing and harassment charges. Police believed they had secured all his weapons after the arrest and an order of protection was issued for his wife.