A federal prosecutor has called him “the poster boy for detention.”
An ever-lengthening list of witnesses has appeared before a federal grand jury in Buffalo to detail their complaints against him.
Now, an investigation has revealed that suspend Niagara Falls Police Officer Ryan Warme was getting into trouble long before he became a cop.
Warme, 27, already faces charges on a federal criminal complaint that include cocaine trafficking, violating the civil rights of two women and using his police-issued firearm while committing those crimes. Prosecutors have hinted that when the grand jury finishes its work, the list of felony charges will be even longer.
While the three-and-a-half-year veteran of the Falls police force had admitted to having sex with at least two women while he was on duty, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges he currently faces and is being held without bail by the U.S. Marshals.
Warme’s arrest by his fellow officers and federal agents on Dec. 2 was not the first time he’d felt handcuffs on his wrists. In the falls of 2000, while he was attending Western New England College and playing on the school’s football team, Warme was arrested on an assault charge.
Law enforcement sources say the charge stemmed from a fight following a football game. Warme was suspended from the team for four games and was given an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal on the assault charge.
That disposition meant that if Warme “stayed out of trouble,” the charge would be dismissed and removed as a criminal record.
When Falls police detectives investigated Warme’s background prior to his appointment to the Niagara County Law Enforcement Academy in August 2005, they were aware of the arrest but did not disqualify him for it.
“He was given an ACD, if you translate the charge to New York state law, (it’s relatively minor),” Niagara Falls police Superintendent John Chella said. “At that time, it didn’t alert us to the point where he was disqualified.”
Chella also said Warme’s father’s former position as a captain and chief of detectives in the Falls Police Department played no role in the determination not to disqualify his son from a police appointment.
“We would have handled it the same way for any candidate at that point,” Chella said. “We did with him what we’ve done with others.”
The investigation has also shown that a post football game fight wasn’t the only trouble Warme got into during his college days. During the course of a federal court hearing, prosecutors revealed that Warme had been expelled from his college ROTC program “for cheating on an exam.”
Federal investigators learned of the ROTC incident from U.S. Air Force criminal investigators who had handled a probe into Warme’s application to attend Officer Candidate School while he was a member of the Air Force Reserves. On his application for the officer’s school, Warme “checked the (no) box that asked if he had ever been rejected for military service for any reason.”
“The Air Force determined he had lied,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bruce said in court. “That is a flat out lie.”
Yet that lie was never uncovered by Falls police during Warme’s background investigation.
“There was no evidence of the ROTC issue in his (police) application,” Chella said. “We only verified that he had 60 hours of college credit to come on the job.”
Warme’s father, testifying in federal court, admitted that his son had been kicked out of ROTC “for violating the honor code.” However, he said his son never told him he had cheated on an exam.
Warme had another run-in with the law, roughly a year before his appointment to the Falls police force.
“We have had contact with (Warme) in the past,” Cheektowaga Police Captain John Glascott said. “It was in early August 2004 and it had to do with a domestic situation.”
Glascott declined to comment any further on Warme’s case. Other law enforcement sources indicted that Warme was arrested, though the exact charges were not known.
Like the college assault charge, the Cheektowaga incident apparently resulted in another adjournment in contemplation of dismissal and the case was ultimately sealed. It’s unclear if Falls police were aware of the Cheektowaga incident before Warme’s appointment to the force.
Chella said Warme passed both a psychological evaluation and a polygraph test prior to joining the force.
“We put a lot of weight in those,” he said. “He passed the psych evaluation and he was given a lie detector test to determine if everything on his application was truthful and he passed that.”
Federal prosecutors have suggested that Warme is proficient at lying. Even after his arrest, they say he lied to federal probation officers about why he left the Air Force Reserve in the spring of 2008.
Warme told federal pre-trial services investigators he left the reserves “based on the fact he could make more money working part-time jobs.” However, Warme’s resignation letter indicts that he left the military prior to the start of discharge proceedings against him.
The discharge proceedings followed an incident at a Texas Air Force base where Warme had reported for training in December 2007. Warme was scheduled to be in training until May or June 2008, but in April went AWOL for a period of roughly seven hours.
According to sources with knowledge of the incident, Warme was scheduled to report for drills at 8 a.m., but failed to show up at the base until 3 p.m. Warme told a superior officer that he had “been out drinking the night before, passed out and missed the drill.”
He also told the officer that he “had been afraid to report after waking up, because he knew he would be in trouble.”
By the time of the military incident, Falls police had already begun their investigation into Warme.
There was still another warning sign, prior to Warme’s working on the street, that the young officer might not be qualified. While Warme was attending the police academy, he was the subject of a criminal complaint filed with Amherst police.
In a November 2005 incident in the parking lot of the Marriott hotel, Warme was accused of stealing a woman’s cell phone after a domestic dispute. Chella said Falls police became aware of the incident but had trouble investigating it because the victim was uncooperative.
“She didn’t want to get (Warme) in trouble,” Chella said. “She said she was mad, but didn’t want to get him kicked out of the academy.”
Showing posts with label Ryan Warme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan Warme. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Law Enforcement Agencies Trying to Clean Up Their Act?
When the news broke last month that Niagara Falls Police Officer Ryan Warme had been arrested, reactions across the community were mixed.
Some were surprised that a police officer — a man charged with protecting residents — would find himself on the other side of the law.
Other more jaded residents pointed to the arrest as just another example of someone on the force abusing their power.
For local law enforcement officials, the prevailing mood was one of disappointment.
“You’re let down,” Sheriff James Voutour said. “You take an oath of office, and you trust the people you’re working with respect that oath. When someone lets you down like that, it does give a black eye to law enforcement.”
Warme, 27, was arrested Dec. 2 by his fellow Falls police, along with federal agents. Warme was charged with raping and tormenting women and buying cocaine on duty.
Warme has now been suspended from the Falls police, and he remains in custody.
He will return to court Jan. 23.
Lockport Police Chief Larry Eggert said when a law enforcement official goes corrupt, officers throughout the area feel the effects.
“Generally, what the repercussions are, of course, are the eroding of the public trust,” he said. “I like to think we have a pretty clean department here, and I wouldn’t tolerate anything else, but the perception the public sometimes gets is that, ‘Well, gee, if he’s dirty, then everybody else is.’ ”
Court records accuse Warme of providing information about undercover Falls police to cocaine dealers. He allegedly gave a crack cocaine dealer a heads-up about police investigation.
That charge, in particular, was upsetting to Voutour.
“It was very difficult to swallow, because of the danger he put his fellow officers in,” Voutour said. “(Telling the criminals) who the undercover drug officers are, what cars they’re driving, that even goes beyond criminal.”
Repercussions
Far away from Niagara Falls, in the small village of Barker, the reverberations of incidents like the one in Niagara Falls are still felt.
“Anytime a police officer does an act like that, it does put a black mark on officers,” Barker Police Chief Ross Annable said. “I think everybody takes a hard look at police officers because of the job, and you get singled out a little more than the average job.”
According to a 2006 Harris Interactive poll, 76 percent of Americans trust police officers to tell the truth. The profession was ranked fourth in trustworthiness, behind doctors, teachers and scientists.
Even with such a high ranking, the Internet abounds with Web sites keeping track of police activities, with addresses such as www.PoliceCrimes.com and www.PoliceAbuse.com.
If a police officer is arrested or suspected of a crime, it can erode the community’s trust to the point where that officer is no longer effective, Annable said.
“If you work at some manufacturing company, and you get arrested for something, you go back to work on Monday,” Annable said. “At a law enforcement agency, you get arrested for something and Monday’s a whole new ballgame. It’s going to change your life.”
Background checks
The Lockport Police Department hired two new officers — Ryan Adams and Tricia Denny — on Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, four binders full of stacks of paper sat on a chair in Eggert’s office, each one containing background check information for all eight candidates for the two positions.
“Each candidate’s got a quarter-inch stack of paper,” Eggert said.
The background checks include interviews with people in all aspects of the candidate’s lives: Parents, spouses, former and current bosses, teachers, neighbors and others.
Interviewers go back as far as high school transcripts, looking at how many times the candidate was marked late or how many absences they had.
“People generally don’t change the way they are,” Eggert said. “If you go back far enough, you can kind of determine what kind of person they are.”
He said the department is also considering running psychological exams on potential officers before they are hired.
In the past year, City of Tonawanda Police Chief Cindy Young has instituted a separate, psychological evaluation for her department's potential officers. The evaluations are conducted by Dr. Jay Supnick of Law Enforcement Psychological Associates in Rochester.
At the sheriff’s department, Voutour said they also do extensive background checks, checking financial histories for any sign the candidate has problems with money.
“(If they do), they have more tendency to maybe be corrupt,” Voutour said. “It’s difficult to predict the future character of a person, and the only way you can predict the future is to look at the past.”
In smaller communities like Barker, the application process also includes a background check, but the applicants are usually locals who are already known by the agency, Annable said.
No matter how much preparation is done, things can change. Eggert said there’s always an “unknown quantity” that can make otherwise good people go bad.
“Sometimes things happen in people’s lives. Bankruptcy, bad marriage, a hundred different things that could trigger an unintended problem,” he said.
Taking complaints
So far, the background checks and intense interview process have proven successful, Eggert said.
Still, complaints from the public are a common instance, and Eggert said each complaint that comes into the LPD is treated equally.
“No matter who comes in, or for what reason, or what condition they’re in, we take the information from them,” he said. “They get attention. There’s no, ‘Come back and see the guy tomorrow,’ or ‘We don’t do those.’ If someone comes in to file a complaint, we are bound by the rules to do it.”
Depending on the complaint, there are different avenues it may take. Some complaints are simple — for instance, a driver complaining an officer was rude during a traffic stop — while others may be more complex or serious.
The complaints go up the chain of command. Depending on the seriousness, they may result in a verbal warning, or they could potentially result in an investigation by an outside agency.
People who are uncomfortable going to the LPD to complain about an officer can go to the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office. Some law enforcement agencies, including the New York State Police, have internal affairs units that deal specifically with complaints and allegations of misconduct within that department.
“There’s a lot of different options that people have,” Eggert sad. “The DA’s office, they have investigators, and they’ll entertain the complaint the same as we will.”
District Attorney Michael Violante could not be reached to comment on how his office handles complaints and allegations of police misconduct.
At the sheriff’s department, anyone with a complaint should call dispatch and ask to speak to a shift supervisor, Voutour said.
He said they entertain a variety of complaints.
“We’ll look at it and get both sides of the story,” he said. “Obviously, if it’s just, ‘The officer was short with me,’ that may be handled at the shift supervisor level. Anything (at a) criminal level will come to me quickly.”
In Barker, Annable said, anyone who has a complaint is welcome to file it in person and sign a statement — but most of the time, people who call just want to blow off some steam.
“I’ve found 90 percent of the people will call and complain, and you invite them to come down and they never show up,” he said. “We do take complaints seriously.”
Some were surprised that a police officer — a man charged with protecting residents — would find himself on the other side of the law.
Other more jaded residents pointed to the arrest as just another example of someone on the force abusing their power.
For local law enforcement officials, the prevailing mood was one of disappointment.
“You’re let down,” Sheriff James Voutour said. “You take an oath of office, and you trust the people you’re working with respect that oath. When someone lets you down like that, it does give a black eye to law enforcement.”
Warme, 27, was arrested Dec. 2 by his fellow Falls police, along with federal agents. Warme was charged with raping and tormenting women and buying cocaine on duty.
Warme has now been suspended from the Falls police, and he remains in custody.
He will return to court Jan. 23.
Lockport Police Chief Larry Eggert said when a law enforcement official goes corrupt, officers throughout the area feel the effects.
“Generally, what the repercussions are, of course, are the eroding of the public trust,” he said. “I like to think we have a pretty clean department here, and I wouldn’t tolerate anything else, but the perception the public sometimes gets is that, ‘Well, gee, if he’s dirty, then everybody else is.’ ”
Court records accuse Warme of providing information about undercover Falls police to cocaine dealers. He allegedly gave a crack cocaine dealer a heads-up about police investigation.
That charge, in particular, was upsetting to Voutour.
“It was very difficult to swallow, because of the danger he put his fellow officers in,” Voutour said. “(Telling the criminals) who the undercover drug officers are, what cars they’re driving, that even goes beyond criminal.”
Repercussions
Far away from Niagara Falls, in the small village of Barker, the reverberations of incidents like the one in Niagara Falls are still felt.
“Anytime a police officer does an act like that, it does put a black mark on officers,” Barker Police Chief Ross Annable said. “I think everybody takes a hard look at police officers because of the job, and you get singled out a little more than the average job.”
According to a 2006 Harris Interactive poll, 76 percent of Americans trust police officers to tell the truth. The profession was ranked fourth in trustworthiness, behind doctors, teachers and scientists.
Even with such a high ranking, the Internet abounds with Web sites keeping track of police activities, with addresses such as www.PoliceCrimes.com and www.PoliceAbuse.com.
If a police officer is arrested or suspected of a crime, it can erode the community’s trust to the point where that officer is no longer effective, Annable said.
“If you work at some manufacturing company, and you get arrested for something, you go back to work on Monday,” Annable said. “At a law enforcement agency, you get arrested for something and Monday’s a whole new ballgame. It’s going to change your life.”
Background checks
The Lockport Police Department hired two new officers — Ryan Adams and Tricia Denny — on Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, four binders full of stacks of paper sat on a chair in Eggert’s office, each one containing background check information for all eight candidates for the two positions.
“Each candidate’s got a quarter-inch stack of paper,” Eggert said.
The background checks include interviews with people in all aspects of the candidate’s lives: Parents, spouses, former and current bosses, teachers, neighbors and others.
Interviewers go back as far as high school transcripts, looking at how many times the candidate was marked late or how many absences they had.
“People generally don’t change the way they are,” Eggert said. “If you go back far enough, you can kind of determine what kind of person they are.”
He said the department is also considering running psychological exams on potential officers before they are hired.
In the past year, City of Tonawanda Police Chief Cindy Young has instituted a separate, psychological evaluation for her department's potential officers. The evaluations are conducted by Dr. Jay Supnick of Law Enforcement Psychological Associates in Rochester.
At the sheriff’s department, Voutour said they also do extensive background checks, checking financial histories for any sign the candidate has problems with money.
“(If they do), they have more tendency to maybe be corrupt,” Voutour said. “It’s difficult to predict the future character of a person, and the only way you can predict the future is to look at the past.”
In smaller communities like Barker, the application process also includes a background check, but the applicants are usually locals who are already known by the agency, Annable said.
No matter how much preparation is done, things can change. Eggert said there’s always an “unknown quantity” that can make otherwise good people go bad.
“Sometimes things happen in people’s lives. Bankruptcy, bad marriage, a hundred different things that could trigger an unintended problem,” he said.
Taking complaints
So far, the background checks and intense interview process have proven successful, Eggert said.
Still, complaints from the public are a common instance, and Eggert said each complaint that comes into the LPD is treated equally.
“No matter who comes in, or for what reason, or what condition they’re in, we take the information from them,” he said. “They get attention. There’s no, ‘Come back and see the guy tomorrow,’ or ‘We don’t do those.’ If someone comes in to file a complaint, we are bound by the rules to do it.”
Depending on the complaint, there are different avenues it may take. Some complaints are simple — for instance, a driver complaining an officer was rude during a traffic stop — while others may be more complex or serious.
The complaints go up the chain of command. Depending on the seriousness, they may result in a verbal warning, or they could potentially result in an investigation by an outside agency.
People who are uncomfortable going to the LPD to complain about an officer can go to the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office. Some law enforcement agencies, including the New York State Police, have internal affairs units that deal specifically with complaints and allegations of misconduct within that department.
“There’s a lot of different options that people have,” Eggert sad. “The DA’s office, they have investigators, and they’ll entertain the complaint the same as we will.”
District Attorney Michael Violante could not be reached to comment on how his office handles complaints and allegations of police misconduct.
At the sheriff’s department, anyone with a complaint should call dispatch and ask to speak to a shift supervisor, Voutour said.
He said they entertain a variety of complaints.
“We’ll look at it and get both sides of the story,” he said. “Obviously, if it’s just, ‘The officer was short with me,’ that may be handled at the shift supervisor level. Anything (at a) criminal level will come to me quickly.”
In Barker, Annable said, anyone who has a complaint is welcome to file it in person and sign a statement — but most of the time, people who call just want to blow off some steam.
“I’ve found 90 percent of the people will call and complain, and you invite them to come down and they never show up,” he said. “We do take complaints seriously.”
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