Former Officer Patrick Earwood Convicted on 10 Counts of Child Molestation

Jurors took two hours Wednesday to convict former Cave Spring police officer Patrick Earwood on 10 counts, including aggravated child molestation, in Floyd County Superior Court.

Earwood, 31, faces 25 years to life in prison for aggravated child molestation. Judge Tami Colston is scheduled June 9 to sentence Earwood on all his charges.

“I’m very pleased with the jury’s verdict,” Assistant District Attorney Kay Ann Wetherington said.

Jurors convicted Earwood on two counts each of aggravated sodomy and second-degree child cruelty and on one count each of aggravated child molestation, sexual battery, sexual assault against a person in custody, child molestation, giving false statements and violation of his oath as a public officer.

They acquitted Earwood on one count each of sexual assault against a person in custody and sexual battery.

Peter Odom, Earwood’s attorney, said he respects the jury, adding it’s likely his client will appeal.

“We’re very disappointed in the verdict,” Odom said. “Obviously, the jury did not see things the way we thought they should.”

Jurors found that Ear wood touched or coerced three of four women into sex acts between 2012 and June 2013. They acquitted Earwood on accusations he touched a woman’s breasts in exchange for not taking her to jail for DUI.

Closing arguments

Odom attacked the victims in his closing arguments, questioning their credibility and deriding prosecutors for what he called a lack of evidence.

“Allegations are easy to make,” Odom told jurors. “But in a court of law they’ve got to withstand the acid test of your reasoning.

“I’m going to talk to you about what the evidence is — words,” Odom added. “You’ve got the words of two teenagers and two criminals. That’s it.”

The allegations against Earwood surfaced last June when one of the teens told a friend. Police began investigating, and on July 1 arrested Earwood.

Odom told jurors that the teens initially denied that his client touched them, saying that’s why the younger girl was reticent about testifying.

“She made it up,” Odom said. “She got Sgt. (Teri) Davis all worked up to the point that she made an arrest, and she can’t take it back.”

Odom said the girls’ stories kept changing because they’re false. The two adult women had a reason to lie because they faced potential criminal charges.

One woman admitted she used drugs and has a conviction for giving police false information. The other was stopped for DUI, though her case never reached court, Odom said.

The defense attorney also hammered prosecutors for failing to provide jurors the victims’ phone records. Odom questioned why Davis didn’t get the records between one teen and her boyfriend, and the conversations between both teen victims.

“What physical evidence do you have to support the claims the state is making?” Odom asked. “You’ve got nothing.”

Wetherington dismissed Odom’s arguments, telling jurors the victims’ testimony is the best evidence.

“He had a badge,” Wetherington said of Earwood. “He had a gun. He had a patrol car. He had power. I can only imagine how these victims felt at the time this officer exercised control over them. Instead of serve and protect he chose to molest and assault.”

Wetherington advised jurors against focusing on what she called unimportant details, and instead examine the elements of the crimes.

Three of the victims didn’t live in Cave Spring. The victim who lived in the small town was 14 years old at the time and without parental supervision.

“What has she gained from this?” Wetherington asked. “Nothing. She has nothing to gain. No motive whatsoever.

“This is not a conspiracy,” the prosecutor added. “This is not a coincidence.”

The teen victims know each other, but the adult victims don’t know any of the others. Wetherington called them credible because of that and because she said they told similar stories: that Earwood coerced a sex act from them in exchange for avoiding jail.

“Please be the voice of these girls,” Wetherington said, referring to all four victims. “They’ve got no dog in this fight.”

Former Officer Patrick Earwood Charged with Molesting Girls Due in Court

A former Cave Spring police officer accused of molesting girls and forcing women into sexual acts is scheduled for an arraignment next month.

Patrick Edward Earwood, 31, remained in jail Friday without bond. Earwood is scheduled to appear April 11 before a Floyd County Superior Court judge.

Earwood has the option of having his charges read to him at the arraignment.

Prosecutors allege Ear wood coerced girls and women to perform sex acts or expose themselves.

Authorities first learned of the allegations when a girl alleged she rode in Earwood’s patrol car, and that he asked her for sex, police reported.

An investigation began, which led detectives to two different women.

According to an order by Superior Court Judge Tami Colston:

The first woman said Earwood arrested her and took her to City Hall. Earwood then told her he’d free her if she gave him oral sex. When she said nothing, Earwood returned her to his patrol car and began driving to the Floyd County Jail.

“On the way to the jail, Defendant Earwood said ‘are you going to do this or not?’” the order states. “She responded, ‘You know, I’m going to have to do this?’ He said yes and pulled off the road.”

The woman performed oral sex on Earwood, and he then took the woman to meet her mother. She did not go to jail.

The second woman said she encountered Earwood when he arrested her for DUI. Earwood said they could “work something out” if her boyfriend wasn’t in the car. She thought little of the comment, and Earwood took her to the police station for a breath test. When she failed the test, Earwood put her in his patrol car and began driving to jail.

“On the way to the jail, Earwood offered to lower one of the traffic charges if she would let him touch her breasts,” the order states. “She moved up closer to him and he fondled her breasts on the way to the jail.”

Earwood faces two counts each of aggravated sodomy, second-degree child cruelty, sexual battery and sexual assault against a person in custody. He also faces charges of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, giving false statements and violation of his oath by a public officer.

Officer Jeremy Reynolds Arrested for Rape

DeKalb County Police Officer has been charged with rape and aggravated sodomy for an incident involving a person in custody.

Police arrested 23-year-old Jeremy Reynolds as he reported for work Friday. DeKalb County Police spokesman Jason Gagnon says the arrest stems from an incident occurred last September though he wouldn't reveal any more details about Reynolds' accuser.

Reynolds has been a DeKalb cop for two years and also faces two counts of violating his oath of office.

Gagnon says his former colleague has been placed on administrative leave pending termination.

Former Deputy Russell Burton Accused of Engaging in Sexual Acts with Daughter

A former Kentucky sheriff's deputy accused of engaging in sexual acts with his daughter pleads not guilty to the charges.

Forty-four-year-old Russell Burton appeared in Pulaski Circuit Court Thursday.

In October, Burton was indicted on ten counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of sodomy, and turned himself in.

The Commonwealth Journal reports the complaint also alleges the girl was under 12 years old when the incidents took place.

Burton retired from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department three years ago.

Officer Richard Kern Indicted for Sodomizing Man

With word that an indictment will be unsealed Tuesday against a police officer accused of sodomizing a man in a Brooklyn subway station, supporters of the victim spoke out Sunday.

According to the New York Post, Officer Richard Kern will be charged with assault or aggravated sexual assault in the alleged attack on Michael Mineo.

Kern has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation.

The paper also says two other accused officers will face lesser charges.

Mineo says he was beaten and sodomized with a foreign object after officers tried to arrest him at the Prospect Park subway station back in October. Mineo's attorneys say hospital records prove he was sodomized, and one transit officer has backed up part of Mineo's claim.

Sunday morning, Mineo's attorneys appeared on the Reverend Al Sharpton's radio show to speak out in support on their client.

They say they feel confident about the indictment and that it is coming.

"If this policeman had not come forward, we may not have been at this point, and I think the city owes this cop that broke the blue wall of silence and did his job," said Sharpton.

Sharpton said this incident is further proof that serious reform is needed in the New York City Police Department.

"Clearly police cannot police themselves," he said. "I think with a new president and a new governor that if this is not the climate for serious police reform legislation, I don't know what would be."

Mineo's attorneys said that they are planning on filing a civil suit against the city this week. They would not specify about the damages they are seeking.

The NYPD says all three officers involved in the incident have been placed on modified duty, meaning they have been stripped of their guns and shields.

More Information: http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062008/news/regionalnews/grand_jury_to_indict_cop_accused_of_sodo_142954.htm

Officer Richard Kern Accused of Sodomizing Man Goes to Grand Jury

A case involving a New York City Police Officer accused of sodomizing a man during arrest will go to the grand jury within the next two weeks. Officer Richard Kern,25, is accused of sodomizing Michael Mineo with what he thinks was a radio antenna.

Both police and Mineo state that he ran to try to evade police after he was seen smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn station. He was reportedly tackled by two police officers before three more appeared before he was held down and assaulted.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne states, "His assertion that he was sodomized is not supported by independent civilian witnesses on the scene." Mineo was later taken to the hospital where he was reportedly diagnosed as being anally assaulted.

Source: wcbstv.com

Officer Testifies Against NYPD

Michael Mineo, the Brooklyn man who has accused four police officers of beating and sodomizing him on a subway platform, got a boost Thursday when another officer testified he saw one of the accused cops use a baton near Mineo's buttocks, according to two sources briefed on the investigation.

Officer Kevin Maloney told the investigative grand jury that he saw Officer Richard Kern unfold his collapsible baton and place it near Mineo's buttocks. Mineo, the sources said, screamed out that Kern was sodomizing him, though Maloney did not realize the importance of what had happened until the alleged Oct. 15 incident was revealed a week later.

The grand jury could take another two weeks or so before making a decision about whether to bring charges against anyone in the case.

But the testimony of Maloney, a two-year veteran who is assigned to the Transit Bureau and lives on Long Island, is considered damaging to the four officers under investigation.
Mineo's lawyers have said Mineo suffered injuries consistent with anal assault. Mineo, 24, a body-piercer at a tattoo parlor, had previously identified another cop, Officer Alex Cruz, as his attacker.

Kern, Cruz, Officer Noel Jugraj and Officer Andrew Morales were involved in the chase and apprehension of Mineo inside the Prospect Park station. Mineo, police said, had been approached outside the station because he was smoking marijuana. He fled into the station, police said, and was given a summons for disorderly conduct after eating the marijuana cigarette.

Police had previously said two civilian witnesses did not see Mineo violated, but he has stuck to his story. Mineo also testified Thursday before the grand jury.

More Information: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlRDN-VqhU6-AanJt9KaqgB7ASrg

Four Brooklyn Officers Under Investigation on Modified Duty

The NYPD yesterday took away the guns and badges of the four Brooklyn police officers under investigation for allegedly beating and sodomizing a marijuana suspect on a subway platform near Prospect Park, police said yesterday.

Their assignment to modified duty that includes desk jobs is considered significant because the department had kept the officers, all from the 71st Precinct, on full duty since the suspect, Michael Mineo, 24, made his claim nearly three weeks ago.

Police had said two civilian witnesses told Internal Affairs investigators they did not see anyone violate Mineo.

In recent days, however, a fifth officer, who works in transit and is considered a witness in the case, has moved toward entering into a cooperation agreement with the Brooklyn attorney's office as it continues presenting evidence to an investigative grand jury.

Law enforcement sources briefed on the grand jury investigation say that officer, if he cooperates, will implicate the four others in at least a physical assault. The sources say that development prompted the NYPD to take action against the four.

Mineo, sources say, has identified Officer Alex Cruz as the one who sodomized him with a police radio, though DNA tests are being performed on Cruz's radio and baton.

Lawyers for Cruz and the other officers either couldn't be reached for comment, or said they had no comment.

Kevin Mosly, one of Mineo's lawyers, said yesterday the department's move is a sign it realizes the officers committed wrongdoing. "We felt that Michael had presented an extremely compelling case of a heinous crime," he said.

Mineo's lawyers had said the NYPD was sending the wrong message by not placing the officers on modified duty.

State Trooper Christopher Stanton Arrested for Sodomy on 12 year old

A former state trooper was arrested Monday following a grand jury indictment on sexual abuse charges.

Christopher Lee Stanton, 36, of Troy, has been charged with two counts of sodomy after a Pike County Grand Jury indicted him last week.

According to Pike County District Attorney Gary McAliley, Stanton was charged with sodomy first degree for an incident that occurred when the victim was under 12 years old and sodomy second degree for one that occurred when she was older than 12.

Stanton resigned from the Alabama Department of Public Safety in August while under investigation by the Troy Police Department for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor. He was arrested by the TPD on Aug. 13.

Stanton had been a state trooper since 1997 where he was assigned to the Highway Patrol Division in Montgomery.

NYPD Officers Sodomize Detainee with a Walkie-Talkie

NEW YORK

Prosecutors in New York on Monday ordered a grand jury investigation into allegations that police sodomized a detainee with a walkie-talkie.

District Attorney Charles Hynes announced that "on the basis of preliminary conclusions of the early stages of my investigation ... I have ordered a special investigative grand jury to be empaneled."

Although police deny the claim, the allegation has whipped up controversy, with comparisons being drawn to a particularly brutal police rape incident 11 years ago.

The alleged victim, a body piercing salon employee named Michael Mineo, says he was held down in a city subway station and sodomized with an object he believes was a radio antenna, or possibly a truncheon.

Lawyers for Mineo, 24, say the incident took place October 15.

Mineo spent four days in hospital afterwards and last week returned to seek more treatment, the Daily News reported. However, his medical records have not been published.

Grand juries are used to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to indictment of a suspect. In many cases, prosecutors only go to a grand jury when they are reasonably sure of being able to proceed to a trial.

Police deny Mineo's accusations and say he was arrested in full view of the public after being caught smoking marijuana.

Investigators have seized the equipment of one officer for tests, but none of the officers allegedly involved has been suspended.

Despite those denials and the fact that there is no published physical evidence to support Mineo's claims, the issue is already explosive.

Activists against police brutality say the alleged incident recalls an officer's sodomizing of a 30-year-old Haitian immigrant with a broom handle in 1997.

The victim, Abner Louima, on Monday told the Daily News that "it does surprise me that this is happening 11 years after. We knew this was not something that's going to go away in one day."

Veteran black community leader Reverend Al Sharpton visited Mineo in hospital over the weekend and was quoted afterwards as saying that he found the story "compelling."

However, The New York Times reported important differences between the 1997 case and the recent incident.

Louima's rape took place in a police station, in contrast to the far more public setting of a subway station. Also, the earlier case had strong racial overtones, since the officers were white and the victim black.

In this incident, the officers under suspicion were of various races and Louima is white.

The prosecutor's decision to convene a grand jury also follows a bloody weekend on New York's streets.

Undercover police on Sunday shot dead two brothers following a shooting outside a nightlcub in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Meanwhile, a New York mother reportedly confessed Sunday to beating to death her 11-year-old daughter, the New York Post reported.

UPDATE on Man Who Accuses Officers of Sodomizing Him

As a 24-year-old man who has accused the police of sodomizing him at a subway station in Brooklyn spent another day in the hospital on Saturday, a law enforcement official provided a fuller picture of the injuries the man sustained during the altercation.

The man, Michael Mineo, is attached to a tube draining fluid from his abdomen, one of his lawyers said. He was visited at the hospital by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who had spoken about Mr. Mineo’s allegations on his radio program earlier Saturday.

The police have denied Mr. Mineo’s account.

At Brooklyn Hospital Center, Mr. Mineo’s lawyers allowed a cameraman from NY1 to videotape their client in his room, and they later showed the recording to other reporters. Mr. Mineo, who works as a body-piercer, is seen in bed wearing a hospital gown. With his voice cracking, he says, “I feel violated.”

It is Mr. Mineo’s second stay in a hospital since his encounter with the police on Oct. 15, when, he said, a group of officers attacked him for no reason. During the attack, he said, one of them inserted a police radio antenna or a similar object into his rectum. He was admitted to Brookdale University Hospital and stayed for four days.

The police have said that officers spotted Mr. Mineo smoking marijuana and that he ran away when they approached. He scuffled with the police as he resisted arrest, but he was never sodomized, they said.

A law enforcement official said on Saturday that Mr. Mineo suffered a tear just above his rectum, a bruise to the side of his head, injuries to his side and an injury to the outside of his abdomen. But the official said Mr. Mineo did not suffer any internal injuries on the order of those inflicted in the attack on Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was assaulted inside a station house in 1997 by police with a broken broomstick.

“Unless there is something that Brookdale missed,” the official said, there were no internal injuries that would indicate the penetration of his rectum by a foreign object. “I don’t know what his current diagnosis is, what he’s back in the hospital for. I don’t know if something else happened.”

Mr. Mineo’s lawyers have said the severity of his injuries supported his allegations. They pointed to hospital records from Brookdale that indicated he suffered from what one doctor described in a written account as an “anal assault.” One of the lawyers, Kevin L. Mosley, said that Mr. Mineo was admitted to the hospital a second time on Thursday night because he was in pain. “He had blood in his urine, and he couldn’t function anymore,” he said, adding that his client had “some sort of abscess in his abdomen,” and at one point was given morphine.

Neither Mr. Mineo’s lawyers, the police, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office nor the hospitals would provide any medical records for Mr. Mineo.

Five officers were involved in the encounter with Mr. Mineo at the Prospect Park station of the B and Q lines; none had any history of disciplinary problems. All the officers remain on regular duty.

A person familiar with the officers’ account of what happened said that one of them was Officer Alex Cruz. The person identified another officer involved as Officer Noel Jugraj.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said Officer Cruz’s name was on the summons given to Mr. Mineo on Oct. 15 for disorderly conduct.

Another law enforcement official said that investigators with a search warrant seized a retractable baton and a radio antenna from Officer Cruz’s locker. The two items had been sent for testing, which was not yet complete.

The police Internal Affairs Bureau and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office are investigating.

They have not determined how Mr. Mineo was injured. Investigators who announced a hot line number on Friday were seeking witnesses and hoping that test results to the baton and the radio antenna would offer some answers. The account provided by Mr. Mineo’s lawyers could not be independently corroborated, but some investigators have not dismissed some portions of the lawyers’ story.

On Saturday, Mr. Mosley and another lawyer representing Mr. Mineo, Stephen C. Jackson, spoke on Mr. Sharpton’s radio show before the three men visited Mr. Mineo at Brooklyn Hospital Center. Mr. Sharpton called for a fair, independent investigation.

“I do not know what happened,” Mr. Sharpton said. “But I know that we cannot allow police to be the only investigative body, and find that their findings should go unquestioned and unexamined.”

After visiting Mr. Mineo, Mr. Sharpton said Mr. Mineo’s account was “very compelling,” adding, “I find it hard to understand how someone could inflict that kind of pain on themselves.”

A law enforcement official said Mr. Mineo had filed two complaints with the Civilian Complaint Review Board in the past year. In one, Mr. Mineo said that he was stopped by police officers, and in the other he said that a friend was stopped, the official said.

Mr. Mineo’s lawyer, Mr. Mosley, said that too much attention was being paid to his client’s past, which includes at least five arrests. “These police officers didn’t have his rap sheet when they tackled him,” he said.

Both the police and Mr. Mineo’s lawyers said they had spoken to witnesses who confirmed their respective versions of events.

Two law enforcement officials said the entire incident was witnessed by people in the subway station or visible on transit authority video cameras. But one of the officials said the view of witnesses was obstructed at some crucial points.

Mr. Jackson said he had spoken to three witnesses and that one of them — a colleague of Mr. Mineo’s who was with him shortly after his confrontation with the police — saw blood on Mr. Mineo’s pants and on his hands, and saw Mr. Mineo smear the blood on the window of a police car.

A law enforcement official said Saturday that investigators had no evidence supporting Mr. Jackson’s account. Investigators examined the patrol car that was at the scene and found no evidence that there was blood on it, the official said. The car was still dirty, and it did not appear to be washed.

The police have said witnesses told investigators that they did not see Mr. Mineo being sodomized. A person familiar with the investigation said that those witnesses included a token booth clerk and his 12-year-old son, who was visiting him. The two have provided police internal affairs officers with an account of what they saw and heard.

In an interview at his Brooklyn home, the boy, who said he had spoken with the police, said he was standing outside the token booth when he saw Mr. Mineo run down the stairs with two officers in pursuit. The boy said that Mr. Mineo’s pants were falling off as he was running.

Mr. Mineo first hopped the turnstile and the officers did the same, but there was no train at the station so Mr. Mineo left the platform through the same turnstiles, the boy said.

The boy said a third officer was waiting on other side of the turnstiles and tackled Mr. Mineo. At that point, the boy said, he was about eight feet away. A person familiar with the investigation confirmed that these were details the boy had provided investigators.

“It was a little scary,” the boy said.

The boy’s father refused to speak to a reporter at his workplace on Saturday and to another reporter when he went home.

http://www.nytimes.com

NYPD Officers Accused of Sodomizing Man

A 24-year-old Brooklyn man has accused NYPD officers of sodomizing him with a police radio in the Prospect Park subway station.

Lawyers for Michael Mineo said he suffered serious injuries from the attack, which they said took place in a subway station atProspect Park on Oct. 15.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said witness statements contradict Mineo's account. Browne declined to comment on the alleged injury to Mineo until police review a doctor's record of the incident.

"We have found two civilian witnesses who didn't support the sodomy allegations," the spokesman said.

The allegations echo those of a case that shook the city in 1997, when Abner Louima was sodomized with a broken broomstick in a Brooklyn station house by a 25-year-old officer.

An additional accusation by Mineo that officers Tasered him is also not supported, Browne said, since the officers in question do not carry Tasers.

The department's internal affairs bureau and the Brooklyn district attorney's office have launched investigations into the complaint, police said.

Stephen Jackson, Mineo's lawyer, said his client stayed five days at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. Brookdale Hospital officials confirmed that Mineo was admitted on Oct. 15 and discharged four days later.

According to police, officers from the 71st Precinct spotted Mineo smoking a marijuana joint outside theProspect Park station around 12:30 p.m. When they moved in to arrest him, police said, Mineo dashed into the station, leading officers on a chase. Police said Mineo resisted being handcuffed, telling officers he "ate the marijuana."

The officers issued Mineo a desk appearance ticket, Browne said, adding that four officers were involved in the incident with a fifth officer from the transit bureau also at the scene. Jackson said four or five officers pinned Mineo to the ground. "One of them put his knee on his neck, and another one used his radio ... repeatedly" sodomizing Mineo, Jackson said.

More Information on Deputy Robert McClain Accused of Torture

IRVINE

Shocking new revelations today in the case of an L.A. County deputy accused of trying to castrate his wife's alleged lover.

34-year old Deputy Robert McClain was charged today with one felony count each of aggravated mayhem, torture, sodomy by force with great bodily injury.

The charges include a sentencing enhancements for personal use of a deadly weapon, great bodily injury to a sexual assault victim and the use of a deadly weapon during a sexual offense.

McClain's 31-year old wife, whose name has been withheld, told her husband Sunday that she was going to leave him for a 23-year-old man who lives in an Irvine apartment complex, where she works in the leasing office.

McClain asked the woman to take him to meet the young man.

The two of them went to the young man's apartment about 10 p.m., but McClain then led the pair to the leasing office, which has a kitchenette area, Farrah Emami of the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.

Court records allege McClain repeatedly punched and kicked the victims and forced them at knife-point undress and ordered them to engage in a sex act.

At one point, prosecutors said, the deputy ordered his wife to castrate the young man.

She "fearfully pretended to follow his instructions" and the deputy used the knife to repeatedly slice the young man's face, according to a statement released by the Orange County district attorney's office.

McClain then used the knife to repeatedly slice the man's face, Emami said.

Authorities say the attack spanned nearly nine hours.

Once they left the leasing office, McClain allegedly forcibly sodomized the woman, chopped off her hair with the knife and ultimately drove her back to their Irvine home, Emami said.

Police were called to the leasing office around 7:30 a.m. on Monday by a cleaning crew.

They found the 23-year old victim bleeding and unconscious on the floor, suffering from apparent stab wounds.

While investigating the attack on the man, police learned that the deputy's wife had driven herself and her 4 children to a hospital around 5 a.m. where she reported the assault.

The father of the injured man said his son's face was beaten so severely that he could hardly recognize him.


"I know it's him, but his face is just swollen so large I can hardly tell it's him," the father said.


He said his son, who would likely require complete facial reconstruction, had yet to regain full consciousness.

He also said that before the attack, his son told him he had fallen for a married woman.

"He said she was beautiful. I couldn't talk him out of it, and I tried three or four times," he said.


McClain, who has served as a sheriff's deputy for 10 months and was assigned to a county jail, will likely be fired, said Sgt. David Infante, a sheriff's spokesman.

He said a decision is expected Thursday.

In the meantime, McClain is being held in the Theo Lacy branch jail on $1 million bail.

A date for his arraignment has not been set.

Deputy Robert McClain Arrested Attempted Murder

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy arrested in Irvine for allegedly attacking his wife and a man he apparently believed to be her lover will be fired today, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Deputy Robert Avery McClain, 34, will be separated from the job he has held since November 2007 by the end of the business day, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"Obviously, it was a very brutal attack, and the sheriff feels very strongly about it," Whitmore said.

McClain is also expected to be charged and make his initial appearance in a Newport Beach courtroom today for allegedly attacking his wife and the 23- year-old man, authorities said.

The woman was hurt in the attack but not as severely as the young man.

McClain was in custody in the Theo Lacy branch jail, where he was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and other crimes for allegedly attacking the man and stabbing him near the genitals.

Handfield took issue with press accounts describing the attack on the man as an attempted castration.

"He does have puncture wounds in the area of the groin, on the inside of his leg, but (a castration attempt) is a little too exaggerated for me," he said.

The victim was being kept in a medically induced coma and listed in stable condition, Handfield said.

The father of the injured man said that his son's face was beaten so severely that he could hardly recognize him. He said it was his "understanding" that the woman was trying to leave the deputy, who thought his wife was having an affair with his son.

McClain also allegedly attacked his wife, but police refused to identify her or say how she had been hurt.

Irvine police were sent to an apartment leasing office at 1000 Peyton on Monday in response to reports of an assault, which apparently took place there between 10:30 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday, Handfield said. The wife works in the office, and the male victim lives at the complex, according to police and published reports.

More Information: http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/908521.html

Police Officer Arrested for Sodomising Suspect

Police in Lilongwe have arrested one of their own for allegedly sodomising a suspect who was being kept in custody.

Central Region Police Public Relations Officer John Namalenga said Sub-Inspector Enock Gibson Chiwanda, Officer-in-charge of Area 47 Police Unit in Lilongwe is currently under police custody for the offence.

"The officer is currently in custody and has been charged with the offence of sodomy," said Namalenga adding the suspect will appear in court any day.

Namalenga said the sodomised suspect has been given bail while the case is still been investigated.

"We can not condone such behaviour by a police officer that's why we have arrested him, actually this is the first time in the history of police in Malawi to hear that," he said.

Namalenga said after the sodomised suspect told a friend about the issue who then reported it to police.

After the arrest, reports have been emerging that Chiwanda has been doing the act to many suspects but they were not reporting for fear of being punished.

This is the third time within two weeks where Police officers have found themselves in the cooler.

The first case involved 997 Police officers who shot dead a Mchesi driver then another Lilongwe police officer who killed her wife at Falls last week after a heavy fight.

Sheriff Mike Burgess Hearing has Started

A preliminary hearing is under way in Arapaho for a former sheriff accused of running a sex slave operation at the Custer County jail.

Former Sheriff Mike Burgess is charged with 35 felonies including second-degree rape, forcible oral sodomy and bribery.

Former deputy Jennifer Tyler testified today that Burgess groped her several times including before her first day on the job.

Tyler also said Burgess had inappropriate sexual contact with women he oversaw in the county's drug court program.

Prosecutors are also expected to present allegations made in a federal lawsuit by 12 former inmates who say they were forced into wet T-short contests and offered cigarettes for exposing their breasts.

It also claims Burgess told a drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't agree to his sexual demands.

His attorney says Burgess is eager to get to court and clear his name.

Burgess resigned in April and faces up to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Charged with Rape, Aggravated Sodomy, Assault etc..

COBB COUNTY, Ga.

A Cobb County sheriff's deputy has been arrested and accused of rape, officials said Tuesday. The deputy was fired after the sheriff learned of his arrest.

According to investigators, 37-year-old Jason Anthony Bill of Marietta took a woman against her will from the Corona Bar and Grill on Pat Mell Road Monday night. Bill handcuffed and tied up the woman, police said. He then took her to an apartment on South Cobb Drive and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint, according to investigators.

She was later able to escape.

Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren released a statement Tuesday that said, "It was with a profound sense of outrage and betrayal that I learned of the actions and subsequent charges lodged against Deputy Jason Bill. This type of conduct is reprehensible under any circumstances but even more so when committed by a law enforcement officer. I have no tolerance for misconduct by anyone sworn to uphold the law and, as a result, have immediately terminated Jason Bill’s employment with the Cobb County Sheriff's Office."

Bill is being held at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. He has been charged with rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment and battery.