Phoenix Police Raid Bloggers Home

In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.

Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.

The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.

Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant that allowed at least ten cops to raid his home in North Phoenix on March 12 while handcuffing his female roommate for three hours as they tore the place apart.

Pataky, who was out of town on a business trip during the raid, also believes police were retaliating against him for the content of his blog, much of it which comes from inside sources within the department.

“They broke into my safe and took the backups of my backups,” he said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Wednesday.

“I can’t even file my taxes because all my business plans are gone. They took everything.”

The search warrant lists “petty theft” and “computer tampering with the intent to harass” as probable causes. He has yet to see an actual affidavit that lists in detail the probable cause and is skeptical that one even exists.

“They say everything has been sealed,” he said.

The conflict between Pataky and the Phoenix Police Department began two years ago during “a nasty divorce” after moving out of the house he had shared with his wife. His said she was not taking the divorce too well and began filing false allegations against him accusing him of stalking and harassing her.

Many of the reports she filed accused him of doing things when he was out of town, he said.

So he began filing complaints with everybody from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon down to Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris to no avail. He was eventually indicted for harassing his ex-wife.

A month before the trial, he and a few friends launched the website as a rant against the police department. When he went to trial in May 2008, his charges were immediately dismissed because of lack of evidence, he said.

“We were going to shut down the website after that but then all of a sudden all these good cops started hitting the site and sending us tips,” he said.

He said they would also deliver all kinds of internal documents from within the department exposing everything from a cop with multiple DUIs to another cop whose son was a child molester and was trying to get on the force (and was eventually arrested).

“We have about 50 to 100 retired and active cops who provide us information,” he said.

Police apparently believe one of the tipsters is an officer named David Barnes, who fell out of favor with the department in 2007 when he was a detective and went public with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city crime lab.

Police also raided Barnes’ home and according to Pataky’s inside sources, plan to raid the homes of more cops.

Police have been extremely vague about the nature of the raids, according to the arizona republic.

Police officials said Wednesday that a Phoenix detective prompted the investigation after complaining about harassment, though they declined further comment…

Phoenix Assistant Chief Andy Anderson said the harassment case is unique because of the connection to an unaccredited grassroots Web site. He said the blog is one part of the case, though he did not provide specifics of the ongoing investigation.

“This isn’t about the blog,” Anderson said. “That’s just where the investigation led.”


The allegation of “petty theft” against Pataky stem from photos he posted on his blog of police name plates that appear to have been taken from within the department. He said he actually made the plates himself.

The allegation of “computer tampering with the intent to harass” obviously has to do with his no holds barred criticism of the department.

Pataky, who has since purchased a new laptop, is taking the raid in stride and has added it to the allegations in his pending lawsuit.

And he has not let it stop him from blogging.

“They thought they were going to scare us into a corner but they just made us stronger.”
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http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=26697

Minnesota Plaintiffs File Lawsuit Against Officers

Plaintiffs are suing for nearly $2 million in seven suits that name police, law enforcement agencies and the Twin Cities as defendants.

Plaintiffs who say they’ve been beaten, violated and robbed of their rights filed civil suits in federal court late last week, alleging significant misconduct during the Republican National Convention and seeking nearly $2 million in damages.

The suits, the first major action since the September convention, request damages ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, and name Ramsey County and its sheriff’s department, St. Paul and its police and Minneapolis and its police as defendants.

For example, a University of Minnesota employee alleges that she was singled out by law enforcement officers and strip-searched in front of men. Others claim unlawful suppression of both individuals and independent media.

Attorney Ted Dooley, who is representing seven of the plaintiffs who filed the cases, said he’s optimistic about his clients’ chances either in out-of-court settlements or before juries, should any of the cases make it to trial.

“The specifics in the cases vary as you’d expect, but the underlying harm is either the willful or blatantly ignorant attack of the people who were there to express political dissent,” he said. “There was an utter disregard for the right to do that.”

As a condition of hosting the RNC, the city of St. Paul requested the convention host committee pay the $1.1 million premium on a $10 million insurance policy that would cover suits stemming from RNC-related police action.

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi said the city has forwarded the lawsuits to the insurance company providing the policy.

“I expect that the insurance policy would cover the other defendants,” he said.

The insurance company will hire outside counsel to handle the defense of the defendants named in the suits.

Minneapolis spokesman Matt Laible said the city attorney’s office has not yet seen the suits against Minneapolis and also said it is policy not to comment on pending litigation.

The much-scrutinized Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department and St. Paul Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.

'I think it was meant to degrade me'

Michelle Gross, president of the civil rights group Communities United Against Police Brutality, also works as manager of staff training and development for University of Minnesota Physicians.

In her $250,000 suit, she alleges Ramsey County Sheriff’s deputies strip-searched her, and only her, in the presence of men during the Aug. 29 raid of a meeting space used by protesters.

Gross said she was compliant with the deputy, but believes she was targeted because she was wearing an anti-police brutality T-shirt and videotaping the raid.

She says the officer touched under her bra and around the top of her underwear while she was being merely detained, not arrested.

“I felt pretty weird about it at the time, but there was so much other weirdness going on,” Gross said. “The whole thing was surreal, it was just bizarre.”

The rented house that was raided was used only as a central point for protesters to meet and talk — First Amendment-protected activities, Gross said.

In addition to the monetary damages she’s seeking, Gross also said she hopes her suit forces policy changes.

“I want them to not do this to anybody else,” she said. “I think it was a power move and I think was meant to degrade me.”

'This series of attacks on free speech…'

Protester Jason Johnson of Oakland, Calif., filed a $1 million suit against the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and more than a dozen officers from the two departments.

Officers at a protest in Mears Park on Sept. 2, the second day of the convention, plucked Johnson from a crowd of protesters and used a Taser on him.

Afterward, according to the suit, Johnson raised his hands and offered no resistance. Police continued to repeatedly use the Taser on Johnson.

The suit states Johnson required medical attention for seven separate Taser wounds and was bloodied during “the battery.” He also reportedly suffered “severe emotional distress” and requires “continuing medical care for the trauma of the unlawful tasering .”

Johnson said the police action was unprovoked.

“At all times relevant to this lawsuit, [he] acted peaceably and in a law-abiding fashion before he was tasered,” the suit reads.

Though the incident in question happened in downtown St. Paul, the city of Minneapolis is also named in the suit because some officers from its police department were involved.

'…and particularly on our freedom of the press'

Wendy Binion of Portland, Ore., came to the RNC as a journalist for Portland Indymedia. She filed a $100,000 suit against the city of St. Paul and more than a dozen St. Paul police officers who took her into custody during the same Mears Park protest where police used a Taser on Johnson.

She was one of the first people arrested at the start of an evening that would hours later culminate in police using tear gas, concussion grenades and “less-lethal” projectiles.

The diminutive Binion questioned the force of multiple riot gear-clad police that handled her. Police also seized the camera she was using to videotape the demonstration and other personal effects.

She was initially charged with a riot-related felony, but that was dismissed. She faces no charges now, but she said she’s heard she’s under investigation for criminal conspiracy to commit riot, a probe that could be open for several years.

Binion said she was peacefully carrying out her duties as a journalist, but was targeted because she is part of the independent media.

Police took her camera and by the time she got it back, Binion said, it was damaged.

“They were taking away people’s right to document their own history,” she said.

Attorney Dooley said the police force at the RNC, made up of more than 100 different law enforcement entities that signed joint-powers agreements, “coordinated this series of attacks on free speech and particularly freedom of the press.”

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http://www.mndaily.com/

Keely Johnson Trial Starts

DEDHAM

The trial of a Stoughton District Court officer accused of selling prescription drugs to an undercover state trooper was scheduled to begin today in Norfolk Superior Court.

Keely Johnson, 32, of Stoughton is charged with trafficking in oxycodone more than 14 grams and distribution of oxycodone. The charges stem from an investigation conducted in 2006.

Jury selection was completed Monday and opening statements were expected to be heard today. Judge Kenneth Fishman is presiding.

Johnson was arrested on Aug. 3, 2006, after allegedly selling 20 Percocet pills to the trooper. The transaction allegedly followed an earlier sale of 50 Percocet pills to the same trooper.

A Canton man, Joseph Iantosca, 52, was arrested for allegedly supplying the pills to Johnson.

Johnson is also charged with violation of drug laws within 1,000 feet of a school and conspiracy to violate the federal Controlled Substances Act.

An investigation began when authorities received information that Johnson was selling prescription drugs at the Stoughton courthouse.