The two Calvins: Sacramento man sues police, sheriff over mistaken identityCalvin Ward is nearly 6 feet tall and African American. Calvin Phillips, according to records, is about 4 inches shorter and Caucasian.
But Sacramento County seems to think the two Calvins are the same person, and that has become a major problem for Ward.
Twice last year, Ward was wrongly jailed under the name Calvin Phillips, and as a result his modest upholstering business has been decimated, he claims in a civil rights lawsuit.
The suit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court by the law firm led by civil rights attorney Stewart Katz. It names as defendants the county court and Sheriff's Department, the city Police Department, and several city and county law enforcement officers.
According to the suit, Ward's problems began in June, when city police arrested him for riding a bicycle under the influence of alcohol. At the county jail, Ward pointed out that his paperwork erroneously identified him as Calvin Phillips, even though he had presented a driver's license that listed his true name. Deputies "ignored his protestations," the suit says, and he spent two days in jail.
In July, he appeared in court and found that no charges had been filed against him in the matter, according to the complaint. But he was arrested again, on allegations that he had violated probation in another case. Deputies handcuffed him and took him to jail under the name Calvin Phillips.
The Rest:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/19/2618177/the-two-calvins-sacramento-man.html Auburn police officer arraigned on 14 count indictmentAuburn (WSYR-TV) - An Auburn Police Officer was arraigned Thursday in Cayuga County Court on a 14-count indictment which includes charges of official misconduct and coercion.
Brian Hutchings has been suspended without pay.
Court documents obtained by NewsChannel 9 describe officer Hutchings as a police officer acting like a rogue cop.
According to the indictment, Hutchings assaulted and arrested someone without provocation. Hutchings is also accused of physically intimidating people whom he owed money to in an attempt to not repay them.
Prosecutors also charge Hutchings with tipping off an individual to DOT truck inspection stop locations, dates and times in exchange for something which wasn't defined in the court documents.
Hutchings is also accused of falsifying police reports.
Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta says that the whole situation makes police work even more difficult. "To have the rumor, belief that there is a police officer out there that out of control makes it very difficult."
Following his arraignment Hutchings was released on his own recognizance.
The Rest:
http://www.9wsyr.com/mostpopular/story/Auburn-police-officer-arraigned-on-14-count/hkM2_V0mqU6UZxtzlCFfPQ.cspx Powell woman sues police, city after raidCODY — A Powell woman has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that police used excessive force in breaking down her door, setting off an explosive that started a fire and using her as a “human shield” while searching her home for illegal drugs.
In the complaint filed March 8 in U.S. District Court in Casper, plaintiff Tricia Wachsmuth alleges that officers of the Powell Police Department acted in reckless disregard for her civil rights and safety during a raid that netted two marijuana plants.
Neither Wachsmuth nor her husband, Bret, had prior criminal or violent histories, and there was no evidence they were engaged in selling drugs, according to the complaint.
Tricia Wachsmuth was offered a deferred prosecution for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and the charge has since been dismissed as a result of her successful compliance with the terms of that agreement, said her attorney, Jeffrey Gosman, of Casper.
Bret Wachsmuth was found guilty of cultivating marijuana, a misdemeanor, according to Circuit Court records.
Tricia Wachsmuth is seeking $1 million in damages for “severe emotional trauma” and ongoing distress, fear and anxiety, as well as for damage to her home caused during the raid. The complaint names as defendants the city of Powell, police Chief Tim Feathers and several officers who participated in the raid.
The Rest:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_b4883a04-3249-11df-a233-001cc4c002e0.html Actions during 2008 airport arrest cost city $100,000A Midland woman's $4 million lawsuit against the city of Midland regarding an airport policeman's arrest of her on March 19, 2008, has been settled for $100,000, the Reporter-Telegram learned Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth of Austin said MPD Officer Chris Earp was not negligent in taking Christiane Landreth into custody when she caused an afternoon disturbance at an airline ticket counter and raised her arm as if to hit him.
However, the judge found that Earp was too forceful with the 69-year-old plaintiff, causing her to fall onto luggage rollers, injuring her thigh and breaking her glasses.
"Assuming Earp had probable cause to arrest Ms. Landreth, there is substantial and persuasive summary judgment evidence that he used unnecessary and greatly excessive force, going overboard, scaring women and children and leaving a trail of devastation in his wake," wrote Hudspeth, sitting in for Judge Robert Junell.
Representing the city, Midland attorney Aaron Dorfner said the money will be paid by the intergovernmental risk pool of the Texas Municipal League.
Dorfner said the $100,000 settlement, agreed to by both sides but not yet finalized by Hudspeth, satisfies all claims against Earp and the city by Landreth and her lawyer, Hal Brockett of Midland. The case was scheduled to go before a federal jury on March 29.
Noting that the officer was reprimanded and suspended for eight days without pay, Dorfner said no punitive damages would have been available to the plaintiff, but actual damages up to $4 million could have theoretically been assessed.
The Rest:
http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2010/03/17/news/top_stories/midland_police_lawsuit_midland_international_airport.txt
State law allows some police departments to hide alleged police misconduct from public viewAbout eight months ago, I received my first tip about strange goings-on in the Garland Police Department.
The word I received in the intervening weeks was that other Garland narcotics officers had complained that a colleague had misrepresented what happened during a July drug bust.
Narcotics Officer Dennis Morrow had written a report describing Tramane Hooks, a convicted felon, as lunging for a refrigerator containing drugs in the room of one of his paid police informants. Two officers told supervisors they didn't see the so-called lunge, a crucial detail in making a drug charge stick against Hooks.
I also heard that Garland had shaken up its narcotics unit, transferring Morrow and others.
In September, I filed an open records request under state law seeking a copy of an internal investigation. The department refused to release the report to me, citing state law.
What I realized at that point is Garland, like dozens of other Texas cities, had adopted Chapter 143 of the state's Local Government Code. (Dallas is not one of those cities, which is why I can obtain their internal affairs records.)
That code puts a veil of secrecy on all internal police investigations that result in anything less than a one-day suspension.
To understand how we got here, I asked Scott Henson, a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Police Accountability Project in Texas, who has studied the issue, to explain the history of Chapter 143.
In the 1940s and 1950s, progressives implemented civil service reforms under Chapter 143 as a mechanism to protect public servants against machine politics, says About 70 cities voted to adopt Chapter 143.
In the early 1970s, the legislature passed the state's open records law, which opened up internal affairs records of police departments to public scrutiny. But in 1989, police associations succeeded in convincing the state legislature to pass an exemption to the open records law for Chapter 143 cities.
That meant internal affairs investigations in cities like Dallas who never adopted Chapter 143 remained readily accessible to the public. Meanwhile, cities like Garland, Houston, Fort Worth and others were able to hide many of their internal affairs records from public view.
"It just makes it virtually impossible to evaluate police misconduct in any but the most extreme cases," said Henson, who now writes Grits for Breakfast, a blog that focuses on Texas criminal issues. "It makes departments less accountable. The public is less informed. It allows bad cops to act with impunity, knowing they will never be exposed in most cases."
In this case, months later, I did subsequently obtain the Morrow internal investigation through other means.
The Rest:
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/03/about-eight-months-ago-i.html'Excessive Force' Video Sparks Federal LawsuitSACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Video showing a Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy slamming a suspect's head into a wall has triggered a federal lawsuit, and while the sheriff admits the incident shows excessive force, he believes the scuffle was sparked by the suspect's
John Campagne called police in January 2009 during an altercation with his brother-in-law, but ended up arrested himself and brought to jail.
While Campagne was handcuffed in a holding cell packed with deputies, one of the deputies suddenly took his head and slammed it into the concrete wall. Surveillance footage showed his legs jerking on impact and his body going limp moments later.
A nurse was brought in to tend to his injuries after he was laid down on the floor.
Still pictures following the incident shows him with a black eye and bruised face, and Campagne said he blacked out and cannot remember what happened after the impact.
"The video has helped me remember this," he said. "I'm telling them, 'I can't hear you, I can't hear you'… and I get slammed. And that's where it goes blank."
Campagne filed an excessive force complaint with the Sheriff's Department, and Sheriff John McGinness agreed. The deputy who slammed Campagne's head against the wall was disciplined and has since returned to work.
The Rest:
http://cbs13.com/local/sacramento.deputies.excessive.2.1570677.html Tempe officer resigns; had sex with women he met on dutyWithin minutes of pulling over a 21-year-old single mother near Tempe Marketplace and citing her for expired registration and no proof of insurance, then-Tempe Police Officer Jared Blanchard got her number from the citation and texted her.
"You are the prettiest girl I've ever pulled over," he told her.
Blanchard said he later had sex with the woman and pursued romantic relationships with at least three others he encountered while on duty, some of whom were victims of crimes, according to an internal investigation conducted by the Tempe Police Department.
Blanchard, 26, and a sworn police officer since March 2007, resigned in lieu of termination in August.
Details of the incidents are contained in Tempe Police investigative reports obtained this week by The Arizona Republic through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"Obviously we take these incidents very seriously," said Sgt. Steve Carbajal, a spokesman for the Tempe Police Department. "It's totally inappropriate to and unacceptable to meet women on duty or men on duty and cultivate relationships on duty."
In one case, while flirting with a friend of a suspect, Blanchard did not notice the woman he was about to arrest on a misdemeanor probation violation warrant had run away.
Blanchard told the suspect that he was going to arrest her after she removed her belongings from an apartment where she was being evicted in October 2008.
While exchanging phone numbers with a married friend of the suspect, he realized that he had not seen the woman return and that she was no longer inside the residence. Blanchard waited nearly 20 minutes to call his sergeant and request back up because he was "embarrassed." The woman was never located.
Blanchard went on to call the suspect's friend later that evening, had lunch with her in Tempe and had sex with her once in his apartment, an investigative report says. In interview with detectives, she denied having sex, but said she was flattered by the attention.
Blanchard was placed on desk duty in February 2009 after his neighbor called Mesa Police to report that Blanchard, while off duty, was harassing her and had grabbed her breast while in her apartment in May 2008.
The Rest:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/17/20100317officer-resigns-after-sex-investigation.html 
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