Corrections Supervisor Busted In “Set Up” Scheme www.privateofficer.com

Corrections Supervisor Busted for “Set-Up Scheme http://www.privateofficer.com

Las Vegas, Nv. Oct. 15, 2007

A department of corrections lieutenant is under arrest, accused of being the mastermind behind an elaborate drug set-up and assault. The target? A fellow officer.
Irvin Blake was a rising member of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Promoted twice in the last four years, Blake is now sitting in a jail cell.
Blake stands accused of asking an inmate to beat up another corrections officer and frame him. He was once in charge of keeping inmates in line. Now Irvin Blake is an inmate in a bizarre case of revenge.
Blake was arrested Wednesday after suspicions he had asked an inmate at Southern Nevada Correction Center in Jean to assault a sergeant at the prison.
Blake was hired in October 1993 and had been promoted in 2003 and again recently to the rank of lieutenant. But according to the arrest report, obtained exclusively by Eyewitness News, the twice-promoted lieutenant was facing a demotion soon. And he wanted retribution on the sergeant who ratted him out for an unknown infraction.
The report paints a disturbing plan hatched by Blake to clear his own name by asking an inmate to beat up the sergeant. Then Blake would place controlled substances in his car and then call highway patrol once the sergeant went home for the night.
But it never happened. Once investigators found out, Blake admitted to the whole plan before his paid-off inmate could follow through.
The Department of Corrections had little comment Wednesday, other than to say Blake had been officially terminated.
Blake’s charges — oppression under the color of office and misconduct of a public officer, are Class D and E felonies. If convicted, Blake could face up a combined eight years in prison and fines of $10,000.
email us your comments, questions or news to adminassist@privateofficer.com

Visit Us On The Web; http://www.privateofficer.com

Simpson Co-defendent Takes Plea www.privateofficer.com

Simpson’s Co-defendent Takes Plea http://www.privateofficer.com

Las Vegas NV. Oct. 15, 2007
A co-defendant in the armed robbery case against O.J. Simpson took a plea deal today in Las Vegas.
Charles Cashmore of Las Vegas told a judge he’ll plead guilty to a felony and testify against Simpson and four others in the theft of sports collectibles from two memorabilia dealers.
The agreement ups the ante in the prosecution of Simpson because Cashmore’s lawyer says Cashmore can testify that guns were involved in the September 13th confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel room.
Simpson and his lawyers have denied guns were in the room. Procedurally, Cashmore waived his preliminary hearing and agreed to plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery. Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure Junior is expected to set an arraignment date for Cashmore in Clark County District Court where his plea will be entered.
Simpson and the others are slated next month for a preliminary hearing at which Bonaventure will decide whether there is In Cashmore’s case, prosecutors will be able to ask a judge for leniency or seek up to five years in prison. Cashmore’s lawyer, Edward Miley, says the two sides did not agree on a possiblesentence before today’s proceedings.
Miley has characterized Cashmore as a bit player enlisted at the last minute to carry boxes for Simpson, who has claimed at least some of the items taken from collectors Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong belong to him.

email us your comments, questions or news to; adminassist@privateofficer.com
Join The Fastest Growing Security Association for Just $35!
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE OFFICERS
visit; http://www.privateofficer.com/
Visit The Officer Down Memorial Wall ; www.privateofficer.com/officerdown

NAKED SHOPPERS PROTEST CLOTHING www.privateofficer.com

NAKED SHOPPERS PROTEST CLOTHING http://www.privateofficer.com

One by one, about six young women marched out of the downtown Macy’s women’s lounge Sunday afternoon wearing supersized garbage bags and little else, save the signs taped to their backs.
“I’d rather wear trash bags than Macy’s sweatshop clothing,” the signs read.
If there had been more room, they probably would have gone on to detail the plight of Guatemala’s unionized garment factories — the reason those young women and about 30 other activists waged a covert invasion of Macy’s on Sunday.
Among the activists were University of Washington students devoting their college experience to helping workers at Cimatextiles and Choishin, two Guatemalan factories in Villa Nueva that manufacture clothes for Talbot’s, Liz Claiborne and other brands sold at Macy’s.
Owners closed Cimatextiles earlier this summer, displacing unionized workers and prompting students at the UW and Seattle University to rev up their campaign for improved factory conditions.
“In our nation, and in pop culture, there’s really the sense that youth aren’t interested,” UW student Lauren Anderson said. “This is a case where youth are interested, and I think that should be applauded and noticed. And I hope it will help the unions.”
And so, garbage bags rustling briskly, the young women dispersed Sunday among racks of sweaters and dresses, up escalators and past startled shoppers. The rules of the invasion were simple: Keep it civil, quick and solitary. They’ve learned in four previous demonstrations at the store that if everyone makes a dash for it on their own, security has a harder time herding them out onto the sidewalk.
But a department store clerk is quick to pick up a phone when he or she sees a half-naked college student dash by complaining that the store’s clothes “smell like blood.” Sunday evening, store managers declined to comment on the demonstration, and it wasn’t clear which — if any — of the store’s wares were manufactured in the two Guatemalan factories.

Protesters were in the store only 15 minutes. Outside, 12 students stood in trash bags while UW senior Travis Thomas hollered “don’t shop at Macy’s this holiday season” into a bullhorn.
Thomas is one of almost 60 UW students who have traveled to Guatemala to study human rights over the past several years, part of a study-abroad program coordinated by Angelina Godoy, a professor in the Jackson School of International Studies. That class marked the inception the UW Guatemala Project, a student organization that raised more $70,000 last year for a 10-year scholarship endowment to benefit children in the San Marcos region.
Godoy said her goal for the summertime study-abroad program is to get students out of a classroom and into the real world, where they meet laborers at coffee plantations, gold mines and — maybe most notably — struggling factory workers who tell stories of women who have lost unborn children to extreme factory conditions, been threatened for belonging to unions and even denied regular bathroom breaks.
“Unfortunately, in Guatemala, there’s no lack of human rights issues to examine,” Godoy said, adding that Cimatextiles and later Choishin were founded when international eyes were watching the Guatemalan government during trade negotiations. If not for that, the political climate probably would have squelched those attempts to unionize, she said.
A handful of Godoy’s students returned to Guatemala after graduation to help union workers fight for legitimacy, including June graduate Michele Frix. In an e-mail, Frix said she signed a six-month lease last week for an apartment just miles outside of Guatemala City, committing herself to the workers’ fight through April of next year, at least.
“I never question staying here because I feel like what has happened to these workers is so unjust that I couldn’t possibly stop working in solidarity with them,” she wrote.
On Monday, Frix plans to protest with unionized workers outside their factories, demanding that management come out to speak with them. The unions and the group of Seattle students have written letters to the clothing companies that outsource to the factories, but both say they haven’t received any response yet.

email us your comments, questions or news to; adminassist@privateofficer.com

Join The Fastest Growing Security Association for Just $35!
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE OFFICERS
visit; http://www.privateofficer.com/

Visit The Officer Down Memorial Wall ; www.privateofficer.com/officerdown

Private Officer Sentenced To Prison For Shooting by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Private Officer Sentenced To Prison For Shooting by; Rick McCann http://www.privateofficer.com

Tulsa OK. Oct. 15, 2007

A former security guard assigned to a Tulsa apartment complex received a four-year sentence for a fatal shooting almost four years ago. Tulsa County jurors on Friday found Donald Ray Cowan guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the death of Ronald Henderson, 39. The jury imposed a four-year term that is the minimum allowed for the manslaughter offense. Cowan, who had been free on bail, was jailed after the three-day trial in District Judge Gordon McAllister’s court. Formal sentencing is set for Nov. 15. McAllister will determine whether Cowan is sentenced to prison, probation, or some combination of the two. Cowan, 32, testified that he had “no other option” when he shot Henderson on Jan. 10, 2004, at the Windsong Apartments, 9750 E. 31st St. Assistant District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said Cowan “over-reached and crossed the line” in responding to a situation in which Cowan, then employed with a security agency and assigned to the apartment complex, stopped a sports utility vehicle for driving the wrong way at the complex.
Kunzweiler said no other traffic was affected and that Henderson, a visitor there, could have routinely left if Cowan had not intervened.

Cowan indicated that after Henderson drove the SUV toward him, Cowan fired three shots in an effort to disable the vehicle. Cowan testified that Henderson had said he had a gun, and Cowan said he repeatedly told Henderson to keep his hands on the steering wheel. Cowan indicated that Henderson reached for something, and “I reasonably believed that he had a gun and he was going to shoot me.” Kunzweiler said Cowan, positioned on the driver’s side of the SUV and not in front of it, fired three more shots, striking Henderson. The prosecutor said evidence showed that Henderson had no gun and that Cowan did not tell police at the scene that Henderson threatened to shoot him. Kunzweiler asserted that Cowan wasn’t entitled to a self-defense claim because “he assumed the role of the aggressor. Mr. Henderson was backing up to get away from him.” Defense attorney Patrick Adams said he “didn’t see any evidence at all” that Cowan “was not acting in self-defense.” Adams said the case reflects a “double standard” because “there is no way he would have been charged at all if he had been a Tulsa police officer.” Cowan said he has been working as a police officer in Cromwell, which is in Seminole County. Prosecutors filed the charge on Jan. 3, 2005, almost a full year after the shooting.

email us comments, questions or news to ; adminassist@privateofficer.com
Visit Us On Line; http://www.privateofficer.com/