Hospital police sue ailing 78 yr old man after melee www.privateofficer.com

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hospital police sue ailing 78 yr old after melee www.privateofficer.com

Chicago IL. Nov. 20 2007

More than a year ago, a 78-year-old stroke victim said he was yanked from his car and beaten by Stroger Hospital police while waiting for his wife.
Hospital workers said they videotaped parts of the melee before recording devices were ripped away by the same officers.
Now, one of the cops is suing Agustin Sotomayor and his family, saying they tarnished his reputation.
Officers say they were simply reacting when Sotomayor drove over a cop’s foot after police approached to ask Sotomayor to move his car. Sotomayor says he was parked legally.
Remoh Robert filed suit last week in Cook County Circuit Court, demanding more than $150,000 from those he says wrongfully accused him of taking part in injuring Sotomayor.
Battery charges dropped
Robert has since left the scandal-plagued police force for a suburban department, but his lawyer said he’s suing to salvage his “good name.”
“A police officer’s reputation is everything,” said attorney Zane Smith. “He feels very strongly about his reputation and he intends to protect it.”
The lawsuit claims the Sotomayor family publicly identified Robert as one of those who caused injuries to the elderly man during the September 2006 incident.
Sotomayor — who has since suffered other health troubles, including another stroke — said officers demanded to know his ethnic status, ripped him from the car and threw him to the ground. Charges of battery against Sotomayor were dropped, the FBI investigated the incident and the County Board issued a formal apology.
A hospital worker who documented the incident on his phone said officers took away the phone and, when it was later given back, all documentation was deleted.
Robert is the target of two lawsuits, including one by the Sotomayors, alleging he has violated people’s civil rights.
Sotomayor’s daughter, Karen Salasblancas, said after all her father’s been through, she’s sickened to know Robert is now targeting him again.
Probe clears officers
“[Robert] definitely knows what he did. No one can change that,” she said. “To step on someone’s dignity, who’s already down — what kind of human being even does that?”
An internal Stroger Hospital investigation turned up no wrongdoing by officers.
Stroger Hospital officers have repeatedly been accused of improper use of force over the years, and the County Board voted to abolish the force in favor of private guards, though that was later reversed after heavy pressure by the officers’ union.

footnote; Stronger hospital has it’s own fully authorized full status police force and operate as any other police agency.

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Security shoots cooper thief wielding saw www.privateofficer.com

Security shoots copper thief wielding saw www.privateofficer.com

INDIANAPOLIS In. Nov. 20, 2007 — An apartment complex security guard shot and killed a man who lunged at him from a closet with a power saw, police said.
According to Indianapolis Metro police, Nicholas B. House, 22, of Greenfield, appeared to be acting in self defense when he shot the intruder inside an empty apartment at the Spanish Oaks apartment complex on the east side of Indianapolis Monday night.
Police said House found two men hiding in a bedroom closet. One man rushed at House with the saw and House fired about four times.

As the man collapsed with a gunshot wound to the chest, the other man fled and was not immediately found.
House told police that he saw an open door at a vacant unit in the 10300 block of East Governours Lane, near 38th Street and Post Road, at about 9 p.m.
Police said they think the men may have been stealing copper pipe.

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Father bites baby’s lip off www.privateofficer.com

Father Bites Baby’s Lips Off by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Lowell Ma. Nov. 20, 2007

A Lowell toddler was leaning in for a kiss when his lip was bitten off by his drug-addled father in a sickening attack Saturday, according to a police report.
Police said yesterday that the 22-month-old boy’s condition was improving, and efforts to reattach the lip at Boston’s Children’s Hospital were initially successful, the Lowell Sun reported.
Prosecutors allege that Thy Chan, 26, was high on ecstasy when he bit down and severed his little son’s lip at their Middlesex Street apartment Saturday morning.

The tot’s horrified mother, Karolyn Ung, 25, wrestled her son from Chan’s jaws, took him and her daughter to another room, locked the door and called 911, the Lowell police report said.
Chan was arrested and hospitalized at Saints Medical Center in Lowell, where he was arraigned yesterday.
“Many of the most troubling cases that we deal with involve the abuse of young children,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone Jr. said. “This is a deeply disturbing case in which we allege that the young child was savagely injured by the defendant.”
Ung told cops that Chan returned home at 9:30 a.m. Saturday after being out all night. She said Chan was “tripping on ecstasy” and that he had been pacing back and forth all morning, grinding his teeth and drinking a lot of water, the police report said.
She told cops that Chan had a history of abusing the drug ecstasy.
At about 9:15 a.m., Ung told cops that Chan was playing on the couple’s bed with their son and daughter. Her son leaned forward as if to kiss his dad when she saw Chan bite down on the boy’s lip, the report said.
“She jumped up to try and separate them, but he refused to let go,” the reportsaid. “He then bit the child’s lip off.”
Cops arrived to find the little victim wrapped in a blanket and bleeding profusely from his mouth.
Chan was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery on a child and mayhem. Lowell District Court Judge Neil Walker ordered Chan held on $25,000 cash bail and barred him from contact with any children.

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Boston cops roll in the dough; some paid 200k last year! www.privateofficer.com

Boston cops roll in the dough; paid 200k last year www.privateofficer.com

Boston Ma. Nov. 20 2007 As the city struggles to rein in spending and hold down property taxes, some 25 cops raked in more than $200,000 in 2006 while another 25 nearly cracked that figure, hauling in more than $190,000, a Boston Herald review of city payroll records has found.
In all, 126 Boston police officers made more than the $166,000 salary paid to Mayor Thomas M Menino and 121 earned more than Commissioner Ed Davis’ $167,500 annual salary, records show. Only one other city employee, interim School Superintendent Michael Contompasis, made more than $200,000 in 2006. He earned just a portion of the $270,000 for the part of the year he served in the post.
“These salaries are really a kind of insult to the taxpayer,” said Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “This whole issue seems to have mushroomed in recent years. To have 126 police officers make more than the mayor is a dramatic statement.”
By comparison, the Boston Fire Department had just three employees earn slightly more than Fire Chief Kevin MacCurtain, who had a gross pay of $163,163.
The lucrative police overtime and detail shifts have scores of city cops doubling and even tripling their base salaries.
Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said managing the city’s public safety needs while controlling payroll is “always a challenge.”
“Fiscal responsibility has always been a priority of the mayor,” Joyce said. “Our bond rating and our budget management has always been in the elite class. That should be a testament to the mayor’s fiscal restraint while at the same time making sure that basic city services are met.”
All 50 of the highest paid BPD officers have the rank of sergeant or higher. At the top of the list of Boston Police Department employees is Lt. Timothy Kervin, who earned $240,183 in 2006.
The top earning rank-and-file officer is patrolman Joseph Leeman, who made $186,609 in 2006, records show.
BPD union officials didn’t return a call for comment. BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the figures represent base salaries plus overtime and detail pay. She called it a “delicate balance” to budget overtime and maintain public safety.
As for the staggering salaries, she noted that detail pay “doesn’t come out of the city’s pocket.”
But Widmer shot down that argument, claiming that lofty police detail bills are passed onto taxpayers in the form of utility rate hikes.
“We’re ratepayers or we’re taxpayers. Whether it comes out of our left pocket or our right pocket, we’re all paying the bill,” Widmer said. “Utilities are not underwriting these costs, they’re passing them on to us.”
The Herald reported yesterday that state troopers working on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority racked up $8.3 million in overtime last year and that troopers earned up to $58,000 in detail pay alone. The payouts resulted in 23 Pike troopers making more than $200,000 in 2006.
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires police officers instead of civilian flagmen at road jobs, a practice Gov. Deval Patrick has said he intends to target.

TOP PAID OFFICERS:

Officer Kenneth Conley*
$55,141 base pay
$702,517 gross pay

Officer David Williams*
$53,149 base pay
$548,617 gross pay

Lt. Timothy Kervin
$78,436 base pay
$240,183 gross pay

Lt. Haseeb Hosein
$78,436 base pay
$239,447 gross pay

Sgt. Martin Kraft
$67,299 base pay
$237,724 gross pay

Capt. John Kervin
$91,379 base pay
$226,179 gross pay

Lt. Ghassoub Frangie
$78,436 base pay
$224,447 gross pay

Capt. Paul Russell
$95,383 base pay
$222,094 gross pay

Lt. Detective Eric Eversley
$82,502 base pay
$220,168 gross pay

Capt. William Evans
$95,383 base pay
$215,157 gross pay

Sgt. Michael Wosny
$67,299 base pay
$214,459 gross pay

Sgt. Detective Mark Vickers
$71,354 base pay
$213,846 gross pay

Lt. Steven Ciccolo
$78,436 base pay
$213,152 gross pay

Lt. Matthew Spillane
$80,516 base pay
$212,832 gross pay

Lt. Edward Roake
$78,436 base pay
$210,880 gross pay

Lt. Frederick Conley
$78,436 base pay
$210,504 gross pay
Sgt. Detective Daniel Keeler
$71,354 base pay
$208,044 gross pay
Capt. Pervis Ryans
$97,463 base pay
$207,889 gross pay

Capt. Bernard O’Rourke
$95,383 base pay
$206,745 gross pay
Sgt. Sean Smith
$67,299 base pay
$204,910 gross pay

Sgt. John Fitzgerald
$67,299 base pay
$203,987 gross pay
Capt. Michael Broderick
$95,383 base pay
$203,773 gross pay
Capt. Robert Flaherty
$95,383 base pay
$203,308 gross pay
Capt. Edward Wallace
$99,367 base pay
$201,920 gross pay
Sgt. John McBrien
$67,299 base pay
$201,361 gross pay
Capt. James Claiborne
$95,383 base pay
$201,228 gross pay

Sgt. William Robertson
$71,354 base pay
$200,321 gross pay

Lt. Detective Robert Merner
$82,502 base pay
$199,856 gross pay
Capt. Christine Michalosky
$95,383 base pay
$198,916 gross pay

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Shoplifter is wanted fugitive www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifter Wanted Fugitive www.privateofficer.com

Milford Ct. Nov. 20, 2007 — A New Haven woman accused of shoplifting at the Marshall’s store in the Milford Crossing shopping center was found hiding in the men’s room of another store on the other side of the Boston Post Road plaza.
Nadine Cameron, 41, of Sheffield Avenue in New Haven has been held on $10,000 bond since her arrest Saturday afternoon, because there is an outstanding arrest warrant for her in Georgia, police said today.
Cameron was charged with being a fugitive from justice and with third-degree robbery and sixth-degree larceny for the incident at the clothing store.
Police said she attempted to leave Marshall’s with $139 in merchandise without paying and scratched a security guard who tried to stop her.
She later was found trying to hide in the men’s bathroom at the Staples store in the same shopping complex.
Local police did not release what type of charges were pending against Cameron in Georgia and are waiting to be notified whether Georgia would seek extridition against her.

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Pecan thieves warned in Georgia www.privateofficer.com

Pecan Thieves Be Forwarned; You Will Be Arrested In Georgia www.privateofficer.com

Atlanta Ga. Nov. 20, 2007 –Frank Funderburk, a University of Georgia agricultural county extension coordinator, feels a 1950s poster featuring a tough-looking sheriff at the Department of Agriculture building in Byron says it all: “If you steal pecans, we’ll shoot you.”
The act of folks sneaking into orchards and stealing pecans has always pestered growers, said Funderburk, who is based in Fort Valley.
But this year, which the Georgia Pecan Growers Association heralds as the state’s best pecan crop in the past 10 to 15 years, thievery seems to be more pronounced, Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said.
Pecan thieves are picking the pockets of growers not only in Middle Georgia but across the state, Deese says.
“We got three to four complaints a day in the last week,” the sheriff said recently.
While Deese has no plans to shoot pecan thieves, he vows to aggressively arrest and prosecute illegal nut nabbers.
In Georgia, it’s a minimum $500 fine, or up to 12 months in jail, for stealing pecans, Deese said.
“We started enforcing it because it’s become such a serious problem,” the sheriff said. “We don’t pick up grandmas and haul them off for picking up pecans by the side of the road. … But we do tell them what the law is.”
And if Grandma persists?
“They can’t say they weren’t warned,” Deese said.
If the value of the pecans stolen is $500 or more, then the crime is a felony punishable under the state’s general theft statutes, said retired state Rep. Robert Ray, a pecan grower in Peach and Crawford counties.
Ray, who authored the $500 minimum-fine legislation of 1994, said the state law hadn’t been enforced much because many growers didn’t want to take the time out from farming to prosecute the thieves.
But that’s changed, he said.
“So many farmers have been hit by it, we want to prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law,” Ray said.
The law applies to all unharvested agricultural crops, including peaches, apples and watermelons, not just pecans, he noted.
“On Evans Farms’ behalf, we’re going to prosecute anybody we catch stealing,” said owner Chop Evans. His pecan orchards are located in 10 Middle Georgia counties – Peach, Houston, Crawford, Macon, Dooly, Dodge, Wilcox, Crisp, Turner and Lee.
“How else are you going to stop it if you don’t prosecute it?” Evans suggested. “It’s going to cost them (farmers) some time and money. But I’ve always thought that once word gets out that this particular farmer is going to prosecute, the problem will diminish.”
Evans and Ray are particularly concerned with thieves who sneak into orchards, often under the cover of night, toting burlap bags, coolers and even plastic shopping bags to scoop up and carry off a passel of pecan profits.
Evans recently caught thieves red-handed in one of his orchards with nearly 800 pounds of pecans in burlap bags.
“That’s hardly somebody picking up something to eat,” the grower said.
Another time, Evans said, he had a sheriff’s deputy open the car trunk of an intruder nabbed in his orchard. The trunk was full of pecans, he said.
The grower said he sometimes gets anonymous calls tipping him to folks spotted picking up pecans in one of his orchards.
Troubling to Evans and other growers who invest lots of money into nurturing pecan crops is the perception that it’s somehow not stealing to go into an orchard and take pecans.
“If you do the same thing in a jewelry or clothing store,” he said, “everyone knows you are going to be arrested.”
Funderburk agreed that’s a big a part of the problem.
“We have people pull off to the side of the road with a sack and pick up pecans (and they) don’t see that as theft,” he said. “They don’t see that the same as picking up a can of beans at Wal-Mart without paying for it.”

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Mall thief steals expensive rings www.privateofficer.com

Charlotte N.C. Nov. 20, 2007 — A man claims to be shopping for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, and steals two diamond rings.
The robbery took place at a jewelry store in Carolina Place Mall last Tuesday night. Pineville police released surveillance video of the suspect, hoping that someone will recognize him.
Mall surveillance video shows the man wearing a baseball hat and leather jacket, scoping out the inside of the mall for about a half hour before going out to his car and coming back into the mall. Officers say he asked the store clerk to show him two diamond rings. When the clerk took out the rings, the suspect grabbed them and ran off. Police say the suspect was in and out of the store in less than two minutes and was gone before mall security could track him down.
Police say the suspect knew what he was after. He made three trips to the jewelry store, and stole the rings on the third visit.
The store’s owner describes the suspect as clean-cut, and a cool operator. He even asked for the clerk by name.
The two diamond rings are worth a combined value of $18,000. Pineville police say this type of a jewelry theft is very rare. The last time they had a case like this was a year ago. If you have any information call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

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Elderly guard chases armed robbers www.privateofficer.com

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Elderly guard chases armed robbers www.privateofficer.com

HIALEAH, Fla. Nov. 20, 2007 — Authorities are looking for two men who tried to rob a Hialeah restaurant early Monday morning but were stopped by a quick-thinking security guard.
Police said the security guard in his 70s fired gunshots at the men and chased them away after they approached him in the Zoe’s Juice Palace parking lot.
He says that he tried not to hit them. So he probably was more trying to scare them away than trying to actually fire at them,” said Detective Carl Zogby of Hialeah police.
The owner of the store said he has 16 surveillance cameras on the property and the attempted robbery was caught on video.
One video shows the security guard sitting in a chair outside the building. Two men walk up to the guard and one points a gun at him.
The video shows the guard kicking the gun away from the man’s hand, and then firing at least two shots at the men.
“Believe me, he could kill but he doesn’t want to kill anybody,” said storeowner Jose Gutierrez. “He told me that somebody was trying to kill him and I see the video and the guy pointed at him. He reacted real good.”
Gutierrez said the security guard has past military experience and has dealt with attempted robberies at his previous jobs.
One of the robbers on Monday wore a Halloween mask and black clothes. The other had a red bandanna covering his nose and mouth, and a white T-shirt on his head.
Police are also looking for a third man who they said was driving a dark-colored getaway vehicle. No one was injured in the incident.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

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