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GA. police unwilling to aid private detention center www.privateofficer.com
The private entity that soon will run the North Georgia Detention Center in Midtown Gainesville has asked the Gainesville Police Department to provide police assistance when the facility opens this summer.
It doesn’t appear that city officials have any intentions of doing so.
Police Chief Frank Hooper told the City Council Thursday that Corrections Corporation of America sent him a memorandum of understanding that requests assistance from the police department. The agreement would call for the police department’s assistance in quelling riots and other criminal activity at the immigration detention center, he said.
City Council members opposed the idea. City Attorney James E. “Bubba” Palmour also advised them against entering into the agreement, which offered the city police department indemnification from any wrongdoing, Hooper said.
Palmour said no amount of indemnification would protect the city if a “full-blown problem” arose at the facility, which will be housed in the old Hall County Jail on Main Street.
“Once you have a death or a serious injury in a jail, it will take you five or six years to get through the litigation,” Palmour said.
Hooper said the city police department is not equipped with the training or equipment to deal with jail riots.
“We shouldn’t be, because we’re a municipal police department,” City Manager Kip Padgett said.
Most council members said that any police protection should be the responsibility of the Hall County government, which is leasing the facility to CCA.
“It sounds like the county commission needs to step up and accept full responsibility for that facility,” said Councilman George Wangemann.
Councilman Danny Dunagan also said any security responsibilities at the facility should fall on the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.
He said the county should use the $2 million in annual revenue it receives from leasing the facility to CCA on providing police assistance.
But sheriff’s Col. Jeff Strickland said the county agency this week signed a similar agreement with CCA and a separate agreement to house the North Georgia Detention Facility’s inmates in an emergency if there is room at the Hall County Jail.
The agreement the county signed states that the Gainesville Police Department will be the agency that is primarily responsible to respond to incidents at the facility, Strickland said.
“These (memorandums of understanding) are basically for emergency situations, which of course, the Gainesville Police Department does have the primary responsibility for,” Strickland said. “However, if the Gainesville Police Department requested our assistance, then, of course, we would respond accordingly.”
Steve Owen, director of marketing and communications for the private jail operator, said if the city does not sign the agreement, it will not cause any problems for the North Georgia Detention Center. He said the memorandum of understanding sent to Gainesville officials was an effort to “get a working relationship” with local law enforcement agencies.
Although Owen would not comment on specific concerns city officials cited Thursday, he said CCA officials were “more than happy to continue to have dialogue” with the city.
“We want to be good neighbors,” Owen said.
The road to a working relationship between the city and CCA has been a rough one thus far. CCA’s plans to start operating the detention facility on Main Street conflict with the city’s dreams of a redevelopment in Midtown chock full of high-rise hotels, office buildings and walking trails — dreams that don’t include razor wire.
Many of the problems between the city and CCA spring from a conflict the city has with the county over the future of the jail property. City officials announced their intentions to buy the property in late 2007. The deal never went through and both the city and county disagree on why the contract allowing the city to purchase the property was never signed.
In the last round, city officials halted inspections and refused to issue building permit for renovations on the Main Street Jail, but later reneged “in the spirit of moving forward.”
However, Thursday, there still seemed to be some kinks in the relationship between city, county and CCA officials as Dunagan commented that the corporation taking over the Main Street jail is “notorious for mistreatment” of inmates — an allegation to which Owen responded that the fact that CCA operates in nearly half the states in the country, many of which have increased their utilization of CCA services, should speak for the company’s track record, he said.
“I hope the county commission is real happy with what they’ve done,” Dunagan said.
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Security,police capture burglars www.privateofficer.com
The three were caught trying to enter the school around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday after a security guard saw people dressed in dark clothing on the roof of the school at 5500 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.
The adult, 18-year-old Travis E. Robert of the 11700 block of Soft Rush Terrace, was charged with felony burglary, the report said. The names of the two juveniles who were arrested were not released by the Sheriff’s Office.
In an interview, Robert, who is a senior at the high school, told deputies the trio designed the sign at home and intended to enter the school from a hatch in the roof and place it in the school.
The report did not say what information the sign contained.
Two of the burglars entered the school from the hatch, but changed their minds and returned to the roof before going any farther.
The burglars were caught with a backpack that contained rope, crow bars and flashlights, the report said. They were caught after deputies set up a perimeter around the school and sent a canine in to pressure them to surrender.
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KY teacher charged with child porn www.privateofficer.com
Paris High School teacher has been arrested and charged with 25 counts of possession of child pornography. Kenneth Shadoan, 30, had been a math teacher at Paris High School for the last three years.
Paris Police received a complaint Monday from a parent who said her 17 year-old son had received “inappropriate communication” from Shadoan. Paris Police worked with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Unit and obtained search warrants for Shadoan’s home in Carlisle and his car. Police found and seized evidence leading to Shadoan’s arrest on the 25 counts of possession of child of porn. He is currently being held at the Bourbon County Detention Center on a $50,000 full cash bond.
The criminal investigation remains ongoing and Police tell ABC 36 News more charges are possible. Paris Independent Schools Superintendent, Janice Cox-Blackburn said when she learned about the charges she suspended Shadoan. Cox-Blackburn went on to say regardless of the outcome of the investigation Shadoan will not return as a school system employee. His contract will expire at the end of the current school year and as a non-tenured teacher, his return was at the discretion of the school system.
Shadoan passed both state and federal criminal background checks. But in 2005 he was accused of sodomy by an adult student while on an Outward Bound outing in Pulaski County. The school system terminated him from his job teaching at North Middle School. In 2006 a jury found him not guilty of the sodomy charge as well as a lesser charge of sexual misconduct.
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Charlotte Schools eliminates 60 security positions www.privateofficer.com
CMS officials said the number of campus security associates will go from 177 to 119 in 2009-2010. That number includes two new positions for middle schools opening next school year.
School officials said most high schools will have two security officers, and middle schools will have one.
The cuts will hit harder at some schools than others. Hopewell High School and Independence High School will drop from five security officers to two, and that’s raising some concerns.
“There’s too much going on right now–we need security to let everybody know that everything’s good,” said Reagan Etheridge, who graduated from Independence in 2007.
The school district said the move is part of $51.1 million in budget reductions. It’s requiring all campus security personnel to reapply for the 119 budgeted positions.
“We just don’t have a lot of choice,” said School Board Chairwoman Molly Griffin on Thursday.
Griffin said school principals may be able to use money budgeted for other positions to hire security officers.
CMS said campus security associates are not sworn police officers. No cuts are planned for CMS’ School Law Enforcement team, which is made up of police officers and detectives.
In addition to the 60 security positions, CMS is cutting 474 other jobs to meet budget constraints. Another 782 jobs, all at the school level, are on the line if more budget cuts are made.
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North Carolina teacher charged with stalking student www.privateofficer.com
The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office arrested John Michael Donadio and charged him with stalking a male student at school.
Neighbors say they don’t believe Donadio would ever do anything inappropriate. But the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office is investigating allegations that Donadio stalked a student at Fred T. Foard High School.
Administrators at the school say the minute they heard of the allegations they took Donadio out of the classroom and suspended him with pay.
The superintendent is being very tight-lipped and would not discuss the arrest or the teacher.
We do know that Donadio has taught special education at the school for several years.
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Four US citizens murdered in Tijuana www.privateofficer.com
The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.
U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims — two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas — were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general’s office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican.
Their deaths are the latest in a string of violence in Tijuana that authorities blame on a bloody turf war between drug cartels.
Bernard Gonzales, a spokesman for the Chula Vista Police Department, said a friend told the women’s parents they were headed to nightclubs in Tijuana on Thursday night. They were reported missing the next day when they did not answer their cell phones.
Gomez said relatives of one of the victims told authorities they knew drug traffickers, and that one of the women had cocaine in her system.
The victims were Brianna Hernandez, 19; Carmen Jimena Ramos; Oscar Jorge Garcia, 23; and Luis Antonio Gamez III, 21, said Charles Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana. Ramos was believed to be 20 years old, but her age had not been confirmed.
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