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S.S. Seward Institute teacher arrested for sex with student www.privateofficer.com
Brian P. Egan, an English teacher at S.S. Seward Institute in Florida, was arrested Oct. 8 on felony charges of having oral sex with a student at the school when she was 16 years old.
John Van Der Molen, senior investigator with the New York State Police, said Egan, 40, was surprised by the allegations. But he said Egan cooperated fully and admitted to receiving oral sex from his student after school “on numerous occasions” between Sept. 2004 and April 2005.
Egan is also junior varsity girls basketball coach at the high school. He lives in Sugar Loaf.
The Florida superintendent of schools, Douglas Burnside, said he is treating the arrest as a personnel matter, and that he is investigating the allegations.
“I really want to be very careful what I share with you,” said Burnside when asked if Egan was teaching at the school after the Columbus Day holiday. He took no further questions about Egan’s employment status.
Egan’s Web page on the school’s online site was still available Thursday, as this paper goes to press. The page included a John Steinbeck quote and cartoons about Frankenstein and pop stars. According to the site, his English 12 class was scheduled to discuss Mary Shelley’s book, “Frankenstein,” on Oct. 9, the day he was released from Orange County jail on $2,500 bail.
He was arraigned before Village of Florida Justice Richard Shuback and is scheduled to reappear on Oct. 22 for further court action.
Egan was called out of his classroom on the morning of Oct. 8 and asked to go to the state police barracks in Monroe, where the arresting officer, Investigator Leonard Caruso explained the allegations.
The police charged Egan with one felony count of a criminal sexual act in the third degree.
The police said it remains unclear why Egan’s former student, now in college, waited until now to come forward with her allegations. The police have no other reports about Egan from other victims.
The police said they take special precautions in investigating sex crimes, in order to protect both the victim and the accused. They have been in contact with the school since the arrest.
Anyone with additional information relating to allegations of criminal conduct by Egan is asked to contact state police at Monroe at 782-8311.
Fredericksburg ISD teacher charged with sexual contact with student www.privateofficer.com
On Friday, Michael Stevens has bonded out of jail. The 42-year-old teaches physics and is the head track coach for Fredericksburg High School.
Stevens is accused of being involved with a 17-year-old girl.
We’ve learned Stevens turned himself in to police late Thursday afternoon.
Fredericksburg ISD has reportedly suspended him while the investigation is underway. Even though this involves a 17-year-old girl who is legally an adult, under Texas law it is illegal for an educator to have sexual contact with a student.
If convicted, Stevens faces as many as 20 years behind bars and he could have to register as a sex offender.
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Portland officials want to deputize city water security officers www.privateofficer.com
It’s a plan generating a lot of heat and something City Commissioner Randy Leonard never thought would be an issue.
Leonard wants Water Bureau security guards to become peace officers so they can deal with problems at reservoirs but one colleague is questioning the need for guns.
Water Bureau security guards currently keep watch over Portland’s reservoirs, protecting drinking water from trespassers who intend to do harm and troublemakers who toss in things like beer bottles or paint. Leonard now wants the 19 security guards deputized, which would allow them to arrest people.
“By having that authority, we think we have a better argument with the federal government to give us a waiver so we don’t have to cover our reservoirs,” he explained.
The guards would also carry guns.
“These are people who work alone at night, oftentimes women who work alone at night patrolling some of the most desolate places that are the water supply system,” said Leonard.
But Commissioner Dan Saltzman is concerned about the idea and said he hasn’t heard a compelling rationale for why Water Bureau staff should be armed. And he questions their training and experience.
“When they need police, police are there to provide backup,” he said. “That arrangement hasn’t been proven to me or shown to me that it’s not sufficient. If the council really believes we should have armed patrols at reservoirs, then I say the Water Bureau should set up an interagency agreement with the Police Bureau to have the police do that.”
It would be the same thing that is done with TriMet. But Leonard said he is surprised to hear that his colleague thinks that way.
“Ironically, in the past, Commissioner Saltzman has actually hired private armed security for our reservoirs but somehow he sees a difference in that, than having our city employees be certified to carry weapons.
Saltzman’s office said the security company was First Response. They are retired police officers and there were only six of them.
Saltzman said he is not against having security guards at the city’s reservoirs – he is worried about creating another police agency within the city where the cost would come out of people’s water bills.
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Alaska Public Safety Officers unique breed www.privateofficer.com
The Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) is a unique public safety mechanism that allows some of Alaska’s 239 Bush communities to have a degree of a qualified public safety presence. The VPSO is trained in basic criminal law and arrest procedures, rural fire fighting and emergency responder first aid. VPSOs are not armed. VPSO courses comprise a total of 240 hours of instruction at the Sitka Alaska State Trooper Academy. After a year of service, the VPSO is eligible for a certification as a VPSO. (13 AAC 96. 100, 110)
The standing of the VPSO under Alaska law is interesting as the VPSO is not a recognized peace officer under Alaska law. The VPSO has the same standing as a private citizen, or private security guard under the law.
Alaska statutes provides for any citizen having the right to exercise the power of arrest in a situation where an individual is observed violating the law. AS 12.25.010 provides for the arrest of an individual who has committed a crime by either a private person or a peace officer. The reason for this has to do with the recognition of Alaska’s size and the limited availability of police officers in most of Alaska. The VPSO has arrest powers pursuant to AS 12.25.010 as a private citizen, not as a peace officer. AS 12.25.030 allows a private person to arrest a person without a warrant when a crime is committed in the presence of the person making the arrest, when the person has committed a felony or if in fact a felony has been committed the person making the arrest has a reasonable cause for believing the person to have committed the felon, even if not committed in the presence of the person making the arrest. VPSOs have the authority to arrest, and their testimony is given serious credibility in the State’s courts when testifying in support of their arrests.
VPSOs are a unique Alaska solution to a long standing problem: how to get the law out to 586,000 square miles of Alaska?
Alaska will never have enough Alaska State Troopers, and it is unlikely that most of the remote villages will ever have the economic wherewithal to allow them to hire Village Police Officers. The VPSO program is a reasonable solution until roads can be built, villages consolidated, and Alaska’s regions connected by a common road system. Just like the rest of the States in the United States.
My father was a Territorial Police Office and a Alaska State Police Officer before it was renamed to the Alaska State Troopers. He routinely covered an area no smaller than the State of New Jersey. At times, as the only police presence within hundreds of miles. The radios in the 1950s and early 1960s were good out to about 10 miles. There were weeks when we did not see him. I remember my mother trying to handle his going off the “map” to look for someone or to go out to a village to arrest someone. Those were some interesting times and his stories were always interesting. There were fewer TPs and ASPs than VPSOs to police the Territory of Alaska and the early State of Alaska.
One of the problems with the VPSO program is that one has to be willing to arrest a cousin, uncle, sister, brother, mother, etc. The issue of one’s relatives and the conflicts that arise in a closely knit community make recruiting for VPSOs difficult. Outsiders, even if they are from the next village have an uphill battle if they sign on as a VPSO for a neighboring village. This is a major hurdle to the effectiveness of the VPSO program.
In 2006, the village of Hooah on Alaska’s western coast had a major fire. The Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF) and the Alaska Army and Air National Guard were mobilized to assist in the post disaster response. ASDF personnel provided an armed State Military Police Constable presence in assistance to the Alaska State Troopers and supplemented the VPSOs of Hoonah for the first 30 days pursuant to then Governor Frank Murkowski’s disaster declaration at the time. The presence of armed volunteer State Military Police Constables of the ASDF was desired because of the influx of workers and relief personnel coming into Hoonah to aid in the recovery effort. ASDF and National Guard personnel served the State and the people of Hoonah. The VPSOs of Hoonah were happy to have the help.
Alaska’s VPSOs work under difficult conditions knowing that any back up by an armed police officer is hours away by air, weather permitting. And, the pay sucks. Yet, they still stand the line in service to their villages and fellow Alaskans.
For more information on Alaska’s unique VPSO program:
http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/rlinks/lawenforcement/ak_vpso.html
http://www.dps.state.ak.us/ast/vpso/
Governor’s press release:
Cable barriers on interstates saving lives www.privateofficer.com
Louisville KY Oct 16 2009
Andrea Elliott was on the Gene Snyder Freeway, headed to her boyfriend’s house, when another car crossed into her lane.
She hit the brakes, swerved, drove into the median and struck a cable barrier.
Her 2006 Ford Five Hundred was totaled in the July 19 wreck, and she was left with hip, shoulder and neck pain.
But Elliott, a 34-year-old Fern Creek mother of two, knows it could have been worse.
“If it wasn’t for those wires, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said of the median cable barrier, installation of which started in 2007. “I would have been in oncoming traffic. I would have been hit.”
Transportation and law enforcement officials say median cable barriers in Jefferson and Bullitt counties in Kentucky and Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana may have saved hundreds of lives since they began appearing along area highways in 2006.
The barriers, which are cheaper than their concrete counterparts, improve safety by clamping down on vehicles when struck, preventing the vehicle from rebounding into traffic. They also absorb the energy of an impact more than concrete barriers do, minimizing injuries to passengers and vehicle damage.
“They have been extremely successful … dramatically so,” said Lt. Doug Sweeney, commander of the Louisville Metro Police traffic unit.
Jefferson County now has 51 miles of cable barriers on Interstates 64, 71 and 265 and Ky. 841, said Andrea Clifford, a public information officer for the state highway department. She said they were hit 609 times between 2006 and Aug. 10.
Wednesday
In Bullitt County, the 6.2 miles of cable barriers on Interstate 65 — which were completed in April — have been hit 14 times as of late September, Clifford said. There were 14 crossover crashes and three fatalities from crossovers between 2004 and April 15 on that stretch of road.
Bullitt had two fatalities caused by crossover crashes on Interstate 65 last year and has had four this year.
In September, a Shepherdsville mother and son were killed in a crossover crash on a section of I-65 in Bullitt where there aren’t median cable barriers.
“If there had been a cable barrier there, it would have prevented that accident,” said Trooper Bruce Reeves, a public information officer for the Kentucky State Police.
In Indiana, the roughly 23 miles of cable barriers in Clark and Floyd counties are so new that the state hasn’t started tallying hits to the barriers, said Marvin Jenkins, a public information officer for the Indiana Department of Transportation. But the barriers, which were completed in late summer, already have sustained “several” hits, he said.
“You figure that any one of those could have crossed over,” Sweeney said.
Cheaper than concreteKentucky has found cable barriers to be cheaper to install than concrete barriers.
Cable barriers cost roughly $130,000 per mile, Clifford said. In comparison, a 50-inch-high concrete median barrier wall costs $400,000 a mile, and that doesn’t include the required earthwork, drainage and pavement.
“We feel they are effective in saving lives and reducing crashes and reducing injuries,” Clifford said of the cable barriers. “And we can’t put a dollar value on that.”
“I think they ought to make a law that they can’t build a Kentucky interstate without them,” said Bullitt County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Danny Thompson, who is among those who believe the barriers should be extended across the region.
But while both Kentucky and Indiana plan more cable barriers elsewhere, neither state has money for more barriers in the Louisville metropolitan area, officials said.
Brenda Clohessy, whose 18-year-old son Kayde died in a crossover accident on the Snyder Freeway in 2005, said officials need to find the money.
Her son’s crash, which killed three other people and was set off by a blowout on his Subaru, led to a concurrent resolution in the state House and Senate to install cable barriers on the freeway.
Clohessy, 43, who lives near Highview, said she got emotional shortly after the barriers were installed at the site of the accident, which was near the LaGrange Road exit.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “Thank God they put those there, but I wish they were there earlier.”
Jay Huber, president of the Kentucky Motorcycle Association/Kentucky Biker Association, called the barriers “a cheese slicer.”
While the cable barriers would prevent a biker from crossing into oncoming traffic, bikers who hit them can be seriously injured, he said.
“It will cut you in half,” said Mike Ballard, president of TRAIN MRO Inc., an Ohio-based motorcycle-rights organization with a focus on safety and education. “We have always had a stance against cable barriers because they are so dangerous to motorcyclists.”
One solution could be installing nylon straps or mesh over the wires, Huber said.
But these additional items would drive up the cost and limit the amount of funding to install cable barriers, Clifford said. And no motorcyclists have been killed or seriously injured from hitting cable barriers in Kentucky, she said.
“We don’t have any of the distractions that motorists have,” said Mike Canchola, chairman of the state Motorcycle Advisory Commission for Highway Safety, explaining the lack of accidents. “We’re not eating. We’re not calling on the cell phone.”
The commission has not taken a stance on the barriers and is monitoring accidents involving the wires, he said.
There have been two local instances where vehicles have gotten through barriers.
Clifford said in one instance, a semi tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 rolled over the top of cable barriers, which are not designed to contain such a large truck. Another time, a vehicle went through the cables at a low point in the median on I-71, but that spot has been fixed, she said.
No one has died locally because of an impact with the cable barrier system, Clifford said. A fatality occurred in 2008, though, after a vehicle hit a sign truss along the Snyder Freeway, bounced off and struck the cable barrier system. A person was ejected from the vehicle in that incident and died.
The barriers also can prolong emergency workers’ response times if they need to get to an accident on the other side of a cable barrier, said Reeves, of the Kentucky State Police.
“It may be a situation where I have to go two to three miles to where I can get to a cut-through” to the other side of the interstate, he said. “But that’s not a big issue most of the time.”
Kentucky has only two planned projects for more cable barriers, on Interstate 275 in Northern Kentucky and on Interstate 75 in Whitley County, Clifford said.
Indiana has plans for more cable barriers on Interstate 74, which runs from the Cincinnati area to Indianapolis to Illinois, Jenkins said.
Tiffany Robinson, of Prospect, who wrote state and federal politicians asking for more median barriers in 2006, said she felt the structures are making a difference.
“Statewide, it would be great to see them,” she said.
College police officer arrested for exposing self during traffic stop www.privateofficer.com
Steven Turner was charged Thursday with indecency and distributing obscene material.
According to Fulton County police investigators, Turner was an officer who was employed by Carver Bible College on Cascade Road.
Police said Turner was patrolling Cascade Road on Sept. 6 when he pulled over a car containing three women.
One of the women, who did not want to be identified, told CBS Atlanta that Turner began asking women questions that were unrelated to the traffic stop.
The woman said Turner then exposed his private area.
“He walked around to the driver’s side and opened the driver and passenger doors and pulled his penis out,” the woman said.
Police said Turner also took a picture of his exposed area and sent it to one of the women.
Turner resigned from his job, officials said.
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Gold Shield security officers nab murder suspect www.privateofficer.com
Pittsburgh police made four arrests on murder charges in less than 24 hours.
This marks the first time Pittsburgh police have ever made four arrests in murder cases in a 12-hour period.
“As you can see, homicide detectives have been quite busy,” said Assistant Police Chief Maurita Bryant. “It’s the result of cooperation, working with other agencies and some community support.”
At 1 a.m. on Wednesday, police arrested Dominique Evans on North Charles Street. He was arrested in connection with the slaying of 30-year-old Kevin Williams on Almeda Street in Hazelwood several months ago.
Around 5 a.m. Wednesday, authorities apprehended Douglas Stephen in the county jail where he was being held for unrelated charges. Police charged Stephenson with shooting 53-year-old James Williams of McKees Rocks in July.
Investigators arrested Lonnie Green, 19, in connection with the killing of a 20-year-old on Wandless Street in the Hill District Wednesday. Green was arrested while being treated for gun wounds at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital around 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Julian Larkins was arrested on Brushton Avenue at 12:35 Thursday morning when two Gold Shield security officers took him down in Homewood. Police believe Larkins shot 34-year-old Steffan Whitfield in the face.
Officials said these arrests were made possible by a major show of community support.
“I think there comes a time when people get tired of the same old thing. When they see individuals come in their community and wreak havoc,” said Assistant Police Chief Bryant. “They look for ways to communicate with police without exposing themselves to harm.”
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Teacher charged with masturbating at park www.privateofficer.com
After his Oct. 4 arrest, the Palm Beach County School District removed Sean Williams from his teaching post and assigned him to a job in which he didn’t interact with children, said district spokeswoman Natalia Arenas. On Tuesday, he resigned effective immediately, she added.
Williams, 30, of West Palm Beach was arrested Oct. 4 on charges of indecent exposure after he was found fondling himself while sitting in a car parked near the fence line of the Rapids Water Park, a Riviera Beach police report states.
Williams, who was a chemistry teacher at Santaluces High, also had documents identifying him as a student chaplain in pastoral care for a local hospital.
Reached at his home Wednesday evening, Williams declined to comment.
The report said that Williams was sitting in a dark tinted, two-door car shortly before 4 p.m. on Oct. 4 when the park’s security director was sent to investigate his actions. The security director approached Williams’ car and tapped on the window. A startled Williams immediately drove away, but he was stopped by police in the 7000 block of North Military Trail.
While being transported to the police station, Williams told police ‘I know I messed up real bad,’ according to the police report. He told police that he has a problem and he has been undergoing counseling.
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New “Mall Cop” reality TV show premiers www.privateofficer.com
Move over, Paul Blart. The real mall cops at Mall of America got a show of their own and it debuts tonight on TLC.
The publicity-hungry mall has comedian Kevin James to thank for the national attention. When his movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” came out earlier this year, MOA was inundated with requests from production companies.
“We literally had dozens of companies come to us,” public relations director Dan Jasper said. The mall picked a group that agreed to show MOA “in a positive light.”
So, no hostage scenes and no mall cops dragging behind electric carts. But the hour-long show does include a shoplifting arrest, a celebrity on a rollercoaster and at least one screaming kook. That’s reality at the MOA.
“My gut was churning as they filmed,” said Jasper, who spent three and a half weeks escorting the film crew around the mall back in August. “But we want it to be interesting TV.”
The MOA employs a security team made up mainly of retired military and police officers and young officers in training. MOA has its own K-9 unit with three bomb-sniffing dogs and is the only non law-enforcement agency licensed to train its officers in an elite form of martial arts self-defense (it’s never been used at the mall).
But like most reality shows, “Mall Cops: Mall of America” will focus mainly on human-interest stories of the security officers themselves. There’s the good-looking rookie, Jordan Lee, nicknamed “Hollywood” (he landed a law enforcement job shortly after the show taped) and Rebecca Turgeon, who recently dropped 170 pounds and fulfilled her dream of becoming an MOA security officer. (No patrolling on a Segway for her.)
“Mall Cops” airs at 9 p.m. tonight on TLC. MOA is hoping it turns into a series.
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BREAKING NEWS-POLICE KILL STUDENT AFTER ATTACKING OFFICER
The incident happened Carolina Forest High School on Gardner Lacy Road, according to Sgt. Robert Kegler with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.
Horry County Schools spokeswoman Teal Britton said a school resource officer was stabbed Friday morning and shot a 16-year-old student.
Britton said the male student approached the officer and a fight ensued.
Both the student and the officer were transported to Conway Medical Center where the student later died.
As of 11 a.m., the officer was being treated in the emergency department and listed in good condition.
Continue checking here for updates on this developing story.
