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Former teacher charged with sexual assault on student www.privateofficer.com
Matthew Brooks, 31, of Caanan Vt., is currently under house arrest, cannot contact or be within 100 yards of the victim and is not allowed contact with any minors unless they are family and their parents are present according to Pittsburg’s Chief of Police, Richard Lapoint. He entered no plea during his video arraignment at Lancaster District Court from the Coos County House of Corrections
Mr. Brook’s attorney Len Harden pushed to have the initial $75,000 cash bail reduced to personal recognizance bail. Chief Lapoint’s argued in favor of more stringent requirements on Monday, and Judge Paul Desjardins set bail at $50,000 cash or corporate surety.
Mr. Brooks was arrested on Nov. 29 on a warrant for an alleged incident that occurred last April. The incident in question did not take place on school grounds, Chief Lapoint said.
It was on April 15, that SAU 7 Superintendent Robert Mills says the decision was made to not renew Mr. Brooks’ three year contract with Pittsburg School. Mr. Brooks’ last day teaching there was in June.
“The decision was made in light of teaching concerns and is not related to what happened,” said Mr. Mills.
Mr. Brooks, an area native, taught science and math to both junior high and high school students and was also the coach of the girls’ soccer team.
If convicted of the class B felony Mr. Brooks faces three and a half to seven years in prison. Chief Lapoint noted that more charges against Mr. Brooks are still pending.
Earlier this month, on Nov. 12, the U.S. Attorney in Vermont charged Mr. Brooks with one count of receiving child pornography, after authorities discovered illicit images on his computer at his home in Canaan, Vt. According to assistant US Attorney Barbara Masterson, Mr. Brooks has yet to be indicted on this additional federal offense which carries a possible punishment of five to 20 years.
Mr. Mills was formerly Mr. Brooks’ principal and has known him since he was a student at Colebrook Academy. When asked if he had noticed anything unusual with Mr. Brooks, Mr Mills stated, “He seemed ok. There didn’t appear to be any issues.” Mr. Mill’s also mentioned that the whole situation is “a little sickening,” but also pointed out that, “nothing has been proven yet.”
The Pittsburg school teaches K-12 with enrollment of around 140 students, a tight community that Mr. Mills believes will keep his school steady in light of the events. He also noted that if students do feel unsafe that they have been taught to report it to an adult.
“You bring people in to work with children, not to prey on them,” said Mr. Mills
TN. school band director charged in student rape www.privateofficer.com
47-year-old James Edward Tucker is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl at the school in Lawrence County. Tucker has only taught at the school this year. Prior to that he taught in Maury County.
School officials say Tucker has been suspended without pay.
The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, a school resource officer and school officials recently began investigating the allegations after hearing rumors at school about Tucker and the girl.
Tucker is being held without bond in the Lawrence County jail. He is charged with statutory rape by authority figure. He will be sent for a mental evaluation
Ex-employee ties up guard, steals safe www.privateofficer.com
According to police, the guard spotted Kenneth Zeller during his rounds at the Blue Shield building on Century Hill Drive late Tuesday night.
Zeller then pulled out a gun, tied up the guard, and ran off with the safe.
The safe was found just down the road from the building and Zeller was found inside his Schuylerville home.
Police say Zeller worked as a security guard at the Blue Shield building, but was fired at least three weeks ago.
He now faces robbery and burglary charges.
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Man hides in closed Wal-Mart, steals $54,000 www.privateofficer.com
A Mississippi man took holiday shopping to a whole new level last week, police in Fairfield said.
Police said James Jefferson Jr. hid inside the Walmart on Aaron Aronov Drive on Nov. 25 shortly after the store closed at 11 p.m. and helped himself to $54,000 in cash and checks.
A store security guard subdued Jefferson after he went to the locked doors and attempted to get out. As Jefferson shook the doors, money bags from the store began falling out of his clothing, police said.
When officers arrived they found money strapped to Jefferson’s chest, in his backpack and in his pants. Officers also confiscated a duplicate key from Jefferson he used to enter the cash room.
Jefferson, 35, also told police “I did not do this by myself. You are a cop, how do you think I got the key?,” according to the police report. Police have not said whether they think he had an accomplice.
Chief Pat Mardis said Jefferson likely could have made an escape if he had only waited for the employees who were stocking the store to unlock the doors.
“They said if he had waited about 20 more minutes, he could have been gone for good,” Mardis said. “But he got nervous.”
Jefferson was in the Jefferson County Jail this afternoon on robbery and burglary charges. His bond was set at $60,000.
Mardis said Jefferson is facing the robbery charge because he told the security guard he had a gun and threatened to shoot him. Jefferson did not have a gun.
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Police chiefs turning in badges www.privateofficer.com
USAToday .comWhen Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington announced he would resign at the end of the year, his decision wasn’t entirely a surprise.
Both candidates for mayor in this week’s runoff election had vowed to overhaul the police department, saying high-profile crimes in the city jeopardized public safety.
Pennington’s departure, announced last week after seven years at the helm, has significance beyond Atlanta’s borders: It is the latest in an exodus of at least half a dozen big-city police chiefs this year.
Some of the nation’s best-known local law enforcement figures have announced their retirements and resignations in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas and Seattle. Their exits signal that an important era in U.S. policing is nearing an end, some analysts say.
AUGUST: L.A. police chief Bratton stepping down
IMMIGRATION REFORM: Police chiefs ban together
Joe McNamara, a criminal justice research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, says some of the departing chiefs — including Los Angeles’ William Bratton, who left in October — helped “bring policing out of the dark ages.”
“They helped bring crime down in their cities by identifying (crime-ridden areas) through the use of computer analysis,” McNamara says. “It was a big change when you consider that changing the way a police department does business is like trying to turn an ocean liner with a toothpick.”
Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, describes Bratton and former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowski — who left in March to become the White House drug czar — as “pacesetters” in precarious jobs. “A lot of this is cyclical,” Pasco says. “Because many of these people serve at the pleasure of the local political leadership, political change means some of them have to leave.”
Safety challenges
The personnel changes happen at a critical time in local policing, says Samuel Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska.
He says cities are confronting public-safety challenges, from taking a larger role in the national counterterrorism strategy and absorbing deep budget cuts to reintegrating veterans returning to the ranks from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“These are real worrisome issues,” Walker says.
Bratton, who works for an international security firm, says he can’t recall another time when so many big-city chiefs left in roughly the same period. “It’s a time of great transition,” he says.
The chiefs who are leaving extended their tenure beyond the average of about 3½ years, says Geoff Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina. They forged career paths through multiple major cities.
Before arriving in Los Angeles in 2002, Bratton served as police commissioner in New York City and Boston. In New York, under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Bratton helped cut violent crime to historic lows.
Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who announced his resignation last month, was Bratton’s top assistant in New York and then headed the police departments in Philadelphia and Miami. When he arrived in Miami in 2003, he inherited a department scarred by incidents of police abuse. He responded by restricting when officers could fire their weapons.
McNamara says both chiefs established national reputations as public-safety problem solvers.
Bratton says the big-city chiefs leaving this year shared a philosophy that effective policing could reduce crime, if officers “were appropriately led, had the appropriate resources and were appropriately supported,” he says. “Technology then became increasingly important as an enabler of that philosophy.”
Problems in office
Many of the high-profile chiefs have hit some bumps during their relatively long tenures.
Both Timoney and Pennington have clashed with police unions. Timoney acknowledged two years ago that his free use of a sport-utility vehicle from a local car dealer created a “perception” problem. He later paid for the SUV.
Pennington was accused by his union of being away from the city during some of Atlanta’s highest-profile crimes, including the fatal shooting in 2006 of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. She was killed by police involved in a botched drug raid. Last week, Pennington apologized for the incident.
Timoney announced his retirement after the election of Mayor Tomás Regalado, who had vowed to bring new leadership to the department, citing morale problems in the ranks.
Timoney, whom Esquire once dubbed “America’s Best Cop,” says he is leaving the department having “fulfilled my mission.”
“It would be arrogant to say that you can’t be replaced,” says Timoney, who won’t rule out another law enforcement job.
“You know, they don’t make cops like they used to,” the chief jokes, quickly adding that some might say, “Thank God for that.”
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Fresno police arrest 5 persons for security officer murder www.privateofficer.com
Police say the five suspects were drinking beer in a vacant apartment when the security guard tried to break up their party. But that’s not when they attacked Rodriguez. At first, they left the apartment and it looked like that was the end of it. But homicide detectives say the four teenagers all lived in the apartment complex and they didn’t go away.
Rodriguez continued his nighttime patrol and a little while later; the suspects ambushed him, beating him to death with sticks and wooden boards.
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said, “Rodriguez was not armed and we are not certain whether he had any opportunity to defend himself. It appears these individuals attacked him — whether from the front or behind — but it appeared it was a sudden attack.”
Action News talked to witnesses on the scene the next day and they said the beating was so brutal, it sounded like a construction project.
Police arrested 22-year-old Tony Sayachack over the weekend. They arrested his younger brother, a younger cousin, and two other teenagers Tuesday. Police say none of the suspects has any prior criminal history and they don’t have any gang affiliations either. But they say the suspects acted with a gang mentality. They’re all facing murder charges now.
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