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OFFICER DOWN Deputy Sheriff Sebastian Diana
Deputy Sheriff Sebastian Diana
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Florida
End of Watch: Saturday, March 12, 2011
Biographical Info
Age: 40
Tour of Duty: 12 years
Badge Number: Not available
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Duty related illness
Date of Incident: Monday, February 27, 2006
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Not available
Deputy Sebastian Diana died from complications of a bacterial infection he contracted while attempting to save an infant.
On February 26, 2006, Deputy Diana responded to a 911 call involving an 3-month-old child who wasn’t breathing. He was the first deputy on scene and immediately began CPR, during which he came in contact with the child’s vomit.
As a result of his efforts he contracted a bacterial infection that caused him to suffer continued health issues that ultimately lead to heart failure.
Deputy Diana had served with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for 12 years. He is survived by his wife and four children.
Agency Contact Information
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
2500 W. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32804
Phone: (407) 254-7000
Please contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
Private security facing sharp increase in deaths and armed confrontations www.privateofficer.com
A report released today shows a staggering increase of armed assaults and confrontations involving private security personnel.
According to the statistics released by Private Officer International, a security-police association based in Georgia which tracks injuries and deaths of security officers, deaths by shootings have increased 53 percent over last year, with 14 security officers shot to death so far during this year compared to six during the same time period last year while assaults have increased by 59 percent.
As of March 16, more than 841 armed confrontations have been reported with the majority of the weapons being firearms and knives according to Rick McCann, Founder of the organization.
On Tuesday, an armored car guard was shot multiple times by a heavily armed man who then stoled a bag of cash in a suburb of Atlanta Georgia. The thirty two year old guard died.
Noticable areas of increased threats has been in the area of loss prevention and retail security where many shoplifters are now using deadly force to escape including pulling guns and knives as well as using their vehicles as weapons.
Nightclub security officers continue to face the highest levels of armed confrontations, assaults and deaths said McCann but we really are seeing an across the board increase of deadly force and armed confrontations against security personnel.
As private security officer duties continue to evolve from a reactive observe and report phlosiphy to a more proactive and hands on investigating, confronting and detaining criminals response, more private officers will unfortunately be injured and killed in the preformance of their duties McCann said.
We strongly advise any business employing an internal security staff or any contract security agency to tighten up and expand training requirements and better prepare and equip their employees for the job that you are asking these men and woman to do.
As law enforcement continues to see manpower and budget shortages, the private sector will continue to be asked to cover the slack and security officers are going to find themselves in harms way more often.
The best advise that I can give anyone in this indistry today is to train, plan, prepare and never let your guard down because anyone with a badge and a uniform is a target for violence and hostile attacks by those who you may have to deal with McCann said.
NC Walgreens robbed of drugs www.privateofficer.com
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC March 18 2011 – Investigators taped off the Walgreens at Monkey Junction off Carolina Beach Road.
A spokesperson with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office said hortly after 6:00 p.m., a man entered the Walgreens at 5900 Carolina Beach Rd and demanded drugs. The man approached the pharmacist, handed the pharmacist a note saying he had a weapon and demanded the drugs.
Witnesses say he’s a white man wearing a plaid coat. He also had no front teeth. He left the Walgreens on foot in an unknown direction . Anyone having any information should call the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Detective Division 910-798-4161.
Source:WECT
Eye surgeon gets prison time for plotting to kill partner www.privateofficer.com
SEATTLE WA March 18 2011 – Eye surgeon Michael Mockovak has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in a murder-for-hire plot to kill his partner in the Clearly Lasik eye center business.
He was convicted Feb. 3 in King County Superior Court of solicitation to commit first degree murder for trying to recruit a fellow employee to help him hire a Russian hit man to kill his partner, Dr. Joseph King.
Mockovak also was found guilty of attempted murder in the first degree, conspiracy to commit theft in the first degree and attempted theft in the first degree. The latter are related to accusations that, as a beneficiary of King’s life insurance policy, Mockovak stood to collect millions of dollars in King’s death.
King is also Mockovak’s neighbor and the brother-in-law of his ex-wife.
Mockovak also was accused of doing the same with a former company president, Brad Klock, but the jury acquitted Mockovak of that charge.
According to prosecutors, the doctors were trying to split the business. They say Mockovak was not happy with a potential settlement and offered to pay another employee, whom he believed had ties to the Russian mafia, to hire a hit man.
That employee, Daniel Kultin, went to the FBI. Together, they crafted a plan to convince Mockovak to pay a would-be assassin $25,000 for the killing, according to the charging documents.
In November 2009, Mockovak and Kultin met in Tukwila. A hidden video camera caught the doctor paying Kultin $10,000 in cash and giving him a photo of King, prosecutors said.
Mockovak was arrested five days later.
Source:King5.com
Security officer arrested after trying to pull over undercover cop www.privateofficer.com
On Wednesday the Dalton Police Department arrested 58-year-old James Dale Smith of 546 Patton Street in Dalton. They say Smith used a strobe light system in his car to attempt to pull over an undercover detective from the Dalton Police Department who was driving an unmarked department vehicle.
The incident happened shortly before 10:00 pm on Tuesday night. The undercover detective from the Dalton Police Department passed a car driven by Smith, who is employed as a security officer with J.J.K. Security in Chattanooga.
Smith told investigators he felt the detective was driving faster than he should, so he pulled in behind him and turned on a strobe light in his car. The detective continued on and called the 911 center to request a marked DPD unit. When the detective slowed down, Smith pulled up beside the driver’s side of the detective’s car and started to nudge closer to the detective’s vehicle in an apparent attempt to force him to pull over.
At this point, Smith apparently recognized the detective who was known to him, and turned off his strobe light. The detective pulled in behind Smith at the RaceTrac gas station and turned on his own blue lights and waited for the marked unit to arrive. Smith told an officer that he was not trying to pull over the detective.
Smith was wearing clothing similar to what police officers wear as their training uniform, a dark polo shirt with 511-style cargo khaki pants and black boots. On his belt he wore a Glock pistol in a holster on his belt, along with a spare ammunition magazine and handcuffs in a holster. He also had his security badge on his belt. Smith was driving a white Crown Victoria with a “Police Interceptor” icon on the back and white strobe lights mounted along with police-style radio antennas.
On Wednesday, officers with the Dalton Police Department obtained warrants for Smith’s arrest on charges of Impersonating a Law Enforcement Officer and also Impersonating a Public Officer or Employee. Smith was arrested without incident.
Bruce Frazier, a spokesperson for the Dalton Police Dept. said, “
We don’t have any reports of this individual attempting to pull anyone else over, but it is possible. If anyone believes they were pulled over by this individual, James Dale Smith, they are asked to please contact Sergeant Daniel Nicholson at 706-278-9085, extension 159.”
Jury awards $11.5 million to family in Prince George fatal shooting www.privateofficer.com
Pr. George’s jury awards $11.5 million in fatal police shooting
Starkly different accounts in man’s fatal shooting by Prince George’s officer
The money awarded to relatives of Manuel de Jesus Espina is believed to be the largest jury verdict in a case involving misconduct by a Prince George’s police officer, veteran civil rights lawyers said.
Espina, 43, was shot by Cpl. Steven Jackson in a Langley Park apartment building in August 2008, when Jackson was moonlighting as a security guard.
The jury of five women and one man found that Jackson intentionally violated Espina’s constitutional rights, that he acted with malice, that he did not act in self-defense, and that he assaulted and battered Espina before wrongfully killing him. Jackson pepper-sprayed Espina and beat him with his fists and a metal police baton before shooting him, according to court testimony and evidence. Jurors deliberated for 31 / 2 days.
Jackson, 27, who remains on paid administrative leave, did not visibly react as the verdict was announced. He declined to comment.
Espina’s son, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome, 24, who witnessed the shooting, said he did not care about the monetary award. “The money is not important,” he said. “He [Jackson] should be put on trial for the crime he committed.”
In a statement, State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks said her office and the Justice Department are reviewing the case. “We will make a decision as to whether we should proceed criminally in this matter,” Alsobrooks said in the statement.
Through a spokesman, acting police Chief Mark Magaw declined to comment, citing the possibility of criminal charges against Jackson.
But Timothy F. Maloney, an attorney for the Espina family, said Jackson should be held accountable. “The jury’s award recognizes the outrageous police misconduct in this case and its impact upon the Espina family,” he said. “The facts in this case should shock the conscience of the county and raise the question of who is policing the police.”
The fatal encounter occurred Aug. 16, 2008, when Jackson was providing security at an apartment complex on 14th Avenue.
Witnesses for the plaintiffs and Jackson gave starkly different accounts of the incident.
Jackson testified that he saw about a half-dozen men hanging out in front of a three-story building in the complex where he was working. Some of the men, including Espina, were drinking beer.
During the civil trial and in a sworn deposition, Jackson testified that none of the men was suspected of a crime, none had violated any loitering laws and none had committed an alcohol violation. None of them was behaving in a disorderly way, Jackson testified.
Jackson said he approached the men because he was concerned they might be blocking the entrance and to see whether any of them was involved in any wrongdoing. Jackson said that he encountered Espina on a second-floor landing and that when he tried to search him, Espina swung at him and became violent.
Four witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that Jackson pepper-sprayed an unresisting Espina and beat him down the stairs with his fists and a metal police baton. Eventually, the two men went into a basement apartment, where Jackson fired a single, fatal bullet. Two witnesses testified that a bloodied Espina was not fighting or trying to escape in the moments before Jackson shot him.
Daniel Karp, who defended the county and Jackson, said decisions made by Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrop contributed to the verdict.
“The county has no choice but to appeal this case because the trial judge would not allow the defense to introduce evidence of Mr. Espina’s illegal status or the fact he had a knife in his pocket at the time of the incident,” Karp said. “Both of these facts corroborate Officer Jackson’s testimony that Mr. Espina fought back and resisted arrest.”
Three jurors said they did not believe portions of Jackson’s testimony. They questioned, for example, Jackson’s account that he was surrounded by a “mob” of six or seven men who menaced him moments before he shot Espina.
The jury’s foreman, Alberta Fisher, 63, of Lanham, said Jackson’s account that Espina fought ferociously was not credible, given that Jackson was uninjured, except for some knuckle scrapes, while Espina suffered numerous cuts and bruises before he was shot.
“He needs to get some anger management,” Fisher said of Jackson. “God bless him. I’m not angry with him.”
Fisher said she thinks the shooting “will play in [Jackson’s] mind forever.”
Juror Theron Whitaker Jr., 43, of Cheverly said that Espina may have resisted arrest but that if he did, “he didn’t put up much of a fight.”
Police arrest casino patron for assaulting officers www.privateofficer.com
SALAMANCA NY March 18 2011—A man accused of attacking a police officer at the Seneca Allegany Casino was charged with assault after he was removed from the gaming floor, authorities said.
Thomas James Carlini, 42, of Twinsburg, Ohio, was creating a disturbance while waiting for a taxi at the casino at about 2 a.m. Saturday and was asked by security personnel and Cattaraugus County sheriff’s deputies to wait in the deputies’ office.
Carlini refused to cooperate, officers said, punched a deputy and was charged with second-degree assault.
Garda armored truck flips in New Jersey www.privateofficer.com
CLIFTON NJ March 18 2011 — An armored Garda car traveling on the ramp from Route 21 to Route 3 west overturned Wednesday morning, wreaking havoc on traffic and closing the ramp until 2 p.m., police said.
An armored car overturned on the entrance ramp to Route 3 west from Route 21. The vehicle is used for transporting money, and none was lost in the incident, said city police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan.
The driver told police that a vehicle in front of him stopped short, and his brakes locked, causing the armored car to hit the curb and a guard rail and that’s when it overturned, Rowan said.
“The driver was thrown out of his seat onto the passenger’s side and both he and the passenger sustained minor injuries,” he said.
The driver, a 25-year-old man from Newark, declined to go the hospital. The 36-year-old male passenger, from Elizabeth, was treated at St. Joseph’s Hospital. His condition is unknown.
Source:NorthJersey.com
Former CT cop charged with stealing $90,000 from police union www.privateofficer.com
Andrew Stinson, 34, was charged with three counts of first-degree larceny, one count of second-degree larceny, one count of third-degree larceny and conspiracy, police said.
A second former officer, Domenic Costello, 33, of Stratford, was also arrested. Costello was a sergeant for the department. Stinson was the department’s K-9 officer.
According to a press release, the arrests stem from an investigation that began Oct. 15 after police union members discovered financial irregularities in their accounts. The irregularities involved unaccounted for checks and cash.
Alabama teen girls go missing after school www.privateofficer.com
SPANISH FORT, Alabama March 18 2011 – Spanish Fort police and volunteer searchers were looking tonight for two 11-year-old girls who were reported missing from Rockwell Elementary School in Spanish Fort since this afternoon, authorities said.
Baldwin County school spokesman Terry Wilhite identified the girls as Madison Hudnell and Appatchie Rose. Both are fifth-grade classmates and are considered close friends, Wilhite said.
Neither girl showed at her respective pick-up point when classes dismissed at 3 p.m., Wilhite said. One girl is a bus rider and the other goes home by car, he said.
Wilhite said other students told authorities the girls were seen going out the back door of the school, which he said is not unusual because sports and extracurricular activities go on in the fields behind the school. But the girls were last seen heading toward a wooded area behind the fields, he said.
Police and volunteers continued the search tonight. Wilhite said he does not believe either girl has a cell phone, which in many cases can triangulate and help give away their location.
Anyone who knows where Hudnell or Rose are should call Spanish Fort police at 251-626-4914 as soon as possible.
Source:AL.com
Shoplifter found with gun and knife www.privateofficer.com
Stark County Jail records said Jessie A. Pruitt, 23, of 530 Sixth St. SW in Massillon, was found with a handgun and a knife.
Pruitt was arrested at 1:22 p.m. Wednesday at a store at 3801 Harmont Ave. NE.
Jail records said a store security officer had approached him when he tried to leave the store without paying for the undisclosed items he had taken. The records said he shoved one of the store security officers and told him he had a gun.
The jail records did not name the store.
Pruitt was booked into the jail on charges of aggravated robbery, cocaine possession, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of drug abuse instruments. He also was held at the jail on an unspecified warrant for another police department, the jail records said.
