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NYPD auxiliary van crashes, killing pedestrian www.privateofficer.com
New York City NY July 3 2011 An auxiliary police chief driving a NYPD van accidentally hopped the curb next to a downtown police precinct and struck and killed a pedestrian, authorities said.
Police are still investigating the cause of the fatal accident that happened adjacent to the 5th Precinct station house on Elizabeth Street at 11:11 a.m.
The chief was pulling out of a parking spot when he lost control of the vehicle and slammed into Kok Hoe Tee, 55, and an unmarked police vehicle, cops said.
Tee, who was temporarily trapped underneath the van’s front axle, was rushed to New York Downtown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m., cops and witnesses said.
The NYPD van is seen on the Elizabeth Street sidewalk after it veered out of control, striking and killing one person.There is no criminality suspected at this time and the driver of the van passed a Breathalyzer test following the crash, cops said.
He and another officer were taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries, cops added.
Source:nypost.com
Texas security company owner arrested for having no business license www.privateofficer.com
After we took a closer look at the security company and the owner Daniel Gomez, we found evidence that shows Gomez has been running that security business for months without a license. In fact – just this week, Gomez was arrested and we found out it’s not his first time behind bars for the same charges.
Ashley Clark says after working for Gulf Coast Security for more than a year he was used to getting his paychecks late but a few months ago he says his checks started bouncing.
“They sent it to a credit representative and that ruined my credit,” Clark said.
Clark says he couldn’t get any straight answers from his employer and says in May he was let go.
“Mr. Gomez said it was because we were losing business and there wasn’t that much work and people didn’t want us to work for them but he never said why,” Clark said.
So Six News started investigating the company and quickly found this page on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Private Security Board.
The document says that Gulf Coast Security’s license expired March 31. But Clark showed us employee schedules from April that have security guards scheduled to work at businesses all over Corpus Christi.
So we called DPS and a representative confirmed what we found online, adding: “That company should not be working. Period.”
We then found out Daniel Gomez was arrested June 29th for operating a security company without a license.
According to court documents Gomez was arrested for the same charge on June seventh.
In the document, a DPS investigator says he got an anonymous tip that Gomez was still running the security firm illegally.
The document says the tipster told investigators: “Daniel J. Gomez had now told his employees to wear a black polo shirt and black pants and not to wear anything that would identify them as security officers.”
So investigators say they staked out the Havana Club where Gulf Security Guards were supposed to be working.
The documents say when the investigator tried to approach the man he:
“Reached to the left front of his belt and immediately attempted to hide the badge by pulling it off his belt and covering it with a napkin.”
Investigators say the man admitted to working for Gulf Coast Security but also says the guard wasn’t aware the company had gone out of business.
The document says the man told investigators that: “something appeared shady to him when he was told to get out of the uniform.”
The investigator says after speaking with local businesses that had employed Gulf Coast Security they got enough evidence to arrest Gomez a second time.
Six News found out that Gomez was released on a 10 thousand dollar bond Thursday so we went by his house and tried to speak with him but nobody answered the door.
Clark says he’s been having just as a hard of time getting a hold of Gomez to get the money he says is owed to him. Until he does he says he’ll be holding on to this Gulf Coast Security property.
Court documents say investigators also found evidence that Gomez worked several shifts as a security guard after he was arrested.
Under Texas Law unless a person holds a current license as a security services contractor, he or she cannot operate any type of security or guard company and that includes alarm system companies and locksmith companies.
Source:kristv.com
Man arrested for videotaping police is aquitted in court www.privateofficer.com
Willie King, 66, was standing on his neighbor’s property in the 3900 block of North Whittier Place as he recorded officers arresting a man on Feb. 18.
“I heard the neighbors screaming and hollering about the police. (They said) ‘You all get off of him. He’s already in handcuffs. Why are you doing this?’ ” King said. “I just got my camera out, put it on record, walked over to my neighbor’s house and stood on his stoop.”
The video shows an officer asking King if he was recording, saying he needed the video for evidence.
“You ain’t taking (expletive). There ain’t no evidence,” King is heard saying on the video.
King was arrested and later charged with resisting arrest, public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
“I’m down there with his knee in my back and another with his elbow in my neck in handcuffs,” King said of the arrest. “I’m 66 years old. I’ve never been arrested.”
On Thursday, Marion County Judge William Nelson acquitted King on all charges.
Legal expert Joel Schumm told 6News’ Joanna Massee he does not believe police have the right to arbitrarily demand citizens’ cellphones.
He said recording arrests can help protect citizens and the police by proving what really happened, but suggested those doing the recording defend their rights without using profanity.
“I think if a citizen says, ‘Yes, I’ve taped this. If you want to get this, here’s my name and phone number. You can pursue a legal process to get it in the future,’ I think that’s fine,” Schumm said.
King said he’s upset he was arrested and had to go before a judge. He said he feels anything but protected.
“I had the camera out. I wanted the police to see, if you’re doing anything wrong, stop. I wasn’t glory hunting or nothing,” he said. “There’s something wrong with the system.”
Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski confirmed an internal investigation is under way concerning the incident. The findings will be presented to the Citizens’ Police Complaint Board for review.
Source:6News
Former cop arrested for 1957 murder www.privateofficer.com
Jack Daniels McCullough, 71, is being held in King County Jail in lieu of $3 million bail and is awaiting extradition to Illinois, according to a statement by the Dekalb County State’s Attorney Clay Campbell. He has been charged with murder in the death of Maria Ridulph in Sycamore, Ill.
McCullough, who changed his name from John Tessier in 1994, is a longtime Washington state resident who served as a police officer in Lacey and Milton, according to a document of probable cause. When he was arrested this week, he was working as the night watchman at The Four Freedoms House of Seattle, a 300-unit retirement home in North Seattle, where he lived with his wife.
The disappearance of Maria Ridulph in December 1957 terrorized the community of Sycamore, about 70 miles west of Chicago, and shocked the nation. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight D. Eisenhower both took an active interest in the case, according to reports.
Maria’s 8-year-old friend said the two girls had been playing in a neighbor’s front yard when a man named “Johnny” came up and asked to give them a piggyback ride. The friend went inside for a moment, and when she returned, Maria was gone.
Maria’s decomposed body was found five months later about 100 miles from her home.
McCullough, who was 18 at the time, was an early suspect but had an alibi, claiming he had been in Chicago when Maria was abducted. The case went cold after he joined the military.
The investigation was reopened last year, according to court documents filed in King County District Court, when police re-interviewed a woman who dated McCullough at the time of the abduction.
The document of probable cause revealed that when investigators last year asked McCullough’s ex-girlfriend to look for pictures and other items from their time together, she found an unused and unstamped train ticket from Rockford, Ill., to Chicago.
McCullough had claimed he’d taken the train from Rockford to Chicago on the day of the abduction to enlist in the military, according to the document, which was mistakenly left unsealed and reviewed by a Seattle Times reporter who was not allowed to make a copy.
The unused ticket, dated on the day the girl went missing, poked holes in McCullough’s alibi, according to court documents, and refocused attention on McCullough.
“He had been a very good suspect in the beginning. He lived about a block and half away from the victim, he fit the description and his clothes matched, but he had an alibi that he was someplace else,” said Donald Thomas, chief of the Sycamore Police Department. “Once his alibi crumbled, we found about a dozen other facts that helped us build our case.”
Court documents say investigators discovered that a collect phone call purportedly made by McCullough to his ex-girlfriend from Chicago was actually made from his own home in Sycamore on the day of the girl’s abduction. They also discovered he had given a ride to a family member at a time when he should have been on the train, court documents say.
After McCullough got out of the military, he became an officer at the police departments in Lacey and Milton, according to the court documents.
Dawn Gothro, spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, said McCullough, using the name John Tessier, had withdrawn from Washington state’s police pension system in April 1976.
News of his arrest was met with shock and disbelief among residents at The Four Freedoms House of Seattle.
Gaylee Shelton, 73, said McCullough and his wife were well-known throughout the community. He was a “nice guy” who held a disaster-preparedness seminar for residents after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
“In all my life, I never would have guessed,” said Rena Rooney, 88, looking over a copy of a brief news article detailing the charges in Illinois. “It’s such a shame. He was so good to us.”
Source:Seattle PI
Alert store security officer aids in capture of forgery suspect www.privateofficer.com
MANCHESTER NH July 3 2011— A homeless man sought by police on multiple counts of forgery, theft by deception and receiving stolen property was arraigned in Manchester District Court on Friday.
Police said a security officer at the Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street recognized Carl D. Kirsch, 35, from a photo circulated to the media by police earlier this week. The security officer alerted a police officer working a detail at the store Thursday afternoon. Police said Kirsch fled, but was tracked to a location on Green Street, where he was arrested without further resistance.
Kirsch waived the reading of a 10 felony counts of forgery that accuse him of cashing forged checks and a probable cause hearing was set for July 14.
He pleaded innocent to three misdemeanor charges of theft by deception, for selling stolen property and cashing a stolen check at a credit union June 3 and June 17, and two charges of resisting detention and possession of a controlled drug (marijuana), related to his flight and arrest Thursday. Trial on those charges was set for Sept. 21. Bail was set at $30,000 cash/surety.
Source:union leader
Casino security find dead woman after 14 story fall www.privateofficer.com
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. July 3 2011— Detectives of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the death of a woman who fell from a 14th floor balcony at the Horizon Casino in Stateline.
The body of the woman, later identified as 68 year-old Loretta Sangara of Placerville, Ca, was discovered by Horizon Casino Security Officers about 10 a.m., Friday.
It is unknown at this time if the fall was intentional or accidental, said Sgt. Jim Halsey.
No one witnessed the fall, Halsey said.
80 Year old Alabama woman caught cooking crack cocaine www.privateofficer.com
PRICHARD, Ala. July 3 2011 – On Tuesday night, Prichard police caught an elderly woman cooking drugs in her home.
Prichard Police Chief Jimmie Gardner said 80-year-old Ola Mae Robinson was cooking crack and selling it in her home on Leeds Avenue.
Gardner said some family members were in the home and did not try to defend her when officers came in to arrest her.
The chief said this is disappointing. He said elderly residents need to set an example for the younger ones in the community.
Robinson was charged with a felony for manufacturing and distributing a controlled substance.
She has an arrest record that dates back to 1988.
Ola Mae Robinson was relased from jail on a $8,500 bond.
Source:WALA
Oregon House votes to give Tribal Police same authority as all municipal law enforcement www.privateofficer.com
PORTLAND, Ore. July 3 2011 (AP) The Oregon House has voted to give tribal police officers the same authority as non-tribal officers outside of reservations.
Representatives approved the measure Wednesday on a 33-25 vote, over the objections of Republicans who said it doesn’t provide enough oversight of the tribal officers.
The measure now goes back to the Senate, which has already approved the bill but is scheduled to decide Wednesday evening whether to accept changes made in the House. John Kitzhaber is expected to sign the bill if it is approved.
It would give tribal officers the power to continue pursuing suspects who leave tribal land. Officers could also make an arrest if a crime is committed in front of them.
The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association has opposed the measure because it would give tribal officers authority off the reservation but would continue to restrict authority of non-tribal officers on reservations.
