Pittsburgh armored car guard killed-partner missing www.privateofficer.com

 

 

PITTSBURGH PA FEB 29 2012 An armed security guard was shot to death inside his armored vehicle in the Strip District on Tuesday, and Pittsburgh police were searching for his partner who they said fled the scene.

Fellow employees of Garda Cash Logistics discovered the guard, Michael Haines, 31, of East McKeesport, dead of a gunshot wound to the back of the head inside the cargo area of the vehicle, which had stopped near a railroad crossing below the 31st Street Bridge. Police said the truck had been robbed but they would not say how much money had been taken.

Mr. Haines’ partner, Kenneth John Konias Jr., 22, of Dravosburg was missing for reasons that were not immediately clear, said Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki of the city’s major crimes division, whose robbery and homicide detectives flooded the area.

The commander said Mr. Konias may be armed with two semi-automatic pistols, but he did not say whether police believe either of them was the murder weapon.

Garda employees had spotted the vehicle under the bridge earlier but became concerned about 3:45 p.m., police said. They were calling 911 when a police detective who happened to be in the area came to their assistance.

Cmdr. Stangrecki said the truck had likely been idling for several hours underneath the bridge, which is just two blocks away from the Garda office on 33rd Street, before Mr. Haines’ body was found.

Emergency dispatchers told area police officers to be on the lookout for a tan Ford Explorer with Pennsylvania license plate GZW-4572 that detectives believe Mr. Konias was driving.

Officers searched for him at his home in Dravosburg to no avail. The FBI and other agencies were helping in the hunt.

A search of court records showed only a smattering of traffic and motor vehicle citations in Mr. Konias’ past. A woman who answered the phone at his parents’ home declined to comment. No charges had been filed in the slaying as of late Tuesday.

“We’re shocked at this news, and we’re fully cooperating with authorities,” said Joe Gavaghan, director of corporate communications for Garda, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and transports large amounts of cash between banks and businesses throughout the country.

29 Security Officers Injured in 5 Days www.privateofficer.com

 

 

This is a sample of the more serious attacks committed against private security during the past 5 days.

SOUTH HILLS LOSS PREVENTION AGENT STABBED

PUYALLUP WA Feb 29 2012 Police arrested two teenagers Monday night after a shoplifting went awry at the South Hill Mall.
One of the teens is suspected of stabbing a loss prevention officer in the abdomen, Puyallup police Capt. Dave McDonald said. The 21-year-old victim was taken to Tacoma General Hospital and went into surgery for a non-life threatening injuries.
The incident occurred about 7 p.m. Monday. Two loss prevention officers inside Macy’s spotted the two teens, a 17-year-old boy from University Place and an 18-year-old man from Pierce County, take some clothes and leave the store without paying, McDonald said.
The officers confronted the teens outside. Officers suspect the 17-year-old boy stabbed one of the loss prevention officers in the abdomen.
The two were taken into custody with the help of two off-duty Puyallup Tribal police officers who were in the area, McDonald said.
Puyallup police booked the 17-year-old boy into Remann Hall juvenile jail on suspicionof first-degree robbery and first-degree assault. The 18-year-old man was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of shoplifting.

KMART SECURITY AGENT CUT BY KNIFE WIELDING SHOPLIFTER

CHICAGO IL Feb 29 2012 A man who shoplifted knives used one of them to slash a Kmart security guard who was trying to stop him this afternoon in the Avondale neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

It happened about 3 p.m. at the Kmart at 3443 W. Addison St., according to Albany Park District Police Lt. Robert Delaney.

A man who appeared to be in his 20s had taken knives from the store without paying and hid them in his clothing, according to the lieutenant.

When the guard tried to stop the suspect, he pulled out one of the knives and cut the guard’s hand before fleeing into a car that had been reported stolen, the lieutenant said.

The guard has been released from Swedish Covenant Hospital where he was treated for the wound, said the lieutenant.

The thief was not in custody Tuesday night.

ARMED TEENS ATTACKED MALL SECURITY OFFICERS

PEORIA IL Feb 28 2012 – A 17-year-old female was Tased by an off-duty Peoria police officer Saturday night at Northwoods Mall after pulling a knife on a mall security officer, according to Peoria Police Sergeant Joe Benko.

The situation began with a scuffle between two females in the mall’s food court a little before 8 p.m. Saturday. Police report that mall security officer’s witnessed the 17-year-old in possession of a large knife while she fled the scene.

Once out in the parking lot, the 17-year-old female began fighting with three security officers, and police report that the off-duty police officer, who was in uniform, saw a crowd moving toward the scuffle and told them to get back.

During the struggle, the off-duty police officer saw that the 17-year-old female had a knife in her hand while security tried to detain her. The off-duty officer Tased her in the right arm, causing her to drop the weapon.

While the off-duty officer attempted to get the 17-year-old into custody, a 12-year-old girl jumped onto the security guard and wrestled around with him before both suspects were detained.

The 17-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault with a knife, unlawful use of a weapon, mob action with injury and resisting arrest.

The 12-year-old was taken to a juvenile detention center after being arrested and charged with multiple charges, including three counts of aggravated battery and aggravated battery on a senior citizen, mob action with injury and obstructing police.

MYRTLE BEACH SECURITY FIRES AT MAN ATTACKING WOMEN

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.Feb 27 2012 – One woman is in critical condition after she was shot in the abdomen early Saturday morning.

It happened after 2:00 a.m. at the Tequilla Empire club off Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach.

Police say that two men were reported exiting the bar and making their way to the back of the building. A security guard witnessed one suspect pull out a gun and shoot in a group of people standing behind the club. The security guard said he then shot at the shooter, according to a police report.

The shooter then jumped into a car driver by the other suspect, and both sped off.

Police are still searching for the suspects. The car the two were last seen it was a champagne colored Nissan Altima. It was last seen going south on Kings Highway.

GEORGIA MAN TRIED RUNNING DOWN MALL GUARDS

SAVANNAH GA Feb 27 2012 A Savannah man faces a slew of charges after he rammed two cars with his own, tried to run down a woman and security guards in a parking lot of the Savannah Mall and led police on a pursuit before crashing his own vehicle early Sunday morning, said Savannah-Chatham police spokesman Julian Miller in a statement Sunday afternoon.

Charlton Bynum, 19, of the 1990 block of Price Street was charged with five counts of aggravated assault, felony fleeing to elude, two counts of hit and run, reckless driving, two counts of failure to stop at a stop sign, failure to obey traffic control devices, no valid insurance, failure to maintain lane, switching tags to misrepresent, and expired registration.

Southside Precinct officers witnessed Bynum crash into a car from which a woman was exiting and then chase her and mall security guards around the parking lot attempting to strike them with his vehicle.

Police determined the woman Bynum tried to ram had spurned his advances at a party, according to the statement. The woman, who is a co-worker of Bynum’s, left the party with friends and Bynum followed, allegedly striking one car at Derenne Avenue and Montgomery Street and running several cars off Middleground Road as he pursued the woman to the mall parking lot, at which point the security guards and metro police intervened.

20 PEOPLE SHOT AT TN CLUB INCLUDIING SECUIRTY OFFICERS

JACKSON, TN. Feb 27 2012 – Police in West Tennessee say one man was killed and 19 other people were injured early Sunday when gunmen opened fire in a nightclub.

Jackson Police Lt. Tyreece Miller said officers were called to the Karma Lounge in downtown Jackson at about 2 a.m. Sunday. They arrived to find one man dead, 17 people with gunshot wounds and two who were trampled.

Miller said a dispute between several people led to the shooting at the business, which had advertised a Lane College/Lemoyne-Owen College after-game party on Saturday night. Evidence so far indicates at least three people used handguns to fire into the crowd.

Police said two of the shooting victims were club security guards.

Authorities released photos of two men taken by the club’s video cameras. Miller said investigators want to question them because of their proximity to the events.

Killed in the shooting was Lecarlos Todd, 19, of Memphis.

In addition, two women were treated and released after suffering injuries when they were trampled by the crowd after shots were fired.

POLICE OFFICER-SECURITY ATTACKED BY TRESPASSER

SEATTLE WA Feb 26 2012 – A Seattle police officer was assaulted Friday night as she attempted to arrest a mentally ill trespasser who was spotted wandering through the private gated community of Broadmoor.

The incident began at about 10:25 p.m. Friday when police were dispatched to Broadmoor for a report of a trespasser who refused to stop for uniformed security guards, said Detective Mark Jamieson of the Seattle police.

Officers arrived and were searching for the suspect when one of the officers spotted the suspect and the security guard who was following him, Jamieson said.

The officer attempted to stop the trespasser, but he refused to comply. Instead, the suspect took a swing at the officer, but she was able to block his punch and wrestle him to the ground.

The suspect then grabbed onto the officer’s gun inside her holster. It required the efforts of both the officer and the security guard to forcefully remove the suspect’s hands from the officer’s pistol.

Additional officers arrived soon afterward, and the suspect was taken into custody.

It was later determined that the suspect, a 26-year-old man, is suffering from mental illness and was not taking his medication, Jamieson said.

The officers sustained only minor injuries during the struggle.

JC PENNEY SHOPLIFTERS SHOOT AT LOSS PREVENTION AGENTS

PLEASANT HILL CA Feb 25 2012 – An attempt by a group of women to shoplift items from a store at the Sunvalley mall resulted in gunfire and the arrest of four suspects, police said.

Concord police responded to the JCPenney parking lot about 5:45 p.m. after members of the store’s security team tried to detain the four women after noticing the shoplifting attempt, Corp. David Dunkley said in a news release.

But the women fought back, assaulting two of the agents and pulling out a gun and firing it, Dunkley said. Nobody was injured by the gunfire, but the commotion helped the four suspects escape, two of them fleeing through the parking lot on foot and the other two in a vehicle.

An officer on Highway 4 spotted the vehicle with two of the suspects. The driver yielded off the Port Chicago Highway exit, where police ordered the suspects out of at gunpoint and arrested the women after finding evidence inside that linked them to the JCPenney robbery, Dunkley said.

All four women were arrested on suspicion of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, brandishing a firearm, possession of a loaded and concealed firearm, possession of stolen property and threatening a victim/witness to a crime, Dunkley said. They were to be taken to County Jail in Martinez.

SOLDIER ARRESTED FOR RUNNING DOWN NIGHTCLUB SECUIRTY

SAN ANTONIO TX Feb 24 2012 – An active duty soldier was arrested early Thursday morning after police say he ran over a security guard in a club’s parking lot and crashed into a wall.

Police said the suspect, an active member of the Army, was picking fights in the parking lot at Graham Central Station nightclub around 2:20 a.m. When things escalated, the suspect got in his Cadillac and drove into the fighting crowd.

The suspect hit a security guard with his vehicle and then sped away, police said.

With another security guard in pursuit, police said the suspect crashed into a median and a wall before stopping in a shopping plaza parking lot at Callaghan and Babcock.

Nearby officers saw the crash and were told by the pursuing security guard of the hit and run. The suspect was arrested and is expected to be charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon-vehicle.

The security guard suffered minor injuries to his ankle and arm.

KROGER SECURITY OFFICER STUNNED BY SHOPLIFTER

FORT WAYNE, IN. Feb 23 2012 – A Fort Wayne man who allegedly used a stun gun last week to evade a grocery store’s security guard after a robbery ended up being stunned himself by police when he struggled with an officer who arrested him.

The Journal Gazette reports 36-year-old Billye D. Gaulden was arrested Monday. Police say an officer who chased and tackled Gaulden had to use his Taser gun on him and punch Gaulden to subdue him.

Gaulden faces robbery, unlawful use of a stun gun and resisting law enforcement charges. He remained jailed Wednesday on a $20,000 bond.

Police say Gaulden used a stun device to jolt a security guard at a Fort Wayne Kroger store last week after he and a woman stole items from the store. The woman remains at large.

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB SECURITY OFFICER SHOT

ORANGE COUNTY, FL.

A security guard was shot in the back early Saturday after a gunman fired shots from a car outside the Oasis Club. Orange County sheriff’s deputies said the shooting happened around 1:45am. The night club is located at East Colonial and Wilmar.

A sheriff’s spokesman said a car pulled in front of the club and a man hanging out the window fired a shot at the guard. The victim, identified as 21-year-old Frederick Morgan, was hit in the back.

Morgan was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition.

The suspects sped off in the car, but were tracked by deputies to a home on Indialantic Avenue. Deputies arrested the driver right away, but the suspected shooter jumped out of the car and took off on foot.

The driver of the car was identified as 20-year-old Desiral Rodler. He is charged with being an accessory to the shooting.

SECURITY OFFICER STABBED BY SHOPLIFTER

PHILADELPHIA PA

A security officer was stabbed as he tried to stop a teen from shoplifting at

a gas station.

Police said that the guard grabbed a hold of the teen as he tried walking out of the store with a beer stuck down his pants.

The security officer is in good condition and police are still searching for the teenager.

SECURITY OFFICER ATTACKED AT HOMELESS SHELTER

BERGEN COUNTY NJ Two Bergen County Police officers snagged violent homeless gang member moments after he beat a security guard at a Hackensack shelter, authorities said this morning.

Kimani Porter, 20, had been unruly most of the night and was finally asked to leave, officials at the The Bergen County Housing, Health, and Human Services Center said.

Police sources say Porter has ties to the Bloods street gang. Records show a string of violent crimes that include assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and robbery. He’s been on probation since May.

Security Officer Michael Shaffer was escorting him out of the South River Street shelter Friday night when Porter began hitting him in the face and head, knocking him down, Bergen County Police Chief Brian Higgins said.

Porter then began kicking Shaffer, who hit his head against a wall, the chief said.

A judge ordered Porter held on $25,000 bail, charged with aggravated assault. Meanwhile, authorities were checking out his resident status.

Shaffer was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center for injuries to his head, face and ribs before being discharged.

FRESNO MALL SECURITY OFFICER STABBED

FRESNO CA A security officer was stabbed at the Manchester Mall in central Fresno just before 6:30 p.m. today, Fresno Police said.

The guard was attempting to apprehend a shoplifter when he was stabbed in the shoulder, Lt. Phil Cooley said.

The security officer is listed in stable condition right now.

The suspect ran out of the mall and was seen running with a juvenile, Cooley said.

No further details were immediately available.

2 TN NIGHTCLUB SECUIRTY OFFICERS STABBED

MILLINGTON, TN A customer and two security guards were stabbed after a fight at a Millington bar early Saturday morning.

Shelby County investigators were called to Lorraine’s Lounge at 6553 Navy Road just after 2:00 a.m. Saturday. The victims were stabbed after a fight broke out as the bar was closing.

“They hit a customer for no reason, and my guys who got hurt tried to stop it,” said Lorraine’s Lounge owner Curtis Pettigrew.

Pettigrew said as his security guards were trying to break up the crowd in the parking lot, a person who had been previously banned from the bar struck another patron in the head.

According to the Shelby Sheriff’s office, two Lorraine’s Lounge security guards Jeffrey Williams and Monterio Hurd, and a female patron, Amy Clark, all suffered stab wounds from a razor blade type of instrument.
Clark was transported to Methodist North, where she was treated and released. Hurd and Williams were transported to the MED, where Williams underwent surgery for extensive internal injuries. Williams is listed in stable condition.

Pettigrew said his security guards were only trying to do their job by keeping the peace. He said he is saddened that the night ended in violence.

“It hurts me to know that my people just got hurt for nothing,” said Pettigrew.

Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.

2 MEN ARRESTED FOR STABBING LOWE’S SECURITY AGENT

WARNER ROBINS GA Feb 22 2012 Two men face aggravated assault and felony shoplifting charges after allegedly stabbing a Lowes’ security guard in the chest.

Warner Robins police spokeswoman Tabitha Pugh says 58-year-old Alfred Thomas and 62-year-old Robert Broady, both of Macon, were arrested Friday.According to police, security guards saw the men shoplifting from the Lowes on Watson Boulevard on Feb. 7.When officers tried to stop them, Pugh says, one of them stabbed an officer in the chest.

She says the officer’s injuries were not life threatening.

Thomas and Broady are being held in the Houston County jail without bond. Both are charged with aggravated assault and felony shoplifting. Pugh says more charges are pending.

Florida deputy sheriff turns son in for child porn www.privateofficer.com

 

 

 

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. Feb 29 2012
The son of a Seminole County sheriff’s deputy is facing felony charges for possession of child porn.

Investigators said the deputy’s son was keeping the porn on a cellphone. The deputy took his son’s cellphone away to punish him for something and found a locked file with a suspicious name: “Photos/videos 13-15 years old.”

The arrest report shows that 18-year-old Trevor Lang’s father, Dana, a Seminole County sheriff’s deputy, took the phone right to his department’s investigators to find out if the file held what it appeared to hold: Child porn.

Sheriff’s investigators found that it did, and the report shows that the teenager then confessed to downloading, possessing and sharing child pornographic images.

He was arrested on 10 counts, and is in jail on $1,900 bond.

“A deputy is still a deputy, whether he is a father or on duty and right is right and wrong is wrong,” said sheriff’s department spokeswoman Kim Cannady. “He knew what he had to do. It was still wrong, against state law, and he did exactly what he needed to do. As tough as it may be, it needed to be done.”

The deputy’s son was arrested Monday morning, but as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, his mugshot still was not up on the Seminole County jail’s website. It has since been released.

The sheriff’s office runs the jail, but said it was not giving him special treatment because his father is a deputy.

As a deputy’s family member, public records exemptions protect the deputy, such as home address and phone number exemptions. But the sheriff’s office said there was a mix-up at the jail over whether to withhold a relative’s mugshot.

“The mugshot should’ve been available. It was just basically a human error issue that we had. It’s an automatic thing when law enforcement officers are arrested,” Cannady said.

WFTV tried to talk to the Lang family about Trevor’s arrest, but no one was home.

Dana Lang has been with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office since 1997. He started his career at the jail.

We checked his record and found one “Use of Force” case back in 2003. He’s now a patrol deputy in the Winter Park and Oviedo areas.

Denver Police considering using civilians to gather evidence at crime scenes www.privateofficer.com

 

 

DENVER CO Feb 29 2012 (WTW) — The Denver Police Department is considering using civilians instead of sworn officers to gather evidence at crime scenes as part of a major restructuring that includes the reassignment of two top administrators.

Chief Robert White said Tuesday that Operations Deputy Chief Michael Battista, who directed the planning for the department’s 2008 Democratic National Convention security operations, is being replaced by David Quinones, currently division chief of patrol. John Lamb, deputy chief for administration, is being replaced by William Nagle, an acting division chief.

White said he would find new assignments for Battista and Lamb.

Other changes announced Tuesday include the elimination of four division chief positions. Former Police Chief Gerald Whitman is a captain in charge of the department’s SWAT team and is not affected by the latest round of changes.

The restructuring comes at a time when the city is trying to increase public confidence in a department rocked by several high-profile excessive-force cases. Mayor Michael Hancock, who hired White from the Louisville, Ky., police department, said previously that the reorganization will save about $5 million a year.

“It’s an ongoing process,” White said. “This gets the resources out there, but once the resources get out there what we really need to do is have a relationship with the citizens where they’re more willing to work with us, and they’re more willing to work with us if they know us and they trust us and we treat them with dignity and respect.”

The Denver Police Protective Association, which represents officers, did not return a message seeking comment about the changes.

White said he wants 70 percent of Denver’s 1,445 uniformed police officers patrolling the streets, up from 48 percent. None of the changes will result in layoffs, White said after a City Council committee meeting where he outlined the changes.

The chief announced other changes, including the elimination of a unit that investigates complex crimes, as well as replacing officers with civilians in units that handle crime scene investigation, crisis intervention training, property management and computer crime units, as well as information desk posts.

Other changes include taking officers from centralized units that investigate assault, robbery, gangs and narcotics and placing them in patrol districts. Some 60 to 70 officers holding those positions will be affected, White told council members.

White previously announced that the public will have a say in choosing the city’s six commanders. The positions will be open to any officer with the rank of lieutenant and above, including commanders who currently fill those positions.

A selection board composed of community members chosen by the City Council will review applications, and White will chose his commanders on March 30.

Community Service Officer works cold case unit to track down ticket debtors www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Hayward CA Feb 29 2012 Many California motorists decide not to pay the near $500 red light camera tickets they receive in the mail. The programs, which are run by private contractors, lose even more revenue when the contractor is unable to positively identify the driver in a photograph, as required under California law. The city of Hayward is solving that problem by opening a photo enforcement cold-case bureau in the hopes of doubling the number of citations issued.

The idea is simple. Each month, Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia processes 1530 alleged violations. Of these, 500 can be immediately mailed out as tickets, and 300 are rejected because the driver’s face is not clearly visible in the photograph or the alleged right-turn violation is far too minor to merit a citation.

Of the remainder, there are 730 photographs where the driver of the vehicle does not match the description of the registered owner — a female is driving a car registered to a man, for example. In such cases, Redflex mails out “snitch tickets,” which are notices that appear to be actual tickets that seek to trick owners into disclosing the identity of the driver in a red light camera photograph. There is no penalty for throwing this notice in the trash. About 250 ignore these mailings, while 480 owners turn in those who may have been driving their vehicle.

To go after those non-responsive 250, Police Chief Diane Urban proposed taking a police community service officer (CSO) and a fully sworn police officer away from other duties to create a cold-case bureau. The sworn officer will be trained by Redflex and operate on a per diem, or as-needed, basis and together they would “follow up” on those notices.

“A cost analysis to ensure revenue from violations covers the additional staff costs will be completed to determine if utilizing the CSO and per diem officer is the most cost effective mechanism for staffing the red light camera program,” Urban explained in an October memo to the council.

Hayward has had eight red light cameras since September 2008, and the program currently generates $1.1 million in revenue each year. Redflex, however, keeps $708,000 of that amount. By boosting the number of citations issued, Urban expects $1.3 million more in gross annual revenue. Factoring in all expenses, that leaves $333,000 in additional profit for the city. One local area activist, Roger Jones, says this setup violates a state law against quotas because the new officers would have to issue a precise number of tickets to keep from being fired by a “cost analysis” of their duties.

“This does not pass the smell test for safety,” Jones told TheNewspaper. “It does, however, smell like a quota system. If officers do not cite 42 percent of the pool of of violators, they have missed their mark. Is this any different than telling patrol officers they must write eighteen traffic tickets per shift like was done in Los Angeles?”

After nearly four years of use, Hayward officials have no evidence that this photo enforcement program has had any safety benefit.

“There are studies that show that red light cameras do in fact reduce the number of collisions; however, the Hayward Police Department has not been able to gather sufficient data to support this conclusion,” Urban wrote.

Las Vegas father charged in death of his own three-month-old child www.privateofficer.com

 

 

LAS VEGAS NV Feb 29 2012 – A father is accused of murdering his own child. Police say Justin Forsgren abused his three-month-old little girl, causing the helpless victim to die.

He claims he was holding his baby daughter, heard the phone ring, and accidentally dropped her. Police don’t buy Forsgren’s story. Detectives believe he caused three-year-old Rayea Forsgren to die, and that it was no accident.

Kimberly Rodriguez knows the family and says her heart is with Rayea and the baby’s mother Karen Marshall.

“When I was there, he was changing the baby, feeding the baby, and everything, you know, just being gentle and everything,” Rodriguez said.

Marshall told investigators she left her boyfriend Justin Forsgren to babysit Rayea for 20 minutes Thursday night at their home at the Shelter Island Apartments. She returned to find Forsgren performing CPR on the infant, who was in grave condition. Rayea died the next day.

“I knew Karen. She was the sweetest woman in the world. She would never have hurt that baby. She would never hurt that baby. Him, it’s a different story,” Rodriguez said.

Court documents reveal a pattern of trouble. Rayea had nine injuries that included fractures, old bruises and a brain injury. A doctor at Sunrise Hospital found Rayea had been violently shaken and abused.

“How can any parent shake their child or move your child the wrong way or anything?” Rodriguez said. “They’re fragile. They’re too fragile.”

Forsgren told police he smoked meth the day before babysitting, but says he did not have any the day of the incident.

“Sometimes, he’d be shaky and stuff, and you could kind of tell,” Rodriguez said.

“This story today has touched my heart, and I’m sad,” concerned resident Michael Degen said.

As strangers mourn, so does Rodriguez who hopes Forsgren pays for this tragic killing.

“J., if you can see me and listen to me, I hope they throw you up underneath the jail,” she said.

Marshall, who has not been charged, is said to be taking this death very hard. Forsgren is charged with one count of murder by child abuse and two counts of child abuse and neglect. He remains jailed, and is due in court Wednesday morning.

Source:8newsnow.com

Morrow Ga.judge illegally charged for warning tickets www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Morrow, Ga. — Feb 29 2012
A Channel 2 investigation uncovered a Morrow judge changing traffic tickets into warnings, but charging drivers hefty fines anyway. The offenses were kept off of state records.

The fines range from speeding to hit-and-run offenses. If they are not on a driver’s record, the next officer or prosecutor will not know the driver is a repeat offender. Experts told Channel 2 Action News there is no authority under Georgia law to fine someone for a warning.

Driver Daniel Brackett admitted to investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer that he was speeding on his way to work last summer, when he got pulled over by a Morrow police officer.

“He said I was going 71, and I probably was,” said Brackett.

His fine would have been $800, and he wanted to plead no contest.

“And the assistant to the judge, said, ‘No, we’re going to change your ticket to a warning and give you a $100 discount,” said Brackett.

Brackett told Fleischer he could not resist, especially upon hearing there would be no points on his license.

“So I said, ‘OK, whatever.’ I paid my fine and left,” said Brackett.
But something did not sit well with him, Brackett told Fleischer.

“A warning is just that — warning. Don’t do this again. Have a nice day,” said Brackett.

But not in Morrow, where Channel 2 Action News cameras caught Judge Ronald Freeman turning tickets into warnings over and over again.

“It’s my policy to always reduce these to warnings and let you pay the fine as court costs, OK, so it will not go on your record,” said Judge Ronald Freeman one day in traffic court. “Come on up here, let you pay it as court costs, so it doesn’t go on your record.”

Channel 2 Action News filed an open records request for every Morrow ticket reduced to a warning last year. There were 2,879 of them — one in every five tickets.

Channel 2 found the city collected well over $1 million for warnings.

Freeman wouldn’t appear on camera but told Fleischer over the phone it’s completely within his discretion to change the tickets to warnings and still issue those fines.

“You don’t charge for a warning,” said Chief Judge Nelly Withers, who presides over DeKalb County’s traffic court, the busiest in the state.

“A warning is almost an adjudication of not guilty. It means that the case is not going forward against you. If you can’t be punished, you can’t be fined,” said Withers.

Fleischer showed her Brackett’s warning for speeding in a construction zone.

“They are breaking the law, just like I was,” said Brackett.

Freeman fined 615 other drivers for the same thing, and they weren’t just speeders. Forty-nine drivers had no insurance. Thirty-seven had suspended or revoked licenses.

“There is absolutely no legal basis for keeping that money,” said Withers.

Money isn’t the only problem, said Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson.

“I would say it’s dangerous to the community,” said Lawson. “Nothing is written down on the record.”

Driver Hung Tran was sentenced to probation, registering a 0.182 blood-alcohol percent on a Breathalyzer. Tran was driving with a child in the car, but the child endangerment charge was reduced to a warning and left off his record.

“If we’re not doing them the right way, we want to correct them and do them the right way from this point forward,” said Jeff Eady, Morrow’s City Manager.

Eady said insurance could cover it if the city has to return all of the money. Lawson said that might be necessary.

“I’m talking with the heads of other agencies and investigators with other agencies to determine what steps we are going to take to resolve this situation,” said Lawson.

As a result of Channel 2’s investigation, the Judicial Qualifications Commission questioned Freeman and said he was “contrite, accepted responsibility and admitted his mistake and gave assurances that citations would no longer be handled in this manner.”

The JQC stopped short of taking disciplinary action.

Source:WSBTV

Santa Cruz Metro Center security officer subdues sexual assault suspect www.privateofficer.com

 

 

SANTA CRUZ CA Feb 29 2012 – A 21-year-old Morgan Hill man was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery following reports of a disturbance early Saturday morning at the Santa Cruz Metro Center.

Officers were dispatched to the Pacific Avenue station around 1:30 a.m., police spokesman Zach Friend said. When they arrived, a Metro security guard was detaining a sexual assault suspect. The guard told police he heard a woman scream “no,” and he went to investigate. The guard said he interrupted the suspect, Kivet Mendoza, who was holding the woman against the building as he attempted to touch her inappropriately while she told him to stop.

When the security guard intervened, Mendoza allegedly refused to obey the guard’s commands and threatened to stab him, Friend said. Mendoza then reached into his front pocket and advanced on the security officer. The two struggled on the ground for a short while before the guard was able to secure Mendoza in handcuffs as Santa Cruz police officers arrived. Police found a folding knife in Mendoza’s pocket.

According to police, the victim had met Mendoza at a party and the two agreed to go to her home. They were waiting to catch a bus there when Mendoza allegedly began to force himself on the woman to her objection, Friend said.

Mendoza was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of multiple charges, including sexual battery, criminal threats and assault with a deadly weapon.

THE DANGERS of ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT www.privateofficer.com

 

 

ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. Feb 29 2012– On a hot desert morning last week, a group of 20 tourists gathered in the visitor center in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to attend a mandatory safety briefing before taking a guarded van tour to Quitobaquito springs. The springs is part of the 69 percent of the remote border park west of Tucson that has been closed to the public since Kris Eggle, a 28-year-old law enforcement park ranger, was shot and killed while pursuing drug runners armed with AK-47s in 2002.

Organ Pipe was named “the most dangerous national park” that year and also in 2003 by the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, before the group discontinued the series. The drastic increase of drug activity on Arizona’s southern border since the 1990s has turned Organ Pipe rangers into de factor Border Patrol agents, and spurred state lawmakers to pass several laws cracking down on illegal immigrants within the state.

Since 2009, the park has offered van tours to the springs, as long as rangers armed with assault rifles go along to protect the visitors. Now, ten years after Eggle’s murder, the park’s leadership has decided to open up a portion of the closed areas to the public in March, citing improved safety conditions and a big increase in Border Patrol agents in the area.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary in Arizona, immigration has once again been a hotly contested topic in the state: Mitt Romney in a debate last week praised Arizona’s immigration laws as a “model” for the country, while President Obama’s Justice Department is suing Arizona to overturn one of those laws, called SB1070. The law–which has not gone into effect because of a federal court order–requires police to check a person’s immigration status during stops if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is in the country illegally. It also makes it a state crime to fail to carry immigration papers or for illegal immigrants to solicit work. Drug violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels in 2006, but spillover violence has so far been minimal in the United States. Still, Jan Brewer, the Republican governor of Arizona, falsely claimed that beheadings occurred in the Arizona desert in 2010, the same year she signed SB1070 into law. Arizona was also the first state to pass a mandatory E-Verify law in 2007, to ensure employers don’t hire illegal immigrants.

Brewer says the law will help police officers combat drug trafficking and crime, but critics say it will encourage racial profiling and interferes with federal control over immigration. Yahoo News went to Organ Pipe last week to witness the challenges of the border as the presidential candidates debate how best to control it.

‘They’ll have M14s at hand. Don’t be worried.’

“There is a chance we might have to cancel the tour if there’s some sort of apprehension in progress,” Park Ranger Karl Sommerhauser, wearing a bulky dark green bulletproof vest, told the tourists last week. Sommerhauser had an ear piece curling out of his left ear. “We expect you to take direction from Ken,” he said sternly.

Ken Hires, an unflaggingly cheerful park ranger dressed in reassuringly normal-looking tan ranger clothes, bounded to the front of the room. Hires is what’s called an interpretive ranger, which means he has no law enforcement duties and does not carry a weapon. (“I spent my five years in Vietnam. Enough shooting,” he said later.) Hires explained that some law enforcement officers would be hiding in the hills and closely watching the two-hour nature hike, while another pair of armed rangers would follow the tourists closely from the ground. “They’ll have M14s at hand,” he told the group. “Don’t be worried.”

“You might see something interesting off the trail, but please don’t go wandering off,” Hires continued, explaining that it made it difficult for the rangers to track people from the hills. “Please be respectful that those people are putting themselves on the line for us.”

As the group loaded into the vans, one woman from Idaho whispered to her husband: “Does it make you worried? They get chest protections, and we don’t get none of them.”

Hires, sitting in the passenger side of the van, began talking quickly into his radio to the rangers. He turned to the back and explained: “We operate this as if it were an incident.”

“You say there was an incident out there?” a walrus-mustachioed passenger wearing a cowboy hat asked warily.

“We’re it,” Ken said, to nervous laughter.

‘There’s nothing normal about Organ Pipe’

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a 330,000-acre, surprisingly green stretch of Sonoran desert populated by barrel, saguaro and organ pipe cacti, spans 30 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. The park became a corridor for drug runners in the 1990s after border security tightened at major ports of entry and in urban areas, driving human and drug traffickers to rural crossings. Alan Bersin, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner until last year, admitted that the Tucson sector of the border was “out of control” until recently. In 2010, half of all border apprehensions and drug seizures occurred in the Tucson sector, which encompasses much of Organ Pipe.

Drug runners would cut across Mexican Highway 2 through Organ Pipe’s dirt roads in a car and then quickly hop onto U.S. Highway 85, which shoots up to Phoenix or Tucson. The vehicles blazed more than 200 miles of unauthorized roads through the park, and rangers found themselves in dangerous, high-speed chases nearly every day. An $18 million, 23-mile vehicle fence put up after Eggle’s murder by the Department of the Interior cut down on this vehicle traffic. Now, cartels have had to get smarter, sometimes cutting into the fence, removing it, driving through, and then putting it back together again. Drug runners also started coming more on foot, dropping their packages in designated spots on the highway for someone else to pick up.

The Department of Homeland Security recently put up nine surveillance towers in the park, making it easier for agents to detect this new foot traffic, so the drug runners are now hiding in the hills, where the towers can’t see them. (A Border Patrol helicopter operation last year in these hills netted 800 pounds of trash and a whole “herd” of people, according to Hires.) Border Patrol set up a check point on Highway 85 within the park in the past year, which has pushed drug traffickers to the neighboring Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Tohono O’odham reservation, adding as much as four days to their on-foot journeys. “They’re very adaptive, more so than us,” said Organ Pipe park superintendent Lee Baiza wearily, during an interview with Yahoo News last week.

Baiza said he spends about 80 percent of his time working with Homeland Security and handling border concerns. “There’s nothing normal about Organ Pipe,” he added.

The superintendent, who took over in 2007, has faced criticism for preventing Border Patrol agents from building new roads in the wilderness areas of the park, which is part of a larger struggle between Homeland Security and national park and land agencies that operate on the border. (More than 85 percent of border property in Arizona is federally owned.) Bob Bishop, a Republican representative from Utah, introduced a bill last year that would waive environmental laws up to 100 miles north of the border, freeing up Homeland Security to build roads through the wilderness to combat illegal immigration and drug running. Bishop criticized the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for preventing Border Patrol agents from driving off-road in the Quitobaquito area of the park because of a pond nearby that contains the endangered Sonoran desert pupfish.

“I may care about the pupfish, but I also care about kids getting hooked on illegal drugs that are coming over that border,” Bishop told Yahoo News. Drug runners cause more environmental damage to the border by leaving trash, he said, than Border Patrol agents would by building roads.

“Every congressman seems to have his own idea of what we’re doing wrong,” Baiza said. “The reality is all of that has improved immensely since 2007.”

Apprehensions in the park were down last month for the first time in three years, Baiza said. Border Patrol would not release park-specific data, but a spokesman, Jason Rheinfrank, said that the Tucson sector overall saw a 40 percent drop in apprehensions last fiscal year, while the number of agents has nearly tripled since 2000. Illegal crossing arrests over the entire border were at a four-decade low last fiscal year, in part because of the flagging American economy.

On March 1, 46 percent of the park–instead of 31 percent–is scheduled to be open to the public. Baiza cited the increased fencing, number of Border Patrol agents, and technology in the park as the reasons for the change.

Organ pipe cactus. (Liz Goodwin/Yahoo)
‘What we are trying to do is retake this landscape’

“The real problem we have with safety is drug dealing, not the people looking for work,” Hires said from a loudspeaker system at the front of the van. Three different border patrol agents riding ATVs raced by, waving. “What we are trying to do is retake this landscape so we can all be free to be out here,” he added.

Twenty minutes later, the vans arrived at Quitobaquito, where two young men toting heavy M14 rifles were already waiting. The rangers arrived at the springs two hours earlier to scour the area and make sure no one was hiding.

“Please be respectful and don’t photograph them,” Hires warned. The park service is worried that cartel members would retaliate against the rangers if their faces were publicized. Baiza says Organ Pipe never sends out press releases announcing new ranger hires for the same reason.

The armed park rangers didn’t greet the group and stayed about 20 paces ahead on the trail. Hires showed the tourists the endangered Sonoran desert pupfish in the pond (the endangered Sonoran mud turtles were nowhere to be found), and answered questions about the names of different plants and flowers. He explained that the springs has been a crossroads for thousands of years, an oasis drawing thirsty desert-dwellers and entrepreneurial shell traders. The tour ended, and two volunteer rangers stood guard as visitors used the restroom in the bushes before the long van ride back.

“You got to show me your visa,” one volunteer ranger joked as people began loading back into the van.

On the way out, Hires pointed out the two park rangers at the top of the hill, green specks on the horizon.

Another border patrol ATV zoomed past the van and stopped the law enforcement park rangers who were escorting the group back to the visitor center. Two brown packages were tied to the back of the ATV.

“See those bundles? Want to guess?” Hires asked. “Marijuana.” In 2005, the last year the park released border incident data, Organ Pipe park rangers seized 17,000 pounds of marijuana.

The rangers let out a dog from the back of the SUV, as the visitors craned their necks to watch from the van. The dog jumped out and ran to the bundles. He sat down abruptly and pointed his nose at the packages, then looked back at his masters. “That’s the sign,” Hires said. The rangers tossed the jubilant dog a toy, and the Border Patrol agent drove off again in the ATV.

“There’s been a sighting of a UDA,” Hires said a few minutes later, listening to his radio. (UDA means undocumented alien.) “He’s sitting next to a trashcan which means he’s waiting for us to pick him up and give him a ride home. He’s given up.”

‘I feel safer here than in Fresno’

Despite all the excitement on the trip, Hires said he thinks the park is very safe because of the law enforcement rangers and the Border Patrol agents.

“I feel safer here than in Fresno,” Hires said after the tour. (He works seasonally in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks near Fresno, California.)

But visitors–or rather, the people who are choosing not to be visitors–still have concerns. In 2010, visits to the park plunged to a 10-year low of 209,600. Baiza says that when state politicians focus on the dangers of Mexico and the border, fewer people visit the park.

“They come here all petrified,” Bonnie Auman, a park volunteer, said. “Then they see all the law enforcement, the Border Patrol.”

Bishop, the Utah congressman, said that while the stagnant economy may have significantly deterred unauthorized migrants who are looking for work, he doesn’t think it has made a dent in the number of drug runners targeting Arizona. “That’s why we need to control the border,” he told Yahoo News. “They’re not going to be affected by E-Verify and the economy, and the Border Patrol needs to have the ability to battle that.”

It remains to be seen whether visitors will be lured back. Hires journeyed to the Quartzsite, Ariz., RV Show last month to recruit wary RVers to visit the park. “The No. 1 question: ‘Is it safe there?’” he said. “And the second one was, ‘Are you open?’ People thought we totally closed the place.”

Park ranger killed in Washington head-on collision www.privateofficer.com

 

 

PORT ORCHARD, Wash.Feb 29 2012 – The driver who was involved in a fatal head-on collision with a Washington park ranger late Friday night was not charged Monday in Kitsap County court.

Ranger Ed Johanson, 44, died after a Ford Thunderbird crossed the center line on Northwest Holly Rd.

The 35-year-old driver of the Thunderbird was booked for DUI. Authorities said they believe he may have been impaired by narcotics. A female passenger in suspect’s car was not hurt.

Formal charging of the driver will be delayed pending blood alcohol test results.

The driver’s identity has not yet been made public.

On Monday, the state parks commission announced that a public service for Johanson is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, March 2, at the Gateway Fellowship, 18901 8th Ave. N.E., Poulsbo.

A memorial account, the Ed Johanson Memorial Fund, has been established at Key Bank, for donations to help cover memorial and funeral costs and for his family. Donations are suggested in lieu of flowers.

Arizona sheriff deputies charge three for using Craigslist to find a dog for sex www.privateofficer.com

 

 

 

Maricopa County AZ Feb 29 2012  Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested three people Monday on suspicion of using Craigslist to find a dog for one of them to have sex with.

Deputies arrested San Tan Valley residents Sarah Dae Walker, 33, and Shane Walker, 38, on charges of conspiring to commit an act of bestiality. Officers also arrested 29-year-old Robert Aucker of Gilbert.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the three suspects used Craigslist to find a male golden shepherd for Sarah Walker to have sex with, while the other two would look on.

All three told detectives that they were going to commit an act of bestiality, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The Walkers said they are “swingers” who engage in an “open marriage,” according to detectives.

According to detectives, the three suspects drove to a prearranged location intending to commit bestiality with the dog.

The owner of the golden shepherd was an undercover detective, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Aucker told detectives he had a sexual relationship with Sarah Walker for about a month. She reportedly told him that she had dreams about having sex with a dog, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“People who do this for enjoyment are a different breed, that’s for certain,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

Arpaio criticized Craigslist executives for failing to put a stop to such advertising.

Bestiality is a class 6 felony.

Source:www.azcentral.com

South Hill Mall loss prevention agent stabbed during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Puyallup WA Feb 29 2012  Police arrested two teenagers Monday night after a shoplifting went awry at the South Hill Mall.
One of the teens is suspected of stabbing a loss prevention officer in the abdomen, Puyallup police Capt. Dave McDonald said. The 21-year-old victim was taken to Tacoma General Hospital and went into surgery for a non-life threatening injuries.
The incident occurred about 7 p.m. Monday. Two loss prevention officers inside Macy’s spotted the two teens, a 17-year-old boy from University Place and an 18-year-old man from Pierce County, take some clothes and leave the store without paying, McDonald said.
The officers confronted the teens outside. Officers suspect the 17-year-old boy stabbed one of the loss prevention officers in the abdomen.
The two were taken into custody with the help of two off-duty Puyallup Tribal police officers who were in the area, McDonald said.
Puyallup police booked the 17-year-old boy into Remann Hall juvenile jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery and first-degree assault. The 18-year-old man was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of shoplifting.

Source:thenewstribune.com

SC nurse steals vial of a paralyzing drug with the intent of injecting her husband www.privateofficer.com

 

 

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, SC Feb 29 2012 - An Upstate woman has been charged with criminal domestic violence after investigators said she stole a vial of a paralyzing drug with the intent of injecting her husband, who would not give her a divorce, according to a report from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said that they were called to a place of business in Greer where they met with Douglas Splawn. He told investigators that he and his wife, 38-year-old Stacy Dianne Splawn, had been having marital problems.

Splawn told investigators that his wife had asked him for a divorce, but he refused and told her that marriage is “till death do you part.” He said her response was, “That will be sooner than you think.”

Splawn said that on Feb. 18 he found a syringe and a medicine bottle labeled succinylcholine, a paralyzing agent, in an eyeglass case belonging to his wife beside their bed in their home on Shehan Drive in Spartanburg.

He told officers that he filled the syringe with water and put it back in the case and hid the bottle of medication. He said at about 3:30 a.m. the next morning, they were lying in bed discussing their marital problems when his wife discovered that he had found the succinylcholine. He said he told her that he had filled the syringe and disposed of the bottle of medication.

Splawn said his wife then grabbed the syringe and tried to stick him with it. He said he was able to wrestle the syringe away from her and told her he would give her a divorce, ending the confrontation.

Splawn said his wife told him that she took the medication from her locker at Mary Black Hospital after she was recently fired.

Splawn said that the next evening, he overheard heard his wife telling their children that he was trying to kill himself.

He said he contacted Mary Black Hospital on Monday, and the staff there told him to turn the medication in to law enforcement, which he did. He also filed the police report.

Stacy Splawn was arrested on Monday and released after making bond on Tuesday.

Source:WISTV

Missing South Carolina CEO found dead from suicide www.privateofficer.com

 

 

COLUMBIA, SC Feb 29 2012 - The search for missing lobbyist Tom Sponseller is over and a suicide note found Tuesday references a federal investigation into the South Carolina Hospitality Association, of which he was president and CEO.

Ten days after he disappeared, Sponseller was found shot in the head in a room in a parking garage near the SCHA office in downtown Columbia. He was reported missing by family members on February 18 and last seen at the SCHA office around noon on that Saturday.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts on Tuesday afternoon said that all indications were that Sponseller, 61, shot himself in the head with a 9 millimeter gun. That gun was found locked in the room with Sponseller.

Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott said investigators found Sponseller’s body around 10:45 a.m. behind two locked doors in a “room within a room” on the lower level of a parking garage located at 1122 Lady St. Scott described the room as an electrical room with telephone connections. He said it appeared the room was used as a smoking area because a lot of cigarettes were there.

Scott says investigators searched the office and parking garage on at least three different occasions: February 18, 19 and 25, but weren’t able to get into that room until Tuesday. Scott said cadaver dogs did not indicate anything was in that room and they had to get new keys made before they could access it.

The coroner said finding Sponseller before today would not have saved his life. “All indications are if he would have been found 15 minutes after this happened, it wouldn’t have made any difference for him,” said Watts.

Scott said a suicide note found Tuesday referenced an on-going federal investigation into the SCHA’s finances. The chief did not elaborate on the content of the note.

Federal agents said Monday that several hundred thousand dollars are missing from the SCHA. Agents said Sponseller was not a target of the missing money investigation.

Part of the investigation appears to involve the recent departure of Rachel Duncan from the staff of the SCHA.

Her attorneys say Duncan, who had been listed as director of accounting and membership services, is cooperating with the police investigation.

The South Carolina Hospitality Association released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:

Statement by Rick Erwin, Board Chairman

Hospitality Association of South Carolina

“Our board and staff are profoundly saddened by the announcement of Tom Sponseller’s death. I do not have the words to convey the sadness of losing our leader and friend.

Utmost in our hearts and minds are Tom’s wife and family, who were his pride and joy. They came first in everything he did. Our prayers are with them in this tragic hour.

Professionally, Tom in many ways was the face of South Carolina’s $14 billion tourism industry. He guided our industry through good times and bad, quietly working for the good of every person employed in the industry.

The number of jobs he helped create in South Carolina through his work with the Legislature and many governors cannot be estimated. Suffice it to say South Carolina’s economy is stronger, and tourism’s future brighter, because of his dedication.”

Watts is assisting the Columbia Police Department with the investigation and will determine the exact cause of death at a later date.

Source:WIS

TSA training insturctor pleads guilty to taking bribe www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Philadelphia PA Feb 29 2012 A training instructor with the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport pleaded guilty in federal court today to taking a bribe from a security officer.

Shannon Gilliam, 29, of Sharon Hill, potentially faces four to 27 months in prison under advisory sentencing guidelines.

Gilliam, who began working for the TSA in 2003 as a baggage screener and was promoted to training instructor in 2008, has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation, a TSA official said.

Prosecutors said Gilliam was responsible for training transportation security officers and to administer annual mandatory screening tests to trainers who handle passenger and baggage screening at the airport.

The government’s plea memo said that between August and October 2011 Gilliam took a $200 bribe from a TSO identified in the plea memo as “R.R.” in exchange for ensuring a passing grade on the certification exam.

R.R. failed the exam twice, the plea memo said, then Gilliam took R.R. outside the testing room and explained he would take the test for R.R. in exchange for $200.

At the time, Gilliam was in financial trouble, owing back taxes and his house was up for sheriff’s sale, the plea memo said.

Robert Datner, Gilliam’s attorney, was not immediately available for comment.

Gilliam took the test for R.R. on Aug. 22 and received an initial payment of $100, the plea memo said.

A day earlier, R.R. was getting cold feet, and texted Gilliam not to take the test, but Gilliam never received the message, the plea memo said, and took the test as planned.

On Aug. 22, after Gilliam had already taken the test, R.R. texted: “It’s been weighing on my mind and feel like it’s not in my character. I appreciate u and ur help, but I need to do this on my own.”

R.R. confessed to a supervisor that he had Gilliam take the test for him, the plea memo said, and federal agents set up a meeting between Gilliam and R.R. (who wore a wire) where the second $100 installment was paid, the plea memo said.

Source:philly.com

10 people arrested at The Oscar Awards www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Los Angeles CA Feb 29 2012 Sean Young might have been the most high-profile arrest at this year’s Academy Awards, but she was far from the only one.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirms to TheWrap that there were 10 arrests at Sunday’s Oscars for various offenses, including robbery and forgery.

“Celebrity Rehab” veteran Young — who was charged with misdemeanor battery following an altercation with a security guard outside of the Governors Ball on Sunday — is demanding an apology.

She reportedly took to her Facebook page on Sunday to declare that she was sober during the incident. Oh, and that she just might sue if she doesn’t get an apology.

“I just want everyone to know that I was sober, extremely well behaved when a very stupid security guard went postal on me and then The Academy’s very stupid lawyer recommended a ‘private person’s arrest’ and I have grounds for a lawsuit against the Academy although I believe a public apology to me would be much better,” Young wrote. “I am OK and I have the Hollywood Police Station’s support who very carefully and kindly photographed the bruises on my arms which this guard is responsible for doing.”

Four of the Oscar arrests were for felonies — including a robbery. The other felonies involved forgery and using fraudulent credentials at the ceremony.

The remaining arrests, which were for misdemeanors, involved trespassing, interfering with police officers and battery. The latter is Young’s offense.

The “Blade Runner” actress was placed under citizen’s arrest by a security guard after allegedly slapping another guard who may have touched her at the Governors Ball.

Previously during the night, Young was told to leave by security guards because she didn’t have a ticket to the soiree, but she later returned to the red carpet outside of the ball, after which the incident occurred.

Young admitted to People magazine that she “struck” the guard.

“They said, ‘No, you have to leave,’ ” Young told the magazine Monday. “I started to leave and [the guard] grabbed my arm and he started pulling me. And I turned around and I was pulling my arm away – and I struck him.”

The Academy, which has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment, told People that it wasn’t involved in pressing charges against Young.

Source:Reuters

Former deputy sentenced for suspect beating found dead www.privateofficer.com

 

 

SALEM, AL Feb 29 2012 – Officials tells News Leader 9 a former Russell County sheriff’s deputy sentenced earlier this year for beating a handcuffed man has been found dead.

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris was called to the scene and Kirby Dollar was pronounced dead Monday outside a home on Lee Road 201 in Salem.

Harris says 38-year old Dollar was found in his driveway with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Dollar and another deputy, Tim Watford, were recently sentenced after being found guilty of beating Patrick Harrington.

Kirby Dollar was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay restitution to Harrington. Dollar accepted a plea deal and pled guilty in August to avoid going to trial.

Watford was sentenced to 34 months in prison and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution.

The men were convicted last year for the deprivation of rights under the color of law.

Authorities say Harrington was found in November 2010 by a bail bondsmen. Harrington said Dollar and Watford arrived at the scene and beat him.

Dollar was supposed to report to federal prison Monday afternoon to start serving his sentence.

Source:WTVM

Multnomah County jury awards man $35,000 after being wrongly strip searched ay Walgreen’s store www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Portland OR Feb 29 2012 A Multnomah County jury has awarded a North Portland man $35,000 after a Walgreens employee who wrongly suspected him of shoplifting ordered him to strip down to his bare chest in the middle of the store.

Henry Peth was overcome with embarrassment and shame on the busiest shopping day of the year — the day after Thanksgiving 2010 — when employees confronted with their suspicions that he was stealing batteries at the Walgreens at 2829 N. Lombard St. Peth, an immigrant from Ghana, thinks he was targeted because he is black, and he told the employees so.

During a three-day trial last week, Peth testified that he was shopping for Christmas lights. When the store’s assistant manager, Daniel Martinez, approached him, saying someone had seen Peth put something in his pocket. Peth responded that he had nothing but his cell phone. Peth then testified that a clerk declared that Peth was lying and that the merchandise must be under his sweatshirt.

About that time Jeffrey Biesenthal, the store’s manager, arrived and, according to Peth, the three men boxed him in, in a narrow aisle. Peth said the assistant manager told him that if he didn’t have anything, he needed to “take it off.” After Peth shed all three layers and shook them out, the employees found no merchandise.

Peth’s Portland attorney, Greg Kafoury, told jurors that the “systemic stripping” left Peth disgraced — particularly because the 44-year-old had lived the first 32 years of his life in an African farming community, where honesty and reputation are everything. Thieves are beaten with bamboo, Kafoury said.

“In Ghana, thieves stealing milk or a chicken are stealing food from the mouth of someone else’s child,” Kafoury said. “They are paraded on market day. Publicly shunned. The family shamed.”

But the Walgreens manager and assistant manager told jurors that Peth lifted up his shirts to expose his chest without being asked. They said they never ordered him to do so.

A clerk working the photo counter said she saw him wearing only his undershirt before turning away. Her account conflicted with that of the other employees.

The law allows shopkeepers to question and reasonably confine someone if they have probable cause to suspect shoplifting. But employees didn’t confine Peth, said Nicholas Kampars, the attorney representing Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain with roughly 7,800 stores.

Kafoury sought video of the confrontation, but the store manager said it didn’t exist. Walgreens, however, produced video just before the confrontation of Peth walking down the battery aisle. It shows Peth looking at goods and touching them, but not taking them.

Jurors unanimously decided that the employees had probable cause to stop Peth and that he had been confined, and 9-3 that the confinement wasn’t reasonable. After a full afternoon of deliberations, they voted 9-3 to award him the $35,000.

Peth phoned his mother hours later — at 6 a.m. in Ghana — to tell her that the family name had been cleared. He said he feels vindicated. It will take him some time, though, to recover from the psychological trauma of wrongly being branded a thief, he said.

“I feel much better,” he said. “Justice has been served.”

Manatee Florida Target store employee charged with theft www.privateofficer.com

 

 

MANATEE Fla Feb 29 2012 – Telling authorities she planned to give the money back, a Target employee admitted to taking $1,200 out of the cash registers over the past few months at the Target at 6150 14th St. W.
A fellow employee, who was observing via the store’s security camera system, witnessed the suspect take money from the cash drawer several times on Jan. 7, amounting to $400 on that day, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report.
The suspect, whose name was not given in the police report, told deputies she had taken the money because she needed it for her baby and that when she got paid she was going to pay the money back to Target, the report states.
During the interview with deputies, the suspect said she took an additional $800 over the past few months, the report states.
The suspect has not paid any of the money back to Target, the report states.

Source:www.bradenton.com

Glen Burnie man charged in assault on Arundel Mills Mall security www.privateofficer.com

 

 

 

HANOVER, Md.Feb 29 2012 - A 21-year-old Glen Burnie man is being charged with assault after police say he tried to run over security officers and a patrol car outside of Arundel Mills Mall Saturday.

Officers were called to the mall parking lot at around 9:30 p.m. for reports of a fight. When they arrived they tried to pull over Nicholas Ryan Collins, but he refused to stop.

Police say Collins drove his Chevrolet Blazer towards the mall security officers, but they were able to get out of the way. He then drove into an Anne Arundel County officer’s marked patrol car and just missed hitting it.

Police say Collins then fled the parking lot, running through several red lights.

Collins was later pulled over on Telegraph Road near Route 100 and arrested without incident.

He is charged with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and several traffic violations.

Spartanburg District teacher arrested on child pornography charges www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Spartanburg SC Feb 29 2012 A Woodruff Middle School teacher has resigned following his arrest on child pornography charges. Mark Anthony Soza, once listed as a math learning lab teacher on the school’s website, was arrested by federal agents Monday according to court documents.

Arrest warrants show agents found Soza had files of child pornography on his personal home computer.

Parents call Soza a popular teacher at the school. “I have two children who there, and both had him this year,” says Katina Davis. “I trust my children when I let them out of my sight. I trust they’re in the best hands at school.”

Spartanburg District Four Superintendent Dr. Rallie Liston issued this written statement:

“Last Thursday, FEB 23 in the afternoon, the district was notified by the federal Department of Homeland Security of an investigation involving one of our employees.

Friday, FEB 24 in the morning, the district accepted the resignation of the employee under investigation.

The district has no information that this situation involves any district students or any other staff members.

The investigation is ongoing and the district is cooperating fully with federal authorities. We have been directed to refrain from any further comment by federal agents.”

Liston tells Seven on your Side the district has checked all school computers, and found nothing suspicious.

“I just can’t imagine that something like this would go on,” says parent Robin Barnes. “I pray that none of our kids are involved.”

Soza was a teacher with the district for nearly a dozen years. He’s in federal custody on no bond.

TN security officer shoots bank robbers tires out www.privateofficer.com

 

 

LYLES, Tenn. Feb 29 2012– A bank robbery suspect was arrested at a car repair shop after a security officer shot out the tires of his getaway car.

It happened at the Community First Bank on Highway 100 in Lyles. Police said the suspect robbed the bank, but the security guard shot out his tires during his getaway.

When he stopped to get his tire fixed, he was taken into custody.

No one was injured. Police identified the robber as Paul Randall Anderson. He was arrested and charged with robbery.

Atlanta man arrested for selling more 100 stolen cars on Craigslist www.privateofficer.com

 

Atlanta GA Feb 29 2012 Atlanta police have arrested a man believed to be responsible for selling more than 100 stolen cars on Craigslist and are seeking information from his customers.

Lt. Rick Mason of the department’s Auto Theft Task Force said Marcus Deangelo Haliburton, 22, has sold 198 items over the last two years using the online marketplace – mostly vehicles and electronics. .

“We believe that the majority of the vehicles he has sold on Craigslist are in fact stolen,” Mason said. “He’s misrepresenting the vehicle that’s being sold with one that’s on a dealership’s lot.”

Investigators believe Haliburton posted photos and details of from auto dealer Web sites, and stole similar cars to sell, Mason said.

Police said Haliburton provided a VIN number, car repair history and other details on Craigslist and often delivered the vehicle in the Buckhead area.

Mason said the suspect allegedly was always in a hurry, advertising the need to sell the car “ASAP” or as a salvaged vehicle. He would also significantly short-sell the vehicle.

“If you [did] purchase the vehicle, what he’s done in the past is offer the vehicle for $9,000,” Mason said. “When he delivers, he may ask for $4,000 and says, ‘I forgot the title … I’ll bring it to you tomorrow [for the rest of the money].’”

But he would never show, pocketing the cash and leaving the buyer with what Mason called a “worthless vehicle.”

Haliburton was arrested last week on charges of auto theft, theft by taking and giving police false statements. He was being held in the Fulton County jail with bond set at $12,500, according to jail records.

“He was caught because he sold a car to somebody who kept all of his information … and discovered the car was stolen when he tried to have it registered,” Mason said.

Police have linked Haliburton to a specific number of stolen vehicles.

“But we feel that there are a lot more out there,” Mason said. “And there are many unsuspecting people who have purchased a car from Mr. Haliburton.”

Police are seeking the public’s help in determining how many stolen vehicles Haliburton allegedly sold.

“If you have purchased a vehicle from Mr. Haliburton, I would ask you to call the regional Auto Theft Task Force,” Mason said. “Allow us to at least inspect your vehicle to make sure it’s not stolen … that the VIN plate hasn’t been flipped.”

Mason also said it is important for customers to call police because they could face legal problems.

“With you calling us, it’ll give you the opportunity to avoid going to jail for possession of a stolen vehicle,” Mason said. “If we find the vehicle has been stolen, you will not be charged.”

Customers, however, won’t get to keep the vehicle, Mason said.

Anyone who may have purchased a car from Haliburton is asked to call the Atlanta Police at 404-546-4205.

Source:AJC

Chicago K-Mart security officer stabbed by shoplifter www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Chicago IL Feb 29 2012 A man who shoplifted knives used one of them to slash a Kmart security guard who was trying to stop him this afternoon in the Avondale neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

It happened about 3 p.m. at the Kmart at 3443 W. Addison St., according to Albany Park District Police Lt. Robert Delaney.

A man who appeared to be in his 20s had taken knives from the store without paying and hid them in his clothing, according to the lieutenant.

When the guard tried to stop the suspect, he pulled out one of the knives and cut the guard’s hand before fleeing into a car that had been reported stolen, the lieutenant said.

The guard has been released from Swedish Covenant Hospital where he was treated for the wound, said the lieutenant.

The thief was not in custody Tuesday night.

DFW airport police using GPS to curb thefts www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Dallas TX Feb 29 2012 – Statistics show it happens every single day: A traveler leaves behind an iPad, laptop or a cell phone on an airplane or at an airport.

And instead of being turned into lost and found, the devices end up with thieves. But a common tool is helping victims get their electronics back.

Last year, there were about 370 reported thefts at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. That’s just more than one per day.

Police say they’re able to track down these missing devices with more regularity now because of what is built into many of them.

Just ask Ryan Rothermel, who left his iPad in the seat pocket of an airplane last October. He went back to the plane 10 minutes later, but his device was gone.

“They told me, ‘OK, it’ll show up in the next day or two, maybe a week,’ but it didn’t so it was pretty aggravating,” he said.

Rothermel was lucky enough to get his iPad back. When another passenger’s iPad was stolen at DFW Airport, police there say they used the device’s GPS app to not only track it down, but the suspect accused of stealing it.

“It’s been a huge help in the recoveries and the volume of recoveries,” said Lt. Lonnie Freeman, lead theft detective at DFW Airport. “Because if they steal one, they steal two, they steal 20.”

Freeman says they’ve received calls from theft victims tracking their stolen iPads, cell phones and other electronic gadgets.

“’I just flew through the airport. I now see my iPad moving through the city of Irving, Bedford or Euless or wherever it may be,’ and they turn it over to us,” Freeman said.

In Rothermel’s case, police tracked his iPad to Henry Thuita, 49, who works for a third party contractor to clean out planes after flights.

Records show airport detectives found a dozen other iPads, laptops, e-readers and cell phones at his home.

Police also recently arrested TSA employee Clayton Dovel, who is accused of stealing seven iPads out of checked baggage. They tracked the devices to his Bedford home. Neither Thuita nor Dovel were available for comment Monday night.

Rothermel said he had activated his device’s GPS, “But unfortunately I was following FAA regulations and I had turned my iPad onto airplane mode, which deactivates any Internet activity.”

Rothermel said he was able to get his iPad back because he registered it with Apple and wrote down its serial number.

Police suggest everyone do the same, no matter what product they own. They also recommend activating the GPS app.

They also say to file a theft report with airport detectives –– Freeman says you’d be surprised that most people don’t.

Travelers can also tell police when they see a theft or other crime happen anonymously and quickly: Just text DFWDPS and their tip to 847411.

SourceCBS NEWS

Veteran Chicago Police officer Preston Ross Jr. suffers heart attack www.privateofficer.com

 

 

 

Chicado IL Feb 29 2012 Veteran Chicago Police officer Preston Ross Jr. suffered a fatal heart attack Saturday while on duty at a CTA stop, the Cook County Medical Examiner said Sunday.

Ross, 48, was in uniform and working on the CTA detail at the Grand Avenue Blue Line stop around 9 a.m. when he suffered the heart attack. Police News affairs said. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died, police said.

Ross had been on the force for 25 years and received 17 awards from the department during his career, police said.

“On behalf of the entire Department, I offer my sincere condolences to Officer Ross’ family, friends and colleagues,” Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in the statement. “We will keep them in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

The officer was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in “grave condition” and was declared dead there, Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said.

Police conducted an honor motorcade between Northwestern Memorial and the Cook County medical examiner’s office this afternoon, police said.

Ross’ aunt, Jackie Ross of Riverdale, said her nephew seemed happy when she spoke to him last month and she did not know of him suffering any health issues.

Ross described Preston Ross Jr. as a kind, outgoing and generous person who loved to barbecue.

“I’ve never seen him do anything in anger,” said Ross, who has been married to Preston Ross’ uncle for 34 years. “I’ve never seen him angry, period. I’ve never seen him frown on anybody.”

Ross added that whenever a family member or friend had a problem, Ross Jr. could be counted on to help out.

“He was a very sweet person,” Ross said. “I was proud to say he was my nephew.”

Georgia police capture murder supect on the run for 37 years www.privateofficer.com

 

 

LIVONIA MI Feb 28 2012 Thirty-seven years after allegedly killing two men, David Glenn Fowler, 55, is being brought to justice, police say.

The Livonia Police Department recently located Fowler, who was living under an alias in Georgia, by “using technology not available at the time.”

He was wanted in the brutal double homicide of two brothers in the spring of 1975 in a house in the 37000 block of Plymouth Road in Livonia.

The victims, Michael Belt, then 34, and Jeffrey Belt, 18, two brothers living at the residence, were beaten with a wooden board and stabbed. Robbery was the motive, police said.

Fowler fled the state in 1975. An open murder warrant and a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued at that time. Two other defendants were charged, tried, convicted and served time in prison for their role in the crimes.

DNA recovered at the scene of the murders was put into the nationwide CODIS database.

In June of 2011, a hit on that DNA occurred in Georgia on a subject known as Richard David Taylor. Livonia detectives went to Georgia and, with the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, were able to locate and confirm that Taylor is, in fact, the wanted fugitive, David Glenn Fowler.

An extradition hearing occurred on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, and Fowler was ordered delivered to Michigan custody. He was transported back to Michigan on Feb. 26, 2012.

He was remanded without bond during an arraignment Monday in 16th District Court in Livonia in front of Judge Sean Kavanagh. He faces a preliminary examination at 9 a.m. March 8.

Source:CBSDetroit

Man subdued at Will Rogers World Airport after breaking through security www.privateofficer.com

 

 

OKLAHOMA CITY Okla Feb 28 2012 – A 53-year-old man, who claimed to have documents for GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, was arrested and subdued with a stun gun after trying to break through a security checkpoint at Will Rogers World Airport, according to police.

James Jay Heidebrecht, of Oklahoma City, was arrested on Feb. 20 on complaints of trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to a police report.

Police said they were investigating a disturbance to the west security checkpoint. Heidebrecht told police he was waiting on a flight and then tried to walk through the exit lane to a secure area of the airport, the report stated.

Investigators said Heidebrecht was asked to leave the airport, but he ignored the order and started yelling at a police sergeant.

Heidebrecht became combatant and an officer deployed his Taser, the police report said.

Police said the Oklahoma City man told them he was a member of the Central Intelligence Agency and had documents to give to Gingrich. He also stated that the only reason he went to the airport was to meet Gingrich.

Source:www.koco.com

FBI seeking fugitive who may work as security guard www.privateofficer.com

 

 

BOSTON MA Feb 28 2012— The Boston Division of the FBI is asking for the public’s help in looking for a man it says has been a fugitive for 18 years.

The FBI is offering up to a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of John Joseph Hartin, 42.

Hartin is wanted in connection with the abuse of two young children he befriended in the Boston area in the 1990s. After an investigation by the Boston Police Department, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office charged Hartin in 1993 with five counts of statutory rape of a child, the FBI said in a press release. It said a federal arrest warrant was issued for Hartin in 1997, charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Hartin is white, stands 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, has brown hair and eyes, and had worked as a security guard at the time of his disappearance. He studied graphic and computer arts in college and was a lifelong resident of Dorchester, Mass., until he fled. The FBI said he should be considered armed and dangerous.

The FBI is using both social and traditional media to generate tips from the public. For the first time, it said, the Boston Division is using limited Facebook ads to search for a fugitive.

The FBI produced and distributed a “Wanted by the FBI” radio podcast that aired across the country. It was played on a Boston station, which led to a radio news story highlighting the FBI’s search efforts.

Hartin also was featured on a Boston “Most Wanted” television news program, the FBI said. Digital billboards featuring Hartin’s photo will be used in the Boston, Orlando and Tampa, Fla., areas. Both the Facebook ads and digital billboards began Monday and will run for one week, the FBI said.

Anyone with information regarding Hartin’s whereabouts is asked to call 800-CALL-FBI or the nearest FBI field office.

Bayview Medical Center security guard arrested for attacking patient www.privateofficer.com

 

 

Baltimore MD Feb 28 2012 A security officer at a Baltimore hospital was arrested for allegedly trying to attack a patient.

Police say Kevin Porter followed a 47-year-old woman out of Bayview Medical Center, offering her money for a bus ride home.

When she went back into the building with him, police say he pushed her into a staircase and attempted to rape her.

He is in custody and faces a number of charges.