Archive
Philadelphia police officer charged with shoplifting at Kohl’s www.privateofficer.com
Deborah Gore, 43, was charged with retail theft after an investigation by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the District Attorney’s Office.
Gore is a 17-year veteran of the police force.
California Highway Patrol shift to Ford’s Police Interceptor SUV www.privateofficer.com
Sacramento CA June 1 2012 The California Highway Patrol will shift to Ford’s Police Interceptor Utility SUV as its primary patrol vehicle when it begins replacing aging Crown Vics in its fleet.
The P.I. Utility was the only vehicle that met the agency’s specifications for payload capacity and provides versatility in handling a variety of missions including traffic enforcement, event security, and facility protection, state officials said.
Assistant Chief Erik Knudsen told the Los Angeles Times the agency preferred the P.I. Utility over the crop of new patrol cars because “the design of the new sedans is becoming smaller and lighter.”
The state agreed to purchase the new enforcement vehicles from Folsom Lake Ford. The contract allows for the purchase of P.I. Utility SUVs for $26,578 and Ford P.I. sedans for $23,242. The state’s Department of General Services will acquire the vehicles.
The all-wheel-drive P.I. Utility, which also arrives in a front-wheel version, has a payload capacity of 1,500 pounds. The gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the P.I. Utility is 6,300 pounds, which measures its curb weight plus maximum payload. Curb weight in 4,630 pounds.
“The CHP does need payload capacity of 1,500 pounds,” said Eric Lamoureux, general services spokesman. “The sedan doesn’t meet the capacity.”
The sedan has a GVWR of 5,700 pounds and a curb weight of 4,310 pounds.
Lamoureux said the agency’s new patrol car must be able to transport 459 pounds of installed equipment such as a prisoner cage, lightbar, push bar, gun tub, in-car video system, fire extinguisher, and communications gear. The agency also required 880 pounds for a driver and three passengers; 96 pounds for safety equipment; 87 pounds for stored CHP equipment; and 55 pounds for a full-size spare tire.
The department plans to begin purchasing the vehicles in October after testing four vehicles and completing a fleet utilization study. Gov. Jerry Brown has instructed state departments to eliminate under-utilized vehicles from the fleet as a cost-saving initiative. As a result, some officers may lose take-home vehicles, especially if they aren’t using them for enforcement.
The dealer agreed to deliver two P.I. sedans and two SUVs for the CHP’s own regimen of testing that includes a five-mile high-speed run (at 125 mph); 90-0 mph braking; and a timed road course.
The agency typically replaces about a third of its 4,000-vehicle fleet each year. The agency’s marked enforcement units include 2,300 sedans and 140 all-terrain vehicles.
Three Fort Lauderdale police officers facing felonies in car chase incident www.privateofficer.com
Fort Lauderdale Fla June 1 2012 Three Fort Lauderdale police officers will be charged this week with criminal misconduct, including allegations they lied about a car chase and arrest, according to several sources with knowledge of the case.
The officers, members of the controversial street crimes unit known as the Raiders, have been relieved of duty with pay for months while under investigation by an FBI and city police corruption task force, records show.
Sgt. Michael Florenco and detectives Matthew Moceri and Geoffrey Shaffer will all face felony charges related to the arrest of a Fort Lauderdale man about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 22, 2009, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kenneth Post, 49, was arrested after a police chase that began at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina hotel on Southeast 17th Street and ended with a crash in the Rio Vista neighborhood, records show.
Hotel security officers said they saw Post break into the bar and steal several bottles of booze, valued at more than $300. The officers filed reports and gave sworn statements that Post tried to run down Moceri and Shaffer with his mother’s white Cadillac and rammed Florenco’s vehicle.
Prosecutors filed eleven felony charges against Post, but on Wednesday they went to court and dropped the five charges related to the high-speed chase, assaulting two officers, violently resisting an officer and battery on an officer.
Post, who has convictions for burglary, grand theft and drug charges, is locked up pending trial for the bar burglary, grand theft, and allegedly trying to run down a security guard. Post was caught on video breaking in to the bar three times in 2009, police said.
Ron Ishoy, a State Attorney’s Office spokesman, declined to comment on why the charges were dropped because of a continuing investigation.
In letters sent to the Sun Sentinel from the county jail, Post wrote that the officers lied.
Assistant Public Defender Kelly Murdock, Post’s new attorney, said the officers “beat Kenneth and then lied to cover up their unlawful behavior.”
“Hopefully, the arrests send a clear message that violence and perjury will not be tolerated,” Murdock said.
Post’s mug shot shows several facial injuries, and officers wrote that they had to fight him to arrest him after the crash.
Florenco’s attorney, Howard Greitzer, said all three officers will aggressively fight the charges. Moceri’s and Florenco’s names came up in the November arrests of officers Brian Dodge and Billy Koepke, who are charged with kidnapping and stealing thousands of dollars from a suspect. Moceri and Florenco were not charged in that case but Greitzer suggested their arrests were linked to “an agenda” about sworn statements they gave that were supportive of Dodge and Koepke.
“I think the state is misguided in their approach,” Greitzer said. “Mr Post … has come up with a story that I look forward to a court and jury hearing so they can vindicate my client and the other officers.”
Moceri’s lawyer, Anthony Livoti Jr., also said his client and the other officers did nothing wrong. “They were called to the scene, they weren’t even pursuing Post.”
Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Travis Mandell said he couldn’t comment on the open investigation of the officers but confirmed that Florenco, Moceri and Shaffer, have been relieved from duty with pay.
Source:www.wptv.com
Memphis police charge man with shooting security officer in the head www.privateofficer.com
Memphis TN June 1 2012 Police on Wednesday charged an 18-year-old Memphis man in the shooting of a security guard one week earlier at an apartment complex in the Parkway Village area.
Investigators charged Bernard Johnson with attempted first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. Johnson was held in Shelby County Jail on $2.5 million bond.
About 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the security guard, 41, was shot in the head at the Camelot apartments, according to police. Officers found the guard, who works for Central Defense, on the ground by a security booth at Camelot and Ashwood.
His gun, a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, was stolen in the attack, according to a court affidavit filed by investigators. Police initially reported that three men may have been involved in the crime.
The victim identified Johnson as the man who shot him in the head, and Johnson confessed to taking the guard’s gun after the shooting, according to the court document.
Boston men charged in shoplifting incident www.privateofficer.com
Since their business was crime, police allege, they were also provided overnight accommodations.
Jamaal Marcelle, 21, and Stefan Stiell, 23, both with South Boston addresses, were arraigned Wednesday in District Court, charged with shoplifting and misleading police.
Marcelle was also charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
The case began at 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, when security at a store in the New Harbour Mall called police to report several people taking merchandise from Walmart and dumping it into the trunk of a parked Nissan Maxima.
Officers converged on the scene and surrounded the car. When they did, two men took off running — one south, toward Staples, and one north, into Kmart, also in the mall.
Marcelle was the one running into the mall, police alleged.
Stiell, they said, was at the car and was arrested there.
He was clearly part of the conspiracy to steal, prosecutor Carolyn Morrissette said at Stiell’s arraignment on Wednesday.
“He was outside with the car,” she said. “When the store manager came out to look at the car, he began texting others.”
Meanwhile, Marcelle, police alleged, ran into Kmart and stopped to replace his white T-shirt with a striped shirt before running out the other exit into the mall.
Police said they knew that because officers on the scene had asked the dispatchers to call Kmart security, who began watching Marcelle on security cameras when he entered the store.
As he ran into the mall, police said, he was met by Officer James Costa, who made the arrest.
A third man took off south, leaving the mall property and running down a power line easement toward Tiverton, according to police.
While he was doing that, Tiverton Police moved in, covering the state line.
Somewhere between the mall and the state line, the man disappeared. He was not captured.
Stiell and Marcelle were held overnight in jail and arraigned Wednesday before District Court Judge Kevin Finnerty.
Stiell was ordered held on a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Defense lawyer Stephanie Volovik asked the judge to set nominal bail on the Fall River Charges. Bail was set at $100 cash.
Marcelle was released on bail.
Stiell is due back in court on June 27 for a pretrial hearing. Marcelle’s pretrial hearing is set for June 28.
Both will face the charges in District Court.
Source:www.heraldnews.com
Gun found at Tri-Cities Regional Airport www.privateofficer.com
Kingsport TN June 1 2012 The Transportation Security Administration discovered a firearm at the security checkpoint at Tri-Cities Regional Airport this morning.
At approximately 6:30 a.m., a .380 Ruger pistol, with five rounds in a separate clip, was discovered in a passenger’s carry-on bag.
Airport police were alerted and took possession of the firearm and ammunition.
While firearms may be transported in checked baggage–provided they are declared to the airline, in a proper carrying case and unloaded–they are prohibited in carry-on bags.
Information about the proper transport of firearms is available on the TSA Web site.
“Passengers are responsible for the contents of bags they bring to the security checkpoint,” said Jon Allen, TSA spokesman.
“Our advice to passengers is to look through bags thoroughly before coming to the airport to make sure there are no illegal or prohibited items.”
Passengers who bring firearms to a checkpoint face a civil penalty from TSA.
Nationwide, more than 1,300 firearms were discovered at TSA checkpoints during 2011. This is the first firearm discovered at the Tri-Cities checkpoint this year.
Connecticut tribe police force want to patrol adjoining casino www.privateofficer.com
LEDYARD, Conn.June 1 2012 – A Connecticut tribe is moving to give its own police department a larger role inside its Foxwoods Resort Casino, but several former department employees say it can barely manage to patrol the tiny reservation, let alone the Western Hemisphere’s largest casino.
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation officers drive cruisers and carry guns, but the former employees say they resemble private security guards more than agents of the law. The department takes orders directly from tribal council members, blocks officers from pursuing investigations and has turned a blind eye to the sale of illegal drugs, ex-officers said in interviews with The Associated Press.
“The chief doesn’t want tribal members to be investigated, to be prosecuted in any way, because then it comes back on him,” said Steve Saucier, who worked part-time for the department until leaving in November. “If we do arrest somebody and it goes to tribal court, they throw it out. It does absolutely nothing.”
The tribe has been pressing for its own police to replace state troopers in the casino — a change that could bring millions of dollars in savings annually for the Pequots, who have to reimburse the state for security coverage and are struggling with more than $2 billion in debt. The office of Connecticut’s governor, which wants to put more troopers on the roads, has already reduced the security bill conditionally as it waits for tribal officers to obtain certifications they would need to be able to arrest non-tribal members.
In response to the AP’s findings, Mike Lawlor, the governor’s liaison on criminal justice policy, said the agreement depends on tribal police agreeing to abide by the state’s standards. He said state attorneys are working out how to determine whether and when the tribe is ready.
“It’s definitely in their interest to get them into a position where they would have full-fledged powers,” Lawlor said. “If they don’t, they won’t get them.”
The tribal council defended its police force.
“The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Police force is fully trained and very competent to continue the policing of our gaming enterprise,” the council said in a written statement.
One of the most pressing obstacles would be manpower.
The Pequots told the Connecticut governor’s office as part of their proposal in July 2011 that they have 15 police officers, according to documents obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request.
But the tribal police currently have only nine officers, including the chief and two officers who recently joined from a training academy, according to two tribal government employees who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal affairs. Former officers say the department is stretched so thin that officers can barely cover shifts and emergency calls about fights and domestic disputes at times have to wait. Roughly 900 tribal members live in and around the Pequots’ two-square-mile reservation. Some tribal officers have American Indian heritage but they are not required to be Pequot members.
“There were calls we couldn’t get to right away, calls that had to wait because we didn’t have any officers to send,” said Robert Standeford, who left the tribal police in 2010 after a decade of service. “I always called for state backup when we needed it, but that wasn’t a practice they wanted.”
The chief of tribal police is Daniel Collins, a Marine Corps veteran who requires that officers salute him. The tribe did not respond to requests to interview Collins.
Several former officers said the chief takes instructions directly from tribal members. They say he did not direct officers not to arrest certain individuals, but would classify sensitive cases as investigations and allow them to languish indefinitely.
In one case, Standeford said, the police chief told officers not to pursue what could have been a major drug bust. The tribe was holding an annual outdoor celebration about five years ago in a part of the reservation known as Stump Mountain when officers stopped a man with a large baggie full of marijuana. The man told officers he got the drugs from a white van that was loaded with marijuana. But Standeford said the chief told officers to release the man, had them dump the drugs on the ground and spoke with the van driver, who then drove off the reservation.
“You don’t just dump drugs when you tell everyone in the community we’re working to make it better,” he said.
Foxwoods, which receives tens of thousands of visitors daily, currently has state troopers stationed around the clock inside the casino, where they made 181 arrests in 2010, mostly for assault or larceny. The Pequots have been required to pay $4 million annually for the services of the state Department of Public Safety including about state 20 troopers, who are backed by tribal police and a large private security force.
In letters to state government officials last summer, tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said the Pequots would no longer pay for troopers to be stationed in the casino, and said the tribe would pursue a lawsuit if an agreement was not reached with the governor’s office.
Ultimately, the state agreed to reduce assessments for the Pequots as well as the Mohegan Tribe, which owns the nearby Mohegan Sun casino. Lawlor said the Mohegan police have the certifications needed to assume a larger role as soon as the paperwork is processed, but he said it would take longer for the Pequots’ police.
Tom Olsen, a police officer for the neighboring town of Ledyard who worked for Pequot police in the 1990s, said tribal officers have struggled with many of the same issues for years.
“The administration of that police department has to answer in a different way that a town’s department would. They are beholden to what the council might say because they hold the purse strings,” he said. “The bottom line is there are different rules there.”
Source:www.foxnews.com
San Jose elementary schoolteacher arrested on child porn charges www.privateofficer.com
San Jose CA June 1 2012 A San Jose elementary schoolteacher was arrested at his home on Wednesday on suspicion of possessing and manufacturing child pornography, but school officials said they’ve been told there’s no indication any students in the district were victims.
Milpitas police arrested Johnny Urias, 50, at his home on Merry Lane in San Jose after a nine-month investigation that saw computers seized and scrutinized when police received a report that Urias was in possession of child porn.
Last September, the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District where Urias taught placed him on leave when told about the investigation.
The district issued a news release late Wednesday that said Milpitas police are “actively investigating the possibility that the same staff member committed lewd acts with students.”
However, it added that according to San Jose police, who are helping with the investigation, “there are no known incidents of reported sexual abuse by the staff member at Will Rogers Elementary.”
The release states that the district is working closely with police, looking at the chance there may be unreported victims, but have previously not made a public statement in order not to compromise the investigation.
According to the district’s website, Urias taught first and second grades at the school.
Alum Rock Union school board President Esau Ruiz Herrera said the district “took the allegations very seriously” when they were brought to light.
“We took immediate action pending further investigation,” he said.
Herrera said that while “we’re pleased that law enforcement moved ahead” with the investigation, “we didn’t wait on them. We took action on our own, and there is no indication that the safety of any of our kids was compromised.”
He said nothing indicated Urias was “anything other than a good individual.”
“Regretfully, he seems to have made some sad and unwise decisions,” he said. “We expect the legal system to run its course.”
Search warrants were served at Urias’ previous home in Milpitas, his current home in San Jose, his classroom and vehicle. Several computers were held as evidence and sent to the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for examination as the investigation continued.
This month, Milpitas detectives developed the cause they needed for arrest. He was booked at the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.
Another search warrant was served at Urias’ home in search of further evidence.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Milpitas police at 408-586-2400. Anonymous tips can be made at 408-586-2500.
source-mercury news
Exempt or non exempt boils down to simple facts www.privateofficer.com
Were Security Guards Exempt or Nonexempt?
Four New Mexico security guards, all classified as executives exempt from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sued, challenging their classification. They have a mix of managerial and nonmanagerial duties, and sorting out their proper classification isn’t easy. No surprise—all wanted overtime pay.
The guards work for Day & Zimmerman and SOC, contractors that provide security at Los Alamos National Laboratory. They are organized in a hierarchical, military-style structure, with supervisors carrying such ranks as major, captain, and lieutenant. The lowest-level guards are unionized, nonexempt, and wear uniforms.
Field supervisors also wear uniforms and must maintain the same certifications as the lowest level, including training as first responders, on respirators, and on hazardous materials. But they also need some supervisory experience and training in leadership, management, and administration.
A judge in federal district court granted SOC’s request for summary judgment, thus rejecting the field supervisors’ claims of misclassification. They appealed to the 10th Circuit, which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.
What the court said. Appellate judges reviewed the duties of the supervisor with the rank of major, finding that he led the daily briefing of subordinate officers, spent about 3 hours a day distributing and collecting weapons from subordinate officers, and spent the bulk of his time in headquarters, supervising the entire shift. Judges ruled that “it is clear that his management duties are primary,” and agreed with the district judge that he deserves the executive exemption.
Regarding the other three plaintiffs, however, they said, “Because the primary duty determination is a factual one, summary judgment is appropriate only if all reasonable factfinders would conclude that the managerial portions of plaintiffs’ jobs are their ‘primary duties.’” And, that was not the case, in judges’ view.
For example, the lieutenant ensures daily that all posts are staffed properly and fills in if one is empty. He visually inspects and assesses subordinate officers. He must also respond to any alarm. Are those his primary duties, and are they managerial? Judges directed the district court to carefully explore and answer those questions about each of the other three plaintiffs. Maestas et al. v. Day & Zimmerman and SOC, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, No. 10-2280 (2012).
Point to remember: For proper classification, judges stressed, questions often cannot be answered based only on FLSA language. Instead, each worker’s duties must be analyzed.
Man Says He Was Beaten in Greektown Casino Parking Garage ww.privateofficer.com
Tracy Hamilton and his girlfriend, April, say they had just driven onto the twelfth floor of the Greektown Casino parking structure about 1:30 Sunday morning. They had planned to go into the casino.
“We never made it in there. We were just arriving. We’re on the twelfth floor. We pull in. First there [were] two guys that [came] up and they’re urinating in front of the car,” said Hamilton.
“He asked them to have some respect and go somewhere else,” said April Grifka.
The couple says the two guys began pummeling Hamilton with punches and kicks. Then approximately eight other men also jumped out of cars and quickly joined in beating Hamilton.
“I got a broken knee. My face is fractured. It’s going to be a long recovery. I got to get surgery.”
“I’d say like five of them were kicking him everywhere, in his head, in his back, in his legs, and the other three or four [were] down on his face just pounding on his face over and over,” Grifka explained.
The couple says there were other people in parked cars who did not get out.
“I tried to hit them with my purse. I poured pop in one of their eyes. I tried to do everything to stop them and at the end I just started begging and screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Please just stop. Please just stop. You’re killing him.’”
Finally the men left. Hamilton and Grifka say casino security, Detroit Police and Detroit Fire-EMS arrived after the incident. EMS took Hamilton to Detroit Receiving Hospital. He was admitted and spent two days there.
“When the cops came and the ambulance came, one of the ladies from the casino came out and said, ‘I found your purse, but it was empty laying on the third floor.’”
The couple’s wallets, cash and credit cards are all missing.
The couple told police the ten guys were all white and approximately 25 to 30 years old.
We contacted Greektown Casino and Detroit Police. They are looking into this matter.
The couple believes there is surveillance video from the casino that will support their story.
source-myfoxdetroit.com
Baltimore college student accused of killing roommate, eating his heart and brain www.privateofficer.com
BALTIMORE MD June 1 2012 (AP) — A 21-year-old college student accused of killing a housemate told police he ate the victim’s heart and part of his brain after he died.
Alexander Kinyua hid the head and hands of the dead man in his family’s basement laundry room in a suburb of Baltimore, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Kinyua, a student at Morgan State University, was charged earlier in May in another attack in which the victim was brutally beaten but survived.
Kinyua, a Kenya native, is charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie. He was ordered held on no bail.
His public defender did not return a call seeking comment, and a voicemail left at Kinyua’s home was not returned.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Monica Worrell said the chief medical examiner had not yet officially identified the body parts, but that authorities believe they are those of Kodie, who was reported missing May 25. His cellphone and wallet were left in the home and police were initially told he had gone for a run.
On Tuesday, Kinyua’s father, Antony Kinyua, called detectives and reported that another son, Jarrod, found what he thought were human remains in the house where they all lived in Joppatowne.
Jarrod found two metal tins, which held a human head and two human hands. Police say Jarrod confronted his brother, who said the remains were animals.
According to charging documents, Jarrod and his father went to the basement, where Jarrod “observed that the items he observed were gone and Alex Kinyua was cleaning the container he observed them in.”
Detectives obtained a search warrant and found the head and hands in the house. Police say Alexander Kinyua admitted to killing Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and eating his heart and part of his brain.
Authorities say Kinyua told detectives the rest of the body could be found in a trash container at the Town Baptist Church in Harford County where they discovered remains.
The attack comes in the same week as a man in Miami chewed away another man’s face along a busy highway and wouldn’t stop until an officer shot him to death. Witnesses say 31-year-old Rudy Eugene growled at the officer and continued to chew away. The victim, identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, a homeless man who lived under the causeway, was in critical condition and will be permanently disfigured.
On May 19, Kinyua beat a man with a baseball bat on Morgan’s campus, fracturing his skull and making him lose sight in one eye, according to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Kinyua was arrested May 20 and released on $220,000 bail.
Morgan officials say Kinyua studied electrical engineering and was also in the ROTC.
According to court records, the victim, Kodie, a native of Ghana, was convicted in November 2008 in Baltimore County of sex offense and assault in September 2007 and harassment, stalking and telephone misuse for making repeated calls in 2007 and 2008 to a woman.
He was sentenced to at least a year and a half in jail.
Methamphetamine and alcohol charges ends Alabama teachers career www.privateofficer.com
Houston County sheriff’s deputies say 32-year-old Jason Allen Andrews was arrested on drug charges after being pulled over during a traffic stop. He’s also charged with possession of moonshine.
The Dothan Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/LMtnPG) that Andrews is a science teacher at Ashford High School in southeast Alabama. But Houston County Superintendent Tim Pitchford says Andrews is now on leave and likely won’t have his contract renewed after a review on Friday.
Pitchford also says a county background check didn’t detect Andrews’ past arrest on theft charges in 2005 because that case was dismissed.
Court records don’t show whether Andrews has hired an attorney.
Violent teenage shoplifter attacks security, injures others www.privateofficer.com
ELYRIA OH June 1 2012 — A determined juvenile shoplifter bit two security officers and injured others while trying to flee police about 3 p.m. May 28 at the Target store on Market Drive, according to a Elyria police report.
The 16-year-old Elyria shoplifter stuffed clothes in her purse and tried to leave without paying for them, police said. When approached by security, she ran and pushed Loss prevention officer Brandon Sprague into a concrete trash can. As officers handcuffed her, she bit Sprague and Target Protection Specialist Adam Delestathis on the arm, police said.
Loss prevention officer Brent Krumrei had a minor scratch to his left hand and an abrasion to his left elbow when he tried to help restrain her, the report stated.
She was taken to Lorain County Detention Home and advised of her court date.
Officers found shorts, a tank top, T-shirts, tube top and bikini in her purse. The total of the items is $68.96. The trash can the officer was pushed into was destroyed and will cost $700 to replace. The incident was caught on a security video.
source-morningjournal
Former Secret Service agent arrested for trying to hire someone to kidnap a judge www.privateofficer.com
Oconee County SC June 1 2012 The race for sheriff in Oconee County took a bizarre turn Wednesday with the arrest of Republican candidate James Bartee for trying to hire someone to kidnap a retired S.C. circuit judge. Bartee is one of four candidates competing June 12 to be the Republican nominee in November for Oconee County sheriff.
The former Secret Service agent’s qualification for the office was challenged by retired S.C. Circuit Judge James C. Williams Jr. Williams had sued to get Bartee off the ballot, arguing Bartee is not a “certified law enforcement officer” under S.C. law and therefore can’t run for sheriff. A court hearing was to have been held Wednesday on the case in Anderson. The hearing was under way when Bartee was arrested by State Law Enforcement Division agents at the courthouse, according to The Independent Mail of Anderson.
Bartee was charged with “solicitation to commit a felony.” According to the arrest warrant, Bartee tried to “encourage and solicit an individual” to kidnap Williams. He allegedly gave that individual money to purchase items needed in the kidnapping. SLED said evidence includes audio of the solicitation.
Bartee’s campaign website touts his 25 years as an agent with the U.S. Secret Service. He retired in 2000 after stints with the Presidential Protection Division during the George Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, the site says.
Under a section titled “Questions and Concerns,” Bartee has posted a letter purportedly from the general counsel of the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy that spells out how former federal law enforcement officers “in almost all cases can become certified in South Carolina” as required by law. Candidates can’t receive the training until they are employed by a law enforcement agency in the state, the letter states.
Bartee posted the following on his FaceBook page:
James Bartee wants all to know that he is legally on the ballot and deserves to be on the ballot. He was certified in 1983 when he graduated from two of the finest law enforcement academies in the world, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, GA and the US Secret Service Academy in Washington, DC and Beltsville, MD.
Bartee, who has lived in Oconee County since 2000, owns a private investigator business and a martial arts studio. He announced his candidacy for sheriff in September 2011.
Bartee was being held in the Anderson County Detention Center Wednesday night.
Source:www.thestate.com
