This Week's Adventures in Law Enforcement

Stearns sheriff's sergeant arrested, jailed

BY KARI PETRIE • KPETRIE@STCLOUDTIMES.COM • APRIL 2, 2010

A Stearns County Sheriff’s sergeant was arrested Friday after an investigation into allegations of criminal sexual conduct, Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said tonight.

Phil Meemken is in Crow Wing County Jail, Sanner said. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension led the investigation of the allegations.

Meemken has been on paid administrative leave since December. At the time Sanner said the allegations had to do with off-duty conduct.

The BCA said it will release more information about the arrest this evening.

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20100402/NEWS01/104020049/1009/Stearns-sheriff-s-sergeant-arrested--jailed

Officer Involved In Crash Charged In Drug Case

DES MOINES, Iowa --

A Pleasant Hill police supervisor was charged with drug possession Friday following a crash in a marked police vehicle on Thursday.

Pleasant Hill police Sgt. Dan Edwards, 42, is charged with possession of a controlled substance. Sources tell KCCI the substance was a small amount of methamphetamine.
On Thursday afternoon, Edwards’ marked police SUV left the Highway 65 bypass, and descended down an embankment. Medics rushed the officer by air ambulance to a Des Moines hospital, where the officer was treated and released.

On Thursday night, Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tim Sittig told KCCI that Edwards did not remember much about the crash. Sittig said he thought Edwards may have been on his way to assist with a traffic stop and was on duty when the crash happened. Sittig said Edwards hit a second vehicle and then the bridge.

Sources tell KCCI that shortly after the crash, investigators launched a criminal probe after finding a small amount of a controlled substance. The criminal investigation included a search warrant. Investigators sought drug tests from the officer, but the results have not been disclosed.

Edwards is a sergeant assigned to the patrol division who was promoted in May of 2009.

Sittig said Edwards has been placed on paid administrative, which is departmental policy. Edwards is a 10-year veteran of the police force.

When asked by a reporter if Edwards had ever had a drug test, Sittig said, "No."

Sittig said it could take several weeks for test results to come back in the case. Officials said Edwards is embarrassed and humbled by the incident.

In conjunction with the investigation being conducted by the Iowa State Patrol and Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement involving Edwards, the Pleasant Hill Police Department has requested assistance from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Edwards is scheduled to have his initial appearance on April 9.

Look for more on this developing story on KCCI-TV and here on KCCI.com.

http://www.kcci.com/news/23037449/detail.html

Euclid settles police Taser suit
Published: Friday, April 02, 2010

By Staff report

The city of Euclid has settled an excessive force lawsuit against police without admitting liability.

Vaughn McCline filed suit in U.S. District Court in 2007 claiming he was handcuffed and sitting on the ground when Euclid Police Officer David Roose Tasered him.

According to the suit, McCline — who claims he has mental health issues — was asked to leave his cousin's Euclid apartment on Sept. 15, 2006. His cousin called 911 during the verbal argument. Roose said the suspect appeared intoxicated and did not show both of his hands right away.

The officer said he was then forced to Taser McCline twice in the right thigh because he did not immediately get into the patrol car.

McCline claimed his arthritis made it difficult for him to cooperate with that request.

"A Taser's supposed to be used to neutralize an immediate threat of force from a person," said his attorney, William Saks. "In this case, they just used it to force a man to stand up who couldn't stand up."

Euclid Law Director Chris Frey said details of the settlement are under seal before U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells, but that the amount was nominal.

"We made an economic decision to settle the matter for a nuisance value," Frey said.

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/04/02/news/nh2312230.txt

Sheriff's department launches internal investigation after deputies enter woman's home

17 News discovered a youtube video of Kern County Sheriff's Deputies and a bail bonds enforcement officer entering a local woman's home after she told them they couldn't come in without a warrant and her consent. With the evidence she caught on tape, the law seems to be on her side.

"I don't need a warrant," the bondsman said as he appeared to enter on his own into the home from a back door on the youtube video.

There were also sheriff's deputies at the front door. Deputies and bail bond enforcement officials have different laws but a local bail bondsman not affiliate with this case said what happened in this case was against the law.

"If you see the person go in, you can go in," Glenn Pierce, the owner of Gotta Go Bail Bonds said. "But you just can't go in randomly."

The woman who lived at the home told 17 News her name is Star. She said she is in hiding because threats were made against her. She also said deputies and the bail bondsman violated her rights by forcing entry into her home after she stated she was the only one there.

Attorney H.A. Sala says based on the video evidence, the Sheriff's Department could have a lawsuit on its hands because of the way they forced into the home without any knowledge of the wanted person being in the home. "They have to knock, state a purpose, say they have a warrant and give time for the person to surrender," Sala said.

Authorities were looking for Joseph Baker who was arrested for battery on a peace officer in September. They were also looking for a man named Alan Gjurovich because he co-signed on Baker's bail bond which Baker forfeited by not showing up in court. Gjurovich is in hiding but spoke to 17 News by phone. He said the sheriff's department is trying to stop him from filing a lawsuit against the county that could damage county judge and clerks' credibility.

"They're trying to scare us out of town and out of the county," Gjurovich said. "The message I was getting, they were giving us a 48 hour ultimatum--give them what they want on Joe Baker or they will personally come down and arrest me."

Sheriff Donny Youngblood confirmed the deputies in the video are from the Kern County Sheriff's Department, but he said he can't comment because an internal affairs investigation is being launched.

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Sheriffs-department-launches-internal/V6wT6LFFpke93tb_h6XCLg.cspx

Macon police officer had sex with spa worker, says woman’s lawyer
By AMY LEIGH WOMACK - awomack@macon.com

A Macon attorney is filing a motion asking a judge to require a Macon police officer to submit a DNA sample following a March raid at Tokyo Health Spa, 2790 Riverside Drive.
Reza Sedghi, the attorney representing 29-year-old Sun Ah Cho, alleges a police officer solicited oral sex and engaged in oral sex with Cho on March 3.


The officer called for backup after the sexual encounter was over. Once Cho realized her client was an officer, she grabbed a condom used in the sex act and put it in a freezer, Sedghi said.
As a result, Sedghi’s office sent the sample off for DNA testing and wants a sample of the officer’s DNA.

Although Macon police Sgt. Mike Kenirey wouldn’t discuss the details of the raid, he said “the officer acted appropriately” and “all the details of the case will come out in court.”

In some of the previous raids, the women at the massage parlors have been “aggressive” with some of the officers, Kenirey said.

In the March 3 raid, Cho solicited an undercover officer for oral sex in exchange for money, according to a police report released this week.

Undercover officers are instructed to immediately call a supervisor or case investigator when a violation occurs, Kenirey said.

“At no point are they to engage in any sex-related activity,” he said.

In prostitution cases, the mere offering of sex is enough for an arrest, Kenirey said.

But Sedghi said if Cho engaged in a criminal act, the officer also participated.

“Something tells me this isn’t the first time,” he said. “You’ve got to wonder about that.”


http://www.macon.com/2010/04/02/1080489/police-officer-had-sex-with-spa.htmlZ

New Rochelle to pay $75,000 to settle police brutality case
BY HANNAN ADELY • HADELY@LOHUD.COM • MARCH 31, 2010

NEW ROCHELLE — The city has agreed to pay $75,000 to a Staten Island man who claimed he was brutally beaten by police outside a New Rochelle bar more than four years ago.

Zane Taranto sued the city, its police department, Police Officer Timothy Adrian and five unnamed police officers in federal court claiming his civil rights were violated.

In his complaint, Taranto said he was outside O'Brien's Bar on North Avenue on Oct. 30, 2005, when police responded to the scene of a fight between two people. Taranto, who was 19 and a student at Iona College at the time, said he was struck by a police flashlight and began yelling and cursing at the police.

He said police then threw him against a brick wall and Adrian slammed his face into a steel parking meter. Taranto claimed police, including Adrian, then stomped on him while he lay on the sidewalk.

Taranto said his injuries included facial trauma, fractures and dislocation and that he needed surgery and medical care as a result.

In a Journal News report about the incident, police claimed Taranto had hit Adrian on the side of the head and that both were knocked down by the crowd, leading Taranto to strike his head on a parking meter.

Eight Iona College students were arrested outside O'Brien's in the melee, including Taranto, who was later convicted of two counts of disorderly conduct.

In court papers, city officials denied the charges against police. Still, the case was settled and the City Council approved the agreement at its March 23 meeting.


Taranto declined to comment on the case's resolution and his attorney did not return calls seeking comment.

New Rochelle Corporation Counsel Kathleen Gill also declined comment, saying the parties had signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement.

Gill did say that Adrian, who was named Officer of the Year in 2005, did not face disciplinary action.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20100331/NEWS02/3310335/-1/newsfront/New-Rochelle-to-pay--75-000-to-settle-police-brutality-case

Prosecutor Joined in Torture, Freed Man Says
By BRIDGET FREELAND

CHICAGO (CN) - A man says he spent 21 years in prison after Chicago Police detectives and an assistant state's attorney tortured a co-suspect into a false confession of a quintuple murder. Marvin Reeves, who was freed in July 2009, says Police Commander Jon Burge, Assistant State's Attorney Mark Lukanich and others tortured Ronald Kitchen "for hours." Burge was fired in 1993 and is scheduled for trial in May on federal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Reeves says the torture squad also fabricated evidence and based the case on the testimony of a felon.
In his federal complaint, Reeves says Burge pushed his detectives to "solve" crimes faster, through torture and other depraved tactics, to "enhance their personal standing" in the department.

In August 1988, Reeves says he and Ronald Kitchen were falsely accused of killing two women and three children, who died in a fire in their home. Reeves says the husband, brother-in-law and lover of one of the murdered women all failed polygraph tests in the investigation.

Reeves that a felon named Willie Williams called the police from jail, demanded favors, and claimed that Reeves and Kitchen told him that they had killed the victims to settle a drug debt. He says the police ordered Williams to call Reeves and Kitchen while they listened in, but neither one "ever said a word on these calls implicating themselves in the murders." He adds that the police destroyed the "vast majority of those exculpatory call transcripts and recordings".

Reeves says that in a "brutal and sadistic" torture session, detectives "beat Kitchen with a blackjack, a telephone, and a telephone book; kicked and punched him repeatedly over several hours," and finally "succeeded in torturing a false confession from Mr. Kitchen, who falsely implicated himself and Mr. Reeves in the murders."

Officers Burge, Michael Kill, Thomas Byron, John Smith, and others participated in the torture, according to the 35-page complaint.

"Defendant Lukanich participated in these torture sessions as one of Mr. Kitchen's interrogators," according to the complaint.

Reeves was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was retried in 1997 and was found guilty again on the basis of Williams' testimony, he says.

Reeves was granted a new trial after the Illinois attorney general found that Williams had been put in a work-release program and was paid $800 by the government to move his family at the request of the police, according to the complaint.

Reeves was cleared of the murders and freed from prison in July 2009.

Reeves says the torture and abuse used to "solve" crimes were practiced by the Chicago Police under Burge throughout the 1980s, and that there are 90 known victims, 14 of whom ended up on Death Row. Most of the torture victims were African-American men.

Reeves was a 29-year-old father when he was convicted.

The Rest: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/04/01/26060.htm

Man who alleged police brutality found dead Wednesday


By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Published: 3/31/2010 9:24 PM
Last Modified: 4/1/2010 4:38 PM

Norman police found a man dead in a Norman apartment Wednesday, two days after he sent a formal complaint to the Tulsa Police Department alleging that officers beat him outside a Tulsa gay club early Saturday.

Keith Kimmel, 28, made headlines statewide in February after he filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Tax Commission for not granting his application for a personalized license plate that said “IM GAY.”

The Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet determined Kimmel’s cause or manner of death, a spokeswoman reported. Police said his death remains under investigation.

Norman police officers responded to a Norman apartment Wednesday morning after a resident found Kimmel dead. He apparently had stayed the night at the residence, according to Norman police.

Tulsa Police Capt. Jonathan Brooks said the Tulsa Police Department had received a formal complaint from Kimmel related to an incident in Tulsa early Saturday and have begun an Internal Affairs investigation.

Brooks said both the formal complaint and a phone complaint made by Kimmel are part of the investigation and cannot be released at this time.

However, Kimmel had placed a link to the complaint on his blog. In it, he accused several unnamed Tulsa officers of misconduct, brutality, excessive force and lack of professionalism after he apparently was thrown out of the End Up Club at 5336 E. Admiral Place.

The club’s owner, Blake Alterman, said he was not at the bar Friday night but had learned from his staff that Kimmel was involved in an altercation inside the bar and refused to leave.

As part of the club’s policy, an employee called the police, Alterman said.

Alterman was not aware of anyone who might have witnessed Kimmel’s interaction with police officers after he was taken out of the club, he said.

Alterman said he understood that “the door was closed, and it was just him and the police.”

In his formal complaint, Kimmel alleges that officers tried to push him into a patrol car but that because of his large size, he wouldn’t fit. “They hit my head on the door frame several times” and bent his neck “at odd angles,” he wrote.

Officers then dragged him on his stomach to a van and then, as they tried to get him into that vehicle, they punched him several times in his groin area, Kimmel alleged.

Kimmel was later taken from the van and put into an ambulance, he wrote.

He further alleges that officers made crude remarks about his weight and sexual orientation.

He included photographs of his injuries with his formal complaint.

Brooks said no police incident report was filed regarding any crime at the End Up Club this weekend and that no arrests were made there. However, Brooks said officers did respond to the club at 12:08 a.m. Saturday after a 911 caller reported a disturbance there.

The customer causing the disturbance was reported to be a white male, Brooks said.

Between 12:08 a.m. and about 12:30 a.m., eight officers responded to the call, he said.

After arriving at the scene, police requested a transport van and then called EMSA to the scene, Brooks said.

EMSA spokesman Chris Stevens said an ambulance was called by Tulsa police to the End Up Club about 1 a.m. and transported a person to St. John Medical Center.

In his complaint, Kimmel wrote that he woke up at St. John on Saturday and spoke to a security officer, who told Kimmel that there was no hold on him and that he was free to leave.

The Tulsa Police Department’s internal investigation is waiting for the medical examiner’s report on Kimmel’s death, Brooks said. Since a death is involved, the investigation will be expedited, he said.

Toby Jenkins, president of Oklahomans for Equality in Tulsa, said he had known Kimmel.

“Keith Kimmel impacted so many of our lives and addressed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in his own unique style,” Jenkins said. “We pray for his family and friends, that they will find comfort.”


http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100331_11_0_Norman222716&allcom=1