Bad Cop, No Donut! - week of March 16th, 2006 THEME I'm Ron Anicich with your weekly wrap-up of north American police brutality, misconduct and corruption. Here is a look at some of what your money paid for this week. ACTU A sheriff's deputy in San Bernardino County, California, was charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter last Tuesday. An Associated Press report says that deputy Ivory Webb was videotaped shooting an Air Force security officer after a police chase on January 29th. He shot the man as he was obeying Webb's command to stand up. Webb has been on administrative leave since the shooting while an internal investigation and an FBI investigation were conducted. He faces almost 20 years in prison if he is convicted. This is the first time in San Bernardino County history that a peace officer has been charged in connection with an on-duty shooting. A San Diego, California, police officer pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit rape last Friday. The San Diego Union Tribune says that officer Michael Osuna was accused of trying to rape a female relative who he was living with in front of her 5 year old child in July 2005. In exchange for his guilty plea several other charges against Osuna were dropped. Those charges included forcible rape, attempted forced oral copulation, false imprisonment by violence and child abuse. Osuna resigned from his job within weeks of his arrest. He is expected to be sentenced to one year in jail in April. A police officer in Long Beach, California, pleaded guilty to forgery last Thursday. The Long Beach Press-Telegram says that officer Richard Rivero was arrested last October after he was accused of stealing a blank cheque from a vehicle he had impounded. He then cashed a forged cheque for 500 dollars at a liquor store. He was originally charged with two counts of forgery, two counts of burglary and one count of attempted grand theft. Under the term of an agreement with prosecutors the other charges against Rivero have been dropped in exchange for the guilty plea to the single forgery charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30th. A police officer in El Cajon, California, who is accused of soliciting sex from women in exchange for their freedom pleaded guilty to all charges against him last Thursday. KGTV reports that officer William Taylor violated six women over a period of 18 months. He is charged with six counts of receiving bribes, two counts of rape with a foreign object, two counts of sexual battery and one count of attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime. Taylor is currently free on 250 thousand dollars bail and will appear in court next on April 20th. He has also been ordered not to have any contact with the women he abused. Taylor is facing 14 years in prison when he is sentenced. ACTU A Fresno County, California, sheriff's deputy was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday. KFSN reports that deputy Neil Edmiston was arrested in 2004 after investigators discovered that he had downloaded over 600 images of child pornography. In addition to the three years in prison Edmiston must also register as a sex offender, cannot operate a computer with internet access and will not be allowed to be alone with any minors except for family members who must be supervised by an adult. A Vancouver, British Columbia, police officer was charged with assault last week. The Globe and Mail says that sergeant Greg McCullough is accused of assaulting a man who he had taken into custody during an incident last October. McCullough claims he assaulted the man after the man spit on him. Spitting is considered assault under the Canadian Criminal Code but the man accused of spitting on the officer has not been charged. The Crown instead opted to charge McCullough with assault. The victim of the attack was treated for his injuries at a hospital but did not file a complaint. McCullough reported the assault to a supervisor himself. He is currently on administrative leave. A sheriff's deputy in Boulder County, Colorado was arrested on Tuesday and charged with two counts of unlawful sexual contact. KUSA reports that deputy Greg Schumann resigned from his job on Monday. In February a female friend of Schumann reported that she was inappropriately touched by him. Since that report another woman has come forward making a similar claim. Schumann's crime were reportedly committed while he was on duty and in uniform. He faces three years in prison if he is convicted on both charges. A police officer in St. Louis, Missouri, was fired on Saturday for punching a man in the face at a traffic stop. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that officer Christopher Nazetta was terminated by the St. Louis police board. Three witnesses saw Nazetta strike the man during a January 2005 traffic stop. He has been suspended twice in the past. He was suspended most recently last June for using pepper spray on a 69 year old woman. An Illinois State Trooper convicted of forcing a couple to strip at a traffic stop was sentenced to 6 months in jail last Thursday. The Chicago Tribune says that officer Jeremy Dozier was convicted of bribery and official misconduct in January. He was also sentenced to 30 months of probation and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. At his sentencing hearing a woman testified that she and her boyfriend were forced by Dozier to lie naked on the ground and make snow angels. Several other women described being sexually harassed by the officer. Dozier still has similar cases pending in other jurisdictions. A reserve sheriff's deputy in Dearborn County, Indiana, was arrested last Tuesday and charged with theft. WCPO reports that deputy Tracy Macintosh is accused of stealing two thousand dollars from a youth baseball league. He is accused of using some of the money to pay for a family vacation in Florida. Macintosh has been fired from his job as a deputy and as a school resource officer at an area high school. Two Hartford City. Indiana, police officers resigned from their jobs last Tuesday. The Muncie Star-Press reports that sergeant Kyle Hamilton and officer John Thompson resigned days after an investigation began looking into alleged acts of misconduct. The allegations against the officers involved an inappropriate on-duty relationship. No criminal charges are expected to be filed in the case. A Jackson, Ohio, police officer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a charge that he sexually abused a female relative. The Canton Repository says that officer Thomas Wyatt was charged with one count of sexual imposition. He is accused of engaging in sexual activity with an underage female relative between 2001 and 2003. The relative - now an adult - reported the abuse in December. Wyatt faced a possible 60 days in prison when he is sentenced on April 24th and will be forced to register as a sex offender. Wyatt has resigned from his job. The former chief of police in West Salem, Ohio, was sentenced to four years in prison last Wednesday after pleading guilty to child molestation charges. WKYC reports that Richard Leiby was accused of a number of charges connected to the sexual abuse of two girls - one 10 years old, the other 12. Leiby is also forced to register as a sex offender when he is released. A Niagara Regional Police officer in Renfrew, Ontario, was charged with possession of child pornography on Monday. The Buffalo News reports that officer Jeffrey Cross was already facing an assault causing bodily harm charge in connection with an incident last July. Police discovered the child pornography on Cross's computer after it was seized in November. The sheriff of Nantucket County, Massachusetts, was arrested last Friday for violating a restraining order. The Nantucket Island Inquirer and Mirror reports that sheriff Richard Bretschneider is charged with violating a domestic violence restraining order. A judge granted the restraining order to his wife two weeks ago. The order prevented Bretschneider from contacting or coming with 25 feet of his wife or her residence. He is currently free but has been forced to turn in all of his firearms and ammunition. ACTU A Southington, Connecticut, police officer was arrested last Wednesday for stealing and reselling almost 20 thousand dollars worth of laptop computers. WVIT reports that officer Justin Levy worked with an employee at a store to steal 12 laptop computers and accessories and then helped the man sell the stolen goods. Two of the laptops were sold to Levy's fellow police officers. Levy has resigned from his job and is free on a five thousand dollar bond. He will appear in court next on March 20th. A police officer in Dallas, Pennsylvania, was arrested last Friday and charged with murdering his wife. The Times-Leader says that officer Jeff Dennis is accused of shooting his wife while she slept as retribution over an affair with a co-worker. Dennis had reported her February 27th death as a suicide. Evidence gathered by investigators at the crime scene contradicted the version of events Dennis had related. He claimed he was getting dressed when his wife shot herself. Evidence showed that she was sleeping on her stomach at the time she was shot. Dennis is on paid leave from his job. A police officer in Jackson, Pennsylvania, was arrested last Tuesday after he sold cocaine to an undercover investigator. WJAC reports that officer David Pilot became the focus of an investigation two months ago. Until 2004 Pilot worked as a member of the Cambia County drug task force. He is currently being held on a 100 thousand dollar bond. A Pennsylvania state trooper was charged last week with harassing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. WGAL reports that corporal Laurence Fisher is charged with one count of mailing obscene or sexual material and three counts of harassment. He has also been suspended from his job with pay. He is accused of using a law enforcement computer to find his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend's address by typing in his car's licence plate number. He then photocopied images from pornographic magazines and mailed them to the pair, sometimes with threatening typewritten notes. Fisher was found to have been the person who sent the letters by a DNA test of the envelopes they were mailed in. A police officer in Upper Moreland, Pennsylvania, was suspended for eight days on Monday. The Philadelphia Inquirer says that officer Brian McCauley was suspended after town council voted unanimously to support the police chief's recommendation to do so. Formally, McCauley was suspended for neglect of duty and/or conduct unbecoming an officer. The actual reasons for the suspension are not known. A Collier County, Florida, sheriff's deputy was arrested on Monday after investigators discovered child pornography on his home computer. WBBH reports that deputy Charles Green is charges with 69 child pornography related offences. Green was having his computer repaired at a repair shop when the man doing the work on his computer discovered a folder named "child porn" and then looked at the contents. He then called the police. The folder contained videos with names like "9 year old rape" and "child lover." Green is being held on an almost 200 thousand dollar bond. He was fired from his job immediately after his arrest. An investigation is continuing. Another Collier County, Florida, sheriff's deputy was charged last Thursday with lying to doctors in order to get prescription pain killers. The News-Press says that lieutenant Scott Anderson was already facing a charge of driving under the influence of a controlled substance for crashing his car three weeks ago in Naples. Prescription drugs were found in his car at the time of the crash. He is now also charged with three counts of withholding information from a medical practitioner in his attempt to get prescriptions for opiate-derived painkillers. Anderson was freed on 15 thousand dollars bail. He is currently suspended from his job with pay pending the results of an internal investigation. A Bartow, Florida, police officer was arrested last week for witness tampering. The Polk County Democrat says that officer Christopher Holle was the subject of an investigation regarding an inappropriate relationship with a 17 year old female. During the investigation it became known that Holle had told witnesses to deny any knowledge of a sexual relationship between the child and the officer. 19 witnesses were interviewed in the investigation including the girl's mother and all witnesses sais they had no knowledge of a sexual relationship between the two. During the investigation the child mother accompanied her chgild and the officer on a trip to South Carolina where the couple were married. Holle has been suspended with pay and the investigation is continuing. A police officer in Riviera, Florida, was arrested last Friday for abusing a child. The Palm Beach Post says that officer Kenneth Thomas has been charged with cruelty toward a child, abuse without harm and for assaulting a child with a belt. Thomas has been placed on paid leave while an investigation is conducted. A Slaton, Texas, police officer was arrested on Monday over a domestic assault which occurred almost two years ago. KLBK reports that officer Kristopher Ramos is charged with a domestic assault which occurred in May 2004. A police report taken at the time says that Ramos pushed his wife down and then placed his knee in her throat. An investigation of the incident was not started until mid-February of this year. The reason for the delay is not known. Ramos is currently free on a 20 thousand dollar bond and faces one year in prison and a four thousand dollar fine if he is convicted. A high-ranking Houston, Texas, police officer has been suspended after a co-worker filed a sexual harassment complaint him. The Houston Chronicle says that lieutenant Joe Buttitta has been relieved of duty while an investigation is conducted. He has been on paid suspension since the complaint was filed on February 28th. An internal investigation is underway. A sheriff's deputy in Galveston County, Texas, is being investigated for leaving his 13 year old nephew locked in a jail cell with a murder suspect. KBTV reports that deputy David Pruitt was giving a tour of the police station to his nephew on February 23rd to show him what happened to people who did not obey the law. Despite regulations that tours must be supervised the child was left alone in a cell with a suspected murderer for an unknown period of time. The child was not harmed. A police officer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was arrested last Thursday for drunk driving. An Associated Press report says that officer Brandon Wilcox crashed his patrol car into two curbs before abandoning the vehicle and walking to his home where he passed out. Wilcox was arrested at his home a short time later. He is charged with aggravated driving while impaired and has been suspended from his job with pay while an investigation is conducted. TASER A man died last Tuesday after he was shocked with a taser by St. Johns County, Florida, sheriff's deputies. Police in Midwest City, Oklahoma, shocked a 14 year-old high school athlete with a taser after a basketball game on Saturday. A Harris County, Texas, sheriff's deputy is under investigation for using a taser on a 73 year old man in a wheelchair last week. The man had just allowed police into his home to search for his grandson when an officer shocked him because he mistakenly thought the man had a gun. The man claims the deputy shocked him a second time in the genitals. Other than the killings already reported on this program, police also killed people this week in Newark, California; Winfield, Kansas; Willingboro, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Seat Pleasant, Maryland; Collier County, Florida; Harris County, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; And that is Bad Cop, No Donut! for this week. Please feel free to send in your comments and story idead. We count on you to let us know what the police are doing where you live. The email address for theis program is ron at ckln dot fm. Thanks to everyone who sent in articles for this week's program. Bad Cop, No Donut! is produced at CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto and can be heard in Olympia, Washington, on Free Radio Olympia 98.5 FM. This program is available freely to non-profit broadcasters. Please send an email for more information. I'm Ron Anicich. Thanks for listening.