Police, Prosecutorial, Attorney, Official, and Judicial Misconduct
July 26, 2004
Can cops rape, rob, beat, and murder with immunity?
(Pictures of victims beaten by police, a 1978 Silver Anniversary L-82 Corvette, and the house I fixed up from a boarded up condition and lost because I was beaten and nearly robbed on the left side, half way down the driveway, in the “Read More” section below)
Background posts:
Is Rape not Rape if Committed by a Police Officer?
Police easy on Police for Misconduct
Perverts, Rapists, Thieves, Frauds, Liars � oops, did I mean the police in Connecticut? (Should adult police officers be able to screw 16 year olds?)
Should a White Police Officer get away with allegedly executing an African American? (he got a year suspended sentence after appeal, what!!!???)
People’s Republik of Konnektikut Kommissar
Do you have to be White and Male to be inside the Connecticut Police Hierarchy?
Are Cops screwing the Homeland Security Fund for overtime not worked?
Are U.S. Courts still racist, but now just a little more slick about it?
Assault on Small Business and the Individual
Videotapes are shown to Connecticut juries on how to find a defendant guilty, but not innocent. So if you are not offered a deal by the prosecutor you are almost automatically found guilty and get the maximum prison sentence, fines, and harshest conditions.
Story below the fold: The Fourth Reich, Connecticut
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The Fourth Reich, Connecticut
If a brokerage director is told of wrongdoing of his traders he/she could be charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and other crimes for doing nothing. If someone in the corporate world misappropriates funds just once, they can end up in a Federal Penitentiary. When a business person gets caught falsifying records it is an illegal act. Why should those in the private sector be severely punished and even sent to prison for a 5 minute misjudgment when elected and unelelected officials can break the law for years and little or nothing is usually done?
I watched Channel 3, a Connecticut Station, yesterday, Arthur L. Spada, the Commissioner of the Connecticut State Police was being interviewed. The former Governor of Connecticut stepped down amid a federal corruption probe. The Lt. Governor, now governor, asked Spada, and other Commissioners of other Connecticut Departments to resign because of perception of association with corruption of the Rowland administration.
Spada seemed quite arrogant when it was brought up about his chief of staff being arrested for fraud and theft, and about other illegal and/or unethical behavior of other officers. (information) Spada appeared to say it was business as usual and all allegations would end up being found unsubstantiated. What???!!!!
Rape, robbery, murder, assaults, and other crimes committed by Connecticut police officers should be punished as severely as any average citizen but they are not. Connecticut Internal Affairs can refuse to even do an investigation, nor deny a citizen�s complaint. But, then again if a citizen was trying to make a false accusation they would be immediately and thoroughly punished. Complaining about police is a good way to ruin your life and get kicked out of Connecticut, penniless, jobless, and without family and friends. I know this from experience.
So if Spada had covered up misappropriation of homeland security funds, misused his 2 chauffeurs for golfing on duty, falsified records to cover it up, demoted the high ranking police woman because he didn�t like high ranking women, covered up for his own and other police officer�s illegal behavior and misconduct, shouldn�t he be put under federal investigation and punished if found to have broken state and federal laws?
Spada has been known to be very unforgiving to officers that have forgotten to salute him or dare disagree with him as his ego is perceived to be the size of Connecticut, but his actual stature is of a bug faced little pipsqueak, in my opinion.
Of course Spada should be punished if he broke the law.
If Martha Stewart can be labeled a felon for a slight mistake, if she did anything wrong at all, shouldn�t someone that thumbs their nose at the law and the U.S. Constitution almost daily receive a severe sentence much longer?
Of course the official should?
Speak out and demand it.
-Steven G. Erickson (Vikingas)
I had figured I had pissed off Spada from what legislators and the former Governor�s aid told me. Connecticut State Troopers were openly threatening me if I didn�t leave Connecticut.
I had been proposing laws directing police to serve and protect everyone equally and to have civilian oversight, had been writing scathing letters to editor upsetting police further, and had told local politicians I intended to sue the Connecticut State Police for violating my civil rights.
Connecticut State Police allegedly pulled over a woman I was dating twice on her 45 minute ride home from my house, searching her twice, once when she left my home, and again when she arrived at hers, according to her. She said she couldn�t see me anymore as she didn�t want to get arrested and/or harassed for seeing me as officers allegedly told her I was bad news and not to see me.
A retired police officer then routinely flooded my Somersville, Connecticut, 2 family with raw sewage leaving the water running. I cleaned up the huge messes 3 nights in a row after working all day contracting. I faced serious charges for negligence and health code violations as the retired cop called officials he knew. I avoided a 6 month prison sentence or worse as the Somers Sewer manager didn�t go with the conspiracy.
A woman that I gave a ride home one night, after she asked me, was on probation for an offense, she had been asking me advice on how to get her 2 children back. Connecticut State Police were aware that I had brought her home and allegedly told her she would be violated on probation and wouldn�t get her kids back if she didn�t claim I sexually assaulted her. I didn�t, so she refused, and allegedly was violated on probation and sent to prison for not going along with the Connecticut State Police ploy.
A number of police informants and others were allegedly asked by Connecticut State Troopers, and local Stafford Springs, CT, police to help harass and threaten me out of Connecticut. A legislator�s aid warned me to get out of Connecticut before the Connecticut State Police retaliated for my Big Mouth and activism.
I was then arrested and sent to prison for overreacting to be beaten and robbed on my own property. Although my assailant had been found to be threatening, harassing, and stalking me before and after, had threatened my life while demanding money from me. Only I was arrested and sent to prison for having used pepper spray which is legal.
I knew my trial was fixed and assumed Arthur L. Spada had been pulling the strings to get me railroaded to prison and out of Connecticut. So the day before sentencing I sent Arthur L. Spada an email that I requested that he remove the Community Policing U.S. Department of Justice webpage (COPS) from the Connecticut State Police website citing the policies weren�t being followed and sent a copy to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Arthur L. Spada was a former Rockville Court Judge and I was being tried by Judge Jonathan C. Kaplan, a judge I tried to have removed for bias before I was in any trouble. So if Judge Kaplan freaked out on me, I would know that Spada was illegally acting in collusion with Kaplan at the Rockville Connecticut court.
Those that had criminal records committing assaults, robberies, rapes, and even armed robbery (one guy got 10 years probation), and other crimes could keep from going to prison. Most citizens are given a first offender program and their charges are erased. I had only an option of going to trial or pleading guilty to using pepper spray and going to prison for a year and a half.
Judge Kaplan did freak out at sentencing after I had sent the email to Spada, so I know they acted illegally in collusion and I was railroaded. I figured that a federal official would later go through my trial transcripts and right a wrong. If they do, information in this post is helpful.
This post gives the reader a feeling of how ridiculous me being sent to prison was.
I had spent 100�s of thousands of dollars and years renovating Connecticut investment properties. 2 were boarded up eyesores, and were works of art after countless trips to Home Depot and 2 tractor trailer deliveries and my day after day hard work. Criminals and drug dealers weren�t punished but I was for believing in the American Dream and having a Big Mouth.
My case is not unique, it is happening over and over. Here is another one.
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Dear U.S. Representative Simmons of Connecticut
The Death of Shame in America (Bill O’Reilly of the Factor, Fox News, asks Connecticut citizens to march on Hartford and demand Rowland resign, Dec. 2003)
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Victims of Connecticut Police Brutality:
Results of going to a Dave Mathews Concert in Connecticut
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I lost this:
I lost these, a 3 and 4 family house in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and a 2 family house in Somersville, CT. I was attacked on the left side yard of number 5 and used pepper spray and lost eveything.
I had spent 100�s of thousands of dollars and 4 years fixing them up, sometimes 7 days a week and was working all my waking hours. At the time I was attacked I had finally started having a positive cash flow after 4 years of not having it. I would have owned all 3 houses in about 13 years and would have been able to retire on over $6500 gross monthly rents.
These two houses were boarded up when I bought them for $50,000 in 1998, and nothing worked, most windows, doors, and walls were smashed. No electric or plumbing was in working order. Teen drank and sold drugs and prostitutes serviced serviced their customers. The front yard was overgrown with small trees and was filled with debris.
I had a close relationship with my daughter, an A student, a dog, a quality of life, a home, and the ability to dream, before I was railroaded to prison.
Arrogant, egotistical Connecticut State Police officers including, the top cop, Spada, wanted to make my American Dream a Nightmare and for me to go to prison and get out of Connecticut for having said things they didn�t like, proposed laws they didn�t like, and for trying to force them to protect and serve all of Connecticut�s citizens.
For me, it is still too ridiculous to believe this actually happened and supposed public servants could be such lying, megalomaniacs, bent on wrecking lives of whomever they choose, with no real rhyme or reason.
Angering just one police officer could be the end of all you know.
For a $17,000 plus fee my lawyer said he wasn�t allowed to defend me per instructions of the judge at trial. So I had no defense and could only be found guilty.
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July 21, 2004
There is just too much of this
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Woman Says Police Caused Injury
Fourth Person To Complain Of City Officers’ Conduct
July 21, 2004
By TINA A. BROWN, Hartford Courant Staff Writer (ctnow.com)
A New York woman who attended the Dave Matthews Band concert Saturday is the fourth person claiming to have been injured by Hartford police as officers attempted to control an unruly crowd in a parking lot.
Marina Golfo, 19, said Tuesday a canister of an unknown chemical blew up and the debris or substance hit her in the face, injuring her eyes and head.
“I can’t open my right eye and my left eye is bruised,” Golfo said.
Police have said they used nonlethal weapons - including smoke, pepper spray, rubber bullets and beanbag projectiles - to contain a fight between two groups in the parking lot near the ctnow.com Meadows Music Theater. The fight escalated into a bottle-throwing melee that was contained within 30 minutes, police said.
Golfo’s injury is different from the eye injury described Monday by Matthew Goldsich, 19, of Avon. His family says a doctor has indicated Goldsich is likely to lose sight in his right eye. Goldsich, son of WTIC radio personality Ray Dunaway, says his eye was damaged when a Hartford police officer shot him Saturday with nonlethal ammunition.
Unlike Goldsich, who didn’t have a ticket to the concert, Golfo, a University of Connecticut student, said she had a ticket and was about to go inside at about 7:30 p.m. when the canister bounced in her direction and exploded.
“It happened so quickly. I didn’t see anything,” Golfo said.
While she was in the lot, Golfo said, she was not even aware of a fight or that the police disorder control team was breaking it up.
Golfo, who acknowledges having a few drinks, said she was not intoxicated when an ambulance took her to Hartford Hospital. Hospital records indicate that she was treated for head injuries, which required attention and ice packs.
The extent of the damage to Golfo’s eye won’t be determined until there is less blood in the eye, said her mother, Mela Golfo, who drove to Connecticut late Saturday from Long Island pick up her daughter.
“There were many more injuries than were reported [to police],” said Mela Golfo, who plans to file a complaint against police on her daughter’s behalf.
“They didn’t even know a fight was going on,” she said. [The police] were randomly firing these things. ...Whatever was going on, it would seem to me that the police did not take appropriate action. I’m outraged because this was not necessary.”
Police Chief Patrick Harnett said Tuesday he has ordered a review of the department’s tactical operations and its use of weapons, both outside the concert and in general. “I don’t want people getting hurt.”
A number of police weapons could have hit Golfo, Harnett said.
The so-called sting ball, which bounces and explodes before releasing small rubber balls, is thrown out when the disorder control team wants to disperse a crowd, Harnett said. The smoke grenade is rolled on the ground before it bounces up and explodes, Harnett said.
Harnett says the city wants people to enjoy entertainment at local concerts, but controls need to be placed on illegal alcohol consumption. “We have one civilian complaint,” he said. “If there are more people making complaints, we have a process. We aren’t sweeping this under the rug.”
Michael F. Morgan of Simsbury, whose son attended Friday’s night’s concert and hung out in the parking lot on Saturday, said the fact that underage drinking went unchecked disturbs him.
“It’s not a problem that we can lump on the Hartford police alone,” Morgan said. “We see our unruly kids who are underaged drinkers and expect Hartford police to be the parents.”
“It puts the police in a difficult position. They end up having to treat everybody the same,” Morgan said. “I don’t absolve the police of brutality or the parents of responsibility.”
In addition to the Golfos, Flora Faiella expressed her concerns Tuesday. Her sons, Christopher, 18, and Phillip, 20, had to go to Middlesex Hospital’s emergency room after sustaining concussions and bruises while in a police van, she said.
“I’m not saying my kids are angels. I’m not saying all cops are bad. But nobody deserves to be beat with their hands tied behind their backs. If they were involved in the riot, you subdue them and arrest them. But you don’t beat them with their hands tied behind their backs.”
“We are filing a complaint,” Faiella said.
Faiella’s children were charged with inciting to riot. But she said they will plead not guilty todayin Hartford Community Court.
Harnett said he was not aware of the Faiellas’ allegations, but any complaint filed will be investigated.
Christopher Faiella said he was a foot away from Goldsich when he was shot with nonlethal ammunition. “All I saw was the rubber bullets fly pass me and hit him in the eye,” he said Tuesday.
Faiella said Goldsich fell to the ground.
Two of Goldsich’s friends, Bob Toscano and Andrew Armentano of Avon, said they then noticed Goldsich wandering through the crowd - holding a shirt over his injured eye - while a line of Hartford police officers stood by without offering him medical attention.
Toscano and Armentano, students at Trinity College, said Tuesday in separate interviews that they were ducking for cover when Goldsich was shot and did not see him hit. They said they caught up with him minutes later.
“He looked like he needed help,” Armentano said. “Me and my buddy walked over to him toward the ambulance. At first the police tried to redirect us. We kept walking and we were kind of escorting him. There was a fair amount of blood. It looked serious.”
More on Police acting like thugs
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It must be all too common in Connecticut for someone to get beaten up by police and then get charged with assaulting a police officer or other similar railroading. I know of individuals that have been beaten up and then charged or similarly had their lives ruined by violent, lying Connecticut police officers.
I watched in 1995 or so, 2 Stafford Springs, CT, police officers jump a man from behind and start beating him as he was staggering. The man fought back and the 2 police officers were fighting and struggling with the man on the sidewalk. I was making my rounds as one of the senior members of the Stafford Crime Watch and happened on the scene.
When the officers got the cuffs on Brian Caldwell, the officers were kicking him on the ground and beating him.
I interjected and police demanded to see my license and started pushing me, I thought I would be arrested for having seen what I had seen, but it would have been embarrassing for the police if they had arrested one of the heads of the Crime Watch for witnessing police brutality.
Caldwell is an alleged Connecticut State Police informant so was arrested but not charged for assaulting police officers, for being drunk, nor for creating a disturbance.
I was threatened with being arrested for interfering with officers for being a witness, but the officers decided not to arrest me as I was trying to get police to do something about the downtown crime and was influential at meeting and with the local legislators.
Caldwell was later encouraged by police to harass me out of Stafford when my mouth got to big complaining about police in newspapers and I went to prison for using pepper spray to defend myself against the beating I was taking in my dark driveway. It is not legal to defend yourself in Connecticut, even on your own property.
The officer who beat up Caldwell when he was on the ground in handcuffs, kicking Caldwell, beating him, is also a Connecticut Corrections Officer.
That Corrections Officer/Police officer harassed me in prison, left me out to suffer in Winter winds on a loading dock, and threatened me and told me I was not allowed back in Stafford Springs, CT. The officer also alerted my parole officer to keep me from lodging complaints against officers and I was threatened with arrest if I went to the media.
My probation officer told me I was to leave Connecticut immediately or face more prison as she was sick of getting phone calls, I assume from Connecticut State Police officers, and told me I could spend my probation period, 3 years, in prison if I didn�t leave the State immediately.
What a complete bunch of arrogant assholes!
What is in this comment is to my best belief and knowledge.
-Steven G. Erickson
Information about my case and my beef with Connecticut Police and Connecticut courts
Links to some of my past posts
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August 16, 2003
Is Rape not Rape if Committed by a Police Officer?
Abolish Police Unions Nationwide and promote Civilian Oversight of Police with quality control questionnaires should go out to those requiring police service and that call in.
In the early 70's, Serpico, played by Al Pacino in the movie, shows us that police should not police themselves. Serpico could not find a single officer nor NYC police official that was either willing to take his corruption complaint, not taking bribes, didn't care, or was not part of the corruption.
Connecticut Police officers have been accused of rape, shaking down prostitutes for cash and sex, harassing citizens, shooting unarmed citizens, harassment, acting as 'Armed Revenue Collectors' for towns and the State, pulling over motorists based on race, etc.
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Probe of sex allegation urges punishment for constable
By Christine McCluskey, Journal Inquirer August 07, 2003
ELLINGTON - State police have finished their investigation of Michael Nieliwocki, the town constable accused by a Glastonbury woman of sexually assaulting her in February 2002, and recommend that Ellington discipline Nieliwocki.
Town labor lawyer Anthony J. Palermino said Wednesday the discipline recommended could range "from suspension to discharge."
Abolish Police Unions Nationwide and promote 'Civilian Oversight of Police' with quality control questionnaires should go out to those requiring police service and that call in.
The early 70's, Serpico, played by Al Pacino in the movie, shows us that police should not police themselves. Serpico could not find a single officer nor NYC police official that was either willing to take his corruption complaint, not taking bribes, didn't care, or was not part of the corruption.
Connecticut Police officers have been accused of rape, shaking down prostitutes for cash and sex, harassing citizens, shooting unarmed citizens, harassment, acting as 'Armed Revenue Collectors' for towns and the State, pulling over motorists based on race, etc.
Probe of sex allegation urges punishment for constable
By Christine McCluskey, Journal Inquirer August 07, 2003
ELLINGTON - State police have finished their investigation of Michael Nieliwocki, the town constable accused by a Glastonbury woman of sexually assaulting her in February 2002, and recommend that Ellington discipline Nieliwocki.
Town labor lawyer Anthony J. Palermino said Wednesday the discipline recommended could range "from suspension to discharge." Palermino said it is up to the town whether Nieliwocki will be disciplined at all, and if so what form that discipline will take, because Nieliwocki is a town employee.
The months-long state police internal affairs investigation found no reason to prosecute Nieliwocki, Palermino said. "They found no reason for an arrest or a prosecution on the claim of sexual assault ... there wasn't enough evidence," he said. "But the internal affairs investigation feels there is still cause for some form of discipline." "Had there been an arrest or something, there might have been some action taken," Palermino added.Nieliwocki was put on administrative duty last fall pending the results of the investigation.
Ellington officials have been waiting for the investigation results before taking any further action. First Selectman Michael Stupinski is still reviewing the report.
Birthday party gone wrong According to a lengthy Vernon police report, on the night of Friday, Feb. 8, 2002, the woman was celebrating her sister's 21st birthday at Cioppino's Restaurant and Pub on Route 83 in Ellington.
Nieliwocki responded to a call that a fight had broken out at Cioppino's and found the drunken woman fighting with her sister outside, the report states.
Nieliwocki, who was 38 at the time, drove the 23-year-old woman to a Vernon hotel. "She stated that she cannot remember what happened with the police, but remembers that all she wanted to do was to go home with" her sister, Vernon Detective Michael E. Greenier wrote.
But police "would not let them leave together because they were fighting," the report continues. "She said that a police officer named Michael told her that she could not drive home and she could not go home with" her sister. "So she had to go to a motel."According to the report, Nieliwocki drove the woman to the Holiday Inn Express on Kelly Road in Vernon, where he helped her check in, left, and later returned in his private vehicle after he was off duty at 3 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 9.
He was still wearing his uniform, however.
A hotel clerk saw the two together and said the woman spoke loudly and slurred her words. Later that night, the clerk said he walked by the room and heard what sounded like consensual sexual activity, the report says.Another trooper who responded to the fight at the bar told Vernon police that Nieliwocki was in the parking lot with the woman and "at the time he told his trainee that the way Nieliwocki was allowing her to get so close to him was totally unsafe," the report says.
According to the report, the woman woke up in the hotel room Feb. 9 wearing only socks.
She went to Rockville General Hospital on Feb. 9 with bruises on her legs.
Around 10 p.m. that night, a hospital nurse called Vernon police on behalf of the woman to make a sexual assault complaint.
The woman told police she had been "really drunk and stoned" the night before. Later, she cooperated with Vernon police, making phone calls to Nieliwocki while police listened.
Invited in?
Nieliwocki later told police the woman had invited him to her hotel room, and that he went there after the end of his shift. He said they did not have intercourse but that they did engage in sexual activity.
"This is a problem, I know it was consensual ... This is every man's nightmare. You have sex and then someone says it was rape," Nieliwocki told Greenier, according to the report.
Nieliwocki told police he could not tell whether the woman was intoxicated. "He stated that he could not tell if a person was intoxicated without running them through tests first."I then questioned that if he [is a] trained police officer, and he could not tell if she was intoxicated, then perhaps he could explain to me why the desk clerk felt that she was.
"He stated that not everyone could tell when a person was intoxicated," Greenier wrote.An 11-month investigation by the Vernon Police Department and the chief state's attorney's office found insufficient evidence to criminally charge Nieliwocki.State police conducted their own internal investigation of Nieliwocki because, although he is a town employee, as a constable he reports to the town's resident state trooper.
Though state police had said the findings of the internal investigator were expected in February, it was not until last month that the report was released to the town.On June 25, state police spokesman Sgt. J. Paul Vance said the reason for the delay was that this is a "very involved report" that had to be "scrutinized" by several people.
The woman's lawyer, William H. Paetzold of Glastonbury, could not be reached for comment today.Paetzold said in January that his client intended to file a federal lawsuit against Nieliwocki and the town.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=9971578&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=8
P.S. Enfield, Connecticut, Police were sent to doors collecting overdue library fines. This just goes to show us it is about the cash not about the criminals.
-Steven G. Erickson (Vikingas)
Arthur L. Spada head of DPS, Connecticut State Police demoted the highest ranking woman in the State Police allegedly because she was a woman. There also have been accusations of bias against minorities lodged against CT departments.
From the Hartford Courant, September 27, 2003:
Police Officer Wins Settlement
Hartford To Pay More Than $200,000 In Compensation
September 27, 2003
By TINA A. BROWN, Courant Staff Writer
The city must pay a Hartford police officer more than $200,000 in back wages and other compensation because it failed to reinstate him when a larceny charge was dismissed eight years ago.
The settlement was accepted Friday in Hartford Superior Court by Judge Thomas Corrigan. The city did not acknowledge wrongdoing but agreed that Juan A. Morales would receive $206,874 in back pay, $20,874 for sick days and $34,995 in pension benefits, and an undisclosed amount for attorney fees, the court document shows. After taxes and a pension deferral, the payment totals $225,000.
Additionally, Morales was reinstated on paper to his position as a patrol officer. He then resigned effective January 2004. Over the next five months, Morales is expected to continue accruing time toward his pension. In addition to the lump sum, the city will pay Morales more than $1,000 a week until his retirement becomes official, the agreement says.
"I think this is an excellent disposition," Morales' lawyer, Michael A. Georgetti, said Friday.
The settlement reached Friday marks the fourth time in recent years the city has paid back wages to a Hartford police officer accused of on-duty corruption.
Morales, Joseph Smith, now known as Joseph Davis, and Matthew Rivera, all were accused of stealing city time after a grand jury, following an 18-month investigation, accused them of hanging out at the Charter Oak Package store during their shifts. The charges were later dismissed. Rivera and Smith returned to work after they obtained lump sum payments from the city.
Also, the city was ordered to pay another officer, Eric Smith, more than $120,000 in July after that officer was cleared of sexual assault allegations. His arrest did not stem from the grand jury's findings.
Morales was a 12-year police veteran when he was arrested and accused of loafing in July 1995. He tried unsuccessfully over the past eight years to get his job back. He sued the city in 2001 seeking back wages, pension benefits and attorney fees. Georgetti said Morales was forced to sue the city because he could not obtain a hearing. He said Morales might have gone back to work as a patrol officer if the city had given him a hearing.
The city attorneys declined to comment for this story.
Gates Landry, police union president, said, "It's a reasonable settlement. All parties are in agreement. Hopefully this ends an unhappy chapter in the police department and we can all move on with our lives."
Courant Staff Writer Matt Burgard contributed to this story
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at September 27, 2003 07:53 AMhttp://www.freespeech.com/archives/001095.html
'The biggest Affront to our American Values'
Click on my name below to be transported to link as noted above.
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at October 19, 2003 11:23 AMSteve,
I came to this sight from mrlandlord.com
This is disgusting, STeve, I hope this is not the norm in Connecticut
Posted by: gh at October 23, 2003 09:42 AMSteal Billions, kill your ex-wife leave your DNA and glove, shoot your neighbor cut his body up, rape little boys at your Neverland Ranch �
Click 'more' for more.
Posted by: more at January 6, 2004 08:39 AMCops Should be put in jail for their crimes.
Posted by: at January 16, 2004 02:29 PMCops Should be put in jail for their crimes.
Posted by: at January 16, 2004 02:29 PMCops Should be put in jail for their crimes.
Posted by: at January 16, 2004 02:29 PMConnecticut cops can beat, rip you off, and even murder you and nothing is done about it. Rape is just something the cops in Connecticut think they are entitled to, along with $1/rents for single family houses and other freebies.
The state is the biggest employer in Connecticut, so they protect their own, and if a taxpayer says anything a whole angry bee's nest of State employees will respond and punish those that speak out.
Posted by: at May 25, 2004 08:18 AM* * * *
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August 14, 2003
Police easy on Police for Misconduct
Fired Police Have It EasyAugust 13, 2003 (Hartford Courant, Connecticut)
HARTFORD -- The Hartford police union's defense of two veteran officers who were fired after an internal investigation found them guilty of misconduct would be comical if it weren't so appalling.
Fired Police Have It Easy
August 13, 2003 (Hartford Courant, Connecticut)
HARTFORD -- The Hartford police union's defense of two veteran officers who were fired after an internal investigation found them guilty of misconduct would be comical if it weren't so appalling.
One officer, Roy E. McCravey, was arrested at a Wal-Mart in Charlotte County, Fla., where, according to police records, he was caught switching price labels on various pieces of merchandise to pay less for them.
He is scheduled to go to trial in Florida this week.
Officer John Nisyrios, meanwhile, was granted a form of probation for first-time offenders known as accelerated rehabilitation for a charge of pilfering spare parts from a Hartford auto yard. Accelerated rehabilitation results in no plea, no jail time and no criminal record after 18 months, as long as Mr. Nisyrios makes a $500 charitable contribution and stays away from the auto yard.
Residents don't typically expect the police union to aid someone accused of thievery. But union President Michael Wood says he plans to challenge the decision to fire the officers, claiming to have evidence that would allow them to keep their jobs.
As it is, Mr. McCravey, 47, and Mr. Nisyrios, 44, are getting off easily.
Relatively young and able-bodied, within six months they'll be able to collect pensions of about $50,000 a year, based on 19 years of service each in the department.
Sticking up for colleagues who clearly deserve to be terminated adds to the perception that Hartford officers are not as interested in law enforcement as they are in fattening pensions and preserving generous work schedules that give them at least 15 extra days off per year and generate record overtime pay.
Yet the union would have the public believe that its members are victimized by staff shortages and poor leadership. Residents, meanwhile, are left to wonder how low a threshold an officer must cross before his colleagues consider him unworthy of wearing a badge.
http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-badcops67aug13.story (Now Expired)
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Top Stories
Journal Inquirer, Manchester Connecticut
Manchester releases details of accusations against ex-cop
By Doreen Guarino, Journal Inquirer August 07, 2003
MANCHESTER - Former Officer Jonas Searle, who retired from the Police Department in April amid efforts to fire him for misconduct, had kissed a female police volunteer, asked her to go skinny-dipping, commented on the size of her breasts, and told her he wanted to cheat on his wife with her, according to a police internal affairs report released Wednesday by an assistant town attorney.
Those are some of the details previously blacked out of a heavily redacted report on the Searle misconduct investigation that was released by the Police Department in May.In response to the Police Department's blacking out certain information on all but one of the 32 pages that made up the Searle report, the Journal Inquirer filed a complaint with the Freedom of Information Commission.
While the Journal Inquirer was never seeking the name of the woman who filed the complaint - any reference to her identity had been blacked out of the report - the newspaper objected to other information that was blacked out.Lt. Joseph Morrissey, who conducted the investigation, had said that revealing more information might pose "potential embarrassment to others."
Assistant Town Attorney Timothy P. O'Neil, after meeting recently with a Journal Inquirer editor, restored all of the previously blacked-out information that did not have to do with the female complainant's identity.
O'Neil said Wednesday that while Morrissey might have thought the release of certain information in the report might be an invasion of personal privacy, he felt that it wasn't and released it.
In response to O'Neil's action, the Journal Inquirer has sent notice to the Freedom of Information Commission that it is withdrawing its complaint against the town.Searle, 53, a married father of two daughters, retired April 30 after nearly 30 years with the department.
He retired before disciplinary action could be taken against him for a pattern of unprofessional conduct while in uniform that included making sexual remarks to a female police volunteer, a 45-year-old married mother with children, according to police.
At the time of his retirement Searle had been the subject of three separate internal affairs investigations into allegations of misconduct.
Only one of those investigations - the one involving sexual remarks Searle was alleged to have made to the female volunteer - was completed at the time of his retirement. It was the outcome of that investigation that led Morrissey, who is in charge of the office of professional standards and internal affairs, to recommend that Police Chief Gerald Aponte fire Searle.Neither Searle nor his lawyer, Jan P. Van Der Werff of West Hartford, could be reached for comment.
Other allegations now made public in the report state that the woman told police Searle commented that her toenails and fingernails turned him on, that he couldn't stop thinking about her, and that he once asked if she were wearing any underwear, the report stated.
Searle, who was interviewed by Morrissey during the investigation, either denied making any sexual remarks to her or could not recall certain situations and comments she alleged, according to the report.
Searle indicated, through his answers during the interview, that it was the woman who was being untruthful in her accusations against him, and that he had no idea why she would accuse him, Morrissey wrote in the report.
Morrissey's investigation sustained four of the eight situations alleged by the woman where Searle had acted inappropriately toward her, according to the report.
�Journal Inquirer 2003
Reader Opinions
Post your opinion and share your thoughts with other readers!
Name: Steve Erickson
Date: Aug, 13 2003
Just one more reason there should be 'Civilian Oversight' of police so they do their jobs efficiently, legally, and in the public's best interest. -Steve Erickson
Number of Opinions: 1 1 - 1 of 1
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=9971571&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6 (Expired)
Connecticut Officer, Scott Smith, allegedly chased down a suspect and stood on the suspect's back firing a round through the suspect's back, killing him. Scott Smith lost his job and I believe now is on probation on appeal for what any non-officer would be charged with 2nd Degree Murder.
From talking with officers they seemed upset that Scott had to lose his job. Police should not police themselves. Checks and Balances are American. It is time to Americanize our American Police Force with Civilian Oversight
My Story:
I called Connecticut Police, Armed Revenue Collectors in letters to the editor and suggested 'Civilian Oversight of Police' to local politicians. I was told to leave Connecticut by police. I did not leave and was arrested at near midnight 10-11-01 when an alleged police informant that police had allegedly encouraged to harass me, jumped me in my dark driveway demanding money.
I pepper sprayed him after being beaten from behind. I was sentenced to one year in prison, 3 years probation, Anger management, fines, and strict reporting. The attempted robber received no punishment. It seems the 1st Amendment does not apply in the Constitution State of Connecticut.
I have lost everything I had ever worked for including regular contact with my family, pets, my home, investments, credit, and retirement. I was run out of Connecticut by police for having been critical of them in newspapers regarding downtown crime and rampant drugs and had suggested 'Civilian Oversight of Police' which was very unpopular with police.
What is your opinion on Civilian Oversight of Police?
-Steven G. Erickson (Vikingas)
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Is Arthur L. Spada the kingpin of a crime syndicate, The Connecticut State Police?
But then, that's what union's are for!
Right, Will?
And people wonder why I hate unions. Between stories like this one, and the story last week of the union thugs beating up the recall supporters, it's amazing that unions get such respect from such a large segment of our society. I think they're time has passed.
Posted by: Del Simmons at August 15, 2003 09:14 AMEnd the cycle of abuse, State Police should only be on the highways and support the local cops when needed. They should not oversee each other as they lie and cover-up for each other.
Posted by: at March 21, 2004 08:08 AMHere, here
Posted by: at April 9, 2004 11:53 AM"Connecticut Police Misconduct" were the words just put in a yahoo search engine and this post was the number 2 listing just behind the ACLU, showing the power and amount this site is read.
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at April 13, 2004 07:21 AMnow the #1 listing on yahoo.
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October 28, 2003
Perverts, Rapists, Thieves, Frauds, Liars … oops, did I mean the police in Connecticut?
It is such a terrifying experience actually lodging complaints against police officers for their misconduct that probably much of it goes unreported. Going to a higher ranking police officer to complain about another police officer in the same department is unbiased. Yeah, right!
Almost every day there seems to be something regarding police officers stealing something, obstructing justice, committing something deviant sexually, or for behavior unbecoming of a tax funded public official in Connecticut newspapers. Click for more below for one of the small fraction of cases actually ending up being reported.
Disclaimer: Maybe it is just a few Connecticut State and Town officers giving the rest of law enforcement a bad name.
-Steven G. Erickson (Vikingas)
...
Officer's Penalty Causes Unease
Some In Department Suspect Favoritism
October 28, 2003
By TRISH DAVIS, Hartford Courant Staff Writer, Connecticut
CLINTON -- As officials bring a sex scandal involving a town police officer to an end, the outcome of a lesser-known incident involving another officer's conduct is still reverberating in the department.
The uneasiness is over the punishment given Sgt. John J. Santry, 42, following an internal investigation into allegations that he had been stalking strippers from a Berlin nightclub. Santry was suspended for 15 days in 2002 and his pay cut by roughly $4,000 for a year.
In May, police launched an investigation into the conduct of another officer, Cpl. John E. Brymer III, following rumors that he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old junior firefighter cadet. The investigation found he had a two-week consensual affair with the girl and had influenced two other cadets to lie on his behalf.
Department officials are expected to recommend to the police commission that Brymer be fired because he falsified information during the investigation.
Santry denies the allegations against him. Though he was not charged criminally, an internal affairs inquiry last year found, that his behavior constituted misdemeanor stalking and crossed the line of professional conduct.
Some in the department say Santry's punishment was inadequate. That and his close working relationship with Chief Joseph Faughnan have fostered feelings of favoritism within the department. As grant administrator and someone who helps prepare the department's budget, he works closely with Faughnan.
Maj. William Chapman said he's aware of those feelings, but believes they're unwarranted.
"I think there may be some people who are envious of [their] close working relationship," said Chapman, who was among those who reviewed the stalking allegations. "The other thing is sometimes people do not know the full extent of a punishment."
The internal affairs investigations of Santry and Brymer occurred within the past 18 months. In both instances, members of the police commission said the department policed itself appropriately and do not believe there is a pattern of misconduct. But in light of these events and findings from a $40,000 independent management study, police commissioners are planning to review the department's codes of conduct and discipline.
Acting Police Commission Chairman Stuart Fox Jr. said consultants reviewed the department's codes of conduct but made no recommendations. The commission, however, believes the codes need reviewing.
Police administrators have said that Brymer was not charged criminally because he was not in a position of authority during the reported relationship. He was charged administratively with conduct unbecoming an officer, unauthorized misuse of a patrol car, failure to properly patrol sector, violation of direct written order, and making a false entry into a department record.
The commission had accepted an agreement that would have resolved all disciplinary action against Brymer, but it was withdrawn last week when negotiations broke down, officials said.
Brymer is expected to appear before the commission this week.
Santry, a 19-year member of the force, was charged administratively in May 2002 with misdemeanor stalking, misuse of the COLLECT - a computerized system that provides license plate data and information on wanted people - conduct unbecoming a police officer and abusing an official position to obtain a special benefit or favor.
He was suspended for 15 days and his pay was cut from $56,020 to $51,966 for a year in March.
In an emotional interview, Santry defended his reputation and denied stalking the dancers.
By mid-2001, Santry said, his life had taken a downward turn.
In March 2001, he was struck by a drunken driver while on duty. His injuries included a herniated disk in his neck, which he said caused him severe pain, loss of sleep and a change in personality. Around the same time, he was taking medicine to fight possible anthrax exposure while on duty.
Santry first went to the strip club in 2001. At the time he was estranged from his wife and two children. He said a friend took him to the club to cheer him up.
Instead, he said, "I was listening to someone else's problems," referring to a conversation with one of the dancers who shared stories of abuse, he said. "I was feeling sympathetic."
The investigation began in April 2002 after an employee of the Centerfold Club on the Berlin Turnpike called police to verify Santry was an officer with the Clinton department, police said. According to the internal affairs report, Santry had given his business cards to two dancers while frequenting the club on several occasions.
He also followed the women home and drove by their homes on several occasions, according to the report. One dancer said Santry made her so nervous that she asked not to be put on stage.
In a recent interview, Santry said he had befriended the dancer to help her get counseling and did not try to establish a personal relationship.
"I tried to do something right here. I didn't do it the right way," Santry said.
The report also showed that months earlier, Santry had followed a third woman whom he met at the Woodlawn Restaurant in Madison to the home of the woman's friend. Santry said he had enjoyed speaking with the woman. He said the friend's house was along his route home and he stopped to continue the conversation.
Santry said he improperly used the COLLECT system to determine whether the dancers were wanted on any charges. He told investigators he didn't want to help someone facing criminal charges.
Santry has been named in other complaints.
In 1998, a female dispatcher filed a complaint that he harassed her by using her name to log on to a sexually oriented website. Santry was a corporal at the time. The complaint was dismissed by the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and in courts up to the federal level, Faughnan said.
In 1995, Santry was suspended for two days for unreasonable use of force. A man claimed Santry punched him in the side while handcuffing him. Santry denied it to department investigators, saying he had only placed his open palm below the man's shoulders to make the arrest.
But the year after that investigation on unreasonable force was closed, Charles O. Hynes, then deputy chief, wrote in a letter to Attorney Gerald Stergio that Santry had admitted to him that "perhaps in the heat of the moment [the man] may have been struck with a closed fist."
Chapman said the Santry case shows that the chief isn't playing favorites. Chapman said he and Hynes, now retired, concluded that Santry had not used unreasonable force. However, the chief disagreed, and ordered the two-day suspension.
"If [the chief's] protecting [Santry], he has a funny way of showing it," Chapman said.
Faughnan said he believes Santry's punishment regarding the dancers was fair, particularly because Santry took responsibility for his actions.
"We didn't sweep anything under the rug," Faughnan said.
The police commission had a long debate over Santry's punishment.
"I think the commission as a whole decided that what was done was sufficient," Commissioner Robert Jenkins said.
Jenkins praised Faughnan's proactive management in both the Brymer and Santry cases.
Faughnan launched investigations of both without first receiving a formal complaint.
Santry said he decided it was best to accept the punishment.
Faughnan said Santry also did not want to drag out the issue. "There are other people involved in this that he did not want to get hurt."
Panel Seeks Changes In Probes Of Police Conduct
October 29, 2003
By MARK PAZNIOKAS, Courant Staff Writer
Complaining that the Hartford Police Department is slow to investigate allegations of police misconduct, the Civilian Police Review Board is seeking the power to independently investigate complaints.
The department's internal affairs division takes up to four years to close its investigations, crippling the ability of the review board to oversee the department, members told the city council this week.
An ordinance proposed by Elizabeth Horton Sheff, the council's majority leader, would allow the board to independently and immediately investigate complaints of misconduct. It now must wait for an internal affairs report, said Ines Pegeas, the review board chairwoman.
Horton Sheff's proposal also would strip the review board's two police members of their voting rights. The police officers would have an advisory role under the ordinance.
The proposal drew no comment from the police or police union at a public hearing, even though the union's president, Gates Landry, sat in the audience.
Landry said the council is certain to pass the ordinance.
"There is nothing to speak about. The decision is made," Landry said. He called taking away the voting rights of the police members "a slap at the police department."
Chief Bruce P. Marquis submitted no testimony, nor would he comment, according to a department spokeswoman, Nancy Mulroy.
"It's a policy area. It's pending before the council and mayor," Mulroy said. "They make policy, and we implement it."
Members of the review board and the city Human Relations Commission said the changes were needed to restore the board's credibility with the public.
Pegeas said the panel is now hamstrung by its inability to independently investigate complaints as soon as they are filed.
Democratic Chairman Noel McGregor Jr., a private investigator and retired Hartford police detective, said the ordinance is necessary to establish the review board's independence and credibility.
"We need to establish trust with the general public," said another private investigator, Frank Hayes.
The Hartford Advocate reported recently that the internal affairs division investigated 73 police brutality complaints from 1999 to 2001 without finding the police at fault in a single instance.
U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton refused to dismiss a brutality complaint against the city, citing its apparent inability to handle police-misconduct complaints.
Her decision noted that nine of 24 excessive force complaints lodged against Hartford police in 1999 remain open. Another six were closed with no investigation.
Eight of 23 complaints filed in 2000 remain open.
"In no case was a complaint sustained against an officer and corresponding discipline administered," she wrote.
Posted by: at October 29, 2003 08:48 AMFor those of you writing or lodging complaints about police, I give you this warning:
I had a home, no criminal record, a business, and pets BEFORE I wrote in newspapers complaining about police not serving certain citizens and doing little or nothing about downtown crimes and drug dealing, but complained police instead just pulled over those trying to get to and fron work for traffic fines.
I made no friends in law enforcement doing that. I was sent to prison for resisting an attempted robber that attacked me from behind in the dark on my property.
The courts are so 'Kangarooed', that my assailant was never arrested but was able to brag to the judge that he had demanded money from me while threatening to kill me. Ha, ha, I now get the joke ...
That judge was not such a complete idiot that he does not understand that I was assaulted during a robbery attempt having to defend myself, and that attempted robbery and assault are more serious crimes, if defending yourself too aggressively is a crime.
But, then I came against one of Connecticut's preferred citizens, an alcoholic, drug using, criminal parasite, just a lower version of the blood sucking, Connecticut public official.
What the judge did see before him was a man who thumbed his nose at authority and disrespected the legal system and police in print. Oh, my god!
Which to the judge was more alarming, than a common criminal robbing a homeowner on his/her own property.
So I was sent to prison and then out of Connecticut as being a 'Big Mouth' is worse than being a criminal or drug dealer, at least in Connecticut.
If you no longer see my posts or see my name here on FreeSpeech.com, it means that the voices (I assume being Connecticut law enforcement, still) trying to have me put back in prison for my continuing to have a big mouth have succeeded in shutting me up and putting me back in prison for maybe a number of years.
Squeeky wheels don't get oiled, annoying bugs get squashed.
Some may only assume or suspect how corrupt and unfair, even our American system can be, I know.
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at October 29, 2003 09:30 AM"Connecticut Police Misconduct" in a google search and this is the #5 listing out of 21,400 possible.
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at April 13, 2004 07:40 AMDIFFERENCES BETWEEN CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARDS AND POLICE COMMISSIONS
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at May 2, 2004 10:49 PM
posted by The_SRV at 8:57 PM
