The Boston Globe has this interesting excerpt from the book The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide by Dick Lehr. The book tells the story of Mike Cox, an undercover police officer who was mistakenly beaten by fellow officers, only to endure harassment (and worse) as he waited for the police department to acknowledge and investigate the officers' mistake.

The investigation of the Philadelphia Police Department's Narcotics Field Unit began with allegations that Narcotics Officer Jeffrey Cujdik repeatedly fabricated evidence to support his sworn applications for search warrants.

The scandal expanded in March after the Daily News reported that Cujdik, [Thomas] Tolstoy and other officers disabled surveillance cameras during raids of mom-and-pop stores that sold tiny ziplock bags, which police consider drug paraphernalia. After the officers cut or yanked the wires, thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise went missing, the merchants said.

A third layer of scandal is unfolding as Internal Affairs and the FBI investigate at least three independent complaints that Officer Tolstoy fondled and groped women during drug raids while commenting upon (and asking to see) their breasts. Tolstoy has been placed on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is the subject of three investigations for civil rights violations resulting from his policies involving the pursuit undocumented immigrants, is complaining the investigations are politically motivated.

In his letter, [Arapaio attorney] Driscoll said that a civil rights probe of the Arpaio operation began in early March, weeks after four influential Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for an investigation into alleged discrimination and possible constitutional violations in arrests and in police searches and seizures.

The investigation appeared on a list of accomplishments the Justice Department prepared for reporters in April, after the Obama administration had been in office 100 days. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that reinvigorating the enforcement of civil rights laws is a high priority.

Another of his complaints: [More...]

An Only in America story:

A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous ''Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day'' events gone wrong at three state prisons, according to new information provided Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections. Also, a group of kids was exposed to tear gas during a demonstration at another lockup.

Three prison guards have been fired, two have resigned and 16 more employees -- from corrections officers to a warden -- will be disciplined due to the incidents that unfolded April 23, said DOC Secretary Walt McNeil. An investigation is ongoing.

Hat tip to Southern District of Florida blog.

Update: Agent Lucas was acquitted by the jury.

Original Post

Former DEA Agent Lee Lucas has pleaded not guilty to an Indictment unsealed this week charging him with fabricating evidence, perjury and obstruction of justice in 17 cases.

A federal drug enforcement agent pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a federal indictment that accuses him of framing 17 people in controlled drug buys made by an informant.

Lee Michael Lucas, 41, of Cleveland appeared before U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver on the 18-count indictment that includes counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements in official reports, perjury and violating civil rights.

The informant Lucas worked with, Jerrell Bray, pleaded guilty in 2007 and is serving 15 years. Several civil suits are pending against Lucas and the DEA by those the duo falsely accused.[More...]

KTTV has the latest video of an LAPD officer administering a needless blow (this time a kick to the head) to a prostrate suspect who, by the time the officer reached him (this time at the end of a high speed chase), wasn't resisting arrest.

Video of the arrest from a hovering media helicopter showed Rodriguez dropping to the ground with his arms and legs spread before officers reached him. The first officer to reach him approached the prone suspect with his gun drawn, then kicked him in the head. He and another officer jumped on top of the suspect, and one officer struck the man several times while trying to handcuff him.

Rodriguez leaves his car about ten minutes into the twelve minute video. [more ...]

Ideally, trial judges are neutral and unbiased. Their job is to apply the law as best they can, without favoritism, to assure both parties in the case before them of a fair trial. In our less than ideal criminal justice system, it is nonetheless easy to find judges who favor the prosecution in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways.

Fortunately, it is rare to find a judge who is willing to violate the law to help the prosecution. It is still more rare for a judge to be charged with a crime for her judicial misconduct. Felony charges filed against Mary Waterstone, formerly a judge in Wayne County, Michigan, raise serious questions about when, if ever, a judge is above the law.

[more ...]

In Boston, Assistant US Attorney Suzanne Sullivan admitted withholding evidence that a cop changed his story in a gun case and begged the Judge at a hearing yesterday not to impose sanctions against her.

It only came to light because the Judge reviewed her notes of interviews with the cop.

She's been a federal prosecutor for three years and was a state prosecutor for 11 years before that. She's a member of the United States Attorney's Organized Crime Task Force. In other words, she's no rookie and she knows the law.

The Judge, while noting she has admitted the mistake and that it was not intentional or strategic, has taken the matter under advisement, stating it's hardly the first such lapse in the Boston U.S. Attorney's office: [More...]

Given the unprincipled performance of prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Unit during the Ted Stevens trial, it's time for Eric Holder to demand prosecutorial integrity from his Public Integrity lawyers. The Attorney General showed some integrity of his own when he dumped the tainted Stevens prosecution, but he may have signaled a tolerance for the unit's unethical behavior when, a week later, he assured the unit's prosecutors "personally that I’ve got your back" and called them "among the finest lawyers in the entire government."

[A] decision by the Bush administration eight years ago to shake up the section has had some troubling consequences, like frequent leadership changes and the loss of experienced prosecutors, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials. Against that backdrop, court records show that the Stevens case has not been the only one in which the unit may have failed to disclose evidence favorable to the defense, as required by law.

[more ...]

As TalkLeft noted in 2002, Joseph Salvati had good reason to sue the FBI. The nation's premier law enforcement agency encouraged false testimony against Salvati at his state court murder trial because it knew the murder had actually been committed by FBI informants. Protecting its informants became a higher FBI priority than protecting the liberty of innocent people.

In its defense of Salvati's lawsuit, the Justice Department attempted to convince District Court Judge Nancy Gertner that the FBI didn't know Salvati's accuser would commit perjury, and that even if it did it had no duty to disclose evidence of Salvati's innocence because Salvati was being prosecuted in a state court. As TalkLeft noted in 2007, Judge Gertner rejected those arguments and awarded $101.7 million to Salvati and three others who were wrongly convicted of the murder.

Salvati is still waiting to collect. He's 76 years old, living with his wife in a one bedroom apartment. They get by on Salvati's social security benefit and his wife's small pension. The FBI should have apologized and written a check years ago. Instead, the Justice Department continues to insist that the FBI did nothing wrong. [more ...]

A few months ago, TalkLeft took note of Oakland's desire to fire eleven lazy police officers who found it easier to lie in search warrant applications than to do the work necessary to make their sworn statements truthful. The falsified affidavits resulted in illegal raids against a number of suspected drug dealers and caused sixteen prosecutions to be dismissed, not to mention the two civil rights suits that have been filed against the city.

Last week, Oakland managed to fire four of the eleven.

The terminations, which were officially approved by City Administrator Dan Lindheim, came shortly after an investigation by an independent hearing officer found that seven other officers accused of falsifying warrants should not be fired.

The four who were fired will continue to contest their terminations because, according to one of their attorneys, there was insufficient evidence of intentional misconduct. Their theory seems to be that they were never trained to tell the truth when they swore that they were telling the truth. Perhaps the police academy needs to add a brief training session on the meaning of the word "oath."

More prosecutorial misconduct, this time in Florida in a drug case. Prosecutors improperly taped the defendant's lawyers.

Accusing federal prosecutors of knowingly and repeatedly violating ethical guidelines in a high-profile narcotics trial, a Miami federal judge Thursday reprimanded multiple assistant U.S. attorneys who took part in the case -- and fined the federal government more than $600,000.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold's harshly critical 50-page order takes the federal government to task for acting deceptively and ''in bad faith'' in the case of Miami Beach doctor Ali Shaygan, who was acquitted last month of 141 counts of illegally prescribing painkillers. The $601,795 fine will be paid to Shaygan as reimbursement for much of his legal fees and costs.

[More...]