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March 4th, 2009

Jail Watch: The Other Shoe Drops for Sheriff Bill Keating of Montague County

Drive north of Dallas/Fort Worth to Denton, and keep straight as the crow flies on a northwest path and very soon, you end up in Montague County, Texas. That’s where Sheriff Bill Keating reigned as the top dog of county law enforcement until a federal investigation toppled him from power.

Last Friday, the State of Texas issued its 106-count Indictment against Bill Keating and several of his jailers

Last month, we posted about the federal plea bargain that ex-Sheriff Keating entered into, and all the sordid details of how that jail was run (remember the recliners in the jail cells?) … well, apparently, the feds have nothing on the State of Texas. There’s a whole new kettle of fish in these charges.

Seventeen people charged with wrongdoing in their official capacities at the Montague County Jail, including having sex with inmates

And here’s what is contained in those 106 charges within Friday’s indictment:

1. Ex-sheriff Bill Keating is charged with official oppression and having sex with inmates.

2. Some of the female jail guards are also charged with having sex with inmates.

3. Jail guards, male and female, are charged with bringing inmates cigarettes, cell phones, and drugs (and possibly other banned items).

4. Some of these guards are also charged with drug possession.

If convicted, Ex-Sheriff Keating will face a year in jail for the oppression charge, and up to 2 years on the charge of having sex with an inmate (officially, the crime is “improper sexual activity with someone in custody”).

Apparently, the Feds Charged for Sex Outside the Jail, State Charges are for Sex Inside the Jail

And, that earlier charge against the Sheriff – the one that resulted in a plea bargain with the feds last month? That case is apparently unrelated to these new state charges. That’s right: apparently, the feds charged the Sheriff with illegal sexual activity outside of the jail, and the state has charged him for illegal sexual activity inside the jail.

What About the Recliners?

The names of those jailers who have been charged haven’t been released yet. And, no, still no word of the fate of the infamouse jail cell recliners. Will they be used as evidence (picture CSI analysis here)? Will they be auctioned off by the county? How many are there? These are facts — along with many others (color? number? were they the popular brand we all know, or a bunch of cheap knockoffs?)that are being guarded by the prosecution right now.

Sources:

Dallas Criminal Lawyer Blog
http://dallaslawyer.blogspot.com/2009/02/cop-watch-north-texas-sheriff-cops-plea.html

Associated Press
http://www.correctionsone.com/corrections/articles/1792273-Former-Texas-sheriff-ex-jailers-among-17-charged-in-drug-sex-crimes/

Posted by Michael Lowe at 2:54 pm

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Labels: Cop Watch, Corrupt Cops, Jail Watch


February 25th, 2009

Cop Watch: Atlanta Cops Gun Down 92 Yr Old Kathryn Johnson and Get 5 – 10 Yrs Prison Time

Kathryn Johnson was 92 years old, and still able to live in her own home over there in Atlanta.

From this small fact we know that Mrs. Johnson had to have taken pretty darn good care of herself – physically, financially – in order to avoid nursing homes, or worse.

So, we’re respecting Kathryn Johnson right now, right? We’re thinking – boy, when I’m 92 years old, I want to be living on my own, doing my own thing. You Go Girl! Right?

Sure we are. We like and respect Mrs. Kathryn Johnson. Look at that sweet face.

Kathryn Johnson – 92 Yr Old Steel Magnolia Pulls a Rusty Pistol to Stop a Home Invasion

Well, here’s one more fact about Mrs. Kathryn Johnson for you: when she heard someone trying to get in her front door back in November 2006, she pulled out a rusty old pistol she had in the house, and fired one shot through the front door – high, where it would go over their heads.

After all, Mrs. Johnson didn’t live in the best of neighborhoods — she lived in downtown Atlanta, where there was crime and where home invasions occur. Old Mrs. Johnson was ready for them.

And, right after she took that shot, THIRTY-NINE shots came back at her, through her home’s front door. That’s right: 39.

Kathryn Johnson was hit with five of those bullets, and died there in her front entryway.

Who killed Kathryn Johnson?


We’re upset now, right? Our sweet, strong and sassy Mrs. Kathryn Johnson lies shot – dead – in her own home, a woman who deserved the utmost of dignified passings?

You bet we’re upset. And, it’s gonna get worse now: because three Atlanta cops have admitted that they were the ones who snuck up to the home of Mrs. Kathryn Johnson and without so much as a by-your-leave, killed her.

Illegal No-Knock Search – it was an invasion of her home

That’s because they got an illegal no-knock search warrant for her house, and started breaking in her door without giving her any warning. No wonder she thought that her home was being invaded: it was.

Cop stuffs marijuana that he conveniently has with him in Mrs. Johnson’s house to cover up

And, after these bad cops discovered that they had done a Very Bad Thing, one of them (officer Smith) planted marijuana in her home to try and support their defense that this was a drug house. Right. (I’m wondering where Officer Smith had such a ready source of pot to just grab and toss into Mrs. Johnson’s home, aren’t you?)

What’s Their Story? They had a quota to meet (I kid you not)

Sure, they’ve got one. These cops have said it’s not their fault because the whole Atlanta Police Department is just so, so bad that it is really to blame.

You see, they had quotas to meet (9 arrests, 2 search warrants a month) or they risked being transferred. They just had to meet these performance quotas.

And, apparently, at the Atlanta Police Department, officers routinely lied about things, breaking all sorts of rules. So, they just went along with the practice. To meet their quota.

  • One example – they’d do “handoffs” where one cop would lie in an affidavit that he personally knew all this stuff, when all he had was a story from another cop about it.
  • Another one – they’d split drugs taken in one case, and use part of them as evidence in another.

Sentenced in Federal Court, Awaiting Sentencing in State Court

Well, quota-schmota. These five cops just got sentenced to a range of 5 to 10 years in federal prison, and they’ve still got to face sentencing in state court on state law charges.

Officers Smith and Junnier have expressed remorse. Smith says that he prays for Mrs. Johnson daily, and Junnier hopes that other cops will have more backbone than he did. Junnier is quoted in the Atlanta paper as saying “I used to think I was a good person.”

That’s what corrupt institutions do -they corrupt the people within them.

And, now as we consider the loss of Mrs. Kathryn Johnson, perhaps the only solace we can take from this story is that Mrs. Johnson’s death was quick, and that Mrs. Johnson’s death was not in vain.

Because from her death, Kathryn Johnson has brought a national spotlight upon a corrupt police department where investigations continue and other arrests by both federal and state authorities have been, and will continue to be made.

And somehow, I think Mrs. Kathryn Johnson would be mighty proud of that.

Bless your heart and rest in peace, ma’am.

Sources:

Atlanta Journal Constitution

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/02/23/johnston_sentencing.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/atlanta.police.sentencing/

Posted by Michael Lowe at 3:29 pm

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Labels: Cop Watch, Corrupt Cops, Crime News


February 18th, 2009

Cop Watch: Feds Say 6 Dallas Cops Lied To Put Innocent Man Behind Bars for 10 Months

First, here are the names:

Lawrence Coddington
Jerry Dodd
David Durica
David Nevitt
Frank Poblenz
Randy Sundquist.

These six men led relatively quiet lives, until now. They were cops. They led cop lives, wore the uniform, drove the car, raised the families.

They got the respect that police get these days — kids waving at them from the street, grandmas smiling at them in the mall. These days, it’s not like the Sixties. These days, we are a society that takes pride in our men in blue. Maybe 9/11 had something to do with that, I dunno.

Now, they’ve lost all that. And the Dallas Police Department has one more smear on its reputation. A reputation that is still tarnished with the 2001 Fake Drug Scandal (remember that? Over 80 cases were dismissed after WFAA-TV exposed a pattern of cops busting folk, including lots of Mexican immigrants, for what turned out NOT to be illegal substances at all. Fake Drugs.)

And, maybe we’ve all lost something here. Wait, there’s no “maybe” with that one.

What happened?

These six veteran cops (the youngest is 41, the oldest is 57) are accused of putting a man in jail on false charges, where he sat — an innocent man — for 10 months. Almost a year.

Because, according to the feds, the cops LIED. THEY LIED. And there’s video to prove it.

Federal prosecutors have filed a federal lawsuit charging civil rights violations here, and who knows if there’s gonna be criminal charges, too. They think they have a strong case — which was helped by the innocent guy’s criminal defense attorney who was savvy enough to fully investigate the situation. He found a video that is clean and clear and directly contradicts what the cops said.

Sure, there’s a guy carrying a black bag with guns and drugs. It’s just NOT this guy. Not even close.

Why Do This Stupid Thing?

The Feds, and the innocent guy’s attorney, are blatant in their allegations that Officer Nevitt lied when he said this guy had drugs and guns with him when the guy was arrested outside of a North Dallas hotel.

These six cops all went over to the Windham Hotel to bust this guy for violating his parole. Don’t know why this took 6 cops.

Nevitt, apparently, is the cop that pointed the finger. Repeatedly and adamently. The others backed him up.

Dodd wrote the police report. He wrote that Nevitt saw the guy leave the hotel with this Evil Bag, which the guy dropped after he spotted the cops coming for him. The report fails to mention the hotel video.

Now, we’ve got an innocent man who lost almost a year of his life. And, we’ve got another situation where those boxes full of prosecution cases marked “closed” are going to have to be pulled out and investigated, because who knows how many other times this may have happened.

And, finally, we’ve got that guy that got away — the real guy on the video, who really dropped the Evil Black Bag — smiling just a little as he reads the morning paper.

Source:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/
yahoolatestnews/stories/021709dnmetdpd.4035ff0.html

Wikipedia – Dallas Police Department
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Police_Department

Posted by Michael Lowe at 4:50 pm

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Labels: Cop Watch, Corrupt Cops


January 19th, 2009

Cop Watch: Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy Steals 4 Kilos of Cocaine From Dealer

You just can’t trust anyone these days.

A week ago Friday, before the bust, Standric Choice was a Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy with 8 years seniority and a previous record of working for the county as a jail guard. He drove a Sheriff’s Department squad car, wore the uniform, and patroled South Dallas.

After the bust, on that same Friday afternoon, Choice became an inmate of the feds, wearing overalls and fabric shoes, with the prosecutors arguing he needs to stay behind bars until trial time because he’s a high flight risk.

Deputy Standric Choice is facing a possible sentence of 80 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.

What happened?

Well, the feds are at it again — just like down in Cameron County (see the earlier post on that one) — the federal government is busy investigating corruption in Texas policing agencies, and they’re getting results.

Choice’s undoing began on a Wednesday when an informant ratted to the FBI that there was a Dallas County Sheriff’s deputy who would be “trading licks” that Friday.

Trading licks? That’s the lingo for a con game where the deputy was going to help steal cocaine from a drug dealer. Yep, sort of a twisted Robin Hood game plan.

The FBI Cons the Con

The feds instructed the informant to go ahead and set things up with Deputy Choice and Charlie Hill (rumored to be Choice’s brother-in-law). The rat allegedly told Hill that he was going to buy 4 kilograms of cocaine from the drug dealer on Friday afternoon, at the TA Truck Stop on IH 20 and Bonnie View Lane here in Dallas.

(Guess what? The “dealer” in this sting operation was really going to be a federal agent. Yes, just like on TV.)

Hill would watch the rat and the “dealer” meet at the truck stop, and Hill would call up Deputy Choice. Choice would barrel into the truck stop in his squad car, search the “dealer’s” car and “confiscate” the coke. He’d also let the “dealer” go (not sure how this would be explained away) and then Deputy Choice, Hill, and the rat would divy up the prize.

The Feds Let the Game Play Out

That Friday, the FBI let the game play out. According to the filed affidavit, the rat and the brother-in-law did their dance at the truck stop, and Deputy Choice successfully drove away with the cocaine stashed in the trunk of his squad car: the feds busted Choice as soon as he drove into the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Department.

What’s the Sheriff’s Department Saying?

Well, it’s no surprise that the Dallas County Sheriff is labelling Deputy Choice as a lone wolf. According to the Dallas Morning News, Lupe Valdez has said: “It is extremely unfortunate that one person chose to ruin his career by making bad choices …. The acts of one do not reflect the acts of many.”

Yeah, you’d think someone with the last name of CHOICE would know better.

Sources:

Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011309dnmetchoice.d2ad5.html

Dallas Criminal Lawyer Blog
http://dallaslawyer.blogspot.com/2009/01/jail-watch-drop-in-bucket-as-cameron.html

Posted by Michael Lowe at 8:04 pm

1 Comment
Labels: Cop Watch, Corrupt Cops


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