“Basically what I heard them talking about is what equipment, what materialistic stuff could they take out of my house," said Simpson. “It seems like...that they were just trying to figure out what they could come out of here with."
The police wound up taking three pages worth of stuff from the house, including some of Rudy’s personal property: a 52” flat screen TV, a DVD player, two computers, a camera and a bunch of DVDs.
Lawsuit: Diabetic 'pummeled,' shocked by Hamilton County deputies
By Sharon Coolidge
John Harmon was coming off a late night at work when he left his downtown marketing firm for his Anderson Township home just after midnight in October 2009.
The 52-year-old longtime diabetic's blood sugar levels had dipped to a dangerously low level causing him to weave into another lane.
A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy spotted him on Clough Pike and suspected drunken driving.
What happened over the next two minutes and 20 seconds should never happen to anyone, Harmon said.
Deputies broke the window of Harmon's SUV, shocked him seven times with a Taser, cut him out of his seatbelt and wrestled him to the ground, severely dislocating his elbow, and causing trauma to his shoulder and thumb.
The deputies' actions prompted a state highway patrol trooper to pull one deputy away from Harmon because he was so concerned about how Harmon was being treated. That trooper alerted his bosses to the deputies' actions.
Even after learning the incident was a medical emergency, deputies charged Harmon with resisting arrest and failing to comply with a police officer's order.
"I thought for sure I was going to die," Harmon said. "I remember praying to God, 'Help me through this.'"
Harmon, a tall and burly black man, owns a marketing company with his wife. He said he moved to the mostly white township for its good schools, and said he believes he wouldn't have gotten the same treatment if it was a white man.
"I do think that maybe (race) was a factor," Harmon said. "Just out of common decency some of the things that were done here don't make sense, even if I were drunk."
Harmon and his wife, Stephanie Harmon, filed a civil rights lawsuit Dec. 20 in U.S. District Court against Hamilton County, the sheriff's office and four deputies: Ryan Wolf, Matthew Wissel, John Haynes and Shawn Cox, and their supervisor, Sgt. Barbara Stuckey.
The couple allege that Harmon's civil rights were violated because of his false arrest, malicious prosecution and the excessive force used. They also cited battery; malicious prosecution; intentional infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium. They want an unspecified amount of compensation.
Settlement talks that started with a demand of more than $1 million deteriorated earlier this month. That's when Harmon filed the lawsuit.
A sheriff's office investigation found excessive force was used, and four of the officers involved were punished.
The deputies involved were asked through sheriff's officials to comment. None returned calls.
'A chilling experience'
The lawsuit details what happened on the morning of Oct. 20, 2009.
Deputy Wolf saw Harmon driving a 1998 Ford Expedition erratically near Wolfangel Road and pulled Harmon over.
Wolf, his gun drawn, and Wissel approached the SUV, the lawsuit said.
"The deputy's face was extremely contorted, he was screaming," Harmon said. "I remember being taken aback, recoiled and thought, 'What's going on?' I was being presented with pure evil, it was a chilling experience."
Wolf smashed the driver's side window.
Wissel shocked Harmon with a Taser for the first time. Deputy Haynes responded to the deputies' call for backup.
Harmon said the officers tried to yank him out of the SUV, but he was caught in his seat belt. He was stunned with a Taser again.
Wissel cut Harmon out of his seat belt. In his suit, Harmon said he was "violently dragged from the vehicle, thrown on the ground, kicked in the head by a boot, and stomped mercilessly while laying on his back."
"It all happened so quick, I didn't have time to think or react," Harmon said. "I just remember being on the ground, the intense pain and being pummeled."
The attack was so brutal Harmon said he thought it was a gang attack, not a traffic stop.
Harmon would be shocked five more times. In all, three times by Wissel and four times by Haynes.
As Harmon begged for mercy, Deputy Cox arrived.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Chris Sanger also drove up, his patrol car dashboard camera capturing some of what happened and the sounds of what appear to be a beating.
Sanger told sheriff's investigators he saw Harmon on the ground, crying out in pain, with several deputies on top of him. He added Harmon was complying and at least one of the Taser hits was excessive use of force.
Sanger separated Wolf and Harmon twice because of Wolf's abusive treatment, according to the lawsuit.
At some point, the deputies found Harmon's diabetic kit on the floor of the SUV. When asked if he was diabetic, Harmon replied, "Yes."
Paramedics called to the scene by the deputies found Harmon's blood sugar was dangerously low.
Still, Wolf filed felony charges. His boss, Sgt. Stuckey, signed off on them, according to the sheriff's office.
Harmon was taken to University Hospital where he was treated and released. He was then booked into the Hamilton County Jail and spent five hours in a holding cell.
Harmon said he prayed the whole time.
Meanwhile, Sanger told his bosses at the highway patrol what happened. They called the sheriff's office.
'Unacceptable' behavior
Col. Ramon Hoffbauer, the sheriff's patrol division commander, wrote in the investigation's conclusion that once the deputies learned Harmon had low blood sugar it should have been clear a medical emergency caused the erratic driving - not alcohol.
"In my opinion, the breaking of the window, the repeated use of the Taser and the manner in which Mr. Harmon was removed from his vehicle was clearly an excessive use of force and is unacceptable behavior," Hoffbauer wrote. "In addition to the use of force issue, the fact criminal charges were filed against Mr. Harmon, knowing his conduct was possibly the result of a diabetic emergency, was inappropriate to say the least."
Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis doesn't comment on pending litigation, but paperwork show four of those involved in the traffic stop were suspended without pay.
For violating the sheriff's office rules on use of excessive force, Haynes was suspended 10 days without pay. Wissel was suspended five days and Wolf for two days.
Stuckey was suspended for 10 days for violations related to the paperwork about the incident and for wrongly authorizing formal charges. No wrongdoing was found on Cox's part.
The patrol officers - who all earn about $56,000 a year - are still at work, reassigned to Colerain Township, said Lt. Edwin Boldt, the sheriff's lawyer.
Stuckey appealed her suspension to an arbitrator, who has yet to make a decision. She still works in Anderson Township and earns $65,930 a year.
After the incident, all sheriff's deputies were trained to recognize the medical symptoms of diabetes, Boldt said.
Harmon said it's disturbing the deputies weren't fired. Even the ones not directly involved in the attack watched it happen and didn't intervene, he said.
"I'm so thankful the state trooper got there," Harmon said. "If not, I believe I may have been killed."
Leis, during a settlement talk, apologized.
"I appreciated that," Harmon said. "I thought there are people who realize the outrageousness of this and want to do the right thing."
Two weeks after the traffic stop, prosecutors dismissed the charges against Harmon.
But, there are after effects - physical and mental.
Harmon has had three surgeries on his elbow and one on his thumb, which he couldn't move for weeks. Doctors tell him he may eventually have to get a shoulder and elbow replacement. He has insurance, but his medical bills are nearing $100,000.
Panic attacks come when Harmon simply sees a deputy driving nearby.
"Be calm," he has to caution himself. "Don't look their way."
A recent trip to Colerain Township - where the officers now work - prompted him to look over his shoulder the whole time.
"It's disturbing that I have to live like this," he said.
At that point, for the first time in the 90-minute interview, Harmon put his face in his hands and quietly cried. Article Link Here
DA: Framingham cop a whiz on the job
By Ira Kantor
October 1, 2010
An on-duty Framingham police detective accused of pulling over to relieve himself in a private yard, then drawing his gun on the home’s resident, has been indicted on criminal charges, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office announced yesterday.
Detective Scott Brown, 38, of Mendon was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and making threats stemming from an April 29 incident taking place on private property in Framingham, said spokeswoman Cara O’Brien.
Prosecutors say Brown, who was on-duty but not in uniform and driving an unmarked vehicle, got out and began to urinate. A woman who lives at the unidentified address approached and asked what he and his partner were doing, O’Brien said.
After Brown allegedly told the woman to “stop looking” and returned to his cruiser, her husband - upon hearing the commotion - drove over in his golf cart and stopped next to Brown as he was pulling away, O’Brien said.
The two exchanged words, and Brown then got out and drew his firearm, pointed it at the victim, and said, “Move it or get shot,” prosecutors said.
The wife called 911. A video surveillance camera on the property captured the incident, O’Brien said. Messages left with Framingham police were not returned. Brown could not be reached for comment.
September 29, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla. -- All criminal charges have been dropped against an 84-year-old man whose neck was broken when he was thrown down by an Orlando police officer.
Daniel Daley's lawyer wants the grand jury to investigate the officer and he's going to sue police for as much as he can.
"We will be seeking the absolute maximum damages under the law and for every claim of action the law permits," Attorney Mark NeJame said during Wednesday's press conference.
NeJame told WFTV on Wednesday that, in addition to the neck brace supporting Daley's broken neck, a steel plate has been implanted to hold his head in place; Daley still might not make it.
With Daley's son at his side, NeJame came out swinging, saying Orlando Officer Travis Lamont is the only one who says Daley got physically aggressive with him, because all other eyewitnesses who came to the news conference said Daley did not.
"Mr. Daley was tossed high in the air and came crashing down on his neck and head with such violence and force that his neck was snapped and broken," NeJame said Wednesday.
NeJame wants the state attorney to take Officer Lamont's actions to a grand jury for criminal investigation.
"The actions taken by Officer Lamont were illegal, unjustified, constituted police brutality," he said.
The Orlando officer said the 84-year-old drew back his fist and that's when he took Daley down and arrested him.
"To be cuffed the way that he was, arms snapped behind him with the knee in the back, and then sat up Indian-style with his head hanging down, I will never lose that image," eyewitness Sean Hill said.
Police say Daley was drunk, with a blood-alcohol-level of .18, more than twice the legal driving limit. But Daley's attorney says police had no right to that medical information, because Daley wasn't driving, so he's also planning to sue Orlando police for invasion of privacy and slander.
Daley's family is devastated.
"To see him like that. Are you kidding me? I had to leave early the other night, because he's gagging for breath," Daley's son, Greg, said.
The state attorney said it has no plans to take the case to a grand jury and there will be no consideration of criminal charges against Officer Lamont for what happened unless a law enforcement agency investigates and sends a case to prosecutors.
The maximum Daley can sue for might be just $100,000 if the suit is taken to state court. There is a $100,000 cap on lawsuits against government agencies, unless the state legislature approves an exception.
But if the lawsuit is filed in federal court, the caps don't apply. A federal lawsuit against the Orange County jail, involving an inmate who died because the jail did not provide her methadone, brought a $3 million settlement from the jail.
A video uploaded to YouTube shows disturbing footage of a man on the ground being beaten by a Philadelphia Police officer, while other officers try to hold the man down.
The video begins with four Philadelphia police officers tackling a man on a sidewalk. As the man is on the ground, one officer in particular continues to beat the man on his head, back, arms and chest repeatedly with a metal-looking police baton.
The man being beaten, 29-year-old Askia Sabur, was standing outside a Chinese restaurant when police pulled up and asked him for his ID, according to Sabur’s attorney Evan Hughs. When Sabur turned to walk back into the Chinese restaurant, the police jumped out of the car and tackled him, Hughs told NBC Philadelphia.
Police tell NBC Philadelphia that Sabur was blocking the store's doorway and when they asked him to move, he refused and hit one of the officers.
“I didn’t do nothing wrong,” Sabur says repeatedly in the video.
At first friends yell at Sabur in the video to stop resisting the police, even though he’s already on the ground. But as the officer continues to beat Sabur, the people watching yell for the officer to stop.
“Yo, he’s not fighting! He’s not even fighting!” voices from the crowd shout.
The beating lasts for the duration of the 2-minute and 29-second video. At one point the officer pulls back and blood is visible on his shirt.
According to Hughes, the incident happened in the 19th police district. Sabur’s sister, Naimah Wilson, told NBC Philadelphia that it happened on Sept. 3 at about 9 p.m..
Police brought Sabur to Mercy Hospital after the incident, where he was treated for head trauma and a fractured left arm, according to Wilson. Wilson said that her brother was simply talking to men in the neighborhood while waiting for his Chinese food.
Now, Sabur is charged with aggravated assault, robbery and attempting to take an officer's equipment, firearm, but internal affairs is investigating the case to see if the use of force was within police guidelines, according to Philadelphia Police spokesperson Lt. Frank Vanore.
“There’s things that happen before the video and obviously things that happen after and we’ll have to get the whole picture together,” says Vanore.
City responds to LoDo police beating video
By Heidi Hemmatr
Story posted 2010.08.18 at 09:18 PM MDT
DENVER - Coloradans are outraged and demanding action from city leaders after seeing our investigative report about a dog owner beaten by two Denver Police officers.
It's a story FOX 31 News broke Tuesday night.
Now the Denver police independent monitor says he's responding to the public outcry and reviewing the video to see if a larger investigation is warranted.
Mark Ashford was walking his dogs near 20th and Little Raven, when he witnessed police pull over a driver for failing to stop at a stop sign. He told the driver he saw him stop and would be willing to testify in court.
His attorney, Will Hart, said the police officers overheard Ashford's comment and "weren't happy about it."
Hart said the officers demanded Ashford's I.D. and wouldn't let him leave. "They had no reason to stop him or detain him, that's a violation of his fourth amendment rights," said Hart.
Ashford then tried to take a picture of the officers to document the incident, but both the officers pulled his hand behind his back and attempted to arrest him. Ashford appeared to struggle before he was slammed into a railing, punched repeatedly in the face and wrestled to the ground.
Ashford was charged with interference and resisting arrest, but the charges were later dropped, "because the city attorney agreed his fourth amendment rights were violated," said Hart.
Excessive force complaints were filed against the officers.
A Denver police department spokesperson said the internal affairs investigation is closed, but the independent police monitor says he is reviewing the surveillance video to determine if the police officers used excessive force.
Richard Rosenthal said it is likely he will recommend a more thorough investigation.
Ironically, it's the police department's own surveillance camera that may provide the proof.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper was notified about the alleged beating caught on tape. A spokesperson tells FOX 31 the mayor is aware of the latest video.
Story posted 2010.08.18 at 09:18 PM MDT
Death of teen on bike shows risks of expanded use of Tasers
By Meg Laughlin, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, August 1, 2010
PENSACOLA
Late one night in October, a 17-year-old on a bike was chased by a police officer in a cruiser. When the boy refused to stop, the officer aimed his Taser out the driver's window and fired. The boy fell off the bike and the cruiser ran over him, killing him.
Victor Steen was the fourth person who died in Florida in 2009 in an incident in which a Taser was used. It was the 57th such death since 2001, according to statistics compiled by Amnesty International and the St. Petersburg Times. At the time this placed Florida first in the nation as the state with the most fatalities related to Tasers, a weapon that delivers an incapacitating electrical jolt.
Number 54 was a mentally ill man in Fort Lauderdale who was hit with a Taser in April as he wandered in traffic, refusing to go with police. He had a heart attack and died at a hospital.
Number 55 occurred in Bradenton one week before Victor's death. Police tried to stop him because he didn't have a light on his bicycle. When he ran, police hit him with a Taser. He died within 35 minutes. The autopsy showed heart disease and a small amount of cocaine in his system.
Four days later, police in Panama City fired a Taser "at least twice" at a man who tried to conceal cocaine by swallowing it. He went into cardiac arrest and died.
Taser International, the maker of the weapon, denies that these deaths were caused by its product. Yet, these four unconnected cases illustrate a worrisome trend in Taser use.
There is no question that Tasers frequently save lives by offering law enforcement officers a nonlethal means of stopping people who present a threat to the officers, the public or themselves. But as the four fatal cases from 2009 show, Tasers are also being used to subdue people who appear to pose no threat.
Victor lived with his mother, Cassandra Steen, in a two-bedroom house in West Pensacola. His father died a few years ago from diabetes. Victor had never been in trouble and was about to get his high school diploma, join the U.S. Army, then go to college in a few years.
Victor's pastors, teachers, family and friends repeatedly described him as "respectful" and "loving," with a "great sense of humor."
"I work with a lot of kids who need guidance, but Victor wasn't one of them. He has a very caring and considerate family and their light shone in him," said Pensacola pastor Guy Johnson, 54.
On the night of his death, Victor went to a high school homecoming football game then over to a friend's house to plan the birthday party of a child in the family.
"We wanted Victor's help because he was so good with little kids," said Victor's friend, Mike Moultrie.
About 12:45 a.m., said Moultrie, Victor left on a borrowed bike. From there to where the chase started was about 41/2 miles. But it was about 1:45 a.m. that Officer Jerald Ard spotted Victor. Where Victor went after leaving Moultrie's house is unclear.
Ard would later say that he tried to stop Victor because he had seen him at a construction site and thought he may have stolen something. But witness Victor Stallworth said he saw Victor ride his bicycle past the construction site without stopping. Months later, Ard gave investigators a different reason for stopping Victor: He didn't have a light on his bike — only two reflectors.
A video camera on the dashboard of Ard's squad car recorded the brief chase:
Ard spotted Victor and did a fast U-turn to stop him. When Victor didn't stop, Ard veered to the wrong side of the street and up on the sidewalk behind the teenager.
The officer revved the motor, his tires screeching, as he followed Victor into the side yard of an apartment building. With his flashers and PA system on, Ard yelled at Victor to "stop the bike."
It is unclear why Victor disobeyed the order to stop, but the teenager continued pedaling, trying to escape. Ard followed his every move, driving in and out of the wrong lane of traffic and up onto the sidewalk again. One minute and seven seconds into the chase Ard fired his Taser at Victor, who made a turn into a parking lot. About two seconds later, Victor fell to the ground and Ard ran over him.
Witnesses watched from in front of Sluggo's, a hipster vegan restaurant and bar directly across the street, about 50 feet from where Victor was killed. Elementary schoolteacher Rachel Moore said she saw the squad car on the wrong side of the street and heard the "loud click-click" of the Taser. She described the officer's driving as "careless" and said she feared he would hit the bicyclist.
"When the Taser clicked, the kid swung hard to his left over grass into the parking lot. The bike wobbled and he lost control. I don't know if the Taser hit him or the sound of it scared him. But he went down, and the cop turned into the parking lot and immediately ran over him," said Moore, who called 911.
Ard's cruiser dragged Victor, nearly breaking him in half. When the car stopped on top of a low concrete barrier in the parking lot, Ard called for an ambulance and jumped out of the car, yelling, "Dude, you all right? Are you alive? You hear me?"
• • •
Before her son's funeral, Cassandra Steen joined about 125 people in the parking lot where Victor died. Some were family and friends, but most were Sluggo's patrons haunted by what they viewed as the officer's recklessness.
James Lopez, who works in a bookstore, told the St. Petersburg Times: "If you or I hit someone and killed them, we'd be facing vehicular homicide. I don't want this wrong to be dropped."
Jorge Torrens, a sound editor for the local public radio station, saw the end of the chase from his seat at Sluggo's. Torrens, along with about a dozen other patrons, frequently rode his bicycle to Sluggo's.
"The police never stop us," he said. "You have to wonder if it's because we're white, and Victor was ordered to stop because he's black. Did this tragedy have anything to do with racial profiling?"
Victor's mother was so grief-stricken her knees kept buckling and she had to be held up by two friends. One told her: "Look at all of these different people coming together for Victor."
"Yes, yes, I know," she sobbed, "but it hurts too much."
The day after the funeral, Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigator Eli Lawson called Cassandra Steen's newly-hired attorney, Aaron Watson, and told him that TV news was about to report that a paramedic had found a gun in Victor's pocket.
A video, taken from the dashboard of another officer's car, recorded what happened in the minutes before the discovery:
Three officers squatted next to Ard's car, looking under it at Victor. Ard unlocked the passenger side of his car and got something out. The object is light-colored and floppy, but isn't clearly visible. Ard, holding the object, crawled under the car next to Victor's body and stayed there for 40 seconds. Two minutes later, paramedics found a 9mm silver and black semiautomatic in Victor's pocket.
Lab tests showed the gun had been wiped clean. No fingerprints were on it — not Victor's, not anyone's. Victor's family, as well as his pastors and friends, were aghast. Victor was scared of guns, they said. He would not have carried a gun around.
Aaron Watson, who wondered if the gun might have been planted to make the teenager appear dangerous, worried aloud that it would be a distraction from the officer's "reckless pursuit."
"The focus here," Watson told the Times, "should be on why Ard was pursuing Victor in the first place and why he fired a Taser at a kid on a bike from a moving vehicle. The gun really has nothing to do with the issues."
Lawson, the FDLE investigator, was suspicious enough of what he had seen in the video to ask the four-year officer about it.
"Did you put that gun on Victor Steen?" Lawson asked in a taped interview.
Ard answered no, and the investigator changed the subject.
• • •
At first, Cassandra Steen said she didn't want Ard punished, but suspecting the gun was a plant, she became less forgiving.
"Victor died a horrible, brutal death and, after that, his reputation was ruined by the gun. Someone besides Victor needs to be held accountable," she said.
A coroner's inquest was held in February so a Pensacola judge could decide who that should be. An assistant state attorney asked questions of witnesses and law enforcement. As is standard in an inquest, Steen family lawyers were not allowed to verbally question or cross-examine anyone.
Escambia County Judge John Simon concluded: "Mr. Steen desired to avoid apprehension on Oct. 3, 2009. That desire led to Mr. Steen's ill-advised decision to ignore lawful commands … and enter a dimly lit parking lot unaware that a potential hazard was present i.e., the existence of a raised curb. Once Mr. Steen struck the raised curb, he was ejected directly into the path of Officer Ard's vehicle. … It was impossible (based on perception reaction time) for Officer Ard to avoid striking Mr. Steen."
The judge did not find Ard's driving or firing the Taser out of his car window to be questionable in any way.
"Mr. Steen was actively fleeing Officer Ard. … Officer Ard violated no traffic laws in light of the fact that he was actively pursuing Mr. Steen."
Afterward, Victor's lawyers spoke on the courthouse steps: "This ain't the old Wild West. It's Pensacola 2010. It's absolutely outrageous that a boy would be run over and killed for no tail light on a bike," said Bill Cash.
On Oct. 3, when Victor died, the Pensacola Police Department policy didn't specifically prohibit firing a Taser from a moving squad car at someone on a bike. But less than a week later, the deputy chief issued a memo, saying: "Firing a Taser from a moving vehicle or into a moving vehicle is prohibited."
Officials said nothing about whether it was appropriate to use a Taser in cases in which there was no threat to public safety.
At the request of the St. Petersburg Times, nationally known use-of-force expert Dave Klinger, who is a retired Los Angeles police officer and now a senior research scientist at the Police Foundation in Washington, D.C., reviewed documents and videos related to the case.
It didn't make sense to fire a Taser at Victor on the bike, said Klinger, because of the likelihood he would get hurt. Furthermore, he said, Victor was not a suspect in a serious crime.
"You don't Taser people in circumstances that increase the likelihood of injury unless they're a suspect for something like rape or murder," said Klinger.
One Taser probe was found embedded in an outer T-shirt Victor was wearing over another T-shirt. The second probe was on the ground. The medical examiner was unable to determine if the probes pierced Victor's skin because so much skin had been scraped away. And, while the Taser can shock through two inches of clothing, it was impossible to know whether Victor felt the jolt of electricity through his clothes.
"You can hear (the Taser) cycling, sending juice along the wires, but nothing tells you — not the sound or anything else — whether it embeds in his skin," Klinger said. "The moan and wobbling bike before Steen hits the concrete bump suggest he is affected briefly by it, but it's not certain. You just can't say one way or the other."
Maybe, said Klinger, the Taser shocked him — either through skin contact or through his clothes — or maybe the sound of the Taser firing was enough to make him lose balance.
"Something caused the bike to wobble before he hit the bump," he said.
The use-of-force expert didn't understand the officer's driving: "Why doesn't he stay in the appropriate lane and broadcast for help to set up a perimeter?"
And: "He has one hand on the steering wheel and is looking out the window when he fires the Taser, which means he doesn't have complete control over the car. What will happen if Steen falls off the bike?"
In an April memo suspending Ard for two weeks without pay, Pensacola police Capt. Jay Worley faulted Ard with exposing Victor "to unreasonable risk of harm and injury."
From that memo: "Ard drove his cruiser so close to the suspect's bike that it would have been difficult if not impossible for him to stop if the suspect fell from the bike. I also found it disturbing that Officer Ard attempted to Tase the suspect on a bike as he rode next to him."
Dave Klinger: "What the memo says is true, but the department is blaming the officer to overcome problems with its own policy. The focus should be on omissions in the policy at the time of the death."
Klinger's conclusion: "The kid should have stopped. But he shouldn't have died because he didn't."
