by TChris

In this 2003 post, TalkLeft described the Houston Crime Lab as being "in shambles." Houston's mayor and police chief called for a moratorium on executions where guilt was supported by the crime lab's evidence. This post and this one, both from 2003, explored the scandal in more detail.

So what's been done to review convictions that have been called into question by the crime lab's malfeasance? Not enough.

A series of investigations of the Houston police crime lab has uncovered dozens of faulty tests, but the findings have freed just two wrongly convicted men in three years. ... "There needs to be some mechanism to giving those individuals the proper legal representation they deserve," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, board chairman for the New York-based Innocence Project and a member of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

by TChris

As TalkLeft noted here, two air marshals have been arrested for smuggling cocaine. Now it appears that one of the marshals might rat out other marshals who may have participated in a broader drug smuggling conspiracy.

Stuart Maneth, an agent with the inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department, testified that one of the suspects had told the authorities that after their arrest last week, he was warned by his co-defendant against "giving up other F.A.M.'s."

Of course, federal marshals are well aware that federally prosecuted criminals can gain a huge advantage by ratting out others, truthfully or not. What they say should be taken with several grains of salt, but it will be interesting to see if evidence of a larger conspiracy materializes.

by TChris

Chicago police received a tip that an inmate had a knife and was plotting an escape from the Cook County Jail. They forwarded that information to a sheriff's captain, who gave it to the jail sergeant assigned to that tier.

But Charles Fasano, an official with the John Howard Association, which monitors the jail, said that guards in the unit should have then searched the inmate's cell.

Fasano said the captain should have checked in later with the sergeant to learn the results of the search. "You'd want to call back and say what did you find?" Fasano said. "Did you find a knife?"

The lack of a follow-up raises questions about whether the escape could have been prevented even though the inmates allegedly had help from a correctional officer who since has been criminally charged.

The sergeant and five other guards have been suspended with pay pending an investigation. Investigators want to know if the guards were negligent or if they assisted other guards who are charged with facilitating the escape.

by TChris

Three journalists who tried to cover the FBI's raid of a group seeking independence for Puerto Rico were hospitalized when the FBI reacted with violence to their presence at the scene of the raid. At least ten journalists were sprayed with pepper spray, prompting three congressmen -- Reps. Jose Serrano, Luis Gutierrez, and Nydia Velazquez -- to ask FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate whether the FBI's actions were "excessive or unwarranted."

Puerto Rico Police Chief Pedro Toledo criticized the FBI's use of pepper spray as "completely outside of the norm," Serrano and his colleagues wrote.

"In our democracy, the most fundamental obligations is law enforcement agencies in to uphold the constitutional rights of citizens as well as to protect the freedom of the press," the letter continued. "Even in Puerto Rico, where the Bureau and its agents have a reputation for behaving as if they are above the law, the FBI is not exempt from these duties."

by TChris

Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer should have been disbarred. Some argue that they should be in prison.

The N.C. State Bar accused both of prosecutorial misconduct, but they narrowly escaped possible disbarment on technicalities.

The two committed felonies that put a man on death row in a 1996 murder case in Union County, according to the State Bar. Honeycutt and Brewer hid evidence, and encouraged a witness to commit perjury during the murder trial of Jonathan Hoffman, the bar said. Hoffman was convicted, and sentenced to death.

Hoffman was released after spending seven years on death row. Honeycutt and Brewer weren't disbarred because their wrongdoing wasn't revealed until after the time for making disciplinary complaints against them had expired. Shockingly, Brewer went on to become a judge.

by TChris

Following up on yesterday's post about the mayor and police chief of Lonoke, Arkansas, who (along with others) are accused of various crimes and corrupt activities, WREG reports that the city council has accepted the resignations of both men. KATV has links to charging documents describing the alleged misbehavior, including inmate accounts of their jail furloughs to repair the chief's property and to have sex with his wife.

by TChris

Bringing to a conclusion lawsuits filed by anti-war protestors who contended that the police used excessive force against them, the City of Oakland agreed to settle the suits for $393,000. Combined with earlier payments made to resolve related lawsuits, the City coughed up a total of $1.3 million to settle the claims of injured protesters.

Protesters said police fired wood bullets and bean-bag rounds at them without provocation and failed to allow them to disperse during the 2003 rally at the Port of Oakland. They said they were protesting the war in Iraq and targeted the port because at least one company there was handling war supplies.

Oakland also "agreed to stop the indiscriminate use of such tactics."

by TChris

The culture of corruption is not confined to Washington, D.C. Here's what's allegedly occurring in Lonoke, Arkansas:

The town's mayor was arrested in a corruption probe, its police chief is accused in a drug-making scheme, and the prosecutor says the chief's wife took prisoners from jail to have sex with them - and more arrests could be coming.

The chief's wife's alleged smuggling of inmates out of the jail "to have sex with her at ballparks, the chief's office and a hotel" isn't so much corrupt as -- what's a word that will make it through the filters? -- needy. But the chief (who has been suspended with pay) and his wife are also suspected of stealing and pawning jewelry, while the chief is additionally accused of conspiring to make methamphetamine so he could "use it to frame someone." As for the mayor:

The mayor was charged with misdemeanor theft of services. A State Police affidavit says he used state prisoners to do work at his home, including fixing an air conditioner and hanging Christmas lights. Campbell also is alleged to have had prisoners work at his home.

When criminal associates testify against one another on behalf of the Government, the Government says they are telling the truth. When they testify against a cop, however, they are sleazy liars. Check out this Milwaukee Sentinel columnist on the official result of the investigaton of Wisconsin undercover sheriff's investigator Mario Altuzar.

Mario Altuzar appeared to be a pretty seasoned pothead. When he smoked the stuff outside the bars of Washington County, he even "French inhaled," breathed, that is, the smoke that he blew out his mouth back in through his nose, those who were with him told investigators. They were absolutely convinced he was getting high - so convinced that they let down their guards and became ensnared in what Washington County Sheriff Brian Rahn now calls, and quite justifiably, Altuzar's "phenomenal accomplishment."

Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., an optometrist in Fairfax County, Va, was under investigation for gambling. When authorities decided it was time to arrest him, they set up a meeting between Culosi and an undercover agent. They also sent out a SWAT team as backup. The unarmed and non-violent Culosi was shot and killed during the encounter when an agent's gun accidentally misfired.

Why are police using SWAT teams for non-violent arrests? Blogger and CATO policy analyst Radley Balko reveals some disturbing facts and statistics in an op-ed on our over-militarized local police in today's Washington Post.

by TChris

As the linked article points out, videos don't always tell the entire story. Yet the story apparently told by a video recorded by a Chino resident on Sunday is tragic.

[T]he video appears to show a deputy ordering 21-year-old Elio Carrion to his feet, then shooting him as he tries to stand. Carrion, an Air Force policeman who recently returned from Iraq, underwent surgery for wounds to his chest, ribs and leg and was listed in good condition Wednesday at the hospital.

Carrion was a passenger in a Corvette, which crashed following a brief chase that ended when the car crashed into a wall, authorities said. Authorities said no weapons were found on Carrion or the driver, Luis Escobedo. ... Escobedo said he and Carrion were trying to cooperate with the deputy.

"We were trying to explain to him, we were not armed," he told reporters. "Elio had nothing to do with this."

The FBI is investigating the incident. Experts who have viewed the video are disturbed by the officer's decision to fire multiple times at an unarmed man who posed no obvious threat.

by TChris

Nicholas Grancio was a person of interest both to the FBI and to the Colombo crime family, which wanted Grancio dead. A lawsuit filed by Grancio's wife alleges that an FBI surveillance team and a team of hit men were both following Grancio in 1992. Colombo crime family member Gregory Scarpa Sr., an FBI informant, spotted the surveillance. The suit alleges that Scarpa called FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio and persuaded DeVecchio to call off the surveillance of Grancio. DeVecchio obliged, the suit says, clearing the way for the hit men to take out Grancio. Grancio was shot to death in his car minutes later.

The case "is about the corrupt and unlawful relationship between law enforcement and a ruthless killer and career criminal that went unchecked for years and led to the cold-blooded murder of a man," court documents say.

More about DeVecchio’s cozy relationship with Scarpa: