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Perv cop gets probation -- says high school boy "seduced him"
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by John Diedrich, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel April 25, 2007
A recently retired veteran Milwaukee police detective was convicted and given probation Wednesday for having sexual contact with a high school boy six years ago.
Ahmad Majeed, 48, a 25-year police veteran who volunteered as a mentor in high schools and retired from the force in December, was poised to go to trial on three felony counts of child enticement but
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pleaded no contest to four misdemeanor counts -- two each of exposing genitals to a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
According to the criminal complaint, Majeed initiated sexual contact with the boy, whom he met at a high school, in a bathroom in 2000, followed by numerous sexual encounters. The sex was not forced, but because the boy was underage, he could not legally consent.
Moving straight to sentencing, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner gave Majeed three years of probation and a stayed sentence of 36 months, which he won't serve unless he violates probation.
He also was ordered not to have any unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 except two relatives who live with him, to perform community service and to donate $1,000 to sex offense treatment.
"You were in a position to teach, to guide, to protect. Instead you exploited for your own sexual gratification," Wagner said.
The victim, who is incarcerated on an unrelated charge, said Majeed's action had a major impact on him and his family.
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Commentary by Helen & Harry:
A 48-year-old "volunteer mentor" for high school youth has "numerous sexual encounters" with a student there, after an initial encounter in the school's boys' restroom ... His victim is subsequently incarcerated and says being sexually assaulted really messed him up ...
And instead of even apologizing, this perp's 'defense' is that he was "seduced" by a 16-year-old boy.
If this was any other middle-aged predator, you might expect he'd face harsh punishment. But this perp had 25 years of experience as a policeman, so his punishment is:
• a scolding by the judge
• probation
• community service
• an affordable fine
• and a stayed sentence.
* * *In different situations the details change, but this isn't that unusual, and the moral of the story is frequently the same:
The law does not apply, if you're a cop.
Helen & Harry
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"I was young and innocent," said the man, now 23, who is not being identified because he is a sexual assault victim. "I feel really bad and really hurt."
Majeed declined to speak at sentencing. His attorney, Michael F. Hart, said Majeed had been "seduced" by the boy, who was 16 when the sex began. He said Majeed had contributed greatly to society.
Of the prospects of a jury trial, Hart said, "the risk was too great." Majeed was facing up to 90 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Assistant District Attorney Miriam Falk said her office offered the plea deal because of the victim's record, lack of physical evidence and age of the crime. Still, she said the case was a serious in part because of Majeed's position.
"He was viewed in the school as a powerful and influential person," Falk said. "The perversion was that that understanding he had as a mentor was twisted."
Archived from original publication
More and more and more and MORE BAD COPS
Cop gets probation for alleged
sexual abuse of a 9-year-old |
WLKY-TV, April 10, 2007
CLARKSVILLE, Ind. -- A former Clarksville police officer will avoid jail time after pleading guilty Tuesday to lesser charges involving the abuse of a child.
Mike Otto, 38, was sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to the negligence of a child.
He was originally charged with two counts of child molesting.
A female relative claimed Otto sexually abused her between 1996 and 1997. The victim was nine when the abuse happened.
Comment: How come I never see little tiny news articles like this about, say, department store workers or fast-food workers or bus drivers who are charged with heinous, sickening sex crimes, but get the charges whittled down to nothing and walk away with probation?
Teen jailed for ten days
on readily disproved charges |
By Patti Dobranski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
April 4, 2007
A Hempfield Area High School sophomore spent 12 days in juvenile detention after authorities in Westmoreland County mistakenly charged him with making a March 11 bomb threat, in part because the district had not changed its clocks to reflect daylight-saving time.
Cody Webb, 15, of Hempfield, was arrested March 12 and charged with a felony count of threatening to use weapons of mass destruction and misdemeanor counts of making false alarms to public entities, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and making terrorist threats.
Webb, an honors student involved in student council, tennis and the Japanese Club, was immediately taken to the county's juvenile detention center.
"Cody never even had a (school) detention," said his mother, Linda Webb. "It was a nightmare."
The next day, Webb had a detention hearing and was held for court. After 10 more days in detention, Webb was back in court for his case to be heard. He was released to his parents' custody that day after Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge John Driscoll continued the hearing when the state police failed to appear.
Trooper Jeanne Martin, spokeswoman for state police at Greensburg, said the time change was an issue. Driscoll dismissed the charges March 27.
The teen said he did call the school's delay hot line early Sunday, March 11. But that was an hour before the bomb threat was phoned in, said the family's attorney, Tim Andrews. After Webb's parents obtained his cell phone records, Andrews found the call times did not match.
"I found out the district had not changed their clocks to reflect daylight-saving time," Andrews said. "They were changed Monday morning."
High school Principal Kathy Charlton confirmed that some of the district's clocks were wrong because of the changeover to daylight-saving time, which was three weeks earlier this year.
"All the time stamps were screwed up. Some did (change over), some didn't," Charlton said. "Everyone's system had to be set manually. There were a lot of clocks involved."
Andrews said state police and school officials botched the investigation. The school received 35 calls early on the morning of March 11, and few were actively investigated, he said.
"All it would have taken was 10 more minutes to look at the information. Everybody jumped the gun and caused this kid and his family to go through this," Andrews said.
Webb said he was chatting with his girlfriend on his cell phone at about 2 a.m. March 11 -- just about the time daylight-saving time pushed the clocks ahead one hour.
He hung up with his girlfriend, then placed a call to the school.
"I was bored, so I wondered what the recording said when you called in Hempfield's school delay hot line. I called in and it said to push '72,' which I did, and it said there were no delays. Then it disconnected me," he said. Webb's cell phone number showed up on the school's call recorder.
According to the police report, a male juvenile called the high school at 3:10 a.m. and said he would bomb the school Monday. The bomb threat came from a blocked phone number, Andrews said.
The district placed the blame by matching Webb's call, recorded on his phone at 3:12 a.m. daylight-saving time, to the threat recorded by the school as having been received at 3:17 a.m. Eastern Standard Time -- but that was 4:17 daylight-saving time, or an hour after Webb's call, Andrews said.
"The district attorney subpoenaed the cell phone records, and it didn't take more than a minute to see the times didn't match," Andrews said.
Hempfield solicitor Dennis Slyman said law enforcement did not question administrators about the school's clocks.
"The authorities never, never asked us anything about the clocks and daylight-saving time," Slyman said. "Whatever they did was with their own investigation and outside the auspices of the school district."
Webb said he learned about the bomb threat at school that Monday and was called into the guidance office.
"Mrs. Charlton asked me if I had a cell phone. I said, 'Yeah,' and she said, 'What's the number?' I told her, and she started saying, 'We got him. We got him.' I was completely oblivious to what they were talking about," he said.
In the principal's office, administrators demanded that Webb admit to calling in the bomb threat, he said.
"I wasn't going to admit to something I didn't do," he said. "Me and God know I didn't do it."
Webb's parents, Linda and Budd Webb, arrived at the school and listened to the recorded bomb threat. Linda Webb told administrators it wasn't her son.
"They kept saying that it was his voice. They didn't even know him," she said.
After a state trooper arrived, Charlton told the teen he was being arrested, and the trooper read Webb his Miranda rights.
"I was in shock," Webb said.
After the judge ordered a continuance, Andrews got Webb released to the custody of his parents.
Budd Webb wept as he described learning that his son would be cleared.
"I got a call from our attorney that said he had paperwork signed by Judge Driscoll dropping the felony and misdemeanor charges against my son," he said.
County juvenile detention officials wanted to keep Webb in custody, Andrews said. "They wanted him to have a mental health evaluation because he wouldn't admit to making the call."
County officials said Tuesday that Webb was in custody no longer than the law requires.
"Legally, we were OK. We didn't step on this kid's rights," said Mike Sturnick, supervisor for the juvenile probation office.
Webb's mother arranged home-schooling for him until he decides where to continue his education. He doesn't want
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"Nothing will eliminate [police corruption]. As long as you have police officers, you always have the potential for corruption. As long as you have human beings, there is potential for crime."
Los Angeles Police Chief
William Bratton |
| SPECIAL THANKS EMERITUS, LON GARM |
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The bad news we're presenting here is, of course, only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
As with any crime, only a tiny fraction of police misconduct is ever caught, and we can only guess what fraction of what's caught actually makes it into the newspapers, and of the rare police misconduct that is reported in the media, surely we stumble across only a tiny sliver.
Of that sliver, these are just a few selected highlights.
We welcome your clippings and comments; please send them to unknownnews at myway.com.
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Why we're doing this:
Cops are very nearly worshipped in our society. On endless TV shows, in movies, police procedural novels, in the newspapers and on the nightly news, police are usually presented as virtue personified -- as if it's heroic to button up a blue shirt and pin on a badge.
It's not.
What some cops do while wearing the uniform makes them heroes ... and what other cops do, on-duty and off, reveals them as thugs.
Well, if you're looking for more news of police heroism, you've come to the wrong place. If you want to be told that the policeman is your friend, that cops are the good guys and robbers are the bad guys, you'll find such reassurance on every 'news network,' in every newscast around the clock, and in every cop show from Dragnet to NYPD Blue.
This page serves a different purpose, for anyone brave enough to face facts:
All cops are not heroes.
But because of the myth that "all cops are heroes," there's minimal call for disciplining bad cops, and maximal call for "forgiving," and "understanding" the tough work of being a cop.
And that's despicable. And terrifying.
Police work is tough. It's among the most difficult jobs in the world. And turning a blind eye toward police misconduct -- allowing crooked, corrupt, outright criminal cops to have long careers in law enforcement -- only makes it more difficult and dangerous for the good cops.
Letting cops get away with crime ...
... Or "punishing" police misconduct with long, leisurely paid suspensions ...
... Or probation ...
... Or sweet deals that allow a policeman's own police record to be expunged ...
... Or any of the other special treatments cops typically receive when they're accused of wrongdoing ...
... is assinine and counterproductive.
We'd like to see good cops get a raise, and bad cops held accountable for their crimes.
Any other policy is an invitation to savages and brutes -- to button up a blue shirt, pin on a badge, and break the law with impunity.
Helen & Harry HighwaterLINK
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to return to Hempfield.
Martin said the state police investigation into the bomb threat remains open.
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Video shows officer shocking handcuffed man |
By Amy Herdy, KUSA-TV, April 13, 2007
DENVER -- The Department of Public Safety has released a video that shows an officer repeatedly using a Taser on a handcuffed prisoner.
The tape was released Thursday after an internal affairs investigation of Reserve Officer Lewis Culler finished. According to the Denver Police Monitor's report released last month, Culler falsely accused the prisoner of assault to justify another officer's use of the Taser. As a result of the investigation, Culler no longer works at the Denver Police Department, officials said.
The tape, from January 2006, shows Denver Officer Randall Krouse applying a Taser to the neck of Kenneth Rodriguez of Tucson, Arizona after making a racially charged remark.
"Understando Taser?" Krouse is heard saying to Rodriguez, who was uncooperative but not assaulting the officers in any way.
The Jan. 6, 2006, incident was detailed in an annual report from the independent police monitor, Richard Rosenthal. Click here to see a previous story on the report.
In the report, Rosenthal said he supported suspending rather than firing Krouse because the officer had an "unblemished service record."
The report also states that the Police Department allows the use of a Taser only when warding off "active aggression," and that only situations calling for deadly force justify using it on the neck. The Taser gives a 50,000-volt shock.
The situation came to light after supervisors in the District 2 police station viewed the tape and asked for an internal-affairs investigation.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty on Jan. 8, 2006, to charges that included disturbing the peace and assault after being falsely accused by Krouse and Cullar. That conviction was later set aside.
Rodriguez, a trucker, told investigators he pleaded guilty because he wanted the case to be over so he could leave Denver.
Denver Manager of Safety Al Lacabe concurred with a recommendation from Rosenthal that Krouse be suspended for 60 days.
Krouse and Cullar could not be reached for comment.
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Police drug test produces false positives |
By Elena Gaona, San Diego Union-Tribune, April 18, 2007
Escondido, Ca. -- The Germ is clean. That's what new tests of liquid soap carried by drummer Don Bolles of the punk band the Germs have determined. The peppermint soap, made by Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps of Escondido, had tested positive for GHB, a rave-scene drug, in a police field test.
Yesterday, however, all charges against the Los Angeles-based musician were dropped by the Orange County District Attorney's Office after more detailed crime lab tests came back negative for GHB.
"It was obviously ridiculous," said Bolles, 50, whose real name is Jimmy Michael Giorsetti. The whole thing was "a result of strange and anachronistic profiling."
After hearing of the case, Dr. Bronner's took up Bolles' cause, bailing him out after he spent more than three days in jail, paying for an attorney and questioning his arrest.
The negative results make the case more disturbing, said David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner's, who alleged that the drug-testing kits used by Newport Beach police are faulty.
Bronner said he purchased five NarcoPouch 928 kits from ODV Inc., the same company that supplies the Newport Beach Police Department. All five produced false positives for GHB when tested on Dr. Bronner's, Neutrogena and Tom's of Maine soaps, he said.
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