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the woman to strip, and "reveal her top and bottom," according to Brett Ligons, attorney with the Houston Police Officer Union. Gandy assured her that the search was in accordance with the law. An investigation began after officers found a prescription bottle with the woman's name in Gandy's squad car. Gandy could not be reached for comment.
By Christine Vendel, The Kansas City Star June 20, 2007 A Kansas City, Kan., police officer caught filming under a 15-year-old girl's skirt at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Kansas City pleaded guilty today to disorderly conduct. Victor D. Waller, 45, entered the plea in Kansas City Municipal Court as part of a deal with city prosecutors. City Prosecutor Lowell Gard said Waller's attorney contacted him a few days ago to arrange the deal in which Waller would receive a 90-day suspended sentence and two years of probation. Waller also must pay a $100 fine and attend 12 counseling sessions with a psychiatrist. If Waller does not complete his counseling, or if he is arrested for a similar offense within two years, he will have to serve his 90-day sentence, Gard said. Police and prosecutors said the disorderly conduct charge was the only one they could apply in this case. When the parade incident came to light, Kansas City, Kan., police suspended Waller and launched an internal investigation. The day of the parade, witnesses noticed Waller allegedly filming the teen with a camcorder in a waiting area after the parade. A woman yelled, "Hey, What are you doing?" or something to that effect, police said. The video captured her voice, they said. The next images were of concrete as Waller quickly walked away. Outraged witnesses followed until they found a police officer, who later wrote Waller a ticket saying Waller had caused a breach of the peace by attempting to view under the victim's skirt as he stood behind her. Sex crimes detectives watched more than one hour of video from Waller's camcorder and said it contained primarily images shot from the waist down of girls, ages 12 to 15, wearing leotards and skirts.
Associated Press June 28, 2007 PHILADELPHIA - An officer who ordered two women to put on a "sex show" in a jail cell will be fired. Norberto Cappas, 32, was found guilty by a police tribunal of conduct unbecoming an officer and lying during a departmental investigation, the department said Tuesday. Internal Affairs investigators found that Cappas ordered the two women to kiss and touch each other and expose their breasts in September 2003. The two had been picked up on suspicion of drug possession, but they had no drugs and were not charged with a crime. Cappas has denied wrongdoing and refused to talk to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter seeking comment Tuesday. The case sat idle for years until the Inquirer raised questions about it last year. One of the women filed a civil lawsuit and was awarded $17,500. The city's own lawyers concluded that she never should have been detained in the first place.
By Jeff Horseman and E.B. Furgurson III, Capital Gazette June 8, 2007 ANNAPOLIS, Md. With rifles in hand, police forcibly entered the apartment at 905 Primrose Road at 8:20 p.m. while a couple was fixing dinner. The other two tenants were at the grocery store. According to police reports, a woman in the apartment barricaded a bedroom door with her body as about 15 officers burst through the front door. The tenants are natives of El Salvador and spoke little English. The Annapolis Special Emergency Team then used what was described as a noise flash device and were able to enter the bedroom. The woman, identified by police as Silvia Bernal, 30, said police never identified themselves and kicked her husband in the groin and pushed her to the ground before handcuffing them both. Through an interpreter, she said she felt like she "was going to die right then." The other tenants would not give their names for fear of retaliation. As the second couple returned from the store, they heard Mrs. Bernal screaming. While attempting to come to her aid, police pushed them to the floor, the victims said. The second woman, who is 4-months pregnant, clung to a railing inside the building while her husband pleaded with police to take it easy on his pregnant wife. The husband said an officer replied: "I don't care." Moments later, an officer on the scene exited the building and realized a mistake had been made. They were supposed to have hit 901 Primrose. Meanwhile, Mrs. Bernal, who said she has a heart condition, told officers she couldn't breathe. One them pushed her to the outside balcony before all four residents were taken to the hospital. Realizing the error, police then gave assistance to the four. Mrs. Bernal said someone apologized for the mistake and an officer asked her to sign a paper. She refused. Mrs. Bernal was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where she was treated and released. The pregnant woman, who complained of having stomach pains, was evaluated and released. Mary Schumaker, a board member of the Centro De Ayuda, called the raid unconscionable and said her center would provide prenatal care to the pregnant woman along with other assistance. "We don't know how the mistake was made," said Officer Hal Dalton, city police spokesman. "Something went wrong in the briefing before the operation. Regrettably it happens, not very often to us, but it happens." He said an investigation is under way to find out what happened. "We are evaluating it to see what steps can be made to prevent similar events in the future." After checking with the officer who obtained the warrant, the narcotics officers and tactical squad proceeded to the correct address, which was found empty. The apartment maintenance crew arrived to make repairs. This morning, the large dent remained in the front door and two large black stains from the flash-bang grenades were on the carpet. Latisha Marshall, property manager of Spa Cove, said police gave them no warning of the raid or any drug activity and said officers did more damage to the apartment they accidentally raided than the intended target. "We were blindsided by this," she said. "People should be treated with decency."
By , Associated Press May 30, 2007 Omaha, Neb. "When I realized he was a police officer and he was going to make me do this all I was thinking I knew I wasn't going to let him get away with this," said Lavonne Inman. Two years ago Inman turned in Antoniak after he threatened to take her to jail if she refused to perform oral sex on him. Inman was a prostitute at the time. "He's supposed to serve and protect. You take an oath when you become a police officer," Inman said. Antoniak was fired from the police department. In February, he was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 5 years probation. "He sexually assaulted me and he gets 5 years probation? I don't think its fair," said Inman. Prosecutors are appealing that sentence. Inman said now she's trying to turn her life around. She said she wants to leave the drugs and the streets that had become her life for so many years. "I've been living that way for 21 years and its time for me to make a change. I'm not getting any younger and I got 5 kids and I need to be a mother to them, " she said. Inman also has two grandchildren. She's 37-years-old. Inman got out of jail last week after serving 124 days for violating probation. Antoniak's attorney declined comment because Inman is suing his client.
By Mike Carter, The Seattle Times May 24, 2007 Two Seattle police officers lied after the arrest of an alleged drug dealer, the civilian auditor of the police department's internal-affairs unit has concluded, and she believes one of them pocketed marijuana taken off a suspect. "It was more than just sloppy," said Kate Pflaumer, the former U.S. attorney in Seattle, on Tuesday. She is the first official involved in the investigation to openly challenge Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske's decision to clear officers Greg Neubert and Michael Tietjen of serious ethics and honesty charges. Responding to Pflaumer's comments, Kerlikowske said Wednesday that he and the auditor had agreed on the key findings: the officers didn't use excessive force and didn't plant drugs. Pflaumer said she thought they should be "tagged for lying and failing to cooperate with the investigation." As the former chief federal prosecutor in Western Washington, she has opinions that carry particular weight. But the chief characterized the officers as having a recall problem when they were interviewed as part of the investigation. "No, I don't believe they lied," he said. The investigation into the officers started because an alleged drug dealer complained that the officers had used excessive force and planted drugs on him. He pointed detectives to a drugstore surveillance tape to prove his case. The tape contradicted the officers' reports in several areas. Pflaumer said she voiced her opinion to Kerlikowske last month in a "spirited" and "frank" e-mail exchange. Within days of that exchange, the chief called a news conference and announced that an extensive internal investigation had turned up no evidence of wrongdoing by the officers after the January arrest. Questions into the officers' credibility have been building ever since: A forensic expert has challenged the officers' version of the incident, a superior court judge has agreed with the expert's conclusions and the FBI has opened a preliminary civil-rights review of the case. The officers have previously refrained from commenting. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, has said that the issue has been "blown out of proportion." Pflaumer's job as civilian auditor is to review all Office of Professional Accountability investigations "for completion, thoroughness and findings." She often works in "real time" with internal affairs detectives to ensure all avenues of an investigation are pursued. In the Neubert and Tietjen probe, Pflaumer sent investigators to try to find another witness and reviewed the entire case. The surveillance tape also revealed a series of other issues that called into question the officers' credibility and their version of events. According to the officers' reports, filed an hour after the arrest, they first spotted 26-year-old George "Troy" Patterson through a telescope from the ninth floor of a parking garage. They said they watched as Patterson, who uses a wheelchair, sold crack cocaine on the corner of Third and Pike. When they arrived at the corner on their bicycles, they said, Patterson rolled by. The officers said they observed crumbs of cocaine on his lap and arrested him. But the officers didn't include other details that the videotape captured. For example, the videotape showed that the officers had detained and handcuffed another man at the scene, but then let him go. Department policy requires that they clear the suspect's release with a sergeant and note it in their reports. They did neither. Kerlikowske disciplined the officers for failing to report the detention. The video also shows that the officers tried to get Patterson to spit something out of his mouth and that Tietjen used a "wristy-twisty" pain-compliance hold on Patterson for several minutes. There is no reference to either of those details in their reports. The man who was detained and released But Pflaumer concluded that the suspect's story was credible. "Why would he lie about having drugs?" she said. She found it significant that both officers "deep-sixed the whole event" about the unreported detention and the marijuana. "I think the exclusions were purposeful," she said. Pflaumer joins a growing list of officials who have questioned the arrest after viewing the 22-minute incident on the tape. A King County Superior Court judge ruled that the tape and the officers' reports "don't square"; a forensic video analyst hired by The Defender Association pointed out dozens of discrepancies. Meantime, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office dismissed charges against Patterson after viewing the tape, and has sent letters to defense attorneys in at least 17 other cases alerting them to the investigation into the officers' credibility. "Nobody disagrees that they should have written a better report," Kerlikowske said Wednesday. At the same time, he said, the apparent inaccuracies and omissions don't surprise him, given the large number of drug arrests in which the officers are involved. The Office of Professional Accountability makes recommendations in disciplinary cases, and its auditor reviews those findings. Kerlikowske can uphold, stiffen, reverse or reduce recommended discipline. In her e-mail exchange with the chief, Pflaumer said, she told the chief that she thought the officers were lying. Neither the chief nor Pflaumer could provide the e-mails. The police department said the e-mails have been deleted. The deletions are an apparent violation of city policy and state document-retention laws.
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