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Crimes by the Justice System and Police
- Thread starter Cousin Dupree
- Start date
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
The Fallout Continues from Massachusetts’ Massive Forensic Drug Lab Scandals
Loevy & Loevy has won more multi-million dollar jury verdicts over the past decade than any other civil rights law firm in the country.
www.loevy.com
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
The sound drops out for a few seconds a couple of times, so I can summarize and you can watch it and just put up with the sound outages.
Short story: (@GrandmaBear pay attention. This is how to keep things short.)
Juan Catalan was accused of killing a nine year old girl. He didn't do it. The detectives, after picking him up for a crime he had no idea had been committed, asked him where he was three months ago on the day of the murder. Who can remember where they were three months ago on a certain day without having to think about it for awhile. Mark Furman (Yes, that Mark Furman) listened to the audio of the detectives interviewing Juan and said that it was poor detective work. Juan remembered he had been at a baseball game with his 7 year old daughter, but couldn't prove it. His lawyer got the game broadcast from the network and in commercial breaks the networks just scan the crowd. This was a close to sold out game. His colleagues laughed at him for looking for a needle in a haystack. He couldn't find Juan on the broadcast tape.
Then he learned that Larry David had been filming an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that day at the ballpark. So he asked for all of that footage. In one moment Juan walks by clear as day on the videotapes. The next problem was proving he was there for the entire game. His lawyer remembered that in the OJ trial they had used cell phone tracking. (This was 2003 when this happened.) So he asked Juan if he had made any calls, and he had called his wife to let her know he was coming home. So that placed him at the ballpark during the time the girl was murdered.
The detectives admitted to setting Juan up... errr making the evidence fit the crime. There was no forensic evidence against him. Those detectives continued to work for the LAPD without any punishment. At the time of the filming of this episode, one was still working for the LAPD.
The YouTube video won't link. So look up
Short story: (@GrandmaBear pay attention. This is how to keep things short.)
Juan Catalan was accused of killing a nine year old girl. He didn't do it. The detectives, after picking him up for a crime he had no idea had been committed, asked him where he was three months ago on the day of the murder. Who can remember where they were three months ago on a certain day without having to think about it for awhile. Mark Furman (Yes, that Mark Furman) listened to the audio of the detectives interviewing Juan and said that it was poor detective work. Juan remembered he had been at a baseball game with his 7 year old daughter, but couldn't prove it. His lawyer got the game broadcast from the network and in commercial breaks the networks just scan the crowd. This was a close to sold out game. His colleagues laughed at him for looking for a needle in a haystack. He couldn't find Juan on the broadcast tape.
Then he learned that Larry David had been filming an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that day at the ballpark. So he asked for all of that footage. In one moment Juan walks by clear as day on the videotapes. The next problem was proving he was there for the entire game. His lawyer remembered that in the OJ trial they had used cell phone tracking. (This was 2003 when this happened.) So he asked Juan if he had made any calls, and he had called his wife to let her know he was coming home. So that placed him at the ballpark during the time the girl was murdered.
The detectives admitted to setting Juan up... errr making the evidence fit the crime. There was no forensic evidence against him. Those detectives continued to work for the LAPD without any punishment. At the time of the filming of this episode, one was still working for the LAPD.
The YouTube video won't link. So look up
Innocent man facing the death penalty saved by Seinfeld creator | 60 Minutes Australia
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
This is on Peacock. The Dateline episode is called "The Investigation"
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-homicide-detectives-perjury-devlin-santiago-jastrzembski-20210813.html
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/TW23ROQ5L5BRJL2ORM3P365YOY.jpg "Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks at the podium next to Patricia Cummings, Supervisor of the Conviction Integrity Unit, during a news conference announcing charges against three former city detectives for perjury in a decades-old murder case at his Center City office on Friday. Detectives Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski face charges of perjury and false swearing in the case of the 1993 rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Anthony Wright was convicted and retried in 2016 before his conviction was overturned. Wright served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, and said that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.")
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks at the podium next to Patricia Cummings, Supervisor of the Conviction Integrity Unit, during a news conference announcing charges against three former city detectives for perjury in a decades-old murder case at his Center City office on Friday. Detectives Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski face charges of perjury and false swearing in the case of the 1993 rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Anthony Wright was convicted and retried in 2016 before his conviction was overturned. Wright served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, and said that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.HEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
The allegations, unveiled in a presentment filed by the District Attorney’s Office, represent an extraordinary development in a city that has seen dozens of old homicide convictions overturned in recent years — but no significant legal repercussions for the police or prosecutors involved in building those cases. Many of them have since been accused of misconduct in court documents filed by District Attorney Larry Krasner.
The grand jury’s findings mark a stunning turnabout for Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski, who each served more than 25 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. Devlin for years was viewed as a star investigator in one of the nation’s most violent cities, specializing in cold cases and complex investigations that no one else could crack.
But in recent years, questions have emerged about the detectives’ investigative practices, mostly during the 1990s. Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit has helped overturn at least five cases the detectives worked on, saying the convictions were marred by coerced confessions, fabricated or hidden evidence, or secret deals with key witnesses.
“These charges are an indication that a Philadelphia jury, in this case a grand jury, can carefully look at evidence and can understand that the law must apply equally to people, whether they are in law enforcement, [or] supposed to be served by law enforcement,” Krasner said during a news conference Friday.
The detectives have consistently denied wrongdoing. They also face charges of false swearing and the possibility of prison time if convicted. They turned themselves in at a Northeast Philadelphia police district Friday and were released on bail after being arraigned. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the end of this month.
Their lawyer, Brian McMonagle, said his clients were “innocent of these charges,” adding: “These three good men dedicated their lives to seeking justice for victims of crime. In this case they sought justice for a woman who was brutally raped and murdered.”
A spokesperson for the police union declined to comment.
The prosecution — coming just days before the expiration of the five-year statute of limitations — is a significant undertaking for Krasner, who took office in 2018 and promised to address police misconduct while reforming an office he had harshly criticized during his previous career as a civil rights lawyer.
The charges against Devlin, Santiago and Jastrzembski are his first attempt to hold law enforcement officials criminally responsible for their actions in a wrongful conviction.
Marissa Bluestine, the former head of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and assistant director at the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at University of Pennsylvania, said personal accountability for such crimes by law enforcement is rare. The statute of limitations for criminal charges often runs out, she said, and police and prosecutors are typically shielded from personal liability in civil litigation due to qualified immunity laws.
Krasner said at his news conference: “Actual accountability is what this is about.”
Some defendants in the 1990s had accused detectives in open court of wrongdoing during investigations. But disputed confessions or claims of coercion were viewed as common among suspects and witnesses at the time, and statements given to police in that era were not taped. So police and prosecutors could present disputed confessions to jurors and let them decide whom to believe.
Questions about Devlin, Santiago and Jastrzembski resurfaced during the 2016 retrial of Anthony Wright, who was convicted in 1993 of the rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Wright’s appellate lawyers later discovered DNA evidence that proved he had not raped Talley. Wright’s conviction was overturned, but then-District Attorney Seth Williams’ office sought to convict him again, saying the results did not preclude him from being an accomplice to the crime.
He was quickly acquitted in August 2016, and afterward some jurors took the remarkable step of standing beside Wright and publicly criticizing prosecutors for continuing to pursue what they called a weak case.
Williams said Friday: “There are many [cases] that I remember very specific details. This is not one of them.”
Wright, who served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, has long alleged that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a brutal, physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.
He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $9.8 million, but said it’s now time for those who framed him to face justice.
“This will mean everything to me if those guys individually can be held accountable for what they did to me. And their name is on so many people’s paperwork that were wronged,” he said, adding that the losses accrued over 25 years are hard to calculate. He missed his mother’s funeral, and watching his son grow up.
» READ MORE: The Homicide Files database: Review murder cases involving these three detectives and others accused of misconduct
At Wright’s retrial in 2016, Devlin testified that he had never threatened an interview subject, and that he had transcribed Wright’s confession verbatim. Then, he agreed to a challenge by lawyer Samuel Silver: To transcribe the confession again in real time as Silver read it aloud. He got just six or seven words down on the page before it became clear he could not keep up.
There were also allegations of perjury involving Santiago and Jastrzembski, raised in the form of a disciplinary complaint filed by the Innocence Project in 2018 against Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn. (No action was taken publicly against Kirn by the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.)
The complaint alleged that Kirn failed in her duty to correct false testimony by Santiago and Jastrzembski when they told jurors they had not been briefed on the damning DNA tests conducted after Wright’s first conviction. The tests showed that semen taken from the victim’s body matched Ronnie Byrd, a Nicetown man with a crack addiction — not Wright.
It also showed that “wearer DNA” on bloody clothing Jastrzembski said he had recovered from Wright’s home, an aspect of his supposed confession, was a match for the victim, and not for Wright.
The complaint noted that a year after the retrial, during depositions for Wright’s civil lawsuit, both detectives acknowledged that the District Attorney’s Office had informed them of the test results in pretrial briefings. Kirn and other detectives confirmed that in their depositions.
“All of them perjured themselves during their testimony at the retrial,” said Peter Neufeld, cofounder of the Innocence Project and one of Wright’s lawyers. “They perjured themselves on all kinds of things. Jastrzembski perjured himself when he said he found clothing he didn’t find, and Santiago and Devlin both perjured themselves about the way the interrogation went down. They all lied.”
The grand jury said it believed charges were necessary “to correct the historical record and hold the three former detectives — Santiago, Devlin, and Jastrzembski — accountable for lying under oath to condemn an innocent man and cover up their wrongdoing, and for perverting the integrity of the law.”
The detectives have been the subject of mounting criticism as cases they investigated were revealed to be some of the most shocking wrongful convictions in Philadelphia history.
Media coverage over the years portrayed Devlin as a brilliant eccentric — “Detective Perfect” — who wore a loud shirt and carried a shotgun when he allowed a reporter to ride along as he chased a suspect in North Philadelphia. He retired in 1995 and had a storied second act as a detective for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. An Inquirer profile, written after he helped win the high-profile conviction of Cherry Hill Rabbi Fred Neulander for hiring a hit man to kill his wife, called Devlin “street smart and feisty, with intense green eyes that display both the joy and seriousness he brings to the job.”
He has been accused of participating in violent interrogations that ended with forced, false statements in at least five different murder cases. In one, Devlin was accused of coercing a false confession from Willie Veasy, while Jastrzembski, the lead detective, allegedly hid evidence that cast doubt on Veasy’s involvement.
Veasy spent 27 years in prison but was exonerated in 2019. He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $5 million earlier this year.
Jastrzembski and Santiago were among three detectives who refused to testify in a 1994 court proceeding about a murder case they investigated, instead invoking their Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating themselves. In that case, Commonwealth v. Percy St. George, there were also suggestions of perjury — as the detectives had testified to taking statements that witnesses said were fabricated or coerced.
Marc Bookman, then a public defender on the case and now the executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, said that case should have led to punishment decades ago.
“The fact that all these cops were guilty of misconduct was not a secret,” Bookman said. “It all took place in open court. In a real criminal justice system, the DA’s office would have done a full investigation and probably ended up prosecuting the police. But Philadelphia during those years was a rigged town — there was no oversight.”
Lynne Abraham, District Attorney from 1991 to 2010, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Jastrzembski and Santiago also built the case against Jimmy Dennis, whose murder conviction was vacated after he spent 25 years on death row. Dennis had compelling alibi evidence that was in the possession of police or prosecutors but was not disclosed at his trial.
And Santiago was accused of overseeing an investigation in which a key witness with an implausible story was also secretly facing drug charges under a fictitious name. The man who was convicted, Andrew Swainson, was released from prison last summer after Krasner’s office called his case “fundamentally flawed and unfair.”
The detectives’ arrest was welcome news to Walter Ogrod, who spent 23 years on death row for the murder of 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn based in part on a confession taken by Devlin and his then-partner Detective Paul Worrell — one Krasner’s office now contends was false and coerced. Ogrod was exonerated last year.
In his view, perjury charges would be a fair starting point.
“What’s the statute of limitations for attempted murder?” he said. (It’s five years in Pennsylvania.) “I’m an innocent man and what did they go for? Death. They wanted to kill an innocent man.”
Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
Three ex-Philly homicide detectives charged with perjury for their testimony during the retrial of an innocent man
The startling allegations relate to the detectives' testimony in the 2016 murder retrial of Anthony Wright.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks at the podium next to Patricia Cummings, Supervisor of the Conviction Integrity Unit, during a news conference announcing charges against three former city detectives for perjury in a decades-old murder case at his Center City office on Friday. Detectives Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski face charges of perjury and false swearing in the case of the 1993 rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Anthony Wright was convicted and retried in 2016 before his conviction was overturned. Wright served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, and said that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.HEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
- by Samantha Melamed and Chris Palmer
Updated Aug. 13, 2021, 9:28 p.m. ET
|
Published Aug. 13, 2021, 11:21 a.m. ET
The allegations, unveiled in a presentment filed by the District Attorney’s Office, represent an extraordinary development in a city that has seen dozens of old homicide convictions overturned in recent years — but no significant legal repercussions for the police or prosecutors involved in building those cases. Many of them have since been accused of misconduct in court documents filed by District Attorney Larry Krasner.
The grand jury’s findings mark a stunning turnabout for Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago, and Frank Jastrzembski, who each served more than 25 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. Devlin for years was viewed as a star investigator in one of the nation’s most violent cities, specializing in cold cases and complex investigations that no one else could crack.
But in recent years, questions have emerged about the detectives’ investigative practices, mostly during the 1990s. Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit has helped overturn at least five cases the detectives worked on, saying the convictions were marred by coerced confessions, fabricated or hidden evidence, or secret deals with key witnesses.
“These charges are an indication that a Philadelphia jury, in this case a grand jury, can carefully look at evidence and can understand that the law must apply equally to people, whether they are in law enforcement, [or] supposed to be served by law enforcement,” Krasner said during a news conference Friday.
The detectives have consistently denied wrongdoing. They also face charges of false swearing and the possibility of prison time if convicted. They turned themselves in at a Northeast Philadelphia police district Friday and were released on bail after being arraigned. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the end of this month.
Their lawyer, Brian McMonagle, said his clients were “innocent of these charges,” adding: “These three good men dedicated their lives to seeking justice for victims of crime. In this case they sought justice for a woman who was brutally raped and murdered.”
A spokesperson for the police union declined to comment.
The prosecution — coming just days before the expiration of the five-year statute of limitations — is a significant undertaking for Krasner, who took office in 2018 and promised to address police misconduct while reforming an office he had harshly criticized during his previous career as a civil rights lawyer.
The charges against Devlin, Santiago and Jastrzembski are his first attempt to hold law enforcement officials criminally responsible for their actions in a wrongful conviction.
Marissa Bluestine, the former head of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and assistant director at the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at University of Pennsylvania, said personal accountability for such crimes by law enforcement is rare. The statute of limitations for criminal charges often runs out, she said, and police and prosecutors are typically shielded from personal liability in civil litigation due to qualified immunity laws.
Krasner said at his news conference: “Actual accountability is what this is about.”
Some defendants in the 1990s had accused detectives in open court of wrongdoing during investigations. But disputed confessions or claims of coercion were viewed as common among suspects and witnesses at the time, and statements given to police in that era were not taped. So police and prosecutors could present disputed confessions to jurors and let them decide whom to believe.
Questions about Devlin, Santiago and Jastrzembski resurfaced during the 2016 retrial of Anthony Wright, who was convicted in 1993 of the rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown. Wright’s appellate lawyers later discovered DNA evidence that proved he had not raped Talley. Wright’s conviction was overturned, but then-District Attorney Seth Williams’ office sought to convict him again, saying the results did not preclude him from being an accomplice to the crime.
He was quickly acquitted in August 2016, and afterward some jurors took the remarkable step of standing beside Wright and publicly criticizing prosecutors for continuing to pursue what they called a weak case.
Williams said Friday: “There are many [cases] that I remember very specific details. This is not one of them.”
Wright, who served 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, has long alleged that detectives fabricated evidence and subjected him to a brutal, physically abusive interrogation before forcing him to sign a false confession.
He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $9.8 million, but said it’s now time for those who framed him to face justice.
“This will mean everything to me if those guys individually can be held accountable for what they did to me. And their name is on so many people’s paperwork that were wronged,” he said, adding that the losses accrued over 25 years are hard to calculate. He missed his mother’s funeral, and watching his son grow up.
» READ MORE: The Homicide Files database: Review murder cases involving these three detectives and others accused of misconduct
At Wright’s retrial in 2016, Devlin testified that he had never threatened an interview subject, and that he had transcribed Wright’s confession verbatim. Then, he agreed to a challenge by lawyer Samuel Silver: To transcribe the confession again in real time as Silver read it aloud. He got just six or seven words down on the page before it became clear he could not keep up.
There were also allegations of perjury involving Santiago and Jastrzembski, raised in the form of a disciplinary complaint filed by the Innocence Project in 2018 against Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn. (No action was taken publicly against Kirn by the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.)
The complaint alleged that Kirn failed in her duty to correct false testimony by Santiago and Jastrzembski when they told jurors they had not been briefed on the damning DNA tests conducted after Wright’s first conviction. The tests showed that semen taken from the victim’s body matched Ronnie Byrd, a Nicetown man with a crack addiction — not Wright.
It also showed that “wearer DNA” on bloody clothing Jastrzembski said he had recovered from Wright’s home, an aspect of his supposed confession, was a match for the victim, and not for Wright.
The complaint noted that a year after the retrial, during depositions for Wright’s civil lawsuit, both detectives acknowledged that the District Attorney’s Office had informed them of the test results in pretrial briefings. Kirn and other detectives confirmed that in their depositions.
“All of them perjured themselves during their testimony at the retrial,” said Peter Neufeld, cofounder of the Innocence Project and one of Wright’s lawyers. “They perjured themselves on all kinds of things. Jastrzembski perjured himself when he said he found clothing he didn’t find, and Santiago and Devlin both perjured themselves about the way the interrogation went down. They all lied.”
The grand jury said it believed charges were necessary “to correct the historical record and hold the three former detectives — Santiago, Devlin, and Jastrzembski — accountable for lying under oath to condemn an innocent man and cover up their wrongdoing, and for perverting the integrity of the law.”
The detectives have been the subject of mounting criticism as cases they investigated were revealed to be some of the most shocking wrongful convictions in Philadelphia history.
Media coverage over the years portrayed Devlin as a brilliant eccentric — “Detective Perfect” — who wore a loud shirt and carried a shotgun when he allowed a reporter to ride along as he chased a suspect in North Philadelphia. He retired in 1995 and had a storied second act as a detective for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. An Inquirer profile, written after he helped win the high-profile conviction of Cherry Hill Rabbi Fred Neulander for hiring a hit man to kill his wife, called Devlin “street smart and feisty, with intense green eyes that display both the joy and seriousness he brings to the job.”
He has been accused of participating in violent interrogations that ended with forced, false statements in at least five different murder cases. In one, Devlin was accused of coercing a false confession from Willie Veasy, while Jastrzembski, the lead detective, allegedly hid evidence that cast doubt on Veasy’s involvement.
Veasy spent 27 years in prison but was exonerated in 2019. He settled a civil lawsuit against the city for $5 million earlier this year.
Jastrzembski and Santiago were among three detectives who refused to testify in a 1994 court proceeding about a murder case they investigated, instead invoking their Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating themselves. In that case, Commonwealth v. Percy St. George, there were also suggestions of perjury — as the detectives had testified to taking statements that witnesses said were fabricated or coerced.
Marc Bookman, then a public defender on the case and now the executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, said that case should have led to punishment decades ago.
“The fact that all these cops were guilty of misconduct was not a secret,” Bookman said. “It all took place in open court. In a real criminal justice system, the DA’s office would have done a full investigation and probably ended up prosecuting the police. But Philadelphia during those years was a rigged town — there was no oversight.”
Lynne Abraham, District Attorney from 1991 to 2010, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Jastrzembski and Santiago also built the case against Jimmy Dennis, whose murder conviction was vacated after he spent 25 years on death row. Dennis had compelling alibi evidence that was in the possession of police or prosecutors but was not disclosed at his trial.
And Santiago was accused of overseeing an investigation in which a key witness with an implausible story was also secretly facing drug charges under a fictitious name. The man who was convicted, Andrew Swainson, was released from prison last summer after Krasner’s office called his case “fundamentally flawed and unfair.”
The detectives’ arrest was welcome news to Walter Ogrod, who spent 23 years on death row for the murder of 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn based in part on a confession taken by Devlin and his then-partner Detective Paul Worrell — one Krasner’s office now contends was false and coerced. Ogrod was exonerated last year.
In his view, perjury charges would be a fair starting point.
“What’s the statute of limitations for attempted murder?” he said. (It’s five years in Pennsylvania.) “I’m an innocent man and what did they go for? Death. They wanted to kill an innocent man.”
Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
I wouldn't call this corruption, just extreme stupidity caused by focusing on one suspect:
Could have gotten 70 years but got 20? That's a crime in itself.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(686x137:688x139)/mississippi-deputies-crime-081423-e638ee723b0c4c5a8838aeb7be97fb39.jpg)
people.com
So, six White law enforcement officers – who called themselves the "Goon Squad" – broke into the home, terrorized the men with sex toys, spewed racial slurs and fired a bullet into Michael Jenkins’ mouth on Jan. 24, 2023, per a federal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
Today, two of those former officers will be sentenced in connection to the racially-motivated attacks on Jenkins and Eddie Parker.
Hunter Elward – who shot a gun into Jenkins’s mouth, nearly severing his tongue – previously pleaded guilty to discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, two counts conspiracy to deprive rights and six counts deprivation against rights, the DOJ confirms to PEOPLE. Charged with the most heinous crimes in the racially-motivated attack, the sheriff's deputy faced up to 70 years behind bars. A Mississippi judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison Tuesday, CNN, WLBT and WJTV report.
“I was raised as a Christian, and I’ve slacked off, but I’m going to do better and seek counseling,” Elward said at his sentencing Tuesday per WLBT, noting: “That’s my only way out, the only choice I have now.”
Mississippi 'Goon Squad' Officer Sentenced to 20 Years for Torture of 2 Black Men
Hunter Elward, the Mississippi sheriff's deputy charged with the most egregious crimes in the racially-motivated attack, faced up to 70 years behind bars. A Mississippi judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison Tuesday.
Mississippi 'Goon Squad' Officer Sentenced to 20 Years for Torture of 2 Black Men
- The all-White group – five former Rankin County sheriff's deputies and a former Richland police officer – admitted to their involvement in breaking into a Braxton home and torturing two Black men in a racially-motivated attack.
- During the hours-long torture last year, deputy Hunter Elward shot Michael Jenkins in the mouth.
- Elward was sentenced to 20 years on Tuesday. Five more members of the self-named ‘Goon Squad’ are slated for sentencing through March 21.
So, six White law enforcement officers – who called themselves the "Goon Squad" – broke into the home, terrorized the men with sex toys, spewed racial slurs and fired a bullet into Michael Jenkins’ mouth on Jan. 24, 2023, per a federal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
Today, two of those former officers will be sentenced in connection to the racially-motivated attacks on Jenkins and Eddie Parker.
Hunter Elward – who shot a gun into Jenkins’s mouth, nearly severing his tongue – previously pleaded guilty to discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, two counts conspiracy to deprive rights and six counts deprivation against rights, the DOJ confirms to PEOPLE. Charged with the most heinous crimes in the racially-motivated attack, the sheriff's deputy faced up to 70 years behind bars. A Mississippi judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison Tuesday, CNN, WLBT and WJTV report.
“I was raised as a Christian, and I’ve slacked off, but I’m going to do better and seek counseling,” Elward said at his sentencing Tuesday per WLBT, noting: “That’s my only way out, the only choice I have now.”
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Well, if you have Paramount Plus watch the 48 Hours case: "Guiilty Until Proven Innocent" Two guys were railroaded with the prosecution throwing out DNA evidence in favor of using blood type evidence. (Granted, DNA was fairly new, but their failure to let the defense use it was hinky.)
www.nwitimes.com
...
Hill, 59, and co-defendant Larry Mayes had their 1982 convictions set aside as part of separate petitions for post-conviction relief. A Lake Criminal Court magistrate found that the state had violated their rights by failing to turn over evidence to their defense attorneys ahead of their trials.
The jury for Hill's civil trial in U.S. District Court never heard about the post-conviction relief court's decision because of a pretrial ruling by Judge Theresa Springmann...
Those who don't think juries get it right all the time and that prosecutors don't railroad people. Think about this. There are a lot of cases that are frighteningly similar.
www.nwitimes.com
The current DA, at their time of exoneration, looked over the case and found "Disturbing things" After being set free he, was re-tried and found not guilty. Everybody from the Governor on down saw his innocence, and he was taken off the sex offenders list. The only guy who thinks he's guilty is the former cop who investigated the case. Of course, cops never make mistakes, or invent evidence or hide exculpatory evidence.
There's an episode of "Forensic Files" about a cop wrongly convicted and eventually set free, At the end of the episode he says he thought that everybody in jail was guilty. He doesn't think that way anymore.
Jury awards $25.5 million for civil rights violations by Hammond police
The verdict in favor of James Hill Jr. marks the second time a federal jury has found against retired Hammond police Capt. Michael Solan since 2006.
...
Hill, 59, and co-defendant Larry Mayes had their 1982 convictions set aside as part of separate petitions for post-conviction relief. A Lake Criminal Court magistrate found that the state had violated their rights by failing to turn over evidence to their defense attorneys ahead of their trials.
The jury for Hill's civil trial in U.S. District Court never heard about the post-conviction relief court's decision because of a pretrial ruling by Judge Theresa Springmann...
Those who don't think juries get it right all the time and that prosecutors don't railroad people. Think about this. There are a lot of cases that are frighteningly similar.
Jury awards $25.5 million for civil rights violations by Hammond police
The verdict in favor of James Hill Jr. marks the second time a federal jury has found against retired Hammond police Capt. Michael Solan since 2006.
Glenn v. City of Hammond, 2:18-CV-150-TLS-JEM | Casetext Search + Citator
Read Glenn v. City of Hammond, 2:18-CV-150-TLS-JEM, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext’s comprehensive legal database
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The current DA, at their time of exoneration, looked over the case and found "Disturbing things" After being set free he, was re-tried and found not guilty. Everybody from the Governor on down saw his innocence, and he was taken off the sex offenders list. The only guy who thinks he's guilty is the former cop who investigated the case. Of course, cops never make mistakes, or invent evidence or hide exculpatory evidence.
There's an episode of "Forensic Files" about a cop wrongly convicted and eventually set free, At the end of the episode he says he thought that everybody in jail was guilty. He doesn't think that way anymore.
GrandmaBear
Deputized Emu Slayer/Horse Thief Hunter
It's a far different world than it was back then when most you ever hear of occurred. Cops today are at real risk themselves should they pull such things.Well, if you have Paramount Plus watch the 48 Hours case: "Guiilty Until Proven Innocent" Two guys were railroaded with the prosecution throwing out DNA evidence in favor of using blood type evidence. (Granted, DNA was fairly new, but their failure to let the defense use it was hinky.)
Jury awards $25.5 million for civil rights violations by Hammond police
The verdict in favor of James Hill Jr. marks the second time a federal jury has found against retired Hammond police Capt. Michael Solan since 2006.
...
Hill, 59, and co-defendant Larry Mayes had their 1982 convictions set aside as part of separate petitions for post-conviction relief. A Lake Criminal Court magistrate found that the state had violated their rights by failing to turn over evidence to their defense attorneys ahead of their trials.
The jury for Hill's civil trial in U.S. District Court never heard about the post-conviction relief court's decision because of a pretrial ruling by Judge Theresa Springmann...
Those who don't think juries get it right all the time and that prosecutors don't railroad people. Think about this. There are a lot of cases that are frighteningly similar.
Jury awards $25.5 million for civil rights violations by Hammond police
The verdict in favor of James Hill Jr. marks the second time a federal jury has found against retired Hammond police Capt. Michael Solan since 2006.
Glenn v. City of Hammond, 2:18-CV-150-TLS-JEM | Casetext Search + Citator
Read Glenn v. City of Hammond, 2:18-CV-150-TLS-JEM, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext’s comprehensive legal databasecasetext.com
The current DA, at their time of exoneration, looked over the case and found "Disturbing things" After being set free he, was re-tried and found not guilty. Everybody from the Governor on down saw his innocence, and he was taken off the sex offenders list. The only guy who thinks he's guilty is the former cop who investigated the case. Of course, cops never make mistakes, or invent evidence or hide exculpatory evidence.
There's an episode of "Forensic Files" about a cop wrongly convicted and eventually set free, At the end of the episode he says he thought that everybody in jail was guilty. He doesn't think that way anymore.
Not saying and never have that no one has ever been wrongfully convicted but it is a very small percentage and yes, one is too many, but I also think it is far more rare today.
Internet, body cams, calling attention to such and cops or prosecutors themselves being out of a job, investigated and sentenced to prison for wrongdoing is a very real thing. It is an interest and obsession of yours and understood but it doesn't mean it goes on in every case nor everywhere nor much these days at all. There's just way too much that can catch it out from aforementioned things to DNA, video everywhere, people with cell phones who can record (look at Chauvin and the role video played both from Mpls own camera on the street to bystanders) and a changed culture of calling such out.
There are probably 100 times or more the unsolved cases with no answers or prosecutions or enough evidence when they know who did it, if not more than that, than cops falsely charging to clear their books by falsely accusing someone and manufacturing evidence. And that's because 99.9 percent of them won't go there. Imo.
I'd also say that some who get things overturned are not necessarily innocent nor were proven innocent, it was yes, that wrongdoing was done in the case, again most from back when, and rightly so, don't get me wrong. Still doesn't mean in some cases they didn't do it but simply should not have been charged as the evidence wasn't there or someone "helped" the case the wrong way.
I don't argue such has never happened but it isn't rampant and it is far less today and very much at their own risk should they do so.
Cousin Dupree
Glory to #Ukraine 🇺🇦✊🏻
Somebody needed to remind the cops who tortured two black guys it's a new world.
Cops have each other's backs. Watch the John Oliver video I posted. A cop who reported a bad cop found dead rats on his car. The rest of the cops weren't happy with him.
The only difference between now and a few years ago is that people have cameras in their pockets. I think you're being a little naive about police forces. I'm sure in the small town you live in, the cops are honest. Don't expect that in big cities. Rochester is NOT a big city, and yet we have our fair share of dirty cops.