January 6 a Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted three Baltimore police officers, Jemini Jones, 28, Brian Shaffer, 31 and Steven Hatley, 27, for first-degree rape, conspiracy to violate the rape laws and misconduct in office following an independent investigation. Jurors heard evidence and witness testimony during secret proceedings [as under Maryland law] before returning indictments.
The allegations occurred on December 27, 2005 following an investigation by Officers Jones, Shaffer and Hatley involving two women, aged 22 and 18, near Old Frederick Road. It is alleged the officers transported the women back to Southwest Police District where an officer allegedly had sexual intercourse with a 22-year old female in an office of the Southwest District station located at 424 Font Hill Avenue. Pre-set bails are $100,000 for each defendant. The boys were on something called the "flex squad," which has since dissolved. Local blowhard Warren Brown is involved.
The Southwestern district is struggling to replace officers in the wake of the suspensions.
Things that make you say "No Wonder" Dept.
From today's Daily Record, by Ostrovsky:
"In the wake of public criticism over allegedly unlawful arrests, the Baltimore City Police Department today is set to begin a comprehensive program to educate approximately 2,600 officers on the ins and outs of Fourth and Fifth Amendment law - everything from proper stop-and-frisk tactics to common errors at Central Booking. While such issues are normally covered in some fashion in the officers' mandatory annual in-service training of 35 hours per officer per year (staggered over 42 weeks) this year's program will have a key difference ... in the past major portions of the legal curriculum were conducted by specially trained police officers - not lawyers ... The most significant part of that curriculum is four hours dedicated exclusively to the law and practical applications of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments... from 8 a.m. today ... the Attorney General's office will provide an overview of the Fourth Amendment." --only 35 hours a year to teach 20-something law-enforcement officers about the law?
Two murders in the city yesterday: 33-year-old Ronald Kinzer was shot in West Baltimore while washing his car at a gas station, and 23-year-old Cornell Lemon was shot at a house on Monastery Ave in Southwest Baltimore.
21-year-old Brian Keith Rose (a.k.a. Mitchell Kemp) has been identified as a suspect in the murder of Warren T. Fleming, the man who was shot to death in his car last week at Security Square Mall.
Gerald Edwin Parker was arrested yesterday and charged with homicide in the death of a baby girl. Parker was babysitting the 18-month-old in Annapolis on Saturday when she died.
Cyrus Duvall Robertson, the alleged shooter in Timothy Morris' murder at TGIFriday's in Owings Mills last Friday night, was denied bail.
At the very bottom of the Metro Digest, an article reports that 19-year-old Daniel Allen Brown is being held without bail on an attempted murder charge stemming from last week's shooting at White Marsh Mall. Jonathan Derrell Parks and Travin Rashaad West, both 19, were granted bail.
A Lehighton, PA man named Thomas Moser was found guilty for soliciting sex from minors on the Internet.
Southeast Baltimore drug lord William Nicholson received a three year prison sentence yesterday after prosecutors reportedly broke an agreement they'd made with him.
The Southwestern district is struggling to replace its "flex squad" (the officers that target violence and drugs) in the wake of five suspensions since November.
Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman asked State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh to investigate the "legality of the links" between Gov. Ehrlich's Deputy Chief of Staff Edward Miller and Jack Abramoff.
6 comments:
I would assume since television news doesn't air til noon is why they aren't covering the news at 8:30 AM. Local news isn't a 24/7 operation.
Well, affairs with 5-0 keep gettin' better and better. Seems the corruption/rape investigation is widening. Also, charges have been raised against the President of the FOP. I don't advocate enhancing the reach of the Civilian Review Panel; our problems are bigger than that. The department should be taken over by the state.
From what I gather, 35 hours is the entire length of this year's police training. The legal portion is just a few hours of that.
Tell me about it. I routinely have to furnish officers with copies of the Code and correct readings thereof in order to have basic laws enforced. It generally involves multiple calls and losing an entire day in the process.
I think we've all learned a valuable lesson here today-- one shouldn't assume people are evil when there's a chance they might be ignorant.
But it's far more basic than either ill intent or ignorance of proper procedure. These officers, while ordinarily well-intended, are simply stretched too thin. There's no way they can complete their task given their low number and, like anyone else, when stressed out they vent their frustration on... us. No number of hours of classes will solve this problem. Most of the groundless arrests are not based upon a mistaken understanding of search & seizure nor Miranda. It's because a cop is burned out, has ten calls to answer in the time of five, and the only timely means he/she has to prevent a possible crime is to slap on cuffs first and (not) apologize later. We need a number of patrol officers proportionate to our (astronomic) number of resident hoodlums.
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