British Police sergeant and detention officer accused of 'assaulting man during questioning'

The trial has begun of two police staff accused of twisting a man's arms to make him answer questions - after he had been pepper sprayed and was complaining of chest pains.

A court was shown CCTV footage of David Healer, 40, screaming as Sergeant Stephen Harvey and civilian detention officer Michael Mount seize him by the arms. Harvey, 61, can be heard asking: 'Are you gonna talk?' as he holds Mr Healer, to which he replies: 'Yes, get off.' Mr Healer told the court: 'I was in absolute terror and agony.'

Defence barrister Steven Crossley told Teesside Magistrates' Court that Harvey had applied a 'pain stimulus' after Mr Healer slumped in the custody suite, apparently losing consciousness. Dan Cordey, for Mount, 50, says his client was simply holding Mr Healer’s arm and applying no force.

As the police officer holds Mr Healer’s left arm up behind his back, Mount can be seen grasping Mr Healer’s right arm from across a desk in Peterlee Police Station, County Durham. Again Mr Healers says: 'Yes, get off.'

After this, the video shows Harvey taking his place behind the desk and continuing to question Mr Healer.

When asked how he is feeling now, Mr Healer, who said he had suffered an angina attack while in the police van, tells the sergeant that he needs a doctor.

Mr Healer does not answer further questions, with his head and arms on the desk and Harvey says to him: 'I thought you were gonna answer my questions.'

The sergeant again takes his left arm, this time from across the desk, as Mount holds the other. Mr Healer again screams loudly as Harvey asks: 'What’s your problem?' When Mr Healer agrees to answer questions again Healer lets go and
continues to question him, while Mount also releases him.

Harvey's barrister accused Mr Healer of exaggerating the pain caused.

The officer is heard referring to putting Mr Healer in an 'arm lock' in the footage. He is also heard to say of Mr Healer: 'He makes a lot of noise. Anyone would think we were hurting him, I only had hold of his wrist.'

Mr Healer had been arrested for breach of his bail conditions.

He accepted a caution last April for assaulting one of the police officers who arrested him ahead of Harvey and Mount’s alleged assaults on March 5, 2011.

The court heard how a police officer gave Mr Healer his spray, which treats his angina, after his arrest, but Healer claims he could not use it properly because of the pepper spray and was not given any help.

Harvey, of Chester-le-Street, County Durham, and Mount, of Thornley, County Durham, both deny two counts of battery against Mr Healer.

Original report here




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My hell on earth: Briton facing extradition to Portugal over attack he was cleared of 17 years ago

A Briton yesterday spoke of his ‘hell on earth’ as he faces extradition to Portugal and retrial for an alleged attack he was cleared of 17 years ago.

In his first interview, Graham Mitchell said his life had been ‘turned upside down’ since he was rearrested under the controversial European Arrest Warrant earlier this month.

The 49-year-old photographer, from Canterbury, is hoping the Portuguese authorities – who accuse him of murder, despite the victim still being alive – have made an ‘administrative blunder’.

But the man he was accused of assaulting, German tourist Andre Jorling, is insisting Mr Mitchell is guilty and told the Daily Mail that he should be returned to Portugal to face a retrial.

Mr Mitchell and his friend, Warren Tozer, were in the Algarve in May 1994 when they were arrested by police after a serious assault on Mr Jorling, then 26, who was paralysed after being thrown off a 12ft-high sea wall. The two men spent 11 months in a Portuguese prison awaiting trial.

In March 1995, Mr Mitchell and Mr Tozer were cleared as police were said to have ignored a description the paralysed tourist had given of his assailants which bore little resemblance to the friends.

The former Scots Guardsman, who lives with his wife Laura and two children, has rebuilt his life and tried to forget the ‘hellish’ jail.

Mr Mitchell was held in Wandsworth Prison, in south London, before being released on bail.

Yesterday, Mr Mitchell said: ‘Our life’s been turned upside down and inside out. Nothing’s the same. Every waking moment is a constant worry. It’s hell on earth.’

Under the current system, British courts have few powers to test any evidence underpinning a request for extradition. It has led to a string of controversial cases, with dozens of MPs demanding the European Arrest Warrant should be reformed or scrapped.

However, Mr Jorling’s lawyer, Raymund Reineke, last night said the possible extradition was ‘the good news’ his client had been waiting for. At his office in Bremen, Germany, he added: ‘It was a totally unacceptable crime. We have been trying for this for years.’

Mr Mitchell is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court next Wednesday.

Original report here




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Just a slap on the wrist for callous British cop

A police officer who refused to help a pensioner when she collapsed – and subsequently died – from a heart attack has escaped serious punishment.

Off-duty PC Paul Raines ignored 62-year-old Christine Roche’s need for urgent assistance after he became involved in a road-rage row with her husband, Patrick.

Yesterday Mrs Roche’s son Matthew said he was disgusted the 45-year-old officer had been handed nothing more than a ‘slap on the wrist’.

The incident happened as the pensioners were driving home in foggy conditions and the wing mirror of their car clipped PC Raines’s Ford Focus. After challenging the couple, the officer grabbed Mr Roche, 72, leaving him ‘scared witless’.

As the pair argued, Mrs Roche suffered a heart attack behind the wheel of the couple’s car.

But rather than go to her aid, PC Raines, who would have received basic training in first aid, left without even calling an ambulance. He was initially arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Yet despite a criminal inquiry, inquest and an internal disciplinary hearing, PC Raines has been told he will not be punished or stripped of his job as a firearms licensing officer.

Instead, senior officers have ruled he was guilty of ‘discreditable conduct’, earning him only a final written warning.

Matthew Roche, 29, called the decision an ‘utter disgrace’. Mr Roche added: ‘This is not an appropriate consequence for his actions. ‘I have lost my mother and he has not even lost his job. ‘We were originally looking for a manslaughter charge and now to be told he will carry on working has left us inconsolable. ‘To think that this is the end of the road and he will just get to move on with his life with just a warning beggars belief.’

Mrs Roche, who worked on the switchboard at Great Ormond Street Hospital for more than 30 years, died at the wheel of her Peugeot 106 in November 2010. She was only yards from home in Hillingdon, West London, when her wing mirror clipped PC Raines’s car.

The officer left his children in the back seat to get out and remonstrate with the pensioners. One witness said: ‘He caused quite a scene and someone said we should call the police but he answered, “I am the police”.’ The officer then produced his warrant card before grabbing Mr Roche, who uses a walking stick, and pushing his hand behind his back.

As the heated exchange continued the men realised Mrs Roche had collapsed. Paramedics were unable to save the pensioner, who had undergone heart surgery the previous week.

An inquest found she died of natural causes. The couple’s son said the tragedy and lengthy legal proceedings caused his father’s health to decline.

And he said the family had little say at the disciplinary hearing – where PC Raines was represented by two lawyers – because they could not afford legal representation. ‘It has been a nightmare,’ he said. ‘We don’t have a big family and now it is just the two of us. My mother was our rock and she has been taken away. ‘We don’t feel that anyone has stepped forward and helped us. He had every advantage and we had every disadvantage.’

Deborah Glass, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said although the officer did not cause Mrs Roche’s death he had ‘failed to perform his basic duty of care’.

Lorna Heger, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said there was insufficient evidence to show PC Raines’s actions caused Mrs Roche’s death.

The Met said the officer, who was based at Paddington, West London, was on restricted duties.

Original report here




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Australia: An unreasonable prosecution fails -- at a large cost to the taxpayer

THE prosecution of a member of the Hells Angels bikie gang over a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport has been criticised by a Supreme Court judge as "unreasonable" and not backed by the evidence.

The bikie, David Padovan, was acquitted by a jury in November of two charges of affray and one of riot over his alleged role in a fight at the arrival gate and another in the departure hall two years ago.

But Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme, who presided over the trial, said it was "unreasonable for the crown to have instituted proceedings against him" because the case against him was "tenuous" and "weak".

Justice Hulme ruled Mr Padovan was entitled to apply to have his legal costs - believed to amount to about $500,000 - paid by the Attorney-General's Department.

It is the latest blow to the Office of the DPP after criticism of the prosecution in the case of Gordon Wood. The office declined to comment on the judgment.

Mr Padovan was one of seven Hells Angels who had come to the airport to meet their president Derek Wainohu after he was on a plane with five members of the rival Comanchero bikie gang.

But, Justice Hulme found, rather than being an aggressor, Mr Padovan had been a victim. "The Crown Prosecutor's submission that … Mr Padovan exercised a choice to involve himself in the fighting was, with respect, fanciful … The evidence simply did not support it."

Witnesses described that at the first fight, at the arrivals gate, Mr Padovan was punched and kicked by Comanchero members while he was on the ground. Moments later he helped Mr Wainohu, who was then being assaulted by others.

A few minutes later another fight broke out in the departure hall and the crown relied mainly on one witness who did not make a police statement until nine months later. He said several things which were clearly incorrect, and Justice Hulme found his evidence was "utterly unreliable".

Mr Padovan's solicitor Phil Stewart said the trial and committal proceedings had taken nine months of his client's life. He had also spent several weeks in custody before being granted bail. "Nine months of your life where you have to be in court to defend yourself is a big impost on a person who is patently not guilty from the start," Mr Stewart said.

Mr Padovan's defence had been funded by Legal Aid, but after the judge granted him a costs certificate, it is expected the government will reimburse the organisation for the costs to be borne by the Attorney-General's Department instead. In the three years to 2011, the government paid costs in 152 cases, paying more than $4.2 million in legal costs under such certificates.

Original report here




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There are some astonishing figures coming out of Virginia:

In September 2004, Mark Warner, then Virginia’s governor, ordered a random audit of 31 old criminal cases after a vast trove of biological evidence was discovered lying around in old case files saved by state forensic serologists. The testing of those 31 samples led to the exonerations of two convicted rapists. Warner, embarrassed by the revelations, then ordered in late 2005 that every sample obtained between 1973 and 1988 be rechecked. It amounted to thousands of files . . .

At the time Virginia’s audit began, Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, which has used DNA testing to exonerate hundreds of prisoners across the country, noted in astonishment that “a random sample of convicted felons and we’re getting a 7 percent exoneration rate” in Virginia. But it appears that a 7 percent exoneration rate may be grossly understating the problem. UVA’s Garrett suspects that the error rate may actually be as high as 17 percent. As he discovered in his own research, Barbour’s conviction, based on the testimony of a single eyewitness, reflects the reality that of the first 250 people exonerated by DNA testing, a whopping 76 percent were misidentified by eyewitnesses.
Whatever the percentage of error on the part of Virginia’s criminal justice system, one thing is certain: Only a handful of the falsely convicted have received the exonerations they deserve.

Due to a widespread sense of shame and an eagerness to take responsibility for its mistakes, the state of Virginia is now opening up its DNA testing process, inviting outside labs to help with the testing project, as well as to independently verify the results from the state lab. The state is also inviting journalists and academics to scrutinize the project to look for errors and oversights.

Just kidding.

It was a project intended to take 18 months at a cost of $1.4 million dollars. Now in its seventh year, the cost of the project hovers at $5 million. Nobody has any idea exactly how the Virginia Department of Forensics has conducted its work. Indeed, no one knows much about the specifics of the crime lab’s work at all . . .

University of Virginia law school professor Brandon Garrett (who has contributed to Slate) is an expert on wrongful convictions and DNA exoneration. His landmark study, Convicting the Innocent, scrutinized the cases of the first 250 people to be exonerated nation-wide by DNA testing. To hear him tell it, Virginia’s statewide audit is a mystery wrapped in obfuscation. “This DNA testing program began two Governors ago,” he says, “but its operation has remained shrouded in secrecy. We do not know how the authorities chose to test the cases that they have tested. We do not know how long the authorities have known about the many dozens of cases where DNA has excluded the individuals. We do not know what local prosecutors plan to do about the cases where DNA may prove innocence.”

The state’s actions only get more sordid from there. State officials initially refused to make any attempt at all to let convicts know that their DNA was being tested. When compelled to do so by the state legislature, they’ve complied only in the most bare-bones sense of the word. They’re still refusing to release the information to the public. Instead, they’ve sent letters loaded with legalese to the last known addresses of the convicted. Some of these cases are decades old. They finally relented and have allowed pro bono attorneys to track down the convicts, but only under the stipulation that the attorney who does the tracking agree to not represent the convict in any subsequent legal action.

If you want to squeeze some dark humor out of this tragedy, look to the absurd justifications state officials are giving for their obstinacy. For example, here’s one official’s explanation why they initially balked at letting pro bono attorneys track down the exonerated:

”If you send a young, new attorney to a bad neighborhood, bad things could happen.”

And here’s why the state made no effort to send DNA results from the exonerated who have since died to their next of kin:

“That information is private and personal, and maybe that individual doesn’t want his family members to have a copy of the report. We have to protect the sensitivity and privacy of those individuals.”

So yes, state of Virginia may wrongly convict you, then send you to prison for decades for a crime you didn’t commit. But rest assured. Should DNA testing exonerate you after your death, the state will honor your privacy and “sensitivity” by refusing to notify your family that you were innocent all along.

Original report here




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The doctor who broke up families: British psychiatrist who damned hundreds as 'unfit parents' faces GMC probe

A leading psychiatrist faces extraordinary claims he deliberately misdiagnosed parents with mental disorders – decisions which meant their children were taken away from them.

Dr George Hibbert faces being struck off over his conclusions that hundreds had ‘personality disorders’ after assessing them at his private family centre. He was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by social services for the reports which tore children from their parents – many of them young mothers.

He is now being investigated over shocking suggestions he distorted the assessments to fit the view of social services. In one case, he is alleged to have wrongly diagnosed a ‘caring’ new mother – named only as Miss A – with bipolar disorder because her local authority wanted the baby adopted.

After being confronted with this allegation, Dr Hibbert offered to surrender his licence to practise as a doctor rather than face a General Medical Council inquiry. But his request has been rejected by the GMC which says there are still ‘unresolved concerns regarding his fitness to practise’. He will now face a full fitness to practise hearing.

Yesterday John Hemming MP, who has raised concerns about Dr Hibbert in Parliament, described the claims as shocking. The Lib Dem MP – alerted by a whistle-blower – said he had since spoken to ‘three or four’ other families who said the same had happened to them. He has written to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke demanding a full parliamentary inquiry.

Mr Hemming said: ‘He is someone about whom a number of people have complained. I am told that at least one person has refused to work for him because of what she saw as his unethical provision of reports to suit the demands of local authorities. ‘Much of the decision making in care proceedings rests on reports from experts such as Dr Hibbert,’ he told Parliament.

He added that supposedly independent experts such as Dr Hibbert, 59, were often little more than ‘the hired gun of the local authority’.

Earlier this week, a study for the Family Justice Council revealed how life-changing decisions about the care of children are routinely being made on the basis of flawed evidence. A fifth of ‘experts’ who advise the family courts are unqualified.

Dr Hibbert charged local authorities £6,000 a week for every family in his care and £210 an hour just to read documents such as medical records. By 2007 his company, Assessment in Care, was making a profit of around £460,000 a year from his lucrative arrangement with social services.

He is now worth more than £2.7million. Last night a black Porsche Turbo, thought to be worth around £120,000, and a grey Porsche 911 Carrera, worth around £80,000, were parked on the gravel driveway outside his £500,000 country cottage.

A former honorary lecturer at Oxford University, who has previously advised the government on care assessments, Dr Hibbert left the NHS to set up his private assessment centre in 2000. Since then, hundreds of parents in contact with social services – usually mothers and babies – have been referred to his centre to be assessed.

Concerns were first raised in 2007, when mother Miss A complained that Dr Hibbert had wrongly diagnosed her with a bipolar disorder. One consultant psychiatrist accused Dr Hibbert of having ‘no evidence’ for some of his claims and of deliberately ‘exaggerating’ and ‘misrepresenting’ aspects of the woman’s behaviour.

Her report is among a number of documents being examined by the GMC with regards to Dr Hibbert.

Miss A, who has seen her son just a few times since, said Dr Hibbert was ‘corrupt and evil.’ ‘Nothing will ever make up for what he has done to me and my child,’ Miss A said. ‘I want to make sure this man is exposed and that he can never do this to anybody else.’

In a letter sent to Miss A, a GMC investigations officer confirmed Dr Hibbert ‘has now applied for voluntary erasure from the medical register’. The letter continued: ‘He has no intention of returning to clinical practice in the future.’

However, the GMC officer concluded it was in the ‘public interest’ for his request to be denied ‘in view of the nature of the performance allegations and in the view of the conduct concerns.’

He has not been available for comment at his two-storey detached cottage in the small village of Blunsdon near Swindon. His assessment centre next to his home appeared to be closed.

A spokesman for Dr Hibbert at the Medical Protection Society, the indemnity organisation for doctors, said professional confidentiality meant Dr Hibbert was ‘unable to comment on allegations raised in relation to care of a patient’.

Paul Grant, of Bernard Chill & Axtell Solicitors, who represents Miss A, said: ‘Our client has instructed us to launch proceedings against Dr Hibbert and the local authority. ‘We believe this distressing case may be the tip of a very big iceberg.’

Original report here




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Doctor queries shaken baby symptoms

AN INTERNATIONAL expert in inflicted brain injury has challenged the use of specific injury patterns to diagnose shaken baby syndrome, calling for doctors to update their training as new evidence emerges.

Colin Smith, a senior lecturer in pathology at the University of Edinburgh, urged doctors to be more open-minded when assessing children with traumatic brain injuries.

His comments come as 145 incidents of a baby being shaken were reported to the NSW Department of Community Services in 2010-11, compared with 133 the year before - though many doctors believe the condition is under-diagnosed.

When three symptoms occurred together - blood between the brain and the skull, retinal rupture and brain swelling - doctors usually concluded the baby had been violently shaken, Dr Smith told the annual conference of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia last week.

But there was growing evidence other conditions, such as lack of blood flow to the brain from a seizure or breathing obstruction, could cause similar injury. "What was considered to be absolute fact and a guarantee of conviction is now much more circumspect," he said.

"Those injuries and their relationship with head injury have been challenged by scientific, peer-reviewed literature."

Doctors were trained to diagnose shaken baby syndrome until proven otherwise, he said, and may have difficulty accepting alternative explanations.

"They see the triad of injuries and don't question it," he said. "It is also very hard to differentiate between deliberate and accidental trauma.

Julie Fordham, an associate professor of forensic science at the University of Western Australia and a criminal lawyer, said wrongful convictions happened "frequently enough to be worried about".

"Some people do kill their babies," she said. "But you can't unjustly convict someone either, based on science that is in a constant state of flux."

Dr Terry Donald, a child protection and forensic paediatrician at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, said that while experienced doctors were sometimes more circumspect about the cause of head injury in young children, it was "quite legitimate" for less experienced doctors to be concerned by those same injuries.

Original report here




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Parents cleared of killing son with methadone, eight years after death

THEY were found responsible for their son's death, had another child subsequently taken from them and were publicly shamed.

But Rochelle Dunlop and her husband John Schreckenberg did not give up there.

Yesterday, after a six-year fight to clear their names, a coroner found they did not give their six-month-old son a lethal dose of methadone.

"Rochelle knew she never gave her baby methadone and I knew in my heart she didn't do it either," Mr Schreckenberg said.

Ms Dunlop put her baby son to bed in her Beverly Hills home on the evening of May 27, 2003, and returned an hour later to find him face down and blue, wedged between a pillow and the right side of his bassinet.

Both parents had been on the methadone program for more than 10 years.

A toxicology test using a blood sample taken on the night showed methadone present and, in 2006, a coroner concluded Ms Dunlop deliberately gave her son the heroin substitute, which was recorded at a level beyond what could have been ingested through breast milk.

Following the inquest, Ms Dunlop was abused by members of the public and attempted to commit suicide.

Her sixth son was taken from her for five months when he was born in 2007 and her children have been subject to drug tests.

In 2010, using "what little money they have", according to their barrister Gaby Bashir, the pair gathered medical reports and literature on methadone levels in neonatal breastfeeding and lodged an appeal for an inquest, which began earlier this month.

A pharmacologist, a pathologist and a specialist in drugs of addiction questioned the veracity of the toxicology test, as it was not corroborated by a second test, used a sample less than the laboratory's reporting limit and had a margin for error that meant it could only be approximate.

New evidence showed the blood sample was taken post-mortem and not ante-mortem.

"All the experts agree that post-mortem there is a redistribution of methadone, which elevates its concentration in the blood of the deceased," Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund said yesterday.

"I cannot be satisfied … that the admission [to hospital] was as a result of an exogenous dosing of methadone, that is ingestion of methadone by the baby other than by way of breast milk."

The coroner, in rejecting further suggestions he died from positional asphyxiation or SIDS, said there were too many variables. The boy's death will remain a mystery.

"[He] was clearly loved by both his parents who have sought, despite their less than ideal economic circumstances, to have the conclusions … made in the first inquest tested," Magistrate Freund said.

Outside the court, a teary Mr Schreckenberg said they could get their lives back.

"My condolences," Magistrate Freund said to the pair. "And may this be the end of the chapter."

Original report here




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Go to Trial: Crash the Justice System

AFTER years as a civil rights lawyer, I rarely find myself speechless. But some questions a woman I know posed during a phone conversation one recent evening gave me pause: “What would happen if we organized thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people charged with crimes to refuse to play the game, to refuse to plea out? What if they all insisted on their Sixth Amendment right to trial? Couldn’t we bring the whole system to a halt just like that?”

The woman was Susan Burton, who knows a lot about being processed through the criminal justice system.

Her odyssey began when a Los Angeles police cruiser ran over and killed her 5-year-old son. Consumed with grief and without access to therapy or antidepressant medications, Susan became addicted to crack cocaine. She lived in an impoverished black community under siege in the “war on drugs,” and it was but a matter of time before she was arrested and offered the first of many plea deals that left her behind bars for a series of drug-related offenses. Every time she was released, she found herself trapped in an under-caste, subject to legal discrimination in employment and housing.

Fifteen years after her first arrest, Susan was finally admitted to a private drug treatment facility and given a job. After she was clean she dedicated her life to making sure no other woman would suffer what she had been through. Susan now runs five safe homes for formerly incarcerated women in Los Angeles. Her organization, A New Way of Life, supplies a lifeline for women released from prison. But it does much more: it is also helping to start a movement. With groups like All of Us or None, it is organizing formerly incarcerated people and encouraging them to demand restoration of their basic civil and human rights.

I was stunned by Susan’s question about plea bargains because she — of all people — knows the risks involved in forcing prosecutors to make cases against people who have been charged with crimes. Could she be serious about organizing people, on a large scale, to refuse to plea-bargain when charged with a crime? “Yes, I’m serious,” she flatly replied.

I launched, predictably, into a lecture about what prosecutors would do to people if they actually tried to stand up for their rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees the accused basic safeguards, including the right to be informed of charges against them, to an impartial, fair and speedy jury trial, to cross-examine witnesses and to the assistance of counsel.

But in this era of mass incarceration — when our nation’s prison population has quintupled in a few decades partly as a result of the war on drugs and the “get tough” movement — these rights are, for the overwhelming majority of people hauled into courtrooms across America, theoretical. More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury. Most people charged with crimes forfeit their constitutional rights and plead guilty.

“The truth is that government officials have deliberately engineered the system to assure that the jury trial system established by the Constitution is seldom used,” said Timothy Lynch, director of the criminal justice project at the libertarian Cato Institute. In other words: the system is rigged.

In the race to incarcerate, politicians champion stiff sentences for nearly all crimes, including harsh mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes laws; the result is a dramatic power shift, from judges to prosecutors.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that threatening someone with life imprisonment for a minor crime in an effort to induce him to forfeit a jury trial did not violate his Sixth Amendment right to trial. Thirteen years later, in Harmelin v. Michigan, the court ruled that life imprisonment for a first-time drug offense did not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

No wonder, then, that most people waive their rights. Take the case of Erma Faye Stewart, a single African-American mother of two who was arrested at age 30 in a drug sweep in Hearne, Tex., in 2000. In jail, with no one to care for her two young children, she began to panic. Though she maintained her innocence, her court-appointed lawyer told her to plead guilty, since the prosecutor offered probation. Ms. Stewart spent a month in jail, and then relented to a plea. She was sentenced to 10 years’ probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. Then her real punishment began: upon her release, Ms. Stewart was saddled with a felony record; she was destitute, barred from food stamps and evicted from public housing. Once they were homeless, Ms. Stewart’s children were taken away and placed in foster care. In the end, she lost everything even though she took the deal.

On the phone, Susan said she knew exactly what was involved in asking people who have been charged with crimes to reject plea bargains, and press for trial. “Believe me, I know. I’m asking what we can do. Can we crash the system just by exercising our rights?”

The answer is yes. The system of mass incarceration depends almost entirely on the cooperation of those it seeks to control. If everyone charged with crimes suddenly exercised his constitutional rights, there would not be enough judges, lawyers or prison cells to deal with the ensuing tsunami of litigation. Not everyone would have to join for the revolt to have an impact; as the legal scholar Angela J. Davis noted, “if the number of people exercising their trial rights suddenly doubled or tripled in some jurisdictions, it would create chaos.”

Such chaos would force mass incarceration to the top of the agenda for politicians and policy makers, leaving them only two viable options: sharply scale back the number of criminal cases filed (for drug possession, for example) or amend the Constitution (or eviscerate it by judicial “emergency” fiat). Either action would create a crisis and the system would crash — it could no longer function as it had before. Mass protest would force a public conversation that, to date, we have been content to avoid.

In telling Susan that she was right, I found myself uneasy. “As a mother myself, I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t plead guilty to if a prosecutor told me that accepting a plea was the only way to get home to my children,” I said. “I truly can’t imagine risking life imprisonment, so how can I urge others to take that risk — even if it would send shock waves through a fundamentally immoral and unjust system?”

Susan, silent for a while, replied: “I’m not saying we should do it. I’m saying we ought to know that it’s an option. People should understand that simply exercising their rights would shake the foundations of our justice system which works only so long as we accept its terms. As you know, another brutal system of racial and social control once prevailed in this country, and it never would have ended if some people weren’t willing to risk their lives. It would be nice if reasoned argument would do, but as we’ve seen that’s just not the case. So maybe, just maybe, if we truly want to end this system, some of us will have to risk our lives.”

Original report here




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Scandal of 'unqualified' experts who advise Britain's family courts: Decisions about the care of thousands of children routinely flawed

Life-changing decisions about the care of thousands of children are routinely being made on flawed evidence from poorly qualified ‘experts’ in the family courts, a damning study reveals.

More than a fifth of these vital reports are being produced by people who are completely unqualified, the Channel 4 News investigation found.

In some cases, reports on parents or children are being given to courts by doctors who have not even seen the individuals concerned.

Until now, these ‘expert witnesses’ – often psychologists or psychiatrists – have largely escaped scrutiny due to the draconian secrecy surrounding the family courts.

But in a unique study for the Family Justice Council, Professor Jane Ireland – a forensic psychologist who has herself been an expert witness – examined over 100 expert witness reports used in family court cases.

Incredibly, she found that 20 per cent had been produced by people who were not qualified at all. A further fifth had been carried out by people who were writing reports in areas entirely beyond their knowledge and qualifications.

In addition, as many as 90 per cent of the reports had been produced by ‘expert’ witnesses who were no longer in current practice at all, but were simply working as ‘professional expert witnesses’. Often, these professional experts – who rake in thousands of pounds in fees from the chaotic family courts system – have not practised for years, leaving them out of touch with developments in their field.

They are often appointed to assess the suitability of a parent or parents to continue to look after their child in care proceedings brought by local councils. They can also be used in access cases following the separation of a child’s parents.

Thousands of children have their futures decided in the family courts every year and because of strict rules on what can be reported, often little is revealed about what happens once the court doors are closed.

In the past, parents have bitterly complained that they have not even been allowed to know the names of the paid expert witnesses who testified against them.

That has now changed but Professor Ireland, of the University of Central Lancashire, said 65 of the 100 reports she examined were ‘poorly’ or ‘very poorly’ carried out.

Some reports were found to ‘cite opinion without conducting a formal assessment’ or show a complete lack of understanding of the conditions discussed. One was even found to have ‘completed an assessment on the mother without actually seeing her’.

Professor Ireland said an ‘urgent review’ of expert witnesses in the family courts was needed. ‘I think we were very concerned and perturbed by some of the reports that we read,’ she told Channel 4 News.

‘Some of the most startling results were the sheer number of expert psychologists ..... who are reporting that their entire job is the production of assessment reports for courts.

‘I think the results from the research are enough to suggest that we do need an urgent review across the range of expert witnesses that the courts are employing.’

The Family Justice Council is an independent public body set up in 2004 and funded by the Ministry of Justice. It is charged with monitoring the family justice system and advising the Government and the courts on how the system can be improved.

One mother involved in family court proceedings told how a psychiatrist who had never seen her wrote a 14-page report on her and her family. The day after the psychiatrist signed off his report he was suspended by the General Medical Council for a separate offence. Despite this, his report was still used by the courts.

‘He’s never seen us, never spoken to us,’ she said, ‘and yet he’s ended up writing 14 pages, with recommendations, that he could not possibly have made if he had spoken to any of us or had he read through the court papers.’

She said her custody case dragged on for five years because of the competing testimonies of no fewer than eight expert witnesses. ‘The court system in England is barbaric,’ she said. ‘It does not allow parents to be given a voice, it doesn’t allow their children to be given a voice.

‘But what it does instead is it focuses on employing expert witnesses – at huge expense.’

Nigel Priestley, a family solicitor in Huddersfield, said: ‘If the statistics are that 20 per cent are unqualified, that is not just a mess, that is staggering.

Original report here




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Cop shoots to kill while dashboard camera turned off

What a coincidence!

Danroy Henry Jr., a college student from Easton killed by police in 2010 as he drove away from a bar disturbance, was traveling at less than 15 miles per hour when he was shot through the windshield, the lawyer for Henry’s family said Friday.

The speed, part of newly released evidence in the case, could emerge as a key factor in the family’s wrongful death suit against police in Pleasantville, N.Y.

There are conflicting accounts of what occurred after a homecoming game at Pace University, where Henry played football. The police officer who shot Henry, Aaron Hess, contends that Henry’s car struck him, throwing him onto the hood, and forcing him to shoot through the windshield in self-defense.

But the family’s suit contends that Henry was following police instructions to move his car out of a fire lane and driving "at a reasonable rate of speed" when Hess suddenly jumped in front of the vehicle, climbed onto the hood, and fired four shots.

A grand jury in New York last year failed to indict Hess in connection with shooting.

The Henrys’ lawyer, Michael Sussman, said the speed was determined from video footage that was among the large collection of evidence unsealed by a federal judge Thursday. "It’s literally hundreds and hundreds of items," Sussman said.

The evidence includes radio transmissions and statements of passengers in Henry’s vehicle and of police personnel directly involved in the incident, he said.

Sussman, who represents Henry’s family in a lawsuit against the Police Department and the officer who shot Henry, said the documents and footage would be posted on his website, www.sussmanwatkinslaw.com, Monday.

Sussman said Henry’s family is pleased with the judge’s decision to release the documents. "They want every degree of transparency," he said. "They want this to be a pursuit of the truth."

The evidence also shows that the dashboard camera was turned off in at least one police cruiser during the video, said Sussman. There is no video that shows the shooting, he said.

Lawyers for Hess and the Pleasantville Police Department could not be reached for comment.

Sussman said video footage from the scene shows that Henry did not receive medical treatment for some time after the shooting, while officers attended quickly to Hess. Sussman said certain evidence shows that Henry was "not intoxicated or in any manner impaired." Autopsy results showed that Henry’s blood-alcohol level was above the legal driving limit.

Cellphone records show that Henry was in "constant communication" with family members who "testify to his lucidity," just before the shooting, he said, and there are photographs of Henry interacting with friends inside and outside the bar.

The evidence also includes testimony from a witness who saw Hess with his gun drawn, he said.

Sussman declined to say whether he believes the material will help his case, but said the public should have the opportunity to judge the evidence. "This case is going to be tried in federal court," he said. "But I think the public has the right to review the material and judge it."

Sussman said he hoped the case would go to trial within a year.

Original report here




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British teenager wrongly accused of rape because of DNA contamination is released from prison

A teenager who spent months behind bars wrongly accused of rape after a DNA blunder has spoken of his 'relief, anger and disgust' after the charge was dropped. Adam Scott, 19, was due to stand trial next month in connection with a sex attack on a woman at Plant Hill Park in Blackley.

His DNA - taken in connection with a separate matter - had contaminated a sample from the victim while being processed at a laboratory run by LGC Forensics.

Mr Scott, from Truro in Cornwall, is now considering taking legal action - and his lawyers are calling for a public inquiry into the blunder, which could lead to other rape and murder cases being reopened.

Mr Scott was arrested in Devon about three weeks after the October 2 rape and brought to Manchester after the results of the compromised DNA test were sent to cops.

During interview he insisted that he had never even been to Manchester. But LGC, a company used by Greater Manchester Police to carry out scientific testing in thousands of cases a year, insisted there was a definite match.

Mr Scott was charged despite his denials. At the time he had been on bail for an unconnected matter of affray. After being charged with rape he spent nearly three months on remand, before beginning a year-long sentence for the affray.

Earlier this week, after finding out the evidence was contaminated, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) formally dropped the case at a Manchester Crown Court hearing.

Mr Scott was stunned to find out what had gone on via videolink from prison in Exeter. He said: 'I am relieved that I have been found not guilty - but then I always was not guilty. I defended the allegation from the moment of my arrest. 'I am angry that I was falsely accused. I am angry about the amount of pain it has put me and my family through. 'I sincerely hope that justice comes for the victim and that the true rapist is caught.

'I am disgusted that it has taken this long for them to work out what went wrong. I now want to move on with my life and put this horrible experience behind me.'

Adam's mother, Michelle Scott, said the allegation had left her 'distraught'. She said: 'I never for one minute believed he was guilty. I'm really glad the truth has come out - but how they managed to contaminate the evidence is beyond belief. 'I am very angry that my son has had to live through this experience and suffer the shame of being accused of being a rapist, whilst being locked up in prison.'

GMP has already begun an internal review of a small number of murder and rape cases in which DNA evidence assessed by LGC played a crucial role. The scope of that probe may be extended in coming days or weeks. London-based LGC, which works for police forces across the country, has also started its own internal investigation, which might mean reviewing scores or even hundreds of cases.

The company has apologised and said it had 'taken steps to ensure that it [the mistake] cannot happen again'.

Rundlewalker, the Exeter-based law firm representing Mr Scott, said they were 'utterly astounded' by the failings that led to his arrest, charge and detention for the rape allegation. In a statement the firm said: 'Had his case proceeded to trial and had the jury accepted the DNA evidence, he would have received a significant custodial sentence.

'We remain fearful for any defendant indicted on DNA or other scientifc evidence that has been processed, is being processed or will be processed through LGC's laboratory. We call for a public inquiry into the failings reported.'

Original report here




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Family of Fiona Pilkington who killed herself and her daughter after years of abuse from yobs wins five-figure payout from British police who failed to protect them

Police will pay out a five-figure sum to the grieving family of Fiona Pilkington who killed herself and her disabled daughter after a decade of unchecked abuse by yobs.

Officers failed to protect the mother who turned her car into a fireball while she and 18-year-old Francecca Hardwick, who had severe learning difficulties, sat inside.

The pair, who were repeatedly targeted by gangs of youths, were found in a layby in October 2007 a couple of miles from their home in Barwell, Leicestershire.

An inquest into their deaths two years later heard police were contacted 33 times in 10 years about anti-social behaviour - but the family only received eight visits from officers.

A jury returned verdicts of suicide and unlawful killing, and said the response of Leicestershire Police and two local councils had contributed to what happened.

A claim for damages against the force on behalf of Ms Pilkington's son, Anthony, 21, who has learning difficulties, and her mother, Pam Cassell, 74, was lodged at the High Court last year.

It sought damages of between £15,000 and £50,000, and alleged there was a 'substantial chance' Ms Pilkington and her daughter would not have died if officers had taken decisive action.

The papers stated: 'Fiona Pilkington was driven to take this tragic action by the stress and anxiety she was suffering as a result of on-going anti-social behaviour, harassment, victimisation and bullying.'

Leicestershire Police tried to have the application dismissed, arguing its officers could not have foreseen that Ms Pilkington would kill herself and her daughter.

But the force has now settled the claim with what is believed to be a five-figure sum, although it stopped short of admitting liability.

The family's solicitor, Jocelyn Cockburn, said: 'It was important for the family to achieve justice after going through a horrendous few years following the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and Francecca and it has given them a modicum of financial security going forward.

'The case also had enormous public interest because of public concern about the treatment of vulnerable and disabled people in society, and the case dealt with what duties the police have to protect people like Fiona and her family from anti-social behaviour and hate crime.'

The family's claim stated that as a result of the alleged breaches by Leicestershire Police, they suffered 'a very real loss of very close and loved family members and resulting grief and bereavement'.

It contained details of dozens of incidents reported by the family between 1997 and 2007. It added: 'Over the entire period there were numerous occasions on which Fiona and Francecca did not leave their home as Fiona was so anxious about the abuse and anti-social behaviour they would otherwise suffer.'

Leicestershire Police were accused of failing in their duty, under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights, to have suitable systems in place for investigating, controlling and suppressing harassment of members of the public - in particular vulnerable ones - and for managing the effects of such harassment on them.

Following an IPCC probe, four Leicestershire Police officers faced misconduct charges. But they were cleared after a series of internal hearings. An IPCC report also found that the force had failed to identify Ms Pilkington and her daughter as vulnerable.

Speaking after its hearings, Dave Evans, Deputy Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, said the failings were of 'an organisational nature due to the systems and processes in place at the time'.

Speaking after today's announcement, Leicestershire Police Chief Constable Simon Cole said: 'I can confirm that the civil claim has been settled out of court – this has been done without admission of liability. 'This is a tragic case and I felt that it was the right thing to do to, for everyone concerned, to draw a line under the litigation.

'Since the sad events in October 2007 the force has made significant changes to the way anti-social behaviour is dealt with and the way in which vulnerability is identified to ensure that the right support is given.'

Original report here




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More junk science in the courtroom

A Texas man is currently 13 1/2 years into a 20-year sentence for molesting his two young cousins. The allegations from the children were corroborated by a bit of pseudo-science quackery worthy of a spot in the forensics hall of shame.

Michael Arena was summoned to a psychologist’s office to measure his sexual attraction to children.

The test given required the 16-year-old to click through images of swimsuit-clad people of various ages while the computer secretly measured how long he viewed each photo. The results, according to the prosecution-hired psychologist who administered the test, showed Arena to be a pedophile who was a “high risk” to strike again.

Bell County prosecutors hammered the finding during Arena’s 1999 trial, urging jurors to choose prison over probation to protect children from a teen “diagnosed as a pedophile by an expert.” The jury responded with a 20-year sentence.

The cousins have since recanted their testimony, and have said they were pressured by their mother to say they’d been molested. She was fighting a custody battle at the time. As you might imagine, the swimsuit photo test has since been shown to be nonsense.

The test, defense lawyers say, had an unacceptably high 35 percent error rate that was not disclosed to Arena’s judge and jury. It was never intended to be used to identify pedophiles, they claim, and a university study found that its results were little better “than chance” when trying to distinguish pedophiles from non-pedophiles.

In addition, the psychologist who examined Arena inflated the test’s effectiveness and scientific support when he testified at Arena’s trial, leading to a reprimand from a state regulatory agency four years later, court records show.

That was the evidence against Arena. The allegations from his two cousins and the test. The test has been shown to be a fraud. The cousins have retracted their allegations. Yet Arena is still in prison. Two judges have upheld his conviction since all of this has come out, and of course the prosecutors aren’t relenting.

The good news is that by the Statesman account, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals at least appeared skeptical of Arena’s questioning during oral arguments.

One other item worth noting. The test, called the Abel Test, is run by a for-profit company. The owner of the rights to the test (eventually) said it was never intended to diagnose pedophiles, but to aid in the treatment of people already diagnosed. But he also refuses to release the test’s methodology, even for criminal cases, claiming that the information is proprietary.

We’ve seen this with breath test machines in DWI cases as well. I just don’t see how this can be acceptable. If you’re going to allow your technology to be used to put people in prison, it seems to me that anything and everything about how the technology works and how the results are interpreted has to be subject to cross-examination.

Any criminal law Agitatortots out there know if the Supreme Court has heard a Confrontation Clause case on the use of proprietary technology in criminal cases? I don’t recall coming across one in my reporting.

Original report here




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Let's not round up the usual suspects

By David Dixon (Professor David Dixon is the dean of the faculty of law at the University of NSW, Australia)

For all the heartache, media coverage and long legal argument, we are no closer to knowing how Caroline Byrne met her death at The Gap in 1995. But to follow recent commentators in blaming the prosecutor or even the jury for this continuing uncertainty risks repeating the mistake that led to the wrongful conviction of Gordon Wood, and a long list of other miscarriages of justice around the world.

The thread that connects many miscarriages has been that police and prosecutors have allowed suspicion to harden into belief in guilt before adequate evidence has been collected. Once committed to such "case theories", police and prosecutors have looked for support for their belief, and discounted evidence that inconveniently does not fit.

Scientific experts have played their part, bolstering the prosecution's case with the apparent certainty of science. From the "nitroglycerine" on the hands of the Birmingham Six (actually residue from playing cards), which contributed to their wrongful conviction for planting IRA bombs in 1974, to the "blood" in the Chamberlains' car (actually rust) to the "throwing" of Byrne, courts have eventually had to recognise the limits of science's certainty.

Case theories can be encouraged by a suspect's failure to fit social norms - by belonging to a unfamiliar group such as the Ananda Marga in the Hilton bombing cases, or by failing to fit the maternal stereotype in displaying emotion as in Lindy Chamberlain's case, or having newsworthy associates, as in Wood's case.

The best explanation for such theories is not malevolence or incompetence, although these sometimes come into play. It is the way we think. We tend to look for factors that align with our assumptions and beliefs and to overlook those that don't.

Such assumptions are encouraged by social and media pressure, demanding that the authorities identify and hold to account the perpetrators of appalling crimes. Primed by a slew of TV detective shows in which the crime is solved and the criminal arrested, charged and convicted within a convenient viewing hour, we expect our police, prosecutors and courts to produce timely results. If they get it wrong, we demand the same neat accountability and immediately cast around for someone to blame.

The fact that society searches for certainty and that police and prosecutors make assumptions is neither surprising nor blameworthy. The issue is how we prevent those factors breeding miscarriages. The way police interrogation of suspects has developed shows that something can be done.

Old-school detectives would say "pull them in, the brief will only get better". Coercive interrogation techniques will make suspects confess, but the results of such confessions are not reliable. British police learnt this from the bitter lesson of miscarriages of justice in which innocent people were coerced into confessing, while the guilty went free.

Unlike most police in the US, who continue to use interrogation techniques designed to confirm "case theories" (and which produce wrongful convictions, including of more than 25 people saved from death row), British police developed new questioning techniques which produce new information, rather than merely the suspect's acceptance of a case theory. Such techniques are now widely adopted as standard in Australia, making it much harder for case theories to lead to unreliable confessions.

Similarly, the TV model of the detective who solves the crime single-handed is being replaced in policing practice by investigative teams which are structured so case theories are challenged and alternative explanations not discounted. Such reforms may be much less newsworthy than abolishing the jury, but they address the real issues.

It is not surprising that the Wood case has prompted a new search for answers. But if we want to reduce the risk of such miscarriages of justice we need to step back far enough to see the bigger picture. By pointing the finger at an expert witness or at the jury, as some have recently done, we are effectively "solving" the crime of process failure by rounding up suspects and pinning the blame on them, thus falling into the same old trap of seeking a simple answer where there may be none.

Saying we need "closure" has become one of the cliches of our time. We have to accept that sometimes we won't get it, and that uncertainty is preferable to a wrongful conviction.

Original report here




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Durham Loses Another Prosecutor

Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline, who replaced infamous Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong; put at least one innocent man (and likely more) in prison; alleged a vast conspiracy against her between a state judge, defense attorneys, and the News & Observer newspaper. . . has been removed from office.

She was a prosecutor who would not back down from anyone. She acted with fierce conviction when she believed she was right. She was aggressive, too, and often framed her pursuit of justice as advocacy for crime victims.

It also shows the reasons she was permanently removed from her job Friday – a stunning inability to get facts straight and an unwillingness to change course when confronted with reasons to do so.

Cline, 48, did not speak in court that January day in Durham, watching as a judge dismissed her claim in a matter of minutes.

She is out of office now because of her words and actions against Durham’s senior judge – lengthy filings filled with vitriolic language, unsubstantiated allegations of corruption, tales of a conspiracy with The News & Observer and other accusations of misconduct that have been obliterated by three judges.

Cline stands by it all, telling Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood last week that “what I recorded in those motions was absolutely true.”

The flawed behavior that cost Cline her job wasn’t new. It has been displayed in a range of criminal cases she handled over the years, according to an examination of court documents, transcripts, interviews and news reports.

But the action she took against Hudson was in full public view, and it was aimed at a judge, not a criminal defendant.

Which is probably why she was removed. Likewise, Cline’s predecessor made the mistake of wrongly targeted a group of innocent defendants who had the money and clout to fight back. Most don’t.

This part is interesting:

Carol Tavris, a Los Angeles social psychologist who has researched and written about the behavior and decision-making of prosecutors, said studies show the human brain, when sorting out conflicting beliefs and actions, will engage in a powerful act known as “self-justification.”

It can keep people from admitting they are wrong and can be more powerful and more dangerous than an explicit lie, she said in an interview and in a 2007 book she co-authored, “Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me).”

People will convince themselves they are correct even when they are not, she said. It happens in everything from bad marriages to buying a car that costs too much.

Self-justification is especially concerning in the justice system, Tavris said, because authorities often view themselves as “good guys” doing the “right thing.”

Tavris said Cline was likely faced with “dissonance” in the face of unfavorable rulings and questions about her work, which leads the brain to “self-justify” decisions and actions.

“It’s really, really, really hard to face the reality that you screwed up,” she said. “When we have a view of ourselves as good, competent, ethical, honest people and we are now confronted with evidence that we did something that was incompetent, unethical, immoral or harmful, we have two choices. We can fess up – say, ‘Oh, my God, look at this evidence, what did I do? How can I make amends?’ Or, we deny.”

In the removal inquiry, Cline did get to speak about her allegation, based on the time stamp, that Hudson decided a case early. She was faced with affidavits from court clerks, testimony and a courtroom transcript that contradicted what she said.

Cline did not yield, saying broadly that she knew the judge decided the case early.

“Are you willing to admit that it’s possible that you’re wrong about what Judge Hudson did?” a lawyer asked her. Cline said no.

Public choice theory tells us that public officials don’t magically start behaving selflessly and altruistically simply because they’ve chosen a career in public service. They’ll still act in their own interest most of the time, as we all do. That’s not an indictment of public service. It’s a recognition of human nature, and how we’re hard-wired. In terms of policy, it’s prescribes that we design our institutions in a way that accounts for how people actually behave, not for an idealized version of how we hope they’ll behave. The left tends to dismiss public choice theory outright. The right tends to believe it’s applicable to all areas of public service except law enforcement and criminal justice.

These are generalizations, of course. There are exceptions on both sides. But good people don’t thrive in systems with bad incentives. You either attract bad actors, turn good actors into bad ones, or the good actors drop out, leaving you only with the bad ones.

Original report here




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Woman calls cops on scam — they kill her dog instead

The cops are already making excuses for this thug. Here a woman calls the police to tell them that there is an online scam. They say they will send a police officer to talk to her. She tells them she won't be home and to call first so she can be there. They ignore her.

The officer goes to the home, when she is away, and then jumps over her fence ignoring the trespassing signs and warnings that there is a guard dog. When the 11-year-old dog appears he shots it to death.

Police routinely kill dogs. This is not an anomaly. This blog has warned about it repeatedly. I think of the woman who opened her door to a police officer who was lost and asking for directions—yea, they aren't so bright these days. Her dog in the house was barking. She was in the doorway and the dog couldn't get out. The officer pulled his gun and shot her dog inside the house. And, like this officer will, he got away with it. Cops cover for their own.

This is why I argue there are no good cops. The bad cops have allies who lie for them in statements, who destroy evidence on their behalf, and who will exonerate them if they are caught. It is very, very rare that a police member will be disciplined in any way that hurts them. The typical response is "paid leave" while a case is investigated. People in the private sector call paid leave a vacation. Of course, the adrenaline junkies in the police force, who get their kicks throwing around their authority, may actually find that a punishment.

What is particularly upsetting is that the good officers know of cops doing things that are criminal. They rarely turn them in. Cops don't generally arrest cops unless the case is very severe and the evidence hard to hide.

This woman, and her children, have learned that one should never call the police for help, unless it is absolutely necessary. My advice remains:

1. Never call the police unless you are convinced that the risk of their presences is lower than the risk of their not being present.

2. If you see the police in pursuit of someone, go in a different direction. Offer them no assistance and stay as far away from them as possible.

3. Teach your children that the police are NOT their friends. The days of Sheriff Andy Griffith are long gone. The police are not there to protect you or your family, they are their to enforce the law and given the over-legislation of the day, chances are you are a criminal.

4. Teach your children to never speak to an officer unless a parent is present. Cops regularly arrest children for things that rational people don't see a crimes.

5. If your school has a "resource officer" demand that they be removed. Many parents deeply regret the presence of police in the schools when their kids end up in jail for something that shouldn't matter. Kids have been arrested for accidentally bringing butter knifes to school, or for drawing a gun. Kids have been arrested for hugging, small children were handcuffed for crying. Kids were arrested for playing a game where they smacked other kids on the butt and ran. Kids have been arrested for asking a teacher for a hug—and we aren't talking high school boys after a teacher but small children.

6. If you are in a safe position, and see the police in action, and can videotape their activities, then you may save an innocent person from going to jail. Cops don't like this, however, and have arrested people for videotaping them acting illegally. But these tapes have regularly saved people from being railroaded into jail by lying officers, swearing under oath in court. The one greatest help to the innocent has been video which proves the testimony of police officers was perjured.

Original report here




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"Bored" British police assault men who simply asked for help

When groom Stewart Roberts chose his comedy costume for his stag do, he probably thought it would raise a few laughs.

Little did he know the outfit would lead to two of his friends being Tazered and arrested by police.

Brothers-in-law Darren Corbridge, 37, and John Naylor, 49, ended up in a fracas with officers after seeking help to get the husband-to-be, wearing the six-foot novelty penis costume, a cab home after the night out.

The pair were later found guilty of assaulting a police officer as a result of the melee at the end of the stag do in Weymouth, Dorset, in August 2010.

But car mechanic John and company director Darren, have now had their convictions overturned after a judge watched CCTV footage of the incident and ruled they had not provoked police.

Darren said: ‘I felt disgusted at how we were treated, it was like we were animals and I couldn't believe it had happened after asking for help. ‘Whilst I was being Tazered I thought I was going to die, it was the most frightening experience I have had in my life and I will never trust the police again.’

At about 2am Darren approached two police officers after a taxi driver refused to take Stewart home because of his outfit. The police ignored his plea for help, but as he walked away he was followed by an officer, who pushed him in the chest. The CCTV showed John trying to intervene only to be blasted with pepper spray.

Darren was then seen being restrained by five officers before he was Tazered and detained.

Groom Stewart, a window installer, and fiance Ellie Roberts, 31, a beautician, were captured on camera staggering away from the scene afterwards.

Darren said: ‘We had done a few things to Stewart that night like strip him and put him in the penis costume. We tarred and feathered him and washed him off at the beach. ‘At the end of the night we tried to get a taxi home but were refused. I asked two police officers in a car if they were able to help me to get a taxi to take him home or to take him home themselves.

‘A male officer came up and pushed me in the chest, so I stepped back, then John was sprayed with pepper spray. ‘More than 20 officers then turned up, two of them were armed. They bundled into John and he fell down before he was Tazered. ‘I was then struck in the face. Even though I had my arms up in the air another officer claimed I had him in a head lock. ‘I was taken to the floor and then about four or five officers jumped on me.

‘They shot me with the Tazer at least three times in the chest, and Tazered John numerous times. ‘I was refused medical assistance. With Tazering it's 50,000 vaults going through your chest and that's not pleasant. I didn't know what was happening.’

John said: ‘Darren walked away from the police officer who got out about 30 seconds later and started poking him in the chest. ‘I went over to say 'come away' but I was then sprayed in the eyes for no reason at all, it was stinging and I couldn't see.

‘Ten or 12 police cars turned up. Two officers came round the back of me and grabbed hold of me. I told them I hadn't done anything and I broke free and then I was elbowed in the head, then they started Tasering me.

‘The Tasering was excruciating. They told me to stay still but I couldn't because I was having convulsions.’ Darren and John, who was also charged with resisting arrest, were found guilty at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court last year.

Darren was put on electronic tag for 12 weeks and John for four weeks. But they appealed against the conviction and sentence and won their case at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Stewart said: ‘It shocks me how something can escalate like that. The police didn't need to go that far. They didn't need to get out the car. It's like they were bored.’

Original report here




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Australian pilot given second chance to sue government over wrongful imprisonment

A PILOT who had a $45 million wrongful imprisonment claim against the Federal Government thrown out on a legal basis has been given a second chance to sue. Last year in the Queensland Supreme Court, Justice Stanley Jones ordered Frederick Martens' damages claim against the Federal Government be struck out after ruling it had been filed under the wrong legislation.

Justice Jones ruled the claim for $45 million should have been filed under Queensland legislation rather than federal law. He said the claim should have been filed under Queensland's Personal Injury Proceedings Act and, because Mr Martens' legal team had not followed the procedures required by that legislation, it must be dismissed. He also ordered Mr Martens, of north Queensland, to pay the legal costs of the government.

Mr Martens spent three years in jail after being convicted of having had sex with a 14-year-old girl in Papua New Guinea in 2001. The conviction was overturned after two appeals when his family obtained official documentation which proved he was in Australia and not Papua New Guinea at the time of the alleged offences.

Mr Martens had sued seeking damages including the collapse of several business ventures in Papua New Guinea. He went to the Court of Appeal in Brisbane which today unanimously allowed his appeal. It set aside Justice Jones's order.

The Court of Appeal then struck out the original statement of claim but allowed Mr Martens until April 13 to serve a further statement of claim on the Federal Government.

Justice Margaret Wilson said Justice Joes had been correct in finding Mr Martens' claim for personal injury should have been filed under state law. "The difficulties with the pleadings are such that it is not clear whether he is seeking to pursue other claims as well," she said.

Justice Wilson said Mr Martens should have an opportunity to replead any claim that was not a claim for personal injuries.

Original report here




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Lazy British police again

Meeting bureaucratic "targets" by hook or by crook is all that matters to them

A mother has told how her life was left in ruins after police made her feel like a liar when she reported being raped. Anita Grinham told officers she was sexually assaulted in her own home by a man who had spiked her drink in a nightclub. But she says the detectives did not take her allegations seriously and sided with her attacker.

Her claims were backed up by an internal inquiry that found key witnesses were not interviewed and the suspect’s house and car were left unsearched.

Although a suspect was arrested, the case did not reach court through lack of forensic evidence – another failing in the police investigation.

Miss Grinham, who has waived her anonymity to detail her ordeal, said her life was in ruins despite being vindicated by an apology from Suffolk police. ‘I know what happened to me – I was violated in the most horrendous way,’ said the 37-year-old mother of four.

‘Someone raped me and no one’s been punished. But I was made to feel like a liar. My whole life has changed. I went from being bubbly and outgoing to being paranoid and scared. ‘Because of this horrendous experience I lost my business.

‘I now suffer from panic attacks, depression and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Sorry is not good enough. My life stopped when I was raped. I have spent all my time since then trying to get justice. ‘I just hope what I have been through helps change things for other victims.’

Miss Grinham was attacked on a night out with friends in her home town of Ipswich in July 2008 to celebrate the opening of a beauty salon she had set up. Because she was driving, she bought only one glass of wine, which she asked a doorman to look after while she went to the lavatory. ‘I vaguely knew this guy, as I had seen him in my local gym and I thought as a doorman he would be responsible,’ she said.

‘After I finished my drink I started to feel very peculiar – my legs felt funny and my friends said we should go home. ‘Apparently this doorman offered to drive my car home, as I felt awful and my friends had had too much to drink. The next thing I remember is waking up and he was on top of me.

‘I wanted to scream and scream but nothing would come out of my mouth – it was as if I was paralysed. My young children were asleep next door and I was just terrified.

‘I must have passed out as when I woke up again my head really hurt, I was totally naked and he had gone. ‘I was so terrified and distraught I went straight to the bathroom and started scrubbing myself with a nail brush.’

Miss Grinham said her attacker had warned her ‘not to do anything stupid’ after the incident. She defied this harassment and reported the crime to the police five weeks later. However, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with charges due to lack of evidence.

After making a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Miss Grinham was told in May 2010 that Suffolk police’s professional standards department would review the investigation. Her complaint was upheld last June when the force apologised. Officers reopened the investigation but could not re-interview the suspect as there was no new DNA evidence.

Miss Grinham said the force’s response had made her feel she was being branded a liar.

The investigation stated: ‘Forensic opportunities were not considered, telephone evidence not sought, key witnesses not interviewed regarding the connected harassment incident, or re-interviewed in the case of the female acquaintances who had been with the complainant. ‘Equally, searches of the suspect’s home or the car used were not carried out, neither was he re-interviewed after conflicting accounts were obtained from the witnesses.’

While revealing that the officer who interviewed Miss Grinham was trained to deal with rape inquiries, the report states the officer in charge of the inquiry had no specialist training in sexual offences.

Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Hendwood of Suffolk Constabulary said: ‘Anita Grinham made a complaint to Suffolk Police via the IPCC in relation to how her case was investigated, which was reviewed by our Professional Standards Department.

‘As a result the PSD made a number of recommendations, which assisted with the new structure for rape investigations. Suffolk Constabulary has created a countywide Gemini Team with specialist rape-trained officers who work with the victim from the outset to ensure they receive the best possible support, advice and guidance. They follow national protocol and best practice compiled from forces throughout the country.’

Earlier this week a criminal justice joint inspection study criticised police in England and Wales for dismissing more than one in ten rape allegations to secure a higher conviction rate and meet targets.

It warned that target cultures have put forces under pressure to keep recorded crime to a ‘minimum’ and that foreign rapists could be escaping justice because police are failing to check the background of suspects.

Original report here




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Lazy British police missed desperate, screaming 999 call from murdered Chinese family, says watchdog report

Police missed a desperate, screaming 999 call from a teenage girl while she and her family where being murdered in their home, a report revealed yesterday.

University lecturer Jifeng Ding, 46, his wife Helen Chui, 47, and their two children, Xing, 18, and Alice, 12, were stabbed to death at their house in Pioneer Close, Northampton, on the day of the Royal Wedding.

But their bodies weren't discovered until two days later when a worldwide hunt was launched for prime suspect Anxiang Du, 52 - a former business partner of Helen.

An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission has concluded that the way Northamptonshire Police handled the call was 'unacceptable' after analysing the chain of events from when Xing called them to say her parents were being attacked.

It found:

* The location from which the 999 call was made was incorrectly identified and disseminated by a police call handler, which led to the police focusing on the wrong address

* Insufficient checks were carried out to determine the correct address of the caller

* The call should have been graded as requiring an ‘immediate’ rather than a ‘priority’ police response

* The call was prematurely closed by a force control room supervisor without sufficient consideration or effort given to establish the welfare of the caller

The report said: 'The standard by which police handled the call was unacceptable. There was no clear force policy in place for handling abandoned 999 calls and the relevant call handler had received insufficient training.'

IPCC Commissioner Amerdeep Somal said: 'Our findings have to be viewed against a high volume of emergency calls the police deal with, but our investigation has found this particular 999 call was badly mishandled.

'An incorrect location for where the call originated from led to potentially crucial minutes of police time being wasted.

'And the recording of a specific, wrong address on the incident log misled officers into believing that all was apparently well when the reality was the extreme opposite.'

The IPCC investigation found that the force control room supervisor has a case to answer for misconduct as the decision to close the incident was taken without sufficient information or proper risk assessment.

It was decided that the actions of the relevant call handler were in part a consequence of organisational failings around a lack of policy and training and the member of staff would therefore be dealt with by the force for performance issues.

Comm Somal added: 'Force procedure dictates that screaming on an abandoned 999 call should elicit an immediate police response.

'Had police used more detailed checks and a mapping system available to them, the need for a subscriber check would have been established; the correct address in Pioneer Close would have been identified and in all likelihood attended by officers within minutes.

'I know Northamptonshire Police has reacted constructively to our findings by introducing new procedures in handling abandoned 999 calls in accordance with national guidance and retraining relevant staff.

'I would urge anyone with any information about the whereabouts of Mr Du to contact Northamptonshire Police in the interests of justice.'

'Had police used more detailed checks... the correct address would have been identified and in all likelihood attended by officers within minutes'

The civilian call handler has recently taken voluntary redundancy from Northamptonshire Police. The family of the Dings have been informed by the IPCC of its findings.

In a statement, Northamptonshire police said: 'The force recognises it was unlikely that the lives of the Ding family could have been saved, however there was a possibility that the main suspect, An Xiang Du, could have been at the address had the call been handled correctly and officers dispatched.

'Northamptonshire Police acknowledges that the response to the abandoned 999 call was unacceptable. The IPCC report recognises that the significant range of measures which Northamptonshire Police have already implemented means that no further changes are required.

'These measures include a clear policy and new guidance for the handling of abandoned 999 calls. All control room staff have been retrained in the handling of abandoned 999 calls.

'Northamptonshire Police has written to the immediate next of kin of the Ding family to apologise for the way the call was handled. This includes an invitation to receive this apology in person.

'We remain determined to bring the person responsible for this terrible crime to justice and the investigation into the whereabouts of the main suspect, Anxiang Du, continues to receive our full attention.'

An inquest into their deaths heard that Jifeng, Helen and Alice had to be identified by their dental records, while Xing was formally identified by her school mistress.

The cause of death for all four family members was recorded as stab wounds to the chest. Coroner Pember described the murders as 'vile and barbaric' acts.

Original report here




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One of Britain's crookedest cops walks free from three-year jail sentence after serving just 14 days behind bars

Disgraced police chief Ali Dizaei smirks after being released from prison yesterday just two weeks after receiving a three-year sentence for corruption.

The 49-year-old Scotland Yard commander was sent back to jail on February 13 after being found guilty for a second time of framing an innocent man.

But because he had already spent 15 months behind bars before winning a retrial, the £100,000-a-year officer was eligible to be released on an electronic tag.

Hours after being freed he and his third wife, Shy, could not contain their delight as they walked outside their home in Acton, West London.

Iranian-born Dizaei – who while in the police repeatedly played the race card to intimidate critics – vowed to clear his name, saying: ‘This is not the end of this case by a long way, as you will soon discover.’

The officer, dubbed a ‘criminal in uniform’ by Nick Hardwick, former head of watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission, added: ‘I believe I am the victim of a sophisticated witch-hunt over many years.’

Dizaei was originally convicted of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office in February 2010 and jailed for four years.

His conviction was quashed last May after doubts emerged about the immigration status of his Iraqi accuser, Waad al-Baghdadi, who was also exposed as a benefit fraudster.

But a second jury unanimously found him guilty of the same offences earlier this month, condemning him to a further spell behind bars.

He was released from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London yesterday on a Home Detention Curfew, three months before the mid-point of his sentence, and will have to check in with his probation officer.

Prior to being jailed for a second time, Dizaei was on full pay. After winning a retrial but still to clear his name, he was reinstated, quickly suspended on full pay and then awarded up to £180,000 in back pay and allowances as he awaited the new hearing.

His salary was stopped on the day he was convicted again and he is expected to be formally sacked by the Met once a misconduct hearing has taken place.

Dizaei emerged unscathed from a series of inquiries over the years, including an undercover operation examining claims of corruption, fraud, dishonesty and appalling threats to an ex-girlfriend.

But the attempt to frame Mr al-Baghdadi, who pestered him for payment over a website he was designing for Dizaei, exposed him as a violent bully and liar.

Original report here




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