Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:39 AM
matt@lefande.com
British cop proves he was still on duty during sex romp
A British police officer who had sexual relations while on duty was acquitted in court because he was in constant radio contact due to the earpiece he was wearing during his sex romp.
Police transport inspector Massoud Khan, 41, found his 43-year-old partner on the Internet dating site uniformdating.com.
He conducted his illicit encounter in a room at the police station at Gatwick Airport, near London, it was reveaLed during the trial on Wednesday.
The jury quickly came to a unanimous verdict as the policeman proved he was able to respond to all emergencies as he was equipped with an earpiece tuned in to the police radio frequency.
"If there was a call for me, I would have answered it and I would have dealt with it," he told the court, according to the Times newspaper.
His lawyer Kevin Baumber believes that the inspector certainly misbehaved, but his bad decision is not a crime.
"This is a criminal court, not a moral court. It's doubtful that this case would have been brought if he had taken an extended lunch break or gone for a game of golf," he said.
The inspector still may face disiplinary action.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070816/od_afp/britainpolicesex_070816184006;_ylt=AkXDvIEQ67picbUxFtkvYLOs0NUE
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:03 PM
matt@lefande.com
Defendant wins breathalyzer source code
When Dale Lee Underdahl was arrested on February 18, 2006, on suspicion of drunk driving, he submitted to a breath test that was conducted using a product called the Intoxilyzer 5000EN.
During a subsequent court hearing on charges of third-degree DUI, Underdahl asked for a copy of the "complete computer source code for the (Intoxilyzer) currently in use in the state of Minnesota."
An article in the Pioneer Press quoted his attorney, Jeffrey Sheridan, as saying the source code was necessary because otherwise "for all we know, it's a random number generator." It is hardly new technology: One criminal defense attorney says the Intoxilyzer is based on the antique Z-80 microprocessor.
A judge granted the defendant's request, but Michael Campion, Minnesota's commissioner in charge of public safety, opposed it. Minnesota quickly asked an appeals court to intervene, which it declined to do. Then the state appealed a second time.
What became central to the dispute was whether the source code was owned by the state or CMI, the maker of the Intoxilyzer.
Minnesota's original bid proposal that CMI responded to says that "all right, title, and interest in all copyrightable material" that CMI creates as part of the contract "will be the property of the state." The bid proposal also says CMI must provide "information" to be used by "attorneys representing individuals charged with crimes in which a test with the proposed instrument is part of the evidence," which seems to include source code.
Campion's office, on the other hand, claims the source code is confidential, copyrighted and proprietary. It has asked for what's known as a "writ of prohibition" barring the source code from being released.
The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected the request, saying "a writ of prohibition is an extraordinary remedy and is only used in extraordinary cases."
This isn't the first time breathalyzer source code has been the subject of legal scrutiny. A Florida court ruled two years ago that police can't use electronic breathalyzers as courtroom evidence against drivers unless the source code is disclosed. Other alleged drunk drivers have had charges thrown out because CMI refuses to reveal the Intoxilyzer source code.
http://news.com.com/Police+Blotter+DUI+defendant+wins+breathalyzer+source+code/2100-7348_3-6201632.html?tag=nefd.top
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:50 AM
matt@lefande.com
Man calls 911 to save him from police
A 38-year-old Largo, FL man was arrested after he called 911 and told a dispatcher he was surrounded by police officers and needed help, authorities said.
Police officers met Dana Farrell Shelton after being called to investigate a disturbance at a bar on Sunday but had found no problems and told him to move along.
Shelton, who officers said appeared intoxicated, then called 911 to report he was "surrounded by Largo police," according to an arrest affidavit.
"Our officers were standing there scratching their heads. He called, standing there in their presence," Largo Sgt. Melanie Holley said. "It's one of our 'truth is stranger than fiction' cases."
Shelton was charged with misdemeanor misuse of 911. The charge carries maximum penalties of one year in jail and $1,000 in fines.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19795748/
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:26 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
A retired United States Marine in Plantation, Florida, disrupted a robbery in progress when he shot two men who attempted to rob a Subway sandwich shop, fatally wounding one of them, police said.
According to Plantation police, two armed men barged into the Subway at 1949 Pine Island Rd. shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday, demanding money from the employee behind the counter. When they tried to force John Lovell into the bathroom, he pulled out a gun and shot both men, police said.
Donicio Arrindell, 22, was shot in the head and later died at the hospital. Fredrick Gadson, 21, was shot in the chest and ran from the Subway, but police found him in hiding in some bushes on the property of a nearby BankAtlantic.
Lovell, 71, was the lone customer at the time. Police said he had a concealed weapons permit.
A witness who was about to enter the Subway at the time said he thought the shootings were justified.
"I think justice, you know, was served and a civilian was a hero for today," Sebastian Shakespeare said.
Police said Lovell, a retired Marine, wouldn't be charged.
http://www.local10.com/news/13585335/detail.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:24 PM
matt@lefande.com
Not so fast: Police use more gun restraint than civilians
In making snap decisions about whether to shoot a potentially armed suspect, police officers are far less influenced by racial bias than students or community members forced to make the same decision, a large study has found.
The study, which was based on video simulations of armed and unarmed confrontations, found that racial stereotypes influenced the reaction times of both officers and civilians, but swayed the ultimate decision to fire only in civilian participants.
The new study, reported Friday in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is the first to rigorously compare the influence of race on such life-and-death decisions in officers and in non-officers.
"We don't mean to suggest that this is conclusive evidence that there is no racial bias in police officers' decisions to shoot," said Dr. Joshua Correll, a University of Chicago psychologist and lead author. "But we've run these tests with thousands of people now, and we've never seen this ability to restrain behavior in any group other than police officers."
Correll said that the findings were unexpected, given that the police were exposed to the usual racial stereotypes in popular culture and confrontations on the beat. Co-authors were Bernd Wittenbrink of the University of Chicago; Bernadette Park, Charles Judd and Melody Sadler of the University of Colorado in Boulder; and Tracie Keesee of the Denver Police Department.
The research was conducted in 2004, and included 157 officers from the Denver Police Department, 113 officers from departments around the country and a diverse group of 245 adults from the Denver area. The police officers and the civilians were drawn to represent blacks, whites and Latinos, but the sample was not nationally representative.
In one experiment, participants watched a video screen as a series of 50 threatening images flashed by, one after another: men, half of them black and half white, each shown once while armed and once while holding something innocuous. The participants hit a button to shoot or to hold fire for each image they saw.
The researchers measured reaction times to the millisecond, and found a clear stereotyping effect. Officers and civilians took 10 to 20 milliseconds longer to make a decision when they saw either an unarmed black man, or an armed white man, compared to the other images.
But when it mattered the police officers tuned out race. They shot at about 13 percent of the unarmed black men and roughly the same number of the unarmed white men. The civilians shot at about 35 percent of the unarmed black men and 29 percent of unarmed white men.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4855977.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:36 PM
matt@lefande.com
Pickpocket Steals Police Chief's Wallet
A Oslo, Norway police campaign to crack down on pickpockets has come too late to help the capital's top crime fighter.
Police Chief Anstein Gjengedal's wallet was snatched by a pickpocket as the campaign was set to begin, the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet reported Friday.
The police chief was on the Oslo airport train Monday when a group of people jostled him. When he checked a few minutes later, his wallet was gone.
"I didn't have much money with me," he was quoted as saying. "But it still wasn't very nice."
Gjengedal said he had followed police advice by having the wallet in the inner pocket of his jacket, but the thieves got it anyway.
According to Dagbladet, Gjengedal's deputy _ Bjoern Aage Hansen _ wasn't aware of the theft when he announced the "Safe Summer" campaign later in the week, vowing that "we will have a special focus on pickpockets."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052500383.html?tid=informbox
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:08 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
A Michigan man was able to turn an attempted attack around because of his concealed weapons permit.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department says 32-year-old Brian Smith was approached by two men as he was entering his apartment on Mt. Royal Drive just before 2 a.m. Friday.
One of the suspects asked Smith for directions to Kalamazoo Valley Community College and then pulled out a revolver. Smith pulled out his revolver to defend himself and fired two shots, hitting the suspect in his left hand.
Both of the suspects fled the scene on foot. The wounded suspect was arrested a short time later while trying to get medical attention.
The other suspect is still on the loose. He is described as a black man in his early 20s, about 5'8" tall and having a thin build, and last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and black jeans.
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6534873&nav=0Rce
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:19 PM
matt@lefande.com
Judge fines prosecutor for cost of murder retrial
A judge rebuked and fined an Ohio prosecutor's office today because a prosecutor's unconstitutional remarks caused a mistrial at the end of a capital-murder case two weeks ago.
But Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo refused to dismiss the aggravated-murder charge against defendant Fernando Newcomb, as his lawyers had asked. Instead, Russo will set a new trial date for Newcomb on charges accusing him of shooting Alvin McKnight to death in January 2006, then trying to burn his body and dumping it near East 45th Street and Lakeside.
She calculated that a retrial would cost taxpayers $26,204, not including such fixed costs as court and prosecutor salaries. So Russo ordered Mason's office to pay a fine equaling that amount to the court's administrative judge.
During the prosecution's closing arguments on May 2, Assistant County Prosecutor Lawrence Floyd pointedly urged the jury to consider that Newcomb declined to take the stand in his own defense.
Russo immediately declared a mistrial and lambasted Floyd for violating Newcomb's Fifth Amendment rights by commenting on his decision not to testify.
Defense lawyers contended a mistrial isn't enough of a sanction and argued that the prosecution deliberately tanked Newcomb's trial because it was going poorly. They decided they lost the case because the jury wasn't going to impose a death sentence, defense attorney John Stanard said. So Floyd flagrantly violated Newcomb's rights because he knew the judge would declare a mistrial, Stanard said.
Russo acknowledged Floyd had deliberately committed prosecutorial misconduct, but said there was no proof that he threw the trial on purpose in "that apocalyptic moment."
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/05/judge_fines_prosecutor_for_cos.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:43 AM
matt@lefande.com
New Hampshire man arrested for taping his own DWI investigation
A 48-year-old man was arrested early this morning for wiretapping for allegedly recording police while they were investigating him for driving while intoxicated.
Police say they were patrolling the downtown Rochester, NH area at 2:54 a.m. when they discovered Christopher A. Power of 52 Chestnut St. sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle with its motor running at the Rochester Common.
After speaking with Power, police began investigating him for driving while intoxicated and arrested him. During the arrest an audio recording device was discovered.
"During a search after the arrest an audio recorder was discovered on the driver's seat cushion," Capt. Paul Callaghan said. "The officer noticed that the recorder was recording."
Power was charged with driving while intoxicated and wiretapping, which is a Class B felony.
Power is being held on $2,500 cash will be arraigned this afternoon at Rochester District Court.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070507/FOSTERS01/105070187&SearchID=73280469534888
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:16 AM
matt@lefande.com
