National Police Misconduct Reporting Project

Tag Archives: Police Unions

Grandmother Struck and Killed by Drunk Driving NY Officer

December 7, 2012 @ 2:20 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Village Voice:

A former NYPD detective — whose BAC was more than three times the legal limit when he plowed into a Bronx grandmother with a cop car — was convicted of manslaughter yesterday.

Former Detective Kevin Spellman, however, beat the rap on the most serious charges against him (aggravated vehicular homicide and first-degree vehicular manslaughter) in the death of 66-year-old Drane Nikac, who was struck by the tipsy former detective on October 30, 2009, as she was walking near the intersection of West 232nd St. and Kingsbridge Avenue in the Bronx.

Following the accident, Spellman refused a breathalyzer test, and his BAC wasn’t tested until five hours after he slammed into the Bronx grandmother while driving erratically in his NYPD-owned Chevy Impala.

The article says that Spellman retired.  If there is a pension, how about we cancel that, or divert it to the Nikac estate?

Police Union to Police Chief: ‘We’re just going to kick your butt anyways, like we always have’

July 17, 2012 @ 3:39 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Oregonian:

In the past three decades, Portland police chiefs have fired officers who were convicted of driving drunk off duty, leaving dead animals outside a black-owned business, and selling “Smoke ‘Em, Don’t Choke ‘Em” T-shirts to officers after a man died in police custody from a neck hold.

The chiefs had to bring them all back.

More recently, an arbitrator overturned the firing of Officer Ron Frashour for fatally shooting an unarmed man in the back; the 80-hour suspensions for Officer Chris Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice following the death of James P. Chasse Jr.; and the 900-hour suspension of Officer Scott McCollister for his actions leading up tohis fatal shooting of Kendra James.

So just what does it take to discipline a Portland police officer?

Frankly, if push comes to shove and it goes to arbitration, you can’t do it.

10 Days in the Police Academy, 14 Years on Disability

July 17, 2012 @ 12:59 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Barnes is one of two officers collecting disability because of injuries sustained while still in the police academy.

The other, Michael Terrano, injured a knee 17 years ago, underwent surgery, then refused to return to work and was fired.

Despite that, he is getting disability checks that so far have totaled more than $560,000.

Terrano is also in business. He recently was part of a company hoping to sell medical marijuana in Arizona.

Of all the Chicago cops on disability leave, Barnes spent the least amount of time on the job — those 10 days in the police academy, which he entered six months before his father retired from the police department.

Despite not making it through two weeks at the academy, Barnes stands to collect a total of at least $1.2 million from the city’s police pension fund.

He can keep collecting his annual disability payment — which now stands at $46,343 and which will increase as the salary for an entry-level patrolman goes up — until he reaches mandatory retirement at age 63. Then, he can retire with a full police pension — based on all of his years as a disabled officer.

 

‘Just Having Fun’ … Luring Another Cop into a 90 mph Chase

July 10, 2012 @ 12:19 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Officer Christina Fowler was working the night shift March 5 when she spotted a speeding car heading south on U.S. Highway 27 around 11:20, according to an investigative report. She tried to pull the car over, but the driver only tapped the brakes before taking off.

Fowler followed.

The video from her patrol-car camera captured the scene as the car raced away.

“Man, he’s doing over 80,” she said. And then, moments later, “Wow, he’s doing over 90.”

Inside the fleeing car were three fellow officers from the Clermont police force on their way back from a trip to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, according to the report obtained Monday.

Fowler continued to pursue the car, turning on her emergency lights when it pulled into the Clermont Landing shopping-center parking lot, the report said.

The driver jumped out of his vehicle, and Fowler drew her weapon. Then she realized it was Officer Marc Thompson — who was laughing.

As a result of that off-duty prank, two police officers were fired from the Clermont squad. Sgt. Mark Edwards and Thompson were terminated Thursday by police Chief Steve Graham for department violations. A third officer, Dennis Hall, was suspended for one day without pay.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident at Graham’s request and determined: “[A]ll officers involved in this incident felt that the prank was not malicious in nature but was intended to be a joke.”

The report continued: “Officer Fowler felt however that the driver, Officer Thompson, she was pursuing was driving at unsafe speeds which had the potential to cause a serious accident especially near S.R. 50 where there is road construction and a dangerous intersection.”

Thompson, behind the wheel of his personal vehicle, laughed hysterically when he was finally pulled over by Fowler, and said “he was just having fun,” according to the report. Hall and Edwards were passengers in the car.

Good to see some accountability, but note:

A police-union official said Monday that the officers would not comment because an appeal to the city manager is pending.

 

German Bosque ‘Joked About His Record of Misconduct’

July 3, 2012 @ 2:40 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Miami Herald:

He has been accused of cracking the head of a handcuffed suspect, beating juveniles, hiding drugs in his police car, stealing from suspects, defying direct orders and lying and falsifying police reports. He once called in sick to take a vacation to Cancún and has engaged in a rash of unauthorized police chases, including one in which four people were killed.

Arrested and jailed three times, Bosque, 48, has been fired at least six times. Now under suspension pending yet another investigation into misconduct, Bosque stays home and collects his $60,000-a-year paycheck for doing nothing.

The Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association has successfully fought Bosque’s dismissals.

Chicago Police Misconduct Cases Drag on for Years

June 16, 2012 @ 11:47 AM by Tim Lynch

From the Chicago Tribune:

A Chicago police officer cracked Greg Larkins’ head open with a baton back in 2006, requiring him to be stitched up at a hospital.

Within a few days, several relatives of Larkins who said they witnessed the allegedly unprovoked attack gave statements to an investigator for the city. His mother also handed over photos of his injuries.

Yet more than five years passed before the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing against police, filed charges of excessive force against Officer Bruce Askew and called for his firing.

But the long delay proved costly. Late last month, the Chicago Police Board, which decides the most serious disciplinary cases, dismissed the charge not based on the evidence, but because by state law, the disciplinary action had to be filed before a five-year statute of limitations ran out.

“It just went on and on,” Larkins’ mother, Alice, 71, said of the investigation into her son’s alleged beating.

Police Union Used Felons to Gather Signatures in Ballot Drive

June 8, 2012 @ 2:31 PM by Tim Lynch

From the Washington Examiner:

Montgomery County’s police union used felons, including a fugitive and a man convicted of forgery, to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would kill legislation reducing police collective bargaining rights, court documents show.

The county cites the Fraternal Order of Police’s use of felons among reasons why at least 6,700 of the 34,828 signatures validated by the County Board of Elections are insufficient to put the measure, protecting police officers’ ability to negotiate any management decision, on the November ballot.

The felons were responsible for collecting signatures and certifying they were gathered legally.

“The notion that a felon who under Maryland law would be prohibited from voting in an election, and who at any time was at the risk of arrest by the very individuals on whose behalf he was circulating the petition, would be responsible for preventing fraud flies in the face of common sense and is truly laughable,” attorneys for the county wrote in documents filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

One felon, Keith Gregory Moore, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was convicted of forgery, fraud, aggravated assault and home invasion, the court filing shows. 

Another petition circulator, Jessie James Rowe, of Kalamazoo, Mich., was a fugitive felon at the time he was gathering signatures — and still is — the document says.