Hiding in Plain Sight: Battering While Blue
Today, the Riverside County District Attorney's office sponsored an event to remember the victims of violent crimes and spearheaded its campaign against victims of domestic violence. They, including the men, wear women's shoes including high heels and walk in them. It's their way of literally walking in women's shoes when they can't in so many other ways.
"There’s only one way you’re gonna leave me and that’s dead."
---Tacoma Police Chief David Brame allegedly to his wife and murder victim, Crystal Judson.
Riverside County, May 2005
David McGowan, 44, worked for the District Attorney's office as a senior investigator. On May 10, 2005, McGowan shot and killed five of his family members before turning the gun on himself.
Dead were his wife, Karen and his three children, Chase,14, Paige,10, and Rayne,8. There was another woman shot to death but it would take a while to learn she was McGowan's mother, Angelia, 75. All but Karen had died in their beds, shot in the head by McGowan's duty weapon.
The head of the responding law enforcement agency told ABC-News what deputies found when they arrived at the home.
(excerpt)
Sheriff Bob Doyle said all of the victims died from a gunshot wound to the head and all but McGowan were shot in their beds.
"The beds were undisturbed. The house itself was undisturbed. It did not appear that the house had been ransacked," Doyle said, adding there were no signs of a break-in.
After he killed his family members, McGowan called 9-11 and then killed himself. The last thing heard by the 911 operator was the sound of the phone striking a wall and a gunshot.
The news of what was called a murder-suicide reverberated through the quite neighborhood, as its residents could not believe what had happened.
(excerpt)
"It's just really quiet here," said David Merriman, whose parents live about a mile from the McGowans. "A lot could happen right next door and you wouldn't even know it."
What McGowan left behind, besides the dead bodies of those he had loved best, was a suicide note and song lyrics.
"Woe is me. I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next life," was all the note said. It couldn't begin to answer a litany of questions about why the tragedy had happened, it could only add to them.
Those he had worked so closely with at the District Attorney's office said they hadn't seen it coming and were as shocked as everyone else.
(excerpt, Shawnee News-Star)
Colleagues said McGowan, who helped prosecutors prepare cases for trial, gave no clues that anything was wrong.
A model employee, he had just returned from a week's vacation and had received an outstanding review, said Ingrid Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. He had a normal workload, she said.
"He reported to work every day, just like normal. We weren't aware of any financial or personal problems within the family," she said. "That's why we're all so shocked about the situation."
Still, some noticed some changes in McGowan including those who didn't spend a lot of time around him which could have made any changes more noticeable.
(excerpt)
"Dave was a great guy. He was so quiet and humble. He was all business, very professional," Cathedral City Fire Chief Steve Sowles said.
Sowles said he ran into David McGowan a few weeks ago at the courthouse and noted that he seemed to have aged a lot in the six months since they last met. He said he attributed it to the stress of the investigator's job.
"I was surprised (by) how gray his hair had gotten and he looked tired," Sowles said. "I thought to myself, 'Gosh, we're getting old."'
McGowan's actions were the end result of domestic violence. There was speculation that he may have suffered from depression and been experiencing financial difficulties but on May 10, he made the decision to kill his family along with himself and left no real clues about anything that might have preceded those actions or what life was like behind those closed doors until that final night.
Tacoma, Washington, April 2003
When people recall a murder-suicide form of domestic violence by a law enforcement officer, the case that comes to mind is that of Tacoma Police Chief David Brame who shot his wife Crystal Judson to death before killing himself in a parking lot. His history even before Tacoma hired him to lead its department was filled with serious problems including a reported sexual assault by another law enforcement officer.
Before Judson's death came the domestic violence which built up to it. Abuse that Judson believed she had finally broken free from, but doing so just put her in more danger.
(excerpt, CBS-News)
"It just kind of broke my heart to see Crystal up there with him pinning the badge on and making it look like she was very happy,” says Patty Judson, Crystal’s mother. “We were sitting there in the audience knowing we knew different.”
But after 11 years of marriage, Crystal felt anything but safe. She had begun talking to her parents, Lane and Patty; her sister Julie and her husband, Dave; shopkeeper Linda Lee Clark; and Debbie Phillips, who works at a local tanning parlor.
“She was on a time schedule. David kept very close tabs of her time,” says Phillips.
”He’d mark the time, check the receipts,” says Conmy. “He used to give her $100 every two weeks for the family of three and then four, and that’s all the money she had,” adds Clark. “From the first time I met her, I would see her count out pennies and nickels and dimes.”
“He would make it a point that he was the one who brought home the paycheck,” says sister Julie. And he’d make a point, Lane says, to “say it says David Brame on the check. It doesn’t say Crystal.”
There were also allegations of abuse, both physical and emotional. “There was always yelling and screaming and telling her how horrible she is, how no man would ever want her because she’s fat and she’s ugly and she has kids,” recalls Phillips.
“He would say, ‘You know, I can choke you so quickly or I can snap your neck,’” says Crystal’s mother, Patty.
Instead, he shot her and left her in a coma, before taking his own life. The ultimate expression of the belief that if he couldn't have her, no one could, not even herself. Some say Judson's spirit left this earth before her body did. She died barely a week later, leaving two children behind.
The Tacoma News-Tribune is filled with stories about the killing of Judson and the widespread impact it had on Tacoma and the rest of the country.
The index of stories includes the following.
Who's who
The timeline
And the breaking series of articles, "The Thin Blue Lie" which exposes the questionable hiring of Brame and the coverup after the fact.
The Crystal Judson Family Justice Center was created after her death to offer services to victims of family violence.
Before his stint at the District Attorney's office in Riverside, McGowan had worked at a local policy agency. Brame was the police chief of Tacoma's police department. Both worked in a profession of employees who are at a higher risk for domestic violence involving their own relationships even as they are the ones entrusted with investigating domestic violence in others.
Blogging about this is difficult because there's a lot of information and unfortunately, incidents of domestic violence involving law enforcement officers including homicides that even posting a series on the topic only shows the tip of the iceberg. This issue only comes to life when incidents like that involving Brame and McGowan and other tragedies like them come to public attention.
In most cases, they don't come to light at all.
Probably the best series ever written about police-related domestic violence was the Badge of Dishonor series published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Written in multiple parts, it covers the gambit of a very serious but relatively unknown issue.
It includes detailed profiles of cases involving dozens of law enforcement officers in Washington State and how those officers who engage in domestic violence often receive slaps on the wrist.
The National Center For Women and Policing has this fact sheet on the prevalence of domestic violence in law enforcement. Several studies have shown that about 40% of officers commit domestic violence compared to 10% of the members of the general publication,
Only about 55% of law enforcement agencies had policies in place to address inhouse domestic violence. Discipline given to law enforcement officers is usually light consisting of mainly counseling and only about 19% of police officers are fired after the second incident of domestic violence that is sustained against them.
One of the most important sources of information on police related domestic violence is at the Abuse of Power Web site which is operated by Diane Wetendorf who is affiliated with the Battered Women's Justice Project.
Why are women afraid to report police related domestic violence? The advice they often hear from their abusers is to not doing the following, according to the Abuse of Power Web site.
(excerpt)
Call the police - He is the police.
Go to a shelter - He knows where the shelters are located.
Have him arrested - Responding officers may invoke the code of silence.
Take him to court - It's your word against that of an officer, and he knows the system.
Drop the charges - You could lose any future credibility and protection.
Seek a conviction - He will probably lose his job and retaliate against you.
Abusive officers often use these tactics when engaging in domestic violence. One of them is called, "the voice" which Wetendorf defines as the authoritative voice that law enforcement officers are trained to use on the street and she explains how the training they receive to be good officers might also make them better abusers.
Wetendorf includes some examples of how that works.
(excerpt)
Authoritative Presence
Police officers establish their authority through their appearance. Their uniform, badge and gun are the symbols of power that set them apart from others. The mere presence of an officer intimidates people. (Ask people how they react when they see a patrol car driving behind them.)
Officers learn that body language has the power to intimidate and manipulate people. Simply moving or standing a certain way, or getting in someone's space can elicit trust or fear.
Police are trained to use their voice to gain control of people. Different tones of voice convey increasing levels of control: from a polite request, to an order, to an ultimatum or a threat. As with body language, a voice can solicit trust or inspire fear.
Investigative Techniques
Much of police work involves investigation, questioning suspects, and obtaining confessions. Officers learn how to get people to cooperate with them and to give them information. They learn how to vary their interrogation styles, from friendly persuasions, to emotional manipulation, to brutal interrogations.
Police are able to get information about people by running license plates, accessing court records, or requesting confidential information. Investigating officers learn how to use high tech equipment such as hidden cameras, voice activated recording devices, and vehicle tracking devices to do surveillance.
When officers do undercover work they have to be skilled in deceiving people. Like chameleons, they have to blend into whatever environment they are investigating. They have to gain and maintain informants, be able to lie convincingly, and quickly gain people's trust.
She also discusses the double standards that exist between police-related domestic violence when compared to that which impacts the general population. That double standard is often manifested in large ways in terms of how it's investigated and smaller ways in terms of the words used to explain, explain away and often defend domestic violence involving police officers.
(excerpt)
When a citizen beats up his wife, it's a crime. When a cop beats up his wife, it's only a family problem.
When a citizen's career is jeopardized by having battered his wife, police say he should have thought about that before he hit her. When a cop hits his wife, they say he doesn't deserve to lose his career over it.
Past behavior is considered a good indicator of future behavior. This doesn't apply to abusive cops... they have changed and left the past behind.
There are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle... except when one side is a cop's side. In that case, the cop is telling the truth and the other person is lying.
Once a person has lied, they have no credibility... except for a police officer, who maintains his credibility because he lies when a situation requires it.
How supervisors and management personnel respond or don't respond is often critical. Do the agencies take it seriously or do they apply double standards or treat it as a "family matter"? Do they tell the complainant not to file against the officer because it might hurt his career or a chance at a promotion? Do they say that there is no chance that the prosecutors will file charges?
Many law enforcement agencies do not have policies in writing to address inhouse domestic violence.
Signs of an abuser may include the following from Women Abuse Prevention.
Abusers often:
Do not listen to you, ignore you or talk over you.
Sit or stand too close to you, making you uncomfortable and seem to enjoy it.
Do only what they want or push you to get what they want.
Express anger and violence towards women either through words or physically.
Have a bad attitude toward women.
Are overly possessive or jealous.
Drink or use drugs heavily.
Have a reputation for "scoring".
The Purple Berets who fight against violence against women include a lot of information about police related domestic violence
Included were some examples of domestic violence case which resulted in slaps on the wrist.
(excerpt)
In the wake of Brame's death, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer did an extensive investigation into officer-involved domestic violence in the Seattle area. They found 41 officers who had been accused of domestic violence within the previous five years, a number of them accused of multiple incidents. Few paid any professional price; less than half faced charges, and only one was convicted. Among the cases unearthed by the Post-Intelligencer are these:
Seattle Police Ofcr. Phil Rees flew into a rage and slammed his wife, Jenifer, into a wall and hurled a dresser drawer at her, leaving visible injuries. Jenifer Rees called King County sheriff's deputies, who handed her intoxicated husband back his gun and let him drive away, "so he wouldn't miss work in the morning." No charges were filed. Rees was not disciplined, despite two prior complaints of domestic violence against him.
In a fight with his wife, Ofcr. Kevin Hawley grabbed his handgun saying, "I'm going to blow my fucking head off and you're going to watch." He then put the gun barrel in his mouth and pressed his cheek against hers. No internal investigation was conducted. Hawley was promoted to detective.
Four days before Christmas, Washington State Trooper Ronald Somerville grabbed his girlfriend by the throat, shoved her over the couch and pounced on her. When she ran to the phone to call 911, Somerville snatched the receiver and hung it up. As she darted for the stairs, he grabbed her again, put his hand around her throat and pushed her down, shouting, "You don't want to go out this way." Somerville was charged with 4th degree assault and vandalism, charges that were later dismissed. His discipline? A written reprimand.
More stories are here. The list of special problems faced in police-related domestic violence is pretty extensive. And so is the coverage so there will be more to come.
Riverside Land Grab has interesting postings on the relationships between candidates and development firms here and here whether or not it's an election year.
In Chicago, the message of a disgraced police officers to his superiors reads "you are going down with me," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. CPD officer, Jerome Finnigan, if you remember was busted during a sting and charged with conspiring to kill a former police officer to keep him from reporting serious misconduct by Finnigan.
(excerpt)
Finnigan started singing recently about the shakedowns, kidnappings and home invasions he allegedly masterminded with at least five other officers and a sergeant since 2002.
In addition to those allegations in state court, Finnigan is charged federally with plotting to kill officers he suspected were ratting on him.
“They’re using Finnigan to move up the food chain,” one source said.
Another source said, “He’s cooperating. What he’s trying to do is get someone bigger than himself.”
Finnigan is cooperating to cut a deal to whittle down the decades of potential prison time he faces, the sources said Monday.
Finnigan’s attorney Michael Ficaro and Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined comment.
The Sun-Times reported last month that the corruption investigation is focusing on former bosses of Finnigan — and the probe “goes high” in the ranks.
At least two sergeants have retained lawyers. Investigators are scrutinizing the supervision those sergeants and other bosses exerted over Finnigan and the others.
Rest assured, this isn't the last word coming out of the scandal-plagued police department in Chicago.
"There’s only one way you’re gonna leave me and that’s dead."
---Tacoma Police Chief David Brame allegedly to his wife and murder victim, Crystal Judson.
Riverside County, May 2005
David McGowan, 44, worked for the District Attorney's office as a senior investigator. On May 10, 2005, McGowan shot and killed five of his family members before turning the gun on himself.
Dead were his wife, Karen and his three children, Chase,14, Paige,10, and Rayne,8. There was another woman shot to death but it would take a while to learn she was McGowan's mother, Angelia, 75. All but Karen had died in their beds, shot in the head by McGowan's duty weapon.
The head of the responding law enforcement agency told ABC-News what deputies found when they arrived at the home.
(excerpt)
Sheriff Bob Doyle said all of the victims died from a gunshot wound to the head and all but McGowan were shot in their beds.
"The beds were undisturbed. The house itself was undisturbed. It did not appear that the house had been ransacked," Doyle said, adding there were no signs of a break-in.
After he killed his family members, McGowan called 9-11 and then killed himself. The last thing heard by the 911 operator was the sound of the phone striking a wall and a gunshot.
The news of what was called a murder-suicide reverberated through the quite neighborhood, as its residents could not believe what had happened.
(excerpt)
"It's just really quiet here," said David Merriman, whose parents live about a mile from the McGowans. "A lot could happen right next door and you wouldn't even know it."
What McGowan left behind, besides the dead bodies of those he had loved best, was a suicide note and song lyrics.
"Woe is me. I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next life," was all the note said. It couldn't begin to answer a litany of questions about why the tragedy had happened, it could only add to them.
Those he had worked so closely with at the District Attorney's office said they hadn't seen it coming and were as shocked as everyone else.
(excerpt, Shawnee News-Star)
Colleagues said McGowan, who helped prosecutors prepare cases for trial, gave no clues that anything was wrong.
A model employee, he had just returned from a week's vacation and had received an outstanding review, said Ingrid Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. He had a normal workload, she said.
"He reported to work every day, just like normal. We weren't aware of any financial or personal problems within the family," she said. "That's why we're all so shocked about the situation."
Still, some noticed some changes in McGowan including those who didn't spend a lot of time around him which could have made any changes more noticeable.
(excerpt)
"Dave was a great guy. He was so quiet and humble. He was all business, very professional," Cathedral City Fire Chief Steve Sowles said.
Sowles said he ran into David McGowan a few weeks ago at the courthouse and noted that he seemed to have aged a lot in the six months since they last met. He said he attributed it to the stress of the investigator's job.
"I was surprised (by) how gray his hair had gotten and he looked tired," Sowles said. "I thought to myself, 'Gosh, we're getting old."'
McGowan's actions were the end result of domestic violence. There was speculation that he may have suffered from depression and been experiencing financial difficulties but on May 10, he made the decision to kill his family along with himself and left no real clues about anything that might have preceded those actions or what life was like behind those closed doors until that final night.
Tacoma, Washington, April 2003
When people recall a murder-suicide form of domestic violence by a law enforcement officer, the case that comes to mind is that of Tacoma Police Chief David Brame who shot his wife Crystal Judson to death before killing himself in a parking lot. His history even before Tacoma hired him to lead its department was filled with serious problems including a reported sexual assault by another law enforcement officer.
Before Judson's death came the domestic violence which built up to it. Abuse that Judson believed she had finally broken free from, but doing so just put her in more danger.
(excerpt, CBS-News)
"It just kind of broke my heart to see Crystal up there with him pinning the badge on and making it look like she was very happy,” says Patty Judson, Crystal’s mother. “We were sitting there in the audience knowing we knew different.”
But after 11 years of marriage, Crystal felt anything but safe. She had begun talking to her parents, Lane and Patty; her sister Julie and her husband, Dave; shopkeeper Linda Lee Clark; and Debbie Phillips, who works at a local tanning parlor.
“She was on a time schedule. David kept very close tabs of her time,” says Phillips.
”He’d mark the time, check the receipts,” says Conmy. “He used to give her $100 every two weeks for the family of three and then four, and that’s all the money she had,” adds Clark. “From the first time I met her, I would see her count out pennies and nickels and dimes.”
“He would make it a point that he was the one who brought home the paycheck,” says sister Julie. And he’d make a point, Lane says, to “say it says David Brame on the check. It doesn’t say Crystal.”
There were also allegations of abuse, both physical and emotional. “There was always yelling and screaming and telling her how horrible she is, how no man would ever want her because she’s fat and she’s ugly and she has kids,” recalls Phillips.
“He would say, ‘You know, I can choke you so quickly or I can snap your neck,’” says Crystal’s mother, Patty.
Instead, he shot her and left her in a coma, before taking his own life. The ultimate expression of the belief that if he couldn't have her, no one could, not even herself. Some say Judson's spirit left this earth before her body did. She died barely a week later, leaving two children behind.
The Tacoma News-Tribune is filled with stories about the killing of Judson and the widespread impact it had on Tacoma and the rest of the country.
The index of stories includes the following.
Who's who
The timeline
And the breaking series of articles, "The Thin Blue Lie" which exposes the questionable hiring of Brame and the coverup after the fact.
The Crystal Judson Family Justice Center was created after her death to offer services to victims of family violence.
Before his stint at the District Attorney's office in Riverside, McGowan had worked at a local policy agency. Brame was the police chief of Tacoma's police department. Both worked in a profession of employees who are at a higher risk for domestic violence involving their own relationships even as they are the ones entrusted with investigating domestic violence in others.
Blogging about this is difficult because there's a lot of information and unfortunately, incidents of domestic violence involving law enforcement officers including homicides that even posting a series on the topic only shows the tip of the iceberg. This issue only comes to life when incidents like that involving Brame and McGowan and other tragedies like them come to public attention.
In most cases, they don't come to light at all.
Probably the best series ever written about police-related domestic violence was the Badge of Dishonor series published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Written in multiple parts, it covers the gambit of a very serious but relatively unknown issue.
It includes detailed profiles of cases involving dozens of law enforcement officers in Washington State and how those officers who engage in domestic violence often receive slaps on the wrist.
The National Center For Women and Policing has this fact sheet on the prevalence of domestic violence in law enforcement. Several studies have shown that about 40% of officers commit domestic violence compared to 10% of the members of the general publication,
Only about 55% of law enforcement agencies had policies in place to address inhouse domestic violence. Discipline given to law enforcement officers is usually light consisting of mainly counseling and only about 19% of police officers are fired after the second incident of domestic violence that is sustained against them.
One of the most important sources of information on police related domestic violence is at the Abuse of Power Web site which is operated by Diane Wetendorf who is affiliated with the Battered Women's Justice Project.
Why are women afraid to report police related domestic violence? The advice they often hear from their abusers is to not doing the following, according to the Abuse of Power Web site.
(excerpt)
Call the police - He is the police.
Go to a shelter - He knows where the shelters are located.
Have him arrested - Responding officers may invoke the code of silence.
Take him to court - It's your word against that of an officer, and he knows the system.
Drop the charges - You could lose any future credibility and protection.
Seek a conviction - He will probably lose his job and retaliate against you.
Abusive officers often use these tactics when engaging in domestic violence. One of them is called, "the voice" which Wetendorf defines as the authoritative voice that law enforcement officers are trained to use on the street and she explains how the training they receive to be good officers might also make them better abusers.
Wetendorf includes some examples of how that works.
(excerpt)
Authoritative Presence
Police officers establish their authority through their appearance. Their uniform, badge and gun are the symbols of power that set them apart from others. The mere presence of an officer intimidates people. (Ask people how they react when they see a patrol car driving behind them.)
Officers learn that body language has the power to intimidate and manipulate people. Simply moving or standing a certain way, or getting in someone's space can elicit trust or fear.
Police are trained to use their voice to gain control of people. Different tones of voice convey increasing levels of control: from a polite request, to an order, to an ultimatum or a threat. As with body language, a voice can solicit trust or inspire fear.
Investigative Techniques
Much of police work involves investigation, questioning suspects, and obtaining confessions. Officers learn how to get people to cooperate with them and to give them information. They learn how to vary their interrogation styles, from friendly persuasions, to emotional manipulation, to brutal interrogations.
Police are able to get information about people by running license plates, accessing court records, or requesting confidential information. Investigating officers learn how to use high tech equipment such as hidden cameras, voice activated recording devices, and vehicle tracking devices to do surveillance.
When officers do undercover work they have to be skilled in deceiving people. Like chameleons, they have to blend into whatever environment they are investigating. They have to gain and maintain informants, be able to lie convincingly, and quickly gain people's trust.
She also discusses the double standards that exist between police-related domestic violence when compared to that which impacts the general population. That double standard is often manifested in large ways in terms of how it's investigated and smaller ways in terms of the words used to explain, explain away and often defend domestic violence involving police officers.
(excerpt)
When a citizen beats up his wife, it's a crime. When a cop beats up his wife, it's only a family problem.
When a citizen's career is jeopardized by having battered his wife, police say he should have thought about that before he hit her. When a cop hits his wife, they say he doesn't deserve to lose his career over it.
Past behavior is considered a good indicator of future behavior. This doesn't apply to abusive cops... they have changed and left the past behind.
There are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle... except when one side is a cop's side. In that case, the cop is telling the truth and the other person is lying.
Once a person has lied, they have no credibility... except for a police officer, who maintains his credibility because he lies when a situation requires it.
How supervisors and management personnel respond or don't respond is often critical. Do the agencies take it seriously or do they apply double standards or treat it as a "family matter"? Do they tell the complainant not to file against the officer because it might hurt his career or a chance at a promotion? Do they say that there is no chance that the prosecutors will file charges?
Many law enforcement agencies do not have policies in writing to address inhouse domestic violence.
Signs of an abuser may include the following from Women Abuse Prevention.
Abusers often:
Do not listen to you, ignore you or talk over you.
Sit or stand too close to you, making you uncomfortable and seem to enjoy it.
Do only what they want or push you to get what they want.
Express anger and violence towards women either through words or physically.
Have a bad attitude toward women.
Are overly possessive or jealous.
Drink or use drugs heavily.
Have a reputation for "scoring".
The Purple Berets who fight against violence against women include a lot of information about police related domestic violence
Included were some examples of domestic violence case which resulted in slaps on the wrist.
(excerpt)
In the wake of Brame's death, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer did an extensive investigation into officer-involved domestic violence in the Seattle area. They found 41 officers who had been accused of domestic violence within the previous five years, a number of them accused of multiple incidents. Few paid any professional price; less than half faced charges, and only one was convicted. Among the cases unearthed by the Post-Intelligencer are these:
Seattle Police Ofcr. Phil Rees flew into a rage and slammed his wife, Jenifer, into a wall and hurled a dresser drawer at her, leaving visible injuries. Jenifer Rees called King County sheriff's deputies, who handed her intoxicated husband back his gun and let him drive away, "so he wouldn't miss work in the morning." No charges were filed. Rees was not disciplined, despite two prior complaints of domestic violence against him.
In a fight with his wife, Ofcr. Kevin Hawley grabbed his handgun saying, "I'm going to blow my fucking head off and you're going to watch." He then put the gun barrel in his mouth and pressed his cheek against hers. No internal investigation was conducted. Hawley was promoted to detective.
Four days before Christmas, Washington State Trooper Ronald Somerville grabbed his girlfriend by the throat, shoved her over the couch and pounced on her. When she ran to the phone to call 911, Somerville snatched the receiver and hung it up. As she darted for the stairs, he grabbed her again, put his hand around her throat and pushed her down, shouting, "You don't want to go out this way." Somerville was charged with 4th degree assault and vandalism, charges that were later dismissed. His discipline? A written reprimand.
More stories are here. The list of special problems faced in police-related domestic violence is pretty extensive. And so is the coverage so there will be more to come.
Riverside Land Grab has interesting postings on the relationships between candidates and development firms here and here whether or not it's an election year.
In Chicago, the message of a disgraced police officers to his superiors reads "you are going down with me," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. CPD officer, Jerome Finnigan, if you remember was busted during a sting and charged with conspiring to kill a former police officer to keep him from reporting serious misconduct by Finnigan.
(excerpt)
Finnigan started singing recently about the shakedowns, kidnappings and home invasions he allegedly masterminded with at least five other officers and a sergeant since 2002.
In addition to those allegations in state court, Finnigan is charged federally with plotting to kill officers he suspected were ratting on him.
“They’re using Finnigan to move up the food chain,” one source said.
Another source said, “He’s cooperating. What he’s trying to do is get someone bigger than himself.”
Finnigan is cooperating to cut a deal to whittle down the decades of potential prison time he faces, the sources said Monday.
Finnigan’s attorney Michael Ficaro and Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined comment.
The Sun-Times reported last month that the corruption investigation is focusing on former bosses of Finnigan — and the probe “goes high” in the ranks.
At least two sergeants have retained lawyers. Investigators are scrutinizing the supervision those sergeants and other bosses exerted over Finnigan and the others.
Rest assured, this isn't the last word coming out of the scandal-plagued police department in Chicago.
Labels: business as usual, City elections, public forums in all places, sexism costs
posted by Five Before Midnight | 1:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home