TGIF: Good morning, good day and good night
Two milestones tomorrow.
The Good Morning America show will be doing weather spots at the Mission Inn Hotel and "Five Before Midnight" will hit its 500th post since its creation in April 2005. Some rain is predicted to fall across the Inland Empire this weekend due to some subtropical moisture being kicked up from south, but the forecast for the winter is still on the dry side, due to the pervasive La Nina weather pattern.
Columnist Dan Bernstein of the Press Enterprise summed up this hectic week including the final count of Election 2007 fairly well.
(excerpt)
Wednesday, the Registrar of Voters concluded (again) that Councilman Dom Betro and Ex-Mayor Terry Frizzel lost their elections. But neither emitted the slightest peep in the way of a gracious concession, suggesting yet another Riverside tradition may be born. Betro and The Frizz might be remembered as the proud parents of the post-election "Festival of Lawsuits."
If that's the case as some say it might be in Ward One, it wouldn't be surprising. After all, the voters were intimidated, fearful, easily fooled, manipulated and stupid according to some of the comments I've heard or read about those who voted for the winning candidate, Mike Gardner. I guess some people have a dim view of the people in Ward One even if they think they know what's best for it and them.
Not much better was last Tuesday's rushed Governmental Affairs Committee meeting which had two items on changing the election process being decided by its members including one who was contesting his loss in the election at the time the meeting was conducted. Was that a conflict of interest? Perhaps, but often it appears when our elected officials get really emotional about the prospect of the "team" on the dais being replaced by those who may or may not play, they don't know what those three words mean. Still, it was interesting if not surprising that the committee did not substitute another city council member on for these two agenda items.
Committee chair Frank Schiavone is now the most senior council member with the departure of Ed Adkison who's served since his first election in 1999. But he's also running for a county seat next spring and is facing the prospect that his two top allies on the city council will be gone and he'll be left with Ward Seven Councilman Steve Adams, who's not exactly the strongest link in what was BASS and neophyte and "team player" William "Rusty" Bailey from Ward Three who's stepping into a situation he probably had not anticipated.
Bailey's first question he might have to answer, besides the obvious one about whether or not he's independent, is will he realize that City Manager Brad Hudson is now his employee and not the other way around as it was when both of them worked for the Riverside County Economic Development Agency. Will he hit the ground running?
The microscope he operates under won't be much less intense than the one Gardner faces, in light of a ward that's more divided than Bailey's is but actually not much more so.
Still, people voted for the candidates they wished to vote for, whether it was Councilman Dom Betro, Gardner or any of the others. It's folly to think that one group of voters supporting one candidate is necessarily smarter than those who support the others. But in the wake of potential litigation challenging the election, ballots and votes, there is still uncertainty in the air.
Still, the Press Enterprise Editorial Board has implored the losing candidates to throw in the towel.
(excerpt)
Candidates might argue that the long wait for results or ballots that showed up late in the count justify additional challenges. But the fundamental motive is not ensuring the integrity of the election process. Only the losing candidates raise such issues; victory has a way of erasing politicians' concerns about irregularities.
Losing by a handful of votes is disappointing, but protracted fighting over the outcome would undermine public trust in city elections for self-serving reasons. A successful democracy depends on candidates accepting the voters' say, in victory and defeat.
Council candidates often mention a desire to serve the public. But the people who really put the public good first know when to make a graceful exit.
What will happen next? We'll all have to wait and see.
Some letters in the Press Enterprise opposing the $395,000 settlement that Riverside paid out on the officer-involved shooting death of Summer Lane are here including one by former police detective, Granville Kelley, who is the only person in Riverside who both wants to join the Community Police Review Commission and dismantle it at the same time.
I agree with both of them. The city should have never settled this law suit and instead should have taken this case to trial in the U.S. District Court in front of a jury. It's really the only fair thing to do in this situation. But most often, cases settle before they get to trial for a variety of reasons depending on the case and the circumstances of the families who do sue including how much of the litigative process they can go through.
Still, in light of the surfacing of that video that the CPRC apparently never received, we could all see what the end result of that trial would be and the jury's verdict at its end.
And then the city could begin opening up its wallet (or that of its insurance carrier) in earnest. The city's legal team anticipated that and paid out early.
Then again, there's another way to look at the situation. One wrongful death law suit closed, only five more to go.
Speaking of the CPRC, the latest draft of the public report on the Lee Deante Brown shooting is in circulation. It includes eight policy recommendations for the police department to implement in the future in hopes of avoiding a similar shooting. They range from painting tasers yellow so officers can better differentiate between them and guns, to using better techniques to swab items of evidence for DNA samples.
As for the shooting investigations of Douglas Steven Cloud and Joseph Darnell Hill, they won't even resume being conducted by the CPRC, until early next year. It turns out that what the city manager's office said it was going to do involving officer-involved death investigations during several meetings in December 2006 and January 2007 is what it essentially did. Shut them down for at least one year.
Since the Riverside Police Officers' Association isn't complaining loudly as one of its representatives did at a Measure II forum in October 2004 about how long the investigations are taking when one complaint investigation reached a year in length, one would assume that it's very likely that both shootings have already been adjudicated by the department and city.
What is past is prologue as this isn't exactly an untraveled road in the city's history.
Someone told me a story about an elected official who was asked to recommend a local very active city resident for a civic award. This individual allegedly asked if this person had donated into his political campaign and was told no this person had not. So this councilman said then he wouldn't recommend this person for an award. If this is true, is there anything left in this city that's not for sale? Are there any elected officials who are not for sale? One would hope so.
How much money do you have to donate to a political campaign to be recommended by an elected official for an award? Silly, to think that other qualifications aren't what are looked at during the selection process. But then, it's not the only civic award that the selection process is totally confusing and in need of serious reform as one award presentation in the latter half of 2006 showed.
If you lived in Ward One and were an absentee voter, did you receive a phone call from supporters of Betro's campaign telling you that they knew you voted absentee and then asking you who you voted for before the election date? Some people wondered about this and how the callers knew that they had voted absentee. Candidates do run pre-election polls and it's your right to reveal only information of your choice. Still, it's a bit unnerving to be told by one side's supporters how you are voting but all polls are optional.
The governor of California is coming to Riverside, a city located in one of the foreclosure capitols of the nation.
(excerpt)
His visit to the Riverside office of the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County comes as interest rates on thousands of adjustable-rate mortgages for Inland homes are scheduled to increase by as much as a third in 2008.
Under the governor's agreement with Countrywide Financial Corp., Litton Loan Servicing, GMAC Mortgage and HomeEq Servicing, the companies will keep rates as they are for homeowners who live on the property, are current on their payments and cannot afford higher rates.
The two-county region has been hit hard by the slowdown in the state's housing market.
From July through September, there were 31,661 foreclosure-related filings in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That equals one filing for every 43 households, compared to a national average of one filing for every 196 households.
By the way, the agenda item that was going to go after banks for not up keeping property they seized through foreclosures did pass at the city council level, but was pulled off the consent calendar for some discussion by Councilman Andy Melendrez. It's funny that the emphasis is on putting pressure on banks and lending institutions yet the text of the proposed ordinance actually doesn't even mention the words, "banks" or "lending institutions". Want to bet that it gets enforced primarily against non-lending institutions, say families who might own homes? After all, why go after the banks when they'll just sue you and tie you up in court for years with expensive litigation? Most homeowners can't afford the same type of legal counsel as lending institutions already have within reach.
The beating of a biracial man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has led to three former officers being sentenced by a judge including one to 17 years in state prison, according to the Associated Press.
(excerpt)
A judge also sentenced Jon Bartlett, 36, to three years supervision and ordered him to pay $16,365 in restitution.
Bartlett was convicted with two other former officers of taking part in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. outside a housewarming party in October 2004.
The other two former officers, Daniel Masarik, 27, and Andrew Spengler, 28, were scheduled to be sentenced later Thursday.
A federal jury determined in July that the three violated Jude's civil rights and conspired to assault him while acting as officers. Officer Ryan Packard was acquitted of federal charges.
An officer in Austin was fired for fatally shooting a man during a pursuit according to the American Statesmen.
The man was shot in the back by Sgt. Michael Williams while lying face down on the ground, according to a report submitted by the police department.
(excerpt)
Acevedo said in the disciplinary memo that Olsen repeatedly demonstrated poor judgment, showed a lack of common sense and failed to follow his training in the moments before the June 3 shooting, including not waiting for backup to investigate whether Kevin Brown had a gun outside Chester's nightclub on East 12th Street.
He said it was conceivable that the first shot that struck Brown, hitting him in the back, may have been within Police Department policy but that Brown did not pose an immediate threat after he fell to the ground.
"The totality of the circumstances do not justify or support a reasonable belief that an ordinary or prudent officer would act or think in a similar way that Sergeant Olsen did," Acevedo said in the memo. "Consequently, when Sergeant Olsen made the decision to shoot at Mr. Brown after he was wounded and lying face down on the ground, that use of deadly force was not justifiable."
In an interview Wednesday night, Olsen defended his actions and said, "I am very disappointed that this chief who came in and said he was going to support his officers ... went back on that. If I can't defend myself when I feel a deadly threat from a man who has a gun, what do officers have to do? Do they have to wait to see a gun or be shot at? If that's the case, we'll be at a lot of police funerals."
Olsen's attorney, Jason Nassour, said his client has filed an appeal to the city's civil service commission, which must have a hearing and issue a ruling within 30 days. If the commission does not give him his job back, Olsen will appeal to a state district judge, Nassour said.
"The chief is a coward," Nassour said. He accused Acevedo of "trying to be liked instead of respected by the public."
Winston-Salem is going to institute a review of the police department's investigative practices according to Yes! Weekly.
(excerpt)
The vote happened two days before embattled police Chief Pat Norris announced her retirement at the end of June 2008. Norris, who was appointed in 2004, was criticized by the city manager's office earlier this year for missteps in an internal investigation of the department. She is the city's first black police chief and the second woman to hold the top post.
The Winston-Salem Police Department has been under fire for its investigative practices ever since Darryl Hunt had his conviction for the rape and murder of Debra Sykes overturned in 2004 on the strength of DNA evidence.
Three years ago, the Winston-Salem Journal ran a series that cast doubt on another case - a near-fatal beating in 1995 of 33-year-old Jill Marker. Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted of assault in 1997 and has been in prison ever since. He has maintained his innocence for 10 years, and his case attracted the attention of law students in Duke University's Innocence Project.
Smith's appeals have been gaining momentum, but Assistant City Manager Derwick Paige said the review by Risk Management Associates has been brewing since Hunt's conviction was overturned.
"The timing is along the same one as Jill Marker," Paige said. "But this actually came out of the Debra Sykes investigation. We started working on it in December and January. It just took this long to get going."
Chicago has a new police chief for its police department according to the Chicago Tribune.
(excerpt)
Daley introduced J.P. "Jody" Weis, the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia FBI office, at a news conference where he touted both the veteran agent's previous role in the Chicago FBI office and his work as an internal investigations supervisor who policed fellow agents' conduct.
Daley said Weis will bring a "new perspective" to the department. It is the first time in more than 40 years that the city will have a police superintendent chosen from outside its own ranks, and it comes on the heels of Daley naming a Los Angeles attorney to the agency that handles citizen complaints about police.
Daley, while emphasizing that only "a few or some" officers had abused their trust, said the department can't do its job unless residents "believe that every interaction they have with our officers will be safe and respectful."
Anyone who heads that scandal-plagued police department definitely has his work cut out for him.
More out of Bolingbrook, as the Chicago Sun Times reveals that Stacey Peterson told a minister that her husband Drew killed his third wife and told her he had done so, making it look like an accident. Kathleen Savio, the third wife, was reburied after her body was exhumed several weeks ago, for use for further investigation into what was initially ruled an accidental drowning death by bath tub in 2004.
How much did Stacey know, is a question that has been asked. For the first time, there might have been an answer.
(excerpt)
A source close to the investigation tells Sneed the 23-year-old, who had been pregnant and living with Peterson when Savio was found dead in an empty bathtub in 2004, also told two other people close to her about her husband's statements regarding Savio's demise.
On Sunday, Oct. 28, the day Stacy disappeared, she told Peterson she was leaving him and issued this ultimatum: She was going to begin divorce proceedings, and she wanted him out of the house by Wednesday, according to the source.
The source believes it was the day of Stacy's ultimatum that her life may have ended. Stacy had told friends recently that if she disappeared, it wouldn't be her doing.
It is believed that investigators are focusing on the Cal-Sag channel to look for what they believe will be Stacey's body. More information has emerged on the final day she was reported seen by her husband.
(excerpt)
The source offered this timeline for the day Stacy issued her ultimatum:
At 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, Peterson, a Bolingbrook cop, called in to take the day off.
At 7 p.m., Peterson met his stepbrother, Tom Morphey, at a local Starbucks and discussed "the problems he was having with Stacy and how to dispose of the problem," the source said.
Peterson reportedly excused himself and left Morphey in the coffee shop with Peterson's cell phone, which he told Morphey NOT to answer if it rang. The phone did ring after Peterson's departure, and the name "Stacy" appeared on the caller ID.
The source tells Sneed the call was made near the home of her friend Scott Rossetto, a man Stacy was communicating with via cell phone text messages.
The source believes this was an attempt by Peterson to place the focus of the police investigation on Stacy's friend.
Later that evening, Morphey was again summoned by Peterson -- only this time to his home, where he was reportedly asked to help Peterson remove a plastic blue barrel, which he described to police as feeling warm, and load it into a sport-utility vehicle, sources said.
The next day, Stacy was reported missing and one day later, Morphey apparently attempted suicide. While being treated at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Morphey was visited by Peterson on Oct. 30, the source said.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, claimed Morphey's story makes no sense and described him as a man with psychological issues.
"There never was a blue barrel; there never was any carrying objects out," Brodsky said.
The Good Morning America show will be doing weather spots at the Mission Inn Hotel and "Five Before Midnight" will hit its 500th post since its creation in April 2005. Some rain is predicted to fall across the Inland Empire this weekend due to some subtropical moisture being kicked up from south, but the forecast for the winter is still on the dry side, due to the pervasive La Nina weather pattern.
Columnist Dan Bernstein of the Press Enterprise summed up this hectic week including the final count of Election 2007 fairly well.
(excerpt)
Wednesday, the Registrar of Voters concluded (again) that Councilman Dom Betro and Ex-Mayor Terry Frizzel lost their elections. But neither emitted the slightest peep in the way of a gracious concession, suggesting yet another Riverside tradition may be born. Betro and The Frizz might be remembered as the proud parents of the post-election "Festival of Lawsuits."
If that's the case as some say it might be in Ward One, it wouldn't be surprising. After all, the voters were intimidated, fearful, easily fooled, manipulated and stupid according to some of the comments I've heard or read about those who voted for the winning candidate, Mike Gardner. I guess some people have a dim view of the people in Ward One even if they think they know what's best for it and them.
Not much better was last Tuesday's rushed Governmental Affairs Committee meeting which had two items on changing the election process being decided by its members including one who was contesting his loss in the election at the time the meeting was conducted. Was that a conflict of interest? Perhaps, but often it appears when our elected officials get really emotional about the prospect of the "team" on the dais being replaced by those who may or may not play, they don't know what those three words mean. Still, it was interesting if not surprising that the committee did not substitute another city council member on for these two agenda items.
Committee chair Frank Schiavone is now the most senior council member with the departure of Ed Adkison who's served since his first election in 1999. But he's also running for a county seat next spring and is facing the prospect that his two top allies on the city council will be gone and he'll be left with Ward Seven Councilman Steve Adams, who's not exactly the strongest link in what was BASS and neophyte and "team player" William "Rusty" Bailey from Ward Three who's stepping into a situation he probably had not anticipated.
Bailey's first question he might have to answer, besides the obvious one about whether or not he's independent, is will he realize that City Manager Brad Hudson is now his employee and not the other way around as it was when both of them worked for the Riverside County Economic Development Agency. Will he hit the ground running?
The microscope he operates under won't be much less intense than the one Gardner faces, in light of a ward that's more divided than Bailey's is but actually not much more so.
Still, people voted for the candidates they wished to vote for, whether it was Councilman Dom Betro, Gardner or any of the others. It's folly to think that one group of voters supporting one candidate is necessarily smarter than those who support the others. But in the wake of potential litigation challenging the election, ballots and votes, there is still uncertainty in the air.
Still, the Press Enterprise Editorial Board has implored the losing candidates to throw in the towel.
(excerpt)
Candidates might argue that the long wait for results or ballots that showed up late in the count justify additional challenges. But the fundamental motive is not ensuring the integrity of the election process. Only the losing candidates raise such issues; victory has a way of erasing politicians' concerns about irregularities.
Losing by a handful of votes is disappointing, but protracted fighting over the outcome would undermine public trust in city elections for self-serving reasons. A successful democracy depends on candidates accepting the voters' say, in victory and defeat.
Council candidates often mention a desire to serve the public. But the people who really put the public good first know when to make a graceful exit.
What will happen next? We'll all have to wait and see.
Some letters in the Press Enterprise opposing the $395,000 settlement that Riverside paid out on the officer-involved shooting death of Summer Lane are here including one by former police detective, Granville Kelley, who is the only person in Riverside who both wants to join the Community Police Review Commission and dismantle it at the same time.
I agree with both of them. The city should have never settled this law suit and instead should have taken this case to trial in the U.S. District Court in front of a jury. It's really the only fair thing to do in this situation. But most often, cases settle before they get to trial for a variety of reasons depending on the case and the circumstances of the families who do sue including how much of the litigative process they can go through.
Still, in light of the surfacing of that video that the CPRC apparently never received, we could all see what the end result of that trial would be and the jury's verdict at its end.
And then the city could begin opening up its wallet (or that of its insurance carrier) in earnest. The city's legal team anticipated that and paid out early.
Then again, there's another way to look at the situation. One wrongful death law suit closed, only five more to go.
Speaking of the CPRC, the latest draft of the public report on the Lee Deante Brown shooting is in circulation. It includes eight policy recommendations for the police department to implement in the future in hopes of avoiding a similar shooting. They range from painting tasers yellow so officers can better differentiate between them and guns, to using better techniques to swab items of evidence for DNA samples.
As for the shooting investigations of Douglas Steven Cloud and Joseph Darnell Hill, they won't even resume being conducted by the CPRC, until early next year. It turns out that what the city manager's office said it was going to do involving officer-involved death investigations during several meetings in December 2006 and January 2007 is what it essentially did. Shut them down for at least one year.
Since the Riverside Police Officers' Association isn't complaining loudly as one of its representatives did at a Measure II forum in October 2004 about how long the investigations are taking when one complaint investigation reached a year in length, one would assume that it's very likely that both shootings have already been adjudicated by the department and city.
What is past is prologue as this isn't exactly an untraveled road in the city's history.
Someone told me a story about an elected official who was asked to recommend a local very active city resident for a civic award. This individual allegedly asked if this person had donated into his political campaign and was told no this person had not. So this councilman said then he wouldn't recommend this person for an award. If this is true, is there anything left in this city that's not for sale? Are there any elected officials who are not for sale? One would hope so.
How much money do you have to donate to a political campaign to be recommended by an elected official for an award? Silly, to think that other qualifications aren't what are looked at during the selection process. But then, it's not the only civic award that the selection process is totally confusing and in need of serious reform as one award presentation in the latter half of 2006 showed.
If you lived in Ward One and were an absentee voter, did you receive a phone call from supporters of Betro's campaign telling you that they knew you voted absentee and then asking you who you voted for before the election date? Some people wondered about this and how the callers knew that they had voted absentee. Candidates do run pre-election polls and it's your right to reveal only information of your choice. Still, it's a bit unnerving to be told by one side's supporters how you are voting but all polls are optional.
The governor of California is coming to Riverside, a city located in one of the foreclosure capitols of the nation.
(excerpt)
His visit to the Riverside office of the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County comes as interest rates on thousands of adjustable-rate mortgages for Inland homes are scheduled to increase by as much as a third in 2008.
Under the governor's agreement with Countrywide Financial Corp., Litton Loan Servicing, GMAC Mortgage and HomeEq Servicing, the companies will keep rates as they are for homeowners who live on the property, are current on their payments and cannot afford higher rates.
The two-county region has been hit hard by the slowdown in the state's housing market.
From July through September, there were 31,661 foreclosure-related filings in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That equals one filing for every 43 households, compared to a national average of one filing for every 196 households.
By the way, the agenda item that was going to go after banks for not up keeping property they seized through foreclosures did pass at the city council level, but was pulled off the consent calendar for some discussion by Councilman Andy Melendrez. It's funny that the emphasis is on putting pressure on banks and lending institutions yet the text of the proposed ordinance actually doesn't even mention the words, "banks" or "lending institutions". Want to bet that it gets enforced primarily against non-lending institutions, say families who might own homes? After all, why go after the banks when they'll just sue you and tie you up in court for years with expensive litigation? Most homeowners can't afford the same type of legal counsel as lending institutions already have within reach.
The beating of a biracial man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has led to three former officers being sentenced by a judge including one to 17 years in state prison, according to the Associated Press.
(excerpt)
A judge also sentenced Jon Bartlett, 36, to three years supervision and ordered him to pay $16,365 in restitution.
Bartlett was convicted with two other former officers of taking part in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. outside a housewarming party in October 2004.
The other two former officers, Daniel Masarik, 27, and Andrew Spengler, 28, were scheduled to be sentenced later Thursday.
A federal jury determined in July that the three violated Jude's civil rights and conspired to assault him while acting as officers. Officer Ryan Packard was acquitted of federal charges.
An officer in Austin was fired for fatally shooting a man during a pursuit according to the American Statesmen.
The man was shot in the back by Sgt. Michael Williams while lying face down on the ground, according to a report submitted by the police department.
(excerpt)
Acevedo said in the disciplinary memo that Olsen repeatedly demonstrated poor judgment, showed a lack of common sense and failed to follow his training in the moments before the June 3 shooting, including not waiting for backup to investigate whether Kevin Brown had a gun outside Chester's nightclub on East 12th Street.
He said it was conceivable that the first shot that struck Brown, hitting him in the back, may have been within Police Department policy but that Brown did not pose an immediate threat after he fell to the ground.
"The totality of the circumstances do not justify or support a reasonable belief that an ordinary or prudent officer would act or think in a similar way that Sergeant Olsen did," Acevedo said in the memo. "Consequently, when Sergeant Olsen made the decision to shoot at Mr. Brown after he was wounded and lying face down on the ground, that use of deadly force was not justifiable."
In an interview Wednesday night, Olsen defended his actions and said, "I am very disappointed that this chief who came in and said he was going to support his officers ... went back on that. If I can't defend myself when I feel a deadly threat from a man who has a gun, what do officers have to do? Do they have to wait to see a gun or be shot at? If that's the case, we'll be at a lot of police funerals."
Olsen's attorney, Jason Nassour, said his client has filed an appeal to the city's civil service commission, which must have a hearing and issue a ruling within 30 days. If the commission does not give him his job back, Olsen will appeal to a state district judge, Nassour said.
"The chief is a coward," Nassour said. He accused Acevedo of "trying to be liked instead of respected by the public."
Winston-Salem is going to institute a review of the police department's investigative practices according to Yes! Weekly.
(excerpt)
The vote happened two days before embattled police Chief Pat Norris announced her retirement at the end of June 2008. Norris, who was appointed in 2004, was criticized by the city manager's office earlier this year for missteps in an internal investigation of the department. She is the city's first black police chief and the second woman to hold the top post.
The Winston-Salem Police Department has been under fire for its investigative practices ever since Darryl Hunt had his conviction for the rape and murder of Debra Sykes overturned in 2004 on the strength of DNA evidence.
Three years ago, the Winston-Salem Journal ran a series that cast doubt on another case - a near-fatal beating in 1995 of 33-year-old Jill Marker. Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted of assault in 1997 and has been in prison ever since. He has maintained his innocence for 10 years, and his case attracted the attention of law students in Duke University's Innocence Project.
Smith's appeals have been gaining momentum, but Assistant City Manager Derwick Paige said the review by Risk Management Associates has been brewing since Hunt's conviction was overturned.
"The timing is along the same one as Jill Marker," Paige said. "But this actually came out of the Debra Sykes investigation. We started working on it in December and January. It just took this long to get going."
Chicago has a new police chief for its police department according to the Chicago Tribune.
(excerpt)
Daley introduced J.P. "Jody" Weis, the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia FBI office, at a news conference where he touted both the veteran agent's previous role in the Chicago FBI office and his work as an internal investigations supervisor who policed fellow agents' conduct.
Daley said Weis will bring a "new perspective" to the department. It is the first time in more than 40 years that the city will have a police superintendent chosen from outside its own ranks, and it comes on the heels of Daley naming a Los Angeles attorney to the agency that handles citizen complaints about police.
Daley, while emphasizing that only "a few or some" officers had abused their trust, said the department can't do its job unless residents "believe that every interaction they have with our officers will be safe and respectful."
Anyone who heads that scandal-plagued police department definitely has his work cut out for him.
More out of Bolingbrook, as the Chicago Sun Times reveals that Stacey Peterson told a minister that her husband Drew killed his third wife and told her he had done so, making it look like an accident. Kathleen Savio, the third wife, was reburied after her body was exhumed several weeks ago, for use for further investigation into what was initially ruled an accidental drowning death by bath tub in 2004.
How much did Stacey know, is a question that has been asked. For the first time, there might have been an answer.
(excerpt)
A source close to the investigation tells Sneed the 23-year-old, who had been pregnant and living with Peterson when Savio was found dead in an empty bathtub in 2004, also told two other people close to her about her husband's statements regarding Savio's demise.
On Sunday, Oct. 28, the day Stacy disappeared, she told Peterson she was leaving him and issued this ultimatum: She was going to begin divorce proceedings, and she wanted him out of the house by Wednesday, according to the source.
The source believes it was the day of Stacy's ultimatum that her life may have ended. Stacy had told friends recently that if she disappeared, it wouldn't be her doing.
It is believed that investigators are focusing on the Cal-Sag channel to look for what they believe will be Stacey's body. More information has emerged on the final day she was reported seen by her husband.
(excerpt)
The source offered this timeline for the day Stacy issued her ultimatum:
At 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, Peterson, a Bolingbrook cop, called in to take the day off.
At 7 p.m., Peterson met his stepbrother, Tom Morphey, at a local Starbucks and discussed "the problems he was having with Stacy and how to dispose of the problem," the source said.
Peterson reportedly excused himself and left Morphey in the coffee shop with Peterson's cell phone, which he told Morphey NOT to answer if it rang. The phone did ring after Peterson's departure, and the name "Stacy" appeared on the caller ID.
The source tells Sneed the call was made near the home of her friend Scott Rossetto, a man Stacy was communicating with via cell phone text messages.
The source believes this was an attempt by Peterson to place the focus of the police investigation on Stacy's friend.
Later that evening, Morphey was again summoned by Peterson -- only this time to his home, where he was reportedly asked to help Peterson remove a plastic blue barrel, which he described to police as feeling warm, and load it into a sport-utility vehicle, sources said.
The next day, Stacy was reported missing and one day later, Morphey apparently attempted suicide. While being treated at Edward Hospital in Naperville, Morphey was visited by Peterson on Oct. 30, the source said.
Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, claimed Morphey's story makes no sense and described him as a man with psychological issues.
"There never was a blue barrel; there never was any carrying objects out," Brodsky said.
Labels: City elections, civilian review spreads, CPRC vs the city, officer-involved shootings
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