Tag: Law Enforcement
Florida police aide probed for saying black sergeant looked ‘like a monkey’
A police aide in Florida has been reassigned after allegedly saying a black sergeant looked “like a monkey,” according to a report.
Pablo Espinoza, a public service aide for the Miami-Dade Police Department, has been placed on administrative duties pending the outcome of an investigation for purportedly making the racial slur during a state Department of Motor Vehicles hearing in September, the Miami Herald reports.
An attorney for Miami-Dade Schools Police Sgt. Tracy Moore said Espinoza made the comment in reference to his client as she sat in a waiting area during a hearing to determine whether she would keep her driver’s license after being arrested for drunk driving in July.
“Your client looks like a monkey sitting there,” Espinoza said, attorney Michael Catalano recalled, adding that he was stunned by the unprovoked remark.
“I was shocked,” Catalano told the newspaper. “Nobody talks like that in 2019.”
Catalano later told Moore about the slur, but the officer, who is black, did not confront Espinoza during the administrative hearing, the attorney said.
Instead, Catalano ordered Espinoza to apologize within two hours, saying he would “drop” the entire ordeal if the public service aide admitted to making the comment.
“I was disgusted by that and they have video in the hallway,” Catalano wrote in a text message. “Apologize and we drop it.”
Espinoza, who has been employed by the department since 1987 and makes more than $55,000 a year, replied with an apology and indicated that he considered the matter “done,” but Catalano later circled back to the allegation during an Oct. 7 deposition in the criminal case against Moore, the newspaper reports.
“My client and I are very upset about this,” Catalano wrote in a complaint a day later to Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez. “My client wants PSA Espinoza fired immediately.”
Espinoza, who handles maintenance for Breathalyzer devices, regularly testifies at administrative and criminal hearings, but is not a sworn officer, the Herald reports.
“I can’t talk to you, bro,” Espinoza told the newspaper when reached by cellphone. “You know that.”
Department officials confirmed to The Post on Tuesday that Espinoza had been reassigned pending an internal investigation, adding that he has never been disciplined previously.
“The Miami-Dade Police Department takes all complaints seriously and are committed to the highest performance standards and ethical conduct,” the statement said. “We hold ourselves accountable for our actions and take pride in a professional level of service and fairness to all.”
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FL Cop suspended for letting suspects smoke and perform sex acts in patrol cruiser (small video clip here)
A Florida cop was suspended for nearly three weeks for letting two shoplifting suspects smoke and perform sex acts in the back of a police cruiser, shocking video shows.
Fort Pierce Police Officer Doug McNeal apparently set the mood with Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” playing inside his patrol car when he took suspects Zachary Moellendick, 23, and Krista Leigh, 24, to the St. Lucie County Jail last July, according to an internal affairs report obtained by Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Footage from the officer’s body camera — which was fixed beneath his cruiser’s rearview mirror — shows Moellendick without handcuffs while sipping a beverage in the back seat. He also had a lighter in his pants and a cigarette tucked behind his ear, according to the report.
Moellendick is later recorded cuddling with Leigh after she was placed in the back of the police vehicle without handcuffs, a violation of department policy. The amorous couple is then seen kissing before later fondling each other as White’s 1974 classic blares in the background, video shows.
McNeal then gave the amorous couple permission to smoke in the sally port of the jail.
“We didn’t think we were allowed to smoke in here,” Leigh said.
“Uh, you’re really not, but it’s fine,” McNeal replied.
Moellendick then lit a cigarette without hesitation, according to the footage, which apparently left an impression on another officer in real time.
“I think they’re making babies back there,” the female officer said.
McNeal later told an internal affairs detective that he saw the couple kissing and said he was “fine with it,” according to the report. McNeal, however, denied seeing the couple engaged in any sexual activity.
Moellendick, of Palm Bay, and Leigh, of Melbourne, were taken into custody after allegedly shoplifting at a Walmart in Fort Pierce. Moellendick later pleaded guilty to petty theft and trespassing before being released from jail on Thursday.
Leigh, who pleaded no contest to petty theft, has also been released from custody after being sentenced to time served, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers.
McNeal, who has been employed by the department since 2014, was also disciplined for neglecting to tell dispatchers about his location and failing to report his mileage, WPTV reports.
“Officer McNeal has accepted full responsibility for his actions and understands the seriousness of the policy violations,” Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney said in a statement to the station. “The conduct of this officer does not represent the values of this department or the dedicated men and women who serve our community with honor every day.”
McNeal’s 20-day suspension without pay took effect on Feb. 14.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/25/cop-suspended-for-letting-suspects-get-frisky-in-patrol-cruiser/
Police warn parents of ’48-Hour Challenge’, which encourages kids to go missing
(KMOV.com) – A warning is being issued to parents about a new challenge for teens that is circulating Facebook, the 48-hour challenge.
It encourages teens to go missing for up to two days at a time and awards points for every social media mention while they’re missing.
Police say it is not only dangerous but could also tie them up while there are real emergencies.
Child psychiatrists say it’s never a good idea to assume your child knows better than to involve themselves in such an internet challenge.
Police say anyone caught participating in the 48-hour challenge could face charges.
Suspect shoots, wounds at least six ‘people of color’ in Italian city amid tensions
A man draped in Italy’s tricolor flag wounded at least six “people of color” in a drive-by shooting in a central Italian city on Saturday before being detained, authorities said. The suspect had been a candidate for the anti-immigrant Northern League party in municipal elections last year, according to a party spokeswoman.
The suspect’s motive in the shootings in Macerata was not known, but a young Italian woman was gruesomely murdered in the city this past week, allegedly by a Nigerian immigrant, prompting a wave of anger in a nation where many were already seeking to reduce the entry of migrants.
The attack’s connection to the Northern League was likely to unsettle Italy as it approaches national elections on March 4. Far-right groups have been gaining in the polls, and the Northern League looks as though it may have a chance to govern as a junior member of a coalition with other right-wing parties.
A police spokesman said that 28-year-old Luca Traini was detained near Macerata’s central war memorial early Saturday afternoon. A handgun was in the suspect’s car, and the green-white-and-red flag of Italy was tied around his shoulders, the official said. Traini admitted his guilt as he was arrested, added the spokesman, who declined to be publicly identified under ground rules set by the force. The five men and one woman who were shot were expected to recover, Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said.
Local news outlets said that the man was detained after he stepped out of his black Alfa Romeo 147 near the memorial, gave a fascist salute, and shouted “Italy for the Italians.” It was not clear whether the victims were Italian citizens.
After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called on political leaders on all sides to stop a “cycle of violence.”
“Let’s stop this risk, let’s stop in now, let’s stop it together,” he said in a nationally televised statement from his residence, the Palazzo Chigi, in Rome. “Hate and violence won’t be able to divide us.”
Large numbers of migrants began sailing across the Mediterranean toward Italy after Libya plunged into lawlessness and civil war following the 2011 downfall of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. More than 620,000 migrants, many of them African, have arrived in Italy since the beginning of 2014, contributing to a growing sense among Italians that the country was taking in far more people than it could handle.
Anti-immigrant sentiment has become a main theme in the campaign leading up to next month’s elections. Northern League leader Matteo Salvini has vowed to expel 150,000 immigrants from Italy and close the country’s borders to most new arrivals.
The murder in Macerata this past week of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro drew national attention to the city of 43,000 and added fuel to the debate on migration. On Wednesday, her dismembered remains were found packed into two suitcases. A 29-year-old Nigerian man, Innocent Oseghale, was charged with her murder.
“What was this maggot still doing in Italy? He wasn’t fleeing war, he brought war to Italy,” Salvini wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
The suspect in Saturday’s shooting ran as a Northern League candidate last June for a seat on the municipal council of Corridonia, a town of 15,000 people just south of Macerata, according to a Northern League spokeswoman who spoke on condition that her name not be used. She said that the party was conferring about how to respond to the news.