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A p ril 30. 2008
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L aw & J ustice
New York Police Acquitted in Deadly Force Case
cred ib le than the v ic tim s’ ver­
sion.
“T he people have not proved
(A P ) — T h re e d e te c tiv e s outside a seedy strip clu b in
beyond a reasonable doubt that
w ere acquitted o f all ch arg es in Q ueens on Nov. 25, 2(X)6 as he
each d efendant w as not ju sti­
the 50-shot killing o f an unarm ed w as leaving his bach elo r party
fied” in firing, he said.
w
ith
tw
o
friends.
T
he
case
ig­
groom -to-be on his w eddingday,
T he defense painted the vic­
a case that put the N ew Y ork nited the em otions o f people
tim s as drunken thugs w hom the
Police D epartm ent at the c e n ­ across the city and led to w id e ­
o fficers believed w ere arm ed
ter o f an o th er d isp u te involving spread p ro tests am o n g those
a n d d a n g e ro u s . P ro s e c u to rs
alleg atio n s o f e x cessiv e fire ­ w ho felt the officers used un­
sought to convince the ju d g e
p ow er.
n ecessary force.
that the victim s had been m ind­
O fficers M ichael O liver, 36,
S cores o f police o fficers su r­
ing their ow n business, and that
rou n d ed the co u rth o u se Friday and G escard Isnora, 29, stood
the
officers w ere inept, trigger-
to guard against potential chaos, trial for m a n sla u g h te r w hile
happy aggressors.
a n d as n e w s o f th e v e rd ic t O fficer M arc C ooper, 40, w as
N one o f the o fficers took the
spread, m any in the cro w d b e­ charg ed w ith reckless en d a n ­
w itness stand in his ow n d e ­
gan w eeping. O th ers w ere e n ­ g erm ent. T w o other shooters
fense. Instead, the ju d g e heard
raged, sw earing and scream ing w e r e n ’t c h a r g e d . O liv e r
transcripts o f the officers testi­
“ M u rd e re rs! M u rd e re rs !” o r sq u eezed o ff 31 shots; Isnora
fying before a grand ju ry , saying
fired 11 rounds; and C o o p er
" K K K !"
Two women protest after hearing the not-guilty verdict Friday in the case against
they believed they had good rea­
Inside the co u rtro o m , sp ecta­ shot fo u r tim es.
son to use deadly force. T he
T he case brought back pain ­ three detectives during the Sean Bell trial, outside the Queens County Courthouse
tors gasped. Sean B ell's fiancee
in
New
York.
ju d g e also heard testim ony from
im m ediately w alked out o f the ful m em ories o f o ther N Y P D
In the latest case, the officers cold-blooded ki 1 lers and the j udge B e ll's tw o injured com panions,
sh o o tin g s, such as the 1999 g u nned dow n in a hail o f 41
room ; his m o th er cried.
Bell, a2 3 -y ear-o ld black man, shooting o f A m adou D iallo — bullets by police officers w ho com plained that pretrial p u blic­ indicated that the police o ffic ­ w ho in siste d the m a e lstro m
ity had unfairly painted them as e rs' version o f events w as m ore erupted w ithout w arning.
w as killed in a hail o f g unfire an A frican im m igrant w ho w as m istook his w allet fo r a gun.
Unarmed groom was shot 50 times
Testimonies Document Camp Tortures
Dog attacks,
nooses used
to abuse youth
(AP)— During an emotional hear­
ing in Congress, law m akers and
w itnesses likened the treatm ent o f
teens in youth boot eam ps to the
kind o f torture faced by prisoners at
Iraq's Abu G hraib prison.
Investigators uncovered cases
in w hich a program em ployee's pit
bull was trained to bite students in
the groin and w here teens had hags
placed over their heads and nooses
slipped around their necks, testi­
fied G reg Kutz, w ho has led an
investigation into youth residen­
tial program s for the federal G ov­
ernm ent A ccountability Office.
"It's hard to believe that people
w ould do this to som ebody else's
ch ild,” said a visibly angry Rep.
G eorge M iller, D -C alif., during a
hearing Thursday.
M iller, chairm an o f the House
education com m ittee, introduced
legislation to prevent such abuses
and boost oversight o f boot cam ps.
Such program s also are com m only
referred to as residential treatm ent
facilities, behavior m odification
Bullets Found on School Bus
Portland Public School D is­
trict officials say they have deter­
mined there was no malicious in­
tent involved in the discovery of
am m unition left inside a back­
pack on a school bus.
The bullets were found last
W ednesday after a bus driver
dropped students off at Roseway
Heights Middle School in north­
east Portland.
The 8th grader who ow ned the
backpack said he forgot to re­
m ove the ammunition he found
w h ile p lay in g at his g ra n d ­
m other's house.
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Gina Jones holds a picture o f her son who died while in custody at the Bay County Boot Camp in Florida.
program s or therapeutic boarding
schools.
T he p ro g ra m s are ty p ic a lly
loosely regulated by states. There
are no federal laws that define and
regulate them.
The House session was a fol­
low-up to one last fall in which Kutz
told lawm akers the G A O uncov­
ered thousands o f allegations o f
abuse, som e o f w hich involved
death, at residential program s since
the early 1990s.
N ew details show ed eight sepa­
rate ca se s in w hich teen s w ere
abused o r d ied at resid e n tia l p ro ­
gram s. In v estig ato rs fo u n d that
in e ffec tiv e m an ag em en t and o p ­
eratin g p ractices and un train ed
sta ff co n trib u ted to the d eath s or
abuse. C rim inal charges w ere only
b ro u g h t in tw o ca ses, an d only
one resu lted in m inim al ja il tim e,
K utz said.
In one case, a 16-year-old with
asthm a and chronic bronchitis com ­
See Video- http://w w w .kptv.com /video/l5814923/index.htm l
plained o f chest pain and breathing
problem s, but his com plaints were
dism issed by program staff at an
A rizona boot cam p. The boy ended
up dying from em pyem a, a condi­
tion in which pus accum ulated in
his chest. An autopsy found more
than 70 injuries, including some
from blunt force, on the boy's body.
In another case, a 12-year-old
boy died o f suffocation at a Texas
facility after being restrained and
forced to lie on the floor face dow n.
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Nursing Home Workers Charged with Death
(AP) — Criminal charges have
been filed against former nursing
home workers accused o f failing to
get medical help fora Portland woman
who was dropped while being trans­
ferred from a w heelchair to a bed.
The patient, 60-year-old Linda J.
Ober. broke both o f her legs and died
less than a week after the fall. A
wrongful death suit filed by O ber’s
daughter against Gateway Care and
Retirement Center claims workers
ignored the w om an's pleas for help
and tried to persuade her that the
spill was just "a bad dream ."
F o rm e r e m p lo y e e s S u zan n e
Ruddell. 58, and Verna Heide, 63,
have been charged with felony crim i­
nal mistreatment. Both women face
trial in June.
A third former worker, Camniy
Nye, 53, was indicted on accusa­
tions of misdemeanor reckless en­
dangering.
Rick Harding, administrator o f the
Portland nursing home, said two o f
the employees were fired, and the
third resigned shortly afterOberdied.
quested three years, one year for
each o f S n ip es'co n v id io n s o f w ill­
fully failing to file a tax return.
Snipes' lawyers offered three
dozen letters from family members,
friends and even fellow actors
W oody H arre lso n and D enzel
W ashington attesting to his good
character. They argued he should
get only probation, because all three
convictions were m isdem eanors
and the actor had no previous crim i-
nal record.
But prosecutors had urged the
court to im pose a stiff penalty on
the actor nonetheless, because of
his notoriety and the potential o f a
high-profile case to deter tax crim e
nationwide.
V b c itis e w ith d iv er 4 ty
( ill
Court docum ents says Reinhold
sent e-m ails to city council m em ­
bers in January about new C ouncil­
man Paul Z andam ela using a racial
slur. After the mayor. M ikeCiraulo,
told the council to ignore the m es­
sage he received an e-m ail with
another slur and called police who
traced it to Reinhold.
The defense lawyer says the lan-
guag e w as d isg u stin g but not
threatening.
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Racist E-mail Called Free Speech
A son w hose father is the deputy
m ayor o f the Battle G round City
Council has pleaded not guilty to
sending racist e-m ails about the
co u n cil's only black member.
The lawyer for 18-year-old Chris­
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‘Blade’ Star Handed Prison Term
(A P )— A federaljudge in Florida
has sentenced action star W esley
Snipes to three years in prison on
tax charges.
The sentenced was the maximum
under the law, w hich U.S. p rosecu­
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