A former Tucson police officer
fired earlier this year after a woman he arrested alleged he forced her to
perform a sex act, has been arrested in a new, unrelated investigation.
The latest criminal accusations
leveled against Benjamin Gaballa, 24, stem from a search of his home Tuesday as
part of a police investigation into claims he had prohibited or illegal
weapons, Tucson police said in a news release Wednesday.
During the search, officers
said, they came across a motorcycle that Gaballa had reported stolen to the
Pima County Sheriff’s Department in June 2012.
Gaballa was then arrested on
suspicion of one count each of fraud and forgery, both felonies, Sgt. Maria
Hawke said in a news release. The police inquiry into the weapons continues.
Gaballa was hired by TPD in
September 2012. He was fired last Aug. 22, after a woman said that after she
was arrested, he took her to a midtown parking garage and made her perform a
sex act. She reported the incident at the jail. Gaballa was eventually accused
of sexual abuse and sexual assault in that incident, police have said.
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta Police officer who was charged with rape in 2008; who reportedly, as part of the incident, admitted to having sex with his neighbor despite the fact that she said no; and had a subsequent charge of Driving while Under the Influence (DUI) in 2009, is still on the force, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
Despite numerous warning signs, the Atlanta Police Department chose to keep Edward Rabb, on the force for several years, including in the capacities of REDDOG officer and Vice Unit officer.
In 2008, Rabb was indicted by a Grand Jury for raping his neighbor, according to numerous news reports. The charges included aggravated sodomy, sodomy, rape, sexual battery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment, according to the Clayton News Daily. Rabb lived in Rex, Georgia, in Clayton County, at the time, while working in Atlanta.
Rabb’s neighbor had gone to use his shower because her hot water heater was not working.
“After that shower, the woman said she tried to leave and that’s when the assault happened. According to the police report, she said she told Rabb to stop and that it wasn’t what she wanted but he raped her and used police maneuvers to restrain her,” WSBTV Channel 2 reported at the time.
“Rabb… allegedly also admitted that the woman said, ‘no,’” the News Daily reported, adding “He told Clayton County Police detectives that he ignored her objection to sex, because she was ‘shy’ and ‘had low self-steem [sic].’ He allegedly told police the woman probably thought she was overweight, but he said he told her he ‘liked his women like that.’”
Afterward, the woman told police, he cleaned up "as if he was cleaning up evidence of a crime,” the News Daily reported.
At the time he was placed on administrative leave with pay, according to Channel 2’s report.
“He could lose his job after a hearing with the police chief,” Channel 2 reported.
But that was not the end of Rabb’s problems involving the criminal justice system.
Although the District Attorney’s office decided not to take the case to court, according to a 2009 report by CBS Atlanta, Rabb was arrested again for DUI and improper lane change.
Kelly Hespe had been a Chicago police officer since 2001 and says she was happy in her work on the midnight shift at the Shakespeare District on the West Side – until Sgt. Gerald Breimon became her supervisor in late 2008.
Not long after, Hespe alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, Breimon began to engage in an escalating course of sexual harassment and abusive conduct. Hespe said she was eventually forced to have sex with Breimon numerous times while the two were on duty over the next three years. When she tried to end the relationship, he became abusive and retaliated against her, the lawsuit alleged.
“I didn’t feel that I had anybody that I could go to (for help),” Hespe said at a press conference at which she generally maintained her composure, though her voice quavered at times as she detailed allegations not spelled out in the lawsuit.
“I was terrified of him, that he would harm me or my family,” the 42-year-old mother of three told reporters at the West Loop office of her attorney, Daniel Herbert.
Hespe has been on medical leave from the department since she suffered severe chest pains last March at work and was taken by ambulance to a hospital for observation, according to the lawsuit. The suit alleged she has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and suffers anxiety attacks, depression, nightmares and fear when she sees Chicago police squad cars.
Breimon, a 20-year veteran of the department, had his police powers stripped for several years while he faced sex abuse charges after a woman he pulled over in September 2003 alleged he groped her under the pretense of a search. The criminal charges were dropped in 2007 after the woman settled a civil lawsuit with Breimon and the city and then failed to cooperate with prosecutors in criminal court.
Breimon did not return a phone call seeking comment, and the Police Department declined comment. “We take all allegations seriously but cannot offer comment on ongoing internal investigations,” department spokesman Adam Collins said in an email.
The lawsuit was filed against the city, Breimon and another of Hespe’s supervisors. The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, accused the city of facilitating “the very type of misconduct at issue here” by failing to adequately punish similar wrongdoing.
The lawsuit alleged that Breimon’s harassment started with sexually suggestive comments, “characterizing himself as Tarzan and (Hespe) as Jane.” But when Hespe objected, she learned “she would have to run a gauntlet of sexual harassment in the … district in order to ensure male officers would ‘have her back’ on calls and not refer to her as a ‘rat,’” according to the lawsuit.
After Breimon demanded that Hespe become his friend on Facebook, he used the site “to make lewd, sexual and vulgar suggestions,” the suit said. When Hespe objected, Breimon told her no one would believe her and that his mother, whom he identified as a former a high-ranking police official still with connections, would “get rid” of Hespe if she complained about him, according to the suit.
The suit alleged that Breimon repeatedly forced Hespe to engage in sex from November 2009 to November 2012 while both were on-duty, often while they were parked in Breimon’s squad car in secluded locations in Humboldt Park or inside the district police station.
Breimon often demanded nude photos from Hespe, becoming angry when she refused, and even suggested they have sex in front of her two young sons, Hespe told reporters.
When she tried to end the relationship, Breimon stalked her at her home, trailed her to her daughter’s school and followed her movements at work using the GPS tracking device in her squad car, Hespe said.
“Anything that I would ever say, it would do no good to say anything because no one would believe my word over his,” she told reporters. “So I felt just completely trapped.”
BROWNSDALE, Minnesota — A southern Minnesota police chief has lost his job after being charged with felony sexual misconduct.
The Brownsdale City Council voted unanimously Monday night to fire Chief Jason Mindrup.
The 42-year-old, of Waltham, was charged with two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct last week but hasn't yet entered a plea.
According to a Mower County criminal complaint, a woman accused Mindrup of sexually assaulting her after leaving a Waltham bar on Aug. 31. Mindrup denied those accusations. Court files say he told investigators the woman asked to go to his house, but he instead drove her back to the bar where she had left her phone and purse.
Mindrup had been on paid, administrative leave since early September.
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (21Alive) -- The trail for Fort Wayne police officer Mark
Rogers is set for April 15th. Rogers has
been placed on unpaid leave after being charged with sexual misconduct and
false informing. According to court documents, the 19-year police veteran was
working a special OWI enforcement patrol on September 1st. He reportedly picked
up a woman who had passed out in her car and allegedly coerced her into having
sex with him on a park bench.
FORT WORTH — Lawyers for a police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman told the jury that the woman is pursuing a lawsuit stemming from her allegations of criminal sexual assault to help her get out of debt.
The woman, who is not being named because she says she is a victim of sexual assault, said Bobby Lynn Beasley, a Dalworthington Gardens police sergeant, put his hand between her legs while he was giving her a ride home from the Dalworthington Gardens Jail. Beasley, 51, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to one count of sexual assault and could face 20 years in prison if convicted in state District Judge George Gallagher’s court.
Terri Moore, who is defending Beasley with help from attorney Michael Ware, told the jury that the woman owes more than $8,000 in delinquent traffic tickets to the city of Fort Worth. The woman, who has hired a civil attorney and filed a lawsuit, is a 34-year-old unemployed single mother with two children, 11 and 16, Moore said.
“She cried rape and is ruining this police officer’s life in order to get out of debt,” Moore said. “She owes debt that she cannot get out from under when you’re a single mom.”
Although the woman denies filing the lawsuit, Tarrant County district clerk records show that the lawsuit is active. Moore also presented cellphone records indicating that Beasley and his accuser sent text messages to each other for at least three days after she left the Dalworthington Gardens Jail.
The police officer’s accuser denies sending any texts to Beasley.
The incident that led to the lawsuit and criminal case allegedly occurred in December 2010 when Beasley went to serve an arrest warrant on the woman, who had outstanding traffic citations, according to Fort Worth police who investigated the case.
According to a police affidavit, Beasley was wearing civilian clothing but had his badge and gun in plain view when he drove to the woman's house in Fort Worth to arrest her. While driving her to the jail in Dalworthington Gardens, Beasley reportedly told her that he would help her and offered to drive her home.
The woman said Beasley touched her inappropriately while they were driving back to Fort Worth, according to police.
“His whole right hand touches my thigh,” the woman told the jury Tuesday. “He massaged his way up to my private area.”
The woman said she did not report the incident until April because her family told her no one would believe her because she is black and Beasley is white, the affidavit says.
David Hagerman, who is prosecuting the case with Heather Davenport, asked the woman what she was thinking while Beasley was touching her inappropriately.
“I was scared,” she told the jury.
Beasley was a member of the Dalworthington Gardens Police Department for three years and was assigned to the warrant division. Before that, he had been with the Bedford Police Department for 26 years.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/10/29/5288609/police-officer-on-trial-for-sexual.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Minneapolis police officer has been sentenced to a year in the Hennepin County workhouse for sending nude photographs of himself to two teenage girls.
Thirty-three-year-old Bradley Schnickel pleaded guilty in July to two felony counts involving two girls under 16. The sentence was arranged when he pleaded guilty.
Schnickel also faces 14 charges in Anoka County for allegedly using social media to try to lure girls into sexual encounters. His trial there is scheduled for February.
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) - A jury in Monmouth County has convicted a Little Silver police officer of official misconduct and assault in the beating of a man.
Steven Solari went to check on the man at the request of the man's mother in 2009 but ended up arresting him following a scuffle. Evidence presented during the trial showed Solari used pepper spray and the man sustained a head injury.
Prosecutors say Solari took the man to police headquarters for booking instead of to a hospital. Testimony indicated Solari punched the handcuffed man because he would not pose for a mug shot.
Prosecutors say Solari tried to cover up what happened.
Solari faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in January.
transsexual woman has filed a federal civil rights claim alleging she was raped by an on-duty El Monte police officer last year.
The complaint, filed Oct. 18, seeks unspecified damages and lists El Monte and an unnamed police officer as defendants. It also named up to eight additional unidentified defendants.
Court documents indicate the alleged attack took place between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Oct. 23, 2012, as the victim was walking at the northeast corner of Central and Garvey avenues.
The uniformed officer is accused of pulling up alongside the transsexual woman and ordering her to lean into the driver-side window of his marked patrol car. Fearing for her safety if she refused, the victim complied, according to the complaint.
“El Monte Police Officer John Doe groped her breasts,” the complaint alleged. “He then asked plaintiff if she was a ‘nasty she-male.’ Plaintiff responded that she was transsexual.”
The complaint goes on to allege that the officer ordered the victim into a nearby alley, then ordered her to follow him to a deserted and poorly lit loading dock area in the 10000 block of Garvey Avenue.
Once there, “El Monte Police Officer John Doe got out of his car and ordered plaintiff to perform oral sex on him.” according to the complaint
“After a few minutes, El Monte Police Officer John Doe told plaintiff to stand up and bend over the trunk of the police car,” the complaint stated. The officer allegedly told the victim in course language that he was going to rape her.
The officer called the victim by a pejorative name and told her, “you like this, don’t you,” as the assault continued, court documents claim.
Once the assault was over, the officer allegedly told the woman to “get out of here,” before leaving the area himself in his patrol car.
After walking away from the area, the woman returned to the scene and collected a condom discarded by the officer during the alleged attack, according to the complaint. She turned over the condom to Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators, who said they are looking into the allegation.
“At all times, plaintiff felt threatened by El Monte Police Officer John Doe’s actions and only complied with his directions out of fear for her physical safety,” the complaint stated. “At no point did El Monte Police Officer John Doe have probable cause to detain the plaintiff.”
The Country Club Hills police officer accused of telling a woman motorist she could either have sex with him or be arrested for drunken driving has been convicted of corruption.
Timothy H. Jones, 50, of Troy, Mo., was found guilty Friday in St. Louis County Circuit Court of a felony — acceding to corruption by a public servant.
Prosecutors will be asking for a four-year prison sentence.
According to court documents, Jones pulled over a 24-year-old woman on Nov. 10, 2010, on suspicion of drunken driving on Interstate 70 near Lucas and Hunt Road. He had her perform a field-sobriety test, then told her she could either be arrested or have sex with him, authorities say. He then drove her in his patrol car to her home, where they engaged in “several sexual acts,” court documents say.
The woman apparently left her cellphone in Jones’ patrol car. When police began researching to whom it belonged, they reached the woman’s mother, who made accusations about what had happened. St. Louis County police launched an investigation. Jones stayed on the force during the inquiry.
A Richmond police officer, David M. Ruland of Chesterfield County,
has been charged with indecent exposure, according to online court records. A woman “observed Ruland in his vehicle with his genitals exposed”
in the Chesterfield Towne Center parking lot, according to Chesterfield police
spokeswoman Elizabeth Caroon.
A Mt. Pleasant reserve police officer was arrested after being
caught peering into a teenager’s apartment window — the second time he was
investigated for this type of behavior, according to police officials.
Ezra Depriest Martin, 44, 812 Hughes St., Spring Hill, was
arrested Tuesday and charged with observation without consent — a misdemeanor.
He was jailed and released on $2,000 bond Wednesday.
Spring Hill Police Department Lt. Justin Whitwell said officers
were called about 10:30 p.m. to Walden Creek Trace Apartments on Port Royal
Road in Spring Hill. Witnesses at the complex reported a suspicious man looking
into apartment windows, Whitwell said.
A Spring Hill officer arrived on the scene and witnessed Martin
looking into the window, catching him “red-handed,” Whitwell said. On the other
side of the window — a 19-year-old girl.
“He just said he was out walking around the building, but of
course, he did not live anywhere in that area, and his vehicle was actually
parked in that area,” Whitwell said about Martin’s alibi.
Martin lives several miles away from the complex, Whitwell
added.
The MPPD reserve officer
was also involved in what officers called a similar incident.
On June 29, 2012, Martin was observed sitting in a car at the
Burtonwood subdivision in Spring Hill looking at females through binoculars,
Whitwell said. The females called police and reported Martin, stating they felt
uncomfortable.
Spring Hill officers arrived on the scene, and Martin was found
with binoculars in his possession, Whitwell said. Martin said they were part of
his police equipment, and he carried them with him in his car, Whitwell added.
Martin was not arrested in that incident, but his name was
documented in a police report, Whitwell said.
TUCKERMAN, AR (KAIT) – A Tuckerman police officer is facing rape charges following an investigation by Arkansas State Police. Steven Slagley was arrested and charged with rape and second degree sexual assault. According to information from Arkansas State Police Lt. Brant Tosh, Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce asked state police to investigate allegations of sexual assault committed by Slagley. The prosecutor received information about the allegations from Tuckerman Police Chief Jonathon Tubbs. A state police investigator spoke with one of the victims in September who accused Slagley of rape. She told the officer that she moved into the River View Apartments on August 2. On August 27, the woman told the investigator Slagley came to her apartment to bring her some cleaning supplies. During the meeting the woman said Slagley kissed her while he shook her hand. He then pulled her into a bedroom, pulled her pants down and raped her, according to statements in the affidavit. The investigator also met with another woman who said Slagley forced her into the bedroom of a different apartment. On that occasion, which happened days prior to the August 27 incident, the woman told police Slagley rubbed "his crotch against her buttocks". The woman said she was able to lock herself in the bedroom and Slagley let himself out.
Houston police officer accused of
raping a handcuffed woman in the back of his patrol car pleaded guilty Tuesday
to attempted sexual assault in exchange for 10 years in prison. Adan Carranza, 33, was taken in
to custody after a brief hearing in front of state District Judge Ruben
Guerrero. "He has accepted
responsibility," his attorney Rocket Rosen said after the plea. "This
was obviously a major, major lapse in judgment." Carranza worked for HPD for three
years before the attack on June 18, 2012. Prosecutors said the Carranza
responded to a fender bender on Dairy Ashford. He handcuffed one of the drivers
and put her in the back of his patrol car, then waited for the other drivers to
leave. After the two were alone, the
woman said he raped her in the backseat while in uniform and wearing his gunbelt,
according to court records. He then took her to jail for reckless driving.
Investigators said DNA and video evidence confirmed the woman's story. Rosen said he was hopeful his
client will be paroled in two to three years. Carranza could also be freed
after six months if the judge agrees to "shock probation," which is
sometimes used to scare first offenders straight without making them serve
their entire sentence. When he is released, Carranza
will be barred from having a peace officer's license in Texas for life. He will
also have to register as a sex offender for the next 20 years.
"In this case, we felt the
interest of justice was served by the 10 year sentence," said Assistant
Harris County District Attorney Heyward Carter.
A Colville police officer was charged Friday with seven criminal counts, including four felonies, stemming from a string of alleged sexual encounters with women while in uniform dating back to 2011.
Rex Newport, 45, has been formally accused of first-degree burglary and unlawful imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making false or misleading statements to a public servant, according to documents filed in Stevens County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Knowledge of Newport’s behavior came to the attention of authorities after a woman claimed she’d been sexually assaulted by the 15-year veteran of the Colville police force at her apartment in March.
According to court documents, the woman alleges Newport entered her apartment after she returned home from a night of drinking at a Colville bar. Newport drank some of her alcohol, then left on a radio call for another incident, according to allegations made in the court documents. The woman said Newport later returned, handcuffed her and raped her, court documents say.
Newport told investigators, who were also looking into claims the officer took off his gun belt and put it around the woman, that the claims were a “hundred percent nonsense,” according to court records.
DNA taken from the scene places Newport in the woman’s apartment and indicates sexual contact, according to court records.
Evidence collected during the investigation indicate a pattern in which Newport would contact intoxicated women coming home from bars. Multiple women claimed Newport pulled them over for what appeared to be stops for driving under the influence. He then had sex with them, they say, and the DUI claims were never investigated.
The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office and FBI collaborated in the investigation. One woman claimed that after the sexual contact, Newport continued to send her unwanted and sexually explicit text messages.
Newport has denied the allegations made against him. He remains on administrative leave from the Colville Police Department.
A pilot who made an emergency landing at a municipal airport runway has also sued Newport and the city for alleged use of excessive force, according to previous reporting.
The burglary and unlawful imprisonment charges carry firearm enhancements because Newport was armed with a service handgun at the time of the alleged crime. The charges hold potential maximum sentences ranging from a year to life in prison.
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A Colville police officer was charged Friday with seven criminal counts, including four felonies, stemming from a string of alleged sexual encounters with women while in uniform dating back to 2011.
Rex Newport, 45, has been formally accused of first-degree burglary and unlawful imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making false or misleading statements to a public servant, according to documents filed in Stevens County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Knowledge of Newport’s behavior came to the attention of authorities after a woman claimed she’d been sexually assaulted by the 15-year veteran of the Colville police force at her …
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Several charges have been dropped against a former police
officer accused of twice picking up women on Clearwater streets, flashing a
badge and raping them, court records show, but other criminal charges remain.
Larry Kobielnik, a former Tarpon Springs officer, was
arrested July 27, accused of threatening a woman with a badge and firearm and
raping her in his Dunedin home the day before, the Pinellas County Sheriff's
Office said.
Days later, another woman who saw Kobielnik's photo in the
news identified him as her attacker. On May 13, a man picked her up near S
Hillcrest Avenue near Clearwater, told her he was an officer, then handcuffed
and raped her, the Sheriff's Office said.
But charges in that offense were dropped after the victim
told inconsistent stories, according to court documents released to the Tampa
Bay Times.
The woman reported the rape June 1 when she was hospitalized
for abdominal pain. She told a deputy her attacker had showed her an
oval-shaped badge.
But when a prosecutor interviewed her in August, she said a
badge was sitting atop the dining room table in Kobielnik's home. When asked to
describe the badge, the woman admitted she never saw it. "She stated that
all she saw was a folded wallet," records state, "but she never opened
it or saw a badge."
Charges of sexual battery, kidnapping, and impersonation of
an officer related to the May 13 offense were dropped in August.
But charges in the July case remain, including sexual
battery and impersonation of an officer.
In 2002, Kobielnik was also suspected of a similar crime in
Tarpon Springs when a woman accused him of raping her behind an office
building. But with no DNA evidence, prosecutors declined to file charges.
Kobielnik, 37, was an officer for the Transportation
Security Administration, but was fired after his arrest. He also was a Tarpon
Springs police officer from April 2000 to May 2001.
He remained at the Pinellas County Jail on Wednesday in lieu
of $110,000 bail
An Edison police officer faces multiple departmental charges
and the possible loss of his job for allegedly returning to the scene of an
emergency call to proposition a woman for sex.
Anthony Sarni, 39, had just finished his shift and was still
in uniform when he drove to the Extended Stay America hotel in Edison’s Raritan
Center to find the woman, whom he had met earlier in the night after a
disturbance there, according to three law enforcement officials with knowledge
of the case.
Once back at the hotel, Sarni allegedly pressed the woman to
engage in a sexual encounter, according to the officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
The woman rebuffed him and filed a complaint, they said.
"She felt he was being inappropriate and using his
authority as a police officer to coerce her," one of the officials said.
Sarni, a 10-year veteran who earns more than $118,000, was
suspended with pay last week. He was charged administratively with engaging in
inappropriate conduct, lying to investigators and other counts. The charging
documents indicate he will be fired if he is found guilty at a departmental
hearing.
Sarni could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Peter Paris, declined to address the charges,
saying in a brief statement that internal disciplinary matters are confidential
under guidelines set by the state Attorney General’s Office.
Sarni is the third Edison officer to be charged either
internally or criminally over the past five months, contributing to a cloud of
misconduct that has lingered over the department for decades.
In June, Patrolman Alan Varady was charged with drunken
driving after he was seen swilling beer in his police cruiser. Varady, a
27-year veteran, filed for retirement a month later.
Another officer, Michael Dotro, was charged with five counts
of attempted murder in May for allegedly setting fire to his captain’s home
while the man and his family slept inside.
Dotro, 36, later was slapped with additional counts that
included buying marijuana while in uniform, conspiring to sell the drug,
slashing a woman’s tires and accessing the department’s records database for
personal use.
The investigation into Dotro’s activities prior to the fire
continues. What’s more, it could ensnare one or more of his fellow officers on
the night shift.
Dotro, the law enforcement officials said, is accused of
engaging in a campaign of harassment against a North Brunswick police officer
who had ticketed one of his relatives.
Dotro allegedly enlisted colleagues to aid in the harassment
of the man, who lives in Edison. Last month, investigators obtained warrants to
seize the cell phones of officers on Dotro’s squad, the officials said. The
probe is now focusing on two of the officers, according to the officials.
The incident involving Sarni occurred in April and was the
subject of a lengthy investigation and review by Edison’s internal affairs unit
and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, which concluded the officer’s
actions did not rise to the level of a crime, the law enforcement officials
said.
Police Chief Thomas Bryan confirmed Sarni’s suspension but
declined to discuss the case, saying it was an internal matter.
The complaint marked the second allegation of sexual
misconduct this year against Sarni, a married father of four.
Previously, a female motorist contended Sarni propositioned
her after pulling her over in Edison, the officials said. Internal affairs
investigators concluded the allegation could not be sustained, meaning it could
neither be proved nor disproved.
Sal Della Fave, president of the Policemen’s Benevolent
Association in Edison, said he was shocked by the allegations against his
colleague.
"I know Tony Sarni well, and he has always been a very
good police officer," Della Fave said. "Whatever the outcome of the
investigation, he will have to live with that, but Tony has always been an
upstanding guy."
Addressing the broader issue of continuing misconduct, Della
Fave said the union has worked with department leaders to reform the
department.
"There are always going to be a few bad apples in every
bunch," he said. "The majority of our people here — the officers and
the command staff — are all hard-working mothers and fathers who want to do
their job and do what’s best for the town."
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The case against a former Sacramento police officer accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting an elderly woman while off duty is headed to trial.
The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/19eHsiy) Gary Dale Baker will be arraigned Oct. 17.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette ordered the trial following a preliminary hearing that took eight court days.
The 50-year-old Baker was arrested in December on suspicion of rape, forcible oral copulation and other charges in the assault of the stroke-impaired woman in her 70s.
Baker also faces burglary-related charges that could bring him a life term if he is convicted.
Detectives recognized the suspect as Baker after reviewing footage from a surveillance camera the alleged victim's family installed after she told them of the assault.
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- A former southwestern Illinois police
officer has been sentenced to two years of probation after admitting he
illegally took cellphone videos of women at a tanning salon.
The (Alton) Telegraph reports that 47-year-old Michael
Collins was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to one count of unauthorized
video recording. Prosecutors dropped two other counts.
Madison County prosecutors claimed Collins secretly recorded
different women over a four-day period at a Glen Carbon tanning salon last
April.
Collins had served 15 years with Edwardsville police and was
the senior patrol officer before resigning just days after being charged.
Authorities say the case surfaced when a salon customer
accused Collins of taking pictures over the wall from an adjacent room as she
prepared to tan.
A DUI arrest turned into a disturbing strip search when four
officers, three of whom were male, pinned an Illinois woman face down on
the floor of a cell and stripped her of every piece of her clothing. According
to a police report, her blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit,
she was mouthy, kicking at them and resisting a pat-down. The woman is now
suing.
Jonna Spilbor told Gretchen Carlson that the search was
illegal and the woman’s rights were completely violated. “There is never a
reason when someone gets stopped for DWI, there would never be a reason to
strip search that person, male or female, unless you think they have an AK-47
or a kilo of coke in their colon!”
Sacramento
police officer Gary Dale Baker told investigators he had sex with the elderly,
stroke-impaired woman he is accused of raping, but insisted it was consensual,
a detective testified Wednesday.
Baker admitted to the
contact a day after he denied having sex with her at all, Detective Eugene Shim
said at the former officer’s preliminary hearing in Sacramento Superior
Court. Shim said Baker
initially denied having sex with the woman when Sacramento police first
informed him he was the target of a sexual-assault investigation last December.
Shim testified that
Baker, now 50, said he unsuccessfully attempted to have sexual intercourse with
the woman, now 78, about two months before police confronted him.
Baker also told
detectives he later performed oral sex on the woman in the bedroom of her south
area senior-living apartment complex, Shim testified under questioning from
Deputy District Attorney Amy Holliday.
On cross-examination,
Shim told defense attorney Linda Parisi that Baker thought the alleged victim –
who is identified in the case only as “Jane Doe” – was 60 to 65 years old.
According to Shim, Baker thought she had an accent and that she stuttered.
Under further questioning from Parisi, the detective said Baker thought the
woman had “something else” wrong with her speech that made it “a little different.”
The woman suffered a
stroke in 2009 that left her with a lingering condition called speech aphasia,
which severely inhibits her ability to communicate through written or spoken
words. She has been declared incompetent to testify, a potentially major hurdle
for the prosecution if the case goes to trial.
Police and
prosecutors have charged that Baker raped the woman twice, both times inside
her apartment, on Nov. 24, 2010, and again on Sept. 20, 2012. Authorities said
Baker was questioned, arrested and fired last December after the woman’s son
mounted a game-hunting camera over her apartment door and turned over to police
a video purportedly showing an assailant entering her apartment to attack her.
Asked if Baker told
detectives he never forced the woman to do anything, Shim answered, “Yes.”
Baker also told them he had a conversation with the woman about her family,
that she showed him pictures of them and that she even gave him her phone
number, Shim testified.
“He said that every
interaction he had with Ms. Doe was in fact consensual?” Parisi asked.
“Yes,” Shim replied.
Baker’s admission
that he had sex with the woman took place a day after detectives first told him
they were looking into allegations of a sexual assault and that he matched the
description of the suspect. The initial confrontation came at 5:20 a.m. Dec.
19, some 40 minutes before Baker was scheduled to begin his patrol shift in the
neighborhood where the elderly woman lived.
The officer said last
December he met the woman “months ago” while he was off duty, Shim said. “He
stated they had met and talked for a little while and at some point they went
over to her residence,” the detective testified. Baker spontaneously at first
said, “I never had any sexual relations with her at all,” according to Shim’s
account of their interview.
“Zero, no contact,”
Baker said in the interview, Shim testified. “Haven’t held her hand. Haven’t
done anything with her.”
During the
preliminary hearing, the prosecution has presented testimony from police and family
members who said it was clear to them the elderly woman claimed to have been
raped. The defense has challenged the admissibility of the police and family
testimony on hearsay grounds. Judge Patrick Marlette has not ruled on how much
of it will be considered in the preliminary hearing, which has now taken seven
days and is scheduled to resume Monday.
Besides the
testimony, Holliday has presented medical evidence that the woman suffered
physical trauma consistent with a sexual attack. Authorities also say they
have DNA evidence, which it appears the defense will
attempt to explain by Baker’s contention that the sex was consensual.
“Certainly that’s a
big part of it, as well as other challenges to what has occurred,” Parisi said
in an interview outside the courtroom.
One of those
challenges was an effort by Parisi on Thursday to have Baker’s statements to
the detectives ruled inadmissible. She argued the detectives did not properly
inform Baker of his rights, saying only that whatever he said to them “may” be
used against him in court, not “can and will.” Parisi also said Baker never
formally waived his right to not answer questions, and that the detectives
never clearly communicated to him that they were conducting a criminal rather
than administrative investigation.
Marlette, who has had
several contentious exchanges with Parisi, ruled against her on all counts.
Throughout the hearing, Parisi has riled the judge by continuing to argue on
objections after he has ruled on them.
A Colville police officer was charged Friday with seven
criminal counts, including four felonies, stemming from a string of alleged
sexual encounters with women while in uniform dating back to 2011.
Rex Newport, 45, has been formally accused of first-degree
burglary and unlawful imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making
false or misleading statements to a public servant, according to documents
filed in Stevens County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Knowledge of Newport’s
behavior came to the attention of authorities after a woman claimed she’d been
sexually assaulted by the 15-year veteran of the Colville police force at her
apartment in March.
According to court documents, the woman alleges Newport
entered her apartment after she returned home from a night of drinking at a
Colville bar. Newport drank some of her alcohol, then left on a radio call for
another incident, according to allegations made in the court documents. The
woman said Newport later returned, handcuffed her and raped her, court
documents say.
Newport told investigators, who were also looking into
claims the officer took off his gun belt and put it around the woman, that the
claims were a “hundred percent nonsense,” according to court records.
DNA taken from the scene places Newport in the woman’s
apartment and indicates sexual contact, according to court records.
Evidence collected during the investigation indicate a
pattern in which Newport would contact intoxicated women coming home from bars.
Multiple women claimed Newport pulled them over for what appeared to be stops
for driving under the influence. He then had sex with them, they say, and the
DUI claims were never investigated.
The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office and FBI collaborated in
the investigation. One woman claimed that after the sexual contact, Newport
continued to send her unwanted and sexually explicit text messages.
Newport has denied the allegations made against him. He
remains on administrative leave from the Colville Police Department.
A pilot who made an emergency landing at a municipal airport
runway has also sued Newport and the city for alleged use of excessive
force, according
to previous reporting.
The burglary and unlawful imprisonment charges carry firearm
enhancements because Newport was armed with a service handgun at the time of
the alleged crime. The charges hold potential maximum sentences ranging from a
year to life in prison.
Rex Newport is accused of first-degree burglary and unlawful
imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making false or misleading
statements to a public servant.
A Colville police officer was charged Friday with seven
criminal counts, including four felonies, stemming from a string of alleged
on-duty sexual encounters with women dating to 2011.
Rex Newport, 45, has been formally accused of first-degree
burglary and unlawful imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making
false or misleading statements to a public servant, according to documents
filed in Stevens County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Newport’s alleged
behavior came to the attention of authorities after a woman claimed she’d been
sexually assaulted by the 15-year veteran of the Colville police force at her
apartment in March.
According to court documents, the woman alleges Newport
entered her apartment after she returned home from a night of drinking at a
Colville bar. Newport drank some of her alcohol, then left on a radio call for
another incident, she told police. The woman said Newport later returned,
handcuffed her and raped her, court documents say.
Newport told investigators, who were also looking into
claims the officer took off his gun belt and put it around the woman, that the
allegations were a “hundred percent nonsense,” according to court records.
DNA taken from the scene places Newport in the woman’s
apartment and indicates sexual contact, according to court records.
Evidence collected during the investigation indicates a
pattern in which Newport would contact intoxicated women coming home from bars.
Multiple women claimed Newport pulled them over, supposedly on suspicion of
driving under the influence, then had sex with them. Any DUI claims were never investigated,
they say.
The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI collaborated
on the investigation. One woman claimed that after the sexual contact, Newport
continued to send her unwanted and sexually explicit text messages.
Newport has denied the allegations. He remains on
administrative leave from the Colville Police Department.
A pilot who made an emergency landing at a municipal airport
runway has also sued Newport and the city for alleged use of excessive
force, according to previous reports.
The burglary and unlawful imprisonment charges carry firearm
enhancements because Newport was armed with a service handgun at the time of
the alleged crime. The charges hold potential maximum sentences ranging from a
year to life in prison.
The Lakeland (Fla.) Police officer who told a woman to shake out her bra for drugs received a one-day suspension, the agency announced Wednesday.
Officer Dustin Fetz must also complete re-training in arrest, search and seizure laws and procedures, and complete an in-depth research project, reports the Tampa Tribune.
Officer Fetz was suspended for misuse of recording equipment for failing to activate his agency-issued microphone. Agency documents had characterized the search as consenual, reports the Lakeland Ledger.
Officer Fetz pulled over Zoe Brugger and her boyfriend Larry Fields on May 21 because the couple's vehicle had only one functioning headlight. The officer searched the vehicle and asked Brugger to exit the vehicle. He twice asked Brugger to pull her bra forward to release any possible weapons or contraband.
Lakeland, Florida -- Another sex scandal at the Lakeland
Police Department, and this time, the officer involved faces criminal charges.
Officer Julio Pagan, 31, was arrested today on two counts of
sexual battery and one count of stalking.
"There are simply no words to describe my shock, my
outrage, my disgust about this," said Chief Lisa Womack.
Chief Womack says the investigation dates
back to a time right in the middle of the department's highly publicized
sex scandal.
Investigators say Officer Pagan responded to a July 4th call
near a trailer park and that's where he first met the alleged victim.
Six weeks later, during another call, the woman says
Pagan coerced her to have sex with him in her bathroom while he was still
armed, in uniform, and on duty.
Asked if this will only promote talk of persistent culture
problems now under her command as well at Lakeland P.D., Chief Womack was
clearly frustrated.
"This is not a departmental issue," she said
pausing for moment, "You want to know how I feel about it? Fed up,"
she said.
The alleged victim says three weeks later, Pagan, again
on-duty, was back, asking her for a "quickie" accoridng to the polcie
report.
Surveillance video shows Pagan's cruiser pulling up
to a nearby Circle K store, where images, say detectives, show the woman buys
alcohol before both return to her house.
Investigators say Pagan then came back a second time on that
same date, August 29th, but that the woman made an excuse to fend off his
advances and called police to complain about Pagan's visits.
However the dispatcher, idnetified as Christinia Jordan, now
on administrative leave, never sent an officer.
"I have no valid explanation as to at this point why
that that did not occur," said Chief Womack. An investigation into the
matter was "about 90%" complete, she said.
The victim, who never had a police officer respond, got
another uninvited visit from Pagan about three weeks later.
Relatives called to complain yet again, and this
time Lakeland sent an investigator.
Austin Garcia, a neighbor, says a short time later, the
trailer park area was visited by multiiple officers.
"I did see a couple of squad cars go over there and
stuff, like about 5 or 6 of them," he said, "They stayed there about
an hour or two and left."
Chief Womack says she knows the public is
already commenting about how this may yet again be an example of
the "culture" within Lakeland P.D., but she took issue with that
assertion.
This was not a departmental culture issue, she said
- it's a crime.
Pagan, she said, will likely be formally
fired over the next couple of days.
New details are emerging about a fired-former Tucson Police
Officer who is now facing felony charges connected to sexually assaulting an
inmate.
There was no answer at former Officer Ben Gaballa's
northwest side home. He is now out on bond after he was arrested Wednesday on
four felony charges including sexual assault and abuse. The victim is a woman
he took to jail for some kind of a family fight.
It's what happened after she was arrested that has Gaballa
on the other side of the law. Police reports Tucson News Now obtained show the
victim stated Gaballa arrested her, they left her home and drove around for
approximately 30 minutes. Gaballa found a place to park behind a Walgreens at
Campbell and Grant and then had her get out of the backseat and uncuffed her,
according to reports.
Part of the report detailing the alleged sex acts is
redacted but at some point, it looks like the victim tried to run away. It goes
on to say "she stated the officer ran after her, there was a slight
struggle." The victim was then booked into jail where she filed the complaint
with correctional officers.
Tucson Police swabbed the patrol car, clothing and other
items the pair had, checking for any evidence.
"Things weren't matching up and they were verifying the
complaints version of events than the officer," said Chief Roberto
Villasenor.
When we caught up with Gaballa last month, he denied these
accusations. Tucson Police Fired him for lying on a report, misrepresenting
facts to his supervisor and mishandling evidence. The report shows detectives
located a small amount of marijuana in a blue glove in Gaballa's duty bag along
with a syringe. It was likely evidence from another case that never got booked.
The stroke-impaired woman named as the victim in
a rape case against a Sacramento police officer appeared at times to be
competent in her interviews with investigators, a judge said from the bench
Tuesday.
As a result of his finding, Sacramento Superior
Court Judge Patrick Marlette said it will be up to the fired ex-cop to show
whether the statements of the woman he is accused of raping are unreliable and
inadmissible in his preliminary hearing.
Marlette made his finding on the fourth day of
the hearing to decide if Gary Dale Baker must stand trial for the alleged
sexual attacks on the woman in November 2010 and September 2012.
Baker, 50, is accused in a 12-count complaint of
the purported assaults on the woman who was 75 and then 77 years of age and
disabled by speech aphasia as a result of her stroke.
In a competency hearing earlier this year, Judge
Cheryl Chun Meegan ruled the alleged victim was not able to testify reliably at
trial and that no accommodations were available to help her out.
Defense attorney Linda Parisi filed an objection
last week at the outset of Baker’s preliminary hearing to block any police
officer hearsay testimony based on statements the woman gave to investigators.
Police hearsay testimony is admissible in
California for the preliminary hearing’s purpose of determining if there is
probable cause to hold a defendant for trial. The issue almost certainly will
be replayed if and when the case is bound over for trial, when far more
restrictive standards on the admissibility of hearsay testimony would come into
play.
Judge Marlette has not ruled yet on the
admissibility of the investigators’ hearsay statements, but he said that based
on his review of their videotaped conversations with the woman, it looked like
she was fairly understandable about half the time.
“There is evidence that has been produced that
supports competence,” Marlette said from the bench.
Parisi has said in court papers that Judge
Meegan’s July 1 ruling already has determined that the woman is incompetent to
testify. The presumption, Parisi argued, should be that the alleged victim was
no more competent when police interviewed her after the assaults that allegedly
took place on Nov. 24, 2010, and Sept. 20, 2012.
Marlette, however, made a distinction between
the alleged victim’s competence when she was examined by a neurologist earlier
this year for the purpose of Meegan’s ruling and how the woman appeared to have
come off during the 2010 and 2012 conversations with police that were the basis
of his observations of her.
She “seems to have slipped,” Marlette said, from
the earlier interviews with the police to the later one with UC Davis
neurologist Dr. Sarah Tomaszewski Farias.
“In our case,” Marlette said, “we have a
progressive incompetence.”
When Marlette gave his opinion on the woman’s
performance during the police interviews, the startled defense attorney asked,
“Is that a finding?”
“Yes,” Marlette said, to which Parisi replied,
“I’m absolutely shocked and surprised.”
Baker’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to
resume Monday and continue on Tuesday and Thursday of next week.
Four officers already have testified in the
hearing about their interview sessions with the woman, whose 2009 stroke left
her with speech aphasia, a condition that inhibits a person’s verbal and
written communication abilities.
Officer Matt Armstrong, who interviewed the
woman in the presence of some of her family members, said she “would use her
hands and we would come up with a concept she seemed to agree with,” to get her
take on what happened to her.
When Parisi asked Armstrong for the specific
words she used in his interview, the officer said, “It’s very possible she gave
me five words, 20 words, 40 words … (and) I filled in a story like I do on all
calls. It was just tougher on this one.” Armstrong added later, “I can’t tell
you yes or no on the exact words she used.”
Detective Joyce Thorgrimson, who is now a
district attorney’s investigator, said the woman indicated what the suspect did
to her and that she “made kissing gestures” to demonstrate his actions. She
also touched herself where she had indicated the suspect did and that she
demonstrated how he placed her on a couch and removed her clothing.
“She was miming it,” Thorgrimson testified.
In his testimony last week, Detective Andrew
Newby said, “It was extremely difficult to communicate” with the woman. He said
it was his impression “she was able to understand very simple yes and no
questions.”
Newby said she simulated that her blouse had
been removed, and “her facial expression was snarled at that point, and she was
repeating ‘no, no.’” The woman took investigators into a bedroom to give them a
further demonstration of what they believe she wanted them to know about what
the suspect did to her.
Marlette’s finding that the woman at times
appeared to be competent means Baker must carry the burden of proof in the
preliminary hearing to show the unreliability of her communications with the
police.
Parisi protested that it’s unfair for her to now
have to show the level of the alleged victim’s competence for each specific
statement, after she’s already cross-examined the key police witnesses.
The judge disagreed, saying the “vast bulk” of
her cross examination, in his view, “has been attacking the reliability and
credibility of those statements” by the alleged victim. Marlette invited the defense
attorney to present any evidence she wants that the woman was not competent
when she made the statements.
