Fairfax County Cop Convicted of Forcibly Sodomizing Ex-Girlfriend

Fairfax County Cop Convicted of Forcibly Sodomizing Ex-Girlfriend
As we've been saying for years, the Fairfax County Police are out of control

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Veteran Cleveland police officer on trial, accused of raping two women


By Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer 

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The trial of a veteran Cleveland police officer charged with raping two women four years apart started Wednesday.
Gregory Jones, 49, faces multiple charges of rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition.
Jones, an officer of more than 20 years, has maintained his innocence and his attorneys say both woman lack credibility and have told inconsistent stories. Jones has been on inactive duty since his arrest.
The case is being tried in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Steven Gall's courtroom.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jesse Canonico told the jury that in July of 2012 Jones raped a woman he met through friends while she was visiting from Chicago. He said the woman, then 34, reported the crime to the friends she was visiting, to police and went to the hospital to be examined.
After the crime was reported, Canonico said, the victim told a Cleveland police Internal Affairs investigator that a friend of Jones had offered her money to make the accusations "go away."
The second woman, Canonico said, saw a media report after Jones was arrested and called police to say he had raped her four years earlier.
That woman, he said, did not report the crime in 2008 because she had a drug problem and had engaged in prostitution. Canonico said the woman had been at a party and accepted a ride from Jones, who was in uniform but was in his personal car.
She said Jones told her after raping her, "go ahead and report it nobody will ever take your word against mine."
Defense attorney Steven Bradley told the jury that each of the women had issues of character and credibility that would be pointed out when they testified.
The woman who made the 2012 report had gambling and other financial problems, Bradley said. He acknowledged that Jones had sex with the woman the evening he met her but that she likely felt "used" when she realized he didn't have an interest in a relationship with her.
Bradley said an acquaintance of Jones' did call the woman to offer her money but that Jones did not ask him to do so.
Bradley said the woman who contacted police about the 2008 rape was drunk and high at the time. He said there was no police, medical or forensic evidence to back up her version of events and that she could not pick Jones out of a police lineup.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys say there is connection between the women. The sister of one of the victims is the aunt by marriage of the father of another of the victim's daughters.
Canonico said Cleveland police investigated that connection and found no information had been shared before the reports were made.
He said the women's stories are similar because Jones' "fingerprint" was the same in both cases.
"This trial isn't about the badge," he said. "It's about what he did."
Bradley said the connection is no coincidence.



Maryland Transit Administration police officer charged with rape



An MTA police officer is facing charges after a woman involved in a crash with an MTA bus said he took her home and raped her.
An MTA police officer is facing charges after a woman involved in a crash with an MTA bus said he took her home and raped her.
Investigators said police were called to a home on Duncan Street for a reported rape around 5 a.m. Thursday. The victim told police she had just been raped by a police officer, according to charging documents.
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The woman was taken to Mercy Medical Center, where detectives took over the investigation.
According to charging documents, the victim told investigators she was driving home around 3 a.m. Thursday when she was struck by an MTA bus in the vicinity of Madison Street and Central Avenue. As a result, uniformed officers responded.
After the accident was investigated, the woman told investigators she got into the back of one of the police officer's marked patrol vehicles, and the officer drove her back to her friend's house on Central Avenue. The victim said although she attempted to reach her friend, the friend did not answer any of her phone calls.
The woman told the officer that her home was nearby, so the officer drove there. Once there, the victim said she walked into her front door and began to close the door, when she noticed the officer making his way in uninvited, according to charging documents.
The officer pushed her onto her living room couch and raped her, according to charging document. The victim said she saw the officer wearing the name tag of Johnson on his uniformed shirt.
After the rape, the officer left her home, and that is when the victim called 911, according to charging documents. She was taken to a hospital.
Investigators said the woman was able to identify MTA Officer Martez Johnson, 26, as the man who raped her. Investigators confirmed Johnson was the officer who responded to the earlier crash, according to charging documents.
Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree rape and second-degree assault.  Court records show Johnson did not have a criminal record prior to the incident. He was released on bail after his arrest.
MTA officials said he'd been on the job for 20 months.
MTA Police Chief Col. John E. Gavrilis released a statement Thursday afternoon, saying, "We are disheartened and disgusted over the alleged violation that this officer broke the public's trust and harmed an individual. He has been suspended without pay."
No one came to the door at Johnson's Baltimore home Thursday night, but one of his neighbors, who didn't want to be identified, had only good things to say about him.
"He's constantly over here asking, 'Do you need anything? Do you want anything?' He shovels my sidewalk. He's out back shoveling," the neighbor said, dismissing the allegations.  "No. There's no way."
Neighbors on the street told 11 News they're sad and frightened by the incident.
"It could happen to anybody, but that's sad. What's it going to do to her now? What's it going to do to that young girl?" said one neighbor who didn't want to be identified.
Baltimore City police are leading the investigation with the help of the MTA Police.

11 News reporter Kai Reed contributed to this article

Feds probe San Diego police misconduct



SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal officials are conducting two separate probes into the San Diego Police Department that has been besieged by more than a dozen cases of officer misconduct, ranging from drunken driving to rape, city and federal officials announced Monday.

The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office will be doing a criminal investigation into specific cases, while the Department of Justice will be reviewing about 15 cases of misconduct documented over a three-year period to determine the cause of the problem plaguing the police force in one of the nation's safest cities.

"We believe every rock should be turned over," City Attorney Jan Goldsmith told reporters at a joint news conference held by city and federal officials at the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. "If crimes were committed in addition to those already prosecuted, perpetrators should be brought to justice."

Among the most prominent cases has been the conviction of Officer Anthony Arevalos in 2011 for eliciting sexual favors from women he stopped on traffic violations. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but a judge last month overturned two of those charges, including sexual battery, and Arevalos will be resentenced. The city has spent $2.3 million to settle 12 of 13 claims tied to the case, Goldsmith said.

Another officer resigned last month after being charged with sexually assaulting four women in his patrol car, and another was under internal investigation after allegations he had touched and exposed himself to women he arrested.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer emphasized that federal officials opened both investigations at the request of the city, which is just emerging from an unrelated sexual misconduct scandal that cut short the term of former Mayor Bob Filner. Faulconer took office earlier this month after a special election that followed Filner's resignation.

Faulconer immediately called for a full investigation and appointed the city's first female police chief after Chief William Landsdowne retired last month, ending 11 years at the helm. Lansdowne had said he was seeking an outside audit of department policies, training and discipline before announcing his retirement.

He also began requiring that all women in custody be accompanied by at least two officers.

Chief Shelley Zimmerman went one step further and began testing the wearing of on-body cameras by officers on the job.

Federal officials will be combing through the department's internal investigations into officer misconduct. The six-to-eight month probe will look at officer conduct on and off the job and could be expanded, said Ron Davis, director of The Justice Department's office of Community Oriented Policing Services, adding that it will be independent, fair and thorough.

The federal government is paying for the assessment, which could cost as much as a quarter-million dollars, Davis said. The city will provide periodic updates on the findings and proposed reforms.

Zimmerman said the force's morale has been boosted because officers know the city is doing everything possible to weed out bad personnel.

"Our entire department feels terrible about this misconduct. We believe that those few officers have betrayed our badge, discredited, dishonored our noble profession. And our officers welcome this," Zimmerman said, adding: "All of us want to know what we can do to prevent hiring somebody that is going to make the terrible decision to discredit our badge."


Grand jury indicts former police officer on rape charges



A judge orders a former Pawtucket police officer held without bail on charges of raping and choking his ex-girlfriend.
North Smithfield police say Stephen Ricco attacked his girlfriend on Thanksgiving Day.
A statewide grand jury on Wednesday reported an indictment against a former Pawtucket police officer accused of raping and choking his girlfriend.
Stephen Ricco, 41, of North Smithfield, was indicted on charges of first-degree domestic sexual assault, one count of strangulation and two counts of simple assault. He is currently held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court on April 9.
In January, the woman told a judge during a bail hearing in Kent Country District Court that the couple was enjoying a night out and had some drinks at a bar in North Smithfield when they started arguing.
The woman said Ricco became agitated over a late-night breakfast at Denny's.
The woman said she didn't call 911 or run for help because she was scared. Instead, she went back to Ricco's condo in North Smithfield. She claimed Ricco roughed her up, punched her and raped her.
"I just wanted to go home and he wouldn't let me go home, and he made me have sex with him and he bit my face," the woman told the judge in January.
NBC 10 does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The woman reported the alleged rape to North Smithfield police the following day.
In 2012, Ricco pleaded no contest to an unrelated charge of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to community service and anger management counseling.


Saturday, March 15, 2014