Abused women

The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureaus investigating death

The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the death of Kyam Livingston in Brooklyn Central Booking Jail. Inmates’ pleas for help were ignored for hours as Livingston complained of stomach pains and diarrhea, according to witnesses.Kyam Livingston died in a cell at the Central Booking Jail in Brooklyn. A 37-year-old woman died in a crowded cell at the Central Booking Jail in Brooklyn as inmates’ pleas for help were ignored for hours by cops, a witness told the Daily News Monday.Fellow inmate Aleah Holland, 38, a registered nurse, told The News that Livingston died needlessly. Police at Central Booking ignored her complaints of stomach pains and diarrhea, Holland said. She said that when she and other inmates banged on the bars calling for help, officers told them Livingston was an alcoholic.“They said, ‘Shut up before we lose your paper work and you won’t be seen by a judge,’ ” said Holland, who was jailed on an assault charge stemming from a fight with a roommate.

SPD detective arrested, threatened to ruin ex-lover’s life

Acting on a complaint from a woman, Seattle police arrested Detective David N. Blackmer for allegedly posting salacious photographs of the woman on a phony Facebook page after their relationship ended.

NYPD officer charged for threatening woman

Officer Christopher Harris was suspended without pay for harassing a woman, who reportedly told cops that 'she feared for her safety.' What Harris said to her has not been revealed.

Tallahassee Police Officer Suspended

A Tallahassee police officer has been suspended for illegally accessing his estranged wife's email account.  An internal affairs report indicated he intended to use the emails against her in a divorce and custody case. David McKenna was suspended for one month without pay after an internal investigation revealed he and his girlfriend accessed his wife's work email from a home computer. The internal affairs report indicates there were more than 23-thousand emails and documents downloaded from her email account at the Mag Lab. It also shows McKenna took copies of some of those to his lawyer because, he told investigators, he thought "there would be stuff in there."

Bronx cop who allegedly flirted with woman he arrested indicted for official misconduct

An NYPD highway cop was arraigned on official misconduct charges Friday in connection with his romantic pursuit of a Bronx woman he had arrested for drunk driving. Officer Carlos Becker, 36, pleaded not guilty to the one count indictment in Bronx Supreme Court and was released on his own recognizance. Becker exchanged more than 600 text messages with Noonan almost immediately after her arrest last March -- offering to cook for her, go out drinking and travel together to Atlantic City.

Authorities learned of Becker's alleged shenanigans after Noonan blacked out in the off-duty cop's car and woke up fully clothed in his Long Island bedroom with a swollen black eye. Becker claimed she injured herself, but Noonan believes she was assaulted.

Police Officer Allegedly 'Wiped' His Cell Phone of 'Harassing' Texts

The trial of suspended Barrington Police Sgt. Joseph Andreozzi moves into its third day; he is charged with cyber-harassing his ex-wife and obstructing a State Police investigation.

The trial of the suspended Barrington police officer accused of cyber-harassing his ex-wife with text messages continued in Superior Court on Monday and Tuesday, July 15-16.

It is expected to resume today, July 17, on the charges of felony obstruction of justice and misdemeanor cyber-harassment.

Sgt. Joseph Andreozzi allegedly harassed his ex-wife with the text messages before using some type of electronic eraser that wiped his cell phone clean while it was impounded in an evidence box with the RI State Police, according to a story in the Providence Journal.

A Verizon employee testified on Tuesday that he helped Andreozzi through the process because the officer said he had left the phone at his girlfriend's home and needed to delete private information, including photos of other women, according to WPRI.com.

A State Police officer has testified that Andreozzi used the Lookout program to log into an email account and “wipe” the texts from his cellular phone while it was stored in the State Police barracks in Lincoln. Andreozzi purchased the device on Aug. 30 last year at the Barrington Verizon store, the State Police officer said.

Andreozzi had been taken to the barracks earlier that day after he was arrested for allegedly scaring his ex-wife, Christine, with the texts and phone calls.

Andreozzi’s ex-wife gave her phone to the State Police, which contained his messages. The State Police said they also obtained by court order Andreozzi’s messages and calls from Verizon in New Jersey.

Andreozzi’s attorney, John Harwood, said the exchanges between him and his ex-wife were part of a “marital disagreement” – not cyberstalking or harassment.

And Harwood said Andreozzi went into the Verizon store on Waseca Avenue simply to get some help to remove personal and medical information about his children. That’s whey he reportedly refused to let State Police officers seize his phone.

Prosecutor Stephen Regine recited numerous messages Andreozzi sent to his ex-wife. Included among them was one that said simply “die,” Regine said.

Harwood, in turn, said Andreozzi’s text message also included: “I still love you” and “wish I could take it all back, I’m sorry.”

 

 

Jury convicts Metro cop of official misconduct

A Davidson County jury has convicted decommissioned Metro Police officer Jeffrey Poole of official misconduct and acquitted him of four counts of raping a prostitute in December 2009.

Poole, who will be sentenced next month, faces up to six years in prison.

He faces six other pending charges, including one of sexual assault and one of aggravated child abuse, the latter stemming from an incident involving his 16-year-old son.

Prosecutors accused Poole of raping a former prostitute at a motel on Dickerson Road. Over the course of the trial, it was established that Poole, 42, had given the woman rides when he was off duty.

Assistant District Attorney Rob McGuire noted in court that the woman had originally reported that she was robbed, not raped, after investigators interviewed the woman in connection with allegations that Poole had inappropriate conduct with other women while on duty.

The woman, according to McGuire, thought she was about to be arrested. Instead, Poole took his gun out of his holster, set it down, then demanded that the woman perform sex acts, McGuire said.

During the trial, Scruggs introduced evidence from vehicle location technology, which tracked Poole’s patrol car. The data undercut the state’s assertion that Poole had gone to the motel.

Dickerson Road was Poole’s assigned patrol area, and he was familiar with a number of the prostitutes who worked in the area.

The Tennessean does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Scruggs, during the trial’s opening arguments, said the victim was a career criminal whose recall could not be trusted. For example, she could not recall which day the alleged rape occurred — only that it happened sometime in December 2009.

"I'm disappointed that they didn't convict him of the rapes because I believe with every fiber of my being that he was guilty," McGuire said Thursday. "But the official misconduct charge says to me that they obviously thought he was doing something wrong."

Police arrested Poole in August 2010 on a 12-count indictment. He was acquitted of sexual battery and official misconduct in a trial involving another woman the following November.

Poole was decommissioned and ordered to stay away from police department facilities three months before a grand jury leveled the indictment, in which he was accused of sexually assaulting four women, three of them with histories of prostitution, while on duty.

Officer Charged For Assaulting Random Female Pedestrian, Knocking Her Teeth Out

A Texas police officer has been jailed after a police affidavit revealed he allegedly battered, without provocation, an innocent female pedestrian who happened to be walking near the scene of an unrelated late-night traffic stop.

The affidavit, written by another police officer who reviewed documentation of the May 29 incident, alleges Cpl. James Palermo of the San Marcos Police Department had stopped a car at about 1 a.m. for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. As he questioned the driver, he noticed the pedestrian — whom the affidavit alleges didn’t look at or talk to either Palermo or the stopped motorist and didn’t exhibit any “suspicious” behavior — and called her over to the scene, where he began questioning her about walking near the scene.

The woman, 22-year-old Texas State University student Alexis Alpha, told Palermo she didn’t believe she had done anything wrong. Their interaction became more acrimonious when she couldn’t immediately produce the identification Palermo allegedly had demanded.

As the officer dialed up the verbal heat, the victim allegedly advised him to conduct traffic stops elsewhere if he didn’t like where she was walking, called him a “dick” and observed that he appeared to simply be exorcising his pre-existing bad mood on her.

She had no idea.

Palermo allegedly responded by grabbing her, pushing her against the stopped motorist’s Toyota Prius, and then slamming her to the concrete, where he sat on her back. He allegedly cuffed her and placed her in his patrol vehicle, telling her she was being arrested for obstruction.

The assault knocked out two of Alpha’s teeth. Palermo took her to Central Texas Medical Center, where medical staff advised her she also had sustained a concussion and would need follow-up care, which could involve multiple surgeries. So Palermo took Alpha to the jail and slapped on two more charges: resisting arrest and public intoxication.

Alpha never filed a complaint over her assault. In fact, the police themselves discovered Palermo’s attack after reviewing footage from his patrol car’s dashboard video camera. The department obtained warrants for his arrest following an internal investigation and booked him into the Hays County Law Enforcement Center on July 16 for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury by a public servant — a first-degree felony that carries a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. He had been on paid administrative leave since the internal investigation had begun in early June, and is now on indefinite unpaid leave as the legal process unfolds.

San Marcos Police Chief Howard E. Williams told the San Marcos Mercury:

I won’t prejudge the [internal] investigation. I have not heard what the officer has to say yet and I’ll reserve judgment until that happens. But there are standards and I think it’s fairly obvious what we think about his conduct that night in that we were the ones that went down and filed the criminal charges. … I believe what he did was criminal.

Palermo, who had worked for the department since 2000, was the subject of a complaint two years ago alleging excessive use of force, but that complaint was dismissed.

Closing Arguments Today in Suspended cops Trial

Closing arguments are expected to be made today, July 19, in the trial of a suspended Barrington police officer charged with harassing his ex-wife with text messages and obstructing the investigation by the RI State Police.

Sgt. Joseph Andreozzi was on the stand in Superior Court again on Thursday. His 16 years as a police officer were brought up to bolster his defense of using a software program purchased at the Verizon store on Waseca Avenue in Barrington to delete the text messages from his cell phone, according to the Providence Journal.

Andreozzi said he assumed that the State Police would get the messages from his former wife’s cell phone based on his experience in law enforcement. His attorney, John Harwood, said that the sergeant also knew that the State Police could get the information from other sources, such as Verizon.

Andreozzi said a day earlier that he “wiped” his phone while it was in State Police custody to delete other personal information, such as personal photos and emails and psychiatric records, that he did not want in the hands of the investigators.

“I knew that by wiping out my phone, that Verizon still had my information,” he testified.

Andreozzi said he was worried that the State Police would go on a so-called “fishing expedition” and, perhaps, pass around this confidential information stored on his phone.

Prosecutor Stephen Regine countered that Andreozzi should not have assumed that the State Police would fish around on his phone as a reason for deleting the so-called harassing text messages. He also asked Andreozzi if he had ever had a defendant in a case delete the contents of a phone; the sergeant’s response was that he had not.

Andreozzi also said he did not think wiping the phone at a friend’s house on the day he was arrested and arraigned, last Aug. 30, with a Verizon store employee’s assistance was a big deal. He saw it as protecting his personal information while knowing that the State Police could get the text messages to his former wife elsewhere.

Humboldt officer charged in domestic assault

UNION CITY (AP) — Humboldt police officer Eric Jones has been charged with domestic assault of a family member after police were called to a home on Jones Seymour Loop about 12 a.m. Friday, according to a news release from the Humboldt Police Department.Jones was transported to the Gibson County Correctional Complex in Trenton. A bond or court date has not yet been set.Jones has worked for the Humboldt Police Department for about four years in the Patrol Division, the release said.He has been suspended without pay.

 

Suspended Police Officer's Trial Continues

 

Suspended Sgt. Joseph Andreozzi was charged after a Rhode Island State Police investigation of sending threatening texts to his ex-wife, according to wpri.com. Police Chief John LaCross asked for the State Police to investigate the charges to avoid any perception of confliict of interest or favoritism.

Prosecutors claim Andreozzi visited a Verizon store after the charges were filed against him and asked about deleting material remotely. They alleged that Andreozzi later deleted text messages from his phone, which was locked in an evidence room.

Andreozzi's attorney claims that he was actually seeking advice on how to delete personal medical information and information about his children.

smack'n the old lady around

Quincy officer charged with assault on estranged, pregnant wife

                       

QUINCY, Massachusetts — A veteran Quincy police captain has been charged with assaulting his estranged, pregnant wife.

Michael J. Miller was arrested by Plymouth police Saturday on a charge of aggravated assault and battery. His attorney Jack McGlone said Monday his client denies the allegations. Miller declined to comment as he left Plymouth District Court where his arraignment was postponed until July 15.

Quincy Chief Paul Keenan said Miller is on paid administrative leave, and his gun license has been suspended. Miller is free on personal recognizance.

A police report says Miller's wife told officers he hurt her Friday by opening her apartment door when he knew she was behind it. She at first declined to press charges or seek a restraining order, but later did.

Police said the Millers are separated, and Miller was there to pick up a child.

Manchester NH police officer charged in domestic case

HOOKSETT — A veteran Manchester police officer was arrested Tuesday and charged with assault on Tuesday, stemming from a domestic-related incident at his Hooksett home in April, Hooksett police said.

Police said William Soucy, 52, turned himself in to police and was charged with misdemeanor assault. He was booked and released on his own recognizance.

Soucy’s pedigree goes deep into the department. His younger brother is a lieutenant, and his uncle, Peter Favreau, was a former Manchester police chief.

Soucy is a Manchester police patrolman and will be placed on modified working conditions, said Assistant Chief Nick Willard. Such conditions typically mirror bail restrictions, and Willard said police must review the bail restrictions before he could discuss details of Soucy’s work limitations.

Willard said the victim is Soucy’s former girlfriend. They did not live together, he said.

A two-sentence statement about the arrest gives few details of the assault.

But the alleged victim’s lawyer, Manchester alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur, said Soucy reportedly placed his forearm on the woman’s chest to brace her against the wall and prevent her from leaving his apartment.

The 34-year-old Manchester resident eventually broke free and ran from the house. The day was April 1, Levasseur said.

Her finger was injured and she received bruises from the incident, said Levasseur, a high-profile critic of the department.

Manchester police and Levasseur give different accounts of what happened next.

Levasseur said his client reported the incident to Manchester police the following day. They told her to go to Hooksett police, which she did. But nothing became of it, so she contacted Levasseur, he said.

“No one would arrest him. No one would get back to her. She was afraid,” Levasseur said. He said he initially advocated on her behalf as an alderman, but then took the case as her lawyer.

He said she is contemplating a civil lawsuit against Soucy once the criminal case is resolved.

Willard said Manchester police heard about allegations of a domestic assault from a relative of the alleged victim, shortly after the incident took place.

Manchester police had to locate the alleged victim, and when she was reluctant to speak they provided her with victim counseling services through the YWCA. Eventually, she decided to speak to police, Willard said.

Once police determined the incident took place in Hooksett, they contacted Hooksett police to let them know of the possible crime, Willard said.“

It’s a duty on us as law enforcement officers to make sure the victim is protected, and the conduct of our officers is investigated,” Willard said.

He said Levasseur’s account of the incident is a distortion, which will harm the alleged victim’s case.

“If there’s representation she came to us and we blew her off and sent her to Hooksett, he’s distorting the facts,” Willard said.

Metro police officer charged with shoving wife

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Metro police officer has been charged for shoving his wife.According to authorities, 43-year-old Ernest Wilson faces a misdemeanor domestic assault charge for shoving his wife into a wall during a dispute at their home last month. Wilson's wife reported the matter to the police department's domestic violence division 

Hampton cop charged with assaulting his mother

HAMPTON — Jessica A. Reynolds, a Hampton cop has been charged with assaulting her mother in an altercation during a car ride late last month. . Reynolds, 26,  faces a misdemeanor count of assault and battery in the June 23 incident, according to court documents.  Ramsey told police that just before 6 p.m. that Sunday, she was driving in a car with her daughter in the area of Semple Farm Road and Middle Road when a verbal altercation took place."During this verbal altercation, (Ramsey) advises that her daughter threw a container of cupcakes at her and began to hit and kick her," according to a Hampton police detective's statement, based on the mother's complaint.

Ramsey told police she had to "hold her daughter by her throat to restrain her," according to the affidavit by Det. Danielle Hodges. The mother, Hodges wrote, had "visible injuries to her face, mouth, arm and thumb."

Memphis Officer Charged with Domestic Assault

MEMPHIS, TN  - Four Memphis police officers are off the job, one of which is now charged with Domestic Assault, following an incident in Cordova on Sunday. Officers responded to a domestic disturbance call on Sunday, June 30, at a home on the 1200-block of Brady Hollow Lane. When they arrived, the victim, 27-year-old off-duty MPD Officer Karen Love, told them she had been assaulted by her boyfriend, 30-year-old off-duty MPD officer Steven Saffold. Fellow off-duty MPD officers Prinshere Hall, 32, and Ryan Mendoza, 28, were also present and told investigators they witnessed the assault. Officer Steven Saffold was arrested and charged with Domestic Assault. All four officers involved have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation. 

Fairfax County Police Watch: Lawsuit: BSO detective wrongfully arrested woman

Fairfax County Police Watch: Lawsuit: BSO detective wrongfully arrested woman: The ex-wife of a local attorney is suing her former husband and a Broward Sheriff's detective over what she says was her wrongful a...

State cop charged with threatening call

BRIDGEPORT –  Laszlo Urszenyi, a State cop, awaiting sentencing for assaulting his former girlfriend, was arrested again after police said he called her from a Fairfield diner and threatened her. Laszlo Urszenyi, 45, was charged Friday with violating a protective order. Urszenyi, who is on paid administrative duty, was released after posting a $75,000 bond and agreeing to wear a GPS monitoring device. Police said Urszenyi had been ordered to have no contact with his former girlfriend following his arrested last Dec. 13 on charges of third-degree assault and unlawful restraint.Police said that on June 28 Urszenyi went to the Athena Diner and asked to use their telephone. Police said he then called his ex-girlfriend's cellphone and threatened her and then hung up.But police said they were able to trace the call back to the diner where a surveillance video showed Urszenyi on the diner's telephone at the time of the threatening call. In the December incident, police said they responded to Urszenyi's Bridgeport home after the police dispatch received a 911 hang up. When officers got there they found Urszenyi's 35-year-old girlfriend visibly upset with red marks on her neck.