| | | | | Ex-LAPD Officer Found Guilty of Fondling Women
Los Angeles Times, Article Date: February 10, 2005
After a week long trial, the jury voted to convict Ex- LAPD Officer Michael Kapalungan of misdemeanor sexual battery for fondling a woman who had called 911 and for groping an undercover officer posing as a domestic violence victim.
The jurors saw a video of Kapalungan sidling up to the undercover officer during two sting operations in 2003. Kapalungan was originally charged with 2 felony counts of sexual battery and two misdemeanors. However, Judge Anne H. Egerton reduced a felony count to a misdemeanor.
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| | | | Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley Won’t Try Officer Who Beat Citizen With A Flashlight
Los Angeles Times. Article Date: February 4, 2005
Steve Cooley will not file charges against John Hatfield, an LAPD officer, despite a videotape showing him strike a Compton resident, Stanley Miller, with his metal flashlight. Cooley’s office feels there is not enough evidence to prove that the force used by Hatfieldofficer was without “lawful necessity.” Mayor Jim Hahn disagreed with the decision by saying, “Let me be clear: I do not agree with that. I saw what I saw.” LAPD Chief William J. Bratton described the officers’ tactics as “awful.”
The video showed Hatfield repeatedly striking and kicking at Miller after Miller raised his arms in apparent surrender and other officers had brought him to the ground. The DA’s office said that “the amount of force used was minimal and reasonable under the circumstances.”
The LA Times noted that criminal cases against officers have been difficult to win. Cooley’s office has lost twice trying to convict Jeremy Morse and other officers for beating Donovan Jackson. That case, like the Rodney King case, was also videotaped. Additionally, a civil jury awarded a multi-million dollar verdict to Morse and his partner, finding that the Inglewood Police Department unfairly disciplined them.
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| | | | Judge Slams County Over Inmate Stays
The Long Beach Press Telegram, Article –February 2, 2005
In a case where a citizen is suing the County of Los Angeles because the County Jail kept him in jail seven days after the parole board ordered him free, the Superior Court Judge, Margaret Ann Nagle, ordered the County of Los Angeles to pay $54,000 in discovery sanctions because County lawyers failed to turn over evidence about other citizens who have been held in the County Jail beyond their release dates. In 2001, the County paid $27 million to settle five cases claiming that 400,000 citizens had been either held past their release dates, were the victims of mistaken identity, or were illegally strip-searched.
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| | | | 9 Fired After Sheriff’s Review
Article, Long Beach Press Telegram, February 1, 2005
The Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review (OIR) reported that 9 Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department employees were fired in the third quarter of 2004, including deputy who failed to properly handle a domestic violence call by a woman who later died of stab wounds during the 911 call.
Some other cases in the OIR report include:
- A deputy was fired for threatening a stripper and her boyfriend when the stripper tried to break up with the deputy.
- Three deputies were fired because they beat up a customer at restaurant who had picked a fight with one of them while the deputies were off-duty.
· Two deputies were fired and another suspended after two intoxicated men were struck and killed by a car after the deputies had contacted them.
The Press Telegram further reported that 221 other employees were disciplined from July through September of 2004, including another deputy who resigned for having sex with a stripper and for arranging for the stripper to have sex with a “ride-along” guest of the Sheriff’s Department. | | | |
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| | | | Woman convicted of drunk driving after drinking Listerine
Article, Detroit Free Press, January 26, 2005
ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) -- A woman arrested after failing a sobriety test and telling police she drank three glasses of Listerine has pleaded guilty to drunk driving.
Police said the woman entered guilty pleas Jan. 20. to operating a car under the influence and following too closely. Police suspected she had been drinking alcohol after she rear-ended another vehicle at red light on Jan. 9.
She passed one breathalyzer test, but failed another that used different equipment. Police found a bottle of Listerine in her car, and she told them she had had three glasses earlier in the day. Her blood alcohol level was .30, more than three times the legal limit in Michigan, police said.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges of having an open intoxicant in the vehicle and not having insurance.
According to Listerine manufacturer Pfizer Inc.'s Web site, original formula Listerine contains 26.9 percent alcohol, more than four times that of many malt liquors. Other varieties contain 21.6 percent alcohol.
The Lenawee County District Court said she did not have a lawyer. | | | |
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