Free Republic

An 11-year-old autistic Middleboro boy’s claim that he was sexually assaulted by another youth inside his foster home was dismissed as “consensual” sex by child welfare officials charged with protecting him, in a stunning case the boy’s family and school officials charge was plagued by missteps by the embattled Department of Children and Families. According to DCF investigative reports, police reports and letters, the boy — then 11 but with the cognitive ability of a 5- or 6-year-old, his father told police — was allegedly sexually assaulted by another youth in the foster home while the parents slept during the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Massachusetts hospital police official linked to the so-called cannibal cop case pleaded guilty on Thursday in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to kidnap and kill women. New Hampshire man Richard Meltz, 65, faces up to five years in prison on each of two conspiracy counts when he is sentenced later this year. The plea deal came just weeks before Meltz and two co-defendants were scheduled to go to trial on charges that they hatched a kidnap plot online. The case stems from an investigation into New York police officer Gilberto Valle, whose trial and conviction...

More than 100 retired New York City cops, firefighters and correction officers were charged today with falsely claiming to be suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks, New York prosecutors said today. The alleged scam won awards up to $500,000 for the uniformed personnel and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, according to the indictment. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the suspects "cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of Sept 11th... dishonoring the first responders." Police Commissioner William Bratton said, "The retired members of the NYP indicted in this case have...

The end of 2013 brought a measure of closure to a long-running Milwaukee police scandal, though some say the officer — and his cohorts — who repeatedly and illegally shoved his fingers up black male suspects’ anal cavities got off with a light sentence considering the flagrant nature of his abuses. The ringleader was identified as officer Michael Vagnini, a white man who routinely targeted black males as young as fifteen for sadistic — and blatantly illegal — anal searches. One victim said that another officer put a gun to his head while Vagnini administered a choke hold, touched his...

A former New Jersey Transit police officer who retired on disability after stapling his own hand is the subject of renewed scrutiny after a video emerged, showing him repeatedly firing a sniper rifle at a gun range. In Christopher Onesti’s 2008 application for a disability pension, doctors said he was “permanently and totally disabled” because he would have trouble operating his service weapon and performing other police duties. His injuries stem from a firearms certification class two years earlier, where Onesti accidentally fired a staple into his non-shooting hand while preparing to attach a paper target to some cardboard. The...

Eighteen current or former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials have been indicted in five separate criminal cases in connection with a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct inside L.A. County jails. The four grand jury indictments unsealed Monday and one criminal complaint allege that deputies beat jail inmates and visitors without justification, unjustly detained people and conspired to obstruct a federal investigation into misconduct at the Men's Central Jail. Sixteen of the defendants were arrested Monday and are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in federal court.

Fifty years after he became a household name, Chicagoan Jack Ruby continues to baffle historians and millions of American citizens who want to know why he did what he did on Nov. 24, 1963. Americans still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy watched in horror, live on television, as Ruby fired a shot at point blank range into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, as he was being transferred from Dallas Police headquarters to the Dallas County Jail. For decades, speculation has swirled over whether Ruby's crime was that of a lone gunman, or part of a more sinister...

A state trooper accused of triggering a three-car crash on Route 1 in Revere that smashed up a cruiser and put an on-duty trooper in the hospital has been suspended indefinitely without pay today, state police announced. Trooper Shawn D’Amato, 43, who authorities said told EMTs he had smoked crack within an hour of yesterday's crash, was arraigned in his Massachusetts General Hospital bed yesterday on charges of drunken and drugged driving, negligent operation; and failure to change lanes for an emergency vehicle. EMTs also observed "apparent track marks on (D'Amato's) arms, suggesting intravenous drug use," Jake Wark, spokesman for...

An off-duty, undercover police detective was arrested as fallout from a burst of motorcyclist mayhem reached a new level, with investigators saying the off-duty officer was shown on video hitting and kicking an SUV before bikers attacked its driver. Wojciech Braszczok, who was off-duty when he joined a motorcycle rally that spiraled into violence, was expected to be arraigned Wednesday. He surrendered Tuesday to face riot and criminal mischief charges, New York Police Department spokesman John McCarthy said. There was no response to phone messages left with Braszczok's attorney, Phil Karasyk. He had previously said the 10-year NYPD veteran only...

Snipped title: Fed-Up NY Man Sets Up Hidden Camera to Find Out Who Was Repeatedly Stealing His Pro-Gun Sign – What He Discovered Blew Him Away

BERKELEY, CA -- A truck driver was beaten within an inch of his life by California Highway Patrol for not signing a traffic ticket that he could not read. The driver, who broke no laws, was beaten so badly that he woke up in a trauma hospital. Olegs Kozacenko, a local resident originally from Russia, was pulled over and cited by police for allegedly driving too many hours in one day. Kozacenko refused to sign the ticket because he had not or could not read it. CHP Officers didn't take kindly to the driver's refusal to sign. Two officers, one...

A man who was brutally stabbed by Brooklyn subway slasher Maksim Gelman two years ago had his negligence case against the city dismissed in court yesterday, despite the fact that two transit officers had locked themselves in a motorman's car only a few feet from him at the time of the attack. Gelman stabbed Joseph Lozito in the face, neck, hands and head on an uptown 3 train in February 2011, after fatally stabbing four people and injuring three others in a 28-hour period. Lozito, a father of two and an avid martial arts fan, was able to tackle Gelman...

Very bad boys! When Detroit citizens found themselves held up at gunpoint by officers who demanded their valuables, they thought they were impersonators. But they were wrong. Some Detroit police officers are being accused of robbing citizens at gun point, in uniform. So what do you do if you are pulled over and don’t believe the officer has good intentions? Local police have issued a statement saying that you have permission not to stop if you don’t believe a real police officer is trying to pull you over. They say to call 911 and ask a dispatcher for assistance. But...

Tuesday, dash cam video surfaced of an Iowa State Trooper pursuing a speeding black Chevy SUV on Highway 20 between Cedar Falls and Fort Dodge, back in April. In an audio recording, you can hear DCI Special Agent Larry Hedlund call a state dispatcher for help in pulling over the SUV that he was going a "hard 90." State Patrol started a pursuit, but backed off when they learned the SUV was being driven by a fellow officer and Governor Terry Branstad was a passenger. Five days later the DCI put Hedlund on administrative leave after he complained to his...

19-year-old Kendrec McDade was shot multiple times by police in Pasadena last March while fleeing. Cops continued to shoot when they mistook their own shots for shots from the suspect. Police say they believed McDade had a gun based on his behavior during the foot chase (holding his waistband) and on a 911 call reporting as much. The 911 caller, Oscar Carillo, was arrested on an involuntary manslaughter charge a month after the shooting after admitted to lying about being robbed at gunpoint in order to elicit a faster police response. Federal immigration authorities also asked that he be detained...

At a pre-trial hearing on May 28, the attorney for accused murderer George Zimmerman, Mark O'Mara, slipped a time bomb into the public record that no one in the major media seemed to notice. It had to do with a homeless man, and the relationship between that man and the victim of Zimmerman's alleged crime, Trayvon Martin. O'Mara's allusion had particular resonance in this case because Zimmerman first surfaced publicly in Sanford, Florida, in a case involving a homeless man. As it happened, in December 2010, a police lieutenant's son named Justin Collison sucker-punched a black homeless man named Sherman...

A 20-year-veteran of the Waltham Police Department who hit it big with a $1 million lottery jackpot in 2011 is facing a child pornography charge ­after he admitted to the FBI that he sent and received ­obscene images of young girls online, according to officials and court records. *** Manganelli wrote in the same message that he recently wrestled with “my little one” and touched her inappropriately, according to the complaint. “I think she likes it, and she didn’t get mad like in the past,” he wrote, according to one ­excerpt. It was not clear whom he was referring to.

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. - A Mount Horeb police officer arrested on suspicion of sexual assault of a child in Madison has resigned, according to the Mount Horeb police department. Dennis P. Jenks, 44, told police he tried to confirm the age of the 14-year-old boy he admits to having sexual contact with, according to a criminal complaint. Madison police arrested Jenks at his home in the 6600 block of Raymond Road on Madison's far west side Feb. 13. Jenks was on unpaid suspension during the investigation. He was a lieutenant and had been with the department since 2000. The criminal...

Omaha police displayed an unbridled street gang brazenness when they chased a man who was video recording them abusing his brother into a private home, confiscating his phone and arresting him to ensure their actions would never see the light of day. However, another citizen captured the entire incident on video from a second-floor window, ensuring at least the façade of an internal investigation.

American television nertworks, Fox News Channel among them, have decided that the attempted assasination of a leading critic of Islam in an American ally is unworthy of attention, so we must look northward for our information. Danish historian and journalist Lars Hedegaard was interviewed by Canadian Sun TV's Michael Coren for the third time since Hedegaard survived an assassination attempt in early February, ostensibly for his criticism of Islamic supremacism, and was forced into protective seclusion. During this interview (Monday 3/18/13), Hedegaard observed, Anyone who stands up and criticizes Islam is fair game. It's like Mao said, "Kill one and...