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At approximately 9:30 p.m. on April 29, 2006, five friends on a 27’ O’Day were sailing toward their marina on California’s Clear Lake. It was an almost moonless night, very dark, with barely a hint of wind. The sailboat was ghosting through the water when a 385 hp, 24’ Baja Outlaw with three people aboard sped through the darkness and struck the sailboat’s starboard stern quarter. According to forensic experts, the Baja ramped over the sailboat and crushed the cabin bulkhead, leaving prop marks in the deck. Much of the sailboat’s cabin top was torn off and its aluminum mast...

Feds ask to strike Rezko's October sentencing Federal prosecutors just asked a judge to strike Tony Rezko's Oct. 28, sentencing -- acknowledging for the first time they are undergoing discussions with the political fund-raiser.

ACLU Director of Communications Brandon Hensler says the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida received an early victory today when Senior Federal Judge Lacey A. Collier denied the ATF’s motions for summary judgment in Kilpatrick v. U.S. The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights. Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was...

Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic...

Angry police union members chased away MWRA workers in Everett and Revere today citing safety concerns in the first test of the state’s new rules on road details. In Everett, union members and reporters and cameramen surrounded a two-person crew from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority that showed up to perform routine maintenance inside a manhole at 11:30 a.m. After several conversations with union members, the MWRA crew left without doing any work. (continued)

In a split decision Thursday, the state Supreme Court rejected a plea by a Kent property owner seeking compensation for damage done during a drug raid. Affirming lower court decisions, five of the court's nine justices found the city of Kent was not required to pay $5,000 for damage to buildings owned by Leo Brutsche during a failed 2004 anti-methamphetamine operation. During the raid, narcotics officers used battering rams to knock down doors in buildings owned by Brutsche while searching for a meth lab they believed Brutsche's son to be operating on the property, according to court records. No drugs...

A senior New York police officer who caused the accidental death of a suicidal man has killed himself. A police spokesman said the unnamed lieutenant was found dead days after he ordered another officer to fire an electric stun gun at a naked, distraught man who then fell to his death. The spokesman said the lieutenant was found at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The lieutenant had ordered another officer to shock Inman Morales, who fell nearly 10 feet to his death in Brooklyn. The lieutenant was stripped of his gun and badge after...

The NYPD lieutenant who ordered the fatal tasering of a disturbed naked man last week killed himself today, police confirmed. Lt. Michael Pigott's body was found by another officer who was reporting for duty around 6 a.m. in a locker room at Floyd Bennett Field with a gunshot wound to the head. Pigott was stripped of his badge and gun and put on desk duty after he ordered another officer to taser Inman Morales, who was standing naked on a 10-foot-high ledge in Bed-Stuy on Sept. 24.

Denver's red-light cameras were anything but picture perfect in their first month of operation. More than 60 percent of the 2,545 suspected red-light violations caught on camera ...have been tossed out. The reasons vary, but police said that most of the citations were rejected because the "threshold speed" that helps trigger the cameras was set too low, generating hundreds of false readings. "The cameras fired, but the picture clearly showed all of the vehicles in compliance," ... Since then, the threshold speed was reset ... In Denver, police officials expect the city's $838,800 red-light camera system to perform more smoothly...

All officers involved were fired or quit The raid on Russell's Tire Shop had the look of a successful garden-variety drug bust. Acting on an informant's tip, police stormed the building on North Galvez Street and hauled out three suspects, a bag of heroin, a quarter-ounce of crack cocaine and more than $4,000 in cash. Police say they found the evidence in plain sight. But 11 months after the August 2002 bust, prosecutors dropped the charges. And this June, attorneys for the city offered the men accused of dealing the drugs $85,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged the four...

A local television station's coverage of a Missouri campaign "truth squad" working on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has touched off a national Internet frenzy. < snip > What has prompted all the furor is that several members of Obama's "truth squad" in Missouri are prosecutors or members of law enforcement. They include St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch. All are Democrats. Joyce and McCulloch are featured in a KMOV report by John Mills, in which both say their aim was to refute any false...

They must have known he was a troublemaker the moment they saw him. With his white hair, wax jacket and glasses, 78-year-old Philip Clarkson Webb clearly ticked all the boxes any eagle-eyed policemen would mark as 'danger'. And as he shuffled along the pavement towards them there was one thing above all they deemed to pose a threat - his walking stick. The officers surrounded the retired classics teacher and informed him the 3ft wooden cane was an 'offensive weapon' and had to be confiscated. Mr Clarkson Webb duly handed it over, but the farce did not end there. When...

This story reads like something you'd see in a movie scene. It actually would make a good movie scene if you could build a movie around it. This funny tale came our way from Christopher Elliot's blog. Elliot, problem solver extraordinaire sometimes helps unhappy travelers find resolutions to their hotel and airline woes in order to get them a favorable outcome. In the case of Ted LeClair, a man who bought travel vouchers for Southwest Airlines tickets at Craigslist from someone who checked out as reputable--but wasn't, found his own happy ending from swinging a nine iron at the crook....

(Inman Morales falls to the ground after being Tasered by cops. Hutton for News)The madness goes on, and this time a mentally ill man is dead and two police officers face a criminal investigation for what appears to have been a tragic error in judgment. Inman Morales should be alive today, the recipient of appropriate care and medication for the demons that, running loose, drove him to stand naked and deranged on a ledge 10 feet up the side of a Brooklyn building. It was there that, wielding a fluorescent light tube, Morales met his end after two Emergency...

DETROIT - The Detroit police crime lab was shut down by the city's new mayor and police chief after an outside audit found errors in some evidence used to prosecute cases involving murder and other crimes, officials said Thursday. An audit by Michigan State Police found erroneous or false findings in 10 percent of 200 random cases and subpar quality control compliance at the lab, said Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy. The report revealed a "shocking level of imcompetence" in the lab and constitutes a systemic problem, she said at a news conference. When it came to recognized work standards,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station. Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off. Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested. When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong. Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer, as...

Philadelphia police are searching for three gunmen who robbed an East Oak Lane Dunkin' Donuts Thursday. Police also believe one of the men may have filled out a job application at the shop and have a name and address on file that they are hoping will aid in their search ...

THE suspected museum thief who was impaled by a sharp spike on the top of a security fence in his rectum for two hours earlier this month says he did not feel any pain because he was drunk. He denied trying to break into the museum, but claimed he had been in the museum grounds to sleep off a drinking session. Speaking from the Cambridge West home he shares with his parents and siblings, Siyanda Pasiwe, 32, said he had been drinking somewhere in town that evening. But because it was late and he was drunk, he decided to go...

Boise, Idaho (AP) -- A man who was hit by a truck near the city's downtown was also slapped with a citation. Boise police ticketed Ebrahim Balah, 62, for jaywalking shortly after the accident Wednesday.

NEW YORK – An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.

West Virginia Man Charged with Assaulting an Officer Wednesday, September 24, 2008 During fingerprinting, Cruz then allegedly moved closer to one of the officers and passed gas, the station reported. In the complaint, the investigating officer wrote that police noticed a "very strong" odor. The alleged stunt led Cruz to be charged with another offense — battery on an officer — in addition to DUI and obstruction, WSAZ reported.

Naked Man Walking His Dog Tasered By PoliceFla. Man Said Allah Told Him To Do It POSTED: 7:15 am MDT September 17, 2008 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A 40-year-old Florida man walking his dog in the nude was Tasered by police when he refused to follow an officer's commands. David McCranie of the Tallahassee Police Department said an officer on patrol spotted the man last Friday night. The man was asked what he was doing and told the officer, "Allah told me to watch a Bruce Willis movie and walk the dog," McCranie said. “He was obviously having some sort of...

BERKELEY - -- A woman was arrested today after she ran over a Berkeley police officer's foot when she tried to leave while being cited for a parking violation, authorities said. . . . Berkeley police Officer Griselda Ferrera stopped the motorist near the corner and told her to wait while the ticket was being written, authorities said. Instead, Markeysha Bilal-Fields, 47, of Richmond tried to leave the scene in her black Mazda, police said. The car ran over Ferrera's foot, authorities said.

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station. Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off. Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested. When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong. Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station. Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off. Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested. When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong. Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer, as...

Since Hurricane Ike struck — pitching much of the city into darkness — Houston police have made about 280 arrests every day. Most were for nonviolent offenses, including 388 for public intoxication and 335 for drug possession, police said. The totals actually show a decrease from pre-Ike levels, when Houston police were arresting about 370 people daily, according to department officials. "A lot of the credit goes to the visibility of the officers. We're trying to deter as much crime as we possibly can," said HPD spokesman John Cannon. Arrests for looting have dwindled. Of the 168 arrests made since...

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Biden accepted the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations this morning on behalf of the Democratic ticket, pledging to again provide a seat at the table for local law enforcement. Biden, speaking on a conference call with NAPO President Tom Nee, made a plug for the “Biden Crime Bill,” which he said was contributed to a 30 percent drop in violent crime in the 1990s. “Then, for some reason, because this administration and my good friend John don’t think it’s a role of the federal government to be involved in local law enforcement … they...

If you're going to get arrested for breaking into a restaurant, at least drink the most expensive liquor you can find. Charles Lindsey, 41, no permanent address, and Bill Martin, 47, no permanent address, were arrested and tentatively charged with burglary after allegedly breaking into Frieda's Restaurant, 117 State St., Friday morning, drinking most of a $600 bottle of Herradura tequila and trying to get away with several other bottles of high-priced liquor before being spotted by the owner. The owner called police after opening the door and seeing the suspects trying to leave the restaurant through another door. The...

A young man was stabbed in the chest while travelling through northern Ontario on a Winnipeg-bound Greyhound bus Sunday afternoon -- less than two hours after passengers say the attacker was put on board by members of the Ontario Provincial Police. The victim -- identified by witnesses as an Asian male in his mid-20s -- was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive. Police arrested the suspect near the town of White River, just moments after the driver allowed him to get off at the side of the highway. "We don't know why he was with the police or...

TORRINGTON — A police officer flirted and had sex with female dispatchers on duty for four months, and he and the two dispatchers involved, with whom he had separate affairs, used a city messaging system to exchange sexual suggestions and arrange their encounters. Nearly 700 pages of messages and internal reports revealed that Donovan had sex with the dispatchers in the women's locker room at the Torrington Police Department while on duty. He and Goodfield, who began having sex in February or March, arranged for trysts in the parking lot of Torrington Middle School and the Torrington Industrial Park. Donovan...

Federal prosecutors have charged a North Idahoan with 2 offenses after a dispute over the price of a pop at the Boise VA hospital. -- SNIP -- Natalie Walters, now facing two counts that each carry a maximum sentence of six months in federal prison, thinks the case is a waste of taxpayer money and plans to fight the charges. -- SNIP -- The 39-year-old North Idaho resident periodically drives her father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, to Boise's VA Medical Center for doctor visits. She brings her own mug and fills it with soda in the hospital's cafeteria. The cafeteria...

The U.S. attorney's office is making a federal case out of a spilt soda. The Bush administration's top attorney in Idaho is bringing charges against a North Idaho woman for refusing to pay for a Diet Coke and then pouring it out on a counter at a cafeteria at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise.

Indianapolis - Undercover police snatched the wheels of unsuspecting MotoGP fans over the weekend. It was a secret sting operation to seize and recover stolen motorcycles. But one Harley owner says police went overboard in his case. Briggs Blakemore just got his hog back - a 1981 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic. "The police told me the reason why they were confiscating the bike was because it was stolen. I said it's not stolen. He said yes it is. He said the motor and the frame don't match," said Blakemore. His bike sat locked up in the police impound for...

Santa Ana, CA (AP) -- An Orange County sheriff's deputy has been indicted for allegedly using a Taser on a suspect who was handcuffed inside a patrol car. Christopher Hibbs, 45, of Corona, is charged with one felony count of assault and battery by a public officer and one felony count of assault with a Taser.

Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com) Man claims he broke into garage, was police informant CHESAPEAKE The case against accused cop killer Ryan Frederick relies partially on the accounts of burglars who may have been working as confidential police informants. A 21-year-old Chesapeake man said he and another informant broke into Frederick's garage in the Portlock section of the city in January to look for evidence of a marijuana-growing operation and told the police about what they found there. In an interview at the Chesapeake Correctional Center, Renaldo Turnbull Jr. told The Virginian-Pilot that he had been working with police...

A raid gone wrong: Time to rein in police SWAT teams Published: Friday, September 19, 2008 Marc Fisher The Press of Atlantic City 9/19/09 It's sad, of course, that Cheye Calvo's dogs were blown away, left for hours in two pools of blood on the floors of his living and dining rooms. It's unfortunate, to be sure, that Calvo's front door had to be burst open, that it was necessary to plant his mother-in-law on the floor, arms bound, a high-caliber weapon pointed at her head, or that his house had to be trashed, every drawer flipped over, his belongings...

Drivers could have their speed controlled by satellite to stop them from breaking the limit following a Government trial of new technology. Cars fitted with the system would have their speed automatically monitored by satellites, which would also be programmed with the speed limits for different roads. A motorist who tried to accelerate beyond the speed limit would find the system stopping the car from going any faster or issuing a warning instructing them to slow down. The Department for Transport is set to back the system known as Intelligent Speed Adaptation. It follows lengthy trials conducted in Leeds in...

(KTVI - myFOXstl.com) -- A would-be robber picked the wrong bar to rob overnight and ended up in the hospital with a gunshot wound. It happened around midnight at the Pooh’s Corner Bar at Virginia and I-55. Police say two men walked in to rob the place but several off-duty police officers were inside. Sometime during the robbery attempt, shots were fired and one of the suspects was hit in the buttocks. He was caught at the scene, but the other man ran away. Police caught him a short time later. One of the neighbors who called police says she...

WASHINGTON - The ATF lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday, blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping. ... "It is especially troubling that that ATF's rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information," he added. ... Compared to weapons loss rates for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF misplaced almost twice as many guns. ... The Justice Department's report can be found at:...

Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients.... The technology would be integrated with the Australian company's existing red light camera and speed camera systems. It allows officials to keep full video records of passing motorists and their passengers, limited only by available hard...

Whatever you do, don’t ask Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney about getting rid of mandatory police details. She doesn’t want to talk about it. In response to Gov. Deval Patrick’s modest reforms of this “Only in Massachusetts” boondoggle, unions are fighting back by taking the issue to the cities and towns. Which means Boston City Hall. Councilor Sam Yoon supports at least studying the issue, but according to The Boston Globe-Democrat, there is “little appetite on the council or from Mayor Menino to change the arrangement.” And according to Feeney’s spokesman, this profile in City Council courage is refusing...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A 40-year-old man walking his dog in the nude was Tasered by police when he refused to follow an officer's commands.

The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff's Department (that's them above) just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun. Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle "The Peacemaker," and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it's generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will "save lives."

Nit-picking German police insisted on taking statements from theft victims - during their wedding ceremony. Constanze, 34, and Rocco Zahn, 36, from Glauchau in Saxony were furious when the cops insisted on halting the service to quiz the couple. Earlier the couple had reported the theft of a laptop and wedding presents from the groom's stag party the night before. The over-dutiful officers failed to announce to the wedding party why they were leading the groom away though. “Everyone thought Rocco was in trouble with the police when two officers waltzed into the ceremony and led him away – after...

Just moments ago, Fox News reported on a car chase where the suspect fled from the vehicle, and his baggy pants kept falling down. Also, and this is the best part, he is a big guy, and once hit by the taser, he drops like a rock. The financial reporter on Fox News afterward said that Taser stock actually went up after the video was played. I don't doubt it. I want one. I laughed and laughed at this guy. it's so good to see these idiots taken down.

Patrol fires 12 troopers in cheating case Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:21 AM FROM THE (CANTON) REPOSITORY CANTON -- Twelve officers accused of cheating on a certification test for a device used to gather evidence against intoxicated drivers have been fired from the State Highway Patrol. Patrol spokesman Lt. Tony Bradshaw said it's the first time in the law-enforcement agency's 75-year history that so many officers have been let go at once. The patrol said the three sergeants and eight troopers from the Canton post and one Wooster trooper cheated on a certification exam for administering breath tests to determine...

ALASKAN State Trooper Mike Wooten admitted yesterday he had used a Taser stun gun on Sarah Palin's nephew, his stepson, but claimed he was no danger to her family. Mr Wooten - who is Mrs Palin's former brother-in-law - is at the heart of a legislative investigation into whether the Republican vice-presidential nominee abused her power as Alaska Governor. The state legislature is investigating whether she fired former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan because he would not dismiss Mr Wooten, who went through a messy divorce from Mrs Palin's sister, Molly. The 36-year-old policeman said he did not drink in...

Ohioans For Concealed Carry will be holding an open carry walk in Northwood, Ohio (Wood County) to express our dissatisfaction with the findings of an internal affairs investigation regarding the treatment of one of our members after an encounter with Northwood Police. Back in early July, OFCC member Edwin Farbrother was detained and harassed by Northwood Police for legally openly carrying a firearm at Netty's Ice Cream Shop. The police had been called to the scene by the chief of police, who was off-duty and at the shop. After arriving, officers began berating Farbrother for openly carrying a gun where...

Washington state DOT officials announce the kickoff of a statewide speed camera program. WSDOT / ATS speed cameraThe Washington State Department (WSDOT) will unleash its freeway speed cameras in the southwest portion of the state on Monday, September 15. WSDOT officials held a kickoff event in Chehalis on Friday to announce the date that ticketing will begin. The cameras will first appear in white Ford SUVs parked on the side of the road in a work zone on Interstate 5 south of Chehalis. "Along with our Washington State Patrol partners, we place a high priority on highway safety," WSDOT State...

Man steals motorcycle from dying rider September 09, 2008 The Hamilton Spectator HAGERSVILLE (Sep 9, 2008) Someone stole a motorcycle from a man as he lay dying yesterday after an accident in Hagersville. Police say the thief rode off on the bike while its rider lay seriously injured in a ditch. The man later died. Police have identified the victim as 26-year-old Scott Henry of Brantford. OPP say a brown or light-coloured SUV arrived shortly after the motorcycle crashed around 3 p.m. Someone took it "while the man was lying there," said Norfolk OPP spokesperson Constable Jeff Walraven. Officers say...