Free Republic

Proving to be unstable, combative and petty, an FBI agent interjected himself in a family custodial dispute on behalf of his girlfriend and her estranged husband, who was two hours late in dropping off their baby. But FBI Agent Gerald Rogero’s intrusive attempts at heroism led to him assaulting and threatening to shoot the 15-year-old son of the estranged husband’s girlfriend. He then threatened the teen’s mother with arrest when she tried to intervene

The Metropolitan Police officer who was arrested Monday on domestic battery charges was arrested four years before on similar charges, but that case was dismissed, the Clark County district attorney's office confirmed Wednesday. James Burt, 41, was taken into custody Monday on suspicion of domestic battery by strangulation and kidnapping involving his girlfriend, an arrest report shows. In 2011, he was arrested on two counts of domestic battery, coercion with force and kidnapping involving his then-wife. They divorced about a year later. That first case was dismissed less than six weeks after he was arrested. "What it looks like on...

efore retiring to dry heat and a second career in politics, Arizona state Sen. John Kavanagh arrested criminals in Times Square and other New York-area transit areas -- and one heroin bust 40 years ago, he says, inspired his new, instantly controversial bill to criminalize close-up filming of police in public. The legislation would require people to be at least 20 feet away while recording “law enforcement activity” or farther if officers decide that’s needed. Recording inside private buildings such as homes would be allowed from “an adjacent room or area” unless an officer objects. Violations would be petty offenses...

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a case in Kansas in which a couple was wrongly raided by a police tactical team. Robert and Addie Harte and their two children were held in their home by armed officers for over two hours as the officers searched the house for marijuana. They found no drugs. After spending $25,000 to get a judge to order the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department to turn over documents related to the search and investigation leading up to it, the Hartes discovered that Robert Harte, along with hundreds of other people, became a suspect when Missouri...

MESA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - A woman has been arrested after telling police she beat a 16-year-old teen after finding him in bed with her teenage daughter inside her Mesa home on Thanksgiving.According to court documents, Jeanette Woods found the boy in her 16-year-old daughter's bed after the two had consensual sex. The two teens had fallen asleep when the boy says he awoke to Woods yelling at him and punching him in the face just after 1 a.m.The boy says Woods was straddling him and repeatedly punching him in the face and body. The boy eventually broke free, but Woods...

The tragedy last May 17 in Waco. Texas was a rock that fell from the sky into the ocean. Now the rock is buried fathoms deep and only the ripples remain - spreading farther and farther. The local authorities, most notably District Attorney Abel Reyna. know exactly how those nine men died. Video At a glance, this is not a complicated case. The actual bloodshed was captured on multiple video cameras. A mere 42 seconds elapsed from the very first overhand right until the moment a Cossack named Wayne Lee Campbell made the mistake of trying to shoot it out...

A Texas state trooper who arrested Sandra Bland after a contentious traffic stop last summer was fired Wednesday after being charged with perjury for allegedly lying about his confrontation with the black woman who died three days later in jail. Trooper Brian Encinia claimed in an affidavit that Bland was "combative and uncooperative" after he pulled her over and ordered her out of her car. The grand jury identified that affidavit in charging Encinia with perjury, special prosecutor Shawn McDonald said Wednesday night. Hours after the indictment, the Texas Department of Public Safety said it would "begin termination proceedings" against...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) A deputy who works for a Northern California anti-narcotics task force is facing felony drug charges after he was arrested delivering $2 million worth of marijuana to someone in Pennsylvania. According to a criminal complaint, officers arrested Yuba County Sheriff Deputy Christopher M. Heath, along with 2 other men, driving across the country with 122 packages of marijuana. Each package weighed about a pound. The trio was stopped on December 29 after police received a tip. All three were booked into York County Prison. Heath, 37, was also carrying his badge, his duty firearm and $11,000...

In some parts of the country this seems to be a settled question but it’s still cropping up in a disturbing number of places. We’re seeing incidents where court cases are popping up over instances where private citizens out on public property wind up in court with the cops after filming the activities of police on the streets. This can go one of two ways: the citizen is in trouble for doing the filming and faces charges or the cops are on the stand because of how they reacted to the filming. Neither should be showing up on the docket,...

With no charges being filed against the Cleveland officers involved in the shooting death of Tamir Rice, you can be assured that the Black Lives Matter movement will continue their activism into the 2016 season. This incident, the police-involved shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the controversial arrest and death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, took a toll on law enforcement. In June, a Gallup poll showed that confidence in police had reached a 22-year low. Now, the polling company is saying that there has been a “tenuous” recovery: After dipping to 48% in 2014 amid a national...

San Diego police officer Browder killed a man who initially he said was unarmed. After viewing this video, he changed his story and claimed the man was holding a knife, which he wasn't.

On Monday, when he announced that a grand jury had declined to indict two Cleveland police officers in the 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said enhanced video of the incident showed the boy was drawing what looked like a gun from his waistband. Although the object was actually an Airsoft pellet pistol, McGinty said, Timothy Loehmann, the officer who killed Tamir within two seconds of arriving at the scene, had no way of knowing that. Even if we accept this account, it does not explain why Frank Garmback, Loehmann's partner, drove right...

In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home. He was told to lie on the floor. When Addie Harte came out to see what was going on, she saw her husband on his stomach as SWAT cop stood over him with a gun.

(CNN)An Ohio grand jury has decided not to return an indictment in the 2014 police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, prosecutor Tim McGinty said Monday. Rice was holding a pellet gun when he was shot. It was "reasonable" to believe that the officer who killed the boy was facing a threat, McGinty said. The officer was in training outside a Cleveland recreation center in November 2014. The shooting sparked controversy given Tamir's age and the fact that he had a gun that resembled a handgun. McGinty called Rice's killing an "absolute tragedy." "But it was not, by the law...

<p>The New York City Police Department is ramping up security around tourist hotspots, but denies a report claiming it received a "credible threat" against the city ahead of Christmas.</p> <p>Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting with authorities Tuesday to urge police officers to remain vigilant during the busy holiday season, sources told PIX11 News.</p>

DES MOINES, Iowa,- A Des Moines, Iowa, police officer accidentally fired his gun while practicing his quick draw skills in an airport office, a police report says. Officer Brady Pratt, 23, was in a Des Moines International Airport office Wednesday afternoon and drew his weapon to practice "his quick draw skills" and "unknowingly had his finger on the trigger and discharged a round into the ceiling tile," the report states. The bullet struck the ceiling, traveled through a wall and into a ceiling tile in an unoccupied adjacent hallway. No one was injured, but another police officer was present to...

Officers were called to the 700 block of East 69th Place about 10:30 p.m., police said. When they arrived, they found three “vicious” dogs that were “advancing towards citizens then at the officers,” The officers opened fire, killing one of the dogs and injuring another, Greer said. The injured dog ran off with the third, which was unharmed.

A woman who refused to leave a hospital when doctors discharged her died after she was forcibly removed by police, authorities said Tuesday. Barbara Dawson, 57, collapsed Monday while being escorted in handcuffs from the Liberty Calhoun Hospital, where she went to seek treatment for breathing difficulties, said Blountstown Police Department chief Mark Mallory. Mallory said an officer had arrested Dawson for disorderly conduct and trespassing. An autopsy on Dawson has been performed and the results should be released Wednesday, Mallory said. Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials have been called in to investigate, department spokesman Steve Arthur said. He...

This is the shocking moment a cop tried to shoot a family's dog and accidentally killed a mother-of-three in front of her young son. Burlington Police Officer Jesse Hill was responding to a domestic dispute on January 6, 2015, when he said he slipped and shot dead Autumn Steele, while aiming for her pet. [snip] Out of camera shot, Steele was heard to cry out. She was rushed to hospital but died of a gunshot wound to her stomach. Hill later explained that he had been attempting to shoot the German Shepherd, which he claimed had tried to bite him,...

The criminal-justice system in Waco, Texas, continues to boggle the mind. Last month, a grand jury in McClellan County held a marathon session to consider whether District Attorney Abel Reyna had presented enough evidence to justify indictments in the shootout at a May gathering of bikers where nine people were killed. In the wake of those killings, 177 bikers were arrested. Many proclaimed their innocence, and local authorities faced criticism for jailing so many individuals using fill-in-the-blank paperwork that didn't differentiate among the jailed. Still, the November grand jury session returned 106 indictments at the end of one day, some...