Posted on 09/07/2001 3:14:12 PM PDT by freedomnews
Miami cops accused of planting guns
FBI says officers placed evidence to justify shootings FBI officials describe the details of their case at a Friday news conference in Miami.
ASSOCIATED PRESS MIAMI, Sept. 7 — Seven Miami police officers were arrested Friday by the FBI after a months-long investigation into allegations that officers planted guns at crime scenes to justify police shootings.
NO DETAILS were immediately released on the seven officers or on their specific cases. A federal grand jury indictment was expected to be unsealed later in the day, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.
Calls to Miami Police headquarters for additional information went unanswered.
Agents have been investigating gun “throw-down” cases involving the fatal shootings of two black men after a smash-and-grab purse snatching and the wounding of a homeless man who was pretending to hold a weapon to the head of a friend.
The weapon turned out to be a small radio. Orihuela could not immediately say whether Friday’s arrests involved those cases.
AP/NBC 6
MIAMI, September 7 - Eleven current and former Miami police officers, including a former assistant to the chief of police, were indicted Friday on charges they committed crimes to cover up questionable police shootings. Two other officers, both now retired, have already pleaded guilty to charges in the indictment, bringing the total charged to 13, federal prosecutors said.
Five officers were arrested at the Miami Police Department on Friday. They were summoned to the chief's office in the early morning hours and relieved of their duty, badges and weapons, according to FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.
Two other former officers were arrested at their homes, and four others were expected to surrender with their attorneys during the day Friday, Orihuela said. All were being taken to regional FBI headquarters in suburban Miami, and court appearances were expected in the afternoon in downtown Miami.
U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis held a news conference Friday at his office downtown on Friday.
Miami police had no immediate comment on the arrests.
The arrests expanded on a March indictment charging five Miami SWAT officers with conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly lying to investigators after a 73-year-old man was killed in a hail of 123 bullets during a 1996 drug raid.
Shots narrowly missed his 14-year-old granddaughter. Police said the man fired first. No drugs were found in the house, but some were found outside a window.
Arrested at the chief's office were Officers Israel Gonzalez, once an assistant to a former chief; Jose Acuna; Jorge Garcia; Jose Quintero and Jorge Castello, Orihuela said. Former officers arrested at home were Jesus Aguero and Arturo Beguiristain, she said.
Acuna and Beguiristain were indicted earlier along with Ralph Fuentes, Elizer Lopez and Alejandro Macias in the elderly man's shooting.
Authorities say the investigations also involved gun "throw-down" cases involving the fatal shootings of two young black men after a smash-and-grab purse snatching on a downtown expressway ramp, a fatal inner-city shooting and the wounding of a homeless man who officers said was holding a weapon to the head of a friend. It actually was a small radio.
Although involving 13 present and former officers, all members of SWAT teams or special crime-supression units, the scandal is smaller than the "Miami River Cops" case that grew out of the drownings of three drug-boats guards in the Miami River in 1985.
Two dozen Miami officers eventually were convicted of charges that police formed their own drug-ripoff ring, and as many as 100 officers were disciplined in a wider review as the department put its own under scrutiny.
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Ben Gray / AJC
John Bailey stands by the bullethole caused by a SWAT machine gun that accidentally discharged.
Compare the faces below
The Cobb County police thought they had a killer cornered Sunday and they didn't want to waste time. They didn't want to tip him off. They didn't want to endanger themselves or the public. And they didn't want him to get away.
But the 3 a.m. raid -- in which police targeted the wrong man, and an officer fired his gun accidentally -- raises questions of how far police should go before bursting into people's lives.
John Bailey was relaxing in his home Sunday when he suddenly found himself handcuffed, with guns pointed at his head and police combing through his apartment.
He had just come home from a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, and the evening was winding down at 3 a.m. The 41-year-old computer programmer was having some drinks with a friend when the knock on the door came, bringing with it the "scariest moment of my life."
It had been a different evening for the Cobb County police. They had received a tip from a manager of Bailey's apartment complex. The woman said a man who rented an apartment matched a photo of a fugitive shown that evening on TV's "America's Most Wanted."
Armed with a warrant, the police SWAT team descended on his red front door. Bailey had just put some fish and chips in the oven when the knock came. There were a handful of police officers, he recalled, looking like a military unit. They had rifles, night-vision goggles, helmets.
John Bailey, left, was mistaken by a TV viewer for James Detmer, right. "They could have just looked at me through a pair of binoculars and seen I wasn't him," says an angry Bailey.
The police barked orders at him. He was handcuffed and pushed around, he said. They were talking about somebody killing his father with a hammer. "And they were treating me like I was him," said Bailey.
Unfortunately, they had the wrong man.
Making matters worse, an officer's submachine gun went off inadvertently. The bullet shot through a metal closet door, through the bathroom wall, and put a hole in Bailey's deodorant stick before landing in the bathtub.
"It freaked me out," he said.
No one was injured in Sunday's early morning raid on Bailey's apartment near Vinings. Police are reviewing the incident, and it is unknown whether any disciplinary action or procedural changes will result, said police spokesman Dana Pierce.
When Cobb County police believe they know a fugitive's whereabouts, they say they must balance the desire to move fast to protect the public from a criminal, against the time needed to verify they've got the right man. If they have the right man, every minute may be critical. If they don't, they'll apologize.
Gerry Weber, a legal director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, was critical of the raid. Police should have been more suspicious of a tip received from the airing of a television show, he said, and they should have taken greater pains to ensure the man in question was the man they wanted.
Fugitive-chasing television shows create a furor to catch the criminals they profile, he said. "People want to be famous. They want to be the one who catches the guy on 'America's Most Wanted,' " he said.
Bailey, who moved to the complex three months ago, said the police should have taken more time to obtain his name from the apartment manager. They could have checked his references on the lease. They could have checked his car tag. They could have talked to his neighbors or relatives.
"They could have just looked at me through a pair of binoculars and seen I wasn't him," Bailey said.
However, Pierce said the SWAT team acted quickly but not haphazardly. Stressing the fugitive was deemed armed and dangerous, he said, "You want to get to him as quickly as possible. What if we would have waited? A fugitive could then have injured or killed somebody else."
The phone tip came to police Saturday night, shortly after the program profiled James Detmer, a 44-year-old Kansas man who allegedly killed his father with the claw end of a hammer in Missouri. Days before, Detmer had fled after making bond on a charge that he tried to set a woman on fire with gasoline.
By 2 a.m., the police had persuaded a judge to issue a warrant. Police took a photo of the wanted man to the apartment manager, who again said she recognized the fugitive. Both Detmer and Bailey are about 40 years old, and both are about 5-foot-10 and 240 pounds.
Bailey was handcuffed, Pierce said, "to protect the officers and himself" until it could be determined he was not the fugitive.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolco said such raids are routine, and he believes the Cobb police acted appropriately in choosing to go in.
"Everybody was treated correctly with respect," he said. "If it doesn't work out, you just tell them, 'Thank you for your time.' It's worth it."
On Wednesday, Bailey said his hands were still shaking. Any knock on his door drives up his blood pressure, he said. He is taking medicine for that, as well as to help him sleep.
The bullets fired inside his home were especially unnerving.
"If anybody was in that bathroom, they would have been shot," he said.
He has hired a lawyer. Attorney Stephen P. Berne of Atlanta is demanding that an outside agency look into the raid. He noted that this is not the first time the Cobb County SWAT team has come under criticism. An independent report on a raid that resulted in the deaths of two SWAT members, was critical of the team's tactics.
On Sunday, Berne said, police created a dangerous situation at Bailey's apartment.
"He has a right to be safe in his own home."
HERE,
What is it Freedom? You didn't like that the above linked thread wasn't anti-cop enough for you?
Can anybody say "pushing an agenda", yep I knew you could.
Now "most" LEO's are honest and upfront as they "know" 9 out of 10 lies or deceptions will be uncovered via the science of forensics and every other citizen in America is packing a video cqamera so just do the right thing.
A LEO/FLEA who works within the US constitution first, State & Local Law's "second" may not be promoted but they will come home alive and employed every night until retirement as I experenced it.
Stay Safe and thanks for the bump PA !
Stay well - Yorktown
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