City Attorney Says Charges Could Be Dropped Against (KMart) Arrestees

The city attorney told the council that if an internal affairs investigation reveals that the arrests were illegal, the city will dismiss all of the charges against all of the people and even overturn the convictions for those who pleaded guilty to get out of jail.

They had better expunge all record of the arrests and give every person an official written apology. Otherwise, these arrests will come back to haunt some of them.

Agreed. If the City Attorney is smart, he'll make such a motion to the court, and seek City Council permission to refund all the towing fees, as well as issue the written apology.

That won't head off all the lawsuits, but it might substantially reduce any damages that might be awarded.

I think the general opinion around town is that Mayor Brown is too dumb to be corrupt.

"Zero tolerance does not override the need for probable cause to issue citations or to make arrests, nor does it mean to arrest everyone in sight," Bradford said.

Glad to hear that clearly stated.

"No officer in the Houston Police Department has ever been cited with insubordination or any other offense for their refusal to obey an unlawful order nor will they be on my watch," Bradford said.

It would be interesting to see how often this has happened and what the situations were.

The city attorney told the council that if an internal affairs investigation reveals that the arrests were illegal, the city will dismiss all of the charges against all of the people and even overturn the convictions for those who pleaded guilty to get out of jail.

And settling lawsuits.

Good article.

I agree,besides job aps,etc.,when you buy a firearm the paperwork asks if you have ever been arrested.I'd been told if you answer yes to any of the questions they couldn't sell you a firearm.

I wonder what happens when people that have been arrested on false charges or found not guilty try to buy a firearm?

ping - more official information on Kmart

Just checking! I had two friends killed while dragracing. I will promise you the parents didnt blame the police. This will come back to haunt these ninnies in the long run. Its the same with kids in school, my kid does no wrong you caint flunk him or stop her from being cheerleader. I got kicked off the football team one game for smoking. My mother didnt blame the coach she beat the crap out of me.

Do the people know or care that he is corrupt beyond measure?

Obviously not enough. He had a good opponent in the last election, but still managed to get re-elected. In fact I *think* they have 2 year terms and he got re-elected twice. However, there are term limits so this is his last term.

Good article.

Yes, it was pretty informative, especially since it comes from a TV station. I didn't even bother to post the story from the Houston Chronicle because it's awful. If you're interested, click here.

Color perhaps.

just raise your kids the way your Mom raised you and things will be okay. Give your Mom a big hug for keeping you straight.

No, it asks if you have been convicted of a felony, or if you have been arrested/indicted for a felony (that hasn't been cleared by a dismissal or acquittal).

See http://www.atf.treas.gov/forms/4473/index.htm

Thanks,I was thinking I had seen the question on forms in the past.

Bad memory or to many meds. :)

1) It is K-Mart, not Wal-Mart.

2) The hypocrisy is just wonderful, don't you think?

The hypocrisy is on behalf of those who profess to believe in the Rule of Law, but don't care if the police observe it.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, you continue to maintain that everyone in that parking lot that night deserved to be arrested, and is guilty. Your position is simply amazing.

(I have taken the liberty of adding commentary to this post, in hopes things will be made clearer)

Kmart wanted the problem dealt with -- loiterers and drag racers.

Not just K-Mart, who has since denied they asked for any type of help from the police, but also residents of apartment complexes immediately adjacent to the K-Mart.

Unfortunately, HPD went nuts. Rather than going after the loiterers and drag racers, they just started swooping in, blocking exits, and arresting every single person present, including legitimate customers, on bogus charges.

It seems the implication here is the police just suddenly arrived without warning and started arresting everyone, when no one had done anything wrong. You certainly got that impression with some of the early news reports, with allegedly concerned parents moaning, "Oh, my child is a Straight-A student who has never been in trouble his whole life, and the police just came up and arrested him! Ohhhhh!"

The problem is, that in and of itself is bogus. According to an op-ed piece published in the Houston Chronicle and written by Christine McDonald, the police had been contacted on numerous occasions on complaints of noise and general rowdiness caused by an ever increasing crowd (as mentioned by Houston City Councilman Bert Keller on KHOU-TV).

Police visits to the lot and the posting of No Trespassing signs (which were present on the day of the raid, as indicated by a report by KHOU-TV) went unheeded and ignored.

On August 18, an undercover officer had been inside the K-Mart prior to the raid, handing out cards to whom they believed to be legitimate customers. All they had to do was whip out one of those cards when the raid commenced, and they would not be arrested. The exits were indeed blocked, to keep those who would be arrested from escaping by vehicle.

The James Coney Island raid was conducted on adults who had been meeting for ten years with the blessing of the owner of the establishment and were doing absolutely nothing wrong.

Separate issue, therefore irrelevant.

Because the police made no effort to separate legitimate patrons from loiterers in either raid, they destroyed their own credibility.

Obviously false. If anyone is contributing to the destruction of the credibility of the Houston Police Department, it is the news media, who has deliberately tried to make this look like an act of the Keystone Kops on a group of little angels.

The drag racers and loiterers need to be dealt with, but that probably isn't possible now.

That is, unfortunately, quite so. In fact, things now will only get worse. And you can thank our biased, leftist news media for it.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary,

I have to say, that is a knee slapper. You make it sound like 100% of the stuff coming out is going against the police. Despite the media bias, the opposite is true. In fact, 80% of the news thus far shows the police were justified in their actions.

No the HPD and Officer Aguirre have only themselves to blame. If I had been illegaly arrested you can bet I would be filing a lawsuit regardless of what the media has to say about it. Houston taxpayers will be paying for their mistakes.

"In fact, 80% of the news thus far shows the police were justified in their actions."

LOL...you must live in a parellel universe? I assure you no one else sees it as you do.

I have no doubt that you'll continue to maintain your position, even after the charges are dropped, police are disciplined, and damages are paid to those falsely arrested.

NONE of the news shows the police were justified, unless you are one of those who believe that the end justifies the means.

You could not care less whether the police were acting legally. All you care about is that some people you don't like were hauled off to jail. You won't even entertain the notion that someone who just happened to be in the lot to conduct business was caught up in the raid.

But I'm convinced that it's pointless to argue with you. You apparently get your news from another planet.