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

KPRC Channel 2 Houston ^ | August 28, 2002

[Dog Gone]

HOUSTON -- Houston's Police Chief C.O. Bradford addressed concerns Wednesday about a Kmart parking lot raid earlier this month in which dozens of people were arrested.

	Hear What Police Chief Has To Say SURVEY Was The Parking Lot Raid Warranted? DISCUSSION What Do You Think Of The Parking Lot Raid?

The raid happened Aug. 19 in the parking lot of a Kmart department store, located in the 8400 block of Westheimer Road, in southwest Houston.

HPD officials had previously said that it conducted the crackdown in response to numerous complaints from citizens and previous police surveillance regarding street racing and large crowds forming in the area.

Police said that these crowds impeded the access to and from businesses and that as a result of the operation 278 people were arrested with the majority being charged with criminal trespass.

"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.

Bradford answered some tough questions Wednesday for more than two hours by some members of the City Council.

He admitted that the parking lot raid arrests may be illegal, if people were never told they were trespassing and given a chance to leave.

Bradford said that if that's true, then he wonders why his officers followed an illegal order to arrest everyone.

"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.

Councilman Mark Ellis and others said that they wondered why no one blew the whistle before this raid, because a smaller sweep was done the night before at a James Coney Island eatery in which 25 people were arrested.

"Friday night, I didn't know. A chief in charge of the department didn't know, because no one reported it in a significant event report that it had occurred," Bradford said. "So, therefore, there was not that opportunity to intervene before the next night occurred."

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.

Thirteen officers have been suspended in the wake of the raid, including the officer in charge of the operation, Capt. Mike Aguirre.

One of those people arrested has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city, accusing Aguirre and the city of falsely arresting him for "attempted trespass."

[justlurking]

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.

There's a problem: the police apparently posted the "No Trespassing" signs. The legality is questionable if they did do so at the request of K-Mart and Sonic, but unquestionally illegal if the police did so on their own. The police have no authority to arbitrary post those signs on private property.

Separate issue, therefore irrelevant.

Now I'm laughing out loud. The fact that OJ was found not guilty is relevant to this incident, but the outcome of a nearly identical raid commanded by the same officer in the same city isn't relevant? :-) Today, the city council apparently didn't think it was irrelevant.

Hint to people that don't understand: see here. And per his request, it also explains why I haven't addressed this response to the original poster.

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.

Keystone Kops is a good analogy -- I hadn't thought of that until now. I imagine someone could turn that into a good cartoon. But, the HPD does seem to be improving their credibility by suspending 13 officers. The DA is also trying to do the right thing by promising to dismiss all the charges if he finds that illegal arrests were made.

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

While I agree about the lamestream media, I don't think they are the reason that the drag racing and loitering will get worse. That blame lies squarely on the HPD for their monumental screwup. If the DA can be taken at his word, one false arrest will be cause to dismiss all of the rest. If the HPD had been more careful, they probably wouldn't have to meet such a high standard.

However, the HPD can deal effectively with the problem without resorting to military tactics. Hopefully, they will do so, within the law.

[Houmatt]

LOL...you must live in a parellel universe?

No, I just live in a universe with wide-eyed, paranoid cop haters.

Actually, not everyone is, just you.

[Houmatt]

see post #36

[1_American]

You apparently get your news from another planet.

You gotta cut houmatt a break. He's got a lot of time on his hands ... since the suspension.

LEO's especially HPD LEO's are known to get a little "testy" while going thru donut withdrawal

[justlurking]

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

The other 20% is the news that:

1. The police chief admitted that K-mart never filed a trespassing complaint.
2. The police chief admitted that the parking lot raid arrests may be illegal, if people were never told they were trespassing and given a chance to leave.
3. 13 supervisory officers have already been suspended from duty, pending an investigation by the DA.
4. The DA is investigating whether city money was used to post the "No trespassing" signs.
5. An internal memo distributed just days before the operation provides for arresting only people that were committing offenses other than trespassing.

Did I forget anything?

[monday]

"No, I just live in a universe with wide-eyed, paranoid cop haters. Actually, not everyone is, just you."

No I'm not. I like police officers usually. They are decent people doing a difficult job. Officer Aguirre lacks the judgement necessacary for this line of work and should look for alternative employment. Doesn't mean I hate him.

Calm down and look at it rationaly and you will see what is very obvious to the rest of us houmatt.

[No Truce With Kings]

Well, let's see the amen corner explain this one.

Obviously the city of Houston got some cop-hating, liberal, ACLU-type for their city attorney.

Nah, that probably won't fly.

How 'bout this? Who ya gonna believe? Your lying eyes or the noble Captain Aguirre? (Pay no attention to all of the internal complaints behind the curtain.)

Better, but I dunno.

I know! I know! K-Mart actually did file a complaint. It wuz them cop-hating, liberal, ACLU-type lawyers. They got into the department paperwork and spirited it out so it don't exist. Now K-Mart is weasling out about making a complaint since the paper trail disappeared.

Whatever they say, one thing I have no doubt about -- they will say it was everyone's fault but the bad-apple cop that planned this, and the cops who blindly followed him into the swamp.

[niki]

What's your take on the article and what the Chief had to say?

[Old Professer]

Pamphlets out of the Education Department on bettering education and indorcing higher learning

You won't catch me endorsing things I don't understand...

[OldFriend]

Lots of fraud no doubt.

[OldFriend]

Brown certainly wasn't considered a nice guy when he was Police Commissioner in NYC.

[Dog Gone]

Chief on hot seat for police raid

Top cop apologizes for raid that resulted in 273 arrests

08/28/2002

By Jason Whitely / 11 News

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- Houston's top cop found himself in the hot seat at Houston's City Hall Wednesday and apologized for a massive police raid that he said he never approved.

For several hours Wednesday, Police Chief C.O. Bradford answered questions about the raid at a Kmart parking lot that landed hundreds in jail. "I am embarrassed as police chief," Bradford said.

Those in charge of the raid said they were trying to catch street racers, but Bradford said there was no indication of it.

New numbers came out Wednesday in the raid on a West Houston Kmart parking lot on Aug 17. Bradford said 273 people were arrested for trespassing that night, but many said they were never told to leave in the first place.

"We offer an apology," Bradford said. "Even if everything turns out to be within the law. The way it was effected should have been done a little bit differently."

Now there's a question of who knew what and when. 11 News first reported last week on internal police memos addressed to Chief Bradford in May detailing the proposed crackdown and arrests.

But Bradford says he didn't approve it. And department policy is to issue citations instead of arrests. "I never saw this plan, never heard about this plan until a week after the event," he said.

But council members heard from a wrecker driver on Tuesday who said the raid was well planned and publicized over the police radio. "Wrecker drivers know more about what's going on in our police department than our police chief," said Houston City Councilwoman Ada Edwards. "That bothers me very, very deeply."

Chief Bradford has suspended 13 police supervisors who worked in the raid. Many of those taken in are talking to attorneys alleging unlawful arrests. This incident has become an unprecedented event for Houston Police, which may lead to an unprecedented outcome as well.

Attorneys said that more clients are coming forward everyday. And they expect more lawsuits to be filed later in the week alleging unlawful arrest.

Chief Bradford said that the Internal Affairs investigation won't be wrapped-up for another couple of months. But in the next few weeks, the department will decide whether to press ahead with the trespassing charges or to just dismiss them.

Despite Bradford's City Hall explanations, many questions remain unanswered surrounding the raid on the Westheimer parking lot. What is known is that 273 people were arrested and 42 of them were juveniles. No citations were issued.

[Ken H]

Folks should understand that one of the missions of Free Republic is to root out government corruption.

You are doing a yeoman's work in that effort.

[Dog Gone]

There are a whole slew of people who saw the same problem with this operation that I did and who contributed mightily to the effort of convincing people of it. But I thank you.

The story is not over yet, but I think today's developments indicate that the Rule of Law may very well prevail.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"Pamphlets out of the Education Department on bettering education and indorcing higher learning.... It was filled with spelling and grammar errors."

"indorcing" - I think you mean "endorsing" - better be careful who you cite "with spelling and grammar errors."

[Ken H]

Yep. Lots of folks, doing what Free Republic was meant to do.

[supercat]

It seems the implication here is the police just suddenly arrived without warning and started arresting everyone, when no one had done anything wrong.

The police arrived suddenly, and without warning started arresting everyone without wanton disregard for whether the individuals being arrested had done anything wrong. That much is agreed to by both witnesses and the police.

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).

Even if warnings had been given to disperse from that lot on other occasions, and even if a warning given days before could be held to still be applicable (which would probably only be the case if the store owners had requested that the people being dispersed never come back to shop in their store again), the police arrested everyone without regard for whether individuals had been present for any earlier warnings. Certainly one cannot be held liable for failing to heed a warning one was not present to hear.

It may be that some of the people who were arrested deserved it. It could even be that most of them did. Even if 2/3 of the arrests were legitimate, however, that would in no way excuse the cops' deliberate harassment of 90+ people whom there was clearly no cause to arrest.

[supercat]

...started arresting everyone with wanton disregard...

[Dog Gone]

I predict that you're wasting your breath. Just a hunch.

[justlurking]

Bradford's answers lead to more questions

Mayor says he supports police chief

08/28/2002

By Doug Miller / 11 News

HOUSTON (KHOU) -- Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford did little to quell critics Wednesday during his first public statements on the mass arrests at a Kmart parking lot.

"I have no evidence, at this point in time, that anybody was involved in street racing on the date and time in question," Bradford said, as he answered questions from council members.

Some citizens at city council listening today questioned whether Chief Bradford was really in control of Houston's police force. The city council had several questions for the chief, and 19-year-old Michael Guerra had one of his own.

"He's saying that it never reached him, the plan to arrest everyone never reached him. I would just want to ask him, how could that happen if he's supposed to be the chief?" Guerra said. "He's supposed to be in control of everything. You know, just, something this massive happened without him knowing about it?"

Hans Marticiuc, with the Houston Police Officers Union, said Bradford's answers only led to more questions. "I'm not sure whether he's lost control, but I think the confidence in the entire administration is jeopardized, " Marticiuc said.

Mayor Lee Brown supported the police chief. "I have the utmost confidence in Chief Bradford," Brown said. "He's a career police officer."

At city council, some lawyers took notes on the chief's statements. His answers to council members' questions could come up in lawsuits against the city.

"I heard a number of things that could help the case," said Randall Kallinen, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who was taking notes. "There was definitely something wrong."

It's not the last time Chief Bradford will face the spotlight on the controversial raid.