As Miami-Dade Police Narcotics Detective Michael Flynn's kidnapped and beaten girlfriend spoke to a 911 operator, he pushed her onto the floor and shoved his gun down her throat -- splitting her lip and chipping her front tooth. With the phone off the hook, operators heard and recorded him yelling at her, "Is this the way you want to die?"
He was arrested & demoted to officer, but not fired. That was 2003. While he was out on bond awaiting trial in 2004, he got busted on video and audio tape in a sting - trafficking cocaine and buying 51 bags of heroin. He was arrested but not fired. He also got caught twice soliciting a prostitute from his patrol car. Back in 1991, although Flynn was never "charged," county prosecutors officially stopped prosecuting his cases because he was found to be falsifying arrest information to inflate his statistics. That should have been the end of his police career. Instead, it wasn't until after the kidnap, assault, battery with a weapon, cocaine trafficking, heroin possession, and prostitute solicitation that he decided to resign. (Miami. Miami. I'm shakin' my head.)
Yesterday he did a "surprise plea" of guilty saying he wanted to get it over with - pleading guilty to the kidnap and possession.
His victim said,
"I had a fully loaded firearm stuck in my mouth, somebody asking me if I was ready to die.
Only God decides that."
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ReplyDeleteMiami Officer Charged With Trafficking Heroin
ReplyDeleteOfficer Allegedly Purchased 51 Bags Of Drug
Story by nbc6.net
POSTED: 6:00 p.m. EDT October 27, 2004
UPDATED: 6:05 p.m. EDT October 27, 2004
MIAMI -- A veteran of the Miami Police Department is behind bars and accused of trafficking heroin.
Chief John Timoney announced the charges, trafficking heroin and possession of cocaine, against Officer Michael Flynn Wednesday.
The Story In Pictures: Officer Charged
Internal affairs had been watching Flynn closely after being tipped off that he was seen with drug dealers.
Detectives arrested Flynn in Overtown, where he allegedly purchased 51 small Ziplock bags of heroin. Police found cocaine in his unmarked, city of Miami police car as well.
It isn't the officer's first time in trouble.
In 2003, Flynn was arrested and charged with kidnapping and battery with a weapon, after a domestic situation with his girlfriend. That case has not yet gone to trial.
Flynn, 44, has been a Miami cop for more than 20 years.
"It's sad that one of our own has being arrested," Timoney said. "It is also good in that we are sending the message that drug abuse by any man in this department won't be tolerated."
According to the chief, Flynn worked as an undercover officer in Overtown when he started with the department 20 years ago. The chief said that Flynn had been friends with known drug dealers in the area.
If found guilty, Flynn could face up to 30 years in prison.
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=17999&siteSection=1
Ex-Miami narcotics officer facing drug charges
ReplyDeletePosted by IHP on Thursday, October 28th, 2004 at 20:10
A veteran Miami police officer -- who was suspected of shady dealings as a narcotics detective more than a decade ago -- was arrested on drug charges following a sting operation in Overtown.
Michael Flynn, 44, a patrol officer since 1982, was charged Tuesday with trafficking heroin and being in possession of cocaine. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
''It's kind of a bittersweet day for the Miami Police Department,'' Chief John Timoney said while announcing the arrest at a news conference Wednesday. "One of our own is being arrested.''
According to police, someone called 911 in August to report seeing Flynn use a city-owned vehicle to pick up a prostitute on at least two occasions.
Timoney said that triggered an Internal Affairs investigation, and detectives began following Flynn for about a month. During that time, undercover officers made three drug purchases from Flynn, Timoney said.
With the help of two suspects in drug-related cases, Flynn was arrested around noon Tuesday on an Overtown street as he bought 50 baggies of heroin worth about $10 each, police said.
Timoney said that Flynn was off duty at the time, but that he was driving his assigned city vehicle.
Flynn, who served in the street narcotics unit from 1989-1990 and 1993-94, had been on desk duty at police headquarters following an alleged July 2003 incident of domestic violence.
According to assistant state attorney Herbert Erving Walker III, Flynn beat his girlfriend in her North Miami Beach apartment -- at one point shoving his gun down her throat and chipping her tooth.
''We filed charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault,'' Walker said. Flynn was also charged with using a firearm during the alleged kidnapping and battery. His trial on that case is set for January.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, who attended the news conference, said her office sought to keep Flynn behind bars.
Prosecutors initially convinced Circuit Judge Andrew Hague to hold Flynn without bond, arguing that the kidnapping charge could result in a life sentence, said state attorney's spokesman Ed Griffith.
In September 2003, Flynn's attorney, Kenneth Weisman, asked for a hearing and brought in a psychologist who said Flynn was not a threat to the community. Hague then let Flynn out of jail, and put him under house arrest.
Later, Senior Circuit Judge Richard Margolius heard Weisman's new request for bond and granted it.
Flynn was allowed to return to the department because of stipulations in the police union contract. But he was assigned to desk duty.
On Wednesday, Weisman wouldn't comment on his client's defense, saying he will answer questions in court.
Prosecutors have had concerns about Flynn dating back more than a decade, when he was assigned to an undercover street narcotics unit.
In 1991, Flynn and his partner, Jeffrey Giordano, were investigated by the state attorney's office for alleged perjury and official misconduct. Flynn told The Herald that prosecutors suspected that they were falsifying their arrest reports with ''multiple defendants'' to increase their arrest statistics.
''But I wasn't,'' he said in a 1994 interview. "It's all how you do it. I don't just pick somebody at random and stick 'em with it. I don't have to. It's out there.''
No charges were filed against the two detectives, but the state attorney's office decided not to try any more of Flynn's cases.
After the 1991 probe, Flynn was reassigned to patrol duty, but returned to the narcotics squad for a year in 1993. Afterward, he had been on street patrol until his arrest on domestic violence charges.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10033115.htm
FLYNN GRABBED HIS LIVE-IN GIRLFRIEND BY THE HAIR AND DRAGGED HER... AS SHE SPOKE TO A 911 OPERATOR, FLYNN PUSHED HER TO THE FLOOR, SHOVED HIS GUN DOWN HER THROAT, SPLITTING HER LIP AND CHIPPING HER FRONT TOOTH. WITH THE PHONE OFF THE HOOK, OPERATORS HEARD AND RECORDED FLYNN, SHOUTING, "IS THIS THE WAY YOU WANT TO DIE?"
ReplyDeleteVeteran Miami Cop Faces A Second Charge
Ihosvani Rodriguez Miami Bureau
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
October 28, 2004
Edition: Broward Metro
At different points of his 22-year career with the Miami Police Department, Officer Michael Flynn specialized in busting domestic abusers and drug pushers.
Since last year, Flynn has been accused of being both.
The latest charge against him came Tuesday when Miami police arrested Flynn on charges of purchasing 51 small heroin bags during his lunch break in a city-owned vehicle. Police said Flynn struck a deal with two police informants working with the department's Internal Affairs Unit for $10 a bag.
Until Tuesday, Flynn, 44, worked at the department's downtown headquarters on administrative duties. He had been placed on house arrest while awaiting trial on assault, battery and kidnapping charges filed after an alleged violent domestic abuse episode in 2003. In that case, Flynn is accused of shoving his service gun down his live-in girlfriend's throat and threatening to kill her.
"It's a bittersweet day for us," Police Chief John Timoney said. "It's sad that we've made an arrest on one of our own, but it's good because this is a message that drug use will not be tolerated in this department."
Police said that on Sept. 17, an Overtown resident dialed 911 after seeing someone in a city vehicle picking up a prostitute. The tag came back to a white Ford Taurus that Flynn was issued.
Detectives soon began tailing Flynn, including two occasions in which he allegedly made drug purchases in the Overtown area. Police then used two informants who Flynn knew from his days as a narcotics officer between 1985 and 1991 to set up a drug deal, officials said.
Flynn bought heroin from the two men Tuesday afternoon near the intersection of North Miami Avenue and 10th Street, police reports said. Internal affairs officers, who recorded the transaction on video and audiotape, then arrested Flynn.
Police also charged Flynn with drug possession after finding cocaine stashed in the car. Police would not say whether they think Flynn was buying the drugs to sell or for personal use, but did say he refused to take a drug test.
He was being held at Metro West jail in a single cell away from other prisoners.
According to police records, on July 11, 2003, Flynn grabbed his live-in girlfriend by the hair and dragged her after she refused to watch television in their North Miami Beach apartment. As she spoke to a 911 operator, Flynn pushed her onto the floor and shoved his gun down her throat -- splitting her lip and chipping her front tooth.
With the phone off the hook, operators heard and recorded Flynn, shouting, "Is this the way you want to die?"
A year before, Flynn worked in the department's Domestic Violence Unit.
Ihosvani Rodriguez can be reached at ijrodriguez@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5005.
Miami police officer faces drug charges
ReplyDeleteWashington Times, DC
Oct 28, 2004
Miami, FL, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A Miami police officer with a long, troubled career has been arrested on drug charges as the result of a sting operation. Michael Flynn, 44, was charged Tuesday with trafficking in heroin and being in possession of cocaine, The Miami Herald reported Thursday. Maximum penalty is 30 years in prison. The arrest was announced by Police Chief John Timoney. "It's kind of a bittersweet day for the Miami Police Department. One of our own is being arrested," Timoney said. Flynn already faced charges of domestic violence last year for allegedly threatening his girlfriend with a gun and chipping her tooth. He was the subject of two complaints a few weeks later that he used a police vehicle to pick up prostitutes. He was assigned to an undercover streets narcotics unit in the early 1990s. He was accused but never convicted of falsifying arrest reports to increase his arrest statistics. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041028-110740-5613r.htm
Corrupt Narcotics Cop Pleads Guilty
ReplyDeleteOnly On 4
Flynn Has Had Been Suspected Of Narcotics More Than Once
Carey Codd
Feb 8, 2006
Image: http://img.viacomlocalnetworks.com/images_sizedimage_039201426/lg
Michael Flynn made a SURPRISE PLEA DEAL with his lawyer by his side on Wednesday. (CBS4 News)
(CBS4 News) LAKE WORTH Former Miami Police Officer Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges in Lake Worth Wednesday from a case that dates back to 2003.
Flynn kidnapped and assaulted ex-girlfriend Elaine Melvin inside their North Miami Beach home back in 2003. Melvin is relieved that Flynn will be locked up and far away from her reach. She spoke exclusively to CBS4's Carey Codd.
"I had a fully loaded fire arm stuck in my mouth, somebody asking me if I was ready to die," said Melvin. "Only God decides that."
Flynn will be sentenced in upcoming months for drug trafficking charges as well.
“I want to take responsibility for my actions, and I want to put it aside” Flynn told a judge Wednesday in his plea deal.
Flynn, who had been with the force since 1982 had been suspected of shady drug dealings a decade ago but had originally been cleared.
http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_039201152.html
Ex-officer admits at trial to kidnapping
ReplyDeleteMiamiHerald.com
By Susannah A. Nesmith
snesmith@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Thu, Feb. 09, 2006
Michael Flynn decided just to get it over with.
Moments before his trial was set to begin on kidnapping charges Wednesday, the former Miami police officer pleaded guilty to that charge, and to a separate drug trafficking offense.
''I want to take responsibility for my actions,'' Flynn told Circuit Judge Barbara Areces. "I want to put it aside. I want to move on.''
Flynn, a patrol officer for more than 20 years, most likely will be sent to a state prison. He is facing at least 13 years, and could be sentenced to life, plus 50 years for the two cases.
He was first arrested in July 2003 after his girlfriend said he beat her and pushed his gun into her mouth. In October 2004, while out on bond, he was arrested again on charges of trafficking in heroin and possession of cocaine.
After that arrest, the department began the procedure to fire Flynn, but he resigned.
Judge Areces urged Flynn to carefully consider pleading guilty to the charges.
''I just need to make sure you don't feel that anyone has promised you anything in terms of leniency,'' she said.
''Again, for the umpteenth time, I want to take responsibility for my actions,'' Flynn told her.
His attorney, Kenneth Weisman, had little to say after the surprise plea.
''He was not interested in putting the victim through any further trauma,'' Weisman said.
Assistant State Attorney Herbert E. Walker III. said he was pleased with the outcome.
''With Michael Flynn off the police force and Michael Flynn behind bars for what we hope will be a substantial amount of time, the community is safer,'' he said.
Flynn's wife and parents sat quietly in the audience during the proceeding and waved a final goodbye as he was led away in handcuffs. His former girlfriend, Elaine Melvin, was not in court Wednesday.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13825421.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local
Drug Dealing Officer Is Sentenced
ReplyDeleteJun 16, 2006 10:39 pm US/Eastern
Evan Bacon
Reporting
(CBS4 News) MIAMI A Miami-Dade Police officer convicted of peddling drugs while on duty and threatening to kill his own girlfriend was sentenced to 35 years in jail in a Miami courtroom Friday night.
Michael Flynn, a 23 year veteran of the City of Miami Police force, had pleaded guilty to buying and selling heroin from his own patrol car while on duty. He also admitted to forcing the barrel of his gun down his girlfriend’s mouth, while threatening to kill her.
“I did it and I take responsibility for what I did,” Flynn testified during Friday’s sentencing hearing. “I did it. I did it. I did it.”
In October of 2004, the State Attorney’s office, along with Miami Police Chief John Timoney announced Flynn’s arrest after an extensive internal affairs investigation, charging him with drug trafficking.
The 45-year-old convict says he started using drugs to numb the pain of dealing with his brother’s death, until his life spiraled out of control. He says at one point he was taking 40 to 50 pills of Vicodin and Percocet a day, when he escalated to snorting heroin because it was more readily available.
Even though prosecutors were asking for almost double the sentence the judge imposed, Flynn’s defense still says he was treated more harshly than an average citizen.
“Whenever you have people who are public officials such as a police officer, they are representatives,” said defense attorney Stephen Millan. “So we place them on a pedestal, and sometimes we hold them to a higher standard.
Both the officer’s ex-girlfriend and his sister gave testimony at the hearing against and for a lighter sentence respectively.
Flynn is expected to serve 30 years of his sentence.
Daniel Lastra, CBS4.COM
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_167213118.html
Dog Bites Man, Man Shoots Dog
ReplyDeleteA Miami cop and a Morningside resident differ about who's to blame for the death of a pet
By Ray Martinez
Article Published Aug 15, 1996
During his fifteen years on the city's police force, Ofcr. Michael Flynn has worked some of Miami's meanest streets. But until one day in Morningside in early March, he had never had occasion to fire his gun in the line of duty.
"I've worked narco-undercover, riots, and been shot at many times. I've pulled my gun out hundreds of times," Flynn says. "And look what happens -- I have to pull my gun out just to shoot a dog."
The dog, a Belgian shepherd, is dead. But the fallout from the incident lingers in the form of an insurance claim filed by Flynn, who claims he shot the dog in self-defense, and a lawsuit threatened by the late canine's owner, who contends that the officer and the City of Miami are liable for her loss.
The unfortunate encounter took place on the afternoon of March 1. Mary Lyons-Stanley was about to steer her Mercedes into her driveway after work when she saw a man on a white bicycle apparently trying to break into her second car, a Jaguar parked on NE Sixth Court, in front of her house. She honked at the man to shoo him off, and then watched as the brazen fellow pedaled to her neighbor's car. She pursued him and honked again. The contest continued for five blocks, until Lyons-Stanley had chased the man into Morningside Park.
When she finally pulled into her driveway, Lyons-Stanley thought, "Maybe I should be a good neighbor and call the police. Tell them there's a black man on a white bicycle that's trying to steal cars in the neighborhood. So I called and told them to send a police officer over to the park."
The dispatcher asked Lyons-Stanley for her address. "Why do you need my address? Just send someone to the park," she replied before reluctantly -- and now regrettably -- providing her address. That was at 3:10 p.m.
Nearly an hour and a half later, Officer Flynn was dispatched to Lyons-Stanley's address, which is out of his normal patrol zone. Through the wrought-iron front gate, he peered at the 1923 Spanish-style house nestled in a trim tropical setting, the Mercedes parked in the driveway. Then he parted the gate and stepped toward the house.
At the side door, he knocked. No answer. He knocked again.
Lyons-Stanley was in her back yard painting the garage when Bingo, a 35-pound mixed bull terrier, and Basha, a 65-pound black Belgian shepherd, came for her. "I heard the girls barking in the front yard and they ran to get me," she recalls. "I climbed down the ladder and said, 'Let's go.'"
By then Flynn had started back to his patrol car to report in.
"I got to the rear of the Mercedes when a little dog, a pit bull terrier, snapped at my leg, biting the heel of my boot," he recalls. "Then a German shepherd creeped around the car, grabbed my hand, and just shook it. Mind you, it happened so fast -- it lunged for my left hand like a vise grip and wouldn't let go. I took a step back and was, like, ooohh-aaahhh, and discharged two rounds, hitting the dog. The dog on my leg scurried away."
[MORE...]
[CONTINUED]
ReplyDeleteStunned, Lyons-Stanley berated Flynn through tears: "Why did you come in my yard? Why did you kill her?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Flynn told her as neighbors began to gather at the scene. He showed her his hand: No broken bones, but several puncture wounds.
"He walked through a secured gate into my property. There was nothing so urgent that he couldn't have called me. I've never had anyone walk on the property in the two and a half years we've been here," she argues. "Both dogs are trained to bark and come back to wherever I am. They did exactly what I trained them to do. They were protecting their property. Basha was one of a kind. She was very protective of me, very close to me. She just lay there whimpering, like she was refusing to die until he got off the property."
Richard Parsons, Lyons-Stanley's attorney, has requested Flynn's files in order to check "for negligence or hiring an incompetent man, or retaining an incompetent man."
Counters Marc Reynolds, Flynn's lawyer and friend: "He was just doing his job. He felt terrible about it. He's a nice guy. A really nice guy."
In fact, he adds, he owned a dog for fifteen years. "I talk to my wife and parents about the shooting a lot. What else could I have done? If she knew she was calling the police and she knew her dogs bite -- I mean, we just don't wait outside. We have to go in and investigate. She should have known we were coming."
Flynn says that when he was instructed to go to Lyons-Stanley's house, he had no idea what he was going to encounter. "All I know was that there was a call about a suspicious person in the neighborhood," he asserts. "When we get dispatched, we never know how long the call was holding." (Dispatchers prioritize the calls they receive and send out officers according to the perceived urgency of the situation.)
Police never did find the suspect on the bike. But Lyons-Stanley says she saw him breaking into a neighbor's apartment a few days later. Watching as he rode off on a black mountain bike, she decided not to report the burglary.
Reynolds says the case is clear-cut for his client. According to Florida law, a dog owner must post a "bad dog" sign in a prominent place. Lyons-Stanley has a sign posted on the six-foot-high wooden fence leading to her back yard, five feet from the side door where Flynn says he knocked.
Flynn claims he didn't see that sign. Besides, he adds, a sign should have been posted on the front gate. "I always look for dogs and dog signs. I mean, I look for dogs. I work the streets. I've been chased and barked at and snarled at. We're very cognizant of dogs and yards. It's not like we just walk into people's yards, trust me."
He has filed a claim against Allstate, Lyons-Stanley's insurer, for hospital costs, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. "I just want to be made whole, you know. I just want to be the way I was before I shot the dog," says the 35-year-old officer, who says the bite didn't cause him to miss any active duty. "Other people look at this very lightly, but it's not a funny thing. It wasn't funny to [Lyons-Stanley] and it wasn't funny to me, because I really love dogs."
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1996-08-15/metro2.html
[FL] Did I mention that Miami-Dade Detective Flynn got 35 years? I want to.
ReplyDeletehttp://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/2006/08/fl-did-i-mention-that-miami-dade.html
To the person who just tried to leave a comment, I went to sleep thinking about your words and I woke up thinking about them. Would you like me to post your comment or would you like to contact me?
ReplyDeleteGod bless you Behind The Blue Wall, my prayers are with her...She is not alone. I am here also.
ReplyDelete