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Friday, February 17, 2006

[KY] THE PROMOTION OF WIFE-KICKING (EXPUNGED) POLICE SGT SHOBE





TODAY'S NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT THE PROMOTION OF LOUISVILLE POLICE OFFICER KIRBY SHOBE TO SERGEANT DIDN'T SAY ENOUGH, SO I DUG UP INFORMATION FROM THE LIBRARY ARCHIVES. THE INFORMATION ARRANGED INTO A TIMELINE BELOW HAS BEEN EXTRACTED FROM THE FOLLOWING COURIER JOURNAL ARTICLES:

2000_1025 Police Officer Arrested On Charge Of Assault
2001_0331 Louisville Officer Pleads Guilty To Harassment
2001_0831 Dv Case Against Louisville Officer Is Dismissed
2002_0809 Officer Who Pleaded Guilty To Harassment Is Suspended
2006_0217 Promoted Officers Were Suspended


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1996
A WOMAN (NOT OFFICER SHOBE'S WIFE) SOUGHT A DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE ORDER AGAINST HIM, WRITING IN HER PETITION THAT SHOBE HAD TEMPER TANTRUMS AND HAD DESTROYED HER KITCHEN WITH A GOLF CLUB. A JUDGE GRANTED A NO-CONTACT ORDER AND STIPULATED THERE BE NO FURTHER ACTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OR ABUSE.

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1997
A DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE ORDER ISSUED IN JANUARY 1997 ORDERED SHOBE TO UNDERGO ANGER-CONTROL COUNSELING AND STAY 300 FEET FROM THE WOMAN. THE WOMAN LATER DROPPED HER REQUEST FOR THAT ORDER AND AN EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE ORDER...

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1998
KIRBY SHOBE IS HIRED BY THE LOUIVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT. DID I MENTION THAT KIRBY SHOBE IS THE SON OF RETIRED JEFFERSON CIRCUIT JUDGE BEN SHOBE? HE IS. DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN SAID THE 1997 DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE ORDER WOULD HAVE SHOWN UP IN A BACKGROUND CHECK WHEN SHOBE APPLIED TO BECOME AN OFFICER. BUT SHOBE WAS HIRED UNDER FORMER CHIEF DOUG HAMILTON'S ADMINISTRATION, THE SPOKESMAN SAID, SO HE COULDN'T COMMENT ON THAT

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2000

JANUARY
SHOBE AND HIS WIFE ALSO FILED FOR DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE ORDERS AGAINST EACH OTHER. THAT'S ALL WE KNOW ABOUT THAT.

OCTOBER
OFFICER SHOBE WAS BEEN PLACED ON PAID ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE AFTER BEING CHARGED WITH 4TH DEGREE ASSAULT -"ASSAULT WITH NO INJURY" (?)... SHOBE'S WIFE TOLD OFFICERS THAT HE SLAPPED HER, "THREW HER TO THE KITCHEN FLOOR AND KICKED HER FIVE TO 10 TIMES." (THINK ON THAT.)


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2001

MARCH
SHOBE PLEADS GUILTY TO HARASSMENT WITH PHYSICAL CONTACT BUT NO INJURY. SHOBE MUST ATTEND ANGER-CONTROL COUNSELING AND CANNOT HAVE CONTACT WITH HIS WIFE FOR SIX MONTHS... IF SHOBE COMPLIES WITH THE NO-CONTACT ORDER AND THE COUNSELING, THE HARASSMENT CHARGE LIKELY WILL BE DISMISSED...

AUGUST
THE CASE AGAINST OFFICER SHOBE WAS DISMISSED ON AUGUST 31ST BECAUSE HE COMPLETED ANGER-MANAGEMENT CLASSES ON AUGUST 28TH. A MOTION WAS ENTERED TO EXPUNGE THE CASE FROM THE RECORD, AND THAT MATTER WAS SCHEDULED TO BE ADDRESSED IN OCTOBER.

OCTOBER
ALL COURT RECORDS IN THE CASE WERE ORDERED EXPUNGED.


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2002
OFFICER SHOBE HAS RECEIVED A 15-DAY SUSPENSION. POLICE CHIEF GREG SMITH SAID THE PUNISHMENT - METED OUT AFTER A DEPARTMENT INTERNAL INVESTIGATION THAT OPENED IN OCTOBER 2000 - WAS FAIR, ADDING THAT "15 DAYS IS A HEAVY SUSPENSION." A LOUISVILLE POLICE SPOKESWOMAN SAID THAT SHE WAS NOT SURE WHY THE INTERNAL INVESTIGATION TOOK 22 MONTHS. "THE DEPARTMENT TRIES TO BE THOROUGH RATHER THAN WORK UNDER ANY KIND OF TIME FRAME." CHIEF SMITH SAID "POLICE ARE HUMAN, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE."

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2006 - FEBRUARY 17
TODAY, FEBRUARY 17TH, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE OFFICER KIRBY SHOBE WAS PROMOTED TO SERGEANT. POLICE CHIEF ROBERT WHITE: "WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT THEY DID WRONG AND HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE. BUT WE ALSO HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE THEIR CAREERS... I AM CONVINCED THAT EACH OF THEM UNDERSTANDS WHAT OUR MISSION IS... THEY'RE ALL TEAM PLAYERS."
[cleared acquitted police officer involved domestic violence law enforcement lethal repeat offender hx history kentucky state teflon]

[TX] Officer Gomez was reinstated to his job this past week

February 2006
Texas
Even though he was charged with assault and endangerment to a child, accused of "beating" his estranged wife, leaving bruises and scratches, and in some undisclosed way also hurting his one-year-old daughter, Elsa Police Officer Ismael Gomez has had his charges of assaulting his wife dropped and is back to work. (His wife, who is separated from him, says this wasn't the first time he's hit her although it is the first time she's called police.) The district attorney says Gomez still has the pending felony charge of endangerment to a child, but if the bruises around his wife's neck and her cuts didn't keep him off the job, probably beating a baby won't either.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

[WI] Police Standards Officer Steven Lelinski accused of attacking woman he was "pursuing"


February 2006
Milwaukee 16-year veteran Police Officer Steven Lelinski, Member of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board, and President of the Police Relief Association is said to have "pursued" a woman for several weeks before "assaulting" her in her home. (The news articles carefully avoid the R word.) It's said he threw a $20 on the floor when he was done. He's charged with second-degree sexual assault, and second-degree attempted sexual assault, both felonies, and a lewd and lascivious behavior, a misdemeanor (innocent 'til proven guilty). The news says if convicted he'd be looking at up to 60 years. (Won't happen.)

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

[FL] Detective (no-charges) Collier says he just needed "closure"


February 2006
Nine year veteran Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Narcotics Detective - who is also a former detective for Department of Homeland Security investigating the mob - Chad Collier is now recommended by internal affairs for termination. He's ready to appeal. Collier doesn't like folks taking away what he wants to keep. Last year he wanted his dating companion of several months to not leave him. He used his tactical stealth to find his way past the security gates of her condo, and began pounding on the door. After five minutes, trained and experienced, Collier kicked the door in - or as the internal investigation report states, there was a loud noise and Collier was found standing in the living room. He was greeted by a .40 caliber pistol held by his replacement and was told to leave. He did. That was a friday. He wasn't arrested by Jacksonville Beach police until Monday. I don't know why. An internal investigation report says he returned to the ex-girlfriend's condo again, violating an order to stay away from her. Collier was charged ONLY with criminal mischief and trespassing in an occupied structure - "armed with personal weapons" - and released after posting $5,000 bail. The State Attorney's Office says DROPPING THE CHARGES was because NEITHER COLLIER (???) nor his girlfriend wanted to pursue. The news says it's not believed that Collier dating someone in the State Attorney's Office has anything to do with the lack of charges, and it probably didn't. I think his law enforcement credentials were enough to see him through.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

[KY] Ex-Cop Wheeler vs. his daughter = sodomy "not guilty" verdict

February 2006
Kentucky's Shepherdsville Officer Adam Wheeler resigned while fighting the charges of sodomizing his six year old daughter. (Before being an officer there, Wheeler had served as a sheriff's deputy and was assistant chief with the Nichols Fire Department. He also served as the school resource officer in Shepherdsville.)
I tried to not spend hours digging up everything I could find on this case but I did. I think I have all there is to be found that's ever been on the web. Six years old when the sex act was said to have happened (or not happened) and 13 when it went to court, Wheeler's daughter went on record as not believable this month. A liar. I had to dig. I might be being subjective here, but it just hurt me to my soul.
I wasn't there. I don't know. But I wanted to gather the pieces to try to understand how she ended up there, labeled that way, permanently on record.
She told teachers, friends, social workers, police - what she says happened to her. She recanted briefly once after her mother told her if she did that they could be a family again, but she quickly returned to the allegation. Wheeler's defense jumped on that lapse pointing out that the girl's brief retraction proves it was a lie. "When you can't keep the story straight, it's because it didn't happen."
Then officer Wheeler's MOTHER said it was his ex wife's plot, and so did Officer Wheeler's sister. They both said they heard Wheeler's ex say it.
The jury foreman Timothy Alumbaugh said, "There was so much confusion. The prosecutor didn't present the case well. It really boils down to there just wasn't enough to convict him. We couldn't leave and think down the road that we'd sent an innocent man to prison."

A prayer rises for the wrongly represented - whoever they may be. It must be hell.

Thursday, February 9, 2006

[FL] Miami Detective Flynn asked girlfriend "Is this the way you want to die?"

February 2006, Florida

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."

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

[FL] 2 Eustis Police officers & their wives die in triple murder suicide


February of 2006: Eustis Police Officer Cpl. Michael Mount shot and killed his wife Kim, fellow Eustis Police Officer Jose Gomez and Gomez's wife Serena before turning the gun on himself.

UPDATED POST.

Eustis cop lurked before killing 3: He went after his wife, who wanted a divorce, police say.
Orlando Sun Sentinel
Sarah Lundy and Stephen Hudak
February 7 2006
[Excerpts] Kimberly Mount's marriage to police Cpl. Michael Mount had come apart in just six months, largely because of his fits of jealousy. So last week, authorities said, she told her husband she wanted a divorce and that he had to move out. Afraid her husband would hurt her, she took her two children to spend Saturday night at the home of another Eustis cop, Jose "Joe" Gomez, and his wife, Serena. By daybreak Sunday, they were all dead -- shot in the head by Mount, who then used his department-issued handgun to kill himself... The shootings came at the end of a week when Mike Mount told his wife he didn't want to live, tried to resign his $41,099 job, picked up an application from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and accused his friend, Joe Gomez, of having a "relationship" with his wife... Mike Mount, 34, parked his black Chevrolet pickup several hundred feet down the road from Gomez's home sometime early Sunday... Investigators now think Mount was lurking outside the house... About 6 a.m., Mount forced his way in through the front door... "We were aware of the marital problems, and we tried to be supportive of both," Cobb said. He added that Kim Mount "never described to us any incidents of violence." Cobb described Mike Mount as a jealous man. Before he earned a recent promotion to corporal, the chief advised Mount that he needed to get control of his jealousy. "He always questioned her commitment to the marriage," Cobb said. Last week, Mount had a run-in with Gomez in the Police Department parking lot. Mount accused Gomez of having a relationship with his wife, Cobb said... Gomez told the chief about the conversation later. Also earlier in the week, Kim Mount spoke to Cobb about her husband, the chief said. She told him that the couple had discussed their relationship during the weekend and Mike Mount had said he loved her and wanted to work through their difficulties. At one point, Mike Mount told his wife that "maybe I would be better off if I wasn't alive," Cobb recalled Kim Mount telling him. Cobb said Mike Mount could be "emotional" and the comment wasn't cause for immediate alarm but police officials were keeping an eye on whether he needed counseling. At one point, Mike Mount told supervisors that maybe he should resign and work at a different agency than his wife did. Cobb said officials told him he didn't have to resign and that the department would support the couple... [Full article here]



EUSTIS POLICE CHIEF FRED COBB

Chief Cobb: "There is nothing we could have done as an agency to foresee that Michael was capable of such a heinous crime."

Serena And Joe Gomez Memorial Page here.

Cops have duty to protect and serve their own: Police couldn't have predicted Sunday's deaths, but they must do a better job of addressing instability among its officers.
Orlando Sentenel Crime Blog
Lauren Ritchie
Published February 7, 2006
[Excerpts] ...And now, there is Eustis police Officer Mike Mount. After six months of marriage, the 34-year-old corporal is believed to have shot and killed his wife Kim, a clerk at the department, along with fellow officer Joe Gomez and his wife, Serena, on Sunday. A half-dozen children will grow up without their moms or dads. Oh, God. Why? Why do people solve temporary problems with permanent solutions?...And there's no point in lamenting that Mount was a police officer, as if he should have known better. Lake Sheriff Chris Daniels insightfully remarked Sunday that police are hired "from the human race. Everything that exists in the average population exists with law enforcement." The difference, however, is that society hands police officers a public trust -- along with a gun. While those who hire can't see the future, they have an obligation to act decisively when instability arises. Mike Mount threw out hints in the days before his world unraveled. He confronted Joe Gomez in the department parking lot and accused him of having an affair with Kim. He said he wanted to die. He tried to resign from the Police Department but was told to take the weekend off and get his emotions settled. The argument with Gomez should have triggered action by the department, especially because officials knew of Mount's tendency to be unreasonably jealous and once had cautioned him about the consequences... The sort of brotherhood police officers share often works for the good... But that same bond can mask trouble, as it did in this case... Hints of turmoil were swept aside... What happened with Mount should nag at police chiefs and sheriffs everywhere... they have to remember that the enemy sometimes comes from within... [Full article here]

Why Did FL Cop Kill Wife, Others?
Eustis, FL
Orlando Sentinel
2/8/2006
[Excerpts] ...Afraid her husband would hurt her, she took her two children to spend Saturday night at the home of another Eustis cop, Jose "Joe" Gomez, and his wife, Serena. By daybreak Sunday, they were all dead -- shot in the head by Mount, who then used his department-issued handgun to kill himself, authorities said. "They brought the girlfriend over who broke up with her husband today, and he's a cop," Serena's mother, Debra James, cried frantically to a 911 operator after she fled the home with her grandson shortly after 6 a.m. "I think he broke in and shot everybody"...

KIM MOUNT


Tragic endings: Our position: Police don't get enough help in dealing with the stress of their job.
Orlando Sentinel
February 10, 2006
[Excerpts] ...Within the past five months, there have been two high-profile murder-suicides by officers in Central Florida. On Sunday a Eustis officer killed himself, his estranged wife, a fellow officer and his wife. In October, an Orange County deputy killed himself and his two children. They weren't the only casualties. During the past year at least five other Central Florida officers killed themselves. Throughout the nation, hundreds of officers commit suicide every year...

Gomez funerals today
Orlando Sentinel
Sarah Lundy
February 10, 2006
[Excerpts] A joint funeral service for Joe and Serena Gomez will take place at 1 p.m. today at Calvary Chapel, 2401 W. Cypress Creek Road in Fort Lauderdale... The Gomez couple moved to Lake County last year from Palm Beach County, where he worked as an Ocean Ridge police officer and she worked as a deputy town clerk. A Web site -- serena- and-joe-gomez.memory-of .com -- is dedicated to their memory...

Law enforcement mourns slain clerk: Service in Eustis avoids mention of husband
Sun Sentinel
Sarah Lundy
February 10 2006
[Excerpts] A crowd watched as six city police officers carried a white casket containing one of their own from First Baptist Church of Eustis toward a waiting black hearse. Walter Wolf, a Lake County deputy sheriff and former Florida Highway Patrol lieutenant, stepped behind them, placing his hand on top of the casket as if guiding it safely into the car. Wolf stood not as a cop but as a father mourning the loss of his daughter, Kimberly Mount, 35, Eustis police administrative clerk...

400 Mourn cop, wife: Joe and Serena Gomez were killed in their home by a Eustis officer.
Orlando Sentinel
February 11, 2006
[Excerpts] The 7-year-old daughter of slain Eustis police Officer Joe Gomez brought a chapel full of burly law officers to tears Friday with a brave little speech. "I loved my dad," Brianna, nearly hidden by the podium, said in a tiny voice. "God bless him."...

Eustis officer who killed 3 is buried: Friends and family pray for mercy at Michael Mount's service in Inverness.
Orlando Sentinel
February 15, 2006
[Excerpts] ...[Eustis Police Officer Michael] Mount, too, was dressed as a civilian. Eustis police Chief Fred Cobb refused to let Mount's family bury him in uniform or with his badge... More than 200 officers in dress uniform honored the Gomezes at a Friday ceremony in Fort Lauderdale that featured a police processional and gun salute, but Mount received no official recognition for his work in law enforcement. The funeral program identified him as "Mr. Michael R. Mount"... Mount's 4-year-old daughter, Madison, who lived with him and Kim Mount, who was buried last week, clung to relatives as the service ended. She clutched a red carnation plucked from a bouquet. "Daddy," she cried over and over. "I want my daddy."

Serena's mom Debra James fled the house with her grandson, and Kim's young son and daughter were present in the house, but spared.

Horrific crime haunts mother: She was in the house when a distraught Eustis cop killed her daughter and 2 others.
Orlando Sentinel
Sarah Lundy
March 16, 2006
[Excerpts] Two gun blasts shook Debra James out of bed before dawn. At the other end of the house, Eustis police Cpl. Michael Mount had just shot her son-in-law and fellow Eustis Officer Joe Gomez, 34, in the head... Hiding between the side of the bed and the wall, James heard three more shots. Mount, 34, had burst into the master bedroom where he gunned down his wife, Kim, 35, and James' only daughter, Serena Gomez... "Every time I go to sleep I relive that day," said James, who spoke publicly for the first time this week about the triple murder and suicide Feb. 5. "I'm in hell, and I haven't come out"... James, 48, replays those moments in her mind, struggling to understand what happened that Sunday... Two days after the shootings, officials spoke to Justin. "Mike makes me very mad," the boy told investigators. "Mike was the one who snuck into my house and shot my mom and dad"... [Debra] James doesn't know whether she will ever be able to forgive. "She was my only child, my best friend and you can't replace that," she said. James wants to donate the furniture in the Eustis house to a domestic violence shelter. "I don't want to ever come back here," James said, standing outside the house. The mother also hopes Eustis police officials learn from this tragedy. She said the city's police chief knew Mount was a jealous husband who had wrongly accused Joe Gomez of having an affair with Kim Mount. She said he knew Mount was struggling with the end of his marriage. James said Chief Fred Cobb should have taken away Mount's service weapon. "I don't want another family to go through what I'm going through," she said. Cobb said this week he agrees with James that the tragedy is a reminder that police need to be aware of what is going on in employees' lives. But the chief said there was no evidence that Mount was going to react so violently. He said Joe Gomez didn't consider Mount a threat... For now, James takes comfort in small reminders of Serena: A T-shirt with her daughter's smell. High-school yearbooks with pictures of happier times. A small family keepsake that James' mother gave her and that she passed on to Serena when she became pregnant with Justin. James carries the glass memento everywhere. It reads: "It takes a little time to make a miracle. Congratulations"...[Full article here]

Lawsuit: Slain wife put others at risk: The mother of another of Cpl. Michael Mount's victims seeks damages in a wrongful-death suit.
Orlando Sentinel
Stephen Hudak
Posted July 25, 2006
[Excerpts] The mother of a woman gunned down by Eustis police Cpl. Michael Mount in a triple-murder-suicide early this year wants money from the estates of the officer and his wife, who, according to a lawsuit, created "a zone of risk" that led to the killings... The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed last week in Circuit Court in Tavares, seeks compensation for mental anguish for Serena Gomez's mother, Debra James, and the Gomezes' son... The lawsuit says Kimberly Wolf Mount knew her husband "was a jealous and violent man who in the past had reacted violently toward her and others"... "There was never any indication of prior violence," said Sgt. Christie Mysinger. But the lawsuit suggests Kimberly Wolf Mount knew her husband had violent tendencies and should have known she would place the Gomez family in danger if she left him and stayed at their home... It also says Kimberly Wolf Mount had a duty to the Gomez family to "lessen the risk or see that sufficient precautions were taken to protect them," but she failed to do so... Michael Mount's mother, Bonnie Hoover, who oversees his estate, could not be reached by phone for comment. Kim Mount's father, Walter Wolf, declined to discuss the lawsuit...


JOE AND RENA GOMEZ


Slain officer performed his true 'duty'
The Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Lauren Ritchie
May 27, 2007
[Excerpts] Eustis police Officer Joe Gomez wasn't technically on duty that day in February 2006 when fellow officer Mike Mount barged into Gomez's laundry room from the garage. In fact, Gomez was in his skivvies when Mount raised his police pistol and put a bullet in his friend's head... What Gomez did isn't easily defined - the dynamics of friendship and duty were intertwined in his decision to shelter Kim Mount. Initially, the Hartford Insurance Co. refused to pay the couple's orphaned son a higher, "on-duty" death benefit. Instead, the company paid $53,999.14. But then Lake lawyer Bob Austin, an insurance expert, investigated and submitted a review that changed Hartford's corporate mind. The company cut a check for an additional $215,996.56 because Gomez's actions were "in the furtherance and scope of his employment as a police officer," according to papers filed in Lake Circuit Court. It's time that Lake County recognize Gomez, too... But the decision lies with Fred Cobb, head of public safety in Eustis. Initially, Cobb was told that Gomez didn't meet the criteria to receive line-of-duty benefits or have his named inscribed on a national wall. And Cobb isn't convinced Gomez died in the line of duty... Perhaps Cobb will rethink his position... Regardless of whether Gomez underestimated how truly disturbed his friend was, the officer stepped forward to keep another human being safe. He did what he thought would protect a woman who had been threatened. He did the right thing. And after all, that's what being a cop is all about.
[police officer involved domestic violence law enforcement fatality fatalities murder-suicide multiple florida friends mayhem]

[UT] DIVORCE DISPUTE-RESOLUTION TOOLS FOR EX-SWAT OFFICER HENDERSON

February 2006
(See 2 prior posts here and here)
From the news today: "...Ten felony charges were filed by the county attorney's office against Art Henderson of Highland, who was fired from the Lehi Police Department in 2004. Art Henderson faces five attempted aggravated murder counts in addition to aggravated assault, criminal mischief domestic violence and unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle counts related to the Jan. 27 incident. Alternative counts of attempted murder and two aggravated assault counts have also been filed for three of the attempted aggravated murder charges..." (More)

Monday, February 6, 2006

[NC] Officer Robert Willis arrested for domestic violence & "dismissed"

Southport Officer Arrested on Domestic Violence Charges
WECT
FEBRUARY 6, 2006
A Southport police officer has turned himself in for domestic charges filed against him. Corporal Robert Willis was arrested Saturday. The 37-year-old has been dismissed from his current position. He served as a routine officer at the Southport Police Department for five years.

Friday, February 3, 2006

[UT] Lehi Police Chief Chad Smith says he loves.

(Related to an officer-involved domestic shootout earlier posted here.)

Before this most recent article I had read in various pieces of this chief's love and hurt - while still being able to (regrettably) fire an officer when he needs to do that.
It will be better here to post excerpts from the article than to rephrase.

Lehi's police-force 'family' starts long healing process
By Sara Israelsen
Deseret Morning News
Friday, February 3, 2006
...A week ago today, an armed (Officer) Henderson allegedly hunted down his ex-wife and her boyfriend before turning his gun toward Lehi officers coming down the road with their lights on and sirens blaring. A shootout ensued and Henderson was hit twice, stopping the rampage. The crime scene has been cleaned up, and the investigations are under way, but the healing process for the Lehi officers has just begun. "We're close," said Lehi Police Chief Chad Smith. "Blood is thicker than water. You can always weather any storm if you have your family with you."...
...The feelings were predictable: Second-guessing, sadness, frustration. "There was a lot of anger," Smith said. "We felt like a good friend tried to kill us. There's a lot of baggage there." Smith continues to work with his officers and their spouses to make sure they can talk about their feelings and feel his support. The support is there every day, not just after a crisis. Smith talks to each officer every day. He asks about their children by name. He looks into their eyes, knows how they're feeling...
...Officers' spouses have the chief's phone number and are invited to call him anytime. "That's what I'm about," Smith said. "Family."...
...Smith was at home when he received a call from a Lehi dispatcher at 9:30 Friday morning: There's been a shooting. Art's involved. Officers are there. "I'm dying," he said of his feelings at that moment...

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

[FL] Clay County Deputy Elkins says pulling gun on family was a JOKE (GET it?)

2006 February

According to 4 witnesses in the car - including 2 teens - Clay County Deputy Douglas Elkins was driving and arguing with his wife, pulls a gun, and unholsters it in the presence of the other family members in the car.

His wife says: “Go ahead. There are witnesses this time,”

HE says he's got "plenty of ammunition for everyone."

The family pleads with him (ouch), he puts it away and says,

"Nobody can take a joke."

From one of the news articles, "...Mrs. Elkins... and all the relatives in the car told police they felt Elkins was serious, not joking. In a Domestic Violence Threat Assessment attached to the police report, Mrs. Elkins was asked if she thought her partner would "intentionally kill" her. She answered, "Yes."...
(Source: Deputy Accused of Threatening Family With Gun, First Coast News, Feb 1, 2006)

According to multiple news accounts, Elkins was arrested for aggravated assault, all the witnesses were afraid of him, charges were dropped - but an internal investigation very lightly held him accountable:

...An investigation by the internal affairs unit of the Clay Sheriff's Office -- a move that is standard procedure -- found Elkins' behavior "would tend to discredit your reputation and the reputation of the Clay County Sheriff's Office," the May 1 reprimand letter says. "Further improper conduct may result in a more severe punishment," the letter concludes. The 18-year-veteran of the agency has been moved from his position as a school resource officer to regular patrol duties.

Note: Elkins has had 6 sustained complaints for "improper conduct of improper procedure." Seeing as complaints aren't often sustained, I can only wonder how many complaints have been made. It appeas that the witnesses were very afraid, the charges were dropped, but the internal held him accountable - with a transfer to regular deputy duties and a handslap - written reprimand.

jacksonville.com
...When his wife said "go ahead, there are witnesses this time," Elkins "unsnapped the holster and said that he did not care because he had a 'full magazine and plenty of ammunition for everyone,'" according to witness statements... Witnesses didn't return phone calls Tuesday. They told police they were afraid for their lives and said they heard Elkins threaten to kill his wife "if she did not shut up."... She also said he has threatened before to kill her and make it look like self-defense... Elkins, who was released from jail on $10,000 bail, was placed on administrative leave with pay...

jacksonville.com
...The other people in the car gave a Jacksonville officer the same account [as wife], and all indicated they did not think Elkins was kidding, the report said. The officer and his supervisor met with an assistant state attorney and a judge, who issued the warrant with a $10,000 bond...

jacksonville.com
...[Elkins] arrested by Duval authorities on aggravated assault charges has received a written reprimand and has been transferred to a different department... The charges were dropped... However, an investigation by the internal affairs unit of the Clay Sheriff's Office -- a move that is standard procedure -- found Elkins' behavior "would tend to discredit your reputation and the reputation of the Clay County Sheriff's Office," the May 1 reprimand letter says. "Further improper conduct may result in a more severe punishment," the letter concludes. The 18-year-veteran of the agency has been moved from his position as a school resource officer to regular patrol duties.

A letter is all it's worth?

[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety lethal terroristic threatening florida state politics]