[PA] Ex-Police Chief Briston's DV charges dropped (Assault, Terroristic Threats, Theft, & Unlawful Restraining of Maria)

Former Rankin police chief Darryl Briston

...Ms. McDaniel testified at the hearing yesterday, but Judge Martini decided there wasn't enough evidence to hold Mr. Briston for trial...

[2012 Update: Briston died after being arrested in yet another domestic incident.]

THIS MONTH:

CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST FORMER RANKIN POLICE CHIEF
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
[Excerpts] A magistrate yesterday dismissed charges against a former Rankin police chief accused of attacking and threatening his ex-girlfriend. After a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court, District Judge Randy Martini threw out charges of theft, simple assault, terroristic threats and unlawful restraint that city police had filed against Darryl Briston, 46, of North Braddock... Ms. McDaniel testified at the hearing yesterday, but Judge Martini decided there wasn't enough evidence to hold Mr. Briston for trial... [Full article here]

LEADING UP TO THIS:

EX-CHIEF OF RANKIN POLICE CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Moriah Balingit
Thursday, August 27, 2009
[Excerpts] A former Rankin police chief who was fired in 2003 after being convicted of stealing more than $5,000, is in trouble again, this time for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Darryl Briston, 46, of North Braddock, was arrested yesterday after ex-girlfriend Maria McDaniel told police Mr. Briston threatened to kill her and then stole her wallet and cell phone. He was arraigned last night on charges of theft, simple assault, terroristic threats and unlawful restraint... In January 2004, Mr. Briston was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and five years of probation for his conviction on charges of theft and obstruction of justice... [Full article here]

FORMER RANKIN POLICE CHIEF ACCUSED OF THREATENING TO KILL Ex
Darryl Briston Previously Did Time For Theft
The Pittsburgh Channel
August 27, 2009
[Excerpts] ...Maria McDaniel claims that [former Rankin police chief Darryl] Briston threatened to kill her while they were driving... McDaniel said she got out of the car and he drove after her, eventually throwing her back into the vehicle. McDaniel managed to get out again and ran for help at a local bar. When no one would help her, she went back to the location of the car to retrieve her purse and found several items were missing, including her ID and credit cards, the complaint said... Briston served time in federal prison for stealing nearly $6,000, as well as being sentenced for taking $1,300 from a bar owner. He also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a separate case. [Full article here]

EX-CHIEF OF RANKIN POLICE CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Moriah Balingit
Thursday, August 27, 2009
[Excerpts] ...In the criminal complaint, police said Ms. McDaniel told them that Mr. Briston approached her outside of her home in Penn Hills to talk to her around 6 p.m. Tuesday and they got in her car together with him driving. At some point he became irate and pulled a cell phone charger and a screwdriver out of her glove compartment and threatened to kill her with each. When she got out of the car, she said he jumped out and "grabbed me and threw me in the car," and then locked the doors. She later escaped and ran into Cheers Bar at Lincoln Avenue and Montezuma Street in Pittsburgh to call police. Mr. Briston then drove her car down the block, left it there and took her wallet and cell phone... In January 2004, Mr. Briston was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and five years of probation for his conviction on charges of theft and obstruction of justice. Mr. Briston stole money seized from the girlfriend of a drug suspect and then covered up the theft by forging documents and planting evidence. He was released in December 2007. [Full article here]

NEWS EXCERPTS FROM 2004

WITNESS TELLS FEDERAL COURT HOW RANKIN CHIEF KEPT HER MONEY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Torsten Ove
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
[Excerpts] Tamera Brice took the stand yesterday in federal court and said former Rankin Police Chief Darryl Briston took her money, wouldn't give it back and forged her signature on a car-repair deal she said she never approved.... Briston, 40, is on trial on charges of stealing $5,855 that had been seized by Rankin police at Brice's home... Briston is accused of using for his own purposes money being kept in the Rankin safe. Prosecutors later added charges that he falsified receipts to make it look like most of the money had been spent fixing Brice's Chevrolet Blazer after a tour bus smashed into it in July 2003.... Briston's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, argued that Briston is the victim of a revenge plot by Rankin Mayor Demont Coleman, who has clashed with Briston many times over the years.... [Full article here]

EX-RANKIN POLICE CHIEF FOUND GUILTY IN THEFT
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Torsten Ove
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
A federal jury yesterday convicted former Rankin Police Chief Darryl Briston on all counts related to the theft of $5,855 seized by Rankin police during the arrest of a federal drug suspect two years ago. Briston, 40, was found guilty of deprivation of civil rights under color of law, theft from an organization receiving federal funds and two counts of obstruction of justice.... The maximum he could get is 31 years in federal prison... After yesterday's verdict, Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch let Briston remain free on bond pending sentencing... [Full article here]

NEWS EXCERPTS FROM 2005

EX-RANKIN POLICE CHIEF GETS PRISON TERM
Convicted of stealing from resident during arrest of drug suspect
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Torsten Ove
Thursday, January 27, 2005
[Excerpts] A federal judge yesterday sentenced former Rankin Police Chief Darryl Briston to three years and a month in prison for the theft of $5,855 seized from a borough resident during an arrest of a drug suspect in 2002. Briston had asked Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch not to send him to jail, saying he was concerned about his wife and two children. Instead, he got the maximum under sentencing guidelines that are no longer mandatory because of a recent Supreme Court decision. "We're going downstairs to appeal right now," Briston said as he left court. "This is wrong, man"... In arguing for leniency, Briston's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, suggested that sending him to prison would have a greater impact on the ex-chief than other defendants. A jail term for Briston would mean additional punishment for a man whose conviction already means he can never again be a police officer... Cessar said Briston also gave the forged documents to the grand jury and directed two Rankin officers to place false evidence in the department's evidence locker. Those actions were the basis for the obstruction charges. In addition to the prison term, Bloch ordered Briston to pay an outstanding balance of $4,255 to Brice as restitution... [Full article here]

NEW CHARGES, MORE TOUGH TALK FROM EX-RANKIN CHIEF
The Pittsburgh Channel
February 17, 2005
[Excerpts] FINDLAY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A former Rankin police chief convicted of stealing money seized during a raid is now accused of illegally taking money from a bar owner and lying under oath. Darryl Briston, 41, of Penn Hills, surrendered to state police in Findlay Township on Thursday morning. He was charged with theft by deception, official oppression and perjury.... On Thursday, Briston blamed "an all-white jury" for his [November] conviction.... Briston also complained about being restrained with a chain around his waist by state police during his surrender. "Would they have treated you that way?" he asked Mayo... [Full article here]

EX-CHIEF IN RANKIN FACES MORE CHARGES
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, February 17, 2005
[Excerpts] ... Police said the theft by deception and oppression charges stem from his work as a security guard at a Rankin tavern. On Oct. 31, 2003, police said, Briston was moonlighting in his borough uniform when the bar owner noticed he was not standing at the front door as he was paid to do. The bar owner found Briston in his police car with his head down, and when he tapped on the windshield, Briston got out and... [Full article here]

FORMER RANKIN CHIEF FACING MORE CHARGES
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Jim McKinnon
Saturday, March 26, 2005
[Excerpts] A former Rankin police chief, convicted in federal court of theft and evidence tampering, may be imprisoned sooner than scheduled following his arrest Thursday for allegedly trying to eat a piece of evidence and fighting with troopers in a new case against him... At Thursday's hearing, police tried to retrieve the original copy of the repair receipt from Briston as evidence. Briston resisted, police said. He scuffled with a state trooper, elbowing the officer in the neck and chest when he tried to stop Briston from eating the receipt, police said. Briston was later charged with aggravated assault and tampering with evidence. He faces a hearing next month on those new charges.... [Full article here]

EX-RANKIN CHIEF GOES TO PRISON A DAY EARLY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Torsten Ove
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
[Excerpts] The long, strange journey of former Rankin Police Chief Darryl Briston ended yesterday when a judge ordered him to be taken into custody for a courtroom fracas in which police said he had tried to eat a piece of evidence.... At the hearing before [District Judge Robert] Barner, state Trooper John Tamewitz wanted to seize the original copy of the receipt from Briston as evidence because police said it was phony. Assistant District Attorney John Dwyer agreed that the document should be seized, but as Tamewitz reached for it, he said Briston pulled it away from him. Tamewitz and Barner then ordered Briston to turn it over, but he refused and crumpled it up. "The defendant was eventually taken to the ground and was then observed placing the crumpled document into his mouth, again, in an attempt to destroy it," said an affidavit. "The evidence was eventually expelled from his mouth and recovered." When Tamewitz told Briston he was under arrest, another fight broke out as the ex-chief resisted, the affidavit said. After North Versailles police arrived to help, Tamewitz managed to handcuff Briston, but not before being elbowed in the chest and neck. As police put Briston into a North Versailles police car, Briston resisted again and started yelling obscenities, screaming that the trooper was "the reason I'm going to [expletive] prison, you and the [expletive] mayor!" Briston has denied all the charges against him and claims he is the victim of a conspiracy by Rankin Mayor Demont Coleman.... [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence law enforcement threatening pennsylvania state repeat hx]