[OH] OFFICER GRIFFIN BRUTAL DV, RESIGNATION, STANDOFF AND SUICIDE

In uniform Cleveland Police Officer Tommie Griffin brutally pistol-whipped his ex-wife with his service weapon, punched her in the face several times, shot his weapon into the mattress next to her head, forced her to the basement where he raped her at gunpoint, cut off the GPS ankle monitor he was ordered to wear before his rape trial, went on the run, engaged in a six-hour standoff with police when he was located, and then killed himself with a high-powered AR-15. 

FEDS SURROUND CLEVELAND HOME DURING SEARCH FOR FORMER CLEVELAND COP TURNED FUGITIVE RAPE SUSPECT
October 24, 2017
[Excerpts] Federal agents searching for a former Cleveland police officer [Tommie Griffin] who broke his GPS monitor a week before his rape trial was set to begin surrounded a home Tuesday on Cleveland's West Side... Griffin broke his GPS-monitored ankle bracelet on Saturday... Griffin was set to begin trial Oct. 30 on multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, felonious assault and domestic violence in the January attack on his 42-year-old girlfriend. Griffin has been on house arrest since posting bond in March... [Full article here]

A DECORATED CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER-TURNED-FUGITIVE TAKES HIS LIFE AFTER SIX-HOUR STANDOFF
October 25 2017
[Excerpts] ...On Jan. 13, Griffin found his 42-year-old girlfriend with another man, according to court records... A little after midnight, Griffin returned to his girlfriend’s house in nearby Parma while she was sleeping. Still wearing his police uniform, he punched and pistol-whipped her several times, then held his gun next to her face before firing two shots into the mattress, according to court records. Police said he then ordered her to take a shower before taking her to the basement, where he pointed the gun at her and forced her to perform a sex act on him. Then, he drove away from the house alone... Police found the woman alone in her house on Jan. 14. Her face was severely injured, and her home was in disarray... Parma police arrested Griffin later that day... Griffin was placed on unpaid leave from the department while the case was pending, until he resigned in March...  [Full article here]

EX-COP ON TRIAL FOR RAPE KILLS HIMSELF AFTER SWAT TEAM STANDOFF
October 25, 2017
[Excerpts] An ex-cop-turned-fugitive who cut off his GPS ankle monitor ahead of his rape trial killed himself with a high-powered rifle Tuesday, ending a six-hour standoff with police. Tommie Griffin, a 52-year-old decorated former Cleveland police officer who won the department’s distinguished service medal in 2009, fatally shot himself in the chest with an AR-15 in the basement of a Cleveland home where investigators think he had been hiding since late Monday... “Mr. Griffin put Cleveland police in a very, very bad position,” US Marshal Pete Elliott said. “It’s not the ending we wanted to see, but it is what it is.”... [Griffin] took his life as a SWAT team entered the home... [Griffin] had stayed at a Motel 6 in North Ridgeville on Saturday and Sunday with the help of an accomplice. Another person then drove him Monday to the friend’s home where he took his life... “That’s a powerful weapon that could have been used on any one of our guys,” Elliott told Cleveland.com. “That was the worry we had all day — that he was going to take one of us out”... [Full article here]

EARLIER IN THE YEAR:

OFFICER CHARGED WITH RAPE, ASSAULT OF GIRLFRIEND
January 18, 2017
[Excerpts] A Cleveland police officer [Tommie Griffin] accused of pistol-whipping and raping his girlfriend will be held in jail on $250,000 bond... charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 28 years in prison. Parma Municipal Court Judge Deanna O’Donnell set his bond at $250,000... O’Donnell also ordered a temporary protection order... The victim in the case attended the hearing with family members. She had two black eyes... Griffin has one prior criminal conviction for misdemeanor criminal mischief in 2009...

CLEVELAND OFFICER CHARGED IN PARMA RAPE WAS ARRESTED IN 2009 FOR TRYING TO FORCE WOMAN TO KISS HIM
January 17, 2017, Updated January 18, 2017
[Excerpts] The Cleveland police officer ... Tommie Griffin, 51, is charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the attack on his 40-year-old girlfriend... Griffin was arrested by Parma police in 2009 after a then-27-year-old woman reported that Griffin forced himself on her. Griffin eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief and was sentenced to pay a $400 fine... The woman ran into Griffin at a Parma bar... Griffin forced himself on the woman [details at link]... The woman had injuries to her lip and hand. She told investigators later she was frightened because Griffin is a police officer and that she had heard that he was abusive to women in the past. [Police wired her and he admitted the assault.]... Police obtained DNA swabs from saliva left on the woman... Investigators stopped Griffin's car about four months later and got a DNA swab... and they matched... The woman continuously told police that she wanted to pursue prosecuting the case. "I want him to feel the pain, anger and anxiety I have felt since this happened," according to a statement the woman gave to Parma police at the time. "This incident made me realize you cannot trust [anyone], not even the people who you think you might know, or who are there to protect you. I am disgusted with the whole situation. May he get what he deserves." [Full article here]

MORE THAN 60 GUNS, INCLUDING SUBMACHINE GUN, SEIZED FROM CLEVELAND COP CHARGED WITH RAPING GIRLFRIEND
January 26, 2017
[Excerpts] ...A grand jury on Monday handed up charges including rape, felonious assault, kidnapping and domestic violence against the patrolman in Cleveland's First District. Griffin is also charged with pandering obscenity... He has remained jailed since North Royalton Police arrested him at gunpoint Jan. 14... Judge John P. O'Donnell on Thursday continued the bond set at Griffin's appearance in Parma Municipal Court, and ordered him to have no contact with the woman, who has moved out of the home, and be tested for HIV, a standard procedure in cases involving rape charges. Prosecutors had asked O'Donnell to double Griffin's bond to $500,000, citing "mental health issues" and concern for the safety of both the victim and Griffin. "The victim is in complete fear and this police officer used his gun to commit his crimes," Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia said... Court records show police seized 67 guns, including 50 handguns of different calibers, five assault rifles including an AK47, an Israeli 9mm Uzi submachine gun, seven long rifles and four shotguns... [Full article here]

CLEVELAND COP ACCUSED OF RAPING GIRLFRIEND ALSO SENT LEWD PICS OF HIMSELF, PROSECUTORS SAY
February 3, 2017
[Excerpts] The Cleveland police officer accused of raping and pistol-whipping his girlfriend also sent lewd photographs of himself to an unspecified person involved in the investigation... Patrolman Tommie Griffin III sent the photographs on Jan. 13, the day before he is accused of attacking his 42-year-old girlfriend in the home they shared on State Road in Parma... Griffin has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He remains jailed on $250,000 bond, and is suspended without pay until his case is over... A search warrant at Griffin's Sate Road home and in a vehicle there turned up 67 guns, including multiple AR-15 model rifles and an Uzi... [Full article here]

CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF RAPING GIRLFRIEND RESIGNS, BOND LOWERED
March 6, 2017
[Excerpts] ...He pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, felonious assault, kidnapping, pandering obscenity and domestic violence. Defense attorney Patrick Leary successfully argued that Griffin was not a flight risk and that his bond should be lowered. He wrote in court records that Griffin is not a threat to himself or anyone else... Prosecutors fought against the lowered bond citing the violent nature of the accusations and noting that Griffin is accused of using a gun during the crime, while the others cases Leary cited did not...  [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety lethal fatality fatalities murder repeated ohio state politics]