July 31st, 2009
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#10
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Radio active
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Gone to work on the lemming sites against Big Jew.
Posts: 9,439
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Crooked cops, jew lawyers, muds....the kwa at its multicultural finest.
Quote:
A video that once again has the Hollywood Police Department investigating allegations of corruption against its officers went undiscovered for months because a DVD filed March in court did not contain the incriminating clip.
The video, in which officers are heard discussing plans to doctor an arrest report in order to fault an accused drunk driver in a police-involved crash, is now at the center of an internal affairs investigation into the actions of five department employees.
The clip could also alter the outcome of court cases from misdemeanor DUI to murder.
Prosecutors learned of the video July 21 -- more than five months after Alexandra Torrensvilas was charged with driving under the influence in a Feb. 17 crash with Officer Joel Francisco.
Charles Morton, Broward's chief assistant state attorney, said Friday that a disc originally filed in Broward Circuit Courts contained only two of three video clips involved in the case.
``It's under investigation,'' he said, declining to comment further.
According to court documents, prosecutor Cathy Berkowitz received the clip from Torrensvilas attorney Lawrence Meltzer. Prosecutors dropped all charges against the 23-year-old Hollywood resident Wednesday, despite evidence that she had a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit at the time of her arrest.
Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner declined through a department spokesman late Friday to comment on the previously missing video.
Wagner did speak publicly about the investigation for the first time Friday morning after days of silence while the video gained thousands of hits on YouTube.com and received national attention. Wagner addressed the video and allegations against his officers, saying his department is thoroughly investigating and has requested the state attorney's help.
``With that said, I realize and understand those that feel a sense of betrayal over this incident and I ask each and every one of you to allow this investigative process to run its course,'' he said.
Wagner said he learned of the allegations against his officers Tuesday and took immediate action, suspending Francisco, arresting Officer Dewey Pressley, Sgt. Andrew Diaz and Community Service Officer Karim Thomas prior to media reports about the video.
On Friday, police identified a fifth employee caught up in the probe: Crime Scene Technician Andrea Tomassi.
Wagner said by law he could not comment on the investigation. He declined to answer questions about the incident and struggled with a locked door before leaving the department's conference room amid a flurry of queries about his department's credibility and maligned history. Most notably, Hollywood Police were embroiled in a scandal in 2007 when a federal sting led to the arrest of four officers. Public Defender Howard Finkelstein has been critical of the department since Meltzer brought the video to his attention July 24. He said he received a copy from police and released the clip to a legal affairs blog the following Monday, setting off a media firestorm.
The next day, he sent a letter to Wagner, demanding accountability and decrying what he called a ``culture of corruption'' at the department.
Some city commissioners generally spoke positively about the department Friday.
``I think it's just individuals. I don't think it's an entire culture of corruption,'' Commissioner Beam Furr said. ``I hope we are able to weed them out.''
Now, with the video in-hand, Finkelstein said the allegations against the officers could act as legal dominoes in pending and resolved cases in which they were called as witnesses. ``This could have huge, far-reaching implications and that's why you need to understand this is more important than a couple of cops did something bad,'' he told The Miami Herald.
The state attorney's office is now evaluating 27 pending cases involving the accused officers to determine whether it can prosecute without the officers' testimony, according to Morton.
Those cases range from misdemeanor DUI to murder, said chief assistant public defender Mindy Solomon.
She said the Public Defender's Office is also reviewing cases closed during the last 30 days and during the last two years to see if they could be potentially reopened.
``We have new evidence we didn't have before,'' she said.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/1166811.html
__________________
The average kwan is of such low quality that he'd shoot himself if he had any self awareness.
-Joe from Ohio
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