|
24 May 2012
HOME
Natural Remedies
CDC Greed
(won't answer the FOIA)
ELISA = arbitrary cutoff.
Disclaimer
Overview
TUSKEGEE - By Jerry Leonard
1998, CIA Oilmen & Israelis plan to overthrow
Saddam for the oil.
Bush/Gore Oil/War-(Oct,2000)
Bush's own explainer (Oct
2000) re:
Iraq Oil
| |
(2006) Ya really have to have no dick to be
playing these stupid games with your co-worker co-circle jerkoffs at the expense
of innocent people.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-cspdrunks1206.artdec06,0,6735439.story?page=2&coll=hc-headlines-local
Troopers Ran `100 Club' For DWI Arrests
By TRACY GORDON FOX Courant Staff Writer
December 6 2006
It was an "open competition" for some troopers on the midnight shift at the
Bethany barracks three years ago.
The game was to make enough drunken driving arrests to qualify for the "100
Club" - 100 arrests for the year. But following the rules often didn't
matter. Nor did whether the driver was really drunk.
Troopers were supposed to videotape arrests. Often they didn't. They
mishandled evidence. They even counseled motorists against taking the
breathalyzer, warning them they would spend more time in the police lockup
if they chose to exercise their rights.
Of the 19 examples of botched investigations by the state police internal
affairs division, its handling of a probe into Troop I's so-called 100 Club
"had the most direct result on members of the general public," according to
a damning 168-page report made public Monday.
The report concluded that the internal affairs investigation should have
probed improper arrest procedures in drunken driving cases.
But it was done "in such a haphazard manner that it would be impossible to
determine whether or not employee misconduct occurred."
On Tuesday, Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane and Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal said they would review drunken driving cases in the 14 towns
covered by the Bethany barracks.
According to the report by Blumenthal's office and the New York State
Police, troopers on the midnight shift at the Bethany barracks made so many
arrests on drunken driving charges in 2003 that they were awarded a unit
citation for being the DWI enforcement leader for all four state police
troops in the central district.
But, at about the same time, suspects charged with drunken driving in the
Bethany area began complaining to prosecutors that they were counseled by
state troopers not to take the breathalyzer test that would prove whether
they were drunk, according to the report.
Although a routine inspection by state police identified improper arrest
procedures, including failure to collect evidence, that may have affected
the rights of suspects and possibly the outcome of their cases, internal
affairs investigators failed to properly look into the misconduct, the
report said.
Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane is reviewing the report, including
allegations raised about the Bethany barracks, he said.
Kane said Tuesday that he was not aware of concerns raised about drunken
driving cases until he read the report.
"I've got the whole document now," Kane said. "We are in the process of
reviewing it and will come up with what has to be done."
Blumenthal said Tuesday that his office would also review cases out of the
Bethany barracks "to determine what additional investigation is
appropriate."
"There were clear indications of very severe misconduct, and none of it was
properly investigated," he said. "If there are cases that need to be
reviewed, involving DWI cases, we would do so."
Lt. Gov. Kevin Sullivan, who recently proposed tougher penalties for drunken
driving, called the case "a tragedy."
"Potentially, every motor vehicle suspension is subject to being reviewed,"
Sullivan said of the cases investigated by Bethany. "What should happen now
is that the state should anticipate lawyers will be coming forward. It's
absolutely outrageous."
"If the case is still pending, you are in great shape," said Gerald Klein, a
defense attorney who handles many cases involving drunken driving charges.
He said state police reports are usually thorough.
"I always thought the cops tell you they want you to take the breathalyzer,"
Klein said. "That sounds ludicrous that anyone in law enforcement would do
that."
There were 500 drunken driving cases made in 2003 by Bethany troopers, a
high number for any troop, but only 14 tapes from onboard cameras were
recorded as evidence, the report said.
According to the report, paperwork was late and some of the cases failed to
document probable cause for arrest, the inspection found.
It also raised questions about the administration of chemical tests to
determine a defendant's blood alcohol level, and, in some cases, found
chain-of-custody problems with urine samples.
The case is one of the egregious examples of managerial interference with an
investigation, the report said.
The department's inspection unit, which has the task of checking that
procedures are followed, "appropriately sounded the alarm."
"But that alarm was promptly and improperly silenced" by other supervisors
in internal affairs, the report said.
Because of the inspection, an internal affairs investigation was conducted
in 2004 but limited to one trooper, according to the New York report.
The trooper, who left the department for the FBI after 2004, returned to the
state police and is now working a narcotics detail, sources said Tuesday.
The report said investigating only one trooper was "highly unusual,
particularly in light of the findings of the inspection report that raised
similar questions about other troopers."
Evidence showed DWI arrest documents and lab results indicated negative
results for alcohol and drugs, the report said.
That "was ample justification to give credibility to the inspection report
and implicate other troopers who worked the midnight shift," the report
concluded.
Internal affairs investigators made no attempt to contact or interview any
of the people who refused a breath test, to determine if they were pressured
to do so.
Union President Steven Rief said the focus of the report was "how command
staff was involved and interfering with investigations."
"This is not representative of the majority of the troopers," Rief said of
the report, but he added that changes must be made to ensure other
investigations are not botched. "Only when there is fairness and objectivity
can we have confidence in the system and integrity can be restored."
Contact Tracy Gordon Fox at tfox@courant.com.
Copyright 2006,
Hartford Courant
|
|