NY - “Bathroom Cops” Arresting Men in Public Bathrooms After “Shaking Off” When Done Urinating

Original Article

10/09/2014

By John Vibes

A string of recent complaints filed by alleged victims of wrongful arrest are bringing question to NYPD practices of arresting men in public restrooms. There are currently undercover cops posted up in public restrooms across New York City, waiting to catch “sexual predators” in the act.

However, according to dozens of alleged victims, average men are becoming entrapped by these undercover agents, when they have done nothing wrong. Many of the victims have claimed that after urinating, “shaking off” and zipping up their pants, they were accused of “simulating masturbation” in view of the police officer.

The New York Times recently reported that police have been standing in public restrooms and staring down everyone who passes through, while they use the urinals. If the person makes any movements that the officer does not approve of, they can be arrested for “lewdness” with no evidence aside from the testimony of the officer. Since police have been stationed in public bathrooms, lewdness arrests have increased 7-fold. In the past year alone, over 60 people were arrested in one bus terminal restroom, many of them for alleged “lewdness” in the bathroom stall.

Dozens of the people who have been arrested in this trap have sought legal representation from The Legal Aid Society and other independent sources. Many of these people reported that the police made them feel uncomfortable by staring at them while they used the restroom, and it seems that if anyone is guilty of lewdness it was actually the undercover officer.

It is not clear why undercover agents have been placed in these bathrooms to begin with, even Capt. John Fitzpatrick, the Port Authority police commander who oversees the bus terminal, admits that complaints of lewdness in public bathrooms are “few and far in between”.

Although, Fitzpatrick is still standing by the actions of his officers, claiming that the dozens of men who have now filed complaints were in fact being lewd in the restroom, otherwise, he says, they would not have been arrested.

“They are not sidling up to somebody, trying to sneak a peek and misrepresenting what the person is doing, there is no mistaking their behavior,” he said.

One man, accused of “simulating masturbation” says that he was simply “shaking off”, a near instinctual act that is not at all lewd or uncommon.

“I wasn’t committing a lewd act, I was peeing in the beginning, but I was shaking off when the guy stepped back and looked at me,” Mr. Holden, a 28-year-old baker, said of his police encounter.

After Holden walked out of the bathroom he was arrested by police and taken to jail. When Holden was being processed in the jail he overheard one of the other cops refer to his arresting officer as “the gay whisperer”. This was a fairly offensive comment for Holden, consider the fact that he is a gay man, and feels that may be the reason why he got arrested.

“I wore a leather jacket, fitted clothes. I guess that fits the description of a homosexual male, I was like, O.K., although I’m gay, I wasn’t doing anything,” he said.

Holden’s story is just one of dozens, and although there may be a few perverts in the bunch, it is safe to say that a vast majority of these people are innocent.

FL - Why were service members targeted in local sex stings?

Original Article

08/26/2014

By Noah Pransky

Former Army JAG tells 10 Investigates the Air Force is breaking the law by participating in local sex stings where no military members are involved.

PINELLAS COUNTY - Not only have Central Florida law enforcement officers violated federal rules in conducting "To Catch a Predator"-inspired sex stings, but 10 Investigates has learned they may also violate longstanding federal law that prohibits the use of military resources to enforce state laws.

While Tampa Bay-area law enforcement agencies continue to refuse to turn over public records from questionable "predator" roundups, 10 Investigates has learned through court records that a member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has been a regular member of Central Florida undercover stings for more than a year.

In a recent deposition, the agent indicated his goal was to try and trap service members who might be willing to break the law. But he also admitted to targeting -- and helping arrest -- civilians as well. According to an operation plan from a recent Pinellas County sting, the agent, William Glidewell, acted as a "chatter," communicating with potential investigative targets online. He was put up in a Clearwater Beach hotel for four days and reported to the sting's lead agencies, the Clearwater Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

"It's odd that you would have a military (investigator) being so treated like civilian law enforcement," said Charles Rose, a Stetson Law professor and retired Army JAG Corps member. "You cannot assign military personnel -- on orders -- to a (local law enforcement) organization."

10 Investigates previously showed how the sex stings were taking valuable resources away from other areas of law enforcement and frequently targeted young men who were merely looking for women their own age.

Rest of the article

FL - Officers bend rules to boost sex sting arrest totals

Sheriff Grady Judd

Original Article (Video available)

08/09/2014

By Noah Pransky

This is the first of a two-part series examining how law enforcement is blurring the lines on due process.

POLK COUNTY - In the decade since Chris Hansen and "To Catch a Predator" popularized Internet sex stings, more than 1,200 men in Florida alone have been arrested, accused of preying on underage teens and children for sex.

But as the stings put more and more men behind bars, detectives are working harder and harder to keep up their arrest numbers. And the tactics they're using to put alleged sexual offenders in jail are sweeping up large numbers of law-abiding men, too.

A yearlong investigation by 10 Investigates reveals many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business, looking for other adults, when detectives started to groom and convince them to break the law.

While detectives used to post ads suggesting an underage teen or child was available for sex, they now routinely post more innocuous personal ads of adults on traditional dating sites. When men – many of them under 25 with no criminal history - respond, officers switch the bait and typically indicate their age is really 14 or 15 years old. However, sometimes the storyline isn't switched until the men, who were looking for legal love, already start falling for the undercover agent.

According to arrest affidavits inspected by 10 Investigates, law enforcement is also now routinely making first contact with men who have done nothing wrong, responding to their ads on dating sites like PlentyOfFish.com. After men start conversing with what they think are adults, officers change the age they claim to be, but try to convince the men to continue the conversation anyway.

Other examples include undercover officers showing interest in a man, then later introducing the idea of having sex with the undercover's "child." If the men indicate they weren't interested, they were still often arrested for just talking to the adult.

Critics of the stings, including a number of prominent Tampa Bay law enforcement leaders, tell 10 News the operations make for better press conferences than they do crime fighting. Many of the men who are arrested for sexual predator crimes see little jail time.

But Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, when asked about over-aggressive detectives, instead went on the offensive: "The concern (I have) is that you inflate your investigative reporting to make it glitzy."

Rest of the story

And yet it's not being done this way!

Click the image to view the Constitution

FL - Florida cop (Javier Perez) doesn’t like being filmed, has activist falsely detained for public masturbation

Javier Perez

Original Article

06/04/2014

By David Edwards

A Florida activist has said that he discovered that he was framed for public masturbation by one officer who did not like the idea of police being recorded on video.

In a video posted to his YouTube channel late last week (Below), Cop Block Central Florida activist Michael Burns explains that he was watching Lakeland police officer Javier Perez as he worked an off-duty shift at Hookah Palace in January.

During the filming, an on-duty police officer arrives, and tells him that he has been reported for doing something in his vehicle that he “should be doing in private.” That officer releases Burns after quickly concluding that he was only recording police.

Burns later obtained an audio recording of the person who reported him, who tells the dispatcher that he thinks a “suspicious person” is “masturbating.” He also obtains the telephone number of the caller. An Internet search determined that the number belonged to officer Perez.

“I did a Spokeo search and it came back to a Javier Perez,” Burns told the Photography Is Not A Crime Blog.

Perez’s sergeant also confirmed to Burns on camera that an officer was being investigated for making false reports, but he refused to give the officer’s name.

Photography Is Not A Crime’s Carlos Miller, however, doubted that an internal investigation would result in justice.

“But we already know that when cops investigate cops, it usually leads to cops protecting cops,” he wrote. “But since it’s already been confirmed the calls were made to the department’s non-emergency line, we can already see where they are going with this; essentially preparing to sweep this under the carpet by informing Burns that no law or policy was broken because the calls were not made to 911.”

Burns pointed out that Florida Statute 817.49 does not limit false reports to the 911 emergency line.

Burns was scheduled to meet with the sergeant who was conducting the internal investigation on Tuesday night, and he planned to record the meeting.

AUSTRALIA - False abuse claims are the new court weapon, retiring judge says

Justice David Collier

Original Article

07/05/2013

By Harriet Alexander

Allegations of child sexual abuse are being increasingly invented by mothers to stop fathers from seeing their children, says a retiring Family Court judge.

Justice David Collier, retiring from Parramatta Family Court at the end of the month after 14 years on the bench, sees unprecedented hostility infiltrating the Family Court, and a willingness by parents to use their children to damage one another.

”If a husband and wife really get down to it in this day and age, dirt flies,” Justice Collier said.

The worst are those mothers who direct false allegations of abuse against former partners.

”When you have heard the evidence, you realize that this is a person who’s so determined to win that he or she will say anything. I’m satisfied that a number of people who have appeared before me have known that it is one of the ways of completely shutting husbands out of the child’s life.”

”It’s a horrible weapon.”

Such cases are fraught for Family Court judges. Once an allegation has been made it is impossible to ignore. The court must deem whether there is an ”unacceptable risk” of abuse occurring in the father’s care.

Sometimes the allegations are obviously fabricated, other times they are probably true.

”It’s that grey area in the middle that you lose sleep over at night, and you do lose sleep,” Justice Collier said.

”They’re difficult to disprove. The allegation lingers there.”

Barrister Esther Lawson, who sits on the family law committee at the NSW Bar Association, said anecdotally there appeared to be an increase in allegations of sexual abuse coming before the court, but the reasons were unclear.

She also warned that the consequence of false allegations could return to haunt the accuser, including the loss of time with their children.

”Clearly there are cases where there is reliable evidence that sexual abuse has taken place and these matters need to be properly ventilated,” Ms Lawson said.

”But if the court finds that allegations have been maliciously motivated then there may be potential consequences, including a change in the child’s primary residence.”

It is rare for Family Court judges to speak publicly about their views. Many are still haunted by the 1980 murder of Justice David Opas and 1984 bombings of the Parramatta Family Court building and homes of two judges.

Judgments are now more involved, partly so the losing party can understand the reasoning behind decisions. Justice Collier said the cases were also more complicated, as litigants raise more matters and run each of them to Earth. Facebook pages are frequently called into evidence.

”A mother declares she lives a chaste and modest life and then on Facebook says, ‘Guess what I did last night’, and Dad’s only too happy to put it before you.”

He puts much of the venom down to a generation of people more assertive of their rights, and now entering relationships.

But it disheartens him to leave the court so, after a satisfying career. He used to keep a magic wand, which he has now passed on to his colleague Justice Bill Johnson.

”I wished I could wave that magic wand and say, ‘Be nice to each other’,” Justice Collier said. ”That’s the only order I would have to make.”

UT - POST Council sanctions 12 officers, 2 dispatchers

Brandon Haws (Right)

Original Article

03/27/2014

By Geoff Liesik

SANTA CLARA - The council responsible for disciplining wayward Utah peace officers meted out sanctions in 14 cases Thursday, including the case of a former school resource officer who sent inappropriate photos to a teenage boy.

Lindsay Jarvis, attorney for former St. George police officer Brandon Haws, told the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council that her client's involvement with the 17-year-old began out of a desire to help the boy.

"Mr. Haws lost his father at 4 years old," Jarvis said. "This particular student had lost his father in a car accident. Mr. Haws, with his position, attempted to act as a mentor or big brother to this student."

The officer and the student began exchanging text messages, sharing photos and communicating through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"That interaction became inappropriate, quite frankly," Jarvis said.

But she also pointed out that an internal affairs investigation showed Haws was not trying to develop a sexual relationship with the teen. Instead, the officer made a mistake and "started acting like a teenager," the attorney argued.

Haws also addressed the council, asking that its members not strip him of his police certification — a sanction that would forever bar him from working in law enforcement in Utah.

"I have lived my entire life in order to be a police officer," Haws said. "I'm not here to have a pity party. I want to take accountability for what I did. I will say though that I don't think it meets the standard of revocation."

Haws admitted he sent the lewd photos when questioned Thursday by Utah Highway Patrol Col. Daniel Fuhr, a member of the POST Council. Shortly after that admission, the council voted unanimously to revoke Haws' certification for life.

The council also voted to revoke the certification of former Utah County sheriff's deputy William M. Barney for having a sexual relationship with a female probationer.

Council members approved lesser sanctions in 12 other cases.

Former St. George police officer Rick B. Goulding had his certification suspended for three years for engaging in sexual activity while on duty.

Christopher Schoenfeld, a former deputy with the Summit County Sheriff's Office, had his certification suspended for two years for willfully falsifying his application for certification.

Former Garfield County sheriff's deputy Cache Miller also had his certification revoked for two years for assaulting his wife in the presence of their children.

Wayne County sheriff's deputy Craig W. Brown and Unified Police Department dispatcher Chastity T. Corona each had their certifications suspended for 18 months for DUI.

The council suspended former Utah Department of Corrections officer Randall Scott Hall's certification for 15 months for theft and disorderly conduct.

One-year suspensions were handed down to former Springville police officer Nathan N. Brimhall for falsifying a police report, and to former UHP trooper Jon Gardner for a DUI arrest in Colorado that happened before he retired.

Sunset police officer Brian Kirby's certification was suspended for three months for a trespassing incident.

South Salt Lake police officers Anita Bench and Eric R. Jensen each received letters of caution for accessing the state Bureau of Criminal Identification database for unauthorized purposes. The council also issued a letter of caution to Makette Morgan, a dispatcher with the Utah Department of Public Safety, who slapped her former husband's face during a domestic dispute.

Lt. Al Acosta, who heads up POST's investigative unit, said Thursday that his staff received 176 reports of alleged misconduct by officers in 2013. From those reports, 108 cases were opened.

POST Director Scott Stephenson acknowledged that's "an upward trend" from what the agency has seen in past years.

"Just like with anything, there are peaks and valleys," Stephenson said. "These are tough situations. We're dealing with people and their lives. These are never easy things. This is the ugly side of my job."

Less than 1 percent of Utah's nearly 9,000 peace officers ever become the subject of a POST misconduct investigation, the director noted.

GA - The "sex offender" money making scheme continues to grow!

Original Article

03/29/2014

In 1994 the Jacob Wetterling Act established the first national sex offender registry law, and Indiana’s “Zachary’s Law” placed their state registry online.

In 1996 “Megan’s Law” was passed at the federal level, forcing states to maintain publicly accessible registries and allowing all levels of community notification.

In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld civil commitment in Kansas v. Hendricks, and a year later, Delaware passed the first law requiring registrants to carry a special ID card
.
In 2005 strict mandatory minimum laws were created with the Jessica Lunsford Act followed by the Adam Walsh Act in 2006. (1)

These laws are the result of horrific acts of violence often resulting in murder and with actual or assumed sexual motivation against youth. They were driven in equal parts by grieving parents wanting justice, politicians who, for reasons both altruistic and self-serving, were willing to take up the cause, and a media fired by the sensationalism inherent in the issue.

The cases that drove the laws are rare anomalies; with instant telecommunications and every story being repeated beyond counting, the impression is easily given and received that these heinous incidents happen every day. They don’t. They represent the tiniest fraction of all sexual offenses, but the transition is easily made in the public’s mind: sex offender = violent, predatory pedophile and potential murderer.

And an industry was born—a multi-million if not billion dollar industry—containing but not limited to these branches; the only order attempted is alphabetical.

Read the rest of the story

TN - Former alderman (Richard L. Smith) on probation for solicitation charges against a minor

Richard L. Smith

Original Article

This just goes to show you that the laws are only for specific people. If you are a politician, well known, or rich, then the laws don't apply to you!

03/28/2014

By Bailey Darrow

PUTNAM COUNTY - Former Monterey alderman Richard L. Smith appeared in criminal court Thursday, entering a plea of guilty to one count of solicitation of a minor and must now serve two years on the sex offender registry.

In October, Smith was arrested on a three-count grand jury indictment charging him with one count of solicitation of a minor and two counts of extortion after he reportedly made contact with a young girl on social media and by sending text messages to a cell phone he purchased for her.

By entering a best interest plea of guilty to only the one count of solicitation, a Class E felony, Smith will have to serve two years on probation and must register on the sex offender registry.

He will be allowed to continue living at his home on Volunteer Way in Monterey, even though it is less than 1,000 feet from a school or park, despite that registration status. He will also be allowed to continue living with his girlfriend and her minor child, court documents state.

Upon successful completion of the sentence, Smith will be removed from the sex offender registry and the offense will be fully expunged, according to court documents.

The indictments issued against Smith alleged that between Dec. 1, 2012, and Jan. 9, 2013, Smith “did unlawfully by means of electronic communication intentionally request, persuade, invite or attempt to induce a person who (he) knows or should know is less than 18 years of age” to engage in conduct that, if completed, would constitute a violation of the state’s statutory rape law.

The extortion indictments alleged that Smith told the girl that “he would expose information concerning their personal relationship to various parties to embarrass her unless she fulfilled promises that he said she made concerning their romantic, sexual, and personal relationship.”

According to the indictments, he also told the girl “that he would expose information concerning their personal relationship to various parties to embarrass her unless she returned certain personal property,” to him.

The items Smith insisted the girl return include a ring, a necklace and a phone, according to the indictment.

Smith served on the Monterey board of mayor and aldermen for eight years. In 2010, he ran for mayor of Monterey, losing to then vice-mayor Jeff Hicks by only two votes. He also qualified in the race for mayor of the city in 2008, but ultimately withdrew his name from the ballot. In January 2012, he resigned from the city’s Planning Commission.

Most recently, Smith gained media attention as he campaigned for what he calls “Boomer’s Law” that would increase the possible punishment for aggravated assault in the state, following the death of his son in 2012.

FL - Local law enforcement refuses to turn over records on secret sex stings, despite questionable practices

Pinellas Police

Original Article

03/14/2014

By Noah Pransky

PINELLAS COUNTY - Despite findings by 10 Investigates that officers and deputies may not have followed federal guidelines in trying to lure sexual predators during a recent sting, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office tells 10 News no discipline or action is expected.

The agency is also refusing to cooperate with 10 Investigates' public records requests for emails pertaining to the sting. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) rejected a request for emails that did not pertain to open cases.

But PCSO said every email exchange from its four-day operation -- including from men who showed no interest in sex with underage children -- remained an open investigation, with arrests or prosecutions imminent. An agency spokesperson said there were no plans to close the cases anytime soon.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Polk Co. Sheriff's Office, and Clearwater Police Department also refused to provide requested chat logs pertaining to cases that resulted in no arrest or charges.

The January sting, dubbed "Operation: Home Alone," resulted in 35 arrests. But guidelines for the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force instruct undercover officers to "allow the investigative target to set the tone, pace, and subject matter of the online conversation." An alleged email chain (PDF) obtained by 10 Investigates indicates law enforcement may be willing to push past boundaries to get "targets" to talk about sex with children.

Local defense attorneys tell 10 Investigates that "there's no question [law enforcement] blurs the lines." But the state attorney's office in Pinellas County failed to return multiple requests for comment.

And while the Pinellas Co. Sheriff's Office, Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Clearwater Police Department, and FDLE all maintain every communication between officers and civilians is part of an open investigation, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Police Department contradicted the claim saying, "it's not uncommon to engage in a large number of conversations with a number of individuals, most of which never rises to the level of criminal conduct. Consequently, copies of those conversations (are not saved)."

Several agencies have told 10 Investigates their cases remain open because the agencies may again pursue some of the men who responded to their "casual encounters" ads, but ultimately were not arrested in the January sting.

A similar sting, conducted by the Manatee Co. Sheriff's Office (MCSO) called "Operation Green Shepherd III," resulted in similar refusals to turn over records.

An attorney for the MCSO told 10 Investigates that emails from individuals who responded to the "adult encounter"-type ads, even if they did not show interest in sex with minors, were exempt from public record laws because they were still considered part of "active" cases.

The attorney said the cases were still considered "active" investigations because "MCSO has a reasonable good faith anticipation of securing an arrest or prosecution in the foreseeable future. In those cases where an arrest was made, prosecution is pending."

10 Investigates will continue to fight for access to public records.

AL - Troubles at Women’s Prison Test Alabama

Julia Tutwiler Prison

Original Article

03/01/2014

By KIM SEVERSON

WETUMPKA - For a female inmate, there are few places worse than the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Corrections officers have raped, beaten and harassed women inside the aging prison here for at least 18 years, according to an unfolding Justice Department investigation. More than a third of the employees have had sex with prisoners, which is sometimes the only currency for basics like toilet paper and tampons.

But Tutwiler, whose conditions are so bad that the federal government says they are most likely unconstitutional, is only one in a series of troubled prisons in a state system that has the second-highest number of inmates per capita in the nation.

Now, as Alabama faces federal intervention and as the Legislature is weighing its spending choices for the coming year, it remains an open question whether the recent reports on Tutwiler are enough to prompt reform.

“Yes, we need to rectify the crimes that happened at Tutwiler, but going forward it’s a bigger problem than just Tutwiler,” said State Senator Cam Ward, a Republican from Alabaster who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We’re dealing with a box of dynamite.”

The solution, Mr. Ward and others say, is not to build more prisons but to change the sentencing guidelines that have filled the prisons well beyond capacity.

Just over half the state’s prisoners are locked up for drug and property crimes, a rate for nonviolent offenses that is among the highest in the nation.

“No one wants to be soft on crime, but the way we’re doing this is just stupid,” Mr. Ward said.

Still, in many corners of Alabama, a state where political prominence is often tied to how much a candidate disparages criminals, the appetite for change remains minimal.

The Legislature is in the middle of its budget session, working over a document from Gov. Robert Bentley that includes $389 million for the state’s prisons. That is about $7 million less than last year’s budget.

The Department of Corrections argues that it needs $42 million more than it had last year. Alabama prisons are running at almost double capacity, and staffing is dangerously low, said Kim T. Thomas, the department’s commissioner. He said he would use about $21 million of his request to give corrections officers a 10 percent raise and hire about 100 officers.

The odds of approval for that much new money are not great, but they are better this year than they have been in a long while, said Stephen Stetson, a policy analyst with Arise Citizens’ Policy Project, a liberal policy group.

Even so, “for the average legislator, it’s still, ‘These bodies don’t matter,' ” he said.

There is no ignoring the prison crisis. Even Stacy George, a former corrections officer who is challenging Mr. Bentley in the June Republican primary by promising to be “the gun-toting governor,” this past week issued a plan for prison reform. It calls for changing sentencing rules, rescinding the “three-strikes” law for repeat offenders, releasing the sick and elderly, and sending low-level drug offenders into treatment programs instead.

The federal government has stepped in to fix Alabama’s prison problems before, but it has been years since the state has faced a situation as serious as that uncovered by a series of damning investigations into Tutwiler.

“We think that there is a very strong case of constitutional violations here,” said Jocelyn Samuels, the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights for the Justice Department, who sent a 36-page report to the governor in January.

The toxic, highly sexualized environment, she said in an interview, has been met by “a deliberate indifference on the part of prison officials and prison management, who have been aware of the conditions for many years and have failed to curb it.”

The prison was built in 1942 and named after Julia Tutwiler, a woman called the Angel of the Stockades for her work trying to improve conditions for inmates in Alabama. More than 900 women live there, including some on death row, although the original building was designed for about 400.

The prison’s abysmal staffing levels, abundant blind spots and only three cameras created a situation where sex among prisoners and with guards was rampant, the report said. Male guards have routinely watched women showering and once helped prisoners organize a strip show. Sex is sometimes exchanged both for banned items like drugs and for basic needs like clean uniforms.

At least six corrections employees have been convicted of sexual crimes since 2009.

The Justice Department is still investigating Tutwiler, scrutinizing medical and mental health care there.

“It is just a culture of deprivation and abuse, not just at Tutwiler but in institutions across Alabama,” said Charlotte Morrison, a senior lawyer with the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal organization that represents indigent defendants and prisoners.

In 2012, the organization asked the federal government to step in after its own investigation into Tutwiler showed rampant sexual abuse.

The Department of Corrections says conditions at Tutwiler were beginning to improve well before the Justice Department began its investigation in April 2013. Six months after the Equal Justice Initiative report came out in May 2012, the longtime warden and other top prison officers were replaced, said Mr. Thomas, the corrections commissioner.

He also asked the National Institute of Corrections to review practices and policies at Tutwiler. Using those findings, he issued a wide-ranging plan in January 2013 that included recruiting more female corrections officers, pressing the Legislature for more money and changing several policies and procedures. Among them was a system to better investigate and track reports of assaults and abuse.

“That report came about because I wanted an abundance of caution and to be transparent,” Mr. Thomas said.

But women recently released and still inside say life at Tutwiler has improved only marginally.

_____, who is serving 20 years for armed robbery, said she had been raped by a prison guard and gave birth to a daughter who is now 3 and living with relatives near Montgomery.

The guard, Rodney Arbuthnot, served six months in jail for custodial sexual misconduct. He has since moved to Texas. The courts only recently tracked him down, and the family is finally getting about $230 a month in child support.

In a telephone interview, Ms. _____ said that prisoners were still fearful and that conditions remained bad.

“Right now, for me personally, it’s still the same as far as the officers,” she said. “It’s like an act of Congress to get the things you need just to live. It’s inhumane for inmates to be here, period.”

_____, a mother of six, served almost 10 years of a life sentence without parole for a murder conviction. Her premature son had been stillborn, and she buried him in a marked grave near her home. A medical examiner said the child had been drowned in a bathtub, but the conviction was overturned after a court agreed that the autopsy had been botched. She was released in December 2012.

She remains in contact with some Tutwiler prisoners, who she said were split on whether attention from the federal government was a good thing.

Sex is an important commodity there, Ms. _____ said. The inmates use it to get better treatment and secure contraband items that they can then sell to get food and other basics.

“The women do it for favors,” she said. “They get makeup, cologne, anything that’s stuff that is resellable. That’s how they make their money.”

She and others believe it will take a larger overhaul at the top of the Department of Corrections to fix the prison’s problems.

“It’s a primitive, very backward prison system,” said Larry F. Wood, a clinical psychologist who was hired at Tutwiler in 2012. He quit after two months, appalled at the conditions and what he said was the administration’s lack of support for mental health services.

“I’ve worked in prisons for most of 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “We need to back up and look at it with fresh eyes. The people who are running it don’t have the perspective to see what can change.”

See Also:

• Petition seeks 'zero tolerance' for sexual abuse at Tutwiler prison, calls for 'immediate removal' of some staff

MO - Sex offender faces a different kind of limbo

Civil Commitment (SORTS)

Original Article

02/19/2014

By Jesse Bogan

STE. GENEVIEVE COUNTY - There is a special wing here at the county jail that holds nine detainees who were convicted long ago for sex crimes. They already served their time in prison.

Still, they wear bright orange jumpsuits as they await another kind of trial.

Flagged as possible sexually violent predators, the Missouri attorney general’s office wants them held indefinitely at a secure state mental institution called Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS.

But first, in most of their cases, juries will be asked to make a rare decision in the American legal system — keep them locked away on the expectation of another crime.

“Somebody with a crystal ball believes I may commit a crime in the future. And they want to lock me up for the rest of my life in a mental institution out of fear,” detainee _____ said from jail last week.

_____, 49, who had a condo in Ballwin before going to prison in 1997, compared the civil commitment legal procedure to throwing a DWI offender in prison before getting pulled over for a repeat offense.

“To me, it makes no sense,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court assured in a 5-4 decision that it does.

But few have seen the civil commitment process play out the way it has for _____ — or for as long. He’s been detained and awaiting trial — mainly at the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff’s Department Detention Center — since he finished his prison sentence at the end of 2006.

Since then, three juries have failed to agree on a unanimous verdict needed to commit him to the care of the Missouri Department of Mental Health.
- Why is it even going to three juries?  After the first, if they failed to say he needed commitment, then he should've been released.  Seems to me like they want him committed regardless of what "experts" say or a jury.

A fourth jury was selected Tuesday in St. Louis County.
- Really?  So I guess you will continue to get new juries until you get what you want, in the mean time wasting a ton of money!

“I am going to my fourth trial now after six years, and I am hopeful that I’ll go home,” _____ said from jail.

FEW ABSOLUTES

The jury for _____’s latest case won’t be told about the mistrials, nor SORTS, a facility that has been criticized by civil libertarians for being a prison disguised as a mental hospital. A civil lawsuit against SORTS leaders that has been crawling through U.S. District Court says there is little evidence showing that SORTS residents can progress through treatment and be released back into the community.
But _____’s situation is a different kind of limbo.

He’s found himself tangled in a legal web that isn't holding him at SORTS, nor in prison, but rather in jail, where he’s been playing board games and watching television the past six years.

As the mistrials rack up, he has no idea when it will end.

“It could go on the rest of my life,” he said.

Part of the challenge is there are few absolutes about _____’s case, other than he hasn't been on the streets of St. Louis County for a long time, which is the way some officials want to keep it. They see a pattern in his behavior.

_____ was first arrested in 1983, at age 18. He got caught sticking his hand in the pants of a 5-year-old girl playing in a yard. _____ pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to probation. He underwent sex-offender treatment.

_____, at 5 feet tall, stands out for his size. After graduating from Parkway South High, he earned an associate degree from St. Louis Community College at Meramec. But he was never able to land the career in business that he wanted.

By 1997, he’d been arrested again for molesting a 7-year-old girl. Her hearing-impaired parents used sign language and tears at the criminal trial to describe what their family had been put through by their former friend.

“He seemed such a nice person,” the father testified. “He was so friendly, like family to us. He was taking advantage of us, and that makes me very angry.”

_____’s attorney asked for probation. Prosecutors wanted 25 years.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Robert S. Cohen sentenced _____ to 10 years in prison.

“I have to be concerned about protecting this little girl and other little girls like her from the likes of you,” Cohen said.

_____ is essentially on trial again in St. Louis County for that same concern, even though he hasn't committed another crime.

RISK FACTORS

While in prison, _____ was admitted to the Missouri Sex Offender Program. Participants are encouraged to explore empathy for victims and develop a plan to prevent a relapse. Graduates have some of the lowest reoffense rates compared to other criminals released from prison.

_____ was kicked out of the program for lack of progress. The second time around, he completed it.

In a 2006 report, evaluators recommended that _____ transition to community supervision, rather than “prolonged incarceration” that could “erode progress made in treatment.” The report asked that he continue therapy after being released from custody. He was instructed to stay away from children and to participate in polygraph testing to ensure compliance with parole.

_____ was never released.

A different evaluator flagged his file near the end of his sentence for possibly meeting the criteria of a sexually violent predator (another evaluator didn’t). A corrections report says _____ self-reported molesting other victims. _____ told an evaluator that he made up victims to satisfy a demanding therapist, according to records in the case.

Actuarial testing tools, similar to those insurance companies use to predict future damage, also showed an increased risk to reoffend.

A panel of mental health professionals agreed that _____ fit the criteria of a predator. So did a collection of prosecutors. A judge was convinced there was probable cause to hold him for evaluation.

Then _____ got a break.

It came in the form of a Department of Mental Health report that said _____ does not belong in the SORTS program. Although he “suffers a mental abnormality,” he isn't “more likely than not” to reoffend if he was free.

Richard G. Scott, who wrote the 13-page report, continues to testify on _____’s behalf.

PROVING HIMSELF

St. Louis County jurors in his previous civil commitment hearings were surprised to hear _____ is still on trial.

Kimberly Zeman, 57, was in the jury box in 2010. That jury deadlocked 6-6, according to the court file.

“I don’t think anybody on the jury thought he wouldn’t do it again if he got out,” Zeman said in an interview. “But if we went based on the law, he passed every test, and I think that was a problem for a lot of people. We had to go by the law, not by what we thought.”

The second trial was closer. Nine wanted to turn _____ over to mental health authorities; three voted to free him, including Richard Herbert, 76, a retired trucking company supervisor.

“He served his time. He should be released,” Herbert said. “Of course all the females, they said he should be incarcerated. They all had kids.”

Herbert said the jury wanted to know more about what commitment would entail, but those details weren't shared.

Dan Kapsak, 40, was the jury foreman of that trial. Before he agreed to be interviewed, he said his comments were not associated with his job as a federal prosecutor in Illinois. He said the three dissenters on the hung jury seemed to base their decision on public policy arguments, not the evidence.

He was in disbelief that the third jury also failed to get a verdict and that a new one was being seated.

“That speaks to how serious of a threat the state thinks _____ is,” Kapsak said. “They are willing to spend the taxpayer money and keep moving forward.”
- So tell me again, what is the purpose of a jury?

Over the past six years, _____ has spent about $75,000 trying to defend himself.

“I’ve had to sell my house, my car. All my finances are gone,” he said.

His adoptive father, a retired price analyst at McDonnell Douglas, died while _____ was in jail. Now, _____ would like to care for his 85-year-old mother in Des Peres.

“I really just want to get back out in society and prove myself, let people know that I am a changed person,” he said. “The mistakes I made in my past are not who I am.”

On Tuesday, at the first day of his fourth trial, he’d swapped the orange jumpsuit for a blue button-down shirt. Leg shackles were hidden by gray dress pants.

He sat near his lead attorney, Eric Selig, and jotted notes about potential jurors.

“It’s the most important part,” he said during a break in jury selection.

See Also:

• (Similar case) Jury deadlocks on whether to deem convicted sex offender as violent predator

Skip Meals or Go to Jail? How the For-Profit Probation Industry Preys on the Poor

Original Article

It's extortion, plain and simple!

02/06/2014

By Steven Hsieh

A new Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday documents how the growing use of for-profit probation companies traps poor Americans in the criminal justice system—sometimes jailing them—for misdemeanor crimes or even minor traffic violations.

The report, titled “Profiting From Probation: America’s ‘Offender-Funded’ Probation Industry,” describes a for-profit model that incentivizes probation companies to prey on poor misdemeanor offenders, ensnaring them in debt and threatening imprisonment if financial obligations are not met. As Chris Albom-Lackey, the researcher at Human Rights Watch who authored the report, writes, “In fact, the business of many private probation companies is built largely on the willingness of courts to discriminate against poor offenders who can only afford to pay their fines in installments over time.”

In one of several cases documented in the report, Georgia resident Thomas Barrett wound up in jail after failing to pay more than a thousand dollars in accumulated probation fees. His original crime: stealing a $2 can of beer. Barrett skipped meals and sold his blood plasma to pay down his debt, but didn’t make enough to keep up with growing costs.

This video, produced by Human Rights Watch in conjunction with its report, tells the story of Thomas Barrett and other probationers trapped by the system:

“Probation is supposed to be a way to keep people out of jail, a way for courts to subject people to monitoring and oversight instead of locking them up,” Albom-Lackey told NBC. “What we see in the context of private probation is the whole thing being turned on its head.”

The report says tightening budgets have prompted courts and counties to turn to private firms for probation services. Probation companies handle hundreds of thousands of offenders every year at no cost to the governments that hire them. The probationers themselves end up footing the bill, which includes “supervision fees” that become revenue for the companies in charge. This whole system disproportionately impacts poor Americans, who often cannot afford probation fees and face punishment as a result, the report says.

Here are some of the HRW’s key findings:

• Under the “offender-funded” model, private firms levy fees on poor probationers that are are financially crushing and often times impossible to pay off. On top of exorbitant supervision fees, many offenders must pay for their own electronic monitoring (up to $360 per month) and drug tests (up to $1,250 per year).
• Some courts sentence offenders to probation simply because they cannot afford fines and court costs, a practice called “pay only probation” that Human Rights Watch deems “a legal fiction.” In effect, poorer offenders stay on probation longer and end up paying significantly more, due to supervision fees levied by private firms.
• Private probation officers routinely use “abusive” tactics to collect debts from offenders. These range from coercive demands (“I hope you have all my money today”) to threats of imprisonment.
• Though the US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to incarcerate probationers who genuinely cannot afford fines, there is little effort made to understand offenders’ financial situations. The report says many probation revocation hearings last just minutes, and few offenders are offered legal representation.
• There is practically no transparency in the industry. Private probation companies aren’t required to disclose revenues they make from probationers and do not offer that information voluntarily.
• While it’s impossible to get exact figures, HRW used a law unique to Georgia to estimate that private probation companies make roughly $40 million in minimum annual revenues in the state alone.