Last week was one of those remarkably rare occasions when we came across no corrupt cops stories. Not to worry! They're back this week with a vengeance. Another border sheriff goes down, a North Carolina police department goes out of business, an Arizona cop got greedy, and another pair of entrepreneurial jail guards get caught.
In San Antonio, a former Starr County sheriff pleaded guilty last Friday to one drug trafficking charge for assisting the Mexican Gulf Cartel as it smuggled drugs through his border county. Former Sheriff Reymundo "Rey" Guerra was arrested last October after he was one of 29 people indicted by a federal grand jury. He admitted passing information to an informant whom he knew had gone back to work for the cartel in return for payments of $2,000 to $3,000. He also admitted passing information about who tipped off authorities in a raid that resulted in the seizure of 314 kilos of pot and one kilo of cocaine. Guerra pleaded to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics as part of a plea deal that saw two other charges dropped. He faces from 10 years to life in prison when sentenced in July. Until then, he remains free on bond.
In Spring Lake, North Carolina, the Spring Lake Police Department has been shut down after two of its officers were arrested Monday on corruption and abuse of authority charges. Officer Alfonzo Whittington Jr. was indicted by a special Cumberland County grand jury on 11 counts, including embezzlement by a police officer, obtaining property by false pretences, larceny, and obstruction of justice. Those charges stem from the theft of $2,900 from the department's evidence room, which Whittington was in charge of. Sgt. Darryl Coulter Sr. faces 20 charges, including breaking and entering, kidnapping, and obstruction of justice. Some of those charges stem from an April 2008 "drug raid" where he broke into a home occupied by three men, assaulted them, threatening them with a handgun and shotgun, and held them against their will by handcuffing them. Other charges stem from a raid at a local motel room where Coulter seized $2,900 from a room where he said he smelled marijuana. That's the same $2,900 Whittington is accused of stealing from the evidence room. Whittington is looking at 24 years in prison, while Coulter could face up to 32 years. The department lost the ability to investigate homicides after it botched child abuse allegations and a child was killed. That soon expanded to all felonies as the town mayor asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into the department's narcotics squad. Now the department has been relieved of investigating even misdemeanor cases, and the county sheriff's office has taken over policing duties for the town.
In Tucson, a former South Tucson police lieutenant was sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling more than $450,000 in asset forfeiture funds and evidence room money. Former Lt. Richard Garcia had total responsibility for managing the asset forfeiture program and was the sole custodian of the department's evidence room. He admitted stealing the money to finance his gambling habit, buy booze, and go to strip clubs. He pleaded guilty to felony charges of theft from an organization receiving federal funds and filing false income taxes. He must also pay $450,000 in restitution after he gets out at a rate of $200 a month. At that rate, the department will recoup its losses sometime in the 24th Century.
In Los Angeles, a former LA county deputy was charged Wednesday with trying to smuggle drugs into a county jail facility in Castaic, where he worked as a jailer. Peter Felix, 25, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the jail, as well as six other drug-related charges. Felix had worked for the department for two years before quitting last October after investigators caught him receiving cash and drugs from a co-conspirator.
In Dover, Delaware, a Delaware Correctional Center guard was arrested Saturday with an ounce of marijuana he intended to smuggle into the jail. Guard Sidney Nunn, 25, went down after internal affairs investigators at the prison went to Dover police with information they had developed. Nunn now faces charges of possession with intent to deliver marijuana, maintaining a vehicle, conspiracy, possession of drug paraphernalia and promoting prison contraband. He was released after posting $8,000 bail. He is on leave with pay.
In Greece, New York, a Greece police officer was arraigned Tuesday on charges he coerced a woman he caught smoking marijuana into having sex with him. Officer Gary Pignato was charged with felony bribery of a public servant, and two misdemeanors: second-degree coercion and official misconduct. Pignato already faces a June 1 trial date in a similar case where he allegedly came to a residence on a domestic dispute call, then informed the women he would arrest her for a probation violation if she did not have sex with him. In Tuesday's case, Pignato allegedly followed his victim home one night in 2005 in his patrol car, gave her his card and asked for her phone number. The next day, the victim was smoking a joint at her dining room table when Pignato walked in unannounced and threatened to arrest her. "We can make this go away," he allegedly said. Having sex with him "would take care of it." The victim said she drove to his house the next night to have sex with him, but he kept bothering her for more sex in the following days until she threatened to tell his girlfriend. The victim said she was inspired to come forward after reading about charges being filed in the first case against Pignato.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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America Open Your Eyes And Get Some Backbones
North Portland Police- They file false Police reports and thrash on you, they also deceive and claim you where resisting arrest, when you complied completely. It is so unfair. Their lies believed, over the complete truth. I wanted to take a polygraph and have the Police officer also take a polygraph, but the state rather convict innocent people than see their cops are corrupt. Therefore, the Judges are corrupt also. I am a law-abiding citizen, never arrested before; this conviction was and is unjust. Now I have a misdemeanor on my record. If convicted on every false charge, he said I did. I would now be a felon, which he tried hard to convict me of his lies. The Good Lord above and I know I am innocent of the charge convicted of, and I do not understand how this happens.
Thanks North Portland Police, I used to trust and respect the Police. Now I get happy if an Officer gets hurts, "well that's karma, they probably was a lying rogue cop I say to myself" Before my encounter with this immoral so-called Peace Officer, I used to think, "Oh no why would this happen. Now what is their poor family going to do"? That thought no longer enters my mind anymore, and that is sad. For a few bad cops, I now no longer trust any.
Known Corrupted Cops
Officer Bacigalupi #30878
Officer Sery #36878
All officers that worked or collaborated with Bacigalupi #30878.
Officer John Hughes #45063
However, I would bet there are so many more.
I wish my jurors were informed. Not my luck I had idiots.
BELOW IS EDUCATION FOR EVERY BODY ---FIJA.ORG
WHO OWNS YOUR BODY?
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⢠Personal Defense
⢠It is above question that each individual holds the unalienable right to completely own and manage his or her body. No one is more qualified than you to manage your body responsibly and with dignity. The silly assumption that government personnel, who make as many mistakes as everyone else, can successfully manage their bodies AND yours shows the unmatched ignorance of government officials, especially police, judges and prosecutors.
⢠Constitutional Defense
⢠The Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments of the Bill of Rights make it clear that government has no authority to own or manage our bodies. Individual ownership rights extend to decisions for your body, defense of your body, health care choices, privacy, gun possession on your person, body decoration, alternative medicines and supplements, vaccinations, and more. Laws claiming government ownership of your body demonstrate that the greatest threat to human rights is always from oneâs own government.
⢠Jury Defense
⢠You, as one individual, cannot do much to effect legislation. However, as a juror, YOU can effectively defend each personâs absolute ownership of his or her body. One person can âhangâ a jury by refusing to convict. If you are called to serve on a jury, do so! In turn, if your individual management of your body is ever described as a crime, because the government claims ownership of your body, wouldnât you want a member of your jury to know that was a fraud? You want jurors who understand that they can hang a jury by simply stating that the prosecutor failed to prove the government case. Or you can state no reason for your verdict, as is your right.
⢠Defense with Knowledge
⢠More information on defending this absolute right to own and manage your body, which gives you the knowledge to defeat the lies of lawyers and judges, is available at www.fija.org. You and your family and friends will want to learn and share this priceless knowledge about jury authority. It is the best peaceful means to protect us all.
⢠The History and Effect of Jury Nullification
⢠Liberty exists only among reasoning people who are tolerant of human diversity. Tyranny thrives on intolerance. Conscientious jurors defend liberty when they refuse to convict fellow citizens maliciously accused of crimes. Reasoning jurors stopped the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and freed tax protesters after the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Juries refused to convict under the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, during Prohibition 1920-30, Vietnam War objectors, tax protesters, medical marijuana users, peaceful gun owners, and others.
⢠The last peaceful defense of our liberties is the jury. Writers of our Constitution understood that power always corrupts. The people must retain, understand and use all the processes to defend themselves from the greatest threat to liberty: oneâs own government. Informed grand jurors and trial jurors can protect you from bad government laws.
⢠There are countless inferior laws, based on governmentâs assumed ownership of our bodies that contradict the superior laws of our Constitution and common law. With all the bad laws on the books, it is only a matter of time before you, your family, or friends are accused of some crime. Your last peaceful line of defense is informed jurors who refuse to convict under bad laws based on governmentâs assumed ownership of your body. You hold all rights to completely own and be responsible for your body.
⢠Corrupt prosecutors and judges are common. Anyone can easily go through the process to become a lawyer or judge. The US is overrun by them. They are common people, who hold no more intelligence or reasoning ability than any other common person, and often less because of their egos and craving for more power. The duty and design of the citizen juror is to apply reasoning devoid of any craving for power. Lawyers and judges literally cannot understand that concept, even if they read these words, which is why wise people instituted the citizen jury system. Jurors hold the authority to render a verdict against the demands of power-hungry lawyers and judges.
⢠Today, your understanding of the authority for juror nullification is critically important due to increasing numbers of fear-based laws. These laws are supported by both political parties, by politically appointed government judges and prosecutors, and by United Nations leadership.
⢠Jurors can nullify bad laws by refusing to convict people being tried under those laws. When jurors refuse to convict, legislators and prosecutors know the law is NOT supported by the community. Acquittals and hung juries are politically embarrassing to legislators, power craving prosecutors, bureaucrats, and most judges.
⢠It cost many lives to establish a jury system designed to protect our individual rights. One informed person on each jury can regain these rights.
⢠Defending Body Ownership Creates an Alliance of Traditional Opponents
⢠Many favorite rights of conservatives, and other favorite rights of liberals, have been reduced to privileges, granted or denied at whim of government officers, by the same flawed process. That process assumes government ownership of individual bodies, and implies the willful surrender of that right by the individual.
⢠As an adult, if you willfully surrendered your right to ingest substances of your choice, or to have a gun on your person, which are actions of the body that damage no other person, by not expressly objecting to gun and drug laws, you do not own your body. The government owns it. That concept in law has voided human rights, replacing them with privileges, because uninformed jurors have not protected the absolute right of all conservatives and liberals to own and manage their own bodies.
⢠JURY DEFENSE OF YOUR BODY
⢠Juror nullification occurs when a juror refuses to convict a person because of bad or misapplied law. Many bad laws are based on governmentâs falsely assumed ownership of your body. Refusing to enforce bad laws by nullifying them is the highest duty of a juror. Jurors can defend your ownership and management of your body, and thus all of your other rights. Jurors have the authority to judge the law and its application, and to veto bad laws by ânot guiltyâ verdicts. Jurors cannot be punished for their verdicts.
⢠If you want to defend an individualâs ownership of his or her body, you must first get on the jury. During jury selection, lawyers and judges try to remove informed people from juries. Power-corrupted lawyers and judges depend on seating jurors who will do whatever they are told by government, even in violation of good conscience, reasoning, common sense and constitutional law.
⢠When called for jury duty and questioned about your understanding of the law or issues, consider stating that you do not keep track of political issues, and that you can apply the law as instructed by the court. If asked, suggest that you do not remember if you belong to any particular organizations because you get too many junk mail organizational solicitations. Imply an impartial attitude.
⢠You may be the only informed person on the jury. The judgeâs instructions and oaths to the jurors are designed to fool jurors and protect the raw power of judges. Despite their official-sounding nature, these instructions to jurors cannot be legally binding, or there would be no need for the authority of independently thinking jurors.
⢠You hold the absolute right to vote your conscience. If the accused did not identifiably damage an actual person, you can find him or her not guilty. Regardless of other jurors, you cannot be forced to change your verdict. You can state that the government prosecutor did not prove the government case. Or you can state no reason for your verdict, as is your right.
⢠THE INDIVIDUAL JUROR: THE LAST PEACEFUL DEFENSE OR YOUR RIGHTS AGAINST GOVERNMENT POWER
⢠Your body and minds right of: expressions thoughts possessions medicines recreation and work
⢠Government judges and prosecutors crave raw power beyond the legal limit to their authority. That power can only exist if the person brought before the court is deceived by process into surrendering ownership of his or her body, and responsibility for individual decisions about that body, to government and the courts. Informed jurors, who do not seek any power, can defend the right of individual ownership of the body for everyone, equally. Jurors can refuse to convict if the governmentâs case is based on the concept of government owning an individualâs body, or if the government judges or prosecutors pretend to have any right to make or enforce any decisions about an individualâs body.
⢠WHO OWNS YOUR BODY?
⢠âThe right of the people to be secure in their persons ... against unreasonable searches and
Seizures shall not be violated ...â
⢠The human right that controls all other rights is the absolute ownership and management of oneâs own body. Without complete ownership of your body, you cannot hold rights.
⢠Throughout history, kings and dictators claimed ownership of everyoneâs body as a way to control all people and their actions. The U.S. Constitution reversed that flawed form of government. But now, government again claims the power of kings, seizing ownership of your body. Their actions, rather than their lies, prove that the government holds no compassion or respect for you. To government, your body is merely a working device it owns, to be taxed.
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⢠The Jury is your defense.
WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO GET INFORMED OUR GOVERNMENT IS PASSING LAWS THAT ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL WE THE PEOPLE CAN STOP THISâ¦
THE BIGGEST AND MOST POWERFUL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN THE UNITED STATES HAS THE ABSOLUTE NON-NEGOTIABLE POWER TO IGNORE GOVERNMENT LAWS, KEEP PEOPLE OUT OF PRISON, IGNORE JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS, MAKE THE OUTCOME OF ANY JURY TRIAL WHAT THEY WANT IT TO BE, AND MAKE OUR GOVERNMENT HONEST.
WHAT IS THIS AGENCY?
THE FULLY INFORMED JURY
CALL 1-800-TEL-JURY
www.fija.org
Dirty Cops
I filed a complaint against two dirty cops, who covered for one of their snitches or relative. IA even admitted in front of my lawyer (no I was not charged with anything, but had one present when talking to them) that there was a video showing the thug followed my friend and I, EVEN THOUGH ONE COP I NEVER TALKED TO FALSIFIED A STATEMENT SAYING "I'' SAID ''WE'' FOLLOWED THE THUG''... Even though the video shows otherwise.. Ignored it and closed our complaint. The thug got away with a hit and run, and felon assault on my friend, 3 broken ribs and a collapsed lung! The 19 year old thig was only cited for improper backing, NO proof of insurance, Driving on a learner's permit.. UNBELIEVABLE!!... Dirty cops in Jacksonville Fla abound .. They won't close the case to keep us from getting the video.. DIRTY COPS.. AVOID JACKSONVILLE FLA... AND DUVAL COUNTY...
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