Court Digest

Florida
Officers charged with issuing dozens of bogus citations

HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida police motorcycle officers are facing charges that they issued dozens of bogus tickets to drivers they never pulled over.

Hialeah officers Ernesto Arias Martinez, 23, and Armando Perez, 40, are facing multiple counts of official misconduct after their arrests Wednesday,  the Miami Herald reports.  Perez has been with the city police department for five years, Arias Martinez for four.

An internal affairs investigation found the two had issued dozens of bogus tickets to at least nine drivers in early 2020, court records show.

The Herald reports the scheme fell apart when lawyers who specialize in defending drivers who get tickets started soliciting business from people who had no idea what they were talking about.

One law office asked Reicel Sosa Polo if wanted help with the 10 tickets he had received. Sosa had never been pulled over, but remembered driving past two Hialeah motorcycle officers recently. He filed a complaint with Hialeah police.

Another driver filed a complaint after she received a letter from the state saying her license was about to be suspended because she had not paid six tickets. All were issued on the same day in January 2020 and she said she had never been pulled over, records show.

That led to the internal affairs investigation and the pair’s arrest.

“When police officers create false traffic tickets, as we are alleging happened here, they damage the reputation of their own department and the reputations of every police officer working to serve our Miami-Dade community,” Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.

Perez’s attorney, Michael Greico, said he wants to see what evidence prosecutors have. Arias Martinez’s lawyers had no comment.

The officers’ union distanced itself from the pair.

“As law enforcement officers, we are entrusted in protecting and serving our residents, and these alleged actions have violated the trust of the people and rightfully so,” said Marlon Espinoza, president of the Hialeah Fraternal Order of Police in a statement. “We ask that our community not judge all our dedicated officers by the alleged actions of two.”

North Carolina
Lawsuit: Police tore woman’s shoulder during traffic stop

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed by a Georgia woman claims officers from North Carolina used excessive force during a traffic stop in 2019 when they pulled her from the car by her hair and tore her rotator cuff.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Stephanie Bottom of Atlanta claims she posed no threat to officers from the Salisbury Police Department and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office when she was pulled over in May 2019. But they approached her vehicle with guns drawn and later violated her rights by using excessive force, the lawsuit said.

Bottom, now 68 years old, is a Black librarian. She said she was driving to Raleigh for a funeral in May 2019 when she was pulled over for speeding and failing to heed to blue lights, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Bottom said she was listening to music loudly in her car and did not realize she was being pulled over, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that two officers grabbed Bottom by her arm and her hair, later throwing her out of the vehicle and on to the ground.

Once on the ground, officers twisted Bottom’s arm behind her back, causing her “shoulder to ‘pop,’ tearing her rotator cuff and causing severe injury,” the lawsuit said.

A Salisbury police officer involved in the stop “bragged about ‘grabbing a handful of dreads,’ and said ‘at that point she earned it,’” the lawsuit said, citing footage from the officer’s body camera.

Bottom said all of the arresting officers were white.

When she asked for medical assistance, she estimated that an hour elapsed before officers called for help, the lawsuit said. Bottom had surgery to repair the tear but the injury prevents her from raising her left arm above her head.

One of the officers named in the lawsuit declined to comment but said he no longer works for the police department. The other officers did not immediately respond to comment requests.

Linda McElroy, a spokesperson for the city of Salisbury, also declined to comment on the pending litigation. McElroy told the newspaper that “the Salisbury Police always strives for positive interactions with our residents and visitors, including in cases where we may suspect criminal activity.”

Bottom pleaded guilty to failing to heed blue lights. She was also charged with speeding and resisting arrest but those were dismissed.

“Ms. Bottom was peaceful at all times, and officers knew they were dealing with an elderly woman,” said Ian Mance, a lawyer with EmancipateNC who represents Bottom. “Our complaint alleges these officers had no reason to use any force, much less the level of force they employed. Ms. Bottom wasn’t even arrested.”

Oregon
Jury finds man guilty of murder by abuse in relative’s death

ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — A Linn County Circuit Court jury has found a man guilty of murder in the death of a relative.

Chad Cheever was found guilty Wednesday of murder by abuse and assault in the 2018 death 60-year-old Don Whisenhunt, The Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

Cheever was the nephew of Whisenhunt’s ex-wife and was living with Whisenhunt in Tangent at the time.

The jury reached the verdict in just under three hours Wednesday.

Tami Fulbright, Whisenhunt’s daughter, pleaded guilty to criminal mistreatment in Whisenhunt’s death in 2019. Fulbright withheld necessary and adequate medical treatment from Whisenhunt and the jury found Cheever was similarly neglectful.

Prosecutors said an autopsy showed Whisenhunt had a broken vertebra and other serious injuries before his death. The defense attempted to call into question when and how those injuries occurred.

Additionally, the defense said that while Cheever struck Whisenhunt during an altercation, he was unaware of Whisenhunt’s condition and should not be held culpable in a lack of medical treatment for Whisenhunt.

Cheever is slated for sentencing Friday.

Louisiana
Police officer indicted for seeking sex for accident report

WINNSBORO, LA. (AP) — A northeast Louisiana police officer has been indicted on charges that he asked a woman for sex and money in exchange for a favorable accident report.

Terrance Pleasant, a former Winnsboro police lieutenant, was indicted Monday on one count of public bribery and one count of abuse of office.

Louisiana State Police say an investigation showed that the 47-year-old Pleasant asked a woman for sex and money after she was involved in a two-vehicle crash in March in Winnsboro that Pleasant investigated. In return, Pleasant offered the woman an accident report that he believed her insurer would find favorable, investigators said.

Pleasant was arrested and jailed in Franklin Parish on Tuesday, with bail set at $100,000. It’s unclear if Pleasant has a lawyer representing him.

Winnsboro Police Chief Will Pierce told The Franklin Sun that Pleasant was a 15-year-veteran before he resigned Monday.

State police investigators urge anyone with information about misconduct to report it online at the state police website.

Florida
Governor sued over new ‘anti-riot’ law

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A social justice group has filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others two days after the Republican signed a bill to create tougher penalties for people who participate in violent protests.

The nonprofit group Legacy Entertainment & Arts Foundation filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Orlando federal court, according to court records. It argues the new law violates First Amendment protections for free speech, Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment and 14th Amendment protections of due process.

“The breathtaking scope of the Bill includes granting civil immunity to people who drive into peaceful demonstrators if such demonstration blocks a road, prevents people accused of ‘rioting’ from bailing out of jail until after their first court appearance, increases penalties for assaulting law enforcement officers while engaging in a ‘riot,’ penalizing local governments that interfere with efforts to stop a ‘riot,’ and allows law enforcement agencies that face funding reductions to file objections,” the complaint stated.

DeSantis spokesman Cody McCloud said the governor’s office hasn’t yet been served in the case but will firmly defend the legal merits of the new law, which McCloud said protects businesses, supports law enforcement and ensures punishment for those who cause violence.

The so-called anti-riot bill that DeSantis signed on Monday was a response to nationwide demonstrations that occurred in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Most of the protests against racial injustice were peaceful, but some turned violent. After the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, Republicans pushing the legislation used it as an example to support the effort.
Opponents of the bill said it was a racist reaction to a problem that hasn’t occurred in Florida. They saw it as an attempt to squash the voices of groups like Black Lives Matter.

The new law enhances penalties for crimes committed during a riot or violent protest. It allows authorities to hold arrested protesters until a first court appearance and establishes new felonies for organizing or participating in a violent demonstration.

It also strips local governments of civil liability protections if they interfere with law enforcement’s efforts to respond to a violent protest and adds language to state law that could force local governments to justify a reduction in law enforcement budgets.

It also makes it a second-degree felony to destroy or demolish a memorial, plaque, flag, painting, structure or other object that commemorates historical people or events. That would be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Delaware
Ex-fire union president pleads guilty to child porn charge

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A former Delaware firefighter is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Thomas Neuberger, an attorney for Joseph J. Leonetti Jr., told a judge at a plea hearing Wednesday that job-related post-traumatic stress disorder caused Leonetti to fall into pornography “as a way of self-medicating,” the News Journal reported.

Leonetti, who is a former Wilmington Fire Department Union President, told the judge he was taking medicine to help treat his PTSD.

A prosecutor said Leonetti had access to thousands of child pornography images and videos on his iPhone, including through links. An attorney for Leonetti disputed the number.

He will remain under house arrest until his sentencing, which is scheduled for August, the newspaper reported.

Kansas
Woman who fatally beat ex’s dog gets probation

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita woman has been sentenced to probation for beating a man’s dog to death with a baseball bat, reportedly in a jealous rage.

Hilda Noordhoek, 32, was sentenced Wednesday to two years’ probation, the Wichita Eagle reported. Prosecutors say she broke into the man’s home in 2018 by smashing a window, stole a computer and headphones and fatally bludgeoned the man’s dog with a bat. A witness told police that Noordhoek killed the pet because she was mad that the man — with whom she was romantically involved — was seeing another woman.

Noordhoek denied committing the crimes to police, but pleaded no contest in February to burglary, theft and cruelty to animals. A no contest plea is one in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to get a conviction.

Police used an anonymous tip and a license plate reader that matched Noordhoek’s car to one captured on security surveillance cameras outside of the victim’s house the night of the burglary to arrest Noordhoek, prosecutors said.

Because Noordhoek lacked a significant criminal history, she was eligible for probation under Kansas law, prosecutors said. She faces jail time if she fails to meet the terms of her probation, which include avoiding drugs and alcohol, holding a full-time job and completing an anger management class.

She’s also barred from having pets except any she already owned and can’t be alone with other people’s animals.