Electrical engineer tased at his housewarming party sues Madison County deputies

By Challen Stephens | cstephens@al.com 
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on March 02, 2015 at 5:11 PM, updated March 02, 2015 at 10:58 PM

Dominique Kenebrew says he was celebrating the purchase of a new home just outside Huntsville when sheriff's deputies knocked on the door, refused to say why they were there, tried to enter the home and tased Kenebrew in the back when he refused to let them in.

Kenebrew, an electrical engineer, today sued two Madison County deputies and Sheriff Blake Dorning in federal court for illegal search, illegal seizure and excessive force.

The complaint filed today states Deputy Daniel Dejong "shot Kenebrew in the back with his taser, delivering a five-second electrical shock... pulled the taser trigger two more times, delivering two more five-second electrical shocks."

Kenebrew was arrested, taken to jail and charged with obstructing government operations. He was later acquitted.

The encounter took place on Kenebrew's front porch on May 18, 2013, as about 25 to 30 guests were inside the home on Somerset Park Drive, just over Chapman Mountain in northeast Huntsville.

The suit says guests included a nurse, two college instructors, a graduate student and a store manager, "all successful individuals, either gainfully employed or completing their education."

"Kenebrew and his guests were also African-American," reads the suit.

Was race a factor? "I really don't want to go that route," said Kenebrew, 28, on the phone today. But he added: "I don't think they expected me to be the owner of the house."

The lawsuit and the police incident reports largely agree on basic facts.

It was around 11 p.m. Deputy Dejong knocked, Kenebrew stepped outside. Kenebrew closed the door behind him and asked what officers wanted. Police did not have a search warrant. Kenebrew refused to grant them permission to enter the house.

The stories differ on some of the details of what happened next.

The suit alleges deputies repeatedly informed him they wanted to search the home, but would not provide a reason and tried to walk around Kenebrew. "He said I'm going in the house," recalled Kenebrew on the phone today.

Dejong instead wrote that he had seen inside the door and had noticed liquor, beer and what he thought might be under-aged drinkers.

 "I once again advised the suspect that I needed to check on the welfare and ages of the persons inside the residence, and that at this point, I was not asking his permission to enter," reported Dejong.

Since Kenebrew would not grant permission, Dejong wrote that he tried to force his way in, but Kenebrew puffed his chest and blocked the way.

Dejong wrote that he tried to grab Kenebrew's wrist and pin his arms behind him, but Kenebrew was too big and turned his body to block the door. Dejong notes that Kenebrew never raised his hands nor threatened deputies.

The suit puts it this way: "Kenebrew refused permission each time and asked what the problem was."

Finding he couldn't move Kenebrew, Deputy Dejong wrote that he backed up and drew his stun gun.

Both accounts agree that twice a guest opened the door and Kenebrew told the guests to go back inside.

According to the suit, the second time a guest peeked out, Kenebrew turned and "Dejong shot Kenebrew in the back."

The suit also names Deputy Ryan Countess. The suits contends Countess stood by on the porch, where could have intervened to stop "the use of obviously excessive force, yet did nothing."

Dejong writes that he was waiting as the stun gun "was cycling through the boot-up procedure" and fired when it was ready. He also notes he fired into Kenebrew's back.

Dejong wrote that he stunned him twice more when Kenebrew did not respond to commands to roll over and put his hands behind his back.

After stunning Kenebrew, Madison County deputies entered the home. They handcuffed two guests, according to the suit, "all without a warrant, probable cause or reasonable suspicion."

Dejong says they waited on backup. Kenebrew said there were about 10 deputies there already.

All agree they found nothing illegal.

There were no minors at the housewarming.

"It was determined that the patrons inside the house were not violating any laws within the residence," wrote Dejong in the original police report.

The suit contends that Deputy Dejong said deputies were responding to a noise complaint, although the suit claims that is likely fiction, that Kenebrew at that time only had in his home one wireless speaker "incapable of disturbing the peace even on maximum volume."

As for Dejong's written statement that they entered to see if Kenebrew's guests were old enough to drink alcohol, the suit says deputies never checked driver's licenses of the guests.

The suits says a different officer told Kenebrew that the deputies were responding to a complaint about a blocked driveway. Deputies did make some guests move their cars.

"The suspect was arrested for obstructing my investigation," wrote Dejong.

On Nov. 13, 2013, Madison County District Judge Allison Austin found Kenebrew not guilty of obstructing a government operation. 

"Dejong's use of force was completely unnecessary and was excessive," argues the suit in U.S. District Court, claiming illegal search, excessive force and illegal arrest in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment.

Kenebrew is represented by civil rights attorney Hank Sherrod, who last year represented Robert Bryant of Kelso, Tennessee.

Sherrod argued that Madison County deputies in the summer of 2012 conspired to stalk, beat and falsely arrest Bryant. Bryant sued Sheriff Dorning and eight deputies, including Countess, in federal court last year.

The county settled with Bryant for $625,000 last year and the FBI then announced it was investigating the deputies.

This lawsuit invokes the Bryant case and related newspaper articles to argue that Dorning and the Madison County Sheriff's Department have a record of ignoring or even covering up police misconduct. The suit claims the department did not investigate the Kenebrew incident.

Sheriff Dorning could not be reached for comment late Monday.

"Deputies under Dorning's command have learned that their justifications for using force and other unlawful actions will never be questioned," reads the Kenebrew suit, "and that they can act with impunity."

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/electrical_engineer_tased_at_h.html

Judge Dismisses Brooklyn Gun Case as Police Are Investigated

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORDJAN. 15, 2015

A Brooklyn man who claimed the police manufactured gun-possession charges against him had his case dismissed on Thursday, amid two investigations into the practices of a group of police officers in the 67th Precinct in East Flatbush.

The man, Jeffrey Herring, had maintained his innocence ever since his arrest on June 4, 2013, asserting that officers had planted the gun on him and fabricated the circumstances of his arrest.

The officers claimed that they got a tip from a confidential informer that Mr. Herring had a gun. Prosecutors had been instructed to bring the informer to court on Thursday; the defense had challenged whether that informer even existed.

At the hearing, prosecutors offered no evidence or mention of that informer.

“Based upon information provided to us by defense counsel” and on the office’s own investigation, said Paul Burns, an assistant district attorney, “we do not believe at this time that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against Mr. Herring.”

Justice Dineen Riviezzo of State Supreme Court dismissed and sealed the case, saying she was “glad to hear there’s an ongoing investigation.”

In researching the case, a lawyer for Mr. Herring, Debora Silberman of Brooklyn Defender Services, found others that mirrored it, involving the same group of police officers. In the other cases, defendants also said the guns were planted, with the police saying that officers saw the suspects storing the guns in plastic bags or handkerchiefs.

After the arrests, more similarities arose: The use of confidential informers was suddenly mentioned months into the proceedings, and the informers were never produced in court even after judges’ and lawyers’ requests. Judges had called some of the police version of events “incredible,” and the accounts “extremely evasive.”

The Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said, “We will investigate the arrest of Mr. Herring and other arrests by these officers because of the serious questions raised by this case.”

After inquiries from The New York Times, the Police Department opened an Internal Affairs Bureau investigation into the officers’ conduct.

As the charges were dismissed, Mr. Herring, 53, a rangy man dressed in gray slacks and a blue oxford, brought his hands up to his face, his eyes tearing up. If convicted of the top charge of gun possession, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison.

In 2013, Mr. Herring was arrested as he stood next to his bike outside his apartment on a sunny afternoon. He had just gone shopping, and had several plastic bags with him.

The police said Mr. Herring reached into a white plastic bag, removed a gun, put it in a black plastic bag and tossed that bag into the bushes as a plainclothes officer watched him.

Mr. Herring says he lives a quiet, nonviolent life, mostly taking care of his collie, Snowy. His last arrest, for drugs, was in 1997; he says he has been clean since then.

Eight months into the case, prosecutors gave defense lawyers papers showing that the police had requested a $1,000 tip for a confidential informer in this case. The informer had given a highly detailed description, according to the police paperwork, saying “one male black” matching Mr. Herring’s approximate age, height, weight, skin color, hairstyle and outfit, standing where Mr. Herring was standing, “near a bike with several shopping bags,” was carrying a firearm “believed to be a .380 caliber semiautomatic” that was “inside of a shopping bag.”

Police officers arrived about 10 minutes after the call. Mr. Herring “had conveniently not moved an inch, and then like clockwork, chose to display exactly what the supposed C.I. had described at exactly the right time,” Ms. Silberman and another lawyer, Scott Hechinger, wrote in a filing.

The officers involved in Mr. Herring’s case have had their conduct and methods questioned before. One, Lt. Edward Babington, had testified along with other officers in a federal case including a gun charge, prompting District Judge Dora L. Irizarry to call the officers’ testimony “just incredible, and I say ‘incredible’ as a matter of law,” adding that she believed “these officers perjured themselves.” In another federal gun case, prosecutors said they considered Lieutenant Babington to have given inconsistent testimony.

Leaving court on Thursday, Mr. Herring said, “I dreamed of this day.” However, he said, he was still thinking about two other defendants accused of gun possession by these police officers; while Mr. Herring had been out on bail as he fought his case, others spent far more time in jail.

One man, Eugene Moore, could not afford bail. He spent a year in jail until a hearing in which a judge said he did not find the testimony from a detective, Gregory Jean-Baptiste, “to be credible” and dismissed and sealed the case. Another man, John Hooper, also spent almost a year in jail after his arrest. After a hearing in which a justice said he found it “incredible that they thought it was a gun,” speaking of the officers, prosecutors offered Mr. Hooper time served and he accepted.

“I look at my journey, but they were incarcerated,” Mr. Herring said.

A version of this article appears in print on January 16, 2015, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: A Gun Case Is Dismissed as the Police Face Inquiries. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/nyregion/charges-dismissed-in-brooklyn-gun-case-as-police-are-investigated.html

Police Cruiser Responding to Call Strikes, Kills Boy: Police

By David Chang

Monday, Dec 29, 2014 • Updated at 7:42 AM EST

A 10-year-old boy who was walking to a friend's home for a sleepover was struck and killed by a police cruiser Sunday night in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey.
The child's family told NBC10 the boy was walking with two of his friends on Delsea Drive and Paul Street. The boy was crossing the street to attend a sleepover when he was suddenly struck by a Franklin Township Police cruiser passing by. Police told NBC10 the officer was responding to a call.
Man Struck, Killed by Car in New Jersey
The boy later died from his injuries. The boy's two friends were not hurt and are currently being interviewed by detectives.
Family members and a witness claimed the police cruiser was traveling fast and did not have on any lights or a siren at the time of the accident. Investigators did not confirm nor deny that the use of the vehicle's lights and siren.

The police officer was taken to Kennedy Hospital though officials have not yet revealed whether he was injured.
"The matter is currently under investigation," said Gloucester County Chief of Detectives John Porter. "We offer our deepest condolences to the family of that child."

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Child-Struck-Killed-by-Car-in-Franklin-Twp--286975061.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_PHBrand

10-Year-Old Struck, Killed by Cop's Car in New Jersey; Mother Intends To Sue

Michelle Harding said she will sue the Franklin Township Police Officer cleared of wrongdoing in the death of her son.

By Anthony Bellano (Patch Staff)January 15, 2015 at 7:49am

he mother of a 10-year-old boy who was killed in an accident involving a Franklin Township Police Officer intends to sue the township after the officer was cleared of wrongdoing in the accident.

Franklin Township Patrolman Nicholas Locilento was responding to a call when he hit 10-year-old Matthew McCloskey while McCloskey was crossing Route 47 around 7 p.m. Dec. 28, 2014. McCloskey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Locilento was speeding, at a rate of 74 mph in a 50 mph zone, and didn’t have his emergency lights on, NBC 10 reports.

Police are not required to activate emergency warning lights when responding to a non-emergency call, as Locilento was.

McCloskey’s mother, Michelle Harding, intends to sue Locilento, according to the report.

“I am genuinely upset that the prosecutor’s office was making a concerted effort to place blame on my beautiful child trying to play in his neighborhood instead of the grown responsible adults hired to protect Matthew,” Harding told NBC 10.

McCloskey was one of three children involved in a foot race to his friends’ home, crossing Route 47 in the process. Police said Locilento attempted to break before hitting McCloskey, but was unable to. He also exited his patrol car and attempted to save McCloskey, police said.

An investigation conducted by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office has cleared Locilento, who has been on administrative leave since the incident and is under administrative review.

http://patch.com/new-jersey/gloucestertownship/mother-10-year-old-struck-police-officer-south-jersey-intends-sue

Albuquerque police charged in homeless killing

12 January 2015 Last updated at 12:22 ET

Two police officers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will face charges for killing a homeless camper, their lawyers say.

Former detective Keith Sandy and officer Dominique Perez will face a murder charge in the death of James Boyd, 38.

Their lawyers argued the two will be cleared of wrongdoing.

The fatal shooting in March last year sparked city protests, some violent, and came amid a federal investigation into the police department's practices.

A year-long US investigation found Albuquerque police had inappropriately killed suspects and used more force on those with mental illnesses.

Protests against the city's police department happened before nationwide protests over the shooting deaths of unarmed black men and women by police in various US cities.

The Albuquerque police department has had more than three dozen police shootings since 2010.

The justice department ordered the city to reduce the use of deadly force in April, but another woman suspected of stealing a lorry was shot and killed weeks later.

Boyd was killed in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains on the east side of Albuquerque following a stand-off.

Protests against Boyd's killing occurred after a video emerged of police shooting Boyd.

It was filmed by the police using cameras and posted online following a public information request.

Lawyers for Mr Sandy and Mr Perez were confident their clients had done nothing wrong.

"To the contrary, he followed his training and probably saved his fellow officer's life," said Sam Bregman, Mr Sandy's lawyer.

Luis Robles, Mr Perez's lawyer, said he was "confident that the facts will vindicate Officer Perez's actions in this case".

City officials recently signed an agreement with the justice department that requires police to provide better training for officers and dismantle troubled police units.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30783324

Park Forest officer charged in World War II vet's death goes on trial Tuesday

By Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune
JANUARY 12, 2015, 5:14 AM

Was Park Forest police Officer Craig Taylor acting out of a reasonable fear for his life or recklessly when he shot five beanbag rounds inside an assisted ­living facility, killing a knife­ wielding 95­year­-old resident? It's a question that's expected to be decided this week inside a first­floor Markham courtroom, where Associate Judge Luciano Panici will determine whether Taylor's actions were criminal or not. The bench trial starting Tuesday over World War II veteran John Wrana's death comes amid national discord over police accountability after unarmed black men died at the hands of officers in Missouri and New York and no one was indicted.

While race has not been an issue in this case — Wrana was white and Taylor is black — similar concerns over aggressive police tactics have been raised. In bringing a rare criminal prosecution against an on­duty police officer, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said that "other viable options" could have been used to subdue Wrana other than the "violent extrication" chosen by Park Forest police. Taylor, one of five on a team of officers, fired a series of rapid beanbag shots at close range at the senior citizen. But all the officers told state police investigators that Wrana ignored their repeated warnings to drop the weapon and approached them with the serrated knife raised above his head. And Taylor's attorney, Terry Ekl, has said Wrana, who was acting erratically, could have killed himself with the knife if officers didn't act quickly.

"My job was to protect and serve, and that's whatI did that night," Taylor, 44, a Park Forest officer since 2004, told the Tribune in October in his first mpublic comment since he was charged with reckless conduct. Police were called to the Victory Centre retirement home in southwest suburban Park Forest on July 26, 2013, after Wrana resisted efforts by staff and paramedics to take him to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, striking one paramedic with his cane. By the time the five officers gathered outside his apartment, Wrana was holding a knife with a 7­inch blade and threatening to throw it or cut officers with it.

Moments later, police Cmdr. Michael Baugh led the way into Wrana's apartment carrying a ballistic shield and tried to subdue the elderly man with a Taser, but the prongs missed. Taylor, who had been instructed by Baugh to use the beanbag rounds if the Taser didn't work, then fired at Wrana until he dropped the knife — five rounds in all. Wrana died about five hours later after refusing surgery to stanch the internal bleeding that resulted after he was struck in the abdomen. With few of the facts about what happened that night in dispute, the trial may hinge on testimony from expert witnesses. The one hired by Taylor — Steve Ijames, a former Springfield, Mo., assistant police chief who now consults on use­of­force cases — has said Taylor acted properly and would have been justified in using his service weapon to stop Wrana. Park Forest Deputy Chief Christopher Mannino, who was Taylor's training supervisor, is expected to testify in much the same way. Prosecutors intend to call an expert of their own — Francis R. Murphy, a Florida­based consultant on police tactics — to rebut those claims. In his 17­page report, Murphy said the officers should have used their ballistic shield to knock Wrana to the ground and acted improperly in deploying a Taser and beanbag rounds.

"The situation went from the refusal to provide a voluntary urine sample to death at the hands of police use of unreasonable force," wrote Murphy, noting that officers never used pepper spray or gave Wrana time to cool off. "The existing situation demanded patience and it is obvious that the police just wanted to quickly end the stand off and seize Wrana." Ekl has sought to bar some or all of Murphy's testimony, arguing that he has no expertise in the use of beanbag shotguns. Ekl also wants to block Murphy from testifying that Wrana was mentally ill at the time because he has no medical expertise and his testimony would contradict statements from doctors who found that the elderly man was lucid that night. Panici has not yet ruled on the request. Another police consultant contacted by the state's attorney's office concluded the officers followed proper procedure, according to a letter that the prosecutor assigned to the case sent Ekl. Along with the knife Wrana was holding, Taylor's attorney has indicated he wants the judge to see the ballistic vest and shield used by the Park Forest
officers. Wrana's family has filed a lawsuit against Taylor and Park Forest that has been put on hold until the criminal case concludes.

sschmadeke@tribpub.com
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wrana-beanbag-shooting-trial-met-20150111-story.html

Domestic Disturbance Ends with Fatal Shooting of Burlington Woman

By: MARK MORRIS | 8 HOURS AGO

Burlington police aren’t saying anything, but one of their officers shot and killed a local woman late yesterday(Tues) morning in front of her house, after responding to a report of a domestic disturbance.

The victim has been identified as 34-year old Autumn Steele of 104 South Garfield. The officer who shot her has not been named by the state Division of Criminal Investigation, which is now in charge of the case.

A story in today’s(Wed) Hawk Eye says Steele had just been released from the county jail, after being arrested Monday afternoon for allegedly attacking her husband Gabriel. The newspaper account goes on to quote a neighbor and witness saying it appeared the shooting of Steele was an accident, happening as the officer shot at the family’s German Shepherd…which had startled him…and the officer slipped and fell in the snow.

Autumn Steele was taken by ambulance to Great River Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. We’ll have more information as it becomes available.

http://www.kbur.com/2015/01/07/bpd-officer-fatally-shoots-woman/