Archive for the 'Police' Category

It happens every day in America.  Hundreds of thousands of men are in prison for false confessions. Here’s a particularly bad example.

Two months ago, Robert Davis was getting ready to set up chairs for Bible study when he received some life-altering news: Within hours, he’d be walking out of Coffeewood Correctional Center, a free man for the first time in nearly 13 years.

Davis, 31, stepped out of prison December 21 to face television cameras, probably as surreal an experience as his last night of freedom in February 2003, when he was surrounded by police, slammed to the ground and handcuffed.

He was 18 years old then, a senior at Western Albemarle High and by his own admission, “naive.”

He didn’t know that he didn’t have to talk to police without a lawyer about a horrific double murder that had happened a few days earlier in his Crozet neighborhood. He didn’t know that police can lie to suspects to obtain a confession. And he didn’t know that after hours of a middle-of-the-night interrogation when he just wanted to sleep, if he told the officer what the cop wanted to hear, he wouldn’t be able to straighten things out in the morning.

Davis wasn’t familiar with the term “false confession” in 2003, and he didn’t realize he would become the face of the phenomenon to which juveniles and the exhausted are particularly susceptible. Nor could he have guessed that his story would be the subject of a national television show that aired on “Dateline NBC” February 14.

Robert Davis has learned a lot since 2003.

Snow was on the ground the morning of February 19, 2003, when the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department got the call of a blaze in Crozet Crossing, a subdivision of entry-level homes.

At 6047 Cling Ln., once the fire was out, responders discovered a sinister scene: The body of Nola Charles, 41, known as Ann to her family and friends, in a bunk bed upstairs, with her arms duct-taped behind her. It took Albemarle police forensics technician Larry Claytor a while to notice the charred handle of a knife in her back.

Another shock awaited in the smoldering house. In Charles’ bedroom, the body of her 3-year-old son, William Thomas Charles, was found under debris. He’d died of carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke inhalation.

Almost immediately, police focused on a couple of neighborhood teens: Rocky Fugett, 19, a senior at Western Albemarle, and his sister Jessica, 15, a freshman. During interrogation, the two started throwing out names of other students to deflect the blame, both later told a reporter. One of those names was Robert Davis.

In a 2011 interview at Sussex II State Prison, Rocky Fugett admitted that he’d picked on Davis, and said he never dreamed Davis would confess to being there the night Charles was killed.

In the world of television crime, wrongful convictions are a hot topic, as evidenced by the radio podcast “Serial” and Netflix’s “Making a Murderer.”

An expert in false confession who appeared in the “Dateline” episode as well as in “Making a Murderer,” Northwestern law school’s Laura Nirider, who is the director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, has been aware of Davis’ case for years, and sent a 64-page report supporting his petition for clemency in 2012. She has called his interrogation “one of the most coercive confessions I’ve seen.”

It was after midnight when Davis was arrested at gunpoint, and almost 2am when the interrogation by Albemarle Police Detective Randy Snead began.

Snead had been the resource officer at Ivy Creek, the special ed school Davis had attended, and Davis says he trusted him.

Davis denied he had anything to do with the Charles murders dozens of times, according to the video of his six-hour interview. He offered to take a polygraph to prove he was telling the truth multiple times. And he told police if they were going to arrest him, to go ahead and do it so he could go to sleep.

Police widely use the Reid Technique of interviewing and interrogation, which says if a suspect asks to take a lie detector test, that should be taken as a sign of innocence, according to Nirider. That alone should have been a red flag to investigators, she says, but there were other details that made Davis’ interrogation a textbook case of false confession.

She points out how police fed him the details of the crime. Snead lied and told Davis police had evidence he was at the crime scene. He threatened Davis with the “ultimate punishment,” and said Davis’ mother could go to jail if he didn’t tell the truth. Finally, at nearly 7am, Davis said, “What can I say I did to get me out of this?”

“The young and those with mental limitations are most vulnerable to making false confessions,” says Nirider.

She notes a recent study that shows the sleep-deprived are way more likely to falsely confess to a crime. Exhaustion “absolutely plays a role,” she says. “There is a correlation.”

UVA law professor Brandon Garrett has examined many cases of false confession, and points out the interviews in those cases lasted over three hours. If someone is exhausted, he says, he thinks if he just goes along with the interrogation, he can clear it up later.

Today, Davis says the overriding emotion during that interview was fear. “I was scared shitless,” he says.

With Davis’ confession and the testimony of the Fugetts putting him at the crime scene, his attorney, Steve Rosenfield, says it was a “grave risk” to go to trial. He feared a jury would ask the question most people ask—why would you confess to a crime you didn’t commit?—and give Davis a life sentence.

When the commonwealth offered a deal, Rosenfield advised Davis to enter an Alford plea, in which he maintains his innocence but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him, and take a 23-year prison sentence.

Davis says it’s hard to recall a lot about entering that plea because he was on medication for anxiety and depression. Mainly, he thought, “At least I get to go home eventually.”

“I told Robert one day the Fugett kids might tell the truth,” says Rosenfield. “It took a long time—with Jessica especially.” She recanted her allegations about Davis in 2012.

Two years after Davis was convicted in 2004, Rosenfield received a letter from Rocky Fugett that said he had some information that would be helpful to Davis. Fugett signed an affidavit saying Davis had nothing to do with the slayings, and in 2012, Rosenfield sent a petition for clemency to then-governor Bob McDonnell.

There it lingered until McDonnell’s last day in office, when he denied the petition. According to Rosenfield, McDonnell’s administration conducted no investigation of the petition’s claims.

That was a particularly bleak time for Davis. “It was crushing having to wait so long and even more crushing when Bob McDonnell denied it without doing any investigation,” he says.

When Davis walked out of Coffeewood the day Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a conditional pardon, he pointed to Rosenfield and said, “If it weren’t for that man there fighting for me, I wouldn’t be out right now.”

He’s probably right. Rosenfield submitted six volumes of documents supporting the clemency petition. “There wouldn’t be a realistic mechanism if a prisoner tried to do that,” he says.

Rosenfield was Davis’ court-appointed lawyer in 2003, but since Davis took the Alford plea in 2004, he’s been Davis’ pro bono lawyer. He estimates he’s spent between 1,500 and 2,000 hours working on the case, legal expertise worth about $600,000. And that doesn’t include the couple of thousand dollars he’s spent out of pocket.

“I’m glad he’s out,” says the attorney. “It’s a lot less work.”

Years in prison, more than half a million dollars in legal time, the innocent get punished, the guilty go free, and the cops and attorneys couldn’t care less because they got their conviction.

By feeding him details, threatening his mother, lying about other things, all to a sleep deprived adolescent. This is why the Scriptures require the testimony of two or more witnesses to convict a man of a crime, and self incrimination isn’t allowed by the Bible.  Because our judicial system no longer recognizes the Scriptures as God’s Holy law, they make up their own system of “righteousness,” a false righteousness in God’s eyes.  A damning righteousness in God’s eyes.  For more, see Rousas J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law.

Torture could become the norm without Biblical law, and while they didn’t inflict physical pain on the boy, it was a form of torture.  Torture is simply not allowed by the Scriptures, and only wicked men do it, some in the name of local security, and some in the name of national security.

Teach your children, wife, and even relatives well.  Do not talk to the police.  Explain to them why.  The Scriptures do not allow self incrimination.  Do not be naive, and do not be trusting.  Do not cooperate with your own false imprisonment.

The traitor responsible for the continued violations of the constitution of the U.S. and of Texas law is none other than a sworn defender of the same, Olmos police chief Rene Valenciano.  He is an awful person who cares not the least about lying and abandoning his oath.

So the claims on their web site are all lies.  He and his traitor officers have no intention of obeying Texas law, in which open carry is legal.  This also raises yet another question: where the hell is the Texas attorney general?  A police chief is violating Texas law and infringing on constitutionally protected rights.  Where is the Texas attorney general on this?  Missing in action?

Police chief Rene Valenciano’s email address is: policechief@olmospark.org.  Feel free to tell him he’s a traitor.  The city manager is Celia DeLeon, and her email address is: citymanager@olmospark.org.  Is she a coward?  Just why hasn’t she shut down Valenciano’s traitorous henchmen yet?  Is she waiting for a massive lawsuit that bankrupts the city?

By the way, police chief.  That fat boy officer in the video, yea, him.  Tell him to go on a diet, put on a backpack, and hit the trails.

And as for my readers in Texas (I know I have a lot of them), you know what to do next.

This is a remarkable video.  It comes from reader Joe.  I don’t know when this incident occurred, but the video was recently released.  Watch it all.

The officer repeatedly states that he is entitled to know the person’s identity for a lawful activity because he is “investigating” something or other, while also not making clear that the person has been detained or arrested.

He then goes inside and reads the statute aloud, while also reading the words detained or arrested on suspicion of a crime.

He’s conflicted.  The statute cited by the photographer, Texas Penal Code 38.02, says this.

(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally refuses to give his name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.
(b) A person commits an offense if he intentionally gives a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has:
(1) lawfully arrested the person;
(2) lawfully detained the person; or
(3) requested the information from a person that the peace officer has good cause to believe is a witness to a criminal offense.

The photographer was not under arrest.  He was also not being detained according to the officer, but the officer wouldn’t let him leave.  So the officer lied about it, and clearly doesn’t understand what it means to detain someone.  The officer merely repeated the point that he was conducting an investigation.

We’ve seen this before with the Prince William County PD, where they repeatedly claimed that the mere act of conducting an investigation was adequate cause for demanding identification.

Here’s the fact.  It’s not.  That couldn’t be clearer.  This wasn’t a so-called “Terry Stop.”  There was no suspicion of a crime (photography isn’t illegal), and the conduct of an investigation isn’t justification for violation of rights.

The police academy is lying to their students, or else, the officer is ignorant and unteachable.  There is another possibility – he just doesn’t care.  Their contact information can be found here.

Beware, dear readers.  The 2A sanctuary movement, bringing Sheriffs and local PDs on board with your 2A rights, may not be be all it’s cracked up to be.  For your AO, you need to ensure that it means what it means and your local LEOs are truly on board, not just saying things for the purpose of reelection.

If they’ll violate your first amendment rights with careless impunity, they’ll do it with the second amendment too.

Recall that one crud, vulgar, obscene Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy violated a man’s rights guaranteed under the second and fourth amendments by an illegal and unconstitutional detention?

Well, a recent video shows obvious violation of someone’s fourth amendment rights, and attempts to cover it up before the fact.

Sheriff Steve Deweese, sdeweese@putnamwv.org, has a real problem on his hands.  It looks like most if not all of his deputies are crass, lawless thugs and criminals.  Then again, you know what they say.  This typically all comes from the top.  Sheriff Deweese needs to be replaced and then prosecuted along with his deputies.  He looks like he is corrupt to the bone.

News from New York.

“We’re a rural county, and a lot of people are gun owners and support the Second Amendment and were not happy with the SAFE Act, and I support all of that,” Smith said. “But I couldn’t take the lead and advise people to break the law.”

“I couldn’t lead it because I took an oath and am here to support people who are for and against the Second Amendment,” Smith said.

Have you ever heard such a cowardly and confused statement?  Try to dissect that.  ” … I took an oath and am here to support people who are for and against the Second Amendment.”

Where is something like that in any oath he took?  When did he take an oath to “support” people who are against the thing to which he was supposed to swear an oath?

Via WiscoDave.  News from Florida.  Video at the link.

As he attempts to back up and drive around the golf car blocking the parking lot exist, the school resource officer issues a foul-mouthed warning: ‘You’re gonna get shot, you come another f***ing foot closer to me. You run into me, you’ll get f***ing shot. This is my campus, brother.’

The lesson here isn’t really that many cops are thugs and gang members with badges and court authority who will use any chance to berate, belittle, and lord it over other people like the sociopaths they are.  We knew that already.

The real lesson here is that when you send your children to centers of communist indoctrination, the state owns them.  The only solution is home schooling.

News from California.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A frightening situation for a Tulare County family started when they heard banging on their front door at around ten Tuesday night.

“They can hear them yelling ‘Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff’s Office,’ says Tulare County Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Torres. “The victims thought it was odd that it was late hours, so the suspects then forced their way into the living room area, they busted the front door.”

At this point, Torres says the homeowner knew for sure that the people at the door were not sheriff’s deputies, as they weren’t wearing law enforcement uniforms.

That’s when Torres says the homeowner and suspects started shooting at each other.

One suspect was hit in the upper body and died at the scene. The other suspects got away.

The homeowner’s wife, child, and another man were inside the house at the time. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

I’ve documented two other times this has happened, once in Norfolk, Virginia, and the other time in Houston, Texas.  There are doubtless many more examples I haven’t documented.  I have observed that “You see, we can’t just lay down and let people screaming “police, police, get on the floor, police, police” … come into our homes without countering those efforts with close quarters battle.  Because they may not be police.”

So two sides are now set up to conduct war on one another, the first side being the police who conduct SWAT raids with impunity from prosecution by the government, the second side being the innocent homeowner, victim of a false claim or mistaken identity, and the setup was built by the government itself who refuses to stand down their stupid “war on drugs” and simply follow the constitution.

It’s happened before to innocent home owners, and it’ll happen again.

This is a remarkable video for a number of reasons.

First of all, the cop who conducted the detention is a vile, foul-mouth, nasty, mean individual, who clearly hasn’t the temperament, education or intelligence to be a cop.  In my estimation he has the temperament to be a ditch digger, and probably nothing more until he grows up.

Second, this detention was illegal.  The video commenter keeps referencing U.S. versus Black, and that’s a good one to use since the Fourth Circuit determined that the simple act of carrying a gun openly in an open-carry state isn’t reason enough to stop and detain a man on suspicion of anything (Nathaniel Black and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department).

But it shouldn’t even have to get that far.  West Virginia is not a stop-and-identify state based on every resource I could find on the subject (not that I believe stop-and-identify is constitutional, but it seems to be recognized by the courts in the case of a “Terry Stop” where there is legitimate suspicion of a crime).  So the cop broke West Virginia state law.  He no more has the right to stop someone and force them to answer questions or provide identification for no reason than I do.

Third, based on what this cop says, he does this all the time.  Seriously.  Watch the video.  Based on what I heard, I think he confessed over video to multiple violations of constitutional rights of citizens of West Virginia.

Your contact information for this is the following.

sdeweese@putnamwv.org (Steve Deweese, Sheriff of Putnam County)

prosecutingattorney@putnamwv.org (Mark A. Sorsaia, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
Putnam County Judicial Building)

Oh, and by the way, Putnam County is a so-called “Second Amendment Sanctuary” county.  It looks to me like Sheriff Deweese isn’t on board with that and needs to be replaced.

News from traitor Michael Bloomberg.

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

I’m glad you see it that way Michael.  I do too.

Hey, here’s a little note for you.  Your army sucks.  And the founders disagreed with the notion of standing armies in America.

His weapon was concealed and the only reason the deputy knew he had a weapon was that he informed as such.  He was stopped, detained, and a gun pointed at him for wearing a ballistic vest. In other words, he did nothing illegal.