Remember that whole business in the Third Amendment about not having quarter soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent or that stuff in the Fifth Amendment about takings of property or that other stuff in the Fourth Amendment on unreasonable searches and seizures. It does not appear to apply to police in Henderson Nevada. The City of Henderson is being sued with its police chief Police Chief Jutta Chambers (left) as well as the City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister (right) for a bizarre takeover of a home for a stakeout. Anthony Mitchell says that he was told that police needed to occupy his home to get a “tactical advantage” on the occupant of a neighboring house. When Mitchell refused, the police ultimately, according to his complaint, busted through his door, hit him with pepper balls, and put him into custody. The lawsuit also names Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley.
Mitchell says that the ordeal began with a call from Officer Worley demanding access to his home. He refused to allow the police to do so and the call ended.
The complaint states that Officer David Cawthorn laid out the following plan in a report: “It was determined to move to 367 Evening Side and attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.’” Ultimately, when Mitchell did not open the door, the police bashed it in, shot him with “pepperball” rounds, searched the house, and set up a lookout point in the house. He says that they then went to his father’s house, a few doors away, and made a similar “request.” They took the father to the Henderson police station, and when he tried to leave, they arrested him. When his wife Linda opened the door, they used the house as planned. Both Mitchell and his father were booked them for obstructing an officer.
If these allegations are true, it is unclear why the police chiefs or the responsible prosecutors are still employed. Chief Chambers retired with a large buyout from the city.
All of the charges were later dismissed, a pattern we have seen in police abuse cases where victims are hit with charges and later offered pleas bargains or settlements. In this case, the charges were dropped but what prosecutor prepared the charges to begin with?
What I find most troubling about this case is that it seems to be following a trend. After the Boston bombing, I wrote a column expressing concern over how the Boston police effectively searched every home in a huge area — forcing families into the street under some general claim of exigency. It turned out that the suspect was not in the area. Police seem to be using exigency or “tactical” claims to circumvent constitutional protections.
I am eager to hear the response of these departments because, if true, these allegations constitute a chilling case of police abuse. If police can simply proclaim a “tactical” need as the basis for entering any home, the fourth amendment would become a purely discretionary rule. In my view, Mitchell had every right to refuse the use of his home. This was not some hot pursuit of a suspect or a need to protect officers from an imminent threat or harm. It was the forced occupation of a home — a poignant case to read on the Fourth of July weekend. We previously broke away from a guy named George who liked to do stuff like this.
Source: Courthouse News
Kudos: Andre Campos
Juliet, Superb. We have attorneys here but not as many as you might think. I have found the people who work in the culture, but are not part of it, understand it the best. That would be the same for most professions. Nobody knows docs better than nurses. I nominate you for Rookie of the Year. You’re a great addition to the roster. Like Puiz for the Dodgers.
Here is a link. Interesting some of it has been censored. I think it is because it reveals what domestic information the Police were seeking from the Neighbors. Even then why censored?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/151769636/Mitchell-v-City-of-Henderson-et-al-Complaint
OS, You and I have worked w/ numerous law enforcement agencies and have the same take. I think it’s incumbent on us, and Darren, to provide balance once in awhile. Good job on this one.
Juliet, You have the attorney culture nailed! I worked in the culture as a PI and agree 100%. If you care to share, how have you come to these enlightened insights?
Nick: My first job, at age 15, was working for the county attorney in my hometown. Except for my Army hitch, I have worked in the field my entire career — almost 30 years. Even while enlisted, I worked in intelligence and law enforcement. I also married a law professor and attended one of those “subpar” law schools for a year. I am intimately familiar with the culture.
Your assumption that prosecutors participated in this farce is just that, an assumption. I read frequent, broad references to “bad prosecutors” on this blog. Someone appears to have a chip on their shoulders. Now, I don’t know how Nevada procedures work, but in my jurisdiction officers don’t consult prosecutors before signing affidavits and bringing misdemeanor charges. These prosecutors may be guilty as hell, if so, something needs to be done; but this article doesn’t detail their role, so I’m using my own assumption, they had none except booting the bogus charges. Does someone have chip on their shoulder? Every barrel has a few bad apples, but the constant references here without factual averments are getting old.
Juliet, Thanks from my wife and me. I think you’ll enjoy it. I gave a more detailed answer on the wrong thread[lack of caffeine]. But thumbnail, the 1966 SCOTUS leaned left and Miranda was a 5-4. I think Scalia would make a favorable vote on this issue.
The path of least resistance is the inherent way of mankind.
If you can advance your life by tyranny, cronyism and corruption – which is the natural order of things all around you; then that is the way it shall be.
We are what we are doing; not what we “wish” we had done!
Until greed, vanity and laxity begin to take a back seat to value system, concern for others and a patriotic duty to not stand idle by; Tyranny, cronyism and corruption shall remain the order of the day.
Our sense and practice of justice must improve;
or our nation will perish from the earth.
My four decades of experience working with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies confirms the old adage that a fish rots from the head down. There are some departments that have a culture of violence and scofflaw behavior. Fortunately for most of us, the majority of departments I have ever worked with were pretty good. The general impression I have gotten, although have no research, is that rural departments have better public relations and less of this kind of nonsense than urban departments. Having said that, every department seems to have the occasional lone wolf/loose cannon officer.
I stumbled on the link to the Mitchell case in Las Vegas yesterday and could not believe what I was reading.
Several people have commented in several blogs (and emails to me) that they would get their gun and exercise their 2A rights. I have news for them. That is how you get yourself killed. It has happened before. Here is just one example from just a couple of months ago: http://abcnews.go.com/US/storynew?id=95475&page=1#.UdboKqywWrE
This should go much further than a civil case. Since their constitutional rights were violated, especially under 3A and 4A, there should be Federal criminal charges. After all, local officers were prosecuted under Federal law in the Rodney King case.
Police and our Government will learn, by court decree or time proven history several things.
The best, most effective and time proven solution to the problem of crime, terrorism and mass murder, is the voluntary, helpful corporation of a well informed, Constitutionally protected citizenship.
The Government and Police cannot have it both ways. They are attempting to do just that by fear and persecution of both. film in public, but only what we say film. Without the public’s cooperation and freedom they will get neither. Public photography has proven to be the best assets in the war on crime and terrorism but Police object to Photography when as a public official, doing a job in public, they object and persecute the people and then also ask for cooperation of the public recordings. This is what has to stop.
Our Government and Police have taken the Position they do not need the cooperation of the public and arrest and threaten anyone who does not cooperate. Free or not that strategy will not work in a society that has been told it is free. If people fear Police and Government then they will ignore what they see or record, for fear of what will happen to them. The distrust of our Government and Police is the worst policy they can have and it is doomed to failure. The policy of fear by the Police and Government jeopardises the safety and security of all Americans and themselves.
A law abiding citizenry that does not fear the Police, and has rights upheld to protect them from abuse of the system cooperate with the only proven good results. The cooperation with the the Police is what has excellent results and makes us all safer without turning America into a military style Police state.
We apparently need a Miranda type decision on this type of abuse.
Y’all are funny, this morning.
Nick: I’d rather wait for a less…um…conservative SCOTUS. Btw, got your wife’s book on Wednesday. Started it last night.
Juliet,
I don’t think Skip can connect those dots. I guess in his world if you graduated from a law school ranked lower than his, you are a sub standard lawyer. Arrogance maybe??
This story is oddly absent from mainstream media
“We previously broke away from a guy named George who liked to do stuff like this.”
*********************
I thought Obama would be better,too.
P.S. : Yeah, I know he meant Geo. III.
Wow. You mean that middle aged White man James Madison, from a slave state to boot, knew what he was doing in writing the Third Amendment? Who amongst the revisionist media & university elite could have guessed! When I was in law school (a top 25 one) we essentially passed over the Third Amendment as a product of then-current events.
And isn’t it a sad statement of the profession that probably the majority of J.D.’s granted in the past decade are from “unranked” law schools? It’s quite an experience to reference the Seventh Amendment at a public meeting, and strongly (strongly!) suspect the several lawyers in the room have no idea what I mean.
These products of unranked law schools are the present major problem in the practice of law. These schools spew out 200 J.D.’s a year, folks who can only get local jobs. Inevitably, some do well, make $$, get in politics, and end up Judges, state legislators, etc. Locally, there was a criminal case where the defendant walked after a judge didn’t know that jeopardy attached after a jury is empaneled.
Mark: Har!
Skip: That’s a pretty wide causal leap, there. Would you please humor me by connecting the dots from subpar law schools to police state?
Juliet & Raf:
Way off Raf. I don’t think going to St. Louis Univ. Law makes you any less qualified to be a lawyer or judge than, e.g., Yale. SLU, and that school is just an exemplar, is a respected, established and credible school. The fact is that SLU, Stetson Law, De Paul, etc., may float in and out of the top 100 is not what is (or has) destroying the legal profession.
The legal profession has been undermined by hundreds, and I am not exaggerating, of unranked, “Third Tier” law schools pouring out J.D.’s. 250 unranked, lousy law schools turning our 200 grads/yr outnumber the 120-150 credible law schools.
Then, Juliet, these folks become lawyers (even if only 80% pass a Bar), then judges, then politicians. They make and interpret laws. They become part of the “State”, by allegedly being part of the check/balance on the State. Frankly, my experience has been that grads from these unranked schools don’t even understand the concept of checks & balances. Surely, you understand the danger of a judiciary that is intellectually prepared only to be a tool of the State?
As for arrogance, I think certain lines drawn, e.g., that only Yale & Harvard grads are on the Supreme Court, is absurd. It wasn’t exactly yesterday, but Justice Hugo Black didn’t even go to law school. I wonder if Stanford or U of Chicago law makes the Supreme Court’s cut? Northwestern & U of Michigan? Or, suppose the school is, heaven forbid, in the South! Vandy, Duke, U. Va.? Are Harvard & Yale the only law schools that are good enough to be a Su. Ct. Justice?
Skip: Nationally, only about 15% of state legislators are attorneys, so I’m still not seeing causation. Additionally, first time bar pass rates approach 90%, so perhaps the problem — assuming there is one — lies more with allowing attorneys to set their own standards. Finally, regardless of what pretty letters people get to put after their names upon graduating, law school doesn’t prepare a person to actually *practice* law, but merely to think like a lawyer. From what I’ve seen, sometimes a high ranking school can fail to accomplish even that.
What has happened to us? I am despairing. Police know no limits and their superiors support the abuse of citizens. We are all at risk.
What’s next? Nacht und Nebel?
Anarchy, pure and simple.
We have the instance where a med alert device malfunction wound up in the death (by the guns of the police) of a NY retired armed services hero.
A man in a wheel chair was shot and killed for wielding a pencil as a weapon.
Homeless man Kelly Thomas was beat to death after the officer put his gloves on, turned to Kelly (sitting on the ground on his hands) – and the officer remarked “I’m going to f —- you up with these”.
Six officers then beat Kelly Thomas to death after the tazer batteries wore out, they turned the tazers upside down and thumped the – on the ground Kelly Thomas in the head repeatedly.
Another trial of an officer – found him not guilty – because the judge refused to allow the video of the assault to be entered into evidence (saying it was untasteful to do so).
It lacks good taste, good ethics and good conscience to abuse the power and authority granted by the citizenry – to abuse the citizenry.
What do you want to et the new boss is the same as the old boss?
http://cityofhenderson.com/city_managers/bios/police_meet_the_chief.php
Looks like the City of Henderson got a new police chief.
Patrick E. Moers
Police Chief
“Contact:
Office Telephone: (702) 267-4501
Office Fax: (702) 267-5001
E-Mail: COHPoliceChief@cityofhenderson.com
Professional Biography:
Patrick E. Moers was appointed Chief of Police in July 2012, becoming the 12th person to head the city of Henderson Police Department since the city’s incorporation in 1953. He joined the Henderson Police Department as a patrol officer in September 1991.
Chief Moers leads the police department of the second largest city in Nevada with 390 police officers, 83 corrections officers, and more than 160 full-time civilian employees. When Chief Moers became a police officer in 1991, the department had only 90 officers.
As a police officer, Chief Moers served as a field training officer and a department training instructor. He was promoted to sergeant in 1997 and served in patrol and then in the Investigations Division, where he supervised the property crimes section and crimes against persons section. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2003.
As a lieutenant, Chief Moers oversaw several bureaus including investigations, traffic bureau, the accreditation unit through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), backgrounds and Internal Investigations. Chief Moers has been a member of the department’s technology committee bringing technology advances to the department. He was promoted to captain in 2009 and then to Deputy Chief in 2012.
Chief Moers is a graduate of Nevada State College with a bachelor’s degree in public administration in law enforcement. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command. He was named to the Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Executive Board for 2013.
05/2013″