Criminal law, Society

Delaware Police Officer Indicted In Assault On Suspect Captured on Videotape

Screen Shot 2015-05-07 at 7.15.30 PM There is an interesting case developing in the Dover Police Department where a video has been released that has resulted in the indictment of Officer Tom Webster for his actions during an arrest on August 24, 2013. The suspect appears to be obeying his commands. What is interesting is that a prior grand jury declined to indict Webster, but prosecutors then tried again with another grand jury and secured an indictment.

Previously, a grand jury declined to issue an indictment and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware found that there was no civil rights violation. In June 2014, Webster returned to full duty with the Dover Police Department and was reassigned to the patrol division. However, on May 4, 2015, it was disclosed that the Delaware Attorney General’s office took this case before a second grand jury and secured an indictment against Webster on the charge of Assault 2nd degree. In response, the Dover Police Department put Webster on leave without pay.

It is fascinating to see the different results in the two grand juries. You be the judge.

The videotape is below.

243 thoughts on “Delaware Police Officer Indicted In Assault On Suspect Captured on Videotape”

  2. Paul C
    It’s a partisan issue because of who is in the White House?
    How do you define partisan, again?

    Smh

  3. The Obama administration has used the IRS to punish political adversaries. It has in the actions of the Justice Department deliberately flouted the direct order of a Federal District Court Judge. It has continually flouted both the spirit in the letter of the law in regard to oversight by Congress. It’s emails always seem to disappear or be destroyed. It records can never be found. It’s servers always seem to be wiped clean.

    What makes you think it will obey any legitimate order of the Court? Or any law that the Congress might pass?

    If the Court deems that the President does not have the ability to issue executive orders to change laws regarding the Affordable Care Act or the Immigration Law…..do you think he will acquiesce to the Court’s ruling? Or will he defy it?

  4. It is easy to make light of legitimate concerns of so many of us as to the effect of the actions of the progressive left and the Obama administration. Nothing to see here just move along. The federalization of the function of Law enforcement appeals to both Democrats and Republicans. The Duopoly loves government. More government and more control is always something they will endorse and encourage.

    The lawless actions of the Obama administration have been well documented. Even the elitist liberal lawyer who runs this blog is aware of it and is in litigation against this administration. This progressive President’s unprecedented grab for power through executive orders and his dismissal of both the Congress and the Judiciary is as plain as the nose on your face. What makes you think there is any limit to what he will do?

    Our Constitution will not be destroyed in some massive conflagration. Instead it would be the death of a thousand cuts.

    The federalization of law enforcement would be one such cut. Of the jugular vein.

  8. Karen, LOL! I think progressives are in for a big shock come 2016. They got hit w/ a hard left jab in 2014, losing many seats in both houses of Congress, governorships, and state houses. The right cross knockout punch may be coming in 2016. Dems retain a death grip on big city control and we see clearly how that’s working. Our friend here loves to point to Europe. Now, there are reasons to look to Europe as indicators for what will occur here. Polling had Cameron losing in Great Britain. Well, polling was flat ass wrong. He is even stronger in control now.

    The world is uncertain. Europe had Obama fever in 2008. Now they have Obamaitis. They want adults in charge. One of the reasons Nixon won in 1968 was because people were frightened of what they saw in the streets of big cities. Unfortunately Nixon was corrupt. But, voters went w/ him because they saw him as a person who would restore order. They saw him as the adult. We have some hand wringers here thinking Dems are going to make policing federal. That Dems are going to take over our country. Hell, I know one guy who thinks Obama is going to change the Constitution and go for a 3rd term. I always look to history. I see 2016 being much like the 1968 election. Now, there are no Republicans that excite me. But, people will be looking to the adult party in 2016. I hope the Republicans don’t nominate an idiot or a demagogue. I hope they simply nominate an adult. If they do, they win. Even if they don’t I think they win. Cameron is no rock star. But he kicked ass simply because he is a fairly conservative, level headed, adult. Dems have evolved in my lifetime from a fairly balanced party to the Mommy party. The comfort party. The give the kids cookies and milk party. With all the uncertainty internationally and domestically, this country is looking for a dad. They keep the house safe. Americans are looking for a safe house, not milk and cookies.

  9. Nick and Paul – do you think they’re compensating for something? Like the failure of their policies? If they make the unions happy with a bullet train, maybe they can distract from the economic consequences of their policies. Or the early prison release fiasco.

  10. Subways in NY are standing room only. Therefor, buses and trains should be wildly popular in CA, right? Because since they are so popular in a completely different geographical area, they should obviously be just as poplar in CA, according to the logic about Europe and Japan. And yet, buses in CA drive around mostly empty, The Metrolink hemorrhages money every year as ridership plummets. Rapid transit is a well documented failure in most of CA. And yet people want to spend even more money on a failed project. San Francisco itself is an exception, where the city of no parking has a popular rapid transit system. But building an expensive train where a ticket will cost almost as much as a plane ticket but will end up taking 3 times as long so that people can vacation in SF makes zero economic sense, either now or in the future. This kind of boondoggle can cause irreparable economic harm to the state of California. We should be helping those who commute to work, not vacation. Just getting traffic moving faster will ease smog and help our environment. The Vacation train will do neither.

    We looked into my husband taking the Metrolink to his shop but it would take 3 hours and 2 trains for a 45 minute drive one way. Plus it was a lot more expensive than we’d realized. Since he would still have to drive all day once he got there, because of his job, it would end up costing us more and leaving him with less time at home than if he’d driven himself. Many people come to the same conclusion. Now, my cousin takes Metrolink because he has a lot of work to do at home, so he does it on the train. How many people like him can justify lengthening their commute?

  11. Isaac:

    I well recall the Enron scandal.

    Here is the problem with the nationalization/socialization of crucial industries. When a private company breaks the law or does wrong, they are sued and prosecuted. As this blog has made painfully aware, when government agencies or employees break the law or do wrong, there seems to be very little any of us can do about it. When we already have lawlessness rampant in our government agencies, we do not meekly hand the reins over for crucial industry and just hope they will suddenly act better. Past predicts future, and we have a well documented history of an utter lack of accountability. Professor Turley is involved in a lawsuit as we speak trying to rein in an imperial President. And it’s already clear that Hillary Clinton is going to get away with hiding her emails while she was our SOS from subpoenas regarding Benghazi, Congressional investigators, and the State Department itself. It would take a special prosecutor to check her, and what do you think the chances are that Obama would do such an unbiased thing? Employees killed veterans through outright fraud and no one even got fired, let alone went to jail.

    That is the difference between private industry and government industry.

    And as for the Vacation Train Boondoggle – we are in a recession. Our streets are some of the most pot holed in the nation. People leave the state because of the stress of gridlock, which also contributes to the smog in our cities. We have the highest tax rate in the nation. Businesses are leaving the state. Our borders are so porous that there are many areas in CA in which English is not spoken, and signs are not even written in English at all. Illegal alien crews do not follow our laws for minimum wage, work comp, license, or insurance and they are decimating the construction and remodel industries because they can undercut those who do follow the law. It’s a mess. And what does California do? It passes a bill to build a vacation train to San Francisco by lying to the voters about its cost and ridership. It is well documented that the cost of building it will be over 3 times what was sold to the public, and that ridership was wildly, fraudulently over inflated. Instead of being self sustaining, it will cost over $65 BILLION, and will require the taxpayers to further subsidize it in perpetuity. And it is documented to be a net negative impact on our environment and air quality. Who does that? Blows billions of dollars instead of fixing our roads and gridlock? And who gets the jobs to build it? Why, the unions, those Liberal darlings who have bought so many politicians. And they’ll overcharge us and under deliver like they always do.

    What is the difference between jobs created by the government and private sector? The government can literally create jobs by layering on expensive, unsustainable, inefficient bureaucracy, which is a further burden on the stressed taxpayers who have to support them. They tend to be un-fireable due to their unions, and unaccountable. Anyone who has worked in most areas of the government outside of the military can tell you about the sloth and graft that is so frustrating for those employees who really work hard. Or they can give government contracts for building projects. We have already discussed ad nauseum the problems with our government procurement system, no bid contracts, and gifts to political donors.

    Jobs are created in the private sector when businesses succeed and grow, hiring more employees and contributing tax revenue to the state and nation.

    There is a big difference.

    But don’t take my word for it. If you want to know how the government handles our crucial resources, check this out about how the Department of Water and Power lived lavishly on ratepayers:

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-dwp-nonprofits-20150430-story.html

    Or there is this lovely gem about how the City of Industry awarded millions of dollars in no bid contracts controlled by the Perez family, sometimes over paying by a factor of 10:

    http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20120629/2-minutes-and-228-million-heres-how-industry-spends-its-money

    You do not keep repeating an experiment and expect a different result.

    So please, do not hand over our resources and health care to government when it has proven, over and over again, that it will waste our money and resources and not care at all if we’re unhappy about it.

  13. Karen, As you know, we are proudly not Europe. The US President who knew Europe as well as any, Ike, built the interstate system. Ike knew every railroad, road, town in Europe. He took it back for them. Our differences w/ Europe are geographical, cultural, historical. We both know there are some routes where trains make sense. We also both know Guv. Moonbeam doesn’t have a lick of sense. And, his choices are absurd. Being a professional observer of human behavior, I am often fascinated by people’s obsessions. One of my fascinations is seeing just how much alleged progressives love those choo choo trains. But, they want people who work hard to pay for their toys.

    1. Nick – you have to admit that a bullet train is a shiny toy.

  14. Karen

    I lived in Ca for 14 years, through Republican and Democrat administrations. California has a problem that neither party has addressed. In 2001 the state has 40 billion in reserves. Enron ran a raid on California and literally stole the money by increasing energy costs at a time when the tech industry had grown beyond its, later to be found, natural size and the economy had begun to falter. They shut down power plants for maintenance in the season of highest use. The ability of a private corporation to manipulate energy costs in a state like California is indicative of the problem of the oligarchical nature of American government. The people worked for that surplus. A corporation stole it. The method was electricity. Free enterprise comes with its costs. In most of our peer nations, not all but in most, systems that are crucial to the public well being are either run or controlled by the people through the government.

    California has been since the end of WW2 a boom and bust state. Millions of people moved to the state and built entire neighborhoods and cities with schools and infrastructure. Then they got old, retired, moved away and the schools were empty. The private sector built new neighborhoods and infrastructure and the cycle continues. The expansion and following reduction of areas and businesses is a result of poor or no planing. That has less to do with one or the other political party and more to do with ideology based on the movies. In a country without the ‘greener grass’ just over the hill, the government controls expansion and reduction as it has found through experience what can happen.

    The high speed train planned for Ca is a good idea in times of economic expansion and a bad idea in times of economic stress. If it is built it will be there for both. Most things in life that are built for the public good don’t pay off right away. It’s a chicken and egg thing. In Europe the high speed trains and the other forms of public transportation are subsidized in their direct costs but give back much more in their indirect advantages. It took a while for the TGV in France to get off the ground. Now, you need a reservation to get a seat. I know, in 2000 I stood up for several hours.

    Living out in the boonies it doesn’t much make sense. Living in the past doesn’t either. However, most Americans live in the congested areas, now, and will be there when it gets worse and bloggers are criticizing the government for not building a now much needed system of mass rapid transit.

  16. Paul – isn’t getting sexual gratification from feeding his semen to prepubescent children pedophilia? Pedophilia is defined by sexual attraction or feelings towards children, and does not require a specific act.

    Plus there were prior allegations from 1983 to 2011 of him dropping his pants, masturbating in class, inappropriately touching a student, and wearing baggy shorts that exposed his genitals when he sat in front of the class.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-miramonte-warning-20140927-story.html

    1. Karen – I am not sure what you call what he was doing besides perversion. What he was doing previously does not count for this particular crime, whatever it is.

  17. How awesome is that? Thanks to the Teachers Union, we were forced to pay one of the most prolific pedophiles $40,000 just to get him to quit.

    Defend that.

    1. Karen – technically he is not a pedophile, but he certainly is a pervert. The article cannot quite seem how to describe him.

  18. Oh, here’s another goodie. Mark Berndt, the infamous “cookie” teacher who fed dozens of students cookies topped with his own semen, and who had allegations of misconduct going back decades, was paid $40,000 to resign rather than go through the years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in court it takes to fire a teacher for cause. All thanks to the Teachers Union:

    http://www.laweekly.com/news/mark-berndts-40-000-payoff-2173991

  20. Karen,
    Could you please provide a link to a single case in which a pedophile was defended by a teachers union.

    Keep in mind an accused is not the same as convicted. That is why civil service employees are typically placed on paid administrative leave until their cases are adjudicated.

    So, who has defended a convicted pedophile?

Comments are closed.