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.
I would think that you have to remember that the grand jury only sees what the prosecutor shows them. So I think it is fair to assume that whatever the prior prosecutor showed to the grand jury was omitted this time around. The seems to be something missing in this second dip of the ladle.
Of course it is possible that they did not show the video the last time but that seems unlikely if they wanted to get an indictment.
The facts will come out at the trial.
Pogo – speaking of Othello, did you see Lawrence Fishburne’s turn as the title character? One of my favorites. I also liked Emma Thompson in Much Ado About Nothing. It’s not often I like Hollywood’s attempt at the classics, but I enjoyed those two.
fiver:
“This assault occurred in August of 2013. How is 20 months not long enough to wait?”
My comment to wait for an investigation applies to every mob this blog has covered. In this case, the case went to a grand jury and the DOJ, both of which declined to proceed. Now it appears they grand jury shopped.
Before jumping to the conclusion that a grand jury AND the DOJ simply turned a blind eye to criminal police misconduct, I say again: investigate before you come to a conclusion. What is the evidence? Why did both the grand jury and the DOJ decline to indict?
Tyger:
“Perhaps the issue is actually the media and how it is merely reporting police bad behavior more often these days.” I agree. Journalists should investigate the trend in investigations of police wrongdoing and their outcomes. Are they increasing, decreasing, or plateau? I have said before that the light of public scrutiny is a disinfectant, and that is true for police wrongdoing, as well. I would prefer the media simply report on allegations and their subsequent investigation, rather than the obligatory mob break out their torches at every allegation. The questions we should all care about are allegations of police misconduct investigated thoroughly and fairly, and are cops getting the proper training in how to apprehend and hold suspects, as well as how to respond to medical emergencies.
I have Fair Access Policy satellite internet, so I could not review the actual footage. A kick to the head without it being a rolling on the ground brawl sounds like unlawful use of force to me. It does not sound like an effective control hold, either, but I am not a police officer. I also agree that the suspect was not complying, and a weapon could not be ruled out without a search.
I would want to know what all the evidence was, and why the original grand jury did not return with an indictment. No indictment, including by the partisan DOJ, does not imply that they looked the other way. Rather, it indicates there was not enough evidence to go to trial. Did they feel this was a matter best dealt with by his superiors and did not cross the line to assault? Grand Jury shopping bothers me just as much as Judge shopping. The law needs to apply equally to all, and that precludes grand jury shopping for political reasons.
Karen S writes, “A kick to the head without it being a rolling on the ground brawl sounds like unlawful use of force to me. It does not sound like an effective control hold, either, but I am not a police officer. I also agree that the suspect was not complying, and a weapon could not be ruled out without a search.”
So, are you sure there was excessive use of force? It seems as though your last two sentences above try to convince you of the fallacy of the first. There are few things I can guarantee about the law and law enforcement, but punting someone’s head I can guarantee you is not an authorized technique in a stop and frisk nor is putting an unreasonable time limit on someone dropping to his belly.
Wow—I didn’t realize how many fascists we had in this country. Truly alarming.
Pogo – Footloose had a plot.
Squeeky, that was pretty much it.
It was Footloose, with punching instead of dancing.
@NickS
I think I watched one of them on maybe TCM or something about a year ago. I remember bikers, and an airstream and a guitar and a rape maybe. Oh, and horses. A jeep??? Some chick in white go-go boots on a scooter??? It was kinda cheesy. Oh yeah, and Indians. Either that, or it was Green Beret guys versus some bikers. They all kind of run together.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Billy Jack flicks were classic 1970’s B movies. Laughlin wrote and directed them.
Beau Biden was probably coked up. Tough to put together a cogent case on coke.
Billy Jack??? Is that like a Billy Club???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-JoW_8qw0
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – the Billy Jack films never made it to B quality. And if you think Laughlin is bad you should see his wife/girlfriend. It is infamous for some early kung fu style fighting.
But don’t look there, look at the the bad cop video!
I should have said that Billy Jack made Captain Kirk look like Othello.
“what a bad actor he was”
Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack) made William Shatner look like Olivier.
Pogo – William Shatner is/was a classically trained actor. Captain Kirk wasn’t written to stretch his acting ability.
That is an excellent question.
Bored of popcorn; time for beer.
Have a good weekend all. Go Hawks.
I’m thinking it’ll be a long wait till Pogo finds some authority for the proposition that the Fifth Amendment right to grand jury has been incorporated against the states. Need more popcorn.
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/05/08/either-grand-jury-see-video-dover-officer-kicking-suspect/26983293/
It’s a possibility that the first grand jury didn’t see the video.
“Dover police said Friday that they don’t know whether either 12-member grand jury saw the video their agency released Thursday, noting that only a prosecutor from Delaware’s Attorney General’s Office presented the case to the body both times.
Meanwhile, the office of Attorney General Matt Denn, who took office in January, won’t comment about what evidence either grand jury saw, citing secrecy of such proceedings. Deputy Attorney General Mark A. Denney Jr., the prosecutor handling Webster’s pending criminal case, also said he could not comment.
Denn said through a spokesman Thursday that after the case was “brought to his attention last week,” he decided to review unspecified evidence and later asked a deputy to present the case to grand jurors again.”
“Because a grand jury, with extremely rare exceptions, does whatever the prosecutor wants it to do.”
So why have a grand jury at all?
How many bites at the apple; until you get that ham sandwich dead to rights?
Because a grand jury, with extremely rare exceptions, does whatever the prosecutor wants it to do.
Hence the grand jury’s legendary ability to indict a ham sandwich.
Would you like to praise the integrity of the former attorney general who didn’t get the indictment? His name is Beau Biden.
Beau Biden was the prosecutor who didn’t get the indictment on what looks like a cop punting a football?
Mmmm. Popcorn!