I love my friends…

So yes I’ve been slacking on blogging. Too many irons in the fire and frankly writing on the blog is getting the short straw.

But I have to give a shout out to a friend of mine that is working a case that just makes my heart sing.

Mark Barnhouse filed a civil suit April 1 in U.S. District Court seeking more than $100,000 in damages stemming from the incident. Barnhouse is represented by Moscow attorney Jefferson Griffeath.

The complaint claims that when Barnhouse’s wife was stopped by Coeur d’Alene police officers for failing to use a turn signal, Barnhouse, a passenger, was “unlawfully arrested, seized, assaulted, and battered” by officers over a glass bottle of root beer.

I’ve been friends with Jefferson for a while now and am unbelievably happy for him with this case. He’s been working his ass off to get his practice going and it appears, ever so slowly, to be paying off.

If you need a Lawsmith and you’re in Idaho, hit up my buddy Jefferson.

Accountabilibuddable – David Bisard

Via Tam I saw this and it made me feel a little bit better.

Suspended (and now soon-to-be Former) IMPD officer David “Bottles” Bisard has just been found guilty on all charges by a jury of his peers.

Now I’m not happy still for a couple of reasons.

  1. Took way too long.
  2. Still kept his job until the verdict was found.

Seriously, WTFO!?  Name me one other job in the world where they wouldn’t have canned your ass for doing something like that?  Heck, many employers will fire you if you’re charged with a felony.  “Come back after the not guilty verdict.”  They don’t want the publicity black eye, yet in law enforcement land they get a free pass because “COP”.

Not to mention the many other issues, honestly I don’t trust law enforcement anymore.  They have too many laws protecting them so they can get away with murder.  Seriously, they can kill you and as long as they’re in uniform most likely they will get away with it as long as it wasn’t “premeditated”.

If you still don’t understand, let me just quote Tam herself yet again on the subject:

… but I can’t think of any job I ever held where my employer would wait on the jury verdict to fire me if I’d killed somebody with a company car while three sheets to the wind.

Accountabilibuddable–Edgar County

Well this put a smile on my face though I want to see some jail time go along with it.

The Illinois Supreme Court, on May 23, 2013, filed the opinion on former Edgar County State’s Attorney Michael McFatridge v Lisa Madigan. This case involved McFatridge, and whether the taxpayers were responsible for his litigation expenses after being sued in the course of his official duties.

This opinion means that the State of Illinois is not responsible for McFatridge’s attorney fees as the AG had determined the suit against him involved allegations of acts or omissions of intentional, wilful, or wanton misconduct. Since these civil suits were settled before coming to trial, there is no court or jury to determine that the actions of McFatridge were not of intentional, wilful, or wanton misconduct.

Given the power of a prosecutor he should be held personally accountable and it should take a court of law to prove his that he was acting in the interests of the state in good faith.  When you do something that breaks the rules, you should pay, not the tax payers.

h/t Rob Halvorson

Accountabilibuddyable–Las Vegas

Instead of an SSCC tonight we have this.  He only got 2 years but read the judges comments and what all went down.

Norman was in court this morning to face his punishment after pleading guilty to charges of coercing women to expose their breasts after stopping them on the road.

Judge Abbi Silver — after hearing victims’ statements — looked right at him and said: “You are nothing short of a sexual predator with a badge.”

Thankfully the judge didn’t hold back:

Norman received maximum sentencing for the counts he previously pleaded guilty to: oppression under color of office, and open or gross lewdness. His punishment is two years in prison and he was taken away in handcuffs.

And upon his release from prison he will have to register as a sex offender.  I would say his job in law enforcement is effectively done.

I wish he was serving more jail time, but as it’s the maximum sentence for his convictions and the other modifiers should keep him from doing it again.  I can take that.

Former Officer John Norman – Because he was too stupid to see he was using his position as force and leverage to manipulate people, yeah I don’t believe that and neither did the judge.

Accountabilibuddyable–Indiana

Via Tam comes this story which I am doing instead of a SSCC today.

Authorities said Hubbard was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.

He was arrested on charges of dealing while in possession of a handgun, possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine and dealing in marijuana.

So why was this an Accountabilibuddyable instead of an State Sponsored Criminal?  Tam said it best so I’ll quote her:

I guess their union isn’t as good as the FOP Local here in Indy, because his employers dropped him like a live grenade as soon as he was charged. Quis custodiet, indeed.

Yeah, I wish more departments would fire their officers immediately when busted for bad behavior.  Now let’s hope the legal system will continue the accountability string.

Officer Robert Hubbard – He’s so bad we had to hold him accountabilibuddyable!

Accountabilibuddable–Seminole Fl

Former Seminole police officer Ronald Baker was sentenced Friday to life in prison for repeatedly molesting an underage female relative at his Sunrise home, taking pictures of the girl in compromising positions and storing those pictures on his home computer.

Honestly this one’s hard to actually say he’s really been held accountable as long as he’s still breathing.  However it is a nice start and if they put him in with the general population he would be on his way to finding out what it’s like to be on the receiving end.

Ronald Baker, may never know the benefit and safety solitary confinement would give you.

SSCC Honorable Mention–New York

A New York Police Department officer has been indicted in the shooting in February of an unarmed man who was pursued into his Bronx home amid a crackdown on street corner drug dealing, according to a law enforcement official.

Well at least he’s being charged.  The person shot is yet another victim on the war on nouns.  While there certainly appears that there was some chaos in that apartment, this definitely should be heading to a jury.  It’s not quite accountabilibuddyable as he hasn’t been terminated from the department yet.  There were no weapons found, however drugs were found according to an older article.  It also appears that even their superiors were questioning their actions from the beginning.

The Bronx district attorney and the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau are investigating the shooting, but in interviews, more than a half-dozen police officials — from detectives to commanders — picked apart the decisions made that day by the members of the Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit, known as S.N.E.U., and raised troubling questions about their actions.

Is the war on nouns really worth killing others over as well as basically giving police a blank kill someone over pot card?  All of this is the inevitable result of these laws.  Just because something is legal, doesn’t mean you have to do it.

State Sponsored Criminal Honorable Mention: Ramarley Graham

Because a baggie of pot totally looks like a gun and is totally worth shooting someone over because you didn’t want to wait for someone else to “steal your glory”.

Warming the Subcockels of my Heart

Via Uncle I found this post on ARfcom.

But why would I post this under accountabiliabuddible?  This text is why:

Just got back from talking to the detectives. They wanted to record my
side of the story as a witness. They asked me if I had heard them say
they were Sheriff’s, I said yes they did 2 or 3 times. They asked if I
heard them say stop resisting, I said yes I heard them 2 or 3 times.
They asked if I thought they were being too rough, I said not at all.
They asked what I had said when the girl said “he’s not resisting” and I
answered saying “I told her he is resisting twice.” They also asked if I
thought he was resisting, and I said definitely, he would have been in
custody in 2 seconds if he wasn’t.

They thanked me for being such an awesome witness and being on their
side, otherwise that girl could testify saying that he was not
resisting and hurt their case. One of them ended up with a sprained or
broken finger. They said it probably won’t go to court, but if it does
they will likely have me testify.

That’s the thing about people recording interactions with the police.  I have no horse in the race.  While I do run the criminal count, I would be as pleased as punch if the day came and I couldn’t get new material for it.  I am more than happy to hold officers accountable, not just for their bad actions but their good ones as well.

The video in this case both corroborated the officers statement, as well as the witness statement.  It was good for the officers, not bad.  The only officers who would fear video like that are one’s breaking the rules on a regular basis.  The bad part about breaking the rules is when the time comes you do need to do something for real, you’re liable to shoot yourself in the foot because you’re “trying to protect yourself.”

I applaud the officers for their professional conduct.  It made this case clear and concise and helped prevent false claims from putting them in the count which I wouldn’t have liked.