townsend
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I'm not sure if it was a 16 year old who was brutalized in the video, but it seems pretty dramatic.
The Great Police Work Thread
- Thread starter BipolarFuk
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Jiggyfly
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I mean really WTF!
Prominent investigator involved in Texas officer’s murder case had affair with cop’s mistress after she witnessed the killing: report
BY JASON SILVERSTEIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Monday, October 12, 2015, 2:54 PM A A A
Darren Goforth, a married father of two, was with his mistress when he was gunned down by a stranger at a gas station in August, police said.
The murder case for Texas police officer Darren Goforth has now become a strange sort of love triangle — with a homicide investigator admitting he had an affair withGoforth’s alleged mistress after she witnessed the cop’s slaying.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigator Craig Clopton said he had consensual sex with the woman “during the ongoing criminal investigation” into Goforth’s murder, according to court documents obtained by KTRK.
Less than an hour after the station’s story went up, the sheriff’s office removed Clopton from the case.
Harris County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Craig Clopton, seen at an August press conference, admitted to having an affair with Goforth's mistress.
“This investigator's conduct was unethical and inexcusable and does not reflect the core values of the Harris County Sheriff's Office,” Sheriff Ron Hickman said in a statement.
“I was appalled to learn of this behavior and immediately took action.”
Years ago, Sgt. Clopton was prominently featured in the TV series "48 Hours," which follows officers in the early stages of homicide investigations. He is married and has two children, according to his biography on the show's website.
"All of my spare time I try to devote to quality time with my family," he says on the site.
Clopton, a 24-year veteran of the force, is also the lead investigator in one of the department's biggest murder cases this year: The man who confessed to killing his estranged wife, her boyfriend and six children, just weeks before Goforth's murder. Officials have not said if Clopton's affair will lead to him getting pulled from other cases.
Goforth, a married father of two, was gunned down by Shannon Miles in August while pumping gas into his police cruiser in Houston, police said. Miles, who never met the deputy, is accused of shooting Goforth in the back and then unloading his entire weapon on the officer, for no apparent reason.
Goforth’s secret lover, who hasn’t been identified, witnessed the cold-hearted killing, and was later seen crying over Goforth’s body and calling him her “best friend.” But police did not publicly acknowledge her, or reveal that she was at the scene, until she was mentioned in court documents weeks later. Police said there appears to be no connection between Miles and the woman.
Miles, 30, is charged with capital murder.
His defense attorney has said Goforth came to the gas station to meet his mistress, and may not have been on duty at the time or even pumping gas, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Shannon Miles is charged with capital murder for allegedly unloading a gun on the unsuspecting officer.
Less than two hours after the shooting, Miles' brother arrived at the scene and took pictures until police told him to leave, according to KHOU. Officers served a second search warrant on Miles' home and seized a camera and memory card, but have not charged the brother.
Prominent investigator involved in Texas officer’s murder case had affair with cop’s mistress after she witnessed the killing: report
BY JASON SILVERSTEIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Monday, October 12, 2015, 2:54 PM A A A
Darren Goforth, a married father of two, was with his mistress when he was gunned down by a stranger at a gas station in August, police said.
The murder case for Texas police officer Darren Goforth has now become a strange sort of love triangle — with a homicide investigator admitting he had an affair withGoforth’s alleged mistress after she witnessed the cop’s slaying.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigator Craig Clopton said he had consensual sex with the woman “during the ongoing criminal investigation” into Goforth’s murder, according to court documents obtained by KTRK.
Less than an hour after the station’s story went up, the sheriff’s office removed Clopton from the case.
Harris County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Craig Clopton, seen at an August press conference, admitted to having an affair with Goforth's mistress.
“This investigator's conduct was unethical and inexcusable and does not reflect the core values of the Harris County Sheriff's Office,” Sheriff Ron Hickman said in a statement.
“I was appalled to learn of this behavior and immediately took action.”
Years ago, Sgt. Clopton was prominently featured in the TV series "48 Hours," which follows officers in the early stages of homicide investigations. He is married and has two children, according to his biography on the show's website.
"All of my spare time I try to devote to quality time with my family," he says on the site.
Clopton, a 24-year veteran of the force, is also the lead investigator in one of the department's biggest murder cases this year: The man who confessed to killing his estranged wife, her boyfriend and six children, just weeks before Goforth's murder. Officials have not said if Clopton's affair will lead to him getting pulled from other cases.
Goforth, a married father of two, was gunned down by Shannon Miles in August while pumping gas into his police cruiser in Houston, police said. Miles, who never met the deputy, is accused of shooting Goforth in the back and then unloading his entire weapon on the officer, for no apparent reason.
Goforth’s secret lover, who hasn’t been identified, witnessed the cold-hearted killing, and was later seen crying over Goforth’s body and calling him her “best friend.” But police did not publicly acknowledge her, or reveal that she was at the scene, until she was mentioned in court documents weeks later. Police said there appears to be no connection between Miles and the woman.
Miles, 30, is charged with capital murder.
His defense attorney has said Goforth came to the gas station to meet his mistress, and may not have been on duty at the time or even pumping gas, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Shannon Miles is charged with capital murder for allegedly unloading a gun on the unsuspecting officer.
Less than two hours after the shooting, Miles' brother arrived at the scene and took pictures until police told him to leave, according to KHOU. Officers served a second search warrant on Miles' home and seized a camera and memory card, but have not charged the brother.
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Videos of Deputy Dragging Student Play to Contentious Issue
By RICHARD FAUSSET, RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and ALAN BLINDER
OCT. 27, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Viral videos of a white sheriff’s deputy upending and dragging an uncooperative black girl in a high school classroom have played into a contentious national issue with particular resonance here — the intersection of race and school discipline and whether black students are disproportionately punished.
The incident follows a set of national studies showing that black students were far more likely than whites to be disciplined in public schools, even for comparable offenses.
The issue was receiving intense scrutiny here long before the videos released Monday.
Last year, the racial divide in the Richland School District Two, which encompasses parts of this city and its suburbs, led to the formation of the Black Parents Association, a role in a divisive campaign between rival slates for the district’s board of education. Complaints of excessive — and racially disparate — disciplinary action had been a major concern for the district for years, leading the district to form a task force last year to examine conduct policies and penalties.
A collection of videos that have led to nationwide protests, federal investigations and changes in policy and attitudes on race.
The videos, which quickly went viral, showed a sheriff’s deputy assigned as a school safety officer to Spring Valley High School, addressing a 16-year-old girl who had refused to stand and leave her math class, after her teacher reportedly caught her using her phone. The deputy, Ben Fields, tipped her chair and desk over backward, lifting her out of her seat and slamming her to the floor, and then dragged her to the front of the classroom, where he cuffed her hands behind her back.
His action drew quick condemnation from many quarters. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County placed the deputy on leave and asked federal authorities to investigate. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, along with the F.B.I. and the United States attorney for South Carolina, said they would look into the incident. Hillary Rodham Clinton tweeted, “The #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh is unacceptable.” James Manning, the chairman of the district’s board of trustees, said, “The amount of force used on a female student by a male officer appears to me to be excessive and unnecessary.”
In Richland Two, where 59 percent of students are black, 77 percent of those suspended at least once in 2011-12 were black, according to figures compiled by the Justice Department, though comparison of the offenses involved was not readily available. And South Carolina, including Richland, relies much more on suspension than the nation as a whole; 24 percent of public school students in the state were suspended at least once that year, compared with 13 percent nationwide.
The Richland Two Black Parents Association has criticized the district for disciplinary policies that it calls arbitrary, and that some members believe disproportionately affect African-American students, said Stephen Mr. Gilchrist, one of the founding members. He said the group was formed in early 2014 to increase African-American representation among the school district’s leadership, and address cultural tensions in a racially mixed district.
The district’s population is 46 percent black and 44 percent white, and before the elections in November 2014, whites held a 4-3 majority on the school board.
As the Black Parents group became more visible last year, and its members promoted African-American candidates for school board, a rival group emerged, called the Bi-Partisan Committee, Its seven principal members were white, and it sponsored a slate of three whites and one black candidate for the board.
John Hudgens, a former superintendent of the district who retired in 1994, was a leader of the Bi-Partisan Committee and said Tuesday that one of the group’s chief concerns was that the black group was trying to force the district to hire on the basis of race rather than talent. He and George Shissias, who was involved with the Bi-Partisan Committee, said the black parents group had explicitly called for the removal of white administrators — a claim Mr. Gilchrist denies.
The Bi-Partisan Committee sent a flyer that, Mr. Shissias said, criticized the black parents group for overemphasizing race. Among other things, the flyer noted a black board member’s censure for reportedly threatening a grandson’s coach.
The Black Parents group responded on its website, saying that the other group’s tactics were reminiscent of the White Citizens Councils that resisted desegregation in the 1960s. “This is about wanting to keep an apartheid system in place for Richland Two,” the website said.
Of the four contested at-large seats, three were won by the Bi-Partisan Committee’s favored candidates, including their black candidate. The school board now has four black and three white members.
Last August, the district’s task force on student misconduct recommended the adoption of policies specifying “a consistent set of consequences for infractions at each level,” and using “a system to empower students to take ownership and responsibility for their choices.”
Such a system, the task force said, would “give them a voice while at the same time protecting the instructional environment.”
The number of students suspended actually understates the use of suspensions, because many students are suspended more than once in the course of a year. The district suspended about 5,800 of its 26,000 students in 2011-12, but there were over 10,000 suspensions. Last year, that figure was down to 8,800 suspensions.
“We are trending in the right direction,” Roosevelt Garrick Jr., the district’s chief administrative officer, told the school board in August. At the time, Mr. Garrick said officials were still evaluating whether Richland 2’s disciplinary record was similar to those of similarly sized districts.
In 2011-12, when Spring Valley High School had an enrollment of nearly 2,100 students, administrators issued 661 suspensions, nearly one for every three students. Although black people made up 54 percent of the student body at Spring Valley, they received more than 70 percent of the suspensions.
At Spring Valley, reactions to the videos varied, as did views of Deputy Fields, who is also the defensive line coach and strength coach for the school’s football team.
Some students were shocked by what they had seen in the videos, but others said they were not surprised in the least.
Some praised Deputy Fields as fair and friendly, a professional, authoritative, everyday presence in the halls of the vast tan complex set near a few big-box stores in a sprawling maze of suburban-style housing.
“It was crazy — Deputy Fields was always nice to everyone,” said Quentin Jones, 15, a sophomore.
But another student, Michael Workman, 16, a junior who is white, said that Deputy Fields arrested him on suspicion of stealing a phone during his freshman year (Mr. Workman said that he did not steal the phone and that he was not convicted of a crime). He said that after he was handcuffed, Deputy Fields lifted him by the handcuffs for a few seconds.
“I had bruises on my wrists and I wasn’t even handcuffed for that long,” Mr. Workman said.
Mr. Jones’s friends, Xavier Glover, 15, and Jaiden Garner, who are cornerbacks on the school football team, knew Deputy Fields better than most, and they said that like many coaches, he would get loud and boisterous if he thought it would improve a student’s performance in the weight room or on the field.
“If you’re not low enough on your squats, he’s going to be in your face,” Mr. Garner said. But the young men, both of whom are African-American, felt that Deputy Fields always had the students’ best interest at heart. “He yells a lot,” Mr. Glover said, “But it’s for the best of us.
Mr. Jones, listening to his friends, felt the need to interject. “No matter how cool he is, there’s no reason for him to do that to a lady,” he said. “Because he’s a grown, strong man.”
Nygel King, 16, another sophomore, said that Deputy Fields “acted like a typical cop” in the hallways — “But never in a bad way,” he said.
The video, he said, stunned him. “For one, she wasn’t resisting at all,” he said. “And two, I’ve never seen him be super-aggressive with another student.”
Charles Scarborough, a sophomore, saw the confrontation in the classroom. He said he was sitting quietly in his Algebra I class working on some math problems.
He said that the young woman, a sophomore, was on her phone, and that the teacher asked her to put her phone away, getting “close to her face.”
When an administrator and Deputy Fields were brought in, students in the class “barely knew what was going on,” he said. The administrator and the deputy each asked her to leave multiple times and requested that she cooperate.
The young woman insisted that she did not do anything wrong and refused to leave. She remained quietly in her desk as they continued to ask her to leave. Then Deputy Fields grabbed the girl, flipped her desk and dragged her across the floor. Mr. Scarborough saw the deputy put his knee on her as he tried to arrest her.
Students in the classroom stood up, confused about what was happening. Mr. Scarborough said that he and his friends were trying to defend the young woman, but the deputy told them to “sit down or you all will be next.”
The deputy also detained a second student, Niya Kenny, who told a local television station that her only offense was objecting to his treatment of the other girl.
“I was crying, like literally screaming, crying like a baby,” Ms. Kenny, 18, told WLTX. “I couldn’t believe that was happening. I’d never seen nothing like that in my life, a man use that much force on a little girl.”
As she protested, she said, “He said since you’ve got so much to say, you’re coming, too.”
Students in the class were unsettled after the arrest, and many felt the situation could have been handled in a better way.
“I feel like it shouldn’t be done like that,” Mr. Scarborough said. “Even if she was causing a problem, it could be handled differently. That’s a grown man handling a girl — that’s someone’s daughter, that’s someone’s kid, that’s someone’s sister.”
Several students said that the young woman was quiet and generally not a troublemaker — another reason the confrontation surprised them.
----------------
#uncooperativeblackstudentsmatter
By RICHARD FAUSSET, RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and ALAN BLINDER
OCT. 27, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Viral videos of a white sheriff’s deputy upending and dragging an uncooperative black girl in a high school classroom have played into a contentious national issue with particular resonance here — the intersection of race and school discipline and whether black students are disproportionately punished.
The incident follows a set of national studies showing that black students were far more likely than whites to be disciplined in public schools, even for comparable offenses.
The issue was receiving intense scrutiny here long before the videos released Monday.
Last year, the racial divide in the Richland School District Two, which encompasses parts of this city and its suburbs, led to the formation of the Black Parents Association, a role in a divisive campaign between rival slates for the district’s board of education. Complaints of excessive — and racially disparate — disciplinary action had been a major concern for the district for years, leading the district to form a task force last year to examine conduct policies and penalties.
A collection of videos that have led to nationwide protests, federal investigations and changes in policy and attitudes on race.
The videos, which quickly went viral, showed a sheriff’s deputy assigned as a school safety officer to Spring Valley High School, addressing a 16-year-old girl who had refused to stand and leave her math class, after her teacher reportedly caught her using her phone. The deputy, Ben Fields, tipped her chair and desk over backward, lifting her out of her seat and slamming her to the floor, and then dragged her to the front of the classroom, where he cuffed her hands behind her back.
His action drew quick condemnation from many quarters. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County placed the deputy on leave and asked federal authorities to investigate. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, along with the F.B.I. and the United States attorney for South Carolina, said they would look into the incident. Hillary Rodham Clinton tweeted, “The #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh is unacceptable.” James Manning, the chairman of the district’s board of trustees, said, “The amount of force used on a female student by a male officer appears to me to be excessive and unnecessary.”
In Richland Two, where 59 percent of students are black, 77 percent of those suspended at least once in 2011-12 were black, according to figures compiled by the Justice Department, though comparison of the offenses involved was not readily available. And South Carolina, including Richland, relies much more on suspension than the nation as a whole; 24 percent of public school students in the state were suspended at least once that year, compared with 13 percent nationwide.
The Richland Two Black Parents Association has criticized the district for disciplinary policies that it calls arbitrary, and that some members believe disproportionately affect African-American students, said Stephen Mr. Gilchrist, one of the founding members. He said the group was formed in early 2014 to increase African-American representation among the school district’s leadership, and address cultural tensions in a racially mixed district.
The district’s population is 46 percent black and 44 percent white, and before the elections in November 2014, whites held a 4-3 majority on the school board.
As the Black Parents group became more visible last year, and its members promoted African-American candidates for school board, a rival group emerged, called the Bi-Partisan Committee, Its seven principal members were white, and it sponsored a slate of three whites and one black candidate for the board.
John Hudgens, a former superintendent of the district who retired in 1994, was a leader of the Bi-Partisan Committee and said Tuesday that one of the group’s chief concerns was that the black group was trying to force the district to hire on the basis of race rather than talent. He and George Shissias, who was involved with the Bi-Partisan Committee, said the black parents group had explicitly called for the removal of white administrators — a claim Mr. Gilchrist denies.
The Bi-Partisan Committee sent a flyer that, Mr. Shissias said, criticized the black parents group for overemphasizing race. Among other things, the flyer noted a black board member’s censure for reportedly threatening a grandson’s coach.
The Black Parents group responded on its website, saying that the other group’s tactics were reminiscent of the White Citizens Councils that resisted desegregation in the 1960s. “This is about wanting to keep an apartheid system in place for Richland Two,” the website said.
Of the four contested at-large seats, three were won by the Bi-Partisan Committee’s favored candidates, including their black candidate. The school board now has four black and three white members.
Last August, the district’s task force on student misconduct recommended the adoption of policies specifying “a consistent set of consequences for infractions at each level,” and using “a system to empower students to take ownership and responsibility for their choices.”
Such a system, the task force said, would “give them a voice while at the same time protecting the instructional environment.”
The number of students suspended actually understates the use of suspensions, because many students are suspended more than once in the course of a year. The district suspended about 5,800 of its 26,000 students in 2011-12, but there were over 10,000 suspensions. Last year, that figure was down to 8,800 suspensions.
“We are trending in the right direction,” Roosevelt Garrick Jr., the district’s chief administrative officer, told the school board in August. At the time, Mr. Garrick said officials were still evaluating whether Richland 2’s disciplinary record was similar to those of similarly sized districts.
In 2011-12, when Spring Valley High School had an enrollment of nearly 2,100 students, administrators issued 661 suspensions, nearly one for every three students. Although black people made up 54 percent of the student body at Spring Valley, they received more than 70 percent of the suspensions.
At Spring Valley, reactions to the videos varied, as did views of Deputy Fields, who is also the defensive line coach and strength coach for the school’s football team.
Some students were shocked by what they had seen in the videos, but others said they were not surprised in the least.
Some praised Deputy Fields as fair and friendly, a professional, authoritative, everyday presence in the halls of the vast tan complex set near a few big-box stores in a sprawling maze of suburban-style housing.
“It was crazy — Deputy Fields was always nice to everyone,” said Quentin Jones, 15, a sophomore.
But another student, Michael Workman, 16, a junior who is white, said that Deputy Fields arrested him on suspicion of stealing a phone during his freshman year (Mr. Workman said that he did not steal the phone and that he was not convicted of a crime). He said that after he was handcuffed, Deputy Fields lifted him by the handcuffs for a few seconds.
“I had bruises on my wrists and I wasn’t even handcuffed for that long,” Mr. Workman said.
Mr. Jones’s friends, Xavier Glover, 15, and Jaiden Garner, who are cornerbacks on the school football team, knew Deputy Fields better than most, and they said that like many coaches, he would get loud and boisterous if he thought it would improve a student’s performance in the weight room or on the field.
“If you’re not low enough on your squats, he’s going to be in your face,” Mr. Garner said. But the young men, both of whom are African-American, felt that Deputy Fields always had the students’ best interest at heart. “He yells a lot,” Mr. Glover said, “But it’s for the best of us.
Mr. Jones, listening to his friends, felt the need to interject. “No matter how cool he is, there’s no reason for him to do that to a lady,” he said. “Because he’s a grown, strong man.”
Nygel King, 16, another sophomore, said that Deputy Fields “acted like a typical cop” in the hallways — “But never in a bad way,” he said.
The video, he said, stunned him. “For one, she wasn’t resisting at all,” he said. “And two, I’ve never seen him be super-aggressive with another student.”
Charles Scarborough, a sophomore, saw the confrontation in the classroom. He said he was sitting quietly in his Algebra I class working on some math problems.
He said that the young woman, a sophomore, was on her phone, and that the teacher asked her to put her phone away, getting “close to her face.”
When an administrator and Deputy Fields were brought in, students in the class “barely knew what was going on,” he said. The administrator and the deputy each asked her to leave multiple times and requested that she cooperate.
The young woman insisted that she did not do anything wrong and refused to leave. She remained quietly in her desk as they continued to ask her to leave. Then Deputy Fields grabbed the girl, flipped her desk and dragged her across the floor. Mr. Scarborough saw the deputy put his knee on her as he tried to arrest her.
Students in the classroom stood up, confused about what was happening. Mr. Scarborough said that he and his friends were trying to defend the young woman, but the deputy told them to “sit down or you all will be next.”
The deputy also detained a second student, Niya Kenny, who told a local television station that her only offense was objecting to his treatment of the other girl.
“I was crying, like literally screaming, crying like a baby,” Ms. Kenny, 18, told WLTX. “I couldn’t believe that was happening. I’d never seen nothing like that in my life, a man use that much force on a little girl.”
As she protested, she said, “He said since you’ve got so much to say, you’re coming, too.”
Students in the class were unsettled after the arrest, and many felt the situation could have been handled in a better way.
“I feel like it shouldn’t be done like that,” Mr. Scarborough said. “Even if she was causing a problem, it could be handled differently. That’s a grown man handling a girl — that’s someone’s daughter, that’s someone’s kid, that’s someone’s sister.”
Several students said that the young woman was quiet and generally not a troublemaker — another reason the confrontation surprised them.
----------------
#uncooperativeblackstudentsmatter
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Two sides.
The officer went overboard. But she refused to move. Several times. Was he not supposed to forcibly remove her?
But since when is it okay for juveniles to refuse to follow authority figures?
Seems to be a running theme anymore.
Refuse to follow directions, then cry racism.
I dunno, I was raised to obey authority. I guess now it is okay to simply not do so.
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Family of unarmed Michigan teen fatally shot by officer in traffic stop over flashing car’s brights files wrongful death lawsuit
BY Tobias Salinger /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Updated: Friday, October 16, 2015, 12:25 PM
The family of a Michigan teen who flashed a car’s brights at a sheriff sergeant’s SUV and wound up dead filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday.
A complaint on behalf of slain 17-year-old Deven Guilford accuses Eaton County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Frost of unconstitutional violations of privacy and excessive force in a Feb. 28 traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county outside Lansing.
Guilford flashed the headlights of the car he was driving at the sheriff department’s new SUV as Frost drove it the opposite way on State Highway 43, according to the complaint. The Ford Explorer had “improperly bright or misaimed headlights” and Frost had stopped two other drivers for flashing their lights at him that night, the lawsuit said.
The officer and the unarmed teen can be seen arguing over whether Frost had his brights on in bodycam video that was later released.
Guilford declines to turn over his license several times before Frost pulls him from the car, commands him to get on the ground and uses a stun gun on him in an attempt to arrest him in the footage. The five-minute video ends with Guilford screaming in agony after getting up and charging at the officer.
The family of slain Michigan teen Deven Guilford, 17, filed a wrongful death and violation of civil rights lawsuit Wednesday, four months after local prosecutors declined to charge Eaton County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Frost in Guilford's February death.
Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney Douglas R. Lloyd declined to charge Frost in June. Frost shot Guilford seven times after the teen knocked the officer down and pummeled him with punches to the face during the struggle in the snow by the side of the road, Lloyd concluded after an investigation. The prosecuting attorney’s office released pictures of Frost with his face bloodied by Guilford’s blows.
The probe by local officials and the Michigan State Police didn’t absolve Frost in the eyes of the teen’s family, though. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan names both the officer and the county as defendants and requests compensation for Guilford’s death.
Frost and the county committed a “huge miscarriage of justice,” Guilford’s parents said in a statement to the Lansing State Journal.
“The acts of Frost in stopping, demanding identification, ordering Guilford from the car, arresting him as if he were a felon, tasing him and then killing him, were all separate and distinct illegal and unreasonable seizures under the Fourth Amendment,” according to the complaint.
Eaton County prosecutors released this picture of Frost in the moments following the traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county. Guilford's family's lawsuit accuses Frost of violating Guilford's constitutional rights in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Eaton County prosecutors released this picture of Frost in the moments following the traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county. Guilford's family's lawsuit accuses Frost of violating Guilford's constitutional rights in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The teen was driving his girlfriend’s Ford Focus home from playing basketball at his church that night and had left his license at her house in nearby Mulliken, his family said. The Guilfords and their lawyers argue he and the other drivers who flashed their lights never should have been pulled over in the first place.
“I don't understand how an innocent situation can escalate so much to end in the death of a harmless kid,” Guilford’s brother Aaron Guilford said in a statement to the State Journal. “Deven was listening to Frost's commands, he never swore or used any profane language. He was confused and he never received any respect in return.”
Prosecutors called Guilford’s death a “tragedy” even as they announced they wouldn’t charge Frost in June. Guilford, whose autopsy showed he had smoked marijuana hours earlier, can be seen calling his girlfriend on his phone in the video. Frost later said he grew worried the teen was part of a militia movement and calling in other members to the scene, according to Lloyd’s report.
The officer acted “in justifiable self-defense,” Lloyd found.
A bodycam video of the traffic stop shows the teen and the officer arguing about whether the Frost had activated the brights in the brand-new SUV he was driving that night.
Frost points a stun gun at Guilford and then pulls him out of the car in the footage.
The teen goes to the ground at the officer's command but doesn't put his hands behind his back at the officer's request in the video.
The video shows the officer using his stun gun on the teen when he refused to submit to the arrest, but local authorities said the stunner didn't subdue Guilford.
A bodycam video of the traffic stop shows the teen and the officer arguing about whether the Frost had activated the brights in the brand-new SUV he was driving that night.
“While, in retrospect, both Deven and Sgt. Frost could have made different choices, ultimately this tragedy would not have occurred if Deven Guilford had not physically attacked Sgt. Frost,” said the 19-page report released this summer by local prosecutors.
Representatives for the sheriff’s department and the county declined the State Journal’s request for comment on the family's lawsuit.
=====
No response from the Justice Department here.
Geez, so shocking.
BY Tobias Salinger /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Updated: Friday, October 16, 2015, 12:25 PM
The family of a Michigan teen who flashed a car’s brights at a sheriff sergeant’s SUV and wound up dead filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday.
A complaint on behalf of slain 17-year-old Deven Guilford accuses Eaton County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Frost of unconstitutional violations of privacy and excessive force in a Feb. 28 traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county outside Lansing.
Guilford flashed the headlights of the car he was driving at the sheriff department’s new SUV as Frost drove it the opposite way on State Highway 43, according to the complaint. The Ford Explorer had “improperly bright or misaimed headlights” and Frost had stopped two other drivers for flashing their lights at him that night, the lawsuit said.
The officer and the unarmed teen can be seen arguing over whether Frost had his brights on in bodycam video that was later released.
Guilford declines to turn over his license several times before Frost pulls him from the car, commands him to get on the ground and uses a stun gun on him in an attempt to arrest him in the footage. The five-minute video ends with Guilford screaming in agony after getting up and charging at the officer.
The family of slain Michigan teen Deven Guilford, 17, filed a wrongful death and violation of civil rights lawsuit Wednesday, four months after local prosecutors declined to charge Eaton County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Frost in Guilford's February death.
Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney Douglas R. Lloyd declined to charge Frost in June. Frost shot Guilford seven times after the teen knocked the officer down and pummeled him with punches to the face during the struggle in the snow by the side of the road, Lloyd concluded after an investigation. The prosecuting attorney’s office released pictures of Frost with his face bloodied by Guilford’s blows.
The probe by local officials and the Michigan State Police didn’t absolve Frost in the eyes of the teen’s family, though. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan names both the officer and the county as defendants and requests compensation for Guilford’s death.
Frost and the county committed a “huge miscarriage of justice,” Guilford’s parents said in a statement to the Lansing State Journal.
“The acts of Frost in stopping, demanding identification, ordering Guilford from the car, arresting him as if he were a felon, tasing him and then killing him, were all separate and distinct illegal and unreasonable seizures under the Fourth Amendment,” according to the complaint.
Eaton County prosecutors released this picture of Frost in the moments following the traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county. Guilford's family's lawsuit accuses Frost of violating Guilford's constitutional rights in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Eaton County prosecutors released this picture of Frost in the moments following the traffic stop in the rural central Michigan county. Guilford's family's lawsuit accuses Frost of violating Guilford's constitutional rights in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The teen was driving his girlfriend’s Ford Focus home from playing basketball at his church that night and had left his license at her house in nearby Mulliken, his family said. The Guilfords and their lawyers argue he and the other drivers who flashed their lights never should have been pulled over in the first place.
“I don't understand how an innocent situation can escalate so much to end in the death of a harmless kid,” Guilford’s brother Aaron Guilford said in a statement to the State Journal. “Deven was listening to Frost's commands, he never swore or used any profane language. He was confused and he never received any respect in return.”
Prosecutors called Guilford’s death a “tragedy” even as they announced they wouldn’t charge Frost in June. Guilford, whose autopsy showed he had smoked marijuana hours earlier, can be seen calling his girlfriend on his phone in the video. Frost later said he grew worried the teen was part of a militia movement and calling in other members to the scene, according to Lloyd’s report.
The officer acted “in justifiable self-defense,” Lloyd found.
A bodycam video of the traffic stop shows the teen and the officer arguing about whether the Frost had activated the brights in the brand-new SUV he was driving that night.
Frost points a stun gun at Guilford and then pulls him out of the car in the footage.
The teen goes to the ground at the officer's command but doesn't put his hands behind his back at the officer's request in the video.
The video shows the officer using his stun gun on the teen when he refused to submit to the arrest, but local authorities said the stunner didn't subdue Guilford.
A bodycam video of the traffic stop shows the teen and the officer arguing about whether the Frost had activated the brights in the brand-new SUV he was driving that night.
“While, in retrospect, both Deven and Sgt. Frost could have made different choices, ultimately this tragedy would not have occurred if Deven Guilford had not physically attacked Sgt. Frost,” said the 19-page report released this summer by local prosecutors.
Representatives for the sheriff’s department and the county declined the State Journal’s request for comment on the family's lawsuit.
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No response from the Justice Department here.
Geez, so shocking.
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Spot. on.
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No question, she was acting like a petulant child. But there are many options to explore before you do what that officer did. To say his only option is to forcibly remove her is a bit far fetched. It's like saying the only option for a child who misbehaves is to spank them. Sure that's the easiest or most convenient solution a lot of times but it's not necessarily the right solution. This is a grown man and a child.
Clay_Allison
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What's he supposed to do? Say "Well I guess I can't arrest people who don't want to be arrested."?
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Exactly. He walks in (after the teacher had already told the kid to get out) and tells the kid again she is going to have to leave, and the kid says no. Does he at that point just go, "Welp, I tried!" and walk out, allowing the kid to continue disrupting the class?
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You can actually talk to her. Explain to her the consequences of her decision. I don't know, like the fact that she could be expelled from school, arrested, face trespassing charges. Yes, most people when the consequences are actually laid out for them will make the right decision. Or shit, let her sit their silently and she will eventually move on her own. Who gives a shit if she sits there in silence? You think she will stay there for forever!!!!
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She obviously was not going to sit there in silence. I mean, it escalated to the cops having to be called. I'm quite sure there was plenty of talking that went on before it got to the point of the start of that video.
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Really? None of the reports say anything about her making noise. Hell she was being kicked out of the room for having a cell phone. This wasn't a kid there causing trouble. It was a kid getting in trouble for having a cell phone who didn't really want to be in trouble. You're assuming that she would have continued to be a distraction but the only real distraction was that she didn't get out of her seat and walk out of the room. Trust me, she would have done that eventually all on her own.
Clay_Allison
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She had plenty of time to reconsider her course of action while waiting for the cop to show up. Eventually she would have gotten hungry or something and had to leave, but you can't let every student who wants to act out just take control of a classroom or they'd do it all the time.
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So, you just let her sit there after the cops had to be called on her because she wouldn't leave the classroom like she was told. But, yet, when the cop is all "Dang, you got me. I'll leave now.", she was just gonna get up on her own and leave? Talk about wild assumptions.
Or, are you suggesting something idiotic like the kid should have been allowed to stay in the classroom for the rest of the period?
Clay_Allison
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Hell apparently she can sit in there all day. It's not like anyone has the authority to do more than beg her to cooperate.
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Your stance on this is dead on, yet a little surprising, to be honest.
Clay_Allison
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It's not like he shot her. I'm a lot more critical when the consequences are severe.
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Hell, the way the media has blown this up you would have thought he shot her.
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So if someone doesn't move the second you ask them to, that justifies assault?