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| NEWS > 17 March 2007 |
Other related articles:
KC police board to review poli
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Board of Police Commissioners plans to look into the police policy on handling sick or injured people, almost a week after releasing a videotape showing two arresting officers ignoring a pregnant woman's pleas for help.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday, exactly one year after Sudanese native Sofia Salva was arrested on outstanding warrants. She had a miscarriage the next day.
Two police officers who arrested her were suspended indefinitely with pay Thursday, two days after police released a videotape showing Salva telling officers she was three m... Read more
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Daily News - Galveston County
17 March 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Ethics member wants probe of a
A member of Galveston’s ethics commission, Don Ciaccio, is asking police and city officials for a full investigation into the October 2004 arrest of a former health club owner.
Last week, a 122nd State District Court jury acquitted Ryan Sullivan, 28, of assault of a peace officer.
Police officers testified that Sullivan had slammed officer Joshua Allred against a nightclub wall and choked him. Allred said the encounter started with Sullivan’s angry refusal when Allred asked him to leave.
However, Sullivan testified that Allred yelled in his ear and grabbed him in a chokehold. He said Allred dragged him away until both men fell. Sullivan testified that two other officers then choked and beat him, even though he was not resisting.
Ciaccio sent a letter Thursday to city officials and to Police Chief Kenneth Mack, asking that they investigate.
“I’m not accusing the officers of any wrongdoing,” Ciaccio said. “There are just some questions that need to be answered.”
Chief among those questions is, “What happens to an officer found to have used excessive force?”
Ciaccio said: “The No. 1 issue from people who have contacted me about this has been the testimony of the officer during Ryan Sullivan’s trial that the consequence would probably be retraining.”
Ciaccio said he believed the penalty should be more severe.
Mack said that because Sullivan filed a federal lawsuit, neither he nor his officers could talk about the case. However, Mack said the department’s policy toward excessive force took the circumstances of each case into account.
“Disciplinary action for proven infractions of rules can range from counseling to termination,” he said. “There are several options contained within that range, of which retraining is one.”
The dispute apparently started when Sullivan sat in another person’s chair.
Sullivan testified that a woman in the club began cursing at him before police intervened.
Allred told jurors he was responding to a disturbance in the club.
The officers told jurors they only used enough force to stop the combative Sullivan.
Ciaccio also said Allred, as the listed victim in the assault case, should not have been an investigating officer in a police report.
Mack said the department’s policy was that every officer involved in an arrest file a report.
Sullivan’s lawsuit alleges that officers Allred, Rene Vela and Robert Owens violated his constitutional rights by beating him once he was on the floor and not fighting back.
The three officers have filed a counterclaim. In it, they state Vela saved Allred from Sullivan’s choking attack. The officers’ counterclaim also accuses Sullivan of kicking Allred.
Ciaccio said he only wanted to know what really happened.
“I’ve heard from lots of people who are trying to understand how Mr. Sullivan could get a back full of welts when the officers said they hit him once, behind the knee,” Ciaccio said.
The officers testified during Sullivan’s trial that marks on his back apparently came from an officer’s gun rubbing against it while they tried to subdue Sullivan.
Sullivan sold his health club, Urban Fitness, in 2005, in part because of the altercation.
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