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| NEWS > 09 September 2008 |
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Baltimore's top prosecutor considering changes to police-misconduct procedures
As the Baltimore Police Department faces one of the largest corruption scandals in its history, the city's new state's attorney is revamping the way prosecutors deal with police wrongdoing as part of a comprehensive office overhaul.
Gregg Bernstein, who took office in January, is considering eliminating a decade-old division that is devoted to police misconduct cases. And he has abolished a controversial list kept by his predecessor that banned certain officers from testifying at trial.
Such moves appear contrary to national trends "in larger jurisdictions" like Baltimore, ac... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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San Francisco Chronicle - CA,
09 September 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Oakland Police Department, CA
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Woman sues Oakland, claims har
A 53-year-old woman filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit Monday against the city of Oakland, saying a police officer pulled her over for no reason and touched her inappropriately.
The suit is the latest in a misconduct case that has already cost the city more than $2 million.
The officer, Richard Valerga, 53, resigned from the department in 2005 and was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading no contest to criminal charges of harassing women during illegal car stops.
The plaintiff in the suit filed Monday, identified only as Jane Roe, said Valerga turned on his emergency lights, honked at her and directed her to pull over on Park Boulevard near Oakland High School on March 19, 2005, even though she hadn't committed any crime or traffic infraction.
Valerga demanded that she hand over her driver's license and angrily told her to get into the front seat of his police car, said the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.
The officer then grabbed the woman's left hand "and also began touching her thigh" before letting her go, the suit said. "The plaintiff did not consent to this outrageous physical contact and was extremely afraid and shocked by the unconscionable behavior of defendant Valerga," said the suit, which names the city and Valerga as defendants.
Alex Katz, spokesman for City Attorney John Russo, said city officials had not been served with the suit and could not comment.
Earlier this year, the city agreed to pay $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by 16 Asian American women who said Valerga groped or sexually harassed them. In 2006, the city paid $190,000 to two other women to settle similar claims.
"It's just more proof that this was not an isolated incident, but rather something that went on for months and months and probably years," Jim Chanin, an attorney for all the women in the cases, said Monday. "It raises significant questions about how this man was able to carry out his activities."
The plaintiffs in the other suits said Valerga pulled them over in 2004 or 2005 in the Fruitvale district and near Lake Merritt and asked them to sit in the front seat of his patrol car. Valerga then touched or sexually harassed them and asked them for their phone numbers, the suit said.
Investigators linked the victims to Valerga after discovering that their license plate numbers and driver's license information had been checked using the computer in his patrol car.
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