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| NEWS > 03 January 2008 |
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MOZAMBIQUE: Murders point to p
The arrest of three detectives in May for the execution-style murders of civilians has compounded the notoriety of the police in Maputo, Mozambique's capital city.
On 4 April the bodies of three men, each shot several times in the head at close range, were discovered on a football pitch near the city's Costa do Sol beach. Three officers of the criminal investigation unit reportedly confessed to the killings, but alleged that superiors had ordered them to commit the crimes.
"The police had an opportunity, after the Costa do Sol executions, to clean up their image, because... Read more
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Dallas Morning News - Dallas,T
03 January 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
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Dallas Police Department, TX
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Dallas DA to review possible p
The Dallas Police Department is asking the district attorney's office to prosecute two officers accused of holding Dallas country music singer Steve Holy and a friend at gunpoint in a Dec. 27 incident.
Police investigators asked the district attorney to file misdemeanor deadly conduct charges against Officers Randy Anderson and Paul Loughridge, but Terri Moore, first assistant Dallas County district attorney, said prosecutors are reviewing the incident to determine whether more serious charges such as aggravated assault should be filed.
"It will be up to us and the grand jury as to what we think we can prove," Ms. Moore said.
The department has placed both officers on administrative leave. Police Chief David Kunkle said he expects a disciplinary hearing soon for the two officers.
"It just makes not one bit of sense why they would have drawn their guns and threatened these gentlemen," Chief Kunkle said. "If the evidence supports what we initially heard they had done, it's a serious crime and we will make sure that we use all of our influence to get the maximum prosecution on it."
In a brief telephone interview, Officer Loughridge declined to comment on the incident but said: "I have faith in the criminal justice system, and I believe in the end of this I'm going to be exonerated."
Officer Anderson could not be reached for comment.
At least one former prosecutor found it unusual that police would seek to charge the two officers with deadly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor that is punishable by a fine of up to $4,000 and one year in jail. He said that what has been alleged appears to fit the elements of an aggravated assault, which is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
"Any time you point a gun in someone's direction in a threatening manner, you've committed an aggravated assault," former Dallas County prosecutor Toby Shook said, adding that police typically seek the highest possible charge at the start. "It's unusual that the police started out that low."
Lt. Drayson Robertson, commander of the public integrity unit, which investigated the incident, said that detectives "filed the most appropriate charge based on the evidence of this particular investigation." He declined further comment.
In a brief interview, Mr. Holy said the reality of what happened to him was only beginning to hit him. "It's the worst thing I've ever dealt with," he said, declining to comment further.
An attorney representing Mr. Holy has said that the singer had taken time off from his tour for the holidays on Dec. 27 when he and a friend went to a Greenville Avenue bar not far from his house. At the bar, Mr. Holy saw an off-duty Dallas officer he knew, and that officer introduced him to two other off-duty officers, now identified as Officers Anderson and Loughridge.
After the bar closed, Mr. Holy, his friend and the officers decided to go to Mr. Holy's home to play foosball in his garage. The first officer left a short time later. Officers Loughridge and Anderson stayed.
Dallas police reports filed with the district attorney's office give the following account of the events that unfolded about 5:30 a.m. Dec. 27 at Mr. Holy's Old East Dallas home:
Officers Anderson and Loughridge, Mr. Holy and his friend Walter McRae were drinking and playing foosball when Officer Anderson began questioning Mr. Holy's identity.
"Suspect Anderson pointed a gun at the Complainant's face and yelled for him to get face down on the floor," the report said. "While face down on the floor, the Complainant felt what he believed to be the barrel of the gun pressed to the back of his head."
Meanwhile, Mr. McRae told investigators that Officer Loughridge "pointed a gun at his head and told him to get down on the ground" in the garage before the officer went back inside the house. Mr. McRae said he then got up, ran out of the garage and ran next door for help.
In his account, Mr. Holy also told investigators that Officer Anderson ordered him to go upstairs and get his identification. An attorney representing Mr. Holy has said that the singer told his wife to call 911 while he was upstairs.
Mr. Holy came back downstairs and then gave Officer Anderson his license, the report said. "Suspect Anderson ordered the Complainant back to the ground, pointing the gun at him," the report said.
Officer Anderson began climbing the stairs, yelling at Mr. Holy's wife. As his wife stood at the top of the stairs, Mr. Holy tried to get up, but Officer Anderson yelled at him to " 'get the [expletive] down' and pointed his gun at him again," the records state.
He came back down the staircase "with the gun no longer in his hand and stated to the Complainant [that] he would kill him if he said anything about the incident." He also told Mr. Holy to have his wife call 911 back and say they didn't need to send anybody. The two off-duty officers then left.
Mr. Holy's attorney also has said that the officers showed him their badges and that one of them said, "Do you know who you're [expletive] with, you're [expletive] with a Dallas police officer." He has said that one officer yelled at the other to retrieve his gun from his vehicle.
Officers Anderson, 25, and Loughridge, 48, are roommates. Both joined the department in 2005 and attended the same academy class. They are assigned to the northwest patrol station.
Officer Anderson was a correctional officer before joining the department. Officer Loughridge previously worked as a journalist and in the public relations field.
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