Bad Cop Falsely Charging People With DUI's

[gatorman_07732]

This is unbelievable

http://gma.yahoo.com/former-cop-accused-faking-duis-021947523--abc-news-topstories.html

Steed was named Utah Highway Patrol's "Trooper of the Year" in 2007 for making more than 200 DUI arrests, a reward that Studebaker says should be taken away from her.

[Swampmaster]

just the tip of the iceberg

[Dreamliner]

Totally NOT surprised.

[HALLGATOR]

"It doesn't affect her credibility. It affects the way she does things, her ability to follow instructions," Skordas told ABCNews.com in March. "It doesn't mean she's dishonest."


Uh yeah!

If all of this is true they need to put her azz in jail.

[Lawdog88]

Round up the usual suspects !


Oh . . . they are the cops. Never mind.

[wargunfan]

To protect and to serve. Yeah right.

[G8trGr8t]

we have met the enemy they are us...bad cops being covered for by other cops makes those other cops bad too, funny how they fail to recognize that..

[OaktownGator]

we have met the enemy they are us...bad cops being covered for by other cops makes those other cops bad too, funny how they fail to recognize that..
Spot on. Police need to police their own, for their own good.

[rivergator]

That's a big nightmare to put those drivers thru for no reason.

[OaktownGator]

That's a big nightmare to put those drivers thru for no reason.
For sure... that officer and all of her superiors who knew she was doing it should be fired and held financially responsible along with the state. That's an egregious abuse of power.

[kygator]

It probably isn't a good idea to give a cop an award based on the number of arrests they make.

[ChartsandGrafs]

Cops are out of control in this country. Stuff like this is happening pretty much every day, and it's coming from every corner of the country, almost like it's by design. It's either cops planting drugs on innocent people, cops carrying out no-knock paramilitary raids on innocent people and carelessly shooting innocent bystanders, cops entering people's backyards and homes and shooting their leashed and kenneled dogs, cops beating people to death, cops torturing people, and even cops "suiciding" people while they are in custody and handcuffed. I guarantee we could have a perpetual thread dedicated to nothing but the shocking crimes of cops that take place every day in America, and it would never leave the front page. That's how bad it is. I know, because there are a few websites that do this, and they've got new material virtually every day.

So, is it true that cops exist to "serve and protect" us, or is that just another long-held myth by Americans? If not, who do the cops really work for and what is their function? Why are they so out of control lately? Is it all just another coincidence, or is there a method to the madness?

[DaveFla]

I have always had difficulty with the attitude that says that if a police officer claims it to be true, then it's true. That's how our courts seem to view it. Anything a police officer says under oath is beyond reproach.

[channingcrowderhungry]

It probably isn't a good idea to give a cop an award based on the number of arrests they make.

Or run governments in some towns based on traffic citation revenue....

[JohnC1908]

I was pulled over for speeding (rightfully so) in rural Texas about 3 months ago. The cop tacked a charge on there of an illegal lane change. When I told him I never changed lanes he asked, "Do you want to go to jail?" My response was, "Why would I want to go to jail?" He then told me he was being serious so I shut up and have a fine of $175+ for something I know I didn't do. Plus threatened with arrest for disagreeing with a lie. Agree with others on there being too much credibility on just the word of a police officer.

[Minister_of_Information]

There are two instances in which I favor execution: treason and the flagrant violation of the public trust by government officials.

[gatorman_07732]

That's a big nightmare to put those drivers thru for no reason.

Yeah, DUI's will turn ones life upside down and to take part in falsely accusing someone is disgusting. This is a cop that was more interested in the merits from her superiors at the expense of many who did nothing wrong.

[Gatorgal04]

Isn't it odd that the only speeding ticket I every got was in Utah. They clocked someone else and pulled me over. Guy said, "I have you going ___ when you passed that car." I said "I'm following a moving van with a governor on it and haven't passed anyone since I left Chicago. If you want to wait around, my fiance driving the moving van will eventually figure out I'm not behind him and he'll come back." (pre-cell phone days)

There was no arguing with him. After I got to California I mailed them a copy of the moving truck rental agreement and they knocked the ticket down to five miles over the limit.

[Lawdog88]

I was pulled over for speeding (rightfully so) in rural Texas about 3 months ago. The cop tacked a charge on there of an illegal lane change. When I told him I never changed lanes he asked, "Do you want to go to jail?" My response was, "Why would I want to go to jail?" He then told me he was being serious so I shut up and have a fine of $175+ for something I know I didn't do. Plus threatened with arrest for disagreeing with a lie. Agree with others on there being too much credibility on just the word of a police officer.


It is a great irony that some innocent people are forced to lie, in order to tell the truth.

It is a greater irony to me that (most) everybody knows that the police lie, but not only is everybody expected to like it, they are supposed to roll off the log backwards and accept it as the truth.

[Swampmaster]

I have always had difficulty with the attitude that says that if a police officer claims it to be true, then it's true. That's how our courts seem to view it. Anything a police officer says under oath is beyond reproach.

prosecutors and judges routinely rubber stamp anything written in a police "report" -- which is usually exaggerated or falsified to make citation / arrest quotas.

[FrankGator627]

As a criminal defense attorney, I wish more prosecutors and judges cared about this type of stuff.

I had a "Resisting officer without violence" charge recently. Luckily, a friend of my defendant video recorded the whole thing on his cell phone. The police report said the defendant was resisting and refusing to get on the ground.

The video showed the defendant lay on the ground then proceed to get kicked over and over again by a police officer while the K9 barked and came within inches of biting him in the face.

The prosecutor was like, well, if you don't have the cameraman then you can't introduce the video so why should I drop the case?

Absurd!

Finally, the day of trial...they dropped the case.

I've had a DUI with a .01 breath result and no drugs or alcohol found in the urine. The same cop arrested a different client with .00 and no drugs or urine in the system.

[HALLGATOR]

Why do you think they fight so hard to keep people from videotaping what they do.

[Lawdog88]

As a criminal defense attorney, I wish more prosecutors and judges cared about this type of stuff.

I had a "Resisting officer without violence" charge recently. Luckily, a friend of my defendant video recorded the whole thing on his cell phone. The police report said the defendant was resisting and refusing to get on the ground.

The video showed the defendant lay on the ground then proceed to get kicked over and over again by a police officer while the K9 barked and came within inches of biting him in the face.

The prosecutor was like, well, if you don't have the cameraman then you can't introduce the video so why should I drop the case?

Absurd!

Finally, the day of trial...they dropped the case.

I've had a DUI with a .01 breath result and no drugs or alcohol found in the urine. The same cop arrested a different client with .00 and no drugs or urine in the system.


I read you 5 by 5.

Sad that the general public has the "police are our saviors" mythology going . . . until it happens to them.

[ChartsandGrafs]

As a criminal defense attorney, I wish more prosecutors and judges cared about this type of stuff.

I had a "Resisting officer without violence" charge recently. Luckily, a friend of my defendant video recorded the whole thing on his cell phone. The police report said the defendant was resisting and refusing to get on the ground.

The video showed the defendant lay on the ground then proceed to get kicked over and over again by a police officer while the K9 barked and came within inches of biting him in the face.

The prosecutor was like, well, if you don't have the cameraman then you can't introduce the video so why should I drop the case?

Absurd!

Finally, the day of trial...they dropped the case.

I've had a DUI with a .01 breath result and no drugs or alcohol found in the urine. The same cop arrested a different client with .00 and no drugs or urine in the system.

Surely the politicians at the highest and lowest levels of government know that stuff like this is happening, yet they do practically nothing about it. If they do happen to do something about it, it's usually little more than paying lip service to the problem or passing some token legislation that does nothing to fix the problem.

So, the pertinent question is "why"? Why are police forces out of control and why aren't the politicians doing anything about it? And why is Washington working to militarize so many local police forces around the nation and provide them with tanks, drones, and armor?

Our government is essentially broke, but it sends billions in funds and equipment around the nation to various police departments to buy influence and control. Why? What's the agenda? It appears to me that our government is either preparing for something that they suspect will happen down the road (economic collapse, civil war, insurrection, martial law, civilian detention, full-spectrum police state, etc...), or that our government is working to convert civilian police departments into a sort of quasi-occupying army for some unannounced purpose.

Perhaps it's a combination of both.

[ChartsandGrafs]

What could possibly go wrong?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SsvZ_u_khW0/T59voBX3FvI/AAAAAAAAAIE/YUPHUg8h7hg/s1600/Charleston.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1KAOjhQM0Dw/TY8XLJo5e5I/AAAAAAAAMe4/4p_NaePw15Q/s400/police_tank_2.jpg

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.11/images/USA_police_state.jpg

http://coloneldespard.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/8060903-87.jpg

http://spiritualution.org/view/images/photos/anaheim_protests/APD_CamoCar.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XE5OuAMXVzw/UBX91sVDGNI/AAAAAAAAA_0/sS2JNFx2nls/s1600/m7xzss-b78986295z.120120729145551000gv519e76g.1.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6059/6390485421_5a71fc06e9.jpg

[brainstorm]

I agree that this sort of thing probably goes on a lot more than we know. There SHOULD be mandatory prison sentences for such things. The thin blue line is sickening.