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15 Crooked Cop Cases Canned in Illinois

Cook County, Illinois Chief Criminal Judge LeRoy K. Martin tossed the convictions of 15 criminal defendants on November 16, 2017, because the cases were linked to disgraced former Chicago Police Sergeant Ronald Watts. All of the men whose cases were overturned claimed that they had been framed by Watts, who went to federal prison in

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Five Years for Cop Who Fired 16 Bullets Into Car of Teens

Marco Proano, 42, a former Chicago police officer, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on December 4, 2017, for unloading his weapon on a car full of teenagers in 2015. Proano, an 11-year veteran of the force, was indicted in September 2016 for using unreasonable force on the teens. The Chicago Reporter obtained

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Cop Who Firebombed Supervisor’s House Gets 20 Years

A rogue police officer from the Edison, New Jersey’s police department has been sentenced to 20 years in prison following his guilty plea to a string of violent offenses, including the firebombing of his boss’s house. Michael Dotro was an Edison cop for 10 years before his arrest and conviction. During that time, according to

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67 Counts for Cop Who Had Sex With Underage Girl

Raul Olmeda, a three-and-a-half-year veteran of the NYPD, has been arrested and charged with paying an underage girl for sex and recording the incidents. According to the New York Daily News, the 40-year-old Bronx cop engaged in illegal sex acts five times between January and April 2017. Two of the trysts occurred after Olmeda’s apartment

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Broward County Deputy Jailed for Sexual Assault of a Minor

A police officer with the Broward County, Florida sheriff’s office has been arrested and charged with illegal sexual activity involving a teenage girl. Leon Campbell, a 37-year-old deputy sheriff, was jailed on October 19, 2017, but was released the next day on a $15,000 bond. According to TheFreeThoughtProject.com (TFTP), he was charged with second-degree felony

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Criminal Cops: Tracking Crimes Committed by Police Officers

Police officers are sworn to uphold the law. When the uniform goes on, they become arbiters and enforcers of right and wrong. But a new police crime database reveals an important and often overlooked aspect of the job: Police officers are people first, cops second. And people sometimes commit crimes. The database, compiled by Philip

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DOJ Rolls Back Obama Program Aimed at Fixing Police Problems

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Sept. 15 that, effective immediately, it is making significant changes in a program launched six years ago to investigate and issue reports of problems in some local police agencies. The Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance (CRI-TA), part of DOJ’s Office of Community Policing Services, was launched

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Scandals Rock Denver Sheriff’s Department

By Christopher Zoukis In a department that is riddled with scandals, so many that Sheriff Gary Wilson resigned on Monday, July 21, Denver Sheriff’s Department Division Chief Elias Diggins was appointed in his place on a temporary basis. Adding to Denver’s woes, it was later revealed that Diggins has a criminal record. There have been

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Crime Labs Still in Crisis

By Matt Clarke The October 2010 Prison Legal News cover story, “Crime Labs in Crisis: Shoddy Forensics Used to Secure Convictions,” provided an extensive examination of problems at crime labs nationwide. Apparently, and unfortunately, little has changed since that time. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a review of thousands of old

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