Long-coddled Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald Black now accused of molesting teen

Donald Black,  a 23-year veteran of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, whose service record is most notable for numerous disciplinary actions and civil lawsuits costing the Sacramento County taxpayers  $400,000 to date -- and who has thus far eluded any actual prosecution, thanks to a DA's office who doesn't even care to investigate its own killer cops -- now stands accused of molesting a teen.

Arrested on suspicion of five counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old, Black now faces what he's never faced under DA Jan Scully's watch: actual prosecution by actual attorneys working with an actual police department.

Yes, even after Black and fellow deputies badly burned two men in police custody, resulting in a "civil lawsuit and an administrative claim that ultimately resulted in Sacramento County paying more than $300,000 in damages," DA Scully's Office, which supposedly investigated the incident, said there were “questions” but "not enough evidence" to criminally prosecute Black or his fellow deputies.

What a surprise.

Scully has yet to issue a comment on whether her office also knew that Black was molesting children.

But Nevada County isn't Sacramento County. Cops aren't given a free pass by DA to maim and kill anyone they like, without fear of investigation -- as we've covered here at length in our Jan Scully and killer cops sections.

Read the full article, below the fold.

Sacramento County law enforcement officers charged with “illegally buying and selling high-powered pistols”

With the grim-faced leadership of Sacramento’s law enforcement community looking on, federal officials described an elaborate scheme Friday that they say involved police and deputies illegally buying and selling dozens of high-powered pistols to make thousands of dollars in profit.

The case, which dates back to the summer of 2011, has ensnared at least four area law enforcement officers, including two Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies [Deputies Ryan McGowan, 31, and Thomas Lu, 42] charged in federal court Friday.

Sac County police to children: “Just say ‘yes’ to oral violation

Regardless of whether the individual is an adult or a juvenile, they are capable of giving consent. We don’t require the consent of a parent if we’re doing it with someone of a younger age.
–Deputy Jason Ramos of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

That unfortunate quote comes from the mouth of none other than the spokesperson for the long-suffering Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

In conjunction with District Attorney Jan Scully, Sacramento County and City police alike routinely reinterpret the law as necessary. Presently, they see no problem with getting up in the orifices of middle-school kids.

According to Sac County law enforcement, parents also don’t need to be notified that their children are being interviewed as part of a homicide investigation. Parents don’t need to be notified that the police are taking DNA swabs from their children’s orifices, samples that will go exactly nowhere, afterwards, except into a database. It’s all perfectly legal, says law enforcement, even if they say so themselves.

“These are interviews, not interrogations,” Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Ramos told ABCNews.com. “They are all consensual,” chirped Ramos. “Once it’s done, there is a mechanism in place for school administrators to notify parents.” [1]

Yeah, once it’s done, then you notify the parents. That’s how it works.

Even John Myers, a professor at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, told the Sacramento Bee “There is nothing under California law that prohibits DNA collection of consenting minors.” [2]

Nothing, that is, except that children are not legally able to consent.

Leading child-abuse expert: “Kids can consent.”

“I think the answer is,” Myers said, apparently unsure, “kids can consent, and if they consented and it was knowing and intelligent, [law enforcement] can do the search.” [3]

Yes, you heard it here, folks. John E.B. Myers, allegedly one of the country’s most respected experts on child abuse (though expert for the prosecution, most often) “thinks” that middle-school children can consent to what might appear, to lay people, as oral rape.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy David McEntire Kills Unarmed, Mentally-Ill 24-Year-Old as Family Watches in Horror

Ever since Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced that she would no longer investigate fatal shootings by police officers, or any in-custody deaths, it is perhaps unsurprising that Sac County law enforcement is now breaking all records, by a several-hundred percent increase, in killing civilians. Even unarmed ones. Even mentally-ill ones.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

    On Jan. 17, Ted Rose called the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department for help with his mentally ill son. By the end of the night, his son was dead at the hands of a deputy.Nearly three months after the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Johnathan Rose, his family is speaking out about what they witnessed that night and raising questions about the actions of the deputy who ultimately shot Johnathan.

    “Our whole life has been turned upside down,” said Johnathan’s mother, Dee Rose. “It’s like a nightmare you can’t wake up from.”

DA Jan Scully Gives Police the OK to Shoot and Kill Anyone

Lamont Harmon, who was unarmed, walking to his mom’s house, when he was first tasered and then shot multiple times by police, is just one of numerous people shot and killed by law enforcement in Sacramento County since District Attorney Jan Scully announced that she would no longer investigate officer-involved shootings or any in-custody deaths.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announces her office will no longer review officer-involved shootings---at the same time that the county Sheriff's Department reduces firearm training. 14 officer-involved shootings follow. In the first weeks of 2012 alone, police shootings break records for prior years: six in total; two dead and three injured. The most recent victim, Lamont Harmon, was unarmed, walking to his mother's house. [1]

In June 2011, DA Jan Scully announced that budget cuts might force her to give some prosecutors their pink slips. As a cost-cutting measure, the DA explained, she would no longer review officer-involved shootings. Moreover, her office would cease to review any in-custody deaths of suspects, regardless of circumstances.[2]

Just three months later, a settlement with Chevron earned Sacramento County $6.5 million, with $5.1 million going directly to the DA’s office[3]. Scully called the settlement “fortuitous” and was pleased to announce that her office would now avoid layoffs.

When asked, however, Scully made clear that her office, regardless of the $5 million, would not resume investigations into officer-involved shootings or deaths. [4]

Sac DA Jan Scully's free-pass to trigger-happy cops results (surprise) in record shootings and deaths

No Longer Investigated by DA’s Office, Sacramento County Officer-Involved Shootings and Deaths Break Records

In the first 37 days of the year, sheriff’s deputies have killed two suspects and wounded three others.... 

Editorial: Are shootings by deputies being fully reviewed?" The Sacramento Bee. Feb. 8, 2012. http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/08/4246863/are-shootings-by-deputies-being.html
It may turn out to be merely a statistical blip that already this year, Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies have fired at six suspects. That’s more officer-involved shootings for the department than in any recent full year except 2009, when there were seven.