We've been picked up elsewhere

at Exceptional Crimes (!), where we're posting under the handle SacWatch.

We'll continue to post teasers here as well, and some posts will remain exclusive to this blog.

More soon!

Sacramento County Sheriff’s Dept. to Play with Teens, Give them Free Things

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department — in the news recently after one of their deputies, Donald Black, was brought up on charges of molesting a 14-year-old boy — says they are now giving away free turkeys to the families of teens who play basketball with the deputies.

Read more at Exceptional Crimes: "Sacramento County Sheriff’s Dept. to Play with Teens, Give them Free Things"

Irony in Sac County: One DA-wannabe, Anne Marie Schubert, calls out another, California Deputy Attorney General Maggy Krell, alleging prosecutorial misconduct

DA-wannabe Anne Marie Schubert, darling of DA-incumbent Jan Scully

In a county known for widespread corruption, killer cops, rapist cops, child-molesting cops, and more, all under the watch of long-time District Attorney Jan Scully, one of Scully’s potential replacements is now leveling the charge of prosecutorial misconduct, without a hint of irony, against another DA-hopeful.

Read more at Exceptional Crimes:"Irony in Sacramento County DA Race"

Alleged child molester, Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Donald Black, also found in possession of steroids and ecstasy

With Donald Black already in custody on suspicion of five counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a 14-year-old, Nevada County investigators say they have also found what Sacramento County investigators would have found–if they ever investigated Black–drugs, including steroids and ecstasy, in the accused child molester’s home.

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 — and who apparently enjoyed a free ride from Jan Scully and the Sac County DA’s office, which refuses investigate its own cops — was accused in September 2013 of molesting a teen.

Read more at Exceptional Crimes.

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 Police Officer Gary Baker on trial for rape of 75-year-old woman

Brief update on Sacramento Police Officer Gary Baker, accused of assaulting and raping a 75-year-old woman who suffers from a stroke:

In a county that's otherwise brutal in its treatment of anyone so much as accused of sex crimes (see Shane Vicars, sentenced just last week), why is it also no surprise that when a Sacramento Police officer stands accused of rape, suddenly both Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan and the Office of DA Jan Scully appear to be playing for the defense.

The National Aphasia Association has filed a discrimination complaint against a Sacramento judge for ruling that an alleged rape victim with the disorder that inhibits communication isn't competent to testify at trial. Besides naming Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan in a complaint filed with the U.S. Justice Department, the association wants the agency's disability rights section to review the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office for not taking up the issue on appeal.

Beloved teacher sentenced to 26 years for what, exactly?

Alleged to have asked two boys to "stick their hands in his pockets in search of a wallet," 29-year-old Shane Vicars, with no criminal history, but surrounded by a crowd of supporters and dozens of letters of support, was sentenced to 26 years for "child molestation."

Deputy District Attorney Shauna Franklin, however, redefined the alleged pocket-search as "substantial sexual conduct" -- and Judge Emily E. Vasquez more than agreed.

According to the Sacramento Bee, "a large crowd" packed a Sacramento courtroom on Friday to support Shane Adair Vicars, who they refused to believe was guilty of allegations from an angry family that Vicars "took little boys in the Sierra Oaks after-school program to secluded spots on campus, gave them candy and had them stick their hands in his pockets in search of a wallet that he said got stuck." Nonetheless, while "defense attorney Shannon Baker sought probation and a county jail term that would have had him released" Judge Vasquez apparently thought her 26-year sentence was lenient (rather than the max term of 32 years), and that she'd settled on her lenient sentence  "because of Vicars' previous standing as a productive citizen and because of his lack of a prior criminal record."

Proof, again, that Sacramento County DAs and Judges are absolutely batshit crazy where child molestation cases are concerned. Note that the man who murdered his mother via 70+ stab wounds, sentenced just last week, will likely be eligible for parole before Vicars.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/07/5714540/crowd-supports-ex-teacher-at-his.html#storylink=cpy

Read more at the Bee.

Man murders his mother with 70+ stab wounds, is sentenced to 16 years to life

Judge John P. Winn imposed the term on Angelo Wright, who inflicted over 70 "sharp force" injuries on his mother, "who had told a friend she suspected her son of stealing jewelry from her and that she intended to question him about it."

Woman receives 10 years for murder of another woman on "drug-troubled Loucreta Drive"

A South Sacramento woman gets 10 years for the fatal shooting of a 38-year-old woman. Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi calls plea bargain on the manslaughter count a "reasonable resolution of the case"--perhaps because it occurred on what SacBee calls "drug-troubled Loucreta Drive."

CHP Officer Jeffery Closson charged with sexual battery of diasabled man

A 22-year-old disabled man reported being "inappropriately touched" in mall bathroom on June 20, 2013. After a review of surveillance footage of the area, Sacramento police identified California Highway Patrol Officer Jeffery Closson as their suspect.

Jan Scully pay lip-service to "limited" review of officer-involved shootings

The shocking 2012-13 surge in shootings and in-custody deaths at the hands of Sacramento County Law Enforcement – 13 shootings in the first eight months of the year, eight of which were fatal, and many against unarmed Sac County residents – began after DA Jan Scully disbanded her office's officer-involved shootings protocol.

While Scully made clear that she still has no plans to "conduct a full, separate investigation, either at the shooting sites or in cases of in-custody deaths," she said that in "special circumstances," an investigator will be available "by telephone" to "consider" a response.

Sacramento cops kill teenager carrying unload gun, guiding blind friend home

Sacramento cops shoot and kill yet another person. This time he was seventeen. Kid had a unloaded gun. Helping walk his blind friend to his home. Witness says cops never said a thing. Just started shooting.

“My friend turned around and said, ‘I’m guiding him,'" explained the witness. "Cops did not say ‘put your hands up’ or nothing, just started shooting.”

Ever since Sacramento County DA Jan Scully gave police carte blanche to shoot and kill anyone, anytime, for any reason, whaddya know, the rotten apples on the force have been taking her at her word....

 

Record numbers may force DA Jan Scully to resume investigation of officer-caused shootings and deaths

L.A. County law enforcement serves roughly 10 million residents. Sacramento County law enforcement serves roughly 600 thousand. Adjusting for size, if L.A. County officers shot and killed its residents at the Sacramento County rate, they would kill 200 people a year rather than 30….

Reporter Kim Minugh and a second Sacramento Bee editorial in the last few days examine the astonishing rate at which law enforcement is shooting and killing Sacramento County residents, and also examine District Attorney Jan Scully’s refusal to investigate.

According the the Bee editorial, “shootings by sheriff’s deputies have jumped to historic levels in Sacramento County.”[1] As Minugh reports, the first five months of 2012 alone there have been 10 shootings, involving 18 officers, with the result of six dead Sac County residents and three injured.[2]

Even County law enforcement, much to their credit, wants independent reviews of shootings. Although “in-house investigations and a review by the Sheriff’s Department’s appointed inspector general concluded all of the shootings appear to be justified,” notes the Bee, “to protect their own credibility, Sheriff Scott Jones, his inspector general and even the sheriff’s deputies union leader have all said they want independent reviews.”[3]

In its strongest statement to date, the Bee declares

    District Attorney Jan Scully needs to reconsider her decision to stop investigating police shootings. Officers who shoot people in the line of duty need to know their actions will be scrutinized, and so does the public.[4]

If nothing else, Sheriff Jones, like any other good egg in law enforcement, realizes that the rotten ones in his department will make everyone else seem to stink. Residents of Sacramento County, like most people, have at least an inkling of how difficult, stressful, and life-threatening are the jobs of law enforcement. Most people understand that if a cop feels that its his or her life, or the life of a partner, versus the life of a suspect… well, that’s no choice at all. Most people also understand that every job has a few employees who should not be there. And when that job involves carrying a gun, then it’s absolutely crucial that rotten eggs are sorted. Residents of Sacramento County need to know that they cannot be gunned down by incompetent, rogue, or rotten cops with the blessing of the District Attorney.

7X MORE DEADLY THAN L.A. COUNTY: STAGGERING NUMBERS IN CONTEXT

Minugh’s excellent 1300-word article, “Surge seen in shootings by Sacramento County deputies” (June 8, 2012) provides some numbers on Sac County shootings by officers. “Less than six months into 2012,” writes Minugh, Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies are “already surpassing their 10-year record for the number of officer-involved shootings in a year.” Writes Minugh:

    It’s a sharp uptick when compared to years past. The Sheriff’s Department, which serves 627,000 people in unincorporated Sacramento County and Rancho Cordova, has averaged about six shootings a year in the last decade, with a record nine in 2006. In 2011, there were five, three of them fatal.[5]

According to the Associated Press article published two days after Minugh’s article and the Sac Bee editorial, Los Angeles County has also seen a drastic increase not only in shootings by officers, but deaths of alleged suspects.

    The number of “suspects” killed by police in Los Angeles County has risen nearly 70 percent in 2011 over the previous year. The Los Angeles Times reports Sunday that 54 people were killed by law enforcement in 2011 countywide.[6] [NB: 22% of those killed were unarmed.--CP]

While 70% is indeed a drastic increase, it seems negligible next to Sacramento County’s numbers.

Let us break it down:

L.A. County law enforcement serves roughly 10 million residents. Sacramento County law enforcement serves roughly 600 thousand.

If LA County’s 54 dead represent a 70% increase, then the prior year’s rate (we’ll pretend it’s the “normal” rate) is roughly 30 residents killed by police per year. Thus the “normal” L.A. rate is 30 dead out of 10 million, per year.

The current figure for Sacramento County law enforcement is 6 dead out of 600 thousand, in six months. If this rate continues, then, there will be 12 dead out of 600 thousand for the year.

Thus, if we compare L.A. County’s “normal” rate” with Sac County’s current rate, we find

•     If LA officers killed residents at the Sac rate, they would kill 200 people a year rather than 30.
•     If LA was experiencing the Sac County rate, the headline would not have said “LA Co. fatal police shootings rise by 70 percent” but would have said “LA Co. fatal police shootings rise by 566 percent.”
•     If we adjust for jurisdiction sizes, then Sac County officers shoot and between 6 and 7 persons for every one person shot and killed by LA County officers.

Go figure.

DA Jan Scully's wrongful convictions

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully claims rate of wrongful convictions is “infinitesimal,” in spite of report noting 80+ in her county alone, resulting from withheld evidence, perjury, and use of perjured testimony by prosecutors and law enforcement….

Jan Scully: Homicide OK, but workers’ comp fraud a felony

In June of 2011, Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully announced that her office would no longer investigate officer-involved shootings or any in-custody deaths. Even after receiving an unexpected $5+ million for her office, shortly after the announcement, Scully reiterated that she would not resume any investigation of deaths at the hands of law enforcement in her jurisdiction. Since then, law enforcement has broken all previous records for suspect shootings, with the toll of casualties and deaths quickly mounting.

In June of 2012, however, exactly a year after Scully’s shocking announcement, the DA announced that she had filed felony charges against a now-retired officer in the California Highway Patrol.

The officer’s alleged crime? Collecting checks for a back injury that DA Scully says isn’t injured enough. The officer was “captured on surveillance video-tape lifting 30-pound objects and moving furniture,” says Scully’s office, according to the Sacramento Bee.[1]

Although DA Scully appears resolutely unmoved even when officers gun down mentally-ill persons (see Jonathan Rose), Scully announced on June 8 that “felony workers’ compensation insurance fraud” and “attempted perjury” had moved her to file felony charges against retired officer Brian Christopher Hansen.[2] (How, precisely, one can be charged with “attempting” perjury, is anyone’s guess–but that another story.)

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.

Sacramento County Child Protective Services employee “accused of locking children in garage ‘for hours without food or water’, taunting boy as ‘faggot.’”

The state forbade Blancho Brumfield from ever working in a facility licensed by the department – except when it came to her job as a child abuse investigator for Sacramento County.

In 2007, the state Department of Social Services revoked the foster care license of a Vallejo woman whom the agency accused of locking children in her garage “for hours without food or water” and taunting one foster boy with the words “faggot” and “queer”....

From the SacBee:

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]