Lacey Police Officer Guilty of Lying Under Oath to Judge

Published April 04, 2012 in the Olympian by JEREMY PALWLOSKI

A former Lacey police officer faces up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty Tuesday for lying to a judge under oath.

The most common crime in America perpetrated by cops

While applying for a search warrant by telephone Jan. 9, Emmanuel Olivo told a judge that he had pulled a car over at Carpenter and Mullen roads after conducting a random state Department of Licensing check and discovering that the car’s owner had a suspended license. [The purpose of this lie was to establish ‘probable cause’ for the warrant else a search of the vehicle would violate 4th Amendment protections. The fact the officer pulled the vehicle over and searched it w/o such a DOL check meant the evidence seized should have been suppressed. By lying, the officer intended to deny the suspect’s right to 4th Amendment protection.]

But after Olivo’s patrol supervisor checked his reports and audited the vehicle stop, she determined that Olivo had not performed a DOL check, Thurston County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Toynbee has said.

Officers typically can check a driver’s license plate number from their patrol car and determine whether its registered owner has outstanding arrest warrants or is driving with a suspended license.

After the judge granted Olivo’s search-warrant request, Olivo found suspected methamphetamine in the vehicle. A felony meth charge against the car’s occupant was dismissed after evidence emerged that Olivo had lied.

Olivo, 28, pleaded guilty to gross-misdemeanor false swearing during a brief court hearing before Judge Kalo Wilcox. His sentencing is tentatively set for April 18.

Olivo declined to comment outside court. His attorney, Michele Shaw of Seattle, said he does not have a plea agreement in place that could affect his sentencing.

Since Olivo’s arrest, a separate criminal case he investigated has been dismissed because of questions about his credibility, a prosecutor said. Toynbee has said it’s possible that defense attorneys can challenge convictions in cases in which Olivo was a witness.

Police Lt. Phil Comstock said Tuesday that Olivo resigned last week. He previously had been on paid administrative.

The Lacey Police Department is completing a separate administrative investigation of Olivo, Comstock said.

After learning of Olivo’s possible crime, Lacey police turned the investigation of it over to the Olympia Police Department. Comstock said that the incident, while unfortunate, shows that the department holds itself accountable.

Chief Dusty Pierpoint added that he can’t recall a similar incident in his 26 years with the Lacey police. [Just never met a cop ya didn’t like, eh Chief? Come to the barrio! Some of the street people, buskers, and homeless could help provide you a remedial education in Cop 101.]

“It’s unfortunate, and we don’t like anything like this to happen,” he said. “But at the same time, when it does, we have to address that. The public does expect that.”

About admin

Opposed to politicians who equivocate about air quality & BioMassacre
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Lacey Police Officer Guilty of Lying Under Oath to Judge

  1. Don Stoney says:

    I was in a trial On may 16-17 for a drunk driving charge, and the two state patrol officers who came to testify lied unmercifuly on the stand about everything they did the morning I got arrested. Everything they said on the stand was embellished or just a plain outright lie. The first officer ,who was in plain clothes and did not tell me he was an officer, stated that he requested my license and insurance, yet he did not do that and he stood by the highway as he stated to me,”to wait for the tow truck”.The second officer who was on duty, came and talked to me and after I stated that I was going home from work and had been digging out vehicles, just before I drove home, stated to me that there was suspicion that I was drunk and proceeded to ask me to move to the side of the highway and he searched my vehicle without permission and grabbed my license and insurance from my wallett and console. The two officers told many lies and I have found during an extensive research, this is called testi-lying and the officers are coached to lie by the prosecutor and trained to lie in their training. This especially works well for them when there is no witness and the prestige and expertise of their job helps judge and jurys overlook what the accused is trying to tell them and innocent people go to jail, simply because they arent believed and they dont have enough money to buy their justice.

  2. admin says:

    Like politicians, how do you tell when a cop is lying…?

    But that’s only part of the problem. The other part is ennui. The swells and those middle class denizens aspiring to join their ranks view the problems the lower classes face at the hands of corruption as incidental–possibly even ‘deserving’ the abuse. Like Nobles who forced the Magna Carta on King John, they believe justice is reserved for the plutocracy.

    Bruce Finlay, esq. once served as a deputy prosecutor. He presented an air tight case to jurors of a young logger permanently injured (loss of vision in one eye) by some others during a drunken brawl. The jury refused to convict. The attorney’s observation: “They just didn’t care. Nobody’s above the law (hypothetically) but some are BENEATH it,” he concluded.

    And so it is with corruption in our ‘justice’ system. Rarely do judges and prosecutors care about perjury in the thin blue line. Worse, many prosecutors either encourage it by coaching the State’s witnesses, or condone it with a wink and a nod to their badge toting co-conspirators. Recognition of this fundamental truth in the working class/minority neighborhoods led to the acquittal of O.J. Simpson at the end of his criminal murder trial. Most Whites didn’t ‘get’ it (thought he was guilty) but the Black community had no difficulty recognizing the familiar pattern of cops lying on the witness stand to try to ensure the defendant gets convicted.

    Don’t venture out without your own surveillance tools (ala Rodney King) at the ready. Do not speak to officials in any private setting. And do not speak or interact with them alone–always have at least one reliable witness…don’t pick a spineless one either. Recognize that officials can and do lie, that drama queens are more dangerous than the criminal element. It *is* a jungle out there, but today’s lions, tigers, and bears are wearing badges or 3 piece suits. Again, if you doubt any of this, speak to your homeless brothers and sisters or families in the barrio. They will tell you the truth.

  3. Robert payne says:

    You know when theyre lying because theyre lips are moving

Leave a Reply to admin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.