Police Perjury

Officer Friendly

by Rick Horowitz Amicus Curia [Rick Horowitz, an attorney, complained about his editorial remarks being reposted or distributed. Hence, this re-editorializing to the same effect without attribution crediting him, or his vicarious harassment.]

Believing that law enforcement officers are good guys is one of the linchpins of our society; probably of all societies, even where they don’t officially call them “law enforcement” officers. But to believe in law enforcement officers, we must be able to believe law enforcement officers.

Nearly everybody wants to believe in the tooth fairy and officer friendly–you know, the badge & uniform decorated gun toting billy club swinging pal we all have. He may be a friend who searches body cavities, but he’s still our friend. Unfortunately, officer friendly’s penchant for telling the truth has come into serious question, by those you’d think benefit by their dissembling and lying under oath the most–District Attorneys and trial judges!

So far that doesn’t seem to be a problem for the majority of submitizens, even though newspapers as small as the Fresno Bee contain at least one — and usually more than one — story almost every day about the illegal activities of police officers.

Many local newspapers now routinely carry stories detailing the scandals of police corruption, falsifying of reports, and planting evidence…or withholding it…to manipulate the justice system which ultimately translates into many factually innocent defendants being convicted and sentenced to hard prison time.

But there’s one type of malfeasance in which police officers engage even more routinely that usually goes unreported. Until now.

Corruption in our public officials has become the cesspool of our democracy today. But now some notice is being taken about how deeply this culture of corruption has penetrated the thin blue line, the ones we’ve entrusted to uphold our values, our principles, and our laws–to protect and to serve: Police officers who have sworn to uphold the law–all the laws, including the civil rights of all citizens.

Serving & Protecting

The Wall Street Journal reports that,

According to a Wall Street Journal article,

In a 1992 survey, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges in Chicago said they thought that, on average, perjury by police occurs 20% of the time in which defendants claim evidence was illegally seized. (Amir Efrati, “Legal System Struggles With How to React When Police Officers Lie” (January 29, 2009) Wall Street Journal.)

And, trust me (I’m not a police officer), Chicago is not unique.

Does this damn Chicago with faint praise, or are police officers there only following suit and fitting in with a corrupt police culture that spans the breadth of the nation?

Patrick, over at PopeHat, reports in “A Rickety, Wooden Story” about two police officers who wanted in to a man’s house because they believed another man they wished to arrest was there. They had no legal right to enter the house and the man refused them entry. Thereupon, they beat him, tasered him and arrested him for assaulting police officers. Fortunately, these cops were stupid and both wrote reports and repeatedly testified about the “rickety, wooden porch” which required one cop to stick his foot inside the door to stabilize himself, supposedly provoking the man’s attack. Unfortunately (for the cops), the porch was made of concrete. The only thing rickety was their fabricated story.

One reporter (“A Rickety, Wooden Story”) tells of how 2 cops entered a man’s house seeking to arrest a suspect they believed was hiding within. When the resident balked at permitting them entry, rather than seeking an arrest/search warrant, they summarily brutally beat and tased him then charged and arrested him for assaulting a cop to cover their ass. Then, serendipity struck. It wasn’t for nothing these cops were known as the dumbest flatfoots on the force. Each perjured themselves in their sworn affidavits when they declared a rickety wooden porch caused them to put a foot through the door to keep from losing their balance, thereby provoking the resident into assaulting them…except there was NO wooden porch–the stoop was composed of solid concrete. Rather than a flimsy porch, it was their flimsy story which ended up doing them in.

Not all police officers lies are as blatant as this, of course. In San Francisco, a woman spent 20 months in jail, awaiting trial on attempted murder. Though there was no evidence that a crime had even been committed, a police officer revised an earlier story about hearing a shot and seeing a car; months after the fact, he identified an innocent woman as the shooter. A jury acquitted the woman after police, who had safeguarded the bullet in an evidence locker for two years, “disposed” of it three days into the trial. The Public Defender was glad that the jury had seen through the lies. But did they see through the lies? Or did they merely think the officer was mistaken? That case had so many weaknesses it’s hard to tell.

Most cops are not quite this obtuse and lie more effectively. Some are decent people and a credit to their uniform, thank God! But others are responsible for miscarriages of justice such as an innocent San Francisco woman who spent almost 2 years in custody awaiting trial on a charge of attempted murder. Despite a lack of evidence of any crime whatsoever, in typical knee jerk fashion, our justice system lurched from pillar to post like a bull in a china shop. One officer changed his story about sighting a car and hearing gunfire. Months later, he fingered an innocent woman as the culprit. But, a jury didn’t agree. They acquitted her. They weren’t impressed with the revelation of how the police who had preserved the alleged bullet in an evidence locker for 2 long years destroyed/lost it 3 days into the trial proceedings. Although the defense attorney seemed pleased the jury had rejected the lies, had they? Or did they conclude the LEO had made a good faith mistake? Is there a distinction between corruption and incompetence or is it one without a meaningful difference. If an innocent defendant ends up on death row due to a corrupt judge, or an incompetent one, does he/she really care which given the end result will be the same? Court records are rife with such miscarriages of justice. Lying cops exacerbate the problem tremendously.

And then, of course, there are the “testiliars” who get away with it. Shockingly, this is not really a secret.

Too many cops who perjure themselves are never held accountable. Judges are too often indifferent or never met a cop they didn’t like. They turn a blind eye to the perjury and fail to do justice by all the parties–they fail in their primary mission which is to ensure the trial proceedings are conducted as a search for the truth.

“It is an open secret long shared by prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges that perjury is widespread among law enforcement officers,” though it’s difficult to detect in specific cases, said Alex Kozinski, a federal appeals-court judge, in the 1990s. That’s because the exclusionary rule “sets up a great incentive for…police to lie.” –(Amir Efrati, “Legal System Struggles With How to React When Police Officers Lie” (January 29, 2009) Wall Street Journal (emphasis added).)–

I still remember when I first learned about this. I was stunned. Prior to becoming a criminal defense attorney, I thought that most police officers were good and figured, at most, ten percent were “bad cops.” As a criminal defense attorney practicing in Fresno, Tulare, Madera and Kings Counties, I’ve come to learn that, at best, the percentages are reversed when it comes to testilying. As the WSJ article points out, “there’s a tacit agreement among many officers that lying about how evidence is seized keeps criminals off the street.” Police officers figure it’s okay to break the law in order to get a conviction against someone who they believe has broken the law. After all, the someone being convicted isn’t them.

It’s a sad day when our innocence about the police is destroyed, when the choices we saw as children to become a fireman, policeman, doctor, nurse, butcher, banker, or candlestick maker become a fiction, an illusion. Did our parents not tell us policemen were our friend, that if we were in trouble to find one and tell what happened? But, our parents did us a disservice to hide the fact that many policemen are not our friend–far from it, that they beat, kill, lie, bully, provoke, set people up, and even rape. Yeah, there’s bad apples in any broad cross section of people, but the shocking truth is the bad apples in the ranks of police are NOT exceptions or ‘rogue’ cops, they’re common–some even say these officers are the rule, and they should know because these critics deal with the police frequently. These cops excuse themselves with the belief they have to break/bend the law to enforce it, to make sure the ‘bad’ guy gets what he deserves, to give the law a little nudge/boost to make certain the criminals get convicted. They deliberately put their finger on the scales of justice to skew it.

The problem is that sometimes police officers are wrong.

But, setting one’s self up as judge, jury, and executioner is a slippery slope. There’s a reason why it’s said the road to perdition is paved with ‘good’ intentions. This God complex among cops leads to innocent people being condemned to Hell on earth. These state sponsored thugs become more dangerous to the social fabric than the criminal element itself and exercise the same ethics of convenience cut from the same warp and weave.

It leaves you to wonder: “How many innocent people are sitting in jails and prisons because of police testiliars?”

How many innocent people are in prison today or even on death row because of lying cops?

[Editor’s Note: Mr. Rick Horowitz, or someone claiming that name and to be an attorney, filed a fraudulent DMCA take-down notice regarding the above article. Obviously any potentially objectionable material with respect to copyright has been removed/struck-out, as is self evident. Nevertheless, Mr. Horowitz continued to make threats through e-mail and has now opted to manipulate the host service to harass the editor vicariously. This is now an old dodge familiar to many internet publishers. An investigation has been launched to determine if he is an attorney and, if so, what his bar number is so a bar complaint against him can be filed.]

BTW, here’s a pic of the p**k.

Rick Horowitz – #248684
Bar Number: 248684
Address:
The Law Office of Rick Horowitz
2014 Tulare St Ste 627
Fresno, CA 93721
Phone Number: (559) 233-8886
Fax Number: (559) 233-8887
e-mail: rick@rhdefense.com
Undergraduate School:
California St Univ Fresno; Fresno CA
Law School:
San Joaquin COL; Fresno CA
County: Fresno
District: District 5
Sections:
Criminal Law
Status History