Recent news about police, sheriff, jail brutality and killings

(Posted 9 Oct 2008)

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Anguish Allies Disparate Groups; Incidents Involving County Law Enforcement Raise Questions and Concerns and Spark Unity.
Post, 9 Oct 2008 (Davis ).

Prince George's civil rights leaders said at first it seemed like a horrible, but at least isolated, incident: A 19-year-old suspected of killing a county police officer was found strangled in his jail cell in June, and corrections officers were under suspicion.

A month later, however, more appalling news: Sheriff's deputies and county narcotics officers raided the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights and fatally shot his two dogs. The mayor and his family were innocent; a county drug investigation soon pointed elsewhere.

Then, another questionable killing: An off-duty Prince George's police officer shot a Langley Park man in August while attempting to arrest him for having an open container of alcohol. It was the year's seventh fatal shooting by county police.

For county civil rights groups, the death in custody of Ronnie L. White , the violent raid on the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and the shooting of Manuel de Jesus Espina have melded together to raise larger questions about the culture of law enforcement in Prince George's.

[Full story]

The three incidents have drawn together the often disparate efforts across the county of the NAACP , immigrant rights groups and neighborhood associations. Animal rights groups have also joined the alliance.

"We all are concerned, and we all need answers," said June White Dillard, president of the county chapter of the NAACP.

After the July 29 raid on Calvo's home, Dillard called for a thorough investigation, saying the mayor, who is white and Hispanic, experienced police action familiar to many young black men in the county. After Espina's death, Dillard locked arms with leaders of the immigrant rights group Casa de Maryland.

Only recently has the degree of unity become clear. The groups met with Acting Police Chief Roberto Hylton , and families and friends of the three victims stood together for the first time recently at a Langley Park rally that drew more than 300 participants.

With county public safety director Vernon Herron looking on and promising that investigations would reveal the truth in each case, the gathering went on for hours. Those in attendance denounced Prince George's police, who shot Espina; the county's Corrections Department, which had custody of White; and the Sheriff's Office, which led the raid on Calvo's home.

The three incidents are under investigation, and the FBI is monitoring the White and Calvo cases.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, said the lack of answers in the three cases is fueling the increased coordination among the groups. Prince George's police and county State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) are reviewing the shooting of Espina and have not said when the probe will be finished.

Police have said that Officer Steven Jackson was trying to arrest Espina after finding him drinking in an apartment building stairwell but that Espina resisted. Jackson fired his gun after Espina's son arrived and joined the fray, police said.

Witnesses dispute that account, saying Jackson beat Espina before shooting him. Espina's son also says his father dropped to his knees moments before Jackson fired and pleaded with the officer to stop beating him.

Questions also linger in the Berwyn Heights raid. Days after it, police said, they made two arrests and recovered nearly 500 pounds of marijuana, most sent to addresses of unsuspecting residents, including Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic . Police have not identified two men they say were behind the incident.

Dillard said the death of Ronnie White and the unfulfilling investigation into the death to date have left the biggest cloud over Prince George's. She faulted Ivey for not having sought an indictment, despite a final autopsy report by the state's chief medical examiner last month that listed White's death as a homicide by asphyxiation.

An attorney for the county correctional officers association said a guard found White with a sheet around his neck, and Ivey has said he has not ruled out the possibility that White committed suicide.

"He was killed; it was a homicide," Dillard said at the rally. "It's time he indicted someone on homicide."

County residents protest police brutality; Langley Park rally draws hundreds
Gazette, 2 Oct 2008 (Izadi).

Four groups of families stood side-by-side before hundreds of other families in Langley Park and held signs in English and Spanish that recounted the details of how their fathers, brothers or sons died.

The four, from different parts of Prince George's County, all shared a common link—they lost loved ones in incidents involving the Prince George's County Police Department or while under the care of the Department of Corrections.

"We are a society where justice should prevail," said June White Dillard, president of the Prince George's County branch of the NAACP , as the families surrounded her. "We want them to obey the laws, just like we do."

A number of community organizations, including immigrant advocacy group Casa of Maryland, hosted the Sept. 24 rally and march against police brutality in Langley Park, largely in response to the Aug. 16 death of Manuel de Jesus Espina , 43, who was shot by off-duty police officer Steven Jackson during an altercation in his apartment building on the 8000 block of 14th Street.

[Full story]

According to police, Jackson tried to arrest Espina for an alcohol violation. Jackson used pepper spray and his baton as Espina resisted arrest, and his son tried to take Jackson's baton away. Jackson feared for his life, police said, and shot Espina once in the torso.

At the time of the incident, Jackson was wearing his police uniform and working part-time as security guard for the apartment complex.

Maj. Andrew Ellis, a county police spokesman, said the shooting is still under investigation with the department's Serious Incident Response Unit, which conducts all police officer investigations. Jackson has been placed on administrative leave, in accordance with department policy.

Espina's wife, Estela Jacome, and son, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome, stood before the rally with other families. They said they felt left in the dark on the status of the investigation.

"We're feeling very confused right now, and we're almost sick because of it," his wife said in Spanish. "Once there is justice, there will be peace."

March organizers also invited audience members to speak about their own negative experiences with the police, and Casa attorneys compiled them into an official complaint.

Ellis said official complaints are investigated, and the officer with a complaint lodged against him cannot have contact with the person who filed the complaint. Citizens can make official complaints by filling out a form, located at police stations and public libraries.

"We certainly want to know if any of our residents are concerned about a specific incident by what they perceived as misconduct by one of our officers," he said. "We try to make it as easy as possible for a resident to report any allegations of brutality or excessive force."

Angie Johnson, the aunt of Ronnie L. White, said White's friends have been intimidated and harassed by police in the Beltsville area. White was killed while being held in a county jail cell for the June 27 death of Cpl. Richard Findley, county officer and volunteer for the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department, who was struck in Laurel by a reportedly stolen pickup truck he was investigating.

Dorothy Elliott, whose son died after being shot 14 times by a county and District Heights officer in 1993, said there was a pattern among all of the cases, including character assassination of those shot by the police.

"There's an urgent need for justice in Ronnie White's and Manuel de Espina's cases," Elliott said. "And not Prince George's justice. I know firsthand what Prince George's justice is."

Tadele Gezahegn, brother of Genete Brooke, who was killed last month in unincorporated Hyattsville after an almost seven-hour barricade standoff with county police, criticized the police for use of excessive force, including tanks, to barricade Brooke, who had shot at police in Hyattsville.

Gustavo Torres, Casa's executive director, said he was hopeful that community relations with the police will improve dramatically with the county's new acting police chief, Roberto Hylton , and he reassured the crowd that Hylton knew their concerns. Casa representatives have already met with Hylton.

"He's Latino, and he's Afro-Latino. He knows the community very well," he said. "His philosophy is going to change the relationship between the police and the community."

The county police has a Citizen Compliant Oversight Panel which looks into complaints against the police and an early intervention system which indentifies officers with potential problems.

County Director of Public Safety Vernon Herron attended the rally to hear community concerns over police conduct and ensure residents' complaints will be "investigated to find the truth," he told the group.

"I hope that everyone that has a complaint against the police department files it so we can look into it," he later said.

Sen. David Harrington (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly stood before the crowd and held up a child with a sign that read "Langley Park community deserves respect from police officers."

"This is what I want," Harrington said. "So this young man can go to school, can play and be what he wants to be without intimidation. Is this what you want?"

The little boy yelled into the microphone, "Yes!"

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net .

Probe into death of inmate may pit Ivey versus Johnson

(Posted 26 Sep 2008)

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Probe into death of inmate may pit Ivey versus Johnson.
Examiner, 26 Sep 2008 (Klopott).

The investigation into the suspicious death of a Prince George’s County inmate charged with the slaying of a police officer has also exposed long-developing political rifts in the county.

State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey, who was tasked with overseeing the investigation into Ronnie White’s June 29 death, is considered one of the county’s rising political stars. County Executive Jack Johnson has seen his hold on political power in the county threatened by continuing failures in the police and corrections departments. Never overt political rivals in the past, the case has put the two men on a collision course, longtime county politicos say.

In the last week, Ivey has become trapped between a medical examiner’s report that said White was murdered by strangulation in his cell and corrections officers who say White committed suicide.

On Monday, the county executive’s office announced that two of the corrections officers, who have borne the greatest scrutiny by state police investigators, have been placed on paid leave. A Johnson spokesman said the two were taken out of the jail because they had become “persons of interest” in the investigation.

But a source close to the investigation said the phrase “persons of interest” had not been used by prosecutors and the case hasn’t been narrowed down at all.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at the county executive’s office, people are quick to point out that Ivey is in a no-win situation.

If he prosecutes the case as a homicide, per the medical examiner’s report, Ivey may be at odds with a state police investigation that some expect to conclude that White killed himself. In that case, Ivey would find it hard to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. On the other hand, not prosecuting anyone would give credence to claims already being made by vocal political groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, that there’s been a cover-up.

Then there’s White’s family pushing for swift action from a criminal justice system their attorney, Bobby Henry Jr., and Johnson have already called a failure.

For Ivey, all of this means a tough political situation that the county executive isn’t likely to make any easier. Johnson is expected to reveal some details of an administrative investigation soon, adding another angle to what one insider described as a “political power game.”

Ivey’s aides say his plan is to move forward methodically. He won’t be closing doors to possibilities any time soon, and certainly not until the most recent dust settles and he can bring the game back onto his turf; inside the county court house where he once intended to try White in the slaying of police Cpl. Richard Findley.

Acting Chief of Police Hylton

(Posted 21 Sep 2008)

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Building Bridges One Handshake at a Time; Acting Leader of Prince George's Police Advocates Interaction With Residents.
Post, 21 Sep 2008 (Davis).

It can take new Prince George's County Acting Police Chief Roberto Hylton a while to reach his second-floor office in the morning. He shakes a lot of hands on the way, a gesture he also expects his officers to make toward residents on the street.

"That's how I was raised," said Hylton, recalling his humble upbringing in Panama. In Hylton's police department, however, a handshake is more than mere courtesy.

It's a symbol of the community policing and back-to-basics beat walking that Hylton, who is considered the front-runner to replace retiring Chief Melvin C. High, says the department needs in order to root out crime in its most dangerous neighborhoods.

"When you stop and you get out of the car and you walk, you get to see more things, you hear things, you develop relationships and people tell you things," Hylton said. "Our efforts are going to return officers into our communities and actually affect crime by identifying chronic problems."

In a county with a history of racial tension and police distrust, Hylton's handshakes might come at an important time. Old wounds were reopened this summer with a surge in police shootings, including one of an unarmed Latino man last month in Langley Park. Other high-profile incidents, such as the death in the county jail of Ronnie L. White, the suspect in the killing of a county police officer in June, have strained the department's relations with civil-rights and minority groups.

Hylton, 51, who took over on an interim basis Sept. 1, began facing those challenges head-on in his first hours on the job. He met with Latino leaders and members of the NAACP in his bare new office before unpacking a box, a move that June White-Dillard, the county NAACP chapter president, said she found "encouraging."

On Sept. 3, he showed up at the late-night Suitland crime scene where an 8-month-old boy was shot in his car seat. There, the 27-year veteran told residents he would not tolerate such violence, and he ordered dozens of officers to stay late and to aid in the investigation, an example Hylton's colleagues said mirrored his forceful approach as head of patrol since 2002.

"I told them our motto is going to be 'one team, one mission,' " Hylton said, describing his first meeting with his command staff. "Every member of our department will actually be moving toward our core mission, which is to suppress crime and build cooperation with our community."

Homicides and overall violent crime are down about 8 percent in the county this year, despite an increase in rapes and carjackings. The Justice Department for several years has been monitoring Prince George's police for excessive use of force.

Vernon Herron, the county's head of public safety, said he strongly believes the replacement for High, who retired last month, should come from within the department. Several commanders in the county are capable of doing the job, Herron said. But Hylton's actions so far have demonstrated that he has the experience to lead and "is a strong candidate" for the permanent post, Herron said.

Even before Hylton took over, he began working on a plan to transform policing in Prince George's. He placed calls to Sheriff Michael Jackson, the chief of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police and the head of the association representing all 23 municipal police departments in the county.

The calls began repairing relationships that had become strained, particularly after a July incident in which county narcotics officers and sheriff's deputies raided the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights without consulting the local police department. The mayor, whose two dogs were killed during the raid, and his family were quickly found innocent. Municipal police leaders said the raid highlighted a dangerous lack of coordination between county police and local departments.

With a county police force of about 1,500 officers covering nearly 500 square miles, Hylton believes Prince George's law enforcement agencies must work more closely together if officers are to have the additional time needed to walk beats and get to better know the communities they cover.

"My plan is to promote one law enforcement system within Prince George's County," Hylton said. "We all need to work together."

One of the ways that might happen first is by coordinating training, said Hylton and New Carrollton Police Chief David Rice, head of the county's municipal chiefs association. Rice praised Hylton for taking the initiative to contact him recently to discuss coordinating training.

"It's a brilliant idea. I take my hat off to him," Rice said. "Every [department] now trains on their own, does their own thing and because of that thinks 'my department's better than yours,' " Rice said. "We want to kill that little animosity and make everyone think as one unit."

For Hylton, the effort is one component of a larger move toward community policing, a philosophy he embraced as a sergeant in the early 1990s, when he helped the department pioneer efforts to reach out to at-risk youths and to improve relationships with communities in and around District Heights and Capitol Heights.

Some in the department have criticized High for making the Prince George's force more top heavy, with two assistant chiefs and additional layers of commanders working behind desks and not out in communities.

Vince Canales, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89, said that he hasn't seen Hylton's specific plan but that his vision for community policing might be difficult in the county's spread-out suburban landscape.

"In some ways, it's what officers ought to be doing right now to cover their beats," Canales said. "But I am confident that Chief Hylton will look at the numbers, reduce some of the top heaviness and work to get more officers out in the districts."

Hylton says he believes community policing works best in the increasingly Latino communities in the northern part of the county, where he was an assistant commander and then commander of the 1st Police District, headquartered in Hyattsville, from 1996 to 2001. High promoted him to assistant chief in 2002.

One of Hylton's first moves was to name a new department spokesman, with whom Latino community members can communicate directly: Maj. Andrew Ellis, who is bilingual and worked under Hylton in Langley Park.

County Council member William A. Campos (D-Hyattsville) said Hylton and his emphasis on community policing is exactly what is needed. "What he's talking about is what we hear all the time from our constituents," he said. 

NAACP, Mayor Calvo request more federal oversight of public safety agencies

(Posted 11 Sep 2008)

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Oversight sought for public safety; NAACP chapter president, mayor say county deal with federal officials needs to be extended.
Gazette, 11 Sep 2008 (Valentine).

Prince George's County civil rights leaders are asking the federal government to extend an oversight plan put in place four years ago to monitor excessive force complaints filed against county police.

"We just have too many shootings," said June White Dillard, president of the Prince George's County chapter of the NAACP. "Obviously, we need to do a lot of retraining."
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Dillard said last week that the U.S. Department of Justice should consider altering or expanding an agreement with the county police department designed to cut down on cases where officers allegedly used excessive force.

The agreement, which the county signed with the federal law enforcement branch, called on the force to change everything from training standards to installing video cameras in police cars to settle longstanding concerns that officers were being abusive to suspects and not responding to complaints filed by citizens. At the time, the justice department was wrapping up an extensive investigation into five fatal shootings.

Though an independent monitor has said that the county has complied with almost all of the 67 settlement terms as of June, some critics say several high-profile events this summer cast doubt on the progress.

So far this year, police have used their weapons 14 times to shoot suspects — more than double the number in 2007, according to figures released last month. Seven of the shootings were fatal.

The latest case was the death of Manuel de Jesus Espina, who was shot by off-duty Officer Steven Jackson during an alleged struggle Aug. 16 while he was working security at a Langley Park apartment complex. Though police officials have said Jackson was defending himself when he shot Espina, other witnesses have said the officer shot while the man was trying to get away after Jackson beat him with a baton.

In late June, 19-year-old Ronnie White died in a solitary confinement cell at the county Corrections Center in Upper Marlboro. White had been charged with the murder of a county police officer. The case is still under investigation by state police, but attorneys say federal action should be considered as the investigation stretches on.

"The FBI should get involved immediately," said Bobby Henry Jr., an attorney representing White's family. "There's a growing distrust for law enforcement."

In another incident, deputies with the county sheriff's office raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo after police department investigators linked a package of marijuana to the address. During the July 29 raid, deputies shot and killed Calvo's two dogs. Police officials later stated that Calvo and his family were "innocent victims of drug traffickers."

Calvo, who police say has been cleared in the case, has contested police reports that the dogs were aggressive.

"It is clear that our local law enforcement agencies have a culture of disregarding Maryland's no-knock statute and ignoring the rights of innocent occupants and their pets," Calvo wrote in a letter last month to the Justice Department asking them to investigate. "It is also clear that our county law enforcement agencies cannot discipline or investigate themselves."
* * * [More]
All three events took place after the latest quarterly report about the county's progress. A new report is due at the end of the month.

County police spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said officials were unable to comment on the status of the federal agreement last week.

A Department of Justice spokesman, pointing out that the agreement is still ongoing, would only say that the county is cooperating. The county agreement is slated to continue through January 2009, he said.

According to the June report by independent monitor MPRI of Alexandria, Va., the county has succeeded in most of the changes, though it still requires several overhauls in technology and investigation.

The department has complied with the first phase of all 67 steps outlined in the agreement, but officers still need to implement a database that would help warn of potentially abusive officers, and wrap up investigations faster.

The settlement calls for internal affairs investigators to complete their reviews of excessive force complaints within 90 days. Last spring, only one of the 14 active cases was finished in that time, the independent monitor wrote. The long investigation time was the only item that the county was not in compliance with in the report.

The database — which will be used to track officer conduct, uses of force and other data as part of an "early identification system" — accounted for 10 of the "pending compliance" steps. It is currently in use in four or the county's six police districts. Using the database, supervisors could track how many times an officer used pepper spray or charged people for resisting arrest or assaulting an officer.

The monitor noted that there is "lively discussion" in the department on when supervisors should flag an officer for intervention about force use. Police have been pushing for an officers' overall arrest record to be weighed against the number of complaints.
[Full story]

County losing trust in law enforcement

(Updated 13 Aug 2008)

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County losing trust in law enforcement
Gazette, 12 Aug 2008 (Valentine).

Saying that Prince George's County police and corrections officers have cast "a cloud over this county," the head of the county NAACP called this week for investigators to speak out and update the six-week-old probe into the death of a suspected police killer at the county jail.

"People are losing the trust they had in the county government," said June White Dillard, president of the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at a Tuesday press conference. "The longer it takes, the more people will begin to suspect that people are trying to back away."

Dillard and other group members called for the state medical examiner to release a final report about the death of Ronnie White, a 19-year-old who was found dead in his solitary cell in the Upper Marlboro jail on June 29.
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Dillard also said the July 29 law enforcement raid of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo's home has further tainted the county's reputation. After tracking a package of marijuana to Calvo's house, deputies obtained a search warrant and entered the building without knocking, shooting and killing his two Labrador retriever dogs.
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[Full story]

NAACP Official Faults Pr. George's for Silence on Jail Death
Post, 12 Aug 2008 (Davis).

The head of the local chapter of the NAACP said today that six weeks of silence by law enforcement agencies investigating the death of Ronnie L. White in a Prince George's County jail is undermining the credibility of county government and its corrections agency.

"While this investigation is taking so long, people are losing the trust that they had in the county government and it is a very big, heavy cloud not only on the correctional officers . . . but on the county," said June White Dillard, president of the Prince George's County Branch of the NAACP. "The longer it takes, people will begin to suspect that . . . the county government is trying to do a cover up, and that is not what we want to happen."
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White Dillard also addressed an assertion made by the correctional officers union that White may have committed suicide.

"There was no way that we can consider, none of us will consider, that there was a suicide by Mr. White while he was in the custody of the correctional officers."
[Full story]

Questions: Is NAACP chapter president June White Dillard saying that she will refuse to believe the medical examiner's report if it does not say what she wants? Has she examined the body? Is she medically qualified to determine the cause of death?

Inmate's family presses state on probe
Times, 13 Aug 2008 (LoBianc)

The family of an inmate found dead in his Prince George's jail cell in June asked state and county investigators Tuesday to hand control of the probe to federal investigators.

"They are extremely disappointed with the investigation so far," said Bobby G. Henry Jr., a lawyer for the family of Ronnie L. White. Mr. White, 19, was found dead in his jail cell June 29, shortly after he was arrested on charges of murdering a Prince George's police officer.

The Maryland State Police and the FBI Civil Rights department took control of the probe at the request of Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson last month, but have issued little information since then.

"I believe that it is becoming abundantly clear this investigation is above and beyond the resources in Prince George's County and the Maryland State Police and that the Department of Justice and the FBI need to immediately take full responsibility for this investigation and prosecution," Mr. Henry told The Washington Times on Tuesday.

A state police spokeswoman said the investigation is still ongoing and declined to comment Tuesday.

The Chief Medical Examiner's office has not completed its autopsy of Mr. White and the report could take as long as another week, said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, who is participating in the investigation.

Mr. Korionoff said he could not comment on the investigation because it is ongoing.

White

Mr. White was arrested June 28 and charged in the death of Cpl. Richard S. Findley. Cpl. Findley, a 10-year veteran of the Prince George's police was dragged to death during a traffic stop. Police arrested Mr. White shortly afterward.

Mr. White was found dead in his jail cell 36 hours after he was arrested. Corrections officers with access to Mr. White at the time of his death initially declined to cooperate with investigators, but were prodded by county officials to submit to interviews.

A preliminary autopsy done by the medical examiner's office showed two small bones in Mr. White's neck broken, indicating strangulation. An attorney for the correctional officers union, however, has said Mr. White was not the victim of a homicide and likely committed suicide.