Potty Mouth Traffic Stop -- family edition.

[patric]

An attorney for the OHP's union played an edited version of a controversial dashcam video for reporters this week, in response to charges by another attorney that the recording he had been supplied with had "skips" during critical parts.

Trooper's association attorney Gary James would not allow reporters a closer examination of the copy, which a Louisiana motorist claims contain OHP trooper Rocky Northcutt yelling profanities during a traffic stop.

The motorist, Latisha White, is now being charged by Carter County prosecutors with perjury after she reported the profanity-laced encounter.

Lance McCrary, a Muskogee attorney who represents White in the felony case, has maintained that the traffic-stop video he was provided is flawed and has "skips" in it.

"To say there are skips and jumps, . . . that's why there are counters," James said.

But without some reference to show that the video is synchronized with the audio (such as moving lips or a car door slamming) a counter on the video track is worthless as evidence that the recording hasnt been tampered with.  With the proliferation of PC-based editing software, an audio track can be edited separately from the video track with ease, while the video track (and the tape counter) would betray no signs of the adulteration.

White was following her sister the evening of Sept 3, 2006 when Northcutt cut between them, according to the statement White filed.
When White's vehicle stopped behind Norcutt's, the former National Trooper Of The Year allegedly jumped out screaming "I did not f***ing pull you over! You do not pull behind an officer! Get the f*** out of here now!" White wrote in the complaint.

She then reportedly apologized, saying she was following her sister.
Northcutt replied, according to White's sworn statement: "I don't f***ing care. Get the f*** out of here now!"

James refused to give reporters a copy of his version of the recording, and the Tulsa World reported James saying the official Department of Public Safety video of the traffic stop isn't accessible through the state's Open Records Act.


More:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071004_1_A13_hrpah60381

[cannon_fodder]

Lets see if I follow that correctly... a woman gets pulled over.  The woman's sister is following her so she pulls over too, behind the cop.  The accusation is the cop berated her for doing so (instead of explaining the dangers of people pulling up behind cops in a traffic stop).  She filed a formal complaint.

In response, the OHP releases a partial tape and files charges against the woman?

That reaction seems strange to me.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  Either she is a money grubber who made crap up and did not get to phase 2 (ask for $) or she is telling the truth and OHP is in high speed cover our butts mode.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Lets see if I follow that correctly... a woman gets pulled over.  The woman's sister is following her so she pulls over too, behind the cop.  The accusation is the cop berated her for doing so (instead of explaining the dangers of people pulling up behind cops in a traffic stop).  She filed a formal complaint.

In response, the OHP releases a partial tape and files charges against the woman?

That reaction seems strange to me.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  Either she is a money grubber who made crap up and did not get to phase 2 (ask for $) or she is telling the truth and OHP is in high speed cover our butts mode.

If I were betting, Ill bet the original was destroyed... um, "Misplaced while efforting compliance with hostile atorneys" or some such blame-diverting doublespeak.

It's absolutely scandalous that something which could be used as pivotal evidence in a court of law could be hidden from the Open Records Act. It certainly gives the appearance of impropriety whether or not such impropriety exists or not.

...that and the idea of being charged with a felony for filing a report against a cop...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

[Breadburner]

Some OHP officers are out of control.....My experience with them have been very good....But a few I have heard one being my mom's and another I have had not while driving have been unproffesional to put it best....

[MH2010]

quote:Originally posted by patric

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Lets see if I follow that correctly... a woman gets pulled over.  The woman's sister is following her so she pulls over too, behind the cop.  The accusation is the cop berated her for doing so (instead of explaining the dangers of people pulling up behind cops in a traffic stop).  She filed a formal complaint.

In response, the OHP releases a partial tape and files charges against the woman?

That reaction seems strange to me.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  Either she is a money grubber who made crap up and did not get to phase 2 (ask for $) or she is telling the truth and OHP is in high speed cover our butts mode.

If I were betting, Ill bet the original was destroyed... um, "Misplaced while efforting compliance with hostile atorneys" or some such blame-diverting doublespeak.

It's absolutely scandalous that something which could be used as pivotal evidence in a court of law could be hidden from the Open Records Act. It certainly gives the appearance of impropriety whether or not such impropriety exists or not.

...that and the idea of being charged with a felony for filing a report against a cop...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

She is being charged with a felony because she lied on a sworn document. If she made up the complaint I hope he sues her in civil court also.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by MH2010

She is being charged with a felony because she lied on a sworn document. If she made up the complaint I hope he sues her in civil court also.

Since you state that claim as fact, do you have personal knowledge of that?

[MH2010]

I heard the audio.

[Rowdy]

I'm waiting for Wilbur to chime in on one of his rants to ok it all by stating,"but you WERE speeding..."

[patric]

It looks like attempts to extradite the woman for "perjury" who filed the complaint against the trooper fell flat when the prosecutor perjured -- err -- was "factually inaccurate" when he made out the warrant.

White's complaint to the Department of Public Safety wasn't sworn to and notarized in Carter County, as District Attorney Craig Ladd alleges, Hunley said.
Documents show that White's complaint was written Sept. 11, 2006, in Rapides Parish, La., Hunley said.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070925_1_A1_spanc26254


Some of the comments that follow these stories are quite remarkable, in content if not shear volume.

"While I would not presume to tell you how to run your business, it seems to me that your 'victim' in this case is making a mountain out of a molehill," James C. Downs, district attorney of Rapides (La.) Parish wrote in a letter to Carter County District Attorney Craig Ladd in May.

Referring to alleged "discourteous and unbecoming language" by Northcutt, Downs went on to write that "to convert that situation into a full-blown felony perjury prosecution where the lady did not allege any sort of physical attack or illegal conduct on the part of the officer seems a bit much."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070916_1_A1_hConf67873


...but it's not the first time.  Coincidence, or tactic?

The case is similar to another controversy in which prosecutors have charged a woman because they dispute a sworn complaint she made against a different trooper.

Emily Kelley was charged with perjury after her testimony about a conversation with OHP Trooper Steve Nabors wasn't identical in wording and sequence to a videotape of the incident, court records show.

"This case had a peculiar air about it from the beginning, and the source of the odor is now apparent: Ms. Potter was charged with a felony offense in retaliation for her 'attempt to discredit an officer of the law and the justice system,' " Choctaw County Associate District
Judge Don Ed Payne wrote in February 2006.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070930_1_A1_hrpah05082

[patric]

A Carter County judge withdraws the arrest warrant for a woman who filed a complaint alleging OHP misconduct.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071016_1_A9_hThec27460

[patric]

Two women have filed a federal lawsuit accusing Texas State Troopers of humiliating them by performing illegal and highly invasive body cavity searches on the side of a highway after they were pulled over for tossing a cigarette butt from their car.
CBS Dallas-Ft. Worth reports that Angel Dobbs, 38, and her 24-year-old niece Ashley Dobbs were pulled over in July on Highway 161 for allegedly throwing a cigarette butt from the window of their car while on a road trip to Oklahoma. State Trooper David Farrell, the officer who made the stop, claimed he smelled marijuana and conducted a search.
Having found nothing, Farrell called in a female trooper, identified by the Dallas Morning News as Kelley Helleson, who told the women to "shut up" as she donned latex gloves and proceeded to perform an extremely invasive body cavity search on the women to determine if they were hiding anything illegal inside their bodies.
Police dashcam video shows Helleson inserting her fingers in the vaginas and rectums of both women in full view of passing traffic.
"At this point, I'm in clear shock. I can't even believe this is happening," Angel Dobbs told CBS. "Turns me around, goes down the front of my pants into my inner thigh at which point she just goes up with two fingers. I just look at her and say, 'oh my God, I've just been violated."

"I was molested. I was violated. I was humiliated," Angel said.
Helleson then did the same thing to Ashley Dobbs-- without changing her gloves.
"She went down, then turned me around, and went down my front and then she actually dug," Ashely told CBS. "I don't know what I could say, what I could do. I felt hopeless."
Not satisfied, the troopers then made the women take a field sobriety test, which they passed. They were cited for littering and released.
The troopers also allegedly took a bottle of Vicodin that had been legally prescribed.
One of the women can be heard on the police audio recording expressing her shock at the way she had just been treated.
"This has been a real eye-opening experience for me. I've never been pulled over, I've never been searched like that... I had a finger in my (anus), I had a finger in my pussy... this is totally embarrassing," she says. Trooper Farrell then chalks the whole episode up to the fact that the car smelled like it belonged to a "daily smoker."

The women filed a complaint with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), where they were told they would be charged with lying if they filed an affidavit.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/339496

At least it wasnt a "real" rape...  



The suit included Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, in the lawsuit because, they allege, he knew about similar unlawful strip and cavity searches but did nothing to stop them, reported The Dallas Morning News.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/humiliating-cavity-search-traffic-stop-sparks-suit-article-1.1223901

[DolfanBob]

Pat did you watch the video? IMO they both have a case. I had never seen anything even close to what was required by those two ladies.
Nothing was found in the car and if they had refused to be assaulted by the female officer. Both would have been arrested and then assaulted at the Jail.
I hope that they win the case and something is done about these kind of scare tactics used by officers that are going on a hunch they may find something without probable cause.

[patric]

Telling a citizen that they will probably be charged with perjury if they perform their duty and file a complaint, should at least spark a RICO investigation.

No one wants more intrusion from the feds, but sometimes their oversight becomes a necessary evil when local authorities become very selective about civil rights.