NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings and actually did quite a lot to reformat this document to make it readable. There was a lot of HTML and markup language in this document. I took it out. Dates are in YYMMDD format.
Something else to note. I am no longer editing out the address of David P Beiter. It is an address of a place that doesn’t exist. As if his identity weren’t already shrouded in mystery.
KIA
By David P Beiter
[REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION]
Collateral deaths and near hits in the Drug War. Some planting and fabrication stories too.
Collected 1997 by byter@mcimail.com
Schenectady 2 teachers, ~88
9) Re: Try 2: The Evil Cops Post
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 13:01:17 -0400
From: Mark Jones
To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
*** Police admit to planting drugs on the innocent ***
Ever want to explain to someone that drug laws are just too easy for law enforcement folks to abuse? Well, here is some great evidence of just how out of hand it can get.
Within:
"The arresting officers... all have admitted they lied about drug arrests and searches... and have pleaded guilty to federal charges."
15 MORE DRUG CASES OVERTURNED
The costs could be huge for Philadelphia. Suits are likely over the 39th I District police corruption. -
By Mark Faziollah INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
It could force the review of a thousand drug cases.
Put hundreds of drug defendants back on the streets.
And cost the city millions.
Yesterday, as a specially assigned judge dismissed charges against 13 more defendants, Philadelphia got its loudest warning yet of the potential enormity of the 39th District police-corruption scandal's impact.
First Deputy District Attorney,Arnold H. Gordon, a veteran prosecutor in the odd role of requesting a mass acquittal - asked Common Pleas Judge Legrome D. Davis to reverse the defendants' 15 cases "in the interest of justice."
The arresting officers in the cases - five former 39th District policemen - all have admitted they lied about drug arrests and searches in the North Philadelphia district between 1988 and 1991, and have pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Yesterday's dismissals bring to 27 the total number of drug defendants whose cases were dismissed because of the federal investigation. And Public Defender Bradley Bridge, who represented most of the defendants at yesterday's hearing, said it's just the beginning.
"Many innocent defendants have spent years in prison," Bridge said. "Sadly, this is not yet even the tip of the iceberg. Many, many more cases will follow."
Davis appeared to accept Bridge's prediction. He said he would handle-all future requests for dismissals arising from the 39th District investigation, thus speeding the process. The five former officers were indicted Feb. 28. They have since pleaded guilty to obstructing defendants' civil rights, and have agreed to help federal prosecutors expand the investigation.
Bridge said after the hearing that his preliminary review of past drug cases showed the five officers handled 200 cases in 1988 alone, and that his office later this week would begin reviewing all arrests made by the five officers between 1987 and 1994.
Eventually, he predicted, a thou.sand cases would have to be reexamined and hundreds of convictions could be overturned.
Thus far, all 12 of the drug cases the public defender has submitted for review by the District Attorney's Office have been dismissed.
And each case is a potential lawsuit.
Deputy City Solicitor James B. Jordan said he was "expecting a whole bunch" of suits related to the 39th District scandal.
"This could have very significant financial implications," Jordan said after yesterday's hearing.
Several of the defendants already are talking of suing.
There is Betty Patterson, 53, who completed her three-year prison term last year and was on parole until her charges were dismissed yesterday.
John Baird, a former 39th District officer who pleaded guilty to corruption charges, has said police framed Patterson and planted drugs in her North Philadelphia home - in an effort, Baird contended, to get evidence in a separate case against her three sons.
Patterson wore a big smile after the hearing but declined to comment. Her attorney, Jennifer St. Hill, has notified the city that a suit is imminent.
John Wayne Coleman, who spent the last four years in prison, had all his drug charges dismissed yesterday.
"When they came into my house, they never acknowledged they were police," Coleman told reporters at the hearing. "Before this conviction, I wasn't in trouble for 10 years."
Coleman's attorney, Adrian J. Moody, said his client, too, would sue the city.
In addition to dismissing the convictions of Patterson and Coleman and the 13 other cases, Judge Davis also began expunging the defendants' records of all information about the arrests.
Officially, Betty Patterson, who was accompanied at yesterday's hearing by six of her relatives, now has no criminal record.
"Fortunately, the truth finally came out," said Daniel-Paul Alva, Patterson's original trial lawyer, who attended yesterday's hearing. "The police woke up that day and said they were going to make her a criminal."
Davis also dismissed charges against defendants identified as Denise Patterson (no relation to Betty) , Andre Bonaparte (who had three cases dismissed), Daniel Briggs, Clinton Cotton, Clifford Foster, Lonyo Holmes, Larry Maddox, Anthony Thomason, Steven Trotty, John Walker and Wanda Wilson.
Typically, the defendants had been convicted of possessing crack cocaine with intent to deliver.
Briggs and Thomason had never been convicted. They had been sought by authorities since they failed to appear in court shortly after their 1988 arrests. Davis ordered their arrest warrants withdrawn.
"They can come home again," attorney Bridge said.
He said the only time Briggs and Thomason had been arrested was when they were picked up by the former 39th District officers.
Later this week, Bridge said, he intends to ask the District Attorney's Office to dismiss 10 to 20 additional cases — selected from the 200 he has identified from 1988 files. He said he would seek immediate attention for cases involving defendants still imprisoned.
Denise Patterson, one of those cleared yesterday, was an 18-year-old nursing student when she was arrested in November 1988. Though she did not attend the hearing, she has steadfastly maintained she was innocent of drug charges.
"We'll sue," said her attorney, Vincent J. Ziccardi. "Now the fun begins."
-- end --
------------------------------
880601, Philadelphia, PA, Mutual News, WSFC. Seven Philadelphia, PA, cops have been arrested with $150,000 for drug trafficking over the past two years. This may be the same seven involved in drug trafficking in Owensboro, KY. See 870912, 950623.
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 16:53:26 GMT
From: cclay@icis.on.ca (Chris Clay, a.k.a. Hemp Boy)
by way of freematt@bronze.coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
Subject: "DECRIMINALIZE SOFT DRUGS", says Ottawa Chief of Police Brian Ford
To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
The issue of violence and the fallout is being experienced right in Ottawa. We are presently experiencing an inquiry into a drug-related raid that took place in the fall of 1991. During that raid Vincent Gardner was shot and later died. A small amount of soft drugs was found.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 18:29:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ian Goddard
Subject: NARC SHOOTS MAN IN BACK, SPARKS RIOTS (fwd)
To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: lindat@iquest.net
Philip Daoust
San Francisco
9/8/95
DEATH IN POLICE SHOOTING SPARKS SAN FRANCISCO RIOTING
by Philip E. Daoust
American Reporter Correspondent
SAN FRANCISCO — Angry residents of a San Francisco neighborhood battled for a second night with police following the death of man shot by an undercover detective on Wednesday.
According to police reports, William Hankston, 28, was killed by a single bullet from the gun of narcotics officer Jessie Washington on a playground in the Ingleside area of town.
When residents heard of the shooting, they took to the street and soon the crowd swelled to about 200 people. Police officers on the scene were trapped inside a van and had to call in backup units as demonstrators reportedly threw rocks and bottles. A total of 75 officers responded and used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
But tensions escalated again last night when residents returned to the streets, some calling the shooting an "execution." Police presence was reinforced after some demonstrators threw rock and bottles. At press time, six people had been arrested.
Witnesses said Hankston, known also as "Squeegy," was talking with some friends at the Ocean View playground when they were approached by Detective Washington and his partner, Mike Logan.
Jack Wright, 26, a friend who was with Hankston, said the two detectives did not identify themselves and drew their guns. Wright said they thought the men were from a gang and began to run.
Hankston, who was unarmed, was riding a bicycle away from the scene when a single shot rang out and hit Hankston in the back of the head, sending him crashing to the ground. He was taken to San Francisco's General Hospital and was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m. Thursday, a nursing supervisor said.
Both detectives were immediately reassigned to desk duty pending police department investigations, Police Chief Anthony Riberia said. Mayor Frank Jordan's office also said it would be conducting its own investigation into Hankston's death.
But the mayor said it would have never happened if there was not drug dealing going on at the playground. Wright told reporters that Hankston was not involved in drug dealing. Police confirm that Hankston had no drugs on him and said no drugs were found in the area after he was shot.
According to Riberia, both detectives are African-American, as was Hankston.
An autopsy report from the coroner's office is expected to be released on Friday afternoon.
This latest incident comes at a time when police relations with various communities in the city are severely strained, and a number of investigations into police misconduct are crippling the department's morale.
(Philip E. Daoust is a journalist based in San Francisco.)
------------------------------
Date: 16 Oct 95 21:21:27 EDT
From: Jim Mork <72120.370@COMPUSERVE.COM>
To: drctalk
Subject: "Undoing Drugs"
Message-ID: <951017012126_72120.370_HHB30-3@COMPUSERVE.COM>
I was told a book by Daniel K Benjamin made a strong case that we could not give up the war on drugs. In order to argue with that point of view, I had to somehow get the book. I had my local library initiate a request to get it from another county. Then, while standing around in a used bookstore while my wife browsed, I found a used copy! Only $7.50, so I grabbed it (it is out of print)
What a find! This is the BEST source I've run across yet when it comes to documenting the FAILURE of the drug war and the DANGER of the drug war for civil rights.
Especially the chapter called "Goodbye Founding Fathers" (Chapter 8)
"To many Americans concerned about the destructive impact of drugs on our country, effective action means 'getting tough'. And getting tough often means doing whatever is necessary to fight the war on drugs — even if it means bending the rules a bit. The drug dealers blatantly disregard our laws; the kingpins operate according to their own laws; and the addicts seem to care about little but their next fix. THEY will not follow the rules of our society, so, we reason, why should WE?"
"More than 200 years ago, our founding fathers knew that times like these would come to our land..they knew this beause they and their forebears had witnessed times of crisis themselves...The founding fathers also had witnessed the responses of government to desperate times, responses that had SEEMED necessary and proper when they were enacted, but which had ultimately threatened man's freedom rather than freeing man from threat. Our founding fathers understood that the press of events and the emotions of people are formidable threats against both the reason of law and the freedom of the individual. And so the founding fathers created...the Bill of Rights."
"In the fall of 1989, the world was shocked to learn that the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had used 20 percent of that country's population to spy on the other 80 percent....in spite of its vocal condemnation of the deposed Romanian leader, the U.S. government is using...a technologically improved version of Ceausescu's espionage system in waging the war on drugs."
"...These days, the Fourth Amendment is going the way of the horse and buggy. Neighborhood sweeps, no-knock searches, and property seizures are all routinely permitted in the name of the war on drugs. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed police to poke through garbage, hover above people's houses in helicopters to look for drugs, and detain and question citizens based solely on their appearance."
"Even more ominous are the many cases of a family's door being broken down by the police, who only later discover that they have the wrong address or that the tip upon which they were acting was incorrect. Indeed, police invasion of homes of innocent persons has become so prevalent that it even became the subject of an episode of a popular TV series. One week after this episode was aired, TV truth became stranger than fiction. The victims were George and Katrina Stokes of southeast Washington D.C. They were home one evening watching television when a heavily armed police S.W.A.T. team crashed through their front door. George was ordered to the floor at gunpoint and sustained a gash on his head. His wife fell down the cellar stairs as she tried to run away from the black-uniformed intruders. A camera crew from a local TV station was on hand to record the whole event. Unfortunately, the D.C. drug warriors had the wrong house. The S.W.A.T. team was till being filmed as it trooped back outside and drove off to find the right address."
"...Jeffrey Miles, age twenty-four, died on March 26, 1987, after a Jeffersontown, Kentucky, police officer shot and killed him. The officer had been sent to the wrong house looking for a suspected drug dealer. On March 12, 1988, Tommy C. Dubose, age fifty-six, was shot and killed by a San Diego police officer who had burst into Dubose's living room looking for drugs. The police had obtained a search warrant based on a tip. As it turned out, Dubose was a civilian instructor at a nearby naval station and was, according to his friends, strongly opposed to drugs. No drugs were found in his apartment after his death."
"...In Plaqemines Parish, Lousiana, Glen Williamson found himself handcuffed at 2:00AM in his own house. When Williamson pointed out that the police arrest warrant was for a Glen Williams, a deputy simply add 'on' to the name on the warrant and arrested Williamson anyway. Ultimately, the charges were dropped, but only after Williamson spent a night in jail and was forced to post $25,000 bond for his release."
"...Consider the case of Bruce Lavoie, his wife, and three children, who lived in quiet Hudson, New Hampshire. At 5:00 AM on August 3, 1989, the police smashed down the door of Lavoie's modest apartment with a battering ram. They did not identify themselves, and they had no evidence that Lavoie might be armed. Nevertheless, when Lavoie rose from his bed to resist the unknown intruders, he was fatally shot as his son watched in horror. What did the police find? A single marijuana cigarette."
Incidents such as these demonstrate to many concerned citizens a progressive erosion of the civil liberties — the constitutional rights — of Americans. As University of Michigan School of Law Professor Yale Kamisar says, 'Throughout American history, the government has said we are in an unprecedented crisis and that we must live without civil liberties until the crisis is over. It's a hoax.' ... the eligible age who couldn't afford one of the many exemptions. It was class and wealth based. Most Americans could be "pro Vietnam" knowing (as for example Dan Quayle and Rush Limbaugh knew) it was someone ELSE'S life on the line. One more parallel between the Drug War and Vietnam.
Legalization may be the most effective response to the problem. But the brunt of law enforcement intrusions is still on a small minority, so perhaps that is why, even though part of the 80 percent approving the War is ON drugs, they can still support an attack on the Bill of Rights whose weight is falling on other classes and races.
- Unlike officials in some other counties, the Riverside supervisors do not receive regular reports summarizing complaints against their sheriff's deputies. Nor do they keep a running total of tax-dollar payouts to victims of officer misconduct.
- Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ceniceros said she could recall only a few monetary settlements involving officer misconduct during her 16 years in office. "They were for minor things," she said.
- Yet just two years ago, the Sheriff's Department settled a federal civil rights lawsuit by paying Richard and Sandra Sears a total of $420,000 for injuries they suffered during a botched narcotics raid. Richard Sears had alleged that sheriff's deputies in SWAT uniforms and masks stormed into his house in the middle of the night and smashed his face with a rifle butt, according to his attorney, Stephen Yagman.
- County officials later acknowledged they had the wrong house.
- Yagman's office recently filed another brutality suit against the Sheriff's Department. He alleges that deputies violated Edward A. Luers' civil rights by fatally shooting him during a domestic disturbance call, when Luers was acting strangely but not threateningly.
------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 15:04:08 -0700
From: Delta
To: "'drctalk@drcnet.org'"
Subject: AZ Star:County Pays for Raid on Wrong Home
Message-ID: <01BB2D38.4DAFB580@CIS1-P5.EVERETT.NET>
County pays for raid on wrong home
By Hipolito R. Corella
The Arizona Daily Star, Thu Apr 18, 1996
(c)1996 Arizona Daily Star
A west side family whose house was mistakenly raided by a Sheriff's Department SWAT team last year will receive $115,000 from Pima County. The settlement was approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. Robert and Gloria Varela, both 62, and their daughter Brenda, 32, sued Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and his department last November for a bungled raid at their home near West Speedway Boulevard and North Greasewood Road. In the July 19 raid, several heavily armed SWAT team members stormed the Varela home at 8 a.m., while the family was sleeping. The deputies - clad in combat gear and armed with automatic weapons - were supposed to raid the house next door as part of a citywide drug sweep.
In the lawsuit, Robert Varela said he was forced to the floor while deputies pointed a gun to the forehead of his wife. Their daughter, who woke to find the couple forced to the floor, was ordered to face a wall in her room, the lawsuit states.
After the raid, Gloria Varela was treated overnight at a hospital for high blood pressure. Varela and his daughter were also treated at a hospital and released later that day.
The lawsuit, filed by Tucson attorney Michael Bloom, did not specify damages.
Commanders with the Sheriff's Department said the botched raid was the result of carelessness. An internal investigation found that the team did not follow department procedures. (end)
------------------------------------------
970208, Tuscon, AZ, Albuquerque, NM, THE LIBERTARIAN, Vin Suprynowicz. David Aguilar (44) killed 970110 by DEA agent staking out the neighborhood. This is the Three Points area 22 miles west of Tuscon. Ralph Garrison (69) in downtown Albuquerque, NM, killed by ninja warriors breaking into his rental house next door. Turns out that they were just Albuquerque Police looking for fake IDs.
970208, Tuscon, AZ, Albuquerque, NM, THE LIBERTARIAN, Vin
Date: Wed Feb 05, 1997 4:33 am CST
From: Matthew Gaylor
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: freematt@coil.com
TO: Matthew Gaylor
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: freematt@coil.com
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Vin Suprynowicz On the DEA's "License to kill"
From: vin@intermind.net (Vin Suprynowicz)
Subject: Column, Jan. 24
FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 24, 1997
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
License to kill
David Aguilar, 44, retired from the military after 20 years and decided to live on his pension so he could be a "stay-at-home dad" to his five youngest children, aged 3 to 15, according to Beth Cascaddan, his neighbor in the Three Points area, 22 miles west of Tucson, Ariz.
"He was extremely devoted to his children," Ms Cascaddan told reporter Melissa Martinez of the daily Tucson Citizen. Aguilar also coached youth football and baseball.
But on the early afternoon of Friday, Jan. 10, David Aguilar sensed something wrong. A man was sitting in a car parked alongside the road bordering Aguilar's property, just sitting and watching.
Only a few days earlier, residents of the neighborhood had been informed by law officers that a convicted sex offender was moving into the area, Cascaddan recalls.
The man's behavior was unusual. "Out here," Cindy Dowell, another neighbor, told reporters for the competing Arizona Daily Star, "people just don't sit" in cars.
Aguilar's children, including his 15-year-old son, later recalled that their father approached the man in the parked car, asking whether he was lost.
Whatever the man said, it led to an argument. Seeing that the stranger was not going to move along, Aguilar went back to the house and returned with a gun. The children told neighbor Bonnie Moreno their father was simply trying to scare the man away.
There is no indication David Aguilar ever fired. When the man in the car saw Aguilar returning, he drew his own gun and, at 2:45 that Friday afternoon, fired multiple times through his own windshield. David Aguilar died that evening in a Tucson hospital, of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
The good news is, local police know who did the shooting.
The bad news is, they won't release his name, and he has not been charged.
Detectives with the Pima County Sheriff's Office politely asked the fellow to drop by and meet with them Sunday, Jan. 12, but the newspapers reported the next day that the shooter "postponed the meeting because he had not spoken to his lawyer."
Why the incredible deference to this known killer?
It turns out the shooter is an undercover agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Although David Aguilar and his family were not the target of any drug investigation, the unnamed agent was staking out their neighborhood.
"Investigators did not say yesterday whether the agent identified himself" to Aguilar before opening fire, the Tucson newspapers report.
Although a funeral was held Jan. 14, burial will not take place until the family raises $3,213 in funeral costs.
------------------------------------------
# # #
Ralph Garrison, 69, a video store owner, lived in downtown Albuquerque, N.M.
In a lifetime of owning small businesses, he put away enough to buy a second house next door, which he rented out.
Before sunrise on Monday, Dec. 16, 1996, Ralph Garrison awakened to hear the sounds of someone breaking into his rental property next door.
His tenants apparently were not at home.
Garrison went outside to ask who these people were and what they were doing. The men — dressed in black with no visible identifying marks, wearing black "balaclava" hoods which may have been pulled down to conceal their faces, shined lights in his eyes, brandished rifles and yelled at him to get back in his house.
Ralph Garrison called 911. The daily Albuquerque Journal printed a transcript of the call on Dec. 18.
Dispatcher: "Emergency center operator 90. What is your emergency?"
Garrison: "They're breaking into my house — a whole bunch of people."
Dispatcher: "They're backing into your house?"
Garrison: "They're breaking in. Hurry up. Please hurry up."
Dispatcher: "Who's breaking in?"
Garrison: "I don't know. There's a whole bunch of people out there. ..."
Garrison gives his address.
"How many people are there?"
"Oh, about four or five."
"How are they trying to get in?"
"Oh, they're breaking in with uh, axes and all kinds of stuff."
"With axes?"
"Yes. They're breaking in hammers, and all kinds of things. Please. I've got a gun. I'm gonna go up there and shoot them."
"OK. Stay on the phone with me. I'm getting somebody out there, OK?"
Garrison reports that when he went outside the men shined flashlights in his face, repeating that he has no idea who they are.
Reporter Jeff Jones of the Journal writes that when the actual 911 tape as played at press conference later that day, Garrison's voice was "filled with fear and panic."
"Please hurry up," Garrison says. "They've got flashlights, and cars, and trucks, and all kinds of stuff back there. Please, please hurry up. I'm gonna go out there now."
"Can you take the phone with you?"
"Yes."
"OK. Take the phone with you."
Next week: Albuquerque's finest.
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com, or vin@intermind.net. The web site for the Suprynowicz column is at http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/. The column is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127.
***
Vin Suprynowicz vin@lvrj.com, (OR:) vin@intermind.net
Voir Dire: (n), A French phrase which means "jury tampering."
+++++++++++++
FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 26, 1997
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
License to kill, Part II
Last week, I recounted the tale of how David Aguilar, a 44-year old veteran from Tucson, Ariz., came to be shot to death on his own property by an undercover drug cop, who has not been charged with any crime as of this writing.
We then prepared to deal with the case of Ralph Garrison, 69, a video store owner from Albuquerque, N.M., who dialed 911 before dawn on Dec. 16, 1996 when a gang of black-clad men started breaking into his rental property next door, using sledge hammers and axes.
On Dec. 18, the daily Albuquerque Journal printed a transcript of that 911 call. I delete some repetitions and pauses:
Garrison: "They're breaking into my house — a whole bunch of people. ... Please hurry up."
"How are they trying to get in?"
"Oh, they're breaking in with uh, axes and all kinds of stuff. ... Please. I've got a gun. I'm gonna go up there and shoot them."
"OK. Stay on the phone with me. I'm getting somebody out there, OK?"
Reporter Jeff Jones, of the Journal, writes that Garrison's voice was "filled with fear and panic" as he described lights being shined in his eyes, and insisted he had no idea who the invaders were.
"Please hurry up. Please hurry up," Garrison says. "I'm gonna go out there now."
"Can you take the phone with you?"
"Yes."
"OK. Take the phone with you."
As Garrison moves toward his back door, his dog begins barking, and he complains he still can't see what's going on because of lights shining in his face. "I've got my gun," he says. "I'll shoot the sons of bitches."
Police report that Albuquerque Police Officer H. Neal Terry and county deputies James Monteith and Erik Little — displaying no badges, dressed in unmarked dark SWAT gear and possibly wearing their black hoods pulled down over their faces — saw Garrison come to his back door with a gun in one hand, a cellular phone in the other. All three officers opened fire with their AR-15 assault rifles, discharging at least 12 rounds.
Police Chief Joe Polisar said it isn't department policy to notify 911 dispatchers before serving a warrant — in this case one under which police hoped to find "counterfeit items including checks, driver's licenses and birth certificates."
Garrison was not suspected in connection with the "fake ID" ring. No one was arrested that day. Local papers were not told whether any false documents were found.
Officers did find it necessary to shoot and kill Garrison's Chow dog, when the animal tried to protect his master after he was down.
Garrison's wife, Modesta, was inside the home at the time police killed him.
Albuquerque police officer Howard Neal Terry, one of the three "lawmen" involved, has been a defendant in three federal excessive-force lawsuits in the past six years, the local daily reports. The city of Albuquerque has paid more than $375,000 to settle the three lawsuits.
In one case, Terry kicked an unarmed man in the head, causing permanent brain damage, and then contended the 64-year-old Mexican man "resisted arrest." In another case, the city argued (before paying up) that another Mexican man, whose home Officer Terry has invaded, was responsible for his own injuries since he failed to obey the officer's orders. In March 1993, Terry was one of two officers involved in the fatal shooting of Randy Libby, a 30-year-old man who supposedly threatened them with a locomotive-shaped cologne bottle. The city paid off the Libby family to the tune of $100,000.
Polisar and County Sheriff Joe Bowdich said they believe the officers shot Garrison in accordance with departmental policies.
The officers "couldn't look into his heart and mind," Polisar said. "They simply had to make a split-second decision."
Why do I doubt that if Mr. Garrison had shot and killed the deputies, Sheriff Polisar would be holding a similar press conference to explain why Mr. Garrison was not being charged with any crime, since "He could not look into the hearts and minds of the unidentified, black-clad men brandishing AR-15s at him on his own property. He simply had to make a split-second decision"?
# # #
Pro-government extremists will argue that, in each case, if these citizens had docilely allowed armed strangers to have their way, they might still be alive.
But this does not constitute a rebuttal to my contention that we are now living in a police state. Rather, it merely constitutes advice on how we might behave if we hope to survive a little longer (start ital) in (end ital) a police state.
Short-sighted advice.
The Jews of Eastern Europe figured their best course was to passively obey the authorities in 1942. We all know where that got them.
Our judges are now issuing search warrants which allow police to invade private property without notice, and murder any law-abiding citizen they find there, on as flimsy a pretext as "searching for fake ID."
The mistake made by David Aguilar and Ralph Garrison was not in taking up arms to defend their homes, families, and neighborhoods. That is the right of every American.
They made their mistakes when they allowed themselves to be outgunned, when they failed to wear Kevlar, and when they decided to confront their violent assailants directly, rather than waiting with longer-range weapons in positions of concealment.
The people will re-learn these lessons eventually ... if only through genetic selection.
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin@lvrj.com, or vin@intermind.net.
***
Vin Suprynowicz vin@lvrj.com, (OR:) vin@intermind.net
Voir Dire: (n), A French phrase which means "jury tampering."
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Date: Thu Feb 13, 1997 4:46 pm CST
From: Matthew Gaylor
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: freematt@coil.com
TO: Matthew Gaylor
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: freematt@coil.com
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Update on Tucson DEA Shooting of Innocent Man
From: David
Reply-To: dzaz@azstarnet.com
Subject: DEA execution in Tucson
Word for word here is the latest, from our local fishwrap. I see quite a few holes in the agent's story as well as the local prosecutor statement. It all seems to fit (very neatly) into a brush-off for the agent, who will probably not even miss a day's pay. I will send what I can when I can (that is if you're interested).
DZ in AZ
Statements conflicting in DEA shooting
Slain man approached car once, prosecutors decide
By Angelica Pence
The Arizona Daily Star
Witnesses gave conflicting statements as to whether a slain Three Points man approached a DEA agent's vehicle once or twice before being shot, a review of records by The Arizona Daily Star shows.
However, after reviewing the statements, prosecutors decided that David Aguilar, 44, only approached Agent James Laverty's vehicle once with a gun before the agent shot him.
Laverty, a 27-year-old rookie with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was part of a seven-member surveillance squad working in Three Points when the Jan. 10 shooting occurred. Laverty was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by prosecutors on Feb. 3.
In their separate reports, three Pima County Sheriff's Department detectives stated that Aguilar's 15-year-old son, Dominic, told them hours after the shooting that his father approached the car twice.
"Dominic said his father went outside and told the man to leave but the man said no," said Pima County Sheriff's Department Deputy Jean Cundiff. "His father went back into the house and got a gun."
But in a taped statement made to Detective Gary Burns 2 1/2 hours after the shooting, the teen did not mention an earlier conversation between the two men.
When investigators interviewed Laverty four days after the shooting, he insisted he had only one confrontation with Aguilar. Laverty initially declined to speak with investigators until meeting with an attorney.
Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said he discounted the deputies' summary reports, saying they misunderstood what Dominic Aguilar said.
"Some detectives decided that there had been two confrontations, but the son clearly does not say that in his statement," said Unklesbay. "When you read Dominic's statement, he very clearly is able to lay out exactly what he saw happen."
Yet investigators never asked the teen if his father approached Laverty's vehicle once or twice, a transcript of the interview shows.
The teen's response to the following question about when his father walked up behind the agent's vehicle is unclear:
Detective: "He went back in the house (after pulling into the driveway)?"
Dominic: "No, he was talking on, go at first, and, and he told the guy to leave."
While Aguilar's 11-year-old daughter, Charde, said her father never spoke to Laverty before the shooting, she was not asked if he approached Laverty's vehicle more than once.
Unklesbay said he decided the shooting was justified after reading the statements from Charde, Dominic and Laverty.
The detectives who interviewed Dominic Aguilar at the scene all declined to comment for this article. The Aguilar family has refused all interview requests.
In his statement to investigators, Laverty also justified his actions, saying he feared for his life when he shot Aguilar.
"I believe . . . I was going to be executed," Laverty said. "I believed that at any moment (Aguilar) was going to shoot me."
The day of the shooting, Laverty was parked outside Aguilar's house, conducting surveillance of Arizona 86. Agents were looking for a green truck carrying a load of marijuana.
"There wasn't really any(thing) specific . . . to Three Points or . . . the block that I was on," he said. "It wasn't imperative that I be right there."
According to the Sheriff's Department investigation file: Aguilar and his two daughters noticed Laverty's unmarked sedan when they climbed into the family's van to go pick up Aguilar's wife at work.
Aguilar stopped at a nearby Baptist church, turned around and drove back home. Aguilar "thought that guy was gonna do something to us, so he went back home," Dominic Aguilar said.
Charde Aguilar said her father drove by slowly in order to get a good look at Laverty, who was "laying down with his arms behind his head, with sunglasses on."
When they returned, Aguilar told his daughters girls to go inside.
According to Dominic Aguilar's statement, his father was "just gonna go scare the guy." The father ignored his son's pleas not to confront the unknown man.
"That's the last (time) that I saw . . . my dad (alive, when) he went outside," Charde said.
The agent said Aguilar approached him as if stalking him. "It wasn't a plain walk . . . it was kind of a stealthily . . . attack approach," he told investigators.
Seconds later, Laverty said he saw Aguilar reach for an object inside his sweat pants.
"I turned around to . . . see who he was (and) next thing I saw was the barrel of a rifle trained directly on my head, inches away from the window," he said.
Aguilar was holding his .22-caliber sawed-off rifle, Dominic Aguilar said, with his right hand, while balancing it with his left forearm.
Laverty said Aguilar ordered him to step out of the car.
But the agent refused "trying to buy a little bit of time," he said.
"At that time I'm thinking of how to survive this incident and believing that at any moment (Aguilar) is going to fire that weapon and kill me," he said. "So I'm trying to think of how to get out of this alive."
Laverty said he yelled "police" at the Three Points resident. But when investigators asked the agent if he had identified himself as a DEA agent, he replied "No, I believe that at any moment (Aguilar) was gonna pull the trigger and kill me. I saw that he had a weapon trained at my head."
That day, he was wearing a badge around his neck but had it tucked into his shirt where it was not readily visible.
The DEA agent, who was not wearing a bullet-proof vest, said he drew his 9mm handgun, which was hidden between the front seats, put the car in reverse and fired eight shots at Aguilar through the windshield.
"The whole time that I was firing, my life was in danger and I believe he was shooting at me," said Laverty, a former Chicago Police Department officer.
"I never saw that the threat was neutralized," he said.
Dominic Aguilar saw it differently.
The stranger, he said, "pulled back in his car (and) started shooting at my dad. My dad ran. My dad wasn't gonna shoot him."
Trapped by a fence, Laverty had no choice but to stop his car and drive forward to flee.
He did, and fired three more rounds at Aguilar.
"My dad ran," Dominic Aguilar said. But "he shot him right here in the side."
Bleeding from the abdomen, Aguilar staggered, stumbling several times before falling one last time on the dirt road near his home.
"I ran inside and told my sisters there was (a) shooting," Dominic Aguilar said.
The teen then ran to a nearby video store and had a clerk call 911 before returning to his father's side.
"I went back, I got my baby brother's sweater and put it on my dad's ... stomach . . . where he'd been shot."
Laverty told investigators he thought he heard a gunshot but could not be sure if David Aguilar opened fire at him. Dominic Aguilar also said he was unsure if his father had fired at the stranger.
A ballistics report showed that Aguilar's gun had been fired at least once, said Unklesbay.
An empty cartridge was found in the chamber of Aguilar's weapon but investigators did not find a .22-caliber slug at the scene.
"All we can say for sure is that the casing that was found in the gun was fired by that gun," Unklesbay said. "But we can't determine if it was actually (fired) that day."
Eight years ago, Aguilar and his wife moved to Three Points from Tucson, neighbors said, to escape crime and gang violence.
A few days prior to the fatal shooting, county deputies notified Three Points residents that a convicted sex offender was being released in their small community.
Attorneys for Aguilar's family said DEA officials failed to consider the heightened concern and increased level of suspicion homeowners in the remote community may have had as a result of the notification.
Aguilar's daughter Charde - who had read a flier taped in her school bus warning school children of the new resident - told detectives her father thought Laverty "was the guy" - the sex offender. She told detectives her father stayed home more often after being told of the sex offender.
But Laverty's lawyers say their client knew nothing of the notification when he parked in front of the family's brick home that Friday afternoon.
Most neighbors described David Aguilar as a family man who earned a living working construction jobs, coaching Little League and caring for his children while his wife worked at Sun Tran in Tucson.
Others knew him as a tempestuous man who had occasional run-ins with the law.
When he died, Aguilar had at least three outstanding citations, including one for shoplifting, and an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
In December 1994, Aguilar was cited for shoplifting from the Southwest Supermarket, 635 W. Valencia Road. When he failed to appear in court on the shoplifting charge, the court issued a warrant for his arrest.
The shoplifting citation was the only criminal citation Aguilar received since 1989. He had nine civil traffic citations, City Court records show.
More than a month after the shooting, the case is far from over.
Following the county's decision not to charge Laverty, the Aguilar family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Laverty for an unspecified amount in damages.
The lawsuit came about a week after attorneys for Aguilar's family filed a separate $29.5 million civil claim against the DEA, the Department of Justice and the federal government.
"I've never had to fire my weapon at anyone," the agent told investigators.
"I believe if I were to get out (of the car) I was going to be executed . . .even if I didn't get out I believed that at any moment he was going to shoot me through the window."
As I read through this story I got the feeling that something wasn't quite right. For one thing, you'll notice, the agent said Aguilar approached him as if stalking him. "It wasn't a plain walk . . . it was kind of a stealthily . . . attack approach," he told investigators.
<>
Seconds later, Laverty said he saw Aguilar reach for an object inside his sweat pants.
"I turned around to . . . see who he was (and) next thing I saw was the barrel of a rifle trained directly on my head, inches away from the window," he said.
<>
This article would almost be better than "Clue" if it weren't real. As you read through it again (and perhaps again) find the errors in the agent's statements.
Keep in mind (nobody has taken the time to point out) that this area "Three Points" isn't too far from the Mexican border. The agent was parked near the highway, about 5-6 miles from the base of some foothills (down the road, actually) where I'm sure drugs are smuggled regularly. But this spot is probably the worst place to "park and snoop".
The stupidest part of the whole incident (and those like it) is that this was "for the people's own good - you know, the drug war". Local reaction is incredibly mixed, with the majority going to the side of the DEA agent. This makes me sick.
DZ
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Subject: Re: Call the Governor (Police state?)
From: Bob Tiernan
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 22:07:12 -0700
Message-ID:
Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016
Newsgroups: or.politics
References: <33AE18FE.609E@TELEPORT.COM>, <5OL6EC$1PO$1@NADINE.TELEPORT.COM>, <33AE229F.CFC@TELEPORT.COM>
On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Mike wrote:
Is it really a police state? Really now, Mr. Robert, do you feel as if you're living in a police state?.....It may resemble a police state to those always in trouble with the law. For those of us who choose to obey the law, ain't much of a police state. Makes me wonder about you....
On August 19. 1994, armed gov't agents raided the mobile home of 87-year old Don Harrison and his 77-year old wife, believing it to be a drug lab. They got the wrong home despite clear descriptions which should have prevented the mistake. Result? Mr. Harrison died or a heart attack four days later, and his wife went into a coma.
On March 25, 1994, 13 armed black-ninja suit wearing Boston policemen raided an apartment looking for drugs. Wrong address again. Assuming they were right, of course, they proceeded with their military rather than civilian-type methods. They threw occupant 77-year old retired black preacher Accelyn Williams to the ground, handcuffed him, and pointed numerous guns at his head. Minutes later he died of a heart attack.
On August 25, 1992, DEA, Customs, and local police agents raided the home of computer executive Don Carlson. They watched him get home at 10 PM, then let him settle into bed before attacking. First they set off an explosion in the backyard, then battered the front door to get through it. Carlson grabbed his gun and demanded to know who was at the door. No answer. He was then shot twice, and left unattended for awhile. A confidential DEA report concluded that the raiders had earlier realized the informant had lied, but raided the home anyway.
In April 1992, the back door of Adolph Archuleta, 54, was kicked in by Colorado police. Having been previously robbed four times by people coming through that same door, Adolph ran into the back room with a gun in his hands. He was shot four times and killed. Pitkin County Sheriff Braudis later had this to say about no-knock raids: "Such raids are very dangerous. They are the closest thing I can think of to a military action in a democratic society....The 'war on drugs' is an abysmal failure, and even the term creates a very dangerous war mentality".
On march 15, 1992, a police SWAT team raided the Everett, Washington home of Robin Pratt, by smashing into her apartment looking for her husband. She was killed in the ensuing "confusion". The city of Seattle (i.e. taxpayers) settle a lawsuit by paying Pratt's family $3.4 million.
On May 1, 1988, Seattle police raided the South Seattle home of 41 year old Erdman Bascomb by smashing down the door. Bascomb was right there in plain view on the couch, holding a remote control. Quickly assuming it to be a gun, police killed him. No drugs were found again. His family sued the police, but to this day legal responsibility for the shooting is undecided.
In January of 1995, Lynn, Mass. police smashed their way into 64 year old Rose Zinger's home. Mrs. Zinger had been a teenage survivor of the Nazi holocaust who had hid in places in Russia and Poland, causing her to suffer from paranoia the rest of her life. The police had no search warrant, no arrest warrant, just a form requiring temporary commitment of Zinger to a mental health clinic. She was roughed up, hand-cuffed, and dragged down the stairs. She died of a heart attack minutes later. A jury later ordered the police department (i.e. taxpayers) to pay her children $1.35 million.
And then there's Donald Scott of Malibu, whose home was raided in the wee hours four or so years ago. He came out into the hallway with a handgun to see who had kicked his door in. He was shot dead. No weed or anything else was found.
"Mike", in order for the government to show that they're serious about drug fighting, these atrocities will continue. Oh, yeah, they were not lawbreakers, either. So much for "only" lawbreakers feeling as though they're in a police state. These people are all dead. Their killers are still on government payrolls.
Bob T.
[end of message ... text also available at url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go.py?choice=message&table=06_1997&mid=5332591 ]
My God. It’s more like Lawlessness and Disorder with a License to Kill. 😢
Really fascinating reading! Can’t wait to see this all unfold.