Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Sentenced To Prison - From Incidents, Accidents and Crime Review
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From Incidents, Accidents and Crime Review
(Adds context, statement from Phillipos' mother, paragraphs 5 and 9-10)
By Scott Malone
BOSTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Two college friends of the Boston Marathon bomber were sentenced to prison on Friday for removing a backpack containing empty fireworks shells from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room amid a massive manhunt three days after the deadly 2013 attack.
Kazakh exchange student Azamat Tazhayakov was sentenced to 3-1/2 years for obstructing justice by taking, with his roommate, Tsarnaev's pack and dropping it in a dumpster by the off-campus apartment they shared.
Robel Phillipos, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was sentenced to three years in prison for lying to investigators about the incident, which occurred in the hours after the FBI released images of Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, identifying them as suspects.
A third friend, Dias Kadyrbayev, also of Kazakhstan, was sentenced on Tuesday to six years after pleading guilty to obstructing the investigation into the attack that killed three people and injured 264.
The United States never claimed that the three men had any advanced knowledge of the bombing plan, one of the highest-profile attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001..
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev made statements of apology to the court for their crimes. Phillipos opted not to speak, citing a planned appeal of his conviction.
"It just makes me sick what Dzhokhar did," Tazhayakov told the court, holding back tears. "I didn't go there to the dorm room because I made connection that Dzhokhar was some jihadist. I never thought about it. At that moment I saw that one of my friends was alleged bomber and I didn't know if it was true."
Prosecutors had sought a four-year sentence for Tazhayakov, which they said reflected his willingness to testify against Tsarnaev. They were seeking a five-year, three-month sentence for Phillipos.
Phillipos' mother, Genet Bekele, suggested in a written statement to reporters that her son was a victim of overzealous prosecution.
"We are very disappointed with the judge's decision," Bekele said. "My son was caught in a political storm in a situation that was incredibly hard to deal with."
All three men, along with Tsarnaev, were 19-year-old students at the University of Massachusetts at the time of the bombing.
Tsarnaev was sentenced to death last month by the same jury that found him guilty of the April 15, 2013, attack.
During their trials last year, lawyers for Tazhayakov and Phillipos painted their clients as naive, marijuana-smoking teenagers who did not understand the consequences of removing the backpack from Tsarnaev's dorm room.
Kadyrbayev later threw the backpack into a dumpster by the apartment he shared with Tazhayakov. FBI investigators recovered it from a landfill several days later.
Empty fireworks shells found by the backpack were shown as evidence at Tsarnaev's trial.
U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock told Phillipos he thought little of his defense strategy, that he had been too high on marijuana at the time of the dorm visit to remember his actions and thus unable to lie about the.
Noting that the United States is in the midst of a debate over whether to decriminalize or legalize the drug, he said Phillipos' case illustrated some limits.
"What's being and has been presented and rejected by the jury is the idea that marijuana use is a defense," Woodlock said. "It seems to that has to be addressed head on by saying, if we give the right to legal use of marijuana, we're not giving a defense in a criminal case."
Unlike Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev, who have been in federal custody for more than two years, Phillipos has been on house arrest since he was first charged. He was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service on July 24. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Leslie Adler and Tom Brown)
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New York City police officers allegedly saw Barrington Williams selling MetroCard swipes inside the subway station at East 161st Street/Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Sept. 17, 2013. When the officers approached the 25-year-old, he ran.
According to media reports at the time, officers caught up with Williams after a short chase and arrested him. But during the arrest, Williams suddenly became "unconscious and unresponsive,"according to the NYPD.
He was pronounced dead shortly after, and the Office of the New York City Medical Examiner determined a few weeks later that Williams had died from "acute and chronic bronchial asthma" -- essentially a severe asthma attack. The examiner ruled that the death was from natural causes.
But last Friday, Williams’ mother, Karen Brown, filed a lawsuit claiming that her son didn't die of natural causes. Rather, Brown alleges it was the way police treated Williams while arresting him that lead to his death.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers used “excessive force” and displayed “deliberate indifference” to Williams’ medical needs, among other claims. According to the suit, police placed Williams “on the ground and applied force to his chest and neck,” which caused Williams to stop breathing. And despite Williams’ “clear need of medical attention,” the officers “failed to take reasonable and available steps to provide him with help.”
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, names the city of New York, as well as six NYPD officers -- Joel Guach, Agenol Ramos, Robert O’Brien, and three unidentified officers -- as defendants. It seeks damages in a sum to be determined at trial.
Brown’s lawyer, Michael Lamonsoff, told The Huffington Post that his firm’s investigators have corroborated claims that Williams was thrown to the ground during the arrest, causing his asthma inhaler to fall out of his pocket. This, Lamonsoff said, should have alerted cops to the urgency of Williams’ condition.
However, Lamonsoff made sure to point out that the specific allegations about police applying pressure to Williams’ neck and chest haven't yet been corroborated. At this point, he said, those charges are “scuttlebutt" -- merely rumors.
Still, he added, Williams’ death was “an “Eric Garner-like situation.”
Garner, 43, died after an NYPD officer placed him in a prohibited chokehold during an arrest in July 2014. His death set off massive protests across the city and the country.
Like Garner, Williams was an unarmed black man being arrested for a petty infraction. Like Garner, Williams suffered from asthma. And like Garner’s, Williams’s arrest was captured on video.
The difference is that whereas the Garner video was shot by a bystander who made the video public, the Williams video was captured by a surveillance camera in the subway station. Lamonsoff said his firm has confirmed the existence of the surveillance video, but that the NYPD has thus far refused to hand it over to Williams’ family.
“We will get the video,” Lamonsoff said, explaining that the lawsuit has been filed largely to force the NYPD to relinquish the footage and other details surrounding Williams' death.
“The fact that they refused to turn over the evidence to us … to me raises an eyebrow, raises a question in my mind,” Lamonsoff said. “If they acted within proper course of the patrolmen’s guide, then why would they not turn over? That would obviously not force us to bring a lawsuit to federal court.”
Police officers' accounts of events when a person dies in custody have come under heightened scrutiny after the recent death of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Initially, authorities said Scott tried to overpower a police officer, forcing the officer to fatally shoot him. However, a video released later showed the officer shooting Scott in the back as he tried to run away.
“We have not had the cooperation of the police, we have not had the cooperation of the city and we have not had the cooperation of the medical examiner’s office," Lamonsoff said.
“The lawsuit involving this tragic incident is under review -- I cannot make any further comment,” Nick Paolucci, press secretary at the New York City Law Department, told HuffPost in a statement.
An NYPD spokesperson said only that the department “will refrain from commenting on pending litigation.”
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June 5 (Reuters) - The driver of a Tennessee school bus that crashed in December, killing two students and a teacher's aide, had been receiving and sending texts before the crash, police said on Friday.
The driver, James Davenport, who was among the more than two dozen people injured in the crash, died as the investigation was nearing a conclusion, Knoxville police said in a statement.
Davenport died on Monday, local media said, quoting the Knox County Sheriff's Office.
The investigation determined that Davenport "was driving while distracted due to sending and receiving text messages," Knoxville police said. "Multiple text messages had been sent and received during the time leading up to the crash."
Police have turned the findings over to the Knox County District Attorney General's Office, they said.
In the crash, one school bus crossed a concrete median on a Tennessee highway and crashed into another school bus traveling in the opposite direction. (Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Sandra Maler)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors on Friday convicted a female Los Angeles police officer of felony assault for repeatedly kicking a handcuffed woman who later died.
The jury of 11 women and one man reached its verdict after about two days of deliberations in the trial of Officer Mary O'Callaghan, 50. She pleaded not guilty to assaulting a civilian in the 2012 arrest of Alesia Thomas, 35.
Dressed in a black pantsuit, O'Callaghan wiped her face, appearing to cry after the verdict was read.
Robert Rico, O'Callaghan's attorney, said he plans to appeal and ask for a new trial.
"I firmly believe the evidence presented by the prosecution did not show her force was unreasonable or unnecessary," he said, adding that he felt the jury's verdict was "based on emotion" rather than the necessary legal standard for conviction.
Officers went to arrest Thomas at her home after she left her two children outside a police station.
A dashboard camera in a police cruiser captured O'Callaghan kicking the handcuffed Thomas in the back seat seven times in the groin, abdomen and upper thigh, prosecutors said. Thomas lost consciousness and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A report by the Police Commission said the 228-pound Thomas resisted arrest.
O'Callaghan's attorney noted his client has an exemplary record, and no complaints against her have been upheld in her 19 years on the force.
O'Callaghan was charged with assault under color of authority, but she was not charged in Thomas' death. She had been relieved of duty without pay pending an administrative hearing.
An autopsy found Thomas had cocaine in her system, but the cause of death was listed as undetermined because the struggle couldn't be excluded as a contributing factor. There were no internal injuries or bruising.
O'Callaghan faces a maximum of three years in county jail when she is sentenced July 23.
Rico said O'Callaghan was remanded to custody at her own request while she awaits sentencing to avoid causing the family any more grief. He added that he will ask for probation as a minimum based on her military service and career before the charges.
Rico gave her a hug before she was handcuffed in her seat and remanded to the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department without bail.
Najee Ali, a community activist who said he spoke with the Thomas family, said they were grateful for the verdict but that "no one is celebrating" because Thomas is gone. He noted, however, that "it's very rare to have a police officer prosecuted, let alone convicted."
Ali said the family is asking that O'Callaghan receive the maximum sentence to send a message that police brutality will not be tolerated.
"It is always disappointing when an officer fails to uphold the high standards and professionalism shown by the thousands of LAPD officers" daily, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said.
He said he appreciated the partnership with the district attorney's office "to ensure that officers who operate outside of the law, and tarnish our badge, are held accountable."
District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement she was "pleased that the jury agreed with our assessment of the evidence."
"The verdict proves the criminal justice system works," Lacey said.
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Abdollah can be reached at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/latams" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitter.com/latams</a> .
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Alexis Murphy, 17, has been missing since the evening of Aug. 3, 2013, when she left home to do back to school shopping in Lynchburg, Virginia. On Aug. 6, 2013, authorities found Alexis Murphy's white 2003 Nissan Maxima in the parking lot of a movie theater in Albemarle County, just north of Charlottesville. The location is approximately 39 miles from the Lovingston gas station where she was last seen. Murphy was not located with her vehicle. Randy Taylor, 48, has been arrested for abduction by force in connection with the disappearance of Alexis Murphy. Authorities have yet to comment on what evidence they have linking Taylor to the teens disappearance. Alexis Murphy is described as an African American female, 5-foot-7, weighing 156 pounds. She was last seen wearing a pink blouse, floral spandex pants and brown boots. She was carrying a gray purse. Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Alexis Murphy should contact the Nelson County Sheriff's Office at 434-263-7050.
Dalene Mcilwain, 15, was last seen at her mother's house in Niagara Falls, New York, on September 6, 2013. Authorities suspect the teen may be in Baltimore, Maryland, with an unidentified 24-year-old man. Mcilwain is described as an African American female, about 5 feet 2 inches tall and about 100 pounds. She has black hair, which authorities say may have been dyed gold, and brown eyes. Anyone with information on Mcilwain can call NCMEC at 800-THE-LOST (843-5678) or The City of Niagara Falls Police Department at 716-286-4547.
Authorities in Monroe, Louisiana are seeking the public's help in locating 16-year-old Jamison Tate. Teen was reported missing from the Johnny Robinson Boys home in August 2013. Authorities said Tate is from the Baton Rouge area and could be trying to return to that location. Tate is described as an African American male, 5'9" tall and weighing about 160 pounds. Anyone with information about Jamison Tate's whereabouts is asked to call the Monroe Police Department at 318-329-2600 or Crimestoppers at 318-388-2274.
Dannette (pictured left) and Jeannette Millbrooks, 16-year-old fraternal twins, disappeared without a trace on March 18, 1990, in Augusta, Georgia. According to relatives, the twins had gone to a relative's house to get some money to ride a bus back and forth to school. They then stopped by a friend's house. Afterward the twins walked to a nearby Pump-N-Shop gas station, where they bought chips and a drink. They have not been seen since. At the time of their disappearance, Dannette was approximately 5'6" 130 lbs. and Jeannette was approximately 5'4" 125lbs. They both attended 9th grade at Lucy Laney High School. The girls would be 39-years-old today. Anyone with any information about the disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrooks is asked to contact the Richmond County Sheriff's Office at 706-821-1080 or any Violent Crimes Investigator at 706-821-1020.
A combination of two pictures released by Madeleine McCann's family. One shows Madeleine at the age of 3 (L), and an 'age progression' image of what she would look like at the age of 9. Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, just days before her fourth birthday, from the family's holiday apartment at the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Her parents were dining with friends at a nearby restaurant when she went missing. If you have any information on Madeleine's whereabouts, please contact the Operation Grange team at 0207 321 9251 or <a href="mailto:OperationGrange@met.pnn.police.uk">OperationGrange@met.pnn.police.uk</a>. More info about Madeleine can be found at: <a href="http://findmadeleine.com">findmadeleine.com</a>
Michael Suarez Jr., 19, was last seen on August 31, at his 61st St. home in Mapleton, New York. According to his aunt, Linda Suarez, her nephew is schizophrenic and he has not had his medication. Anyone with information in this case is asked to contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577.
Kathryn, 16 of Staten Island, New York, has been missing since Nov. 24, 2010. Her tongue is pierced and she has a scar over her left eyebrow. Kathryn may go by the nickname Kat or Kathy.
This image from Facebook shows missing 7-year-old Timothy Pitzen. Timothy has missing from Aurora, Ill. since May 12, 2011, but was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. He was last known to be in the company of his mother, who has since been found deceased in Rockford, Ill.
Jamal Omar Briggs, 14, was last seen in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on Sept. 26. Detectives with the Roanoke Rapids Police Department said they have no evidence of abduction or foul play. Briggs is described as a black male, 5-feet, 3-inches tall, weighing 135 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red heavy shirt, black jeans and black Jordan tennis shoes. Anyone with information regarding Briggs' whereabouts is asked to call the Roanoke Rapids Police Department at 252-326-3938.
Sarah Elizabeth Kinslow, 14, was last seen by her parents on May 1, 2001, when her dad dropped her off at Greenville Middle School in her hometown of Greenville, Texas, at approximately 7:20 a.m. It was not until after the school day ended that the Kinslows were notified their daughter had not attended any of her classes. According to Louise Kinslow, her daughter had never run away in the past and was unprepared to be gone for an extended period of time when she went to school that day. Sarah Kinslow would be 25 years old today. At the time of her disappearance, she was 5-foot-4-inches tall, weighed 105 lbs., and had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her teeth were crooked and she had several ear piercings, a tattoo of the letter "I" on the inside of her ankle, a chicken pox scar on her left temple, and two chicken pox scars on her left cheek. Anyone with information is asked to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Greenville Police Department at 903-457-2900.
Christopher, who has been missing since May 18, 1989, was last seen in a park located on 114th Street and Lenox Avenue in Manhattan, New York. He has a birthmark shaped like a figure "8" on his neck. He was 2 years old when he went missing.
In this photo released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is a portrait of Trenton Duckett, a 2-year-old boy who was reported missing on Aug. 27, 2006, from his home in Leesburg, Fla. The boy's mother Melinda Duckett, 21, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday, Sept. 8, 2006, at her grandparents' central Florida home, police said. Trenton's disappearance remains a mystery.
Caelan, of Brooklyn, New York, was last seen with his non-custodial mother on 02/21/2002. He has a scar on his forehead and his hair is braided. Caelan was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue polo shirt and black "ACG" boots. He may be in need of medical attention. Mother and child may have traveled to Trinidad and Tobago.
Brittanee Drexel, of Rochester, N.Y., was 17 years old in April 2009, when she went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., on spring break. The teen was last seen by friends on April 25 of that year, when she left the Bar Harbor Hotel in Myrtle Beach to meet friends at the nearby BlueWater Resort. Surveillance footage shows Drexel arriving at the resort, then leaving roughly 10 minutes later. What happened to her after that remains a mystery. Her cell phone gave off its last signal the day after she went missing. Investigators narrowed the phone location to an area near the South Santee River in Georgetown County. To date, no sign of Drexel has been found. At the time of her disappearance, Drexel was 5 feet tall and 103 pounds. She had blue eyes and blond highlights in her hair. Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact Myrtle Beach Police at 843-918-1382.
Jeremiah George Huger, who has been missing since June of 1985, was playing in his yard in the Bronx, New York, with other children when an unknown black male called to the child and then grabbed him. Jeremiah, who was 4 when he disappeared, has a 1 1/2" scar on his left forearm. He was last seen wearing a light blue shirt, dark blue shorts, and white sneakers.
An undated photo provided by the police in Bellvue, Wash. shows Sky Metalwala, 2, who has been missing since Sunday, Nov. 6. He disappeared after his mother says she left him alone in an unlocked car after it ran out of gas. She says she took her 4-year-old daughter with her and when she came back about an hour later, the boy was gone. (Bellevue Police / Seattle Times / AP)
Amir Jennings, 1, has been missing from Columbia, S.C., since Nov. 24, 2011. Family members originally filed a missing persons report for Amir and his mother, Zinah Jennings, when they could not locate them. On Christmas Eve, Zinah Jennings was involved in a car accident. The responding officer noticed that Jennings was considered a missing person. Police say that when Jennings was questioned about her son, she gave "false and inconsistent information." Police also believe Jennings has ties to the Atlanta, Ga. and Charlotte, N.C. areas. There is a $10,000 reward for the safe return of Amir. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Kyron Horman was 7 years old when he disappeared on June 4, 2010. His stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, told police she last saw the little boy walking to his classroom at Skyline Elementary School in Portland, Ore. The search for Kyron has become one of the most intense in recent Oregon history and has attracted national attention. His parents have held countless vigils, passed out thousands of fliers and issued numerous public pleas, all to no avail.
Joshua Davis, 2, was last seen at his New Braunfels, Texas, home on Feb. 4, 2011. He was watching the movie "Toy Story" with his mother when he left the room and vanished. The toddler's mother believes her son was abducted. Anyone with information on Joshua's whereabouts is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Reyna Guadarrama, 9, was last seen in Grayslake, Ill., on Nov. 02, 2007. She may be in the company of her non-custodial mother and an adult male. They may travel to Mexico. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Khaniya Margarett Roberts, A.K.A. "Kiki," age 10, was last seen in Miami, Fla., on Dec. 3, 2011. She may be in the company of her mother. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Dwight Stallings, 1, has been missing from Elk Grove, Calif., since April 2011. Authorities say the child has not been seen by family members and his mother, Tanisha Edwards, 35, has been unable or unwilling to reveal what happened to him. A $3,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the whereabouts of Dwight Stallings. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Malikah Beeks, 17, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was last seen on April 11, 2012. Beeks is a possible runaway and may be with her 14-month-old son, Logan Beeks. Anyone with information on Beeks' whereabouts is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
Maayimuna Nyeeleni Njayi N'Diaye, 4, was last seen in Morehead, Ky., on Jan. 1, 2012. Maayimuna was allegedly abducted by her father, Ibrahim N'Diaye. A felony warrant was issued for him on Jan. 13, 2012. They are believed to be in Mali.
Kaylee Melara, 17, was last seen in Braintree, Mass., on Jan. 14, 2011. Melara is biracial and has a tattoo on her upper right arm. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Black and Missing Foundation, at <a href="http://blackandmissinginc.com" rel="nofollow">blackandmissinginc.com</a>.
This photo released by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office shows Haleigh Cummings, 5, of Satsuma, Fla. Haleigh was last seen at home in the early-morning hours of Feb. 10, 2009. She was reported missing about 3:45 a.m. by Misty Croslin, the then-girlfriend of Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings. Croslin told police she discovered Haleigh was missing when she woke up to use the bathroom. Law enforcement as well as private search-and-recovery groups have conducted multiple searches for Haleigh, but no sign of her has been found. Authorities have not named any suspects in the case; however, they say they have not ruled anyone out.
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(Recasts, adds details on the department's oversight commission)
By Daina Beth Solomon
LOS ANGELES, June 5 (Reuters) - The Los Angeles police chief and an independent watchdog have determined two patrolmen were justified in the shooting death of unarmed black man Ezell Ford last year, the L.A. Times newspaper reported on Friday, citing unidentified sources.
Department investigators found evidence indicating Ford had struggled for control of one of the patrolmen's gun, supporting the account the officers gave after the incident, the newspaper cited two sources as saying.
The department's inspector general, Alex Bustamante, also found the shooting justified, but faulted the officers for the manner in which they approached Ford in the moments before the shooting, the Times reported, citing the sources.
Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Jane Kim said the department would not offer any comment ahead of a Police Commission meeting on Tuesday, when the civilian watchdog group is scheduled to weigh the use of deadly force and the officers' behavior.
The newspaper said Beck will recommend to the oversight commission that the officers be cleared of wrongdoing.
Bustamante will recommend the panel fault the officers for their tactics based on the findings of his own investigation. The board makes a final ruling, the newspaper said.
Two officers shot Ezell Ford, who was 25 and described by family attorneys as mentally challenged, on Aug. 11 last year after he struggled with one of them and tried to grab the policeman's holstered service revolver.
Ford's death came two days after the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that triggered a wave of protests alleging excessive use of force by authorities.
Ford's death was also greeted with street demonstrations and the family filed a federal lawsuit over the shooting, seeking $75 million in damages.
In March, Ford's parents filed a second lawsuit against the police department and city, alleging their son was targeted for excessive force because of his skin color. (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Los Angeles; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Will Dunham & Kim Coghill)
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The New York City tabloids, TV news and other elements of the city’s early-warning system for the apocalypse have noted a steady rise in shootings and homicides. To some this smells like the beginning of the end of many years of falling crime, and with it, presumably, the mayor’s credibility as a leader who can keep the city safe.
Any prolonged increase in violence is worrying, and shootings have been climbing for two years.
But Mr. de Blasio has a ready response, which he repeated on Friday. It’s that serious crime overall is still down — way down — from historic highs. That the shooting problem is largely confined to a few precincts in Brooklyn and the Bronx, where gangs and drugs hold sway. (Police Commissioner William Bratton said it’s “career criminals, killing and shooting other career criminals.”) And that he and Mr. Bratton have got this, through programs, with names like Summer All Out and Operation Impact, that will focus attention and officers on crime-plagued neighborhoods.
Mr. Bratton’s remark about career criminals is meant to reassure everyone else. And the comforting statistics Mr. de Blasio cites have the virtue of being accurate. But they don’t mean much if you live in a problem precinct.
Here’s what is also unsettling: the continued disagreement between the mayor and Mr. Bratton over police staffing. Mr. Bratton has sided with the City Council, which has consistently urged the hiring of 1,000 new officers. The mayor has just as consistently said that the money is needed elsewhere, and that Mr. Bratton has all the officers he needs.
Mr. de Blasio argues that the steep reduction in stop-and-frisk and marijuana arrests has led to a manpower dividend: Cops who aren’t hassling young black and Latino men have a lot more time for smarter, better crime-fighting.
But if the mayor is right, why isn’t his own police commissioner buying it? Maybe some political game is being played here, some budget-related dance or some message being sent to the police unions. The result for those of us in the cheap seats is confusion. Do we need more cops, or not? Does the mayor trust his police commissioner as his No. 1 public-safety expert, or not? If he does trust him, why doesn’t he give him more officers? If he doesn’t trust him, that is a much bigger problem.
Adding 1,000 officers to a force of 34,500 probably won’t lead to drastic results. But the split on so basic a subject suggests a level of discord in the administration that is not reassuring. It also emboldens the critics who say Mr. de Blasio is ineptly leading the city back to the ugly 1990s.
The worriers have leveled many such unfair, if not overheated, attacks on the mayor, the worst being that city has been placed in grave danger by the sharp drop in stop-and-frisk arrests since their peak under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. This is hard to support, since overall crime keeps falling.
Then there is the idea that cops are demoralized and unwilling to do their jobs aggressively because of the citywide reaction to police brutality, ignited by the video of a cop choking the life out of Eric Garner. By this account, no officer wants to be the next Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island hothead who brought Mr. Garner down, and who — with the help of an inert district attorney, Daniel Donovan— brought upon the city paroxysms of revulsion and grief.
This, too, is a dubious claim, a slander against the department’s professionalism, belied by the overall crime rate.
The mayor’s more fervid critics need to get a grip. But the mayor should, too. It is of barely passing interest whether he appears to be dominating Mr. Bratton, or the other way around. What matters is a unified strategy to ensure that all law-abiding citizens are treated with respect, while keeping the city safe, consolidating and perpetuating its success in lowering crime, and quieting the gunfire where it persists.
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To the Editor:
Mona Lynch’s June 2 Op-Ed essay, “Reining In Federal Prosecutors,” alleging that federal prosecutors are abusing the criminal justice system along with the not-so-thinly veiled accusation that they are racist, is offensive to the approximately 5,400 federal prosecutors who faithfully serve the people of the United States.
Ms. Lynch claims that “while research shows that illicit drug use and distribution is generally proportionate to the racial makeup of the nation’s population, black people are overrepresented as drug defendants in federal courts.” (Emphasis added.) But the proportion of the population using illicit drugs is irrelevant: The focus of virtually all federal drug prosecutorial efforts is the trafficking of large quantities of dangerous drugs.
The underlying premise of Ms. Lynch’s claim — that federal prosecutors don’t zealously pursue non-African-American large-scale drug traffickers — is preposterous. The truth is that high-level drug trafficking is not committed by any carefully sculpted group that mirrors the nation’s demographics in terms of age, gender or race. This is a phenomenon that prosecutors did not create and cannot ignore under their responsibility to enforce the law.
The commentary also focuses on a crack cocaine trafficker who was caught, refused to accept responsibility for his criminal conduct, was convicted by a jury and was sentenced to imprisonment under the applicable law. Ms. Lynch gives a defense-slanted view of the facts, and by refraining from identifying the offender, she has deprived Times readers of the ability to review all of the facts in the record of the public trial or sentencing proceeding.
STEVEN H. COOK
President, National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys
Woodbridge, Va.
DANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) — Two convicted murderers used power tools to cut through steel pipes at a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border and escape through a manhole, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.
"It was an elaborate plot," Cuomo said after joining law enforcement authorities to retrace the prisoners' escape route from the Clinton Correctional Facility in the town of Dannemora in the Adirondacks.
He said Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, are "two dangerous individuals."
Sweat is serving a sentence of life without parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a Broome County sheriff's deputy in 2002. Matt is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the kidnapping and beating death of a man in 1997.
The two men's adjoining cells were empty during a morning check, said Anthony Annuci, the acting state corrections commissioner.
"A search revealed that there was a hole cut out of the back of the cell through which these inmates escaped," Annucci said. "They went onto a catwalk which is about six stories high. We estimate they climbed down and had power tools and were able to get out to this facility through tunnels, cutting away at several spots."
Authorities said there are many questions including how the men acquired the tools. Annucci said prison authorities are checking to see if any power tools are missing from contractors at the prison.
Maj. Charles E. Guess of the state police said more than 200 officers from multiple agencies were searching for the inmates. The search included bloodhounds and aerial surveillance, he said.
Cuomo said the prison break was the first escape from the maximum-security portion of the prison since it was built in 1865.
The prison is about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Roadblocks were set up in the area, WIRY-AM reported.
Sweat is white, 5 feet 11 inches, with brown hair and green eyes and weighs 165 pounds, police said. He has tattoos on his left bicep and his right fingers.
Matt is white, 6 feet tall, with black hair and hazel eyes, according to police. He weighs 210 pounds and has tattoos including "Mexico Forever" on his back, a heart on his chest and left shoulder and a Marine Corps insignia on his right shoulder.
Sweat and another man fired 15 rounds into Deputy Kevin Tarsia on the Fourth of July in 2002 shortly after using a pickup truck to break into a Pennsylvania woman's house, stealing rifles and handguns, authorities have said.
And nearly a decade after the 1997 kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of his former boss, William Rickerson, in upstate New York, Matt was returned to the U.S. from Mexico where he had fled to and been arrested for fatally stabbing another American outside a bar in a robbery attempt. He was convicted in 2008 of Rickerson's death.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two brothers will receive more than $1 million from the state of North Carolina after they were wrongfully imprisoned for three decades in the killing of an 11-year-old girl, but for one of them, the windfall isn't the issue.
"It ain't about money," said Henry McCollum, 51, who, along with his 47-year-old brother Leon Brown, was pardoned by Gov. Pat McCrory. "It was about just being able to see that I was innocent of a crime I was charged with. It was just a blessing to be out here, to live a normal life."
The pardon qualifies each of the brothers for $50,000 from the state for every year they were imprisoned, with a limit of $750,000 each. The compensation still needs to be approved by a state agency, but it is considered a formality. It's not clear exactly when they could get the money.
McCrory's office announced Friday that he had signed the pardons.
Defense attorneys have said the brothers were scared teenagers who had low IQs when they were questioned by police and coerced into confessing. McCollum was then 19, and Brown was 15.
The DNA from cigarette butts found at the scene doesn't match Brown or McCollum, and fingerprints taken from a beer can also found there didn't belong to them either. No physical evidence connects them to the crime, a judge and prosecutor acknowledged last fall.
Based largely on their confessions, both were initially given death sentences, which were overturned. Upon retrial, McCollum was again sent to death row, while Brown was convicted of rape and sentenced to life.
The path to freedom began in early September after a judge vacated their convictions and ordered their release, citing new DNA evidence that points to another man killing and raping 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in 1983. The inmate whose DNA was on the cigarette is already serving a life sentence for a similar rape and slaying that happened less than a month after Sabrina's killing.
Current Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt, who didn't prosecute the men, has said he's considering whether to reopen the case and charge the other man. The cigarette butt was tested as part of the recent investigation by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a one-of-its-kind investigative panel.
The brothers are still trying to come to terms with the changes that occurred in the outside world while they were behind bars. When McCollum walked off of death row, he needed help putting on the seatbelt in his father's car. At the time, he had never owned a cellphone and was unaccustomed to the Internet. Each man was given $45 by prison officials when they left.
Brown learned the governor had pardoned him and his brother on Thursday night as he watched the news at his sister's home in Fayetteville.
"I was upstairs in my room, because I wanted to be by myself when I hear," he said. "Well, when he said it, right, tears start coming from my eyes. Tears of joy. And my sister, she ran upstairs. When she had hugged me, right, I had laid my head on her shoulder, crying. I couldn't stop crying, you know? It felt — it felt good."
And now that he's free, Brown suggests that he's ready to get about.
"I do want to learn how to drive," he said. "Because I wasn't able to do that years ago. But now I have the opportunity to do it."
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Associated Press writers Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Skip Foreman in Charlotte, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
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Khairullozhon Matanov is a 24-year-old former cab driver from Quincy, Massachusetts. The night of the Boston Marathon bombings, he ate dinner with Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev at a kebob restaurant in Somerville.
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