15 yr old girl, beat up by cop?

[Randwolf]

See, -this- is the type of thing that I simply couldn't find out on google. It seems that there's lots of interest in the event itself and a bit of backstory; and none in terms of what happened afterwards.

Some, albeit sketchy, reporting on the follow up:

Federal prosecutors investigating deputy - seattlepi.com

Federal prosecutors have launched a civil rights investigation of a King County sheriff's deputy who was shown on a videotape beating a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell after she kicked a tennis shoe at his legs.
...

If Schene is prosecuted and found guilty of depriving Calhoun of her civil rights while acting in his official capacity, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Harris said.

...

Instead Schene, 31, is facing a misdemeanor assault charge and is on administrative leave. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Sheriff's Office is conducting an internal investigation of the incident, which could result in disciplinary actions separate from any criminal sanctions.

So, on the one hand, federal prosecutors are investigating, while on the other Schene apparently has already been charged with misdemeanor assault since he pled not guilty.



Another interesting development:

Girl assaulted by deputy now charged with felony

Malika Calhoun, the 16-year-old girl who was infamously assaulted by a King County Sheriff's Deputy in a Sea-Tac holding cell, is now facing an unrelated felony charge.

The teenager was arrested at Southcenter Mall (what is this, the epicenter of all crime now?) after allegedly threatening to shoot another girl in the face. She now faces the felony charge of harassment.

Court documents say Calhoun, who had already been banned from the mall the day before, approached the other girl over a perceived slight to a friend and yelled "I will come back with a burner...and shoot you in the face." Eloquent and direct.

I'm sure Paul Schene, the deputy who assaulted the crap out of the teen in the now famous video, is loving all of this. This girl sounds off-the-charts unstable and isn't exactly painting a picture of innocent victim. Schene, who deserves to be punished severely for his crimes, is in a much better place now than he was a couple of weeks ago.

Calhoun pleaded not guilty to the charges.

So it would appear that this teenager seems to attract trouble. Perhaps she did, indeed, try to provoke Deputy Paul Schene, but this still does not justify "unreasonable" or "excessive" force. The original video, at least based on a cursory view, certainly seems to depict both.

I think the police mishandled that case and were out of line. I realize that they have an extraordinary job and are often required to use extraordinary means to accomplish it. There are limits though...




This particular police department seems to be involved in more than its share of "excessive force" allegations:

Schene is among more than a half-dozen King County sheriff's deputies who have been federally investigated for excessive force and other issues in recent years. Several of those inquiries were opened after the Seattle P-I exposed details about misconduct allegations against the officers. Across the country, the FBI has pursued fewer such investigations of alleged police wrongdoing because the Bush administration transferred thousands of agents to counterterrorism duties.

Recent investigations against the Sherriff's Office include:

- Civil rights and perjury allegations against Deputy Brian Bonnar. In late 2008, a federal jury acquitted Bonnar of civil rights violations and four counts of perjury after a woman he arrested and several fellow officers accused him of using excessive force during a 2005 arrest. His indictment represented the first time in well over a decade that a federal grand jury had brought charges against an officer for such "color of law" violations.

- Allegations of civil rights violations against Denny Gulla: In 2004, Gulla, a 23-year veteran and the subject of a number of misconduct accusations, drew a federal inquiry when he pulled over the husband of his lover on a bogus traffic stop and threatened to kill him. Despite a recommendation from an FBI supervisor that the case go forward, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division declined to prosecute, saying Gulla already had been punished administratively by superiors.

- Dan Ring: The former intelligence detective, who cut a deal with the King County sheriff and prosecutors that allowed him to escape state prosecution for a felony charge and three misdemeanors, drew an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI after the P-I exposed details about his case. Federal authorities said they were examining whether federal criminal charges should have been filed against Ring; as of Tuesday, none had been.

- Civil rights violations accusations against Joseph Abreu III, Bruce Matthews and Garrett Jorgensen: In February 2002, Sherry Reynolds, a software consultant and former volunteer firefighter, filed a formal complaint against three officers, whom she witnessed violently handle a homeless man outside a grocery store. After she filed the complaint, Reynolds was charged with obstruction of justice. The FBI opened a preliminary investigation into the deputies. Local agents felt they had a strong case, but the Department of Justice declined to prosecute.

Maybe Deputy Paul Schene is a product of his environment to some degree. After all, if his superiors condone, or perhaps ignore, excessive use of force by officers during execution of their duties, why should it come as a surprise that he followed suit? He just got caught on tape - perhaps the misconcuct will "begin to end" now...

 

[scott3x]

Some, albeit sketchy, reporting on the follow up...

Maybe Deputy Paul Schene is a product of his environment to some degree. After all, if his superiors condone, or perhaps ignore, excessive use of force by officers during execution of their duties, why should it come as a surprise that he followed suit? He just got caught on tape - perhaps the misconcuct will "begin to end" now...

Thanks for the follow up Randwolf. The whole thing makes me sick, both the cop and his department. I just hope that this guy is treated so that the odds of him ever doing something like this again are acceptably slim; I really don't think he should continue being a cop though, as the fact that he's already done it make him look pretty bad.