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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Two officers fired, two disciplined after cop struck woman in a gurney, chief says
Update 3:45 p.m. Assistant Police Chief Sean Mannix defended the disciplinary decision on Wednesday, and said officers are expected to maintain control and professionalism in stressful conditions.
“Officers are subject to the full range of human emotions that any other person would have, but are held to a higher standard,” Mannix said. “In this case, the expectations and values of the Austin Police Department were not met and appropriate discipline was administered.”
Earlier: Police Chief Art Acevedo fired two officers and suspended two others following an August incident in which an officer struck a suspect who spit on her, according to memos released Wednesday.
As a result of the incident, officers Michelle Gish and Jose Robledo were fired, Sgt. Mark Breckenridge was suspended for 20 days, and Cpl. Steve Jones was suspended for 10 days, Acevedo said in the memos.
Acevedo fired Gish because he said she violated the department’s force policies and was dishonest. Robledo was fired for giving false statements, and Breckenridge and Jones were disciplined for their actions during follow-up investigations, Acevedo said in the memos.
Sgt. Wayne Vincent, the president of the Austin Police Association, said he was surprised by the chief’s decisions and said Gish and Robledo plan to appeal their terminations.
“We’re disappointed,” Vincent said of Gish’s firing. “This sends a concerning message to the rank-and-file that a natural, human reaction to an incident results in throwing away an officer when other options are available.”
The memos said that on Aug. 31, Gish was helping put an unnamed, intoxicated and uncooperative woman onto a paramedics’ gurney. The woman then spit on Gish, so Gish struck her at least once in the head, the memos said.
A Travis County grand jury declined to indict Gish on charges of official oppression from the incident late last month.
Lakeway police: Woman who threatened to kill toddler is under medical care
A woman is under medical care after police say she broke into a Lakeway couple’s home with a gun claiming their 5-year-old son was the antichrist, a police official said Wednesday.
Beth Ann Straley, 46, was charged last week with felony burglary of a habitation after she broke into the home last month, an arrest affidavit said. Her bail was set at $500,000, and she has not been taken into custody, a Lakeway police official said.
Straley has since been committed to a mental health facility in North Texas, and she won’t be taken into custody until after she is released, Lakeway police chief Todd Radford said through a spokeswoman.
An arrest affidavit said that about 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, Straley broke into a home in the 220 block of Varco Drive in Lakeway armed with a pistol. She confronted a woman who was babysitting a 5-year-old boy and demanded to know where the child’s mother was, the affidavit said. The babysitter took the gun out of Straley’s hand and Straley ran away, it said.
Straley went to another home in the 110 block of Burgess Drive and told residents there she went to the first home to kill the toddler because she believes he is the Antichrist, the affidavit said. She also said she intended to kill his parents, the document said.
Officers describe gory scene in trial tied to a botched home invasion
SAN MARCOS — On the second day of testimony in a sentencing trial for a Luling man who pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in a 2009 home invasion that led to two deaths, a police officer compared the scene that night to “Pulp Fiction.”
“The whole room, it looked like a Tarantino film,” San Marcos Police Officer Cat MacDonald said, “gory scenes that I’ll probably never see again in my career.”
In September 2009, four teens broke into a San Marcos home to steal marijuana from the person that lived there, according to court testimony. Two of the teens were killed, another injured. Mark Smith, one of the residents of the home, testified Tuesday that he fired once at one of the boys but said he couldn’t remember much after that.
Frank Castro, the fourth teen, fled unharmed but was arrested when he later returned to the scene.
A Hays County grand jury indicted Castro, now 20, on a charge of capital murder, two counts of murder and aggravated robbery. Officials had said that he could be held legally responsible for the teens’ deaths if it were proved that he was involved in the commission of the crime in which they died.
Instead, Castro pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery to get the murder charges dropped, Lynn Peach, his attorney, said Tuesday.
MacDonald was one of four police officers and one paramedic who Hays County prosecutors have so far called as witnesses today, as they continue to lay out their case. The aggravated robbery charge carries a sentence of up to 99 years in prison.
Castro previously has rejected a plea arrangement that would have included a sentence of 10 years in prison.
Other officers testifying today described a blood-splattered scene, with Castro approaching an ambulance that arrived that night shirtless and sweating, asking whether everyone in the house was OK.
One officer said that Castro said he had tried to get help but that no one had answered the door at neighboring houses.
The defense has yet to call any witnesses. Because the state has about 10 more witnesses question on the stand, Peach said she expects she won’t get to until tomorrow.
Permalink | Categories: Courts
School bus crash sends six students to hospital, officials say
Update:
Six Manor high school students were taken to area hospitals this morning following a bus crash in Northeast Austin, a school spokeswoman said.
The crash occurred near the intersection of U.S. 290 and Parmer Lane around 8:15 a.m. as the students were headed to school, said Manor schools spokeswoman Carrie Culpepper. The bus was rear-ended by a sedan, an Austin police official said.
Nearly 40 students were evaluated by Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service workers, and of those, six were taken to nearby medical facilities, she said. They were said to have suffered minor, if any injuries, she said.
“Considering it was a crash, we are very thankful that it wasn’t more serious,” Culpepper said. “We care about our student’s safety.”
Earlier:
Three people with minor injuries were taken to a hospital after a crash involving a school bus this morning at Parmer Lane and U.S. 290 in northeast Austin.
According to a preliminary investigation, the bus carrying Manor High students was rear ended about 8:15 a.m. near the intersection, a police official said.
More than 30 students were evaluated, the official said.
No other details were immediately available.
Blog about police detention of grandfather draws international attention
A blog by local criminal justice critic Scott Henson about being detained by Austin police officers over the weekend while babysitting his 5-year-old granddaughter has received national and international attention.
On Saturday, Henson wrote on his popular blog Grits For Breakfast that he was handcuffed and detained Friday evening while walking with the girl in East Austin. Henson is white and his granddaughter is black.
Police spokesman Cpl. Anthony Hipolito said Monday that police were responding to a 911 call about a possible kidnapping, which he said was the reason for such a big response.
Henson wrote that he, his wife and their granddaughter were roller skating at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex on Friday, after which Henson and the girl started walking home. At first they were questioned about their relationship by a Travis County constable’s deputy who later let them leave, he wrote.
A short while later, the two were swarmed by officers and questioned separately about their relationship, Henson wrote. Henson was handcuffed while the girl was questioned by police in the back of a patrol car, he wrote.
“The officers got out with Tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child,” he wrote. “I complied, and they roughly cuffed me, jerking my arms up behind me needlessly. … I gave them the phone numbers they needed to confirm who Ty was and that she was supposed to be with me (and not in the back of their police car), but for quite a while nobody seemed too interested in verifying my ‘story.’”
Henson wrote that officers verified his relationship to his daughter and eventually released them. But in his post, he questioned the need for such a response, and wondered about how his granddaughter would be affected by the interaction with police.
“How hard would it have been to perform a safety check without running up on me like I’m John Dillinger and scaring the crap out of a five year old? I didn’t resist or struggle, but they felt obliged to handcuff me and snatch the kid up for interrogation away from any adult family member. Nine police cars plus the deputy constable all showing up to investigate the heinous crime of ‘babysitting while white,’” he wrote.
Hipolito said that a staff member at the Millenium Center called 911 around 7:50 p.m. Friday reporting a possible kidnapping. That caller believed a white man took a black female child and ran into the woods, Hipolito said. Several staff members left to go look for the man, presumably Henson, and police responded quickly, Hipolito said. About 10 officers plus a helicopter and K-9 unit were dispatched, he said.
“On that type of call, we send everyone available,” he said. He added that sometimes kidnapping suspects can be relatives of their victims. Hipolito said officers detained them, separated them, and called the girl’s mother to verify their relationship.
“You have to investigate to determine if the grandfather is supposed to have the child,” Hipolito said. “To me, he’s making it into more of a racial thing.”
The blog post went viral over the weekend on Facebook and other social media outlets, and this week received attention from newspapers in New York and London.
In an email Monday, Henson declined to comment further on the incident.
