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NEWS IN BRIEF

Alabama: A seven-count indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama against former Prichard Police Department Off. Emanuel Naman Dotch II, 50, on June 24, 2026. WALA in Mobile said that his employment at the agency ended around the time of his June 16 arrest on corruption charges, stemming from a November 2025 traffic stop staged to falsely arrest and rob two unnamed victims of their weapons. He was also accused of concealing evidence in a federal murder-for-hire investigation, as well as taking at least $1,400 in bribes during and after a May arrest to let the suspect and a potential accomplice go free. In a district court hearing on June 18, FBI Special Agent Evan Fischer testified that Dotch admitted to extortion and accepting bribes, planting drugs to frame one unnamed Atlanta lawyer. Prosecutors at that same hearing revealed that Dotch resigned from the Mobile Police Department in 2013 during a similar investigation. They also said that 10 firearms were seized during a search of his properties. Dotch has been ordered detained pending trial. See: United States v. Dotch, USDC (S.D. Ala.), Case No. 1:26-cr-00112.

Arizona: On June 12, 2026, former Prescott Police Department Off. Brian Sutton, 27, was convicted of manslaughter in state court for a fatal shooting while responding to a domestic disturbance call in June 2024. According to KTVK/KPHO in Phoenix, body-worn camera (BWC) footage captured Sutton as he cornered Daniel Leslie, 34, in the carport of Leslie’s home and then opened fire when Leslie attempted to retreat inside, killing him. An investigation by the state Department of Public Safety confirmed that Leslie was unarmed, leading to Sutton’s felony charge and conviction. At sentencing, he faces up to 21 years in prison. Though it is rare for a cop to be held accountable in a shooting, Leslie’s survivors are planning a $20 million civil suit, according to their attorney, Richard Lyons of Kelly & Lyons in Scottsdale.

California: A civil rights suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on June 23, 2026, accused San Diego and its Police Department (SDPD) of falsely arresting a driver whose car returned a “hit” to a Flock camera alert for a criminal suspect’s vehicle – even though the automated license plate reader clearly showed that the vehicle was miles away from the location where the crime had just occurred. According to the Times of San Diego, SDPD apparently didn’t notice the discrepancy before arresting driver Hugo Parra, along with Carlos Beltran, 23, a friend who owned the Alfa Romeo that Parra was driving. Beltran posted bail the day after the November 2025 mixup, but Parra ended up spending a month in jail before a corroborating eyewitness identification proved bogus. Both were on probation at the time, so the error had real consequences. Attorney Alex Coolman is representing Parra and Beltran in the suit. See: Parra v. City of San Diego, USDC (S.D. Cal.), Case No. 3:26-cv-03694.

Delaware: Former Delmar Police Department (DPD) Off. Darrell Powell, 27, was indicted in Sussex County Superior Court on June 8, 2026, on charges including stalking, offensive touching, official misconduct, and unlawful sexual contact. Delaware Public Media said that the four-year DPD veteran is accused of targeting two victims while responding to official police calls. In one January 2026 incident, Powell allegedly deactivated his BWC before groping an unnamed shoplifting suspect under her clothing, later stalking her with his patrol vehicle. A second victim said that Powell routinely harassed her, once running her vehicle information through an FBI database and conducting a baseless traffic stop just “to see what she would do.” Powell later assaulted her while armed and in uniform, she said.

Florida: Sloppiness by the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) left access to the Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS) turned on for a former Juvenile Probation Officer when she was arrested for battery and fired in 2022. Crystal Gaynell Ann Lawson, 32, then illegally accessed the crime database hundreds of times to tip off criminal accomplices before she was finally arrested on June 18, 2026, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Several sealed arrest warrants were shared with her father, Melvin Lawson, who texted them to taunt FDA agents investigating an Orange County fentanyl ring run by Lawson’s friend, Omyry Hickson. Investigators found that the younger Lawson had illegally accessed the CCIS 246 times between January 1 and May 1, sending confidential information to her dad and four others. Charged with 113 felony counts of computer crimes and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, her bond was set at $1.14 million. If convicted, her prison sentence could exceed 560 years.

Idaho: Cellphone video of an Idaho Falls parking lot altercation on April 2, 2026, showed U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson, 53, yelling at a driver before snatching sunglasses off the man’s face and tossing them aside, Reuters reported. Nelson was charged with misdemeanor battery and malicious injury to property. He pleaded not guilty. An investigation was also opened by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Mary Murguia. Appointed in 2018 during the first term of Pres. Donald J. Trump (R), Nelson was in the majority on the Ninth Circuit panel that in October 2025 temporarily stayed a district court injunction to keep Trump from deploying federal troops to Portland, Oregon, in response to protests against aggressive tactics by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The troop deployment was again paused the following month when the full Ninth Circuit agreed to vacate the panel opinion and rehear the case en banc. The federal Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew its appeal in early 2026, leaving the district court’s injunction in place. See: Oregon v. Trump, USDC (D. Ore.), Case No. 3:25-cv-01756.

Indiana: New Chicago Police Department (NCPD) Chief Earl Mayo, 45, was arrested for felony theft and misconduct on May 22, 2026, after Lake County detectives found that he sold firearms seized in criminal cases to a pawn shop. In April 2026, Mayo sold 12 NCPD-held firearms for $2,010, the Northwest Indiana Times reported. When investigators caught wind of it, Mayo ordered a subordinate to buy back the weapons and clear out illegal firearms from his home. Another accomplice, Taneka Borders, who is also Mayo’s mistress, attempted to hide illegal anabolic steroids in her possession, for which she was arrested, too. Federal and local authorities ultimately seized over 100 guns from Mayo’s home. He was jailed in Ohio awaiting extradition to Indiana.

Maryland: Former Bowie Police Department (BPD) Sgt. Robert Warrington, 37, was found guilty on May 20, 2026, on charges stemming from a September 2024 highway shooting. The 12-year BPD veteran was convicted following a bench trial of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office, Atlanta Black Star reported. Warrington fired his gun at unarmed motorist Nathaniel Richardson, who had stepped out of a vehicle to retrieve a lost hat. Rejecting defense arguments that the shooting was a mistake, Judge Krystal Alvez ruled that the force used was not reasonable, proportional, or necessary. Warrington was immediately fired. At sentencing, he faces up to 35 years in prison.

Massachusetts: Sex trafficking defendants Moises and Kiersten Soto demanded a new trial immediately after they were sentenced to 18 years in prison on January 23, 2026. Their motion might find traction because Judge Margaret R. Guzman apparently engaged in prohibited ex parte communications in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, passing prosecutors an envelope containing token gifts for the victim – a bracelet and seashells – along with a handwritten card praising the victim’s “great courage.” According to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, such clandestine, off-the-record gift-giving is “absolutely different” from sympathy to victims that judges frequently express in open court. Prosecutors oppose a new trial and argue that the couple is entitled only to resentencing.

Michigan: Disgraced Melvindale Police Department (MPD) Lt. Matthew Furman, 40, received a remarkably light sentence of just six months in jail and three years of probation on May 29, 2026, after a jury convicted him of misconduct in office and assault and battery for using his Taser on a suspect during a July 2024 traffic stop – after the unnamed man was out of his vehicle with hands spread against its door. According to WDIV in Detroit, Furman also pled no contest to a separate assault and battery charge for attacking a defenseless, handcuffed man during another traffic stop in July 2021. He was acquitted on charges that he abused a woman during a third stop in April 2024. Judge Mark Slavens denounced Furman from the bench for “[taking] up an oath to terrorize and injure citizens.” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that “[a] bad officer is off of the streets and will never be in law enforcement again,” so “[c]itizens will be safer.”

Mississippi: News from the States reported that former Greenwood Police Department Off. Jamario Sanford, 38, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in federal prison on May 27, 2026, for his role in a phony drug-trafficking conspiracy that was in fact a wild undercover sting. As CLN reported, Sanford and 13 other Mississippi Delta law enforcement officials were arrested for taking bribes to escort fake drug shipments for undercover FBI agents pretending to be drug cartel operatives. [See: CLN, Feb. 2026, p.49.] In a plea for mercy to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Sanford detailed severe financial and personal distress he faced at the time of the offense, having lost his job as well as surviving severe childhood trauma and multiple near-death experiences. His wife was also preparing to give birth when he accepted $12,800 in bribes from an FBI informant to provide an armed police escort for the phony shipment. Unmoved, Chief Judge Debra Brown, ordered Sanford into custody.

New York: Former New York State Trooper Christopher Baldner, 47, was sentenced to prison on June 2, 2026, for 30 to 90 months, following his March manslaughter conviction, AP News reported. The December 2020 death of Monica Goods, 11, was blamed on the cop after he pulled over driver Tristan Goods and got into an argument that escalated until Baldner pepper-sprayed the interior of Goods’ crowded SUV. When the driver then fled, Baldner initiated a high-speed pursuit on the New York State Thruway, ramming the family’s vehicle twice and causing it to flip, killing the young girl. Baldner retired in 2022 after two decades spent in law enforcement.

New York: Former New York Police Department (NYPD) Off. Danny Acosta, 46, was sentenced in June 2026 to five years’ probation and fined $2,500 – a light sentence for shooting a teenage suspect in the back at point-blank range and then lying about it. According to The New York Post, jurors convicted Acosta on April 24 on charges of perjury, tampering with public records, and official misconduct, finding that he lied under oath regarding the 2009 shooting when he testified to a grand jury that he shot Peter Colon, then 17, from a distance to protect his partner. However, in a subsequent civil suit that the NYPD settled with Colon for $500,000, a forensic laboratory report was discovered that shattered Acosta’s lie, proving the bullet was fired at close range. Acosta also admitted the truth to a City lawyer, who reported it to the NYPD even though Acosta expected confidentiality. He later told a Post reporter that the lawyer “fucked me.” Colon, now 33, testified that Acosta pinned him face down on the ground, pressed a service weapon into his back, and pulled the trigger. The crooked cop was indicted in 2018 and fired in 2021.

Oklahoma: The Stillwater News Network reported that former Payne County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington, 56, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 5, 2026, for possessing approximately 155 items of child pornography. A State Bureau of Investigation probe revealed that the eight-year veteran prosecutor was using his Google Drive to store graphic material depicting the rape of young children. When confronted by investigators about explicit photos of underage girls, Etherington insisted, “It’s not child porn. That’s a fetish, bro.” But Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Amy Dickens, who was appointed as special prosecutor, said that the “jury only made it through a dozen of those [images] and had enough.”

Pennsylvania: Also on June 5, 2026, former Tamaqua Police Department Off. Christopher J. Cordes, 31, was sentenced to 27 and a half years in prison for production, possession, and attempted receipt of child pornography, as well as coercion and enticement of a minor. WHTM in Harrisburgsaid that Cordes pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges stemming from targeting of one minor-age victim in 2023 and 2024, when he solicited the child to create sexually explicit Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM). He also filmed himself engaging in sexual activity with animals to create an “animal crush video,” which he distributed to the victim.

Utah: Former Box Elder County Justice Court Judge Kevin Christensen, 65, was sentenced to prison for up to 15 years on June 8, 2026, after cutting a deal to plead guilty to one count of enticing a minor and two counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Christensen utilized his Latter-day Saints ward directory to find images of local girls that he shared with co-conspirator Ned Brady Hansen, who was Tremonton’s fire chief. In online chats, the two engaged in graphic fantasies about abusing children, prosecutors said. Then, when Hansen was arrested on CSAM charges, Christensen presided over his arraignment and granted him bail – without revealing that the two were involved in a sexual relationship. The judge resigned shortly after his March 2025 arrest. Hansen, 54, is still awaiting trial on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and eight first-degree felony charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, according to the Tremonton Leader.

Vermont: A grand jury indicted former Lamoille County Sheriff’s Office Dep. Christopher Turner, 43, on April 30, 2026, for misconduct that derailed a major homicide case. According to WPTZ in Burlington, Turner faces multiple obstruction of justice charges and one count of false swearing after he illegally interrogated murder suspect Seth Brunell during a jail transport in April 2025. Prosecutors had charged Brunell with the fatal 2022 stabbing of a transgender woman, Fern Feather, but after Turner’s stunt they were forced to accept a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter instead. Brunell was then released to serve a 10-year probated sentence. Sheriff Roger Marcoux fired Turner in November 2025. The former IT executive was also ordered to limit his social media posts about the case to his denials of the allegations. As of June 24, some $31,000 had been raised to cover his legal fees on givesendgo.com.

Washington, D.C.: The murder trial of Jaime Macedo, 25, was thrown into turmoil by misconduct allegations against the lead investigator, WRC in Washington reported. Macedo was charged with the 2023 slaying of Kentucky teacher Maxwell Emerson on the Catholic University campus. His attorneys moved to dismiss the indictment after discovering that the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) failed to disclose that Thomas Roy, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detective assigned to the case, had sex with another detective while on-duty and even recorded the encounter on a department-issued cellphone. That prompted MPD to strip Roy of his homicide role. The failure to disclose it prompted a rebuke of the USAO by D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz. Jurors then convicted Macedo on May 4, 2026, of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convict, after hanging on the murder charge. He remains in custody pending retrial on the remaining count in January 2027.

Washington, D.C.: Another former MPD cop was convicted for his role in a pandemic relief fraud scheme. Roberto Adams, 39, was found guilty of one count of wire fraud following a federal jury trial on June 8, 2026, WUSA in Washington reported. Prosecutors proved that Adams fabricated the operational status of his janitorial business, SuperKlean LLC, to secure a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan over $18,000. He then spent the disaster relief funds on personal debts, including $12,000 in back rent, clothing, and high-end sneakers. A prior loan payout was squandered on casinos and luxury travel. Adams attempted to conceal the fraud during a subsequent background check after applying to work for the Seattle Police Department in 2021.  

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