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Articles by Matthew Clarke

Texas Quietly Authorizes Nation’s First Public Safety Employees Treatment Courts

by Matt Clarke

With little opposition from either party, the Texas Legislature passed HB 3391, authorizing the creation of the nation’s first public safety employees treatment courts. The courts will allow police, firefighters, prison and jail guards, and emergency medical services employees facing charges to defer criminal prosecution by entering ...

$300,000 Settlement in Suit Over Death of Intoxicated Man Abandoned by Deputies

by Matt Clarke

The family of an intoxicated man abandoned by Delaware County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputies at a Taco Bell before he wandered onto a highway and was fatally struck by a vehicle has settled a lawsuit against the county and several sheriff’s department officials for $300,000.

After several motorists ...

Wisconsin’s 6,000-plus Untested Rape Kits Include Over 2,000 Involving Child Victims

by Matt Clarke

Wisconsin has a huge backlog of untested rape kits. In 2017, state Attorney General Brad Schimel estimated there were more than 6,300 untested rape kits. The number of rape kits involving allegations of child sexual abuse was 2,441 as of late 2017. A little under half of ...

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Holds Defendant Entitled to Self-Defense Jury Charge if There is Any Evidence to Support It

by Matt Clarke

On September 27, 2017, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that a judge must issue a jury charge on self-defense in a prosecution for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon even if the defendant’s version of events supporting self-defense is weak, contradicted, or not credible. ...

FBI Training Manuals, Guidelines May Be Exempt from FOIA Disclosure

7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Illinois Prisoner's Civil Rights Lawsuit

$4.8 Million Settles Kansas City Police Shooting

by Matt Clarke

In September 2017, the terms of a $4.8 million confidential settlement between the Kansas City Police Department and an unarmed man whom police officers shot 20 times were made public. The man had sued police for using excessive force in responding to the report of an alleged ...

Police Caught Planting Drugs--on Body Cam!

by Matt Clarke

On July 19, 2017, the Maryland Office of the Public Defender released a video recording made by Baltimore Police Officer Richard Pinheiro's body-cam showing him planting drugs in a backyard then "discovering" them a few minutes later. Because of the video recording, a man who was held ...

Cops Strip Search Woman in Public...Charges Dropped

by Matt Clarke

On August 4, 2017, prosecutors dropped criminal charges against two Harris County sheriff's deputies who publicly performed a body cavity search on a Black woman on June 20, 2015. This prompted her attorney, Sam Cammaack, to release a dash-cam video recording of the incident he calls "rape ...

Parents Sue Deputy Who “Bullied” Their Slain Son into Becoming an Informant

by Matt Clarke

The parents of a North Dakota State College of Science student have filed a lawsuit against a deputy sheriff and the county he works for, alleging he used two arrests--for sales of marijuana totaling 3.3 grams – to bully their son into becoming a confidential informant, with ...

 

 

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