Uniquely Alaskan Justice in Child Porn Case?

The Anchorage Daily News had this remarkable account of the re-sentencing of former Anchorage police officer and child molester, Sammy Cohen:

Former Anchorage police officer Sammy Cohen (pic) will not serve any more jail time on his conviction for sexually abusing and exploiting his daughter.  State Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton on Thursday sentenced Cohen to 12 years in jail with eight suspended.

But Cohen will not return to jail because of the length of time he's already been incarcerated. Cohen's sentencing came five years after his arrest by police detectives on charges of sexually abusing his daughter and possessing child pornography. He was not convicted of touching his daughter sexually but rather of taking nude photographs of her, including some in which he made her pose.

Last October, a jury found Cohen, 56, guilty of abusing and exploiting his daughter a decade ago. She was 14 years old at the time. The jury based its findings mainly on topless and nude photos Cohen took of the girl that were obtained by police officers. The police began investigating Cohen after a federal agency alerted them that he had purchased child porn on the Internet.  Cohen has maintained his innocence on all the charges. He plans to appeal, his attorney John Cashion said Thursday.

Several young women, including his now-adult daughter who lives out of state, testified against Cohen during last fall's three-week trial. The other women said Cohen bought them gifts, gave them back rubs and did huge favors for them when they were underage or close to it; Cohen was not charged with abusing or exploiting them.

The jury acquitted him of several sex abuse charges -- one involving touching and groping his daughter. A juror explained later that the jurors felt comfortable convicting him on the evidence they saw in photographs, but not on counts for which they had to rely solely on the daughter's word about what happened.

The daughter and other family members did not attend Wednesday's sentencing hearing and the daughter did not file a victim statement. The affected family members 'want to put this behind them and want to have nothing to do with him anymore,' said state prosecutor John Skidmore.   Two off-duty police officers testified in Cohen's support, praising his strong work ethic and loyalty as a family friend. Also in the courtroom were other former co-workers: police detectives who investigated Cohen.

'They became intimate with the details of the case and wanted to see a full measure of justice done,' said police Lt. Dave Parker.

[Prosecutor] Skidmore argued in favor of a 20-year sentence with seven years suspended. He said the crime deserved a longer sentence than the norm given Cohen's role as a police officer.  Skidmore noted the high recidivism rate of sexual offenders who target children. Also, until Cohen admits his crime, his chances for rehabilitation are diminished, Skidmore said.

[Mr.] Cashion, Cohen's attorney, favored a sentence of two years in prison and three years of probation, saying that case law did not justify a longer sentence. He said that Cohen respects the judicial process and will follow his probation.

After a recess, Judge Wolverton imposed Cohen's 12-year sentence, with eight years suspended.  Wolverton told the courtroom that he specifically did not intend for Cohen to return to jail.  The judge said that while Cohen has a history of  'concerning behavior,' he believed that Cohen had  'very good prospects' as a probationer.
Cohen will not go to prison because he has already spent more than two-thirds of the four-year, unsuspended prison sentence in jail -- 1,024 days to be exact.  In Alaska, felons with good behavior do not need to serve the final third of their sentence, though they must return to jail to serve the remainder if they violate their probation.  Cohen spent a portion of that time in isolation due to his status as a former police officer and he was assaulted three times, once during transport, Cashion told the judge.

Cohen was an 11-year veteran of the Anchorage Police Department and was teaching at the police academy when he was arrested in 2005. He also served in the military for 23 years.  Cohen is now registered by the state as a sexual offender. Among the 18 conditions of his release, he must not contact the victim, he cannot have unsupervised contact with females under age 16 or have an e-mail account without his parole officer's permission, he cannot go to parks and playgrounds that minors use, and he and his property can be searched without a warrant for pornography, female minors or firearms.
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Wow!  Talk about getting a break, this guy was taking pornographic pictures of his daughter and her young friends.  Cohen was touching these children and they touched him.  Cohen spent less than 3 years incarcerated. 

Something about this story sounds Alaskan-specific.  That this guy did these acts and other officers were comfortable sitting in court in support, pretty amazing.

Killer Cop, Tax Cheat Gets 10 Years!

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has this jaw-dropping report on a really bad cop, a crooked cop.  Douglas Earl Leiter is going to jail for 10 years after being caught in running an elaborate tax scam that ensnared a number of co-defendants who are also going to prison for some time.  If this were just about tax cheats, it wouldn't be "blawg"-worthy, but Leiter was a real Bad Cop.  Here's the account by Paul Walsh:

"Mark David Maxwell, 54, of Minneapolis, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in St. Paul to five years and nine months in prison on one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

The sentences for the others: the former officer, Douglas Earl Leiter, 42, of Minneapolis, 10 years, one month; Brian Keith Scott, 44, of Zimmerman, six years, six months; Christopher Craig Robinson, 37, of Plymouth, one year, eight months; Timothy Paul McCarthy, 63, of Minneapolis, four years, four months; and Laurie Therese Brausen, 53, of Little Canada, six months.

Leiter was regarded as the lead defendant in the case. He and several others founded a group called Common Law Venue, which the IRS said ran schemes that taught clients how to evade taxes by filing bogus trust tax returns or claiming phony "miscellaneous" deductions or setting up shadow corporations and nonprofit 'clubs.'

In 2003, the IRS moved to collect $10,000 in back taxes and fees from Leiter. A federal grand jury indicted him and several others in August 2008.  In a 1998 high-speed chase, Leiter's squad car struck a pickup truck and killed two people. He was charged with two misdemeanors but not convicted. The victims' families each received a $300,000 settlement from the city.

In 2001, Leiter was suspended for 60 hours in connection with an off-duty search for records regarding co-defendant McCarthy, his one-time housemate and former priest who had been accused of criminal sexual contact with an inmate at the Hennepin County juvenile jail.
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This ex-cop should be out and about by the time he marks his 50th birthday.  Plenty of time for more mayhem.

Years ago I represented a bunch of working stiffs who had were ripped off by a tax preparer.  This was near the end of the day and age when manufacturing jobs abounded.  As this tax preparer went through the financial information of these blue collar guys he would tell them that he could save them money on their taxes based on charitable deductions these guys had not made, then he would tap the top of a file cabinet in his office and would wink at these schmoes and say--"I have all your receipts in here."  Worse, he'd see their 1099s and suggest that they move their saving to his Gold Mine investments.  It sounds ludicrous now, but this tax thief took these guys for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

After I got involved, it turned out that this guy had been at it for many years and had robbed many of these auto workers of their life savings.  My clients kept asking me how come I couldn't attach "his gold mines."  They were incredulous when I told them that there was not gold mines.  It seems unreal even after all these years that these men fell for this fraud, but there's a lovely intelligent woman in the office where I currently work who fell for a Ponzi-scheme that is just as absurd on its face.  The Ponzi schemer took in $8 million dollars from working class folks working in and around OurTown for investment in "real estate deed trusts" for properties allegedly being built in and around Phoenix, AZ.  These victims were taken in by a member of their church.  Nice.

Professional Courtesy

The South Carolina Post and Courier has a revealing article that addresses the age old question:  what do cops think other cops will do for them? 

A video recording made Christmas Eve at the arrest of North Charleston Police Officer Christine Phinney (pic) who was breifly pursued for speeding and ended up with a fat lip is remarkably illustrative of what cops will do for other cops.  The video tape (at the link--worth watching) of the incident records Officer Phinney berating both the Summerville police and the Dorchester County Sheriff's deputy for arresting her and issuing a citation.  Despite an alleged "tussle" with the arresting deputy, Officer Phinney was not charged with an assault.

That Mrs. Phinney was cited at all--astounded Officer Phinney.  Officer Phinney is not just a cop, she's a two-fer, she's married to a police officer.  And as Officer Phinney told the charging officer, she routinely pulls over speeding law enforcement, who flash their badges, and of course she has the decency not to arrest or charge them.  

Isn't that what all cops expect of one another?  Officer Phinney unwittingly is letting the cat out of the bag, cops protect their own.  But really, are we surprised. 

What's frightening is that they gave this officer--who was clearly impaired, any kind of break.  The arresting officers didn't conduct a field sobriety test and they didn't ask her to perform a breathalizer.  Instead her colleagues charged her with disorderly conduct and speeding;  and, then they let her go home.  

You and me, we do what Christine Phinney did,  trust me, we get tased.

Texas Lawmen

The Dallas Morning News website has this absolutely baroque tale of two small town lawmen who have been carrying on a feud over many years that has devolved, into charges of child porn, sex parties, and accusations that one of the lawmen was promoting prostitution with kids.  There have been arrests, and unexplained dismissals of criminal charges.  The two officers:   Michael Meissner and John Hoskins are characterized as "nomadic officers" since both have long careers with short stintss in multiple small towns and agencies. 

I am going to quote the well-written article by John Nielsen of the Dallas Morning News to give you a flavor of what's going on--but, I urge you to read the entire piece, it's puts me in mind of some Texas noir novels I've read in the past: 

"The lengthy arrest warrant for former small-town police chief Michael Meissner included a string of graphic text messages he was accused of sending to teenage boys, trying to lure them to sex parties. Television news crews flocked to the jailhouse to catch a glimpse of Meissner in handcuffs.

Yet a week after his September arrest, Meissner, 39, then the police chief of Little River-Academy, a small community south of Waco, walked out of the Dallas County Jail a free man.

The seven charges against him were erased, and his $1.5 million bail was dismissed.

Prosecutors in Dallas and Tarrant counties won't say why Meissner won't be tried on charges of promotion of prostitution, possession and promotion of child pornography and sexual performance of a child.

The dismissals baffled the investigating officer, John Hoskins, who said he uncovered the seedy texts during another investigation while working as an unpaid reserve officer for the city of Combine in Kaufman County, near the Dallas County line.

Meissner, who lives in Dallas, denies the charges and denies sending the text messages. He said the allegations are trumped up by Hoskins, an officer Meissner says has been out to get him for years. "I think ... [authorities] knew the charges were bogus; they knew about this guy and this vendetta," Meissner said.

While it remains unclear why prosecutors won't pursue a case against Meissner, documents reveal a bitterness between the two officers that began four years ago.

The rivalry is a convoluted tale of salacious allegations mixed with small-town politics. It pits Meissner, a peace officer who has worked for 18 agencies in 20 years, against Hoskins, an equally nomadic officer.

The two worked side by side in 2006 when Meissner was police chief and Hoskins was his officer in the East Texas town of Caney City. While there, Hoskins investigated a charge that his boss viewed pornography with a minor at the police station on a city-owned computer, according to a police report. The charge, like others against Meissner, was dropped.

Hoskins said his latest investigation isn't about settling a feud"

The article goes on to say, that another former police chief, Steve Allen of Combine, Texas supports Hoskins allegations against Meissner saying in the article that the charges aren't made up because they consist of text messages that actually came from Meissner and he, Chief Allen inspected the evidence. 

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You might ask yourself why does the Bad Lawyer finds this story remarkable, apart from the fact that it is strange in and of itself? 

When I began to go after the Catholic church, I dealt with a tremendous amount of disbelief and an outright incredulity by friends, family, and colleagues.  The church, its attorneys, and judges with agendas preyed on this incredulity to do injustice to victims fo clergy sex abuse. This morning, in fact we talked about the notion and danger of "false allegations," (so rare as to be remarkable and noteworthy when false allegations are demonstrated) which I've explored at some length here at Bad Lawyer, but something is very wrong in East Texas.  Either a serial predator with a badge is walking around, or a harasser with a badge is running wild.  Which is it?  We will keep our Bad Lawyer eyes trained on developments.

Why I Hate the Cops-episode 48

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has this story of Fort Worth, Texas Officer Jesus Cisneros, who drunk and out of his mind, operated an undercover cop car into the PT Cruiser driven by local kidney dialysis technician, Sonia Baker.  Officer Cisneros killed Sonia Baker. The young woman leaves two chlldren and a grieving husband.

Cisneros, has a history.  The Star-Telegram reports, "[i]n 2006, Cisneros accepted a 20-day suspension after an internal investigation determined that, while intoxicated and with a passenger in his private car, he fired a single shot through an open sunroof, civil service records show."

Ma'am You're Speeding, Here I Need You to Blow On This!

Former North Las Vegas police officer, James Vernon Clayton had a practice of "soliciting dates" during the traffic stops of women he considered attractive.  He just entered a plea of guilty to three counts of attempted misconduct and two counts of "oppression under color of office."  Apparently Patrolman Clayton tried to enter guilty pleas at a hearing last month but would not admit that he asked for sex in exchange for dropping tickets, the court would not accept his plea.

At yesterday's hearing Clayton admitted he asked for oral sex from one of the women he pulled over for speeding.  He is to be sentenced May 18th,

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/dec/08/officer-accused-seeking-dates-during-traffic-stops/