Theft Charges Dismissed
In Atlantic County, New Jersey, the Law Offices of Robert L. Tarver, Jr.
secured a dismissal of an Indictment for our client who was facing Burglary
and Theft charges. Our client was charged with Burglary and Theft for
breaking into a residential home and taking numerous items The prosecution
had several witness statements saying that our client was guilty. We investigated
the case, found our own witnesses, and obtained a lock expert to show
that it could not have been our client that broke into the structure and
stole the items in question. Ultimately, our proofs won the day…..
It is just an example of why we say, “The Good Lawyers are in Court
changing the Law, but the Great Lawyers are on the Streets Changing the
Facts”.
View The Official Case Document Here.
On Aaron Hernandez….and Juries
Now that the Aaron Hernandez case is finished, there are a few observations
to be made. I watched jurors give a number of interviews after the verdict.
We live in an age where everyone wants to be a star…everyone wants
to be noticed. Juror narcissism, however, is dangerous. Most observers
agree that the Hernandez case was tried without many errors. But the Juror
interviews are a Defense Attorney’s dream. For Example, I listened
to one Juror say that he believed what the prosecution said because Hernandez
didn’t testify to dispute it. The constitutional right against self
incrimination indicates that defendants do not have to testify in criminal
cases. In jury trials, the Judge tells jurors that they cannot use a defendant’s
failure to testify as evidence against him. Looks like this jury has given
Hernandez the best shot he has at an appeal.
DUI Dismissed
The Law Offices of Robert L. Tarver, Jr. scored a major victory in Gloucester
City, New Jersey, where we secured a dismissal of all charges in a DUI
case. Our client, Jimmy K., was driving across the Delaware Memorial Bridge
when he was stopped by Port Authority Police. The officers charged him
with DUI citing high-speed and reckless driving. We were able to demonstrate
that the officers were inaccurate in their reporting and that the methods
they used to test our client were improper and unreliable. The result….all
charges dismissed.
What happens with police bullets that miss their targets?
By James V. Cook
Some commentators say North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shot
Walter Scott eight times in the back. That’s not right. Officer
Slager shot Scott only
five times in the back. Three of his eight bullets continued down the path
looking for a place to land.
Police bullets can travel over a mile and they don’t care where they
end up. A tree or a child are met with equal enthusiasm. The bullets make
themselves at home wherever they land. Since most police agencies use
hollow-point bullets that expand and sometimes fragment on contact, the
bullets will tend to spread out in their new home and have a significant
impact on their host.
Police rarely carry the old five- or six-shot revolvers anymore, except
perhaps as a spare gun. Their official weapons are semi-automatic handguns
that carry 13-, 14-, or 15-shot clips with another bullet already in the
chamber. Police typically carry two or three extra clips.
There’s an old story from central Florida where officers cornered
a fugitive suspected of killing an officer, shooting him 110 times. When
a reporter asked the sheriff why they shot him 110 times, the Sheriff
was quoted as responding, “They ran out of ammunition.” That
rarely happens now.
A few years ago, I had a case where police fired 137 bullets at an unarmed
man sitting in his car. The officers were just a few yards away but they
only hit him 22 times. The other 115 bullets hit the car or some other
car in the parking lot, or the walls of a nearby apartment complex, or
went through an apartment window. In this case, no one was killed but
the doomed man in the car.
The only civilian eyewitness to the shooting believed that officers were
trying to kill her as well.
Another of my cases involved a police officer who wrongfully killed an
unarmed young man, then fired a shot in the direction of his girlfriend,
the only living witness. The officer said the shot was accidental but
it would have struck her in the middle of her back if not for a metal
seat brace that deflected the bullet. As it was, she was only struck by
fragments of glass and lead.
I was involved in another case where an officer fired seven shots at an
unarmed young woman in her car when she tried to drive away from him.
Two bullets went into the back window and one bullet went into her. No
one ever figured out where the other four bullets went.
Police agencies train their officers to shoot for “center mass,”
that is, the vital organs. They are trained to keep firing until they
feel the threat is over. Sometimes that takes a lot of bullets and a lot
of bullets end up going wild.
Just a few more examples. In May of 2011, Miami police fired 130 bullets
at a driver who crashed during a traffic pursuit, killing the driver with
16 shots but also hitting four bystanders. In August of 2012, nine people
were hit by police bullets when New York officers opened fire on a suspect.
In September of 2013, they hit two bystanders while aiming at an unarmed
black man – charging the man they tried to kill with the bystander
injuries. A 2008 Rand study showed New York police only hit their target
30 percent of the time, 18 percent if the target is shooting back.
In May, 2014, in Cleveland, another 137 bullets were poured into a car,
killing a speeder who refused to stop as well as his passenger. The pattern
of gunshots in the windshield and the fact that the passenger was hit
more times than the driver seemed to indicate that police were more interested
in killing her than the driver. In October 2014, Stockton, California
police fired 600 bullets into a car they knew held a hostage, predictably
killing her along with her kidnapper.
The trend for police agencies, large and small, is toward military-style
weapons and massive firepower. This is happening despite declining police
officer gun deaths. Last year, 50 of the nation’s nearly one million
sworn officers were killed by guns, up from 32 the year before but less
than half the 1970’s average. Officers too are not infrequently
hit by stray police bullets.
While statistics clearly show that police bullets that hit their targets
are primarily intended for young men of color, the bullets that miss do
not show the same ethnic or gender prejudices.
Yes, it is most often about race. But when police over-react, none of us is safe.
(James Cook is a civil rights lawyer who lives in Tallahassee, Florida,
and practices police misconduct litigation throughout the state.)