Philly PA, lovely bastion of corruption - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

dksuddeth · 07-21-2009, 01:53 PM

Philly cop assaults woman, DA files no charges

Quote:

WHEN AGNES LAWLESS and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.

There was little damage, and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of doubt often falls to the cop.

Except when there's video.

The clerk on duty the night that Lopez confronted Lawless told investigators that three times after the incident, police officers spoke with him about the security tape and that two asked if he would erase it.

An Internal Affairs investigation found no misconduct among officers who spoke with the clerk about the tape. But it concluded that Lopez had verbally abused Lawless, had jammed his gun into her face and had violated departmental procedures that night.

Although some details of what happened are in dispute, it's clear that the Lukoil encounter occurred a few minutes after the blue Mazda in which Lawless was riding was rear-ended at Decatur and Comly roads by a Buick Century driven at slow speed by Lopez Jr.

Lopez Jr. left the scene and drove to the Eighth District police station, at Academy and Red Lion roads, to report the incident to his father. Officer Lopez and his son then left in his patrol car and soon saw the blue Mazda in the Lukoil parking lot.

Officer Lopez entered the store with his son and got into a physical confrontation with Lawless. Lawless ended up in cuffs, charged with assaulting Lopez.

At a preliminary hearing four days later, Officer Lopez testified that he'd come into the store and ordered Lawless and the three young men with her to the floor, and that "she freaked out, started punching, slapping and kicking me multiple times."

Based on the officer's testimony, Judge Robert Blasi ordered that the case proceed to trial.

But four days later, investigators from Internal Affairs got the store's surveillance video of the incident, and things changed quickly.

Lopez was assigned to desk duty and his weapon was removed. He failed to show up at three trial dates for Lawless' assault charges, which then were dropped.

The District Attorney's Office reviewed the case and declined to prosecute Officer Lopez in December. Eight days later, he was reissued his weapon and returned to full duty.

He said it's also troubling that so many officers apparently sought to dispose of the video, the key evidence in the case, and suffered no consequence after Internal Affairs investigated.

I'm truly sickened at this completely blatant whitewash of a violent and potentially fatal assault on a woman who had committed no crime at all.

Cynthetiq · 07-21-2009, 02:03 PM

There would be massive letter writing campaigns to each and every single judge, state politician, city politician, and the public at large.

Hell, since "Eventually, Lukoil turned the tapes over to Internal Affairs and to Whatley's family." it should just be leaked on YouTube, so that the courts or the officer will be pressured to make it right.

Xerxys · 07-21-2009, 02:05 PM

dk do you work for the media or something? Very nice edit of the article to help sensationalize the entire thing. I would recommend actually reading the entire article to anyone who wants to comment on this.

dksuddeth · 07-21-2009, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xerxys

dk do you work for the media or something? Very nice edit of the article to help sensationalize the entire thing. I would recommend actually reading the entire article to anyone who wants to comment on this.

well xerxys, did I really miss anything from the whole article that would exonerate officer Lopez, his son, or the 3 law enforcement officers that tried to coerce the clerk in to erasing the tape? or the Internal affairs officers that found no misconduct on the part of those officers for their attempted obstruction of justice? If I did, please, point it out to us.

07-21-2009, 02:03 PM	#2 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	There would be massive letter writing campaigns to each and every single judge, state politician, city politician, and the public at large. Hell, since "Eventually, Lukoil turned the tapes over to Internal Affairs and to Whatley's family." it should just be leaked on YouTube, so that the courts or the officer will be pressured to make it right. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

07-21-2009, 02:05 PM	#3 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	dk do you work for the media or something? Very nice edit of the article to help sensationalize the entire thing. I would recommend actually reading the entire article to anyone who wants to comment on this.