Charges dropped against
Texas sheriff’s deputies accused of sexually violating woman during traffic
stop
By Nick Barrickman
18 August 2017
18 August 2017
A legal
representative of 23-year-old Charnesia Corley announced Monday plans to file
suit against the Harris County Sheriff’s Department days after charges against
two deputies were dropped by the local district attorney’s office. Officers
Ronaldine Pierre and William Strong had been facing charges of official
oppression after a 2015 roadside stop resulted in the officers forcibly
restraining the young woman as they conducted a warrantless cavity search.
Corley had consented
to a vehicle search after officers claimed to smell marijuana. After having
found nothing in Corley’s car, officers insisted they do an on-the-spot cavity
search.
According to Corley,
officers insisted on searching her, responding “So?” when she expressed her
discomfort with the forced strip search. An 11-minute police dash-cam video
shows Corley lying face-down with her pants off as officers conduct the
procedure. At the end of the video, Corley can be heard saying “that was
extreme, to pull my clothes down, in front of people. … People were
watching—you didn’t see people walking around?...it’s not like I’m shooting
away,” to which an officer coldly states, “It’s just one of those things. ...
If you had been honest from the beginning. ... You escalated it. I gave you
several outs.”
Officers eventually
found 0.2 ounces of marijuana on Corley, an amount not warranting jail time
under local practice. Corley was later charged with resisting arrest for
struggling against the forced cavity search.
On August 4, the
District Attorney’s office inexplicably dropped charges against the two
officers, stating “significant” new facts had come to light that justified the
empaneling of a new grand jury. That grand jury subsequently dismissed all
charges.
Natasha Sinclair,
assistant district attorney for Harris County, argued for the legality of the
officers’ actions, telling Fox News, “No one in this office stands by the
search the way it was conducted. No one condones that. No one thinks it’s
appropriate. It should not have happened. However, bad decisions, bad judgment,
may not rise to the level of a criminal offense.”
Due to grand jury
secrecy laws, the exonerating “evidence” for the two officers will not be
released, the effect being that the police officers charged with raping
Charnesia Corley will be given more privacy than their victim.
In announcing the new
charges, Sam Cammack, the victim’s attorney, stated, “If what those officers
did to Miss Corley was not mistreatment—did not amount to rape—I don’t know
what is.” Cammack suggested the local DA’s office had colluded with the county
to frustrate the prosecution: “We know there’s been conversations between the
county attorney and the district attorney’s office. … They even shared our
depositions of Ms. Corley with the district attorney’s office.” Cammack has
called for a special investigator to oversee the case against the county.
Family calls for federal
investigation of Mississippi police department after man killed in case of
mistaken identity
The family of Ismael
Lopez, a 41-year-old father shot to death by police in Southaven, Mississippi,
last month, has called for the Department of Justice to investigate the
Southaven Police Department for the July 27 slaying.
“They didn’t release
the information on the police officers who were involved, they haven’t released
any relevant information as to how this could have happened; most importantly
they haven’t offered any condolences or apologies for killing an innocent man,”
stated family attorney Aaron Neglia.
Lopez was killed inside
his home by plainclothes cops. Police claim to have been responding to domestic
violence charges brought against a neighbor, mistakenly confusing Lopez’s home
address with that of the suspect. It has been revealed that not only had police
failed to respond to the correct address, but they had failed even to obtain a
warrant prior to doing so.
According to police,
Lopez aggressively confronted them with a firearm, exchanging fire with
officers before being killed by a gunshot to the head. Lopez’s family has
asserted these claims are false, arguing that not only was Lopez unarmed at the
time of his death, but that police had failed to announce who they were before
shooting.
“All he heard was
pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, and then pop,
pop, pop of the gunshot,” recounted Neglia, who then added, “We’ve been flooded
with phone calls of police brutality, police shootings, family members that
were murdered by Southaven Police.”
Lopez’s death has
resulted in community protests against the Southaven police. “The police
department is there to protect and serve, and that’s the opposite of what’s
happening right now, so we need to address this immediately,” stated local
pastor Rolando Rostro to a CBS local affiliate at an August 3 protest against
the killing. “This is a community issue, not just a one Latino issue. … It’s
all of us,” said Rostro.
A cell phone video
was released Wednesday capturing the moments after police officers shot Dahmeek
McDonald, a 22-year-old African American in Troy, New York. McDonald, who had
done time for drug possession, was wanted for violating parole when he was
confronted inside his vehicle and shot twice by Troy police, with one bullet
entering his torso and another grazing his head.
In a video,
taken by a bystander, McDonald can be heard screaming for help as blood pours
from his scalp onto the pavement. “Why’d you all shoot me? Why’d you all shoot me?
I’m about to die,” McDonald cries. Bystanders can also be seen calling to the
police to get McDonald help. The shooting resulted in spontaneous protests
forming around city hall, led by family and friends of McDonald.
Troy police have not
released footage of the moments before the shooting, nor have they stated
whether McDonald had been armed at the time of the encounter. Witnesses to the
event claimed the police had not been provoked. “I literally stepped two steps
back and pow, pow, pow,” said Brittany Hughes, who had been speaking to
McDonald moments before police interjected. Hughes stated that the officers had
guns drawn before even stopping their vehicle, “so you have all the intentions
of coming to shoot somebody.”
As in many
impoverished areas across the country, Troy police have a record of brutality,
including three fatal shootings in less than two years. “At the end of the day,
nobody trusts the police,” stated Hughes to a local news publication. “If me
and my boyfriend get into an altercation and I call to ask you to get him out
of the house, how do I know you won’t shoot him?”
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