Woman Sent to Jail for Asking for Officer’s Business Card Wins Her Lawsuit

[palani]

How ya' going to know where to send the bill if they got no business card? Personally, I would ask for cash. Banks are in the business of issuing credit.

http://colonel6.com/2011/04/19/woman-sent-to-jail-for-asking-for-officer%E2%80%99s-business-card-wins-her-lawsuit/


Shei’Meka Newmann just won a major victory for herself and for everyone who has ever been victimized by the system. The 33-year old Oregon woman won an $82,000 judgment against the Portland police after she was arrested for simply asking for a police officer’s business card.

The incident occurred in February, 2009 when the woman noticed a questionable and seemingly brutal arrest of a fellow citizen. This led her to walk up to one of the officers, Aaron Dauchy, who’d grabbed a 29-year old black man off a train and handcuffed him on the ground. When Ms. Newmann asked why the officer was dealing with the man with so much force, he told her to mind her own business.

Ms. Newmann didn’t stop at that point. She then went to Dauchy’s partner, Officer Jim Sandvik, to ask for a business card. But Sandvik refused to give her the card and took her ID. When she stepped forward to read the officer’s name on his badge, he hit her in the chest and handcuffed her. She was then taken to jail and released the next day without her money, her cell phone or even her shoe laces.

Sandvik attempted to convince the jury that Ms. Newmann was yelling and belligerent. He also said that she approached him from behind while he was dealing with four drunken men. But jurors were unconvinced after watching the surveillance video, which showed the officers to be untruthful in their version of the facts.

One officer, Paul Valdez, actually testified that Ms. Newmann was polite and respectful to the officers when she approached them. He also said that she didn’t interfere with their duties in the way they described.

Newmann said that she wasn’t going to sue at first, but decided to do so because she encourages the students she mentors to stand up for what is right. She grew up in several foster homes as a child and then graduated from high school with a 3.8 GPA. She has also been a foster mom herself and has received awards for outstanding volunteer work.

Reading the story about Shei’Meka Newmann made me proud. When citizens stand up in the face of tyranny, it makes America a little bit better every time. Additionally, Newmann’s experience is incredibly common, as police officers are known for abusing their authority. As the son of a police officer, I can testify that many officers do not like their power to be questioned, putting law-abiding citizens in harm’s way for simply asking the wrong question.

Americans must work to protect our civil liberties from overzealous police. In a nation that has fallen in love with mass incarceration, each of us finds our freedom at risk, because one tiny incident can cause us to have an experience as humiliating as the one endured by Ms. Newmann. There is no reason that this good woman and upstanding citizen should have been brutalized, arrested and sent to jail. The department was lucky to only have to pay $82,000 for nearly ruining this woman’s life by giving her a criminal record.

On a brighter note, it should be recognized that it was the testimony of an honest police officer, Paul Valdez, that helped Ms. Newmann convince the jury to believe her side of the story. This shows that not every police officer is corrupt and many of them are seeking to do the right thing. The world can always find a use for ethical police officers, and they should serve as righteous partners in our quest to end police abuse everywhere.

[osoab]

Office Valdez meets job termination/suspension in 3, 2, 1.....

[Son-of-Liberty]

It is good that she won the lawsuit but why is it that it is so hard to sue the officers in question personally? When they arrested her for nothing shouldn't there be a way to get at their assets since they were acting in a non-professional manner? it is not like the arrest was an innocent mistake and they were just doing their job.

If we could start to economically cripple bad cops their behavior would change quickly i would think. Around here people are always suing the cops and winning. Millions a year. They don't care cause they can just hit the tax payer up for the needed funds.

[po boy]

The police or cities that employ them have to have liability insurance and just like any other policy, put enough claims in and you will be cancelled.

When the insurance companies start to put the squeeze on you can bet the policies will loosen up they will self insure or in extreme cases go bankrupt.

[palani]

De facto officers (ones with no posted bond) have unlimited liability for their actions.

Mostly they are not held accountable for their actions because people don't go about it properly. Instead they just jump to the end result and place a lien that is unenforceable through court because improper procedure was followed.

Proper procedure is

1) send them a bill (notice)
2) after several weeks send them a bill a bit more strongly worded (fault)
3) after another couple weeks send them a default notice
4) haul the paperwork into the recorders office and record a lien against the officers assets (makes it less likely he is going to skip town after selling assets).
5) obtain a lis pendens from the clerk so that local businesses can be informed of the scoundrels lien status.
6) go to court with the paperwork and obtain a judgment against the debtor (might be 6 months to a year to get to this point).
7) collect on the judgment ... get the sheriff to seize enough assets to cover the debt .. this could be assigned to a third party debt collector (or at this point the debt could even be sold to them for a discount).

Obviously you have to know what you are about in this procedure. As I have not attempted it myself I don't consider myself to be any sort of expert but I know you just don't go in and record a lien without giving due process. You can get your tit in a wringer if you skip a step (paper terrorism).

[po boy]

Just curious how are you going to claim a debt without a contract.
It seems to me a claim of civil rights violations is less likely to end up with a terrorism charge.
One can easily find success for violations of civil rights.
I haven't seen cases of people put in jail for those.

[palani]

Just curious how are you going to claim a debt without a contract.
Behavior is a contract. No memorandum necessary. After all, you don't have a contract with the waitress when she brings you breakfast do you? [the correct answer is ... yes you do have a contract ... you don't have a memorandum of it though]

Notice pleading is the current system in vogue. The response to the notice is what is important. Ignore it (silence) is acceptance. The other alternatives are to pay the bill (same outcome as silence), deny it or respond with a counteroffer. Anything that smacks of argument leads to hearing. The only four responses possible are: accept, reject, go silent or counteroffer.



It seems to me a claim of civil rights violations is less likely to end up with a terrorism charge.
One can easily find success for violations of civil rights.
I haven't seen cases of people put in jail for those.

Frequently the lack of witnesses is going to be a problem. As in the case being discusses most of the policymen were willing to perjure themselves. Were it not for the one honest copiceman this victim would have lost as well.

Say you were to win a civil rights violation case. Do you suppose it would be the insurance company for the state/municipality that pays rather than the one responsible. With the method given responsibility for the improper action gets charged directly to the one doing the action.

[po boy]

She did win with a civil rights case.

Show me a success with the procedure you outline. It sounds a lot like CIC, that Ben Lowery who promotes CIC ideas hasn't show any proof either.

It sounds like your trying to do a commercial process.
What services would imply that you provided the officer and the implication that he/she owes you this debt and where they agreed to it.
How, even if they default on you process are you going to enforce payment.

The lady also had video evidence as well as the honest officer's testimony.

[Dogman]

I looked to see what happened to the cop. But I guess he is still a valued employee of the city.

[Joe King]

Of course, after all, his was an isolated incident. lol

[palani]

She did win with a civil rights case. I agree.


Show me a success with the procedure you outline. It sounds a lot like CIC, that Ben Lowery who promotes CIC ideas hasn't show any proof either. The idea is to shut the policyman down with commerce. To do so you would need to give him the same due process you would expect.

Actions are punishable as criminal or civily by damages. Should you lack video or witnesses yet have been damaged exactly how are you going to obtain a remedy by any other method?


It sounds like your trying to do a commercial process.
Everything is contract. Everything is commercial.


What services would imply that you provided the officer and the implication that he/she owes you this debt and where they agreed to it. If you believe you need to provide a service pull out a hankerchief and wipe his windshield. If he is a K-9 person and his K-9 takes a dump pick it up (pretend to dispose of it but keep the evidence) and send him a bill for picking up his dogs poop. Be creative.



How, even if they default on you process are you going to enforce payment. The sheriff should do this for you. But then if this method fails you might find an Italian guy named Guido and sell the debt to him. I suspect he will know how to collect.

[Hatha Sunahara]

No one is supposed to be happy after an encounter with the police, but the police. I doubt the money she got was enough to compensate her for her pain. I bet most of the award was used to pay her lawyer. The only people who win if you show up in court, either as a plaintiff or a defendant, are the 'officers' of the court--including the judges, prosecutors, all the defense lawyers, and every single cop on the police force. The only reason she won her suit was because a jury decided based on evidence. A judge would have ignored the evidence and ruled in favor of the police--out of habit.

There are people outside the courthouse in downtown Portland handing out flyers that advocate jury nullification. Juries are not part of the 'criminal justice complex'. Juries are pockets of virtue in a sea of corruption.

Hatha

[Joe King]

FIJA is cool.

[sirgonzo420]

"Oh no he di'int!"

[ShortJohnSilver]

It would have been nice if a Bivens style claim had been filed, stripping the officers in question of their immunity from prosecution, AND forcing the corrupt cops to pay their own lawyers rather than have the city paid lawyers do the job.

[po boy]

Palani,

While there are various forms of contract not all contracts are commercial.

I don't see how the process you outlined is going to be a valid commercial contract.

A debt collector can claim a debt but without proof and a judgement I doubt one is going to get the sheriff to collect.

Sure you could hire Guido but that would be criminal.

[palani]

Palani,

While there are various forms of contract not all contracts are commercial.

If you want to divorce your wife her lawyer can put a pricetag on how much you love her.



I don't see how the process you outlined is going to be a valid commercial contract.
I believe you.


A debt collector can claim a debt but without proof and a judgement I doubt one is going to get the sheriff to collect.
Just as the real trial is held alongside the road the trial in these types of actions is in the correspondence and the behavior exhibited.


Sure you could hire Guido but that would be criminal. Where did I say HIRE Guido? I said sell him the debt. Give it to him for $.10 on the dollar. I have no interest in his collection methods. That is between him and the victim ... ooops, meant to say the debtor.

[Joe King]

The injured party in this case should use her federal benefit to file a Title 42 suit against the police, the department and the City.



http://www.utd.uscourts.gov/forms/civilrt_guide.pdf

[po boy]

If we don't have a marriage license rather a private contract the terms are already laid out. Her lawyer's interpretation of my love for her has nothing to do with the terms.

Can you show a case where what you outlined works without a judgement.

So you judge the policyman owes you a debt then sell it off to Guido. What happens when the policyman challenges the validity of the debt?

[palani]

If we don't have a marriage license rather a private contract the terms are already laid out. Her lawyer's interpretation of my love for her has nothing to do with the terms. You may have to convince him of that.


Can you show a case where what you outlined works without a judgement. Where did I say there was no judgment? Default is judgment.


So you judge the policyman owes you a debt then sell it off to Guido. What happens when the policyman challenges the validity of the debt? Once you have defaulted you have no argument that can be raised to cancel the default.

Besides, wouldn't that be between him and Guido? I have no knowledge of Guido's negotiating practices. Maybe he learned them on the big screen


Korben Dallas: We need to find the leader, Mangalores won't fight without the leader.
Aknot: One more shot, and we start killing hostages!
Korben Dallas: That's the leader.
Aknot: Send someone to negotiate.
Fog: [as Dallas looks at him] Uh, I-I've never negotiated before.
Korben Dallas: Do you mind if I try?
Fog: No, sure, sure, sure.
[shouts]
Fog: We're sending somebody in to negotiate!
[Corben walks into the room and shoots Aknot between the eyes. As he falls, the other Mangalores drop their weapons and bow over him, keening]
Korben Dallas: Anybody else want to negotiate?
Fog: Wh-where did he learn to n-negotiate like that?
President Lindberg: [looking at General Munro] I wonder.

[po boy]

If said individual get your bill and disputes it during you commercial process how are you going to get paid?

[palani]

If said individual get your bill and disputes it during you commercial process how are you going to get paid? Individual items in dispute might go to hearing.

The way you phrased your sentence still would leave me in good position. "Dispute" means argue. This is how the IRS wins all the time. They send you a bill for $50,000 and you decide to argue that you don't owe "that much". By doing so you agree that you owe "something".

The ONLY way to attack a bill (short of just paying it) is counter offer. Everything else is dishonor and this is how you lose.

[po boy]

Where was the hearing in the process you outlined?


Proper procedure is

1) send them a bill (notice)
2) after several weeks send them a bill a bit more strongly worded (fault)
3) after another couple weeks send them a default notice
4) haul the paperwork into the recorders office and record a lien against the officers assets (makes it less likely he is going to skip town after selling assets).
5) obtain a lis pendens from the clerk so that local businesses can be informed of the scoundrels lien status.
6) go to court with the paperwork and obtain a judgment against the debtor (might be 6 months to a year to get to this point).
7) collect on the judgment ... get the sheriff to seize enough assets to cover the debt .. this could be assigned to a third party debt collector (or at this point the debt could even be sold to them for a discount).

[palani]

Where was the hearing in the process you outlined?
Due process ... notice, right to inquire, going silent, notified of fault, continued silence, default ... hearing over proceed to sentencing (in this case lien)

It is the same due process you require (or should require)

[po boy]

Joe blow cut the grass at my house without my knowledge while I'm away sends me a bill and I dispute the validity of the bill how is that a just bill.

Again do you have proof that this works.

[palani]

Joe blow cut the grass at my house without my knowledge while I'm away sends me a bill and I dispute the validity of the bill how is that a just bill. City mows your ground because of tall grass and sends you a bill. You dispute the validity of the bill. Who wins?


Again do you have proof that this works.Works every time for the IRS. Do you have any doubts about this statement?

[po boy]

Without the 2 of those what proof do you have that the process works?

[palani]

Without the 2 of those what proof do you have that the process works?

You can go to creditorsincommerce.com and listen to about 120 hours of audio to form your own opinion of what works and what does not.

[Ponce]

Lucky her........she didn't get shot.......
=======================================

With budget tight, Sacramento County DA cuts unit monitoring police shootings
Share

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Jul. 21, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Wrestling with budget cuts, the District Attorney's Office has shut down the only countywide unit in Sacramento that had independently monitored police shootings to determine whether the officers' actions were justified and whether the investigations into them were conducted thoroughly.

As a result, the DA's office for the first time in decades did not dispatch its own team of investigators to independently review a fatal shooting earlier this month by a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy in the Arden Arcade area.

The DA's monitoring efforts have not resulted in a criminal prosecution in Sacramento County for at least a decade, and one local lawyer who specializes in suing the police said the unit has acted as something of a "rubber stamp" over the years.

Still, the unit has lent an element of oversight that rank-and-file officers, police managers and their critics say is essential to maintaining good relations between cops and the community.

"Obviously, it's a critical piece in making sure that the perception of the public is maintained in regard to the Police Department," said Brent Meyer, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association. "I think we're going to lose out in the long run with this being cut."

District Attorney Jan Scully cut the unit in response to a $6.9 million budget shortfall for her office that is expected to result in 42 layoffs, including 31 prosecutors.

Scully's chief deputy, Cindy Besemer, said the officer-involved shooting team became a budget target in the face of higher priorities, such as prosecuting violent crimes.

The office also is looking at cutting prosecutors who focus on drug crimes, theft and misdemeanors. It has no plans to reduce prosecution of In-Home Supportive Services fraud, Besemer said. Employees assigned to the IHSS unit are paid from a special state fund.

In the past 10 years, the Sacramento County DA's office has investigated 93 officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths. None has resulted in a criminal prosecution.

Besemer said those numbers put the shooting unit first in line for the budget hit.

"It's not like we have rogue law enforcement agencies who go around killing people or there are a lot of suspicious deaths in custody," she said. "I think our law enforcement agencies have been very responsible here, and as a citizen, I don't know that I would much care about it."


Practices vary by county

Stewart Katz, a Sacramento lawyer who frequently sues local law enforcement agencies on use-of-force and custody issues, criticized the DA's probes as a "rubber stamp" for police.

"I don't think they've ever found a shooting not to be justified," Katz said. "You could write their reports with a cookie cutter."

At the same time, Katz said, his own reviews have shown that most Sacramento police shootings "seem to have been within the realm of acceptable police behavior."

Katz said it's been more than 10 years since he's won a payout for a client who sued over a Sacramento law enforcement shooting. But in 2007, he won a $1 million settlement for plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed over three county jail suicides. Katz said the DA's investigators turned up critical information in those cases that helped the plaintiffs.

Marty Vranicar, the assistant chief executive officer of the California District Attorneys Association, said large counties tend to have police shooting units. Smaller ones usually don't, although some, like Yolo County, do.

"We know that a lot of DA's offices are dealing with severe budget cuts," Vranicar said. "This takes a tremendous amount of resources."

State Department of Justice investigators step in when asked by police or prosecutors, spokeswoman Lynda Gledhill said. But the attorney general's unit that conducts police shooting probes also is in line to be eliminated by budget cuts, Gledhill said.

Under its now-abandoned protocol, the DA's office kept two investigators on call to respond to police shootings. Investigators also responded to all in-custody deaths, whether at the jail or during the course of an arrest.

DA investigators generally acted as monitors of the police agencies' internal probes and turned their reports over to prosecutors in the Special Investigations Unit for final examination.

Budget cuts also have eviscerated special investigations. The DA's office will keep one attorney in the unit to handle real estate fraud on a state contract. Three other lawyers have been reassigned, including the one who handled public-corruption cases such as the library kickback scandal, in which a trial is pending for three defendants.


'The wrong message'

As for police shootings, Sacramento sheriff's spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said his agency found out July 3 that things had changed.

Nobody from the DA's office rolled out the night deputies fatally shot William Eugene French in the Arden Arcade area. French, 49, had shot at a sheriff's patrol car with a rifle, then approached deputies with a handgun and refused their orders to drop it.

"We recognize that certain cuts are an inevitable byproduct of the budget situation, and we're not one to second-guess any decision that District Attorney Scully makes," Ramos said. "We also recognize the need to have some kind of third party reviewing incidents like that, a system of checks and balances."

Ramos said Sheriff Scott Jones has spoken with Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel and the heads of the other local law enforcement agencies in the county to talk about creating another oversight body. Under Jones' plan, each of the other agencies would appoint representatives to the panel, which would then monitor the law enforcement agencies' investigations.

Allen Hopper, police practices policy director for the Northern California ACLU, said he is not aware of other DA's offices dropping their officer-involved shooting units.

"It sends the wrong message to the community," Hopper said. "There are relatively few investigations of this sort, but they are incredibly important. They really do strike at the heart of the relationship between the police and the community."



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/21/3783841/with-budget-tight-sacramento-county.html#ixzz1Sp5SfyGP

[po boy]

You can go to creditorsincommerce.com and listen to about 120 hours of audio to form your own opinion of what works and what does not.

I have and still haven't seen any proof and when you ask for proof........

I can see how a civil rights case works though.

I saw that Ben Lowery guy try that with the police over a motor bike and lose. See I don't buy into the whole I'm a king without a castle thing.

[palani]

I have and still haven't seen any proof and when you ask for proof........
Let those with eyes to see and ears to hear ....


I saw that Ben Lowery guy try that with the police over a motor bike and lose. See I don't buy into the whole I'm a king without a castle thing. Not familiar with that one so don't have a clue as to his method, what he did wrong (if anything). As to the king without a castle thing, set your goals low enough and you will be done when you have achieved them. Choose to act like a slave and no doubt you will be treated as one.

[palani]

Here ... time to lighten up a little ... a joke with a moral

THE DEAD COW LECTURE

First-year students at the Purdue Vet School were attending their first
anatomy class with a real dead cow. They all gathered around the surgery
table with the body covered with a white sheet.
The professor started the class by telling them, "In Veterinary medicine it
is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor. The first is that
you not be disgusted by anything involving the animal's body." For an
example, the professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt
of the cow, withdrew it, and stuck his finger in his mouth. "Go ahead and do
the same thing," he told his students.
The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took
turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead cow and sucking on it.
When everyone finished, the Professor looked a them and said, "The second
most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and
sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention. Life's tough but it's
even tougher if you're stupid."

[po boy]

I'd like to SEE some proof?

If these CIC guys are so good then why did Brandon Adams get indicted.

Hell even Ben begged for their help when the process as king didn't work.

[mick silver]

what made her think she has a right to ask for any thing from the great lawman we have . hell i would of lock her up for a few years are just shoot he . dam the nerve of people in this country