Tuesday, July 10, 2007

ABC 7 News - Virginia Tech Families May Seek Private Investigator

ABC 7 News - Virginia Tech Families May Seek Private Investigator: "The relatives of some of the Virginia Tech shooting victims may hire a private investigator to monitor a panel set up to review the incident.

An attorney representing the families of more than a dozen victims has asked the state to put an investigator on the panel who would be accountable to his clients.

Thomas Fadoul says some relatives of the victims are concerned that the panel, appointed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, could get bogged down on extraneous issues. The families want to know about decisions made in response to the initial shootings and why the campus was not closed when they occurred. "

Investigator says CIA ran secret jails in Europe

LJWorld.com / Investigator says CIA ran secret jails in Europe: "The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday.

The CIA called the report “distorted,” but stopped short of denying the existence of prisons in the two countries — the agency said it does not discuss the location of its overseas facilities. Poland and Romania also vehemently denied the allegations.

“High value detainees” like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of “remarkable importance,” were taken to Romania."

Investigator who died after drug raid named Westchester's officer of year

Investigator who died after drug raid named Westchester's officer of year: "Stuart Cohen, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office senior investigator who died from an illness that officials say he contracted during a drug raid, has been posthumously named the county's officer of the year.

Cohen's parents accepted a plaque from the county police chiefs association during a ceremony Wednesday at Luciano's Italian Restaurant in Yonkers.

District Attorney Janet DiFiore, who was chief of narcotics when Cohen was hired by her office in the 1990s, joined the fallen officer's widow and dozens of law enforcement officers for the event.

'Stu Cohen was a very brave and honorable police officer,' DiFiore said yesterday. 'He was one of the best police officers I ever worked with. He was tenacious and never gave up. He was very honest and ethical. He also had a big, bouncy, very pleasant and pleasing personality.'"

Monday, July 02, 2007

Operation Crown Strike arrests made

Untitled Document: "Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes Thursday announced the arrest of 11 people charged with running illegal drug operations in Crown Heights. The investigation began in the summer of 2006, when community leaders, at a routine meeting with Hynes, expressed outrage over the armed, organized drug dealers terrorizing their neighborhood.

A joint investigation by the Brooklyn DA’s Office and the NYPD uncovered several independently operating drug gangs dealing narcotics at multiple locations throughout the section of Crown Heights surrounding the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

Extensive video surveillance showed one dealer weighing out cocaine on a scale and another drug dealer using binoculars to monitor the block for police activity.

In addition to counter surveillance, the highly organized drug dealers used techniques such as changing clothes frequently to disguise their appearances and purposely neglecting to repair rotting and broken floor boards in drug stash houses, hoping to injure police in the event of a raid. While executing a search warrant, a KCDA detective investigator fell six feet through a damaged floor and broke her arm."

Independent investigator to review Berthoud crash

9NEWS - Article - Independent investigator to review Berthoud crash: "9NEWS has learned the Larimer County District Attorney will hire an outside investigator to review new allegations about a crash that cost two high school wrestlers their legs.

The new allegations are the result of a 9Wants to Know investigation into the details of the accident.

The Larimer County DA's office asked for a continuance in the case during a court hearing on Thursday afternoon.

The driver who hit the boys on January 15, 18-year-old Michelle Berra, is charged with two counts of careless driving. "

Texas investigator questions Miss. prisoner about murders

Hattiesburg American - www.hattiesburgamerican.com - Hattiesburg, Miss.: "Investigators searching for answers in the possible serial killings of seven women believed abducted from truck stops in several Southern states have again questioned a man imprisoned in Mississippi on an unrelated murder charge.
A Texas investigator visited Mississippi last month to interview state inmate John Robert Williams, officials said. Investigators from a multistate task force also came to Mississippi to question Williams and his girlfriend, Rachel Cumberland, two years ago.
Six of the victims were known truck-stop prostitutes whose nude or partially clothed bodies were found in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi between 2003 and 2004.
Williams, 30, is serving a life sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman on an unrelated murder charge.
Williams pleaded guilty in 2004 to the kidnapping and shooting death of Nikki Hill, a Neshoba County woman that he and Cumberland met at a casino. Cumberland, 37, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case and is serving a 20-year sentence.
Lt. Col. David Shaw, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, said no other cases have been officially connected to the two, according to a www.clarionledger.com article."