A central Florida sheriff was arrested as part of a gambling probe
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — A sheriff in central Florida was arrested Thursday on charges of racketeering and conspiracy as part of what state authorities described as a probe into a massive gambling operation.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez was arrested on second-degree felonies and taken to the jail in nearby Lake County, Florida. Osceola County is south of Orlando, and part of the county is home to Walt Disney World.
Lopez took campaign contributions and personal payments as well as protected the gambling operation, according to a statement put out by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
'As law enforcement, we are held to higher standards of integrity and character than other professions,' Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said in a statement. 'This case revealed that Lopez violated the trust and integrity expected of him as the duly elected sheriff of Osceola County.'
An inquiry sent to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office wasn't initially answered.
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Chicago police determine slain Officer Krystal Rivera was unintentionally shot by fellow cop
Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera was mistakenly shot by a fellow cop during a confrontation with an armed suspect that took her life Thursday, police have announced. In a statement late Friday, the department released a statement saying an investigation had reached the conclusion that Rivera was struck by friendly fire. 'As released in yesterday's preliminary statement, an officer discharged his weapon during the encounter with an armed offender,' the statement read. 'Further investigation revealed the only weapon discharged during this incident was the weapon of the officer, whose gunfire unintentionally struck Officer Rivera.' Rivera was widely praised Friday. Earlier in what would be her final shift, Rivera took two guns off the street, authorities said, only to come face-to-face with a rifle later that night. Rivera, 36, a four-year veteran with a young daughter who lived in the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, was killed after the Gresham (6th) District tactical team she was part of tried to conduct an investigatory stop on a person believed to have a weapon about 9:50 p.m. Thursday in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue. 'The investigation into the aggravated assault of the police officers by the armed offender who pointed the rifle remains ongoing,' the police statement read. 'This offender remains in custody. Detectives also continue to investigate the circumstances that led to the investigative stop preceding the encounter. At this time, no further information is available while the investigation continues.' The statement concluded with a request for prayers for Rivera's family and her partner. An autopsy had found that Rivera was shot in the back. The first Chicago police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year, Rivera was mourned by city officials and her fellow officers, who praised her work ethic and asked Chicagoans to keep her family in their prayers. 'Our officer was young, vibrant and a hard worker,' police Superintendent Larry Snelling said, speaking from the University of Chicago Medical Center early Friday. 'She was a working police officer trying to keep the streets safe.' Flanked by department brass, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other city and state officials, Snelling gave some details about the shooting, but did not offer a full picture of exactly how the shooting unfolded. In response to a reporter's question about the gunfire, Snelling said investigators were waiting on a warrant to search the apartment where the shooting happened. 'Here's the deal: We won't know that until the search warrant is served and we are able to go through that apartment and collect more evidence. The evidence that we collect usually … gives a story of what occurred in there,' Snelling said. 'So until we have all of that information we can't rely on just one source at this time.' Snelling in a news conference that took place hours after the event said the officers first tried to stop someone thought to be armed when the individual ran into an apartment, and the officers followed, he said. There, Snelling said, the team encountered a second person armed with a rifle. One of the officers fired a gun 'at some point' during the confrontation, he said, and another officer was shot, later succumbing to her injuries at University of Chicago Medical Center. 'When the officers followed into that location they were then confronted by a second person who was in that apartment who was armed with a rifle pointed at the officers,' Snelling said. 'At some point the officer discharged the weapon. Our officer was struck. She was then transported by assisting units to the hospital here where she later succumbed to her wounds.' The two people in the apartment ran away and were arrested shortly afterward, Snelling said, though he said officials had 'several' people in custody in connection with the shooting. The department did not specify exactly how many people were in custody as of Friday afternoon. A third officer hurt his wrist and was listed in fair condition, according to a police statement. Investigators recovered three weapons at the scene and were still reviewing body-worn camera footage, Snelling said, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was investigating the shooting. After the shooting, police officers took their wounded colleague to the hospital in a squad car, which crashed and caught fire on the way there because of what Snelling described as a malfunction with the vehicle. Another squad car finished the trip, he said, and the officers in the first car were 'doing fine.' 'The way that she worked, it was evident that she did love her job,' Snelling said. 'She wanted to make Chicago a better place.' Rivera's mother, reached by phone, declined to comment. In a statement posted to social media, the mayor asked Chicagoans to keep Rivera's family in their prayers, especially her young daughter who will 'who will miss her mom for the rest of her life.' Rivera had an 'unmatched work ethic,' Johnson said. 'Officer Rivera was a hero who served on the force for four years. She had a long career in front of her. A bright future was stolen from her family and from her loved ones,' he said in the statement. Family friend Alicia Headrick described Rivera as someone who was 'unapologetically herself and wanted everyone else to be able to tap into that as well.' Headrick, 28 and a Grundy County sheriff's deputy, said she mostly stayed in touch with Rivera via social media. While they occasionally talked about working for two very different law enforcement agencies, Headrick mainly remembered Rivera cheering her on and likened her to an older sister. Rivera had been a single mother for some time and was ferociously independent, she said. '(Rivera) just always wanted to make a life and career for herself and for her daughter,' Headrick said. 'She had a very pure heart that just wanted to serve other people.' The last Chicago officer to suffer fatal injuries on the job was Enrique Martinez, 26. Martinez, who was also assigned to the same Gresham District as Rivera, was fatally shot in November in the 8200 block of South Ingleside Avenue— just one street east of where Rivera was killed Thursday. Outside the hospital early Friday, squad cars lined Cottage Grove Avenue for blocks in every direction. A peer support officer walked people, some of them in tears, in and out of the ambulance bay as others in uniform exchanged hugs in the street. In Chatham, the crime scene spanned multiple blocks as law enforcement agencies fanned out in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Cook County sheriff's deputies walked up and down Maryland Avenue near East 83rd Street with rifles and canine units while tactical teams searched nearby alleys with flashlights. As squad cars lined the streets for several blocks in every direction, a police helicopter circled the area, beaming a searchlight. Residents walked their dogs and filmed the scene on their phones, protesting when officers asked them to back up to Cottage Grove so they could expand the crime scene. Officers appeared to zero in on an alley on the west side of Ingleside. A resident leaned out the window of a courtyard building across the street and asked if they needed to get in. Detectives begin combing the front yard with flashlights. Just before noon Friday, a two-man crew arrived at the Gresham District station to affix purple and black bunting on the building's facade, in keeping with CPD tradition after an officer is killed on the job.
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Outraged Broward sheriff lashes out at state attorney for charging 3 deputies
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony blasted the State Attorney's Office for charging three corrections deputies who are accused of battering a woman they booked into jail almost three years ago. Tony said the deputies never should have been charged, that the woman they're accused of beating attacked and injured them and he is reinstating them. 'So, we're moving forward from an internal-affairs standpoint. Our investigation has been completed. All three deputies will be reinstated to full capacity, and they've been either exonerated of these false allegations or it's been unfounded,' he said at a press briefing Friday morning. BSO Sgt. Zakiyya Polk, Deputy Cleopatra Johnnie and Deputy Denia Walker surrendered to BSO last week on aggravated-battery charges stemming from an Oct. 4, 2022, incident involving a woman being booked into jail on a charge of driving under the influence. Each faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the second-degree felony charge. Eric Schwartzreich, Polk's attorney, said she and the other 'detention deputies have not committed any crimes, or any policy violations.' 'As a criminal defense attorney that represents those that find themselves thrust into the criminal justice system, which at times includes deputies, this is the first time that the Sheriff and I have stood in solidarity and both of us agree that these deputies should not be charged with any crimes,' Schwartzreich said in an email to the Miami Herald. 'This is an important case for all of law enforcement. I applaud the Sheriff on his response and for standing up for the men and women who keep us safe.' According to the deputies' arrest warrant, the woman, 38-year-old Samantha Caputo, became argumentative when the deputies told her to remove her bra as she was changing from her personal clothes to her jail uniform. Polk pushed Caputo, and then Johnnie and Walker punched and kicked her several times, the warrant states. Walker and Polk also pepper-sprayed Caputo, and Polk shot prongs into her with her Taser stun gun, according to the warrant. After the struggle, Caputo had a hematoma under her right eye, bruises and a scar from the Taser prongs, the warrant states. The jail nurse treated her for her injuries, and she was hospitalized days later because the Taser wound became infected, according to the warrant. Tony stressed that security-camera footage shows the deputies used an appropriate amount of force in controlling Caputo. He said Caputo 'struck, scratched and bit' one of the deputies, puncturing the skin and fracturing her finger. 'The video is crystal clear that [the deputies] had demonstrated only the level of force necessary to get this individual back into compliance,' Tony said. 'Our standard is reasonable, necessary force in proportion to the threat to that which we face.' Tony struck out at Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor's office for pursuing charges against the deputies yet declining to charge in many cases against deputies and other public employees whom the sheriff's office recommends for prosecution. Referring to Polk, Johnnie and Walker as 'the select three,' Tony questioned why Pryor's office pursued them while ignoring other public-corruption leads from the sheriff's office. 'This is most certainly a miscarriage of justice and exhibits symptoms of public corruption in itself,' Tony said. Tony said that in his two terms he has taken deputy misconduct so seriously that he has fired 141 of them. He said he holds his deputies to strict standards when they use force. Pryor responded in a statement that the State Attorney's Office charged the deputies almost three years after the incident because prosecutors didn't begin looking at the case until Caputo's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss a charge of battery on a law-enforcement officer. Public Corruption Unit prosecutors then viewed the security-camera footage and decided to charge the deputies, Pryor said. They also dropped the battery charge against Caputo, according to court documents. 'All individuals charged with a crime are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty. At no time were the detention deputies placed in front of the national media in handcuffs, they were allowed to surrender to the jail at a time that was arranged with their defense attorneys in advance, and they were released from the jail on agreed bonds of $7,500 without going through magistrate court,' Pryor said. Tony said he was outraged the charge against Caputo was dropped. 'You don't get a free pass to strike, injure or harm any of my God damn deputies in this agency,' he said. 'None of them!' Walker's attorney, Jeremy Kroll, told the Herald that he is thankful to Tony for sticking up for the deputies, and that his client is innocent. 'For 10 years, Deputy Walker has been a faithful and honest public servant. We are grateful to the Broward Sheriff's Office for their intellectual honesty in assessing her involvement in the use of force and for clearing her and putting her back to work,' Kroll said. 'We look forward to defending her case in court, and believe there is no legal or factual merit to the charge against her.' Information about Johnnie's legal representation was not immediately available. All three deputies were released from jail on May 29, the same day they surrendered. Tony brought up the case of former Broward Sheriff's Office Deputy Ronald Thurston and other examples of what he said were mishandled cases by Pryor's office. READ MORE: Broward school security specialist is accused of abusing student Thurston was fired for excessive force in 2022. The sheriff's office recommended the State Attorney's Office charge him with battery the previous year, but prosecutors declined. He was arrested three years later on charges of aggravated child abuse and aggravated battery after being hired by Broward County Public Schools to work security at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach. Pryor defended his office's handling of both cases against Thurston. 'Thurston was criminally charged in February of this year on an unrelated matter and is currently facing criminal prosecution by our agency,' Pryor said. 'As with all cases, we will file criminal charges when we have facts and evidence to support them.' This story has been updated to reflect that the deputies surrendered to the Broward Sheriff's Office and were not arrested by the State Attorney's Office, which charged them.
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‘Hall of Fame' repeat offender with some 230 arrests in trouble again with 4 busts in just a month
The serial transit offender with about 230 total arrests who cops slammed as a candidate for the subway crime 'Hall of Fame' is in trouble again as he racked up four more busts over the past month before being dumped back onto the street, law enforcement sources said. Michael Wilson, 37 – who sources say committed 90 percent of his crimes in the subway system – was nabbed for the 25th time this year on Tuesday for allegedly riding between cars on a train passing through the 42nd Street-Times Square station, according to the sources. He then lied about his personal info to arresting officers, according to the sources. Wilson was also busted on May 25 for allegedly lying across multiple seats on a train car in Brooklyn, police said. On May 12, he was nabbed for allegedly smoking crack cocaine on a staircase at Riverside Drive and 104th Street on the Upper West Side, and then tossing the residue down the steps, cops and sources said. And on May 6, Wilson was charged with allegedly smoking crack on a moving train in Harlem, police said. He was released on each of the cases – which is nothing new for the serial offender, who earlier this year drew the ire of NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper. 'If there was a hall of fame for Subway offenders — this guy would be a first ballot inductee,' NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper wrote in a scathing X post. 'And yet, certain parts of our criminal justice system seem to think otherwise.' Kemper's comments came after Wilson's Feb. 2 bust, when cops caught him swiping a rider through a turnstile with a MetroCard in exchange for cash, law enforcement sources said. He was ordered to leave the West 34th Street and Seventh Avenue subway station during the 10 a.m. ordeal, but he refused, and started to flail his arms and stiffen his body in an effort to avoid arrest. Eventually officers placed Wilson under arrest. They found six MetroCards in his possession, which they bent along their magnetic strips to render them unusable. He also had a student MetroCard. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office ultimately let him off without prosecution 'in the interest of justice,' according to sources. Kemper took exception to the DA's rationale, referencing it verbatim in his X post. 'Justice for whom? Recidivist criminals or law abiding NYers who simply want to travel on the subways free of harassment or open acts of lawlessness?' Kemper said. A spokesperson for Bragg said at the time that his office continues to 'hold accountable those who jeopardize the safety of other passengers and transit workers in our subways. 'Last year's decrease in transit crime throughout the borough was the result of close collaboration with our law enforcement partners, and we are continuing that work every day,' the spokesperson said. Before that bust, Wilson was arrested on two criminal tampering charges on Jan. 17, and seven others on Jan. 13, according to the sources. On Jan. 3, he was arrested and slapped with 11 charges – 10 for criminal tampering and one for theft of service, the sources said. The career criminal – whose first arrest was back in 2004 – was arrested 232 times over the years, but dozens of those cases have been sealed, bringing the unsealed total to 170, according to the sources. A whopping 135 of his arrests have been on felony charges, but he's only been convicted of felonies four times, with one of them a violent felony, according to the sources. His parole was also revoked several times, the sources said. He has also racked up 53 misdemeanor convictions, the sources said. Wilson had also been issued more than 30 bench warrants to failure to appear in court, according to the sources.
