February 1, 2012 Today's Stories |
| IN Toughens Human Trafficking Law Before Super Bowl, Other States Act ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the day of last year's Super Bowl in Dallas, a human trafficking suspect told police, "There was big money to be made during the Super Bowl," said a Dallas Morning News report quoted by Stateline.org. For Super Bowl XLVI this Sunday in Indianapolis, state officials are going out of their way to show that human trafficking won't be tolerated. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called on lawmakers to tighten the state's law on human trafficking before the Super Bowl. An anti-trafficking law was quickly passed and signed. Lawmakers in 20 states are debating human trafficking bills. West Virginia is working on creating its first anti-trafficking statute, while the other states are refining existing laws surrounding prostitution, in many cases moving the criminal burden away from those forced into the commercial sex trade and placing it with the traffickers. Legislators are also working to provide resources to fight trafficking by appropriating more funding for victim's services, increasing criminal penalties for traffickers, and giving police authority to use wiretaps or to subpoena internet service providers to investigate potential child sexual exploitation. |
| Denver Indictment Illustrates Growth of Human Trafficking Rings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Denver crime ring had all the makings of a traditional street gang: A clear hierarchy, members who tattooed the group's name on their bodies, girlfriends at the ready to help cover their tracks, says the Denver Post. Rather than drugs and guns, the organization whose indictment was announced this week allegedly trafficked primarily in young girls. It's a trend that, according to experts, is growing, not just overseas or in big port cities but in towns across the United States. While commodities such as guns and drugs are gone once you sell them, a human-trafficking victim - isolated, afraid, potentially addicted or dependent in other ways - provides an ongoing profit stream. "For people who are ruthless and don't care what they do to other human beings, it is a very attractive business proposition," said Denver lawyer T. Markus Funk, a former federal prosecutor and co-author of the recent book "Child Exploitation and Trafficking. "They're like omnivores. They're not selective." Colorado enacted an anti-human-trafficking law in 2006, but the first successful prosecution wasn't completed until last summer. |
| Grassley Insisting on Anti-Fraud Measures In Violence Against Women Law ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to review as early as tomorrow a reauthorization to the federal Violence Against Women Act that would expand its scope by providing more services to under-served populations such as American Indian women, women in the military, and victims of sex trafficking, says The Crime Report. Introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Crapo (R-Id), the bill would also strengthen prevention efforts, expand access to safe housing for women and children and allow more groups to become eligible to receive federal funding. This landmark legislation-the first to recognize that domestic violence required a national response-has received widespread bipartisan support since it was passed in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. It may run into political headwinds. Widespread concern about federal spending and questions about the management of VAWA grant funds could stop the bill in its tracks this year. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the committee's top Republican. Grassley, has been a VAWA supporter in the past but has yet to endorse the current proposal. He says that because audits from two federal agencies found that a number of VAWA grantees were mismanaging their funds, anti-fraud measures must be inserted into the legislation before the bill can move forward. Audits conducted between 1998 and 2010 by the Justice Department's Inspector General found violations of grant requirements ranging from unauthorized and unallowable expenditures, to sloppy record keeping and failure to report in a timely manner. |
| Miami Police Break Up Occupy Camp, Citing Unsanitary, Unsafe Conditions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scores of police swept through the downtown location of Occupy Miami last night, ejecting several dozen demonstrators and arresting a few of them while shutting down the protest camp after three and a half months, reports the Miami Herald. The police, wearing riot gear and banging batons on their plastic shields, cleared demonstrators from within half a-dozen blocks of the camp site. They also tore down tents and makeshift dwellings left on the site. The operation was carried out almost completely without violence, though some of the demonstrators said one of their number was clubbed when caught up in an advancing police line. Six Occupy Miami protesters refused to leave, staying inside a flimsy barricade of plywood and old mattresses. Police detained them briefly, but when they were offered a last chance to walk away without being arrested, they did. Occupy Miami leaders said their movement would simply spread to other camps around the county. The group's continued camping permit was denied because of "unsanitary site conditions and unsafe activities, which have resulted in a number of arrests by the Miami-Dade Police Department," said Miami-Dade spokeswoman Suzy Trutie. Occupy Miami leaders conceded that there have been as many as 50 arrests around the camp site since it was set up last October. |
| FL Gov, With Excess Inmate Beds, Wants to Close 11 Prisons, Camps ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Florida Gov. Rick Scott, looking to plug a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, has decided to shutter seven of the state's 62 prisons and four of its 46 work camps, potentially costing 1,300 workers their jobs, the Associated Press reports. The initial savings are estimated at $15 million. The corrections department budget is $2.4 billion. Where have all the prisoners gone? Most never arrived. Policymakers 20 years ago, extrapolating on then-current crime trends, started building prisons. The wave never happened and crime rates have fallen since 1991. Florida now has excess prison room, about 116,000 beds for 102,000 inmates. "Forecasting of prison space is not an exact science," said Bill Bales, a Florida State University criminology professor who was the prison system's research director from 1987 to 2003. "There's no crystal ball." Nationally, state prison population has remained flat at about 1.2 million over the last decade, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. |
| Photographer Says Memphis Police Detained Him, Deleted Arrest Footage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Memphis Police Department is investigating a complaint from a photojournalist who was detained by police after he filmed an arrest and whose footage was deleted by the officers, says the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The National Press Photographers Association asked the Memphis police director asking for an investigation and offered help to educate officers on the right of journalists to photograph arrests on public spaces. Monday morning, Casey Monroe, a photographer with ABC 24 News who was not working and not carrying a videocamera, observed officers placing a restaurant owner in a squad car. The man was cited for a parking violation, but was placed into custody after an argument with an officer. Monroe was watching when officers instructed him to leave. He informed the officer that he was a journalist. Asked again to leave, Monroe said he had a right to be there and was placed into the back of a squad car. He was quickly released. The photographer later started videorecording the scene with his phone. Monroe said an officer told him he could not take photos of the arrest. Monroe again informed officers that he was a journalist and that he had a right to photograph police on public property. |
| Milwaukee Evidence Based Pretrial Release System Takes A Hit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It took 10 days for Milwaukee County's new pretrial release system for criminal defendants to draw unwanted attention, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Derrick Byrd, 21, charged with felony murder in a fatal robbery, was released without posting a cash bail. It wasn't a mistake. Commissioner Kevin Costello followed the recommendation of Justice 2000, the agency contracted to assess tens of thousands of people brought to jail. It's part of "evidence-based decision making" meant to bring more effective management of law enforcement and justice system resources. Justice 2000 began using the new assessment tool Jan. 17 after years of research and development. Missing among the many factors considered in assessing risk and recommending bail or conditions of pretrial release is "public reaction." In Byrd's case, prosecutors had asked for $150,000 cash bail. They appealed Costello's ruling to Crcuit Judge David Borowski, who set a $50,000 bail hours after Byrd left jail. "No victim is ever going to accept an evidence-based decision that conflicts with their emotion-based decision" about bail, said Chief Judge Jeffrey Kremers said. "That's valid, but as a system we can't make decisions totally emotion-based, though it always plays some role." |
| L.A. Judge Orders Parts of Juvenile Court Work Open to News Media ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Los Angeles County Juvenile Court will be opened to media coverage regularly, with certain exceptions intended to protect the interests of children, reports the Los Angeles Times. Judge Michael Nash said he wanted to open the proceedings because secrecy had allowed problems to fester outside of the public's view. Without access to the courts, news organizations have been forced to rely on incomplete case records released months or years after decisions were made. Nash's ruling applies to the dependency side of Juvenile Court, which largely means child abuse, foster care, and adoption proceedings. The order does not apply to the delinquency side, which handles crimes committed by children. Under state law, Juvenile Court judges are able to open a proceeding if a news organization makes a persuasive argument for it. The media virtually never prevail. Nash's order shifts the burden of proof from news organizations to the parties involved in the proceedings. A Juvenile Court proceeding will now be open to reporters unless a compelling case is made to close it in the best interest of the child or children involved. Leslie Starr Heimov of the Children's Law Center of California, which represents a majority of children in the Los Angeles dependency system, said her firm was considering an appeal to the order. |
| New Science of Arson Enables Defenders to Challenge Convictions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Ohio death row inmate hopes the state parole board will permit him to argue that a mysterious "man in red" could have started the 1990 fire that killed his 3-year-old son, says the Associated Press. Michael Webb says investigators using now-discredited methods came to the wrong conclusion about where in the house the flames broke out. Investigators say Webb set the fire to kill his family, collect the insurance and start a new life with his mistress. It is one of a series of cases that represent a new legal frontier: Defense attorneys cite advances in the fire investigation science to challenge arson convictions, as they use DNA to clear people for murder and rape. Research has challenged long-held assumptions about how flames spread and the tell-tale signs they leave. "Our scientific understandings have improved in recent years, and the effect of that has to be to say, `We've got some innocent people who've been declared guilty based on misunderstandings,'" said John Hall of the National Fire Protection Association. It used to be common for investigators to conclude an accelerant like gasoline was used if a fire burned particularly hot. In fact, the new arson science has found no such correlation. Another mistaken assumption: A V-shaped pattern on a wall of a burned building is proof of arson. All it shows is where a fire started. |
| New York Advances Bill To Expand DNA Collection from Convicts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tough-on-crime New York State legislators, seeking to expand the collection of DNA from convicts, point to cases like that of Raymon McGill, who was linked to a rape and two murders after being arrested in an attempted robbery, says the New York Times. Civil libertarians want to expand the use of DNA for the potential exoneration of people serving time. The Senate passed a bill yesterday that would require all convicted criminals to submit a DNA sample. Current law requires only those convicted of felonies and some misdemeanors to do so. Supporters of the measure said it could have prevented McGill from committing murder, because if he had been required to give his DNA after committing a petty crime years ago, he would have been identified in the rape inquiry, which preceded the murders. Barry Scheck, a founder of the Innocence Project, said that if supporters of DNA expansion were serious about preventing wrongful convictions, they should promote measures like requiring videotaping of interrogations or changing the way lineups are done. "Less than 10 percent of serious felony cases have any biological evidence in them, which can identify the real perpetrator with a DNA test," he said. "And most of the serious offenders are already in the DNA database. This isn't the No. 1 priority." |
| MD Inmates Had Access to Some Patients' Social Security Numbers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Maryland corrections division that provides inmate labor has backed out of a data entry contract with the health department after state auditors found that prisoners had access to some patients' personal information. The findings were included in a legislative report three months after Maryland Correctional Enterprises stopped providing the services to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Baltimore Sun reports. The report said the agency used inmate labor to enter physician Medicaid reimbursement claims into a database. Social Security numbers that appeared in the proper spot in the upper right corner of the forms were automatically redacted, or "blacked out." But "infrequently, Social Security numbers for the recipient and/or the provider appeared in other locations on the form" and "remained accessible to the inmates," the report said. Agency spokesman Rick Binetti said this occurred in 3 out of 3,000 cases reviewed, when doctors' offices mistakenly used a patient's Social Security number as the account identifier. He said there was no evidence to suggest inmates even noticed the numbers, and he stressed that there was "strict security in the room where this data entry took place," including four cameras and supervisory staff. |
| Metal Thieves In Sacramento Getting Prison Terms in New Crackdown ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeffrey Wadleigh of Sacramento is charged with a variant of the hot new crime trend for 2012: metal theft, says the Sacramento Bee. Last month, he was caught at 1:30 a.m. with $2,000 worth of copper wiring that belonged to a construction company. Wadleigh, 48, a self-admitted methamphetamine addict, instead pleaded no contest and was sentenced to two years behind bars. If metal thieves such as Wadleigh used to slide in and out of the system with little or no attention, they have become a top priority. Metal thefts these days are almost sure to produce relatively lengthy periods of incarceration. "In light of the damage they're doing and the problems they're causing, they need to be punished, and the word needs to get out that if you get caught, you're going to get punished," said Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi. Public defenders say about 10 metal thievery cases are coming in each week. |
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012
1 Feb 2012
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