Cuff 'N Stuff
The Internal Newsletter of the Wise County Sheriff's
Department
05-03-02
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Cuff 'N Stuff 05-03-02 |
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Wise County Sheriff’s Office cordially invites you to attend our ceremonies in which we will observe National Peace Officer Memorial Day honoring those killed in the line of duty. We will present our departmental awards after this ceremony which includes “Officer of the Year” Wednesday, May 15 10:00 a.m. Memorial Service 11:30 a.m. Awards Ceremony
Teacher Wants Day Off, Calls in Bomb Threat A science instructor who told police she wanted to play hooky Thursday tried to cancel her class by phoning two bomb threats to a Beaverton elementary school. "The only excuse was she just wasn't up to teaching a class today -- just didn't feel like it," said Officer Mark Hyde, Beaverton Police Department spokesman. Kimberly F. Haggard, 39, was to teach students kitchen chemistry during an after-school program run by a contractor at Scholls Heights Elementary in the city's Murray Hill area, Hyde said. Haggard, of 3333 S.E. 39th Ave. in Portland, was arrested about 3 p.m. when she arrived at the school. Haggard was released Thursday after she was cited in connection with four misdemeanors, including menacing, disorderly conduct, telephone harassment and initiating a false police report. Hyde said a woman called the school's front office at 12:35 p.m. to report a bomb in the school. School staff called police and the Beaverton School District's security force. Students left the school at 16400 S.W. Loon Drive as part of a fire drill. Five police officers and school staff searched the building but found nothing unusual. Police also began work to trace the phone calls. Minutes after the first call, a woman who didn't identify herself called to ask whether the Mad Science class had been canceled. A half-hour later, a third call was received. Again, a woman said a bomb would go off at 3 p.m., the same time Haggard's science class was scheduled to start. Police traced the phone call to Haggard, who school staff members recognized as the instructor. Students were dismissed on schedule at 2:30 p.m. As a precaution, the school was evacuated before the caller's 3 p.m. deadline. Haggard was stopped by police when she arrived at the school about that time. She admitted to Beaverton officers Dan Bortolin and Craig Coleman that she made both threats. "There is a positive note in that everybody did the right thing down the line," Hyde said.
Picture is Worth a Thousand Words How important are the new recorders in the patrol units? Nearly every week a complainant comes to the Sheriff's Office about one thing or another that they are unsatisfied with. The most insignificant contact you make and do not record may be the one that comes back to haunt you. A good example of a "nothing deal" that turned into a complaint by a citizen effected by the contact and action. Last Friday afternoon, Deputy Thompson observed a car on a county road off of FM 2123. The car was pulled off on the side of the county road but the driver's side of the car was still in the roadway creating a road hazard. After checking and being unable to locate the owner to have the car moved, a rotation wrecker was called to the scene to impound it. The following Monday the owner came to the Sheriff's Office to speak to the Sheriff or me about his car being towed off the county road. He said it had been there only a couple of hours when we towed it. He had hitched a ride to town to get someone to come and help him on the car. He said it was off on the grass and not on the roadway at all. I advised him that the officer that handled the call was not on duty, but we would check with him and we would get the tape from his unit recorder and look at it. He was upset because he said he had to pay $94.00 to get his car back, it was not on the roadway, it was not there but about 2 hours, and there wouldn't have been but four or five cars come up that road anyway. Thank goodness Deputy Thompson did have his recorder going! The complainant's car was clearly out in the roadway and was a roadway hazard. The complainant came back on Tuesday and viewed the tape and saw his car out in the road. He left, went and talked to the Justice of the Peace and came back on Wednesday still wanting the Sheriff's Office to refund his money. I again advised him that once we found the car and it was a hazard we could not leave it blocking the roadway. It had to be moved. What each of us would think was a small routine traffic incident ended up being a three day investigation and would not have ended there if we did not have the video tape. This is just another excellent example of why we need to use our in-car recorders at all times on every call and always remember: "A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS." - Doug Whitehead
DRIVER’S ERRATIC AND UNSAFE DRIVING JUSTIFY TRAFFIC STOP FOR WEAVING EVEN IF NO OTHER VEHICLES WERE NEARBY. An officer patrolling a highway as part of a DWI task force saw the defendant’s vehicle leave the parking lot of a bar at “a considerable rate of speed,” drive down the road, then pull into a gas station. Within a few seconds, the defendant’s vehicle pulled out of the gas station and turned onto an unmarked roadway. The officer testified that the defendant was driving “more or less all over the roadway,” and the officer did not try to stop the vehicle because there were no marked lanes. With the officer following, the defendant turned onto a marked street. He failed to maintain his lane by “constantly” crossing over the broken white line into the other lane of traffic. The officer stopped the defendant to investigate. During the stop, the officer noticed that the defendant’s speech was slurred and his breath smelled of alcohol. After the driver failed field sobriety tests, the officers arrested him for DWI. The defendant moved to suppress all evidence stemming from the traffic stop. The motion was denied, and the defendant later pled guilty. He appealed the denial of his suppression motion, contending that the State failed to prove that the stop was a valid traffic stop, or a stop based on reasonable suspicion that the defendant was DWI, or that it was part of the “community caretaking function.” Holding: “When a police officer stops a defendant without a warrant and without the defendant’s consent, the State has the burden at a suppression hearing of proving the reasonableness of the stop.” A temporary investigative detention may be conducted when the officer has specific, articulable facts leading to a conclusion that the suspect is, has been, or soon will be engaged in criminal activity. Section 545.060 of the Texas Transportation Code requires a driver to drive entirely within a marked lane, and not to move from that lane unless the lane change can be made safely. In this case, the defendant “constantly” crossed into the on-coming lane of traffic, a fact that the defendant contended did not establish his movements were unsafe. Even in cases in which no other cars were in the vicinity, weaving into another lane might be unsafe. Also, the office saw the defendant speed from a bar, pull into a gas station for 10-15 seconds, then driver “all over the roadway” on an unmarked road before he was seen weaving on the marked road. Based on the totality of circumstances, the evidence supports a finding that the defendant was not moving from one lane to another safely. The officer had reasonable suspicion to believe that the defendant was violating Section 545.060, even if no other vehicles were near him. Moreover, the officer had reasonable suspicion to believe that the defendant was DWI. Based on his observations of the defendant’s driving, the officer was
justified in believing that he was intoxicated. This reasonable suspicion, from
the totality of circumstances, warranted an investigative detention. Cook
v. State, No. 14-00-01210 (Tex. App.-Houston, 1-10-02).
Deputy Dan Leon from the Los Angeles County Sheriff Lennox Station found an
unusual concealment device on a suspect he stopped. It was a car battery that
looked and felt authentic. However, upon closer inspection, Leon saw that the
top portion of the battery moved slightly, revealing a hidden compartment.
FAITH…The comic Steve Martin once said, “It’s so hard to believe in anything anymore…I guess I wouldn’t believe in anything if it weren’t for my lucky Astrology Mood Watch.” No one believes in nothing. Everyone has faith. The only differences are in the object of our faith and its intensity. Is yours a working faith? I was hungry, and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I’m still very hungry, lonely, and cold.
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Crime Does Not Have To Be A Fact Of Life |
