Cuff 'N Stuff
The Internal Newsletter of the Wise County Sheriff's
Department
10-05-01
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Cuff 'N Stuff 10-05-01 |
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Dumb CrooksTM Bank Teller a Little Too Trusting HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Dorothy Marie Livingston has been accused of passing a fake $1 million bill at a bank -- and the teller, apparently, didn't see anything strange about the transaction. Livingston, 24, allegedly used the phony note to start an account at the First National Bank of Newport on July 15. She later withdrew some of the money and transferred it to her husband's account, police said. Livingston has been charged with 16 counts of theft by deception and was being held on $25,000 bail, police said. The fake $1 million bill is about 10 times the value of the largest bill ever printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and 10,000 times the value of the largest bill still being printed, the Treasury Department said. The $100,000 bill existed for about three weeks in the 1930s, when it was used to transfer funds between Federal Reserve banks. It was never publicly circulated. Remaining notes in denominations larger than $100 are being withdrawn from circulation as they come into banks for transactions. Dumb Crook Tries to Enter Canada Calgary - If you're a suspected bank robber fleeing from the United States into Canada there are three things you should do first: You should leave your gun behind. Definitely lose the woman's wig. And, under no circumstances, should you still be carrying your robbery hold up note. A suspected bank robber had all three items with him in his vehicle as he tried to come into Canada through the Coutts, Alberta border crossing Sunday. The 39-year-old suspect was carrying a .380-caliber handgun, the wig and clothing, and the holdup note written on the back of a bank check. He was arrested, held and turned over to the U.S. Authorities. Copyright ©2000 Dumb Crooks
Where is the U.S. flag flown 24 hours a day by law? Many places fly the U.S. flag continuously as a matter of custom, even though it is a technical violation of the Flag Code unless it is illuminated at night. By act of Congress or Presidential proclamation, however, there are eight specific places and two types of governmental facilities which are authorized to fly the U.S. flag 24 hours a day:
Legal Issues - Search and Seizure TRAFFIC STOP JUSTIFIED BY FAILURE TO SIGNAL TURN, BUT NOT BY FAILURE TO SIGNAL TURN WHEN EXITING FREEWAY. An officer saw the defendant’s car exit a freeway without signaling. The officer later testified that, “he went from the right – he was in the right – east bound lane – the outside lane and he changed lanes into the exit lane to get off the Interstate. He pulled up to the yield sign and turned east on the feeder road and then when he turned east, he also didn’t signal then either when he got to the feeder road.” The officer used his radio to advise two other officers of what he had seen. Based on the information they received from the officer, who witnessed the defendant failing to signal, the officers stopped the defendant. The defendant moved to suppress evidence in the case against him, arguing that the traffic stop was illegal. He relied on the decision in Trahan v. State, 16 S.W.3d 146, in which the court held that failure to signal when turning, changing lanes, or starting from a parked position violates the Transportation Code, but failure to signal an exit from a freeway, which does not involve a turn or lane change, is not a traffic offense. The trial court relied on the Trahan decision in granting the defendant’s suppression motion, and the State appealed. Holding: Section 545.104(a) of the Transportation Code requires a driver to signal “an intention to turn, change lanes, or start from a parked position.” Section 545.103 of the same code prohibits turning from a “direct course” or moving “right or left on a roadway unless movement can be made safely.” The State argued in Trahan that failure to signal when exiting a freeway by itself is a traffic offense. The court held in Trahan that there was no evidence in the case that the defendant “turned” or changed lanes during his exiting maneuver. Because there was no evidence that the defendant in that case turned, there was no legal basis for stopping him for failure to signal a turn, as required by Section 545.104(a). This case is different. “Regardless of whether [the defendant] signaled when he exited the interstate, the evidence is clear that after exiting the interstate [he] approached a yield sign which required him to make a ninety-degree turn to the left or to the right.” The evidence at the suppression hearing was that the defendant made a ninety-degree turn to the left at the yield sign, and that he did not signal that turn. As the court said in Trahan, “a ninety degree turn is exactly the type of turn contemplated by Subchapter C of the Transportation Code.” In deciding the suppression motion in this case, the trial judge relied on his understanding of Trahan to conclude that “there is no legal requirement to give a signal before making a freeway exit or when approaching a yield sign.” This was a misinterpretation of the holding in Trahan. Trahan held that, at least in some cases, the Transportation Code does not require a driver to signal when exiting a highway as long as the maneuver can be completed safely. But that case did not hold that a driver need not signal a “turn” “when approaching a yield sign.” Because the trial court misapplied the law to the facts of the case before it, the court abused its discretion in granting the suppression motion. Its ruling was legally unsupportable. COMMENT: Texas courts have struggled with Transportation Code language regulating driving within a single lane and signaling lane changes and turns. Even the trail judge in this case misunderstood what the appeals court had said about signaling. Generally speaking, a signal is required when failure to signal would be unsafe, but because there often is no evidence that a lane change or movement would be unsafe, officers must know exactly when a signal is required under all conditions. When a vehicle approaches an intersection and makes a ninety-degree “turn” in either direction, the Transportation Code requires a signal without regard for whether the turn can be made safely. A similar rule applies to “changing lanes.” State v. Zeno, 44 S.W.3d 709 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 2001).
FBI Summary of Officers Killed According to preliminary information received by the FBI, 51 city, county, state and federal law enforcement officers were killed due to criminal actions during 2001. During the same time period in 2000, 37 officers were slain. In 2001, 19 officers were slain in the southern region, 14 in the western region, 12 in the midwestern region, two in the northeastern region, and four in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico. Of the 51 officers slain, 12 were answering disturbance calls, seven were killed during narcotics investigations, seven were ambushed, seven were killed during traffic stops, five were attempting other arrests, five were killed while investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, four were responding to robbery calls, two were answering burglary calls. One was handling mental persons(s), and one was handling a prisoner(s). Firearms were used in 44 of the killings (33 handguns, eight rifles, and three shotguns). Five officers were killed with vehicles, one was killed with personal weapons – hands, fists, feet, etc., and one officer was killed with an iron bar. Twenty-five officers were wearing protective vests. There have been 48 separate incidents in which these 51 officers have been accidental incidents. During the same time period in 2000, 67 officers were accidentally killed. Twenty-seven of the 48 officers were killed in automobile accidents, 11 were fatally struck by vehicles, four were killed in motorcycle accidents (one during a training exercise), four were accidentally shot, one officer was fatally injured in an aircraft accident, and one officer was killed in a fall. Due to the unprecedented nature of the tragic events on September 11 in New York City and Arlington, Virginia, counts of those officers killed in the line of duty are not yet available for inclusion in these preliminary monthly counts.
From the Chaplain - Marilyn Featherstone UNITED WE ARE STRONG A man asked his young son to break a bundle of sticks. He returned a little later to find him frustrated with his job. He had raised the bundle high and smashed it on his knee, but he only bruised his knee. He had set the bundle against a wall and stomped hard with his foot, but the bundle barely bent. The father took the bundle from the child and untied it. Then he began to break the sticks easily—one at time. The same thing is true of the church; or the sheriff’s office; or our family or our country. United we are strong, but divided we can, and may well be, broken, too. During a time when we are being challenged in so many ways, we must pull together if we hope to survive!
'Viral' Rumor Makes an Infectious Comeback Despite what you may have read in your email or heard through the office grapevine, terrorists have not launched a biological attack on U.S. citizens via parcel post. Urgent warnings about a deadly virus, poison or other "lethal substance" being mailed out randomly in blue packages marked "Just for You" are merely new variants of a two-year-old Internet hoax. Originally known as the "Klingerman Virus," the hoax itself has behaved in a "viral" manner of late, mutating to adapt to new circumstances and ensuring its own survival. In the weeks since the September 11 terrorist attacks, amid lingering fears of further assaults and official warnings of the possibility of biological warfare, the original text has found its way back into circulation alongside a virtually identical alert describing a "Kinderman Virus," plus variations ranging from envelopes containing a chemical that kills instantly when sniffed, blank sheets of paper that cause a rash followed by a coma and mailings decorated with American flags that contain a "powdery substance" contaminated with Anthrax. No such attacks have been announced by authorities or reported in the press. On the contrary, officials say the rumors are false and urge the public not to pass them along. |
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Crime Does Not Have To Be A Fact Of Life |
