BREAKING DOUBLE BAD

Today is not what you would call a good day for APD and it's failed leadership of Ray Schultz, Allen Banks, Steve Warfield, or acting deputy chief Will "photobug" Roseman. Nor was it a good day for APD lawyer Kathy Levy. Our Eyes tell us despite Levy's efforts to hide the ball and move the line, Judge Bacon ruled in favor of the the Plaintiff's in the civil rights lawsuit of Kenneth Ellis v. APD/Ray Schultz. If you remember this shooting occurred in January of 2010 and stands as a hallmark of a series of questionable shootings by APD. In this case, similar to other cases, Mr. Ellis was shot while he was holding a gun to his own head. With the exception of the officer who originally stated "Fuck, was that me" all the other officers on the scene asserted there was no need to shoot Mr. Ellis. The shooting officer then later changed his statement to argue that shooting Mr. Ellis was necessary because he posed a threat to other officers. The Plaintiff's argued that there was no significant disagreement on the facts of the incident and thus asked for a summary judgment. Since the jury ultimately determines what the facts are IF there is disagreement of the facts it was not necessary for this case to go to a jury. Ms Levy tried in vain we are told to twist and distort the facts so it appeared there was disagreement and aside from infuriating Judge Bacon did not further her cause. In the end the judge ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs and held that APD and the officer were unreasonable in their use of deadly force and in doing so violated Mr. Ellis's civil rights. For a plaintiff to succeed on a motion for summary judgement involving an incident of such magnitude is no small feat and only reveals how unlawful the actions of the officer sadly were.

Now the question is how many millions will the city have to pay to cover the punitive damages associated in this case...

Just as it seems things could not get worse, things do. You see despite BCSO's initial reports that APD Sgt. Adam Casaus was chasing a drunk driver when he collided into another car killing one of its occupants and severely injuring the other, we are no told that not only was Sgt. Casaus NOT on duty at the time of the accident, but he in fact ran the red light colliding into the other car. Sgt Casaus failed to clear the intersection. Of course in neither case has the failed leadership of APD owned any responsibility for these tragedies. Nor have they personally reached out to the families of either party to express their sincere sadness and desire to find the truth of what occurred. Instead they hide behind a lawyer barely fit to argue a traffic tickets.

Again we ask, how many millions will the city have to pay to cover the punitive damages associated in this case...

Lastly, we hear that IA is now doing the investigation into former Sgt. Pat Ficke's drinking buddies. We here at the Eye have been wondering about this since this story broke out. Given that Commander Christman, Lieutenant Troy Luna, Sgt Alex Catsis, and Sgt Dan Cambell are of such rank who is exactly going to do their investigation. We think ANYBODY in APD is clearly unfit for such a job and it should be referred out to another agency because of the grotesque conflicts of interests such an investigation poses. But given the department's efforts to hide, conceal, and lie we suspect such an investigation will be handled in-house and probably by the likes of whomever wants to be APD's next Deputy Chief. Who knows, given their success at FAILING at so many things, perhaps Deputy Chief Banks would do a tremendous job with their investigation...

Why Oh Why doesn't common sense prevail? These debacles are going to cost millions.  Don't forget the 44 million spent last year on liability by Berry and Company.  This is just another one of Berry's "Train Wrecks."

Mayoral Candidate Paul Heh has said it many times; "Tell the truth and make right whatever it is the City has done wrong?"  If the City is wrong, make good on the problem and if the City is right in its' actions then fight it.  This is just one more reason to get rid of Berry and VOTE PAUL HEH into office.