These are daily occurrences, police officers with myriad complaints against them from the public, sometimes hundreds of complaints go on to maim and kill innocent members of the public because supervisors and superiors steadfastly refuse to remove dangerous cops from police departments all across the country.
This extremely serious issue runs much deeper than delinquent senior police brass. It includes corrupt, bullying police unions, corrupt prosecutors, judges, and political sponsors.
Even when these officers are caught lying in court, judges who have the power to take action refuse to act to stop blatant acts of perjury because of the deep levels of cronyism that exist between the judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, prosecutors, police, and connected members of communities, particularly in small municipalities and towns.
One may imagine that since the police are allowed to investigate themselves and decide on their innocence and lack of culpability, or worse, they should be accountable to anyone, they would abuse those powers.
It also makes sense that since the supreme court says they can lie to citizens during investigations, they would take lying and deception to galactical new heights.
A clear example of their deception and lies was the case of Ex-DetectiveKelly Goodlett of Louisville, Kentucky. The former detective misled a judge into wrongly authorizing a raid of Breonna Taylor’s apartment in Louisville, Ky., setting in motion the nighttime operation in which the police fatally shot and killed Ms. Taylor in her own home.
The consequence of her lies did not result in a bad arrest; it resulted in the death of an innocent young woman.
The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the organization is now an independent nonprofit. Its work is guided by science and grounded in antiracism.
On March 19th, 2018, the project reported in an expose that the Prevalence of Lying by Police is a Problem for the Innocent. The project went on; The New York Times published an article yesterday that documents the persistence of lies told by police to gain a conviction. Through their investigation, the Times discovered that in more than 25 instances since 2015, judges or prosecutors concluded that a New York City police officer likely presented false testimony. Such cases — most of which are sealed — were identified through interviews with lawyers, police officers, and current or former judges.
The Times article highlights the common lies about which police testify, including saying they saw a gun in a suspect’s hand or waistband when it was actually out of view; saying they witnessed an arrest for which they were not actually present; claiming they watched a drug deal occur, only to later recant or be proven to have lied. In two recent cases, officers appeared to have given false statements about eyewitness testimony. “These cases,” says the Times, “are particularly troubling because erroneous identifications by witnesses have been a leading cause of wrongful convictions.”
Why do police lie? According to the Times, in many circumstances, it’s to avoid restrictions against unconstitutional stop and frisks. In other cases, the motive is to convict someone, regardless of whether or not that person actually committed the crime. Some officers have stated they are pressured by their supervisors to write more tickets, to reach an arrest quota, or to close a case.
The 25 cases identified by the Times are a small portion of those in which officers are believed to have lied. This is because a large majority of cases result in plea deals. With a plea deal, if an officer lies, it is unlikely to be exposed: it is rare for a case to progress to a hearing where a defendant can question an officer’s version of events. “There’s no fear of being caught,” a Brooklyn officer who has been on the force for almost a decade told the Times. “You’re not going to go to trial and nobody is going to be cross-examined.” The percentage of cases that progress to the cross-examination of an officer is quite small. According to the article, in 2016, for example, there were slightly more than 185 guilty pleas, dismissals, or other non-trial outcomes for each criminal case in New York City that went to trial and resulted in a verdict. There were 1,460 trial verdicts in criminal cases that year, while 270,304 criminal cases were resolved without a trial.
The persistence of lying by the police has inevitably become a contributing factor to wrongful convictions in New York City and beyond. The Times writes: “Police lying raises the likelihood that the innocent end up in jail – and that as juries and judges come to regard the police as less credible, or as cases are dismissed when the lies are discovered, the guilty will go free.”
There is the old saying that every person the police arrest claim to be innocent. As a former police officer, I realize that there is a small modicum of truth in that statement. Nevertheless, We were trained that it is more important that the guilty go free than an innocent person be convicted for a crime they did not commit. But that is not the American system of justice where gaining a conviction at all costs justifies all kinds of underhanded methods used to get those convictions-yes even lying.
Under no circumstances did I ever want the guilty to go free, so I worked twice as hard to ensure that any person I arrested was the guilty party.
Below are a few testimonials of ordinary people who continue to suffer at the hands of law enforcement that is supposed to protect them.
Eric Richardson, an officer involved in the vicious beating of the 25-year-old last month, has been reprimanded for incidents including physical violence and sex in his patrol car.
By Phillip Jackson
Brandon Calloway, 25, was severely beaten by Oakland, Tennessee, police officers on July 16 following a minor traffic violation. Family of Brandon Calloway.
A Tennessee police officer who was involved in the brutal arrest and beating of a young Black man in a small town in July had a documented history of excessive force and other departmental violations in at least two other law enforcement agencies, according to records obtained by HuffPost. On July 16, Officer Eric Neal Richardson of the Oakland Police Department participated in a police chase that left Brandon Calloway, a 25-year-old Black man, beaten and bloodied.
Police initially stopped Calloway for a minor traffic violation and chased Calloway after he fled to his father’s home. Richardson is seen on camera striking Calloway with his baton. Calloway sustained injuries throughout his body and required stitches in two places. Richardson has been placed on leave but is still with the department. But the records uncovered by HuffPost show this is hardly the first time he’s come under scrutiny by his superiors: The files describe an officer with repeated documented instances of physical violence over a long career spanning multiple departments, stretching back to his police academy training in 1991. Richardson’s rocky personnel record includes incidents of excessive force during arrests, on-duty personal misconduct, and inappropriate behavior with women, including one episode where he had consensual sex in his cruiser with a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
Richardson was only with the Oakland Police Department for two years before the controversial incident with Calloway. He cleared a departmental background check on May 26, 2020, files show. Attempts to reach Richardson through the police department and family members were unsuccessful. The Oakland Police Department did not respond to HuffPost’s questions for this story, namely how an officer with such a problematic past was hired by the department. But Calloway’s lawyers are demanding answers. “Based on our initial review, there are major concerns with Officer Richardson’s employment background in law enforcement,” said Andre Wharton, the family’s attorney. “As we believed all along, this situation was preventable and the documents reviewed reinforce this unfortunate reality.” Richardson was reprimanded by his superiors in several different instances during his tenure working with the Memphis Police Department and the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi. When Richardson entered the Memphis police academy in October 1991, he encountered trouble right away due to frequent absences and failing grades, according to police records. Richardson had five failing grades and a cumulative grade point average of 1.8, which was considered “deficient and must be improved” to meet the minimum standards of a 2.0.
He nevertheless became a police officer after eventually meeting the minimum standards. In the ensuing years, he racked up a series of infractions of various department policies — mostly during his time as a Memphis cop. In 1995, Richardson was disciplined for “rough or careless handling of city or department property” after he slammed on his brakes after pulling in front of a vehicle — causing the car to strike his patrol car. Richardson alleged that the tags the vehicle had were stolen, but it was later discovered that the tags were not stolen, records show. Richardson received an oral reprimand and had to attend driving school.
The following year, Richardson was disciplined for “neglect of duty” when a man alleged that Richardson and his partner “failed to investigate” his call that he had been shot at and his car was stolen. After an internal review and investigation, the charge of neglect of duty was sustained and Richardson was issued a written reprimand, according to documents from his personnel file. Those early violations didn’t involve physical violence, but that changed in November 1998. According to his personnel files, Richardson continued pursuing a man on a motorcycle after his supervisor called off the chase. Richardson then arrested the person “without permission,” according to the files, and failed to document the arrest on his log sheet. Richardson later admitted he struck the motorcyclist “several times” while he was on the ground. Richardson was suspended without pay for five days for unnecessary force, leaving a duty assignment, personal conduct and violation of completing official incident or arrest reports Richardson was suspended again in July 2002, for three days, after he slapped a person he was in the process of arresting for driving under the influence. Richardson also placed handcuffs that were allegedly too tight on the person, causing damage to the person’s wrist — an injury Richardson failed to report to his superior.
Richardson was suspended again for 10 days without pay in 2005 for working another job at a grocery store while on sick leave with the police department. Three years later, Richardson was involved in a domestic dispute with a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair. She would later allege that Richardson used his patrol car to bring her to secluded areas to have consensual sex. The woman also said Richardson would bring his K‑9 into her home and stay for hours at a time.
All of these actions were unauthorized, police records say. After the alleged domestic violence incident, the woman contacted Richardson’s wife. When Richardson was confronted by his wife, he sent the woman with whom he had an affair vulgar messages calling her names. He also threatened to go to a church and share explicit images he took of the woman to cause her embarrassment, police records say. After the alleged domestic violence incident, the woman contacted Richardson’s wife. When Richardson was confronted by his wife, he sent the woman with whom he had an affair vulgar messages calling her names. He also threatened to go to a church and share explicit images he took of the woman to cause her embarrassment, police records say.
The woman reported all of this to the police. Richardson’s wife later texted the woman she was struck in the face by Richardson as a result of the dispute. A sheriff’s department report was filed and he received a two-day suspension from the department as a result. Years later, Richardson was reprimanded again for damage to motor vehicles after he backed his vehicle into a water fountain in April 2013, while still being employed by the Memphis Police Department. Richardson began working with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi in September 2016. Records from the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi stated Richardson’s work performance began to “deteriorate” due to family-related stress, and he was performing at an “unacceptable level” by his fourth year. In one instance in April 2020, Richardson was disciplined and given the option to face termination or resign because he parked his patrol car and stayed at his grandmother’s house following a deputy-involved shooting to which he was supposed to respond. Officer Deon Jackson, who Wharton also says was present during the arrest, did not have any history of department violations or excessive force, according to police records.
Richardson was relieved of duty but is still employed by the town of Oakland. Body camera footage and dash camera video of the incident have not been released.
The investigation into Calloway’s arrest is still ongoing.
February 14, 2022 at 9:17 pm ●
Take a stand I’m going to.
October 27, 2020 at 12:44 pm ●
I was being held against my will by security guards acting as “police” without being positively identified. My family was racially profile when police were called. I called police and asked for help with threats and intimidation and requested a CIT. Upon officers’ arrival, an officer admitted to being a mental health professional without giving proof. He proceeded to intimidate, threaten, and humiliate my family which lead to further harassment by the police officer after detainment. Officers made the arrest on the sole bias of identification based on race.
October 12, 2020 at 6:11 pm ●
I was stopped at a checkpoint and cop said he smelled weed in my truck and I don’t smoke weed in my truck .so he lied now am going to court for dui .I am so depressed cant sleep .I am getting screwed. No wonder people dont like cops. I need a lawyer but they want thousands of dollars that I dont have.so I will go to jail and have a crimal record all because a cop can lie
June 2, 2020 at 8:57 pm ●
Everytime I got a ticket, the Police lied on the paperwork and under oath in one instance. The judge never questioned the officer, nor did they listen to me. What will be done about this? (White female)
March 21, 2020 at 3:02 pm ●
This just happened to me. He said she said BUT THE ACTUAL STATEMENT HE CLAIMED TO BE MY WORDS TO HIM WERE OF HIS VOCABULARY WHICH he repeated basically from his statement of his believe. It took me hours to be able to find a way to prove he is lying to convict me to an infraction 21650…1 bicycle wrong way to officers theory. It cost me $197 and defined my character as a crazy man writing the opposite way on head onto traffic! Filing an appeal on this! Stay safe everyone.,
February 5, 2020 at 9:45 pm ●
What does it mean when a police department employee tells a lie when filing a trespass warning? I think that makes the trespass warning a fraud.
what happens when your local police department arrest you wrongfully on fraudulent charges without proof without probable cause and then you’re in jail wrongfully and then you have to go to court wrongfully because of them and they steal from you and you still don’t have any justice?
September 18, 2019 at 6:43 am ●
Hello my name is Chris Verity I’m from Dennisville in south Jersey I’m going to trial this month for a strict liability death case where no drugs were found at scene or on me and not in my apartment and I was lied to by state police officers from the wood bine NJ barracks I do not know the laws as they do so they knew they were misleading me with this whole investigation just to get me to take there plea deal. I know that this has to be illegal I was lied to the whole time by police just to use my statement against me
August 10, 2019 at 9:54 pm ●
I, myself have been a victim of a lying police officer. It makes me sick that they can get away with lying and no one does anything for fear of being harrassed and labeled. With thier lies they have traumatized and destroyed my life. I dont trust anyone now and can barely leave my home.
May 1, 2019 at 6:42 pm ●
Recently, I made an angry posting stating essentially that “all federal judges deserve to be hung as the traitors they are” or something very similar.. I wish this to be deleted as it does not represent my true feelings.. it represents an angry, emotional outburst at the final denial (by the US supreme court) of my attempts to bring a lying police officer to justice in some way, and the federal court judges involved refused to acknowledge the irrefutable evidence showing the well documented lies of the officer (Douglas Pelton) of the Wildwood Police in Florida, and they engaged in various tactics including complete denial of my rights under rule 56 and actually reversing it.. engaging in extreme bias, and actually using false legal precedent. Naturally I was.. and am.. very angry.. as every single true freedom-loving people should and would be, if this happened to them. There is a reason for the explosion of police brutality in this nation, and it is not merely “bad cops”. Those who have had anything similar happen to them understand this.. The fact that this site has been produced is evidence (when we are in a society with so much information, technology, and “brains” involved) that there is a problem that goes much deeper than police lying.. The fact that police themselves have coined the term “testilying” is telling.. This is only happening because of the complicity and aid of the entire law enforcement and judicial system. That does not mean there are not good cops and good prosecutors and good judges.. I would expect there are. There are an incredible number of case that have been shown that every single person in the case knew it was a lie: The police.. the prosecutors, and yes, the judge(s). This is a major problem that affects us all. In the near future, I will be showing here, the irrefutable proof (that was in the hands of the Federal courts at all levels) of the lies by Mr. Pelton, and the methods used by the federal judges in the case to let him get away with his crimes completely. I apologize to anyone I offended by being “uncivil”.
Cops in Florida stink. Try looking up the Manatee County Sherriff’s Dept. This dept. is about as bad as they come. Some years ago (@2001), a bunch of their guys got sent to federal prison for being crooked, planting evidence, and framing people. The sheriff at that time was a man named Charlie Wells. Now his son, Rick Wells, is now sherriff. This past year alone, several people working at the jail have been exposed for their brutality (one officer caught on video beating an inmate who was handcuffed at the time. Most recently, an officer was caught on video tasing a 70+ year old grandmother as a warrant was served for her grandson at her house. The cop had been in similar trouble once before for tasing an elderly man. The list goes on and on and on. Just do a simple internet search and see what comes up. A report on cops caught in a strip club called cleopatras. A cop caught selling stolen merchandise. Everyone in this area knows that the MCSO is for the most part corrupt and disposable. The MCSO is more like a gang than a law enforcement agency. There may be a few good ones out there, but in Manatee County they are rare. I don’t know why they have gotten away with so much for so long and why there is no oversight of these people.
April 24, 2019 at 11:31 am ●
Update.. 4/22/19. Hello John cottam, MD here again – Tampa. The supreme court, with the same information as the lower courts, showing irrefutable evidence of fabrication of a felony by Douglas Pelton of the Wildwood police„ denied my petition for certiorari. The federal court judges.. at all levels.. are in complicity with lying law enforcement, and deserve being hung like the traitors they are to our people.
I agree with you.
I have a similar problem, the retired Detective got caught stealing auto parts by the trailer load while employed as Chief of Security at GM, he admitted to stealing, a few years later finally convicted for stealing an envelope of money from an Elderly woman got probation add on a few more years convicted for Lying to a Federal Agent did a year in prison. I noticed people seem upset when I mentioned this like it’s a crime to bring up the criminal history of possibly Michigans most corrupt cop!
March 26, 2019 at 3:24 pm ●
It’s sad that we have to wait for the life after to receive justice. The only solace is that this justice will be eternal ! ( You may have robbed me of justice for a lifetime, but you will have to pay for it for ever.) knowing this keeps me from paying back evil with evil, because to do so would mean I would lose God’s protection, ( Vengeance is mine says the Lord! )
Amen ,
March 26, 2019 at 5:29 am ●
In 1994 I was convicted of a sex offense. I was guilty of that. In 2015 I was convicted of failure to register. I was not guilty of that. This case lingered in court for 18 months. Endless prosecution delays and police cover ups and report changes. I was charged with crime after crime, only to have then all dismissed. Everytime one was dismissed, I was charged with another. I went to trial on the failure to register charge. The police investigators flat out lied. They were so obviously making the entire case up. They even stated that I admitted to having child porn on my laptop but never searched my laptop. What? If I had that on my laptop they would have torn it apart looking for it. There were no written statements, and no video or audio recordings. It was just they’re words and the judge went with it. The trial became all about my past conviction rather than the current charge. The trial lasted 9 days. 9 days for a simple failure to register. I was convicted because of my past, not because of something I did now. At sentencing, the judge stated he was putting me in prison because of my past. I have nightly nightmares and have been diagnosed with PTSD as result of the railroad job. I have 100 percent distrust of the police and fear being anywhere near them.
March 24, 2019 at 9:12 pm ●
Happening to me in Texas. Lying stealing, junkie cop stole my hydrocodone, on video, DA won’t watch it, trying to make a deal. He will drop “fake” Marijuana charge give me time served, no fines, if I drop my appeal for DWI. I did not fail roadside test, or BAC at scene. Public defender wouldn’t allow me any evidence at trial. I will not taint my record by lying just to make it stop. I’m innocent.
March 22, 2019 at 3:41 pm ●
I received a ticket for a lie by an officer. When I refused to give up and would not say guilty and told them I wanted a trial.I had a witness and other proof.They dropped it. this was in Fair grove MO the land of corruption
March 20, 2019 at 8:43 am ●
I lived in Green Bay Wisconsin. I was homeless and found a job, got a place to live and soon found my landlord was racist. He has all the names for minorities. He would steal, enter my apartment when I was gone, just show up at random times and be outside my windows, I lived on the 2nd floor, he would stop over and berate me for things that had nothing to do with me. I started a landscaping business. I stayed there for 7 years so I could use all my money to buy equipment because the rent was $350 a month. One night someone broke into my home and started a fire in my basement and when I called the police they tried to arrest me. They told me to shut up and give them my ID so they can check for warrants. Then they lied on their reports. I gave his description, name and address where he was probably going but they laughed at me and put on their reports that I couldn’t give a description. The 911 portion of the report from 3 minutes earlier had his description. They even acknowledge his name in their reports. Then my neighbor who constantly harassed me and ran a daycare started blocking the shared driveway and refusing to let me through. She would be on her phone instead of watching the kids half of the time. Then one afternoon she had her son and one of the kids in her daycare start playing baseball catch by my truck. I went outside to get them away from my truck. She started screaming at me. Her kids were trespassing. One of her clients said they had a friend who is a cop and I would be sorry. They called the police because I was parked in my own driveway, in front of my garage. The police told me to park on the street because the kids wanted to play in my parking spot. My landlord who knew she was harassing me evicted me because of this. The police lied about the whole situation. We went to court and 2 different court commissioners refused to look at the evidence. They didn’t know the laws even. I appealed, there is no recording of proceedings in front of commissioners. The judge who finally got the case didn’t know the laws pertaining to landlord/tenant issues. So I have now lost my home, business and everything I own. One evening I am sitting in an empty parking lot looking at my phone and here comes a cop. I had a sprained ankle and was going to get to stay at a friends house later that evening. The cop demands my license, he runs it and finds nothing. So he orders me out of my truck. I show him the letter from the hospital showing I have a sprained ankle. He then threatened to break my windows out of my truck. Dragged me out, handcuffed me, went through the truck, front seat, back seat and the bed because he claims he can smell marijuana. He digs some common yard waste out of the pouch of my hoodie and yells at me about having marijuana in my pocket. There was no marijuana anywhere. He finds some grinders and pipes someone left in my truck and their shoes from when they used my truck to move the weekend before. He writes up a ticket. We go to court and he is being coached by the city attorney right before court. We get in front of the judge and the cop lied repeatedly under oath on the stand and all the judge would say about it is what does that have to do with this? Finds me guilty and fines me almost $700. I am disabled and lost my business. I am homeless. I have lost everything I owned and worked hard for. Now I can’t get rental assistance for 3 years and then I have to reapply and get on the waiting list again. I can’t get a job due to the disabilities. I can’t get to my doctor to get papers to file for disability payments because I have no money for gas. I live in my truck, under constant fear of the police. If they stop me I now have a warrant because how do I pay $700 because the cop lied and violated my rights? If I lose my truck then what do I do? The judge also ordered me to pay my landlord $1000 because he didn’t know the laws he was ruling on. Green Bay Wisconsin has a corrupt justice system.
I am convinced that you are a victim of a hate crime. You need a lawyer. Hate crimes against disabled people happen. They can be really frightening. I am glad that you are still alive. I have been reading about people who were tortured and killed for being disabled. I hope that you can prove that your a victim of a hate crime. Please do it because you will be helping other people besides yourself. Your story is scary to me because I am disabled too. Maybe you can get some of your family members to help you. That will work fine if you have any. Good luck. I also recommend Housing Opportunities Commission. It has a great reputation.