Alabama: Former Centre policeman Michael Kilgore, 40, should have known co-conspirators will bumble any crime. After his co-conspirator went singing to authorities, Kilgore was fired and charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in May 2023. WRCB reported, that according to the plea agreement, Kilgore stopped a vehicle and found drugs onboard in January of 2023. Instead of arresting the driver, Kilgore offered the driver a chance to work for him. The two then planted a package of methamphetamine, oxycodone and pot to the undercarriage of a specific vehicle. Later that same month, Kilgore made his bogus traffic stop, retrieved the drugs, and arrested the driver and passenger. They were about to repeat the scheme using another vehicle, but the co-conspirator discarded the drugs and told law enforcement about Kilgore’s scheme. On August 15, 2024, Kilgore agreed to plead guilty in the Northern District of Alabama. He faces 20 years on the charge, but prosecutors will recommend credit for acknowledging and taking responsibility for his conduct.

California: Back in 2019, according to NBC News, four former law enforcement and military officers, two of them from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, conducted a raid on the home of a California businessman. The unnamed “wealthy Chinese national,” the U.S. attorney’s office said, had a multi-million-dollar interest in Jiangsu Sinorgchem, a Chinese rubber chemical manufacturer. According to court documents, this Chinese national was involved in an ownership dispute over the company with a business partner, resulting in three lawsuits in China and one in Atlanta. In 2018, this business partner contacted Max Turbett, 39, of Australia, a former member of the British military, and asked for help with the dispute. Turbett arranged for Steven Lankford, 68, and Glen Cozart, 63, formerly from the LASD, and Matthew Hart, 41, a former member of the Australian military, to conduct a sham raid on the national’s home and force him to sign a settlement agreement. On June 17, 2019, the illegal raid was conducted. The business man was roughed up, choked and threatened with deportation if he didn’t sign. They also told him not to contact the police, which he did. Turbett’s company received $420,000 for the “very good job,” according to an email from the business partner. The defendants could serve up to 20 years in prison for each extortion-related count, and up to another 10 years for each deprivation of rights count.

Florida: WEAR News published a disturbing story regarding former Escambia County deputy Christopher Turney, 40, and his wife Leandra Turney, 39. On July 28, 2024, police responded to a call at a church. According to the report, the Turney’s adopted son was being abused by his parents, including being punched in the face and choked by Turney until he could not breathe. He also told police he has not attended school since 2017. The boy added that he makes money by mowing grass, but his dad takes the money and buys groceries. During the interview, police noticed that another child in the home had decayed teeth. When asked about her teeth, the child responded that she doesn’t own a toothbrush. However, Turney told her that he was “saving up money” to purchase her a toothbrush. Oddly enough, Leandra Turney’s mother is a dental hygienist and has given the family toothbrushes and toothpaste and even offered to provide dental care. The grandmother told officers that she believed the condition of the children’s teeth had been caused by neglect. The son told a forensic psychologist that he would “rather be homeless than return home.” Turney had been a deputy for two years before being terminated. Both “parents” were arrested but released after posting bond, and most likely used the saved money earmarked for a toothbrush to pay for their release.

Georgia: On August 5, 2024, an argument erupted outside a south Atlanta bar resulting in a shooting death. According to WXIA, off-duty Atlanta cop Melvin Potter was escorting a woman to her car when a verbal altercation occurred. Devon Anderson, 38, had also attended the birthday party and was attempting to de-escalate the fight when Potter shot him dead. Potter was arrested on the scene and refused to take a breath test, blaming the alcohol smell in his vehicle on a spilled drink. It was not his first brush with being on the other side of the law: He was arrested on DUI charges in 2021 and accused of failing to maintain a lane in Coweta County. In the Anderson shooting Potter was only charged with misdemeanor obstruction, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is currently conducting an investigation into the killing and other charges may be forthcoming. Before being relieved of his duties, Potter had served in the Atlanta PD since 2015.

Illinois: Robbins Police Chief Carl Scott, 47, was arrested on August 9, 2024, after resigning from his post in July, a position he had held for only 15 months. The Chicago Sun Times covered the incident which led to his departure from the force. According to prosecutors, a man who runs a YouTube channel featuring First Amendment audits went to the Robbins police station to lodge a complaint against Scott, who happened to be at the station and in uniform at the time. Both men began filming the interaction. Scott called for two more officers. However, the man refused to give his personal information. As a result, Scott took him to the back for fingerprinting. While the man was walking back, Scott knocked his phone out of his hand and proceeded to attack him. Once Scott, the victim and the two other officers were in the room, Scott instructed everyone to turn their body cameras off. He then continued beating the man. He asked the other cops to give him their batons, but they refused. Scott even took the victim’s phone and threw it in a sewer behind the station. Oddly, the phone would be recovered at that exact location. Scott is facing charges of aggravated battery, theft and official misconduct,

Indiana: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Javed Richards had been with the department for twelve years. He had become a hero to the community. WXIN reported that while off-duty in 2016 he assisted a woman involved in a terrible crash and saved her life by applying a torniquet to her amputed arm. A year earlier Richards had received the Medal of Valor and the Purple Heart for wounds he received in a deadly gun battle with a man on the city’s east side. Fast forward nine years, and Richards officially pleads not guilty to 13 counts of child exploitation and one count of possession of child pornography on August 22, 2024. Richards was released on a $4,000 bond and faces 162 years behind bars if convicted. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 24, 2024.

Kentucky: One of the biggest golf stories this year occurred off the greens, when then world’s number one golfer, Scottie Scheffler, was arrested and then released without bail shortly afterwards. He was arrested early in the morning in May, at the Valhalla Golf Course, on his way to the PGA Championship. According to an ESPN reporter that witnessed the episode, Scheffler was trying to drive around a crash, a cop told him to stop, but he drove on about 20 yards. When Scheffler rolled his window down to talk to the cops, he was put in handcuffs. Scheffler was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, reckless driving, third-degree criminal mischief and disregarding traffic signals from an officer. Eventually, all charges were dropped. Louisville Metro Police Office Javar Downs was one of the officers who did not turn on his bodycam during the early-morning scuffle with Scheffler. Fast forward a few months to August 21, 2024, and policeman Downs pulls over someone for a traffic stop and finds an envelope with $10,000. Downs turns in that envelope to evidence but not before milking $4,000 from it. He has been charged with theft and official misconduct, and the termination process has begun.

Minnesota: Christopher Todd Flatten, 39, joined the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Department in April 2024. He only had a few weeks in his latest law enforcement job before he crashed into a roadblock. According to the Star Tribune, on July 18, 2024, two State Patrol troopers saw the uniformed Flatten passed out in his squad car after having crashed. Flatten was unresponsive, so the troopers removed him and had him air-lifted to the hospital. A trucker who saw Flatten before he crashed said that he was “all over the road, crossing over the center line approximately three-fourths of the width of the vehicle, crossing the fog line, and driving onto the grass shoulder of the road.” Another motorist said he saw the squad car roll over five or six times before it ended up in the ditch. In the hospital Flatten refused to undergo a blood test requested by a state trooper. He has been charged with a gross misdemeanor of third-degree driving while impaired—refusal to test and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree DWI. Flatten was charged via summons and his first court appearance was scheduled for September 4. In an unrelated incident while working for the Willmar Police Department, Flatten arrested a man for “walking while Black.” In June of 2023 Flatten was sued by the ACLU on allegations of discrimination, false arrest and false imprisonment of a Black man he mistook for a suspect in 2022.

Missouri: Former Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers’ gig is up. On August 20, 2024, according to KSHB out of Kansas City, Childers announced on social media that he had agreed to step down. The resignation is actually part of a settlement agreement reached with the Missouri Attorney General. Other concessions made in this agreement include stripping Childers of his ability to work in law enforcement in the state of Missouri. Childers said, “The reason for that is due to the fact that I did not win reelection.” But, why did he lose the election? The Missouri State Highway Patrol started an investigation into Childers which resulted in his removal from office in March 2024. Childers’ problems stemmed from his “inmate work program,” in which prisoners would leave the facility temporarily to work on Childers’ property. He must have been very popular because his friends also benefitted from this unique “inmate work program.” Childers’ “inmate work program” constitutes a Class D felony as it “allows or permits a person in custody or confinement to escape.” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has made the news for not releasing exonerated prisoners and defying judges’ orders, brought a quo warranto against Childers for what the former sheriff calls political motives behind the law-fare.

Missouri: KBSI out of Cape Girardeau reported on an especially creepy former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper. David L. McKnight, 39, faces five felony counts of invasion of privacy after being arrested on August 21, 2024. He is accused of pulling over a female driver and using her cellphone to be a voyeur. McKnight took the victim’s cell phone back to his patrol car and took pictures of the images that were on her phone with his phone. When a forensic examination was performed on the phone, the images that he deleted were recovered. According to court documents, more than 15 images were found on his phone that were pictures of people in some state of nudity or completely naked. Six other victims were identified through the images. According to police records, he had similar interactions with the other victims from September 2023 to April 2024. McKnight is currently being held at the Ste. Genevieve County Jail.

Nevada: Former Las Vegas policeman Harvey Velazquez, 31, is facing 21 charges, including child abuse and luring a child to engage in sex acts. KLAS-TV reported that the Las Vegas Metro Police Department fired Velazquez on the same day he was arrested. A person called the police on April 1, 2024, and said that two children under 16 had received “inappropriate text messages” from a phone that was registered to Velazquez. After police spoke with Velazquez, who was going through field training when he was fired, they confiscated his phone and discovered many “sexual in nature” messages. In some of the messages, Velazquez “talks about exchanging money for sexual acts.” Starting in 2021, Velazquez exchanged nude photos and videos of himself with at least one of the children, and sent that child money through an app. According to documents, one of the interactions was “to trade oral sex” for vape pens. Officials suspect Velazquez paid one under-age victim up to $800 over the course of his interactions with her. Velazquez was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $275,000 bail and, if he posted bail, he would be required to wear an alcohol monitor and have no contact with the minors connected to the case.

New Jersey: In 2023, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office started its Officer of the Month Award. The AG had just taken control of the Paterson Police Department in March of that year, and they implemented the award in an attempt to illustrate exactly how brave and virtuous their officers were. In September 2023, Jeury DeJesus-Rodriguez, 25, responded to a domestic violence call. The suspect held a loaded gun in his hand, but DeJesus-Rodriguez managed to safely disarm him, instantly earning the Officer of the Month Award. According to NorthJersey.com, however, on August 22, 2024, less than a year after his award, DeJesus-Rodriguez was arrested after stealing a few items of clothes valued at $66.97 from a Marshalls discount store. While working security at the store, DeJesus-Rodriguez took the clothes into a bathroom stall, removed the tags and packaging, and left without paying. He was hired as a Paterson cop in January 2022, and made about $41,000 a year. The city normally suspends officers accused of crimes without pay for 30 days and then, as required by the police union contract, places them on paid administrative leave while the charges are pending.

Ohio: In 2004, Benjamin Becerra, 25, was shot and killed by Antonio Riano, now 72. The two had gotten into an argument at a bar outside of Cinncinnati, were told to take it outside, and when they did, Riano shot Becerra in the face. The Guardian told the story of how Riano fled the U.S. to his hometown in Mexico, putting into motion a manhunt that lasted almost two decades. Riano ended up on the Butler County Sheriff’s Office’s Most Wanted list and was featured in a 2005 episode of “America’s Most Wanted.” Despite the publicity, Riano managed to elude authorities. In January of 2024, however, Riano’s location was finally revealed. Lead investigator Paul Newton of the Butler County prosecutor’s office was working the cold case when he chanced upon Riano’s Facebook page. Much to his astonishment he saw Riano in a video showing him to be a police officer. Riano was arrested on August 1, 2024 in Mexico and extradited to Butler County. Riano is set to return to court on September 16 for a plea or trial setting. According to his attorney, Riano is a Mexican citizen who simply returned to his country of birth before an indictment was filed that connected him to Becerra’s death. His attorney said, “He was even a police officer for the past three and a half years in Mexico, which shows he was not trying to hide from anyone.”   

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