Arizona: On June 29, 2024, the Tempe police department posted a Facebook message regarding an award that two of its officers had just received. “Congratulations to Officer Zachary Hyde and Officer Gavin Young. Last night both received the Hero Award at the 35th annual Mothers Against Drunk Driving Law Enforcement recognition banquet.” About a month later, according to ABC 15, covering Phoenix, a trooper pulled Hyde over. He was going 10 miles an hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone. He was also intoxicated. Hyde has been with the force for two years. He has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
California: On the Fourth of July of 2024, a fire suddenly started in the home of Adriana Hernandez and her parents in Huntington Park, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. When Hernandez arrived, she was terrified that her diabetic parents would not be able to escape the flames. KTTV out of Los Angeles reported that she was filmed on cell phone camera running towards the house to save her father. The police were trying to block the 27-year-old woman from entering the home when a female office punched Hernandez in the face three times as neighbors shouted, “She lives here.” Just when Adriana thought her evening could not get any worse, she was arrested. Retired LAPD Detective Moses Castillo speculated that the arrest was simply a means to justify the use of force. Hernandez is a civil engineering student and worries that the arrest will impact her employment prospects. The family was left homeless after the blaze.
England: A respected and well-loved Italian actor and director with dwarfism was cycling down a busy street in the heart of London when he had a heart attack and died in September 2022. According to The Mirror, Claudio Gaetani had just arrived the night before to attend a theater festival in Southbank. When the friends with whom he was staying went to gather his belongings at the Edmonton police station, they noticed his wallet was empty. This discovery prompted the authorities to review body cam footage. On June 27, 2024, Metropolitan Police Constable Craig Carter, 51, was charged with misconduct in public office after video shows him stealing the money from the dead little person. In an update by the DailyMail on the incident, PC Carter admitted to stealing from the corpse the over 200 euros that Gaetani had exchanged for British pounds.
Florida: According to WSVN of Miami, former policeman Frenel Cenat, 41, pleaded guilty in March to extortion and attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine. On June 2, 2024, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Cenat was found guilty of using his unmarked cruiser to pull over individuals he knew were carrying drugs, using the alias “Officer Martez of the Miami PD Narcotics Unit.” An investigation had begun a year earlier after the Miami Police Department received a tip about corrupt activities. The investigation found Cenat conducting traffic stops and taking drugs and cash from undercover agents. In fact, the former officer took $52,000 from one undercover agent. Prior to his arrest, Cenat had served 17 years on the force.
Florida: Trevor Scott Willis, 33, a former Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office detention deputy, was hired in 2016. Eight years later, on July 1, 2024, he was caught viewing and sharing porn while on duty. Willis was charged with ten counts of possession of child pornography, ten counts of transmission of child pornography and two counts of sexual activity involving animals. WOFL out of Orlando reported that Willis viewed the disturbing material while working at the jail and logged onto the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office agency Wi-Fi. Willis now faces nine more charges of child porn following the discovery of a social media site linked to him, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. When the HCSO found the additional pornography, Willis was arrested again on July 17 on the additional counts.
Hawaii: A federal appeals court for the Ninth Circuit handed a major victory to 10-year-old N.B. on June 26, 2024. The court ruled that Honolulu arresting police officers Christine Neves, Corey Perez, and Warren Ford are not protected by qualified immunity. The Black student was handcuffed and arrested at Honowai Elementary School in January 2020 for drawing a picture depicting violence after she was bullied. Classmates then gave the drawing to other students without N.B.’s permission. When concerned parents called the school, administrators overreacted and called the police. Officers interrogated the girl and arrested her after she made a joke about spending time in jail. The police officers claimed they were responding to a threat, but the three-judge panel did not buy their argument. They pointed out that no reasonable officer would think it necessary to handcuff a 10-year-old and haul her off to the station for drawing a picture. An ACLU-sponsored lawsuit seeks damages for the girl and her family, as well as reforms to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Maryland: On June 28, 2024, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced a former Baltimore police officer to two and a half years in federal prison, and drug treatment for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and oxycodone, as well as possession of a firearm. Steven Umberto Angelini, 43, worked with the president of the infamous Ryders Motorcycle club for at least eight months in 2022 to distribute drugs. In one conversation Angelini provided the club president oxycodone in exchange for cocaine and $100, WBFF reported. Angelini also offered to go to the Baltimore City Police Department Homicide Unit to leak information about an investigation involving the president’s supplier who had been murdered. In another bad move, the former cop offered to sell his co-conspirator a privately made firearm known as a “ghost gun” in exchange for cash and narcotics. Angelini had been facing a maximum of 20 years in federal prison on the drug charges and a mandatory minimum of five years to life for the firearm charge.
Massachusetts: When Brewster Police Department officer Matthew Marshall finished his shift on July 24, 2024, he was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, dissemination of child pornography, defacement of real or personal property, unlawful communication of record information and photos taken outside of a first responder’s official duty. Marshall pleaded not guilty and bail was set at $1,000. He was ordered to have no contact with children except for his own. He was then placed on administrative leave. According to WCVB in Boston, prosecutors noted that Marshall was not playing with a full deck. He once made a video on his phone of himself entering a Dunkin Donuts bathroom and then peeing on the floor, the sink, the handles and the door. Investigators say Marshall also shared videos from his police cruiser computer using his Snapchat account. Marshall began his law enforcement career as dispatcher in 2005 with the Brewster PD and became an officer in 2007.
Minnesota: On July 11, 2024, CBS News reported the Minnesota State Patrol released a file regarding state trooper Shane Roper, age 32. Days earlier, Roper was charged in an automobile accident that took the life of 18-year-old cheerleader Olivia Flores and injured several others in May. He was charged with second-degree manslaughter, one count of criminal vehicular homicide, five counts of criminal vehicular operation, reckless driving and careless driving. Roper claimed he was trying to get closer to a vehicle that he was pursuing for a traffic violation. The released file gave evidence of a lengthy record of reckless driving while on duty. He was disciplined four separate times: once for hitting another state patrol vehicle, another time for hitting a civilian’s vehicle, once for striking a deer and another time for striking a median. The state patrol also noted that he has one open complaint with internal affairs. Roper was due to make an initial court appearance on August 29, 2024.
New Jersey: On June 28, 2024, ex-cop Kevin Patino of the Paterson Police Department tried to withdraw the guilty plea he made on February 8 of this year to the misdemeanor charges of deprivation of civil rights rather than facing the original felony charges stemming from use of force incidents. According to The Paterson Press, the now convicted Patino beat 19-year-old Osama Alsaidi so savagely in December 2020 that the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for his termination. That excessive force incident came on the heels of the vicious beating Patino gave Rosdward Hernandez three weeks earlier. Patino was terminated two weeks after entering the guilty plea. In the court declaration made on June 28, Patino said he did not do anything wrong, and he did not know pleading guilty would cause him to be fired and lose his pension rights. Patino blamed his attorney for encouraging him to take the plea deal and advising him it would be a “slap on the wrist.” The president of the Paterson police union had advised Patino not to make the guilty plea because of the consequences. The 32-year-old ex cop had not been aware the union has a legal defense program for officers and paid for his New York-based criminal defense attorney using his personal funds.
New Mexico: Matthew Amezquita was a new training officer with the Ruidoso Police Department. His law enforcement career has potentially been dashed against the rocks after he was charged with making a false police report. According to KRQE out of Albuquerque, on July 2, 2024, Amezquita showed up to work but was asked to return home and shave. He raced home and shaved, but in a mad rush to return, he left the apartment without his body camera. To make matters worse, he also realized that he had locked himself out. He kicked open the door and then filed a false police report claiming someone else did it. When the police arrived and started to gather evidence, Amezquita’s plan unraveled. Eventually, he admitted that he kicked the door in himself. As of July 12, Amezquita was no longer employed with the department. The agency planned to file a disciplinary report with the state’s Law Enforcement Certification Board which could result in the former officer losing his police certification.
New York: On June 28, 2023, a 13-year-old boy was fatally shot by a police officer in central New York state. According to the Utica Police Department, officers had been patrolling an area with a recent history of robberies when they encountered Nyah Mway returning from a graduation barbeque with another 13-year-old. Unfortunately, the police believed the two matched a description of the suspects. When the three officers attempted to detain Mway, a foot chase ensued. Police claim that Mway pulled what appeared to be a handgun, later identified as a replica Glock pellet gun, and pointed it at officers. In response, Officer Patrick Husnay fired his weapon, striking and killing Mway. The Utica PD released body camera footage and images of the pellet gun, defending the officer’s actions. They emphasized their commitment to transparency and announced independent investigations by both the New York State Attorney General and the department’s internal affairs. The officers involved were placed on administrative leave. Mway’s sister, Thoung Oo, described her brother as a good kid with no prior trouble with the law. The family, refugees from Myanmar, expressed disbelief and anger over the shooting and are questioning the department’s version of the tragic incident.
North Carolina: The Alamance News, out of Graham, requested the city of Burlington to release information on any individual who had been let go for disciplinary reasons during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. And so, the strange and sordid tale of Samuel Dylan Rose, 32, came to light. The former policeman was fired on April 30, 2024, because of an internal love affair. About a year before that, Rose was working as a school resource officer at a local high school. On June 8, 2023, Rose kissed a teacher. They were both married, so the teacher eventually told Rose “not to contact her five times.” But Rose was unable to curtail his passions, and he continued to email her. According to the termination letter, Rose accessed her social media pages and “deleted photos, unblocked [him]self, and activated a location tracking feature to her Instagram account.” Rose is accused of violating several state laws such as cyberstalking, computer trespassing, and telephone harassment. Rose was making about $80,000 a year.
Ohio: Mayor Jewell Hayes Hensley of New Miami in Butler County was not very fond of Police Chief Harold Webb. WXIX, the news room serving Cincinnati, reported that Webb was accused of turning in false time sheets, “cashing his paycheck knowing he was required to show proof of his being at work,” refusing to respond to 911 calls and stealing a hot dog. On June 20, 2024, the mayor went to the police station to gather Chief Webb’s daily logs. It was as if she had magically teleported to a scene from a Cheech & Chong flick. She wrote, “The smell of Marijana [sic] could knock you off your feet.” Shortly after, the town attorney delivered a letter to Police Chief Webb requesting that he take a drug test in Cincinnati. Webb refused. As a result, the town council fired him. In his issued statement he said that he did not want to degrade himself by peeing in front of a nurse. Hopefully, he still has his part-time job at the U.S. Postal Service.
Oklahoma: On June 29, 2024, Oklahoma City policeman Ryan Stark, 44, was arrested and accused of rape, kidnapping, and domestic assault and battery. According to an affidavit obtained by KOCO out of Oklahoma City, Stark was driving home with the victim—with whom he had previously been in a relationship—after a date on June 27, 2024. Stark had had too much to drink when the victim decided that she did not want to go to Stark’s home. While trying to exit the vehicle, the woman broke her foot. In response, Stark got mad and stepped on the gas. Stark took the victim’s phone and kept it for eight hours while threatening to kill her. The victim reported to the police that Stark raped her in his home. According to the affidavit, Stark choked her, squeezed her, spit in her face, and spit gum in her hair. In addition, Stark allegedly squeezed her broken foot repeatedly to inflict more pain. About 10 years ago, Stark made national headlines for shooting and killing a burglary suspect after the suspect stabbed his K-9, mortally wounding the animal. Stark was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting.
South Carolina: The Post and Courier, which covers the Charleston area, reported that on August 1, 2024, the police chief of Hampton, Perry McAlhaney, was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and battery. McAlhaney was just sawing a tree down. However, there was a man in the tree. The man in the tree was a deer hunter. He had paid McAlhaney’s neighbor $500 to use the property. When McAlhaney noticed him, he accused him of trespassing. When he didn’t leave, McAlhaney fetched his chainsaw and started taking the tree down. After he was read his Miranda rights, the police chief confessed that he wanted to cut down the tree with the hunter in it. He also admitted that he knew he could have caused serious injury or death to the hunter. In 2009, McAlhaney investigated the arson of Hampton’s most infamous former lawyer, Alex Murdaugh, who is serving two life sentences without parole for killing his wife and son in 2021.   

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