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A single cop framed dozens of innocent people and once a state attorney found the body camera footage from the arrests, the victims were vindicated.
By Matt Agorist - June 22, 2019
Jackson County, FL Dozens of innocent people who were rotting in jail have been freed and their charges erased after the corrupt cop who put them there was caught on his own body camera planting meth on an innocent mother. Jackson County Sheriffs Deputy Zachary Wester has since been fired and a slew of lawsuits are now rolling in.
Westers fall from law enforcement grace and the 119 people who were exonerated are due largely in part to the diligence of a single person, assistant state attorney at the 14th Judicial Circuit, Christina Pumphrey.
Pumphreys job as assistant state attorney included reviewing evidence before moving forward with charges against individuals. When she began reviewing cases, she found something very peculiar.
This is an exaggeration, but it felt like his (Westers) name was on half the cases, Pumphrey told The Appeal. It was seriously disproportionate.
When Pumphrey began watching the body camera footage from Westers arrests, she found something even more disturbing. Many times, Wester was seen conducting illegal searches. Also, his written affidavits did not match what she watched in the videos. But that wasnt the most telling aspect of all these videos.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/charges-dropped-for-119-people-after-cop-caught-on-video-planting-meth-on-innocent-grandma/
Read the whole thing.
ACAB.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)3Hotdogs
(12,439 posts)Blues Heron
(5,944 posts)take another implement of abuse away from the cops. Average cops should also not have guns. If firearms are needed they can call in a well trained gun squad.
Wounded Bear
(58,743 posts)you see shit like this and people wonder why cops aren't trusted.
genxlib
(5,544 posts)This doesnt surprise me. I have deep family ties to this rural County. My grandparents had a farm there and I still have a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins in the area. There is a chance I am related to the people in this story. The only surprise to me is that there wasnt a racial angle to it that I could see.
It should come as little surprise that a Federal prison is one of the biggest Employers in the County.
Everyman Jackal
(271 posts)should have their cases examined by a non-government board and the FBI. Every one of them should have a new trial and any evidence he found should not be admissible at trial. Every prosecutor who tried a disproportionate number of the cases where he is the one who found evidence should be investigated.
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)to share the data with the public.
There was a time when they would have bandied together to protect law enforcement.
Roy Rolling
(6,941 posts)How many meth addictswho neglect their teeth until they rot will put their iPhone, pen, and paper inside of a protective plastic bag?
But hide a spoon, syringe, and meth under a towel on the car seat.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Stuart G
(38,453 posts)Last edited Sun Jun 30, 2019, 10:28 AM - Edit history (6)
I spent the last 60 minutes trying to find out what happened to the cop who did this. I could find nothing, no charges, he was not arrested, evidently the county is still, "investigating" this former deputy sheriff. Here is a story from September 30, of last year. If you hit the link you can read the story
http://www.cljnews.com/20180928after-serving-6-months-in-jackson-county-jail-altha-womans-case-dismissed-as-fdle-investigates-deputy
Today is June 30. That is about 9 months after this story made national news. Nothing has been done to this former cop. No charges, no arrest, no nothing. I found this story from June 12, a couple of weeks ago. It confirms that the investigation is still going on. While this cop was fired in September of last year, they are still investigating this case. read the story below. No charges against this cop as of June 12.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2019/06/12/victims-frustrated-pace-jackson-county-drug-planting-probe/1408271001/
pecosbob
(7,545 posts)Two tiers of justice, two economies...one outcome...poor people get fucked over and perpetrators walk.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,467 posts)DFW
(54,448 posts)He should serve time equal to the cumulative sentences of all the people he framed.
If he gets out before the end of the century, it won't be much before the end of the century.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)ADDED a confession to the transcript of a suspects interview. A confession the suspect never made. Then they tried to use that for leverage in a plea deal. They didnt catch it until the defense actually heard the audio of the interview and noticed the confession wasnt there.
FakeNoose
(32,823 posts)How stupid can that cop be? He must have assumed all the DA's were as corrupt as he was.
Asst. State Attorney Christine Pumphrey deserves a medal and a promotion over this.