Cops Admit To Planting Marijuana on 92 Year Old Woman Killed in Botched Drug Raid

[StefanX]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/29/cops-admit-to-planting-marijuana-on-92-year-old-woman-killed-in-botched-drug-raid/

Two police officers pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. A third officer still faces charges...

The charges followed a Nov. 21 "no-knock" drug raid on the home of Kathryn Johnston, 92. An informant had described buying drugs from a dealer there, police said. When the officers burst in without warning, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back, killing her.

Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson said that the officers involved in Johnston's death fired 39 shots, striking her five or six times, including a fatal blow to the chest.

He said Johnston fired only once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.<..>

Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Sam-Buchanan said Thursday that although the officers found no drugs in Johnston's home, Smith planted three bags of marijuana in the home as part of a cover story.

The case raised serious questions about no-knock warrants and whether the officers followed proper procedures.

[LiberalFighter]

1. What should happen to these police officers?

Is this the first time these police officers planted evidence or falsify an arrest for the sake of an arrest?

[MN ChimpH8R]

29. Imprisonment for life

No parole. EVER. :grr:

Their real punishment begins when they are set loose in the general population of the prison.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

55. Actually, the idiot cop in charge

or the detective who trusted the informant and set up this raid should fry.

[rodeodance]

2. my gawd------what a horrible way to end a long life.

[Matariki]

3. And also serious questions about HOW and WHY the officer just happened to have drugs to plant.

[Kutjara]

5. They must be former Boy Scouts.

"Be Prepared" to frame anyone and everyone you don't like the look of. I wonder how many other cops carry guns, knives and drugs, ready to "sanitize" their mistakes?

[NI4NI]

6. DA should reopen any drug case

where these cops were involved in someone's conviction.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Dave Chappelle knows.

[Madspirit]

18. I can answer that!!

I've been caught with pot and they never busted me. They just took it. <g> That's where they get it. When I waited tables I used to have this young cop regular who liked to flirt with me:

Me: Hi. What would like.
Cop: You on toast.


Anyway...he would always leave a joint for a tip and I just knew he had just taken it from some other poor person...<g>
Lee

[indepat]

25. They just happened to have drugs to plant so they could plant some drugs

if none were found?

[Kutjara]

4. The cops shouldn't be allowed to plead manslaughter.

It was aggravated murder (the aggravation being the subsequent offense they committed trying to cover up their crime). Their punishment should be life without parole (unfortunately, I'm anti-death penalty, but cases like these test my convictions to the limits).

[malaise]

Yep this is not manslaughter

What a wicked act.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. They should have the same charges brought against them as

any other person who committed the same crime. I can see no reason to do otherwise.

[libnnc]

7. So will there be posts here

from rabid defenders of law enforcement now?

[LostinVA]

48. There were some in the other thread about this last week

:sigh:

The ORIGINAL thread on this months ago was sickening.

[Raskolnik]

64. Let me help you out:

I am probably one of those "rabid defenders of law enforcement" of which you speak, and I think officers like this should have the book thrown at them. I am perfectly capable of recognizing incompetence, corruption and criminal behavior in the police force when it is present. Living in Chicago, one would have to be deaf, blind and dead to stay ignorant of police misconduct (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0704271277apr29,1,3996376.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed).

One would be just as ignorant, however, to believe that every police officer is corrupt or that there aren't honest, hardworking officers that make us all safer by doing their job well. Recognizing a problem when it exists is not at all incompatible with recognizing that police have an incredibly difficult job, without which we would not be able to function as a society.

I don't think that's a very controversial position, really.

[uppityperson]

8. k&r

[BlooInBloo]

9. Fuck cops.

[Madspirit]

11. GOD DAMNED COPS...k&r...n/t

[blueknight]

13. one of the many reasons

i hate fucking cops. paranoid,lying,corrupt fucking bastards. and most of them have a personality,social disorder

[oscarmitre]

43. With a nick like blueknight

one would have thought you were a cop. I mean you must know lots of cops to claim "most of them have a personality,social disorder".

[LostinVA]

49. I dated one for a while -- and you're right

Most of them seem to be fucked up someway. The stories I heard from them -- Jesus.

[jayfish]

62. One Of The Many Reasons I Decided Against Being One.

I wasted three years in college on that crap.

Jay

[WindRavenX]

12. are you fucking kidding me?? A 92 year old woman??

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[FloridaJudy]

14. I see another "Worst Person in the World" nominee n/t

[AtomicKitten]

15. that is just so wrong .... n/t

[pinto]

17. Looks like they will get > ten years.

from the San Diego Union-Tribune coverage:

3 Atlanta Police Officers Charged in Drug Raid Death of 92-Year-Old Woman
2 Plead Guilty

Harry R. Weber, Associated Press
San Diego Union-Tribune
April 26, 2007
.......................

Officer J.R. Smith told a state judge Thursday that he regretted what had happened.

"I'm sorry," the 35-year-old said, his voice barely audible. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation, making false statements and perjury, which was based on claims in a warrant.

Former Officer Gregg Junnier, 40, who retired from the Atlanta police in January, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. Both men are expected to face more than 10 years in prison.

In a hearing later in federal court, both pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to violate a person's civil rights, resulting in death. Their state and federal sentences would run concurrently.

[Madspirit]

21. In 'Marka

The average sentence for murder is 12 years. These guys will probably get 11...<g> What total little murderous jerks. They should never see the outside of the bars again. (cover ears) THEY KILLED A 92 YEAR OLD WOMAN....jeez.
Lee

[pinto]

31. Yeah we have a two tiered system. A bad cop and a bad kid from the inner city,

both guilty, seem to get disproportionate sentences.

[LostinVA]

50. And how much will some kid found with pot get?

Probably AT LEAST that much.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

24. What happened to conspiracy and possession?

And isn't 3 ounces considered "dealer weight"???? That's usually considered possession with intent to resell.

"I'm sorry." Somehow that's simply not quite enough to say when you end the life of an innocent woman. It's just a pity her own shot missed.

[piedmont]

19. This story just keeps getting worse for those assholes.

We already know they lied to get the warrant, and conspired to cover their asses with more lies. I guess it's not surprising they also planted evidence. This story just makes me so mad.

[StefanX]

20. Just end this bogus "War on Drugs"

It's just an excuse for cops to invade people's lives.

Any transaction between myself and a member of the vegetable kingdom is nobody's fucking business.

And any government that claims to have jurisdiction over such a private matter automatically loses any claim to legitimacy.

[Kazak]

40. "Any transaction between myself and a member of the vegetable kingdom is nobody's fucking business."

:thumbsup:

[Canuckistanian]

22. Marijuana Policy Project link to story

http://www.mpp.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=glKZLeMQIsG&b=1847069&ct=3829713

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. This reminds me of the terrible, disgusting, and unbeliveable Donald Scott case

Donald Scott and his wife were living on about 200 acres of ranch property in the hills above Malibu, California. One day in 1992, the Sheriff's department surrounded the house and broke in, claiming it was a drug raid. Scott's wife screamed and Donald Scott came out of an upstairs bedroom with a gun in his hand. He was partially blinded from recent cataract surgery. The police told him to put down his gun. When he put it down, they murdered him. The police raid was allegedly conducted simply because they hoped that the couple were growing marijuana on their property and wanted the acquire the land by eminent domain through the eminent domain provisions of the drug enforcement laws. The city had tried to previously buy their beautiful ranchland to incorporate it into a nearly recreational park because it had a 75 foot natural waterfall on it. The Feds had also tried to coerce the couple into selling their land for the use of the National Park Service. NO MARIJUANA WAS EVER FOUND. None of the Officers were disciplined and nothing was done to the Sheriff for having plotted to murder an innocent citizen in order to grab his land.

http://www.fear.org/scott.html

[Madspirit]

26. Sadly, no surprise here...n/t

[Rex]

27. All law enforcement officials around the country should be up in arms.

This is what represents them to millions of people. Amazing.

[electron_blue]

28. Wow. This raises serious questions about whether marijuan 'plants' are routine

[Richard Steele]

30. No, it does not raise such questions.

It ANSWERS them.

[electron_blue]

33. Yes, you're right.

[Jonathan50]

35. There was a thread here in the last week or two

About a Chicago cop who beat up a bartender and then threatened to plant drugs on her if she complained.

Planting drugs by cops is far more common than most people are willing to admit even to themselves.

[Richard Steele]

39. Why else would a cop going out to "serve a warrant" for drugs....

...equip himself beforehand with three (3) small, prepackaged,
individually-wrapped amounts of the drug he's allegedly expecting
to confiscate during his brave effort to uphold the law?

There's really no other explanation for it.

[LostinVA]

51. Bingo -- a point the media seems to be ignoring

[Bluebear]

45. Precisely. nt

[Monk06]

32. These assholes took two and half noisy minutes

slowly prying the bars off her front door
before they broke in and wasted her.

She fired four shots and the only bullet
recovered was from the roof of a house
across the street.

Officer wounded - Lied about that

Drugs - Lied about that

No knock warrent - lied to get that.

It was an execution in order to justify a
completely bogus undercover operation by
a bunch of donut eating thugs.

[MrSlayer]

34. This will happen during these bullshit "no knock" raids.

If someone bursts into my house unannounced I'm firing until my clip is empty. You don't know who the hell is breaking into your house. And then to plant pot on the woman is just disgusting. These guys should be charged with murder.

[MLFerrell]

36. Just another day in the police-state empire...

Is it fascism yet?

[Ilsa]

37. I bet other police are concerned about using these damned

no-knock warrants. One of the last things I'd ever want to do is hurt an innocent person like they did.

[Jonathan50]

41. I have cops in my family by marriage..

Some of them seem to have the idea that there are *no* innocent people, everyone has done something illegal and if they happen to get you for the wrong thing then that just makes up for when you skated out of punishment for something else you did.

These botched no knock drug raids have been going on for literally decades now and not one damn thing has changed.

It won't change in the future either.

[riverdeep]

46. It may when it happens to rich republicans

[MindPilot]

56. Nope. That already happened in San Diego county a few years ago.

Cops raided the wrong house, shot and killed the owner who happened to be a local fairly well-off businessman. IIRC the blame went straight to the informant who gave the wrong information.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

38. ugh

manslaughter?

[Rhythm]

42. These assholes should never see the 'outside' again....

This is the height of despicable, and i agree with the ones who said that the DA's office should re-open all drug cases in which they were involved, since they seem more than willing to frame someone to cover up their fuck-ups.

[BreweryYardRat]

44. Honestly, it's stuff like this that makes me wish we didn't have "no cruel and unusual punishment"

Scum like these "men" give a bad name to honest cops everywhere, and should die slowly and painfully for their vile actions. Impaling, preferably.

[riverdeep]

47. But I thought marijuana was the evil?

It will make me apathetic and my children will be gelatinous-headed morans. And now cops, the authorities, plant it on people. I'm so confused.

[babylonsister]

52. That headline took my breath away. So sad to have lived so long,

only to die protecting her home from officers of the law.This story is so wrong on so many levels. :-(

[mainegreen]

53. Well, at least we can agree on one thing: jail is really going to suck for them!

I wonder how many people they put away are waiting happily for them?
:rofl:

[Tyler Durden]

54. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards themselves?

Juvenal, Satires
Roman poet & satirist (55 AD - 127 AD)

[Recursion]

57. Every cop I know hates no-knock warrants

They're just a new and faster way to kill cops (and civilians).

But a lot of police departments are addicted to the money they get from drug seizures.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

58. Fuck the police and fuck all the effort against marajuana and mushrooms

[Blackhatjack]

59. This goes way beyond unintentional killing of the 92 yr old woman....

They lied under oath in the affidavit they presented to the Judge to get the no-knock warrant.

They contacted a third party and ordered him to tell a false story as their alibi.

They planted fake evidence on the property.

Other people helped them cover up their wrongdoing.

And the prosecutor had all this evidence to put them away for 2nd degree murder, and he offers them manslaughter(5-10 yrs)?

It does not get any worse than this from people sworn to uphold the law and protect the public.
Reverse the situation and you would find the 92 yr old woman being charged with 1st degree murder facing the death penalty.

And we are supposed to be surprised when juries don't automatically believe everything a police officer testifies to in court?

This was a sorry disposition of the cases against these officers, and you can bet others are breathing a sigh of relief that it may end here. Others slipped the net.

[bamacrat]

60. Another victim of the War on Drugs. I hope all of them rot.

When will our lawmakers come to their senses and see that the War on Drugs is a huge faliure.

[Jonathan50]

61. Never

This has been another edition of short answers to simple questions.

[wicket]

63. Fucking pigs

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[Raskolnik]

65. And if the victim was 50 years younger, they'd have almost certainly gotten away w/ it

Semi-autonomous units combined with arrest/warrant quotas scare the pants off me.

[Jed Dilligan]

66. I say harvest their organs

Give them to people who deserve to live. They can fix people with pig parts, right?