Monthly Archives: February 2016

Justice in America: Gerardo Hernandez Part III

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MIRACLE BY THE BAY Part III

By Warren Yates

2/27/16

The testimony from snitch Ryan and his wife Marlin Reyes Rios during the trial said that they were both outside getting groceries out of the car when the shooting took place. They both told a cute story that when the shooter came up they began to run and she fell down and snitch Ryan fell down on top of her and then they got up and ran into the apartment. Big lies.

During the trial, attorney Gradford had me go out to the apartments where Gerardo and Jessica lived to get a statement from the managers. When I talked to them I asked them to tell me everything that happened and what they saw the day of the shooting. Upon questioning they both told me that as they came out of the office and a gold car was driving away, they walked down the Street to look over across the street to see what was going on.

They saw police there and an ambulance had taken away the shooting victim. The wife was there in the courtyard and they walked across the street and asked the wife what happened. The wife said my husband’s been shot. And as a normal question, the managers asked who shot him? The wife said I don’t know, I was in the apartment putting groceries away and didn’t see it. He was out there alone.

Gerardo Hernandez

 

It should be noted that Ms. Frasier had listed one of the managers on her witness list to be called in to testify. After I wrote my report that day, and under discovery rules, my report had to go to Ms. Frasier. After receiving my report, Ms. Frasier immediately removed the managers from her witness list. No worries though, I served them both a defense subpoena to appear in court when I got their statements.

These are two independent people who have no direct connection to any of those involved in the incident. Therefore, their testimony is creditable and trustworthy. That meant that both snitch Ryan and his wife Rios had committed perjury. But there was no mention by Ms. Frasier about charging them with perjury. Imagine that?

Okay let’s cut to the chase. During the closing arguments, Ms. Frasier during her arguments mention some type of I believe a Richard Pryor joke. Yes, it’s real funny to make jokes when an innocent man’s life hangs in the balance. That takes a lot of class or lack thereof. During attorney Gradford’s closing arguments, he made a tremendous and impassioned argument outlining all of the holes in the prosecution’s case that we discovered.

Well the prosecution gets the last bite of the apple in our jurisprudence system and again attacks the defense closing statements. During her closing rebuttal arguments, she pulled an old law school story by telling about a Norwegian fish called the herring who in order to preserve it after was caught, covered it with salt. And she indicated that when they went foxhunting in England, the dogs are so good they always went right to the fox.

She said they decided to put red herrings in various places about the course to try to throw the dogs off of the scent of the fox and make it more sporting. Yes Tally Ho Tally Ho you blokes. She indicated that the holes we found in her case and the poor investigation by the police department were merely red herrings to try to hide the rotten smell of our case. What a stupid story!

Next part IV The Verdict


Klan Members Released After KKK Rally Brawl


After a violent brawl broke out at an Orange County park between KKK members and counter-protesters, Anaheim police released the Klan members Sunday, saying evidence supports they acted in self-defense.

Five of the 12 originally arrested were released Sunday afternoon after detectives said they pored over videos, photos and witness interviews. The Anaheim Police Department said the KKK members were released because “the images and statements corroborate witness statements that they were acting in self-defense.”

About 10 to 20 people were involved in the incidents that resulted in three people getting stabbed. One KKK member was behind all three stabbings, according to Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt.

“Regardless of an individual or groups’ beliefs or ideologies, they are entitled to live without the fear of physical violence and have the right, under the law, to defend themselves when attacked,” Anaheim police said in a statement.

3 Stabbed at KKK March, 12 Arrested in Orange County


Thirteen were arrested and three stabbed when groups clash at an Orange County KKK march.

Klan members were booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon before being released. The seven people who remained in custody  were booked for assault with a deadly weapon or elder abuse for stomping on a Klan member who’s older than 65 years old, police said.

Police said 51-year-old Charles Edward Donner of San Francisco, 20-year-old Marquis DeShawn Turner of Anaheim, 25-year-old Randy Omarcc Felder of Lakewood and 19-year-old Guy Harris, a homeless man, were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. They were being held on $25,000 bail.

Hugo Contreras, 38, of Hawthorne; Nicole Rae Schop, 24, and Mark Anthony Liddell, 26, both of Los Angeles, face charges of elder abuse and were being held on $50,000 bail, police said.

Though the Klan members were released, prosecutors will review the case and decide whether to file criminal charges, authorities said.

The brawl broke out about 11 a.m. near the site of a planned afternoon rally at Pearson Park located in the 400 block of North Harbor Boulevard, according to Wyatt. Police had said Friday that the department was aware of a KKK “walking protest” planned at the park for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and that the group had held similar rallies before in Orange County.

“(The counter-protesters) were so angry, they would have torn these folks limb from limb,” said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “I was afraid for their lives.”

Levin, who went to Pearson Park expecting to record the rally for research, found himself protecting the Klansmen until police could intervene. On a video Levin shot and posted to Twitter, he later asked one of them, “How do you feel that a Jewish person helped save your life today?”

A Klansman stabbed a counter-protester in the chest with an eagle figure at the end of the flag, according to Wyatt. The protester was transported to a hospital in critical condition.”As stated previously, I implore everyone to respond with peace and dignity, regardless of where your support lies,” Anaheim Police Chief Raul Quezada said in a statement. “We have a unique opportunity to bond together as OUR Anaheim community.”

Rosa Madrigal, a 25-year-old mother who was at the park Sunday with her husband and three children, told The Associated Press she was shocked to even hear about the KKK holding a rally in Anaheim, let alone the violence that ensued.

George Kennedy dead…….


George Kennedy

February 18,1925-February 28,2016

George Kennedy, star of “Cool Hand Luke” and the ‘Naked Gun’ movies, has died at the age of 91.

George’s grandson Cory Schenkel says Kennedy died Sunday morning at 4:30 AM in Boise, ID. He says his grandfather had been in failing health ever since his wife Joan died a little over a year ago. George had been under hospice care for the past month.

Kennedy won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1968 for “Cool Hand Luke.” He also starred in all 3 of the ‘Naked Gun’ flicks, “Airport 1975,” “Earthquake” and many many more.

His last role was in “The Gambler” with Mark Wahlberg in 2014.

 

Justice in America: Gerardo Hernandez Part II

MIRACLE BY THE BAY Part II

By Warren Yates

2/27/16

On November 15, 2013, while snitch Ryan was unloading groceries from his car at his complex, a subject ran up to him and shot at him with a 40 caliber handgun. One bullet went through his wrist and one grazed his thigh. That incident is what started the nightmare for Gerardo and Jessica. When the 911 call came in, the caller stated that a person has been shot and they don’t know who did it. When the police arrived and talked to snitch Ryan, he said that Gerardo who lives across the street shot him.

The police went across the street to Gerardo’s apartment office and confirmed that he lived there. During the course of the investigation, it was six weeks until December 26, 2013 before the police went and arrested Gerardo. Since snitch Ryan made a positive identification of the shooter as being Gerardo, why did the police not immediately lock Gerardo up the day of the shooting? Could it possibly be because they didn’t trust the word of snitch Ryan? Regardless, they still put Gerardo in jail and charged with attempted murder.

Gerardo Hernandez

Gerardo had a series of attorneys, public defenders and one private attorney, who took the case through the preliminary hearing but did not do a proper investigation. So Gerardo was held to answer. So he suffered in jail until the family came to the law offices of Alonzo Gradford. We then began to investigate the case. 

Again, public record, Leigh Frasier was the deputy Dist. Atty. IV that was assigned this case for the prosecution. As revealed in Transparent America, Ms. Frasier’s earnings in 2014 were $262,445.93. I am sure that her earnings in 2015 will surpass that figure. So Santa Clara County only puts their best on cases of this serious nature. I’m glad they did, because her best wasn’t good enough as you will learn a little later in this article.

Ms. Frasier’s conduct during all of the pretrial hearings and various motions that had to be made was abhorrent and bordering on unethical. A week before the trial was to start, in the judge’s chambers, Ms. Frazer indicated that her mother was in the hospital and having a hard time breathing there in Tennessee. It was suggested that possibly Ms. Frasier should have another deputy Dist. Atty. handle the case so that she could be with her mother in Tennessee.

Rather than go to her mother who was sick in the hospital, she told the judge if her mother got worse she would just have to leave the trial. She was adamant about getting Gerardo Hernandez convicted and would let nothing get in the way of her agenda. As the trial started, I was witness to her rude, arrogant, condescending, pompous and disdaining attitude toward this “country bumpkin” attorney and investigator from Modesto, wherever that is.

Ms. Frasier is obviously more acquainted with the upper echelon of barristers she is generally familiar with. So here we come, David to fight the Goliath. Just as David did in the Bible, we picked up several smooth stones and ran toward Goliath.

I am not going to go into all of the details of the trial and rude conduct by both the judge and Ms. Frasier. I could write a book about that. There is no doubt that the judge had a preconceived notion that our client, Gerardo was guilty without a trial. Ms. Frasier also considered the case of slam-dunk and a notch in her win column.

The day the shooting when the police interviewed the managers across the street from the scene of the shooting a which is the apartment complex in which Gerardo and Jessica lived, they didn’t get too much information and didn’t ask too many questions. The women indicated that after they heard the shots fired they opened the door quickly and saw a gold car driving away with red and white temporary dealer license plates. That is all the information the police got from them.

Next part III Let the lies begin


Justice in America: Gerardo Hernandez Part I


MIRACLE BY THE BAY Part I

By Warren Yates

2/27/16

Well ladies and gentlemen, deputy Dist. Atty. Marlissa Ferriera’s favorite commenter is back from San Jose. I am going to explain the title of this commentary and show how what happened in San Jose parallels the dog and pony show here in Stanislaus County. First I will tell you the events that took place in San Jose, and let you draw your own conclusions.

If our law office would have had this case from its inception, I don’t feel that the defendant, Gerardo Hernandez would have been penalized two years three months of his life for a crime he did not commit.

The case involves a gang banger from the West Side Berkeley (WSB) gang. Since it’s all public record now, the name of that gang banger is Mohammed Reza Niknahad, a.k.a. Ryan. I will use Ryan as an identifier in this commentary. Ryan was present during a gang shooting in Oakland by one of his fellow gang bangers. That shooting took the life of an innocent 14-year-old boy who was merely walking along on the sidewalk.

The shooter missed the rival gang member which was his target and killed the young boy. Upon being apprehended and offered a deal, Ryan turned snitch and testified in court against his fellow gang banger causing the shooter to be convicted of homicide. “Snitch” Ryan skated on the homicide charge for rolling over on his buddy. However, Ryan was convicted of robbery and sentenced to the Santa Rita Correctional Facility in Alameda County.

Gerardo Hernandez

It was there that snitch Ryan first met Gerardo Hernandez. Gerardo, our client, was in for drug charges. While in custody, snitch Ryan decided to drop out of the Berkeley gang. In the vernacular he “rolled it up”, making him “all bad “and of course, had a target on his back for being a snitch. Gerardo and snitch Ryan were only in the same pod for a matter of weeks but became acquainted. When Gerardo got out of facility he lost contact with snitch Ryan.

When Gerardo got out of jail, he decided to turn his life around when he became re-acquainted with a girl he had known since she was 14 years old. When they got together they went through several hardships including having to live in a van. Both became gainfully employed and saved their money until they could get their own apartment in San Jose.

Gerardo had completely distanced himself from his gang which was the “Lil Decoto Gangstas” (LDG) from Union City. Gerardo did not “drop out” because someone who dropped out was normally a snitch or cooperated with the police. Since he had not done that he didn’t want to get tagged that way. So he merely became inactive and left the gang lifestyle behind him.

Gerardo and his girlfriend Jessica were living a quiet and peaceful life there in San Jose. And this is where the story takes a strange turn. The apartment complex that Gerardo and Jessica were living in, has a swimming pool. A less desirable apartment complex across the street had no pool recreational facilities. Gerardo and Jessica’s complex had the pool, large children’s playground and other amenities.

For some unknown reason the residents of the less desirable complex across the street were allowed to come into Gerardo and Jessica’s complex and swim in the pool. Gerardo who had joint custody of his two young daughters from a prior marriage, on visitation allowed them to use the facilities.

One day in August 2013, Gerardo and Jessica were in the pool area. This was four years after Gerardo had last seen snitch Ryan. Snitch Ryan had come across the street with his wife to use the pool facilities. As snitch Ryan and Gerardo looked at each other, snitch Ryan said to Gerardo don’t I know you from Alameda County? Gerardo then recognized him and said yes that was him.

Snitch Ryan knew that Gerardo was an excellent tattoo artist. Snitch Ryan had told Gerardo that he had to be careful because some Nortenios had broken Ryan’s car windows and thrown bottles at him one day when he drove into his parking area. Gerardo told snitch Ryan that he was no longer active in the gang and had no one after him.

Snitch Ryan asked Gerardo if he would be able to cover up a very large “14” he had on his chest as he wanted to try to remove the gang tattoo. Gerardo first said he would do that but after thinking about the fact that snitch Ryan had the gang after him for snitching decided he didn’t want to have anything to do with snitch Ryan. So the next day when snitch Ryan called about getting the cover up done, Gerardo told him he didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Snitch Ryan became angry and made repeated telephone calls cussing out Gerardo.

Gerardo just ignored it and when about his business. During my investigation while the trial was going on, I spoke to one of the managers at the apartment complex where Gerardo and Jessica resided. She told me that the little community there was aware that snitch Ryan had people looking for him and that he was paranoid, rightfully so.

Next part II the snitch gets shot

Chicago homicides up 100% from last year

To date, homicides in Chicago for 2016 are approximately 100 percent higher than they were at this same time last year.


The Chicago Tribune reports there were 47 at this point last year while there have been “at least 95” so far in 2016. There were at least four fatalities in the city over the past weekend alone, with two additional fatalities on Monday.

This is not simply a continuation of the violence we witnessed in Chicago in 2015, but an acceleration with deadly consequences. According to the Tribune, there were “nearly 470 homicides” in Chicago in 2015 and there were 2,986 total shootings–fatal and non-fatal combined. There were “thirty-two” shootings in Chicago over the past weekend alone.

And think about this–Chicago has an “assault weapons” ban, a “violence tax” that raises the price of every gun and bullet sold at retail, limits on the number of gun stores and the locations of those stores, and what the New York Times describes as handgun restrictions that let city leaders “get as close as they could get legally to a ban without a ban.” These regulations represent a veritable wish list for gun controllers around the country, yet they have correlated with more murder, not less.

On October 27, President Obama tried to blame Indiana and Wisconsin for the gun control failure in Chicago. His line of reasoning was that the pro-Second Amendment stance of Indiana and Wisconsin means guns flooding into Chicago from out of state. On February 5, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) blamed Indiana and surrounding states as well.

A Chicago Police Department report shows that 19 percent of the guns recovered at Chicago crime scenes from 2009-2013 were from Indiana. However, that same report showed a larger percentage–20 percent–originated in Chicago. This means a larger percentage of guns found at Chicago crime scenes originated in Chicago area gun stores–where background checks are required–rather than in Indiana, where they are not.

Institute for Justice policing for profit reports for your state……..

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Civil forfeiture laws pose some of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation today, too often making it easy and lucrative for law enforcement to take and keep property—regardless of the owner’s guilt or innocence. This updated and expanded second edition of Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture makes the case for reform, grading the civil forfeiture laws of each state and the federal government, documenting remarkable growth in forfeiture activity across the country, and highlighting a worrisome lack of transparency surrounding forfeiture activity and expenditures from forfeiture funds.

To see how you state rates click here: Policing for Profit – Institute for Justice

Co-creator of Civil Asset Forfeiture Wants to Abolish It…….

I know I have talked about this before but here is a bit more info


One of the most insidious abuses of state power lies in the practice of civil asset forfeiture (CAF), where government agents can seize cash and property from citizens who are not charged with a crime. Law enforcement needs only the suspicion (often concocted) of a crime to immediately steal a person’s belongings, and the person must then prove his or her innocence with costly attorney’s fees to get their property back.

The case of Joseph Rivers, 22, provides a shocking example of how bad it can get. While on his way to Hollywood to start a music career, the DEA stole Rivers’ life savings of $16,000 on the made-up suspicion that he must be involved in drugs, even though there was no evidence whatsoever. He has yet to get this money back.

Since CAF was created by the federal government in the 1980s to fight organized crime, law enforcement has seized upon it to develop, like a drug addiction, something known as “policing for profit.” Billions of dollars are stolen every year to feed a lust for more equipment, training, and personnel to further entrench the police state.

However, the tide is turning. New Mexico has become the first state to make serious reform, as it has abolished civil asset forfeiture by requiring a criminal conviction to seize assets. The law puts the funds derived from criminal convictions into the state treasury, rather than state and local law enforcement.

The city of Albuquerque, which used to rake in $1 million a year from CAF, is incensed over the loss of its cash cow and is refusing to follow the law. It continues to seize vehicles without a conviction and has even built a new parking lot for all the cars it intends to steal.

More states, such as Virginia, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire, are considering reform as the abuses of CAF come to light. Noble law enforcement officers are speaking out as well. Last September, we interviewed Stephen Mills, chief of police of the Apache, OK police department, who is a vocal critic of CAF.

And now, a bombshell has been dropped which will surely accelerate moves across the country to end this injustice.

One of the creators of civil asset forfeiture has just called for it to be abolished. Brad Cates, former director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Office (1985-89), wrote an opinion in the Wall Street Journal acknowledging that CAF has turned into policing for profit.

“During the Reagan administration I helped establish these programs because I believed they would quickly channel seized criminals’ profits into the fight against organized crime and drug cartels. Yet over time we have created a new bad incentive: policing for profit, out of the reach of the proper legislative budget process.”

Cates references a study performed by the Institute for Justice which found that the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund exploded from $93.7 million in 1986 to $4.5 billion in 2014. The study also found that “just 13% of Justice Department forfeitures from 1997-2013 were criminal forfeitures, while 87% were civil forfeitures.”

“Considering the intertwined financial incentives, reform must happen at both the state and federal level. States and the federal government can look to what New Mexico had done as a template for broad-based action.

Three decades ago I helped create our civil asset forfeiture system; now it is time to end it.”

Clearly, the intent of the original law has been thoroughly abused at all levels of government. The Justice Department caved to pressure in 2015 when it suspended its “equitable sharing” program which allowed local police to skirt state-level efforts of reform. That hasn’t stopped cops in most states from continuing to loot and pillage the citizenry.

Cates still endorses the war on drugs, which creates crime and misery, but acknowledges that “states taking assets from untried individuals who are easily summoned before the courts is unconscionable.”

When the man who helped create civil asset forfeiture says it’s time to end it, this is a powerful message to cops who revel in stealing from innocent citizens under the guise of fighting crime. Addiction is a hard thing to kick, as law enforcement will soon find out.

Man shot by Baltimore police acquitted as jury rejects officers’ testimony

 


For the more than 240 days since Keith Davis was shot in the face by Baltimore police, he has nursed his wounds from a jail cell, facing a barrage of charges on allegations that he robbed an unlicensed cab driver and fled. Davis was the first police-involved shooting since the death of Freddie Gray in police custody set off citywide protests in April.

And while Gray became a household name as representative of the more than 1,000 people who are killed by police each year, activists have held up Davis as an example of how Gray and others like him might have been treated by the law enforcement system if they had lived.

On Thursday, a jury found Davis not guilty on all the charges but one. They acquitted him of 14 charges related to the robbery, chase and standoff that ended in police gunfire at Davis, and found him guilty only of possessing a firearm as a prohibited person, which carries a five-year minimum sentence.

Despite a prison sentence that Davis’s supporters consider unjust, the verdict is viewed as at least a partial victory by Davis and activists.

Davis “feels like this is a win”, said his fiancee Kelly Holsey, who led the activist movement. “He set out to prove his innocence and did that. And the charge he was found guilty for is really a technicality.”

The state’s attorney’s office – headed by Marilyn Mosby, who came to national prominence when she announced charges against officers in connection with the death of Freddie Gray – has faced increasing criticism from campaigners regarding this case. Baltimore Bloc, an activist group, has repeatedly alleged that Mosby’s office was involved in helping the police department cover up the shooting.

On the stand, the officers offered conflicting and contradictory accounts of the incident. The state alleged that Davis got into the car of Charles Holden, who was operating an unlicensed cab, and tried to hold him up. Police testified that they chased Davis after they saw him flee from the car carrying a gun, and followed him into a garage where they saw him point a gun at them from behind a refrigerator. Four different officers opened fire, ultimately discharging more than 40 shots.

Police never offered a clear story about what happened that day as their timelines varied considerably, leaving room for reasonable doubt. For instance, Officer Lane Eskins testified that he never lost sight of the suspect, but Sergeant Alfredo Santiago’s account placed Davis in the garage while Eskins was still a block away.

But a bigger problem with the state’s case came from the civilian witnesses. Holden, the unlicensed cab driver who was held up, gave a description at the time of the event that did not match Davis. During the trial, Davis’s attorney Latoya Francis-Williams walked Holden directly in front of the defense table where Davis sat, wearing a blue blazer, a white sweater, a plaid shirt, and glasses. “To my recollection that don’t look like him to me,” he said.

Another witness, Martina Washington, who was in the garage when Davis ran in, testified that police had influenced her description of the man who entered the garage. “They keep saying all the stuff to you and telling you what they want you to say,” she said. “They was telling me ‘is the guy light-skinned? Was the guy light-skinned?’… That’s why I said ‘Yeah.’ I’m trying to get out of here.”

Davis did not testify, but in a jailhouse interview in January, he told the Guardian that he was never in Holden’s car and was walking down the street holding his phone when Holden’s car pulled up and police began to run. “They just centered on me. When they ran towards the crowd everybody kind of broke away from the crowd and ran in a direction,” he said. “I wasn’t even the only one that ran in that direction but they ended up chasing me.”

Davis has maintained that he never had a gun. But the police department’s fingerprint expert testified that her report found an irrefutable match between the partial prints left on the gun – found on top of a refrigerator within the garage – and Davis.

In closing arguments, the defense alleged that the entire case was the result of a cover-up. “They’re in damage control,” Francis-Williams said. “Why? Because they shot the wrong person … They double down hoping that no one will notice, that an innocent man will be convicted and we’ll close the books on this.”

“There’s too much crime going on in Baltimore to think this guy is that special to waste time to make up evidence,” LaZette Ringgold-Kirksey, the prosecutor, responded in her rebuttal.

At the same time the trial was going on, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was at a hearing on police reform at the state capitol advocating that police be held to an even higher standard. Under current policy, police are advised to give a statement within 10 days of an incident, and Rawlings-Blake is asking that the window be reduced to five days. But in the Keith Davis case, four shooting officers – Sgt Santiago, Officer Eskins, Officer Catherine Filippou, and fficer Israel Lopez – all testified that they didn’t give statements for more than 180 days after the shooting.

Police spokesman TJ Smith said that the officers did not give statements because they were under grand jury investigation until November, when the state’s attorney declined to prosecute the officers for shooting Davis.

At the end of Davis’s trial, the jury rejected all of the charges stemming from police testimony. But, evidently, even the clearly contradictory accounts from officers and witnesses could not dispel the fingerprints that said to the jury that Davis had been in possession of the gun at some time. Because he had previously been convicted of a felony, Davis was not allowed to possess a weapon.

Now more news from all those inside the clown car…….

Bob Schieffer on GOP race: “I didn’t think it could get lower”


Dawg says it will get lower when Hillary starts talking…….

 

Thursday night’s explosive Republican debate was filled with name-calling and attempts at mockery that many in the party said reached lows beneath the dignity of the office the candidates are seeking.

CBS News’ Bob Schieffer said he didn’t think this campaign could get much lower — then it did. “I mean, no discussion of the issues. People arguing, screaming, hollering,” Schieffer said.

By Friday afternoon, the conversation had quickly changed once again to Donald Trump — he wasendorsed by New Jersey Governor and former candidate Chris Christie.

But Trump’s campaign promises may be harmful to the party’s goals, says Schieffer. After the 2012 election, the Republican party aimed to reach out to a broader electorate, including Hispanics and African Americans.

“Donald Trump gets big applause when he talks about building that wall along the border with Mexico, but what some Republicans are beginning to wonder is — is he really building a wall around the Republican party?”

They are all in a low no class state.

 

B

Dipshidiot of the day: He save’s the Tat’s but not the fingers…….

Fugitive chews off fingertips in failed bid to hide identity


 

Police say a fugitive from Tampa who didn’t want to be identified by his fingerprints during a traffic stop in northeast Ohio chewed off his fingertips.

Kirk Kelly has been jailed on felony counts of evidence tampering and obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of falsification and resisting arrest. A message left for his attorney after business hours Friday hasn’t been returned.

Police in Tallmadge, Ohio, say Kelly and several other people were put into a cruiser without handcuffs after their vehicle was stopped last weekend and officers thought they smelled drugs.

Police say Kelly gave false names as they tried to identify him. They say they figured out who he is after photos of his tattoos were provided by police in Florida, where he’s wanted on firearms and drug charges.