Tag: Criminal justice

Feb 15

2024

AG launches probe after inmate death ruled homicide

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The New York State Attorney General says that Shaun Humphrey died after he became unresponsive while jailers at the Erie County Holding Center were handcuffing him. Photo courtesy of Humphrey’s family. The New York Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the August death of an Erie County Holding Center inmate that’s been ruled a homicide. Shaun Humphrey, 52, died at Buffalo General Hospital on Aug. 15, one week after an encounter with guards, according to a press release from the attorney general and Ashley Isaac, Humphrey’s daughter. Humphrey appeared to be having a seizure, then became combative with[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Feb 1

2024

Accused spitter stuck in legal limbo

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Charged with spitting on guards at a federal detention facility nearly four years ago, Samuel Boima is still locked up. And there’s no end in sight. He’s a schizophrenic with convictions for armed robbery and assault. A final deportation order has been issued, an appeal denied. Sierra Leone, Boima’s native country, has granted travel documents. Federal prosecutors in Buffalo are keeping him in the United States, according to a federal judge who has urged the U.S. attorney’s office to drop charges of assaulting federal officers so deportation proceedings can resume. Boima in May 2020 spat while two guards at the[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 10

2024

Almost fired, then promoted

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A Buffalo police officer once charged with assault, tagged for termination and barred from the witness stand has been promoted to detective and is again allowed to testify. “Irremediable problems of credibility” prompted a ban on Joseph Hassett taking the stand, District Attorney John Flynn wrote in a 2019 letter to police. The department then put Hassett on desk duty and sought termination. After an arbitrator overruled the department in 2020, Hassett returned to street duty. He’s now a detective. “Oh my god,” attorney Richard Weisbeck responded during a recent deposition when Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia revealed that Hassett had[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Nov 26

2023

Punishment not befitting the crime

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In the wee hours last January, prosecutors say, Jones Woods threw a rock through a window at the U.S. Attorney’s office in downtown Buffalo. No one came. Woods left after 15 minutes, authorities say. Police found him later that day at the downtown bus station on Ellicott Street. After being arrested and charged with criminal mischief, he appeared in City Court the next day and was sent on his way. Ten minutes later, he threw another rock through a window at the U.S. Attorney’s office.  “I knew if I came back here, I would go to federal prison,” he told[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Jul 5

2023

Federal oversight ends of county jails

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Editor’s note: This is the first story reported by Bruce Rushton for Investigative Post. Bruce joined the staff last week; he covers criminal justice. He can be reached at brushton@investigativepost.com. A federal judge has approved termination of a consent decree designed to improve health care and reduce suicide risk in Erie County jail facilities. At the request of county lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued the county in 2009, U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny on June 13 approved dismissal of the decree created more than a decade ago to provide oversight of the Erie County[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Dec 13

2022

Maybe the feds can fix Buffalo police

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The U.S. Justice Department has investigated more than 80 problem-plagued police departments and correctional facilities over the past 25 years and mandated remedial action to correct issues it encountered in more than half of them. Pittsburgh was the Justice Department’s first target. In 1997, the DOJ and the city signed a “consent decree” — a binding agreement — under which the city adopted numerous police reforms, including an “early warning system” to track officers who exhibited a tendency toward excessive use of force or racial discrimination. A 2012 consent decree between Seattle and the DOJ — prompted by a pattern[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 9

2020

Faulty logic behind refusal to release inmates

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Updated at 10:40 a.m. The argument prosecutors, and sometimes judges, make is that few inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, so it’s safe to keep them incarcerated. Authorities, however, are not testing many inmates, so they don’t know how healthy they really are. As a result, relatively few prisoners held in Erie County jails or the state’s 53 prisons who are deemed as infectious risks are being released. Only five of Erie County’s 528 inmates have been tested, and only 52 have been released due to COVID-19 concerns.  “The standard line from the DA’s office is that ‘We don’t have[...]

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post

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