NYC cops pleading not guilty in corruption probe (AP)

By TOM HAYS and COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Tom Hays And Colleen Long, Associated Press – 1?hr?1?min?ago

NEW YORK – New York City police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to a range of corruption charges in a sweeping probe touched off by an investigation into whether a Bronx officer had ties to a drug dealer.

In total, 16 officers were arraigned in a packed courtroom. The halls were swarmed with people, and hundreds of officers carrying signs stood outside the courthouse and applauded as the accused officers walked through.

The Bronx officer, Jose Ramos, pleaded not guilty to drug and other charges. An internal affairs lieutenant pleaded not guilty to charges she leaked information to union officials about the probe. The rest of the officers pleaded not guilty to charges including official misconduct and obstructing governmental authority after prosecutors said they abused their authority by helping family and friends avoid paying traffic tickets.

The case evolved from a 2009 internal affairs probe of Ramos, who owned a barber shop and was suspected of allowing a friend to deal drugs out of it. Prosecutors said he also transported drugs in uniform.

"He sold his shield, he violated his oath," Assistant District Attorney Omer Wiceyk said.

Wiceyk said Ramos was recorded as saying he "stopped caring about the law a long time ago."

Ramos' attorney, John Sandleitner, said the charges were ridiculous. "If he had done any of these things that they say, they would've arrested him two months ago. Or two years ago," he said. "Why did they let him go to work, then?"

While listening to Ramos' phone, investigators caught calls from people seeing if Ramos could fix tickets for them. The conversations led to more wiretaps that produced evidence of additional officers having similar conversations.

Internal affairs lieutenant Jennara Cobb, who pleaded not guilty to charges of divulging a wiretap, was accused of meeting with union officials about the probe. As a result, word spread through the department's most powerful union and delegates started to alter the way they fixed tickets, prosecutor Jonathan Ortiz said.

"The investigation was significantly compromised because of her actions," he said.

Her attorney, Philip Karasyk, said she denied the charges and had been unfairly singled out. She was released on bail.

"That wiretap was leaking like a sieve," he said.

Many of those arrested include high level members of the union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the department's most powerful with 22,000 members.

"This has been laid on the shoulders of police officers, but when the dust settles and we have our day in court, it will be clear that this is part of the NYPD at all levels," union President Patrick Lynch said through a spokesman.

Among those charged were Bronx union delegates Officers Joseph Anthony, 46; Michael Hernandez, 35; and Brian McGuckin, 44. Officer Virgilio Bencosme, 33, and Officer Luis R. Rodriguez, 43, both of the 40th Precinct; Officer Christopher Scott, 41, of the 48th Precinct; Officer Jaime Payan, 37, of the 46th Precinct; Officer Eugene P. O'Reilly, 39, of the 45th Precinct; Officer Christopher Manzi, 41, of the 41st Precinct; and Jason Cenizal, 39, a former delegate from the 42nd Precinct.

Ramos' supervisor, Jacob G. Solorzano, 41, was charged with misconduct. Sgt. Marc Manara, 39, Officer Ruben Peralta, 45, Jeffrey Regan, 37 and Officer Christopher Scott, 41, of the 48th Precinct were all charged with covering up an assault for a an acquaintance. Some of the charges also overlap to include ticket fixing.

The case doesn't appear to rise to the level of the more notorious corruption scandals in the nation's largest police department. But in terms of the number of officers facing criminal or internal administrative charges, the probe represents the largest crackdown on police accused of misconduct in recent memory. Dozens of other officers may face internal charges.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought conspiracy and other charges against five current and three former officers alleging they were part of a gun-running ring. In two other recent unrelated federal cases, one officer was charged with arresting a black man without cause and using a racial slur to describe the suspect, and another with using a law enforcement database to try to trump up charges against an innocent man.

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ACLU: FBI guilty of 'industrial scale' racial profiling (The Christian Science Monitor)

The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation of using racial, ethnic, and religious profiling in its attempts to fight crime and domestic terrorism within the US.

In a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday, the ACLU pointed to “growing evidence … that the FBI is illegally and unconstitutionally targeting innocent Americans for investigation based upon their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, and political activities protected under the First Amendment.”

The FBI disputes the claims.

IN PICTURES: American Jihadis

Over the years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, tensions between civil liberties organizations and domestic security agencies charged with preventing additional attacks have steadily increased. The same period has included a series of incidents in which alleged Muslim-American terrorists – particularly so-called “lone wolves” – have been thwarted in their attempts through the use of paid informants posing as fellow jihadis.

Meanwhile, the ACLU has filed numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests – some backed up with lawsuits – to find out how the FBI is using racial and ethnic data as part of its investigations.

“The documents we have started to receive confirm our worst fears,” ACLU officials wrote to Attorney General Holder. “Although often heavily redacted, these documents, obtained from a number of different field offices, demonstrate that FBI analysts are using improper and crude racial stereotypes regarding the types of crimes committed by different racial and ethnic groups and then collecting demographic data to map where people of those racial or ethnic groups live.”

The result, charges the ACLU, has been “racial profiling on an industrial scale.”

For example, information obtained through one FOIA action shows that an FBI field office in Detroit sought authority in July 2009 to collect information and evaluate domestic terrorism threats “because Michigan has a large Middle-Eastern and Muslim population, [and] it is prime territory for attempted radicalization and recruitment” by State Department-designated terrorist groups originating in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

In response to the ACLU report, the FBI stated flatly that it “does not investigate individuals, groups, or communities based on ethnicity or race.”

But in a statement, the FBI also noted the reality of the post-9/11 world as it sees it.

“Certain terrorist and criminal groups target particular ethnic and geographic communities for victimization and/or recruitment purposes,” the FBI said. “This reality must be taken into account when determining if there are threats to the United States.”

“To fulfill its national security mission, the FBI cannot simply wait for people to report potential threats,” the FBI statement continued. “To be threat-based and intelligence driven is to find previously undetected criminal and terrorist threats ... Just as putting push pins on a map will allow a local police chief to see clearly where the highest crime areas are, combining data that is lawfully collected into one place allows connections to be identified that might otherwise go unnoticed.”

Arab and Muslim American officials are not satisfied with such answers.

"To map Arabs and Muslims as suspect communities tells us that the FBI believes that we are predisposed to criminality, which is not only untrue but is also an inaccurate means of investigating crime,” the Michigan office of the Council on Islamic Relations said in a statement Friday.

"This is nothing new," Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the Detroit News. "We have been struggling with this issue for many years.”

"I understand that it's the FBI's job to protect the safety of our nation, and we are part of that,a€

In addition to Arab-American and Muslim communities in Michigan, the ACLU also pointed to what it sees as racial profiling as part of FBI investigations of “Black Separatist” groups and recent African American population increases in Georgia, Russian and Chinese organized crime operations in San Francisco, and Hispanic communities in several states faced with threats posed by the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang.

IN PICTURES: American Jihadis

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Judge finds Indiana teen guilty in school shooting (AP)

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – A central Indiana judge on Monday found a 16-year-old boy guilty of attempted murder in the March school shooting of a former classmate after he told the court he intended to kill the other boy when he fired the shots.

Morgan Superior Court Judge G. Thomas Gray issued his verdict after a brief bench trial in which accused shooter Michael Phelps of Martinsville and victim Chance Jackson were the only two to testify.

Jackson was shot twice in the abdomen with a 9mm handgun, suffering wounds to several organs. He spent a month in the hospital, but was well enough to pay a visit to the school May 9.

Phelps testified that he intended to kill Jackson when he shot him just before classes began at the school about 30 miles south of Indianapolis. Jackson was 15 at the time.

A judge ruled in April that Phelps should stand trial as an adult on attempted murder, aggravated battery and other felony charges. Phelps waived a jury trial, and prosecutors and defense attorneys waived opening arguments at Monday's brief hearing.

Defense attorney Steven Litz said Phelps can't appeal the verdict but that he can appeal the decision to try him as an adult and whatever sentence is handed down.

Gray scheduled sentencing for Aug. 12.

Investigators have said there was bad blood between Chance and Phelps. Authorities said Phelps posted "today is the day" on his Facebook page shortly before the shooting.

Prosecutor Steve Sonnega said that investigators initially thought Phelps had targeted Jackson because of a dispute over a girl, but that prosecutors now believe he was more interested in gaining notoriety for a shooting at the school.

"It really turned that it wasn't about Chance, it was about the sensationalism of a school shooting," Sonnega said. "Chance was just a target of opportunity."

Catherine Michael, an attorney representing Jackson's family, said the family was "very happy with what occurred here today.

"Chance is glad to be moving forward," she said.

___

Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com

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Casey Anthony found not guilty of murder of daughter (Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – After a televised trial that gripped America, a jury on Tuesday found Casey Anthony, 25, not guilty of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee, whose remains were found in woods near her Florida home.

Anthony initially told police that Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny, triggering a nationwide search. Six months later the child's skeletal remains were found with duct tape dangling from her skull.

Prosecutors said Anthony smothered her daughter with the tape in June 2008, drove around for several days with the body in her car trunk and then dumped the remains in the woods.

In court the defense argued that the child died in an accidental drowning. "Casey did not murder Caylee. It's that simple," defense attorney Jose Baez told reporters after the verdict was announced

Anthony, who chose not to testify in court, had faced a possible death sentence if found guilty of first degree murder.

The jury also found her not guilty of aggravated child abuse or aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Anthony was found guilty of four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum of one year in jail per count. She will be sentenced on Thursday.

Anthony sobbed after the jury's finding was read, and finally broke into a broad smile after the proceedings ended, hugging the defense team.

"I'm ecstatic for (Casey) and I want her to be able to grieve and to grow and somehow get her life back together," defense attorney Baez said outside the court.

The jurors deliberated for nearly 11 hours over two days, taking nearly six hours on Monday with no break for the U.S. Independence Day holiday, before reaching the verdict.

The trial lasted for seven weeks and caught the attention of much of the nation, with curiosity fed by live coverage of testimony on cable news.

(Reporting by Barbara Liston; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Peter Bohan and David Storey)

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Russian officer guilty of betraying spy ring in US (AP)

MOSCOW – A senior Russian intelligence officer convicted of working for the United States fled Russia on a train just before the Americans busted his 10 sleeper agents.

Details of Col. Alexander Poteyev's quick escape and farewell text message to his wife — asking her to "try to take it calmly" — were among evidence produced by the court Monday as it found him guilty in absentia of high treason and desertion.

Pinup spy Anna Chapman, one of the 10 agents deported from the U.S. in July, testified during the closed trial that only Poteyev could have provided the information that led to their arrest last summer, Russian news agencies reported, citing a summary of the evidence read by the judge as he issued his ruling.

Chapman testified that she was caught after an undercover U.S. agent contacted her using a code that only Poteyev and her personal handler knew, the reports said. She said she immediately felt during the meeting that something was wrong and called her handler in Moscow, who confirmed her suspicions. Chapman and others were arrested shortly after.

The agents, who were arrested a year ago Monday, were deported in exchange for four suspected Western agents who had been imprisoned in Russia. It was the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

The Moscow military court sentenced the 59-year-old colonel to 25 years in prison and also stripped him of his rank and state medals.

The court said Poteyev got word that the agents were being rounded up in the U.S. and was in such a hurry to leave Russia that he rushed out of a meeting at intelligence headquarters, the Interfax news agency reported. It said Poteyev fled to Belarus, crossed the border into Ukraine and then moved west to Germany and, finally, on to the United States using a passport in another person's name.

He had no time to say goodbye to his wife and later bid his farewells in a text message: "Mary, try to take this calmly. I'm leaving not for some time, but forever. I didn't want to, but I had to. I will start my life from scratch and will try to help the children."

Poteyev's grown son and daughter reportedly have been living in the United States for years.

His court-appointed lawyer, Andrei Kucherov, said Poteyev's wife believes he is innocent and wants to join him in the U.S.

Mikhail Lyubimov, a veteran Soviet spy, described the court's ruling against Poteyev as "symbolic."

"He must be rubbing his hands together and laughing at that together with his family somewhere in the U.S." Lyubimov said, according to Interfax.

The court said Poteyev had overseen the Russian sleeper agents in the U.S. as deputy head of the "S" department of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

In addition to Chapman, other agents also confirmed that only he had access to the sensitive information that allowed the U.S. authorities to apprehend them, the RIA-Novosti news agency said.

The court said Poteyev had begun working for American intelligence around 1999-2000 — betraying the agents, their means of communication and financial information. It said Poteyev had sought to hamper the agents' work by forcing them to meet in places that were unsafe and providing them with inferior equipment.

The Russian spies were given a hero's welcome when they returned home, and President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed them with the nation's highest awards in October.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a 16-year veteran of the KGB, sang patriotic songs with the spies to celebrate their return. Putin warned in December that traitors come to a bad end and "whatever equivalent of 30 pieces of silver they get, it will get stuck in their throats."

Unlike other members of the spy ring who have stayed out of the limelight, Chapman has basked in the attention. She has stripped down to lingerie for a photo shoot by the Russian edition of Maxim under the caption "For Your Eyes Only," become the new celebrity face of a Moscow bank, joined the leadership of the youth wing of the main pro-Kremlin political party and hosted a TV program.

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Hacker pleads guilty over AT&T-iPad breach (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A computer hacker pleaded guilty to helping write malicious code that allowed him to breach AT&T Inc servers and steal personal data belonging to 120,000 Apple Inc iPad subscribers, U.S. prosecutors said.
Daniel Spitler, 26, admitted to one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft at a Thursday hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, New Jersey federal court.
Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. Sentencing was set for September 28.
Investigators accused Spitler and co-defendant Andrew Auernheimer, 25, of using an "account slurper" to conduct a "brute force" attack over five days last June to extract data about iPad users who accessed the Internet through the AT&T network.
Prosecutors said the defendants were associated with Goatse Security, a group of "self-professed Internet 'trolls'" who try to disrupt online content and services.
Susan Cassell, a lawyer representing Spitler, said any 26-year-old in her client's position "will be deeply saddened by the process, especially when his goal was to benefit the public by exploiting a security breach that, if left unaddressed, could have led to far more serious consequences."
Auernheimer was charged with the same crimes as Spitler, and his case is pending. He is represented by a federal public defender, who was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, D.C. and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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