(updated) Another Death by Memphis-Shelby County Police?

It seems that there are more reports of law officers being held accountable for their abuses of power lately.  If so, this is a very positive development for citizens and for honest law officers who want to improve community relations and promote a spirit of trust and mutual respect among police departments and the people they serve and protect.  Ridding police departments of "bad police" should also make officers' jobs safer and easier as officers meet with more cooperation in solving crimes.  Below is one account of police censure.

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BAD COP NEWS
July 2, 2008

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE - A Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy was suspended Monday. Investigators said the deputy told one story about how a suspect died over the weekend, but apparently the deputy’s dash cam video showed something different. Now a witness is talking about what he saw before the man died.

http://www.badcopnews.com/2008/07/02/lies-shelby-county-tennessee-deputy-sherif-alvin-dortchs-story-of-mans-death-doesnt-add-up-caught-on-video/

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UPDATE - 9/16/08  Officer Dortch Indicted on Reckless Homicide Charges

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/28420809.html

AP - Memphis, TN - A former Shelby County sheriff's deputy has been indicted on reckless homicide charges in the death of a driver who crashed on an Interstate-240 exit ramp.  According to a news release from the Shelby County district attorney's office, Alvin Dortch was taken into custody on Monday and is being held on $5,000 bond.

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Some history on the Memphis-Shelby County Jail is available at this link:

http://www.insideprison.com/Shelby-County-Jail.asp

Check this link for information on the jail or prison in your area:

http://www.insideprison.com/

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This latest news of possible violence by a Memphis law officer comes on the heels of two officers having been fired for severely beating a transgender detainee in Shelby County Jail's holding area.

See story and video of Ms. D. Johnson's abuse by police at the following link.  This article has been updated to include a video of the victim talking about her experience.  D. Johnson was arrested for prostitution and was a detainee in the Shelby County Jail's holding area.  She indicated that police attacked her when she refused to respond to "Hey, faggot, he/she, come be fingerprinted." 

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/memphis-police-taped-beating-transsexual-detainee-1-3-million-lawsuit-filed-mary-neal

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UPDATE - 7/2008 re: Neals v. The Cochran Firm

FAMILY OF LARRY NEAL WILL SUBPOENA VICTIM'S RECORDS

This writer supposes the Memphis Shelby County Jail will already have its story straight for answering our subpoena for police records related to the wrongful death of Larry Neal, a mentally ill heart patient the jail secretly arrested for 18 days while his family and social worker searched for him in 2003 to give him his heart drugs.  Larry died of a heart attack on August 1, while the police falsely denied having him in the jail where Larry was during the entire period he was "missing." 

Ever since his death, Larry's family has been denied any investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which was supposed to be overseeing the jail's operations following the government's lawsuit for violations of inmates' civil rights (particularly Americans with disabilities).  Larry's family is suing The (Johnny) Cochran Firm for fraud -- pretending under contract to act as wrongful death attorneys for Larry's elderly, grieving mother, but actually working to protect Shelby County Jail from its clients’ lawsuit.  See more at http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com. 

Thanks to the family's lawsuit against The Cochran Firm, Shelby County Jail will finally have to answer.  The least Shelby County officials should have to do is give up some time and effort concocting lies about Larry's secret arrest and death -- and answer why the USDOJ never received a report on his death from the jail (a requirement under the terms of the jail's Agreement with the U.S.A.).  The Cochran Firm can no longer save Shelby County from the small inconvenience of giving an account to Larry's family -- FINALLY.  In fact, The Cochran Firm cannot even save itself, because despite the media blackout of these events, despite having Georgia Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob issue an order in 2006 stating there is no Cochran Firm office in the state and dismissing Larry's family's first lawsuit for fraud, despite the wealth this law firm accrues capitalizing off the fame of a dead lawyer, despite having the TN Bar declare it is perfectly OK for this law firm to trick its clients and accept cases in an undisclosed conflict of interest and then do NOTHING but hold the cases inactive for almost a year afterward, and despite many other things that cannot be addressed here, THE COCHRAN FIRM'S ARMS ARE TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD!

God allowed this to happen to Larry because someone must speak up for the mentally dysfunctional people in prison, and someone must warn people about the treacherous Cochran Firm - capitalizing off the fame of a lawyer the black community trusted.  What of the family of Ms. Kathryn Johnston, 92-year-old citizen killed by police?  How is the firm going back into the same Georgia Superior Court and represent this family's wrongful death lawsuit against police when it had that court declare the firm does not exist under its advertised identity?  Oppressed people have suffered enough trickery. 

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Below is a radio interview with a former Cochran Firm attorney talking about the shabby representation to clients of the firm and its prejudice against black lawyers and staff, since Johnnie died:

NPR News -- <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />7/23/07
Controversy at Cochran Law Firm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12171473  

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Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI