Deputy Saves Suicidal Man From Oncoming Train

A man narrowly escaped death as a Kern County sheriff’s deputy pulled him off the train tracks while a train was approaching.

On Monday around 1 a.m., deputies responded to the area of Roberts Lane and Olive Drive for a call about a man walking on the train tracks.With the assistance of a sheriff’s office helicopter, deputies located Gregory McKay, 46, walking on tracks with his back towards an oncoming train.

McKay was pulled off of the tracks by Deputy Paul Duncan just moments before the train was going to strike him, deputies said.

The incident was captured on video by the helicopter.

McKay was found to be drunk in public and arrested.

Deputies determined that McKay was walking on the tracks with the intent to commit suicide.McKay was booked into the Kern County Jail and placed on suicide watch.

McKay was cited and released from the jail regarding the public intoxication charge.

McKay is currently being evaluated by Kern County Mental Health personnel.

By Crosby Shaterian

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Young girl raises money to protect Eau Claire Police Dept.’s K-9

The Eau Claire Police Department K-9 is protected now, thanks to a generous young girl.

In her short 12 years of life, Kaitlyn Simpson has been through a lot, which makes moments like these even more heartfelt.

“I think he’s a great dog. He’s really nice,” she said.

Kaitlyn has a soft spot for dogs like Franko.

“A German Shephard used to visit me named Beta. He used to visit me when I was a little kid in the hospital and I really remembered that,” Kaitlyn said.

She was born without the right side of her heart. By the time she was five she’d gone through two heart transplants. On Monday she was honored for her a heart of gold.

She raised $840 to get the Eau Claire K-9 Franko a protective vest.

“I took photos at the fall festival going on in our town,” she said.

Kaitlyn lives four hours away from Eau Claire. She made the trip on Monday to “pay it forward” as she says to Franko and the Eau Claire Police Department who work to keep the people of Eau Claire safe.

“Very good thing. Special girl. I mean the whole story from health issues all the way through and then she’s taking time off to do this for police dogs.

In his 19 years as Eau Claire Police K-9 Officer, Bill Wisener’s K-9 has never had a protective vest.

“Every police officer in this department wears a vest and now Franko has one to wear too,” he said.

Now that she’s helped Franko in Eau Claire, Kaitlyn’s already thinking of ideas to raise more money and help another dog and another community.

“I have $450 toward another one,” she said.

“A lot of people donated money toward me when I was a little kid so I thought I would give it back and help something in the community,” Kaitlyn said.

Kaitlyn donated the money she raised through the Vest-a-Dogs program. Officer Wisener says that program is working to get every police K-9 in the state a protective vest.

By Megan Peterson

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Officer and K-9 honored

Tarboro Police Patrolman Michael Trevathan and his K-9 Tazer have worked together for three years. T.J. ROYAL / Staff Writer

Tarboro Police Patrolman Michael Trevathan and his K-9 Tazer have been honored by a national organization for two of their assignments this summer.

The pair were recognized for their work returning inmates after an escape as the Case of the Quarter for Region Four of the United States Police Canine Association between July and September.

On Aug. 23, six juvenile inmates escaped from the Edgecombe County Detention Center Annex inside the Edgecombe County Courthouse. Trevathan said that his K-9 and he helped apprehend five of those juveniles the night they escaped.

The department was also given honorable mentions from the association for the third quarter, both for Trevathan and Sgt. Jesse Webb, the Tarboro K-9 unit’s leader. Webb said the honorable mention came from an incident the night before the inmate escape, where the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office was looking for a weapon a suspect had used to fire shots within the town limits.

Webb noted that it was “about an acre-sized lot” where the K-9s were looking for the weapon, which was finally found. The suspect in that incident, he added, had been a convicted felon and had charges against him for the weapon possession.

The sergeant was effusive in his praise of the effort Trevathan and his K-9 made in order to earn the recognition from the national association.

“Looking at it, Mike clearly has the best tracking dog in the department (out of the four K-9 officers). He’s trained really hard on the tracking aspect, and it shows. … It’s no accident.”

Lt. Jay Boykin, himself a dog handler for several years with the department, said that between Trevathan, Webb, Sgt. Keith Morris and Cpl. Mike Browning, Tarboro’s K-9 unit logged more than 600 hours of training in 2009. “It speaks well of our program here” to receive the honor for the third quarter, Boykin added.

Trevathan, who has been a K-9 handler for three of his six years with Tarboro, said that he “enjoyed the experience of bringing (the inmates) in” along with his dog back in August. Although he would prefer if it didn’t happen again, Trevathan added that he “maybe” wouldn’t mind having to go out on a track for escaped inmates again.

During a work week, he said that his K-9 and he will perform “three or four” different searches in the area. “It could be anything,” Trevathan said, whether it is a vehicle search, a search of a school area for a suspicious substance, or even an event where Tazer is making an appearance for children.

He added that, along with his work with Tarboro’s K-9 officers, his work with Sheriff’s Cpl. Jason Dawes, and his K-9 Tigo, was appreciated back in August.

Webb and Morris both previously have been recognized as accomplishing the case of the quarter for Region Four of the Canine Association. Region Four consists of North Carolina and South Carolina, and is one of 25 within the United States and Canada.

By T. J. Royal

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Singing policeman honors law officers

About midway through “The “Star-Spangled Banner,” tenor Daniel Rodriguez abruptly stopped singing.

Rodriquez gave a well-received Community Concert at the Civic Center this month, but startled the crowd by muffing the national anthem.

One spectator thought Rodriguez flat-out forgot the words after “O’er the ramparts …,” while another thought the talented singer got messed up on his timing.

Either way, Rodriguez apologized to the crowd, then flawlessly sang the whole piece from the beginning.

Rodriguez retired from the New York City Police Department in 2004, after gaining national prominence as “the singing policeman” following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

A member of the New York City Police Department’s Ceremonial Unit, he later studied under singer Placido Domingo, and his career took off.

Many Great Falls spectators were impressed by his beautiful voice.

Rodriguez also took time to honor area law enforcement officers at the event.

The singer spiced up the concert with biographical items and anecdotes, including a dramatic story about his drive from Helena to Great Falls.

Rodriguez said he was admiring scenery on the beautiful drive to Great Falls when he got stopped by a Montana Highway Patrol officer for speeding. Rodriguez said he handed over his license, registration and his New York City cop credentials to the officer.

After a long wait, two other Highway Patrol cars showed up, and the officers got Rodriguez to sing for them. He left without a ticket.

That made a good story, except he told an almost identical tale to an audience in Helena the night before. It turns out the speeding story might be a running gag Rodriguez uses at concerts.

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Serpico on Serpico

He looked like some sort of fur trapper, this bearded man walking through the snowy woods here in upstate New York. But then, Frank Serpico has always been known for his disguises.

Anyone who has seen the celebrated 1973 film “Serpico” knows that he often dressed up — bum, butcher, rabbi — to catch criminals. His off-duty look was never vintage cop either, with the bushy beard and the beads.

This is the man whose long and loud complaining about widespread corruption in the New York Police Department made him a pariah on the force. The patrolman shot in the face during a 1971 drug bust while screaming for backup from his fellow officers, who then failed to immediately call for an ambulance. The undaunted whistle-blower whose testimony was the centerpiece of the Knapp Commission hearings, which sparked the biggest shakeup in the history of the department.Four decades later, Frank Serpico is…

By Corey Kilgannon

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Russian YouTube whistleblower, a cop, arrested on corruption charges

Moscow —

A Russian police officer, who publicly accused his bosses of corruption and abuse of office, has been arrested and charged with – corruption and abuse of office.

Alexei Dymovsky, a former police major in the Black Sea port city of Novorossisk, became a household name last November when he posted a videotaped open letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on his Website complaining of inhuman working conditions, indifference to civil rights, widespread graft, and routine abuse of authority within his police department.

The video was a hit on YouTube, garnering more than a million hits, and it inspired dozens of other police officers around Russia to come forward with similar allegations. (The version below has English subtitles.)

Mr. Dymovsky was swiftly fired from his job and last Friday he was arrested and taken to a police detention center in Novorossisk, on charges that appear to stem from his videotaped confessions.

Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the official investigative committee in Krasondar territory, told journalists only that “Dymovsky is charged with committing fraud and abusing his official position.” But Russian media have reported that he is accused of misappropriating approximately $800 in police operating expenses several years ago.

According to the official RIA-Novosti agency, he could receive 10 years in prison if convicted.

“We believe Dymovsky is being persecuted because he is a whistleblower; he was working inside the police system and then began to criticize it,” says Vadim Karastelev, representative of the Novorossisk Human Rights Committee, a local group. “It is an act of intimidation directed at him and anyone else who might think of following his example,” he says.

Local human rights activists say they are fearful for Dymovsky’s safety after a judge in Novorossisk ignored Dymovsk’s promise not to flee the region and ordered him held in a pre-trial detention center.

Conditions in Russia’s vast system of detention facilities, which house hundreds of thousands of temporary inmates, have come under intense scrutiny. Late last year Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer involved in a massive corruption lawsuit against the police, died in custody after being denied medical treatment.

Some human rights experts allege that withholding care is sometimes part of the interrogation technique in detention centers.

Last week a Russian journalist, Konstantin Popov, died after being savagely beaten while being held for the night in a police drunk tank in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

“The police are commonly viewed by Russians as a threat rather than a force that’s there to protect them,” says Masha Lipman, editor of the Pro et Contra journal, which is published by the Moscow Carnegie Center. “It would be hard to find a single Russian who doesn’t believe the police are corrupt.”

Dymovsky’s YouTube confession received widespread coverage by the Russian state-run media, including the English language Russia Today.

Ms. Lipman cautions that the widespread coverage of these stories may not be a case of media freedom breaking out in Russia, but rather due to the fact that Kremlin authorities are currently trying to press through reforms of the Interior Ministry, which runs the police and prison system. “This story, for the moment, coincides with the government’s wishes,” she says. “The government has the luxury of picking those expressions of discontent that fit in with its own plans.”

The arrest of Dymovsky, and the potentially harsh sentence he faces, may represent the Interior Ministry’s response to the official pressure to reform themselves, say some experts. “Dymovsky’s case is really strange,” says Lev Ponomaryov, a veteran Russian human rights campaigner. “On first, second, and third viewing, it looks like pure (police) revenge.”

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