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Hollywood's Mickey Mouse Cops, Parts I and II



 
 
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Old August 6th 09, 01:37 PM posted to rec.autos.driving
gpsman
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Default Hollywood's Mickey Mouse Cops, Parts I and II


Hollywood's Mickey Mouse Cops, Parts I and II
The officer who pulled a "Walt Disney" with the facts has been called
a liar before.
By Bob Norman published: August 06, 2009

You've probably heard about the Hollywood cops who framed a woman in a
car crash involving a fellow officer. And you've likely seen the video
from a cruiser's dashboard camera that shows the lead officer, Dewey
Pressley, talking about his willingness to "Walt Disney" the facts and
make up stories to protect his brothers in blue.

"I don't want to make things up ever, because it's wrong," Pressley
tells a fellow officer on the videotape, which he obviously didn't
realize was picking up his conversation. "But if I need to bend it a
little bit to protect a cop, I'm gonna."

What Pressley did was fabricate a story about a cat causing a car
accident in February that was actually the fault of fellow officer
Joel Francisco, who slammed into the back of a car driven by Alexandra
Torrensvilas. Pressley apparently thought he could get away with
making up the story because Torrensvilas had been drinking and his
word would win out against that of a drunk driver.

The scary thing is that Pressley would have almost surely gotten away
with it if not for the video. Prosecutors promptly dropped DUI and
other trumped-up charges against Torrensvilas.

But the fallout from Pressley's misconduct has likely just begun.
Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein is gathering all the
cases involving Pressley and other officers involved in the coverup
with hopes of getting those dropped as well.

Perhaps the highest-profile case that might be affected by Pressley's
on-tape admissions is a racially charged police chase in 2000 that
ended in what many believed was an unjustified beating of a suspect
named Jerome McClellion by three Miami-Dade cops in a suburban back
yard. The beating was caught on videotape by a news crew in a
helicopter, and the images were played not only throughout South
Florida but also the country.

It was, rightly or wrongly, compared to the Rodney King police beating
in Los Angeles. It seized South Florida's attention, polarizing people
along racial lines. Al Sharpton came to town for a visit with
McClellion, and the black community was outraged when prosecutors
chose not to charge the three cops with battery.

Pressley played a small but crucial role in that case and was accused
by McClellion's defense attorney of, yes, lying on the witness stand
to protect fellow officers.

The chase began after Miami-Dade Police officers spotted McClellion,
then 19 years old, in a stolen black Escalade. He fled from them and
led them on a wild chase north into Hollywood. Though cops claimed
McClellion waved a gun and fired it, he wasn't armed when he was
captured, and there was no evidence from forensic tests on his hand
that he'd fired a weapon. An intense search of the entire chase route
also turned up no gun.

At one point, Pressley and other Hollywood officers tried to place
spikes on the road to stop the black SUV that McClellion was driving.
The suspect's vehicle flew by the Hollywood cops, striking the hand of
Officer Luis Ortiz and causing minor injuries. Miami-Dade cruisers
also sped past Pressley in pursuit of McClellion.

"We've got shots fired by Metro-Dade," Pressley said into his radio at
the time.

It ended with the much-publicized beating scene in the back yard that
created so much controversy.

Pressley wound up playing a lead role at the 2002 trial. His comment
about shots being fired served as a key piece of evidence for defense
attorney Barbara Brush. It contradicted the story of the Miami-Dade
cops, who claimed to have fired only one shot during the entire chase
and not in front of Pressley. It also provided McClellion
justification for fleeing in the SUV because he was afraid for his
life.

But when Pressley took the stand in 2002, he testified that he
misspoke into the radio. He said he had meant to say Metro-Dade cops
had reported that shots had been fired by the suspect (which also
turned out to be untrue). It had just come out wrong in the heat of
the moment.

The Miami Herald story about Pressley's testimony was headlined, "I
Never Saw Shots Fired, Officer Says at Chase Trial."

Defense attorney Brush accused Pressley and other police officers of
lying about the chase and framing McClellion in an attempt to keep
themselves from being blamed and possibly charged with battery.

"These charges are a setup," she told the jury in closing. "You have
to decide if these police officers are not telling the truth to
convict Jerome illegally."

Pressley's testimony might have sealed the fate of McClellion, who was
convicted by the jury and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He's
scheduled to be released in 2030.

Brush says Pressley's admission on the dashboard camera that he's
willing to lie to protect fellow cops has only added to her conviction
that McClellion was the victim of a police conspiracy.

"After all these years, the truth has finally come out of what they
are willing to do to protect each other," Brush says. "The extent and
length to which they were willing to compromise the truth for
something so minor is telling. There was a lot more on the line in the
McClellion case. There was an improper police chase, and they could
have been in trouble for beating up my client.

"If they are going to compromise their integrity in such a minor car
accident, then I am positive they filed false police reports against
Jerome McClellion when there was a lot more at stake."

The two cases, side by side, are indeed a bit eerie. Pressley's use of
the term "Walt Disney" to signify framing the evidence and his talk of
knowing exactly how to write the arrest report in the crash indicate a
familiarity with the territory. It's easy to imagine he has done that
kind of thing before.

Maybe in one of the most controversial and divisive criminal cases of
the decade.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2009-08...arts-i-and-ii/
-----

- gpsman
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