PATS68

I have been a cop for 10 years and 4 years in the military and this post is beyond stupid.

1st off the County Attorney or DA chooses what charges to go forward with not the cop. Never has been that way and it will never be that way. In fact any felony charges first has to have a probable cause hearing where a judge says yes there is PC or no there is no PC. Judge found PC in this case. Second you then go before a grand jury and they say yes or no, but you knew that right.

The cop set up Dennard? The cop could of and should have arrested Dennard at the bar where he 1) assaulted someone and 2) committed the crime of disorderly conduct. To further on that point he told Dennard to go home twice and that sounds like a, "Set up" job to you! That's sounds like someone cutting someone a serious break to me!

You make no sense with your theory. So the officer passed on arresting Dennard with a bar full of witnesses to only set him up where there were very few witnesses? If it is me, I am taking him at the bar and handing out about 50 statement forms.

I have been to plenty of bar fights and when you do what the officers did here you watch where the people involved go so they don't start up again. I had the same thing happen to me and told a guy to beat-it and he went about 70 feet up the sidewalk and kicked in a store window. I had to run the 70 feet up the sidewalk and put his on his ass and arrest him.

What is being over looked here is that 2 officers saw Dennard punch someone 70 feet away, because the other officer tackled Dennard to the ground after he had assaulted the 1st officer.

supafly

This has been my main point also, that the ADA would never pass off his own responsibility of making this judgment for a potential plea deal on whether or not the officer "wanted" Dennard to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and have no plea bargain offered. I've yet to see ANY kind of plea bargains refuse to be offered, and that includes rape, kidnapping, and even murder. In 9/10 times, the prosecution offers some type of lesser charge in exchange for a guaranteed guilty plea.

It's the DA/ADA's job to make that determination, and while true that they will always likely take into acct the officer's feelings, I'm not necessarily buying the rumor that's been reported that "they refuse to offer him a plea deal" based on the nature and seriousness of the charge itself.

I can believe that their plea offer included some small amount of jail time, and that Dennard and his reps turned it down due to that reason, OR Dennard and his reps decided to take it to trial themselves (questionably stupid in my opinion) because they thought they had a decent chance at proving their case and getting him off scot free.

The rumor supposedly is that the prosecution refuses to offer any type of plea bargain, and a very reputable poster even claimed that was being reported in the media. While anything can be true in these cases to a certain degree, I am very surprised at this news.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

Deus Irae

1.) Not all states have indicting grand juries

2.) Many states with indicting grand juries do not require them in all cases, and the prosecuting attorneys can charge via an information, instead

3.) As an attorney, and one who's worked in state attorney's offices, I can say without question that the wishes of the victim play a part in a lot of charges, and the wishes of a police officer victim are taken very seriously. So, in a case where the police officer was adamant about charges being kept, or kept at a felony level instead of misdemeanor level, the ADA will often defer to the officer's wishes.

4.) It's very easy to get grand juries to indict

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

supafly

It also should be noted that the arresting officer was indeed in uniform, which many here (including myself) have not been aware of. Some here have claimed that he was a bouncer who was off-duty at the time. That certainly does not seem to be the case from these accounts:

"At the time, Kopsa was a uniformed member of a four-officer bicycle team that helped patrol the 2 a.m. bar closing scene, when hundreds of mostly college-age people swarm out of at least a dozen bars within a two-block area of downtown Lincoln. It’s an often unruly scene, he said."



"When an officer tells you to put your hands behind your back, what do you do? You put your hands behind your back,” he told Dennard. “You see I’m wearing a uniform, I’ve got the badge. You know I’m not going to hurt you. We’ve got to get things sorted out.”

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

PATS68

Where I would have to disagree with you is the strength or weakness of the case. I have sat down with many of DA's and we talked about strengths and weaknesses of the case. So my feelings take a backseat to the strengths of the case and the best chance at a conviction.

You should know being an attorney that your reputation is on the line in that court room with the judge. You file charges on feeling then your rep. would be shot in the court room and you give yourself a up hill challenge on your next case.

Even if the state does not have GJ they have a PC hearing so there was PC for the arrest.

I am an officer who is very active when it comes to the pleas and the prosecutors know that I want in on that meeting.

supafly

And I think that's probably the answer, even as surprising as it may be to me personally, the fact that the charge was a 3rd degree felony and there wasn't really any room to move with that specific charge (which is also obviously the main and most important charge) is likely why the officer's wishes have been given so much importance.


So in some possibility, what is being reported in the media about not wanting the felony pushed down to a misdemeanor is true, but there could still have been the possibility that they did also offer something of a compromise for the lesser charges and the overall punishment.

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Patiently waiting to defend the next "bubble" player in this summer's training camp.....

PATS68

This seems more like the case to me, because the second officer was right there to tackle Dennard to the ground. Also he had handcuffs with him and most likely had his radio to call for back-up.

Man as a guy who works the streets you really have to think twice before you go hands on with a guy like Dennard. He is 200+ pounds of solid muscle and power and you would have your hands full. So I do not see this officer trying to be a hero, but he must have witnessed something that made him commit.

Rule of thumb is when you decide to go hands on with someone you have entered one gun into that fight and you as the police officer have brought that gun.

DaBruinz

Do yourself a favor and don't comment unless you know the story. Clearly you don't in this case. The ADA has been on record in the papers saying that they went to trial because the Cop refused to allow the felony to be pled down. Since the cop was off-duty, he is considered the victim. Not to mention that, as Deus pointed out, the ADAs tend to support what the officers want for the reason that they have to work with them on a regular basis.

Next, your experience doesn't mean anything because how each state prosecutes things is different.

Clearly you missed the part about the cop being OFF-DUTY. Second, getting into an argument is not disorderly conduct. If you arrested people for that, then you should be fired for wasting the taxpayer's money. Third, Kopsa's testimony mentioned nothing about Dennard assaulting someone prior to being told to leave.

Again, we only have the COP's word that he told Dennard to go home twice. As for what it sounds like to you, that and $5 will get you a Starbucks coffee. You'll have to forgive me but 99% of the time Cops stick up for other cops regardless of reality.

Or the cop who was not on duty but acting as a bouncer didn't really have a case to arrest Dennard in a bar full of witnesses to begin with and decided to make an example of Dennard by setting him up.

It makes no difference what you would do. You weren't the off-duty cop.

This is false. Only Kopsa claimed to have seen Dennard drop his shoulder into Samani (not punch per your statement). All McBride saw was Kopsa wave to him for help with Dennard and then Dennard punch Kopsa. McBride didn't see the events leading up to that.

Also, you have no idea what the lighting was like so you have no idea what Kopsa saw. In fact, considering that the person who Dennard supposedly assaulted can't definitively ID Dennard when he was standing right next to him, how could Kopsa, from 70 ft away, definitively say what happened?

What is clear is that your bias for your brothers in blue is showing through.

chicowalker

bolded part is amusing...

Deus Irae

You can't really compromise between felony and misdemeanor, and the key here is the felony. Dennard's attorney is already conceding on resisting arrest.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius