Abuse of Power
Latest Articles
All Articles
Financial Gains
On Dec. 31, a federal court found Joel Smithers, a former doctor from Martinsville, Va., guilty of multiple charges after a three-week jury trial. This was an affirmation of a previous conviction for the same crimes. A judge ordered the second trial after a U.S. Supreme Court decision changed how judges should instruct juries in […]
Sex Abuse
Two Former Syrian Intelligence Officers Wanted for War Crimes Against Americans and Syrian Civilians
Two high-ranking former Syrian Air Force Intelligence officers who worked for former President Bashar al-Assad are facing war crime charges, according to a DOJ press release.
Police
The City of Antioch, Calif., the Antioch Police Department (APD) and the Justice Department have agreed to resolve an investigation concerning discriminatory conduct and racial discrimination of citizens by APD officers, according to a DOJ press release.
Corrections Officer
The purpose of prison is to serve the punishment, but unless the penalty is a life sentence, a prisoner will one day reintegrate into society, at least in theory.
Corrections Officer
A federal lawsuit has been filed by the Justice Department against the State of Louisiana and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections (LDOC) for allegedly keeping prisoners incarcerated for weeks and months after they have fully served their sentences and were legally entitled to be released, according to a Justice Department press release.
Police
Two Columbus, Ohio, police officers have been sentenced to four years in prison for their part in a scheme to sell stolen cocaine.
Teachers
Lavante Wiggins, 30, the Dean of Students at Pittsfield High School and Theodore Warren, aka Monty, 42, both from Pittsfield, Mass., were arrested on Dec. 11 on charges of conspiracy and trafficking cocaine in Western Massachusetts, according to a DOJ press release.
Corrections Officer
After years of scandal, the Dublin federal women’s prison is a sordid footnote in the Bureau of Prisons’ history. The government settled a lawsuit by former inmates of the prison known as “the Rape Club” for $115 million, the law firm for the inmates reported in a Dec. 18 press release.
Sex Abuse
Tristan Cox, a 33-year-old former halfway house employee, was arrested Nov. 13 on federal charges of non-consensual sexual contact with a federal inmate in his custody and was released on a $10,000 bond.
Corrections Officer
Andrea “Andi” High Bear was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for a drug-related crime in South Dakota. Three months after arriving at Federal Medical Center Carswell, a Bureau of Prisons facility in Fort Worth, the pregnant mother of five contracted COVID-19. She died shortly after her daughter was born.
Identity Theft
Henry Yau, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervisor, was arrested for his alleged role in connection with a scheme to commit identity theft, convert government records and disclose agency records containing individually identifiable information, according to a Justice Department press release.
Sex Abuse
Darius A. Paduch, a former urologist employed by two prominent medical institutions in the New York City area, was sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 20 for sexually abusing patients, according to a public statement by the Department of Justice. Some of those patients were minors who were subjected to Paduch’s egregious assaults for […]
Influence Peddling
Jennifer Leigh Peters, 42, from Madison Heights, Virginia, and Brendon Cole Webber, 27, from Lynchburg, Virginia, were both indicted on Nov. 20 on nine counts of charges related to accessing protected information to further aid criminal activity, according to a DOJ press release.
Sex Trafficking
A volunteer Little League coach tried to solicit sex online from a 13-year-old. That 13-year-old was actually an undercover detective posing as a minor to catch adult predators.
Political Figures
A recent investigation by the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Inspector General (IG) uncovered evidence that a military commander retaliated against a whistleblower by recommending the revocation of security clearance.
Sex Abuse
For 14 years, a CIA employee got away with sexually abusing passed-out women while serving his country. But Brian Jeffrey Raymond’s luck ran out in his embassy-leased apartment in Mexico City on May 31, 2020, when his last victim screamed for help and neighbors called the local police.
Teachers
Shawn Riedesel, a 29-year-old man from Burnsville, Minnesota, has been sentenced to more than 36 years in prison, along with 25 years of supervised release after finishing his sentence.
Sextortion
Matthew Daniel Johnson, a 34-year-old man from Bryan, Texas, pleaded guilty on Oct. 23 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Police
Aaron Jason Strong, 47, a former police lieutenant at the New Castle Police Department in Indiana, was found guilty on Oct. 4 by a federal jury on charges of excessive force and witness tampering, according to a DOJ press release.
Corrections Officer
The Justice Department announced that conditions in prisons located in Georgia violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, according to a new DOJ press release.
Sex Abuse
Even If the now-closed women’s federal prison in Dublin, Calif., were an anomaly for its record of sexual abuse of female inmates, it would still be a terrible tragedy.
Sex Trafficking
A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Sept. 19 on one count for sexually enticing a minor online.
Sex Abuse
On Sept. 4, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced the results of an investigation into a reprisal complaint.
Police
Two foreign nationals allegedly weaponized law enforcement for years to terrorize U.S. citizens.
Financial Gains
A former American Airlines mechanic was sentenced to nine years in prison earlier this month for his role in a conspiracy to import and possess cocaine, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York.
Sextortion
A federal court sentenced Sonny Dale Applegate, a 27-year-old man from Indianapolis, to 44 years in federal prison on Aug. 26 after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of committing a felony offense while required to register as a sex offender, according to a sentencing order obtained […]
Sex Abuse
For more than 11 years, a boy who loved to play hockey was abused by his coach. When he was “too old” for the predator’s attention, the coach chose another 6-year-old member of his team to abuse.
Money Laundering
Four flight attendants decided to use their security line privileges to smuggle the proceeds of trafficked narcotics from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, according to federal prosecutors. They’ve all pleaded guilty.
Police
Two Alabama law enforcement officers pled guilty in August to using excessive force.
Police
Prosecutors have charged mercenaries with bullying a businessman to sign over his company’s rights at the behest of a Chinese national.
Police
A San Francisco grand jury returned four indictments on Aug. 16, 2023, and one Antioch Police Office was on two.
Medical Fraud
On Aug. 16, Christopher Viagrande of Latham, New York, pleaded guilty to charges of distributing controlled substances outside the course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose.
Sex Abuse
For eight months between May 2018 and January 2019, the only thing missing in Dr. David Carlos Rodriguez Jr.’s relationship with a female patient was rock & roll. He provided prescriptions for Oxycodone, and she provided the sex, prosecutors say.
Corrections Officer
In the latest case of what a deputy attorney general describes as “appalling criminal acts” at a women’s prison nicknamed “the Rape Club,” a former guard at the now-closed California institution was indicted on 15 counts of sexual abuse of female inmates, the Department of Justice reported in a July 26 press release.
Sex Abuse
Almost nine years ago, a supposedly publicly-spirited tennis coach for underprivileged youth took a sexual interest in one of his 13-year-old students.
Corrections Officer
When Quandelle Joseph was a guard at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, he used his position as a cash cow to provide drugs, cell phones and other contraband to inmates in exchange for bribes totaling over $20,000. The 34-year-old Brooklyn resident pled guilty in January to a charge of accepting bribes.
Police
Smalltown police chief Bradley Eugene Wendt will go to prison after a federal court handed down a five-year sentence, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Iowa District.
Sex Abuse
A 37-year-old Fort Riley, Kansas, soldier was sentenced in New Mexico federal court on Aug. 7 to 23 years in prison for sexually exploiting a 13-year-old girl, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported in a press release.
Bribery
A U.S. Navy Reserve commander was convicted for his role in a scheme creating false documents to get unvetted Afghan nationals Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) in exchange for money.
Corrections Officer
High ranking sheriff’s deputies ought to know inmates shouldn’t have access to creature comforts like cell phones and Mary Jane. But at least one Lieutenant didn’t get that memo.
Identity Theft
U.S. Navy Captain Theodore Essenfeld was convicted by a federal jury for cyberstalking and identity theft after posing as an ex-girlfriend online and posting explicit images.
Corrections Officer
Seven Corrections Officers, including a Sergeant who watched, are in trouble after the assault of a handcuffed, non-violent inmate in a prison shower room.
Teachers
San Diego teacher Sean Stevenson pleaded guilty on June 13 to charges that he sexually enticed a 16-year-old, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California.
Police
A former Pearl, Mississippi Police Officer pleaded guilty to one count of acting under the color of law to deprive a person of their civil rights.
Bribery
A public official working for the Navy pled guilty in federal court last month for his role in a bribery scheme while at the Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego.
Sex Trafficking
Koby Don Williams, a former law enforcement officer, was found guilty after attempting to entice a minor online, thanks to Project Safe Childhood.
Influence Peddling
A federal court sentenced a married couple in Knoxville, Tennessee for their role in a scam that provided legitimate Tennessee Driver’s Licenses to individuals for cash, according to a press release by the United States Attorney’s Office.
Negligence
Allegations of child abuse recently surfaced at daycares run by the Department of Defense (DOD), shocking servicemembers and families alike. A memorandum released by the DOD Office of Inspector General details an evaluation beginning in May 2024 to investigate multiple claims of abuse.
Sex Abuse
On April 2, the Department of Defense issued its final version of a report detailing problems with how the Marine Corps and Navy deal with sexual harassment complaints.
Negligence
A DoD internal investigation has found that the U.S. Navy improperly spent millions of dollars on the Ukraine Assistance Program on at least three occasions.
Financial Gains
A coalition of state Attorneys General and the U.S. Justice Department are suing Apple for what they call “anticompetitive and exclusionary” business practices, according to a new lawsuit.
