Migration Category: NCWP Old Site

Debra Gauthier, a 20-year police veteran, is currently campaigning to be the first woman Sheriff of Clark County, Nevada. She is running for the position on a platform that stresses police reform through the elimination of the “good old boys” network. In a recent interview with Las Vegas City Life, Gauthier championed the positive contribution that women make to policing, saying “women don’t rely on brute force,” instead using “technique and communication.” Gauthier underscored a need to change police recruitment policies, and to weed out men with aggressive tendencies who are often drawn to policing for the wrong reasons. She also hopes to disqualify all candidates with histories of violent behavior from being hired as police officers.

Patricia Giorgio-Fox, a 25-year police veteran, has been promoted to the position of Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department. She is the first woman in Philadelphia to reach that rank. She has extensive experience in both the uniformed patrol and detective divisions, and since 1998 has been heading the department’s research and planning unit.

A Nantucket Police Officer, working in a temporary summer position, has been charged with rape. The 21-year old officer, James Sampson, allegedly assaulted the victim, who was in protective custody at the time, while she was sleeping. The victim woke up during the attack, and screamed for help. Sampson has since been dismissed by the Department and will be brought up next month on charges of battery, rape, and indecent assault.

According to a federal monitor, the previously problematic Wallkill, New York Police Department has benefited from the guidance of federal supervision and has significantly improved its community relations. Wallkill became notorious last year after a series of high profile cases exposed the Department’s systematic practice of harassing women citizens and fellow police officers. In his July report, Federal Monitor Dean Esserman cited the appointment of a new police chief, an expanded force and an increase in salaries among the positive changes that have contributed to the Department’s progress. Local frustration with the abusive behavior of police officers eventually prompted the investigation that led to the appointment of the federal monitor in June 2001. Current Police Chief Robert C. Hertman attributes the department’s past performance to “systemic leadership failures,” which he has taken steps to remedy. Since being appointed he has hired four new officers and plans to hire seven more, and has established a 24-hour police complaint hotline. While the numbers of formal complaints have increased from previous years, Chief Hertman says that none of the complaints were of the seriousness that warranted the federal monitor, and that he actually sees the increase as an indication of improved community relations.

In a shocking and ironic move, the Pennsylvania State Police has promoted Captain Thomas LaCrosse to the position of Commander of their “Early Intervention Program” which works to identify problematic state police personnel, and to intervene in order to prevent criminal activity or abuse of power. This type of intervention is exactly what LaCrosse failed to do when he dismissed multiple sexual harassment claims against ex-trooper Michael Evans, who was ultimately convicted of sexual assault and is now serving a prison sentence for his crime. Because of Lacrosse’s failure to adequately act upon Evans’ prior conduct, he has been named as one of the state police defendant’s in the federal civil rights case that has been filed by five of Evans’ victims. Click here to read a related article on the Evans case. Criticism about LaCrosse’s internal affairs appointment has come both from Evans’ victims and from the women’s rights community, who are aghast that LaCrosse will now be in charge of protecting citizens specifically from the kind of police behavior that he has a record of dismissing.

Crystal Sheffield, a three-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, was killed in the line of duty this Thursday, when her vehicle was struck by an unmarked police car which was responding to the same call as Sheffield. Sheffield, who was known in her Department for her ability to defuse tense domestic situations, is Baltimore’s first female officer to die in the line of duty. The National Center for Women & Policing extends our heartfelt sympathy to Officer Sheffield’s family, friends and colleagues.

A federal judge in Buffalo rejected a plea bargain yesterday for two anti-abortion extremists accused of helping fugitive James Kopp while he was on the run from charges for the murder of a Buffalo obstetrician/gynecologist and abortion provider. US District Court Judge Richard Arcara called the deal too lenient for Dennis Malvasi and Loretta Marra, a Brooklyn couple who are said to have helped Kopp with money, shelter, and support while he eluded law enforcement for over two years. The two were arrested in New York shortly after Kopp was detained in Dinan, France in March 2001 and charged with four felony counts each that carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. After rejecting the deal that would have given the couple a sentence of 27 to 33 months and exemption from testifying against Kopp in exchange for a guilty plea on a single count of harboring a fugitive, Arcara asked why the couple should not be considered accessories after the fact in Dr. Bernard Slepian’s 1998 sniper-style killing. He referred to e-mails from Kopp to Marra and Malvasi that said he was tired of “living in limbo” and wondering whether he should return “to the field,” the Buffalo News reported. These statements were “conversations about returning to the field of shooting abortion providers,” Arcara said, as reported by the Buffalo News. Malvasi, who has been convicted in the bombings of three reproductive health clinics as well as the attempted bombing of a fourth clinic, has already served five years in prison. Marra, was twice arrested with Kopp during anti-abortion protests in Vermont and New York in the early 1990s. Kopp, who was at one time on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, is not only facing charges in the murder of Dr. Slepian, but also has been indicted for the 1995 shooting of Ontario abortion provider Dr. Hugh Short and is the primary suspect in three separate shootings of abortion providers in Canada and New York.

In a ruling issued last week, US District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein ordered the US Navy to fund an abortion for a Navy spouse carrying an anencephalic fetus. The woman, now 20 weeks pregnant, learned three weeks ago that the fetusÑdeveloping without forebrain, cerebellum, or skullÑwould face imminent death. The US Navy and TRICARE Management Activity, its health contractor in Seattle, refused to terminate the pregnancy; however, the couple could not afford an abortion elsewhere.

The Northwest Women’s Law Center which represented the couple in Jane Doe v. United States, et al., alleged that the Navy violated the US Constitution’s Equal Protection guarantee, which requires that the law apply equally to people who are “similarly situated.” In a related case last May, Britell v. United States, a US district court ruled that the government had to pay for the abortion of an anencephalic fetus carried by an Air National Guard officer’s wife. The judge in that case chastised the government for its regulation denying such abortion coverage and forcing women in similar circumstances “to suffer carrying their anencephalic fetuses until they are born to a certain death. This rationale is no rationale at all. It is irrational, and worse yet, it is cruel.”

Domestic terrorist and anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison yesterday for six federal charges of possession of illegal firearms and for stealing a car while on the run from authorities. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, Waagner has also admitted to mailing 550 letters filled with powder to women’s reproductive health clinics in October and November of 2001, claiming they contained anthrax. However, he has yet to be charged with these crimes. Waagner will serve this sentence following the 30 years he already has to complete for a prison escape in Illinois in February last year. He eluded authorities for 10 months, during which he threatened to kill abortion providers and was named one of the FBI’s most-wanted.

“I’m not remorseful. I’m not begging for forgiveness for what I did, because I thought it was right,” Waagner told the judge, according to the Associated Press. He told the Enquirer that he “did, in fact, want to harm someone. [He] wanted to kill an abortion provider. [He] just couldn’t do it.” Waagner plans to appeal his sentence.

Waagner still faces charges of federal bank robbery in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, car theft in Mississippi, and possession of a pipe bomb in Tennessee, according to the AP. He was also implicated in an escape attempt Monday from his maximum-security holding cell where he was awaiting trial.

Dennis Malvasi and Loretta Marra, two anti abortion extremists charged with helping James Kopp while he was on the run from a murder charge for a Buffalo doctor, are scheduled to plead guilty to charges next week. Court sources told the Buffalo News that Malvasi and Marra will plead guilty to one count of harboring a fugitive and receive sentences ranging from 27 to 33 months – much reduced from the maximum sentence of 10 years they could have received if they had been found guilty on original charges against them. Their plea hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday in Buffalo and is subject to US Judge Richard Arcara’s approval.

“We’re alarmed that Marra and Malvasi might receive lesser sentences,” said Katherine Spillar, executive vice-president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “Malvasi, who is an outspoken proponent of using violence against abortion providers, has been convicted for bombing several clinics. If he and Marra were assisting Kopp’s return to the US with the possibility that he could resume his campaign of violence, how can they now be freed to terrorize clinics and doctors?”

Under the terms of the deal, the Brooklyn couple will not be required to testify against Kopp in upcoming trials for his alleged shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion provider, in his home in October 1998.

Marra and Malvasi helped Kopp with money, shelter, and support while he eluded law enforcement for over two years. Relying on an Internet email account and a variety of false identities, Malvasi, a convicted clinic bomber, and Marra, an often-arrested clinic blockader previously arrested with Kopp, allegedly were able to aid and abet Kopp while he was a fugitive. Law enforcement arrested Marra and Malvasi after capturing Kopp in Dinan, France last year.

Kopp, formerly on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, was extradited from France in June to stand trial for murder. In addition to the slaying of Dr. Slepian, Kopp has also been indicted for the 1995 shooting of Ontario abortion provider Dr. Hugh Short and is the primary suspect in three additional shootings of abortion providers in Canada and New York.

California Governor Gray Davis reversed two parole recommendations earlier this month for two battered women who killed, or were involved in the killing of, their long-time abusive partners. Parole was denied for Flozelle Woodmore, who is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for the murder of her abusive boyfriend, Clifton Morrow. Woodmore shot Morrow after he hit her in the face and pushed their son against a wall. She was 18 years old at the time, and pregnant with their second child. Davis also denied parole for Mary Ramp, who hired two men to kill her husband in 1982, after having suffered years of physical abuse. Read more articles on battered women’s syndrome.

Arin Reining and Nina Murphy, two women police officers who worked for the Sumner, Washington Police Department, have filed a federal lawsuit against the Department, alleging that they were discriminated against because of their sex, and faced retaliation when they complained about it. The women also allege that Sumner’s chief, Benjamin Reisz, particularly singled them out for discipline, and told one of the women that she would never be promoted because a high-ranking woman would embarrass the department. In court documents, their allegations are supported by a male Sumner sergeant who agreed that the women were treated differently than their male counterparts, and by a former Sumner Police administrative supervisor who quit because of the Department’s hostile environment for women. The Department alleges that the women’s claims are false and that a private investigator who was hired to investigate the situation found no grounds to support the women’s accusations. Attorneys for Reining and Murphy, however, say that the manner the investigation was conducted in was ill conceived because it considered each woman’s complaint separately instead of looking at the Department’s systemic practice of discrimination. Arin Reining has since resigned from the Department, and is now a sheriff’s deputy with the Benton County Sheriff’s Department. Nina Murphy remains on at Sumner as their only female officer. To prevent problems like discrimination that keep women out of policing, the National Center has created the Self-Assessment Guide for Law Enforcement, which provides agencies with step-by-step approaches for insuring a positive environment for women employees. The Guide is available for free through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

Chief Gary Eisenhower of the Cosmopolis Police Department in Washington State has resigned, citing his declining health. Community leaders, however, speculate that the actual cause behind Eisenhower’s resignation are the sexual harassment allegations made against him in April of this year, and which prompted the former Chief to take a leave of absence in early May. Officer Shellee Stratton and administrative clerk Shelley Willet, who are the only two women in the Department, have both come forward with claims that Eisenhower sexually harassed them. The two women have filed discrimination charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Two brutal police family violence cases, one in Ohio and another in Pennsylvania, have been making headlines this month. Luther McCormick, a former Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper, was sentenced earlier this week to 10 years in prison for shooting his wife in the face and critically wounding her. The case has drawn much controversy because McCormick’s wife, Tara, testified on her husband’s behalf, indicating that she believed that there was no way her husband would have intended to harm her. McCormick alleged that his gun accidentally discharged while he was unloading it. The jury, however, ruled that McCormick intended to harm his wife, evidenced by his unusual behavior after the incident – he left his home, while his bloodied wife made her way to a neighbor’s home to ask for help, and was found 20 miles away at a patrol post, casually chatting with police colleagues.

In a Pennsylvania police family homicide case, prosecutors have said that they will not seek the death penalty for Craig Knepper, a 12-year veteran of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Police Department, who was charged in June with murdering his girlfriend, while the victim’s 4-year-old son watched. Knepper is currently being held without bail, and, if convicted of first-degree murder, will face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Studies have shown that domestic violence is widespread in police departments, with estimates placing the rate domestic violence in police families at approximately 40%, compared with 10% in the general population.

Two DynCorp employees won recent legal victories after the defense-contracting firm fired them for reporting co-workers involved in sex-slave trade in Bosnia. The court actions, which took place in England and Fort Worth, Texas, suggest that the company did not move aggressively enough when reports of sex trafficking emerged in 1999, according to Salon.com.

While at least 13 employees have been sent home from Bosnia – seven of those fired – for purchasing women, many of them underage, or participating in other sex trafficking activities, none have faced criminal charges – despite large amounts of evidence. Employees of DynCorp and other private military companies are able to escape prosecution for crimes committed overseas because of protections granted under international treaties, the unwillingness of law enforcement systems in places such as Bosnia to police US contractors and because their actions fall outside the jurisdiction of US courts.

In England, Kathryn Bolkovac, who was fired after she sent an email to DynCorp and UN officials describing complicity in forced prostitution by international aid workers, was found by a tribunal to have “acted reasonably” while Dyncorp did not, according to Salon.com. “DynCorp is an enormous operation with strong ties to the US government,” Karen Bailey, Bolkovac’s legal representative said in a prepared statement. “She took on the big guns and won. The plight of trafficking victims is appalling and I’m glad that Kathryn’s case has done some way to bringing it to wider attention.” The tribunal ruled that DynCorp violated England’s whistleblower statute when they fired Bolkovac – a hearing is scheduled in October to determine what damages the company will face.

In Forth Worth, DynCorp agreed to settle a lawsuit late last week with Ben Johnson, who was fired after he reported that several fellow DynCorp employees purchased underage women. The case was settled two days before it was set to go to trial – the settlement amount is confidential. “This settlement wouldn’t have happened if DynCorp hadn’t, at least internally, accepted some responsibility for what happened in the Balkans,” Johnston’s Attorney Kevin Glasheen told Salon.com.

Permanent protection orders effectively reduce the likelihood of further assaults on women by their abusive partners, according to a study in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Researchers at the University of Washington and the Harbor view Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle reviewed the records of 2,691 adult battered women who reported incidents with the Seattle Police Department from 1998 to 1999.

Permanent court orders — usually lasting 12 months — made battered women 80 percent less likely to be assaulted during the year the order was in effect. The results contradict previous reports suggesting that protection orders provoke further violence. “I think (these results are) comforting, because I think most of what folks were worried about were the physical consequences… I would definitely encourage women to get [permanent protective orders],” study co-author Dr. Mary A. Kernic told Reuters Health. However, the study also showed that while temporary protection orders — typically lasting three to 30 days — did not affect repeat violence, there were reports of increased psychological abuse, as compared with women without civil protection.

Intimate partner violence affects an estimated 1.5 million US women each year. One-fifth of these women receive protection orders with varying restrictions.

LEARN MORE Domestic Violence Hotlines and Resources

TAKE ACTION Stop Violence against Women

In the wake of four recent murders of wives of U.S. soldiers at the Fort Bragg military base, the Senate has approved two amendments to the Defense Department Appropriations bill, both of which will address domestic violence problems within the military community. Senator Paul Wellstone and Senator Barbara Boxer, both champions of women’s rights, sponsored the two amendments. The amendments will allocate funding for an investigation into the scope of the military’s domestic violence problems, and will also increase the size of the Family Advocacy Program which provides counseling to military families. This appropriations bill is expected to come before the Conference Committee shortly.

In a precedent setting injunction awarded earlier this week, the United States District Court of Northern Illinois found that Cook County’s Forest Preserve District law enforcement agency had engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against its female employees. Plaintiff Cynthia Spina filed employment discrimination charges against the agency in 1997, after she was the victim of severe sexual harassment and discrimination, and subsequent retaliation after she filed a complaint with EEOC. The court ordered a permanent injunction against the Department that prohibits it from causing, encouraging, condoning, or permitting sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation against its female employees. The Department must also develop a comprehensive sexual harassment and discrimination policy, and establish a zero-tolerance policy for violators. Penny Harrington, founding director of the National Center for Women & Policing, was an expert witness on the case, and commented that the plaintiff had endured “one of the worst examples of harassment and discrimination of women officers that I have seen since the days before the EEOC rulings on sexual harassment were issued.” Congratulations to both Cynthia Spina, and her attorney Monica McFadden for this historic victory!