NV-Remember Erik Scott, killed outside of Costco? Family drops suit against cops.

[Anti Federalist]

Without the mysteriously missing surveillance video from the parking lot, they got nothing, especially in light of new "qualified immunity" from prosecution rulings from recent Ninth Circuit Court rulings.

The system closed in around the killers, and that's that.

$#@! you, Mundanes, now, move along, before I thump your head for ya.



Erik Scott’s Family Drops Lawsuit

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/03/1...drops-lawsuit/

Scott, a West Point grad and Duke graduate student, was shot and killed outside of a Las Vegas Costco after he got into an argument with a Costco employee. The employee apparently saw that Scott was (legally) carrying a weapon, panicked, and called the police. In their testimony at the coroner’s inquest, police said that as Scott was leaving the Costco, they simultaneously told him to drop his weapon and put his hands in the air. When he didn’t comply with both, which of course was impossible, they killed him.

The coroner nonetheless found the shooting justified. Which shouldn’t be surprising. Las Vegas hasn’t fired a police officer for shooting someone in any of the 378 times it’s happened over the last 20 years. (Although one of the cops involved in the Scott shooting was later fired and criminally charged in a separate case for providing a gun to a felon.)

Scott had no prior criminal record. His family had been pursuing a lawsuit. But they’ve now given up, apparently out of frustration. Here’s the press release, in full:

Scott Family Announces Erik B. Scott Lawsuit to be Dismissed

Las Vegas, NV (March 13, 2012) – Upon advice of legal counsel, the family of Erik B. Scott has dismissed its lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Sheriff Doug Gillespie and the three officers who shot and killed Erik on July 10, 2010.

“We are extremely disappointed, and this action is being taken with great reluctance,” said William B. Scott, Erik’s father. “We thank our attorney, Ross Goodman, and his team for their outstanding efforts on Erik’s and our behalf. It’s time to move on with our lives.”

“We feel Erik was wrongfully killed, through an incredibly tragic mistake,” he added. “Officer William Mosher claimed he tapped Erik on the shoulder, and Mosher confirmed, at the coroner’s inquest hearing, that Erik responded by stating that he had a concealed firearm. Erik was trying to comply with the officer’s conflicting commands, when Mosher fired two shots. The commands and those first shots occurred within two seconds. Mosher’s first round hit Erik in the heart, killing him instantly. The second round went through Erik’s right thigh. Officers Mendiola and Stark then fired another five rounds into Erik’s back, after my son was on the ground and dying.”

Despite multiple witnesses confirming Erik was complying with Officer Mosher’s commands, recent Ninth Circuit Court opinions finding “qualified immunity” for police officers, even after agreeing excessive force had been used, makes it difficult to proceed with this lawsuit.

“While we believe the Costco surveillance-video data — which captured the shooting — provides irrefutable evidence that Erik was wrongfully killed, the ‘missing’ segment of that video makes it difficult to overcome those qualified-immunity legal issues,” Scott said.

Odd how critical portions of surveillance video often turn up missing, isn’t it?

[Anti Federalist]

When Police Videos Go Missing

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

http://www.theagitator.com/2010/08/1...os-go-missing/

When I interviewed him for my column this week, Fraternal Order of Policy Executive Director Jim Pasco differentiated citizen-shot video from police dash cam and surveillance video this way:

How do you know the video hasn’t been edited? How do we know what’s in the video hasn’t been taken out of context? With dashboard cameras or police security video, the evidence is in the hands of law enforcement the entire time, so it’s admissible under the rules of evidence. That’s not the case with these cell phone videos.

Pasco may be right about the potential for citizen-shot video to be edited, though from what I understand that’s pretty easy to detect. The problem with Pasco’s statement is that there are too many stories where dash cam and surveillance camera video has gone missing, particularly in cases where there’s alleged police misconduct.

The Tennessean reports on its front page today that 1,300 dash cam videos from the Nashville police department have been erased. The police department blames the video camera vendor. The vendor blames the police department. More disturbing, DUI defense attorneys interviewed by the paper who had sought video of their clients’ arrests were told by the police department that the videos didn’t exist, not that they had been erased.
That’s actually the second story about missing or edited dash cam video to make news this week. The other is about a pregnant illegal immigrant who was arrested two years for a minor traffic violation, jailed, then, in a cruel practice that seems to be more common than I’d have thought, was forced to give birth while shackled. The officer who made the unusual arrest claimed there was no video of the incident. The woman’s lawyers were finally able to obtain the video last week, though portions of it are missing. The video opens with the officer telling the woman that his camera is running.
I noted in the column the case of Jack McKenna, the University of Maryland student whose beating at the hands of riot police after a basketball game last year was captured by several cell phones, but was mysteriously missing from the footage taken by a police surveillance camera pointed at the spot where the beating took place. The police officer in charge of the campus surveillance system is married to one of the officers who was disciplined in the McKenna case.
In another example, also from Prince George’s County, Maryland, in April 2005, TV reporter Andrea McCarren and a cameraman were pulled over by seven police cruisers as they followed a county official for a story on the misuse of public funds. McCarren later claimed in a lawsuit that she was abused during the stop, resulting in a torn rotator cuff and dislocated shoulder. Prince George’s County officials never gave McCarren’s attorneys dash cam video of the incident. Their excuse? They said all seven dashboard cameras were malfunctioning on the day McCarren was pulled over.
Last year, Birmingham police beat an already-unconscious driver after he crashed during a high-speed police chase. One officer turned the dash camera off in mid-beating. The police department then gave the district attorney’s office a version of the video with the police beating edited out.
In March, Justice Lee Ann Dauphinot on Texas’ 2nd Court of Appeals noted in a dissent the troubling frequency with which potentially exonerating dash camera footage seems to turn up missing:

Repeatedly, we are asked to review records of DWI stops during which there is no audio or video record of the event. Why do I believe there should be audio or audio and video record of the DWI stops? Because the law requires, and did so at the time of this stop, either an audio or audio and video record or the filing of a racial profiling report for each stop. See Tex Code Crim. Proc. art. 2.133-.135. The City of Fort Worth has conscientiously provided the means for complying with this law.

An appellate court should give no weight to testimony that is disproved by the objective record of the actual events. And I believe that the majority should address the issue of an officer’s intentionally disabling the audio recorder and testifying directly contrary to the audio record. …

At some point, courts must address the repeated failure of officers to use the recording equipment and their repeated inability to remember whether the car they were driving on patrol or to a DWI stop contained the video equipment the City of Fort Worth has been paying for. If the law requires recording to qualify for the exception to filing racial profiling reports, then is the officer not obligated to make sure that there is tape in a traditional video camera or that a digital camera is activated? When the actual recording conflicts with the officer’s testimony, the defendant’s testimony, or another witness’s testimony, a court cannot pretend that the emperor is wearing new clothes just because someone testifies that he is.

It’s commendable that more and more police departments are using dash cameras. I’m less enthusiastic about the increasing government surveillance of public spaces. But neither is a compelling reason to prevent citizens from protecting themselves by making their own recordings of their interactions with on-duty police officers.

[Anti Federalist]

///

[Invi]

I am incredibly glad to have not had to deal with the police around here.
Yet.

[Anti Federalist]

I am incredibly glad to have not had to deal with the police around here.
Yet.

Watch your back.

[asurfaholic]

This reminds me that somehow a plane flew into the worlds most secure building (pentagon) and yet somehow there was only one video of it, and that was misdated and didn't really show anything.

And im nuts for believing that the govt is corrupt and anti american.

[Anti Federalist]

This reminds me that somehow a plane flew into the worlds most secure building (pentagon) and yet somehow there was only one video of it, and that was misdated and didn't really show anything.

And im nuts for believing that the govt is corrupt and anti american.

Yes, yes you are "nuts".

The state is infallible and always right. We have always been at war with Eurasia.

Reported.

[kill the banks]

geez again

[TheTexan]

Not to be a dick, but there seem to be a lot of witnesses that say that Erik was acting both angry and erratic, not obeying officer commands, reached for his weapon, and raised his arm towards the officer with a (holstered) weapon in his hand.

Many of the witnesses, when they saw him reach for the weapon, immediately ducked and took cover, indicating that they felt threatened by Erik...

Unless I'm missing something. Please tell me where I'm wrong.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...st-erik-scott/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...ik-scott-day2/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day3/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day4/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...ik-scott-day5/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day6/

[roho76]

At what point to these cops start getting pegged off by vigilante family members of the victims?

[osan]

I wonder how far it will have to go before people start shooting back and killing these rabid vermin we call "police".

[Anti Federalist]

Not to be a dick, but there seem to be a lot of witnesses that say that Erik was acting both angry and erratic, not obeying officer commands, reached for his weapon, and raised his arm towards the officer with a (holstered) weapon in his hand.

Many of the witnesses, when they saw him reach for the weapon, immediately ducked and took cover, indicating that they felt threatened by Erik...

Unless I'm missing something. Please tell me where I'm wrong.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...st-erik-scott/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...ik-scott-day2/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day3/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day4/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...ik-scott-day5/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...-inquest-day6/

And others say he was complying.

Now, we'll never know.

[TheTexan]

And others say he was complying.

Now, we'll never know.

From the testimonies I read, pretty much just his girlfriend said that.

[Anti Federalist]

From the testimonies I read, pretty much just his girlfriend said that.

Mysteriously missing video footage + "Qualified Immunity" = we'll never know.

[TheTexan]

Mysteriously missing video footage + "Qualified Immunity" = we'll never know.

Well, there is a preponderance of evidence that indicates that the shooting was justified. It just seems inappropriate to want to hang this cop out to dry merely because a video is missing.

[pcosmar]

From the testimonies I read, pretty much just his girlfriend said that.

Been a while.. and I did not read the "approved testimonies",, but when this story broke there several people that witnessed it saying he was shot before he could do much of anything. And that he was not threatening anyone.

would be nice to have some video.

[Anti Federalist]

Well, there is a preponderance of evidence that indicates that the shooting was justified. It just seems inappropriate to want to hang this cop out to dry merely because a video is missing.

It was more than one.

And one of them has already been charged with a felony and fired, for selling weapons to felons.

These shooters were not "good guys".

[specsaregood]

From the testimonies I read, pretty much just his girlfriend said that.

the missing footage from the surveillance system, in the words of Rand Paul, "doesn't pass the sniff test". I bet if he had stolen property that footage wouldn't be missing.

[TheTexan]

It was more than one.

And one of them has already been charged with a felony and fired, for selling weapons to felons.

These shooters were not "good guys".

Off topic, but what's wrong with selling weapons to felons?

[specsaregood]

Off topic, but what's wrong with selling weapons to felons?

birds of a feather... and all that jazz.

[TheTexan]

the missing footage from the surveillance system, in the words of Rand Paul, "doesn't pass the sniff test". I bet if he had stolen property that footage wouldn't be missing.

I'm less suspicious of the missing video because it was Costco's video. There may have been some incentive for Costco to erase the video, but generally speaking dashcam's and government cameras are far more likely to "malfunction" than private cameras

Also, unless witnesses were excluded, as pcosmar was implying, the case seems pretty cut and dry. This seems like one of the videos that the cops would have liked to have as evidence.

[pcosmar]

I'm less suspicious of the missing video because it was Costco's video. There may have been some incentive for Costco to erase the video, but generally speaking dashcam's and government cameras are far more likely to "malfunction" than private cameras

Also, unless witnesses were excluded, as pcosmar was implying, the case seems pretty cut and dry. This seems like one of the videos that the cops would have liked to have as evidence.

The Costco Video, and the redundant copies,, and all the Dash-cam video is missing.

And yes, the inquest was pretty much a sham.

This seems like one of the videos that the cops would have liked to have as evidence.

Not if it shows them gunning down a west point grad, who is doing nothing wrong.

[Anti Federalist]

Off topic, but what's wrong with selling weapons to felons?

Good for the goose and all...

Seriously, nothing. There are a couple of "felons" I would cheerfully sell weapons to, were it not prohibited by state and federal law with severe sanctions.

Uphold the law, follow the law.

[specsaregood]

I'm less suspicious of the missing video because it was Costco's video. There may have been some incentive for Costco to erase the video, but generally speaking dashcam's and government cameras are far more likely to "malfunction" than private cameras

Also, unless witnesses were excluded, as pcosmar was implying, the case seems pretty cut and dry. This seems like one of the videos that the cops would have liked to have as evidence.

IIRC, the tapes from the surveillance system were immediately taken by the police and actually sent out of state to california, where it was mysteriously discovered that it was all blank. It wasn't costco that said the system failed.

[Anti Federalist]

The Costco Video, and the redundant copies,, and all the Dash-cam video is missing.

And yes, the inquest was pretty much a sham.

The dash cam video went missing too?

That clinches it for me.

[Anti Federalist]

IIRC, the tapes from the surveillance system were immediately taken by the police and actually sent out of state to california, where it was mysteriously discovered that it was all blank. It wasn't costco that said the system failed.

I bumped all the relevant threads, I'll have to go back and make sure, but I think you're right.

[Anti Federalist]

Three officers fired multiple times, killing Scott.

One witness interviewed Saturday and three others interviewed Sunday by the Review-Journal gave accounts that differed from what police described.

With a few minor variations, the witnesses recounted matching sequences of events. The witnesses interviewed did not see what happened inside the store that prompted workers to call police. Three of the witnesses, upset by the event, asked that their names not be published.

Once Scott was outside, none of the witnesses saw him brandish a weapon or make any movement that would seem like he was brandishing a weapon.

The first witness already had made his purchases and was waiting in line for a worker to check his receipt when he saw an officer enter the store. The officer whispered something to the worker checking the receipts. The first witness then heard that employee turn to another employee and say, "He said we should let him through."

"There wasn't even time for someone to react," the second witness said. "The guy didn't pull a gun. There was no gun in his hand, there was no gun on the ground."

The second witness said he was interviewed by homicide detectives and gave them the same account.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/slaying-of-...-98223884.html

[pcosmar]

The dash cam video went missing too?

That clinches it for me.

No video from any.. and there were cop cars on scene.

I had hoped for the longest time someone would have had it on a cell phone,, but sadly no. None has surfaced.

[specsaregood]

I bumped all the relevant threads, I'll have to go back and make sure, but I think you're right.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2579595/posts

METRO’s Sheriff, Douglas Gillespie, and his spokesmen have stated, from the first day of this nightmare, that video surveillance data the police department immediately seized has a “glitch,” and might be “unusable.” Those Costco video data (stored on computer hard drives) were shipped to a forensics lab in Los Angeles. That decision, in itself, is surprising.

As Bill Carns related in detail during a recent Dave Champion radio show (August 10th, 2010), one of the best computer-forensics experts in America is a Las Vegas METRO employee. He’s a founding member of an anti-computer-crime interagency task force based in Las Vegas at the U.S. Secret Service office. So, why would the Costco surveillance video files be sent to Los Angeles for “forensics” work, when one of their own is extremely well-qualified to undertake exactly the same forensics investigation? Could the decision to send those critical data disks to California have been an intentional move to prevent Costco’s video data being subpoenaed by anybody in Nevada?

It appears that METRO wants to make sure nobody, especially our team of attorneys and computer/digital-data experts, has an opportunity to examine the Costco video data. Why? My opinion: Because the surveillance video imagery shows that Erik Scott was not “acting erratically,” was not throwing merchandise around, was not arguing with a Costco employee and manager, and did not constitute a threat to employees or other customers.

Just as I remembered. It wasn't costco that said there was a problem it was the police. And they immediately shipped the evidence out of NV.

[Anti Federalist]

No video from any.. and there were cop cars on scene.

I had hoped for the longest time someone would have had it on a cell phone,, but sadly no. None has surfaced.

Note all the witnesses in the first story when this broke.

And they all disappeared or recanted or refused to testify.

Not surprising, when this $#@!ing guy shows up at your home to have a "friendly chat".