Couple arrested for trespassing hire attorney

Couple arrested for trespassing hire attorney, plan to sue the city

Stephen Janis, The Examiner
May 18, 2006 7:00 AM (1 day ago)

BALTIMORE - The Virginia couple arrested Saturday for trespassing after
getting lost trying to find Interstate 95 have retained an attorney and
plan to sue the city.

"In view of what's happened, it's a given," said Dale Anstine,
an attorney in York, Pa., who is representing the family. "I
personally know these people; they are good kids. I think the conduct
of this police officer is beyond outrageous."

Llara Brook, 20, and her boyfriend, Josh Kelly, 22, traveled from
Chantilly, Va., to Baltimore to see an Orioles game Saturday. The
couple stopped in the 800 block of Bridgeview Drive in Cherry Hill to
ask a Baltimore Housing Police Officer, Natalie Preston, for
directions. Brook said the officer was blunt: "You found your way in.
You can find your way out."

After writing a citation for failure to obey a stop sign - a ticket
Kelly disputes - the officer told them to leave. Confused, the couple
drove about "40 feet" and stopped.

"We still didn't know how to get out," Kelly said.

But Preston pulled up behind them and arrested Kelly and Brook for
"trespassing," according to the ticket.

Anstine said he was currently "gathering information about the
incident" and expected to file a lawsuit in "two or three
months."

Matt Jablow, a spokesman for the police department, said the incident
is "under investigation."

The police report contradicts the couple's story, stating that Kelly
was "argumentative" and refused to give the officer's pen back
after signing the citation for failure to stop.

Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the State's Attorney's Office, said
her office declined to prosecute the couple based on the arresting
documents. "There are thousand of cases like this being thrown out
every month," Burns said. "In the month of February, we threw out
902 cases; in March, we threw out over 1,200 cases - that means 70
cases a day."

Burns said "nuisance arrests" waste city resources that could be
better used to fight violent crime. "Somewhere within the Police
Department there is a policy or directive to increase the number of
arrests, or crime has gone up," she said. "The officer spent hours
on this case; it's a waste of her time."

Jablow said there is no policy to increase arrests. "Crime is down
significantly this month," he said.

Meredith Curtis, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union,
said the case is part of a larger trend. "This is the latest, most
egregious example of what has been demonstrated to be a pattern of
illegal arrests," she said.

Curtis said that even though the charges were dropped, the couple will
have a permanent record that can be expunged only if they agree not to
sue. "It's ridiculous and also unconstitutional."

http://tinyurl.com/fxkv4

Holy ****, what city can afford to have their LEOs write 70 useless
citations every ****ing day?!
-----

- gpsman

now do you see why I don't have a whole lot of respect for cops around
here?

now if they actually wrote people up for things like unsafe lane
changes, failure to signal, etc. that might be a different story. I
don't understand how priorities have gotten so screwed up.

nate

> Llara Brook, 20, and her boyfriend, Josh Kelly, 22, traveled from
> Chantilly, Va., to Baltimore to see an Orioles game Saturday. The
> couple stopped in the 800 block of Bridgeview Drive in Cherry Hill to
> ask a Baltimore Housing Police Officer, Natalie Preston, for
> directions. Brook said the officer was blunt: "You found your way in.
> You can find your way out."
....
> The police report contradicts the couple's story, stating that Kelly
> was "argumentative" and refused to give the officer's pen back
> after signing the citation for failure to stop.

How is the police report contradictory to the couple's? I'd be ****ing
argumentative after this abuse of power too!

N8N wrote:
> now do you see why I don't have a whole lot of respect for cops around
> here?
>
> now if they actually wrote people up for things like unsafe lane
> changes, failure to signal, etc. that might be a different story. I
> don't understand how priorities have gotten so screwed up.

Simple, what you're calling for would actually require effort on the
cop's part. Now, they still have to make their budget, which calls
for meeting their ticket quota each month, so to fill it, they write BS
tickets.

> Larry Bud said in rec.autos.driving:
> Simple, what you're calling for would actually require effort on the
> cop's part. Now, they still have to make their budget, which calls
> for meeting their ticket quota each month, so to fill it, they write BS
> tickets.

On I-95 and some of the lesser roadways round here, the cops could blow
through their monthly quota in the first week simply by enforcing lane
discipline...

necromancer wrote:
> > Larry Bud said in rec.autos.driving:
> > Simple, what you're calling for would actually require effort on the
> > cop's part. Now, they still have to make their budget, which calls
> > for meeting their ticket quota each month, so to fill it, they write BS
> > tickets.
>
> On I-95 and some of the lesser roadways round here, the cops could blow
> through their monthly quota in the first week simply by enforcing lane
> discipline...

lane discipline is legally unenforceable in MD. However, failure to
signal violations and unsafe lane changes would be cake easy to write,
probably they would get so many people the first day they could hang
out at Dunkin Donuts the rest of the month and not get fired.

Of course, there'd be a lot of off duty cops getting cited... and a
lot of on duty ones that should.

nate

Larry Bud wrote:
> N8N wrote:
> > now do you see why I don't have a whole lot of respect for cops around
> > here?
> >
> > now if they actually wrote people up for things like unsafe lane
> > changes, failure to signal, etc. that might be a different story. I
> > don't understand how priorities have gotten so screwed up.
>
> Simple, what you're calling for would actually require effort on the
> cop's part. Now, they still have to make their budget, which calls
> for meeting their ticket quota each month, so to fill it, they write BS
> tickets.

effort? it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel, all they'd have to do
would be cruise around any major area highway and pull people over as
fast as they could.

nate

Let's see: Baltimore, Housing Police, female officer with
huge chip on her shoulder. Have to wonder if race was a
factor in this.

"gpsman" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Couple arrested for trespassing hire attorney, plan to sue the city
>
> Stephen Janis, The Examiner
> May 18, 2006 7:00 AM (1 day ago)


It has been suggested that this couple was looking to buy drugs. There is a
lot more to this story.

In article >,
"Dan J.S." > wrote:

> "gpsman" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > Couple arrested for trespassing hire attorney, plan to sue the city
> >
> > Stephen Janis, The Examiner
> > May 18, 2006 7:00 AM (1 day ago)
>
>
> It has been suggested that this couple was looking to buy drugs. There is a
> lot more to this story.

It has been suggested *by whom*?