SALISBURY -- Charges against a former corrections officer accused of yelling and swearing at police officers were dismissed by a Circuit Court judge.
Van E. Stewart, a 48-year-old retired Eastern Correctional Institution corrections officer, was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing and hindering a police officer and failure to obey a police officer in January, following an incident in a convenience store parking lot that culminated with Stewart allegedly yelling, "you are all crooked," and "you all don't know (expletive)," according to court documents filed by police. - Sure this guy is right. He knows more than the police about the law like every other John Q. Public standing on the street corner.
Before granting a motion to dismiss all charges in court, Judge Donald C. Davis said there was no evidence that Stewart tried to disrupt police performing their duties. Instead, Davis said, it looked like he tried to help them. - Just because Davis didn't find the person guilty does not mean there was no probable cause for the arrest. Although we respect Donald Davis and find him to be a knowledgeable judge the grounds for probable cause still exists.
"A bad officer abusing the law for his or her own gratification is a dangerous liability and should not be tolerated," Stewart said in an interview. "As a former law enforcement officer, I'm appalled and insulted by the behavior that I was subjected to by the officer that was sworn to protect and serve, not to humiliate." - Arresting a person for obvious disorderly conduct is not tantamount to abusing the law for his own gratification. If this former DOC employee's nephew would have walked out of the establishment and greeted law enforcement officers with respect rather than destine perhaps this incident would not have occurred in the first place? The assertion that he is a former law enforcement officer is questionable at best. No offense to our friends doing an awesome job in our jails and prisons but there is a defining difference between a Correctional Officer and a Police Officer, public arrest authority. If this guy was a former or current law enforcement officer than he would fully realize what the police were doing. Bottom line is if his nephew wouldn't have been acting a fool and him to boot he wouldn't have been arrested.
The incident started when Stewart's nephew was exiting a convenience store and allegedly yelled at officers who were looking at him. - That's the job of police with our current armed robbery rate of at least one per day. - Because the police are "looking at" someone does not give that person authority to act disorderly in nature in front of other citizens. That is the definition of disorderly conduct in the charging language. The police were doing their job apparently standing there "looking at" someone. So police can't make eye contact or look at people any longer? Makes it tough to do their jobs. Police said Stewart attempted to get his nephew in a vehicle to leave, but admitted to only further provoking him. "These guys are being (expletive)," and, "they only stopped you 'cuz you're black,' " Stewart said, according to the statement of charges. - No they stopped him because he's an idiot yelling at them in public for no reason.
Stewart denied allegations he directed profanity at the officers. "He was trying to make it seem like I was trying to put racism in it," Stewart said in an interview. According to Stewart, a Maryland National Guard retiree who received a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, it was one of the officers who directed profanity at him. "Don't tarnish your badge like that," Stewart recalled saying to the police officer. - Give us a break. This guy tarnished his badge or former badge or at best his citizen status of the United States by spouting off and provoking his nephew. No, they were probably stopping him because he was yelling obscenities at the police, in public, unprovoked. There's also a lot of national guard and military that have Iraq under their belts that work for the Salisbury Police Department but their experience goes unsung of course according to Boring.
Stewart said the officer, Thomas McMenamy, arrested him after he asked for his badge number and name and told the officer he was going to file a complaint. - Bullcrap.
5 comments:
Screw that lady.
who's boykin boinking to get all this information? I've read her articles, makes me sick.
I don't know, Mcmenamy is kinda out there at times.. I've worked with him for a few years and no one likes the guy at SPD. Thats why he got kicked off of the CAT team.
It's just another case of " I'm entitled ". Kinda like walking down the middle of the road with sidewalks on both sides and dare someone to say something attitude. No one wants to say it but it happens everyday and is excused for what happened 300 years ago.
I do not know about SPD issues but Tom M is a very professional officer. To bash him on here is a disrespectful load of crap
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