New Jersey
Officer stopped at ATM and pizzeria instead of investigating double-murder
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.
Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office.
But rather than responding immediately, prosecutors say GPS data and surveillance video show Bollaro drove nearly two miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location to a bank ATM.
Dispatchers relayed other calls from concerned neighbors as Bollaro proceeded towards their locations without activating his police vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, they said.
When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and said he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.
They say Bollaro instead headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he remained for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park and enter another local restaurant, where he remained for roughly another hour, prosecutors said.
Bollaro later submitted a report in which prosecutors say he made false statements about the extent of his investigation. They note that during the timeframe he claimed to be canvassing the area, the officer was already on route to the pizzeria.
The following day, Aug. 2, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, and Tyler Webb, 29, were found in a home roughly 600 feet away from the location of the first 911 caller. Prosecutors say the two had been shot to death by New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who had later killed himself.
Bollaro has been charged with official misconduct for knowingly refraining from performing his police duties, prosecutors said. He also faces a charge of tampering with public records for knowingly making false entries in his incident report.
Bollaro is due to appear in court Nov. 5.
His lawyer, Charles Sciarra, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday but, in a statement to the New York Post, called the charges “unfortunate.” He maintained “nothing Kevin Bollaro did or did not do that day impacted or could have stopped” the killings.
California
Former LAPD officer charged with murder in 2015 shooting of unarmed homeless man
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A grand jury indictment was unsealed Friday charging a former Los Angeles police officer in the May 2015 shooting death of an unarmed homeless man in Venice, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said.
Clifford Proctor pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Brendan Glenn, 29, was killed during a struggle with officers outside a bar where he had fought with a bouncer, and his name became a rallying cry against police shootings in Los Angeles. Both Glenn and Proctor are Black.
The office of current LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that the indictment comes after the previous district attorney, George Gascón, reexamined four use-of-force cases involving law enforcement officers, including Proctor’s case.
Hochman, who ousted Gascón in November’s election, will review the case and decide whether to proceed with the prosecution, the statement said.
Proctor’s lawyer, Anthony “Tony” Garcia, questioned the timing of the charges and noted that prosecutors declined to charge his client in 2018, according to the Times.
In 2018, LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to press charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove Proctor acted unlawfully when he used deadly force.
Glenn was on his stomach and trying to push himself up when Proctor shot him in the back, according to police. He wasn’t trying to take a gun from Proctor or his partner when he was shot, and Proctor’s partner told investigators that he didn’t know why the officer opened fire, police have said.
Proctor resigned from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017. The city paid $4 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit that was brought by Glenn’s relatives.
Proctor, 60, remains in jail. His next court date is Nov. 3.
Kentucky
Court overturns man’s murder convictions in the killing of a father and daughter, 3
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has thrown out the double murder conviction of a Louisville man sentenced to life in prison for the 2020 ambush killing of a father and his 3-year-old daughter.
The court said Thursday that the trial judge erred when he didn’t declare a mistrial after a juror learned that a witness was accused of perjury during the 2022 trial of Kevon Lawless.
Prosecutors said Friday that they will seek to retry Lawless.
“Our prosecutors will proactively pursue a conviction based on the evidence and ensure accountability,” Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerina Whethers said in a news release. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the child’s killing was “personal” for him, since he stood with the girl’s mother by her coffin in 2020.
Lawless was convicted of gunning down Brandon Waddles and Waddles’ 3-year-old daughter, Trinity Randolph, in front of their home. Lawless had a girlfriend lure Waddles outside the home, where Lawless was waiting and opened fire on him and his daughter, according to court records.
A man who drove Lawless to the shooting was accused of committing perjury while testifying at Lawless’ trial, according to the court. While in deliberations, jurors sent a note to Circuit Judge McKay Chauvin revealing they were aware that the man had been arrested for “lying on the stand,” and one juror said they could “no longer make a decision truthfully.”
Chauvin rejected Lawless’ attorneys motion seeking a mistrial, but one juror was replaced by an alternate. Lawless was later convicted of two counts of murder and one count of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The high court said Chauvin “committed reversible error by denying Lawless’s motion for a mistrial after the jury became aware of the trial court arresting a ... witness for perjury.”
Officer stopped at ATM and pizzeria instead of investigating double-murder
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.
Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office.
But rather than responding immediately, prosecutors say GPS data and surveillance video show Bollaro drove nearly two miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location to a bank ATM.
Dispatchers relayed other calls from concerned neighbors as Bollaro proceeded towards their locations without activating his police vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, they said.
When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and said he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.
They say Bollaro instead headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he remained for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park and enter another local restaurant, where he remained for roughly another hour, prosecutors said.
Bollaro later submitted a report in which prosecutors say he made false statements about the extent of his investigation. They note that during the timeframe he claimed to be canvassing the area, the officer was already on route to the pizzeria.
The following day, Aug. 2, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, and Tyler Webb, 29, were found in a home roughly 600 feet away from the location of the first 911 caller. Prosecutors say the two had been shot to death by New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who had later killed himself.
Bollaro has been charged with official misconduct for knowingly refraining from performing his police duties, prosecutors said. He also faces a charge of tampering with public records for knowingly making false entries in his incident report.
Bollaro is due to appear in court Nov. 5.
His lawyer, Charles Sciarra, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday but, in a statement to the New York Post, called the charges “unfortunate.” He maintained “nothing Kevin Bollaro did or did not do that day impacted or could have stopped” the killings.
California
Former LAPD officer charged with murder in 2015 shooting of unarmed homeless man
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A grand jury indictment was unsealed Friday charging a former Los Angeles police officer in the May 2015 shooting death of an unarmed homeless man in Venice, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said.
Clifford Proctor pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Brendan Glenn, 29, was killed during a struggle with officers outside a bar where he had fought with a bouncer, and his name became a rallying cry against police shootings in Los Angeles. Both Glenn and Proctor are Black.
The office of current LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that the indictment comes after the previous district attorney, George Gascón, reexamined four use-of-force cases involving law enforcement officers, including Proctor’s case.
Hochman, who ousted Gascón in November’s election, will review the case and decide whether to proceed with the prosecution, the statement said.
Proctor’s lawyer, Anthony “Tony” Garcia, questioned the timing of the charges and noted that prosecutors declined to charge his client in 2018, according to the Times.
In 2018, LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to press charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove Proctor acted unlawfully when he used deadly force.
Glenn was on his stomach and trying to push himself up when Proctor shot him in the back, according to police. He wasn’t trying to take a gun from Proctor or his partner when he was shot, and Proctor’s partner told investigators that he didn’t know why the officer opened fire, police have said.
Proctor resigned from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017. The city paid $4 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit that was brought by Glenn’s relatives.
Proctor, 60, remains in jail. His next court date is Nov. 3.
Kentucky
Court overturns man’s murder convictions in the killing of a father and daughter, 3
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has thrown out the double murder conviction of a Louisville man sentenced to life in prison for the 2020 ambush killing of a father and his 3-year-old daughter.
The court said Thursday that the trial judge erred when he didn’t declare a mistrial after a juror learned that a witness was accused of perjury during the 2022 trial of Kevon Lawless.
Prosecutors said Friday that they will seek to retry Lawless.
“Our prosecutors will proactively pursue a conviction based on the evidence and ensure accountability,” Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerina Whethers said in a news release. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the child’s killing was “personal” for him, since he stood with the girl’s mother by her coffin in 2020.
Lawless was convicted of gunning down Brandon Waddles and Waddles’ 3-year-old daughter, Trinity Randolph, in front of their home. Lawless had a girlfriend lure Waddles outside the home, where Lawless was waiting and opened fire on him and his daughter, according to court records.
A man who drove Lawless to the shooting was accused of committing perjury while testifying at Lawless’ trial, according to the court. While in deliberations, jurors sent a note to Circuit Judge McKay Chauvin revealing they were aware that the man had been arrested for “lying on the stand,” and one juror said they could “no longer make a decision truthfully.”
Chauvin rejected Lawless’ attorneys motion seeking a mistrial, but one juror was replaced by an alternate. Lawless was later convicted of two counts of murder and one count of burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The high court said Chauvin “committed reversible error by denying Lawless’s motion for a mistrial after the jury became aware of the trial court arresting a ... witness for perjury.”
