Cops beat man in his own house & perjure themselves on the stand

Blind_Io

"Be The Match" Registered
DONOR
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
24,200
Location
Utah
Car(s)
See signature
http://detnews.com/article/20110130/METRO/101300309

Audio and photos at the link above

An attorney plans to use an inadvertent 21-minute recording from an officer's lapel microphone as grounds to overturn a misdemeanor conviction against a husband who allegedly was beaten by officers trying to mediate a dispute between the man and his wife. The husband, Jeffrey Kodlowski, suspected his wife of cheating and initiated the March 18, 2009, incident when he took her cell phone in an attempt to prove her infidelity. Marlyn Kodlowski then began a series of phone calls to police that led to the arrival of officers Michael Little and Kyle Dawley to the Kodlowski residence on South Hanlon Street.
Advertisement

Jeffrey Kodlowski?s attorney, Joseph Corriveau, says the recording, captured by Little?s lapel microphone, shows the police overreached their authority and allegedly attacked his client, who was charged with assaulting the officers; he was acquitted of the assault charge and found guilty of resisting arrest.
Although assaulting a police officer is a felony in Michigan, Westland officials did not submit the case to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office for review; instead, Kodlowski was charged in 29th District Court under city code violations of assault and resisting arrest.
"The audio shows these officers clearly stepped over the line," said Corriveau, who filed a motion with the Michigan Court of Appeals in December, after Wayne Circuit Judge Craig Strong refused to hear the case on appeal.
"If the microphone hadn't been on, this would've been just a 'he said, she said' situation. But the audio tells the story," the attorney said.
Corriveau said he also plans to file a civil lawsuit against the police seeking damages for the beating, but is waiting to see how the appeal plays out first.
"(District Judge Mark McConnell) didn't allow photos of my client's injuries, or any mention of the beating these officers gave him," Corriveau said. "The judge also wouldn't let the jury see a transcript of the audio."
Westland Deputy Chief Daniel Karrick said he couldn't comment on the case because it was still being adjudicated, although he said there's nothing unusual about trying assault cases against officers in district court.
"Most of those cases are charged as misdemeanors," Karrick said. "I'd say 99 percent of our cases are charged that way."
"Try to make me leave."

The incident began at 4:01 a.m., when Marlyn Kodlowski called the Westland Police Department claiming her husband had taken her cell phone and car keys and wouldn't allow her to leave the house. The desk officer asked to talk to her husband; Jeffrey Kodlowski told the officer, "There's no fight, like hitting or nothing."
"Let me ask you this ? how come you won't let her have the keys to leave?" the officer asked. Jeffrey Kodlowski agreed to give his wife the car keys, and the officer hung up.
Marlyn Kodlowski again called police at 4:12 a.m.
Little and Dawley arrived at 4:17 a.m. to find the woman sitting in her van outside the home. She told the officers her husband had handed over her keys and purse, but would not give up the cell phone. "He thinks I'm cheating on him," she said.
She told the officers she planned to go to her sister's house.
Corriveau said "it was obvious Mrs. Kodlowski was free to leave" when the police arrived. "At that point, they should have just left," Corriveau said.
The officers instead entered the house and are heard ordering Jeffrey Kodlowski to give the cell phone to his wife. He refused.
"You don't believe me or nothing I say; what because I'm the dude here?" he asked.
"You're a loudmouth; you're acting like a jerk," Dawley said.
"Loudmouth? You're in my house; no one's yelling at you," Jeffrey Kodlowski replied. "You come off with this pumping the chest and throwing your authority at me for nothing, dude. You have no right to sit here over a phone."
"Because you're acting like a jerk," Dawley said.
"OK, well, I will act like a jerk and be quiet," the husband said. "You have no right to sit here over a phone."
Dawley cut him off: "Try to make me leave your house. Go for it."
Jeffrey Kodlowski twice informed the officers that he'd had an operation for a brain aneurysm.
"Let's take him."

At one point, Marlyn Kodlowski and the officers tried to use her husband's wallet as a bargaining chip to get Jeffrey Kodlowski to give up the phone.
Again he refused, saying he wanted to learn the code so he could see who his wife had been calling.
Jeffrey Kodlowski is later heard saying, "I'm the victim. I asked you guys to please leave; she's got the keys to the car, she wants to leave. I talked to an officer on the phone; he said 'Just give her the keys and go.'"
A few minutes later, Marlyn Kodlowski says she wants to leave. Her husband is heard saying, "I'm curious . . . this is my wallet there?"
"Don't touch me," Little said.
The officers later would say Jeffrey Kodlowski had spun Little around when he touched him, but no struggle is heard on the audio. Instead, Kodlowski apologizes twice.
Dawley then says to his partner, "You know what? Let's take him. (Expletive) him."
The sounds of a struggle are heard. "Nobody is touching him . . . I was pointing," Jeffrey Kodlowski says.
"Don't resist," Dawley says.
The husband screams, "Man, dude. Ow, ow!"
"Stop resisting," Dawley says.
"I ain't doing nothing," Kodlowski says. "He punched me in the face."
Marlyn Kodlowski then begs the officers, "Stop, stop. My son is outside."
"Go outside with your son," Little says.
"Don't touch him," Marlyn Kodlowski says. "You guys, stop. Oh please, you guys."
When the struggle was over, Jeffrey Kodlowski was bleeding profusely from a huge gash in his head, and is allegedly rushed to Annapolis Hospital.
Curt Benson, a professor at Cooley School of Law, said police officers are required to leave a private residence once they determine no crime has been committed, even if they were invited inside.
"If they believe someone has committed a crime, they can make an arrest," he said. "But in a case like this, if they weren't sure who owned the phone, as long as there was no evidence of a crime, they should have told them to talk to a lawyer. They're required to leave if they're asked to leave and there's no crime.
"The problem is, some people use the police as arbitrators in family squabbles," Benson said. "The police know that, and their job is to de-escalate the situation. It doesn't sound like that's what happened here."
 
Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about police misconduct? Do you feel it is under reported?
 
Last edited:
I think that thread would test the limits of the database backend for this site in numbers of pages long.
 
Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about police misconduct? Do you feel it is under reported?

I don't know, it pisses me off and I guess I feel the need to share. Abuse of power is one thing that gets right under my skin and pisses me off more than anything else - it could be a judge taking bribes, a cop beating an innocent man or lying on the stand or a father beating his kids. It's all the same to me.
 
I think that thread would test the limits of the database backend for this site in numbers of pages long.

What do you mean by this comment? That replies will be great or the number of stories will be numerous? Even if he posted 10,000 stories that still not indicate endemic corruption. There are approximately 800,000 law enforcement officials in the United States, a number I am sure many are aware off.

I don't know, it pisses me off and I guess I feel the need to share. Abuse of power is one thing that gets right under my skin and pisses me off more than anything else - it could be a judge taking bribes, a cop beating an innocent man or lying on the stand or a father beating his kids. It's all the same to me.

Then vent your anger at those individuals. Post stories and I am sure people will read them.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about police misconduct? Do you feel it is under reported?


I know they are under reported. Reporters rely on police officers for information, and if you write a story about a bad officer, even if he is among the worst, other officers don't like that and won't feed you information later on. Ask a reprter, they will tell you the same thing.
 
Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about police misconduct? Do you feel it is under reported?

Why is this relevant to the topic?
 
Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about police misconduct? Do you feel it is under reported?

YOU HYPOCRITE

Perhaps you should just create one thread and post all the stories you find? Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about international intrigue and war games? Do you feel it is under reported?
Why must continually expose the shallow graves of soldiers accidentally unearthed by construction workers? Why must all your base belong to us? Why must I cry? Why must chocolate rain?
 
Last edited:
Easy, Jay. He has a point, I should probably lay off the stories of police corruption and brutality if it's annoying other users. This is just the first time anyone has complained about it - at least to me.

I'll only post the ones where an entire police department gang rapes an old lady in a diabetic coma after tasering her into submission.
 
jetsetter, I'm sick about reading stories about China. Why do you feel the need to continuously post stories about human rights, Tibet, setting monks on fire, raping bloggers, lead toys, beating up Christian Bale in a Chinese gulag, melamine, owning the US deficit, stealth fighters, and Jackie Chan? Do you feel it is under reported? If you've got your own neo-con agenda to push, Karl Rove, then please only post stories about puppies. I feel puppies are under reported.
 
Well, hope these two officers get whats coming to them. The sack.

Though more likely a slapped wrist and nothing. Such is life.
 
I do get annoyed that police officers do not get punishments that a civilian would get for the same crime. I have not had a large amount of interaction with police officers, but for the most part I feel they are good individuals.
Also, I have not been annoyed by any posting. I guess I feel that if i don't want to read it, I can always not click on the thread.
Choice, weird.
 
What he said.
 
I'm all for the continual posting of Police abuses of power.

I'm also for the lynching of said officers on a regular basis.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TC
Here is another beating that was caught on tape. The guy was being chased after a robbery of some sort and was nearly ran over, falls to the ground and puts his hands on his head then lays face down. Watch the rest.



First, I understand he was wanted and probably did do something, but that is no excuse for what the video shows.
 
I understand that police might get nervous or under pressure and need to discharge the anger and frustration originated by difficult cases and/or constant mockery they get by entire parts of population, but if they can't avoid abuse of their powers and position of strength, it should be better for them not to be police officers. Every time something like this happens, they are actually feeding the same hate and frustration that puts them at risk of snapping, and they just seem like a bunch of fascists.
 
Here is another beating that was caught on tape. The guy was being chased after a robbery of some sort and was nearly ran over, falls to the ground and puts his hands on his head then lays face down. Watch the rest.

[snip]

First, I understand he was wanted and probably did do something, but that is no excuse for what the video shows.

Further proof that many cops are in fact the last people we should allow to have a badge or a gun.
 
It doesn't matter who has the badge and the gun, the fact that one group has power and minimal oversight creates the problem, not the individual person.
 
Top