The Legal Arena

A South Carolina woman convicted of stealing $20 worth of beer and candy bars from a convenience store was “deprived of water” and died in jail last summer due to profuse vomiting after checking into a hospital where she was then hauled off to jail over unpaid fines related to that 2011 arrest.
Joyce Curnell, 50, had been seeking urgent medical care for a stomach flu when it was discovered she had a bench warrant for her arrest because she had stopped making payments towards her $1,148.90 fine.

Justice has been brought to an Ohio cop that raped an underage girl.
On Tuesday, former Lima police officer Justin Bentz was found guilty of raping a then-16-year-old girl. Bentz, 28, was also found guilty of kidnapping and sexual battery.
Hours before he raped the girl in June 2015, Bentz had taken a class warning of the dangers of underage sexual assault.
But that didn’t stop him from making sexual advances towards the 16-year-old girl after handing her a bottle of 80-proof alcohol, allowing her to get drunk to the point where she could barely stand.

The Texas cop who unlawfully searched the car of a PINAC correspondent while he was incarcerated for recording a police memorial last year was indicted on a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge Thursday.
Galveston Police Sergeant Archie Chapman faces up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, according to the Houston Chronicle.

In an embarrassing Constitutional setback for the American judicial system, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Friday that citizens do not have the First Amendment right to record police in public.
That is, unless those citizens are telling the cops to go fuck themselves.
Then it’s protected speech.
That’s the twisted logic coming from Judge Mark A. Kearney, a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who’s been on the bench a little more than a year.

Former Lima Police Department Officer Justin Bentz is currently on trial this week, accused of raping a 16-year-old girl while she was drunk off 80-proof alcohol he gave her.
Bentz admits to the sex, but claims she pursued him so strongly that he eventually gave in to her demands.
But toxicologists say the 5-foot, 2-inch girl who weighed less than 100 pounds was so drunk, she could barely walk.
She was found by her sister in a closet wearing only a tank top, curled up in the fetal position.

After forcing a man to strip naked in a cheap motel room, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is being sued for compensatory and punitive damages under state and federal law. No dollar amount has been set.
Two men have filed a lawsuit against Charlotte police, claiming police assaulted and kidnapped them while violating their civil rights by subjecting them to illegal searches in April 2014 at a west Charlotte motel.

In November of 2014, New York City police officer Peter Liang shot and killed Akai Gurley inside a darkened stairwell in an apartment building.
Now the officer may serve up to 15 years in prison after a conviction Thursday for manslaughter and official misconduct.
Those attending the trial inside the Brooklyn Supreme Court gasped when the verdict was read.

An Ohio man was sentenced to 240 days in jail Thursday for First Amendment-related activities, including attempting to video record police in public and warning drivers of an upcoming DUI checkpoint by holding up a sign.
Douglas “Deo” Odolecki of Cleveland Cop Block was whisked away to jail immediately after the trial.
His attorney, John Gold, plans to appeal.
“The judge far exceeded her authority today,” he said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime.

UPDATE: The name of the mistress is Laura Rezk, according to Courthouse News Service. Her name has also been circulated around the internet since September when prosecutors filed a Brady Disclosure, identifying her as Laura Rezk.

On Tuesday it was noted the Paradise police officer Patrick Feaster, who shot an unarmed DUI suspect in November, is no longer employed at the Paradise Police Department.
By Wednesday morning, Feaster was charged with involuntary manslaughter.
According to the Paradise Post: