Detroit cop: Allegations of illegal body cavity searches 'disgusting'

[exdetroiter]

http://www.freep.com/article/2009092...es--disgusting-

If these guys were not dirty perverts there would not have been all those other settlements. These guys should be hiding their freaky faces.

[SWMAP]

On the contrary - by all accounts, neither the cops nor their attornies were even aware that the City took it upon itself to payout monies to two accusers without any oversite such as may be required for settlements of that size [[hundreds of thousands). The City Council is researching how that might have happened and who/why it was authorized. Evidently, the two men just made an application for the money - no lawsuit required. Pretty strange.

[exdetroiter]

On the contrary - by all accounts, neither the cops nor their attornies were even aware that the City took it upon itself to payout monies to two accusers without any oversite such as may be required for settlements of that size [[hundreds of thousands). The City Council is researching how that might have happened and who/why it was authorized. Evidently, the two men just made an application for the money - no lawsuit required. Pretty strange.

Where did you get that information? I am aware that one of the City Attorneys [[no longer employed authorized the settlement), but I haven't come across anything that validates what you have said. Just curious?

[SWMAP]

A google Search will provide it. There's this from the Detroit News on August 22 [[note the word secret in the first paragraph):
"Two secret settlements totaling $698,000 to men claiming two Detroit Police officers conducted illegal body cavity searches on them are under investigation by the department, officials said Friday.
Deputy Mayor Saul Green called for the police to conduct the investigation after the men reached a settlement with the city instead of filing lawsuits as a way of escaping the scrutiny and approval by the Detroit City Council. ...
Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she's concerned with the lack of transparency in settling the case. She's curious what makes these two cases different from the 11 others who have filed lawsuits. Some of the settlements already reached are much lower.
"It says somewhere there's a hookup," Cockrel said. "The magnitude of the payoffs to the claim is outside any range that is good public policy. I have real confidence the administration will conduct a fair and impartial and utterly transparent investigation. I'm glad to hear that has begun."

Interestingly, Branda Braceful, a former girlfriend of Bernard Kilpatrick authorized the secret settlement. Not only is she no longer with the city, she is no longer with the Bar - she was dis-barred for essentially stealing from a client.

[Gannon]

I once found a collection of the council submeeting notes on-line regarding payouts...they were frequent and amazingly large...both those that went to lawsuits and those that avoided it.

If anyone dared make this a story, we'd be waiting ten times longer than those from the text message scandal...too much data to sort through efficiently.

Perhaps a database comparison with political donations to the McNamara/Cheeks/Kilpatrick/Bing powerhouse might yield some juice.