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Top 5 Police Blunders Of The Week: Jacksonville Officer Tackled Pregnant Woman In Labor
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 9:00 am
Today's Top 5 Police Blunders Of The Week brings you the story of Melanie Williams, who had to rush herself to the hospital because of complications due to her pregnancy. Despite explaining this to the officer who pulled her over for running a red light, she was tackled to the ground... 
5. Robert McDonough
Cincinnati police officer Robert McDonough thinks of himself as a pretty funny man.
Unfortunately, he's the only one who feels that way.
Last month, McDonough was hanging out at the Eastgate Mall when he decided to play a little prank on Sears employees.
He unzipped his pants and then went up to several salespeople to see who would notice.
Oh. Yeah. We should probably mention that he wasn't wearing any underwear.
Apparently, workers didn't appreciate McDonough's sense of humor. They called the police and complained about a flasher.
Police were finally able to track the 38-year-old officer down based on a purchase he'd made at the store.
He was arrested last Tuesday and charged with public indecency. He's also been restricted to desk duty at the Cincinnati PD.
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4. Delaware County Prison Guards
We understand that mistakes happen. We just can't comprehend how you make a mistake like this:
On Monday, a records clerk at the Delware County Prison in Thornton, Pennsylvania was busy typing up a discharge notice for Taariq Brown when he transposed the inmate's information with that of his 21-year-old brother, Taaqi.
Sure, the spelling of their names was similar enough -- but the reasons they were in prison were entirely different and should have accounted for a tad more oversight.
While Taariq was being held in the low-security portion of the prison, his brother was behind bars in the maximum security area, having been charged with murder.
It must have come as a pleasant surprise to Taaqi when he got notice of his sudden and unexpected release. And if he did realize it was a mistake, he certainly didn't mention anything to the five different guards he interacted with that day.
Instead, the alleged murderer walked right out of jail on the eve of his murder trial.
An hour and half after Taaqi left the prison, officials finally realized their mistake and launched a region wide search.
Luckily, Taaqi didn't get that far. After being picked up by a female driver in an SUV, he drove into Philadelphia, where his parents encouraged him to turn himself back into police.
Amazingly enough, he agreed and was back in custody by Tuesday.
Despite the fact that Taaqi's release was an error made by the prison, he's being charged with escaping.
For now, prison officials are claiming that it was simply human error while the investigate for any intentional wrongdoing.
Taaqi is facing murder charges for the 2009 shooting of Aaron Kearney. He apparently opened fire on a crowd of people with the intention of shooting Kearney's friend, but hitting Kearney instead.
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3. Jerry Piland
Last month, Indianapolis police officer Jerry Piland was off-duty, lounging around his home when he was notified of a possible burglary in his neighborhood.
Piland jumped in his car and headed to the scene, where he quickly apprehended 15-year-old Brandon Johnson's younger brother.
That's where the story gets a bit sketchy. Piland claims that Johnson became unruly while he was trying to arrest his little brother. Johnson says he was simply trying to explain to police that his brother hadn't committed any crime.
Either way, the actions that Piland took next were entirely out of order. After restraining Johnson and pushing him to the ground, Piland slapped the 15-year-old in the head and then gave him a few knee blows to the ribs.
That behavior recently lost Piland his job, though the president of the local Fraternal Order Police has promised to fight to get him his job back.
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2. Steven Futral
Handling sketchy evidence is just part of the deal when it comes to police work.
Unfortunately, Steven Futral can't claim that his stash of kiddie porn was part of any investigation he was conducting.
Lieutenant Futral is an public information officer with the Ocean Springs Police Department in Mississippi. He usually handles little more than printing up police reports for local journalists.
It just so happens that, in his free time, he's more interested in a different type of record keeping -- that of the child pornography variety.
The Ocean Springs Police Department is commenting on the specifics of Futral's case, but what is clear is that Futral was arrested at his home on Monday as part of an investigation conducted by the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. His work-issued laptop was also confiscated and was the computer he allegedly used to download his porn.
He is currently on administrative leave with pay. If found guilty of the charges, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
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1. Jacksonville Police
In 2005, Melanie Williams was seven months pregnant when she began bleeding.
She promptly called 911 and asked for ambulance, fearful that she might faint -- or worse, lose her child.
But before she could give them her address, dispatchers lost the call. That's when Williams decided she had no time to spare and decided to drive herself to the hospital.
More concerned with her immediate medical condition, Williams didn't bother to stop at a red light, forcing a Jacksonville police officer to pull her over.
Williams stopped and when the officer approached her car, she told him what was going on.
Unfortunately, she wasn't graced by the most understanding of police officers. As he dilly dallied with paperwork, Williams's bleeding grew worse. Instead of waiting for him to finish writing up her ticket, she took off for St. Vincent Hospital.
When Williams finally made into the waiting room, the officer followed her inside, threw her to the ground and then put his foot on her neck in order to keep her on the ground. He then removed Williams from the emergency room and placed her in his squad car as she cried and screamed for help.
Fortunately, Williams finally received medical attention when she began going into premature labor. 10 days later, she delivered a healthy baby girl.
However, Williams wasn't going to let the officer get away with his excessive use of force. She filed a lawsuit against the police department, which disciplined but didn't fire the officer in question.
Last week, Williams finally reached a settlement with the department, the terms of which have not been made public.
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