Post by Teddy McPherson on Jul 5, 2006 12:08:07 GMT -5
Can you believe this crap? We used to vacation there untill there were murders with no arrests, beatings againts white tourist with no arrests, now it seems the local police have turned on a resident and it prooves to have unfolded a scandoulous mess of police and prosecutorial corruption.
Kaua'i man makes case for innocence on the Internet, reads the story headline from The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper in Hawaii:
the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/16/ln/FP606160360.html/?print=on
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Kaua'i police are trying to figure out how a man facing criminal charges obtained access to internal police computer data, which he is posting on the Web.
Krstafer Pinkerton is making his case — including the posting of screen shots from police computers — on his personal Web site.
Pinkerton says he is a computer and network analyst who has done work with law enforcement, financial institutions and nonprofit groups. He also has been arrested three times in recent months, and charged with impersonating a police officer, with terroristic threatening and drunken driving, among other charges.
His maintains he has been targeted by a few police officers who have a grudge against him personally, but that he is a supporter of law enforcement and has friends within the police department. He outlines his side of the issue at www.kpinkerton.com.
In the most recent turn of events, the county prosecuting attorney's office, after conferring with Pinkerton's then-attorney, William Harrison, agreed to drop all charges if Pinkerton would agree to several conditions — including leaving town, taking down the Web site, revealing how he acquired images from police computers, and writing letters of apology to three police officers.
Pinkerton refused, and the offer expired May 25.
"That's why my lawyer is no longer representing me. He told me to take the deal," Pinkerton said.
Prosecutor Craig De Costa said he intends to prosecute Pinkerton on the charges that have been brought against him.
Harrison said he could not discuss some issues in the case, but said that he participated in negotiating the plea offer that Pinkerton rejected. De Costa said the plea agreement was "mutually composed" by Harrison and De Costa's staff, and while he would not directly address its specific requirements, he suggested that some provisions may have been offers by Pinkerton's side rather than demands of the prosecutor.
"We would never ask someone to leave town. However, if their attorney tells us they intend to leave town, that might make its way into an agreement," De Costa said.
Pinkerton said he might have suggested that he would be willing to leave the island to have the charges dropped. Harrison said he made the offer because Pinkerton told him he would be willing to leave the island to get the charges dismissed.
Kaua'i attorneys not involved in the case say such a plea deal seems odd to them.
"I've never seen a plea offer before that required the removal of a Web page, or that required someone to leave the island," said attorney Daniel Hempey.
Former prosecuting attorney Ryan Jimenez said he never made such requirements a part of plea agreements when he was in office.
"That seems very unusual to me," Jimenez said.
But Harrison said he has participated in such agreements in Hawai'i before, deals in which "someone agreed to leave the community in which the offense took place."
De Costa said his concerns about the Web site involve possibly revealing private information about individuals.
He added that the site displays the contents of screens of police computers. It is not clear to authorities whether Pinkerton was given screen snapshots by someone inside the department, or he was able to break into the police records management system electronically. In either case, it worries law enforcement.
"I'm concerned if he did gain access to RMS, how he did it, and whether it is a security breach," De Costa said.
Acting police Chief Clay Arinaga said police are conducting their own investigation.
"We have some concerns about some of the information he had access to," Arinaga said. "Some of that is not available to the public."
Pinkerton said he was given the screen snapshots by officers he will not identify.
"A couple of police officers came to me and said, 'Take these.' You can't hack into that system. It's a closed network. At least, I don't have the capability of getting into it," he said.
As for the Web site, Pinkerton says he wants the charges dropped, an apology from the county and "a fair settlement."
"This (Web site) is going to continue to sit there if they continue to maliciously prosecute me," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
ALSO ANOTHER STORY:
Defendant Says He Won't Go
John Tompkins
john.tompkins@dcrhouston.com
The message from a prosecutor to a defendant: shut up and leave town.
A Hawaiian prosecutor asked Kristafer Pinkerton in a plea agreement to shut down his Web site accusing the local police of brutality and then to leave the island of Kauai which he’s lived on for 18 years.
The site, www.kpinkerton.com, alleges that Kauai police physically assaulted Pinkerton while he was in their custody on an impersonating a police officer charge.
Since the original incident Pinkerton has also been charged with terroristic threat to an officer, two counts of assault and intimidating a witness.
The plea agreement, which Pinkerton said he would not agree to, also asked him to drop all civil suits that he has filed against the county.
The prosecutor in the case, Marc Guyot, would not comment as to why he asked Pinkerton to take down his site citing the case was ongoing.
Pinkerton said his attorney, William Harrison, had asked him to sign the agreement but Pinkerton refused. He also fired Harrison and has now decided to defend himself.
“It’s very unconstitutional,” Pinkerton said of the agreement. “That’s my First Amendment right to free speech.”
Pinkerton said he would not plea at all and would rather go to prison than admit wrongdoing or give up his allegations that the Kauai police are abusive.
“I’d rather go to jail for 10 years,” he said. “I will not back down to bad cops.”
James Alfini, First Amendment expert and dean of the South Texas College of Law said though the prosecution is not forcing Pinkerton to take down his site, it is overstepping its bounds of authority.
“It’s banishment,” Alfini said. “The point is to get him out of their hair which suggests that he may have something on them.”
A lot of criminal defendants often accuse police of brutality while in custody. But Alfini said the prosecutor’s requests for Pinkerton to leave the island, take down his site and drop civil suits against the city do give his case a good amount of credence.
He added that the prosecution, with this proposed agreement is looking to take care of their interests rather than the interests of the defendant, which should be the focus of any plea deal.
“I don’t see subsidiary restorative or rehabilitative aspect of it,” Alfini said. “The sum total of what they are doing is asking the defendant to give up some rights. I think this is improper.”
There may be no legal precedent about the legality of the prosecution’s request, Alfini said. The fact that Pinkerton’s Web site is both a personal journal and a medium makes the case somewhat difficult.
“This is a whole new era,” he said. “It gives people the opportunity to put out their message like they never have before.”
Some other things the prosecution asked Pinkterton to do in the rejected plea agreement:
- Pinkerton would have to waive all statute of limitation rights n Pinkerton would have to disclose how he received a screen shot of the Kauai Police Department’s internal computer system
- Pinkerton would have to write apologies to three of KPD’s officers.
- If Pinkerton returned to the island after signing the agreement, the charges would be reinstated.
Kaua'i man makes case for innocence on the Internet, reads the story headline from The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper in Hawaii:
the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/16/ln/FP606160360.html/?print=on
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Kaua'i police are trying to figure out how a man facing criminal charges obtained access to internal police computer data, which he is posting on the Web.
Krstafer Pinkerton is making his case — including the posting of screen shots from police computers — on his personal Web site.
Pinkerton says he is a computer and network analyst who has done work with law enforcement, financial institutions and nonprofit groups. He also has been arrested three times in recent months, and charged with impersonating a police officer, with terroristic threatening and drunken driving, among other charges.
His maintains he has been targeted by a few police officers who have a grudge against him personally, but that he is a supporter of law enforcement and has friends within the police department. He outlines his side of the issue at www.kpinkerton.com.
In the most recent turn of events, the county prosecuting attorney's office, after conferring with Pinkerton's then-attorney, William Harrison, agreed to drop all charges if Pinkerton would agree to several conditions — including leaving town, taking down the Web site, revealing how he acquired images from police computers, and writing letters of apology to three police officers.
Pinkerton refused, and the offer expired May 25.
"That's why my lawyer is no longer representing me. He told me to take the deal," Pinkerton said.
Prosecutor Craig De Costa said he intends to prosecute Pinkerton on the charges that have been brought against him.
Harrison said he could not discuss some issues in the case, but said that he participated in negotiating the plea offer that Pinkerton rejected. De Costa said the plea agreement was "mutually composed" by Harrison and De Costa's staff, and while he would not directly address its specific requirements, he suggested that some provisions may have been offers by Pinkerton's side rather than demands of the prosecutor.
"We would never ask someone to leave town. However, if their attorney tells us they intend to leave town, that might make its way into an agreement," De Costa said.
Pinkerton said he might have suggested that he would be willing to leave the island to have the charges dropped. Harrison said he made the offer because Pinkerton told him he would be willing to leave the island to get the charges dismissed.
Kaua'i attorneys not involved in the case say such a plea deal seems odd to them.
"I've never seen a plea offer before that required the removal of a Web page, or that required someone to leave the island," said attorney Daniel Hempey.
Former prosecuting attorney Ryan Jimenez said he never made such requirements a part of plea agreements when he was in office.
"That seems very unusual to me," Jimenez said.
But Harrison said he has participated in such agreements in Hawai'i before, deals in which "someone agreed to leave the community in which the offense took place."
De Costa said his concerns about the Web site involve possibly revealing private information about individuals.
He added that the site displays the contents of screens of police computers. It is not clear to authorities whether Pinkerton was given screen snapshots by someone inside the department, or he was able to break into the police records management system electronically. In either case, it worries law enforcement.
"I'm concerned if he did gain access to RMS, how he did it, and whether it is a security breach," De Costa said.
Acting police Chief Clay Arinaga said police are conducting their own investigation.
"We have some concerns about some of the information he had access to," Arinaga said. "Some of that is not available to the public."
Pinkerton said he was given the screen snapshots by officers he will not identify.
"A couple of police officers came to me and said, 'Take these.' You can't hack into that system. It's a closed network. At least, I don't have the capability of getting into it," he said.
As for the Web site, Pinkerton says he wants the charges dropped, an apology from the county and "a fair settlement."
"This (Web site) is going to continue to sit there if they continue to maliciously prosecute me," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
ALSO ANOTHER STORY:
Defendant Says He Won't Go
John Tompkins
john.tompkins@dcrhouston.com
The message from a prosecutor to a defendant: shut up and leave town.
A Hawaiian prosecutor asked Kristafer Pinkerton in a plea agreement to shut down his Web site accusing the local police of brutality and then to leave the island of Kauai which he’s lived on for 18 years.
The site, www.kpinkerton.com, alleges that Kauai police physically assaulted Pinkerton while he was in their custody on an impersonating a police officer charge.
Since the original incident Pinkerton has also been charged with terroristic threat to an officer, two counts of assault and intimidating a witness.
The plea agreement, which Pinkerton said he would not agree to, also asked him to drop all civil suits that he has filed against the county.
The prosecutor in the case, Marc Guyot, would not comment as to why he asked Pinkerton to take down his site citing the case was ongoing.
Pinkerton said his attorney, William Harrison, had asked him to sign the agreement but Pinkerton refused. He also fired Harrison and has now decided to defend himself.
“It’s very unconstitutional,” Pinkerton said of the agreement. “That’s my First Amendment right to free speech.”
Pinkerton said he would not plea at all and would rather go to prison than admit wrongdoing or give up his allegations that the Kauai police are abusive.
“I’d rather go to jail for 10 years,” he said. “I will not back down to bad cops.”
James Alfini, First Amendment expert and dean of the South Texas College of Law said though the prosecution is not forcing Pinkerton to take down his site, it is overstepping its bounds of authority.
“It’s banishment,” Alfini said. “The point is to get him out of their hair which suggests that he may have something on them.”
A lot of criminal defendants often accuse police of brutality while in custody. But Alfini said the prosecutor’s requests for Pinkerton to leave the island, take down his site and drop civil suits against the city do give his case a good amount of credence.
He added that the prosecution, with this proposed agreement is looking to take care of their interests rather than the interests of the defendant, which should be the focus of any plea deal.
“I don’t see subsidiary restorative or rehabilitative aspect of it,” Alfini said. “The sum total of what they are doing is asking the defendant to give up some rights. I think this is improper.”
There may be no legal precedent about the legality of the prosecution’s request, Alfini said. The fact that Pinkerton’s Web site is both a personal journal and a medium makes the case somewhat difficult.
“This is a whole new era,” he said. “It gives people the opportunity to put out their message like they never have before.”
Some other things the prosecution asked Pinkterton to do in the rejected plea agreement:
- Pinkerton would have to waive all statute of limitation rights n Pinkerton would have to disclose how he received a screen shot of the Kauai Police Department’s internal computer system
- Pinkerton would have to write apologies to three of KPD’s officers.
- If Pinkerton returned to the island after signing the agreement, the charges would be reinstated.
