So it goes before a grand jury

[Thernlund]

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/05/murder-charge-against-ryan-frederick-goes-grand-jury

Video: Murder charge against Ryan Frederick goes to grand jury
By John Hopkins
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 28, 2008
CHESAPEAKE

A grand jury will hear the case against Ryan Frederick, a 28-year-old Portlock man accused of killing a Chesapeake detective during a drug raid.

Judge Thomas M. Ammons III, a retired judge from Virginia Beach, found sufficient evidence Tuesday to send charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm to the grand jury. Prosecutors withdrew a misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge against Frederick but said they plan to seek a felony drug charge against him later.

Meanwhile, an internal police investigation into the raid has been completed and is being reviewed by the police chief, said Christi Golden, a police spokeswoman. Police said that report will not be released.

Frederick, with friends and family seated behind him, remained silent throughout the preliminary hearing in Chesapeake General District Court. He is being held without bond in the City Jail.

He is accused of killing Detective Jarrod Shivers, 34, on Jan. 17 while police were executing a drug search warrant at Frederick's home in the 900 block of Redstart Ave. in South

Norfolk. Police said two shots were fired from inside Frederick's home through the front door as officers used a battering ram on the front door.

"No officers fired any shots," said Detective Kiley Roberts, the prosecution's sole witness.

One shot hit Shivers as he stood on the front steps of the home. Shivers' job during the raid was to protect the "breacher" by covering any doors or windows, Roberts said.

Police had two separate entry teams when they went to Frederick's home at 8:30 p.m., Roberts said. One team was to enter the home while the other was to simultaneously enter a detached garage.

A confidential informant told police Frederick was growing marijuana in his garage. Police, however, found only enough marijuana to charge Frederick with simple possession.

Frederick, in a jail interview, said he fired at what he feared were intruders.

Roberts, who heard a dog barking inside the house, said police knocked and announced themselves. Roberts said he personally "knocked and announced," four times in intervals of three to four seconds, yelling each time: "Chesapeake police! Search warrant! Open the door!" He said other officers announced themselves as well.

"You have these officers beating on the door, announcing their presence for a period of time," said Paul Ebert, a special prosecutor brought in from Northern Virginia to handle the case. "Not once, but for a period of five times."

At some point, police began to yell "eight ball," a code meaning the raid had been compromised and that the individual inside the house knew of the raid, Roberts said.

The battering ram went through the lower right side panel of the door, Roberts said, but the officers involved in the raid never went inside the house.

The SWAT team was called after Shivers was shot. After several minutes, Frederick surrendered.

"He came out with his hands up to the side," Roberts said.

James Broccoletti, Frederick's attorney, argued that the prosecution could not show that his client's actions were willful, deliberate and premeditated - as is required to prove first-degree murder. At most, he argued, the case is one of involuntary manslaughter.

"The shots were only fired after the door had been breached by police," he said. "The defendant responded in that fashion as a result of what he perceived as an armed invasion of his home. He fired as a result of that to protect himself."

The preliminary hearing offered little information about the confidential informant.

"It will come out in the next hearings," Broccoletti said.

Keep it High Road ya'll.


-T.

 

[romma]

Ah yes, two teams of battering rams,
a dead detective, a murder charge and so-called Felony Possesion of Marijuana...

Was it worth this type of tactic to anybody?

 

[Wheeler44]

Ah yes, two teams of battering rams,
a dead detective, a murder charge and so-called Felony Possesion of Marijuana...

Was it worth this type of tactic to anybody?

romma, soon some members of the LEO support society will show up to announce that this type of tactic is NECESSARY for the safety of officers and all involved.... although I'd like to see the stats and know who prepared them.

 

[Mr_Rogers]

A confidential informant told police Frederick was growing marijuana in his garage. Police, however, found only enough marijuana to charge Frederick with simple possession.

Yet another informer possibly buying his way out of trouble by fingering someone else - leading to a no-knock raid. If the informer said the pot was being grown in the garage why the heck did they burst into the house? Pot found in the garage would have been enough evidence for prosecution.

We don't know the facts yet but this is sounding like a re-run of the Atlanta "little old lady" event.

Police need to do their job but confidential informers and no-knock raids are accidents waiting to happen under the best of circumstances.

 

[ilbob]

hopefully the grand jury looks very closely at the facts before accepting whatever premise the prosecution tries to make.

the sad thing about these kind of cases is because government routinely lies about what happens, there is no way to know for sure what really did happen, or why.

 

[roo_ster]

From the report above, it was NOT a no-knock.

But, they made a big deal about the raid being compromised How do you compromise a knock & announce raid after you have knocked & announced?

Something fishy.

A little bit of weed sure wasn't worth Officer Shivers' life.

 

[Standing Wolf]

A confidential informant told police Frederick was growing marijuana in his garage. Police, however, found only enough marijuana to charge Frederick with simple possession.

Another Great Victory in the famous War Against Selected Drugs!

 

[pgeleven]

But, they made a big deal about the raid being compromised How do you compromise a knock & announce raid after you have knocked & announced?

Something fishy

i am betting the media threw their own interpretation onto that one, or someone who was not 100% familiar with what really happened made that statement.

 

[TAB]

Meanwhile, an internal police investigation into the raid has been completed and is being reviewed by the police chief, said Christi Golden, a police spokeswoman. Police said that report will not be released.

intresting...

 

[Josh Aston]

Bad tactics and bad intel, sounds like. Still though, it wouldn't be involuntary manslaughter. Intent to commit murder isn't needed when the murder was committed during the commission of a felony. Whether or not possession should be a felony is another matter entirely. But he killed someone while committing a felony, that's first degree murder.

 

[Elza]

jfruser: But, they made a big deal about the raid being compromised How do you compromise a knock & announce raid after you have knocked & announced?

Something fishy.

You beat me to it. I was wondering the same thing exactly.

 

[crushbup]

The chronology of the incident isn't really clear. It is very likely that the raid was considered compromised because Shivers was shot. The "at some time" part isn't clear, but it seems that Shivers' death was the cause.

 

[doc2rn]

Still though, it wouldn't be involuntary manslaughter. Intent to commit murder isn't needed when the murder was committed during the commission of a felony.

It wasnt a felony he only had enough for a simple possession charge which was thrown out.
Yup somethin is fishy in Denmark. Why yell 8ball when you have to announce yourself 5x's. They should have to tape all raids to prove they follow procedure.
The military has to put up with embedded reporters, why cant the police do the same since they aren't liable for personal protection.

 

[SG Merc]

The military has to put up with embedded reporters, why cant the police do the same since they aren't liable for personal protection.

Apparently the military must respect the rights of the citizens of *insert foreign nation here*. Americans, however, do not enjoy that same benefit when the public servants come knocking.

 

[Eric F]

Its getting warm in here is the flame war on or what?

Its easy to point the finger at the cops here but few take the time to say if this kid had not been dealing in drugs none of it would have hapened.

Also living in the area of where this happened there are local news reports and information not mentioned in the above quote. What was not mentioned is that personal use is determined by weight. The plants were there but had just started growing, they were aparently just breaking the ground on the planters. to me the Police were justified and the kid was wrong his excuses are of no meaning to me, he made himself a target the fault lies with him.

Oh yeah Nomex hood and full turnout gear with scba on!(for non fire department folks thats flame suit on)

 

[xjchief]

What was the emergency need to get into this guys house that couldn't wait for an opportunity to grab him up on his way to work? Were they worried he'd flush the dope PLANTS down the toilet? How are you going to hide entire plants?

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. :banghead:

 

[xjchief]

Its easy to point the finger at the cops here but few take the time to say if this kid had not been dealing in drugs none of it would have hapened.

Really? Where has it been shown that he was dealing drugs? Where were the drugs then? The burden of proof rests with the government and they've demonstrated that even with this high risk raid that resulted in the death of a detective they didn't get what they were looking for.

Where is this article you have that says this guy was a drug dealer? I'd certainly like to see it.

 

[ProficientRifleman]

Stop it! Stop it now! No Cop bashing!!!

Don't you mere civilians know that the ONLY way to avoid these types of incidents is to...

SUBMIT! COMPLY!! BE PASSIVE!!

If you just do that "everything should be fine".

You have no right to put the police officers' lives in danger by doing anything other than rolling over and soiling yourself.

 

[wideym]

After watching police video of various raids(drug seziure, felony warrents, ect.), there is little difference in a no-knock and a so called regular warrent entry.

They yell "Police, search warrent" or some such 2-5 times in the space of 30 seconds before utilizing a ram, often between midnight and dawn while people are sleeping.

Who wakes up fully alert and can clearly hear something yelled quickly outside your front door, expecially when bedrooms are nomally upstairs or in the back of the home?

These raids need to stop now before anymore police and innocent people are injured or killed. Just nab them when they leave the house.

 

[mindwip]

Sounds fishy, You yell through the door, Cops are here to take you in, But later you report that he "some how found out there was a raid in place" Makes sense to me



Also why is there even a raid in this type of arrest, why do the police need to go in fast???? Did they think he was going to get rid of vital evidence by smoking pounds and pounds of pot??

Just wait him out, I think all swat teams and cops on raid needs voice recorders, it would put all this he said she said thing to rest!

 

[ProficientRifleman]

wideym said:

Just nab them when they leave the house.

Now, that just wouldn't be glamorous...would it? What would you do with your highspeedlowdragtefloncoated Tack-tickle Team?

 

[Mr_Rogers]

Question.
If it was not a no-knock raid why were the police battering the doors, garage and house, open? Surely, if this was an announced raid and the residents were known to be inside and the door was not opened the sensible thing to do would be to back-off and throw a perimeter.

It could only go one of two ways.
1. If the residents had no weapons one would expect that they would have surrendered in a fairly short amount of time - because any other course would be pointless.
2. If the residents chose not to give up it would be sensible to imagine they had firearms to resist and concentrating in front of the door to break it down would be suicidal.

 

[ColinthePilot]

remember, the guy is innocent till proven guilty. So lets assume he is not only still innocent of first degree murder, but innocent of the drug charges. Now he's just like any one of us, someone is yelling and breaking into his front door. I'd almost definitely shoot. That sounds like a break in to me, and in any case, its a threat. Now put badges on those intruders(probably subdued against their storm-trooper tactical raid gear) and all of a sudden its murder instead of defense. I hope the guy gets a fair trial, whatever the outcome may be.

 

[Mountie855]

Grand Jury

This is another tragedy in the un-winnable war on drugs- and will likely increase in numbers over time. Maybe the defendant was a dirtbag, maybe not- what matters is that a cop was killed needlessly by someone who might have been apprehended without SWAT tactics. Doesn't sound like the defendant was a major threat to society.

Too many such incidents happen across America-

http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

And there is a rapidly growing association of cops and former cops known as "LEAP"- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition" who recognize the folly of the current drug war.

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

Control it, tax it, and take the street profit out of it. Works for alcohol!

 

[Dravur]

Its easy to point the finger at the cops here but few take the time to say if this kid had not been dealing in drugs none of it would have hapened

Interesting.... If he was dealing, wouldn't he have more than a misdemeanor amount?

And yes, it is easy to point fingers at the cops from what is known here. They could have sent a couple officers over, talked to him, issued a search warrant and Bob's your uncle. But then they wouldn't get to play with their toys.

I used to be VERY pro cop and am still generally favored to give them the bennie of a doubt, but raids like this remind me too much of the Gestapo.

I live in a house that had some unsavory characters living in it a while ago. Would I want some "informant", trying to cut a better deal, give up my address and having the Swat Team stepping on my neck? Nope. The police would look at my "arsenal" wet their polyester pants and haul me off, sure that I was some sort of gun running terrorist. And the worst drug I have here is a full bottle of some pain killer they gave me after surgery that I have never touched. <pain killers make me feel horrible, I'd rather just tough through any pain>.

So, from what I have read and barring any new info, I would have to give the guy the bennie of the doubt here if I was on the jury.