The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "convicted cops" ...
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How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, regularly declares that the police must be our "eyes and ears" in the effort the secure the United States against terrorism. Over the last ten years, this conviction has fed billions of federal and state dollars to a flourishing market in counterterrorism courses for state and local law enforcement. No one, however, has been paying attention to what cops are actually taught.
Tags: police; Department of Homeland Security; terrorism; counterterrorism
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Prime Suspect
This investigation tracks Marty Tankleff, convicted at age 17 of killing his parents, as he battles the court system for another shot at winning his freedom. The investigation raises issues about the legality of an aggressive police interrogation that ended in Tankleff's confession, which he immediately recanted.
Tags: courts; cops; police; crime; murder; retrial; double jeopardy; evidence
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Wrongful Conviction
"When police chief Earl Prentice Sanders was briefly indicted for an alleged departmental cover-up of wrong-doing by three officers," the Chronicle began investigating his past performance at the department. This ultimately led reporter Seth Rosenfeld to the case of a 13-year-old gang slaying, and how two police officers "improperly withheld evidence" resulting in the "conviction and long prison terms for two innocent men." In the aftermath of the Chronicle's reporting, those men, John Tennison and William Goff, were ultimately declared innocent by the authorities and released from prison.
Tags: prison; wrongful; conviction; slaying; gang; misconduct; police; cops; innocence; evidence; court; records; legal; shooting
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Battle Against Bad Cops Isn't Fought Only in L.A.
The LA Times looks at corrupt cops and finds that "in the seven years that U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has run the Department of Justice, the number of law-enforcement officers doing time in federal prison has risen to 668--an increase of nearly 600 percent."
Tags: police; cops; bad cops; LAPD; convicted cops; crime; corruption
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Injustice for all
John MacNeil was convicted of an execution stlye killing in 1968. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Despite this, MacNeil took advantage of the parole system and manipulated his way of prison again and again. The officer who was injured during the same shootout that ended MacNeil's life wants to know why. The story details how a career criminal could escape punishment so many times.
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Feed 5: Best of Show and Tell
1) Jennifer Kraus (WTVF-Nashville) This story exposes problems at the Nashville office of international charity "Feed the Children." In a four-month investigation, WTVF-TV's undercover cameras caught the charity's staff loading up their personal cars with donated items and taking the items home. 2) Deborah Sherman (WFXT - Boston) Costa Rican trips for child sex. Actually spoke with girls who used to get paid by American tourists for sex. Focuses on one area man charged with this crime. 3) Anna Werner, David Raziq (KHOU-Houston) KHOU-TV reports that "You're in physical pain. You need help. So you go to your doctor expecting needed relief and comfort. But what if in the process of treating you, you realize this healer's touch has become 'sexual?' That's what dozens of Houston women claimed happened to them when they were referred to a local health professional, a professional they claimed used their trust to molest and even rape them. His name is Shin Higashiura and he claimed to be a Master of Shiatsu, also known as acupressure, a Japanese massage therapy that promises health benefits...." 4) Jilda Unruh (WCCO-Minneapolis) An investigation reveals that automatic door sensors can't detect certain colors. The doors often close on elderly people, causing them harm. 5) Tom Merriman/Jeff Harris (WEWS-Cleveland) The story investigates how state-trained lifeguards perform on state beaches as compared to privately trained lifeguards on private beaches. Follows both teams though a simulation. The state team fails horribly and never recovers the dummy planted for them to rescue. 6) Jim Schaefer; Shellee Smith (WXYZ-Detroit) WXYZ-TV discovered that the leaders of Highland Park, a poor city surrounded by Detroit, had virtually ignored a major problem in the 911 emergency response system while continuing to enjoy the relatively expensive perks of their jobs. While claiming there was no money in the budget to fix the problem, the mayor leased a brand-new Lincoln with city cash. Undercover video found citizens at risk, fire fighters in danger and no one helping. 7) Drew Griffin (KCBS-Los Angeles) "The Real ConAir" Investigation reveals department of corrections transporting convicts on commercial flights. Passengers are not told who's sitting beside them. Planes are forced to land because of disturbances during the flight. A girl is sexually assaulted by one of these convicts. 8) Robb Leer; Maria Tomasch (KSTP-Minneapolis) Inmates can change their names on the taxpayer's dime. 9) Jeremy Rogalski; Bill Dutton; Gerry Lanosga; Kathleen Johnston (WTHR-Indianapolis) WTHR-TV reports that "a source mentioned to us that numerous DUI cases were being dismissed because police witnesses fail to appear in court... After we crunched a slice of our county's criminal justice data ... We found thousands of DUI cases - nearly one in ten - thrown out because cops didn't show..." 10) Wes Williams; C.J. Ward (KPNX-Phoenix) Security guards with criminal records have a "License to Steal." 11) Tony Kovaleski; Matt Goldberg (KPRC-Houston) Ninety-eight guns were discovered in schools in 10 of Houston's largest school districts -- that works out to 5,864 students per gun. 12) Phil Williams; Chris Clark (WTVF-Nashville) WTVF-TV's investigation into the backgrounds of school teachers found more than three dozen convicted felons working in Metro Nashville-Davidson County schools. 13) Chris Halsne; Kim Albro; Dave Weed (KWTV-Oklahoma City) Voters handed Oklahoma City Schools a 93 million dollar bond in 1993 to improve schools. The money is now gone, but many projects remain unfinished. KWTV-TV's investigation found millions of dollars in waste, fraud and mismanagement. 14) Laure Quinlivan; Jeff Keene; Ken Fulk; Mark Shafer; Scott Diener; Stuart Zanger (WCPO-Cincinnati) WCPO-TV's investigation "... to monitor County officials as they began spending nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money... earmarked to build two, new sports stadiums for our city's professional sports teams, the Bengals and Red. As (the) investigation enters its third year, work on the first stadium is two-thirds complete and ground will soon break on the second. Already, our investigation has revealed broken promises, manipulation of numbers in official reports, political cronyism in contract awards, creation of 'pass-through' companies and other questionable and possibly illegal activities...." 15) Jim Barry; John Campbell; Sam Zeff; Jennifer Snell; Denise Haley; Brad Naw (WTXF-Philadelphia) After transit union strike crippled Philadelphia's bus and subway service for forty days, WTXF-TV investigated the region's transportation agency - Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA is one of the largest and most expensive transit systems in the county. This investigation exposed a widespread culture of laziness and dishonest work habits that was allowing hundreds of buses with potentially dangerous problems out onto the street each day. 16)Darcy Spears; Kim Kruger (KVBC-Las Vegas) "Taken for a Ride". Taxi drivers getting kickbacks for taking clients to certain bars/stripclubs.
Tags: TAPE; Investigative reporting; computer-assisted reporting; IRE; FOI; CAR; no transcripts
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Courthouse Blues
KTRK-TV "... used hidden camera to prove cops were cheating the system... You get a traffic ticket, and you want to fight it in court. The cop who wrote the ticket will be there to testify against you. And chances are, he'll be getting overtime pay... But what if he snuck out of the courthouse while staying on the overtime clock? What if he wasn't there when court records said he was? What if he claimed four hours of overtime for testifying in your case when it was over in just one hour? What if he told his supervisors you got convicted - when you didn't? "
Tags: TAPE NO TRANSCRIPT CAR time report falsification Internal Affairs
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Settling His Accounts (A Prisoner of Means)
Maurice Mathie may be in prison, but he is now a wealthy man. Suffolk County just cut a check to him for $450,000 following a civil suit brought by Mathie. In the lawsuit, Mathie claimed he was raped in prison -- and not by another inmate, but by the chief of security, Sgt. Roy Fries. The judge in the case found indeed Fries had acted "maliciously and sadistically" against Mathie "for purposes of 'personal gratification.'" The original damages were $750,000, but a three-judge federal panel adjusted the award to $450,000. Amazingly, however, no criminal charges were ever filed against Fries, and he continues not only to collect a $40,000/year pension, but holds a prestigious position within a Long Island fire department. Meanwhile, Mathie, convicted of manslaughter, is trying reopen his own case (which never went to trial; he copped a plea). He says he killed Paul Vincent Lamariana in a moment of "terror and confusion," after the victim attacked a member of his family. The prosecutors, however, say Mathie was abusing drugs, and that he killed Lamariana to steal his dope. The article delves into the events surrounding the killing by Mathie, as well as the subsequent rape he suffered at the hands of Fries. A sidebar interview with Fries himself is also included (he denies any rape ever took place).
Tags: prison; prison rape; rape; lawsuit; sexual abuse; murder; manslaughter; damages; awards; civil court; court; Mathie; Fries; Lamariana; Suffolk; fire department; drugs
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In Pursuit of Justice
This file contains the results of five years of coverage reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune on the story of the convictions in a cop killing trial. "Even as gang members were being sentenced for killing a police office, Hasemyer and Cantlupe were raising questions about how authorities won those convictions...Their 1994 articles,"Pursuit of Justice," suggested the case against the gang members was marred by the questionable conduct of authorities who rushed to justice at the expense of constitutionally guaranteed rights to a fair trial... In March 1997 they revealed prosecutors gave extraordinary privileges to the key informant and witness against the convicted gang members... In a June 1997 series, "An Informant's Story," Cantlupe and Hasemyer went on to explain the significance of the informant's role in convicting the gang members three years earlier... In March 1998 ..."Secret Allies"..a series that revealed that in their zeal to fight crime, police and prosecutors not only bent, broke and ignored their own policies but also broke the law."
Tags: police corruption
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1992 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalists Tape
The 1992 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalists Tape is a compilation of 5 investigative stories. 1.) "Food Lion," Prime Time Live, ABC News researches the Food Lion grocery store chain and finds that employees of the store are put under pressure to meet profit quotas, which caused them to put out spoiled food with new expiration dates. Including Food Lion fighting back and ABC apologizing for confusion. See # 9392. 2.) "To Prove Them Innocent," ABC News 20/20 (New York) reports on three men who were convicted of rape in a small town in Pennsylvania, where the local people fought for three years to gain their release and prove their innocence. An investigation finds that on the night in question the men were 50 miles from where the rape occurred, and could not have committed the crime. See # 9398. 3.) "Abuse For Sale," WCCO, Minneapolis documents the explosion of the home-made pornography industry, made possible by the increase in popularity of home video cameras and VCRs. An investigation finds that home-made child pornography is sold through national distributors and at adult video stores across the country. See # 9068. 4.) "Cops and Robbers," WMAQ, Chicago finds that the Chicago Police Department violates its own rules by hiring people with criminal records. Of those officers with criminal records, the ones with battery convictions are also the officers most criticized for police brutality. See # 9221. 5.) "Carol Mosely Braun," WMAQ, Chicago breaks the case of Carol Mosely Braun and the mishandling of a large sum of money given to her mother. Braun allegedly attempted to hide the money so that her mother's Medicaid care would not be cut. See # 9222.
Tags: TAPE; meat processing; crime; cop; police; Medicare; health care.