Tim Kaine and Don Beyer have filed legislation in Congress that, if passed and signed into law, would require law-enforcement agencies to report judgments and settlements related to police misconduct to the Justice Department.
Fat chance of it even passing, given the current state of Congress, run by MAGAs, who just don’t want to know, because the less they know about police misconduct, the better.
And then, seriously, what would this Justice Department do with this kind of reporting?
Pam Bondi is still pretending that she’s not in violation every minute of every day of the law requiring her to release the Epstein files.
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At best, this legislation, were it to become law, which would also require the signature of Donald Trump, who is using the DOJ as his personal criminal-defense law firm, would lead to reports that would gather virtual dust on the backpages of the DOJ website.
Even so.
It’s the right thing to do.
“Many law enforcement officers serve honorably and keep our communities safe. But there have also been tragic incidents of misconduct involving law enforcement, including the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. While many Americans understand that these cases can be deadly and erode public trust in law enforcement, they don’t always realize the financial costs,” said Kaine, trying to repent for voting to confirm Kristi Noem as the DHS Secretary last year.
Spoiler: he will never be able to atone for that one.
It’s not just the two murders in Minnesota that is at issue. Right here in our backyard, we’ve been following and highlighting the Dec. 17 officer-involved shooting that took the life of Dustin Griffin, 42, who was shot five times by one Augusta County sheriff’s deputy, then, after a delay, was hit with a final shot, in the back of the head, by a second deputy.
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The Commonwealth’s Attorney, Tim Martin, moved quickly to exonerate the deputies from any possible criminal exposure, even as the Virginia State Police has insisted that it has not completed its investigation into the shooting death, and doesn’t expect its review to be done for several weeks.
I think we can expect a civil suit to be filed in this one in the coming months.
ICYMI
The county sheriff’s office is already facing a multimillion-dollar civil suit in another case involving Sgt. William Mikolay and Deputy Mark Stutes stemming from a Sept. 29, 2023, pursuit that began in Augusta County and ended in Albemarle County, and ended with a suspect and a passenger in his vehicle suffering extensive injuries.
The Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted in November to reimburse $25,000 in legal fees for Mikolay related to the criminal charges he faced in that case, which the deputy resolved by entering an Alford plea.
ICYMI
The BOS also voted at that November meeting to reimburse a second county sheriff’s deputy, CJ Taylor, who had a legal bill for $29,128.67 from a separate use-of-force incident, dating to Aug. 31, 2022.
We already know about the taxpayer dollars expended in those misconduct cases.
What Kaine and Beyer are trying to do, with their bill, styled The Cost of Police Misconduct Act, is help us come to know what we don’t know.
“Most Americans remain unaware that cities and counties also bear a staggering financial toll because law enforcement agencies often settle misconduct claims in secret. Full data transparency is urgently needed to help hold those responsible for misconduct accountable and to help jurisdictions prevent abuses. Our legislation would provide communities and policymakers the data necessary to measure the cost of misconduct settlements, to not only saves lives — the most important goal — but also taxpayer dollars, which would be better spent on programs and policies that are proven to prevent crime,” Beyer said.
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Chris Graham
