In the state of Michigan, an assault is chargable as a domestic violence, when the parties have had a dating relationship/marriage/lived together/intimate relationship/or a child together. Doesn't matter how long it has been since the marriage/dating relationship, etc, an assault and battery; harassment; stalking charge between these parties would be construed under the criminal laws, as an act of domestic violence.
Now here comes the tricky part: in the state of Michigan, when a police officer is accussed of domestic violence, it is not processed through the criminal justice system. Instead, (under current laws), the victim has to go to the officer's department and file a complaint (civil), against the officer. It is up to the police department as to file criminal charges against their officer...which for civil liability reasons, more than likely, isn't going to happen.
Instead, the police department will investigate the act of dv, as a policy violation (no criminal sanctions). At the officer's hearing, the victim will not be able to testify or have witnesses testify. More protections for the abusing officer: in the state of Michigan, police departments have their own policies/reprimand policies. Under those policies, the department/officer is guarenteed privacy rights= nothing concerning the victim's claim of dv or the officer's reprimand hearing or reprimand he received can be discussed with anyone outside the agency.
In other words, the police department can have evidence support the victim's claim of dv...the pd can claim during the reprimand hearing that it never happened, and not do anything about it...and there is no state/county/city agency that can intervene or overstep the department's decision/mishandling of the officer's dv.
More laws: the privacy right act that protects these hearings, the pd, and the officer, also allow for the pd to destroy all records of the complaint; hearing; and reprimand after 4 years. So you can have a Michigan police officer beating the crap out of his wife, and nothing can be done about it...the victim is not protected under the same laws in Michigan, as other victims of dv.
It gets better. Victims such as myself wised up to how police departments were covering up police officer dv. So instead of filing a complaint with our abuser's department, word got out, "go to the Michigan State Police and file a criminal complaint". What this does, it is trumps the police department being allowed to do just a civil policy complaint against the officer...and it puts the dv complaint into criminal court....giving us the same rights as all those other dv victims. Right?
Wrong. On December 31, 2006, the Michigan Governor signed into law SB0647. With this law, if a victim goes to the MSP for a dv complaint against an officer, his department can at the same time start a department policy violation investigation against the officer. And whatever is disclosed during the abuser's department investigation and hearing of the officer cannot be turned over to the MSP or the prosecutor for criminal charges. SB0647 protects this information from being used for criminal prosecution against the officer.
Back to Deputy Poop. Let's say that I return to Michigan and move to da UP. Deputy Poop finds me in da UP and beats the crap out of me. Doesn't matter if he's off duty or on duty, he tells the arresting officer, "I'm a Sheriff Deputy with the such and such department...I want to talk to my union rep."
At the same time the UP MSP are filing criminal charges against Deputy Poop, the troll Sheriff Department is having a hearing for him on violation of department policies...and whatever is disclosed during that hearing, cannot be used in the criminal case. He's untouchable...simply because he is a law enforcement officer in Michigan.
Now, all that stuff doesn't hold water, as long as I live in Indiana. Deputy Poop illegally hunted me down in Indiana a few weeks after I moved here. An Indiana Senator, Congressman, Chief of Police, Sheriff, and Judge let Deputy Poop know, that if he so much as harasses me, they aren't letting him slide. The minute Deputy Poop crosses the state line for the purpose of stalking, harassing, or harming me, Federal laws are involved. FBI doesn't play games.
I'll be giving my money to GOA and JPFO from now on.
