Kevin Rector
Kevin Rector
Legal affairs reporter @latimes. Past: @baltimoresun. Member: @NLGJA. DM me.Source
Los Angeles, CA
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City health insurer Kaiser Permanente paid Baltimore Mayor Pugh $114,000 for her 'Healthy Holly' books

City health insurer Kaiser Permanente paid Baltimore Mayor Pugh $114,000 for her 'Healthy Holly' books

Book sales to Kaiser Permanente come on top of Mayor Pugh’s book sales to the University of Maryland Medical System while she was on the board there. (Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun video)Book sales to Kaiser Permanente come on top of Mayor Pugh’s book sales to the University of Maryland Medical System while she was on the board there. (Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun video)Health provider paid Baltimore Mayor more than $100,000 to buy about 20,000 copies of her “Healthy Holly” children’s books during a period when the company was seeking a lucrative contract to provide health benefits...

April 1, 2019
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LAPD 'SWAT Mafia' encouraged excessive force and retaliation, officer's suit claims

LAPD 'SWAT Mafia' encouraged excessive force and retaliation, officer's suit claims

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement A longtime Los Angeles police SWAT sergeant is suing the LAPD, alleging the unit is run by a “SWAT Mafia” of veteran cops who encourage the use of deadly force and ostracized him for revealing its behavior.Sgt. Tim Colomey, who spent 11 years as a SWAT supervisor until last November, filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging retaliation for revealing that a group of veteran officers controlled the tactical unit’s operations and membership and punished him and others for speaking out.Colomey said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los...

July 29, 2020
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Inside the 'culture of violence' alleged by LAPD SWAT whistleblower

Inside the 'culture of violence' alleged by LAPD SWAT whistleblower

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement After assessing the hilly terrain around a Sunland house where a homeless man had holed up one morning in May 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department’s heavily armed SWAT team requested more firepower — and got it in the form of a helicopter equipped for “aerial shooting,” dubbed “Sniper-1.”By the time they’d left the scene hours later, the team had fired more than 40 rounds at 29-year-old Anthony Soderberg, including more than a dozen from the helicopter — a first in LAPD history. Many of the rounds were fired from hundreds of feet...

August 6, 2020
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LAPD investigates 'blue flu' claims after officers call in sick over July 4 holiday

LAPD investigates 'blue flu' claims after officers call in sick over July 4 holiday

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement An unsigned letter circulated among the Los Angeles Police Department rank and file last week, encouraging officers to call in sick to protect their own interests.It had been a month of upheaval for police, with unprecedented protests over police killings of Black people and the Los Angeles City Council amid calls for sweeping reforms.“They succeeded in defunding the police; what do you think is next? Our pay? Our benefits? Our pensions? You’re God Damn right all those things are in jeopardy now,” read the letter, which was obtained...

July 7, 2020
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LAPD shootings hit 30-year low in 2019; less-lethal force has increased

LAPD shootings hit 30-year low in 2019; less-lethal force has increased

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Shootings by Los Angeles police officers reached a 30-year low in 2019, with fatal shootings declining for the fourth year in a row, according to a new report on police use of force.Los Angeles Police Department officers opened fire on 26 suspects last year, compared with 115 in 1990.Of those last year, 21 people were struck and 12 killed, continuing a downward trend in deaths since 21 were fatally shot in 2015.The number of incidents in which suspects were injured dropped by 4% from the year before, the report found, and contact...

May 12, 2020
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Complaints against LAPD increased in 2019, but few resulted in discipline

Complaints against LAPD increased in 2019, but few resulted in discipline

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Complaints against Los Angeles police officers rose in 2019 compared with the prior two years, though most were determined to be unfounded and only a small percentage resulted in officers being disciplined, according to a new report.The department continued a years-long streak of clearing every single officer accused of biased policing. A total of 3,763 complaints were fielded in 2019, more than three-quarters of them from members of the public, according to the department’s annual report. That’s compared with 3,567 complaints in...

August 18, 2020
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Hundreds of cases involving LAPD officers accused of corruption now under review

Hundreds of cases involving LAPD officers accused of corruption now under review

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Hundreds of criminal cases involving are now under review by prosecutors after corruption allegations sparked questions about whether their past police work could be suspect.Prosecutors are already analyzing pending cases to determine if they can move forward on the strength of evidence other than the charged officers’ testimony, but past cases and convictions — including those based on plea deals — could also be revisited, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said.Her office is sending letters to more than 750 defendants...

July 28, 2020
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LAPD, FBI collecting protest, looting footage as evidence for future arrests

LAPD, FBI collecting protest, looting footage as evidence for future arrests

Copyright © 2020, Los Angeles Times | | | |Advertisement/A Van Nuys watch and jewelry store is broken into Monday. /An LAPD officer arrests a looting suspect in an alley behind a Hollywood Boulevard store.  /A looting arrest in Van Nuys. /AJ Lovelace tries to stop people from breaking into a Walgreens store at Santa Monica Boulevard and Highland Avenue. “We need peace, and we need someone to talk to each other,” he said after they fled the scene. /An LAPD officer arrests a looting suspect in an alley behind a Hollywood Boulevard store.  /People break into and...

June 2, 2020
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LAPD's use of batons, other weapons appears to violate rules, significantly injuring protesters, Times review finds

LAPD's use of batons, other weapons appears to violate rules, significantly injuring protesters, Times review finds

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement As smoke from a nearby car fire billowed up, the police batons came raining down. Deon Jones felt one lash across his back and shoulder as he ran. Glancing back, he saw a Los Angeles police officer aim a tactical gun right at his face. The pain was sudden and searing. Ringing filled his ears. At the hospital, a doctor told the 28-year-old protester that he would have been blinded had the police projectile struck an inch to the right — and dead had it hit an inch higher, at his temple. Instead, he had two cracked bones in his face, a...

June 11, 2020
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Troubling videos capture L.A. police violence, aggression amid demonstrations

Troubling videos capture L.A. police violence, aggression amid demonstrations

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement In one video, at least eight Los Angeles police officers surround a woman lying in a Hollywood street as the buzz of a Taser fills the air. People scream from apartment balconies for the officers, who appear to be firing the stun gun at the woman, to stop.In another video, an LAPD vehicle barrels into a crowd of protesters in Pershing Square, nearly driving over one before backing up and speeding away as protesters throw objects at the car.On Tuesday, footage of a curfew arrest in Hollywood ends with the unarmed arrestee held at...

June 4, 2020
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