Officer Robert McFarland of Lincoln Park SUCKS as a COP

[WaTcHeR]

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You need help in a hurry... you know what to do: grab the phone and dial 911. But what if nobody answered? Or, as our Chief Investigator Steve Wilson shows us, what if they answered, refused to send help and repeatedly hung up the phone?

In the Downriver city of Lincoln Park, citizens call 9-1-1 over 14,000 times each year, and let’s make it clear right up front: those emergency calls are generally well handled…but that makes what happened to Adrienne Ledesma no less shocking.

Adrainne Ledesma/Called for help: I was really scared because, you know, it’s my dad and he fell. He’s not supposed to fall like that.

His fall was so frightening because he was just three weeks out of the hospital where he underwent brain surgery and suddenly, he’s on the kitchen floor, unconscious and shaking with a severe seizure.

Ledesma: I was scared. I was freaking out.

So this 17-year-old high school senior grabbed her phone and dialed 911. She says she got no quick answer, so she hung-up and called again. Now you know those emergency calls are recorded, but did you know the recording starts even before the call is answered?

So you can hear her near-panic when again she can’t get an immediate answer, blurting out the f-word just as the call is picked up.

Ledesma: What the f***.

Officer Robert McFarland: 911.

Ledesma: I need an ambulance at (address).

But the Lincoln Park cop who takes the call admonishes her…and only makes her more frantic.

Sgt. McFarland: Well, okay, first of all you don’t need to swear over 9-1-1 and slow down.

Ledesma: Send me a f****** ambulance!

(Call is disconnected)

Wilson: You haven’t had a chance to tell him how serious this is and he’s hung up the phone.

Ledesma: I thought my dad was gonna die. I was really scared.

Wilson: So you called back…

Sgt. McFarland: 911.

Ledesma: Are you going to give me an ambulance?

Sgt. McFarland: Are you going to swear again, you stupid ass?

Ledesma: Are we going to have an f****** problem?

Sgt. McFarland: No, you’re not going to get one!

Ledesma: Do you want to f****** lose your job?

(Call is disconnected)

Wilson: Your dad’s still on the floor.

Ledesma: Well I’m thinking he’s seriously hurt because he’s still having a seizure. This is a really long seizure and I’m thinking I want to complain about this guy because he shouldn’t be hanging up on me.

So she calls back a third time.

Sgt. McFarland: 911.

Ledesma: I just want to know what’s your name because you’re getting sued.

Sgt. McFarland: Good.

Ledesma: What is it?

Sgt. McFarland: Good for you because you’re a buffoon.

Ledesma: Send the f****** ambulance!

(Call is disconnected)

After wasting more than six minutes, the cop finally called the rescue squad:

Fire dept: Fire desk.

Sgt. McFarland: I kept getting a 911 call…from this filthy-mouth girl that wanted a rescue…I never found out what it was and I was never able to transfer it over to you.

And that’s the same story McFarland told on the police radio when he dispatched a squad car to the house.

Sgt. McFarland: (on police radio): I kept getting 9-1-1 calls from this girl, hostile girl…requesting a rescue. No idea what it’s for. I couldn’t get through her comments.

Meanwhile, Ledesma left her older brother to tend to her dad and rushed a few blocks here to police headquarters to demand help and file a complaint. By now, she was even more agitated when the cop greeted her with this:

Ledesma: Are you the girl with the foul mouth? And I said yes, and he came out from the back and then arrested, put me in the back room and then arrested me.

That’s right she was cuffed and cited for “disorderly conduct” and “abusing 9-1-1,” a charge that doesn’t even exist. So, who is this officer who so badly mishandled such an important job? He’s Sgt. Robert McFarland, a 20-year veteran of the department, and a man who did his best to avoid accountability for what he did.

Wilson: Sergeant, help us understand…

Sgt. McFarland: Get out of here!

Wilson: What were you thinking?

Sgt. McFarland: No comment!

Wilson: What were you thinking, sir? You put a life in danger, you put the taxpayer’s at risk…

He has publicly said nothing at all about his conduct that day, while his boss, Lincoln Park’s Chief of Police Tom Karnes, did nothing to avoid responsibility, agreeing to an interview in which he was refreshingly candid and made no excuses. He frankly admitted “my guy screwed up on this”…but still says he can’t imagine just why it happened like this.

Wilson: He never once asked what’s wrong, are you in an emergency situation, do you need an ambulance, is somebody dying?

Chief Thomas Karnes/Lincoln Park Police: No he did not…it’s not, obviously something happened there, something that is totally out of his character.

In fact, a review of Sgt McFarland’s record shows several commendations over the years and positive performance evaluations in recent years, and not a single disciplinary action against him.

Ledesma: Anybody who finds their dad like that is gonna be panicking so I think they’re trained to know that people are gonna be freaking out when they call…I wouldn’t feel bad is he got suspended, maybe fired.

Chief Karnes: Is a 30-day suspension (enough)? I think it may be something where he will lose time over, and he’ll have training.

Wilson: But he’ll have his job.

Chief Karnes: Yes.

Since agreeing to be interviewed by Action News, Chief Thomas Karnes has announced that Sgt. Robert McFarland will face a two-week suspension with no pay, and will take part in additional training. Meanwhile, Ledesma and her father who is home recovering has hired an attorney, and they’re talking settlement with the Lincoln Park.

http://www.wxyz.com/content/news/invest ... 860b92032a

[WaTcHeR]

Charges dismissed against teen in 911 case

LINCOLN PARK - All charges were dismissed yesterday against a teen-ager arrested for making a scene at the Police Department after she said an officer repeatedly hung up on her as she called 911 for an ambulance for her father.

Adrainne Ledesma, 17, smiled in court yesterday as she learned City Prosecutor Norman Kohlstrand had dismissed the case against her that could have sent her to jail for up to 90 days.

"I'm happy," she said after the two-minute hearing in front of 25th District Judge David Bajorek. "I think it's ridiculous what happened."

Ledesma had called 911 Aug. 19 after finding her father, Adrain, who had recently undergone brain surgery, lying on the kitchen floor, having a seizure.

Upset about what she was seeing, she said she started to swear as she dialed 911 for an ambulance. She was in the midst of swearing, she said, when police Sgt. Robert McFarland answered the phone.

"He started to lecture me about not cussing because I think he thought I was cussing at him, but I wasn't," she said. "Then he hung up on me."

She said she called back and again explained that she needed an ambulance, but was hung up on again.

That was repeated once more, she said, until she finally got in touch with a relative and had him call for an ambulance.

A transcript of the 911 calls made available by police show McFarland calling the teen a "stupid ***" on her second call.

When the teen asked during the same call if an ambulance could be sent to her home in the 2100 block of Hartwick, McFarland told her, "No, you're not going to get one."

When she called back a minute later and asked for the officer's name, he refused to identify himself, instead calling the teen "a buffoon."

When Ledesma walked into the police station a short while later to find out the officer's name so she could file a complaint against him, she was arrested for misusing the 911 system and locked up pending a court hearing.

She had been charged with phone harassment and disturbing the peace, both misdemeanors.

According to police, she repeatedly swore in the lobby of the police station and yelled at McFarland, an officer for 20 years. Once she was arrested, the report says, the teen refused to comply and had to be restrained to a bench.

Police Lt. Brian Hawk, who previously had said he supported McFarland's decision to arrest Ledesma, is overseeing an internal investigation into how the 911 calls were handled.

The city prosecutor said he reviewed the evidence in the case and wasn't satisfied he had enough to prove Ledesma guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

"At this point in time, the city chooses to not prosecute the matter further," Kohlstrand said, adding that charges could be reinstated at any time over the next two years.

Police Chief Thomas Karnes said he isn't going to argue with Kohlstrand's decision.

"There were some questions as to what was going on with this case," he said. "The best thing with emotions running high is to put it away for a while. It was a tragic time in a person's life and emotions can run high."

The teen's attorney, Douglas Hamel, said he is considering suing the department for wrongful arrest. He said Ledesma has two years to decide if she wants to pursue that angle.

While charges were dropped against the teen, she said she learned a lesson should she ever have to call 911 again.

"I'll be a little more calm," Ledesma said.

[WaTcHeR]

It doesn't make me proud one bit knowing that we have cops that are stupid ass inbred, retarded Douchebag's like Officer Robert McFarland, that have no business being in law enforcement.

[WaTcHeR]

I see this is getting popular again on the net.