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Ex-Detroit Cop Charged in Videotaped Beating

DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit-area police officer who hauled a man out of his car and repeatedly punched him in the head was charged Monday with assault stemming from the January traffic stop, which wasn't publicly known until a video was broadcast in March.

"The job of a peace officer can be dangerous," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. "But we cannot tolerate those who abuse their authority, violate their oath and prey on citizens rather than protecting them."

Recently fired Inkster Officer William Melendez was charged with mistreatment of a prisoner and assault, both felonies. Melendez has declined to discuss any specifics of how he treated Floyd Dent but said last week, "I did nothing wrong here." Defense attorney David Lee declined to comment Monday.

The dashcam video shows Dent, 57, being pulled from his car by two officers during the stop on Jan. 28. He was repeatedly punched in the forehead by Melendez while on the ground, and is bloody when he stands up.

Worthy said her office didn't know about the incident until March 23, when WDIV-TV aired the video. Melendez, 46, a former Detroit officer, had not been disciplined until the story broke.

"We probably wouldn't know about it" without the video, Worthy said. Nonetheless, she declined to criticize the Inkster department.

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Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy speaks during a news conference in Detroit Monday, April 20, 2015 …

A drug charge will be dropped against Dent, who claims a bag of cocaine was planted in his car during the arrest. A judge already has dismissed a charge of resisting police.

"I would like to thank Prosecutor Kym Worthy for her courage and conviction," Dent said.

After he was fired last week, Melendez told WXYZ-TV that he considered himself a "political speed bump" in a period of intense national scrutiny of police tactics.

"It is a very stressful job where you have to make split-second decisions," Melendez said.

This isn't the first criminal case related to his work. In 2004, Melendez and seven other Detroit officers were acquitted of lying, falsifying reports and planting evidence. Federal prosecutors had accused him and another officer of being the "masterminds" of a conspiracy to "run roughshod over the civil rights of the victims."

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Floyd Dent, second from left, stands with protesters as they rally in front of the Inkster, Mich., p …

Separately, Worthy said there would be no charges in a Jan. 12 incident involving officers from Grosse Pointe Park and Highland Park who were investigating a car theft. An armed carjacking suspect, Andrew Jackson, was kicked and punched on the ground during an arrest in Detroit. A video was recorded by a woman in her home.

Some actions by the officers were "disturbing and inexplicable" but don't rise to criminal conduct, said Worthy, who added that it's up to the respective departments to order any discipline.

Jackson, who has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the officers, didn't cooperate with investigators who wanted to ask him about the arrest, the prosecutor said.

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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — A spokesman for a Muslim couple in Alabama on Monday said their 20-year-old daughter fled a Birmingham suburb to join Islamic State extremists in Syria after being recruited via the Internet.

Hassan Shibly spoke at the mosque on behalf of the parents of the young woman, whom he identified only as Hoda. He said the family has been "extremely traumatized" for months and has been in contact with law enforcement and government officials since she disappeared while also pleading with Hoda to return home.

AL.com @aldotcom Follow Meet Hoda Muthana, 20-year-old Alabama woman who fled U.S. to Syria to join ISIS http:// ow.ly/LSz7J 5:38 PM - 20 Apr 2015 18 RETWEETS 5 FAVORITES

"For them this is worse than losing the life of a child, to have them join such a horrible, horrible gang of violent extremists," Shibly said, adding the father is worried about the mother's health. "Nothing can describe the pain they are facing."

Shibly, an attorney and chief executive director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Hoda left in November.

While he said it's unclear when Hoda made contact with militants, he said she withdrew from the Muslim community in Birmingham more than a year before her disappearance. The woman's whereabouts were not immediately known.

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Attorney Hassan Shibly stands after speaking to the media at a mosque on behalf of the parents of th …

"The reason she withdrew from the community is because the Muslim community is very vocal against groups like ISIS ... she made the decision based on her communication online with them that she wanted to join them," Shibly said.

The family and the Birmingham Islamic Society have spoken out against violent extremism.

The account was first reported by Buzzfeed. There have been other reports of young people leaving or attempting to leave the U.S. for the Islamic State in recent months. In a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday, six Minnesota men were charged with terrorism-related offenses after authorities said they failed in attempts to travel to Syria.

Shibly said he's talked with families who have also lost their children to the Islamic State group have similar stories.

"It's often young, naive, impressionable, ignorant troubled youth who are dissatisfied with their life and are seeking a sense of belonging," he said.

Members of the Birmingham Muslim community met on Monday evening to discuss how to protect other children from the influence of violent extremists.

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis accepted the resignation Tuesday of a U.S. bishop who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected child abuser, answering calls by victims to take action against bishops who cover up for pedophile priests.

The Vatican said Tuesday that Bishop Robert Finn had offered his resignation under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign early for illness or some "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office.

It didn't provide a reason in the one-line announcement. Finn is 62, about 13 years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.

Finn, who leads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, waited six months before notifying police about the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, whose computer contained hundreds of lewd photos of young girls taken in and around churches where he worked. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

Finn pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failure to report suspected abuse and was sentenced to two years' probation in 2012. Ever since, though, he has faced pressure from local Roman Catholics to step down, with some parishioners petitioning Francis to remove him from the diocese.

No U.S. bishop has been forcibly removed for covering up for guilty clergy. And technically speaking, Finn wasn't removed — he offered to resign, in the same way that Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law did in 2002 after the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in his archdiocese.

Law hadn't been convicted of a crime, as Finn was, and the failure of the Vatican to forcibly remove Finn for three years after he pleaded guilty fueled victims' complaints that bishops were continuing to enjoy protections even under the "zero tolerance" pledge of Francis.

In a statement, Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the online abuse resource BishopAccountability.org, said Finn's resignation was a welcome step but called on Francis to publicly state that he was removed for mismanaging the Ratigan case and failing to protect children.

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Pope Francis arrives to attend the funeral service for the late Italian Cardinal Roberto Tucci in Sa …

She noted that bishops had been allowed to resign under the previous two popes, but that the Vatican has never publicly linked their resignations to mishandling abuse cases.

"We urge Pope Francis to issue such a statement immediately. That would be unprecedented, and it would send a bracing message to bishops and religious superiors worldwide that a new era has begun," she said.

Finn, who apologized for Ratigan's abuse and took measures to make the diocese safer for children, remains the highest-ranking church official in the U.S. to be convicted of failing to take action in response to abuse allegations.

Even Francis' top sex abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, had said publicly last year that Francis needs to "urgently" address Finn's case, though he later stressed that Finn deserved due process and must be spared "crowd-based condemnations."

The Vatican last fall sent a Canadian archbishop to Finn's diocese as part of an investigation of his leadership. But until Tuesday, there had been no word about what the pope would do.

In a statement issued by the diocese, Finn said it had been an "honor and joy for me to serve here among so many good people of faith."

Split reaction to verdict in Finn case (video)

Francis tapped Archbishop Joseph Naumann to lead the diocese temporarily until a new bishop is named. In a letter to the faithful, Naumann said he prayed "that the coming weeks and months will be a time of grace and healing for the diocese."

The main U.S. victims group, SNAP, praised Finn's resignation as a "tiny but belated step forward."

"After centuries of abuse and cover-up done in secrecy ... one pope has finally seen fit to oust one bishop for complicity in clergy sex crimes," said SNAP's David Clohessy of St. Louis. "That's encouraging. But it's only a very tiny drop of reform in an enormous bucket of horror."

Francis is facing similar pressure to remove a Chilean bishop, Juan Barros, amid an unprecedented outcry over his appointment because of his longtime affiliation with the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors.

Karadima's victims say Barros witnessed their abuse decades ago. He has denied knowing anything until he read news reports of Karadima's crimes in 2010. The Vatican has defended the appointment.

Earlier this month, members of the pope's sex abuse advisory commission came to Rome in an unscheduled session to voice their concern about Barros and his suitability for office given he will be responsible for child protection programs.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Alleged traffickers charged as migrant deaths mount

Catania (Italy) (AFP) - The Tunisian captain of the migrant boat in which 800 people are feared to have drowned is set to be charged with mass murder over the Mediterranean's deadliest disaster in decades.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania said Tuesday they believed Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, was responsible for steering mistakes and the reckless overcrowding which led to the horrifying shipwreck off Libya on Sunday.

He will appear before a judge on Friday along with crew member and Syrian national Mahmud Bikhit, 25, who was also arrested in a probe into a catastrophe that has evoked chilling comparisons with the slave trade and allegations of callous disregard on the part of European governments.

The captain was questioned by investigators Tuesday after being arrested on suspicion of multiple homicide, causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. Bikhit faces potential charges on the latter count.

Hundreds of the victims, including an unknown number of children, will have died in hellish circumstances having been locked in the hold or the middle deck of the 20-metre (66-foot) boat which keeled over in pitch darkness after colliding with a Portuguese container ship answering its distress call.

The Catania prosecutors said the collision had been caused by steering mistakes by the captain and the panicked movements of the hundreds of passengers.

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A rescuer cradles a child in the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo, Italy, early Monday, April 20, 2015. A …

"On the basis of what has emerged, no blame can be accorded to the crew of the merchant ship which came to rescue and in no way contributed to the fatal event," they said in a statement.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has described the traffickers who packed their human cargo into the boat as akin to 18th-century slave traders.

Prosecutors said the survivors had told them how they had been held for up to a month in disused factories in Libya before being packed onto the boat. One man was beaten severely with sticks as punishment from moving away from the group to answer a call of nature, according to survivor's statement.

The UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the horror at sea had been produced by a "monumental failure of compassion" on the part of European governments who are now under intense pressure to address the humanitarian crisis on their southern shores.

- Wheelchair survivor -

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(L-R) A combination photo shows Mahmud Bikhit and Mohammed Ali Malek, two survivors of Saturday's mi …

The first of the 27 survivors who disembarked in Sicily in the early hours did so in a wheelchair. All of them were deeply traumatised, said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"They are exhausted, they have nothing left," she said. "They are in a state of shock, they look completely lost."

Most of the survivors and the victims appear to have been young men but there were also several children aged between 10 and 12, she added.

"We have not yet been able to ask them about this but it seems certain that many of them will have had friends and family who were lost in the wreck."

At talks in Luxembourg on Monday, EU ministers agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to maritime border patrol mission Triton and further measures will be discussed at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.

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Migrants stand on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard Ship Gregretti which is believed to be carryin …

Critics say Triton is woefully inadequate and are demanding the restoration of a much bigger Italian operation suspended last year because of cost constraints.

The survivors, who hailed from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, were all recovering Tuesday at holding centres near Catania on Sicily's eastern coast.

Sunday's disaster was the worst in a series of migrant shipwrecks that have claimed more than 1,750 lives this year -- 30 times higher than the same period in 2014 -- and nearly 5,000 since the start of last year.

If current trends continue, there could be 30,000 deaths at sea this year, the IOM warned.

Italian officials believe there could be up to one million more would-be immigrants to Europe waiting to board boats in conflict-torn Libya.

Many of them are refugees from Syria's civil war or persecution in places like Eritrea. Others are seeking to escape poverty and hunger in Africa and south Asia and secure a better future in Europe.

- Australia's example -

Despite the prosect of further loss of life, a number of EU governments are reluctant to expand search-and-rescue operations, arguing that they only encourage migrants to attempt the crossing.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Europe should follow his government's lead by deploying military forces to turn migrant boats back.

"The only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats," Abbott said.

Australia's policy has drastically reduced the number of asylum-seekers arriving on its soil and deaths at sea but has been attacked as undermining the principle of asylum.

Ideas being looked at by the EU including trying to capture or destroy people-smuggling boats and a pilot scheme for the fast-track return of migrants to their home countries.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A video that authorities say shows a police officer fatally shooting an unarmed man in the back remained out of public view Tuesday after a hearing on a request to keep prosecutors from releasing it.

Dauphin County Judge Deborah Curcillo said the motion by lawyers for Hummelstown Police Officer Lisa Mearkle was premature, but she will schedule a hearing if prosecutors say they want to release it.

"The prosecution has indicated it is on the 'sideline' on this issue, and accordingly has not indicated a desire or intent to release evidence prior to trial," Curcillo wrote.

Defense attorney Brian Perry argued the video was likely to affect potential jurors and would present a partial and misleading impression of the events that caused the death of 59-year-old motorist David Kassick in early February.

Mearkle, 36, waived a preliminary hearing on Monday on a charge of criminal homicide, so prosecutors had no opportunity to play the recording in court. Perry said that it has not been admitted as a part of the official record.

"It's got to be admitted," Perry said Tuesday. "It wasn't admitted."

Police said Mearkle attempted to stop Kassick's vehicle for expired inspection and emissions stickers on Feb. 2, after which he drove away, reaching high speeds. When he did stop he got out and ran, and Mearkle was able to catch up to him.

She shocked him four times with a stun gun, equipped with a video camera, before shooting him twice in the back, four seconds apart, as he lay face down, police said. Perry argues she acted in self-defense, concerned he was reaching into his waist while she demanded he show his hands.

The case has parallels to the fatal shooting of South Carolina motorist Walter Scott this month. In that incident, which began as a traffic stop for a broken tail light, a witness captured video of the white officer firing eight times as Scott, a black man, ran. While race has been raised as a possible issue in the South Carolina shooting, in the Pennsylvania case both the officer and the unarmed man were white.

Dauphin County prosecutor Johnny Baer told the judge during a brief hearing Tuesday that his office was not advocating for the video's release but also was not opposed to it. The Associated Press and other news outlets have requested the video.

"I see this as a matter between the news media outlets that have submitted a request to see it, and the court," Baer told Curcillo.

A lawyer for PA Media Group, which publishes Pennlive.com in Harrisburg, said previous state appeals court decisions support the argument that the tape has become a piece of the judicial record in the case.

The lawyer, Craig Staudenmaier, said it was not enough for the defense to warn that the jury pool might be tainted by the release.

"There's also a compelling interest of the public in this proceeding," Staudenmaier said.

Christopher Slusser, a lawyer working for Kassick's family who has seen the video, said it "leaves nothing to the imagination."

Mearkle, who attended the court proceeding on Tuesday, is free on bail but is under electronic monitoring. She has been suspended without pay.