ATLANTA — A Dover, Del., police officer who faced no criminal charges in 2013 for knocking a surrendering man unconscious with a jaw-breaking kick could face jail time, after all.

In 2013, then-attorney general Beau Biden (Vice President Joe Biden’s son) failed to get a grand jury indictment against Cpl. Tom Webster for injuring Lateef Dickerson without cause. But a judge in a civil rights lawsuit recently ruled that a video of the event could be released publicly, and current Attorney General Matt Denn brought the case again, resulting in an indictment for second-degree assault Monday.

In the aftermath of Ferguson, Mo., video evidence has played a decisive role in at least one case against a police officer accused of excessive force against black suspects. In North Charleston, S.C., police brought murder charges against the officer who shot a fleeing black man in the back and then appeared to plant evidence to suggest the man had been armed with a Taser. Officials admitted that no charges would have been brought if a bystander had not recorded the shooting.

Together with the Delaware case and the broader scrutiny of police behavior since Ferguson, the incident could point to the emergence of a nascent shift in how prosecutors view police abuse allegations caught by on-the-scene video footage. The steady stream of video, experts say, is making at least some small dent in police credibility in use-of-force cases.

“Where in the past juries have been deferential to official statements and generally discounted statements from citizens who might be a suspect, or portrayed as a suspect, these videos are now proving very transformative, because they diminish that deference that juries have for the official version of events,” says Frank Baumgartner, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

He does not suggest that the recent videos represent a stain on the entire profession.

“I don’t think these incidents reflect a really high percentage of police behaviors,” he says. “But where we’ve been led to believe that there’s basically zero inappropriate use of force, maybe there’s 100 per year, and all of a sudden we’re seeing them.”

With more police departments mandating body cameras for patrol officers – including Los Angeles last week – prosecutors could be facing this situation with increasing frequency going forward. Mr. Baumgartner points out that prosecutors need the public to trust the police in order to get convictions in court, so public outcry over the issue could affect their judgment.

Last week, Baltimore state prosecutor Marilyn Mosby brought a range of charges including murder and manslaughter against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. While video of Mr. Gray did not show the moment when he suffered a fatal neck injury, it did appear to show him in physical distress and brought attention to the case.

The Dover case suggests a willingness by a prosecutor to reopen an old case based on video evidence alone. Attorney General Denn, who took office in January, acknowledged that he had been watching the post-Ferguson police use-of-force cases closely, writing on Facebook that he has refrained from posting his opinions about “some of the more visible cases that have been in the news” because of prosecutorial rules. But he noted that “it can be frustrating not to be able to share what I know about some of these cases ….”

The Delaware video shows an officer responding to a fight possibly involving a gun. The officer pulls up to the scene, where a black man in a ball cap is standing. The man raises his hands as Corporal Webster can be seen approaching from the left side of screen, ordering him to the ground. As Mr. Dickerson in the process of complying with the order, Webster kicks him, knocking Dickerson unconscious, sending his baseball cap flying, and breaking his jaw.

Webster’s attorney, James Ligouri, has said another, as-yet unreleased cruiser dash cam video will lead to Webster’s acquittal. The attorney told the News Journal of Wilmington, Del., that Webster had to use force to arrest Dickerson. In an interview with the News-Journal, Mr. Ligouri called the indictment “suspect” because it coincided with a settlement phase in a civil lawsuit. He referred to Dickerson’s injuries at the hands of Webster as an "ancient matter."

But leaders in the black community say the video shows that the allegations long made against police are not fabrications.

“I think what is good about this moment is that the use of electronics are giving confirmation to what black young men have been saying … for decades,” the Rev. Donald Morton, a Delaware civil rights leader, tells the News Journal. “We no longer have to take their word. We see it.”

Police say Webster’s actions broke department policy, but the extent to which he was reprimanded in 2013 is not clear. Webster was reinstated with pay in January 2014 and reassigned to patrol duty. This week, he was arrested, suspended without pay, and paid a $5,000 bond to be released.

Delaware officials have called for peace as the state’s case against Webster goes forward.

“Now is the time for patience as the justice system considers all of the facts and circumstances of the fact,” Gov. Jack Markell said in a statement. “Police agencies and the communities they serve must trust one another. Situations like this can erode that trust, and we need to be committed every day to a dialogue of respect and understanding for the rights of citizens and the challenging jobs we ask our police to do every day.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former employee of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for allegedly attempting an email attack on government employees to extract sensitive information on nuclear weapons.

According to an indictment unsealed on Friday, Charles Eccleston allegedly attempted the "spear-phishing" attack in January targeting dozens of email accounts, where he believed he was unleashing a virus to collect the information.

Eccleston, who has lived in the Philippines since 2011 after he was fired from the NRC in 2010, was caught in a sting by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he approached a foreign embassy about providing classified U.S. information. Undercover FBI employees then posed as foreigners and promised to pay for the spear-fishing attack, according to the Justice Department.

Eccleston drew on his past career to draw up email lists and compose the text of an innocuous-seeming invitation to a conference that he sent to 80 Energy Department employees, according to the indictment.

Spear-fishing involves convincing an email recipient to click on a link in a message that then releases a virus and Eccleston believed the code he included in the invitation would both damage computers and extract information. But the link had been provided by an undercover agent, who ensured it would not infect recipients' machines, according to the indictment.

The indictment did not identify the country Eccleston allegedly approached but the Washington Post has said it was China. A Justice Department spokesman declined to identify the country.

Eccleston, 62, was detained on March 27 and deported to the United States. The first hearing on the indictment is scheduled for May 20.

He was charged with four felony offenses, including crimes involving unauthorized access of computers and wire fraud. For the wire fraud charge, Eccleston faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Should Baltimore State's Attorney step down?

BALTIMORE (AP) — Attorneys for six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a man who died of a spinal injury he received while in custody asked a judge Friday to dismiss the case or assign it to someone other than the city's top prosecutor, who they say has too many conflicts of interest to remain objective.

At a minimum, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby should be replaced with an independent prosecutor, the lawyers state in a motion filed in Baltimore District Court.

In the latest legal move to challenge the charges, which range from assault to second-degree "depraved-heart" murder, the motion says Mosby's prosecution has been "overzealous" and "politically motivated."

Mosby announced the charges a day after receiving an investigative report from the police. The motion argues that part of the reason she acted so swiftly was to quash protests that gave way to violence in West Baltimore, where Gray was arrested and where Mosby's husband, Nick Mosby, is a city councilman. A separate motion argues that her rapid decision could be at odds with a law that requires a thorough investigation prior to filing charges.

"The need to quell the raging inferno of human rage and revulsion within the confines of the 7th District was emergent," the motion reads. "These officers soon found themselves offered up to the masses by Mrs. Mosby to quell the uprising that caused most harm to the district where her husband is the City Council representative."

Gray was arrested April 12 and died a week later. Authorities say he suffered a spinal injury in the roughly 45 minutes between his arrest and his arrival at a police station in the back of a prisoner transport van. He was not wearing a seatbelt inside the van, and was in handcuffs and leg irons.

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Police stand in formation as a curfew approaches for the second night in a row, Wednesday, April 29, …

The attorneys also maintain that Gray's arrest was legal because a knife he had at the time is illegal. In charging the officers, Mosby said the arrest was unlawful because the knife was in fact legal under state law.

In a letter to the Baltimore City Solicitor's Office attached to Friday's motion, attorneys for the officers threatened to sue the city, Mosby and the Baltimore Sheriff's Department. The fact that the officers filed a claim against Mosby, the criminal defense attorneys argued in the motion, is yet another conflict of interest.

Other claimed conflicts of interest outlined in court papers include Mosby's political relationship with Billy Murphy, a defense attorney who is representing the Gray family, and who donated $5,000 to Mosby's campaign. Murphy also once represented Mosby regarding a complaint made to the Attorney Grievance Commissioner of Maryland about statements she made during her campaign. In addition, in her first days in office Mosby dismissed charges against a client of Murphy's. Those ties, the attorneys argue, "create a conflict for which the only remedy is the recusal of Ms. Mosby and the Baltimore state's attorney's office."

One of the officers, William Porter, was initially represented by Martin Cadogan, who donated $1,000 to Mosby's campaign. Cadogan is no longer representing Porter. Other donors to Mosby included the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police political action committee, which gave her $3,250. The FOP, which is the union that represents Baltimore police officers, also has suggested the case be handled by another prosecutor.

Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office, did not return a call Friday seeking comment. Murphy also did not return a message Friday, but on Thursday posted a response on social media to the FOP's suggestion that Mosby recuse herself because of her ties to him.

"We expect Marilyn Mosby to be no more swayed by our donation than she is by the one made by Baltimore Police," Murphy wrote on Twitter.

Cops charged in Gray's death want case dismissed

Lawyers for six Baltimore police officers file a request to have state attorney Marilyn Mosby replaced.
Too many conflicts of interest

Beirut (AFP) - Fierce battles between Syrian regime forces and the Islamic State jihadist group in eastern Syria have left 34 fighters dead in 24 hours, a monitor said Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 pro-government forces and 15 IS extremists had been killed since clashes began late Wednesday in the city of Deir Ezzor and around its nearby military airport.

The head of aerial defence at the airport -- one of the few areas left in regime hands in Deir Ezzor province -- was killed in the fighting, the Observatory said.

Four government soldiers were beheaded by IS Thursday as the jihadists seized a key checkpoint in the city near the air base.

"An IS suicide bomber detonated himself by the checkpoint, which IS then seized," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"Seizing the checkpoint gets them closer to the military airport."

Abdel Rahman said fighting continued into Friday morning with both sides shelling positions on the outskirts of Deir Ezzor city.

Local activist Mohammad al-Khleif confirmed IS had gained control of the Jamyan checkpoint in the city's southeast.

IS already controls most of Deir Ezzor province and roughly half its capital, he told AFP.

If its offensive succeeds, Deir Ezzor would be the second provincial capital to fall to the group, after it named the northern city of Raqa the capital of its "caliphate."

In northern Syria, at least six civilians were killed Thursday in attacks in Aleppo city, once Syria's commercial hub but now divided between government control in the west and rebels in the east.

The Britain-based Observatory said a woman and three children died after rebel rocket attacks on the government-held Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood.

A father and his young son were killed by snipers in another regime-held area.

In Aleppo province, a fierce attack by IS on the regime's Kweyris military airport left seven pro-government forces dead.

According to the Observatory, IS has surrounded the airport but are coming under fire from regime war planes.

Southeast of Syria's capital, an explosion in the Billi military airport killed 13 regime soldiers, including the base's head, the Observatory said.

"The blast happened inside a plane within the base, but the causes are still unclear," Abdel Rahman said.

Billi air base lies 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Damascus along a main highway that leads to the regime-controlled city of Sweida.

Tehran (AFP) - The US vote giving Congress the right to review any nuclear deal with Iran is part of a "psychological war" against Tehran's negotiators, an Iranian official said on Friday.

"Americans in this game have given Congress this role to overview the agreement so in the talks they can pressure our nuclear negotiating team," said Esmail Kosari, a member of parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee, quoted by Fars news agency.

With an agreement targeted by the end of next month, "they have no choice but to lift the sanctions, they create this new game by Congress to wage a psychological war," he said.

The US Senate on Thursday passed legislation giving Congress the right to review and perhaps even reject any nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.

The new law comes amid intense negotiations on a deal intended to prevent Tehran's development of a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting of economic sanctions.

Negotiations seeking a definitive accord on Iran's nuclear programme are to resume on Tuesday in the Austrian capital.

Iran and the P5+1 -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- aim to turn a framework accord reached in Switzerland on April 2 into a full agreement by June 30.

The Islamic republic's conservative-dominated parliament is also working on legislation giving it the right to ratify any nuclear deal struck with world powers.