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SALT LAKE CITY The Utah Court of Appeals has upheld the controversial police practice of stop and frisk.

In a ruling published Friday night, the Court acknowledged a close case, but ultimately sided with police in a challenge to the practice, which has largely come under scrutiny in other states for targeting minorities. This case involves a challenge by Bryant Robert Mitchell, a member of a white supremacist gang, who was searched in a traffic stop in Ogden last year.

Mitchell was in a vehicle that was stopped after police saw him stand up in the passenger seat of the car and yell at another person in a convenience store parking lot.

Officers later testified that Mitchell looked very upset and aggressive, and that he began to open the door of the Blazer before it had come to a stop. One of them testified that Mitchells screaming sounded indicative of an intent to get into a confrontation or a fight with the person that he was talking to,' Utah Court of Appeals Judge Ryan Harris wrote.

Police obtained consent to search the vehicle from the driver, and another passenger had a warrant, the ruling said.

Immediately after Mitchell exited the vehicle, one of the officers frisked him. During the pat-down, the officer discovered a switchblade-style knife in the pocket of Mitchells shorts. Because he was a convicted felon, Mitchell was not allowed to possess such a weapon, so the officers then arrested Mitchell for unlawfully possessing the knife. After arresting Mitchell, the officers conducted a more thorough search of his person and discovered a ball of a black tar like substance that was later confirmed to be heroin, Judge Harris wrote.

Mitchell was ultimately charged with drug and weapons possession, and the weapons charge was dropped in a plea deal. He challenged the search as a violation of his Fourth Amendment right against search and seizure.

In addition to the facts already described, one of the officers testified that, in his experience, gang members typically carry weapons, and that this knowledge was among the reasons he had decided to frisk Mitchell. For his part, Mitchell testified that his profane words to the man in the parking lot were not intended to be aggressive, and that he was just attempting to greet an old friend whom he had not seen in a while, the ruling said. (The ruling noted that police heard Mitchell shout come here you mother-er.)

In his appeal, Mitchell argues he gave no sign that he was going to be violent. The Court acknowledged the usual signs were not there. He was wearing very little clothing, officers saw no bulge in his pockets that could be perceived as a weapon, nor did he make any movement that police could have perceived as a threat. Prosecutors countered that Mitchell was an admitted member of a violent gang, had acted aggressively toward someone else and appeared to be on the verge of a fight and that police were in the process of arresting someone else when the search took place.

The Court said each factor alone isnt enough, but took the situation in its entirety.

While we consider this a close case, we are ultimately persuaded by the States position that the officers had reasonable articulable suspicion to conduct aTerry frisk, Judge Harris wrote.

Rulings by appeals courts can often have impact or set precedent for other cases that make their way through the judicial system.

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Utah Court of Appeals upholds the controversial police practice of stop and frisk - KSTU FOX 13 Salt Lake City

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Right now, cops can easily track and pull over millions of people not because theyre swerving or speeding, but because theyre driving a car registered to a person with a suspended license. But that doesn't mean the driver is the one with the suspended license.

The Supreme Court could soon put an end to those traffic stops to uphold drivers Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable searches or seizures.

The case, Kansas v. Glover, addresses whether cops can pull someone over because the car theyre driving is registered to someone with a suspended license. To initiate these stops, police rely on the assumption that a cars driver is also its owner, but drivers often share cars with their family members or friends. And being pulled over can subject them to searches or arrests they may not have otherwise had to deal with.

Thats especially dangerous for people of color, according to advocates. Black men like Philando Castile, Walter Scott, and Samuel Debose were shot and killed by police in what started as routine traffic stops.

The consequences for black drivers here are enormous when an officer is operating on an assumption that may or may not be true, said said Lisa Foster, the co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, which participated in a brief urging the Supreme Court to put an end to the stops. We know that black drivers get pulled over in some studies, at ten times the rate of white drivers; we know black drivers are more likely once theyre pulled over to be searched.

Police say pulling someone over for a suspended license is necessary because the driver might be actively committing a crime, and the officer can always let the person go if theyre wrongly identified. Officers also want to be able to freely use automatic license plate readers which have become standard in even the smallest police departments over the last decade to pull someone over when its too difficult to manually scan a license plate, search for a description of the driver, and match that description.

But at least 11 million licenses across the country are suspended solely because of unpaid court or traffic debts and not because the indebted person is a dangerous driver, according to the Free to Drive campaign. That doesnt even include people who have lost their licenses over unpaid child support, minor drug crimes, or other non-traffic offenses.

The consequences for black drivers here are enormous."

Before automatic license plate readers, cops often only discovered a drivers license was suspended after they had pulled them over for some other traffic violation. And if the Supreme Court affirms the practice of pulling over anyone suspected of driving with a suspended license, police will essentially have a database of cars ready to stop, according to William Maurer, the managing attorney for the Institute for Justices office in Washington state. The non-profit law firm joined with the Fines and Fees Justice Center in urging he Supreme Court to reconsider the stops.

It creates a two-tiered justice system: People who are able to afford the fines and fees debt that accompany things like traffic tickets and parking tickets will not feel this intrusion, Maurer said.

The case stems from a 2016 traffic stop where a Kansas police officer scanned the license plate of a pickup truck and noticed it was registered to a person with a suspended license. Based on the assumption that the owner of the truck was also the person driving the car, the officer pulled over Charles Glover Jr., who wasnt committing any other traffic violation. It turned out the car was Glovers, and he was cited for driving unlawfully.

But Glover appealed, arguing his Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the officer didnt have a good enough reason to pull him over. The car couldve just as easily been driven by someone who wasnt Glover, but the officer wouldnt have had any way of knowing until they had already initiated the traffic stop. The Kansas Supreme Court took Glovers side, but the state appealed to the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court were to rule in Glovers favor, several state attorneys general, the National Fraternal Order of Police, and even the Trump administration argue that public safety would be put at risk. But if the decision is struck down, they say cops will have the official greenlight they need to to make more routine traffic stops and keep suspended drivers off the road.

During arguments earlier this month, the Supreme Court appeared to lean toward the side taken by police and prosecutors. Justices, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., said that officers use common sense when they assume the driver of a car is also its owner and shouldnt have to rely on much else.

Reasonable suspicion does not have to be based on statistics, it does not have to be based on specialized experience. As we've said often, it can be based on common sense, Roberts said.

Cover image: Policeman pulls over a driver for speeding, getting out of police car to write a traffic ticket. (kali9 via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

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Cops Can Pull Drivers Over Who Aren't Breaking the Law. The US Supreme Court Could Change That. - VICE

A 13-count federal indictment filed in court Thursday charges James W. Millegan, 62, a former Oregon securities broker, with investment account churning and tax evasion.

Millegan of McMinnville owned and operated J.W. Millegan Inc., an investment advisory business that served clients in the Portland and Salem metropolitan areas.

From March 2010 through May 2017, Millegan is accused of having bought and sold securities for clients investment accounts to generate commissions for himself. He generated more than $2.5 million in trading commissions while he cost 12 investors more than $4.3 million in unrealized investment gains, according to prosecutors.

Millegan also is accused of not paying more than $3.3 million in taxes between July 2006 and September 2016. He allegedly transferred funds to hidden bank accounts to conceal his multimillion dollars in commissions.

Millegan has not yet appeared in federal court.

The charges come more than two years after federal authorities executed a search warrant and raided Millegans home at gunpoint and took his client files, according to his lawyer. Millegan is set to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Portland on Dec. 6.

Mr. Millegan will appear in court as required and looks forward to clearing his name,'' said his lawyer, Oregon Federal Defender Lisa Hay. "In litigation that has already occurred, weve successfully addressed government over-reaching, failure to return property, and apparent violation of the Fourth Amendment. We look forward to continuing to protect Mr. Millegans constitutional rights and to vigorously challenging the governments allegations.

The litigation surrounding his lawyers challenge of the search warrant and seizure of Millegans files remains sealed.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian http://twitter.com/maxoregonian

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Former Oregon securities broker charged with investment fraud, tax evasion - OregonLive

Federal prosecutors will not pursue charges against the U.S. Park Police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Bijan Ghaisar, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Nov. 14.

The decision came almost two years after Officers Alejandro Amaya and Lucas Vinyard shot Ghaisar five times at the conclusion of a car chase on George Washington Memorial Parkway prompted by a reported hit-and-run crash in Alexandria.

Based on the information available at this time, the Department cannot prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the two USPP officers committed willful violations of the applicable federal criminal civil rights statue when they shot Mr. Ghaisar, the Justice Department said in a press release.

The investigation conducted by the departments civil rights division, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, and the FBI confirmed that Amaya and Vinyard engaged Ghaisar in a vehicular pursuit starting at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2017.

The pursuit stopped at the intersection of Fort Hunt Road and Alexandria Avenue in Alexandria, where the two Park Police officers shot Ghaisar multiple times while he was in the drivers seat of his vehicle.

The 25-year-old McLean resident spent 10 days in a coma at Inova Fairfax Hospital before he was taken off life support on Nov. 28, 2017.

Details of the incident beyond those basic circumstances did not start to emerge until Jan. 24, 2018 when the Fairfax County Police Department released video footage captured by the in-car camera of a county police officer who joined in the pursuit to provide back-up if needed.

The four-and-a-half minute-long recording showed that U.S. Park Police officers fired nine shots after cornering Ghaisars SUV. A subsequent Fairfax County police investigation determined that none of the departments officers discharged their weapons.

According to the Justice Department, FBI investigators interviewed more than 150 individuals, including law enforcement officers from both the Park Police and Fairfax County, to determine whether the park police officers actions that night violated any federal laws.

When deciding whether to file charges, prosecutors looked at possible violations of a federal criminal civil rights statue that prohibits the willful deprivation of a persons rights, privileges, or immunities protected by the U.S. Constitution, in this case the Fourth Amendment right to not be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure.

To establish a violation of the statute, the Justice Department says it would be required to prove the officers involved in the shooting had used constitutionally unreasonable force with intent to disregard the law.

An officer acting out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or poor judgment would not meet the level of intent that courts require in their interpretation of the statue, according to the department.

The Department is unable to disprove a claim of self-defense or defense of others by the officers, the DOJ said. Accordingly, the Department has closed its investigation into this matter.

The decision to not prosecute the officers involved in Ghaisars death was the latest frustrating development for the accountants family and friends, who have criticized the U.S. Park Police and federal investigators for failing to provide transparency and accountability.

Ghaisars family called the Department of Justices decision to not prosecute Amaya and Vinyard cowardly.

The Justice Department has given us no answers to why Bijan was killed, Ghaisars family said in a statement. Instead they have broken every promise made to us from keeping us informed about the investigation to personally sharing the results before broadcasting it to the world to, most importantly, protecting Bijan.

The Park Police placed Amaya and Vinyard on administrative leave with pay after the shooting pending the conclusion of the FBIs investigation, but the federal government did not publicly release their names until this past March after Ghaisars family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the 10 officers they identified as being responsible for the McLean residents death.

Amaya and Vinyard were named as the officers who apparently fired shots, but the remaining seven officers listed in the lawsuit remain unidentified.

The lawsuit is still underway in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, and with the Justice Department not pressing charges, the Park Police will now move forward with its own internal investigation of Amaya and Vinyard, according to The Washington Post.

Ghaisars family and friends marked the two-year anniversary of his death on Nov. 17 with an emotional rally and candlelight vigil outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In addition to acquaintances of Ghaisar, the gathering drew local, state, and federal politicians and representatives from civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, Mothers against Police Brutality, and Amnesty International.

The Ghaisar family has experienced so much pain over the last two years, not just in coping with the loss of their beloved son and brother Bijan, but also in trying to understand what led to his death, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a joint statement. Todays announcement by the Department of Justicewill only add to this familys heartbreak.

Warner and Grassley said they would be formally requesting a briefing on the decision to not pursue charges in Ghaisars case from the Justice Department within the next 30 days.

Warner joined Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) in sending a letter to the FBI in January 2018 asking for an update on the status of the bureaus investigation. The FBI responded that April that it would not discuss an active investigation.

After joining the Ghaisar familys Lincoln Memorial vigil, Beyer, fellow Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) and D.C. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Nov. 18 calling for him to authorize local authorities to release 9-1-1 recordings connected to the fatal shooting.

Beyer previously made the same request in a letter on Mar. 26, 2018.

We found the two-year period it took to resolve the case unacceptable and remain concerned with the result, the trio wrote in their new letter. Releasing these recordings would be an important element of rebuilding trust. The people of the National Capital Region demand high transparency and accountability standards from their local government and law enforcement entities.

When contacted by the Fairfax County Times for more information on its investigation and concluding decision, a Department of Justice public information officer directed media inquiries to the U.S. Attorneys Office in D.C.

Thank you for your inquiry, District of Columbia U.S. Attorneys Office public information officer Kadia Koroma said. However, we have no comment outside of what was issued in the press release.

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Justice Department will not prosecute officers in Bijan Ghaisar shooting - Fairfaxtimes.com

Tucker Carlson is rooting for Russia in its conflict with Ukraine or at least he said he was on his Fox News primetime show.

Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? the host said. And Im serious. Why do I care? Why shouldnt I root for Russia, which I am?

Carlson later said he was joking, despite having said he was serious, possibly because of the social media backlash he inevitably provoked.

The endorsement of Russias aggression against Ukraine delivered tonight by Tucker Carlson is a pretty specialized form of Trump admiration, wrote David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter now an ardent critic of Trump and his supporters.

Why the F are you rooting for Russia?!? asked the former tennis star Martina Navratilova. And not Ukraine?!? Could you expand on that, Tucker? Please enlighten us idiots

Carlson is one of a number of Fox News hosts who both regularly provoke controversy and enjoy a direct line to the president. He has influenced foreign policy. In June, Carlson was reported to have averted airstrikes against Iran by speaking to Trump directly.

He made his comment about Ukraine in a discussion of the impeachment inquiry with Richard Goodstein, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton.

The inquiry focuses on Trumps attempts to have Ukraine investigate his own political rivals and a baseless conspiracy theory which says Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, not Russia.

As well as dangling a White House meeting in front of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, by its own admission the Trump administration withheld nearly $400m of military aid intended to help the Kyiv government in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

The aid was released in September, as it became known that an intelligence community whistleblower had filed a complaint, triggering moves in Congress that led to the impeachment inquiry.

On Carlsons show, Goodstein pointed to testimony before the House intelligence committee last week. David Holmes, a US official based in Ukraine, said Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the EU and a key player in the approach to Ukraine, said Trump doesnt give a shit about corruption in the country, the stated reason for pressuring Zelenskiy.

We do care about the substance of it, Carlson said. And the substance of it is that Trump, for all of his sins and I will concede some of them, has never taken close to a million dollars a year from a Ukrainian energy company to do nothing because his dad is the vice-president. So, Hunter Biden did.

The son of Joe Biden, the former vice-president who is a frontrunner to face Trump at the polls next year, had a board position at a Ukrainian energy company. There is no suggestion he or his father did anything illegal.

I actually like Hunter Biden, Carlson continued, but thats totally corrupt and you know it. Why is it worse to ask about it than do it?

Goldstein said: Because people are dying on the frontlines.

Laughing, Carlson said: Why do I care, why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And Im serious. Why do I care? Why shouldnt I root for Russia, which I am.

Because, Goldstein said, preserving democracy is important.

I dont care! Carlson said.

By the end of his show it seemed he did, as he said: Before we go, earlier I noted, I was rooting for Russia in the contest between Russia and Ukraine. Of course Im joking, Im only rooting for America.

The I was only joking defence has been used extensively by Trump or by Republicans defending his more outrageous claims: about asking Russia to hack Clintons emails, for example, and about asking China to investigate the Bidens.

Claiming to have been mocking the obsession with Russia of many on the left, Carlson concluded: Ha!

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Tucker Carlson says he's rooting for Russia in conflict with Ukraine - The Guardian