Miami does have a bit of a bad reputation, drugs, violence, and unsavory characters seem to sum the city up quite well. The city likes to portray itself as a vacation mecca, however few people that know the area would buy into that idea! I for one would feel safer in east Los Angeles. Never the less, people do flock to Miami, it is a ‘fun town’, or so we are led to believe.
It was back in June that the Shehada family discovered that the hype in the brochures did not meet reality. Husein Shehada and his brother Samer Shehada decided to take a vacation, they had saved up their money. This was going to be the great vacation they hankered for. These kids were not out for trouble, in fact they even brought their girlfriends along.
At 3am on June 14th the two brothers and their girlfriends were taking a walk. Samer and Husein were some distance in front of the girls. A voice commands them to stop, and turn around. They comply. The make no offensive actions, merely standing there. Approximately 2 seconds later Husein is laying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood, shot in cold blood by Miami Beach Police officer Adam Tavss.
Following the mandatory 72 hours decompression time that officers must take following a lethal engagement, some imbecile gives Adam Tavss his badge and gun back. The first day back on the job, Adam Tavss and some others kill again, their victim this time is a suspected car jacker Lawrence McMcoy.
The Shehada incident was captured on CCTV, it clearly shows Husein being gunned down for no reason. There is no video of the McCoy killing, but there is some very interesting evidence. A private investigator for the McCoy family gained access to the body, the entry and exit wounds (something like 9 or 11) tell a story. They are defensive wounds, most likely suffered while he was in a defensive position on the ground.
Several weeks ago I ran a radio program on the Adam Tavss story, I had eyewitness Samer Shehada, the two girlfriends, attorney John Contini and his co council, lead investigator lee Cohn, plus other family members of both the Shehada and McCoy family as guests. You can listen to the program here.
I was horrified by the eyewitness accounts, these were brutal and uncalled for killings. However, further investigation reveals an even darker picture. Yes Adam Tavss is a rogue cop who has no place carrying a gun on the streets. He should be behind bars on murder one! But, he is merely a product of the system. A broken system that no one seems to want to fix.
It was my hope that by giving these cases some publicity some of the larger news organizations would pick the story up and run with it. Apply some pressure to the dimwit’s running the Miami Beach PD. The days faded into weeks, no one seemed interested in running with the story. Last week that changed, I heard through the grapevine that CNN was going to be airing a segment about it. I was elated, at long last a major media outlet was getting interested.
The segment aired last weekend, once more I am shocked and horrified. Were it not for the two seconds of CCTV footage I would swear that they were not talking about the same case! This 4 minute segment is more like something the the Police PR department would release, than anything remotely that could be called investigative journalism. Right after the segment aired my email account started to get active. The family and friends of both victims are outraged, and rightly so.
In order to redress this gross incompetence we have decided to run another radio program on the subject. This will be airing at Noon central, 1pm eastern on Sat Sept 19. The link to the show is here. Alternatively point your browser to www.blogtalkradio.com a few minutes before we go to air and you will see the link to the live feed on the front page.
Tentatively scheduled on the panel are author and crime writer Denny Griffin, eyewitness to the first killing Samer Shehada, Lawrence McCoy Sr, the father of the second victim, and attorney for both families John Contini.
Simon Barrett
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4 users commented in " Adam Tavss – Killer Cop - Miami’s Vice "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSimon, Thanks for looking out for the families and my friend John Contini. Keep the fires lit..
Simon, what does your FBI friend tell you about Miami? Interested in his opinion.
Simon, Just an FYI…THE FBI infiltrated the Hollywood Police Department and the Chief of Police blew their cover. This area is 29 miles from Miami.
Four Hollywood PD cops thought they were running diamonds and drugs for a mob family in New Jersey. They went to jail but the investigation was sabotaged.
I don’t know a soul that is dumb enough to go to vacation in Miami. It is not safe.
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R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced that Hollywood Police Lieutenant Charles Roberts was charged in a criminal complaint with making material false statements to FBI agents who were investigating the leak of the FBI and United States Attorney’s Office’s long-term undercover investigation into ongoing corruption within the Hollywood Police Department, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001.
According to the complaint, in mid-January 2007, the Hollywood Police Chief and a limited number of his command staff were informed for the first time about the federal undercover investigation, which had been ongoing since 2004. Unbeknownst to federal authorities, this detailed information was shared by the Chief with additional Hollywood Police Department command staff members. In late January or early February 2007, a command staff member provided the details of this investigation to Roberts. Roberts subsequently informed another Hollywood Police Officer of the details of the undercover investigation, and that officer in turn informed one of the targets about the existence and substance of the federal investigation, leading to the exposure and premature termination of the undercover operation.
After this leak occurred, the FBI and United States Attorney’s Office began an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of the operation. As part of that investigation, FBI agents interviewed Roberts about his role in the leak. Roberts told the agents that he first learned of the FBI corruption investigation the day the four officers were arrested. Roberts denied that he had been informed of the investigation by any member of the command staff, and also stated that he had not discussed the matter with anyone until after the investigation became public knowledge.
FBI agents re-contacted Roberts the next day to follow up on the initial interview. Roberts was offered an opportunity to add or change anything from his first interview with the agents. Roberts reiterated that he had no knowledge of the existence of the undercover FBI investigation before the arrest of the four HPD officers, Companion, Simcox, Courtney, and Harrison.
As a result of the premature disclosure of the operation to one of the targets, the undercover investigation was shut down. This prevented the FBI from completing a number of planned investigative steps. This leak also required the conduct of an additional federal investigation, which included these interviews of Roberts. Roberts’ false statements to the FBI, if believed, could have derailed or sidelined this leak investigation. As such, his false statements both affected and had the potential to negatively affect this investigation.
If convicted, Roberts faces a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison for each alleged violation of Section 1001.
Mr. Acosta commends the efforts of the numerous special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who have been working on this investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Clark and Senior Litigation Counsel Edward N. Stamm.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
http://miami.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/mm05242007.htm
Also. Simon, those four cops weren’t Rookies, they were seasoned with 20 years under their belt.
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