Erie PD update

Via Eriepressible, we find that James Cousins II, the Erie, Pennsylvania cop seen worldwide on Youtube drunkenly spouting off about various aspects of his job that he finds amusing, including mocking the grieving mother of a homicide victim, has been suspended for ten days without pay, and will additionally "be required to complete alcohol counseling and a fitness-for-duty evaluation."

That seems to sound about right to us, judging from the behavior depicted on the video.

Of greater interest to us here at the Muckraker is the news regarding James DeDionisio, the worm of an Internal Affairs investigator for the Erie PD (and today's Jack-Booted Thug of the Week honoree) who allegedly attempted to intimidate the brother of the photographer by threatening him and his family with Federal wiretapping charges if they didn't somehow convince their photog sibling to remove the embarrassing but otherwise perfectly legal video from YouTube:

"In addition, Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott announced that internal-affairs Inspector James DeDionisio will be reassigned. DeDionisio led the investigation into Cousins' behavior."

So much for Sinnott's loud claim last Friday about good ol' "Jimmy D"'s stellar investigative techniques:

"Sinnott said DeDionisio had acted appropriately.

'I know Jimmy D and his practices very well,' Sinnott said. 'He's very professional and he does everything by the book. I haven't seen anything here that changes that.'"

Sinnott has finally seen the "something" that changes his former opinion of DeDionisio, we assume.

We look forward to finding out what discipline is ultimately levied against Officer DeDionisio, as well as Police Chief Steve Franklin, for having the central roles in the department's heavy-handed draconian attempt to quash someone's free speech rights in a vain attempt to suppress publicly filmed footage that happened to embarrass one of their employees.