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Pamela Franco surprises by comparing Christian Cueva with Luis Miguel: “My Mickey, my king” | Magaly TV, the firm | ShowsA potentially botched traffic stop by three Billings Police officers has led to more than 170 criminal cases investigated by the officers being reviewed, with several felony cases already dismissed. In May 2023, three officers responding to a traffic stop obtained consent from the driver to search the vehicle by what the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office deemed deceptive means. Starting in October of this year, the county attorney’s office has compiled a list of criminal cases investigated by the three officers and is asking defense attorneys to review those cases for any potential misconduct. “My attorneys are going to get together with defense attorneys,” Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said Friday, “and we’re going to figure out how this issue involving these officers will impact their cases. That’s my constitutional obligation.” The three officers have been placed on leave pending an internal investigation, said Billings Police Chief Rich St. John. In that May 1, 2023, traffic stop, Billings Police Officers Matthew Bistline, Ian Busta and Blaine Lane responded, according to a letter issued by Twito on Wednesday. Although verbal consent seemed to have been given to search the vehicle, one conversation recorded on the officers’ body cameras “appeared to focus on obtaining written consent of the driver through a deceptive manner,” Twito wrote. During that conversation, two of those officers either removed or shut off their body cameras. “Because of these circumstances, it is possible that in this case, the written consent was obtained by deceptive means,” Twito wrote. Tyler Dugger, a defense attorney based in Billings, represented the woman stopped by the three officers. She was charged with criminal possession of dangerous drugs and her case was weeks away from trial when she told Dugger there may have been misconduct on the responding officers' part. Although Dugger declined to share specific details he found from reviewing body camera footage of the stop, he said he found some elements of the officers' behavior to be "concerning" and "problematic." Dugger disclosed his findings to the prosecutor and the case was subsequently dismissed. Starting in October, the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office launched a massive investigation into all active criminal cases involving the three officers. The north side of the Yellowstone County District Courthouse is seen on Friday. Not long after Twito’s office became aware of the details revealed in the traffic stop in late October, he made identifying all cases in which the three officers played a role a priority, he said. “It was an added extra obligation,” he said, “but it’s an important obligation.” The intent of the letter, Twito told the Gazette, is to notify defense attorneys their clients may potentially be impacted, and to invite those attorneys to review those cases. “Being a police officer is a tough job,” Billings attorney Joe Zavatsky said, “but we have to hold them to high standards because that is the government, and when the government is treating individuals unfairly that is not good.” Zavatsky, with Alpine Law, is representing two clients whose cases have been flagged by the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office for review. In the moment after an officer asks for consent to search a vehicle, Zavatsky said, a million things can be going through a person’s mind, regardless of whether or not they have anything illegal in their vehicle. Even if a driver says, “no,” Zavatsky explained, an officer can seize their vehicle pending a search warrant. “You’re in such a hard spot right there to make a decision,” he said, “and if an officer is not being forthright in how they’re explaining that, then it tips the scales in an unjust and unfair way.” with his letter, Twito included a list of all active cases currently under review, and is asking defense attorneys to inform their clients and discuss case resolutions with prosecutors. In total, the YCAO has identified 178 potentially compromised criminal cases. Those active cases date back to 2021, and include men and woman accused of murder, rape and assault. The majority of those cases are in the pretrial stage of resolution. Zavatsky said he received the announcement of the investigation, along with the list of impacted cases on Wednesday. The two cases in which he’s named as a defense attorney, he said, will likely not be impacted. In the case of Panda Emily Aradia, BPD Officer Lane shot Aradia after she brought a loaded handgun into the Billings Clinic and threatened staff. The shooting was captured on camera, Zavatsky said, and as such will not impede the appeal filed on Aradia’s behalf to the Montana Supreme Court. The second client represented by Zavatsky on the list, Jane Nicole Knowshisgun, recently reached a plea agreement with county prosecutors in which she admitted to tampering with evidence in a homicide case. Her case will also likely not be impacted, Zavatsky said. Although Zavatsky has not gone through each case named by the YCAO, he said the role of the three officers will probably be more limited in the serious cases, like the nine murder cases. For homicide cases in particular, he said, BPD detectives perform most of the investigation, and none of the three officers were part of the BPD Investigations Division. Dugger commended county prosecutors and BPD for their proactive response. In the weeks leading up to the letter from Twito, Dugger said he's represented several clients whose cases have been dismissed, and estimated that roughly a third of his 10 active criminal cases mentioned in the list probably will be impacted. Bistline, Lane and Busta have all been disciplined over the past four years for violating BPD policy, according to disciplinary records obtained by the Gazette. Those policy violations have included reaching excessive speeds during pursuits, violating the department’s policy regarding gathering and preserving evidence and violating the BPD’s ethical standards in use of social media. Most of those violations resulted in those officers receiving oral or written warnings. Bistline, who joined BPD in the summer of 2021, has been disciplined five times for violating BPD policy, according to data from the department. Prior to moving to Billings, he was a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In March 2020, he was The investigation concluded the shooting was not unlawful. Two years into his service as a BPD officer, Bistline received the Officer of the Year Award from the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police at ceremony in which Gov. Greg Gianforte was present. Bistline was also one of seven enforcement officers in May 2022. Last month, a coroner’s jury concluded that the Gazette previously reported. Officer Lane, another one of the first responders who shot Yellowtail when he drew a toy pistol on police, has been disciplined by the department five times in the past four years. In those four years, Lane has been reprimanded for improper use and care of a police vehicle and violating the department’s code of conduct in his use of social media. Busta has faced five disciplinary actions in the past four years for his conduct as an officer. In 2023, he received an oral warning for violating the department’s video recording policy, and earlier this year he was required to undergo “education base discipline” for violating BPD’s policy regarding emergency responses and police pursuits. In an email to the Gazette, Chief St. John confirmed that the three officers were the subject of an internal investigation focusing on any potential misconduct. "Although no disposition has been determined," St. John said, "the seriousness of the allegation and potential negative effect on criminal justice processes required I put them on leave out of an abundance of caution. More information will be available when the investigation and administrative process are complete." Situations in which the YCAO has to undergo a massive evaluation of its caseload are rare, Twito said, but they do happen, such as in 2018 The technician was fired, and the thefts jeopardized dozens of criminal cases. Working with all of the people who encompass the criminal justice system in Billings, Twito said, there’s always the potential for similar scenarios. “This is a process that’s rare,” he said, “but we’ve gone through it before.” “What I can say is we need to let that process unfold.” Now that prosecutors have combed through their caseload to best of their abilities, Dugger said, it is now the job of defense attorneys to review their own cases to confirm which, if any, will be affected. The cases likely to be impacted the most, he said, are those in which Bistline, Lane and Busta served as the primary investigators. As such, it is more than likely Billings Municipal Court will have a larger number of impacted cases. The City Attorney's Office did not immediately respond for comment. "The next step," Dugger said, "and the open question right now is potential action in closed cases." Get local news delivered to your inbox! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.BUCHAREST, Romania -- A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round. The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram. The court, without naming Georgescu, said that one of the 13 candidates in the Nov. 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote. Georgescu denounced the verdict as an “officialized coup” and an attack on democracy, as did the second-place finisher, reformist Elena Lasconi of the center-right Save Romania Union party. Despite being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner who was to face Lasconi in a runoff on Sunday. Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the runoff for Romania’s large diaspora, but had to be halted. Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new presidential election could be rerun from scratch. On Dec. 1, one week after the first round of the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election , which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists. Iohannis said that once the new government is formed, the date of the new presidential vote would be set. On Wednesday the president had released intelligence files from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In a televised statement Friday, Iohannis said he was “deeply concerned” by the contents of the intelligence reports. “Intelligence reports revealed that this candidate’s campaign was supported by a foreign state with interests contrary to Romania’s. These are serious issues," he said. The Constitutional Court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding.” It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will." Georgescu slammed the verdict as putting “democracy is under attack.” “I have only one pact ... with the Romanian people and God,” he said in a video statement. “We are no longer talking about fairness but rather about a mockery that betrays the principles of democracy ... It is time to show that we are a courageous people who know that the destiny and rights of the Romanian nation are in our hands.” Lasconi also strongly condemned the court's decision, saying it was “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy" and that the second round should have gone forward. “Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes," she said. “I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania,” she added. Some 9.4 million people — about 52.5% of eligible voters — had cast ballots in the first round in this European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments. Most surveys had predicted the top candidate would be Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the ruling center-left Social Democrats. They indicated that second place would be claimed by either Lasconi or the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, George Simion. As the surprising results came in with Georgescu on top, and Lasconi narrowly beating Ciolacu, it plunged the political establishment into turmoil. The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle. Following a recount, the court then validated the first-round results on Monday. Many observers have expressed concerns that annulling the vote could trigger civil unrest. The court said Friday that its decision was meant “to restore citizens’ trust in the democratic legitimacy of public authorities, in the legality and fairness of elections.” Simion, of the far-right party, said the development was a “coup d’état in full swing” but urged people not to take to the streets. “We don’t let ourselves be provoked, this system has to fall democratically,” he said. Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court's decision amounts to a “crisis mode situation for Romanian democracy.” “In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable, because it’s not normal times at all, Romania is an uncharted territory,” he told The Associated Press. “The problem is here, do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?” Georgescu’s surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote. Many observers attributed his success to his TikTok account, which now has 6 million likes and 541,000 followers. But some experts suspected Georgescu’s online following was artificially inflated while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates. In the intelligence release, the secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid more $381,000 (361,000 euros) to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to increase and accelerate his popularity. Georgescu, when asked by the AP in an interview Wednesday whether he believes the Chinese-owned TikTok poses a threat to democracy, defended social media platforms. “The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said.
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