ROCKVILLE, Md. – A Montgomery County police officer is on the wrong side of the law. Officer Dina Hoffman faces charges of perjury and misconduct.

Hoffman was just indicted by a grand jury over a DUI case dating back to May of 2008. That’s when she claimed George Zaliev was driving drunk. Zaliev was arrested and charged with DUI.

But his attorney produced a videotape from Zaliev’s employer’s surveillance camera that shows the worker was actually asleep in the backseat of a friend’s car. His legs were hanging outside the rear passenger door when the officer found him.

He says he tried to explain that he had gotten off work two hours before and started drinking. He napped while waiting for his friend to get off work and drive them home. But Zaliev failed a field sobriety test and was arrested anyway.

At the trial this past April, the court transcript shows Hoffman repeatedly said she found Zaliev behind the wheel of the car. Once Paul Mack, Esq., produced the videotape, the officer apologized and said it had been a year and that she handles many cases everyday.

The judge immediately dismissed the case. But Zaliev’s attorney says it delayed the immigrant’s efforts to become a citizen.

Hoffman is a three-year veteran of the police department. She is now on paid administrative leave until her criminal trial. She could still face an internal affairs investigation afterward.

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 21, 2009; 12:09 PM

A Montgomery County police officer has been indicted on charges of perjury and misconduct in office that stemmed from an earlier DUI case, authorities said Friday.

Officer Dina Hoffman had asserted in court that when she arrived at the scene of the DUI arrest in Gaithersburg on May 3, 2008, the suspect was seated in the driver’s seat of a black Lexus.

“In fact, he was not,” according to the indictment. “In truth, Dina Hoffman observed George Zaliev reclining on his back in the rear seat of the vehicle, with his legs hanging out the rear passenger side door.”

The officer, who is on administrative leave, is being prosecuted by the Howard County state’s attorney’s office. Montgomery officials turned over the case because Montgomery prosecutors might be called as witnesses in the case, according to Howard officials.

“This is a case that we took very seriously from the moment the complaint was received against Officer Hoffman,” Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said. “She will have her day in court to answer these charges.

“A police officer’s word carries a great deal of influence in court testimony,” Manger added. “The public has an expectation that anyone wearing a badge, with the responsibility of upholding the law, must uphold their integrity first and foremost. Any breach of that integrity cannot be tolerated.”

Hoffman, who has been a police officer for three years, was indicted by a Montgomery grand jury Thursday on one count of perjury, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and one count of misconduct in office, a common-law charge, according to the Howard state’s attorney office, which announced the indictment Friday.
A criminal trial has been scheduled for Nov. 23, according to online court records. Hoffman’s attorney, James Shalleck, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the specific charges against her.

At the DUI trial in April, Zaliev’s attorney, Paul Mack, was able to counter Hoffman’s initial testimony by playing video footage from a security camera at a nearby business. The footage indicated that when Hoffman approached the Lexus, Zaliev was in the back seat.

“You never saw him in the front seat, correct?” Mack asked the officer.

“As the video shows, I guess I didn’t,” Hoffman said.

The officer also apologized during the trial. “It’s been over a year. I deal with a lot of these cases every day, so my apologies,” she said.

District Court Judge Dennis M. McHugh ruled Zaliev not guilty.

Tennessee Police Officers Accused of Planting Drugs and Beating Suspect

A lawsuit was filed on Thursday accusing Cookeville, Tennessee police of “excessive use of force” and “planting contraband” during a domestic assault arrest last year.

One officer has been placed on leave because of the incident, and five others are named in the federal More..lawsuit.

Police car video from the Cookeville Police Department captured the incident that triggered the lawsuit.

On the night of June 4, 2007, Carlos Ferrell was stopped by police on a domestic assault warrant. According to the lawsuit, Ferrell’s ex-wife, Tiffany, saw Ferrell, called police and was involved in the initial chase.

Once Ferrell came to a stop, he was ordered out of the car by Cookeville Police Officer Chris Melton.

“Put your hands up, and get out of the car,” Melton is heard telling Ferrell on the tape.

Ferrell, 28, exits the car with his arms raised while Officer Jeff Johnson is holding the department’s police dog.

The video shows the dog bite Ferrell several times. Attorney Blair Durham is representing Ferrell.

“The dog is released. The dog then chews into Mr. Ferrell’s leg where, of course, he goes to the ground,” he said.

“Your dog just ate my leg off,” Ferrell said on the tape. Durham also accused Melton of planting drugs on Ferrell.

In the dash cam video, Melton is seen searching Ferrell’s pockets a number of times.

Then, Durham said, another officer appears to give a signal with his hand, at which point Melton then reaches into his right pocket and looks into the camera.

It’s at that point on the tape that Durham said Melton appears to put drugs in Ferrell’s pocket.

“Whoa, Carlos, weed? Now you got you another freaking charge, how about that?”

Melton told Ferrell in the video. Melton has been placed on administrative leave with pay. T

he night of the stop, Ferrell was charged with evading arrest and possession of marijuana.

“That’s a complete drug plant is what I’m alleging. It’s a complete unlawful search, first of all, and it’s a planting of paraphernalia,” Durham said.

Cookeville police said they are “completely cooperating with the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation).”

A representative said the department is not trying to hide anything and doesn’t want to look like it is.

Police took Ferrell to an area hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Durham said Ferrell is no choir boy but that he’s never been arrested on violent offenses.

According to his record, Ferrell has two DUIs and a previous drug possession charge

After a Hollywood police officer rear-ended a car in February and then arrested the driver on drunken driving charges, he and other officers talked about doctoring the report–it said a jumpy cat created a distraction–to cover up the crash.

The exchange was recorded by a dashboard camera in one of the patrol cars. The officers apparently didn’t realize it was on.

“I don’t want to make th More..ings up ever, because it’s wrong, but if I need to bend it a little bit to protect a cop, I’m gonna,” one of the officers can be heard saying. “We’ll do a little Walt Disney to protect the cop because it wouldn’t have mattered because she is drunk anyway.”

Alexandra Gabriela Torrensvilas, 23, of Hollywood, ended up charged with four counts of drunken driving and cited for improper lane change. On Tuesday, Hollywood police officials placed Officer Dewey Pressley, 42, Officer Joel Francisco, 36, Sgt. Andrew Diaz, 39; and civilian Community Service Officer Karim Thomas, age unavailable; on administrative duty pending an internal affairs investigation and a review by the Broward State Attorney’s Office, said spokesman Lt. Scott Pardon.

Francisco was driving the car in the crash; Pressley wrote the report and made the arrest. Pressley’s report detailing the Feb. 17 midnight crash in the 2800 block of Sheridan Street said “a large gray stray cat” that had been sitting on Torrensvila’s lap jumped out of her car window and distracted her, causing her to veer into Francisco’s lane, where she abruptly braked, and he hit her.

“I will do the narrative for you,” one of the officers says on the tape. “I know how I am going to word this, the cat gets him off the hook.”

Torrensvilas’ attorney, Larry Meltzer, said this is a disturbing “abuse of power.” “Actually seeing it transpire on video in front of you, it really kind of sickens you,” he said. “It’s really nauseating to sit there and watch your client’s rights go out the window.”

Torrensvilas’ four DUI charges carry a maximum penalty of nearly three years in jail, Meltzer said. He declined to say what will become of her case: “In my opinion, as of this time, it’s being handled appropriately.” A spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case or how it will proceed. Pressley, a 21-year veteran with the agency, wrote that when Francisco approached Torrensvilas’ car after the crash, she blurted: “It just jumped out.” The “it” was “a large, gray stray cat” that had been sitting on her lap while she drove, the report said. Francisco, who has been with the agency for nearly 11 years, smelled “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”

Public Defender Howard Finkelstein on Tuesday sent a letter to Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner calling for answers and accountability. “Not only did these officers make a conscious decision to shift the blame to this young woman, but they made a concerted effort to write a narrative to fit ‘their facts,’ ”

Finkelstein wrote. He said his office has at least 27 pending cases in which these four officers are listed as material state witnesses. Pardon, the police department’s spokesman, declined to respond to the allegations. “We’ll see where the investigation goes,” he said.