The police chief of Tampa has been placed on leave after a video emerged of her flashing her badge from the passenger seat of a golf cart to get out of a traffic ticket. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor placed Chief Mary O'Connor on administrative leave Friday pending an investigation of the Nov. 12 traffic stop in Oldsmar, a city northwest of Tampa. The body camera video, posted online by the Tampa Police Department, shows O'Connor's husband driving the cart and the chief in the passenger seat when a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy pulls them over for not having a tag. "Is your camera on?" O'Connor said. "I'm the police chief in Tampa." "I'm hoping that you'll just let us go tonight," she says, showing the deputy her badge.The deputy let them leave without a ticket, saying "it's nice meeting you." In a statement, O'Connor said it was "poor judgment" for them to have taken the cart out on public roads without a tag. She said it was the first time they had driven it outside of a golf cart-friendly community where they own property. "As someone who has dealt with, taken ownership of and grown from my past mistakes, I know that no one is above the law, including me," she said. The mayor said an internal review is underway. Assistant Chief Lee Bercaw will serve as acting chief."We hold everyone accountable, no matter their position and this behavior was unacceptable," Castor said. "Chief O'Connor will go through the due process and face appropriate discipline."

An Ohio man suspected of driving while intoxicated didn't "flip out" when police pulled him over, but he did do a backflip to try to prove he was sober. The whole traffic stop was caught on body camera. The video shows 27-year-old Tanner Watson telling a police officer from Broadway Heights that he'd had three or four beers."Your driving's pretty bad. Your eyes are super glossy," the officer is heard telling Watson. The officer could also smell alcohol and started the usual sobriety tests, having Watson follow his finger with his eyes and walk in a straight line. Instead, Watson took off his cap and suggested a different challenge — a backflip — which he completed successfully. "That's good, man. I can't do that," the officer responds.Although Watson completed the backflip, he still had to complete the usual sobriety tests and was eventually placed under arrest. Watson joins the ranks of others who over-performed during DUI stops, including a man from Florida who did a cartwheel and a Canadian crooner, who sang the lyrics to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" flawlessly for six minutes.

A mostly white jury was seated Friday for the trial of a suburban Minneapolis police officer charged in Daunte Wright's shooting death, and opening statements were scheduled to begin next week.Kim Potter, 49, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, following a traffic stop in the suburb of Brooklyn Center.Potter, who is white, has said she meant to use her Taser on Wright after he tried to drive away from officers while they were trying to arrest him, but that she drew her handgun by mistake. Her body camera recorded the shooting.The last two jurors, both alternates, were quickly seated Friday morning. Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday.Nine of the first 12 jurors seated — the ones who will deliberate if no alternates are needed — are white, with one juror identifying as Black and two as Asian. It's evenly split between men and women. The two alternates are also white.The jury roughly matches the demographics of Hennepin County, which is about 74% white. Its makeup was closely watched, as legal experts have said that juries that are diverse by race, gender and economic background are necessary to minimize bias in the legal system.The jury is markedly less diverse than that chosen for the trial last spring of former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's death. In that case, the 12 who deliberated were split 50-50 between whites and people of color.Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, said Chauvin's jury was “mostly just luck of the draw.”He said racial and ethnic diversity matters in terms of the perceived legitimacy of the jury, but attitudes about police and policing are much more important for the case outcome.“It might be true in general that Black people are more distrustful of police than white people, but it isn’t true as to every individual,” Sampsell-Jones said. “Lots of young white people in Hennepin County are far more progressive and anti-cop than some older Black people, for example.”Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant, said even a single juror of color can be enough to change the dynamics of deliberations by bringing more depth and another viewpoint to the process.Attorneys and the judge spent considerable time probing the potential jurors for their views of protests against police brutality, which were frequent in Minneapolis even before George Floyd's death.Questionnaires asked about attitudes toward police, including whether officers should be second-guessed, whether they should be respected and whether they are trusted.Juror No. 11, for example, said she “somewhat agreed” that officers should not be second-guessed.“I think sometimes you just react, and sometimes it might be a wrong reaction, but, you know, mistakes happen,” she said. “People make mistakes.”She was seated after saying she could set that view aside and consider evidence.Several jurors strongly disagreed that it's unreasonable to question officers' actions. Juror No. 19, the only Black person on the jury, wondered how Potter could show such a “lapse in judgment” with her experience.“This is a servitude job, and when you get into this position, you need to understand that it’s a tough job and so you have to maintain that level of professionalism when you get into that position," she said of police officers in general.Potter, who resigned two days after Wright's death, has told the court she will testify. Body-camera video recorded the shooting, with Potter heard saying, “Taser, Taser, Taser” before she fired, followed by, “I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun.”Wright was shot in Brooklyn Center as Chauvin was standing trial 10 miles away for killing Floyd. Wright's death sparked several nights of intense protests in the suburb.The most serious charge against Potter requires prosecutors to prove recklessness; the lesser only requires them to prove culpable negligence. Minnesota's sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of just over seven years on the first-degree manslaughter count and four years on the second-degree one. Prosecutors have said they would seek a longer sentence.

Warning: This article contains disturbing details that may be upsetting to readers.The aunt of two young children found dead in the trunk her car during a traffic stop Wednesday is charged with first-degree child abuse resulting in death, police said.Police said Thursday they arrested and charged Nicole Johnson, 33, of Baltimore, in connection to the deaths of her niece and nephew, 7-year-old Joshlyn Johnson and 5-year-old Larry O'Neil.Johnson faces multiple charges, including first-degree child abuse that resulted in the death of a child under the age of 13. At the time of the autopsy, police said, the girl weighed 18 pounds and her brother weighed 21 pounds. According to doctors , it would have taken several months of malnourishment to attain these weights, police said.Johnson waived her right to a bail review and remains held on a no-bail status. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 27.Due to the nature of this case, it will take time to determine the exact circumstances that led to the children's deaths. County police said officers stopped a speeding car at 11:17 p.m. Wednesday on Eastern Boulevard near Wagners Lane, which led to the officers discovering the children's bodies.Police said the driver, Nicole Johnson, had no license nor insurance and was using fake temporary tags. According to police charging documents obtained by Baltimore sister station WBAL-TV, officers advised Nicole Johnson to report to District Court within five days, and that they were towing her car.According to charging documents, she then stated, "It don't matter. I won't be here in five days and y'all going to see me on the news, y'all going to see on the news making my big debut."Nicole Johnson retrieved belongings from the car. One of the retrieved items was a clear trash bag that contained maggots and the officer smelled a strong odor, police said. There was a suitcase in the bag that Nicole Johnson claimed to contain just blankets, police said.The charging documents state that Nicole Johnson removed the blanket, exposing the decomposing body of a young child.Police said in the charging documents that Nicole Johnson ran away and was apprehended a short distance away.The charging documents state that detectives searched the remaining bags and found another decomposing body of a young child.Police said in the charging documents that Nicole Johnson told detectives that both children are her sister's children and that she was watching them because her sister was unable to care for them.The children's biological mother told detectives that she moved from Ohio to Maryland with the children in July 2019 and that she couldn't care for her children and agreed to leave them with her sister, Nicole Johnson. According to the charging documents, Nicole Johnson told detectives she struck the 7-year-old girl several times for misbehaving and that the girl hit her head on the floor and died. She put the girl in a suitcase and had been carrying it around for months, according to the charging documents.The charging documents state Nicole Johnson told police she saw blood on the leg of the 5-year-old boy two months ago and he never woke up. She said she placed him in a plastic tote bag in the trunk with his sister."She admitted that she smelled the strong odor of decomposition but thought it was a rat in the engine," police said.Police said the mother tried numerous times to get in touch with Nicole Johnson but was unsuccessful. Police said the mother eventually heard from her in March and arranged to have her children returned, but Nicole Johnson never showed. Police said the mother was unable to find Nicole Johnson or her children until detectives notified her of the children's deaths.Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski tweeted a statement, saying: "The abhorrent details of this heartbreaking incident remain difficult to comprehend. On behalf of the people of Baltimore County, I share my deepest sympathies with the family, friends, and loved ones of Joshlyn Marie James Johnson and Larry Darnell O'Neal."As our community grieves the loss of these two children, I thank our officers for their swift efforts in apprehending and charging a suspect in this case."Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt released a statement, saying: "This truly was a devastating incident — one that not only shocked our community to its core, but significantly affected our patrol officers, forensic technicians and detectives. I am grateful that the harrowing details of this case were thoroughly and quickly uncovered, resulting in an expeditious closure to this tragedy. I want to commend all of our Baltimore County Police Department members who worked tirelessly throughout this investigation to bring justice to these innocent, young victims."

A Covington police officer and a man were shot in Newport Monday evening.Just before 6:30 p.m., authorities received a report of a man threatening someone with a gun near the area of East 6th Street and Boulevard. The man left the scene before officers arrived, but officers were given a description of the suspect and his vehicle was spotted crossing the 4th Street Bridge, police said.According to Covington Police Chief Rob Nader, the Covington police officer tried to initiate a traffic stop on the man's vehicle, but the man started firing shots at the officer and ending up striking the officer. The officer fired back, hitting the man, police said.Both the officer and the man were taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment. Covington police confirm the officer was shot once in the arm. They said he is expected to be OK. The man was taken into custody, police said. Police said he's alive, but his condition remains unknown at this time.Nader said the officer is a veteran of the police force. His name has not been released at this time.Police said there is currently no threat to the public. The Covington Police Department has turned over the investigation to Kentucky State Police. WLWT will update this story when more information is available.