Friday, March 16, 2012

Meet Officer Michael Reichert: Professional Liar, Pride of the Collinsville PD


A liar at work: Officer Michael Reichert (back to camera) harasses Terrance Huff.


“Cops lie. Most of them lie a couple of times per shift, at least.”

This assessment was offered not by an embittered critic of the police, but by Norm Stamper, former Chief of the Seattle Police Department,in his 2005 memoir Breaking Rank (page 129, to be precise). Stamper supports the use of tactical dishonesty in dealing with certain kinds of violent suspects, but he has no tolerance for the casual mendacity that is ubiquitous in the profession of law enforcement. 

 Police consultant and former prosecutor Val Van Brocklin offers a similarly blunt perspective. “Police lie. It’s part of their job,” she wrote Val Van Brocklin in an essay entitled “Training Cops to Lie,” which was published in the November 16, 2009 edition of the online journal Officer.com

 Habitual lying cost Officer Michael Reichert of the Collinsville, Illinois Police Department his job nearly a decade ago. With the help of the police union, he was able to get it back -- at which point he resumed his career of officially sanctioned perjury. In January 2011, Reichert, who is now assigned to K-9 patrol, was one of four Collinsville officers given the “Chief’s Award of Merit” for performance “exceptional in nature or above and beyond normal performance.” 

 In April, Reichert was singled out again for his exceptional work by being named “Officer of the Month.” The department lauded Reichert for reflecting “the proactive and innovative philosophy of law enforcement prescribed to [sic] by the Collinsville Police Department. He has demonstrated this by his aggressive approach to drug trafficking in the area.”
“Officer Reichert had 166 total incidents with 6 arrests and 7 citations in 13 working days,” continued the department’s report. “In addition to this he had 3 self initiated significant incidents that is very worthy of praise [sic.]”

Reichert (left) receiving "Award of Merit."
  To someone who doesn’t belong to the coercive caste, a total of 6 arrests out of 166 “total incidents” isn’t an impressive ratio. The concept of a “self-initiated significant incident” seems downright ominous. This is the portrait of a government-licensed bully bent on manufacturing cases, rather than a peace officer devoted to protection of persons and property. A brief examination of Reichert’s past supplies that portrait with additional detail.

In 2006, Reichert was fired by the Collinsville PD “after a federal judge ruled he lied during a drug trial,” reported the April 19, 2009 edition of StLtoday.com. “They also cited a conviction on federal charges that he sold knockoff designer sunglasses." Irrespective of the merits of the federal case, Reichart was consciously defrauding consumers. 

 With the help of his union, Reichert appealed that ruling, and was he was reinstated in March 2009. However, about a month later the Collinsville Police and Fire Board suspended him without pay after “federal prosecutors … raised new concerns against Reichert again questioning his trustworthiness.” 

Despite his track record as a proven perjurer and con artist, Reichert was re-hired by the Collinsville PD. He was promptly assigned to counter-narcotics duty once again – and he immediately resumed the same tactics that had resulted in his well-deserved but tragically temporary unemployment.

 Officer Reichert’s routine is described at length in a November 2005 ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael J. Reagan in the case U.S. v. Zambrana. The defendant was one of two suspects arrested on narcotics charges by Reichert during a traffic stop in 2002. Zambrana filed a motion to suppress the results of a canine-assisted narcotics search, insisting that Reichert didn’t have probable cause to conduct the search.

Judge Reagan keyed on “Reichert’s lack of credibility as a witness,” describing him as a “polished performer” – a term not intended as a compliment.

 “One reason this Court rejected Reichert’s testimony as not credible was because it was so rehearsed, coached and robotic as to be rote,” observed Judge Reagan. “It was a generic, almost default performance not dependent upon the facts of this case, but suitable for any case in which Reichert might testify to having found `reasonable suspicion. When questioning required him to temporarily stray from this rehearsed script, away from the security of his default testimony, he was caught off-guard.”

When required to deal with “objective verifiable facts” – events captured in audio or video recordings, for instance – Reichert was equivocal and self-contradictory. He was clear and emphatic, however, regarding matters that “were not objectively verifiable” – such as his “conclusions from reading body language `thrown off’ involuntarily from people `trafficking in narcotics.’” Judge Reagan astringently referred to this as Reichert’s conceit that he could behave as a “human polygraph” – an approach that “is wholly subjective and fraught with potential for guess, speculation, conjecture, and even deceit.”

“Reichert made clear that he understands what a Judge might find persuasive in making a reasonable suspicion determination,” Reagan continued, noting that “he teaches this principle in his classes.” That’s right: Reichert is not only a professional liar, he also tutors other police officers in his methods of mendacity. 

At this point, it’s useful to remember Ms. Van Brocklin’s observation: “Cops lie. It’s part of their job.”

 “By simply adding up `suspicious’ factors while ignoring non-suspicious or mitigating factors [in the Zambrana traffic stop], Reichert misused the `totality of circumstances’ principle as a sword to unjustly pierce Zambrana’s cloak of Fourth Amendment protection,” concluded Judge Reagan.

Reichert claimed that Zambrana came to his attention when he noticed the driver’s rental car – with out-of-state plates – “crossing the white divider line.” However, he also used the expression “hit” to describe this entirely trivial infraction. He claimed to have become suspicious when Zambrana “continued down the highway in a completely normal manner,” not bothering even to make eye contact with Reichert after the officer pulled alongside him in a police cruiser. This prompted him to pull Zambrana over.

 Once the pretext stop was made, Reichert claimed that Zambrana and his passenger appeared “nervous” – which is an entirely understandable reaction to the presence of an armed stranger who considers himself entitled to kill you at his discretion. He then barraged them with what Judge Reagan called a series of “rolling no” questions. This is a tactic designed to elicit permission to search the vehicle. After inquiring about drugs, weapons, or cash, and getting negative responses, the officer will pose some variation of this question:  “Hey, this will only take a minute – do you mind if I just take a look before letting you go?” 

 Regardless of Reichert’s perception “that Zambrana’s replies and lack of eye contact during this questioning were `suspicious,’ Reichert’s subsequent actions indicate that he knew that he still had no `reasonable suspicion’ to search Zambrana’s car,” notes Judge Reagan. “At that point, rather than simply informing Zambrana that he would be searching his car, Reichert requested Zambrana’s permission to conduct a search. Inexplicably (yet, not surprising to this Court, Reichert viewed Zambrana’s denial as `suspicious’ and advised Zambrana that he was detaining his car for a canine search.” 

Narcotics were found, and both Zambrana and his passenger, a man named Babar Shah, were maneuvered into a plea bargain. Despite Reichert’s obvious and documented dishonesty, those convictions stuck.

 Last December, Reichert followed exactly the same modus operandi in conducting a pretext stop – and illegal search – of a vehicle driven by Terrence Huff and John Seaton of Hamilton, Ohio. Huff and Seton had traveled to the St. Louis Science Center to attend a Star Trek exhibit. Their return trip, unfortunately, included a stretch along I-70 that was polluted by Officer Reichert, who was loitering in the median at taxpayer expense awaiting his next victim. The sight of two men in an SUV with out-of-state plates proved irresistible, so Reichert pulled out behind them and paced them for a few miles before pulling them over. 

Once the pretext stop was made, Reichert – following exactly the same script described by Judge Reagan – claimed to have noticed an otherwise undetectable traffic infraction. He obtained Huff’s driver’s license and asked the passenger for ID. When he ran Huff’s license, he found a record of a previous arrest (without conviction). 

“That mother****r,” sneered Reichert as he reviewed the information on his computer terminal. After calling for backup and resuming his pretense of professionalism, Reichert told Huff that he would let him off with a “warning” – and then began the “rolling no” routine. 

“This highway, we have a major problem with people running guns and drugs and illegal stuff up and down the highway,” Reichert told Huff. “You guys don’t have anything like that in your car, do you?

“No,” replied Huff, adding, “I could show you the photos we took at the Star Trek convention. We’re not drug runners. It’s my birthday.”

“There wouldn’t be any marijuana in there right now?” Reichert persisted.

“No,” Huff responded.

“No cocaine in there?”

“No.”

“Any heroin?”

“No.”

“Any guns in there?”

“No.”

“How about any large amounts of U.S. currency?” Reichert probed, thereby revealing the true purpose of the stop: He was trawling for assets subject to confiscation in the name of “asset forfeiture.” If Huff or his friend had been carrying cash, Reichert – assisted by the second officer who had materialized during the questioning – would have stolen it, and most likely the car, as well.

When Huff pointed out that all he was carrying was a credit card, Reichert moved to close the deal:
 
“Would you have any objection to us searching the car real quick to make sure that there’s nothing illegal inside the car?”

Reichert had neither probable cause nor “reasonable suspicion” to conduct a search. If Huff and objected, however, Reichert would have arrested him – and then stolen his car. 

When Huff briefly hesitated, Reichert deployed yet another lie:

“Now, let me tell you something, OK? I’m not overly concerned about personal amounts or stuff like that. If you have a little bit … I’m not worried about that, OK?” 

Remember that line; we’ll revisit it shortly.

“There are no drugs in the car, and I’d just like to go on my way, if I could,” Huff said in the forlorn hope that he would be set free.

“Well, I don’t have a problem with that,” Reichert lied once again. “I’m just a little 
apprehensive about how your buddy’s acting, he’s a little bit nervous.”

“I’ve got a canine in the car,” Reichert continued. “What I’m going to do is detain the car long enough to run the dog around it.” He made that announcement in a tone intended to convey the impression that this was a mere formality – if not an actual favor he was doing on Huff’s behalf.

“That’s fine,” Huff – an unarmed man confronting two armed and thoroughly amoral strangers – conceded. 

“If the dog alerts, I will search your car,” Reichert admitted, now that Huff had been manipulated into consenting. “And anything illegal I find I will charge you with.”

“Anything” would include the “personal amounts of marijuana or cocaine” to which Reichert had referred so dismissively just seconds earlier.

When Huff pointed out that Reichert had lied about the reason for the traffic stop – a point he did not contest - -the uniformed liar abandoned the façade of professionalism: 

“I’m asking for your consent to search the car,” he told Huff. “If your answer is `no,’ I’m going to detain the car long enough to run the dog around it. I can get you a ride” – an invitation that, in context, has to be considered an ill-disguised threat to arrest Huff and his friend (vide the foregoing business about “personal amounts”).

“If I’m free to go, can I go?” Huff asked.

“Not in the car,” Reichert curtly replied.

In other words: Huff was under arrest. He was entirely at the mercy of a cynical, impenitent liar armed with a gun and clothed in impunity.

Reichert retrieved his dog, and – with the practiced guile of a veteran con artist – went through his charade, tapping and prompting the animal to “alert” as if the vehicle were containing contraband. Once at the front of Huff’s car – which concealed his actions from the dashcam – Reichert claimed that the dog had “indicated” that there was something in the vehicle. 

He informed Huff that the dog – which “is trained to smell marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and meth” – had “started scratching” at the front of the car. “I am going to search your car,” he continued. That search was utterly futile. Reichert, who appears to be a mucosal personality composed of unctuous malicet, emitted one last lie to cover up his criminal misconduct.

 “Inside your car, under your seat and under the back seat, there’s shake – marijuana shake,” lied Collinsville, Illinois’s April 2011 Officer of the Month. “A little bit all over the car. That’s probably what the dog’s alerting to.”

Of course, there was nothing of the sort to be found – in fact, Huff’s vehicle didn’t even have a back seat. 

Despite the devoted obstruction of the Collinsville PD, Huff -- who owns a small, independent film production company called T-Minus Entertainment-- obtained the dashcam video of the episode. He used it to produce "Breakfast in Collinsville," a brief and thoroughly infuriating documentary of Reichert’s attempted carjacking and extortion:


“I am usually rather suspicious of authority, and this was something of a reality check,” Huff told Pro Libertate in a telephone interview. “It’s pretty clear that what Reichert is doing is generating revenue for his department. This kind of thing is happening all over the place – federal, state, county, or city, they’re all using asset forfeiture to collect revenue.”

Although he has been contacted by lawyers and civil liberties activists who want to help him mount legal action against Reichert and his department, Huff simply wants to use the video to “expose this abuse and get people to look at what’s happening in this country.”  

 Huff is too busy doing work for paying clients to invest the time, money, and frustration that a legal battle with Reichert and the police union would require. Unless the officer’s superiors can be shamed into firing him permanently – an unlikely outcome, given previous performance – Officer Michael “Third” Reichert will continue to prey on the innocent and perjure himself, and teach the relevant skills to other cops. After all, as his awards and commendations attest, Reichert is the pride of the Collinsville PD. 

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29 comments:

  1. good job- this is the infuriating nonsense any of us could be exposed to at any time.

    this jackass works in Collinsville, Illinois, not Indiana. It's a highly racist town that butts up to East St. Louis.

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  2. Marty -- thanks for the correction. :-)

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  3. Thank you for posting this. You are one of the few that even posted this criminals name. You even got him on video! That is so heart and important. This pig can't even argue about it as its his dash can! Nothing will change bad behavior like the light of day and this jerk now has a spotlight on him!. Great job!

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  4. This is in my area and I can attest, being a recent victim of dishonest cops and the war on drugs, that the Metro East St. Louis is in love with the Policing For Profit business model. How else could the Sheriff afford a tactical Hummer and an armored personnel carrier? With a Sheriff by the name of Merle J. Justice what do you expect?

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  5. I live in this area and yeah, the police lie everyday. They lied to secure a warrant to enter my home. They have a history of lying to judges but somehow they get their warrants signed anyway.

    And they are in love with the Policing For Profit business model. I guess that's how our Sheriff, Merle J. Justice (not kidding), can afford a tactical Hummer and armored personnel carrier. I'm sure I'll see predator drones in the skies over my county in the near future as well.

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  6. Unless the officer’s superiors can be shamed into firing him permanently – an unlikely outcome, given previous performance – Officer Michael “Third” Reichert will continue to prey on the innocent and perjure himself, and teach the relevant skills to other cops.

    It's highly likely that, in the very near future, when rage finally boils over among certain groups of citizens who are sick and tired of harassment by thugscum pigs of this ilk, Officer Michael "Third" Reichert is going to become the poster child for badged criminals whose lives are cut short when they make bogus stops like this against someone willing to defend what few liberties they have left - and lay down their own life in doing so.

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  7. I have often said that this kind of criminal conduct on the part of law enforcement officers only continues because we are allowing it to continue...and increase. Eventually there will be the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" and the backlash will be swift and deadly. There are many good people in law enforcement but their unwillingness to purge scum such as this from their ranks only means that when the great corrective action begins, there will be no differentiation between "good" cops and "bad" cops. They will all be targeted. Those "good" people in law enforcement woul do well to ponder upon this and either clean up their act or find a different line of work while they still can.

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  8. Too bad for Reichart that Huff wasn't the typical roll over and play dead sort of "mark" he was used to preying upon. I'd press to have this worm crushed. Shame him? Are you kidding! Vermin of his ilk know no shame so that's a non starter with me.

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    Replies
    1. This dumbass is why cops get killed,period.
      The saddest part about THAT subject , is that the Reicherts of the world rarely meet such a justified end.

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  9. I think this is a tactic that has been in use for decades. When I lived in Florida and traveled to Illinois, my dad warned me to watch my driving in Georga, because they often targeted cars with Florida plates, assuming they were probably running drugs. Cops like this do for the profession what Ron Artest did for the Indiana Pacers.

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  10. Thanks for getting the word out about Officer Reichert and his jack boot methods!! By the way the passenger's name is spelled Jon Seaton, not John Seton.

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  11. Here's a way to voice your concerns to the mayor and councilmen, servants of Collinsville, IL.
    Public info: http://www.ci.collinsville.il.us/citygov.htm
    Mayor Schaeffer - ss4136@hotmail.com

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  12. I wonder how many of these dashboard videos are used to educate law-enforcement psychologists and other interested parties on how perps [ i.e. citizens ] react under such coercive , but non-violent, police tactics.

    Perhaps the brazen deceit is designed to get some people to react in more aggressive ways, like getting into an arguement, shouting and the consequent arrest for being a 'threat' etc etc

    Surely there should be no trouble getting the video to set everything straight , instead it appears it was quite difficult to get, so why would they keep it if it wasn't to protect cops and citizens alike.

    Also using anything 'damning' on cops who don't tow the line.

    All very conspiratorial though.

    cheers

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  13. i like the song that was playing at the end. NWA was right!

    a good book to buy about this crap is boston t party's you and the police.

    rick

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  14. I live less than 15 miles from where this took place this is an everyday practice for law enforcement in that area..st clair county is more crooked than any other part of the state and these ''officers'' make it bad for the ones that actually do their jobs...this happens all the time and what are they ...heroes ? .....yeah to the everyday person....to me its sad...no one can stop them ..im glad this guy at least made it public...it doesnt matter tho ..they are the cops and we are the peons...

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  15. Cant wait for the counter-suit in civil court!

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  16. Big fan, Mr. Grigg.

    Wanted to drop a note and say that I greatly enjoy your pieces.

    Further although I know you have no shortage of bizarre cop related fact patterns in lethal shootings, here's another one for you:

    http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/post/times-coverage-witness-police-killed-champommier-says-teen-did-not-speed-toward-deputy/

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  17. My advice to cowardly bullies like Reichert: Remember Carl Drega!!!!

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  18. Please note, Mayor Schaeffer died some years back. We now have Mayor John Miller. Here's the website to email them:
    http://www2.collinsvilleil.org/index.php?option=com_qcontacts&view=category&catid=106%3Acity-council&Itemid=89

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  19. Why is this COP so convinced everyone has drugs?? Is he that much of a Junkie that he steals drugs out of peoples cars on a daily basis to support his drug habbit??? my experience in Life is that most "Liers" are Drug Users!!! what a POS!

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  20. You know, this cop and his buddies at the collinsville police are so corrupt! Random stops, they lie, cheat and steal! And the city manager Bob Knabel and Mayor knows this, as well as the Chief, The Interstate Tickets will not be prosecuted.

    Crooked Cops all of em.

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  21. Unfortunately, the problem here is one of sacrifice and an unwillingness on our (the publics) part to endure sacrifice when confronted with crooks, to be sure the system runs with integrity.

    Hell, even in this case which is an absolute slam dunk, the man couldn't be bothered to follow through with meaningful redress, instead choosing to post a narrated video.

    We're all willing to bitch, but the bigger question is, who among us is willing to actually fight?

    All I know is this. I'm leaving this country. What we've become is a disgrace. We're a 1st World economy with 3rd world systems.

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  22. http://www2.collinsvilleil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=352:april-2011-officer-of-the-month&catid=74:departments-police-officer-of-the-month&Itemid=161

    Officer of the month

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  23. Thank you for blogging about this... There are so many police officers (and other government officials) that abuse the authority granted to them by their positions and most of the time 'we the people' are powerless to do anything about it. Crooked cops, like crooked politicians, cover each others backs... It's infuriating... Thank you for spreading the truth.

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  24. This video is a good example why people should vote no in Washington on I-502. Imagine all the other Officers out there like this Officer in the video that would be pulling over and harassing innocent citizens under the assumption they were high on pot. It's such a shame these Officers are not held at a higher level of accountability. Actions like the one in this video should result in at the least a one month suspension of work and pay. Any of you Officers out there care to shed any of your thoughts on this matter?

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  25. This is a joke. Cinematographers looking for a payout.
    Heroin is killing our children and we need cops getting these drug pushers out of our town. I live here. Normal everyday Americans don't have a problem with a vehicle search or cops looking at personal stuff because they have nothing to hide.
    Quit looking for a payout and go make some real money. Don't deal drugs or shake down cities. Spend more time making yourselves real life wage earners.

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  26. To begin with: You and I don't know each other casually, let alone intimately, so we don't have any children together. My children -- that is, the children who have been entrusted to me by the Creator -- have sufficient moral discipline to avoid narcotics, and the moral intelligence to understand that this is something they have to do for themselves: No government has the legitimate authority to criminalize self-destructive behavior, because we are not the government's property.

    The torpid population you describe as "normal everyday Americans [who] don't have a problem" with illegal searches like the one carried out by recidivist perjurer Michael "Third" Reichert have nothing in common with our forebears, who literally fought a war to free themselves from a government whose officers routinely did similar things, albeit in a less egregious fashion.

    In this case, as you apparently are too dense to appreciate, the victims of this illegal search and unlawful detention had nothing to hide; Reichert -- as he had before -- prompted his dog to make a false prompt in order to create a pretext for an unlawful search. Those are crimes against the Constitution, Mr./Mrs./Ms./Mx Unknown. That's why Reichert got his tax-fattened ass kicked in court.

    Unlike Reichert and other costumed predators, Mr. Huff earns and honest living, and he has used the settlement he received as compensation for Reichert's crimes against his rights to fund activism on behalf of the Bill of Rights.

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