FBI investigating Paradise cops

The Paradise Post reported last week that the FBI is conducting an investigation into charges of use of excessive force by some Paradise police officers. Paradise Police Chief Gerry Carrigan told the newspaper an FBI agent had asked for information pertaining to three specific cases. He said he welcomed the investigation and was confident it would exonerate his officers.

More recently, a jury acquitted one of the men claiming to be a victim of police brutality, 30-year-old Max Justin Schumacher, on felony charges of making criminal threats and resisting a police officer.

The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred as Officer Robert Pickering was transporting Schumacher to jail after arresting him for public drunkenness. Pickering said Schumacher threatened him and his family during the trip, but he lacked a recording of the threats; Schumacher insisted Pickering pulled over, pulled him from the vehicle, threw him on the ground and said, “You’ve crossed the line.”

The jury made its decision in the three-day trial after deliberating only two hours.