'Wounds speak for themselves' : The Morning Call Online

So the Hogan's lives have actually IMPROVED since he was shot - their marriage and family life are stronger, they had their first child, he has a job after being on disability for years and his mental illness is well-controlled with medication. Yet he still sues the police for excessive use of force? Why? Again, he and his wife causd the situation that night - I've said all along that Michael Hogan should be grateful he is alive and NOW I see that this event was actually the turning point in his life. It's better now than it ever was - so how is he claiming PTSD? I hope the jury sees this for what it is - a transparent, frivolous attempt to extort money from the Easton Police Department and the City of Easton.

Seems to me as if Hogan should not only be thanking the Easton PD for not killing him for his absolutely irresponsible reckless behavior but also for changing his life for the better. Seems like his getting shot was the best thing that happened to him.... better relationship with wife, had a child, able to go out in public, no longer drinking, improved his "disorders", got a job....
Instead of suing he should be thanking them profusely by seeing the bigger picture here and counting his blessings.
And as officer Marraccini testified....''if Hogan came up and presented a nonlethal threat then [Casterline] should shoot him.'' with a nonlethal plastic projectile... Coming up with a gun in your hand pointed in the direction of officers after threatening to shoot them is not a nonlethal threat.
I'm hoping that the five women and three men on the jury are able to be objective here and not overly sensitive to his "wounds" to see that this case needs to be thrown out of court and found in favor of the Easton PD.

Hey anonymous, didn't you just post that the Hogan is on a new drug that works for him? The testimony seems to differ.

Dattilio testified that Hogan is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the Feb. 25, 2002 incident. He said Hogan also continues to suffer from anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia, or fear of going out in public.

"

Excellent points Country Girl!

The new slogan for Easton will read: "welcome to Easton, A place to make millions"

The new slogan for Easton better read: "Welcome to Easton, where you are safe because the PD serve and protect"... even make your messed up life better than before.

It just proves, the more you pay. the better your expert witness is !! LOL!! I wonder how these defense atty's would feel if it was their daughter being abused, or beaten. I wonder if they would be so quick to fend the abuser ? Hmmmmmmmmm....

MrKlean wrote:

It just proves, the more you pay. the better your expert witness is !! LOL!! I wonder how these defense atty's would feel if it was their daughter being abused, or beaten. I wonder if they would be so quick to fend the abuser ? Hmmmmmmmmm....

I wonder how these defense atty's would feel if it was there daughter that was shot by an unstable drunk person because the police used less force tactics?? They are not defending abusers so it's a completely different scenario. They are defending the protectors of the citizens of Easton of which they did the best job that could have possibly been done in the scenario that was presented by Mr. Hogan's decisions that day. God bless the officers and the ridiculous stuff they have to deal with from ungrateful people.

88s wife - I hope as you read these postings you see that there are many people who support the police and are grateful for the job they do. I am sure as the wife of a police officer you must live constantly with the fear and anxiety that something bad may happen to your husband - then as if that isn't enough, you have to stand by and watch as they get sued for doing their job. It truly is a thankless profession.

But it also is a necessary one, and it takes a courageous, brave and resilient man (or woman) to put on that uniform every day and go out and face danger to protect the lives of innocent citizens, who often don't appreciate it. And to those who question the "danger" in the City of Easton, comparing it to Philly or Newark, you truly don't know what you are talking about. Easton is rife with drug and gang activity, prostitution and other serious crimes. Regardless of the level of criminal activity, though, we should all be grateful when we see a police officer as they are the ones who run towards danger while everyone else is running away.

Michael and Ann Hogan created the situation that night - and as I've said before, they need to take responsibility for their actions regardless of how embarrassed they are by them in the light of day. I hope the jury sees this for what it is, an attempt to extort money from the City of Easton. And I hope the next time Michael Hogan considers self-medicating with alcohol he takes a good hard look at his scars and remembers how lucky he is to be alive and here to enjoy is new and better life with his wife and child.

Country Girl wrote:

88s wife - I hope as you read these postings you see that there are many people who support the police and are grateful for the job they do. I am sure as the wife of a police officer you must live constantly with the fear and anxiety that something bad may happen to your husband - then as if that isn't enough, you have to stand by and watch as they get sued for doing their job. It truly is a thankless profession.
But it also is a necessary one, and it takes a courageous, brave and resilient man (or woman) to put on that uniform every day and go out and face danger to protect the lives of innocent citizens, who often don't appreciate it. And to those who question the "danger" in the City of Easton, comparing it to Philly or Newark, you truly don't know what you are talking about. Easton is rife with drug and gang activity, prostitution and other serious crimes. Regardless of the level of criminal activity, though, we should all be grateful when we see a police officer as they are the ones who run towards danger while everyone else is running away.
Michael and Ann Hogan created the situation that night - and as I've said before, they need to take responsibility for their actions regardless of how embarrassed they are by them in the light of day. I hope the jury sees this for what it is, an attempt to extort money from the City of Easton. And I hope the next time Michael Hogan considers self-medicating with alcohol he takes a good hard look at his scars and remembers how lucky he is to be alive and here to enjoy is new and better life with his wife and child.

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful words. I know that there are many grateful citizens of Easton and just grateful people in general to the officers and the job that they do. I see the great comments here from many and also from the thank you notes my husband has received from people he has arrested for turning their lives around! It's just a shame that the ungrateful ones make the officers jobs just that much harder to do when it is tough enough already. More people should stop officers on the street and just thank them for doing their job! I know it means a lot to them and lifts their spirits a little to keep doing the tough job that they have.
Thank you again for your great comments and kind words. I, my husband, and all officers, I'm sure, appreciate them.

Thank you EPD for 20 years of embarassment

EPD is a mess, and has been for years. This case, however, is ridiculous.

If Easton loses this case, it should really find better lawyers, it's the least the city can do to protect it's citizens from liability caused by a police department the city refuses to fix.

I just need to say to all you negative people, get a clue. The department is on it's way to accredidation and moving in a positive direction. Why not give these guys a chance and support them for once. It isn't all the same guys who created the bad reputation and allowed it to continue, the chief (who, I realize, didn't have the best results the first time around), has a great set of Captains along side him, and together the three of them along with all the hard working men at the department are truly making the necessary changes, but it is people like you who won't acknowledge this (fatboy2). It is so frustrating to know that although the department had its problems, and it's share of not so great cops and no support from the city and it's residents for years, these guys are making a huge difference and only get sh-- from people like you. They deserve an amazing amount of respect,and no matter what you say about them, they will be there if and when you need them. Hey, lawisanass, I think your name is one of the most disrespectful things you could use when posting on this type of article. Maybe it isn't the law that is an a--, but the person who perceives it as such.

fatboy2 wrote:

Thank you EPD for 20 years of embarassment

Your comment has no validity as you don't even know what the EPD really does on a daily basis because you don't even live in Easton. You are only getting your information from the newspapers which do not report all the facts accurately. If you ask me, your comments are an embarrassment as a representation of the citizens of the United States on how ungrateful we can be when we have so much to be thankful for... including the EPD. So your thoughts would be that it's embarassing when the officers of the EPD receive thank you notes from people they arrested for turning their lives around and helping to clean up the streets of Easton. Or from the mothers and fathers that thank them profusely for finding their lost sons and daughters. Or the parents that are thankful that they helped their kid out of a bad situation. Or the million other situations where they helped someone in a way that only these brave individuals can?? Or better yet, continue to make poor comments from the few incidents that you know about that were made to look bad in the public eye to sell newspapers. The choice is yours to make poorly or wisely... I guess we all have seen which one that is.

Why don't you start supporting people with 7-8 DUIs too

88s wife wrote:

<quoted text>
Your comment has no validity as you don't even know what the EPD really does on a daily basis because you don't even live in Easton. You are only getting your information from the newspapers which do not report all the facts accurately. If you ask me, your comments are an embarrassment as a representation of the citizens of the United States on how ungrateful we can be when we have so much to be thankful for... including the EPD. So your thoughts would be that it's embarassing when the officers of the EPD receive thank you notes from people they arrested for turning their lives around and helping to clean up the streets of Easton. Or from the mothers and fathers that thank them profusely for finding their lost sons and daughters. Or the parents that are thankful that they helped their kid out of a bad situation. Or the million other situations where they helped someone in a way that only these brave individuals can?? Or better yet, continue to make poor comments from the few incidents that you know about that were made to look bad in the public eye to sell newspapers. The choice is yours to make poorly or wisely... I guess we all have seen which one that is.

EPD WIFE wrote:

I just need to say to all you negative people, get a clue. The department is on it's way to accredidation and moving in a positive direction. Why not give these guys a chance and support them for once. It isn't all the same guys who created the bad reputation and allowed it to continue, the chief (who, I realize, didn't have the best results the first time around), has a great set of Captains along side him, and together the three of them along with all the hard working men at the department are truly making the necessary changes, but it is people like you who won't acknowledge this (fatboy2). It is so frustrating to know that although the department had its problems, and it's share of not so great cops and no support from the city and it's residents for years, these guys are making a huge difference and only get sh-- from people like you. They deserve an amazing amount of respect,and no matter what you say about them, they will be there if and when you need them. Hey, lawisanass, I think your name is one of the most disrespectful things you could use when posting on this type of article. Maybe it isn't the law that is an a--, but the person who perceives it as such.

Get use to fatboy2's rantings. He is a biker "wanna be" maybe one day I can be a bad guy too. He has no respect for the law or law enforcement authority, but most likely fatboy2 cowers in the face of the law. He even has no respect for the biker gangs he claimed to have hungout with, 20 some years ago. He couldn't even spell PAGAN correctly. So that tells me he likes to pretend a lot on here & pretend he knows what he is talking about. We'll see how this suit turns out, so far Hogan & his wife should be thankful he is still here. He should have died.

I am flattered that I take up so much of your feeble mind. EPD is going down again

Bitter wrote:

<quoted text>Get use to fatboy2's rantings. He is a biker "wanna be" maybe one day I can be a bad guy too. He has no respect for the law or law enforcement authority, but most likely fatboy2 cowers in the face of the law. He even has no respect for the biker gangs he claimed to have hungout with, 20 some years ago. He couldn't even spell PAGAN correctly. So that tells me he likes to pretend a lot on here & pretend he knows what he is talking about. We'll see how this suit turns out, so far Hogan & his wife should be thankful he is still here. He should have died.

fatboy2 wrote:

I am flattered that I take up so much of your feeble mind. EPD is going down again
<quoted text>

You can't spell,.. you can't think,... you're not worth another thought in my educated respectful mind.....

You must be a "wanna be" american because you don't even know when to use the word USE or the word USED. If you are going to base your statement on spelling try double checking your own.

Bitter wrote:

<quoted text>Get use to fatboy2's rantings. He is a biker "wanna be" maybe one day I can be a bad guy too. He has no respect for the law or law enforcement authority, but most likely fatboy2 cowers in the face of the law. He even has no respect for the biker gangs he claimed to have hungout with, 20 some years ago. He couldn't even spell PAGAN correctly. So that tells me he likes to pretend a lot on here & pretend he knows what he is talking about. We'll see how this suit turns out, so far Hogan & his wife should be thankful he is still here. He should have died.

Sorry folks.......I spent 2 hrs typing a "comment" that would be unbiased and then site erased it. Must have been too long LOL LOL LOL Is it worth trying again????? Let me think on that..........