Steve Neavling

The FBI used excessive force when fatally shooting a 37-year-old man during a drug sting at a New Orleans motel, a civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday by the man’s family alleges.

The Times-Picayune reports that the family of Allen Desdunes also claims that FBI agents and other law enforcement tried to cover up the details of the July 30 shooting.

In April, the Justice Department concluded its investigation of the shooting and said charges weren’t warranted. The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office also declined to pursue criminal charges.

Family members said Desdunes was unarmed when he came under attack during a drug sting.

Steve Neavling

Frank Montoya Jr., who acted as head of national counterintelligence for the U.S. government, has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle Division, the Seattle Times reports.

Montoya most recently served as the national counterintelligence executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Montoya replaces Laura M. Laughlin, who abruptly retired in February.

Montoya joined the FBI in 1991 and was first stationed in the San Antonio Field Office, where he worked violent crime and fugitive investigations. He also worked temporarily in the Oklahoma office to help in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing investigation.

In June 1996, he transferred to the San Juan Field Office and worked in the special operations group and was a surveillance team leader on drug, violent crime, and national security cases, the FBI said.

He then went off to the Washington Field Office’s national security squad, and in April 2000, he went to headquarters where he oversaw national security investigations and operations. During that time, he assisted with the Robert Hanssen investigation.

In November 2002, he went to the Milwaukee Field Office where he was a supervisor and oversaw the counterintelligence squad and several national security investigations.

In 2005, it was back to headquarters where he was promoted to unit chief in the Counterintelligence Division.

In July 2007, he became a special agent in charge of the counterintelligence branch in the San Francisco office.

Steve Neavling

A Border Patrol agent who was killed while in a rollover accident on duty was not wearing a seatbelt, the Arizona Daily Star reports.

Agent Alexander Irving Giannini was driving a Dodge patrol truck on Interstate 10 in Arizona on Wednesday morning when “the truck’s left rear tire failed when the tread separated from the tire,” said Officer Carrick Cook, a state Department of Public Safety spokesman.

“The truck rotated clock wise and traveled right and off of the asphalt portion of the roadway,” Cook said. “When the truck entered the right dirt shoulder, it began to roll over.”

While Giannini, 24, was ejected, the passenger Agent Van Keith Hartwigsen was wearing a seatbelt and remained in the truck while it rolled.

Hartwigsen suffered “minor injuries and is expected to have a full recovery,” said Agent Nicole Ballistrea, a spokeswoman for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector.

Steve Neavling

Secret Service agents are expected to be on their best behavior this time.

Two years after the infamous prostitution scandal rocked the Secret Service, agents are returning to Columbia where Vice President Biden is expected to travel during the week of June 16, the Daily Caller reports.

“In Colombia, the Vice President will meet with President Santos to follow-up on the bilateral and regional prosperity and security agenda,” the White House said.

In 2012, up to 12 agents were implicated in the scandal, bring back prostitutes while the president was preparing for the Sixth Summit of the Americas.

Since then, the Secret Service implemented new rules and dismissed numerous agents.

Steve Neavling

The DEA’s crackdown on state-licensed medical marijuana operations may finally come to an end under a measure passed late Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, Huffington Post reports.

The bipartisan amendment, approved 219-189, would prevent the DEA from using federal funds to go after medical cannabis in states where it is legal.

The vote marks a seismic change in Congressional attitudes toward marijuana.

“We are nearing a point now where the United States Congress is essentially ready to end marijuana prohibition,” said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project.

The bill, which still has hurdles to clear, seeks to end DEA raids of cannabis dispensaries that comply with state law.

There are 22 states that allow the medical use of marijuana.

Thursday’s measure must now get approval from the Senate.

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