164 raids on innocent people in one story
***
These 164 results represent
The state of: All
For the year: All
And the following type of incident: Raid on an innocent suspect
Burbank Commons Apartment
February 27, 2008—LA
Eyewitnesses claim that SWAT officers raided an apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana looking for marijuana. At least one person said that he witnessed an officer throw a flash grenade over a balcony and several witnesses were distressed by the noise.
While the Baton Rouge Police Department declined to comment on the raid, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s office did confirm that they assisted in the action.
No drugs were found and no arrests were made.
Source:
J.J. Alcantara, "Police officers raid Burbank Commons apartment," LSU Daily Reveill
February 27, 2008—NC
Police intercepted a package containing 27 pounds of marijuana at a DHL delivery station. The package was addressed to an off-campus Duke University fraternity house. An investigator posted a note on the door of the house saying a delivery was attempted along with a number to call.
Eric Halperin, a resident of the house, called the number and said that no one by the name of the female addressee lived at the house. The package was nevertheless delivered. Halperin accepted the package and sat on the couch with it unopened. A special enforcement unit of the Durham police burst in with guns drawn, arrested Halperin, strip-searched him and charged him with drug trafficking.
Other than accepting the delivery, there was no evidence linking the package to Halperin or anyone else in the house.
Within a month, all charges were dropped against Halperin.
Source:
Anne Blythe, "Durham police chided for marijuana case," The News & Observer, March 27, 2008.
Vang Khang and Yee Mona
December 16, 2007—MN
At midnight, acting on a tip from an informant, Minneapolis SWAT officers charged into the home of the family of Yee Mona and her husband Vang Khang, looking for a weapons cache belonging to a man already in custody. Mona called 911, fearing that violent intruders were breaking into her home. Khang grabbed his shotgun and exchanged fire with the officers.
Khang was arrested, but was not charged with a crime. Two officers were hit in the exchange, but their protective gear prevented injury.
Source:
Caroline Lowe, "I-TEAM: Investigating Police Raid at Wrong House," WCCO.com, February 12, 2008.
Kayla Irwin
November 20, 2007—IN
Kayla Irwin, single mother of two, was left homeless after a SWAT raid on her apartment in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Neighbors said that the police had tried to get fugitive Sean Deaton to surrender, but when that failed, they used forced entry and tear gas.
Ms. Irwin claims she did not know Deaton and was not at home at the time of the raid. An eyewitness and Iraq war veteran said that the police "looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. They did not need to do all [that]."
Due to the "acrid gas residue" left from the tear gas, the apartment is unlivable. Originally, Ms. Irwin said that the police had only said they were "sorry for the inconvenience," but after being contacted by the news affiliate covering the story, the police quickly re-approached Ms. Irwin. The assistant police chief said "I’m surprised the incident has not been remedied. We will take care of it the best we can."
Source:
"Woman Works to Rebuild After Police Raid Her Home" WLWT.com, Nov. 21, 2007.
Pam and Frank Myers
November 16, 2007—MD
While watching a movie together, Pam and Frank Myers were interrupted by Sheriff’s Deputies of Prince George’s county banging on their door. The couple was held hostage by the deputies in the room and not allowed to go to the bathroom for 45 minutes.
Mr. and Mrs. Myers claim that in spite of the trauma, it could have ended well with an apology...until they heard two shots from the yard which killed their 5-year-old boxer, Pearl.
The police had the wrong house. The police later arrested the suspect named in the warrant on felony drug and weapons charges. As of Nov.19, 2007, the Myers family had received no apology.
Source:
"Deputies Raid Wrong Address, Kill Couple's Dog" WJLA -- ABC 7 News Nov. 19, 2007.
Denise Berndsen
October 15, 2007—WI
Denise Berndsen, 43, and her 74-year old father were"roughed up" by a Milwaukee SWAT team looking for child pornography.
The warrant was for the correct address, but the problem was that the person the police were looking for had moved out over a month previous to the raid. Ms. Berndsen, who complains of a stress disorder since the raid, wants to move out of her apartment and, as of Nov. 24, 2007, is unable to find a lawyer willing to take her case against the police for terrorizing her.
The police "more or less apologized." She said the police told her "We’re sorry. I guess you’re just one more of his victims."
Source:
Jim Stingl "Sometimes ‘sorry’ doesn’t cut it" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 24, 2007.
Jim Stingl "After botched raid, police find suspect" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 1, 2007.
Diana El-Bynum
September 9, 2007—PA
Diana El-Bynum and her husband were humiliated and handcuffed in front of their neighbors after the Philadelphia police made a forced entry into their house on Summer Street. The problem was that the Narcotics Division officers staking out 5400 Summer Street didn’t bother to phone-in the address. They gave the raiding officers a physical description of the house: it has "a black storm door with a pickup [truck] out front."
5400 Summer Street is five houses down from the El-Bynum’s house. Both houses have a black storm door and pickup truck out front.
Source:
Julie Kim. "Police Apologize for Busting Down Family's Door During Dinner" MyFox Philadelphia 29 News, September 11, 2007.
Jeremy Chad Myers
September 6, 2007—CO
After a lengthy investigation that had undercover detectives searching through his trash and placing two surveillance cameras near his house, Jeremy Chad Myers’ home was subjected to a no-knock raid on suspicion of being a methamphetamine lab. Initial tests at the scene tested positive for meth, but later lab results showed that the tests were just plain wrong.
The false charges have cost Myers’ self-owned business as a back-hoe operator. His reputation tarnished, Myers was forced to sell his equipment.
Police were originally drawn to Myers on the tip of a confidential informant.
Source:
Pamela Dickman. "All charges dropped in sugar factory meth case" Loveland Reporter Herald, November 15, 2007.
Pamela Dickman "CBI report casts doubt on ‘meth’ find" Loveland Reporter Herald, November 6, 2007.
David and Lillian Scott
August 24, 2007—CA
A small group of Temecula police officers, known as the Street Enforcement Team (SET), carrying rifles burst through an unlocked screen door into the home of David and Lillian Scott and handcuffed them face-down on the floor. Also handcuffed were their 15-year-old daughter, two of her friends who were over at the time, and their 16-year-old son who was watching the couple’s 5-month-old baby. When Lillian inquired as to the safety of the baby, she says an officer told her that if she moved, "he was going to put a bullet in my head."
The raid was supposed to be at a parolee’s nearby one-story house. The Scotts live in a two-story home.
The SET was disbanded, and investigation was still underway as of September 13, 2007. However, a renamed team with the same mission was reconstituted with new members to replace the SET. After emailing the Mayor’s office, the Scotts were personally visited by the Mayor and police chief offering full and public apologies.
Source:
John Hall and John Hunneman. "Team of Temecula officers disbanded, under investigation." North County Times, August 31, 2007.
John Hall. "New Enforcement team replaces one disbanded and under investigation" North County Times, September 13, 2007.
Mike and Thelma Lefort
August 7, 2007—LA
Two narcotics agents broke into the Lefort home when Mike, 61, and his mother Thelma, 83, were relaxing for the evening.
The police apologized for breaking into the wrong house. A two-officer warrant verification procedure was implemented as a result of the incident.
Source:
"Narc agents barge into wrong house in Lafourche" KATC-3
Virginia Herrick
June 8, 2007—CO
As she was just about to sit down to watch "Price is Right," La Plata County Sheriffs broke into the home of Virginia Herrick, 77, forced her to the ground and attempted to arrest her. Ms. Herrick, who is on oxygen treatment, was kept on the ground until the officers asked her the address of her home -- 74 Hidden Lane. The warrant listed 82 Hidden Lane. Profuse apologies abounded.
Source:
Shane Benjamin. "Drug raid nabs wrong woman" Durango Herald, June 15. 2007.
Alisaleh Moshad Ali
May 9, 2007—NY
New York City Police are accused of breaking into a Yemeni immigrant’s home, holding him at gunpoint and illegally removing $2000 in cash from a jacket in his closet.
Police later apologized for the mistake. However, no explanation was given for the missing $2000. The NYPD claim that someone else had the opportunity to steal the money for a 30 minute period following the incident that Ali was not at home. This opportunity, not coincidentally, existed because the police had broken the door to his apartment.
Source:
UPI. "New York police raid wrong apartment" News Daily.com, May 20, 2007.
Debbie Bergman
May 2, 2007—ID
Sandpoint police broke down the door of Ms. Debbie Bergman while she was away. They realized they had the wrong mobile home when they saw mail not addressed to the suspect after forcing entry with a shovel from her porch.
The officers checked with the trailer park manager to find the right address and they subsequently found the drugs and suspect they were looking for.
The police offered to pay for any damages to the Ms. Bergman’s home.
Source:
Gwen Albers. "Police raid targets wrong address," Bonner County Daily Bee, May 4, 2007.
Nicole Thompson
March 27, 2007—MN
What began as a routine drug investigation ended with police screaming to Nicole Thompson, a mother of four, "If you move, I'll shot you in the f-head".
Police had set up a drug sting with an informant to catch Ryan Robert Baker. The informant stopped to meet Baker in front of the Thompsons' house where they run a video and film production business. Neither the informant nor Baker knew the Thompsons and police found later that the informant chose the house at random.
Baker tried to rob the informant and one of the men rang the doorbell. This is when Nicole Thompson called 911 asking for assistance right before police exited their vehicle and "ordered everyone to the ground". Eventually the officers realized the Thompsons were innocent, but it was too late--Nicole "flinches every time there's a rap on the door" and her husband adds "we're not afraid of the bad guys as much as we're afraid of the good guys."
Willie Davis Sr.
March 23, 2007—FL
Police raided the home of Willie Davis Sr. Officers handcuffed Davis and his 19 year old mentally disabled nephew. They were looking for drugs but found nothing illegal.
While the home had been the site of previous drug raids, Davis Sr.’s relative, Chinnetta Davis, told police that “no one sold drugs inside her family’s home on March 12” and that ‘they came here and they made a mistake.”
Police say the raid is under investigation and that if the officers did anything wrong, they would be held accountable.
Source
Bridget Murphy " DreShawna's family angry about drug raid; The girl's family denies that any of them sold crack to an undercover officer. " The Times-Union, March 23, 2007.
Willie Davis Sr.
March 23, 2007—FL
Police raided the home of Willie Davis Sr. Officers handcuffed Davis and his 19 year old mentally disabled nephew. They were looking for drugs but found nothing illegal.
While the home had been the site of previous drug raids, Davis Sr.’s relative, Chinnetta Davis, told police that “no one sold drugs inside her family’s home on March 12” and that ‘they came here and they made a mistake.”
Police say the raid is under investigation and that if the officers did anything wrong, they would be held accountable.
Source
Bridget Murphy " DreShawna's family angry about drug raid; The girl's family denies that any of them sold crack to an undercover officer. " The Times-Union, March 23, 2007.
Barbara Cross
March 22, 2007—GA
Alpharetta police conducted a raid on Barbara Cross' apartment to investigate a series of car break-ins at a local mall. The suspects in these break-ins provided Cross' address as their residence. Cross was not home at the time of entry but says she feels "raped and violated" by the ransacking of her home by the police.
Source
" Councilman Disputes Account of Apartment Entry " WSB Radio.com, March 22, 2007.
Carl Keane and Chieko Strange
December 19, 2006—CA
A couple in Petaluma claims that local police and federal DEA agents violated their rights when the agents served a warrant at their home. According to their lawsuit, the agents failed to properly announce their presence or identify themselves, lacked probable cause, and used excessive force.
No drugs, drug residue, money or weapons were found on the property. Keane was charged with suspicion of drug trafficking, but the charges were dropped in March 2007.
Source:
Jim Staats "Mill Valley couple sues over ‘shocking’drug raid" Marin Independent Journal, September 22, 2007.
AP. "North Coast couple says rights were violated in drug raid" Mercury News, September 25, 2007.
Mary Silva
November 17, 2006—CA
On November 17, 2006, nine law enforcement agencies struck 8 different locations simultaneously. Although the main target, 21-year-old Winton resident Gisell Campos was not apprehended and only two of the seven arrested in the raids remain in jail, police are calling the operation "well worth the effort."
One of the houses raided was that of 68-year-old Mary Silva, who lives alone. Police were actually looking for Silva's next door neighbor and relative, Reginaldo Ramirez, although their warrant listed neither the address of Silva, nor that of her neighbor.
Though damages to Silva's apartment will be taken care of by the sheriff's department if it is determined that deputies made a mistake when they served the search warrant, Silva "can't stop shaking and is plagued by dreams about people knocking on her front door."
Police are assigning blame to Silva's relative who, they say, "was using some type of elderly relative to hide his true residence."
Source
Leslie Albrecht, " Was the raid a bust? " Merced Sun-Star, November 25, 2006.
A.J. Nuckols
October 25, 2006—VA
While working as a reserve sheriff's deputy, basketball all-star, Shaquille O'Neal participated in a child pornography raid gone wrong.
After obtaining an IP address from an Internet service provider and matching that IP address to a physical address, police raided the home of A.J. Nuckols.
Nuckols and his family were "held at gunpoint, taunted, and led into the house," before the paramilitary team secured possession of electronic devices such as their DVDs, cameras and computers.
The police subsequently realized that they had raided the wrong home.
Source
" Shaquille O'Neal At Botched Raid While Working In Va. As Reserve Deputy " Associated Press, October 25, 2006.
Raybon and Annie Hunt
September 28, 2006—TX
A search warrant was served on 940 Church Street in Brookeland. The problem was that the warrant was for 126 Circle Drive, over six miles away.
During the raid, according to a lawsuit filed by the Hunts, the police tore down the gate, broke down the door, and "trashed the house." The couple was also ordered to the ground at gunpoint.
Source:
Hearst Newspapers. "Lawsuit filed against local police officers," Jasper Newsboy, August 1, 2007.
The Hines Family.
July 12, 2006—VA
In July 2006, U.S. Marshalls break down the door of a Dale City, Virginia family at 6 am as part of a larger drug sweep in the area. They were looking for a man who hadn't lived in the home for more than a year.
Police break down the door to the family's home, then handcuff Arlita Hines and three teenagers and line them up face down on the floor for two hours while they rifle through their belongings.
Police soon realize they've made a mistake, and leave without an apology, leaving only a form reporting the damage.
"We're all traumatized," Hines told the Washington Post, "especially the kids. To have a gun pointed in their faces, that's mental."
Sources:
Theresa Vargas, "Dozens Arrested in Drugs, Gun Sting," Washington Post, July 13, 2006.
"Big Bust Brings Wake-Up Call to Wrong House," Channel 9 News, WUSA.com, July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.
Kenneth Jamar
June 27, 2006—AL
On the morning of June 27, 2006, a SWAT team forcibly enters the home Kenneth Jamar, a man in his 50's suffering from gout. Police say Jamar confronted them with a weapon, causing them to open fire. Jamar would be hospitalized in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds. Family members dispute the officers' account of the raid, noting Jamar's infirm status, and that the man "couldn't get up to make himself a ham sandwich."
Police were looking Jerome Wallace, wanted on drug conspiracy chargers. Jamar is the Wallace's uncle, but Wallace does not live with Jamar, and never has.
The police later picked up Jerome Wallace at the scene as he watched his uncle being taken to the hospital.
Source:
Holly Hollman, "Officers allegedly shoot man at wrong address," The Decatur Daily, June 28, 2006.
Keith Clines, "Officers Return to Regular Duty; Victim Improves," The Huntsville Times, June 30, 2006.
Jerry Agee
June 22, 2006—OH
Just after 6 a.m. on June 22, 2006, police smash a battering ram through Jerry Agee's front door. When police break in with guns pointed directly at Agee, the 57-year old is cooking eggs.
As the raid transpired, Agee's girlfriend had just gotten out of the shower, and was ordered to come out of the bedroom with her hands up. She came out nude, and was refused the opportunity to dress.
"She was naked, and they didn't even let her put nothing on," Agee said. "I was mad because I felt like she was being violated."
After the police realized their mistake, they searched for a while longer, then left without an apology. Agee and his girlfriend are considering a lawsuit.
Sources:
Adam Wright, "Warrant Targets Wrong Home, Wrong Man," The Chronicle-Telegram, June 28, 2006.
Kristina Radke and Kenneth Berhenke
May 22, 2006—WI
On May 22, a narcotics SWAT team storms the home of Kristina Radke and Kenneth Berhenke on a no-knock raid. They shatter the couple's window, roll in a diversionary grenade, then break open the door. Radke and Berhenke, who were preparing for bed, are apprehended, handcuffed and held at gunpoint.
Police soon realize they've targeted the wrong home. They later return to search the correct apartment, enter without the violent tactics, and arrest the occupants without incident. They seize a little over two ounces of marijuana and some mushrooms. They also find gun ammunition, but no weapon.
Source:
George Hesselberg, "Drug Force Apologetic for Police Error," Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 2006.
Beverly Salazar-Duran
April 21, 2006—NM
On April 21 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, police officers storm the house of Beverly Salazar-Duran with their guns drawn.
Salazar-Duran says the ensuing raid and search are violent and aggressive, with officers physically and verbally abusing her and her 21-year-old son. She says they emptied drawers on the floor, dismantled furniture and tossed mattresses off the bed.
Officers eventually realized their mistake, and left. Salazar-Duran has filed a lawsuit against two of the officers involved in the search.
Source:
Joseph Pawloski, "Women Sues Over Search of Home; Filing Says Police Had Bad Address," Albuquerque Journal, May 27, 2006.
Botched Raid on an Elderly Couple.
March 22, 2006—MS
Police in Horn Lake, Mississippi raid a home after a tip from an informant that someone's operating a meth lab inside.
Once the paramilitary unit arrives at the scene, however, they find two houses on the property instead of one. They decide to pick one, and conduct the raid anyway. They end up waking up, terrorizing, and injuring a couple in their 80s, leaving the man with bruised ribs and the woman with a dislocated shoulder. They find the meth lab in the other house.
Police chief Darryl Whaley insisted that his officers "acted properly" and "followed procedures" in guessing which home was correct before commencing with the raid.
Source:
"Elderly couple hurt in raid on wrong house by Horn Lake police," Associated Press, March 23, 2006.
SWAT Team Raids Student Film Crew.
March 20, 2006—FL
A SWAT team in Fernandina Beach, Florida storms a post office building after a bar patron reports a hostage situation. The SWAT team draws its guns and points them at the door of the building. Inside, a high school class is filming a movie. They had sought and gained permission from the local postmaster to shoot the film. The students are ordered to the ground at gunpoint by the raiding officers before they realize their mistake.
Source:
"SWAT Team Called to High School Film Shoot," North Country Gazette, March 26, 2006.
H. Victor Buerosse.
December 30, 2005—WI
On December 30, 2005, police in Pewaukee, Wisconsin break into the home of 68-year-old H. Victor Buerosse in a predawn raid. Buerosse is thrown into a closet door, then to the ground, and hit in the head with a police shield.
Despite his protests that police have the wrong address, they don't concede their mistake until a sergeant arrives later. They leave without an apology.
They eventually raid the correct residence, where they find a small amount of marijuana. Buerosse, a retired attorney, tells a local reporter, "SWAT teams are not meant for simple pot possession cases. The purpose of SWAT teams is to give police departments a specially trained unit to react to a violent situation, not to create one. This should not happen in America. To me you can't justify carrying out simple, routine police work this way."
Source:
Brian Huber, "Man says he was mistakenly targeted in drug raid," GM Today, January 5, 2006.
Michelle Clancy.
December 21, 2005—NJ
On December 21, 2005, police in Paterson, New Jersey storm the home of Michelle Clancy on a drug warrant. Police break off her doorknob while forcing entry at 5:30 a.m.
Clancy, her 65-year-old father, and her 13-year-old daughter are home at the time. Police later confirm they have raided the wrong apartment. Police spokesman Lt. Anthony Traina tells one reporter, "These things do happen."
Source:
Douglass Crouse, "Wrong house hit in cops' drug raid," The New Jersey Record, December 22, 2005, p. L3.
Fernando Lopez.
November 22, 2005—NJ
On November 22, 2005, police in four New Jersey counties launch "Operation Bulldog," a series of paramilitary drug raids netting 120 arrests and 60 vehicle seizures. One raid, however, goes wrong.
At 4:45 a.m., officers erroneously target the apartment of Fernando Lopez, who is pushed against a wall and incapacitated as three police officers hold guns to his head.
When Lopez is finally able to see the warrant, he points out that the officers have the wrong apartment. One replies "Oh, my God," and the team leaves without explanation.
Source: Maria Armental, "Did Cops Enter Wrong Home in Drug Raid?" Daily Record, November 22, 2005.
The Foley Family.
October 5, 2005—RI
On October 5, 2005, a North Providence, Rhode Island SWAT team raids the home of Paul Foley and his family, including his 14-year-old daughter. Foley tells the Providence Journal that police came "bursting through his front door, yelling and screaming at everyone in his house." They had the wrong home.
Despite the raid, Foley would later profess, "I totally support Mayor Paul Marino and the North Providence Police Department, 100 percent and without reservation."
Source:
Mark Reynolds, "Police drug raid ends in apology," Providence Journal, October 7, 2005.
Roy and Belinda Baker.
September 30, 2005—GA
Early in the morning on September 30, 2005, police in Stockbridge, Georgia conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Roy and Belinda Baker.
Officers break down the couple's front door with a battering ram and toss in flashbang grenades. They hold the couple at gunpoint, handcuff them, and then send them out onto their porch, only partially clothed. Police ruin a family Bible and antique coffee table during the raid.
Police eventually realize the intended target of the raid lives next door.
Police Chief Russ Abernathy called the raid "inexcusable" and "not acceptable," and blamed poor street lighting.
But Abernathy added that no one would be fired, and that the raids would go on, albeit after "reviewing procedures."
The Bakers are considering a lawsuit.
Sources:
Kathy Jefcoats, "Henry police raid 'inexcusable'; Couple gets wake-up call meant for their neighbor," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 6, 2005.
Kathy Jefcoats, "Suit threatened in raid 'mistake,'" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 4, 2006.
The Bel Aire Sunflower Raid.
September 6, 2005—KS
In September 2005, police in Bel Aire, Kansas raid the home of the town's former mayor after mistaking sunflowers in the mayor's backyard for marijuana plants. Police took pictures of the plants, and showed them to a district attorney, who showed them to a judge. All agreed that the photographed plants were marijuana.
The sunflower, incidentally, also happens to be the state flower of Kansas.
Source:
"Bel Aire police mistake sunflower plants for marijuana," Associated Press, September 17, 2005.
Cedelie Pompee.
August 23, 2005—NJ
In August 2005, police in Newark, New Jersey raid a home owned by 59-year-old Cedelie Pompee while looking for drugs and guns. Pompee, her family, and the family to whom she rents an apartment in the building would later say police cursed at them while ravaging through their belongings.
Officials from the state police SWAT team and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration later realize they have commenced the raid on the wrong street. The Associated Press reports that state police had made a similar mistake just four months earlier.
Source:
Jonathan Casiano, "SWAT team raids wrong home - State Police and DEA agents frighten residents and tear up house," The Star-Ledger, August 25, 2005, p. 1.
"Officers smash doors and search wrong house," Associated Press, August 25, 2005.
David Scheper and Sascha Wagner.
August 18, 2005—MD
On August 18, 2005, police in Baltimore, Maryland force their way into the home of David Scheper and Sascha Wagner. Thinking they are being robbed, Wagner calls 911, telling the operator, "There's someone breaking into my house." Scheper slams the door on the officers, who never announce they are police.
The officers then shatter the glass on the home's front door. Scheper stands just inside, holding his 12-gauge shotgun. He doesn't have ammunition, but he hopes that racking the gun within earshot of the door would scare off what he still believes are intruders. When they don't leave, Scheper retreats to his basement, and grabs the only functioning weapon in his house, a CZ-52 semiautomatic, what he calls a "piece-of-junk Czechoslovakian pistol." As Scheper struggles to load the weapon, it accidentally discharges, sending a round into the floor of his basement.
Police would eventually enter, and seize $1,440 in cash Scheper says he had recently withdrawn to buy a used pickup truck. According to the Baltimore City Paper, police also "...hit a 70-year-old art-deco-style metal desk with an ax. They took 18 of Scheper's guns--mostly inoperable antiques, he says--and some gun-shaped props he had built for movies. 'They threatened to blow up my safe,' Scheper says, so he opened it for them."
The police had made an error. They also had no search warrant. They were looking for a tenant Scheper had evicted weeks earlier. Nevertheless, police still put Scheper's antique gun collection on display for the local news as part of a "roundup" of illegal weapons they'd found in two local raids.
The only charge to come of the police visit to Scheper's home was one against Scheper for firing the weapon in his basement, which carried a $1,000 fine and a year in prison. Prosecutors eventually dropped that charge, but only after Scheper's lawyer successfully fought to get Wagner's 911 call admitted as evidence, over the objection of prosecutors.
Source:
Edward Ericson, Jr., "Breakin? All the Rules; Prosecutor Drop Case Against Man Who Says Plainclothes Police Tried To Force Way Into His Home Without Warrant," Baltimore City Paper, December 21, 2005.
John Simpson.
June 15, 2005—ID
Police in Nampa, Idaho serving a drug warrant toss a flashbang grenade into the home of Vietnam veteran John Simpson.
The frightened Simpson first takes cover, and attempts to protect his wife. He then composes himself, assumes he's being attacked by intruders, and immediately ventures out with the only weapon he can find, the hose from a vacuum cleaner.
The police had targeted the wrong side of Simpson's duplex. "I guess we're going to have to seek psychological help, I hate to say that," Simpson would later tell the Associated Press. "I'm not nuts or anything, but I'm still shaking. Put a shotgun next to your ear and pull the trigger to get an idea of the noise."
Police later pick up Simpson's neighbor with four ounces of marijuana.
Source:
"Cops Raid Wrong Duplex With Noise Device," Associated Press, June 17, 2005.
The Chidester Family.
May 25, 2005—UT
In May 2005, a SWAT team in Springville, Utah conducts a raid on a home, and ends up raiding an innocent family next door.
Larry Chidester awakes to the sound of flashbang grenades at the home next to his. He steps outside, and sees members of a SWAT team preparing to raid his neighbor's house. According to court documents from a lawsuit filed by the Chidester family, one of the SWAT officers spots Larry Chidester, points at him, and exclaims, "There's one!" Chidester throws his hands in the air and repeatedly says, "I'm not resisting." The officer tackles Chidester, and "shove[s] his face into the ground and rocks." Larry Chidester would later be taken to the emergency room for treatment.
Police then kick open a side door to the Chidester home and swarm the bedroom where Lawrence Chidester -- Larry's father -- is dressing. They throw him to the floor and train a gun to the back of his head.
SWAT officers would later concede they had raided the wrong home. Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy admitted the Chidester home wasn't the original target of the raid, but that police decided to raid the family's home as "an ancillary issue." He added that the police department disputed the accuracy of the Chidesters' account of the raid, but wouldn't give details.
Source:
Michael Rigert, "Family sues SWAT team after raid on their home," Daily Herald, July 28, 2005.
Philip Petronella.
May 9, 2005—NJ
Five state police officers in masks, bulletbroof vests, and donning assault weapons break into the home of Philip Petronella as he's watching television. Though the front door is unlocked, they break it down anyway. They handcuff Petronella, and sit him on the couch while they rifle through his belongings.
The search goes on for hours. Police finally reveal to Petronella, a 63-year-old retiree, that they believe his home is being used for prostitution. "I told them, 'You gotta be kidding. I ain't getting any. Nobody else is getting any out of here,'" Petronella told a local newspaper.
Police later realize that the suspects they were looking for had moved out months earlier.
Source:
Arielle Levin Becker, "State police search targets wrong tenant," Home News Tribune, May 11, 2005.
The Celis Family.
April 30, 2005—CA
Police in SWAT gear enter the home of Rudolpho Celis and his family, then hold him and his five children at gunpoint while they search the home for a parolee.
Police had no warrant, and had entered the wrong home. "When I saw my son's face, I felt ashamed because I wasn't doing what a dad is supposed to do," Celis, 54, told a local newspaper. "I felt like I should have protected my kids. I accepted his apologies, but I keep thinking what would have happened if one of my kids had gotten scared and tried to run -- somebody could have been shot."
Lt. Bob Davenport told the paper that officers couldn't use flashlights to verify the address at the home because it would have put them at a "tactical disadvantage."
Sources:
William Fenn Bennett, "Officers raid wrong house; Resident says family traumatized," North County Times, May 6, 2005.
The McCulley Family.
March 15, 2005—HI
In March 2005, police in Omao, Kauai break into the home of Sharon and William McCulley on a drug raid. They're tracking a box that allegedly contains marijuana, and believe it to be in the McCulley's possession.
The McCulleys, who are home with their grandchildren, are thrown to the ground in the raid. Sharon McCulley is handcuffed and held to the ground with a gun to her head as her grandchild lays next to her. William McCulley, who walks with a walker and has an implanted device that delivers electrical shocks to his spine to relieve pain, begins flopping around the floor after the device malfunctions from the trauma of being thrown to the ground.
Police have the wrong address. They erroneously raid a second home before finally locating the box and arresting several men for distribution of marijuana.
Source:
Tom Finnegan, "Wrong House Bust Brings Suit," Honolulu Star Bulletin, January 12, 2006.
Mini Matos.
January 15, 2005—NY
NYPD officers conduct a predawn raid on the Coney Island home of Mini Matos and her two children. The three are pulled from their beds early in the morning. Matos, who is deaf, speech-impaired, and has asthma, is handcuffed at gunpoint in front of her children, ages eight and five.
Police later realized they had the wrong apartment.
Source:
Rocco Parascandola, "Police raid wrong home; Deaf B'klyn mother of two pulled from bed and handcuffed by narcotics cops who were on wrong floor," Newsday, April 8, 2005, p. A6.
Queen Moore.
October 10, 2004—NE
On October 10, 2004 police in Omaha, Nebraska conduct a narcotics raid on the home of Queen Moore, an elderly woman who can barely sign her own name. When Moore files suit to recoup the damage police do to her home, the officers involved with the raid initially refuse to be interviewed, on advice from their police union. Worse, the police department then tells Moore her complaint isn't valid because union rules require it to be handwritten, not typewritten.
Moore's lawyer responds that requiring her to personally write out her complaint "is not only illegal, but unduly burdensome and harassing."
A court later concludes that police were justified in conducting a no-knock raid on Moore's home. The warrant had correctly listed her address as the address from which a confidential informant says he bought crack from a man named "Ernie." Moore's attorney says she knows no one named "Ernie," but discovers that a man named Ernie does live several blocks away.
Police find no contraband in Moore's home. She is never charged or arrested.
Source:
Kevin Cole, "Suit seeks officers' testimony; An Omaha woman says police refuse to talk about a search of her home that she says was illegal," Omaha World-Herald, January 6, 2005, p. B3
Lynn Safranek, "Lawsuit to be dropped over search of home," Omaha World-Herald, January 7, 2005, pg. 3B.
James Elliott and Teresa Guiler.
September 10, 2004—TN
In September 2004, police in Clarksville, Tennessee erroneously raid the home of Teresa Guiler, 55, and James Elliott, 54.
Elliott is deaf, and recovering from a liver transplant at the time of the raid.
The warrant had identified the wrong home. Police Chief Mark Smith promises an investigation to make sure the same mistake doesn't happen again.
Source:
"Chief to Issue Apology After Police Raid Wrong Home," News Channel 5, Tennessee, September 13.
The Texas Hibiscus Raid.
July 27, 2004—TX
On July 27, 2004, police in Houston, Texas break open the front door of Blair Davis, a landscape contractor. Police scream, "Down on the Floor! Down on the Floor!" while pointing an assault weapon at Davis's head.
Davis' first thought was that the invaders were criminals dressed as police, a continuing problem in the Houston area. The team of 8-10 police officers push Davis to the ground and handcuff him while they search his home. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant who says Davis is growing marijuana in his home.
The plants in question turned out to be hibiscus. Police would never apologize to Davis.
Dan Webb, operations commander for the paramilitary unit that conducted the raid, would later say it's "unfortunate" that Davis "got caught up in this situation," but that "if the situation came up today, we would've probably done the same thing." Webb would add that "it's not a mistaken search warrant . . . if we believe it's marijuana, until we go look at it, we're not really going to know for sure."
Source:
Michael Serazio, "Pot Shots; Raiding narcs get a hibiscus low from their horticulture shock," Houston Press, August 5, 2004.
Josh Brudwick and Kate Rhodes.
July 25, 2004—CO
In July 2004, police in Frisco, Colorado conduct a forced-entry raid on Brudwick and Rhodes' condomimium after a neighbor reported an "odor" that led police to believe the couple might be running a meth lab. A judge granted the warrant based only on the odor.
There was no meth lab. The Summit County Drug Task Force promised to repay the damage to the couple's doors, doorframes, mirror, and "other items." The couple says they were held in handcuffs, threatened, and harassed by police attempting to get them to confess while the officers rifled through their personal belongings.
Three months later, the couple was cleared of all wrongdoing when tests showed samples taken from the apartment to be free of more than 20 possible controlled substances.
Nevertheless, police officials maintain that the raid was entirely appropriate.
"We feel we reacted appropriately with the information we had," one police official told the local paper. "At the time we did it, we were confident in what we were looking for -- it couldn't have been anything else."
A neighbor speculated to the local newspaper that the odor may have been caused by squirrels who had taken residence in the building.
Source:
Jane Stebbins, "Police to Pay for Damages," Summit Daily News, July 28, 2004.
Jane Stebbins, "Victims of botched meth raid file suit," Summit Daily News, November 17, 2004.
Andrea Baker, Erik Kush, Julie Madrigal.
July 23, 2004—AZ
Police conduct a massively armed raid on a home they suspect contains illegal assault weapons and ammunition. In a densely-populated, upscale neighborhood, a SWAT team from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, complete with an armored personnel carrier, uses grenade launchers to fire at least four rounds of tear gas into the windows of the home. The quarter-million dollar home catches fire shortly after officers enter.
As the homeowners evacuate, police officers chase the family's 10-month-old pit bull puppy back into the burning house with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog perishes in the flames. Police allegedly laugh at Andrea Baker, the dog's owner, as she cries at their cruelty.
Later, the brakes fail on the SWAT team's armored personnel carrier, causing it to lurch down the street and smash into a parked car. The car's owner, Julie Madrigal, had fled the car just moments earlier with her nine-year-old daughter after the two grew frightened by the firing of tear gas canisters by SWAT officers.
The home is completely destroyed. Nearby homes are also put at risk. Police find no assault weapons, only an antique shotgun and a nine-millimeter pistol, both of which are legally owned. Nevertheless, police arrest 26-year-old Erik Kush on outstanding traffic violations.
The sheriff of Maricopa County is Joe Arpairo, who made national headlines in the 1990s for his aggressive treatment of inmates and unconventional approaches to crime control. One member of Sheriff Arpairo's SWAT team once told CBS News reporter Jim Stewart the best part of being on the SWAT team is that, "You get to play with a lot of guns. That's what's fun. You know, everybody on this team is--you know, loves guns." Another adds, "Hey, the bottom line is it's friggin' fun, man. That's the deal. Nobody wants to take burglary reports."
Sources:
John Dougherty, "Dog Day Afternoon," Phoenix New Times, August 5, 2004.
"Ill-Treatment of Inmates in Maricopa County Jails, Arizona," Amnesty International, August 1, 1997, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510511997?open&of=ENG-373.
Jim Stewart, "Use of SWAT teams up greatly across the country," CBS This Morning, December 9, 1997.
Charles Hall.
July 12, 2004—IN
In July 2004, DEA agents storm the temp agency office owned by Evansville, Indiana man Charles Hall. Hall is handcuffed and arrested in front of his employees and taken to the county courthouse.
Police drop the charges when they realize they've mistaken Hall for a drug suspect with the same name. Despite admitting their mistake, Hall is still included in a list of arrested suspects the DEA sends to the media. It is the second time in a year that Hall is wrongly arrested.
Source:
"Man Wrongly Accused in Drug Raid," Louisville Courier-Journal, August 26, 2004.
Tomika Smith.
July 2, 2004—NC
Police toss a flash grenade into a home as part of a no-knock raid in July 2002. The grenade lands on a couch where Tomika Smith is sitting, ignites the couch, and leaves Smith with severe burns.
Smith was on a date at the time, and not suspected of any crime. She won a $10,000 settlement in 2004.
Source:
"Cumberland County Pays Burned Woman $10,000," Fayetteville Observer, October 1, 2004.
Martin and Leona Goldberg.
March 31, 2004—NY
On March 31, 2004, six officers toting riot shields and assault weapons rap on the door to the Brooklyn apartment of 84 year-old Martin Goldberg and his wife Leona, 82. When Goldberg opens, police storm the apartment, pushing Mr. Goldberg aside and ordering him to the floor. "They charged in like an army," Goldberg, a decorated World War II vet, would tell the New York Post. "They knocked pictures off the wall."
Police had the wrong apartment. The raid apparently went wrong on March 11, when an informant pointed police to one of two housing project buildings as the home of a drug dealer. Police stormed the wrong building.
Shortly after the raid, Leona Goldberg was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat.
"It was terrible . . . It was the most frightening experience of my life . . . I thought it was a terrorist attack," Mrs. Goldberg told the Post. One officer would later tell the paper, "Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication. These were relatively inexperienced officers, and they may have been less than vigilant."
Sources:
Marianne Garvey and Zach Haberman, "Nightmare Raid -- Old Couple Rocked as Cops Hit Wrong Apt.," New York Post, April 2, 2004, p. 27.
Georgett Roberts and Cynthia R. Fagen, "Wrong Apt. Raiders in Sorry State," New York Post, April 4, 2004, p. 8.
Thomas Spear.
March 3, 2004—NV
A Las Vegas SWAT team deploys a flashbang grenade and breaks through the glass patio door of Thomas Spear, a 25-year Air Force veteran. Officers handcuff Spear and drag him across the shards of glass while yelling obscenities at him.
The SWAT team believed Spear was about to commit suicide. Spears was actually recovering from brain surgery, was partially paralyzed, and had fallen asleep after taking an extra dose of anti-seizure medication.
Spears had broken no laws. After the raid, the Spears were shunned by neighbors, and forced to move to another town. Spears said enduring the effects of the raid was worse than his illness. "It's much worse than being paralyzed on half your body," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Source:
Brian Haynes, "SWAT Incident: Pair Seeks $5 million in Lawsuit," Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 2, 2006.
Patrice Agrippa.
February 12, 2004—NY
In early 2004, police raid Agrippa's home and arrest him, accusing him of laundering money for a multimillion dollar cocaine network. A judge sets Agrippa's bail at $1 million, and the 34-year old plasterer and father of two was held for six months at Riker's Island prison before his family could get his bail reduced. In March 2006, prosecutors dropped all charges against him. A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney told the New York Post, "After a careful review of the evidence at this point, it became clear that the fair thing to do was dismiss." According to the Post, Agrippa's attorney called it among the worst cases of malicious prosecution she'd ever seen. Agrippa plans a lawsuit against the city.
Source:
Alex Ginsberg, "Drug-Raid Victim Suing City," New York Post, March 27, 2006.
Ariel Alonso and Jonathan Conrad.
October 13, 2003—VA
Alonso and Conrad were alchemists. The two men shared a home in Henry, Virginia, where they practiced amateur chemistry, producing various elixirs that they then sold on the Internet.
On October 13, 2002, local authorities came to the home, saw the men's chemistry equipment, and suspected they were manufacturing methamphetamine. A "field test" tested positve, though the DEA would later admit that test was only "equivocally" positive.
Later that day, DEA agents raided the men's home, destroyed their lab, and arrested the men on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine. The two spent 18 days in jail.
More extensive lab tests later revealed no sign of methamphetamine, nor of any of the drugs used to make it. The two men were released.
The DEA never compensated the men for the damage done to their lab. Alonso moved back into the home, where he lived on Social Security until his death from lung cancer in September 2004.
Source:
Jen McCaffery, "Raid Shatters Alchemists' Lab -- But Finds No Meth," Roanoke Times, January 25, 2004.
Earline Jackson.
September 5, 2003—IL
At 3 a.m. on September 5, 2003, a dozen Chicago police officers use a battering ram to break down the door of 73-year-old widow Earline Jackson's apartment.
"I asked them, 'What did I do?' And they told me to get out of the way because they were looking for drugs," Jackson told the Chicago Tribune. According to the warrant for Jackson's address, police believed a man was using her apartment to sell drugs. They had mistaken Jackson's apartment for an apartment one block south.
It's not even clear the second address was correct. Jackson told the Tribune that the next day a man came to her door and "identified himself with the name listed on the search warrant."
"He wanted to know what they wanted," she said.
Source:
Ray Quintanilla, "Widow terrified by cops mistake; Chicago officer raid wrong home," Chicago Tribune, September 7, 2003, p. C3.
The Perez Family.
August 2, 2003—TX
On August 2, 2003, police from the Bexar County, Texas sheriff's department raid the home of Francisca Perez and her children. The raid is based on a tip from an informant that a woman named Rosalinda Mendez was selling cocaine from the house. Police mistook the Perez home for the house next door.
Perez and her 13-year-old daughter are handcuffed, and her 11-year-old daughter and three-year-old son watch in horror as police overturn drawers, empty closets, and generally destroy their belongings while looking for drugs.
Four weeks later, police still hadn't told Perez whether or not she was under investigation. They found no drugs in her home. According to the latest media reports available, Perez, the widow of a Gulf War veteran, was still attempting to get the police to clear her name. She told a local newspaper that she was reluctant to take legal action because her children feared that if she did, the police would come back to raid their home again.
Source:
Cary Clack, "Family has yet to receive an apology for mistaken drug raid," San Antonio News-Express, August 25, 2003, p. B1.
Gabrielle Wescott and Anabelle Heasley.
July 29, 2003—MT
On July 29, 2003, police in Montana raid the home of Gabrielle Wescott and her daughter Annabelle Heasley. According to a 2005 lawsuit, agents from the Northwest Drug Task Force don black hoods and SWAT gear, and raid the women's home at 7:30 a.m. on a marijuana warrant.
The two are forced to the ground, handcuffed, and, according to the lawsuit, "mistreated, threatened, cursed at, and terrorized" while police "ransacked the house" and "cut pieces of drywall out of the basement."
The complaint alleges that the police affidavit leading to the search warrant "contains half-truths and inaccuracies and clearly was not completed in good faith," and that police never identified themselves. The women are never charged with a crime.
Source:
John Stromnes, "Women sue over drug raid," Missoulian, October 19, 2005.
The Phoenix Hell's Angels Raid.
July 8, 2003—AZ
In July 2003, police in Phoenix, Arizona conduct a pre-dawn drug raid on a Hell's Angels club. Police knock, then wait just six seconds before deploying a flashbang grenade and forcing their way into the clubhouse. Michael Wayne Coffelt, asleep at the time, awakes to the grenade and quickly arms himself with a pistol. When Coffelt, who thought the clubhouse was being robbed, approaches the door, Officer Laura Beeler shoots and wounds him.
Beeler would later claim that Coffelt fired at her, though a ballistics test confirmed that Coffelt never discharged his gun. Police find no drugs in the clubhouse. Prosecutors later bring charges against Coffelt for assaulting a police officer. In dismissing the charges, Maricopa Superior Court Judge Michael Wilkinson describes the raid as an "attack" in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that Coffelt's actions were "reasonable behavior, given the hour and the fact that the house was under attack."
Wilkinson also determines that Beeler's mistaken belief that Coffelt had fired at her was also understandable, given the volatility of such a raid, and that she -- an officer trained in paramilitary procedures -- may have misinterpreted the flashbang grenade for a gunshot.
Source:
Brent Whiting, "Judge: Police Raid Was 'Attack'; Hell's Angel Case Evidence Tossed," Arizona Republic, December 2, 2004, p. B1.
The Holguin Family.
June 5, 2003—NM
According to court documents filed in conjunction with a lawsuit, on June 5, 2003, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, police blow the Holguin family's door off its hinges, deploy flashbang grenades, then storm the family's home.
Carmen Holguin, 80, sustains injuries that require medical attention, and Julia Holguin, 55, is injured when an officer steps on her back. Police also allegedly kick an unnamed 14-year-old girl while executing the warrant. In all, four members of the family are hancuffed at gunpoint during the raid. No one is charged, and police seize nothing from the home. According to the lawsuit, police then helped themselves to milk and juice from the family's refrigerator, then tossed the search warrant on the floor and left.
A paralegal for the family's lawyer would later tell the Associated Press that police had made a controlled cocaine buy on the street where the Holguin's lived, and indicated they may have mistaken their home for another.
No one in the family had a criminal record. An Albuquerque Police Department spokesman responded, ""People can make claims all they want. That's something that will have to play out in the courts."
Source:
"Lawsuit accuses Albuquerque police of raiding wrong house," Associated Press, July 16, 2004.
Timothy Brockman.
May 14, 2003—NY
In May 2003, acting on a tip from a confused anonymous informant, police storm the public housing apartment of Timothy Brockman, a 61-year old former Marine who uses a walker to get around.
Police deploy a flashbang grenade, which sets Mr. Brockman's carpet on fire, then handcuff him and throw him to the floor. Brockman would later be cleared of all charges.
New York police wanted to raid Mr. Brockman's apartment based only the testimony of a single informant who had visited the targeted residence on just one occasion. State law required more evidence before commencing a no-knock raid. But federal law offers police more leeway. So New York investigators merely called the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who sent an agent from ATF. The Brockman raid was now a "federal" case, governed by federal guidelines.
It was then miscommunication between local and federal police that led to execution of the erroneous raid on Brockman's home. Even if police had gotten the apartment right, they were also in the wrong building. The informant had not remembered the proper address. Investigators had instructed the informant to leave a strip of white tape on the door to the suspect's apartment. The paramilitary unit that raided Brockman's apartment found no white tape on his door. They raided anyway. The unit later found the tape on a different apartment number in a different building.
After Mr. Brockman was freed, one officer told Brockman he had been assigned to watch the window during the raid. "He saw the yellow ribbon in my window, so the guys come back safe from Iraq," Mr. Brockman told the New York Times. "He told me, 'That's when I got a funny feeling about this.'"
Source:
Jim Dwyer, "Police Raid Gone Awry; A Muddled Path to the Wrong Door," New York Times, June 29, 2003, p. 27.
Kim Yarbrough and Son.
May 2, 2003—NY
On May 2, 2003, police break into the Staten Island home of Ms. Kim Yarbrough, an employee at the city's Department of Corrections. No one is home at the time, but Yarborough's son is told by his brother-in-law that "20 to 30" police have raided his mother's home. When the son comes to the house to investigate, he is handcuffed and put down on the couch.
Yarborough would later come home from work with a supervisor to see that her door had been broken down and her home had been trashed. She and her son say some police laughed and made jokes when they asked for names and badge numbers. Neither was ever charged with a crime.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruill," June 2003.
Kim Stevenson and Daughter.
April 9, 2003—NY
On April 9, 2003, about twenty police officers break down the door of the West Harlem home of Kim Stevenson, asking "where the drugs are." Stevenson is handcuffed and taken to another room, while other officers keep their weapons fixed on her 12 year-old daughter.
Stevenson pleas with police to explain why they were in her home, but is rebuffed. A female officer then takes Stevenson into a bathroom, and demands that she lower her pants. After finding no drugs on her person, Stevenson is again handcuffed while police finish searching her apartment.
According to Stevenson, officers "made jokes and ridiculed" her during the search. When they left, they told her to "have management fix her door." Her landlord refused. Two months later, Stevenson's door still had yet to be repaired. No criminal charges were ever filed against Stevenson.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
The Chapman Family.
April 2, 2003—NY
At 6 a.m. on April 2, 2003, police broke open the door and deploy a flashbang grenade at the home of Cynthia Chapman. The grenade strikes her son Bobby, 15, in the foot. Police find Chapman getting out of the shower, force her to the ground, and put a gun to her head. One cop asks "Where is it," and when Chapman responds that she didn't know what he was talking about, replies, "Don't get smart with me, or I'll kill you."
Chapman and her son are handcuffed, taken to a police station, and released hours later when police realize they've raided the wrong house. In 2004, Chapman settled with the city of New York for $100,000.
Source:
Robert Gearty and Leo Standora, "100G Deal in Botched Cop Raid," New York Daily News, March 8, 2004, p. 15.
The Caldwells.
March 6, 2003—NY
On March 6, 2003, a half dozen police officers in riot gear break down the door to the home of Lewis Caldwell. Caldwell, who has lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, is handcuffed and forced to the floor.
Caldwell's wife returns home from work to find her home filled with police officers and dogs. She pleas with them to release her husband from the handcuffs, but is refused for more than an hour.
Mr. Caldwell would later say police were "laughing and joking" while searching his apartment. When the Caldwells file a complaint, a lieutenant calls to tell them the raid was justified, and "there's nothing you can do about it." No drugs were found, and no criminal charges were ever filed against the Caldwells.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Margarita Ortiz and Son.
February 28, 2003—NY
On February 29, 2003, police break into the home of Ms. Margarita Ortiz. She and her 12-year old son are handcuffed for two and-a-half hours while police search their apartment. After five hours of searching (Ortiz claims they knew "within 15 minutes" that her apartment had no drugs), police leave. Ortiz says they never showed her their badges or provided a search warrant.
Three months after the raid, Ortiz had been unable to get any information from the city regarding the raid on her home. Neither she nor her son were ever charged with a crime.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Desmond Ray.
December 11, 2002—MD
As police in Prince George's County, Maryland prepare for a SWAT raid on a suspected drug dealer, Desmond Ray--not the target of the raid--steps out of a parked car. Cpl. Charles Ramseur says Ray reached for his waistband upon exiting the car. Ray says he put his hands in the air.
Ramseur fires his weapon at Ray and strikes him in the spine, paralyzing him. Ray is unarmed, and would never be charged with a crime.
In April 2004, an "Executive Review Panel" found that Ramseur had no justification for shooting Ray, and recommended administrative charges against him for using excessive force. The recommendation was overruled when the internal police review board found no wrongdoing. Ramseur was reinstated.
County police later settled a civil suit with Ray for an undisclosed sum of money.
Source:
"Prince George's police corporal cleared in 2002 shooting," Associated Press, July 15, 2005.
The Huerta Family.
November 20, 2002—TX
On November 20, 2002, a San Antonio, Texas SWAT team deployed tear gas canisters, shattered a glass door with bullets, then stormed an apartment occupied by three Hispanic men. "We were kicked and punched at least 20 times. I couldn't talk. I was good and scared," Salvador Huerta told the San Antonio News-Express. His cousin Marcos Huerta was taken to the hospital with a cut face and bruised head. Vincent Huerta added, "The way they entered, I never thought it could be police." All three thought the raid was a robbery.
Police had the wrong address. Police later blamed the mistake on darkness, and "a cluster of look-alike buildings," despite the fact that officers stated on the warrant that they had conducted surveillance on the suspected residence for two days.
Source:
Jesse Bogan, "SWAT raid roughs up wrong guys," San Antonio News-Express, November 21, 2002, p. B2.
Jesse Bogan, "SAPD to probe storming of wrong house; Officers apparently confused in the dark by look-alike residences," San Antonio News-Express, November 22, 2002, p. A1.
Marcella Monroe and Tam Davage.
October 17, 2002—OR
Police conduct a raid on three homes they suspect of growing marijuana. All three homes are owned by one couple, Marcella Monroe and Tam Davage.
On the morning of the raid, 52 police officers in full SWAT attire deploy flashbang grenades, and force entry into the occupied home without announcing themselves.
Police pull two couples out of bed and wrestle them to the ground. They put assault weapons to their heads, tightly handcuff them, and refuse to let the two women, who were partially nude, cover themselves (they also snap pictures of the women before allowing them to dress). When Monroe asks if she could dress, one officer puts a black bag over her head and tightens it to silence her. He pushes her to the ground and puts a boot on the back of her neck.
Police find no plants or weapons, and only "residue" of marijuana in a coupel of plastic bags, for which the couple's tenant is issued a misdemeanor citation. Nonetheless, Davage and Monroe are charged with felony manufacture of a controlled substance, due to "evidence" consisting of fans, flourescent lights, plastic sheeting, timers, potting equipment, sandwich bags, a scale, 24 electrical outlets, and a shop vacuum. Police are aware of Monroe's landscaping business, Davage's jewelry business, and the fact that the couple is repairing their home from storm damage, but nonetheless proceed to cite the equipment as evidence of marijuana cultivation.
Police defend the raid as entirely necessary and appropriate, given the well-known danger posed by people who grow marijuana. The spokesman for one of the talk forces involved in the raid adds that "the community at large" approves of such tactics. The Whittaker Community Council later condemns the raid at a public neighborhood meeting and in a press release.
Davage and Monroe have since filed suit, alleging that police knowingly fabricated evidence and omitted exculpatory information in applying for the search warrant.
Sources:
Rebecca Nolan, "Neighbors call tactics in drug raid militaristic," Eugene Register-Guard, December 5, 2002.
Federal complaint filed by Tom Davage and Marcella Monroe in the United State District Court for the District of Oregon.
"Statement of Whitaker Community Council," April 30, 2003, http://www.Whitaker.us.WCC_statement.html
"Police Illegally Raid Homes with Tank; Prompts Federal Lawsuit," press release, Whitaker Community Council, http://www.whiteaker, us./attorney_press_release.html
Robert and Marie Rogers.
October 15, 2002—NY
On October 15, 2002, about 20 police armed with pistols and shotguns serve a no-knock raid on the home of retired police officer Robert Rogers and his wife, Marie.
The two are watching television when police storm their home in Queens. Mr. Rogers initially grabs his licensed handgun, believing the police to be intruders. Once he recognizes they were law enforcement, he drops his gun and covers it with his body. Police slam Mr. Rogers into the wall, and throw Mrs. Rogers into a chair.
Rogers was later quoted in Newsday stating that had the raiding officers seen his gun, "I'd be dead." Marie Rogers told the New York Times, "I really thought that I would die that day."
Police had the wrong address.
Sources:
William Glaberson, "Two Suits Filed Over Police No-Knock Raids at Wrong Homes," New York Times, September 11, 2003.
Anthony M. DeStefano, "2 Families Sue Over Raids," Newsday, September 11, 2003.
Leticia Lopez.
October 15, 2002—WA
Police strom Lopez's home and handcuff her in front of her 8-year-old son after getting a tip from some homebuyers who saw a propane burner, cooking pot, and other items in the woman's backyard they said suggested a methamphetamine operation.
After police handcuff and detain Lopez, they discover that the burner and pot were leftover from a steak cookout a few days earlier, and the chemicals the officers and informants had mistaken for meth ingrediants were paint solvents.
After the raid, Lopez begins to have anxiety and panic attacks, and is admitted to a hospital for treatment.
Michael Thompson.
October 14, 2002—NY
On October 14, 2002, police break into the Queens home of Michael Thompson and put a gun to his head while they look for drugs. They find nothing. They would later determine that the raid was conducted on bad information from an informant.
In May of 2003, Thompson was interviewed by the New York Post in a piece on the warning signs leading up to the no-knock raid that killed Alberta Spruill. Thompson said of the raid on his home, "They had the whole house surrounded. If I ran or resisted, who knows what the result would have been. It was just a matter of time before there was a tragedy."
Source:
Leonard Greene, "NYPD's no-knock searches are doorway to disaster," New York Post, May 25, 2003, p. 6.
Meredith "Buddy" Sutherland.
October 4, 2002—PA
On October 4, 2002, police raid a home in Windsor, Pennsylvania on suspicion of drug activity. According to news reports, the raid was doomed from the start -- the SWAT team becomes aware that someone inside the home has spotted them, meaning they've lost the element of surprise SWAT proponents insist is the entire purpose of using paramilitary tactics.
Nevertheless, they raid anyway. Once inside, police go from room to room in the dark home. Trooper Gregory Broaddus enters a bedroom where Meredith "Buddy" Sutherland, Jr. is sleeping. Sutherland doesn't live in the house, but is visiting a friend. Officer Broaddus mistakenly believes Sutherland to be clutching a weapon when he enters the room, and fires, striking Sutherland. Sutherland has no weapon, and would never be charged with a crime. He spent 11 days in a coma, and nearly three weeks in the hospital.
Other occupants of the home were eventually charged with drug crimes. Sutherland sued in June 2004 for redress for his injuries. The state attorney general in turn asked that the suit be dismissed, arguing that the officer in question had immunity, and that, incredulously, Sutherland himself was responsible for his own injuries.
Sources:
Elizabeth Evans, "Man sues over drug-raid injury; SWAT-type team hit Windsor home," York Dispatch, June 9, 2004.
Elizabeth Evans, "Shooting victim home; Family of man wounded in raid considers lawsuit," York Dispatch, October 23, 2002.
Sandy Cohen.
September 22, 2002—PA
In 2002, police in Philadelphia raid the home of 85-year-old Sandy Cohen, just as she has finished taking a shower. Cohen gets to her door just as police have blown it off its hinges. When she protests to police that they've raided the wrong home, one replies, "That's what they all say."
Cohen's son, a journalist, told the Philadelphia Daily News, "They blew off her front door with an explosive device and entered in full gear with lasers pointed toward her chest."
Police would later concede they'd made a mistake. One of Cohen's neighbors explained this to the officers as they were planting the explosives outside her door. She was told to "shut up and go back inside."
Source:
Stu Bykofsky, "SWAT team invades elderly widow's home," Philadelphia Daily News, October 16, 2003.
Williemae Mack and Sons.
September 3, 2002—NY
On September 3, 2002, police break down the door of Brooklyn resident Williemae Mack in a pre-dawn drug raid. Her twin 13-year-old sons are asleep at the time. One, frightened by the noise and the explosive device police use to gain entry, hides under the bed. Police pull him out and put a gun to his head. They then handcuff both boys at gunpoint. Police also throw Mack to the floor and step on her head. They also "stomp" on the head of the family's dog.
Police find no drugs in the home. They later discover they've raided the wrong address. The family settles for $90,000 in 2005. The city's response to the suit was that "entry into the plaintiffs' apartment was proper pursuant to a valid search warrant. However, in the interest of avoiding further litigation costs, the city felt that settlement was appropriate."
Source:
John Marzulli, "City OKs 90G Deal for Raid Trauma," New York Daily News, October 4, 2005.
Irene Gilliam Hensley.
August 14, 2002—TX
On August 14, 2002, police in La Porte, Texas stormed the home of 88-year-old Irene Gilliam Hensley on a paramilitary raid after a tip that her grandson Charles Gilliam was growing marijuana in her backyard.
The tip came from an aunt who had had an argument with Mr. Gilliam, and police decided to raid after an officer peeked over Hensley's fence and confirmed the presence of illegal plants. According to the Houston Chronicle, the warrant specifically stated that the officer who peeked over the fence had experience identifying marijuana plants.
The plants turned out to be okra. Police found no drugs in the home.
Source:
Robert Crowe, "A real-life melodrama in La Porte; Mistaking okra plants for marijuana leads to internal affairs investigation," Houston Chronicle, October 3, 2002, This Week, p. 1.
Charles Alford.
February 27, 2002—NC
On February 27, 2002, police raid the home of 77-year-old Willie Alford on a narcotics warrant issued for his daughter and two grandchildren.
Police from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the Cumberland County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation broke into that home at 8 pm and, according to Alford, "came in shooting." Two children, ages eight and 13 were also present in the home.
Alford's son Charles, a truck driver visiting from out of town who wasn't a suspect, was shot in the arm, legs, and side. Police found no weapons in the home. Two suspects named in the warrant were arrested at the site of the raid, and one was arrested the following day.
Source:
Christina DeNardo, "Vander Gunfire Probe Under Wraps," Fayetteville Observer, April 13, 2003.
The Gilbertson Family.
February 13, 2002—CO
In February 2002, a SWAT team in Denver's Highland neighborhood shattered a window in anticipation of a knock-and-announce raid. Upon looking inside, they discovered they had the wrong townhouse. They were preparing to deploy a flashbang grenade in the home, occupied by Erik Gilbertson and his pregnant wife. The couple was at the opera at the time of the raid. A police spokesman called the raid an "understandable mistake."
Sources:
Hector Gutierrez, "Cops crash couple's night at the opera," Rocky Mountain News, February 15, 2002, p. A4.
The Bardy family.
January 25, 2002—NY
In January 2002, New York police conduct a botched raid on the home of Mary Bardy, 66, and her husband Joseph, 70, after mistakenly believing their son is dealing drugs.
Police break down Bardy's door and order everyone inside -- including the couple's two-year-old granddaughter -- to lie down at gunpoint. Police then rush upstairs, where Bardy's son is struck on the head and handcuffed. Police find no drugs.
Bardy, a retired employee of the New York City Police Department, said she wrote "dozens of letters" and "made lots of phone calls" after the raid on her home, but could find no one willing to give her answers as to why police broke into her home. After one-and-a-half years, Newsday ran a story on the Bardy raid as part of its coverage of the 2003 raid in Harlem that killed Alberta Spruill. After the Newsday piece, police in Queens agree to begin an investigation.
Source:
Dennis Duggan, "Reliving a Wrong Raid by NYPD," Newsday, June 4, 2003, p. A16.
Sara Perez.
November 27, 2001—NY
On November 27, 2001, police break into the Harlem home of Ms. Sara Perez and put a shotgun to her head. They also hold her children and grandchildren at gunpoint, including one-month old twin girls. Police never show Perez a search warrant, nor do they explain the reason for the raid.
Perez later learns that the raid was executed based on faulty information supplied by a 15-year old informant. After five months, the police department paid to repair her door.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Estelle Newcomb.
October 26, 2001—VA
In October 2001, 50-year old Estelle Newcomb hears her dog barking. She looks out the window to investigate, and seeks a Middlesex, Virginia drug task force storming toward her home. The officers break down her door, force her to her knees, and train their guns on Newcomb and her 80-year-old aunt.
Police soon realize they've targeted the wrong home. They had miscommunicated with an informant. The investigating officer tells the Associated Press, "I knew this was not right. To be honest with you, it was sloppy police work - not being thorough enough."
The previous July, the same task force, along with the National Guard and state police, conducted a raid on a suspect they thought was growing marijuana. Those plants turned out to be tomatoes.
Sources:
"Drug bust targets wrong house," Associated Press, October 30, 2001.
Orlando Russell.
October 23, 2001—NY
On October 23, 2001, police with assault weapons and body armor break into the Brooklyn home of Orlando Russell and his 87-year old mother on a no-knock raid. When police show Russell the warrant for the raid, he explains to them that the warrant mentions a front gate that Russell's apartment lacks. The raid is based on information from a single confidential informant.
There's a vacant house next door that's well-known in the community to be used by drug dealers. Russell later told the Village Voice that while he was once an "upstanding citizen," he was fed up with the number of no-knock raids on low-income and minority communities. "Any cop walking in [to his home] without an invitation better have a body bag," he said.
Source:
Rivka Gewirtz Little, "More NYPD No-Knocks; New Yorkers Tell Their Tales of Botched Raids," Village Voice, June 18-24, 2003.
The Alexander Family.
August 17, 2001—TX
On August 17, 2001, police in Waco, Texas serve a drug warrant on the home of Debora and Charles Alexander. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, police charge the residence with guns drawn, yelling, "Police, search warrant!" before realizing they have entered the wrong apartment.
During the raid, the Alexanders' visiting nine-year-old grandson, who has Down's Syndrome, goes into a seizure, and Debora Alexander faints. Alexander said the raid caused lasting damage to the boy. "We had some missionaries knock on our door the other night and it scared him absolutely to death," he said. "It took us forever to calm him down. We went through all that trauma again. He was just shaking and grabbing onto my wife. We had to fight like hell to get him to school this morning."
Alexander says that upon realizing their mistake, police left without apologizing, or offering to help either Mrs. Alexander or the grandson. And just seconds before the raid, Debora Alexander had been unpacking boxes, one of which contained her husband's gun. Mr. Alexander told the Tribune-Herald, "God only knows what would have happened if they would have walked down that hall with her holding that gun."
Remarkably, on August 20 -- three days after the raid -- Lieutenant Gary McCully told the paper he wasn't aware that his own officers had entered the wrong apartment until a reporter called to question him about it. He described it as "a very unusual situation."
Source:
" Officers fumble drug raid: Narcotics force breaks into wrong apartment; residents wait for apology ," Waco Tribune-Herald, August 21, 2001.
Glen Coberly
July 18, 2001—VA
Police descend on Coberly's Middlesex, Virginia home and order the 39-year-old man to the ground at gunpoint. The Middle Peninsula Drug Task Force, state police, and the National Guard had been running a helicopter in the area to look for marijuana plants. Coberly is picked up from the ground and one officer begins to read him his Miranda rights.
At about that time, another officer discovers that Coberly's plants aren't marijuana, but tomatoes. Sheriff Guy Abbott would later explain that, "We're just trying to do our best to protect our citizens. And we're not perfect; we make mistakes."
Source:
"Drug cops swoop down on tomato patch," Associated Press, July 20, 2001.
Maria Flores.
May 16, 2001—TX
In May 2001, police in Austin, Texas raid the home of Maria Flores, a grandmother. A flashbang grenade shatters her window, and the SWAT team enters behind by kicking in her door. Flores is pushed to the ground, bound, and held at gunpoint while police tear apart her home searching for cocaine. They have mistaken her house for the house next door. Flores is taken to the hospital with internal bruising.
"For about 20 minutes, I was on the floor crying, wondering 'What's going on?'" Flores would later tell the Austin American Statesman. "I'm just glad my grandkids weren't here." Six months after the raid, police acknowledge their "terrible mistake." Assistant police chief Jim Fealy says, "We violated that woman's privacy and needlessly by mistake" and attributed the error to "sloppy police work."
Source:
Jonathan Osborne, "6 months after botched drug raid, police still are paying for mistake," Austin American-Statemsan, November 10, 2001, p. B3.
Sandra Smith.
May 10, 2001—TX
In May of 2001, the same Travis County, Texas paramilitary unit that shot and killed Tony Martinez, and led the raid that ended in the death of Dep. Keith Ruiz, conducts a raid on the home of Sandra Smith for suspicion of growing marijuana. After departing from a helicopter, storming Smith's home, kicking her dog, ransacking her belongings, and holding her and three visitors at gunpoint, police discover the plants were ragweed. They did not have a search warrant.
"This is the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me in my life," Smith says. "I've never been in trouble with the law. I don't even smoke cigarettes."
Smith later filed a lawsuit against the city for damages to her home. At the time the suit was filed in 2002, her name was still in the department's database as a narcotics offender.
Travis County eventually settled with Smith and her visitors for $40,000.
Source:
Jason Spencer, "Drug task force's $40,000 error: Raid turned up ragweed, not pot," Austin American-Statesman, December 31, 2002, p. B1.
The McKnight Family.
February 27, 2001—KS
On February 27, 2001 at about 10:30pm, police in Topeka, Kansas kick open the front door, detonate a flashbang grenade, and hold Henry and Denise McKnight and their seven children at gunpoint on a drug warrant. They have mistaken the McKnights' home for the home next door.
The McKnights' subsequent lawsuit alleges that police questioned them at gunpoint, and continued to search the home even after realizing they'd made a mistake. Police Chief Ed Klumpp acknowledged the mistake and said that the police department would make "minor adjustments" to its procedures, though he wouldn't say what adjustments "because it would jeopardize the safety of our officers."
The Topeka City Council eventually settled with the family for $95,000, though even after announcing the settlement, individual city council members refused to discuss it. One city lawyer told the Topeka Capital-Journal the settlement wasn't necessarily an admission of wrongdoing, but "was in our best interest given the costs of potential litigation."
Source:
Alicia Henrikson, "Mistaken Drug Raid Settled; Council agrees to pay $95,000 because police barged into wrong house," Topeka Capital-Journal, January 9, 2004.
Susan Wilson
February 14, 2001—WI
On February 14, 2001, a SWAT team dressed in full-assault attire storms the home of Muskego resident Susan Wilson, 49. Wilson is standing in her driveway with her dog when the Waukesha County Metro Drug Enforcement Group apprehends her. She's forced to the ground in front of her home, face-down on her snow-covered drive, handcuffed, and held at gunpoint while police search her home. They have the wrong address.
In 1999, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department also received public criticism when masked agents with assault weapons swarmed a Houlihan's at the Brookfield Square shopping center during lunch time to apprehend a drug suspect.
Source:
Jacqueline Seibel, "Drug unit officers reassigned; No one to be suspended after rain on wrong Muskego house," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 1, 2001, p. B1.
Lisa Sink, "Drug agents went to wrong home, cuffed woman in mistaken raid," Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, February 17, 2001
Robert and Lynne Traceski.
January 29, 2001—RI
In January 2001, police in West Warwick, Rhode Island conduct a mistaken drug raid on the home of Robert and Lynne Traceski.
Traceski is handcuffed after coming home to find police cruisers parked in his driveway. Police scour his home, but find no drugs. The raid is conducted based on a tip from an anonymous informant. A federal judge would later deny the Traceski's motion to force police to reveal the identity of the informant.
Source:
Zachary R. Mider, "Couple rebuffed in bid to identify informant who spurred drug raid," Providence Journal, March 11, 2005, p. C1.
Sandra and Marquita Hillman.
January 19, 2001—AL
On January 19, 2001, a paramilitary police force from Russellville and Franklin County, Alabama raids the home of Sandra Hillman and her daughter Marquita. Agents with a no-knock warrant kick down the door to Hillman's apartment and hold the two women handcuffed and at gunpoint while they conduct a search. Police never identify themselves, even after realizing they have the wrong address.
Hillman would make two subsequent trips to an emergency room for heart problems related to the raid. The two women filed suit against the city and the county in June 2001.
Source:
"Mother, daughter sue city, county for mistaken raid," Associated Press, June 28, 2001.
Wesley Neal.
November 24, 2000—PA
On November 24, 2000 in Pittsburgh, local and federal agents break down the door of 76-year-old Wesley Neal on a no-knock drug raid. The raiding officers order Neal to the floor at gunpoint. He suffers chest pains immediately after the raid.
The officers soon realize their mistake, and raid a home two doors down. The local district attorney would later apologize for the incident.
Source:
Joel Rosenblatt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazatte, November 25, 2000.
The Olveda Family.
October 5, 2000—WI
In October 2000, a black-clad SWAT team in the small town of Dalton, Wisconsin breaks down the front door of Wendy and Jesus Olveda. Wendy is five months pregnant, and their three-year old daughter Zena watches in horror.
Officers throw the couple face-first to the floor at gunpoint. Jesus Olveda would later say that as he attempted to lift his head to tell police they had the wrong address, "one of them put a knee on my head and ground it into the floor."
Police did have the wrong address. When they realized their error, they rushed through the Olveda's garage door to the home next door, without an explanation. Madison's Capital Times reports that one officer later reentered the Olveda's home minutes later to retrieve the search warrant. The Olvedas filed a claim for compensation against the police departments in charge of carrying out the raid. It was rejected. The family won a $110,000 settlement in 2002.
Source:
Steven Elbow, "Hooked on SWAT; Fueled with drug enforcement money, military-style police teams are exploding in the backwoods of Wisconsin," Madison Capital Times, August 18, 2001, p. A1.
Patricia Wolff, "Settlement in botched drug raid," Oshkosh Northwestern, June 21, 2002.
Hubert and Doris Robinson.
September 1, 2000—TX
On September 1, 2000, Doris Robinson, 52, is working at her computer and recooperating from having surgery to remove a tumor when a seven-member SWAT team on a drug raid breaks into her home without knocking.
Robinson and her husband Hubert are forced to the ground at gunpoint, handcuffed, and detained while police search their Jacksonville, Texas home.
Police soon realize they have the wrong address. Later the same day, the narcotics task force raids the home across the street, and arrest two suspects on drug charges.
Source:
Paul Stone, "Task Force, Others Sued," Palestine Herald Press, January 9, 2003.
The Unis Family.
August 19, 2000—CO
In August 2000, federal, state, and local agents in Pueblo, Colorado storm the home of Daniel and Rosa Unis after suspecting their sons of cocaine distribution. With no warrant, police in black ski masks break into the Unis home at gunpoint, shout profanities, and kick the family dog across the room. They arrest Marcos and David Unis. The two are kept in custody for two days, but never charged.
When the Unis family filed a federal lawsuit in 2005, the lawyer for the agent in charge of the raid conceded that the raid was illegal. One officer described the incident as "unfortunate," and said "miscommunication" led to the wrongful raid, arrests, and detainments. The family would win a $230,000 settlement in 2005.
Sources:
"Family sues Pueblo police over botched drug raid," Associated Press, January 14, 2005.
Karen Abbott, "Lawsuit over raid settled," Rocky Mountain News, August 30, 2005, p. A18.
William and Geneva Summers.
May 22, 2000—VA
On May 22, 2000, police in Pulaski, Virginia conducted a 4 a.m. raid on the home of William and Geneva Summers. The SWAT team broke through the couple's back door, woke them, and held them at gunpoint. They found no drugs.
They had raided the home based on a tip from a "reliable" informant that there was a methamphetamine lab inside. Magistrate Jill Long, who issued the warrant, concluded that police assertions that the informant's allegations alone were sufficient to establish probable cause for a pre-dawn, forced-entry search. The informant later admitted he had lied.
Long told a local newspaper she thought it was "unusual" for an informant to lie. "I've never heard of that happening before," she told the paper.
Source:
Shay Wessol, "Pulaski police charge informant in botched raid; 'We had no reason to not believe this guy,'" Roanoke Times, May 24, 2000, p. NRV1.
Shameka Smith.
April 19, 2000—NY
On April 19, 2000, police break into the Manhattan apartment of Shameka Smith. Smith had heard the police preparing to enter. Thinking she is being attacked by intruders, she quickly calls her father, and is on the phone with him when police officers break down her door. She is handcuffed to her bed at gunpoint while police tear through her belongings.
Police claim to have sold drugs to a resident of the apartment, but don't arrest Smith, and never file charges against her.
Source:
Peter Noel, "NYPD Storm Troopers," Village Voice, May 16, 2000.
Brandon and Richelle Savage.
April 6, 2000—IL
On April 6, 2000, police in Chicago raid the apartment of Brandon and Richelle Savage on bad information from an informant. Police break down the door, and order the couple out of bed at gunpoint before realizing their mistake. Police officials then ignore the Savages' request to pay for damage done to their apartment until a columnist reports the incident in the Chicago Sun-Times, after which the couple is given an apology and a promise to pay for repairs.
Source:
Frank Main and Fran Spielman, "Hillard calls to apologize for mistaken police raid," Chicago Sun-Times, April 22, 2000.
The Bell Family.
February 4, 2000—FL
Police in Hallandale make their second mistaken drug raid in a year, this time storming the home of Tracey Bell, who's pregnant at the time and with her three young children.
Even after the raid, police continue to insist they have the correct house, which they'd targeted based on a tip from an informant who said he'd bought drugs there. They found no drugs.
Bell had complained to police about drug activity in the neighborhood, and says police confused her home with the one next door. Bell's neighbor admitted to having friends involved in drug distribution, and had a criminal record. Bell had no record.
Bell's attorney says that police seem to have made the same mistakes twice in a year, and that they offered the same excuse for the raid on Bell's home as they gave for the botched raid on Catherine and Edwin Bernhardt. Attorney Gary Kollin told the Miami Herald, "It appears that they continue to use informants as their scapegoats when they mess up and then they hide behind the confidentiality of the informants to avoid a proper investigation into who is telling the truth."
Source:
Andrea Elliott, "Drug-busting cops hit right home, chief insists," Miami Herald, February 11, 2000, p. B1.
Dovie Walker.
December 4, 1999—AR
On December 4, 1999, police in El Dorado, Arkansas conduct a drug raid on the home of Dovie Walker. Officers tear the front door from its hinges with a battering ram, damage another door to her bedroom, break a latch on a third door, overturn and dismantle her furniture, and generally "demolish" her house. They also handcuff her three children on the floor at gunpoint.
Officers then realize they have mistaken Walker's house for the house next door. At the time Walker is also babysitting children ages one, two, and three. After a police department spokesman tells one media outlet police have no intention of paying for the repairs, El Dorado's mayor promises four days later to begin work on the damage Walker's house as soon as possible.
Sources:
"Woman not happy to have youngsters cuffed in mistaken raid," Associated Press, February 13, 2000.
"Mayor vows to repair damages in raid," Associated Press, February 17, 2000.
The Tyson Family.
October 20, 1999—CT
On the morning of October 20, 1999, police from the DEA, the FBI, and Connecticut Department of Public Safety conduct 30 drug raids at locations around the Hartford area.
One of those raids is on the home of 59-year-old Emma Tyson, her daughter-in-law, and her 13-year-old grandson. Twelve police officers break into Tyson's home, causing her to have an asthma attack. Police are looking for a suspected drug dealer who had moved out of the home four months earlier, when Tyson bought it.
Two years later, Tyson would file a lawsuit when federal and local police authorities had yet to apologize, or make an effort to clear her name.
Sources:
Steven Goode, "Police invasion leaves bitter feelings," Hartford Courant, November 27, 2001.
Nelson Robles.
August 25, 1999—FL
Police rouse 45-year-old Nelson Robles, his wife, and his 11-year old son from their sleep in a 4 am raid on their home in West Dade Florida. DEA agents raided the home as part of "Operation Ramp Rat" and "Operation Sky Chef," two interdiction efforts aimed at airline employees involved in drug smuggling.
Unfortunately, DEA agents have targeted the wrong Nelson Robles. Even after realizing their mistake, they search Robles home to make sure he isn't hiding the Nelson Robles they're looking for.
"It's a very scary thing," Robles tells the Miami Herald. "They threatened to break down the door. you think they will flatten you, you think they will kill you . . . I was very lucky that I didn't get beat up."
A DEA spokesman told the paper, "When you are trying to find 58 people, something can fall through the cracks."
Robles awoke the next morning to find his home address still listed in the newspaper as the residence of an accused drug smuggler.
Source: Sara Olkon, "Operation Mistaken Id: DEA Raids the Wrong House," Miami Herald, August 27, 1999.
D Uriyah Ajamu.
August 6, 1999—FL
In August 1999, police in Orlando, Florida raid the home of D Uriyah Ajamu. Police break into Ajamu's apartment, train guns on him, drag him out of the apartment, handcuff him, kick him, and pat him down, inflicting injuries on him in the process that would require hospitalization.
They soon realize they've mistaken Ajamu's apartment for the apartment next door. Despite Ajamu's lack of criminal record and a police concession that they had the wrong apartment, in November 2003, a jury found that the raiding officers did not violate Ajamu's constitutional rights, nor did they use excessive force in apprehending him.
However, an Orange County Circuit Judge had already earlier found that Ajamu's arrest and pat-down were improper. The city of Orlando subsequently settled with Ajamu for $20,000, plus $150,000 in attorney's fees. A spokesman said the Orlando police department planned no changes to its execution of search warrants as a result of the mistaken raid on Ajamu's home.
Source:
Anthony Colarossi, "Police are cleared of brutality in '99 Case," Orlando Sentinel, November 7, 2003, p.B3.
The Sanborn Family.
July 1, 1999—CA
At 7:10 am on July 1, 1999, narcotics officers rush the home of 78-year-old Roseville, California resident Sandy Sanborn and his wife Grace. Sanborn is knocked to the floor when he attempts to open the door just as police are kicking it in. He is then handcuffed and pushed down in a chair at gunpoint. Agents next apprehend his wife, who awakes to find police pointing assault weapons at her head. She too is handcuffed and detained.
The Sanborns say that while searching, police simply broke down the doors to their kitchen, pantry, and other rooms, instead of simply opening them first.
After an exhaustive search, Police Detective Ron Goodpaster apologized, and the raid team left.
An investigative report in the Sacramento News & Review revealed that the search on the Sanborns' came about after an officer in the sheriff's department of a neighboring county discovered that the Sanborns' son had shopped at a hydroponic plant store. The report further found that though police claimed in the search warrant to have found marijuana in the Sanborns' trash, the phrase they used, "The marijuana was fresh, green and still moist and had been recently cut from a mature marijuana plant," was identical to that used on dozens of other search warrants.
Police found no marijuana -- or any other illicit substance -- in the Sanborns' home.
Sources:
Charlotte Wright, "Narc Agents Raid Wrong Home," Press-Tribune, July 2, 1999.
Mike Pulley, "Search Unwarranted," Sacramento News & Review, January 20, 2000.
Tina and Margie Peterson.
April 4, 1999—UT
On April 4, 1999, police conduct a drug raid on an apartment in Kaysville, Utah, four days after obtaining the warrant, and three weeks after obtaining the information to get the warrant.
Despite the fact that a moving van sits in front of the apartment, the officers carry on with the raid. They burst in on Tina and Margie Peterson, two sisters who are just moving in. Police charge in with guns drawn, and order the sisters and their two guests to the floor. According to the Petersons, officers continued to detain and question them even after the women show identification and proof that they're brand new tenants.
The sisters filed suit against the police department in 2004.
Source:
Pamela Manson, "Drug-raid lawsuit gets a green light; Just unlucky? Two sisters say police violated their civil rights; Lawsuit over drug raid gets a green light," Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 2004, p. B1.
Edwin and Catherine Bernhardt.
February 9, 1999—FL
On February 9, 1999, police in Hallandale, Florida, dressed in black jumpers, body armor and face masks, raid the home of Catherine and Edwin Bernhardt. Edwin, whose job requires him to get up at 4 a.m., is asleep. Catherine is on the couch. Police bust open the Bernhardt's window and jam an assault rifle inside. Edwin Bernhardt wakes up, and runs downstairs in the nude to investigate the commotion.
Officers then push Loretta Bernhardt to the floor and handcuff her at gunpoint. Mr. Bernhardt is subdued, handcuffed, and forced into a chair while a police officer clothes him in a pair of his wife's shorts. He is arrested and spends several hours in jail, still clad only in the underwear, until police realize their mistake and drive him home.
The search warrant was for an "Apartment 17." The Bernhardts lived in "Apartment 1." There was no "Apartment 17." Police were at first apologetic. But when the Bernhardts later file suit, the city of Hollandale grows stubborn. City attorney Richard Kane tells the Miami Herald that citizens should expect such tactics as the price of the Drug War. "They made a mistake. There's no one to blame for a mistake," Kane said of the police. "The way these people were treated has to be judged in the context of a war." When asked to comment on the suit, Fort Lauderdale police Capt. Tom Tiderington adds, "There's no perfect formula for success. It could happen at any time."
The Herald reports that similar "wrong door" raids had recently taken place in Seminole County (twice), Largo, and Tampa.
A year later, police in Hallandale would again mistakenly conduct a "wrong door" raid.
Source:
Vanessa Bauza, "Couple files suit in raid gone bad; Officers stormed the wrong house," Miami Herald, April 17, 1999, p. B1.
Priscilla Clark.
December 15, 1998—NC
In December 1998, SWAT officers in Raleigh raid the home of Priscilla Clark, who is pregnant at the time.
Clark tells the Raleigh News and Observer her first thought was, "'Oh my God, someone's coming in here to kill me.' I looked out my bedroom door and saw this big gun coming down the hall and a man dressed in black."
Police lock Clark's two children in a bedroom while Clark attempts to explain to them they have the wrong house. Police eventually believe her, and apologize.
Source:
Craig Jarvis, "Drug raids usually hit mark, occasionally bomb," Raleigh News and Observer, July 7, 1998, p. B1.
Earl Richardson.
June 1, 1998—NC
In June of 1998, police in Raleigh, North Carolina raid the home of 66-year-old Earl Richardson, punching a hole in his front door and ripping out its interior frame. An officer clad in black points a rifle at Richardson and orders him to the floor while police rummage through his belongings.
Police had intended to raid an unmarked apartment to the rear of Richardson's home after a tip from an informant, and after finding marijuana residue in the trash. Police insist they knocked and announced before entering, which Richards denies. "That's an outright lie," Richardson told the local paper. "I would have heard them. The window of the room I was in is right next to the front door. The only thing I heard was the crash."
After an apology from Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer days later, Richardson added, "I don't have anything against the city. I'm just glad I didn't get shot."
Sources:
Anne Saker, "Police raid the wrong home," Raleigh News and Observer, June 5, 1998, p. A1.
Craig Jarvis, "Drug raids usually hit mark, occasionally bomb," Raleigh News and Observer, July 7, 1998, p. B1.
The Mackin-Howie Family.
May 22, 1998—NC
Police in Concord, North Carolina raid the home of Leonard Mackin, Charlene Howie, and their four children. Officers burst in with guns drawn and order the family to the floor. After repeated pleas by Mackin to police that they had the wrong house, Detective Larry Welch recognizes Mackin as a co-worker with the city and asks, "Leonard, is that you?"
A confidential informant had given police the wrong address.
It is the second of three botched raids in Concord in four years.
Source:
Kerry Prichard, "Concord Family Sues Over Search By Police," Charlotte Observer, May 25, 1999, p. C3.
Jeanine Jean.
May 7, 1998—NY
On May 7, 1998, police briefly knock, then break down the door and deploy a flashbang grenade in the home of Jeanine Jean. Frightened, Jean takes her six-year-old son and runs into a closet to call 911.
Police enter, pull Jean and the boy from the closet, then handcuff and question her at gunpoint in front of her son. The rough treatment causes Jean to begin bleeding from a ruptured surgical procedure she'd had done the day before.
After 90 minutes, police realize they have the wrong apartment and leave, leaving the door hanging from its hinges. The warrant for the raid was based solely on information from a confidential informant, with no corroborating investigation.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
The Shorter Family.
May 1, 1998—NY
On May 1, 1998, police break down the door to a home in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in a no-knock raid based on the word of a confidential informant, despite a background check showing that no one who lives in the home has a criminal record.
According to the New York Times, upon entering the police find the Shorter family, "a retired banker, a home health attendant, and their two daughters." One of the daughters is mentally disabled, and showering at the time of the raid. Police yank her from the shower and handcuff her, along with the rest of the family. Despite her pleas that she is menstruating, officers refuse to give her a sanitary pad until she is visibly bleeding.
"I thought America was invaded, that some force, a foreign force, came to kill us," Basil Shorter, a 62-year-old a native Jamaican who became an American citizen, said. "My family was helpless. I was helpless."
Police continued to defend the merit of the raid. "What we believe at this point is that the information was good. Why would our source give us bad information on one apartment and good information on the second apartment in the same building?" Chief Martin O'Boyle told the Times. Off the record, investigators told the paper that such raids on complete innocents are necessary because drug dealers sometimes deal out of a family's home without the family's knowledge.
Sources:
Michael Cooper, "Scared Family Says Police Raided the Wrong Home," New York Times, May 8, 1998.
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise As City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
The Cuervo Family.
April 20, 1998—WI
In 1998, a regional narcotics unit in Neenah, Wisconsin mistakenly raids the home of Daniel and Cynthia Cuervo, holding the couple at gunpoint while police ransack their home. The warrant proves to be for the apartment next door.
The Cuervos would later settle a civil suit against the local police agencies involved in the raid for $47,500. The same narcotics unit had to pay $50,000 to settle a suit stemming from another "wrong door" raid in 1991.
The raid on the Cuervos and the resulting settlement cause the company that insures the towns to demand significant changes in the operation and oversight of the paramiliatary drug team. Attorney Gregg Gunta, who represents the insurer, did a study of the way drug raids were performed in the area and concluded they ammounted to "essentially armed assaults."
Sources:
Jim Collar, "MEG changes reach critical stage," Oshkosh Northwestern, June 23, 2002, p. C1.
also Ed Lowe, "Insurer targets MEG changes," Appleton Post-Crescent, January 6, 2002, p. A1.
The Ford Family.
March 27, 1998—IL
In March 1998, state troopers and local police in Harvey, Illinois deploy a flashbang grenade at the home of LaDana Ford, sending scorch marks across her floor and up her wall. Officers then search Ford's home, handcuffing Ford's 13-year-old son and questioning her seven-year-old daughter at gunpoint. They later realize they've raided the wrong address.
Harvey Police Chief Philip Hardiman was unapologetic. "We make out search warrants when we get information from drug informants," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Sometimes they give us incorrect information, and warrants are made out for one house when we're really looking for the house next door. I think that's what happened here. That happens from time to time in any police department." When asked if the department would apologize, Hardiman replied, "I don't know if we'd apologize. It's not unusual for that to happen sometimes, but I will say it doesn't happen that often."
Source:
Jon Sall, "Suburban family terrorized as cops raid wrong house," Chicago Sun-Times, March 28, 1998, p. 8.
The Fulton Family.
March 18, 1998—NY
On March 18, 1998, police raid the Bronx apartment of the Fulton family: a grandmother, her daughter, and her six-year-old grandson. The family is watching television when a narcotics team pounds on the door, breaks it open, and begins tearing through the apartment looking for drugs. Police had the wrong apartment.
The boy, Jaquan Fulton, told the New York Times, "I was scared, scared they were going to shoot us. I cried. I didn't say a word."
Source:
Kit R. Roane, "Once Again, Police Raid the Wrong Apartment," New York Times, March 21, 1998, p. B1.
The Patterson Family.
February 27, 1998—NY
New York City police raid the Bronx apartment of Shaunsia Patterson, her sister, and her two children, ages three and two. Patterson is eight months pregnant at the time of the raid.
Police first grab Patterson's sister Misty, 15, and put her to the floor. They then confront Patterson, who is sitting on her bed. One officer pushes her onto her back, while another jumps on top of her. Patterson is eventually pushed to the floor and handcuffed while, in Patterson's words, "one of the cops stepped on the side of my face and pressed my face into the floor." When Patterson asks what the police wanted, she was told to "Shut the fuck up."
Patterson is handcuffed in her underwear. Police scream expletives at the two women and two children while they scour the apartment for drugs. Patterson grows so frightened she urinates on herself. She isn't permitted to change.
Police refuse to show Patterson a warrant, and demolish her furniture, her kitchen, and her floor. Hours later, Patterson is released from handcuffs, and an officer tells her, "We got the wrong apartment."
It's the second botched drug raid NYPD would conduct that day. One confidential police source would later tell New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, "Two in one day -- that's bad. But I'll tell you what I honestly believe -- I don't think this happens that often."
Source:
Bob Herbert, "In America; Reprise of Terror," New York Times, March 12, 1998, p. A27.
Ellis Elliot.
February 27, 1998—NY
On February 27, 1998, police conduct a no-knock raid on the Bronx home of Ellis Elliot, based on information they would later determine to be "miscommunication with an informant."
As police attempt to break down his door, Elliot fears he is being attacked, and fires a shot through the door. Police respond with a swarm of 26 bullets, all of which, fortunately, miss Elliot. Elliot is then dragged out of his home naked, allegedly peppered with racial epithets, then arrested on charges of possessing an unlicensed weapon.
Police would later admit their error, and the police department would pay $1,000 to have Elliot's door repaired. Elliot eventually pled guilty to disorderly conduct for firing his gun at police officers, and was given a conditional discharge. No police officers were ever charged or disciplined.
Sources:
Rocco Parascandola, "Cops pay 1G for repairs in raid mixup," New York Post, March 6, 1998, p. 10.
Pete Bowles, "Guilty plea in cop-mistake case," Newsday, May 6, 1998.
Jennifer Switalski.
February 2, 1998—WI
On February 2, 1998, police in Milwaukee conducted a 6:30 am raid on a building owned by Jennifer Switalski. Switalski wasn't home at the time, but her two tenants were. After breaking down the door, police handcuffed the two tenants while a terrified two-year-old girl looked on.
Police had the wrong address. Switalksi later tried to sue the city for emotional distress and loss of income after her frightened tenants moved out. City officials balked, and even mocked her. "If it happened to me, I would be upset, too," said city attorney Louis Elder. "But the taxpayer should not have to pay for hurt feelings because those deputies inadvertently entered the wrong home."
Elder also said Switalski was filled with "grandiose ideas" for attempting to sue the city though she herself hadn't witnessed the raid.
Source:
Tom Kertscher, "Botched drug bust unresolved; County offered $1,100 for door, but property owner wants $10,000," Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 11, 2000, p. B1.
The Baines Family.
November 8, 1997—NY
On November 8, 1997, police in Suffolk County, New York get a tip from a drug suspect that a home in Wyandanch is stashing "a black automatic pistol, two machine guns, a stainless steel sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, bulletproof vests, crack cocaine, proceeds from drugs sales, and drug paraphernalia."
Within hours of the tip, and with no corroborating investigation, a judge issues a no-knock warrant. Police execute a raid on the address given by the informant.
The address turns out to be the home Denise Baines and her two sons. Baines' 10-year-old son's bedroom is destroyed. Police apologize to Baines, but defended the practice of executing quick, no-knock raids based on the tip of a single informant. Even informants who are drug suspects themselves. "We acted solely on the information supplied by this defendant, which to us at the time seemed credible," said the head of the Narcotics Enforcement Team. "My officers acted in good faith. They did their job."
Source:
Chau Lam and Michael Arena, "Good faith blunder," Newsday, November 8, 1997.
June Nixon and Melissa Cheek.
August 19, 1997—TX
On August 19, 1997, police in Kaufman County, Texas kick down the door to the home of June Nixon, her daughter Melissa Cheek, and her granddaughter. Police handcuff the women and strip-search them at gunpoint before realizing they've raided the wrong house. They were acting on a tip from a confidential informant.
Sheriff Robert Harris explained, "It looks like what probably happened is the person that's been doing the investigations didn't make sure this was the right house."
The same Sheriff's Department was forced to apologize to two families in 1989 for mistaken drug raids that, according to the Dallas Morning News, "turned up no drugs, but left houses damaged and family members shaken."
Source:
Kendall Anderson, "Kaufman County sheriff orders inquiry into mistaken drug raid," Dallas Morning News, August 24, 1997, p. A43.
Atlee Swanson.
July 9, 1997—NY
On July 9, 1997 police conduct a 6 a.m. no-knock raid at the East Harlem home of Atlee Swanson. Police break into Swanson's home, and demand to know where "Joey, Jason, and Sean" are. Swanson replies that she's never heard of them.
Police continue with the raid. They refuse to show Swanson a search warrant. Swanson is handcuffed and told she faces 7 to 15 years in prison for selling drugs from her home. She is taken to the police station and put in a holding cell for 31 hours, despite being told by police in the 23rd Precinct that they didn't suspect she'd dealt any drugs.
Swanson returns home to find her apartment "trashed and vandalized." She would finally get a copy of the search warrant in the mail three years later. Police had mistakenly entered the wrong apartment building.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Mary and Cornelius Jefferson.
June 24, 1997—NY
An elderly couple is preparing to go to bed when police use a battering ram to rip the front door of their Bronx apartment off of its hinges.
"They kept on banging until the whole door had splintered," Mrs. Jefferson told the New York Times "I thought they were coming to rob us, coming to kill us."
Police conducted the raid based on a tip from a paid confidential informer with a criminal record. Police were looking for a Hispanic man alleged to be selling cocaine from the apartment. As the Times reports, "Instead the police found a terrified couple in their 60's, living in a meticulous apartment where plastic slipcovers protect the sofas and diplomas and awards line the walls."
A police source tells the Times that the informant used in the raid produced "reliable" tips just 44 percent of the time.
For months, police continued to insist that their informant was correct, and that the Jefferson's were aiding a cocaine distributor. The city finally settled with the couple for $200,000 in February 1999.
Source:
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise as City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
Merritt Sharp
June 13, 1997—CA
In 1997, police raid Merritt Sharp's auto body shop on suspicion that his son is running a methamphetamine lab from the site. They have no search warrant.
Sharp is thrown to the asphalt at gunpoint, handcuffed, and held for 45 minutes while police search the premises. When they find no meth lab, they begin searching Sharp's business for stolen and illegal weapons. They find two stolen cars, though neither implicates Sharp. Sharp says officers "high-fived" over him as he lay in handcuffs, and insulted him.
In 2000, a jury found that police had conspired to violate Sharp's constitutional civil rights, and awarded him $1 million. The settlement was later thrown out by Judge Derek W. Hunt, who ruled on appeal that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.
Sources:
"When Police Cross the Line," staff editorial, Orange County Register, July 23, 2000.
John McDonald, "$1 million jury award thrown out," Orange County Register, September 13, 2000.
Sandra Soto.
June 5, 1997—NY
On June 5, 1997, police carry out a no-knock raid based on information from an anonymous informant in the East New York area of Brooklyn. The warrant instructs them to raid a gray door marked "2M." Finding no such door, they instead break down a red door marked "2L," terrorizing Sandra Soto and her two children. They find no drugs.
Source:
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise as City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
The Salt Lake Tortilla Plant Raid.
April 24, 1997—UT
In 1997, police in Salt Lake City, Utah raid a tortilla factory and restaurant owned by Rafael Gomez, a naturalized citizen. 75 heavily armed police officers storm the business on a tip from a confidential informant. Expecting to find heroin and cocaine, they find only two 24-pill packs of the painkiller Darvon and two bottles of penicillin. Gomez says he was struck in the face, knocked to the floor, and that police trained a gun on his six-year-old son. One secretary says she was dragged to the floor by her hair. 80 people, mostly Hispanic, were handcuffed in the raid, and forced to lay down for up to three hours as police searched the premises.
Gomez spent a large sum of money fighting charges resulting from the raid, which were later dismissed. Bad publicity from the raid and the length of time it took to clear his name killed Gomez's business, and dashed his hopes of opening a large shopping center in the area. He settled with the city of Salt Lake in 2004 for $290,000.
Source: "Hard Justice," Salt Lake Tribune, December 1, 2004, p. A14.
The Dillard-Blakely Family.
June 3, 1996—IL
In June 1996, police raid the Pontoon Beach, Illinois home of Tarkus Dillard, Vickie Blakely, and the couple's two young children. According to Dillard and Blakely, one officer points a gun directly in the face of their three-year-old daughter during the course of the raid.
Police had mistakenly raided the couple's home instead of the home next door. Police Chief Michael Crouch apologized to Dillard and Blakely for the mistake, but insisted his officers had done nothing wrong. The man police were after lived nearby, and was often seen in front of the apartment building where the Dillard and Blakely lived. He escaped during the wrong-door raid.
In 1998 federal judge threw out the couple's $1 million lawsuit against the police department. A lawyer for the police officers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that even if police had pointed a gun in the face of the child and cocked it, that "it was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment." He called the suit's dismissal a "tremendous vindication" of the officers' actions, and said he was contemplating suing Dillard and Blakely, to recoup the city's legal costs.
Sources:
Charles Bosworth, Jr., "Judge finds for police officer in bungled raid; Pontoon Beach couple who lived next to drug suspect filed $1 million suit," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 24, 1998, p. D2.
Jeffrey and Phyllis Hampton.
May 10, 1995—NC
In May 1995, police in Concord, North Carolina mistakenly storm the home of Jeffrey and Phyllis Hampton. The Hamptons are relaxing at around 9:30 pm when police break down their door, come into the house with assault weapons, and order the couple to the floor. Police realize their mistake after about a half hour of interrogation.
"I feel like they've taken part of my life away," Phyllis Hampton would tell the Charlotte Observer. "I used to feel safe in my home. Now I don't feel safe anywhere."
It is the first of three botched raids in the town of Concord in four years.
Source:
Anna Griffin, "Drug raid at wrong house moves couple to file suit," Charlotte Observer, September 16, 1995, p. C1.
Paul Shavlik, Cheryl Kadinger, and Jason Tews.
April 1, 1995—WI
At 2:45 a.m. on April 1, 1995, deputies in Juneau, Wisconsin conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Paul Shavlik, Cheryl Kadinger, and Jason Tews after finding traces of marijuana in the home's trash.
The three are thrown to the ground and handcuffed at gunpoint, and instructed to remain that way for the first 45 minutes of the raid. Police spend three hours searching the home. According to the victims, they "tear the place to shreds," and subject Kadinger to sexual comments while rifling through her underwear and personal letters.
Police find no drugs, and make no arrests. Two weeks later, the same deputies would conduct the drug raid leading to the death of Scott Bryant.
Source:
Chip Mitchell, "Brutality by Dodge County Deputies Alleged; Juneau Case Preceded Fatal Beaver Dam Raid," Wisconsin State Journal, June 8, 1995, p. B3.
Charles Inscor.
March 16, 1995—FL
In March 1995, police in Oldsmar, Florida smash through a glass door, deploy flashbang grenades, and storm the apartment of whom they think is a suspected drug dealer.
Instead, they find 31-year-old Charles Inscor, a wheelchair-bound man with respiratory ailments. The SWAT team soon realizes it had raided the wrong home. Inscor is hospitalized for eleven days from injuries incurred during the raid.
An ensuing investigation found that, though deputies made many mistakes during the investigation and raid, no disciplinary action would be taken because no rules were broken. According to the St. Petersburg Times, police couldn't be disciplined because, "the Sheriff's office had no policies concerning how the SWAT team should serve search warrants."
Source:
Jane Meinhardt, "No discipline planned in mistaken drug raid," St. Petersburg Times, May 4, 1995.
Mistaken Tucson Raid.
June 5, 1994—AZ
A SWAT team in Tucson, Arizona deploys a flashbang grenade while conducting a raid on the home of a 75-year-old woman, her son, and three small children.
Police then discover they've targeted the wrong address.
Source:
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., "Explosive Dynamic Entry: The Increasing Militarization Of The Police Makes Citizens Into Enemies," Flagpole, July 30, 2003.
Johnny Senteno.
August 21, 1993—OR
In August 1993, a battalion of police in SWAT gear storm a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Teams of police swarm several homes in the neighborhood, including the home of Dale and Penny Randall, who are pulled from their bed, naked, at gunpoint, and aren't permitted to dress. The team tears the Randall's home apart looking for drugs. The couple is subjected to an hour of screaming and obscenities, and is never given back nude photos of Penny Randall taken by her husband.
Just outside the Randalls home, a scrap metal worker named Johnny Senteno had come to haul some waste away from the rental, only recently occupied by the Randalls.
As Senteno is talking to a neighbor, he turns to see a National Guard M-113 armored personnel carrier filled with armed personnel barreling toward him.
Two members of the Portland Police Bureau's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) in camouflage and face masks, leap from the truck screaming obscenities.
Portland's alternative weekly PDXS reports:
"Before he could respond, Senteno was shot. The first impact struck his chest. The second shattered his arm, which he had held in front of his heart. Senteno describes the projectile which struck him as a "pepper bullet." It expanded to the size of a tennis ball. Upon impact it dispersed a burning talcum-like powder."
Senteno had been hit with a grenade launcher. Though described as "non-lethal," the weapon is intended to be used from distances more than 60 feet. Senteno was hit at a distance of less than 15. Senteno would eventually settle with the city of Portland for $100,000.
Though police found a small amount of marijuana in the Randall's apartment, the couple would later learn they weren't the actual targets of the raid. Police were after the home's owner, Robert Cozzi. Cozzi had recently moved out and rented the home to the Randalls. Cozzi had been fingered to police as a potential drug dealer by a confidential informant. When a reporter from the PDXS paper attempted to contact the mayor's office about details of the raid, a spokesman said, "Generally, these things are left as they should be, to the management of agencies involved." A spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau wasn't forthcoming either, saying only that details of the raid would only be given out "on a need-to-know basis."
Source:
Paul Richmond, "True Stories from the Front Line," PDXS, October 22, 1995.
The Davis Family.
July 19, 1993—PA
In July 1993, police in Allentown, Pennsylvania conduct an early-morning raid on the home of Brian and Elizabeth Davis and their two sons, one aged two, and one an infant. Officers, armed, and masked search Elizabeth Davis in the nude in front of other officers.
Police commence the raid after a tip from the Davis's neighbors, with whom the Davis's had an ongoing dispute, that the couple was running a methamphetamine lab.
The neighbors had told police that Brian Davis had no visible means of support, and thus suspected he was dealing drugs. He was an opera singer. They also mentioned they detected the faint smell of cat urine coming from the Davis home, which police claim they verified before conducting the raid.
During the raid, police found no evidence of drug activity at the home. The state attorney general's office, which commissioned the raid, called it an "unfortunate incident," but maintained that all law enforcement involved "acted properly."
The state of Pennsylvania settled with the Davises in 1996.
Sources:
Dick Cowen, "Odors didn't lead to drugs," Allentown Morning Call, January 15, 1996, p. B5.
Dick Owen, "State settles lawsuit over city drug raid," Allentown Morning Call, January 15, 1996.
Wheat Ridge Raid.
July 15, 1993—CO
In July of 1993, a Wheat Ridge, Colorado woman is hospitalized after DEA agents pry open her door, curse her, and beat her while executing a no-knock drug raid. They have the wrong address. The raid inspired a letter of condemnation by the mayor of Wheat Ridge to the local district attorney.
Source:
"DEA Does It Again," Denver Post, July 16, 1993.
Mistaken Akron Drug Raid on Mother, Three Children.
March 2, 1993—OH
In March 1993, police in Akron, Ohio, clad in black, knock down the front door, and rush the apartment of a 32-year-old woman and her three young children.
The mother, identified by the Akron Beacon-Journal as "Joyce," says she didn't realize the invaders were police until she and her children were face-down on the floor at gunpoint.
Police had the wrong address. Lt. Harold Craig, leader of the Akron paramilitary drug unit, told the paper, "It didn't look like any drug house."
Source: "Drug Squad Busts Down Wrong Door," Akron Beacon-Journal, March 23, 1993
William and Marian Hauselmann.
November 15, 1992—CA
In November 1992, a SWAT team in Stanislaus County, California raids the home of William and Marian Hauselman. Agents handcuff the elderly couple, put pillowcases over their heads, and pin them to the floor.
Mr. Hausleman, who has a heart condition, is cut in the face as agents wrestled him to the ground and step on his back to keep him down.
An informant had told police that the Houselman residence housed a methamphetamine lab capable of churning out 12 pounds of the drug per day. The lab was allegedly in an underground bunker, guarded by a 280-pound armed biker named "Tiny."
Police find no bunker, no biker, and no drugs. Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman apologizes to the Hauselmans, and concedes the tip was "180 degrees wrong," but insists the SWAT team had probable cause to conduct the raid. The local district attorney later declines to press charges against the informant.
The raid on the Hauselman home came just three years after the raid that killed Richard Elsass and Sgt. Dighton Little, also conducted in part by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department. The Modesto Bee noted in an article at the time that botched raids were becoming a regular occurence in the area: A SWAT team in nearby Tuolumme County, California had carried out mistaken raids in both May and June of 1993; the Stockton, California raid claiming the life of Manuel Ramirez and Officer Arthur Parga also took place in 1993; and that in 1992, police in Tracy, California had, likewise, conducted two botched raids, where they "stormed the wrong homes, breaking down doors, brandishing weapons, and handcuffing law-abiding people."
Sources: Michael Winters,"Raid's Shock Still Felt; Misguided Bust Slows Two Lives," Modesto Bee, February 15, 1994, p. A1.
Gracia Figueroa and children.
November 9, 1992—WA
In December 1992, DEA agents raid the Pasco, Washington home of Gracia Figueroa. According to Figueroa, agents break down her door, pull her daughters from their beds, then hold the family at gunpoint while agents ransack their home. They found no drugs.
The DEA said the raid was conducted after Figueroa's ex-husband was arrested on drug charges the day before -- in Wisconsin.
Source:
"Drug raid settlement not enough for mom," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 18, 1992.
Slyvia and Elsa Romero.
November 2, 1992—NY
In November 1992, 15 plainclothes police conduct a drug raid on the home of 20-year-old Fordham University student Sylvia Romero and her sister Elsa.
Police knock, but don't announce themselves, and before Romero can answer the door, force their way inside. Romero is first maced, then she and her sister are then strip-searched, handcuffed, and forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint while officers tear apart their apartment. When Romero asks what was going on, police respond, "Bitch, shut the fuck up!"
The two women are taken from their apartment into custody, but later released when no drugs were found. They return to find that police have trashed their apartment, and taken their dog to the pound. The women are never charged.
The raid was conducted based on a tip from an informant, who said the apartment was being used to store heroin. Housing Police Chief Joseph Kinney tells the New York Daily News that the raid is "standard procedure." The women's brother, an attorney for the city of Hartford, Connecticut, tells the paper, "My mother's biggest fear was that someone would break into the apartment and something would happen to her children. She never expected that it would be the cops."
Source: "NYPD 'Terror Raid' on Woman's Apartment," New York Daily News, November 5-6, 1992.
Donald Carlson.
August 26, 1992—CA
On August 26, 1992, federal drug agents conduct a late-night raid at the San Diego-area home of Donald Carlson. Carlson awakes, frightened, and assumes the agents are unlawful intruders. He fires two shots at the door to ward them off. The agents then break down Carlson's door and shoot him in the back.
Carlson was in intensive care for six weeks. The police had acted on a bad tip from an anonymous informant who was later convicted on 25 counts of lying to federal investigators. The same informant later led police to send a SWAT team to wrongly raid the home of Michelle and Tony Jones in Poway, California.
In 1994, Carlson won a $2.75 million settlement against the federal government.
In a follow-up investigative report triggered by the Carlson raid, the San Diego Union-Tribune found that just a month earlier, police had conducted another wrong-door raid in which "residents say their daughters were subjected to genital searches while a gun was held to the head of their 6 year old son. No drugs were found."
The Union-Tribune concluded that the Carlson raid and those like it happen too frequently because of "heavy pressure from Customs managers -- who stand to gain professionally by generating arrests and big caseloads -- on street agents to produce headline-grabbing cases."
Sources:
"Man shot by government agents gets $2.75 million," Reuters, December 15, 1994.
Philip J. LaVelle, "Excesses blamed in 'bad raids,'" San Diego Union-Tribune, December 13, 1992.
Venice, Illinois Police Accidentally Raid Their Own Mayor's Home.
June 3, 1992—IL
A SWAT team in Venice, Illinois raids a suspected crack house by breaking in through a window and breaking down the back door with a battering ram.
Not only do they raid the the wrong address, they end up raiding the home of Tyrone Echols, the town's mayor.
"To tell the truth, I don't remember what they said because I was furious," Echols told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "If I'd been here and heard that going on I probably would have taken my pistol and shot through the door. I'd probably be dead. And some of the officers would probably be dead, too."
Source:
Patrick E. Gauen, "Mistaken Drug Raid Irks Venice Mayor," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1992, p. A12.
The Glover Family
May 22, 1992—WA
In May 1992, police in King County, Washington conduct a no-knock raid with cameras from the television show Cops in tow.
Police break open the door of the Glover family and their four children. They put a gun to Floyd Glover's head and order him to the floor. Theresa Glover is handcuffed at gunpoint. Despite being half-dressed, and with the cameras still rolling, police at first refuse to let her cover up. Other officers then storm the children's bedroom, screaming, "Everyone on the floor!"
Police had targeted the wrong home.
Cops would later decide not to air the raid. The same police department had conducted two other "wrong door" raids in the previous year.
Source:
"Drug raid blunder uncovers bottom line," Herald Sun, May 25, 1992.
The Garrison Family.
February 7, 1992—NY
In February 1992, police storm the Bronx home of Edward Garrison on a tip from an informant that a Hispanic man was selling drugs out of his apartment.
They find only Garrison, a black corrections officer, his mother (who was in bed), and his two young daughters, who were preparing for school. There are no drugs or weapons.
The detective in charge of the case later admits under oath that he couldn't remember the name of the informant, and that he'd done no corroborating investigation of who lived in the apartment before commencing with the raid. Police officials are also unable to produce the affidavit submitted to obtain the search warrant in the first place.
In 2004, New York City agreed to pay the family $100,000.
Source:
Rocco Parascandola, "Cop Raid Case Settles for $100,000," Newsday, February 7, 2004, p. A13.
Harry Davis.
February 3, 1992—MD
In 1992, police in Fort Washington, Maryland conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Harry Davis.
According to Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, "Fifteen police officers, carrying assault weapons and dressed in black garb that looked like some kind of ninja outfits, stormed in, knocked Davis to the floor and held him there with a shotgun to his head." Police also pulled Davis' girlfriend out of bed in the nude, and performed a body cavity search.
Police then tore out the walls to Davis' apartment, smashed family photos in their frames, and confiscated his car.
A confidential informant had told police that Davis was laundering more than $100 million in drug money from his home. Davis' face was splashed all over the news as the mastermind of an elaborate East Coast cocaine cartel. Yet police found no drugs or weapons in his apartment, and later confirmed that they'd found no evidence of money laundering.
The assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case later conceded, "The evidence did not have him in any actual drug transaction." Davis lost his car leasing business, and lost possession of his car, which police seized, then returned to the bank when Davis was unable to keep up on his payments. Davis found temporary work as a car salesman after his arrest, but was later fired after a customer recognized him as the man the TV news identified as a drug kingpin.
A year later, prosecutors dropped all charges against Davis. Davis said in court, "You break into my home, humiliate my friend, destroy my business, and after investigating me for a year, just drop the charges. What can you say to me?"
The judge replied, "You're free. Next case."
According to Milloy, Davis was never compensated, even for the damage to his home.
Source:
Courtland Milloy, "For Ex-Defendant, P Street Case Still a Nightmare," Washington Post, February 7, 1993, p. B1.
The Jones Family.
December 10, 1991—OK
In December 1991, federal agents intending to raid the home of a reputed drug dealer in Guthrie, Oklahoma instead raid the home of Jerry Jones, his wife, and their two daughters.
Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service, and the U.S. Marshall's Service use an axe to tear down the Jones' front door, then push Jones to the floor and kick him. Jones' wife Denise and their eight-year-old daughter are also thrown to the floor at gunpoint.
The Jones family settled with the federal government for an undisclosed amount of money in 1993.
Source:
Ed Godfrey,"Family settles suit over drug raid," Daily Oklahoman, April 1, 1993, p. 25.
The Townson Family.
September 5, 1991—NM
The Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and New Mexico National Guard raid the Townson's farm at 5 a.m. in search of marijuana. More than 200 officers armed with M-16s, surveillance helicopters, and armored personnel carriers search, but find no drugs.
DEA spokesman Donn Fox refused to apologize for the incident. "We do not squander our resources needlessly," he said.
Source:
"Bad Bust," Insight, December 8, 1991, p. 20.
Lloyd Miner.
June 12, 1991—MO
Police on a drug raid force their way into the home of 33-year-old Lloyd Miner, hit him with flashlights, smash his toilet, overturn furniture, rip doors off of cabinets, damage appliances, and throw the man in jail for five hours. They later realize they have the wrong home. According to the Associated Press, "Maj. Dennis Shreve, commander of the Police Department's narcotics and vice division, said the error had occurred because the sergeant in charge of the operation had neglected to do a routine drive-by check with an undercover agent on the case."
Source:
"Police Raid Wrong House and Damage It," Associated Press, June 16, 1991.
The Ditton Family.
April 2, 1991—WA
In April 1991, police raid the home of James Ditton, a disabled Vietnam veteran, based on drug dog alerts to a U.S. Mail package sent to the residence. Police break down the Dittons' door, putting a gash in the head of three year-old Daniel Ditton, who happens to be standing on the other side as police storm in. The elder Ditton is handcuffed and thrown to the ground at gunpoint.
Police find half an ounce of marijuana and, according to the Seattle Times, "a few amphetamines." Police refuse to pay medical bills for the younger Ditton, who requires seven stitches.
The package thought to have contained marijuana is found to have contained orchids.
Source:
Christy Scattarella, "Drug raids spark debate -- what happens when police with warrants search wrong house?" Seattle Times, April 22, 1991, p. B1.
The Orlando Elderberry Bush Raid.
February 5, 1991—FL
In February 1991, a police officer acting on an anonymous tip sees what he believes are marijuana plants at the home of Ed and Jan Carden. Soon, with no search warrant, two dozen police raid the Orlando, Florida couple's house, handcuffing them and forcing them to lie face down in their own front yard.
Police swear at the Cardens and their three children, hold them at gunpoint, and search their entire property for marijuana and growing equipment before realizing the marijuana plants are actually elderberry bushes.
The city settled with the Cardens for $40,000 in 1994.
Source:
Debbie Salamone, "Deputies' Elderberry Flub Settled," Orlando Sentinel, June 18, 1994.
The Chinn Family.
June 12, 1990—WA
In June 1990, an anonymous informant gave Seattle police five addresses where marijuana was allegedly being sold. Two of them prove to be wrong.
The first was the home of Warren Chinn, also the Washington State horseracing commissioner at the time. At around midnight, police storm the Chinn household without knocking. Chinn's wife Honoria is at home with her 90 year-old mother. Mrs. Chinn is handcuffed, violently thrown to the ground (she sustains significant bruising), and held at gunpoint. Police begin to search the house, then realize they're at the wrong address.
Warren Chinn, a political refugee who came to the U.S. in 1952, would later tell a reporter, "This is why I left China." Chinn also wondered what might have happend had he or his son been home. "Somebody break down my door and I start shooting. You would do that, too."
A Seattle police department official would later tell the media that "it's rare that anything like this happens."
Sources:
Christy Scattarella, "Drug raids spark debate -- what happens when police with warrants search wrong house?" Seattle Times, April 22, 1991, p. B1.
Devin Smith, "Police bust wrong home in drug raid," Seattle Times, June 16, 1990.
George and Katrina Stokes.
April 11, 1990—DC
In 1990, Washington, D.C. police crash through the front door of George and Katrina Stokes, who live in a high-crime area in the Southeast sector of the city.
The elderly couple is watching television when the raid begins. George Stokes is ordered to the floor at gunpoint, gashing his head as he falls. A terrified Katrina Stokes then falls down the couple's cellar stairs while trying to flee.
Police have the wrong address. The raid is captured on camera by a local TV news crew, who happened to be in the area covering a protest.
Sourced:
Tom Morganthau, Mark Miller, David A. Kaplan, Todd Barrett, and Lynda Wright, "Uncivil Liberties," Newsweek, April 23, 1990, p. 18.
Frank Wolfe, "Police hit wrong home in search for handgun," Washington Times, April 13, 1990, p. B3.
Ken Fortner and Kelly McAloon
February 10, 1990—CA
In February 1990, six narcotics officers raid the wrong San Diego home, kicking in a door, shattering a lamp and knocking Ken Fortner and Kelly McAloon to the floor.
A police spokesman says the mistake took place when a raiding officer "inadvertently wrote down the wrong number." Police claim they knocked on the door of the home and, afraid that evidence was being destroyed, decided to force their way in.
"They went to this location with the best of intentions," a police spokesman told the Los Angeles Times. "They were armed with all the correct information, and they had a legitimate reason to do what they did. They just had the wrong address."
Fortner says the police never identified themselves when they entered his condo, nor did they apologize upon realizing their mistake.
Source:
Amy Wallace, "Drug raiders broke in wrong home, police say," Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1990.
David Gordon.
December 6, 1989—CT
Plaincothes detectives in Bridgeport raid the grocery store of Jamaican immigrant David Gordon. According to Gordon, police yell, "Stick up, niggers! Freeze. Don't move," put a gun to his head, and throw him to the ground. The police empty Gordon's register and ransack his store, cutting open bags of beans and rice, clearing merchandise off the shelves, and tearing holes in the walls. Gordon only realizes that the intruders are police officers as they take him outside to put him into the backseat of a cruiser.
Police find nothing incriminating. All charges against Gordon are later dropped, and a judge orders Gordon's legal, registered handgun returned to him.
In 1992, citing Gordon's case as one example, state Attorney General Richard N. Palmer would call for a grand jury investigation into the Bridgeport, Connecticut police department after complaints that police detectives, according to the Hartford Courant, "stole money and maliciously destroyed property while searching homes and businesses for drugs."
Source:
Lynne Tuohy, "Judge to Probe Charges; Bridgeport officers face complaints of theft, destruction; Grand juror named to probe complaints," Hartford Courant, October 6, 1992, p. C1.
Kathryn Kranhold, "Grand jury probe may be sought against team of Bridgeport police," Hartford Courant, April 24, 1992, p. A1.
The Pina Family.
August 31, 1989—CA
Alma Pina, the 14-year-old daughter of Adelita Pina, is talking on the telephone when a vanload of heavily armed narcotics officers donning body armor unloads in front of her home.
Guadalupe Pina, Alma's aunt, opens the front door just as eight narcotics officers are preparing to enter. They point handguns and shotguns at the woman's face, and handcuff her.
"My aunt screamed, and I went into the living room. The police pointed their guns at me and told us not to move," Alma told the Los Angeles Times.
Guadelope, Alma, and Ricardo Oviedo, an uncle, are all ordered to the floor. Ricardo and Alma are also handcuffed. Two other girls under ten aren't handcuffed, but ordered at gunpoint to sit across the room.
The search warrant indicates police expect to find bulk marijuana, "kilos of marijuana, firearms and ammunition, and other documentation related to the sale and transfer of marijuana" at the home. They find nothing, seize nothing, and make no arrests.
Police continued to insist they had the correct home, though five days later they returned to raid a nearby home known in the neighborhood to be a source of drug activity, and leave with seizures of drugs and arrests.
Adelita Pena, the mother of the children and the owner of the house, wasn't home at the time of the raid and expressed her frustration with the fact that no one at the police department would offer her an explanation or apology for what happened. "I didn't think that things like this happened in the United States," she told the Los Angeles Times. I didn't know that the police could enter your home, handcuff your children, put them on the floor and search your house. It's such a helpless feeling. There's nothing you can do. They made a mistake, but they don't want to admit it."
Source:
H.G. Reza, "Was warrant warranted? Raid yields no drugs, leaves family fearful and upset," Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1989.
The Sears Family.
July 21, 1989—CA
In July 1989, a team of 27 sheriff's deputies raid the home of Richard Dean Sears, his wife, and his sister-in-law as part of a drug sweep across a 2 1/2 block area of Riverside, California.
According to Sears' lawsuit, police officers deploy flashbang grenades, swarm his bedroom, and repeatedly hit him in the face with a rifle butt. Sears' wife sustains a broken jaw.
Police later acknowledge that the Sears were not involved in any illegal activity.
In 1994, Riverside County settled with Richard Sears for $290,000.
Source:
Mike Kataoka, "County settles with man in mistaken drug raid," Riverside Press Enterprise, February 11, 1994, p. B5.
Robert H. O'Neill.
January 1, 1989—MA
In January 1989, Robert H. O'Neill of Boston filed a civil suit against the city after several police raid his home late at night, drag him naked from his bed, and make him lie on the floor at gunpoint while they search his apartment.
They had targeted the wrong apartment.
Source: "Dorchester man sues city for $25m," Boston Globe, January 7, 1989.
Roger Guydon.
September 4, 1988—CA
On September 4, 1988, police storm the home of Roger Guydon, point guns at the heads of he and his girlfriend, throw him to the floor, and kick him in the ribs in a futile search for drugs. "The more they searched, the more frustrated they got and the more destructive they became," Guydon would later say.
In 1991, Guydon won a $760,000 lawsuit against the city.
Sources:
"Man awarded $760,000 in police brutality suit," Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1991.
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
The Navarro Family.
August 24, 1988—OR
In December 1993, Medford, Oregon couple Jose and Esperanza Navarro won a $100,000 settlement after police erroneously raided their home.
Five years earlier, police had obtained a warrant to search a home on a remote access road. They wrongly interpreted the ambiguous information on the warrant to be the Navarro's home, kicked in the couple's door, and searched their home at gunpoint.
Sources:
"Court Rules Against Oregon Detective In Civil Rights Lawsuit," Associated Press, June 1, 1992.
"Oregon couple wins settlement for botched raid," Seattle Times, December 12, 1993.
Carlton Preston.
July 15, 1988—FL
In July 1988, police raid the home of Baptist pastor Carlton Preston, and handcuff him in front of his children and a team of news cameras. They find no drugs. The warrant is executed based on a tip from a confidential informant.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Alicia Jones.
June 9, 1988—CA
In the summer of 1988, seven narcotics officers burst into the Los Angeles home of Alicia Jones, a nine-year county employee, and push her to the ground with a gun to her head.
Officers rummage through Jones' belongings before realizing that the vehicles they'd had under surveillance actually belong to the residents next door.
"I just couldn't believe this was happening to me, I felt as if I was watching this happening to someone else," Jones would tell the Los Angeles Times. "I don't bother anybody. I don't use drugs or associate with people who do. I don't even like to drink. I didn't even get an apology."
Source:
Marita Hernandez, "Allegations of abuse by police told at hearing," Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1988.
Glen Williams.
June 1, 1988—LA
In June 1988, police in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana conduct a 2 a.m. raid on the home of Glen Williamson. When Williamson points out that the name on the warrant reads "Glen Williams," the deputy merely adds an "on" to the end of the last name, and arrests him anyway. Williamson spends a night in jail before police concede their mistake and release him.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Bok Hwan Kim.
May 10, 1988—CA
On May 10, 1988, police from three departments in the San Francisco area raid the home of Bok Hwan Kim. Kim is struck, tackled, and handcuffed at gunpoint. According to Kim, police also ransacked Kim's apartment and forced his wife to the floor at gunpoint. They had the wrong address.
Police apologize for the raid, but a spokesman would later tell the media that Kim exaggerated the details, and that "shortly after entering the building [police] realized they must have gotten bad information and immediately backed off."
Kim filed a $1 million lawsuit against the city.
Source:
"Police 'Sorry' For Raiding Wrong Home," Associated Press, May 14, 1988.
John Rickman.
May 7, 1988—VA
In May 1988, police raid a home in Winchester, Virginia, where John Rickman is doing some construction. Police don't identify themselves before storming the home, striking and kicking Rickman, and putting a gun to his head. Rickman, who had nothing to do with the raid, subsequently filed a $2.5 million lawsuit.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Mary Duggan and Lillian Crowley.
January 28, 1988—MN
In January 1988, Minneapolis police use a shotgun to blow open the door of an apartment occupied by 40-year-old Mary Duggan and her mother Lillian Crowley at 1:30 am.
Officers order the two women to the floor and put guns to their heads while they search the apartment for drugs. They have the wrong apartment. The deputy police chief later sends the women roses and candy in apology.
Source:
"Mistaken Drug Raid Embarrasses Police," Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1988, p. C3.
Stephanie Swengel.
April 1, 1987—AZ
In April 1987, police in Scottsdale, Arizona kick down the door to Stephanie Swengel's apartment with such force that the door's wood stripping flies across the room and the lock dislodges from the wall.
Swengel and a roommate are held at gunpoint for ten minutes before one officer asks Swengel her apartment number. Police then realize they've targeted the wrong residence.
Source: John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Pete Garcia.
March 26, 1987—CO
On March 26, 1987 at 2 am, police in Jefferson County, Colorado conduct a no-knock drug raid on the home of Alger Garcia and his mother. Alger's brother, Pete Garcia, is visiting at the time, to do some construction on the home.
Alger is suspected of drug activity, Pete Garcia isn't. Pete Garcia awakes on the morning of the 26th to the sound of gunfire. He looks out his window, and sees that men dressed in camouflage have shot and killed his two dogs. There are no "police" markings on the men's uniforms. Alarmed, Pete Garcia runs downstairs, and exits the rear of the house. A man dressed in dark clothing, who still hasn't identified himself as a police officer, orders Garcia to the ground. Garcia is then kicked, and bound with a rope. The police officer then picks Garcia up and carries him back into the home, from room to room, face-out, with a gun to his head. A federal judge would later write, "The officer was using Pete Garcia, in essence, as a shield against any gunfire that might come through one of the windows."
It is only after Garcia is thrown down on the home's front lawn that he notices the faint outline of a sheriff's patch on one of the officers' sleeves, and realizes he is being raided by police.
Later, an officer inside the house would mistake his own reflection for an armed occupant of the home, and open fire. His fire would cause other officers to fire. Another officer then entered the home and fired an automatic weapon. The firing of that weapon caused Alger Garcia to discharge his own weapon, releasing a single shotgun blast that hit one raiding officer in the shoulder and neck.
A federal court would later find that officers blatantly lied about the details of the raid, both in the raid report and in subsequent testimony. Remarkably, Pete Garcia -- who was never suspected of a crime, and who never fired a weapon during the raid -- was charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault on a police officer, and two counts of committing a crime of violence.
Pete Garcia spent nine months in solitary confinement before the raiding officers' cover-up was revealed. He was subsequently released, and filed a civil rights suit in federal court.
Sources:
Garcia v. Johnson, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 23282
George Taylor: Wrongly Raided Twice in One Week.
March 8, 1987—CA
During the week of March 1-8, 1987, police twice falsely raid an apartment occupied by George Taylor, a man who at the time is recovering from spinal surgery.
The second time, police use cutting torches and tear gas before crashing through Taylor's window, training their guns on him, throwing him to the floor, and stepping on his neck.
Sources:
"7 Arrested In Raid Marred By Wrong Entry," Associated Press, March 9, 1987.
Marcos Breton, "Drug raid at wrong house under investigation by police," Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1987.
The McKinney Family.
December 31, 1986—NJ
On December 31, 1986, a SWAT team raids the East Orange, New Jersey home of the McKinney family on a drug warrant.
Ten police officers smash open the family's door with a sledgehammer, then swarm the house. Police later realize they have the wrong address.
A state appeals court would later find that Mrs. McKinney and her two sons had been "manhandled, threatened, abused, and terrorized" during the raid.
Sources:
Susan Jo Keller, "'Terrorized' Family May Sue," New York Times, November 1, 1995, p. B1.
"Court rules family can sue police over mistaken drug raid," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1, 1995, p. S2.
Gary Miller.
October 10, 1986—MO
In October 1986, police raid the St. Louis home of Gary Miller, based on a tip from a confidential informant. In the course of the search, a Detective Clifford of the St. Louis Police Department steps on an infant baby's head while attempting to search the home's ceiling for drugs.
Police find no drugs or weapons, nor do they make any arrests. Police do, however, seize about $13,000 in cash from Mr. Miller. Under asset forfeiture laws, the police department gets to keep the money. Even though he is never charged with a crime, it is up to Mr. Miller to prove he didn't get the money through drug transactions.
In 1992, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that although there is no evidence of drug use or distribution on the part of Mr. Miller, he failed to prove he earned the money legitimately. The police get to keep the money they seized in the raid.
Source:
U.S. v. Twelve Thousand, Three Hundred Ninety Dollars, 956 F.2d 801 (1992)
The Hay Family.
March 15, 1985—CA
In March 1985, on a tip from an informant, 60 police officers conduct a raid on the property of sheep rancher Bill Hay. The informant said Hay was storing "bales" of marijuana and "crates" of packaged cocaine underneath his property.
Armed agents hold Hay, his wife, and their two sons at gunpoint for eight hours while rifling through the family's belongings. They find nothing.
The information was later flown to the ranch, where he told police he had made a mistake. A judge later determined that a narcotics agent had "deliberately mischaracterized facts and withheld critical information" in the affidavit he filed to obtain the search warrant.
The Hay family won an $8 million lawsuit in 1988. A deputy state attorney general told the Associated Press that the award wasn't justified, because the Hays "really weren't damaged."
Source:
"Sheep Rancher Gets $8 Million for Mistaken Drug Raid," Associated Press, February 12, 1988.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
Quote 03-19-08
"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." ~Benjamin Franklin to John Hancock
***
These 164 results represent
The state of: All
For the year: All
And the following type of incident: Raid on an innocent suspect
Burbank Commons Apartment
February 27, 2008—LA
Eyewitnesses claim that SWAT officers raided an apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana looking for marijuana. At least one person said that he witnessed an officer throw a flash grenade over a balcony and several witnesses were distressed by the noise.
While the Baton Rouge Police Department declined to comment on the raid, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s office did confirm that they assisted in the action.
No drugs were found and no arrests were made.
Source:
J.J. Alcantara, "Police officers raid Burbank Commons apartment," LSU Daily Reveill
February 27, 2008—NC
Police intercepted a package containing 27 pounds of marijuana at a DHL delivery station. The package was addressed to an off-campus Duke University fraternity house. An investigator posted a note on the door of the house saying a delivery was attempted along with a number to call.
Eric Halperin, a resident of the house, called the number and said that no one by the name of the female addressee lived at the house. The package was nevertheless delivered. Halperin accepted the package and sat on the couch with it unopened. A special enforcement unit of the Durham police burst in with guns drawn, arrested Halperin, strip-searched him and charged him with drug trafficking.
Other than accepting the delivery, there was no evidence linking the package to Halperin or anyone else in the house.
Within a month, all charges were dropped against Halperin.
Source:
Anne Blythe, "Durham police chided for marijuana case," The News & Observer, March 27, 2008.
Vang Khang and Yee Mona
December 16, 2007—MN
At midnight, acting on a tip from an informant, Minneapolis SWAT officers charged into the home of the family of Yee Mona and her husband Vang Khang, looking for a weapons cache belonging to a man already in custody. Mona called 911, fearing that violent intruders were breaking into her home. Khang grabbed his shotgun and exchanged fire with the officers.
Khang was arrested, but was not charged with a crime. Two officers were hit in the exchange, but their protective gear prevented injury.
Source:
Caroline Lowe, "I-TEAM: Investigating Police Raid at Wrong House," WCCO.com, February 12, 2008.
Kayla Irwin
November 20, 2007—IN
Kayla Irwin, single mother of two, was left homeless after a SWAT raid on her apartment in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Neighbors said that the police had tried to get fugitive Sean Deaton to surrender, but when that failed, they used forced entry and tear gas.
Ms. Irwin claims she did not know Deaton and was not at home at the time of the raid. An eyewitness and Iraq war veteran said that the police "looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. They did not need to do all [that]."
Due to the "acrid gas residue" left from the tear gas, the apartment is unlivable. Originally, Ms. Irwin said that the police had only said they were "sorry for the inconvenience," but after being contacted by the news affiliate covering the story, the police quickly re-approached Ms. Irwin. The assistant police chief said "I’m surprised the incident has not been remedied. We will take care of it the best we can."
Source:
"Woman Works to Rebuild After Police Raid Her Home" WLWT.com, Nov. 21, 2007.
Pam and Frank Myers
November 16, 2007—MD
While watching a movie together, Pam and Frank Myers were interrupted by Sheriff’s Deputies of Prince George’s county banging on their door. The couple was held hostage by the deputies in the room and not allowed to go to the bathroom for 45 minutes.
Mr. and Mrs. Myers claim that in spite of the trauma, it could have ended well with an apology...until they heard two shots from the yard which killed their 5-year-old boxer, Pearl.
The police had the wrong house. The police later arrested the suspect named in the warrant on felony drug and weapons charges. As of Nov.19, 2007, the Myers family had received no apology.
Source:
"Deputies Raid Wrong Address, Kill Couple's Dog" WJLA -- ABC 7 News Nov. 19, 2007.
Denise Berndsen
October 15, 2007—WI
Denise Berndsen, 43, and her 74-year old father were"roughed up" by a Milwaukee SWAT team looking for child pornography.
The warrant was for the correct address, but the problem was that the person the police were looking for had moved out over a month previous to the raid. Ms. Berndsen, who complains of a stress disorder since the raid, wants to move out of her apartment and, as of Nov. 24, 2007, is unable to find a lawyer willing to take her case against the police for terrorizing her.
The police "more or less apologized." She said the police told her "We’re sorry. I guess you’re just one more of his victims."
Source:
Jim Stingl "Sometimes ‘sorry’ doesn’t cut it" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 24, 2007.
Jim Stingl "After botched raid, police find suspect" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 1, 2007.
Diana El-Bynum
September 9, 2007—PA
Diana El-Bynum and her husband were humiliated and handcuffed in front of their neighbors after the Philadelphia police made a forced entry into their house on Summer Street. The problem was that the Narcotics Division officers staking out 5400 Summer Street didn’t bother to phone-in the address. They gave the raiding officers a physical description of the house: it has "a black storm door with a pickup [truck] out front."
5400 Summer Street is five houses down from the El-Bynum’s house. Both houses have a black storm door and pickup truck out front.
Source:
Julie Kim. "Police Apologize for Busting Down Family's Door During Dinner" MyFox Philadelphia 29 News, September 11, 2007.
Jeremy Chad Myers
September 6, 2007—CO
After a lengthy investigation that had undercover detectives searching through his trash and placing two surveillance cameras near his house, Jeremy Chad Myers’ home was subjected to a no-knock raid on suspicion of being a methamphetamine lab. Initial tests at the scene tested positive for meth, but later lab results showed that the tests were just plain wrong.
The false charges have cost Myers’ self-owned business as a back-hoe operator. His reputation tarnished, Myers was forced to sell his equipment.
Police were originally drawn to Myers on the tip of a confidential informant.
Source:
Pamela Dickman. "All charges dropped in sugar factory meth case" Loveland Reporter Herald, November 15, 2007.
Pamela Dickman "CBI report casts doubt on ‘meth’ find" Loveland Reporter Herald, November 6, 2007.
David and Lillian Scott
August 24, 2007—CA
A small group of Temecula police officers, known as the Street Enforcement Team (SET), carrying rifles burst through an unlocked screen door into the home of David and Lillian Scott and handcuffed them face-down on the floor. Also handcuffed were their 15-year-old daughter, two of her friends who were over at the time, and their 16-year-old son who was watching the couple’s 5-month-old baby. When Lillian inquired as to the safety of the baby, she says an officer told her that if she moved, "he was going to put a bullet in my head."
The raid was supposed to be at a parolee’s nearby one-story house. The Scotts live in a two-story home.
The SET was disbanded, and investigation was still underway as of September 13, 2007. However, a renamed team with the same mission was reconstituted with new members to replace the SET. After emailing the Mayor’s office, the Scotts were personally visited by the Mayor and police chief offering full and public apologies.
Source:
John Hall and John Hunneman. "Team of Temecula officers disbanded, under investigation." North County Times, August 31, 2007.
John Hall. "New Enforcement team replaces one disbanded and under investigation" North County Times, September 13, 2007.
Mike and Thelma Lefort
August 7, 2007—LA
Two narcotics agents broke into the Lefort home when Mike, 61, and his mother Thelma, 83, were relaxing for the evening.
The police apologized for breaking into the wrong house. A two-officer warrant verification procedure was implemented as a result of the incident.
Source:
"Narc agents barge into wrong house in Lafourche" KATC-3
Virginia Herrick
June 8, 2007—CO
As she was just about to sit down to watch "Price is Right," La Plata County Sheriffs broke into the home of Virginia Herrick, 77, forced her to the ground and attempted to arrest her. Ms. Herrick, who is on oxygen treatment, was kept on the ground until the officers asked her the address of her home -- 74 Hidden Lane. The warrant listed 82 Hidden Lane. Profuse apologies abounded.
Source:
Shane Benjamin. "Drug raid nabs wrong woman" Durango Herald, June 15. 2007.
Alisaleh Moshad Ali
May 9, 2007—NY
New York City Police are accused of breaking into a Yemeni immigrant’s home, holding him at gunpoint and illegally removing $2000 in cash from a jacket in his closet.
Police later apologized for the mistake. However, no explanation was given for the missing $2000. The NYPD claim that someone else had the opportunity to steal the money for a 30 minute period following the incident that Ali was not at home. This opportunity, not coincidentally, existed because the police had broken the door to his apartment.
Source:
UPI. "New York police raid wrong apartment" News Daily.com, May 20, 2007.
Debbie Bergman
May 2, 2007—ID
Sandpoint police broke down the door of Ms. Debbie Bergman while she was away. They realized they had the wrong mobile home when they saw mail not addressed to the suspect after forcing entry with a shovel from her porch.
The officers checked with the trailer park manager to find the right address and they subsequently found the drugs and suspect they were looking for.
The police offered to pay for any damages to the Ms. Bergman’s home.
Source:
Gwen Albers. "Police raid targets wrong address," Bonner County Daily Bee, May 4, 2007.
Nicole Thompson
March 27, 2007—MN
What began as a routine drug investigation ended with police screaming to Nicole Thompson, a mother of four, "If you move, I'll shot you in the f-head".
Police had set up a drug sting with an informant to catch Ryan Robert Baker. The informant stopped to meet Baker in front of the Thompsons' house where they run a video and film production business. Neither the informant nor Baker knew the Thompsons and police found later that the informant chose the house at random.
Baker tried to rob the informant and one of the men rang the doorbell. This is when Nicole Thompson called 911 asking for assistance right before police exited their vehicle and "ordered everyone to the ground". Eventually the officers realized the Thompsons were innocent, but it was too late--Nicole "flinches every time there's a rap on the door" and her husband adds "we're not afraid of the bad guys as much as we're afraid of the good guys."
Willie Davis Sr.
March 23, 2007—FL
Police raided the home of Willie Davis Sr. Officers handcuffed Davis and his 19 year old mentally disabled nephew. They were looking for drugs but found nothing illegal.
While the home had been the site of previous drug raids, Davis Sr.’s relative, Chinnetta Davis, told police that “no one sold drugs inside her family’s home on March 12” and that ‘they came here and they made a mistake.”
Police say the raid is under investigation and that if the officers did anything wrong, they would be held accountable.
Source
Bridget Murphy " DreShawna's family angry about drug raid; The girl's family denies that any of them sold crack to an undercover officer. " The Times-Union, March 23, 2007.
Willie Davis Sr.
March 23, 2007—FL
Police raided the home of Willie Davis Sr. Officers handcuffed Davis and his 19 year old mentally disabled nephew. They were looking for drugs but found nothing illegal.
While the home had been the site of previous drug raids, Davis Sr.’s relative, Chinnetta Davis, told police that “no one sold drugs inside her family’s home on March 12” and that ‘they came here and they made a mistake.”
Police say the raid is under investigation and that if the officers did anything wrong, they would be held accountable.
Source
Bridget Murphy " DreShawna's family angry about drug raid; The girl's family denies that any of them sold crack to an undercover officer. " The Times-Union, March 23, 2007.
Barbara Cross
March 22, 2007—GA
Alpharetta police conducted a raid on Barbara Cross' apartment to investigate a series of car break-ins at a local mall. The suspects in these break-ins provided Cross' address as their residence. Cross was not home at the time of entry but says she feels "raped and violated" by the ransacking of her home by the police.
Source
" Councilman Disputes Account of Apartment Entry " WSB Radio.com, March 22, 2007.
Carl Keane and Chieko Strange
December 19, 2006—CA
A couple in Petaluma claims that local police and federal DEA agents violated their rights when the agents served a warrant at their home. According to their lawsuit, the agents failed to properly announce their presence or identify themselves, lacked probable cause, and used excessive force.
No drugs, drug residue, money or weapons were found on the property. Keane was charged with suspicion of drug trafficking, but the charges were dropped in March 2007.
Source:
Jim Staats "Mill Valley couple sues over ‘shocking’drug raid" Marin Independent Journal, September 22, 2007.
AP. "North Coast couple says rights were violated in drug raid" Mercury News, September 25, 2007.
Mary Silva
November 17, 2006—CA
On November 17, 2006, nine law enforcement agencies struck 8 different locations simultaneously. Although the main target, 21-year-old Winton resident Gisell Campos was not apprehended and only two of the seven arrested in the raids remain in jail, police are calling the operation "well worth the effort."
One of the houses raided was that of 68-year-old Mary Silva, who lives alone. Police were actually looking for Silva's next door neighbor and relative, Reginaldo Ramirez, although their warrant listed neither the address of Silva, nor that of her neighbor.
Though damages to Silva's apartment will be taken care of by the sheriff's department if it is determined that deputies made a mistake when they served the search warrant, Silva "can't stop shaking and is plagued by dreams about people knocking on her front door."
Police are assigning blame to Silva's relative who, they say, "was using some type of elderly relative to hide his true residence."
Source
Leslie Albrecht, " Was the raid a bust? " Merced Sun-Star, November 25, 2006.
A.J. Nuckols
October 25, 2006—VA
While working as a reserve sheriff's deputy, basketball all-star, Shaquille O'Neal participated in a child pornography raid gone wrong.
After obtaining an IP address from an Internet service provider and matching that IP address to a physical address, police raided the home of A.J. Nuckols.
Nuckols and his family were "held at gunpoint, taunted, and led into the house," before the paramilitary team secured possession of electronic devices such as their DVDs, cameras and computers.
The police subsequently realized that they had raided the wrong home.
Source
" Shaquille O'Neal At Botched Raid While Working In Va. As Reserve Deputy " Associated Press, October 25, 2006.
Raybon and Annie Hunt
September 28, 2006—TX
A search warrant was served on 940 Church Street in Brookeland. The problem was that the warrant was for 126 Circle Drive, over six miles away.
During the raid, according to a lawsuit filed by the Hunts, the police tore down the gate, broke down the door, and "trashed the house." The couple was also ordered to the ground at gunpoint.
Source:
Hearst Newspapers. "Lawsuit filed against local police officers," Jasper Newsboy, August 1, 2007.
The Hines Family.
July 12, 2006—VA
In July 2006, U.S. Marshalls break down the door of a Dale City, Virginia family at 6 am as part of a larger drug sweep in the area. They were looking for a man who hadn't lived in the home for more than a year.
Police break down the door to the family's home, then handcuff Arlita Hines and three teenagers and line them up face down on the floor for two hours while they rifle through their belongings.
Police soon realize they've made a mistake, and leave without an apology, leaving only a form reporting the damage.
"We're all traumatized," Hines told the Washington Post, "especially the kids. To have a gun pointed in their faces, that's mental."
Sources:
Theresa Vargas, "Dozens Arrested in Drugs, Gun Sting," Washington Post, July 13, 2006.
"Big Bust Brings Wake-Up Call to Wrong House," Channel 9 News, WUSA.com, July 13, 2006, accessed July 15, 2006.
Kenneth Jamar
June 27, 2006—AL
On the morning of June 27, 2006, a SWAT team forcibly enters the home Kenneth Jamar, a man in his 50's suffering from gout. Police say Jamar confronted them with a weapon, causing them to open fire. Jamar would be hospitalized in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds. Family members dispute the officers' account of the raid, noting Jamar's infirm status, and that the man "couldn't get up to make himself a ham sandwich."
Police were looking Jerome Wallace, wanted on drug conspiracy chargers. Jamar is the Wallace's uncle, but Wallace does not live with Jamar, and never has.
The police later picked up Jerome Wallace at the scene as he watched his uncle being taken to the hospital.
Source:
Holly Hollman, "Officers allegedly shoot man at wrong address," The Decatur Daily, June 28, 2006.
Keith Clines, "Officers Return to Regular Duty; Victim Improves," The Huntsville Times, June 30, 2006.
Jerry Agee
June 22, 2006—OH
Just after 6 a.m. on June 22, 2006, police smash a battering ram through Jerry Agee's front door. When police break in with guns pointed directly at Agee, the 57-year old is cooking eggs.
As the raid transpired, Agee's girlfriend had just gotten out of the shower, and was ordered to come out of the bedroom with her hands up. She came out nude, and was refused the opportunity to dress.
"She was naked, and they didn't even let her put nothing on," Agee said. "I was mad because I felt like she was being violated."
After the police realized their mistake, they searched for a while longer, then left without an apology. Agee and his girlfriend are considering a lawsuit.
Sources:
Adam Wright, "Warrant Targets Wrong Home, Wrong Man," The Chronicle-Telegram, June 28, 2006.
Kristina Radke and Kenneth Berhenke
May 22, 2006—WI
On May 22, a narcotics SWAT team storms the home of Kristina Radke and Kenneth Berhenke on a no-knock raid. They shatter the couple's window, roll in a diversionary grenade, then break open the door. Radke and Berhenke, who were preparing for bed, are apprehended, handcuffed and held at gunpoint.
Police soon realize they've targeted the wrong home. They later return to search the correct apartment, enter without the violent tactics, and arrest the occupants without incident. They seize a little over two ounces of marijuana and some mushrooms. They also find gun ammunition, but no weapon.
Source:
George Hesselberg, "Drug Force Apologetic for Police Error," Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 2006.
Beverly Salazar-Duran
April 21, 2006—NM
On April 21 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, police officers storm the house of Beverly Salazar-Duran with their guns drawn.
Salazar-Duran says the ensuing raid and search are violent and aggressive, with officers physically and verbally abusing her and her 21-year-old son. She says they emptied drawers on the floor, dismantled furniture and tossed mattresses off the bed.
Officers eventually realized their mistake, and left. Salazar-Duran has filed a lawsuit against two of the officers involved in the search.
Source:
Joseph Pawloski, "Women Sues Over Search of Home; Filing Says Police Had Bad Address," Albuquerque Journal, May 27, 2006.
Botched Raid on an Elderly Couple.
March 22, 2006—MS
Police in Horn Lake, Mississippi raid a home after a tip from an informant that someone's operating a meth lab inside.
Once the paramilitary unit arrives at the scene, however, they find two houses on the property instead of one. They decide to pick one, and conduct the raid anyway. They end up waking up, terrorizing, and injuring a couple in their 80s, leaving the man with bruised ribs and the woman with a dislocated shoulder. They find the meth lab in the other house.
Police chief Darryl Whaley insisted that his officers "acted properly" and "followed procedures" in guessing which home was correct before commencing with the raid.
Source:
"Elderly couple hurt in raid on wrong house by Horn Lake police," Associated Press, March 23, 2006.
SWAT Team Raids Student Film Crew.
March 20, 2006—FL
A SWAT team in Fernandina Beach, Florida storms a post office building after a bar patron reports a hostage situation. The SWAT team draws its guns and points them at the door of the building. Inside, a high school class is filming a movie. They had sought and gained permission from the local postmaster to shoot the film. The students are ordered to the ground at gunpoint by the raiding officers before they realize their mistake.
Source:
"SWAT Team Called to High School Film Shoot," North Country Gazette, March 26, 2006.
H. Victor Buerosse.
December 30, 2005—WI
On December 30, 2005, police in Pewaukee, Wisconsin break into the home of 68-year-old H. Victor Buerosse in a predawn raid. Buerosse is thrown into a closet door, then to the ground, and hit in the head with a police shield.
Despite his protests that police have the wrong address, they don't concede their mistake until a sergeant arrives later. They leave without an apology.
They eventually raid the correct residence, where they find a small amount of marijuana. Buerosse, a retired attorney, tells a local reporter, "SWAT teams are not meant for simple pot possession cases. The purpose of SWAT teams is to give police departments a specially trained unit to react to a violent situation, not to create one. This should not happen in America. To me you can't justify carrying out simple, routine police work this way."
Source:
Brian Huber, "Man says he was mistakenly targeted in drug raid," GM Today, January 5, 2006.
Michelle Clancy.
December 21, 2005—NJ
On December 21, 2005, police in Paterson, New Jersey storm the home of Michelle Clancy on a drug warrant. Police break off her doorknob while forcing entry at 5:30 a.m.
Clancy, her 65-year-old father, and her 13-year-old daughter are home at the time. Police later confirm they have raided the wrong apartment. Police spokesman Lt. Anthony Traina tells one reporter, "These things do happen."
Source:
Douglass Crouse, "Wrong house hit in cops' drug raid," The New Jersey Record, December 22, 2005, p. L3.
Fernando Lopez.
November 22, 2005—NJ
On November 22, 2005, police in four New Jersey counties launch "Operation Bulldog," a series of paramilitary drug raids netting 120 arrests and 60 vehicle seizures. One raid, however, goes wrong.
At 4:45 a.m., officers erroneously target the apartment of Fernando Lopez, who is pushed against a wall and incapacitated as three police officers hold guns to his head.
When Lopez is finally able to see the warrant, he points out that the officers have the wrong apartment. One replies "Oh, my God," and the team leaves without explanation.
Source: Maria Armental, "Did Cops Enter Wrong Home in Drug Raid?" Daily Record, November 22, 2005.
The Foley Family.
October 5, 2005—RI
On October 5, 2005, a North Providence, Rhode Island SWAT team raids the home of Paul Foley and his family, including his 14-year-old daughter. Foley tells the Providence Journal that police came "bursting through his front door, yelling and screaming at everyone in his house." They had the wrong home.
Despite the raid, Foley would later profess, "I totally support Mayor Paul Marino and the North Providence Police Department, 100 percent and without reservation."
Source:
Mark Reynolds, "Police drug raid ends in apology," Providence Journal, October 7, 2005.
Roy and Belinda Baker.
September 30, 2005—GA
Early in the morning on September 30, 2005, police in Stockbridge, Georgia conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Roy and Belinda Baker.
Officers break down the couple's front door with a battering ram and toss in flashbang grenades. They hold the couple at gunpoint, handcuff them, and then send them out onto their porch, only partially clothed. Police ruin a family Bible and antique coffee table during the raid.
Police eventually realize the intended target of the raid lives next door.
Police Chief Russ Abernathy called the raid "inexcusable" and "not acceptable," and blamed poor street lighting.
But Abernathy added that no one would be fired, and that the raids would go on, albeit after "reviewing procedures."
The Bakers are considering a lawsuit.
Sources:
Kathy Jefcoats, "Henry police raid 'inexcusable'; Couple gets wake-up call meant for their neighbor," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 6, 2005.
Kathy Jefcoats, "Suit threatened in raid 'mistake,'" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 4, 2006.
The Bel Aire Sunflower Raid.
September 6, 2005—KS
In September 2005, police in Bel Aire, Kansas raid the home of the town's former mayor after mistaking sunflowers in the mayor's backyard for marijuana plants. Police took pictures of the plants, and showed them to a district attorney, who showed them to a judge. All agreed that the photographed plants were marijuana.
The sunflower, incidentally, also happens to be the state flower of Kansas.
Source:
"Bel Aire police mistake sunflower plants for marijuana," Associated Press, September 17, 2005.
Cedelie Pompee.
August 23, 2005—NJ
In August 2005, police in Newark, New Jersey raid a home owned by 59-year-old Cedelie Pompee while looking for drugs and guns. Pompee, her family, and the family to whom she rents an apartment in the building would later say police cursed at them while ravaging through their belongings.
Officials from the state police SWAT team and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration later realize they have commenced the raid on the wrong street. The Associated Press reports that state police had made a similar mistake just four months earlier.
Source:
Jonathan Casiano, "SWAT team raids wrong home - State Police and DEA agents frighten residents and tear up house," The Star-Ledger, August 25, 2005, p. 1.
"Officers smash doors and search wrong house," Associated Press, August 25, 2005.
David Scheper and Sascha Wagner.
August 18, 2005—MD
On August 18, 2005, police in Baltimore, Maryland force their way into the home of David Scheper and Sascha Wagner. Thinking they are being robbed, Wagner calls 911, telling the operator, "There's someone breaking into my house." Scheper slams the door on the officers, who never announce they are police.
The officers then shatter the glass on the home's front door. Scheper stands just inside, holding his 12-gauge shotgun. He doesn't have ammunition, but he hopes that racking the gun within earshot of the door would scare off what he still believes are intruders. When they don't leave, Scheper retreats to his basement, and grabs the only functioning weapon in his house, a CZ-52 semiautomatic, what he calls a "piece-of-junk Czechoslovakian pistol." As Scheper struggles to load the weapon, it accidentally discharges, sending a round into the floor of his basement.
Police would eventually enter, and seize $1,440 in cash Scheper says he had recently withdrawn to buy a used pickup truck. According to the Baltimore City Paper, police also "...hit a 70-year-old art-deco-style metal desk with an ax. They took 18 of Scheper's guns--mostly inoperable antiques, he says--and some gun-shaped props he had built for movies. 'They threatened to blow up my safe,' Scheper says, so he opened it for them."
The police had made an error. They also had no search warrant. They were looking for a tenant Scheper had evicted weeks earlier. Nevertheless, police still put Scheper's antique gun collection on display for the local news as part of a "roundup" of illegal weapons they'd found in two local raids.
The only charge to come of the police visit to Scheper's home was one against Scheper for firing the weapon in his basement, which carried a $1,000 fine and a year in prison. Prosecutors eventually dropped that charge, but only after Scheper's lawyer successfully fought to get Wagner's 911 call admitted as evidence, over the objection of prosecutors.
Source:
Edward Ericson, Jr., "Breakin? All the Rules; Prosecutor Drop Case Against Man Who Says Plainclothes Police Tried To Force Way Into His Home Without Warrant," Baltimore City Paper, December 21, 2005.
John Simpson.
June 15, 2005—ID
Police in Nampa, Idaho serving a drug warrant toss a flashbang grenade into the home of Vietnam veteran John Simpson.
The frightened Simpson first takes cover, and attempts to protect his wife. He then composes himself, assumes he's being attacked by intruders, and immediately ventures out with the only weapon he can find, the hose from a vacuum cleaner.
The police had targeted the wrong side of Simpson's duplex. "I guess we're going to have to seek psychological help, I hate to say that," Simpson would later tell the Associated Press. "I'm not nuts or anything, but I'm still shaking. Put a shotgun next to your ear and pull the trigger to get an idea of the noise."
Police later pick up Simpson's neighbor with four ounces of marijuana.
Source:
"Cops Raid Wrong Duplex With Noise Device," Associated Press, June 17, 2005.
The Chidester Family.
May 25, 2005—UT
In May 2005, a SWAT team in Springville, Utah conducts a raid on a home, and ends up raiding an innocent family next door.
Larry Chidester awakes to the sound of flashbang grenades at the home next to his. He steps outside, and sees members of a SWAT team preparing to raid his neighbor's house. According to court documents from a lawsuit filed by the Chidester family, one of the SWAT officers spots Larry Chidester, points at him, and exclaims, "There's one!" Chidester throws his hands in the air and repeatedly says, "I'm not resisting." The officer tackles Chidester, and "shove[s] his face into the ground and rocks." Larry Chidester would later be taken to the emergency room for treatment.
Police then kick open a side door to the Chidester home and swarm the bedroom where Lawrence Chidester -- Larry's father -- is dressing. They throw him to the floor and train a gun to the back of his head.
SWAT officers would later concede they had raided the wrong home. Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy admitted the Chidester home wasn't the original target of the raid, but that police decided to raid the family's home as "an ancillary issue." He added that the police department disputed the accuracy of the Chidesters' account of the raid, but wouldn't give details.
Source:
Michael Rigert, "Family sues SWAT team after raid on their home," Daily Herald, July 28, 2005.
Philip Petronella.
May 9, 2005—NJ
Five state police officers in masks, bulletbroof vests, and donning assault weapons break into the home of Philip Petronella as he's watching television. Though the front door is unlocked, they break it down anyway. They handcuff Petronella, and sit him on the couch while they rifle through his belongings.
The search goes on for hours. Police finally reveal to Petronella, a 63-year-old retiree, that they believe his home is being used for prostitution. "I told them, 'You gotta be kidding. I ain't getting any. Nobody else is getting any out of here,'" Petronella told a local newspaper.
Police later realize that the suspects they were looking for had moved out months earlier.
Source:
Arielle Levin Becker, "State police search targets wrong tenant," Home News Tribune, May 11, 2005.
The Celis Family.
April 30, 2005—CA
Police in SWAT gear enter the home of Rudolpho Celis and his family, then hold him and his five children at gunpoint while they search the home for a parolee.
Police had no warrant, and had entered the wrong home. "When I saw my son's face, I felt ashamed because I wasn't doing what a dad is supposed to do," Celis, 54, told a local newspaper. "I felt like I should have protected my kids. I accepted his apologies, but I keep thinking what would have happened if one of my kids had gotten scared and tried to run -- somebody could have been shot."
Lt. Bob Davenport told the paper that officers couldn't use flashlights to verify the address at the home because it would have put them at a "tactical disadvantage."
Sources:
William Fenn Bennett, "Officers raid wrong house; Resident says family traumatized," North County Times, May 6, 2005.
The McCulley Family.
March 15, 2005—HI
In March 2005, police in Omao, Kauai break into the home of Sharon and William McCulley on a drug raid. They're tracking a box that allegedly contains marijuana, and believe it to be in the McCulley's possession.
The McCulleys, who are home with their grandchildren, are thrown to the ground in the raid. Sharon McCulley is handcuffed and held to the ground with a gun to her head as her grandchild lays next to her. William McCulley, who walks with a walker and has an implanted device that delivers electrical shocks to his spine to relieve pain, begins flopping around the floor after the device malfunctions from the trauma of being thrown to the ground.
Police have the wrong address. They erroneously raid a second home before finally locating the box and arresting several men for distribution of marijuana.
Source:
Tom Finnegan, "Wrong House Bust Brings Suit," Honolulu Star Bulletin, January 12, 2006.
Mini Matos.
January 15, 2005—NY
NYPD officers conduct a predawn raid on the Coney Island home of Mini Matos and her two children. The three are pulled from their beds early in the morning. Matos, who is deaf, speech-impaired, and has asthma, is handcuffed at gunpoint in front of her children, ages eight and five.
Police later realized they had the wrong apartment.
Source:
Rocco Parascandola, "Police raid wrong home; Deaf B'klyn mother of two pulled from bed and handcuffed by narcotics cops who were on wrong floor," Newsday, April 8, 2005, p. A6.
Queen Moore.
October 10, 2004—NE
On October 10, 2004 police in Omaha, Nebraska conduct a narcotics raid on the home of Queen Moore, an elderly woman who can barely sign her own name. When Moore files suit to recoup the damage police do to her home, the officers involved with the raid initially refuse to be interviewed, on advice from their police union. Worse, the police department then tells Moore her complaint isn't valid because union rules require it to be handwritten, not typewritten.
Moore's lawyer responds that requiring her to personally write out her complaint "is not only illegal, but unduly burdensome and harassing."
A court later concludes that police were justified in conducting a no-knock raid on Moore's home. The warrant had correctly listed her address as the address from which a confidential informant says he bought crack from a man named "Ernie." Moore's attorney says she knows no one named "Ernie," but discovers that a man named Ernie does live several blocks away.
Police find no contraband in Moore's home. She is never charged or arrested.
Source:
Kevin Cole, "Suit seeks officers' testimony; An Omaha woman says police refuse to talk about a search of her home that she says was illegal," Omaha World-Herald, January 6, 2005, p. B3
Lynn Safranek, "Lawsuit to be dropped over search of home," Omaha World-Herald, January 7, 2005, pg. 3B.
James Elliott and Teresa Guiler.
September 10, 2004—TN
In September 2004, police in Clarksville, Tennessee erroneously raid the home of Teresa Guiler, 55, and James Elliott, 54.
Elliott is deaf, and recovering from a liver transplant at the time of the raid.
The warrant had identified the wrong home. Police Chief Mark Smith promises an investigation to make sure the same mistake doesn't happen again.
Source:
"Chief to Issue Apology After Police Raid Wrong Home," News Channel 5, Tennessee, September 13.
The Texas Hibiscus Raid.
July 27, 2004—TX
On July 27, 2004, police in Houston, Texas break open the front door of Blair Davis, a landscape contractor. Police scream, "Down on the Floor! Down on the Floor!" while pointing an assault weapon at Davis's head.
Davis' first thought was that the invaders were criminals dressed as police, a continuing problem in the Houston area. The team of 8-10 police officers push Davis to the ground and handcuff him while they search his home. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant who says Davis is growing marijuana in his home.
The plants in question turned out to be hibiscus. Police would never apologize to Davis.
Dan Webb, operations commander for the paramilitary unit that conducted the raid, would later say it's "unfortunate" that Davis "got caught up in this situation," but that "if the situation came up today, we would've probably done the same thing." Webb would add that "it's not a mistaken search warrant . . . if we believe it's marijuana, until we go look at it, we're not really going to know for sure."
Source:
Michael Serazio, "Pot Shots; Raiding narcs get a hibiscus low from their horticulture shock," Houston Press, August 5, 2004.
Josh Brudwick and Kate Rhodes.
July 25, 2004—CO
In July 2004, police in Frisco, Colorado conduct a forced-entry raid on Brudwick and Rhodes' condomimium after a neighbor reported an "odor" that led police to believe the couple might be running a meth lab. A judge granted the warrant based only on the odor.
There was no meth lab. The Summit County Drug Task Force promised to repay the damage to the couple's doors, doorframes, mirror, and "other items." The couple says they were held in handcuffs, threatened, and harassed by police attempting to get them to confess while the officers rifled through their personal belongings.
Three months later, the couple was cleared of all wrongdoing when tests showed samples taken from the apartment to be free of more than 20 possible controlled substances.
Nevertheless, police officials maintain that the raid was entirely appropriate.
"We feel we reacted appropriately with the information we had," one police official told the local paper. "At the time we did it, we were confident in what we were looking for -- it couldn't have been anything else."
A neighbor speculated to the local newspaper that the odor may have been caused by squirrels who had taken residence in the building.
Source:
Jane Stebbins, "Police to Pay for Damages," Summit Daily News, July 28, 2004.
Jane Stebbins, "Victims of botched meth raid file suit," Summit Daily News, November 17, 2004.
Andrea Baker, Erik Kush, Julie Madrigal.
July 23, 2004—AZ
Police conduct a massively armed raid on a home they suspect contains illegal assault weapons and ammunition. In a densely-populated, upscale neighborhood, a SWAT team from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, complete with an armored personnel carrier, uses grenade launchers to fire at least four rounds of tear gas into the windows of the home. The quarter-million dollar home catches fire shortly after officers enter.
As the homeowners evacuate, police officers chase the family's 10-month-old pit bull puppy back into the burning house with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog perishes in the flames. Police allegedly laugh at Andrea Baker, the dog's owner, as she cries at their cruelty.
Later, the brakes fail on the SWAT team's armored personnel carrier, causing it to lurch down the street and smash into a parked car. The car's owner, Julie Madrigal, had fled the car just moments earlier with her nine-year-old daughter after the two grew frightened by the firing of tear gas canisters by SWAT officers.
The home is completely destroyed. Nearby homes are also put at risk. Police find no assault weapons, only an antique shotgun and a nine-millimeter pistol, both of which are legally owned. Nevertheless, police arrest 26-year-old Erik Kush on outstanding traffic violations.
The sheriff of Maricopa County is Joe Arpairo, who made national headlines in the 1990s for his aggressive treatment of inmates and unconventional approaches to crime control. One member of Sheriff Arpairo's SWAT team once told CBS News reporter Jim Stewart the best part of being on the SWAT team is that, "You get to play with a lot of guns. That's what's fun. You know, everybody on this team is--you know, loves guns." Another adds, "Hey, the bottom line is it's friggin' fun, man. That's the deal. Nobody wants to take burglary reports."
Sources:
John Dougherty, "Dog Day Afternoon," Phoenix New Times, August 5, 2004.
"Ill-Treatment of Inmates in Maricopa County Jails, Arizona," Amnesty International, August 1, 1997, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510511997?open&of=ENG-373.
Jim Stewart, "Use of SWAT teams up greatly across the country," CBS This Morning, December 9, 1997.
Charles Hall.
July 12, 2004—IN
In July 2004, DEA agents storm the temp agency office owned by Evansville, Indiana man Charles Hall. Hall is handcuffed and arrested in front of his employees and taken to the county courthouse.
Police drop the charges when they realize they've mistaken Hall for a drug suspect with the same name. Despite admitting their mistake, Hall is still included in a list of arrested suspects the DEA sends to the media. It is the second time in a year that Hall is wrongly arrested.
Source:
"Man Wrongly Accused in Drug Raid," Louisville Courier-Journal, August 26, 2004.
Tomika Smith.
July 2, 2004—NC
Police toss a flash grenade into a home as part of a no-knock raid in July 2002. The grenade lands on a couch where Tomika Smith is sitting, ignites the couch, and leaves Smith with severe burns.
Smith was on a date at the time, and not suspected of any crime. She won a $10,000 settlement in 2004.
Source:
"Cumberland County Pays Burned Woman $10,000," Fayetteville Observer, October 1, 2004.
Martin and Leona Goldberg.
March 31, 2004—NY
On March 31, 2004, six officers toting riot shields and assault weapons rap on the door to the Brooklyn apartment of 84 year-old Martin Goldberg and his wife Leona, 82. When Goldberg opens, police storm the apartment, pushing Mr. Goldberg aside and ordering him to the floor. "They charged in like an army," Goldberg, a decorated World War II vet, would tell the New York Post. "They knocked pictures off the wall."
Police had the wrong apartment. The raid apparently went wrong on March 11, when an informant pointed police to one of two housing project buildings as the home of a drug dealer. Police stormed the wrong building.
Shortly after the raid, Leona Goldberg was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat.
"It was terrible . . . It was the most frightening experience of my life . . . I thought it was a terrorist attack," Mrs. Goldberg told the Post. One officer would later tell the paper, "Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication. These were relatively inexperienced officers, and they may have been less than vigilant."
Sources:
Marianne Garvey and Zach Haberman, "Nightmare Raid -- Old Couple Rocked as Cops Hit Wrong Apt.," New York Post, April 2, 2004, p. 27.
Georgett Roberts and Cynthia R. Fagen, "Wrong Apt. Raiders in Sorry State," New York Post, April 4, 2004, p. 8.
Thomas Spear.
March 3, 2004—NV
A Las Vegas SWAT team deploys a flashbang grenade and breaks through the glass patio door of Thomas Spear, a 25-year Air Force veteran. Officers handcuff Spear and drag him across the shards of glass while yelling obscenities at him.
The SWAT team believed Spear was about to commit suicide. Spears was actually recovering from brain surgery, was partially paralyzed, and had fallen asleep after taking an extra dose of anti-seizure medication.
Spears had broken no laws. After the raid, the Spears were shunned by neighbors, and forced to move to another town. Spears said enduring the effects of the raid was worse than his illness. "It's much worse than being paralyzed on half your body," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Source:
Brian Haynes, "SWAT Incident: Pair Seeks $5 million in Lawsuit," Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 2, 2006.
Patrice Agrippa.
February 12, 2004—NY
In early 2004, police raid Agrippa's home and arrest him, accusing him of laundering money for a multimillion dollar cocaine network. A judge sets Agrippa's bail at $1 million, and the 34-year old plasterer and father of two was held for six months at Riker's Island prison before his family could get his bail reduced. In March 2006, prosecutors dropped all charges against him. A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney told the New York Post, "After a careful review of the evidence at this point, it became clear that the fair thing to do was dismiss." According to the Post, Agrippa's attorney called it among the worst cases of malicious prosecution she'd ever seen. Agrippa plans a lawsuit against the city.
Source:
Alex Ginsberg, "Drug-Raid Victim Suing City," New York Post, March 27, 2006.
Ariel Alonso and Jonathan Conrad.
October 13, 2003—VA
Alonso and Conrad were alchemists. The two men shared a home in Henry, Virginia, where they practiced amateur chemistry, producing various elixirs that they then sold on the Internet.
On October 13, 2002, local authorities came to the home, saw the men's chemistry equipment, and suspected they were manufacturing methamphetamine. A "field test" tested positve, though the DEA would later admit that test was only "equivocally" positive.
Later that day, DEA agents raided the men's home, destroyed their lab, and arrested the men on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine. The two spent 18 days in jail.
More extensive lab tests later revealed no sign of methamphetamine, nor of any of the drugs used to make it. The two men were released.
The DEA never compensated the men for the damage done to their lab. Alonso moved back into the home, where he lived on Social Security until his death from lung cancer in September 2004.
Source:
Jen McCaffery, "Raid Shatters Alchemists' Lab -- But Finds No Meth," Roanoke Times, January 25, 2004.
Earline Jackson.
September 5, 2003—IL
At 3 a.m. on September 5, 2003, a dozen Chicago police officers use a battering ram to break down the door of 73-year-old widow Earline Jackson's apartment.
"I asked them, 'What did I do?' And they told me to get out of the way because they were looking for drugs," Jackson told the Chicago Tribune. According to the warrant for Jackson's address, police believed a man was using her apartment to sell drugs. They had mistaken Jackson's apartment for an apartment one block south.
It's not even clear the second address was correct. Jackson told the Tribune that the next day a man came to her door and "identified himself with the name listed on the search warrant."
"He wanted to know what they wanted," she said.
Source:
Ray Quintanilla, "Widow terrified by cops mistake; Chicago officer raid wrong home," Chicago Tribune, September 7, 2003, p. C3.
The Perez Family.
August 2, 2003—TX
On August 2, 2003, police from the Bexar County, Texas sheriff's department raid the home of Francisca Perez and her children. The raid is based on a tip from an informant that a woman named Rosalinda Mendez was selling cocaine from the house. Police mistook the Perez home for the house next door.
Perez and her 13-year-old daughter are handcuffed, and her 11-year-old daughter and three-year-old son watch in horror as police overturn drawers, empty closets, and generally destroy their belongings while looking for drugs.
Four weeks later, police still hadn't told Perez whether or not she was under investigation. They found no drugs in her home. According to the latest media reports available, Perez, the widow of a Gulf War veteran, was still attempting to get the police to clear her name. She told a local newspaper that she was reluctant to take legal action because her children feared that if she did, the police would come back to raid their home again.
Source:
Cary Clack, "Family has yet to receive an apology for mistaken drug raid," San Antonio News-Express, August 25, 2003, p. B1.
Gabrielle Wescott and Anabelle Heasley.
July 29, 2003—MT
On July 29, 2003, police in Montana raid the home of Gabrielle Wescott and her daughter Annabelle Heasley. According to a 2005 lawsuit, agents from the Northwest Drug Task Force don black hoods and SWAT gear, and raid the women's home at 7:30 a.m. on a marijuana warrant.
The two are forced to the ground, handcuffed, and, according to the lawsuit, "mistreated, threatened, cursed at, and terrorized" while police "ransacked the house" and "cut pieces of drywall out of the basement."
The complaint alleges that the police affidavit leading to the search warrant "contains half-truths and inaccuracies and clearly was not completed in good faith," and that police never identified themselves. The women are never charged with a crime.
Source:
John Stromnes, "Women sue over drug raid," Missoulian, October 19, 2005.
The Phoenix Hell's Angels Raid.
July 8, 2003—AZ
In July 2003, police in Phoenix, Arizona conduct a pre-dawn drug raid on a Hell's Angels club. Police knock, then wait just six seconds before deploying a flashbang grenade and forcing their way into the clubhouse. Michael Wayne Coffelt, asleep at the time, awakes to the grenade and quickly arms himself with a pistol. When Coffelt, who thought the clubhouse was being robbed, approaches the door, Officer Laura Beeler shoots and wounds him.
Beeler would later claim that Coffelt fired at her, though a ballistics test confirmed that Coffelt never discharged his gun. Police find no drugs in the clubhouse. Prosecutors later bring charges against Coffelt for assaulting a police officer. In dismissing the charges, Maricopa Superior Court Judge Michael Wilkinson describes the raid as an "attack" in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that Coffelt's actions were "reasonable behavior, given the hour and the fact that the house was under attack."
Wilkinson also determines that Beeler's mistaken belief that Coffelt had fired at her was also understandable, given the volatility of such a raid, and that she -- an officer trained in paramilitary procedures -- may have misinterpreted the flashbang grenade for a gunshot.
Source:
Brent Whiting, "Judge: Police Raid Was 'Attack'; Hell's Angel Case Evidence Tossed," Arizona Republic, December 2, 2004, p. B1.
The Holguin Family.
June 5, 2003—NM
According to court documents filed in conjunction with a lawsuit, on June 5, 2003, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, police blow the Holguin family's door off its hinges, deploy flashbang grenades, then storm the family's home.
Carmen Holguin, 80, sustains injuries that require medical attention, and Julia Holguin, 55, is injured when an officer steps on her back. Police also allegedly kick an unnamed 14-year-old girl while executing the warrant. In all, four members of the family are hancuffed at gunpoint during the raid. No one is charged, and police seize nothing from the home. According to the lawsuit, police then helped themselves to milk and juice from the family's refrigerator, then tossed the search warrant on the floor and left.
A paralegal for the family's lawyer would later tell the Associated Press that police had made a controlled cocaine buy on the street where the Holguin's lived, and indicated they may have mistaken their home for another.
No one in the family had a criminal record. An Albuquerque Police Department spokesman responded, ""People can make claims all they want. That's something that will have to play out in the courts."
Source:
"Lawsuit accuses Albuquerque police of raiding wrong house," Associated Press, July 16, 2004.
Timothy Brockman.
May 14, 2003—NY
In May 2003, acting on a tip from a confused anonymous informant, police storm the public housing apartment of Timothy Brockman, a 61-year old former Marine who uses a walker to get around.
Police deploy a flashbang grenade, which sets Mr. Brockman's carpet on fire, then handcuff him and throw him to the floor. Brockman would later be cleared of all charges.
New York police wanted to raid Mr. Brockman's apartment based only the testimony of a single informant who had visited the targeted residence on just one occasion. State law required more evidence before commencing a no-knock raid. But federal law offers police more leeway. So New York investigators merely called the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who sent an agent from ATF. The Brockman raid was now a "federal" case, governed by federal guidelines.
It was then miscommunication between local and federal police that led to execution of the erroneous raid on Brockman's home. Even if police had gotten the apartment right, they were also in the wrong building. The informant had not remembered the proper address. Investigators had instructed the informant to leave a strip of white tape on the door to the suspect's apartment. The paramilitary unit that raided Brockman's apartment found no white tape on his door. They raided anyway. The unit later found the tape on a different apartment number in a different building.
After Mr. Brockman was freed, one officer told Brockman he had been assigned to watch the window during the raid. "He saw the yellow ribbon in my window, so the guys come back safe from Iraq," Mr. Brockman told the New York Times. "He told me, 'That's when I got a funny feeling about this.'"
Source:
Jim Dwyer, "Police Raid Gone Awry; A Muddled Path to the Wrong Door," New York Times, June 29, 2003, p. 27.
Kim Yarbrough and Son.
May 2, 2003—NY
On May 2, 2003, police break into the Staten Island home of Ms. Kim Yarbrough, an employee at the city's Department of Corrections. No one is home at the time, but Yarborough's son is told by his brother-in-law that "20 to 30" police have raided his mother's home. When the son comes to the house to investigate, he is handcuffed and put down on the couch.
Yarborough would later come home from work with a supervisor to see that her door had been broken down and her home had been trashed. She and her son say some police laughed and made jokes when they asked for names and badge numbers. Neither was ever charged with a crime.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruill," June 2003.
Kim Stevenson and Daughter.
April 9, 2003—NY
On April 9, 2003, about twenty police officers break down the door of the West Harlem home of Kim Stevenson, asking "where the drugs are." Stevenson is handcuffed and taken to another room, while other officers keep their weapons fixed on her 12 year-old daughter.
Stevenson pleas with police to explain why they were in her home, but is rebuffed. A female officer then takes Stevenson into a bathroom, and demands that she lower her pants. After finding no drugs on her person, Stevenson is again handcuffed while police finish searching her apartment.
According to Stevenson, officers "made jokes and ridiculed" her during the search. When they left, they told her to "have management fix her door." Her landlord refused. Two months later, Stevenson's door still had yet to be repaired. No criminal charges were ever filed against Stevenson.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
The Chapman Family.
April 2, 2003—NY
At 6 a.m. on April 2, 2003, police broke open the door and deploy a flashbang grenade at the home of Cynthia Chapman. The grenade strikes her son Bobby, 15, in the foot. Police find Chapman getting out of the shower, force her to the ground, and put a gun to her head. One cop asks "Where is it," and when Chapman responds that she didn't know what he was talking about, replies, "Don't get smart with me, or I'll kill you."
Chapman and her son are handcuffed, taken to a police station, and released hours later when police realize they've raided the wrong house. In 2004, Chapman settled with the city of New York for $100,000.
Source:
Robert Gearty and Leo Standora, "100G Deal in Botched Cop Raid," New York Daily News, March 8, 2004, p. 15.
The Caldwells.
March 6, 2003—NY
On March 6, 2003, a half dozen police officers in riot gear break down the door to the home of Lewis Caldwell. Caldwell, who has lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, is handcuffed and forced to the floor.
Caldwell's wife returns home from work to find her home filled with police officers and dogs. She pleas with them to release her husband from the handcuffs, but is refused for more than an hour.
Mr. Caldwell would later say police were "laughing and joking" while searching his apartment. When the Caldwells file a complaint, a lieutenant calls to tell them the raid was justified, and "there's nothing you can do about it." No drugs were found, and no criminal charges were ever filed against the Caldwells.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Margarita Ortiz and Son.
February 28, 2003—NY
On February 29, 2003, police break into the home of Ms. Margarita Ortiz. She and her 12-year old son are handcuffed for two and-a-half hours while police search their apartment. After five hours of searching (Ortiz claims they knew "within 15 minutes" that her apartment had no drugs), police leave. Ortiz says they never showed her their badges or provided a search warrant.
Three months after the raid, Ortiz had been unable to get any information from the city regarding the raid on her home. Neither she nor her son were ever charged with a crime.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Desmond Ray.
December 11, 2002—MD
As police in Prince George's County, Maryland prepare for a SWAT raid on a suspected drug dealer, Desmond Ray--not the target of the raid--steps out of a parked car. Cpl. Charles Ramseur says Ray reached for his waistband upon exiting the car. Ray says he put his hands in the air.
Ramseur fires his weapon at Ray and strikes him in the spine, paralyzing him. Ray is unarmed, and would never be charged with a crime.
In April 2004, an "Executive Review Panel" found that Ramseur had no justification for shooting Ray, and recommended administrative charges against him for using excessive force. The recommendation was overruled when the internal police review board found no wrongdoing. Ramseur was reinstated.
County police later settled a civil suit with Ray for an undisclosed sum of money.
Source:
"Prince George's police corporal cleared in 2002 shooting," Associated Press, July 15, 2005.
The Huerta Family.
November 20, 2002—TX
On November 20, 2002, a San Antonio, Texas SWAT team deployed tear gas canisters, shattered a glass door with bullets, then stormed an apartment occupied by three Hispanic men. "We were kicked and punched at least 20 times. I couldn't talk. I was good and scared," Salvador Huerta told the San Antonio News-Express. His cousin Marcos Huerta was taken to the hospital with a cut face and bruised head. Vincent Huerta added, "The way they entered, I never thought it could be police." All three thought the raid was a robbery.
Police had the wrong address. Police later blamed the mistake on darkness, and "a cluster of look-alike buildings," despite the fact that officers stated on the warrant that they had conducted surveillance on the suspected residence for two days.
Source:
Jesse Bogan, "SWAT raid roughs up wrong guys," San Antonio News-Express, November 21, 2002, p. B2.
Jesse Bogan, "SAPD to probe storming of wrong house; Officers apparently confused in the dark by look-alike residences," San Antonio News-Express, November 22, 2002, p. A1.
Marcella Monroe and Tam Davage.
October 17, 2002—OR
Police conduct a raid on three homes they suspect of growing marijuana. All three homes are owned by one couple, Marcella Monroe and Tam Davage.
On the morning of the raid, 52 police officers in full SWAT attire deploy flashbang grenades, and force entry into the occupied home without announcing themselves.
Police pull two couples out of bed and wrestle them to the ground. They put assault weapons to their heads, tightly handcuff them, and refuse to let the two women, who were partially nude, cover themselves (they also snap pictures of the women before allowing them to dress). When Monroe asks if she could dress, one officer puts a black bag over her head and tightens it to silence her. He pushes her to the ground and puts a boot on the back of her neck.
Police find no plants or weapons, and only "residue" of marijuana in a coupel of plastic bags, for which the couple's tenant is issued a misdemeanor citation. Nonetheless, Davage and Monroe are charged with felony manufacture of a controlled substance, due to "evidence" consisting of fans, flourescent lights, plastic sheeting, timers, potting equipment, sandwich bags, a scale, 24 electrical outlets, and a shop vacuum. Police are aware of Monroe's landscaping business, Davage's jewelry business, and the fact that the couple is repairing their home from storm damage, but nonetheless proceed to cite the equipment as evidence of marijuana cultivation.
Police defend the raid as entirely necessary and appropriate, given the well-known danger posed by people who grow marijuana. The spokesman for one of the talk forces involved in the raid adds that "the community at large" approves of such tactics. The Whittaker Community Council later condemns the raid at a public neighborhood meeting and in a press release.
Davage and Monroe have since filed suit, alleging that police knowingly fabricated evidence and omitted exculpatory information in applying for the search warrant.
Sources:
Rebecca Nolan, "Neighbors call tactics in drug raid militaristic," Eugene Register-Guard, December 5, 2002.
Federal complaint filed by Tom Davage and Marcella Monroe in the United State District Court for the District of Oregon.
"Statement of Whitaker Community Council," April 30, 2003, http://www.Whitaker.us.WCC_statement.html
"Police Illegally Raid Homes with Tank; Prompts Federal Lawsuit," press release, Whitaker Community Council, http://www.whiteaker, us./attorney_press_release.html
Robert and Marie Rogers.
October 15, 2002—NY
On October 15, 2002, about 20 police armed with pistols and shotguns serve a no-knock raid on the home of retired police officer Robert Rogers and his wife, Marie.
The two are watching television when police storm their home in Queens. Mr. Rogers initially grabs his licensed handgun, believing the police to be intruders. Once he recognizes they were law enforcement, he drops his gun and covers it with his body. Police slam Mr. Rogers into the wall, and throw Mrs. Rogers into a chair.
Rogers was later quoted in Newsday stating that had the raiding officers seen his gun, "I'd be dead." Marie Rogers told the New York Times, "I really thought that I would die that day."
Police had the wrong address.
Sources:
William Glaberson, "Two Suits Filed Over Police No-Knock Raids at Wrong Homes," New York Times, September 11, 2003.
Anthony M. DeStefano, "2 Families Sue Over Raids," Newsday, September 11, 2003.
Leticia Lopez.
October 15, 2002—WA
Police strom Lopez's home and handcuff her in front of her 8-year-old son after getting a tip from some homebuyers who saw a propane burner, cooking pot, and other items in the woman's backyard they said suggested a methamphetamine operation.
After police handcuff and detain Lopez, they discover that the burner and pot were leftover from a steak cookout a few days earlier, and the chemicals the officers and informants had mistaken for meth ingrediants were paint solvents.
After the raid, Lopez begins to have anxiety and panic attacks, and is admitted to a hospital for treatment.
Michael Thompson.
October 14, 2002—NY
On October 14, 2002, police break into the Queens home of Michael Thompson and put a gun to his head while they look for drugs. They find nothing. They would later determine that the raid was conducted on bad information from an informant.
In May of 2003, Thompson was interviewed by the New York Post in a piece on the warning signs leading up to the no-knock raid that killed Alberta Spruill. Thompson said of the raid on his home, "They had the whole house surrounded. If I ran or resisted, who knows what the result would have been. It was just a matter of time before there was a tragedy."
Source:
Leonard Greene, "NYPD's no-knock searches are doorway to disaster," New York Post, May 25, 2003, p. 6.
Meredith "Buddy" Sutherland.
October 4, 2002—PA
On October 4, 2002, police raid a home in Windsor, Pennsylvania on suspicion of drug activity. According to news reports, the raid was doomed from the start -- the SWAT team becomes aware that someone inside the home has spotted them, meaning they've lost the element of surprise SWAT proponents insist is the entire purpose of using paramilitary tactics.
Nevertheless, they raid anyway. Once inside, police go from room to room in the dark home. Trooper Gregory Broaddus enters a bedroom where Meredith "Buddy" Sutherland, Jr. is sleeping. Sutherland doesn't live in the house, but is visiting a friend. Officer Broaddus mistakenly believes Sutherland to be clutching a weapon when he enters the room, and fires, striking Sutherland. Sutherland has no weapon, and would never be charged with a crime. He spent 11 days in a coma, and nearly three weeks in the hospital.
Other occupants of the home were eventually charged with drug crimes. Sutherland sued in June 2004 for redress for his injuries. The state attorney general in turn asked that the suit be dismissed, arguing that the officer in question had immunity, and that, incredulously, Sutherland himself was responsible for his own injuries.
Sources:
Elizabeth Evans, "Man sues over drug-raid injury; SWAT-type team hit Windsor home," York Dispatch, June 9, 2004.
Elizabeth Evans, "Shooting victim home; Family of man wounded in raid considers lawsuit," York Dispatch, October 23, 2002.
Sandy Cohen.
September 22, 2002—PA
In 2002, police in Philadelphia raid the home of 85-year-old Sandy Cohen, just as she has finished taking a shower. Cohen gets to her door just as police have blown it off its hinges. When she protests to police that they've raided the wrong home, one replies, "That's what they all say."
Cohen's son, a journalist, told the Philadelphia Daily News, "They blew off her front door with an explosive device and entered in full gear with lasers pointed toward her chest."
Police would later concede they'd made a mistake. One of Cohen's neighbors explained this to the officers as they were planting the explosives outside her door. She was told to "shut up and go back inside."
Source:
Stu Bykofsky, "SWAT team invades elderly widow's home," Philadelphia Daily News, October 16, 2003.
Williemae Mack and Sons.
September 3, 2002—NY
On September 3, 2002, police break down the door of Brooklyn resident Williemae Mack in a pre-dawn drug raid. Her twin 13-year-old sons are asleep at the time. One, frightened by the noise and the explosive device police use to gain entry, hides under the bed. Police pull him out and put a gun to his head. They then handcuff both boys at gunpoint. Police also throw Mack to the floor and step on her head. They also "stomp" on the head of the family's dog.
Police find no drugs in the home. They later discover they've raided the wrong address. The family settles for $90,000 in 2005. The city's response to the suit was that "entry into the plaintiffs' apartment was proper pursuant to a valid search warrant. However, in the interest of avoiding further litigation costs, the city felt that settlement was appropriate."
Source:
John Marzulli, "City OKs 90G Deal for Raid Trauma," New York Daily News, October 4, 2005.
Irene Gilliam Hensley.
August 14, 2002—TX
On August 14, 2002, police in La Porte, Texas stormed the home of 88-year-old Irene Gilliam Hensley on a paramilitary raid after a tip that her grandson Charles Gilliam was growing marijuana in her backyard.
The tip came from an aunt who had had an argument with Mr. Gilliam, and police decided to raid after an officer peeked over Hensley's fence and confirmed the presence of illegal plants. According to the Houston Chronicle, the warrant specifically stated that the officer who peeked over the fence had experience identifying marijuana plants.
The plants turned out to be okra. Police found no drugs in the home.
Source:
Robert Crowe, "A real-life melodrama in La Porte; Mistaking okra plants for marijuana leads to internal affairs investigation," Houston Chronicle, October 3, 2002, This Week, p. 1.
Charles Alford.
February 27, 2002—NC
On February 27, 2002, police raid the home of 77-year-old Willie Alford on a narcotics warrant issued for his daughter and two grandchildren.
Police from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the Cumberland County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation broke into that home at 8 pm and, according to Alford, "came in shooting." Two children, ages eight and 13 were also present in the home.
Alford's son Charles, a truck driver visiting from out of town who wasn't a suspect, was shot in the arm, legs, and side. Police found no weapons in the home. Two suspects named in the warrant were arrested at the site of the raid, and one was arrested the following day.
Source:
Christina DeNardo, "Vander Gunfire Probe Under Wraps," Fayetteville Observer, April 13, 2003.
The Gilbertson Family.
February 13, 2002—CO
In February 2002, a SWAT team in Denver's Highland neighborhood shattered a window in anticipation of a knock-and-announce raid. Upon looking inside, they discovered they had the wrong townhouse. They were preparing to deploy a flashbang grenade in the home, occupied by Erik Gilbertson and his pregnant wife. The couple was at the opera at the time of the raid. A police spokesman called the raid an "understandable mistake."
Sources:
Hector Gutierrez, "Cops crash couple's night at the opera," Rocky Mountain News, February 15, 2002, p. A4.
The Bardy family.
January 25, 2002—NY
In January 2002, New York police conduct a botched raid on the home of Mary Bardy, 66, and her husband Joseph, 70, after mistakenly believing their son is dealing drugs.
Police break down Bardy's door and order everyone inside -- including the couple's two-year-old granddaughter -- to lie down at gunpoint. Police then rush upstairs, where Bardy's son is struck on the head and handcuffed. Police find no drugs.
Bardy, a retired employee of the New York City Police Department, said she wrote "dozens of letters" and "made lots of phone calls" after the raid on her home, but could find no one willing to give her answers as to why police broke into her home. After one-and-a-half years, Newsday ran a story on the Bardy raid as part of its coverage of the 2003 raid in Harlem that killed Alberta Spruill. After the Newsday piece, police in Queens agree to begin an investigation.
Source:
Dennis Duggan, "Reliving a Wrong Raid by NYPD," Newsday, June 4, 2003, p. A16.
Sara Perez.
November 27, 2001—NY
On November 27, 2001, police break into the Harlem home of Ms. Sara Perez and put a shotgun to her head. They also hold her children and grandchildren at gunpoint, including one-month old twin girls. Police never show Perez a search warrant, nor do they explain the reason for the raid.
Perez later learns that the raid was executed based on faulty information supplied by a 15-year old informant. After five months, the police department paid to repair her door.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Estelle Newcomb.
October 26, 2001—VA
In October 2001, 50-year old Estelle Newcomb hears her dog barking. She looks out the window to investigate, and seeks a Middlesex, Virginia drug task force storming toward her home. The officers break down her door, force her to her knees, and train their guns on Newcomb and her 80-year-old aunt.
Police soon realize they've targeted the wrong home. They had miscommunicated with an informant. The investigating officer tells the Associated Press, "I knew this was not right. To be honest with you, it was sloppy police work - not being thorough enough."
The previous July, the same task force, along with the National Guard and state police, conducted a raid on a suspect they thought was growing marijuana. Those plants turned out to be tomatoes.
Sources:
"Drug bust targets wrong house," Associated Press, October 30, 2001.
Orlando Russell.
October 23, 2001—NY
On October 23, 2001, police with assault weapons and body armor break into the Brooklyn home of Orlando Russell and his 87-year old mother on a no-knock raid. When police show Russell the warrant for the raid, he explains to them that the warrant mentions a front gate that Russell's apartment lacks. The raid is based on information from a single confidential informant.
There's a vacant house next door that's well-known in the community to be used by drug dealers. Russell later told the Village Voice that while he was once an "upstanding citizen," he was fed up with the number of no-knock raids on low-income and minority communities. "Any cop walking in [to his home] without an invitation better have a body bag," he said.
Source:
Rivka Gewirtz Little, "More NYPD No-Knocks; New Yorkers Tell Their Tales of Botched Raids," Village Voice, June 18-24, 2003.
The Alexander Family.
August 17, 2001—TX
On August 17, 2001, police in Waco, Texas serve a drug warrant on the home of Debora and Charles Alexander. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, police charge the residence with guns drawn, yelling, "Police, search warrant!" before realizing they have entered the wrong apartment.
During the raid, the Alexanders' visiting nine-year-old grandson, who has Down's Syndrome, goes into a seizure, and Debora Alexander faints. Alexander said the raid caused lasting damage to the boy. "We had some missionaries knock on our door the other night and it scared him absolutely to death," he said. "It took us forever to calm him down. We went through all that trauma again. He was just shaking and grabbing onto my wife. We had to fight like hell to get him to school this morning."
Alexander says that upon realizing their mistake, police left without apologizing, or offering to help either Mrs. Alexander or the grandson. And just seconds before the raid, Debora Alexander had been unpacking boxes, one of which contained her husband's gun. Mr. Alexander told the Tribune-Herald, "God only knows what would have happened if they would have walked down that hall with her holding that gun."
Remarkably, on August 20 -- three days after the raid -- Lieutenant Gary McCully told the paper he wasn't aware that his own officers had entered the wrong apartment until a reporter called to question him about it. He described it as "a very unusual situation."
Source:
" Officers fumble drug raid: Narcotics force breaks into wrong apartment; residents wait for apology ," Waco Tribune-Herald, August 21, 2001.
Glen Coberly
July 18, 2001—VA
Police descend on Coberly's Middlesex, Virginia home and order the 39-year-old man to the ground at gunpoint. The Middle Peninsula Drug Task Force, state police, and the National Guard had been running a helicopter in the area to look for marijuana plants. Coberly is picked up from the ground and one officer begins to read him his Miranda rights.
At about that time, another officer discovers that Coberly's plants aren't marijuana, but tomatoes. Sheriff Guy Abbott would later explain that, "We're just trying to do our best to protect our citizens. And we're not perfect; we make mistakes."
Source:
"Drug cops swoop down on tomato patch," Associated Press, July 20, 2001.
Maria Flores.
May 16, 2001—TX
In May 2001, police in Austin, Texas raid the home of Maria Flores, a grandmother. A flashbang grenade shatters her window, and the SWAT team enters behind by kicking in her door. Flores is pushed to the ground, bound, and held at gunpoint while police tear apart her home searching for cocaine. They have mistaken her house for the house next door. Flores is taken to the hospital with internal bruising.
"For about 20 minutes, I was on the floor crying, wondering 'What's going on?'" Flores would later tell the Austin American Statesman. "I'm just glad my grandkids weren't here." Six months after the raid, police acknowledge their "terrible mistake." Assistant police chief Jim Fealy says, "We violated that woman's privacy and needlessly by mistake" and attributed the error to "sloppy police work."
Source:
Jonathan Osborne, "6 months after botched drug raid, police still are paying for mistake," Austin American-Statemsan, November 10, 2001, p. B3.
Sandra Smith.
May 10, 2001—TX
In May of 2001, the same Travis County, Texas paramilitary unit that shot and killed Tony Martinez, and led the raid that ended in the death of Dep. Keith Ruiz, conducts a raid on the home of Sandra Smith for suspicion of growing marijuana. After departing from a helicopter, storming Smith's home, kicking her dog, ransacking her belongings, and holding her and three visitors at gunpoint, police discover the plants were ragweed. They did not have a search warrant.
"This is the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to me in my life," Smith says. "I've never been in trouble with the law. I don't even smoke cigarettes."
Smith later filed a lawsuit against the city for damages to her home. At the time the suit was filed in 2002, her name was still in the department's database as a narcotics offender.
Travis County eventually settled with Smith and her visitors for $40,000.
Source:
Jason Spencer, "Drug task force's $40,000 error: Raid turned up ragweed, not pot," Austin American-Statesman, December 31, 2002, p. B1.
The McKnight Family.
February 27, 2001—KS
On February 27, 2001 at about 10:30pm, police in Topeka, Kansas kick open the front door, detonate a flashbang grenade, and hold Henry and Denise McKnight and their seven children at gunpoint on a drug warrant. They have mistaken the McKnights' home for the home next door.
The McKnights' subsequent lawsuit alleges that police questioned them at gunpoint, and continued to search the home even after realizing they'd made a mistake. Police Chief Ed Klumpp acknowledged the mistake and said that the police department would make "minor adjustments" to its procedures, though he wouldn't say what adjustments "because it would jeopardize the safety of our officers."
The Topeka City Council eventually settled with the family for $95,000, though even after announcing the settlement, individual city council members refused to discuss it. One city lawyer told the Topeka Capital-Journal the settlement wasn't necessarily an admission of wrongdoing, but "was in our best interest given the costs of potential litigation."
Source:
Alicia Henrikson, "Mistaken Drug Raid Settled; Council agrees to pay $95,000 because police barged into wrong house," Topeka Capital-Journal, January 9, 2004.
Susan Wilson
February 14, 2001—WI
On February 14, 2001, a SWAT team dressed in full-assault attire storms the home of Muskego resident Susan Wilson, 49. Wilson is standing in her driveway with her dog when the Waukesha County Metro Drug Enforcement Group apprehends her. She's forced to the ground in front of her home, face-down on her snow-covered drive, handcuffed, and held at gunpoint while police search her home. They have the wrong address.
In 1999, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department also received public criticism when masked agents with assault weapons swarmed a Houlihan's at the Brookfield Square shopping center during lunch time to apprehend a drug suspect.
Source:
Jacqueline Seibel, "Drug unit officers reassigned; No one to be suspended after rain on wrong Muskego house," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 1, 2001, p. B1.
Lisa Sink, "Drug agents went to wrong home, cuffed woman in mistaken raid," Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, February 17, 2001
Robert and Lynne Traceski.
January 29, 2001—RI
In January 2001, police in West Warwick, Rhode Island conduct a mistaken drug raid on the home of Robert and Lynne Traceski.
Traceski is handcuffed after coming home to find police cruisers parked in his driveway. Police scour his home, but find no drugs. The raid is conducted based on a tip from an anonymous informant. A federal judge would later deny the Traceski's motion to force police to reveal the identity of the informant.
Source:
Zachary R. Mider, "Couple rebuffed in bid to identify informant who spurred drug raid," Providence Journal, March 11, 2005, p. C1.
Sandra and Marquita Hillman.
January 19, 2001—AL
On January 19, 2001, a paramilitary police force from Russellville and Franklin County, Alabama raids the home of Sandra Hillman and her daughter Marquita. Agents with a no-knock warrant kick down the door to Hillman's apartment and hold the two women handcuffed and at gunpoint while they conduct a search. Police never identify themselves, even after realizing they have the wrong address.
Hillman would make two subsequent trips to an emergency room for heart problems related to the raid. The two women filed suit against the city and the county in June 2001.
Source:
"Mother, daughter sue city, county for mistaken raid," Associated Press, June 28, 2001.
Wesley Neal.
November 24, 2000—PA
On November 24, 2000 in Pittsburgh, local and federal agents break down the door of 76-year-old Wesley Neal on a no-knock drug raid. The raiding officers order Neal to the floor at gunpoint. He suffers chest pains immediately after the raid.
The officers soon realize their mistake, and raid a home two doors down. The local district attorney would later apologize for the incident.
Source:
Joel Rosenblatt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazatte, November 25, 2000.
The Olveda Family.
October 5, 2000—WI
In October 2000, a black-clad SWAT team in the small town of Dalton, Wisconsin breaks down the front door of Wendy and Jesus Olveda. Wendy is five months pregnant, and their three-year old daughter Zena watches in horror.
Officers throw the couple face-first to the floor at gunpoint. Jesus Olveda would later say that as he attempted to lift his head to tell police they had the wrong address, "one of them put a knee on my head and ground it into the floor."
Police did have the wrong address. When they realized their error, they rushed through the Olveda's garage door to the home next door, without an explanation. Madison's Capital Times reports that one officer later reentered the Olveda's home minutes later to retrieve the search warrant. The Olvedas filed a claim for compensation against the police departments in charge of carrying out the raid. It was rejected. The family won a $110,000 settlement in 2002.
Source:
Steven Elbow, "Hooked on SWAT; Fueled with drug enforcement money, military-style police teams are exploding in the backwoods of Wisconsin," Madison Capital Times, August 18, 2001, p. A1.
Patricia Wolff, "Settlement in botched drug raid," Oshkosh Northwestern, June 21, 2002.
Hubert and Doris Robinson.
September 1, 2000—TX
On September 1, 2000, Doris Robinson, 52, is working at her computer and recooperating from having surgery to remove a tumor when a seven-member SWAT team on a drug raid breaks into her home without knocking.
Robinson and her husband Hubert are forced to the ground at gunpoint, handcuffed, and detained while police search their Jacksonville, Texas home.
Police soon realize they have the wrong address. Later the same day, the narcotics task force raids the home across the street, and arrest two suspects on drug charges.
Source:
Paul Stone, "Task Force, Others Sued," Palestine Herald Press, January 9, 2003.
The Unis Family.
August 19, 2000—CO
In August 2000, federal, state, and local agents in Pueblo, Colorado storm the home of Daniel and Rosa Unis after suspecting their sons of cocaine distribution. With no warrant, police in black ski masks break into the Unis home at gunpoint, shout profanities, and kick the family dog across the room. They arrest Marcos and David Unis. The two are kept in custody for two days, but never charged.
When the Unis family filed a federal lawsuit in 2005, the lawyer for the agent in charge of the raid conceded that the raid was illegal. One officer described the incident as "unfortunate," and said "miscommunication" led to the wrongful raid, arrests, and detainments. The family would win a $230,000 settlement in 2005.
Sources:
"Family sues Pueblo police over botched drug raid," Associated Press, January 14, 2005.
Karen Abbott, "Lawsuit over raid settled," Rocky Mountain News, August 30, 2005, p. A18.
William and Geneva Summers.
May 22, 2000—VA
On May 22, 2000, police in Pulaski, Virginia conducted a 4 a.m. raid on the home of William and Geneva Summers. The SWAT team broke through the couple's back door, woke them, and held them at gunpoint. They found no drugs.
They had raided the home based on a tip from a "reliable" informant that there was a methamphetamine lab inside. Magistrate Jill Long, who issued the warrant, concluded that police assertions that the informant's allegations alone were sufficient to establish probable cause for a pre-dawn, forced-entry search. The informant later admitted he had lied.
Long told a local newspaper she thought it was "unusual" for an informant to lie. "I've never heard of that happening before," she told the paper.
Source:
Shay Wessol, "Pulaski police charge informant in botched raid; 'We had no reason to not believe this guy,'" Roanoke Times, May 24, 2000, p. NRV1.
Shameka Smith.
April 19, 2000—NY
On April 19, 2000, police break into the Manhattan apartment of Shameka Smith. Smith had heard the police preparing to enter. Thinking she is being attacked by intruders, she quickly calls her father, and is on the phone with him when police officers break down her door. She is handcuffed to her bed at gunpoint while police tear through her belongings.
Police claim to have sold drugs to a resident of the apartment, but don't arrest Smith, and never file charges against her.
Source:
Peter Noel, "NYPD Storm Troopers," Village Voice, May 16, 2000.
Brandon and Richelle Savage.
April 6, 2000—IL
On April 6, 2000, police in Chicago raid the apartment of Brandon and Richelle Savage on bad information from an informant. Police break down the door, and order the couple out of bed at gunpoint before realizing their mistake. Police officials then ignore the Savages' request to pay for damage done to their apartment until a columnist reports the incident in the Chicago Sun-Times, after which the couple is given an apology and a promise to pay for repairs.
Source:
Frank Main and Fran Spielman, "Hillard calls to apologize for mistaken police raid," Chicago Sun-Times, April 22, 2000.
The Bell Family.
February 4, 2000—FL
Police in Hallandale make their second mistaken drug raid in a year, this time storming the home of Tracey Bell, who's pregnant at the time and with her three young children.
Even after the raid, police continue to insist they have the correct house, which they'd targeted based on a tip from an informant who said he'd bought drugs there. They found no drugs.
Bell had complained to police about drug activity in the neighborhood, and says police confused her home with the one next door. Bell's neighbor admitted to having friends involved in drug distribution, and had a criminal record. Bell had no record.
Bell's attorney says that police seem to have made the same mistakes twice in a year, and that they offered the same excuse for the raid on Bell's home as they gave for the botched raid on Catherine and Edwin Bernhardt. Attorney Gary Kollin told the Miami Herald, "It appears that they continue to use informants as their scapegoats when they mess up and then they hide behind the confidentiality of the informants to avoid a proper investigation into who is telling the truth."
Source:
Andrea Elliott, "Drug-busting cops hit right home, chief insists," Miami Herald, February 11, 2000, p. B1.
Dovie Walker.
December 4, 1999—AR
On December 4, 1999, police in El Dorado, Arkansas conduct a drug raid on the home of Dovie Walker. Officers tear the front door from its hinges with a battering ram, damage another door to her bedroom, break a latch on a third door, overturn and dismantle her furniture, and generally "demolish" her house. They also handcuff her three children on the floor at gunpoint.
Officers then realize they have mistaken Walker's house for the house next door. At the time Walker is also babysitting children ages one, two, and three. After a police department spokesman tells one media outlet police have no intention of paying for the repairs, El Dorado's mayor promises four days later to begin work on the damage Walker's house as soon as possible.
Sources:
"Woman not happy to have youngsters cuffed in mistaken raid," Associated Press, February 13, 2000.
"Mayor vows to repair damages in raid," Associated Press, February 17, 2000.
The Tyson Family.
October 20, 1999—CT
On the morning of October 20, 1999, police from the DEA, the FBI, and Connecticut Department of Public Safety conduct 30 drug raids at locations around the Hartford area.
One of those raids is on the home of 59-year-old Emma Tyson, her daughter-in-law, and her 13-year-old grandson. Twelve police officers break into Tyson's home, causing her to have an asthma attack. Police are looking for a suspected drug dealer who had moved out of the home four months earlier, when Tyson bought it.
Two years later, Tyson would file a lawsuit when federal and local police authorities had yet to apologize, or make an effort to clear her name.
Sources:
Steven Goode, "Police invasion leaves bitter feelings," Hartford Courant, November 27, 2001.
Nelson Robles.
August 25, 1999—FL
Police rouse 45-year-old Nelson Robles, his wife, and his 11-year old son from their sleep in a 4 am raid on their home in West Dade Florida. DEA agents raided the home as part of "Operation Ramp Rat" and "Operation Sky Chef," two interdiction efforts aimed at airline employees involved in drug smuggling.
Unfortunately, DEA agents have targeted the wrong Nelson Robles. Even after realizing their mistake, they search Robles home to make sure he isn't hiding the Nelson Robles they're looking for.
"It's a very scary thing," Robles tells the Miami Herald. "They threatened to break down the door. you think they will flatten you, you think they will kill you . . . I was very lucky that I didn't get beat up."
A DEA spokesman told the paper, "When you are trying to find 58 people, something can fall through the cracks."
Robles awoke the next morning to find his home address still listed in the newspaper as the residence of an accused drug smuggler.
Source: Sara Olkon, "Operation Mistaken Id: DEA Raids the Wrong House," Miami Herald, August 27, 1999.
D Uriyah Ajamu.
August 6, 1999—FL
In August 1999, police in Orlando, Florida raid the home of D Uriyah Ajamu. Police break into Ajamu's apartment, train guns on him, drag him out of the apartment, handcuff him, kick him, and pat him down, inflicting injuries on him in the process that would require hospitalization.
They soon realize they've mistaken Ajamu's apartment for the apartment next door. Despite Ajamu's lack of criminal record and a police concession that they had the wrong apartment, in November 2003, a jury found that the raiding officers did not violate Ajamu's constitutional rights, nor did they use excessive force in apprehending him.
However, an Orange County Circuit Judge had already earlier found that Ajamu's arrest and pat-down were improper. The city of Orlando subsequently settled with Ajamu for $20,000, plus $150,000 in attorney's fees. A spokesman said the Orlando police department planned no changes to its execution of search warrants as a result of the mistaken raid on Ajamu's home.
Source:
Anthony Colarossi, "Police are cleared of brutality in '99 Case," Orlando Sentinel, November 7, 2003, p.B3.
The Sanborn Family.
July 1, 1999—CA
At 7:10 am on July 1, 1999, narcotics officers rush the home of 78-year-old Roseville, California resident Sandy Sanborn and his wife Grace. Sanborn is knocked to the floor when he attempts to open the door just as police are kicking it in. He is then handcuffed and pushed down in a chair at gunpoint. Agents next apprehend his wife, who awakes to find police pointing assault weapons at her head. She too is handcuffed and detained.
The Sanborns say that while searching, police simply broke down the doors to their kitchen, pantry, and other rooms, instead of simply opening them first.
After an exhaustive search, Police Detective Ron Goodpaster apologized, and the raid team left.
An investigative report in the Sacramento News & Review revealed that the search on the Sanborns' came about after an officer in the sheriff's department of a neighboring county discovered that the Sanborns' son had shopped at a hydroponic plant store. The report further found that though police claimed in the search warrant to have found marijuana in the Sanborns' trash, the phrase they used, "The marijuana was fresh, green and still moist and had been recently cut from a mature marijuana plant," was identical to that used on dozens of other search warrants.
Police found no marijuana -- or any other illicit substance -- in the Sanborns' home.
Sources:
Charlotte Wright, "Narc Agents Raid Wrong Home," Press-Tribune, July 2, 1999.
Mike Pulley, "Search Unwarranted," Sacramento News & Review, January 20, 2000.
Tina and Margie Peterson.
April 4, 1999—UT
On April 4, 1999, police conduct a drug raid on an apartment in Kaysville, Utah, four days after obtaining the warrant, and three weeks after obtaining the information to get the warrant.
Despite the fact that a moving van sits in front of the apartment, the officers carry on with the raid. They burst in on Tina and Margie Peterson, two sisters who are just moving in. Police charge in with guns drawn, and order the sisters and their two guests to the floor. According to the Petersons, officers continued to detain and question them even after the women show identification and proof that they're brand new tenants.
The sisters filed suit against the police department in 2004.
Source:
Pamela Manson, "Drug-raid lawsuit gets a green light; Just unlucky? Two sisters say police violated their civil rights; Lawsuit over drug raid gets a green light," Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 2004, p. B1.
Edwin and Catherine Bernhardt.
February 9, 1999—FL
On February 9, 1999, police in Hallandale, Florida, dressed in black jumpers, body armor and face masks, raid the home of Catherine and Edwin Bernhardt. Edwin, whose job requires him to get up at 4 a.m., is asleep. Catherine is on the couch. Police bust open the Bernhardt's window and jam an assault rifle inside. Edwin Bernhardt wakes up, and runs downstairs in the nude to investigate the commotion.
Officers then push Loretta Bernhardt to the floor and handcuff her at gunpoint. Mr. Bernhardt is subdued, handcuffed, and forced into a chair while a police officer clothes him in a pair of his wife's shorts. He is arrested and spends several hours in jail, still clad only in the underwear, until police realize their mistake and drive him home.
The search warrant was for an "Apartment 17." The Bernhardts lived in "Apartment 1." There was no "Apartment 17." Police were at first apologetic. But when the Bernhardts later file suit, the city of Hollandale grows stubborn. City attorney Richard Kane tells the Miami Herald that citizens should expect such tactics as the price of the Drug War. "They made a mistake. There's no one to blame for a mistake," Kane said of the police. "The way these people were treated has to be judged in the context of a war." When asked to comment on the suit, Fort Lauderdale police Capt. Tom Tiderington adds, "There's no perfect formula for success. It could happen at any time."
The Herald reports that similar "wrong door" raids had recently taken place in Seminole County (twice), Largo, and Tampa.
A year later, police in Hallandale would again mistakenly conduct a "wrong door" raid.
Source:
Vanessa Bauza, "Couple files suit in raid gone bad; Officers stormed the wrong house," Miami Herald, April 17, 1999, p. B1.
Priscilla Clark.
December 15, 1998—NC
In December 1998, SWAT officers in Raleigh raid the home of Priscilla Clark, who is pregnant at the time.
Clark tells the Raleigh News and Observer her first thought was, "'Oh my God, someone's coming in here to kill me.' I looked out my bedroom door and saw this big gun coming down the hall and a man dressed in black."
Police lock Clark's two children in a bedroom while Clark attempts to explain to them they have the wrong house. Police eventually believe her, and apologize.
Source:
Craig Jarvis, "Drug raids usually hit mark, occasionally bomb," Raleigh News and Observer, July 7, 1998, p. B1.
Earl Richardson.
June 1, 1998—NC
In June of 1998, police in Raleigh, North Carolina raid the home of 66-year-old Earl Richardson, punching a hole in his front door and ripping out its interior frame. An officer clad in black points a rifle at Richardson and orders him to the floor while police rummage through his belongings.
Police had intended to raid an unmarked apartment to the rear of Richardson's home after a tip from an informant, and after finding marijuana residue in the trash. Police insist they knocked and announced before entering, which Richards denies. "That's an outright lie," Richardson told the local paper. "I would have heard them. The window of the room I was in is right next to the front door. The only thing I heard was the crash."
After an apology from Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer days later, Richardson added, "I don't have anything against the city. I'm just glad I didn't get shot."
Sources:
Anne Saker, "Police raid the wrong home," Raleigh News and Observer, June 5, 1998, p. A1.
Craig Jarvis, "Drug raids usually hit mark, occasionally bomb," Raleigh News and Observer, July 7, 1998, p. B1.
The Mackin-Howie Family.
May 22, 1998—NC
Police in Concord, North Carolina raid the home of Leonard Mackin, Charlene Howie, and their four children. Officers burst in with guns drawn and order the family to the floor. After repeated pleas by Mackin to police that they had the wrong house, Detective Larry Welch recognizes Mackin as a co-worker with the city and asks, "Leonard, is that you?"
A confidential informant had given police the wrong address.
It is the second of three botched raids in Concord in four years.
Source:
Kerry Prichard, "Concord Family Sues Over Search By Police," Charlotte Observer, May 25, 1999, p. C3.
Jeanine Jean.
May 7, 1998—NY
On May 7, 1998, police briefly knock, then break down the door and deploy a flashbang grenade in the home of Jeanine Jean. Frightened, Jean takes her six-year-old son and runs into a closet to call 911.
Police enter, pull Jean and the boy from the closet, then handcuff and question her at gunpoint in front of her son. The rough treatment causes Jean to begin bleeding from a ruptured surgical procedure she'd had done the day before.
After 90 minutes, police realize they have the wrong apartment and leave, leaving the door hanging from its hinges. The warrant for the raid was based solely on information from a confidential informant, with no corroborating investigation.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
The Shorter Family.
May 1, 1998—NY
On May 1, 1998, police break down the door to a home in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in a no-knock raid based on the word of a confidential informant, despite a background check showing that no one who lives in the home has a criminal record.
According to the New York Times, upon entering the police find the Shorter family, "a retired banker, a home health attendant, and their two daughters." One of the daughters is mentally disabled, and showering at the time of the raid. Police yank her from the shower and handcuff her, along with the rest of the family. Despite her pleas that she is menstruating, officers refuse to give her a sanitary pad until she is visibly bleeding.
"I thought America was invaded, that some force, a foreign force, came to kill us," Basil Shorter, a 62-year-old a native Jamaican who became an American citizen, said. "My family was helpless. I was helpless."
Police continued to defend the merit of the raid. "What we believe at this point is that the information was good. Why would our source give us bad information on one apartment and good information on the second apartment in the same building?" Chief Martin O'Boyle told the Times. Off the record, investigators told the paper that such raids on complete innocents are necessary because drug dealers sometimes deal out of a family's home without the family's knowledge.
Sources:
Michael Cooper, "Scared Family Says Police Raided the Wrong Home," New York Times, May 8, 1998.
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise As City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
The Cuervo Family.
April 20, 1998—WI
In 1998, a regional narcotics unit in Neenah, Wisconsin mistakenly raids the home of Daniel and Cynthia Cuervo, holding the couple at gunpoint while police ransack their home. The warrant proves to be for the apartment next door.
The Cuervos would later settle a civil suit against the local police agencies involved in the raid for $47,500. The same narcotics unit had to pay $50,000 to settle a suit stemming from another "wrong door" raid in 1991.
The raid on the Cuervos and the resulting settlement cause the company that insures the towns to demand significant changes in the operation and oversight of the paramiliatary drug team. Attorney Gregg Gunta, who represents the insurer, did a study of the way drug raids were performed in the area and concluded they ammounted to "essentially armed assaults."
Sources:
Jim Collar, "MEG changes reach critical stage," Oshkosh Northwestern, June 23, 2002, p. C1.
also Ed Lowe, "Insurer targets MEG changes," Appleton Post-Crescent, January 6, 2002, p. A1.
The Ford Family.
March 27, 1998—IL
In March 1998, state troopers and local police in Harvey, Illinois deploy a flashbang grenade at the home of LaDana Ford, sending scorch marks across her floor and up her wall. Officers then search Ford's home, handcuffing Ford's 13-year-old son and questioning her seven-year-old daughter at gunpoint. They later realize they've raided the wrong address.
Harvey Police Chief Philip Hardiman was unapologetic. "We make out search warrants when we get information from drug informants," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Sometimes they give us incorrect information, and warrants are made out for one house when we're really looking for the house next door. I think that's what happened here. That happens from time to time in any police department." When asked if the department would apologize, Hardiman replied, "I don't know if we'd apologize. It's not unusual for that to happen sometimes, but I will say it doesn't happen that often."
Source:
Jon Sall, "Suburban family terrorized as cops raid wrong house," Chicago Sun-Times, March 28, 1998, p. 8.
The Fulton Family.
March 18, 1998—NY
On March 18, 1998, police raid the Bronx apartment of the Fulton family: a grandmother, her daughter, and her six-year-old grandson. The family is watching television when a narcotics team pounds on the door, breaks it open, and begins tearing through the apartment looking for drugs. Police had the wrong apartment.
The boy, Jaquan Fulton, told the New York Times, "I was scared, scared they were going to shoot us. I cried. I didn't say a word."
Source:
Kit R. Roane, "Once Again, Police Raid the Wrong Apartment," New York Times, March 21, 1998, p. B1.
The Patterson Family.
February 27, 1998—NY
New York City police raid the Bronx apartment of Shaunsia Patterson, her sister, and her two children, ages three and two. Patterson is eight months pregnant at the time of the raid.
Police first grab Patterson's sister Misty, 15, and put her to the floor. They then confront Patterson, who is sitting on her bed. One officer pushes her onto her back, while another jumps on top of her. Patterson is eventually pushed to the floor and handcuffed while, in Patterson's words, "one of the cops stepped on the side of my face and pressed my face into the floor." When Patterson asks what the police wanted, she was told to "Shut the fuck up."
Patterson is handcuffed in her underwear. Police scream expletives at the two women and two children while they scour the apartment for drugs. Patterson grows so frightened she urinates on herself. She isn't permitted to change.
Police refuse to show Patterson a warrant, and demolish her furniture, her kitchen, and her floor. Hours later, Patterson is released from handcuffs, and an officer tells her, "We got the wrong apartment."
It's the second botched drug raid NYPD would conduct that day. One confidential police source would later tell New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, "Two in one day -- that's bad. But I'll tell you what I honestly believe -- I don't think this happens that often."
Source:
Bob Herbert, "In America; Reprise of Terror," New York Times, March 12, 1998, p. A27.
Ellis Elliot.
February 27, 1998—NY
On February 27, 1998, police conduct a no-knock raid on the Bronx home of Ellis Elliot, based on information they would later determine to be "miscommunication with an informant."
As police attempt to break down his door, Elliot fears he is being attacked, and fires a shot through the door. Police respond with a swarm of 26 bullets, all of which, fortunately, miss Elliot. Elliot is then dragged out of his home naked, allegedly peppered with racial epithets, then arrested on charges of possessing an unlicensed weapon.
Police would later admit their error, and the police department would pay $1,000 to have Elliot's door repaired. Elliot eventually pled guilty to disorderly conduct for firing his gun at police officers, and was given a conditional discharge. No police officers were ever charged or disciplined.
Sources:
Rocco Parascandola, "Cops pay 1G for repairs in raid mixup," New York Post, March 6, 1998, p. 10.
Pete Bowles, "Guilty plea in cop-mistake case," Newsday, May 6, 1998.
Jennifer Switalski.
February 2, 1998—WI
On February 2, 1998, police in Milwaukee conducted a 6:30 am raid on a building owned by Jennifer Switalski. Switalski wasn't home at the time, but her two tenants were. After breaking down the door, police handcuffed the two tenants while a terrified two-year-old girl looked on.
Police had the wrong address. Switalksi later tried to sue the city for emotional distress and loss of income after her frightened tenants moved out. City officials balked, and even mocked her. "If it happened to me, I would be upset, too," said city attorney Louis Elder. "But the taxpayer should not have to pay for hurt feelings because those deputies inadvertently entered the wrong home."
Elder also said Switalski was filled with "grandiose ideas" for attempting to sue the city though she herself hadn't witnessed the raid.
Source:
Tom Kertscher, "Botched drug bust unresolved; County offered $1,100 for door, but property owner wants $10,000," Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 11, 2000, p. B1.
The Baines Family.
November 8, 1997—NY
On November 8, 1997, police in Suffolk County, New York get a tip from a drug suspect that a home in Wyandanch is stashing "a black automatic pistol, two machine guns, a stainless steel sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, bulletproof vests, crack cocaine, proceeds from drugs sales, and drug paraphernalia."
Within hours of the tip, and with no corroborating investigation, a judge issues a no-knock warrant. Police execute a raid on the address given by the informant.
The address turns out to be the home Denise Baines and her two sons. Baines' 10-year-old son's bedroom is destroyed. Police apologize to Baines, but defended the practice of executing quick, no-knock raids based on the tip of a single informant. Even informants who are drug suspects themselves. "We acted solely on the information supplied by this defendant, which to us at the time seemed credible," said the head of the Narcotics Enforcement Team. "My officers acted in good faith. They did their job."
Source:
Chau Lam and Michael Arena, "Good faith blunder," Newsday, November 8, 1997.
June Nixon and Melissa Cheek.
August 19, 1997—TX
On August 19, 1997, police in Kaufman County, Texas kick down the door to the home of June Nixon, her daughter Melissa Cheek, and her granddaughter. Police handcuff the women and strip-search them at gunpoint before realizing they've raided the wrong house. They were acting on a tip from a confidential informant.
Sheriff Robert Harris explained, "It looks like what probably happened is the person that's been doing the investigations didn't make sure this was the right house."
The same Sheriff's Department was forced to apologize to two families in 1989 for mistaken drug raids that, according to the Dallas Morning News, "turned up no drugs, but left houses damaged and family members shaken."
Source:
Kendall Anderson, "Kaufman County sheriff orders inquiry into mistaken drug raid," Dallas Morning News, August 24, 1997, p. A43.
Atlee Swanson.
July 9, 1997—NY
On July 9, 1997 police conduct a 6 a.m. no-knock raid at the East Harlem home of Atlee Swanson. Police break into Swanson's home, and demand to know where "Joey, Jason, and Sean" are. Swanson replies that she's never heard of them.
Police continue with the raid. They refuse to show Swanson a search warrant. Swanson is handcuffed and told she faces 7 to 15 years in prison for selling drugs from her home. She is taken to the police station and put in a holding cell for 31 hours, despite being told by police in the 23rd Precinct that they didn't suspect she'd dealt any drugs.
Swanson returns home to find her apartment "trashed and vandalized." She would finally get a copy of the search warrant in the mail three years later. Police had mistakenly entered the wrong apartment building.
Source:
Office of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, "Report and Recommendations on the Execution of No-Knock Warrants: In the Afermath of the death of Alberta Spruil," June 2003.
Mary and Cornelius Jefferson.
June 24, 1997—NY
An elderly couple is preparing to go to bed when police use a battering ram to rip the front door of their Bronx apartment off of its hinges.
"They kept on banging until the whole door had splintered," Mrs. Jefferson told the New York Times "I thought they were coming to rob us, coming to kill us."
Police conducted the raid based on a tip from a paid confidential informer with a criminal record. Police were looking for a Hispanic man alleged to be selling cocaine from the apartment. As the Times reports, "Instead the police found a terrified couple in their 60's, living in a meticulous apartment where plastic slipcovers protect the sofas and diplomas and awards line the walls."
A police source tells the Times that the informant used in the raid produced "reliable" tips just 44 percent of the time.
For months, police continued to insist that their informant was correct, and that the Jefferson's were aiding a cocaine distributor. The city finally settled with the couple for $200,000 in February 1999.
Source:
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise as City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
Merritt Sharp
June 13, 1997—CA
In 1997, police raid Merritt Sharp's auto body shop on suspicion that his son is running a methamphetamine lab from the site. They have no search warrant.
Sharp is thrown to the asphalt at gunpoint, handcuffed, and held for 45 minutes while police search the premises. When they find no meth lab, they begin searching Sharp's business for stolen and illegal weapons. They find two stolen cars, though neither implicates Sharp. Sharp says officers "high-fived" over him as he lay in handcuffs, and insulted him.
In 2000, a jury found that police had conspired to violate Sharp's constitutional civil rights, and awarded him $1 million. The settlement was later thrown out by Judge Derek W. Hunt, who ruled on appeal that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.
Sources:
"When Police Cross the Line," staff editorial, Orange County Register, July 23, 2000.
John McDonald, "$1 million jury award thrown out," Orange County Register, September 13, 2000.
Sandra Soto.
June 5, 1997—NY
On June 5, 1997, police carry out a no-knock raid based on information from an anonymous informant in the East New York area of Brooklyn. The warrant instructs them to raid a gray door marked "2M." Finding no such door, they instead break down a red door marked "2L," terrorizing Sandra Soto and her two children. They find no drugs.
Source:
Michael Cooper, "Raids, and Complaints, Rise as City Draws on Drug Tips," New York Times, May 26, 1998.
The Salt Lake Tortilla Plant Raid.
April 24, 1997—UT
In 1997, police in Salt Lake City, Utah raid a tortilla factory and restaurant owned by Rafael Gomez, a naturalized citizen. 75 heavily armed police officers storm the business on a tip from a confidential informant. Expecting to find heroin and cocaine, they find only two 24-pill packs of the painkiller Darvon and two bottles of penicillin. Gomez says he was struck in the face, knocked to the floor, and that police trained a gun on his six-year-old son. One secretary says she was dragged to the floor by her hair. 80 people, mostly Hispanic, were handcuffed in the raid, and forced to lay down for up to three hours as police searched the premises.
Gomez spent a large sum of money fighting charges resulting from the raid, which were later dismissed. Bad publicity from the raid and the length of time it took to clear his name killed Gomez's business, and dashed his hopes of opening a large shopping center in the area. He settled with the city of Salt Lake in 2004 for $290,000.
Source: "Hard Justice," Salt Lake Tribune, December 1, 2004, p. A14.
The Dillard-Blakely Family.
June 3, 1996—IL
In June 1996, police raid the Pontoon Beach, Illinois home of Tarkus Dillard, Vickie Blakely, and the couple's two young children. According to Dillard and Blakely, one officer points a gun directly in the face of their three-year-old daughter during the course of the raid.
Police had mistakenly raided the couple's home instead of the home next door. Police Chief Michael Crouch apologized to Dillard and Blakely for the mistake, but insisted his officers had done nothing wrong. The man police were after lived nearby, and was often seen in front of the apartment building where the Dillard and Blakely lived. He escaped during the wrong-door raid.
In 1998 federal judge threw out the couple's $1 million lawsuit against the police department. A lawyer for the police officers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that even if police had pointed a gun in the face of the child and cocked it, that "it was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment." He called the suit's dismissal a "tremendous vindication" of the officers' actions, and said he was contemplating suing Dillard and Blakely, to recoup the city's legal costs.
Sources:
Charles Bosworth, Jr., "Judge finds for police officer in bungled raid; Pontoon Beach couple who lived next to drug suspect filed $1 million suit," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 24, 1998, p. D2.
Jeffrey and Phyllis Hampton.
May 10, 1995—NC
In May 1995, police in Concord, North Carolina mistakenly storm the home of Jeffrey and Phyllis Hampton. The Hamptons are relaxing at around 9:30 pm when police break down their door, come into the house with assault weapons, and order the couple to the floor. Police realize their mistake after about a half hour of interrogation.
"I feel like they've taken part of my life away," Phyllis Hampton would tell the Charlotte Observer. "I used to feel safe in my home. Now I don't feel safe anywhere."
It is the first of three botched raids in the town of Concord in four years.
Source:
Anna Griffin, "Drug raid at wrong house moves couple to file suit," Charlotte Observer, September 16, 1995, p. C1.
Paul Shavlik, Cheryl Kadinger, and Jason Tews.
April 1, 1995—WI
At 2:45 a.m. on April 1, 1995, deputies in Juneau, Wisconsin conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Paul Shavlik, Cheryl Kadinger, and Jason Tews after finding traces of marijuana in the home's trash.
The three are thrown to the ground and handcuffed at gunpoint, and instructed to remain that way for the first 45 minutes of the raid. Police spend three hours searching the home. According to the victims, they "tear the place to shreds," and subject Kadinger to sexual comments while rifling through her underwear and personal letters.
Police find no drugs, and make no arrests. Two weeks later, the same deputies would conduct the drug raid leading to the death of Scott Bryant.
Source:
Chip Mitchell, "Brutality by Dodge County Deputies Alleged; Juneau Case Preceded Fatal Beaver Dam Raid," Wisconsin State Journal, June 8, 1995, p. B3.
Charles Inscor.
March 16, 1995—FL
In March 1995, police in Oldsmar, Florida smash through a glass door, deploy flashbang grenades, and storm the apartment of whom they think is a suspected drug dealer.
Instead, they find 31-year-old Charles Inscor, a wheelchair-bound man with respiratory ailments. The SWAT team soon realizes it had raided the wrong home. Inscor is hospitalized for eleven days from injuries incurred during the raid.
An ensuing investigation found that, though deputies made many mistakes during the investigation and raid, no disciplinary action would be taken because no rules were broken. According to the St. Petersburg Times, police couldn't be disciplined because, "the Sheriff's office had no policies concerning how the SWAT team should serve search warrants."
Source:
Jane Meinhardt, "No discipline planned in mistaken drug raid," St. Petersburg Times, May 4, 1995.
Mistaken Tucson Raid.
June 5, 1994—AZ
A SWAT team in Tucson, Arizona deploys a flashbang grenade while conducting a raid on the home of a 75-year-old woman, her son, and three small children.
Police then discover they've targeted the wrong address.
Source:
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., "Explosive Dynamic Entry: The Increasing Militarization Of The Police Makes Citizens Into Enemies," Flagpole, July 30, 2003.
Johnny Senteno.
August 21, 1993—OR
In August 1993, a battalion of police in SWAT gear storm a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Teams of police swarm several homes in the neighborhood, including the home of Dale and Penny Randall, who are pulled from their bed, naked, at gunpoint, and aren't permitted to dress. The team tears the Randall's home apart looking for drugs. The couple is subjected to an hour of screaming and obscenities, and is never given back nude photos of Penny Randall taken by her husband.
Just outside the Randalls home, a scrap metal worker named Johnny Senteno had come to haul some waste away from the rental, only recently occupied by the Randalls.
As Senteno is talking to a neighbor, he turns to see a National Guard M-113 armored personnel carrier filled with armed personnel barreling toward him.
Two members of the Portland Police Bureau's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) in camouflage and face masks, leap from the truck screaming obscenities.
Portland's alternative weekly PDXS reports:
"Before he could respond, Senteno was shot. The first impact struck his chest. The second shattered his arm, which he had held in front of his heart. Senteno describes the projectile which struck him as a "pepper bullet." It expanded to the size of a tennis ball. Upon impact it dispersed a burning talcum-like powder."
Senteno had been hit with a grenade launcher. Though described as "non-lethal," the weapon is intended to be used from distances more than 60 feet. Senteno was hit at a distance of less than 15. Senteno would eventually settle with the city of Portland for $100,000.
Though police found a small amount of marijuana in the Randall's apartment, the couple would later learn they weren't the actual targets of the raid. Police were after the home's owner, Robert Cozzi. Cozzi had recently moved out and rented the home to the Randalls. Cozzi had been fingered to police as a potential drug dealer by a confidential informant. When a reporter from the PDXS paper attempted to contact the mayor's office about details of the raid, a spokesman said, "Generally, these things are left as they should be, to the management of agencies involved." A spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau wasn't forthcoming either, saying only that details of the raid would only be given out "on a need-to-know basis."
Source:
Paul Richmond, "True Stories from the Front Line," PDXS, October 22, 1995.
The Davis Family.
July 19, 1993—PA
In July 1993, police in Allentown, Pennsylvania conduct an early-morning raid on the home of Brian and Elizabeth Davis and their two sons, one aged two, and one an infant. Officers, armed, and masked search Elizabeth Davis in the nude in front of other officers.
Police commence the raid after a tip from the Davis's neighbors, with whom the Davis's had an ongoing dispute, that the couple was running a methamphetamine lab.
The neighbors had told police that Brian Davis had no visible means of support, and thus suspected he was dealing drugs. He was an opera singer. They also mentioned they detected the faint smell of cat urine coming from the Davis home, which police claim they verified before conducting the raid.
During the raid, police found no evidence of drug activity at the home. The state attorney general's office, which commissioned the raid, called it an "unfortunate incident," but maintained that all law enforcement involved "acted properly."
The state of Pennsylvania settled with the Davises in 1996.
Sources:
Dick Cowen, "Odors didn't lead to drugs," Allentown Morning Call, January 15, 1996, p. B5.
Dick Owen, "State settles lawsuit over city drug raid," Allentown Morning Call, January 15, 1996.
Wheat Ridge Raid.
July 15, 1993—CO
In July of 1993, a Wheat Ridge, Colorado woman is hospitalized after DEA agents pry open her door, curse her, and beat her while executing a no-knock drug raid. They have the wrong address. The raid inspired a letter of condemnation by the mayor of Wheat Ridge to the local district attorney.
Source:
"DEA Does It Again," Denver Post, July 16, 1993.
Mistaken Akron Drug Raid on Mother, Three Children.
March 2, 1993—OH
In March 1993, police in Akron, Ohio, clad in black, knock down the front door, and rush the apartment of a 32-year-old woman and her three young children.
The mother, identified by the Akron Beacon-Journal as "Joyce," says she didn't realize the invaders were police until she and her children were face-down on the floor at gunpoint.
Police had the wrong address. Lt. Harold Craig, leader of the Akron paramilitary drug unit, told the paper, "It didn't look like any drug house."
Source: "Drug Squad Busts Down Wrong Door," Akron Beacon-Journal, March 23, 1993
William and Marian Hauselmann.
November 15, 1992—CA
In November 1992, a SWAT team in Stanislaus County, California raids the home of William and Marian Hauselman. Agents handcuff the elderly couple, put pillowcases over their heads, and pin them to the floor.
Mr. Hausleman, who has a heart condition, is cut in the face as agents wrestled him to the ground and step on his back to keep him down.
An informant had told police that the Houselman residence housed a methamphetamine lab capable of churning out 12 pounds of the drug per day. The lab was allegedly in an underground bunker, guarded by a 280-pound armed biker named "Tiny."
Police find no bunker, no biker, and no drugs. Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman apologizes to the Hauselmans, and concedes the tip was "180 degrees wrong," but insists the SWAT team had probable cause to conduct the raid. The local district attorney later declines to press charges against the informant.
The raid on the Hauselman home came just three years after the raid that killed Richard Elsass and Sgt. Dighton Little, also conducted in part by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department. The Modesto Bee noted in an article at the time that botched raids were becoming a regular occurence in the area: A SWAT team in nearby Tuolumme County, California had carried out mistaken raids in both May and June of 1993; the Stockton, California raid claiming the life of Manuel Ramirez and Officer Arthur Parga also took place in 1993; and that in 1992, police in Tracy, California had, likewise, conducted two botched raids, where they "stormed the wrong homes, breaking down doors, brandishing weapons, and handcuffing law-abiding people."
Sources: Michael Winters,"Raid's Shock Still Felt; Misguided Bust Slows Two Lives," Modesto Bee, February 15, 1994, p. A1.
Gracia Figueroa and children.
November 9, 1992—WA
In December 1992, DEA agents raid the Pasco, Washington home of Gracia Figueroa. According to Figueroa, agents break down her door, pull her daughters from their beds, then hold the family at gunpoint while agents ransack their home. They found no drugs.
The DEA said the raid was conducted after Figueroa's ex-husband was arrested on drug charges the day before -- in Wisconsin.
Source:
"Drug raid settlement not enough for mom," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 18, 1992.
Slyvia and Elsa Romero.
November 2, 1992—NY
In November 1992, 15 plainclothes police conduct a drug raid on the home of 20-year-old Fordham University student Sylvia Romero and her sister Elsa.
Police knock, but don't announce themselves, and before Romero can answer the door, force their way inside. Romero is first maced, then she and her sister are then strip-searched, handcuffed, and forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint while officers tear apart their apartment. When Romero asks what was going on, police respond, "Bitch, shut the fuck up!"
The two women are taken from their apartment into custody, but later released when no drugs were found. They return to find that police have trashed their apartment, and taken their dog to the pound. The women are never charged.
The raid was conducted based on a tip from an informant, who said the apartment was being used to store heroin. Housing Police Chief Joseph Kinney tells the New York Daily News that the raid is "standard procedure." The women's brother, an attorney for the city of Hartford, Connecticut, tells the paper, "My mother's biggest fear was that someone would break into the apartment and something would happen to her children. She never expected that it would be the cops."
Source: "NYPD 'Terror Raid' on Woman's Apartment," New York Daily News, November 5-6, 1992.
Donald Carlson.
August 26, 1992—CA
On August 26, 1992, federal drug agents conduct a late-night raid at the San Diego-area home of Donald Carlson. Carlson awakes, frightened, and assumes the agents are unlawful intruders. He fires two shots at the door to ward them off. The agents then break down Carlson's door and shoot him in the back.
Carlson was in intensive care for six weeks. The police had acted on a bad tip from an anonymous informant who was later convicted on 25 counts of lying to federal investigators. The same informant later led police to send a SWAT team to wrongly raid the home of Michelle and Tony Jones in Poway, California.
In 1994, Carlson won a $2.75 million settlement against the federal government.
In a follow-up investigative report triggered by the Carlson raid, the San Diego Union-Tribune found that just a month earlier, police had conducted another wrong-door raid in which "residents say their daughters were subjected to genital searches while a gun was held to the head of their 6 year old son. No drugs were found."
The Union-Tribune concluded that the Carlson raid and those like it happen too frequently because of "heavy pressure from Customs managers -- who stand to gain professionally by generating arrests and big caseloads -- on street agents to produce headline-grabbing cases."
Sources:
"Man shot by government agents gets $2.75 million," Reuters, December 15, 1994.
Philip J. LaVelle, "Excesses blamed in 'bad raids,'" San Diego Union-Tribune, December 13, 1992.
Venice, Illinois Police Accidentally Raid Their Own Mayor's Home.
June 3, 1992—IL
A SWAT team in Venice, Illinois raids a suspected crack house by breaking in through a window and breaking down the back door with a battering ram.
Not only do they raid the the wrong address, they end up raiding the home of Tyrone Echols, the town's mayor.
"To tell the truth, I don't remember what they said because I was furious," Echols told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "If I'd been here and heard that going on I probably would have taken my pistol and shot through the door. I'd probably be dead. And some of the officers would probably be dead, too."
Source:
Patrick E. Gauen, "Mistaken Drug Raid Irks Venice Mayor," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1992, p. A12.
The Glover Family
May 22, 1992—WA
In May 1992, police in King County, Washington conduct a no-knock raid with cameras from the television show Cops in tow.
Police break open the door of the Glover family and their four children. They put a gun to Floyd Glover's head and order him to the floor. Theresa Glover is handcuffed at gunpoint. Despite being half-dressed, and with the cameras still rolling, police at first refuse to let her cover up. Other officers then storm the children's bedroom, screaming, "Everyone on the floor!"
Police had targeted the wrong home.
Cops would later decide not to air the raid. The same police department had conducted two other "wrong door" raids in the previous year.
Source:
"Drug raid blunder uncovers bottom line," Herald Sun, May 25, 1992.
The Garrison Family.
February 7, 1992—NY
In February 1992, police storm the Bronx home of Edward Garrison on a tip from an informant that a Hispanic man was selling drugs out of his apartment.
They find only Garrison, a black corrections officer, his mother (who was in bed), and his two young daughters, who were preparing for school. There are no drugs or weapons.
The detective in charge of the case later admits under oath that he couldn't remember the name of the informant, and that he'd done no corroborating investigation of who lived in the apartment before commencing with the raid. Police officials are also unable to produce the affidavit submitted to obtain the search warrant in the first place.
In 2004, New York City agreed to pay the family $100,000.
Source:
Rocco Parascandola, "Cop Raid Case Settles for $100,000," Newsday, February 7, 2004, p. A13.
Harry Davis.
February 3, 1992—MD
In 1992, police in Fort Washington, Maryland conduct a no-knock raid on the home of Harry Davis.
According to Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, "Fifteen police officers, carrying assault weapons and dressed in black garb that looked like some kind of ninja outfits, stormed in, knocked Davis to the floor and held him there with a shotgun to his head." Police also pulled Davis' girlfriend out of bed in the nude, and performed a body cavity search.
Police then tore out the walls to Davis' apartment, smashed family photos in their frames, and confiscated his car.
A confidential informant had told police that Davis was laundering more than $100 million in drug money from his home. Davis' face was splashed all over the news as the mastermind of an elaborate East Coast cocaine cartel. Yet police found no drugs or weapons in his apartment, and later confirmed that they'd found no evidence of money laundering.
The assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case later conceded, "The evidence did not have him in any actual drug transaction." Davis lost his car leasing business, and lost possession of his car, which police seized, then returned to the bank when Davis was unable to keep up on his payments. Davis found temporary work as a car salesman after his arrest, but was later fired after a customer recognized him as the man the TV news identified as a drug kingpin.
A year later, prosecutors dropped all charges against Davis. Davis said in court, "You break into my home, humiliate my friend, destroy my business, and after investigating me for a year, just drop the charges. What can you say to me?"
The judge replied, "You're free. Next case."
According to Milloy, Davis was never compensated, even for the damage to his home.
Source:
Courtland Milloy, "For Ex-Defendant, P Street Case Still a Nightmare," Washington Post, February 7, 1993, p. B1.
The Jones Family.
December 10, 1991—OK
In December 1991, federal agents intending to raid the home of a reputed drug dealer in Guthrie, Oklahoma instead raid the home of Jerry Jones, his wife, and their two daughters.
Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service, and the U.S. Marshall's Service use an axe to tear down the Jones' front door, then push Jones to the floor and kick him. Jones' wife Denise and their eight-year-old daughter are also thrown to the floor at gunpoint.
The Jones family settled with the federal government for an undisclosed amount of money in 1993.
Source:
Ed Godfrey,"Family settles suit over drug raid," Daily Oklahoman, April 1, 1993, p. 25.
The Townson Family.
September 5, 1991—NM
The Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and New Mexico National Guard raid the Townson's farm at 5 a.m. in search of marijuana. More than 200 officers armed with M-16s, surveillance helicopters, and armored personnel carriers search, but find no drugs.
DEA spokesman Donn Fox refused to apologize for the incident. "We do not squander our resources needlessly," he said.
Source:
"Bad Bust," Insight, December 8, 1991, p. 20.
Lloyd Miner.
June 12, 1991—MO
Police on a drug raid force their way into the home of 33-year-old Lloyd Miner, hit him with flashlights, smash his toilet, overturn furniture, rip doors off of cabinets, damage appliances, and throw the man in jail for five hours. They later realize they have the wrong home. According to the Associated Press, "Maj. Dennis Shreve, commander of the Police Department's narcotics and vice division, said the error had occurred because the sergeant in charge of the operation had neglected to do a routine drive-by check with an undercover agent on the case."
Source:
"Police Raid Wrong House and Damage It," Associated Press, June 16, 1991.
The Ditton Family.
April 2, 1991—WA
In April 1991, police raid the home of James Ditton, a disabled Vietnam veteran, based on drug dog alerts to a U.S. Mail package sent to the residence. Police break down the Dittons' door, putting a gash in the head of three year-old Daniel Ditton, who happens to be standing on the other side as police storm in. The elder Ditton is handcuffed and thrown to the ground at gunpoint.
Police find half an ounce of marijuana and, according to the Seattle Times, "a few amphetamines." Police refuse to pay medical bills for the younger Ditton, who requires seven stitches.
The package thought to have contained marijuana is found to have contained orchids.
Source:
Christy Scattarella, "Drug raids spark debate -- what happens when police with warrants search wrong house?" Seattle Times, April 22, 1991, p. B1.
The Orlando Elderberry Bush Raid.
February 5, 1991—FL
In February 1991, a police officer acting on an anonymous tip sees what he believes are marijuana plants at the home of Ed and Jan Carden. Soon, with no search warrant, two dozen police raid the Orlando, Florida couple's house, handcuffing them and forcing them to lie face down in their own front yard.
Police swear at the Cardens and their three children, hold them at gunpoint, and search their entire property for marijuana and growing equipment before realizing the marijuana plants are actually elderberry bushes.
The city settled with the Cardens for $40,000 in 1994.
Source:
Debbie Salamone, "Deputies' Elderberry Flub Settled," Orlando Sentinel, June 18, 1994.
The Chinn Family.
June 12, 1990—WA
In June 1990, an anonymous informant gave Seattle police five addresses where marijuana was allegedly being sold. Two of them prove to be wrong.
The first was the home of Warren Chinn, also the Washington State horseracing commissioner at the time. At around midnight, police storm the Chinn household without knocking. Chinn's wife Honoria is at home with her 90 year-old mother. Mrs. Chinn is handcuffed, violently thrown to the ground (she sustains significant bruising), and held at gunpoint. Police begin to search the house, then realize they're at the wrong address.
Warren Chinn, a political refugee who came to the U.S. in 1952, would later tell a reporter, "This is why I left China." Chinn also wondered what might have happend had he or his son been home. "Somebody break down my door and I start shooting. You would do that, too."
A Seattle police department official would later tell the media that "it's rare that anything like this happens."
Sources:
Christy Scattarella, "Drug raids spark debate -- what happens when police with warrants search wrong house?" Seattle Times, April 22, 1991, p. B1.
Devin Smith, "Police bust wrong home in drug raid," Seattle Times, June 16, 1990.
George and Katrina Stokes.
April 11, 1990—DC
In 1990, Washington, D.C. police crash through the front door of George and Katrina Stokes, who live in a high-crime area in the Southeast sector of the city.
The elderly couple is watching television when the raid begins. George Stokes is ordered to the floor at gunpoint, gashing his head as he falls. A terrified Katrina Stokes then falls down the couple's cellar stairs while trying to flee.
Police have the wrong address. The raid is captured on camera by a local TV news crew, who happened to be in the area covering a protest.
Sourced:
Tom Morganthau, Mark Miller, David A. Kaplan, Todd Barrett, and Lynda Wright, "Uncivil Liberties," Newsweek, April 23, 1990, p. 18.
Frank Wolfe, "Police hit wrong home in search for handgun," Washington Times, April 13, 1990, p. B3.
Ken Fortner and Kelly McAloon
February 10, 1990—CA
In February 1990, six narcotics officers raid the wrong San Diego home, kicking in a door, shattering a lamp and knocking Ken Fortner and Kelly McAloon to the floor.
A police spokesman says the mistake took place when a raiding officer "inadvertently wrote down the wrong number." Police claim they knocked on the door of the home and, afraid that evidence was being destroyed, decided to force their way in.
"They went to this location with the best of intentions," a police spokesman told the Los Angeles Times. "They were armed with all the correct information, and they had a legitimate reason to do what they did. They just had the wrong address."
Fortner says the police never identified themselves when they entered his condo, nor did they apologize upon realizing their mistake.
Source:
Amy Wallace, "Drug raiders broke in wrong home, police say," Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1990.
David Gordon.
December 6, 1989—CT
Plaincothes detectives in Bridgeport raid the grocery store of Jamaican immigrant David Gordon. According to Gordon, police yell, "Stick up, niggers! Freeze. Don't move," put a gun to his head, and throw him to the ground. The police empty Gordon's register and ransack his store, cutting open bags of beans and rice, clearing merchandise off the shelves, and tearing holes in the walls. Gordon only realizes that the intruders are police officers as they take him outside to put him into the backseat of a cruiser.
Police find nothing incriminating. All charges against Gordon are later dropped, and a judge orders Gordon's legal, registered handgun returned to him.
In 1992, citing Gordon's case as one example, state Attorney General Richard N. Palmer would call for a grand jury investigation into the Bridgeport, Connecticut police department after complaints that police detectives, according to the Hartford Courant, "stole money and maliciously destroyed property while searching homes and businesses for drugs."
Source:
Lynne Tuohy, "Judge to Probe Charges; Bridgeport officers face complaints of theft, destruction; Grand juror named to probe complaints," Hartford Courant, October 6, 1992, p. C1.
Kathryn Kranhold, "Grand jury probe may be sought against team of Bridgeport police," Hartford Courant, April 24, 1992, p. A1.
The Pina Family.
August 31, 1989—CA
Alma Pina, the 14-year-old daughter of Adelita Pina, is talking on the telephone when a vanload of heavily armed narcotics officers donning body armor unloads in front of her home.
Guadalupe Pina, Alma's aunt, opens the front door just as eight narcotics officers are preparing to enter. They point handguns and shotguns at the woman's face, and handcuff her.
"My aunt screamed, and I went into the living room. The police pointed their guns at me and told us not to move," Alma told the Los Angeles Times.
Guadelope, Alma, and Ricardo Oviedo, an uncle, are all ordered to the floor. Ricardo and Alma are also handcuffed. Two other girls under ten aren't handcuffed, but ordered at gunpoint to sit across the room.
The search warrant indicates police expect to find bulk marijuana, "kilos of marijuana, firearms and ammunition, and other documentation related to the sale and transfer of marijuana" at the home. They find nothing, seize nothing, and make no arrests.
Police continued to insist they had the correct home, though five days later they returned to raid a nearby home known in the neighborhood to be a source of drug activity, and leave with seizures of drugs and arrests.
Adelita Pena, the mother of the children and the owner of the house, wasn't home at the time of the raid and expressed her frustration with the fact that no one at the police department would offer her an explanation or apology for what happened. "I didn't think that things like this happened in the United States," she told the Los Angeles Times. I didn't know that the police could enter your home, handcuff your children, put them on the floor and search your house. It's such a helpless feeling. There's nothing you can do. They made a mistake, but they don't want to admit it."
Source:
H.G. Reza, "Was warrant warranted? Raid yields no drugs, leaves family fearful and upset," Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1989.
The Sears Family.
July 21, 1989—CA
In July 1989, a team of 27 sheriff's deputies raid the home of Richard Dean Sears, his wife, and his sister-in-law as part of a drug sweep across a 2 1/2 block area of Riverside, California.
According to Sears' lawsuit, police officers deploy flashbang grenades, swarm his bedroom, and repeatedly hit him in the face with a rifle butt. Sears' wife sustains a broken jaw.
Police later acknowledge that the Sears were not involved in any illegal activity.
In 1994, Riverside County settled with Richard Sears for $290,000.
Source:
Mike Kataoka, "County settles with man in mistaken drug raid," Riverside Press Enterprise, February 11, 1994, p. B5.
Robert H. O'Neill.
January 1, 1989—MA
In January 1989, Robert H. O'Neill of Boston filed a civil suit against the city after several police raid his home late at night, drag him naked from his bed, and make him lie on the floor at gunpoint while they search his apartment.
They had targeted the wrong apartment.
Source: "Dorchester man sues city for $25m," Boston Globe, January 7, 1989.
Roger Guydon.
September 4, 1988—CA
On September 4, 1988, police storm the home of Roger Guydon, point guns at the heads of he and his girlfriend, throw him to the floor, and kick him in the ribs in a futile search for drugs. "The more they searched, the more frustrated they got and the more destructive they became," Guydon would later say.
In 1991, Guydon won a $760,000 lawsuit against the city.
Sources:
"Man awarded $760,000 in police brutality suit," Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1991.
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
The Navarro Family.
August 24, 1988—OR
In December 1993, Medford, Oregon couple Jose and Esperanza Navarro won a $100,000 settlement after police erroneously raided their home.
Five years earlier, police had obtained a warrant to search a home on a remote access road. They wrongly interpreted the ambiguous information on the warrant to be the Navarro's home, kicked in the couple's door, and searched their home at gunpoint.
Sources:
"Court Rules Against Oregon Detective In Civil Rights Lawsuit," Associated Press, June 1, 1992.
"Oregon couple wins settlement for botched raid," Seattle Times, December 12, 1993.
Carlton Preston.
July 15, 1988—FL
In July 1988, police raid the home of Baptist pastor Carlton Preston, and handcuff him in front of his children and a team of news cameras. They find no drugs. The warrant is executed based on a tip from a confidential informant.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Alicia Jones.
June 9, 1988—CA
In the summer of 1988, seven narcotics officers burst into the Los Angeles home of Alicia Jones, a nine-year county employee, and push her to the ground with a gun to her head.
Officers rummage through Jones' belongings before realizing that the vehicles they'd had under surveillance actually belong to the residents next door.
"I just couldn't believe this was happening to me, I felt as if I was watching this happening to someone else," Jones would tell the Los Angeles Times. "I don't bother anybody. I don't use drugs or associate with people who do. I don't even like to drink. I didn't even get an apology."
Source:
Marita Hernandez, "Allegations of abuse by police told at hearing," Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1988.
Glen Williams.
June 1, 1988—LA
In June 1988, police in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana conduct a 2 a.m. raid on the home of Glen Williamson. When Williamson points out that the name on the warrant reads "Glen Williams," the deputy merely adds an "on" to the end of the last name, and arrests him anyway. Williamson spends a night in jail before police concede their mistake and release him.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Bok Hwan Kim.
May 10, 1988—CA
On May 10, 1988, police from three departments in the San Francisco area raid the home of Bok Hwan Kim. Kim is struck, tackled, and handcuffed at gunpoint. According to Kim, police also ransacked Kim's apartment and forced his wife to the floor at gunpoint. They had the wrong address.
Police apologize for the raid, but a spokesman would later tell the media that Kim exaggerated the details, and that "shortly after entering the building [police] realized they must have gotten bad information and immediately backed off."
Kim filed a $1 million lawsuit against the city.
Source:
"Police 'Sorry' For Raiding Wrong Home," Associated Press, May 14, 1988.
John Rickman.
May 7, 1988—VA
In May 1988, police raid a home in Winchester, Virginia, where John Rickman is doing some construction. Police don't identify themselves before storming the home, striking and kicking Rickman, and putting a gun to his head. Rickman, who had nothing to do with the raid, subsequently filed a $2.5 million lawsuit.
Source:
John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Mary Duggan and Lillian Crowley.
January 28, 1988—MN
In January 1988, Minneapolis police use a shotgun to blow open the door of an apartment occupied by 40-year-old Mary Duggan and her mother Lillian Crowley at 1:30 am.
Officers order the two women to the floor and put guns to their heads while they search the apartment for drugs. They have the wrong apartment. The deputy police chief later sends the women roses and candy in apology.
Source:
"Mistaken Drug Raid Embarrasses Police," Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1988, p. C3.
Stephanie Swengel.
April 1, 1987—AZ
In April 1987, police in Scottsdale, Arizona kick down the door to Stephanie Swengel's apartment with such force that the door's wood stripping flies across the room and the lock dislodges from the wall.
Swengel and a roommate are held at gunpoint for ten minutes before one officer asks Swengel her apartment number. Police then realize they've targeted the wrong residence.
Source: John Dentinger, "Narc, narc; diary of police raids on the wrong house," Playboy, April 1990, p. 49.
Pete Garcia.
March 26, 1987—CO
On March 26, 1987 at 2 am, police in Jefferson County, Colorado conduct a no-knock drug raid on the home of Alger Garcia and his mother. Alger's brother, Pete Garcia, is visiting at the time, to do some construction on the home.
Alger is suspected of drug activity, Pete Garcia isn't. Pete Garcia awakes on the morning of the 26th to the sound of gunfire. He looks out his window, and sees that men dressed in camouflage have shot and killed his two dogs. There are no "police" markings on the men's uniforms. Alarmed, Pete Garcia runs downstairs, and exits the rear of the house. A man dressed in dark clothing, who still hasn't identified himself as a police officer, orders Garcia to the ground. Garcia is then kicked, and bound with a rope. The police officer then picks Garcia up and carries him back into the home, from room to room, face-out, with a gun to his head. A federal judge would later write, "The officer was using Pete Garcia, in essence, as a shield against any gunfire that might come through one of the windows."
It is only after Garcia is thrown down on the home's front lawn that he notices the faint outline of a sheriff's patch on one of the officers' sleeves, and realizes he is being raided by police.
Later, an officer inside the house would mistake his own reflection for an armed occupant of the home, and open fire. His fire would cause other officers to fire. Another officer then entered the home and fired an automatic weapon. The firing of that weapon caused Alger Garcia to discharge his own weapon, releasing a single shotgun blast that hit one raiding officer in the shoulder and neck.
A federal court would later find that officers blatantly lied about the details of the raid, both in the raid report and in subsequent testimony. Remarkably, Pete Garcia -- who was never suspected of a crime, and who never fired a weapon during the raid -- was charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault on a police officer, and two counts of committing a crime of violence.
Pete Garcia spent nine months in solitary confinement before the raiding officers' cover-up was revealed. He was subsequently released, and filed a civil rights suit in federal court.
Sources:
Garcia v. Johnson, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 23282
George Taylor: Wrongly Raided Twice in One Week.
March 8, 1987—CA
During the week of March 1-8, 1987, police twice falsely raid an apartment occupied by George Taylor, a man who at the time is recovering from spinal surgery.
The second time, police use cutting torches and tear gas before crashing through Taylor's window, training their guns on him, throwing him to the floor, and stepping on his neck.
Sources:
"7 Arrested In Raid Marred By Wrong Entry," Associated Press, March 9, 1987.
Marcos Breton, "Drug raid at wrong house under investigation by police," Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1987.
The McKinney Family.
December 31, 1986—NJ
On December 31, 1986, a SWAT team raids the East Orange, New Jersey home of the McKinney family on a drug warrant.
Ten police officers smash open the family's door with a sledgehammer, then swarm the house. Police later realize they have the wrong address.
A state appeals court would later find that Mrs. McKinney and her two sons had been "manhandled, threatened, abused, and terrorized" during the raid.
Sources:
Susan Jo Keller, "'Terrorized' Family May Sue," New York Times, November 1, 1995, p. B1.
"Court rules family can sue police over mistaken drug raid," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1, 1995, p. S2.
Gary Miller.
October 10, 1986—MO
In October 1986, police raid the St. Louis home of Gary Miller, based on a tip from a confidential informant. In the course of the search, a Detective Clifford of the St. Louis Police Department steps on an infant baby's head while attempting to search the home's ceiling for drugs.
Police find no drugs or weapons, nor do they make any arrests. Police do, however, seize about $13,000 in cash from Mr. Miller. Under asset forfeiture laws, the police department gets to keep the money. Even though he is never charged with a crime, it is up to Mr. Miller to prove he didn't get the money through drug transactions.
In 1992, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that although there is no evidence of drug use or distribution on the part of Mr. Miller, he failed to prove he earned the money legitimately. The police get to keep the money they seized in the raid.
Source:
U.S. v. Twelve Thousand, Three Hundred Ninety Dollars, 956 F.2d 801 (1992)
The Hay Family.
March 15, 1985—CA
In March 1985, on a tip from an informant, 60 police officers conduct a raid on the property of sheep rancher Bill Hay. The informant said Hay was storing "bales" of marijuana and "crates" of packaged cocaine underneath his property.
Armed agents hold Hay, his wife, and their two sons at gunpoint for eight hours while rifling through the family's belongings. They find nothing.
The information was later flown to the ranch, where he told police he had made a mistake. A judge later determined that a narcotics agent had "deliberately mischaracterized facts and withheld critical information" in the affidavit he filed to obtain the search warrant.
The Hay family won an $8 million lawsuit in 1988. A deputy state attorney general told the Associated Press that the award wasn't justified, because the Hays "really weren't damaged."
Source:
"Sheep Rancher Gets $8 Million for Mistaken Drug Raid," Associated Press, February 12, 1988.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/
Quote 03-19-08
"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." ~Benjamin Franklin to John Hancock
Quote 03-19-08
"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." ~Benjamin Franklin to John Hancock
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