Couple seeks damages after police raid wrong house

Henry Daily Herald ^ | 6-8-06 | By Michael Davis

[VRing]

A Stockbridge couple whose home was mistakenly raided by Henry County Police last year as they sought a drug suspect is seeking $8 million in damages from the incident.

In a lawsuit filed last month in Superior Court against county officials and police, Roy and Belinda Baker say they were roused out of bed by police who used a battering ram to knock down their door and threw concussive grenades into their home around 1 a.m. Sept. 30.

“The Law Enforcement Defendants accosted the Bakers in the hallway to their bedroom, where they had been sleeping, and yelled at the Bakers, threatened, assaulted and unlawfully touched the Bakers, and placed the Bakers face down, at gunpoint ...” the suit says.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Someone tried to pound into your head the concept that greater care is required with greater power, and I might add to that the concept that the particular slip up was of the greatest ease to avoid, it wasn't like a momentary misspelling of a word. There are tons of paper behind something like this and for excellent reason. You proved to have a concrete cranium and have no sense of when culpability is called for. We can't help that you do. In the meantime I wish the couple well with the suit.

[takenoprisoner]

Well said. These kind of home invasions are gestapo like in tactic. Get a friggin warrant and knock on the friggin door. If all he has is what he can flush down the toilet then they're wasting their time and our money anyway. If they fear he will respond with brute force, then surround the friggin place locked and loaded with no room for escape with choppers above and call him/them out with their hands in the air. Much safer approach for all.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You should volunteer your assets to them.

Another random LOL-lipop from you, haw! You were so generous and wished them a few grand, why don't YOU then fork that few grand over to them. Surely the city will pay you back with interest!

[GrandEagle]

Get a friggin warrant and knock on the friggin door.
Exactly! - Thanks....

[A CA Guy]

They were in the wrong place by accident, but were attempting the to be at the right place with cause.

It was a mistake made while attempting to fulfill law enforcement duties.

In the end, a neighbor was found with all the drugs, so the reason to be out that way was correct, they somehow just got a wrong address and that doesn't happen a lot.

All that should be expected is for law enforcement to learn from this. to fix damage and try not to make the same mistake in that department again.

[Larry Lucido]

Don't forget the damaged Picasso that was in the closet, behind the Elvis painting.

[Larry Lucido]

I agree, but some perspective is in order. Replace everything, and give them an extra $20,000. Or $50,000. But 8 million? Come on.

[GrandEagle]

I see your point, I just disagree. My disagreement is with the method used, not just with incompetence with the address.
I believe the method itself is too dangerous. Mainly because when things like this happen, the consequences can be way to costly. In the extreme, why not just drop a 500 pounder from 10,000 feet? If the end justifies the means then this would be OK. I'm sure you would agree the 500 pounder too extreme, and again because the consequences of getting it wrong would be high.
I would rather the police behaved like police, not the military. Much like they did in the previous 200 years since our Constitution was ratified.
I think our difference in view is just where that "too extreme" line is.

Cordially,
GE

[A CA Guy]

I'm sure this mix up was that somebody didn't verify more than once the address they were going to and everyone else did think that was already done. Years ago a similar mistake was also made that way.

Could be the person who is supposed to double verify the right address needs to be replaced for sure.

Law enforcement though needs to do their job and IMO if those folks want to sue someone past repairs, they should get to sue the drug dealer.

[A CA Guy]

If someone thinks that taxpayers should pay millions in a lottery win for these people because of a mistake where they didn't get killed or massively hurt, then let those that want it offer to pay it.

It gets unreasonable to expect more than a few thousand beyond repairs.

Accidents do happen in law enforcement and it was unintentional.

I think if these people sue and get damages in large sums that they would have successfully pulled of a crime of opportunity.

[Jeffery T.]

Locust Grove is right down I-85 from Grasshopper Orchard.

[JavaTheHutt]

ever notice how "gleefully" they destroy the houses they search on "Dallas SWAT" ??

No doubt. First episode I watched they ripped the entire front side off a house with cables attached to their armored personal carrier.

Apparently the Dallas County Sheriff no longer serves warrants, because it seems they use the SWAT team to go in and destroy everything in their path while they serve warrants. Glad I'm one county over from Dallas, allthough it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Fort Worth is the same way.

[JavaTheHutt]

They were living next to a drug dealer, so they must be used to living in a tough neighborhood as it is. My guess are these are trailer trash level people who are seeking a lottery pay day to make their life.

Oh there ya go, passing judgement on people without all the facts. Because the cops were serving a warrant on their neighbor, then the entire neighborhood is a bunch of lowlife trailer trash?

You ever see the Porsches, Ferraris, etc... that are seized in drug raids? Where do you suppose they were seized from? The car port beside a doublewide trailer down in white trash village?

Saying the whole neighborhood must be trash because one house had some druggies in it is pretty bold. Why not just enlarge that picture and say the entire city, nay , the entire state is guilty. They're all just a bunch of low life trailer trash. If they weren't, then this one person who was doing wrong wouldn't have been able to blend in so easy, would they? < /sarcasm>

[JavaTheHutt]

Like I said earlier, the eventual bust next door probably saved them from possibly being blown up by a meth lab. You never know...

No, and neither do you. The article said nothing at all about meth. Where do you get that from the article? Could have been pot, could have been someone with a stolen prescription pad that was happily dolling out quantities of Oxycontin.

We all know that when you make an assumption, you just make an as* out of u and mption. But since you seem to be so keen to make the assumptions, lets continue with them. Yes, the druggies were running a meth lab. The smell was bad. Really bad. So bad in fact that the neighbors called the cops to report the drug lab running next door.

The cops come to the scene, but they are all GED recipients, and instead of busting down the door of the house with the funky smell coming from it, they bust down the door of the people who called in to report it. Some thanks that is for being a good upstanding citizen!

[JavaTheHutt]

(not to be confused with pseudo-cerebral restrictions, as would apply to you)

hahahahahahaha Now that's funny, and I don't care who you are!

[A CA Guy]

The article said nothing at all about meth.... (not so)

http://www.henryherald.com/local/local_story_159225111.html

Police later raided the next-door home of Scott McIntyre, where they found sophisticated surveillance equipment and several hundred dollars worth of methamphetamine

[A CA Guy]

They busted a drug dealer next door, they missed the address by one...

They lived next door to a drug dealer.

Worked out poorly in the beginning, but they should be glad the druggie is gone.

[JavaTheHutt]

if those folks want to sue someone past repairs, they should get to sue the drug dealer.

It wasn't the drug dealer next door who smashed in their door in the middle of the night, rousted them out of bed at gunpoint, and ransacked their house. It was the cops that did that.

[JavaTheHutt]

My mistake. I meant to say the article said nothing about a meth LAB. The presence of meth doesn't equal the presence of a meth lab, any more than a can of gasoline in the garage equals a refinery in the backyard.

[A CA Guy]

Like I said, unfortunate, but they will get over it and should have their place repaired for them.

Beyond that, they do not deserve a lottery pay day, they should be grown up enough to realize they were living next to a drug dealer who they eventually removed and should be grateful for that.

There was no intent to violate their home, they thought they were going into the guy next door's house and there was a mistake.

Like I said earlier BOO HOO.
Sounds like a house full of wimps.

I had the cops pull me over with guns everywhere because there was once a robbery and a car just like mine was involved in the robbery.
They mistaken me at first and they had to verify who I was or was NOT.
I didn't cry, go get an ambulance chaser and attempt to take the public's tax money for millions and a lottery pay day.

I think this shows why there needs to be lawsuit reform and that is about it.

The person who was supposed to verify the address who didn't should be relieved of their post.
The place should be repaired and at most a few thousand should be given for the inconvenience of having to put up with repairs.

We need law enforcement and can't sue every time there is a mistake, especially if there is no death, even if they act like a house of old women who are offended.