Posted on 04/30/2008 9:27:20 AM PDT by BGHater
Brooklyn Park police were looking for a meth lab, but they found a fish tank and the chemicals needed to maintain it.
And a few hours later, when the city sent a contractor to fix the door the police had smashed open Monday afternoon, it was obvious the city was trying to fix a mistake. It happened while Kathy Adams was sleeping.
"And the next thing I know, a police officer is trying to get me out bed," she said.
Adams, a 54-year-old former nurse who said she suffers from a bad back caused by a patient who attacked her a few years ago, was handcuffed. So was her 49-year-old husband.
"They brought us here and said once we clear that area, you can sit down and you will not speak to each other," she said.
Police were executing a search warrant signed by Hennepin County Judge Ivy Bernhardson, who believed there was probable cause the Adams's home was a meth lab.
Berhardson, who was appointed to the bench less than a year ago, did not return KARE 11's phone calls.
"Ohmigod," Adams said as she recalled police breaking down her door and flashing the search warrant. "I just kept saying to them, 'you've got the wrong house.' "
Police soon realized that themselves.
"From a cursory view, it doesn't look like our officers did anything wrong," said Capt. Greg Roehl.
Roehl said the drug task force was acting on a tip from a subcontractor for CenterPoint Energy, who had been in the home Friday to install a hot water heater.
"He got hit with a chemical smell that he said made him light headed, feel kind of nauseous," Roehl said.
The smell was vinegar, and maybe pickling lime, which were clearly marked in a bathroom Mr. Adams uses to mix chemicals for his salt water fish tank.
"I said, 'I call it his laboratory for his fish tanks,' " Mrs. Adams said, recalling her conversation with the CenterPoint technician. "I'm looking at the fish tank talking to this guy."
Police say there was no extended investigation, just an interview with the subcontractor.
"Everything this person told us turned out to be true, with the exception of what the purpose of the lab was," Roehl said.
Adams is looking for a lawyer.
"I could say that about my neighbor - I smelled something when I went in their house," she said. "Does that make it right for them to go in there and break the door down and cuff you? I think not!"
Police say the detective who asked for the search warrant is an 8 ½-year veteran, but he just started working in the drug task force.
CenterPoint energy maintains the home was "unsafe" and it would have been "irresponsible" for the subcontractor not to report it.
“My solution is to sanely fix the problem.”
OK, how?
Occasionally these things look a bit like training exercises.
I don’t think this one was such just because there was not a dog present to shoot and shooting the dog seems to be a basic part of the training.
Sad thought.
*do your job and shut your mouth if you want a referral* Sounds like a good way to conduct business!
You have to fault the judge as well, aren’t they supposed to look at the reasoning behind the warrant? “Contractor says bathroom smells funny, makes him dizzy”. Well, it’s probably the smell of sh!t from you having your head up your ass!
That's what makes these things so disturbing.
“My solution is to sanely fix the problem.”
>>OK, how?
Not my job or expertise to fix this, but if the job were thrown into my lap I’d start asking questions of people who are near and dear to the issue. So I’m asking you. What would you do? Presumably the warrant was issued legally buy a judge. The people weren’t brutalized in any way... they just were the victims of a mistake. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t pretend to know what to do. What happened was wrong, and should be addressed. Give a million bucks to the victims? Not based on what I read. I’d invite the cops to come in here and burn my house to the ground for a million bucks.
Financially penalize the police department? I’m not so sure, because that money would have to come out of some program or other, and police departments tend to spend their money on critical things.
I can say for sure that those people need to be compensated in some way, and I’m sure some lawyer will try to do that for them... for a percentage of course.
But I’m convinced beyond any measure that cops who execute search warrants shouldn’t be thrown in prison for life because the person who is searched was innocent, and that is what spurred my original comment.
I read it. It is NOT being made right. It has been going on for years and years, with many innocents (and dogs) paying for these mistakes with their lives.
Of course the cops who execute the raids should not suffer penalty. The laws should not allow these types of raids, which are unconstitutional.
It would probably be that easy.
“What would you do?”
I would like to see qualified immunity go away. Why should the King’s men be afforded rights that the people don’t have?
If I make a mistake, at work or not, I pay for it. Me. Not the taxpayers, not anyone but me. This has the effect of making me very careful about what I do and how I do it. Why should it be any different for agents of the state?
We need laws regulating the sale and posession of aquarium chemicals and aparatus. Fish waste = Nitrogen.......Amonia.......C’mon people!
‘Accountability’ could involve living in shelter half along the Rio Grande for 14 months, picking off REAL offenders.
isn’t Al Franken from Crooklyn Park?
The problem is judges issuing no-knock warrants on flimsy suspicions and tips. The judge should have asked for more information, like who owned the home, did they have a record. How come judges don’t ask the cops why they need to go in at night with guns drawn?
Yes. I’d also be curious to see if the warrant was creatively written to get the judge to sign. Based on the idiotic remarks of the PD captain, I would not be surprised.
Perhaps not in this case, but do understand that some of these FALSE raids, that is, raids made on either the wrong house (wrong number, street, etc) or wrong information from informants, etc, have led to deaths of both those innocents at the home, or even of police officers conducting the raid (shot by homeowners who mistook them for criminal home invaders).
Check out the map from the link on post # 24. I count at least 31 deaths of innocents by police at the wrong address, and 9 deaths of officers at the wrong address!
I don't think "Oops, sorry, here's a new door!" is going to cut it. For the sake of the Right to Life by both our citizens and police officers, there has to be some penalty for those who goof up here like this. It shouldn't have to be a payoff from the taxpayers, either. Someone needs to be found negligent, unless the rarest of circumstantial happenings caused the tragedy.
Bottom line: Every single no-knock dynamic entry raid is potentially a deadly tragedy. It's the only way to look at it truthfully. Only the strongest possible justification should ever see a warrant.
Now I have a mental image of a ninja-suited cop sticking the barrel of an MP5 into a fish tank and opening up.
Of course, what really makes this a “failed drug raid” is the fact that they didn’t shoot the family dog or take a PR-24 to the missus.
I always post that map on stories like these. The numbers are scary. Over the years, there have been hundreds and hundreds of mistaken raids.
In each instance, the locals would have you believe its an “isolated incident.” Thus the title of the Cato Institute Study, “An Epidemic of Isolated Incidents.”
I agree with you that no knock raids only take place under extremely unusual circumstances. They should be very rare. If some drugs get flushed down the toilet before the door is answered, tough luck. Its not worth innocent lives (and dead dogs).
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