Posted on 05/27/2009 5:18:35 PM PDT by Chet 99
Story Updated: May 22, 2009 at 10:37 PM EDT
GOSHEN — It was a case of mistaken identity in Goshen, as SWAT officers knocked down the wrong door Thursday. Officers were searching for a suspect accused of impersonating a police officer. Instead, they found an elderly couple who had no idea what was happening.
The SWAT team meant to hit the house next door.
Instead, the brunt force of their battering ram wad focused on Harvey Borntrager's front door.
Dents still marked the inner door to the Borntrager's home Friday. The handle of what used to be a screen door is now missing; its glass is now shattered.
Harvey, 68 and his wife Lydia, 63, had just pulled into their driveway on County Road 40 when it all went down.
"I had just got backed in there, and here comes this black vehicle real quick like before I even know what was going on," Harvey explained. "We barely made it out of the truck when they were out of their truck and on the porch."
In a split second, they hit the door.
"The door was down before I even got to talk to anybody," Harvey said. "And I thought, what? What in the world is going on?"
Turns out, the answer wasn't quite what he expected.
"They said, they got a search warrant, and they asked me if I live here," Borntrager said. "I said, yeah, I live here. Then, he asked me what me address is, and I told him what it is."
"He kind of paused for a little bit," Borntrager continued. "Then, he asked me again. And, then he says, well, I think we're at the wrong house!"
They were. SWAT meant to hit the house next door, said Goshen Police Adjutant Joseph Brown in a news release Friday.
"The Goshen Police Department Emergency Response Team, while assisting the Elkhart Police Department in the execution of a search warrant on County Road 40 in Elkhart County, made a forced entry into a wrong residence," Brown wrote.
"The Elkhart Police Department had no involvement in the error, and the Goshen Police Department accepts full responsibility," Brown continued.
Goshen Police administrators are conducting an internal investigation to determine what circumstances led up to the mistaken entry, Brown said.
Brown wouldn't comment to WSBT on camera about the incident, saying only "We made a mistake. There's nothing left to say."
But there are plenty of leftover feelings for Harvey and his wife.
"I can't say I'm angry, you know? But I'm a little upset. [Lydia] was very shook up. If we would've been in the house when they broke in, she might've had a heart attack. She was shaking all night," Borntrager said.
The city has offered to make things right.
"They were very apologetic, and all that. And, I think rightfully so. We've hired Bail Construction to fix the door, and the city will be paying for it," Borntrager said.
"The important thing is, nobody got hurt. Anything that went wrong with the door can be fixed. But, I'm hoping it wouldn't ever happen to anybody else. It's not a fun thing to go through," he continued.
Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill says Robert Revoir, 39 was arrested after police eventually served the search warrant on the home next door.
Revoir's probably cause hearing was held Friday, and he now faces preliminary charges of impersonating a public servant and unlawful use of body armor. Both are class D felonies.
Witnesses told Elkhart Police that Revoir had identified himself a police officer while working as a repo man. He remained in the Elkhart County Jail Friday evening on $10,000 bond, and is scheduled to appear in court on May 29.
In the meantime, the Borntragers are just concentrating on moving on.
"Some people have said we should sue the city and all that, but I don't have any plans to do that," Borntrager said. "I just want to get my front door fixed."
Sure. Sheriff Andy would wait until they left the house and then arrest them.
Maybe they should call in Sheriff Andy to take out those people out at the local motel who're selling loads of meth out of the room.
Yup. Sheriff Andy would walk in, flush whatever substance he found offensive down the toilet and ask the occupants to leave Mayberry.
The team itself doesn't decide what the targets are or what is "high risk" no instead it's lawyers, judges, and command staff that decide that.
What is "command staff"? I noticed that the local Sheriff's substation has been renamed the "command center".
Who are these people commanding to do what and why?
I was just commenting on the guys career, and what a bunch of fluffed up, touchy-feely social ‘science’ pap it was.
Yup. That's why Andy only allowed him one bullet for his gun.
Felony charges should be brought against every cop involved in this fiasco. If that became standard practice, every police officer would have a personal interest in triple checking the warrant against the address. That should cut down on wrong house raids by at least half.
Nope, the couple’s last name is Borntrager not Bontrager. There are hundreds if not thousands with those two last names around Goshen. The actual target of the SWAT team was a man who was being arrested for impersonating a police officer while working as a repo man. There is a day care at the house where the warrant was supposed to be served. I’m not sure why SWAT was needed to arrest him.
Also, the house number is clearly marked on a mailbox across the road, and the boxes are not grouped together.
Finally quit licking jackboots and got one right...
Ahh, so it is. Good catch.
To paraphrase the old hammer/nail adage, "When all you have is a SWAT Team, everything looks SWATtable."
Gee, I missed the part in the article where it said that Randy Revoir was a member of MS-13. Maybe you can point it out to me.
Or do you think that because MS-13 exists, SWAT should go to every house for every call? Just in case?
You need an attitude adjustment!
Obviously either training, or competence failed, maybe both if you can’t read an address.
I’m sure they aren’t all incompetent just the ones running the op.
Idiocy, competence and training also comes in to play with sending swat out for impersonation of an officer.
“Police departments in the ‘40, 50’s and later were full of combat veterans of the Bulge, Philippines, Tarawa. They all would of been more like Andy than now.”
Key point. The cops were all trigger men at that time; they knew how to play rough - they’d learned how in the WWII schools of hard knocks overseas - and they were not at all reluctant to do so. Just as importantly, no one tried to stand in their way.
“Why were New York, Boston, Detroit police at one time able to police the city without even guns?”
Two additional points: people were far more civilized - and civil - then, so there was less crime; and, as I touched on above, they were intelligent enough to get out of the way and stay out of the way when the cops did what had to be done. And everyone then agreed it had to be done. The ACLU in those days would have been considered naive and meddlesome. Moreover, when the thugs were apprehended, they were either “shot trying to escape” in the truly awful cases, or they were put in prison to stay by judges who also knew what had to be done.
I’m not entirely certain how many of the police, however, declined to carry firearms; my impression is that most cops did, even then.
Story update: The person targeted in the SWAT raid, Robert Revoir, had already been arrested the previous day. The search warrant was executed to look for weapons in the home. It looks like they used SWAT to execute the warrant with the full knowledge that the suspect was already in jail.
http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?id=483879
Barney and Andy didn’t have go after meth labs.
Still, I understand what you mean. If somebody’s life isn’t in danger, cops should have to serve warrants politely. Preventing suspects from disposing of “evidence” isn’t a valid reason for knocking someone’s door down.
The no-knock warrants is a result of the drug wars were the LEO’s didn't want the evidence to be flushed. It then progressed to “Officer Safety” through the element of surprise.
The old method of surrounding the house and waiting them out is long gone. However, as a community we need to raise the discussion with our local judiciary regarding their liberal allowance of these type warrants so they are truly only used in rare circumstances.
BTW, do you have two Schutzhund GSDs? I've have two GSD’s trained for protection but not competition. Fantastic animals, they bridge the gap when I don't carry concealed or when I'm in a high risk situation. Example, I brought one of them to the Tea Party, where I parked, I had several “bad” streets to go through. She kept the “stumble-bums” back from bothering me and my daughter. Several other folks on the way to the TP joined us on the walk as a result.
She worked the crowd very well.
However, as noted in the news article from post 95, the suspect was in jail at the time the warrant was served.
They were looking for guns, not drugs. He was arrested for impersonating a police office while working as a repo man. It’s a big leap to go from there to assuming that someone else in his home would resist a search warrant.
Agree colmpletely.
The law enforcement excesses brought about in substantial part by the Patriot Act have resulted in my determination to never, ever, sujpport the expansion of police powers at any level--local, state or federal. They expand and abuse those powers at every opportunity. Which is why I am now opposed to no-knock warrantless searches.
Law enforcement has a real problem with loyal, patriotic conservative Americans. They no longer have our trust and are going to have to work hard to regain it. Increased militarization (SWAT), inflated pay schedules, unjustified overtime and pension fattening at every turn, is not the way to go. In California, all of this is totally out of control -- which is what happens when public employees are allowed to unionize; a big mistake.
It’s been about fifteen years, since I thought SWAT teams had by and large gone postal.
In the old days, a Charles Manson, SLA, bank robbery, hostage situation would warrant special tactics.
Now these tactics are used casually, for any number of situations. Rather than simply knock and talk to the individual civilly, they ram through the front door and storm the location. Stormtroopers?
I say casually, because you can’t claim it to be otherwise, then explain how you broke down the wrong door. If the assault is on, then there damned well better be a determination that the property is the right property. If there is no determination, then the operation MUST BE CALLED OFF. You error on the side of safety.
If someone knocks in my front door, I’m going to be reaching for a weapon. If during the loud noises associated with this type of a situation, I don’t hear the word “POLICE”, then I’m likely to be killed for trying to defend my wife and property. I might even take out an officer before I realized what the deal was.
The local police and the courts would obviously charge me with a criminal act. Now doubt about it. Would it have been my fault? Hell no. When someone enters my home through force, they are turning their life over to me.
I would not charge every officer with a felony count of breaking and entering. I would at the very least charge the person in command with criminal negligence and make damned sure they never worked in law enforcement again.
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