Prosecutor drops charges in shooting of 4 officers

Baltimore prosecutors today dropped attempted murder and first-degree assault charges against a man who shot four police detectives during a November drug raid, saying they believe Lewis S. Cauthorne acted in self-defense when he wounded the officers as they barged into his home.

Investigators concluded detectives did not announce that they were police just before smashing down Cauthorne's door with a battering ram and rushing in to look for drugs, State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said at a news conference this morning in Clarence Mitchell Courthouse. Cauthorne was interviewed by police the night of the incident and told them, "I didn't know you guys were police. I thought I was getting robbed," according to law enforcement documents obtained by The Sun. Jessamy confirmed as much today, saying Cauthorne, 26, acted out of a reasonable fear when he fired six shots from a .45-caliber handgun at the raiding officers.

The case against Cauthorne would not hold up in court, Jessamy said, because the raid violated a precedent set in the case of Wilson vs. Arkansas, which held that police bearing search warrants must knock and announce their presence before forcing their way into a home. "This decision rests solely on my sworn duty to weigh all of the facts and evidence in this case, against the laws of our land, and in 1995, the Supreme Court ruled in a manner to provide very clear guidance on the legal issues that impact this case,” Jessamy said. "... The burden of proof cannot be sustained.”

Acting Police Commissioner John McEntee said today he opposed the decision by prosecutors. "I would have liked to have seen all available charges prosecuted," he said. Speaking at a separate news conference, McEntee said the officers identified themselves and the charges should be pursued. The four officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries. "We feel that this case should have been taken to a judge and or jury to have this decision made," McEntee said.

Cauthorne was released from jail about 7 p.m. today, according to a spokeswoman for the Division of Pretrial Detention. He had been been jailed since the Nov. 19 incident. McEntee also disputed Jessamy's claim that the raid team did not announce its presence. "We very clearly have officers who are making statements who are saying 'I said it.'"

Several officers who broke down the front door of Cauthorne's North Baltimore house were wearing street clothes without department-issued yellow "raid" jackets, and uniformed officers were stationed out of view in the back of the house, the documents show. There was no conclusive evidence that Cauthorne would have known that members of the raid team were police officers, Jessamy's office said in a news release.

In subsequent interviews with investigators, the raid team members were also unable to provide a consensus of what happened as they broke the door down. Some said at least one officer yelled "police" as they entered the house, while others said they couldn't remember what -- if anything -- was spoken in the tense moments before the raid.

According to Jessamy's office, several officers said that the raid team did not announce their police presence before the door was rammed. Neighbors and other witnesses at the scene also indicated that there was no announcement of "police" before the entry, prosecutors said. Statements by the uniformed officers stationed at the back of the house also say nothing of hearing anyone yelling "police" before or during the battering of the door, but they did hear the door being rammed, according to Jessamy's office.

Detective Kevin Rosenborough, a member of the raid team, was asked whether anyone shouted "police search warrant" before the door opened. "Not to my knowledge," Rosenborough answered.

Raid team member Detective Paul Wojcik was asked, "When he knocked, did you hear anyone say anything?" "I, I, I didn't," he answered. Cauthorne's lawyer, Warren A. Brown, said the decision by prosecutors to drop charges against Cauthorne sends a message that the criminal justice system can be fair. "This will instill confidence in the community that just because the police make an accusation, it doesn't mean it's a whitewash," Brown said. "It lends credibility to the criminal justice system when something like this happens."

Police raided the house at 8:55 p.m. with a search warrant after they were told by an anonymous source that drugs were being sold out of the home, in the 1000 block of Cameron Road. The raid yielded six bags with trace amounts of marijuana, empty vials, a razor with cocaine residue and two scales, documents show. Cauthorne, who had no arrest record, was not charged with any drug crimes. A graduate of Northern High School, he is employed at his family's business, a city convenience store. After the shooting, Brown said that Cauthorne's past might have played a role in his reaction to the police raid. In 1990, his father was shot and killed during a robbery of his taxicab. That killing has not been solved.

At the time of the police raid in November, Cauthorne was in his rowhouse with his mother, girlfriend and 3-year-old daughter. The two women started to scream to Cauthorne, who was in the basement at the time, that someone was breaking in to the house. "I didn't hear anybody say, 'police.' I was sitting right there and I would have heard it," said Janie Battle, Cauthorne's girlfriend. "It sounded like they were banging the door down. "We said, 'Who is it?' and no one said anything. We yelled, 'Who is it?' more than once or twice. "We were yelling to Lewis that someone is breaking in the door.

He's thinking someone is invading his home while his family is sitting right there." Officers recounted that after they broke the door down, they began heading up the stairs to the second floor when "they observed an arm reach out from an archway from the dining room area," according to a police account outlined in a document. "The arm was holding a handgun and the person started to fire at the raid team repeatedly." The bullets hit Robert J. Adams in the right thigh and arm, Officer Michael H. Smith in the right leg, Officer James S. Guzie in the left shin and Officer Steven Henson in the left hand. Police returned fire, but neither Cauthorne nor anyone else in the home was injured.

Although union and police officials declined to comment publicly yesterday on the action of prosecutors, many inside the department said they were aware of problems with the raid. While the law requires them to identify themselves, police are often hesitant to knock and tell residents that they are police officers.

Detectives are often worried about giving drug dealers time to flush drugs down toilets or get weapons and attack officers rushing into the house. Jessamy said she planned to meet with McEntee to discuss ways of improving training in executing search and seizure warrants. "What we hope in the future is that this can be used to shore up any problems that may exist out there so that our police officers are as safe as they can be," she said today.

After the Cauthorne shooting, former Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris told his deputies that they must ensure that detectives wear yellow jackets on raids. Legal documents also point out other problems that were identified in connection with the raid. For instance, crime lab technicians were told not to take photographs of the drugs, and there is no record of where the drugs were recovered in the house. Documents also show that members of the raid team were not available to be interviewed by investigators until days or weeks after the incident. Battle, Cauthorne's girlfriend, said she is not angry with police. But she said it frightens her to think about what might have happened. "Police are human beings. I know they make mistakes. When people's lives are at your fingertips you have to be careful," Battle said. "This is an onging problem and it needs to be addressed. Me, Lewis, his mother, our daughter, those officers, any of us could have been killed." Sun staff writers Allison Klein and Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this article.

Unfortunately, the police were rewarded for assaulting an innocent man and his family:

4 city police officers presented certificates for valor
Each was shot during November drug raid
May 21, 2003|By Del Quentin Wilber | Del Quentin Wilber,SUN STAFF

Four Baltimore police officers who were shot and wounded during a botched drug raid last year received certificates yesterday for earning one of the department’s highest awards: the Citation of Valor.

The officers, who had received their medals from former Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris before he left the department in December, were honored during the city department’s Medal Day ceremony at the War Memorial Building across from City Hall. Norris is now state police superintendent.

Detectives Robert J. Adams and Michael H. Smith, and Officers James S. Guzie and Steven Henson were shot Nov. 19 when they stormed into the North Baltimore house of Lewis S. Cauthorne.

Cauthorne, 26, was charged with four counts of attempted murder for opening fire on the officers. But prosecutors dropped the charges in January after determining the officers did not announce they were police.

The 10 members of the police team were unable to reach a consensus on what happened. At least five of the officers said they couldn’t remember what - if anything - was spoken in the tense moments before the raid, according to law enforcement documents.

State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said in January that questions surrounding the raid led her to believe that “Mr. Cauthorne was acting in self-defense” when he sprayed his house with bullets from a stolen .45-caliber handgun.

The presentation of the certificates comes as detectives have not officially completed their report on the raid, police officials said yesterday.

The department denied a Maryland Public Information Act request by The Sun in February to inspect the department’s reports, saying there was “an open Internal Affairs investigation” of the shooting.

Police officials yesterday said that internal probe had not begun. In a narrative of the raid published in the award ceremony program, police wrote that the officers announced their presence.

“Upon arriving at the front door, members of the raiding party knocked several times and announced, `Police Search Warrant,’” the program says.

Cauthorne has said he blindly opened fire on the officers from behind a wall because he thought his family was in danger and did not know that police had smashed into his house.

The raid yielded a stolen handgun, six bags with trace amounts of marijuana, empty vials, a razor with cocaine residue and two scales, police said at the time.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2003-05-21/news/0305210039_1_raid-police-search-police-officers

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.