Posted on 05/25/2005 9:04:12 PM PDT by ambrose
Officers raid wrong house - Resident says family traumatized
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer
MURRIETA ---- When Mapleton resident Rodolfo Celis heard a knock on his door last Saturday night, he said he never suspected anything was amiss.
That is, until he opened the door and looked down the barrel of a rifle.
Several Murrieta police officers then entered his home in the 33500 block of Eugenia Lane, he said. They herded the 54-year-old father and five of his family members, including two young children, into the living room and sat them on a couch at gunpoint, he added.
"They didn't even show me a warrant or ask permission, they just pointed rifles," Celis said, adding that the officers then proceeded to search the house and garage for a suspect and automatic weapons.
The six officers believed a parolee armed with automatic weapons was inside the home and that was the reason they entered the house without a warrant, Murrieta police Lt. Bob Davenport said Friday.
"He was considered armed and dangerous," Davenport said. And in cases of that type, a search warrant is not necessary, the lieutenant said, adding that "at some point," Celis gave them permission to search the remainder of the house.
There was just one problem. They had the wrong house.
The Celis home is next door to the house officers intended to search, Davenport said.
The events leading up to officers arriving at Celis' home began earlier Saturday. Murrieta officers received word that a black sport utility vehicle ---- with automatic weapons and other guns inside ---- was parked in front of a Temecula home. The report from their Temecula counterparts indicated that officers believed the vehicle belonged to an at-large parolee, who was listed as living at the house next door to the Celises in Murrieta.
When officers arrived on Eugenia around 9 p.m. Saturday, they thought that the man they were looking for was armed and dangerous. They counted the houses from the corner of Mapleton Street and Eugenia Lane and believed that the numbering sequence of the houses on the street indicated that Celis' house was the right address, although the darkness may have made it difficult to check the exact number on the house, Davenport said.
"They couldn't light it up with a flashlight to verify the numbers, because that would put them at a tactical disadvantage," he said.
As they walked toward what they thought was the right home, they saw a black sports utility vehicle parked in the driveway.
Asked whether the officers had checked to see if the license plate matched the one at the Temecula address, Davenport said he was not sure whether Murrieta officers had a license plate number for the SUV seen in Temecula.
The lieutenant said there was also some uncertainty as to whether the license plate number that was reported in fact belonged to the SUV or another vehicle that had been towed away from the same address about 30 days before. But the SUV did match the description of the one seen at the Temecula address, he said.
"All the SUV does is verify in their minds that they are at the right house," Davenport said. "It was just a piece, but not a critical part of the puzzle."
Officers also were suspicious when they heard people talking in the Celis' garage, he added.
"They assumed they had the right location," he said.
He confirmed that Celis told the officers that the man they were looking for, Johnny Lopez, 25, had never lived at his house. Celis told the officers that a man matching Lopez's description had lived next door.
"Not until they left the house did they realize that the address didn't match," Davenport said.
Celis said his family is still traumatized by what happened. The memory of having guns pointed at his entire family won't fade easily, he added.
His 15-year-old son was terrified, Celis said. Seeing the boy's fear that night, Celis said he felt powerless and mortified that he could do nothing to protect him.
"When I saw my son's face, I felt ashamed because I wasn't doing what a dad is supposed to do," Celis, 54, said. "I felt like I should have protected my kids."
Celis' son Rudy said that on the night of the raid, he came into the living room to see what the commotion was and, "they told me to put my hands up; they searched me and were asking, 'Where is Johnny Lopez?'"
Rudy's sister-in-law, Jennifer Celis, said she couldn't believe that the family was treated like common criminals.
"They were pointing rifles at us," she said.
When Jennifer asked the officers why they had come to their house, that night, "they kept telling us to shut up, shut up and wouldn't tell us what they were looking for."
Now, Celis is thinking about hiring an attorney to look into the matter, he said.
"I am not looking for any money, but I would like to at least alert the community so they know we're not criminals," Celis said. "I would like the Police Department, before they do something like that again, to make sure they are going to the right house."
He said he can't help but wonder whether the officers came to his home because his family is the only Latino family living on the street. A group of Latino people lived in the house where the officers were supposed to go Saturday night, Celis said. But he added that those people moved out of the neighborhood a few months ago.
"I think they saw my family coming in and out of the house and because we are the only Latino family on the block, they thought this was the place," he said.
Davenport denied that race played any role in what happened.
He said that when the officers approached the home, they had no idea that a Latino family was living there.
"Of course it was a mistake, but they were under the assumption that they were at the right house and were within their legal bounds," he said. "That's a mistake we will explain (to Celis) and apologize for; we are all human and are going to err on occasion."
Asked if the mistake will generate any policy or procedural changes within the department, Davenport said: "We are going to review what happened and make a decision on what to do in the future."
On Friday afternoon a police sergeant who participated in the search called Celis to apologize for the mistake.
"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," Celis said.
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or wbennett@californian.com.
if you have ever had anything like this happen to you or to someone dear to you, you might not get around to thanking the police... you would feel horrible... helpless... furious...
Cops are out of control, period.
"Uncle Joe" Stalin would be pleased. He would admire today's American (or anti-American, as the case may be) police.
FYI
At least no one was killed. If they were the Swat boys are above the law and would not be charged. This type of shit is going to ruin the moral authority of the real police.
>>When Jennifer asked the officers why they had come to their house, that night, "they kept telling us to shut up, shut up and wouldn't tell us what they were looking for." <<
This would be, to me, the most frustrating part of the entire issue. Tell me to shut up in my own home and I promise you will be explaining it to my attorney!
Just because you have a badge is not any reason not to show me your warrant and explain quickly why you entered my home without my permission. The moment I told you that you have the wrong address, I would expect you to verify it and then immediately cease all operations, apoplogize and get the hell out.
Keeping me in the dark while you (the police) romp through my home will never be acceptable to me! Every minute that you continued will be money from your budget to mine.
Here's something most people don't know about that case.
After the homeowner died, his house burned down under suspicious circumstances and his widow all of a sudden decided to accept the Forest Services generous offer to buy the now uninhabited land.
Funny, eh?
L
IMO probable cause is unconstitutional, I don't see anywhere in the bill of rights that states they can enter without a warrent, this is another right usurped by judges.
Also the part about the SUV, when they said it was only a "piece" of the puzzle and wasn't critical, it was the only pie ce they had and was most certainly critical. Not knowing the license plate number and not checking it if they did know is inexcusable.
While I fully support our police I do not see these things as human mistakes "that we all make". Cops are like doctors, when they make mistakes people sometimes die, they can't afford to make mistakes and then pass it off as just another day's work. This is BS.
"..."They couldn't light it up with a flashlight to verify the numbers, because that would put them at a tactical disadvantage, he said..."
Who says you need flashlights? Just walk across the lawn in pure darkness and read the number on the side of the house or on the mailbox...there is enough ambient light in virtually any part of our country to do that.
On second thought...nah. Just point loaded rifles at completely innocent people instead. All citizens should know by now to use glow-in-the-dark paint on house numbers or to illuminate them with 500-watt spotlamps around the clock. [/sarcasm]
~ Blue Jays ~
"Sorry citizen ...thought you were someone else."
Sorry, cops have never heard of the word "citizen." You're a "subject"
Yeah, maybe we should all have glow in the dark license plates also, and have 5 foot numbers on the side of our houses so the cops can see them better, or an audio that would anounce the street number every 30 seconds, that might work.
What about us that don't have street numbers? }:^)
For a conservative news forum, it's amazing how few realize the close connection with Gestapo raids like these with no legal consequences whatsoever and the war on drugs. It's all one and the same. RICO and forfeiture laws, disregard for legal constraints on searches and seizure, a booming prison industry and very little being done to stop it. Quite lucrative if you get into the food chain at the right point. A big dirty money circle. And today it might be drugs. Tomorrow it might be the Smith & Wesson you keep in your nightstand. Governments constantly test their populace to see what they'll put up with.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot...
Each home needs a 12' x 12' black square painted on the roof with the house number printed in 10' fluorescent yellow numerals inside. Makes it easier for the chopper to shine the floodlights from above. ;-)
~ Blue Jays ~
Like raiding the WRONG house and making a boatload of noise and disturbing people in the WRONG HOUSE isn't going to tip off the bad guy ??
Idiots.
i just don't get it when people pretty much accept anything and everything the police do... i am grateful to the police... they've come to my aid at different times... most that i've met have been decent... but i'm not going to thank them when they mess up badly...
I have night vision with in-fared, I sure the elite cops can afford them too.
The authorities excuses are getting weaker and weaker as the mistakes pile up.
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