Posted on 08/27/2014 6:24:08 AM PDT by bamahead
On a Sunday afternoon in 2008, a tactical police team raided the Easton, Connecticut house of Ronald Terebesi searching for a small amount of personal drugs. While by day's end the police discovered drug paraphernalia and 0.02 ounces of a substance believed to be crack cocaine, an officer also killed Terebesi's unarmed guest, Gonzalo Guizan (pictured), by discharging his Glock sidearm six times until the weapon finally jammed.
Guizan's estate and Terebesi filed civil suits against the officers in the raid, although the estate later settled out of court for $3.5 million. The tactical team—called SWERT for Southwest Regional Emergency Response Team—was composed of police officers from six different towns. The defendants, all of whom either planned or participated in the raid, requested summary judgment based on qualified immunity, which the district court for the most part denied (the court agreed police had lawfully acquired the search warrant and dismissed failure-to-train claims against the town chiefs). The defendants appealed.
On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District affirmed most of the lower court's denial of summary judgment and remanded the case.
--SNIP--
The Appeals Court affirmed the district court's denial of summary judgment on every point save one ... Solomon was within his rights to activate the SWERT team in the first place (the town of Easton, probably upon reviewing their insurance premiums after the settlement with Guizan's estate, appears to have disagreed: Solomon's contract was not renewed and he was shown the door). But on every other count the court tilted in Terebesi's favor, noting that the use of stun grenades, being pinned by the officers' shields, the poor planning and approval of the raid, and even the failure of officers to intervene to stop it are constitutional grounds for a trial.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
"Because we don't call it SWAT"
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