Couple seeks damages after police raid wrong house

Henry Daily Herald ^ | 6-8-06 | By Michael Davis

[VRing]

A Stockbridge couple whose home was mistakenly raided by Henry County Police last year as they sought a drug suspect is seeking $8 million in damages from the incident.

In a lawsuit filed last month in Superior Court against county officials and police, Roy and Belinda Baker say they were roused out of bed by police who used a battering ram to knock down their door and threw concussive grenades into their home around 1 a.m. Sept. 30.

“The Law Enforcement Defendants accosted the Bakers in the hallway to their bedroom, where they had been sleeping, and yelled at the Bakers, threatened, assaulted and unlawfully touched the Bakers, and placed the Bakers face down, at gunpoint ...” the suit says.

[VRing]

Another one.

[Red Badger]

Jackpot!.......

[Michael.SF.]

seeking $8 million in damages from the incident... police who used a battering ram to knock down their door

Must have been one damn nice door.

[Sax]

This ottoman was was worth $1.5 million, let's see, you trampled dirt all over this imported rug in the foyer, which had to be sent back to Persia for refurbishing, that's 100k. The front door that you smashed in was a one of kind original from a world reknowned door artist valued at $2.1 million. Oh yeah there's some "emotional, we got our rights trampled - and feelings hurt - and now need to retire to a South Pacific Island" claims that we're levying as well.

[lovecraft]

They're lucky they weren't accidentally shot.

[VRing]

"Must have been one damn nice door"

Let me be on that civil jury... I'd start at 20 million

[shempy]

Good for them, I hope they win.

[BerniesFriend]

Henry County Police Chief Russell Abernathy was reported to have said at the time that the incident was “inexcusable” and that steps would be taken to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur in the future.

[coconutt2000]

To be fair, the couple should receive the money to repair their door and any other damage. The amount cited however is too much. Nobody died, so the police shouldn't have to pay more than maybe $50k on top of damages. That should be plenty for the couple to pay off a little bit on their mortgage, pay off their credit card bills, and take a nice two week long cruise. Of course, the irony would be if the couple uses some of the money to buy drugs.

[Rennes Templar]

A guy was having a hard-time thinking and he had a brain surgeon take out his brain to repair it. The brain surgeon told him to come back in a week to get it. A year went by and the surgeon still had his brain. The doctor called the guy and said are you going to take your brain back? The guy said no, I don't need it. I got a job working for the Henry
County Police.

[geezerwheezer]

Henry County is a rural county south of the Atlanta airport. It used to be a really corrupt county with payoffs to the sheriff not an uncommon happening. That all stopped a few years ago thankfully, and I would like to think this was a major screwup, but certainly not done to harm anyone there. Demote, fire, or transfer the officers in charge, make this couple "whole" again with $25,000 and repairs and public apologies, but $8,000,000 is way out of the line of reasoning and should be tossed. In the middle of the night there is a reasonable explanation as to the mix up of addresses involved, and that is most likely what happened.

[Dog Gone]

I'll bet a lot of us don't know where Henry County is.

I'm guessing somewhere in America, but you provided no clue.

[Dead Corpse]

This will happen when the agents of government are more concerned with arbitrary Laws than they are with Justice.

[FreePaul]

Shame that they can't sue each of the individuals involved. Maybe if they can hit the county hard enough it will make some difference. Not too much hope in that though, it's only tax money.

[6SJ7]

Battering ram assault... concussion grenades... being held face down at 1 am in your own home... yup, I think the couple deserves a handsome settlement. Perhaps in the future, the cops can take 20 seconds to CHECK THE DAMN ADDRESS!

[GrandEagle]

Good for them. I hope they win and maybe the jury will double the award.
Too bad the officers, along with their boss, couldn't be held personally liable.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The damages should be assessed against the officers who misdirected the raid. Not the city.

[VRing]

"I'll bet a lot of us don't know where Henry County is."

Come on, man. Can you click the link? Says right at the top of the page the Herald serves Stockbridge, Hampton, McDonough AND Locust Grove. Sheesh, everyone knows where Locust Grove is.

Seriously, it's central GA.