Posted on 10/29/2005 4:14:47 PM PDT by Wolfie
PAIR SUE OVER SEARCH BY DRUG TASK FORCE AGENTS
POLSON - Two former Plains residents have filed suit in District Court in Missoula over alleged mistreatment by Northwest Drug Task Force agents, who searched their home for marijuana two years ago.
No criminal charges resulted after agents searched the home of Gabrielle Wescott and her daughter Annabelle Heasley on July 29, 2003.
According to the complaint, the women were mistreated, threatened, cursed at and terrorized during the raid by "three men dressed entirely in black with black hoods over their faces."
"At no point did any of these individuals identify themselves as law enforcement officers or members of the Northwest Drug Task Force," the lawsuit alleges.
The suit names as defendants 21 law enforcement agencies in five counties and "John Does 1-100." It says the women incurred medical expenses and suffered panic attacks and emotional distress, and seeks more than $1 million in damages.
The women's attorneys, Milton Datsopolous and Clinton Kammerer, did not return calls for comment.
Sanders County Attorney Bob Zimmerman also had no comment Monday, other than to confirm that he had referred the lawsuit to the county's insurance attorneys.
The Northwest Drug Task Force consists of officers from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Sanders and Mineral county sheriff's offices.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for Jan. 5, but no trial date has been set. The plaintiffs, who now live in LaCenter, Wash., have requested a jury trial.
but she might have had drugs according to an anoymous tipster.
One day I hope the DEA folks have as high a place in American thought as "the revenuers" do from the moonshine era.
End prohibtion already.
WOD - giving cops a bad name since 1918.
I thought this kind of behavior by LEOs was illegal...
The huge SWAT type raids are supposed to cut down on police casualties, but this one sounds dumb; why not wait until both people were out of the house, arrest them, then go raid an empty house.
They do stuff like that here in NE Louisiana all the time. They figure that most of the folks they mess over don't have the money or initiative to take them to court and they are usually right.
what would be the fun in that? And I do think that is part of it.
No knock searches, seizure without due process.....
WOD, giving cops an excuse to earn a bad name since 1918
So where did the tip come from that lead to the search?
Evil neighbor? A mad relative? They had to have some info that lead them to search the house.
If I were these people, I think I would like to know that information. Another lawsuit could be in order.
lead = led.
"The suit names as defendants 21 law enforcement agencies in five counties and "John Does 1-100." It says the women incurred medical expenses and suffered panic attacks and emotional distress, and seeks more than $1 million in damages."
Too bad this is not on a non-drug thread. We would all be here talking about the ambulance chasing lawyers and their 'get-rich quick" clients ....
"The huge SWAT type raids are supposed to cut down on police casualties, but this one sounds dumb; why not wait until both people were out of the house, arrest them, then go raid an empty house"
Doing smart things like that do not provide justification for all the latest SWAT equipment, or forming your own SWAT team.
Dramatic raids for the evil weed means your friendly neighborhood narco swat team looks like it's actually worth all the money and loss of freedom.
Why did they stop with John Doe #100? Is there some law that you can't sue more than that without making it a class action?
Reality check:
'ambulance chasing lawyers' making money off a voluntary transaction (mcdonalds made me fat, etc etc etc) is much different from a lawyer suing an out of control government agency, where the victim really has no say in being involvedi n the matter.
Sometimes a lawsuit is the only way for government to be held in check.
My bad. Reality check. Drugs good, government evil. Lawyers good, government evil. ACLU good, governement evil. 9th District court good, government evil.
no knock - no announcement - hooded felons with guns?
My shotgun (kept very handy) would be blasting them until the end. They would have deserved every shot.
We used to live in America, the Beautiful - now ..... ?
This business of people in government not identifying themselves is very troubling.
No identification means no accountability.
They did the right thing in suing everyone.
The next thing we need to do is find a way to remove their indemnification.
As soon as we take the houses of a few of these thugs, official misbehavior in America will drop off.
Litigous ambulance chasing scumbag lawyers have screwed up this country SEVERELY from everything to the labels on the food we eat t me giving one of the little kids I coach in softballl a hug for doing a good job.
These people don't need an ambulance chasing scumbbag lawyer, they need a constitutional scholar lawyer of the highest caliber to screw the living bejeezus out of everyone involved in this strauight up travesty of "law enforcement"
BTW, I have no problem with most drugs being illegal.
My bad. Reality check. Drugs good, government evil. Lawyers good (in this case, defending citizens rights), government evil. ACLU good, governement evil. 9th District court good, government evil.
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