Posted on 01/01/2011 6:53:59 AM PST by WaterBoard
Synopsis of the story.
1) A family sued and won $215,000 from Ecorse city, retired Police Chief Jerry Copeland, and two police officials over a wrong house drug raid. The police officers had no immunity from the civil penalty.
2) Bad news is the city has to raise bonds to pay the judgment because the city is broke.
3) The couple had separately sued the SWAT team from Downriver and received a $30,000 settlement.
(Excerpt) Read more at mi.findacase.com ...
1) Plaintiffs allege that Defendants' actions-bursting into Plaintiffs' house, raiding the house, ordering Plaintiffs to the floor at gunpoint, forcibly grabbing Plaintiffs and throwing them to the floor, and handcuffing Tammy Phelps-violated their right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, unlawful arrest and the use of excessive force under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
2) Police Chief and officers try to cover up botched raid.
a. When Defendant COPELAND was told that there had been a wrongful entry into the Plaintiffs' home and was asked by Defendant HERRING whether a report should be written regarding that incident, he refused to instruct HERRING to do so, in an attempt to cover this matter up;
b. When Defendant COPELAND was told that what Defendant SASSAK had said when questioned about the wrongful entry into the Plaintiffs' home, i.e. "F*** it, it's not my money, it's the City's money" and then was asked by Defendant HERRING whether a report should be written regarding that statement, as a matter of policy of the Ecorse Police Department, he refused to instruct HERRING to do so, in an attempt to cover this matter up, rather than to appropriately supervise, train and discipline SASSAK and other Ecorse officers; and
3) After police realized they were at wrong house, they still victimized the family.
d. Even after realizing they were in the wrong house, they continued to hold Plaintiffs prisoners in their own house, all the while pointing their guns at Plaintiffs and their children;
e. They pushed the Plaintiff MICHAEL PHELPS' face and head with the barrel of a gun, whenever he lifted his head off the ground;
f. They handcuffed the Plaintiff TAMMY PHELPS;
g. They searched the Plaintiffs' home, without probable cause or the permission or consent of the Plaintiffs; and
h. They spoke loudly to the Plaintiffs and their family in rude and insulting terms.
Was SWATted once, a long time ago. Guns, dog, threats, etc. Everything but the handcuffs. Internal Affairs said, “it never happened.” If I thought I could have sued those bastards, I would have.
My guess is that like with most government corruption, this is the tip of the iceberg. How many other people were victims of this criminal street gang?
Bump
So why did the police raid the home of an Olympic swimmer? :)
Bong....
What is interesting in this story is that the officers are still employed despite costing the tax payers money and being accused of conspiracy, violating civil rights.
I was I had a union like that to protect me when If I was a criminal.
d. Even after realizing they were in the wrong house, they continued to hold Plaintiffs prisoners in their own house, all the while pointing their guns at Plaintiffs and their children;
If true they should get 15 - life IMO.
This is a significant part of the problem. Reducing individual immunity, and applying individual penalties (that is, not having the city issue bonds, but rather, seizing the individual's assets to compensate the victims) will be a significant part of the solution.
What sorts of criminal charges would a citizen face under these circumstances? This case is rather exceptional, because money is going to be changing hands. But if a group of citizens did this, they wouldn’t be fined, they’d be facing multiple felony charges. This is an example of what I mean by police being held to lower standards.
Unfortunately, it appears its part of the police culture and pyschology.
1) As an officer, no matter how bad you screw up or violate state/federal law, you can count on brother officers to cover for you.
2) As an officer, you don’t care about your actions because the majority of the time you have immunity to civil lawsuits. Just as the officer said in this case, ‘not my money’. But, it turned out, yes, you lost your immunity.
3) As an officer, once you learned you screwed up, you can conspire with not just one fellow officer but the police chief, the entire SWAT team, and other supervisors, to cover up the incident.
You would think there was one honest cop who would do the right thing, but that nationwide phenomena called the “Thin Blue Line” stops snitches on corruption.
Only when there’s 4 dead cops lying on the ground and SWAT has subsequently murdered the INNOCENT family for attempting to defend it’s self, will there be any corrective action.
When these cops retire at age 55 with a full pension, they can have a few good laughs about this on their fishing and hunting trips. I’m slowly starting to truly hate the ‘police’ and all other public employees.
One of the big problems is that cops are normally on the low low end of the IQ scale. And there is nothing worse in the world than someone with a 99 IQ that thinks he is smart.
Weird, I live in S.E. Michigan and I never heard a thing about this or the raid itself.......
A similar thing happened to some neighbors of ours a few years back. The police burst into their home in the middle of the night to do a drug bust. The only problem was, the police were approximately two years too late! The people they were looking for had moved. The only thing that saved our neighbors from the treatment that the Phelps received was the fact that the police finally noticed that our neighbors were the wrong color.
If they didn’t make the rules, they might.
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