All this discussion about SWAT shooting skills and legal definition of pets is academic. The important thing here is the drug father and his family learned a couple of important lessons:
1. Drugs are not cool. They attract police.
2. Drugs have unwanted consequences, including loss of family pet; loss of income;, and loss of front door.
3. The drug father must repent by apologizing to his family.
4. A grown man crying is one thing. Crying in front of your family over something that is 100% your fault is humiliating and horrible.
5. JUST SAY NO!!!
Even when you just say NO!!!! the police can still abuse your rights and even kill you and nobody is ever held accountable.
Donald Scott
October 2, 1992CA
In an early morning drug raid on October 2, 1992, 31 officers from five police agencies break down the door to the multimillion dollar home of Donald Scott.
Frightened, Scott's wife screams, "Don't shoot me. Don't kill me." Hearing his wife's screams, Scott emerges from his bedroom holding a handgun, still groggy from a recent cataract operation. When Scott raises the gun in the direction of the police intruders, the raiding officers shoot him dead.
Despite assurances from the L.A. Sheriff's Department that Scott was farming more than 4,000 marijuana plants on his property, thorough search of Scott's property fails to yield any contraband. In fact, Scott's friends would later say he was adamantly opposed to illicit drugs.
Though Scott's grand Malibu ranch is in Ventura County, California, no Ventura police agency was represented among the five police agencies (the L.A. Sheriff's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol, the National Guard and the National Park Service) that conducted the raid. A blistering subsequent investigation by Ventura County district attorney Michael Bradbury suggests why.
Bradbury found gross misstatements of fact, omissions, and outright falsehoods in the application for a search warrant issued by the L.A. sheriff's department. He found that the department had conducted numerous investigations of the ranch, including flyovers and firsthand visits, which found no evidence of marijuana cultivation. Finally, during a low-level flyover one DEA agent suggested to the sheriff's department that he had spotted some plants beneath tree cover that might be marijuana -- but stipulated that his observation ought not be the basis of a search warrant. On that evidence, the L.A. sheriff's department obtained its warrant.
Bradbury concluded that, confirming Donald Scott's fears, the L.A. sheriff's department conducted its raid for the purpose of seizing Donald Scott's property through drug asset forfeiture laws. Under federal law, the department would have been able divvy up proceeds from the $2.5 million ranch with the four other agencies joining in the investigation. Bradbury found documents in which the investigating agencies had expressed desire for Scott's land on various "wish lists," and one notation in which sheriff's department officials had taken note of the recent sale value of one parcel of Scott's land.
According to an L.A. deputy district attorney at the time, two of the agents conducting the raid posed for a triumphant photograph after Scott was shot and killed.
In January 2000, the L.A. Sheriff's Department settled with Scott's family for $5 million, though the terms of the settlement admitted no wrongdoing. In fact, officers from the department who conducted the raid have insisted from the beginning that both the raid and the shooting of Scott were justified, despite the absence of any illegal substances. L.A. Sheriff's Department Captain Larry Waldie told the Los Angeles Times, "I do not believe it was an illegal raid in any way, shape or form." Five years after the raid, Garry Spencer, the officer who both led the raid and who killed Scott told the same paper, "I don't consider it botched. I wouldn't call it botched because that would say that it was a mistake to have gone there in the first place, and I don't believe that."
Sources:
Michael Fessier, Jr., "Trail's End; Deep in a Wild Canyon West of Malibu, a Controversial Law Brought Together a Zealous Sheriff's Deputy and an Eccentric Recluse. A Few Seconds Later, Donald Scott Was Dead," Los Angeles Times Magazine, August 1, 1993, p. 26.
Michael D. Bradbury, Report on the Death of Donald Scott, Office of the District Attorney, County of Ventura, State of California, March 30, 1993.
"Fair End in Police Abuse Case," Los Angeles Times, editorial, January 13, 2000, p. B9.
Daryl Kelley, "Ventura D.A. Says Fatal Raid Was Unjustified," Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1993, p. A1.
Scott Hadly, "Officer criticized over 1992 raid still wants vindication," Los Angeles Times, December 3, 1997, p. B3.
Alberta Spruill
May 16, 2003NY
On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers storm an apartment building in Harlem on a no-knock warrant. They're acting on a tip from a confidential informant, who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor.
There is no felon. The only resident in the building is Alberta Spruill, described by friends as a "devout churchgoer." Before entering the apartment, police deploy a flashbang grenade. The blinding, deafening explosion stuns the 57 year-old city worker, who then slips into cardiac arrest. She dies two hours later.
A police investigation would later find that the drug dealer the raid team was looking for had been arrested days earlier. He couldn't possibly have been at Spruill's apartment because he was in custody. The officers who conducted the raid did no investigation to corroborate the informant's tip. A police source told the New York Daily News that the informant in the Spruill case had offered police tips on several occasions, none of which had led to an arrest. His record was so poor, in fact, that he was due to be dropped from the city's informant list.
Nevertheless, his tip on the ex-con in Spruill's building was taken to the Manhattan district attorney's office, who approved of the application for a no-knock entry. It was then taken to a judge, who issued the warrant resulting in Spruill's death. From tip to raid, the entire "investigation" and execution were over in a matter of hours.
Spruill's death triggered an outpouring of outrage and emotion in New York and inspired dozens of victims of botched drug raids, previously afraid to tell their stories, to come forward.
Still, the number of real, tangible reforms to result from the raid were few. Though the number of no-knocks in New York has by most indications declined, there's still no real oversight or transparency in how they're granted and carried out. And victims of botched raids still have no real recourse, other than to hope the media gets hold of their story.
Sources:
Austin Fenner, Maki Becker, and Michelle McPhee, "Cops' Tragic Grenade Raid; Storm wrong apt., woman dies," New York Daily News, May 17, 2003, p.3.
William K. Rashbaum, "Report by police outlines mistakes in ill-fated raid," New York Times, May 31, 2003, p. A1.
Fernanda Santos and Patrice O'Shaughnessy, "Snitch had shaky rep," New York Daily News, May 18, 2003.
Leonard Levitt, "Focus on Kelly, Race After Raid," Newsday, May 19, 2003, p. A2.
Alberto Sepulveda
September 13, 2000CA
Early in the morning on September 13, 2000, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Stanislaus County, California drug enforcement agency conduct raids on 14 homes in and around Modesto, California after a 19-month investigation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the DEA and FBI asked that local SWAT teams enter each home unannounced to secure the area ahead of federal agents, who would then come to serve the warrants and search for evidence. Federal agents warn the SWAT teams that the targets of the warrants, including Alberto Sepulveda's father Moises, should be considered armed and dangerous.
After police forcibly enter the Sepulveda home, Alberto, his father, his mother, his sister, and his brother are ordered to lie face down on the floor with arms outstretched. Half a minute after the raid begins, the shotgun officer David Hawn has trained on Alberto's head discharges, instantly killing the eleven-year-old boy.
No drugs or weapons are found in the home.
The Los Angeles Times later reports that when Modesto police asked federal investigators if there were any children present in the Sepulveda home, they replied, "not aware of any." There were three.
A subsequent internal investigation by the Modesto Police Department found that federal intelligence evidence against Moises Sepulveda -- who had no previous criminal record -- was "minimal." In 2002 he pled guilty to the last charge remaining against him as a result of the investigation -- using a telephone to distribute marijuana. The city of Modesto and the federal government later settled a lawsuit brought by the Sepulvedas for the death of their son for $3 million.
At first, Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden seemed to be moved by Sepulveda's death toward genuine reform. "What are we gaining by serving these drug warrants?" Wasden is quoted as asking in the Modesto Bee. "We ought to be saying, 'It's not worth the risk. We're not going to put our officers and community at risk anymore.'"
Unfortunately, as part of the settlement with the Sepulvedas, while Modesto announced several reforms in the way its SWAT team would carry out drug raids, there was no mention of discontinuing the use of paramilitary units to conduct no-knock or knock-and-announce warrants on nonviolent drug offenders.
Sources:
Rebecca Trounson, "Deaths raise questions about SWAT teams; Police: Accidents, deaths and raids at wrong addresses put pressure on departments to disband groups. Officers defend paramilitary units as effective when used properly," Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2000, p. A1.
Ty Phillips and Michael G. Mooney, "How did the gun go off? Police report fails to answer question in SWAT shooting of Alberto Sepulveda," Modesto Bee, January 11, 2001, p. A1.
Michael G. Mooney, "Boy's death costs Modesto $2.55M; Sepulveda family settles lawsuit filed against city after 11-year-old shot during SWAT drug raid," Modesto Bee, June 20, 2002, p. A1.
Rebecca Trounson, "Suit could put limit on use of SWAT teams; Police: Lawyer for family of Modesto boy killed in raid to ask federal court to end role of the paramilitary units in drug cases," Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2001, p. A3.
Facebook
Twitter