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Thursday, June 29th, 2006Via Lexis:
Albuquerque Journal
May 27, 2006Woman Sues Over Search of Home; Filing Says Police Had Bad Address
by Jeremy Pawloski
A Hernandez woman and her son are suing two State Police officers who are accused of entering their home in April with guns drawn when they had the wrong address, according to the suit.
The defendants named in the suit are State Police Sgt. Chris Valdez and Agent Joey Gallegos, who allegedly entered the home of Beverly Salazar-Duran and her son, Joseph Duran, on April 21, according to the suit.
“At least one of the officers present knew the officers had entered the wrong home after the entry,” reads the suit.
The suit alleges that after about nine officers entered the home without warning, they “began to batter and physically and verbally abuse the occupants of the house.”
They also “tore apart the entire home,” reads the suit.
“All the closets and dressers were taken apart, and mattresses were taken off the beds,” reads the suit. “Defendants and the other officers left the home in complete disarray.”
According to the suit, the officers “ran the identification of each occupant of the home. Nothing was found on any of the occupants.”
“After going through the entire home, defendants left,” reads the suit.
The suit alleges that the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights were violated.
“The individual defendants deprived plaintiffs of their Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches by entering their residence without any warning, without consent, without a warrant and without probable cause to believe Beverly Salazar-Duran or anyone in her home had committed a crime,” reads the suit.
The suit also alleges excessive and unnecessary use of force, illegal detention and false imprisonment.
The attorneys who filed the suit, Joseph P. Kennedy and Shannon Oliver, could not be reached for comment Friday.
A State Police spokesman said Friday that the agency was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment on pending litigation.
