TheAgitator.com
D.C. Police Raid Wrong Home, City Refuses to Pay for Damage
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010Capitol Hill residents David and Allyson Kitchel tell local TV station WJLA that MPDC police recently raided their home looking for a suspect wanted on weapons charges. They say the raid caused $3,000 in damage. THe Kitchels bought the home from the suspect’s family 18 months ago. Police apparently raided the home after getting an address from the suspect’s mother, but didn’t bother to check public records to see if the house had been sold.
The Kitchels say when they asked the city to compensate them for the damage, they were declined. The city explained that “the warrant was authorized and valid,” and that “MPD officers determined there was sufficient probable cause.”
So I guess as long as all the proper procedures were followed, the physical damage to the house is all in the Kitchels’ imagination. Good thing they don’t have an imaginary dog, too.
I suspect that now that the Kitchels’ story has hit the media, they’ll eventually be compensated. But it makes you wonder how many times this sort of thing happens in less affluent parts of the city, where residents are less likely to have their stories covered by the local news.
Huh. I’ve heard that at least here in California, they do have to pay for any damage made during a search. A warrant is not a license to break stuff.
Geeez! You people blame the cops for everything! The Kitchels were clearly to blame for moving into a house that was originally owned by a bad guy. In fact, they should apologize to the cops for not being the people the cops were after. Maybe bake them a cake or bring them some donuts or something.
I wish I had a set of “procedures” I could point to every time I did something stupid.
“Well officer, I’ll concede that on the face of it this looks criminally negligent and frankly, just outright retarded…but I was only following procedure. You understand I’m sure.”
It sounds to me like the suspect’s mother may have intentionally misled the police. I wonder if the Kitchels might have a case against her as well as the police. It seems reasonably foreseeable to me that if your son is in trouble with the cops that they will try to search the place where they think he lives.
Of course I don’t mean to let the police entirely off the hook. Someone certainly should have taken 30 seconds to do a public records search and make sure they had the right house before breaking in. If, however, the suspect’s mother intentionally sent the police to the home of an innocent couple (knowing the DCPD’s track record), that strikes me as a really shitty and dangerous thing to do to someone.
MPD should man up the $. A warrant is a requirement to enter and search: that’s it. Even if they HAD the right how, they should not be allowed to trash it.
if one of those cops even broke a nail on the call, the dept would’ve been out some serious dough- he would’ve claimed all his gear damaged and would’ve gone home looking like GQ SWAT member…
They trash every house they serve a warrant on, I think that’s what is meant by “followed procedure”.
Someone should have called them on this long ago, by now it’s ingrained in their culture.
And by “they” I mean every police department, everywhere.
That’s one think I never really got. Even if the cops have a search warrant for a suspect accused of killing 500 people and they catch the suspect they are looking for, They still should have to pay for his new door.
Well of course the city says that. Why even ask? Head straight to a lawyer (making no statement to police or city along the way) and buy a neck brace while your at it. If you can quickly get into a union along the way, that’ll help too.
http://www.jackscamp.com/profile.asp?data=69
Allyson Kitchel joined Jackson & Campbell in 2008 as an Associate in the Firm’s Real Property & Asset Management, Employment, Health Law, and General Litigation Practice Groups. She focuses her practice on civil litigation involving employment, medical malpractice, and real estate matters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986563/posts
[daily news, mar 16, 2008]
When Los Angeles cops busted through Mae Phillips’ front door last month looking for her grandson, they blew out the door jamb, ripped out casing and drywall, and left the shattered remains hanging by the hinges. But just as sometimes happens in the movies, the suspect wasn’t there – and Phillips became the unwitting victim in a real-life police raid seeking members and associates of a Venice street gang.
Enter LAPD’s little-known “Wrong Doors Unit” – also known as Mark Jenkins.
“Mistakes do happen now and then,” said Jenkins, a civilian carpenter with the Los Angeles Police Department.
“We’re just there to fix the door. For the most part, people are really happy we’re repairing these things. They’re real happy to see their needs are being met.”
Amid an LAPD civilian staff of 4,500, Jenkins often can be overlooked. But he plays a crucial role in fixing things that cops may break when serving warrants at what turn out to be wrong addresses.
Last year, Jenkins fixed eight doors damaged in such incidents – up from four the year before.
[...] D.C. Police Raid Wrong Home, Refuse to Pay for the Damage [The Agitator] [...]
-They trash every house they serve a warrant on, I think that’s what is meant by “followed procedure”. Someone should have called them on this long ago, by now it’s ingrained in their culture.-
I agree. This can also happen pretty easily without a warrant ever being issued. I love dogs, but has anyone ever watched a drug dog in action in/around vehicles (scratches, practically ripping up interiors). Obviously, much of what the dog does depends on the action’s of its handler. Nonetheless, it amazes be that cops will allow damage to be caused while merely attempting to establish probably cause for an arrest. Simply following procedure…
Wouldn’t it be interesting if every time the cops made a stupid, destructive decision like, “Let’s not bother to check facts – let’s just bust the door down”, someone killed a few of them?
In South Florida some years back, the pigs did a “no knock” raid on the wrong address in the middle of the night. The innocent occupants of the house, an elderly couple, thought thew were being attacked by a gang. (In a manner of speaking, they were right.) Defending his wife, the husband let fly down the hallway with a load of buckshot and practically decapitated the lead gestapo agent.
Cops wanted the guy prosecuted – but there was no case. The pigs had no legal right to be in his home.
Shortly thereafter, the policy of routinely conducting “no knock” raids was changed. I’d like to think that the cops reconsidered their actions and decided that they shouldn’t engage in reckless destruction for its own sake. But I recognize that like thugs anywhere, what motivated the change was simple self-preservation.
I fervently hope that cops everywhere get the same message. They don’t exist to abuse the citizenry – even the bad guys. And if they choose to abuse their authority, a shotgun blast to the face is an acceptable outcome.
[...] January of this year we tracked 2 raid-related reports of police misconduct including a wrong-door raid on a Washington DC home that resulted in $3,000 in damages that police refuse to pay and a search warrant served on a Salt [...]