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Drug raid nabs wrong woman - Another isolated incident

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El Tejon:
I would like to go on record as stating that if this woman was not cutting her grass, picking up trash in her yard, sat outside on her porch or had NASCAR flags on her house, then I support the actions of the police.

Lawn Order=>

RadioFreeSeaLab:

--- Quote from: jselvy on June 21, 2007, 06:05:15 AM ---For the record, How many Isolated Incidents make a pattern?

Jefferson


Have a look for yourself.
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/


Here is but one example from that page.

--- Quote ---Ismael Mena.

On September 29, 1999, a Denver SWAT team executes a no-knock drug raid on the home of Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant and father of seven.

Mena, believing he is being robbed, confronts the SWAT team with a gun. Police say they fired the eight shots that killed Mena only after Mena ignored repeated warnings to drop his weapon. Mena's family says police never announced themselves, and fired at the man shortly after entry.

The police later discover they've raided the wrong home, based on bad information from an informant. They find no drugs in Mena's house, nor are any later found in his system.

In 2, a special prosecutor's investigation into the Mena shooting would find no wrongdoing on the part of the SWAT team. A separate internal affairs investigation also cleared the SWAT team of wrongdoing, but did find that the officer who prepared the search warrant for Mena's home had falsified information.

As the shooting gained traction in the media, Denver city officials began to portray Mena as a Mexican criminal refugee wanted for murder (Mena had shot a man in Mexico in self-defense, but was cleared of any wrongdoing), in what critics called a "blame the victim" strategy. Members of the police department also later started a "Spy file" on a citizens' organization agitating for a more thorough investigation of Mena's death. The intelligence unit that kept the files on Mena's supporters was the head of the SWAT team that conducted the raid on Mena's home.

Weeks later, new details began to emerge about the Mena case that called the special prosecutor's conclusions into question. Mena's family eventually hired a former FBI agent named James Kearney to conduct a private investigation into the shooting. Kearney became convinced that Denver police shot Mena without provocation, and planted the gun to cover up the botched raid. Kearney found evidence not uncovered by previous investigations, including two slugs in the floor of Mena's apartment that suggest the raid didn't happen as the SWAT team claims it did.

In 2, Mena's family finally settled with the city of Denver for $400,000.

Since the Mena shooting, the city of Denver has settled a $1.3 million lawsuit after police shot and killed a developmentally disabled teenager, and face another suit in which police raiding a home in search of a domestic violence suspect shot and killed a man (not the suspect) in bed when they mistook the soda can in his hand for a gun.

In one final, bizarre twist to the Mena case, it was revealed months after the raid that Colorado Rockies second baseman Mike Lansing was permitted to ride along with the SWAT team on the raid ending in Mena's death. Media inquiries later discovered that it's fairly common for members of the Denver baseball team to accompany police on SWAT raids, despite the raids' volatile nature.

Sources:

Alan Prendergast, "Unlawful Entry; The high price of Denver's drug war: lies, bad busts, cops in harm's way -- and the death of an innocent man," Denver Post, February 24, 2000.

Howard Pankratz, " Informant: Error led to fatal raid Police tipster says his mistake brought officers to Mena's door," Denver Post, August 12, 2, p. A1.

Amy Herdy, "Findings complicate Mena case," Denver Post, January 23, 2003, p. 10.

"Rockies outfielder defends 'ride-alongs," Orlando Sentinel, July 18, 2, p. C5.

Tina Greigo, "Blaming the Victim," Denver Post, February 17, 2001, p. B7.

Kevin Vaughan, "Former FBI agent fights to renew Mena suit," Rocky Mountain News, November 17, 2005, p. A36.

Bruce Finley, "$400,000 settles Mena case Webb steps in to broker deal in fatal no-knock raid," Denver Post, March 24, 2, p. A1.

September 29, 1999

jselvy:
No I meant a number
like:
once is an accident
twice is incompetent
thrice is premeditation

Jefferson

BTW I notice Wyoming is completely clean according to that map

mtnbkr:

--- Quote from: El Tejon on June 21, 2007, 06:10:50 AM ---I would like to go on record as stating that if this woman was not cutting her grass, picking up trash in her yard, sat outside on her porch or had NASCAR flags on her house, then I support the actions of the police.
Lawn Order=>

You might find this amusing...

Lately, I've been letting my front yard grow a bit long as I've recently reseeded it and have been giving the new grass time to get established before I start to cut it to my preferred height.  I really wanted to cut it last week, but every time I went out to do so, it would start raining.  Since we were going out of town for the weekend, I planned on doing it this week.  As we pulled into our driveway, I noticed the grass seemed shorter.  Turns out, our neighbor from 3 doors down cut it for us.  It wasn't very tall, maybe 5-6".  I'm not complaining, she did us a favor.

She has cut just about everyone's lawn at one point or another.  She always does a good job, so I don't complain.

Chris

RadioFreeSeaLab:

--- Quote ---Rev. Accelyne Williams.

Williams, a 75-year-old retired minister, dies of a heart attack after 13 members of a heavily-armed Boston SWAT team storm his apartment in body armor and black masks.

One police source tells the Boston Herald of the raid, "Everything was done right, except it was the wrong apartment." Police later discover that an informant had given them incorrect information that a "Jamaican drug posse operated out of the building," and failed to specify which apartment to target.

A week after the raid, media investigators discovered that three of the officers involved had been accused in a 1989 civil rights suit of using nonexistent informants to secure drug warrants. The suit resulted in a $50,000 settlement from the city of Boston and one witness testified that an officer apologized after realizing the mistake, telling its occupants, "this happens all the time."

Sources:

Joseph Mallia and Maggie Mulvihill, "Minister dies as cops raid wrong apartment," Boston Herald, March 26, 1994, p. 1.

Maggie Mulvihill, "3 cops at botched raid were sued in prior gaffe," Boston Herald, April 1, 1994, p. 6.

March 25, 1994

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