Challenging police terrorism

This lawsuit against the District of Columbia and 34 D.C. police officers seeks compensation for the 4 a.m. violent entry and search of a home in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast D.C. by a police SWAT Team. Police entered by smashing two windows and tossing in stun grenades, then battering open the front door and metal gate from the inside to let in more police. The homeowner, a longtime female D.C. Public Schools employee, was held on the floor at gunpoint, half-naked, while police turned every room of her three-story house upside-down; her basement tenant was treated similarly. No evidence of crime was found.

After obtaining the sealed police affidavit justifying this search, we learned that the police were seeking property of the owner’s adult son, who had not lived with her for some time, as D.C. officials knew. Nor did the search warrant authorize, or the affidavit justify, a nighttime no-knock entry. The case remains in the discovery phase – where each side gets information from the other, before trial.