Right raid, wrong residence. Tactical team hits

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stori...ws/1219518.html

 

Right raid, wrong residence

Tactical team hits neighboring house to serve drug warrant

By MARK HICKS

The Leaf-Chronicle

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A Clarksville Police tactical team stormed the wrong house Friday night while trying to execute a search warrant.

 

James Elliott and his friend Teresa Guiler live at 341-B Old Trenton Road. Police were looking for 343-B.

 

"I thought they were going to kill me," said Elliott, who recently received a liver transplant.

 

Guiler said he was taken to an emergency room afterward. Elliott, who is deaf, said officers kicked him in the back while trying to secure him.

 

"We are just too tired and too traumatized to answer any more questions," Guiler said during a brief interview.

 

She said some time after 7:30 p.m. Elliott was downstairs watching closed-caption football and she was upstairs watching television just before the TACT team burst through the door.

 

Clarksville Police Chief Mark Smith was out of town Saturday and had not reviewed reports of the incident.

 

"Apparently, they hit the wrong house," he said. "Thank God, nobody got hurt."

 

Smith said the TACT team was serving a search warrant for drugs for the department's Major Crimes Division, based on information from a confidential informant.

 

"I hate it. I know Major Crimes hates it. We'll do whatever is necessary to make it right," he said.

 

Smith said the tactical team, which serves about 95 percent of CPD's drug warrants, receives extensive training about how to avoid entering the wrong location.

 

"In this case, I understand the mailbox in the yard of the house had the address that was on the warrant. I'm sure they drew the conclusion it was the house," Smith said.

 

The chief said team members are trained when to use force and when not to use force in such situations.

 

"The TACT team went into what they thought was a legitimate drug house," he said. "They used the tactics to take control of the situation."

 

The search warrant was served at the correct house then and drug-related contraband was seized, Smith said, but he didn't have details. He made no mention of any arrests.

 

The chief said after assessing the reports on Monday, he will determine if the incident should be further investigated by the department's Professional Integrity Unit.

 

"It seems pretty cut and dry though," he said. "At the very least, we owe this man an apology."

 

Smith said he would take the reports to the city's risk management office and discuss repairs of damage caused.

 

Mark Hicks covers crime and safety and can be reached by telephone at 245-0720 or by e-mail at [email protected].

 

This mess me up cause this happened in my city. And I think the police owe the man more then an apology. You can damn will bet that the couple is going to sue the police.

 

Edit: Found another article about it.

 

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stori...ws/1229874.html

 

Police apologize for raid

 

By CHANTAL ESCOTO

The Leaf-Chronicle

 

Clarksville Police Chief Mark Smith said he will offer two Old Trenton Road residents a written apology for officers mistakenly raiding their home Friday night.

 

"I want to publicly apologize," Smith said Monday during a press conference, adding that Friday's mistake was the first time in his 28 years with the department that officers broke in to the wrong home.

 

"There is certainly no pattern here," he said.

 

According to Smith, the police tactical team received information that a drug dealer lived at 343B Old Trenton Road, but they ended up going to the house next door that only had the letter "B" on the outside -- which turned out to be 341B.

 

The residents of 341B, Teresa Guiler and James Elliott, who are both in their 50s, were sitting in their home watching television when the masked men stormed into the house.

 

Guiler, whose arm was in a sling from a previous injury, told police that they had the wrong man as they pointed a gun at her and Elliott, who is deaf and had recently received a liver transplant, she said.

 

Guiler went to seek medical help after the raid and Elliott will be going to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville today to be seen by his doctors.

 

Smith said that although he feels terrible about the raid, he insists the officers never used excessive force. But because Elliott resisted, officers had to control him by "bringing him down," he said.

 

"We (ensure) it's done safely and with minimal amount of force as possible," Smith said.

 

But Guiler and Elliott's attorney, Tommy Meeks, said what the police did is unacceptable.

 

"What justification can you give to kick a 54-year-old man who's down on the ground," Meeks said about Elliott, who is a Vietnam veteran. "All he saw was men in masks with rifles. He was terrified. Then to get knocked down and stomped. They picked him up like a suitcase. The Police Department said they acted in normal procedure, but that's not normal."

 

Smith said the man they were actually looking for was Jeremiah Taylor, a 24-year-old man who was arrested and charged Friday night with possession of ecstasy for resale. A separate warrant had to be secured for a raid of his home. Taylor was booked into the Montgomery County Jail with bail set at $28,000.

 

Smith said the mix-up on the addresses came from the drug agents with Major Crimes, who got their information from an informant. But even though the address was reportedly checked prior to the raid, the wrong house was still entered.

 

They did investigate to a "reasonable extent," Smith said, adding that policies and procedures will be reexamined and the department's Professional Integrity Unit will investigate.

 

"You always can learn from your mistakes," Smith said.

 

But Meeks said the department went too far, and the frail residents are hurting from those "mistakes."

 

"There's going to be some answers," said Meeks, who will wait to see what his clients' doctors say before moving forward with any possible legal action against the Police Department.

 

Chantal Escoto can be reached at 245-0216 or at [email protected].

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

How about a spin in the cop car with the lights on?...

[2GOLD 0]

Happens a lot for some reason.

 

Apparently reading addresses isn't high on the Police Raid units list of things to do before a raid.

[Guest MikeSC]

Bah. Close enough.

-=Mike

[Jingus 0]

Tennessee cops... sigh. What a weird, lawless breed they are. It's pretty well known that the police in Nashville and the surrounding area have a fairly high degree of corruption, and get away with crap that would make your average yankee liberal's head explode.

[BX 0]

I'm confused on this one point: Why, after all of the commotion and obvious police activity next door, did the guy at the correct residence stay around with the drugs? He were arrested, according to the article.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Because this took place in TN would be my guess...