Another Isolated Incident

Jasper, Texas:

According to the amended lawsuit, the officers had obtained a search warrant on Sept. 28, 2006 to enter a residence at 126 Circle Drive in Brookeland. The Hunts reside in a mobile home located at 940 Church Street in Brookeland.

[…]

The lawsuit alleges that Hunter, Tomplain, Noyola, Poindexter, Erimias, Coulter, Payne and Hall "broke in the door and trashed the house. They kicked in two doors, tore up three lamps and tore down the gate coming into the house.

Officers confronted the Hunts at the rear door of the home and ordered them down at gunpoint, according to the lawsuit.

"All the defendants left the house after they terrorized both plaintiffs and trashed the premises when defendant Hunter belatedly told everybody that they were in the wrong house," the lawsuit states.

Officials could not comment on the lawsuit.

Note too that this happened in September of last year, and wasn't reported. Were it not for the lawsuit, we'd never have known this had happened. Makes you wonder how many other times this happens that we don't know about—where the victims are too frightened or embarassed to go to the media, or can't find an attorney to help them with a lawsuit.

Comments

[sixstring]

"Church" & Circle" are very close etymologically. I mean will the circle be unbroken and such...

[Scooby]

Google maps has those two addresses about 6 miles apart. This isn't like the typical transposed number or wrong unit in the right duplex. How the hell does this "mistake" happen?

[Doctor Duck]

How the hell does this "mistake" happen?

You could speculate that the cops wanted to trash this trailer, for reasons of their own, and knew from experience that they could rely on the 'Oops' defense.

But only if you're cynical and paranoid. Or a student of history

[D. Greene]

Well, the local lore here in the Dayton area (Preble County, to be specific) regarding the murder of Clayton Helriggle in a drug raid is pretty interesting, for example. Rumor has it that the very cop who shot and killed Clayton had been 'gunning' for his woman, if you get my meaning.

[CLS]

Like Scooby above, I also went straight away to Google maps to see if these were street abutting one another or if there was some reasonable explaination. And my search also showed them to be in two completely different areas just over 6 miles apart. However, the newspaper report may be in error slightly. There is Circle Drive and W. Circle Drive and the paper mentions the former which is six miles away. But the latter is intersects Church Street and the address on Church Street is right at that T junciton. You can see W. Circle Drive in a close up map but Google doesn't have it when you search for it. So there is a Google error compounding the suspected error of the newspaper in leaving out the "West" in the address.

So it is entirely possible that the two houses were very close to one another. But the cops still screwed up again.

[JasonL]

Request for Radley or Whoever:

Would it be possible to arrange all of the separate cases Radley uncovers into a single place where we can refer people, like congressmen, to the scope of the problem? Has this already been done? I can't link the Agitator at work, so I'm not sure if it is there or not.

[D. Greene]

That is a good idea - this blog could use some tags or categories.

[Radley Balko]

Try:

http://www.cato.org/raidmap

Or:

http://www.theagitator.com/archives/cat_paramilitary_police_raids.php

[Matt Moore]

JasonL - Radley and CATO created a map to go with his Overkill whitepaper. I don't know if they've been updating it with new reports, but it's a great tool either way.

http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

[Karen]

This can happen because it's Jasper, TX, location of the pickup dragging murder a few years ago, and last refuge of the Neanderthal. (I mean that in the strictest biological sense, not the colloquial one.) I grew up in east Texas, so I expect this kind of behavior from the police. I'm just surprised there's no racial element to this story. Yet.

[Aresen]

Do the Jasper police have to pass a literacy test?

Both "Church" and "Circle" begin with that funny letter that looks like two-thirds of a circle, after all.

And both "126" and "940" have three of those number thingies.

[LibertyPlease]

"This can happen because it's Jasper, TX,.."

More accurately, they are more likely to get away with it because it's Jasper, TX. It can and does happen everywhere. Actually, they get away with most of those too.... we're doomed.

[SPD]

I recently received several annoying calls at work from a guy trying to get me to make a contribution to local law enforcement, helping them prosecute the WoD and "put the bad guys in jail where they belong."

It took everything in my power not to ask, "does that include overzealous cops who shoot citizens trying to defend their property against paramilitary SWAT teams executing no-knock warrants on the wrong house?" That would have been too much to ask, so instead I told him to "fuck off"*.

(* - in my mind)

[Abdul]

can't find an attorney to help them with a lawsuit.

Come on! Rampant illegal searches and raids by those we pay to protect us, that I can believe. But a shortage of greedy attorneys? That's where you lost me.

[ktc2]

I guess they should just thank the police for not shooting them all dead before they said oops.

[Aresen]

so instead I told him to "fuck off"*.

(* - in my mind)

Now THAT's kinky. ;P

[ChrisO]

Come on! Rampant illegal searches and raids by those we pay to protect us, that I can believe. But a shortage of greedy attorneys? That's where you lost me.

You've obviously never been around small-town America before. Attorneys in such places are often reluctant to take on controversial cases or rock the boat, simply because they have to appear before the same handful of judges all the time. Get on a judge's shitlist or acquire a 'reputation', and you're finished.