Five Connecticut towns will pay $3.5 million in a bizarre raid by heavily armed SWAT team members after a report of drugs in the house of a Norwalk man. The team hit the home with flash grenades while snipers and officers surrounded the property. The owner, Ronald Terebesi, was dragged from the home and another man, Gonzalo Guizan (right), shot and killed. Neither was armed and a small amount of recreational drugs were found. The towns however still fought the case for years until a court issued a key ruling against them. They still deny any negligence or fault and proceeded to give the officer leading the raid an award for his role in the disastrous raid. (Swat members shown here were not involved in this raid)
This is not the first time that police were given accommodations for negligent or mistaken raids.
This case however captures the problem of police departments that seem eager to use armored cars and SWAT teams funded after 9-11. Former Easton Police Chief John “Jack” Solomon insists that the raid was carried out according to a valid warrant. That warrant was based on a call from an exotic dancer who admitted that she had a dispute with Terebesi. Police (who have had complaints about Terebesi entertaining exotic dancers in the past) responded with a virtual invasion. The SWAT team covered in body armor drove into the neighborhood in SUVs and an large armored transport with SWAT team members standing on the running boards ready to assault the house. They also took a video of the assault as snipers deployed and the armored car charged the house.
Monroe Officer Michael Sweeney led the team into the house behind a large shield with Trumbull Officer Brian Weir behind him pointing a M4 assault rifle. The grenades exploded and and doors came off their hinges. Sweeney then screamed “I’m hit” and police let loose a torrent of bullets. Guizan was hit six times and died. Terresi was handcuffed and dragged out of the house. The plaintiffs say that the evidence showed both men were clearly cowering in a corner when the shooting occurred.
Sweeney was not shot and at most was hit by the debris from the flashbang grenades thrown by his own team. Weir later said that when he heard Sweeney say that he was hit, he fired at the men. Sweeney then says that he saw Terebesi and Guizan in the corner but that they charged him and Guizan tried to grab his gun. Sweeney said that he fired to keep control of his weapon. Weir however said that he saw no such struggle and the attorneys for the two men said that the evidence clearly shows that they were cowering in the corner. An autopsy showed that Sweeney was in a superior position consistent with his account on the shooting.
One would think that these towns would be outraged by the overkill shown in the assault and then the negligent actions taken in the house. If so, one would be wrong. The towns spent more money fighting the case despite clear evidence found by the courts to support a trial. Now, Easton First Selectman Thomas Herrmann insists that the settlement does not reflect any negligence by his officers or those of the other towns: “While the defendants, police departments and officers from Darien, Easton, Trumbull, Monroe and Wilton maintain they were not responsible for the unfortunate death of Mr. Guizan, the insurers for the defendants, who will bear the full cost of the settlement, believed that it was best to resolve the matter rather than incur further attorneys’ fees, which were anticipated to be significant. The defendants concurred, further believing it was important to facilitate the Guizan family being relieved of the combined burden of litigation.”
That seems a rather belated concern for the Guizan family since you first launched a virtual military assault on a drug allegation, then killed the unarmed Guizan, and then fought their claim for damages until you had little practical alternative but to settle.
Team members found only two crack pipes and a tin containing a small amount of cocaine, but no guns.
Sweeney was then honored for his role in the raid by the police department.
Source: CT Post
Variations on a theme. A twist on the old “weed and seed” program:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/md/Community-Programs/Weed%20and%20Seed/index.html
Signed, sealed and delivered. What’s a mere 3.5 million.
Report of the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Fairfield Concerning the Death of Gonzalo Guizan in Easton on May 18, 2008
http://www.ct.gov/csao/cwp/view.asp?a=1802&q=437740
CONCLUSION
The use of force by police officers on May 18, 2008, at 91 Dogwood Drive, Easton, Ct was appropriate under C.G.S. 53a-22
March 30, 2009
Jonathan C. Benedict, State’s Attorney
Judicial District of Fairfield
This is why the second amendment is so important as this is what our “police agencies” have become: an opportunity for childish bullies to play “military assault” with big new scary intimidating toys so they can watch things blow up. It’s playtime for them, death time for the taxpayers who pay for this obscenity. BTW displays of military and police crimes of violence spreads to the population by exposure.
“This is not the first time that police were given accommodations for negligent or mistaken raids.”
Negligence isn’t the only concern. There is a long history of organized murders of homeowners and “drug forfeiture laws” used to cover up their crimes. In some cases, the victims had nothing to do with illegal drugs, but the pi…uh, “cops” saw a wealthy person and wanted to rationalize stealing his assets. Dead people don’t file lawsuits.
Was the intrusion and planned murder of the victims in this case motivated by greed? Or was this simply about a street gang looking for an excuse to commit excessive violence with impunity? Asset forfeiture isn’t mentioned in the story, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an issue.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/What-led-to-deadly-Easton-raid-3587812.php
Judging by the news item I found (from last May), it was an excuse to use wanton violence and not face charges.
This is an inevitable outgrowth of the War on Drugs (aka the War on Civil Liberties). Ending this monstrosity is long overdue.
Legalize all drugs and force the legal and LEO professionals to do something other than enrich the System by ruining millions of lives year in and year out — but don’t expect President Black “Worse than” Bush” to suddenly act like a leader who believes in the Constitution he supposedly taught as a part-time, adjunct instructor.
Is Mr. Obama, or Mr. Holder, for that matter, too busy building up the surveillance state to venture at least a comment about the destruction of the civil liberty state? We come only to praise the police and the military, not to even notice the truth behind the curtain that they are a huge part of the problem. We affirm only that which bolsters the authoritarian—————>fascist state.
“When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
By giving police departments armored vehicles and assault gear, you encourage SWAT raids – essentially military tactics.
Restrict police departments to police gear and they will develop good police procedures (and appropriate tactics).
It is obvious that the exotic dancer had a beef with the homeowner, and must have told the cops he was a major drug dealer and was armed to the teeth and would resist law enforcement. Thus the warrant and the tactics.
My question is why the dancer is not in prison now for filing a false report with the cops, and she should also be liable for damages. She could work off her part of any suit by working for the homeowner for free for a time. Then it is more disturbing the the lead cop is not in prison or facing charges for also lying.
In the South, it used to be normal for the police to murder politically acftive black Americans and then not be prosecuted for their crimes. This was brought to a halt or decreased by having the Federal government bring civil rights violations charges against such cops. I think it is time for the DoJ to get involved in this one, and bring charges against the cops.
Then I also wonder if there is any means that a private citizen can hire an attorney to file criminal charges apart from the local DA? At the very least, I would be pounding on my Senators doors to get the DoJ involved and prosecute the police.
There is a double standard – cops continue to collect their pay, get absolved of blame and then get an award when they kill a civilian in a very questionable shooting.
Compare that to what civilian shooters experience. Zimmerman is going through hell (and will continue to pay for the rest of his life) for arguably an more justified (though still questionable) killing.
Swat team? Police departments have lost control of even moderately armed officers. Now that they have military weapons we are seeing more and more of these police executed home invasions. It sounds like the victim was executed by the police. This is tragic for the victim and for all citizens.
I’m stunned. This almost leaves me speechless.
I would be interested to read the warrant request to see what they authorities expected to find in the building and why a swat team and armored car were necessary.
This is a shining example of a local government refusing to admit that it did anything wrong and how dare anyone else question them. The award bestowed upon the officer is proof of that in my book. Hubris
I wonder if there is more to why the swat team was called out. I would hope there was but just jumping into a swat call out is unnecessary if it is just a run of the mill case of a drug possession. A department can still serve a search warrant on a house by having three officers knock on the door and go inside after someone answers. If there is such a worry the defendants might flush the evidence you can try to get the homeowner while he is at work and the house empty. But that is a bit more work. Some choose to rush in here and now, and it’s not always the best course of action.
Yet another example in what has become a pathetic series of “contretemps” invloving the use of military tactics to support what used to be the simple work of a few detectives. There seems to have been no evidence that this would be a dangerous mission, yet the overkill being tactically deployed would have been fit for terrorists. Would it have been too much to ask for the police to have possibly asked the occupants to come out with their hands up, via loudspeaker, rather than initially using flash grenades?
The “War on Terror” is over and the “terrorists” have indeed won. Our country is now no different than the USSR and China in policing. The “Western Freedom” that radical Muslim Clerics denounced is fast fading away and the proponents of the “War on ……… (fill in the blanks) is a lost cause. I would say that this infuriates me, but then so much of this stupidity today, by those who think they know better, also infuriates me.
It happened to Guizan, and without an remorse by the police or the city council, it can happen to anyone else in the community.
All part of the gun culture
And people wonder why we guest bloggers write about the absurd.
The madness of psychological denial, especially once it becomes institutionalized.
One thing such denial is not: rare.
Sounds like big boys playing “shoot ’em up!”
That is an incredible story. The claims by the officers that the victims were trying to take away their guns is laughable and reminiscent of a scene in the movie, “Tommy Boy”. Scary and ridiculous at the same time. These officers should be charged with assault and homicide charges.