Thread: U.S. court will not block lawsuits over Connecticut SWAT raid that severely injured

Someone said settlements should come from Police pensions. Do you agree?

"A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Connecticut police cannot claim immunity to quash lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages from a botched 2008 raid by a SWAT team that severely injured a homeowner and killed his friend.
The decision by the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals in New York clears the way for a judge to decide whether five suburban Connecticut police departments violated the co...nstitutional rights of homeowner Ronald Terebesi by using excessive force."

https://news.yahoo.com/u-court-not-b...233911169.html




U.S. court will not block lawsuits over Connecticut SWAT raid
2nd Court of Appeals in New York clears the way for a judge to decide whether...
news.yahoo.com|By Richard Weizel

U.S. court will not block lawsuits over Connecticut SWAT raid


By Richard Weizel August 26, 2014 7:39 PM

MILFORD Conn. (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Connecticut police cannot claim immunity to quash lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages from a botched 2008 raid by a SWAT team that severely injured a homeowner and killed his friend.
The decision by the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals in New York clears the way for a judge to decide whether five suburban Connecticut police departments violated the constitutional rights of homeowner Ronald Terebesi by using excessive force.
On May 18, 2008, a heavily armed SWAT - or special weapons and tactics - team unit knocked down Terebesi's door, threw stun flash grenades into his Easton home and fatally shot 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan of Norfolk as the two men watched television.
Guizan, who was visiting the home, died after being shot a half dozen times.
“The court ruling here is going to be relied upon in other courts throughout the country," Gary Mastronardi, a Bridgeport attorney who represents Terebesi, said on Tuesday. "They set up the parameters that define the extent to which qualified immunity can be asserted by police in SWAT cases."
In a 51-page ruling that upholds a lower court decision, the appeals court said the police responded with unnecessary and inappropriate force and under the circumstances, are not protected by "qualified immunity" from the lawsuits.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that government officials have qualified immunity against civil damages if their conduct does not violate someone's legal or constitutional rights.
“The plaintiffs presented evidence indicating that all of the defendants understood that the warrant was for a small amount of drugs meant only for personal use. The basis for the officersʹ entry, in other words, was related to an offense that was neither grave nor violent,” the appeals court wrote in a decision released late Monday.
The ruling coincides with a rash of cases in which police have been accused of using excessive force. In Ferguson, Missouri, days of sometimes violent protests have followed the death of an unarmed teenager shot by a police officer.
The Connecticut raid involved officers from the Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Darien and Wilton police departments.
It followed a claim by an exotic dancer that she had seen a small amount of cocaine in Terebesi's home. After the raid, police found only a small quantity of drugs and no guns.
The Easton Police Department declined to comment immediately, and representatives of the other four departments could not be reached on Tuesday.
The towns have claimed their SWAT officers did not use excessive force or violate either man's constitutional rights.
But District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled in 2012 that the departments are responsible because the SWAT team entered the home with undue force and without enough warning.
Prior to the raid, two police officers expressed concern about using force to execute a search warrant on suspicions of drug possession, court records indicate.
Last February, the towns agreed to pay $3.5 million to Guizan's family to settle their lawsuit.
Terebesi, 50, states in his lawsuit that he was injured when police hit him in the head with a gun. He claims he is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of the raid, which he says violated his civil rights.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Ken Wills)

• Crime & Justice
• Politics & Government
• federal appeals court
• SWAT team
• constitutional rights
• Connecticut

Click to view comments
View Comments (506)

https://news.yahoo.com/u-court-not-b...233911169.html

SWAT team breaks down door, shoots man as he watched TV with friend

"It was the most blatant overuse of police power I've ever seen."

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Site Staff in News

SWAT members congregate outside the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. (Source: Christian Abraham)

Video at the page link:

EASTON, CT — Police violently broke in on a couple of men watching television, exploded concussion grenades, and shot one man roughly a second after entry. The fatal, under-investigated raid yielded no arrests and led to the shooter being named “Officer of the Year.” All because someone was suspected of getting high without government permission.

* * * * *

The disturbing operation happened on the afternoon of May 18th, 2008. Homeowner Ronald Terebesi was sitting in his living room with his friend, 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk.
At around 2:00 p.m., the entrance door of 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton was abruptly splintered by a battering ram. In an instant, explosions were rocking the house and shadowy figures dressed in black poured into the home. When the smoke cleared and the chaos was over, Mr. Guizan lied in a pool of blood, shot multiple times.
The violence wasn’t the result of a street gang or cartel; the gun-wielding men were members of a SWAT team serving a no-knock search warrant for narcotics. The explosions were three (3) flashbang grenades that police had tossed through the windows and doors.
Besides killing Mr. Guizan, police allegedly assaulted Mr. Terebesi by pinning him to the floor and hitting him in the head with a rifle stock. Officers then tore apart the home looking for contraband.

Death in seconds

An amateur video of the raid was recorded from a moving vehicle (shown below). The clip shows little of the raid but a brief glimpse of the SWAT team lined up outside the home before entry.
More revealing, however, was the accompanying audio. The sound of the door breaking occurred at the 1:18 mark of the video. The shooting erupted almost immediately and the gunfire stopped at 1:20. Mr. Guizan was shot full of holes in just 2 seconds after entry.

Like an army

The nine-man team lined up, single-file, in a “stack formation” outside the home, led by a man bearing a large metal shield. The team was accompanied by an armored police vehicle and several SUVs, along with multiple snipers that had positioned themselves in the nearby woods.
“It looked like the Russian army had approached,” neighbor Drew Clark commented to NBC Connecticut. “This was overkill.”
Officer Michael Sweeney of the Monroe Police Department was the shield-bearer, and was told to rush in and pin Mr. Terebesi with the shield. He was directed to not even wait for the final flashbang to detonate.
In formation, with rifles ready, the team began to count down over the radio. “Ten, nine, eight…” At the count of “one,” police behind the house shattered the back windows and threw in the concussion grenades into the dining room as a distraction. The entry team would come in from the front.
Mr. Terebesi, in an interview following the incident, said that he and his friend were watching television when they “heard what sounded like the dining room chandelier falling down, followed by two shotgun blasts.” These sounds were actually the glass windows being shattered and the first two flashbang grenades exploding.
Both Terebesi and Guizan moved away from the commotion, towards the den room at the front of the house. “As they approached the front door, it opened, followed by sharp flashes,” according to State Attorney Jonathan Benedict’s report. “Both men were immediately knocked back and pinned by an officer using a large shield.”
The team had rushed in so quickly that the third grenade detonated in the proximity to the police officers, causing debris to strike the leg of Officer Sweeney, who led with his sheild. He yelled, “I’m hit, I’m hit!”
Officer Brian Weir, believing his comrade was under attack, fired one shot, but didn’t hit anyone. Sweeney unleashed a volley of bullets at Mr. Guizan, striking him half a dozen times.
Officer Sweeney later testified that Terebesi and Guizan rushed him, tugged on his shield, and that Guizan tried to take his pistol. However, no evidence backed that claim up. Officer Weir testified that he did not see any struggle between the men. There were no fingerprints found on Sweeney’s gun belonging to the decedent. And as the video demonstrates, the entire confrontation happened in about a second.
“There is undisputed evidence Guizan and Terebesi were huddled in a corner when police shot,” Gary Mastronardi, an attorney for the homeowner, told the Connecticut Post.



SWAT members congregate outside the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. (Source: Christian Abraham)

Grounds for the raid

The police proceeded with the raid on an incredibly flimsy basis. The morning of May 18th, the Easton Police Department received a call from a self-described exotic dancer who called herself “Chandra Parker.” The unvetted informant — who had given a fake name, and actually had a criminal record — claimed that she spent 30 minutes at Mr. Terebesi’s home and saw him remove an unknown material from a tin container, put it in a pipe, and smoke it.
That was all the evidence that was needed for Easton Police Chief John “Jack” Solomon to call out the Southwest Regional Emergency Response Team (SWRERT), which is comprised of police officers from Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Wilton and Darien. The chief was eager to rid the neighborhood of a resident that was viewed as a nuisance after a series of petty complaints.
“I want this search warrant done today,” the chief demanded, according to the deposition testimony of Officer Christopher Barton. “He didn’t want it to wait until Monday or Tuesday or something like that. He wanted it completed that day.”
SWRERT team commander Lieutenant Ronald Kirby of the Trumbull Police Department had reservations about the raid, due to the fact that a child’s birthday party was happening across the street; there were balloons tied to the neighbor’s mailbox. Kirby said that Chief Solomon was insistent that the raid be performed immediately.
According to Solomon, the urgency was to ensure that the bust occurred while evidence was still present. He stated that the raid was necessary to “obtain the evidence that the crime — obviously a crime was occurring, and to obtain that evidence.”

Gonzalo Guizan was shot by police approximately half a dozen times while watching television with his friend in Easton, Connecticut.

Ronald Terebisi was thumped in the head with the butt of a rifle during a no-knock raid on his Easton Home. (Source: Brian Pounds)

Drug ‘bust’

Following the operation, police had little to show for their efforts. Besides Mr. Guizan’s bullet-riddled body, they took a scale, a couple glass pipes, a legal Vicotin prescription, an empty tin, and no weapons.
The prize of the operation was the recovery of an empty plastic bag with colored “residue” of drugs on it. The traces were so minimal that prosecutors allowed Ronald Terebesi, Jr., to go to through a pretrial diversionary program with no trial or prison time. The whole ordeal was settled with some drug education classes.
It was no major bust, and the men who were just minding their own business.
“These were two guys with no criminal records at all,” said attorney Gary Mastronardi. “No history of violence at all.” And although Mr. Terebesi was a gun owner, he had never threatened anyone.
“It was the most blatant overuse of police power I’ve ever seen,” Mastronardi added, speaking with a background as a former FBI agent.
During a deposition, Officer Sweeney later asked: “Why didn’t we just knock on the door?”



The home of Ronald Terebisi and the site of a fatal SWAT raid. (Source: Brian Pounds)

No individual accountability

Easton Police Chief John “Jack” Solomon faced no accountability for the botched, under-investigated raid and voluntarily retired a few years later.
Officer Michael Sweeney continues his career and was declared the Monroe Police Department’s “Officer of the Year” for his role in shooting Mr. Guizan to death.
As is often the case, no one faced any discipline, termination, or criminal charges for the fatally inept police work.

Civil court

Mr. Terebesi, and Mr. Guizan’s survivors, each hired attorneys and have spent several years attempting to pursue the associated police departments for rights violations and excessive force.
District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled in 2012 that the departments are responsible because the SWRERT team entered the home with undue force and without enough warning.
In February 2013, the five towns agreed to a $3.5 million dollar settlement with the estate of Mr. Guizan. Ultimately the taxpayers were punished, but not the police.
In August 2014, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling which cleared the way for a jury to decide whether the five associated police departments violated Mr. Terebesi’s constitutional rights during the raid.
“The plaintiffs presented evidence indicating that all of the defendants understood that the warrant was for a small amount of drugs meant only for personal use. The basis for the officers’ entry, in other words, was related to an offense that was neither grave nor violent,” the appeals court wrote in its 51-page decision.

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/r...terebesi-raid/

U.S. Court Will Not Block Lawsuits Over Connecticut SWAT Raid

Reuters
Posted: 08/26/2014 11:30 pm EDT Updated: 08/27/2014 1:59 pm EDT



Connecticut State Police officers respond to a bomb threat outside of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. Worshippers hurriedly left the church Sunday, not far from where a gunman opened fire Friday inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. The all-clear was given after an hour in which armed police in SWAT gear searched the church and adjacent buildings. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) | ASSOCIATED PRESS


(Corrects hometown of shooting victim in para 3)

By Richard Weizel

MILFORD, Conn., Aug 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Connecticut police cannot claim immunity to quash lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages from a botched 2008 raid by a SWAT team that severely injured a homeowner and killed his friend.

The decision by the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals in New York clears the way for a judge to decide whether five suburban Connecticut police departments violated the constitutional rights of homeowner Ronald Terebesi by using excessive force.

On May 18, 2008, a heavily armed SWAT - or special weapons and tactics - team unit knocked down Terebesi's door, threw stun flash grenades into his Easton home and fatally shot 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk as the two men watched television.

Guizan, who was visiting the home, died after being shot a half dozen times.

"The court ruling here is going to be relied upon in other courts throughout the country," Gary Mastronardi, a Bridgeport attorney who represents Terebesi, said on Tuesday. "They set up the parameters that define the extent to which qualified immunity can be asserted by police in SWAT cases."

In a 51-page ruling that upholds a lower court decision, the appeals court said the police responded with unnecessary and inappropriate force and under the circumstances, are not protected by "qualified immunity" from the lawsuits.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that government officials have qualified immunity against civil damages if their conduct does not violate someone's legal or constitutional rights.

"The plaintiffs presented evidence indicating that all of the defendants understood that the warrant was for a small amount of drugs meant only for personal use. The basis for the officers entry, in other words, was related to an offense that was neither grave nor violent," the appeals court wrote in a decision released late Monday.

The ruling coincides with a rash of cases in which police have been accused of using excessive force. In Ferguson, Missouri, days of sometimes violent protests have followed the death of an unarmed teenager shot by a police officer.

The Connecticut raid involved officers from the Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Darien and Wilton police departments.

It followed a claim by an exotic dancer that she had seen a small amount of cocaine in Terebesi's home. After the raid, police found only a small quantity of drugs and no guns.

The Easton Police Department declined to comment immediately, and representatives of the other four departments could not be reached on Tuesday.

The towns have claimed their SWAT officers did not use excessive force or violate either man's constitutional rights.

But District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled in 2012 that the departments are responsible because the SWAT team entered the home with undue force and without enough warning.

Prior to the raid, two police officers expressed concern about using force to execute a search warrant on suspicions of drug possession, court records indicate.

Last February, the towns agreed to pay $3.5 million to Guizan's family to settle their lawsuit.

Terebesi, 50, states in his lawsuit that he was injured when police hit him in the head with a gun. He claims he is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of the raid, which he says violated his civil rights. (Editing by Frank McGurty and Ken Wills)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5719977.html

Court: cops don't have immunity for fatal raid

Daniel Tepfer
Updated 12:25 am, Tuesday, August 26, 2014

• Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. Photo: Christian Abraham, Christian Abraham | Buy this photo
  Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo...
• Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. Photo: Christian Abraham, Christian Abraham | Buy this photo
  Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo...
• Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. Photo: Christian Abraham, Christian Abraham | Buy this photo
  Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo...
• Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was shot and killed by police during a raid on May 18th, 2008. Photo: Christian Abraham, Christian Abraham | Buy this photo
  Police at the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo...
• 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed group of police officers raided the home of Ronald Terebesi on May 18, 2008. Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk was killed during the raid. Photo: Brian A. Pounds | Buy this photo
  91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed group of police...
• 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed group of police officers raided the home of Ronald Terebesi on May 18, 2008. Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk was killed during the raid. Photo: Brian A. Pounds | Buy this photo
  91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed group of police...
• A sign outside 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed group of police officers raided the home of Ronald Terebesi on May 18, 2008. Gonzalo Guizan of Norwalk was killed during the raid. Photo: Brian A. Pounds | Buy this photo
  A sign outside 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton, where a heavily armed...
• Ronald Terebisi, owner of the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton, Conn. where Gonzalo Guizan was killed during a police raid on May 18th, 2008. Photo: Brian A. Pounds | Buy this photo
  Ronald Terebisi, owner of the home on Dogwood Drive, in Easton,...

Related Stories

• A costly SWAT raid gone wrong related_link|article-4303215|article-5711350|1
• Towns to pay $3.5M in deadly cop raid related_link|article-4290145|article-5711350|2
• Judge: Towns responsible in fatal 2008 police raid related_link|article-3833616|article-5711350|3
• Easton shooting was factor in later fatal raid related_link|article-402070|article-5711350|4
• Lawyers: Tape raises questions about fatal Easton raid related_link|article-283043|article-5711350|5
• Second suit filed in fatal Easton raid related_link|article-126445|article-5711350|6
• Police team sued over fatal Easton raid related_link|article-124187|article-5711350|7

A federal appeals court has ruled the police departments of Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Darien and Wilton cannot use a shield of immunity to protect them from millions of dollars in civil rights claims arising from a 2008 tactical-team raid that killed a Norwalk man and injured an Easton homeowner.
In a 51-page decision, 10 months after it heard arguments in the case, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for a jury to decide whether the police departments violated Ronald Terebesi's constitutional rights when a heavily armed team smashed down his door, tossed stun grenades into his home and fatally shot his house guest, 33-year-old Gonzalo Guizan, as the two men were watching TV.
During the raid, Guizan was shot half a dozen times by Monroe Officer Michael Sweeney.
The police team's action was based on a claim by an exotic dancer that she saw a small amount of cocaine and some smoking pipes in Terebesi's home.
Last February, the towns agreed to pay $3.5 million to Guizan's family to settle their lawsuit. Terebesi states in his lawsuit he was injured when police pinned him to the floor and hit him in the head with a gun butt. He claims he is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result from the raid and his civil rights were violated.
"It was the most blatant overuse of police power I've ever seen," said Terebesi's lawyer, Gary Mastronardi, a former FBI agent. "This is a very important decision and will be cited in cases all over the U.S."
The appeals court did uphold former Easton Police Chief John Solomon's right to claim immunity for calling in the team -- but not for what came afterward, referring in the first line of the decision to the "botched" raid.
The court ruled that "the defendants point to no evidence in the record suggesting that Terebesi would actually use force against the police."
Arthur Laske III, who represents Trumbull police officers involved in the raid, said he was "pleased that the 2nd Circuit overturned the lower court decision and extended qualified immunity regarding the decision to deploy the (Southwest Regional Emergency Response Team).
"As for the remainder of the court's decision, I will consult with my clients regarding our options," Laske said.
"Retired Chief Solomon is very pleased that the 2nd Circuit determined he is entitled to qualified immunity for the decision to call out the emergency response team on that day in 2008," said his lawyer, Catherine S. Nietzel. "During the course of this lawsuit, there has been considerable focus and attention paid to the background of that decision. Chief Solomon always maintained that his motivation was to prevent violence by calling in the tactical experts, and to protect the residents of Easton and the officers involved. He is gratified not to face further challenge on that issue."
Mastronardi said if the towns don't ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, they will be given a trial date.
"We have overcome all their attempts to throw the case out; now it's time for the police to face the music and for a jury to decide whether Terebesi is entitled to money damages," he said.
On May 18, 2008, heavily armed members of the team, staffed by officers from the five towns, at Solomon's request raided Terebesi's home at 91 Dogwood Drive in Easton.
Guizan had been watching television in the home with Terebesi when the 21-member team, armed with automatic weapons, broke down the door and threw flash grenades inside. No guns were found in the home, and police recovered only a small quantity of drugs.
According to his pretrial testimony, Solomon decided to call in the team after an exotic dancer, who had earlier been at the home. told officers she saw Terebesi and Guizan take "something" out of a small tin, place it in two small glass smoking pipes and smoke it.
She never told officers there were weapons in the home.
The raid came days after a neighborhood group, including the former first selectman who hired Solomon, had complained to Solomon about Terebesi.
Raid members later testified they were told Terebesi had guns and was considered dangerous.

dtepfer@ctpost.com; 203-330-6308; http://twitter.com/dantepfer


http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/...id-5711350.php