Botch A Drug Raid? No Problem, Just Seal The Warrant, Citizen Complaint And Gag Order Itself
from the let-no-stone-be-turned dept
Anyone can make a mistake. The best solution is to acknowledge it, make amends if needed, and move forward, striving to learn from the experience. Far too many entities opt instead for bluster, obfuscation and intimidation, rather than deal with the consequences of their screwup. This is especially true for law enforcement agencies, who often use everything in their power to avoid having to admit anything went wrong, much less take responsibility for it.
Here's what went wrong recently, to the detriment of a person who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time: his own house.
A Benedict Avenue resident contends Huron County deputies forced their way into his home Tuesday without a search warrant.Bad enough, but it gets worse.
John Collins, who lives in one unit of a triplex home at 114 Benedict Ave., contends deputies got the wrong address when they executed the search warrant. The warrant was for the unit next to his, he said.
The deputies handcuffed him and left him lying on the floor in his unit for 20 minutes after they realized the mistake, Collins said.
They tore through his home, he said, after cuffing him and forcing him to the floor facedown. “They searched my whole house, pulled stuff out my closet, broke a couple knick knacks” he said.How did the offending deputies rectify the situation after they realized they had both the wrong home and the wrong person? They uncuffed him and left, as if all of the above had never happened.
One deputy also stepped on his tablet, shattering its screen. Another broke a ceramic decoration that once belonged to his now-deceased son, Collins said...
Two deputies must have realized the mistake, Collins said, because they recognized him from their school days and had to have known he was not the man identified in the search warrant. The deputies went next door, he said. They made contact with the residents there — who were later arrested for drug trafficking.
But six or so other deputies continued searching Collins’ home.
Collins filed a complaint against the Huron County Sheriff's Department and asked for a copy of the search warrant. This is when the department went on full lockdown with some help from the local judiciary.
Huron County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy Cardwell issued a secret gag order March 21 to seal the search warrant. The gag order is also secret, Cardwell’s court clerk said after the Register asked for a copy of the order.Even Collins' complaint itself is now under seal, and the Sheriff's Department is circling the wagons, digging a moat around the circle and filling that moat with blustery statements and unanswered phones.
First, the department flatout denied it had done anything wrong, calling Collins' story a "rumor" that was "highly inaccurate." And, who knows, maybe that would still be up for debate (citizen v. cop and all that), but then the department went and had the complaint sealed. And the warrant. And the gag order itself. It also issued a contradictory statement a few days later.
"We finished a search warrant at 114-1/2 Benedict Ave," he said Thursday. "Our next move then was to check on an individual who may have a warrant in close proximity."Now, the story has changed. According to this narrative, the department supposedly had a warrant for Collins' address but then decided to pursue a different warrant after tossing the first house for twenty minutes while its resident lay face down on the floor, handcuffed. Warrant news must travel really slowly in Huron County, though. The warrant that deputies "became aware of" during their search of the wrong address was issued in 2012.
Patrick said deputies "became aware of warrants for an individual in close proximity, which was next door."
From that point on, the department (wisely, or at least as close to "wise" as any of this gets) decided to cut the lines of communication, as Matt Westerhold of the Sandusky Register notes in his description of the department's "Plan B."
As Sheriff's Howard's spokesman, make yourself as unavailable and be unfriendly as possible to any reporter who has questions about the inconsistent story you're trying to make sure the public hears.Still, the department (via Capt. Ted Patrick) continues to insist that it did nothing wrong. But it's completely unwilling to provide any evidence to back that assertion up. Instead, it expects to just push its way through the mess it's created without ever having to explain exactly what went on that night, all with the implicit blessing of a local judge.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: gag orders, huron county, law enforcement, police, secrecy, transparency
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
motherfuckin' eagles, bitchez! ! !
trumps all !
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Our next move then was to check on a country - Afghanistan - which was in close proximity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jaill for all involved
Corruption this blatant should get a huge kick in the pants!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Jaill for all involved
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Juve judge
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Juve judge
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Because.
Haven't you got that memo by now?
Because.
Well since you're nice to me let me fill in the blanks.
Because national security.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Although the FBI's (FOIA-exempt) files on Martin Luther King are supposed to be made public in 2027 (more than 70 years after first being compiled) I wouldn't be surprised by some sort of "Copyright-Act-like extensions that attempt to keep them under wraps for "forever minus a day".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Notice how all following presidents were shitballs. Jimmy Carter can be forgiven, and if it wasn't for Reagan's camp manipulations a week before the vote, he would have been a 2 term president, he was the first target of concerted effort at undermining a President by the fury of corrupt mass media then.
He brought it on himself though, that asshole, how dare he even talk about severing ties with Usrael? (only the massive welfare cheques you give them). This is not the kind of thing that's easy to find in history books, but some (I forgot which authors) have discussed this. Apparently he even went as far as saying to his generals : "If I am re-elected, I'll fuck the "jews".
The guy had more balls than he looked like. The fact mass media ridiculize him to this day for being a humanitarian (a real one, not this bullshit like the Clinton Initiative...) is a good hint about how good of a person he was/is. I only hold contempt on his abortion views, but that's something very old people are expected to have.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
You got that right. I would've added 'elected'.
"...how dare he even talk about severing ties with Israel?"
Or, as I've heard it, having reservations about giving them nukes when those nukes were demanded.
(obligatory disclaimer: my views are mine alone and represent no one and nothing but me. Further, I do not have anything against Jewish people or Judaism. Israel and Zionism are completely different and separate from Judaism.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
In the late 60's he had a bar/music club that was very popular in Chicago. Because the cops and politicians there hated all the counterculture "hippies" hanging over there one day they had "enough" and had the fire dept show up to close down the place and make everyone leave saying the building was unsafe in case of fire. Then they detained him shortly, when he was released, he noticed that his bar was filled with garbage, megapounds of garbage everywhere. Turns out it was the cops who did this and then the place was closed due to uncleanliness and many other bullshit reasons.
That's when he realized Fascism had taken over America. In 1968...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Continue searching anyway
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
nathandog04@yahoo.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Even if he had security cameras in his house, I bet the Huron County TD would have seized the video tapes during their warrant-less search, and then said the evidence was lost.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Even with the bad translation it's evident that things can be done differently.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There should a federal review of what went wrong
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just another nail in the coffin
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Violence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Violence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Botch A Raid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Botch A Raid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]