Oops – wrong house
Facing charges for the police officers’ mistake:
A father and son are furious after surviving a terrifying experience. They face criminal charges after police responded to their home by mistake.
[…]
The officers charged the Chilton’s with resisting arrest and aggravated assault for the incident.
Police did not drop the charges even after learning they responded to the wrong house.
Story is from February.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
One simply does not drop the charges until one has a signed waiver of the victims’ right to sue.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
My Authoritah! You WILL bend to it!
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
How sad is it that I’m not shocked or surprised?
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
In my state, there is an affirmative defense to resisting arrest if it is found that you are not guilty of the crime you are being arrested for. Hopefully TN has something similar. They should call in another agency and file charges against the police for aggravated assault.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Dang. And the Obersturmbannfuehrer will not drop the charges? I thought TN might be one of the remaining free states. Guess not.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Our employees should be under teh same laws as us, their employer. I think that’s called “the equal protectiion of the laws”…you know, as in the 14th Amendment.
What?! How dare you mention the Constitution in my courtroom!! Yo’re in contempt of court!!
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Just a couple more bad apples popping up.
Lance, what state is that? Defending ones self from the agents of the state sounds like a novel idea!
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Here in DE state law says you may not resist even an unlawful arrest.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It’s best not to resist for the obvious reasons. Let them do their thing and then SUE THE SHIT OUT OF THEM. Damages done to the place, mental anguish, demand removal from the records of your arrest.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Side bar. Went to visit a friend in an apartment house. Sign on the neighbors place “John Phillips was shot to death trying to enter this apartment. Don’t even think about it.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
If you will search the names of the accused you will see some other developments…the dispatcher and a few of the officers got in moderate hot water, and the court proceedings for the Chiltons began in early June.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
In most states, it is illegal to resist arrest *even if the arrest is illegal*. For obvious reasons.
And I would be big bucks the reason they won’t drop the charges is because it would be tacitly making an admission that would constitute better grounds (than the ones they already have) for a civil lawsuit.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
In my home state of Washington, it is illegal to resist arrest, even if you are innocent of the pretext for the arrest, unless you are in immanent danger. In other words, unless the officer is threatening to kill you or you have reason to believe they will harm you after you are in custody.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.76.040
You don’t have to be proven guilty for an arrest to be “lawful”.
I think they have a good case for arguing they didn’t resist arrest, at least as the article outlines the scenario. Merely responding to someone pounding on the door does not show 1. that they knew it was the police, or 2. that they resisted once they did know it was the police.
3. I hope the incompetent bastards lose their badges. And do jail time, tho that is not likely. Bad enough to respond to the wrong house, inexcusable to persist in persecuting (not to mention prosecuting) the innocent victm of their incompetence.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
When they start dying at the scenes of their “mistakes”, they’ll probably start being more responsible.
I’d like to take this opportunity to highly recommend all patriots read, “Unintended Consequences” by John Ross.
Nex ut Tyrannus
The hogs are hungry.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Agreed. Right now our police-state allows them to raid and arrest whomever with little justification or due-diligence. They have to wonder if they’ll live before they’ll start doing their jobs properly as our public servants.
As a practical matter, I will stop anyone who invades my home with lethal force (here in Houston the bad guys exploit the ‘submit-and-don’t-lift-a-finger-to-police’ conditioning and raid homes dressed as police and shouting “Police!”). I’ll hope they weren’t cops after the smoke clears.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Well, thats OK, I would let them take that case as far as they wanted to. In the interum, I would be filing suit in Federal district Court for a whole liteny of unlawfuls against those officers, thier superiors and thier dept and the jurisdiction for which they are employed. I would make so much money that when it was all said and done, I would be on my way to New Zealand(no extradition) to my a nice bech front mansion:)
June 24th, 2009 at 9:47 am
The words you’re looking for are, “Jointly and severally”.
When the cop with the battering ram risks, not a suspension-with-pay while his department runs up the (taxpayer-funded) legal fees in his defense, but losing HIS house for screwing up- maybe he’ll doublecheck the address.
When his supervising officer risks- not an IAD kabuki-theater investigation for failing to supervise his officers correctly, but losing HIS house for screwing up- maybe he’ll pay a little more attention to good procedures.
When the Chief of Police risks- not having to give a public nonapology that he’ll have forgotten about in less than a workday, but losing HIS house for failing to keep discipline- maybe he’ll care a little more about how his officers are trained and how they meet standards of professional behavior.
Eliminate Soverign Immunity for police officers!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:24 am
DaveP. has it right. If my family members had to worry about personal liability in the performance of their job duties as LEOs, maybe they would stop being legally incompetent and actually learn a few laws, and maybe even some ConLaw.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
harleycowboy Says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It’s best not to resist for the obvious reasons. Let them do their thing and then SUE THE SHIT OUT OF THEM. Damages done to the place, mental anguish, demand removal from the records of your arrest.
You may be right that this would be “best”. It wouldn’t satisfy me. I’ll leave it to you to imagine what might.