tiredandfedup23 said:
In order for them to bust the door down, I thought the police had to be denied entry.
No. They are required to wait for a "reasonable" period of time ... this is usually only a matter of seconds. It could also be possible that they had a "no knock-notice" exception on the warrant which would allow them to force entry without a knock.
Before I could even react, one of the officers grabbed a handful of my hair and threw me to the ground. I immediately put my hands behind my back while he continued to pull my hair tighter and force my face as hard as he could to the floor. In the meantime he was yelling as loud as possible into my ear to follow his authorities when I couldn't have moved an inch even if I wanted to.
While you may feel it was "too much", it is better than too little force which could have resulted in greater injury to all involved.
When we make entry in a warrant service, we tend to secure everyone as fast as possible. And if it is a "dynamic entry" (i.e. hard and fast after forcing the door), then we take everyone down hard.
It is better to dust someone off and explain what happened then have to contact next of kin for an officer or a suspect.
I was the only one there and they found nothing to support their search warrant.
Okay ... but they likely did not know you were the only one there. We always assume there are subjects bent on doing us harm when we make an entry like this - it keeps everyone alive.
And it is not uncommon to NOT find drugs even when well supported on the warrant affidavit. The nature of drugs being such a fluid commodity means that by the time the cops get word that some dope is stashed and they can write the warrant, the product has moved.
However, at about the same time the arrested my boyfriend at a friends house with some illegal narcotics.
So they weren't all that far off the mark now, were they?
He had been on house arrest and by the gps monitor on his ankle, they were able to locate him. I don't feel what they did was right and I need to know if this is something to bring to my lawyer's attention.
So ... your boyfriend was on house arrest and wasn't where he should have been? And you're dating him ... why?
And what do you want an attorney to do for you? The fact that they served a search warrant signed by a judge sort of precludes any action for an unlawful search. And while you may have been in pain for a few moments due to being taken down hard, that is not generally cause for a civil action unless it also resulted in some injury requiring medical attention.
You can bring it to your lawyer's attention but I doubt there is anything that he can do for you aside from helping you draw up a restraining order request to keep your doper boyfriend away from you.
- Carl
