A Hispanic American Chicago family who said their 5- and 9-year-old children were traumatized by guns pointed at them during a bungled 2017 no-knock police raid on the wrong apartment are poised to receive $2.5 million in a settlement of their lawsuit against the city and seven police officers.
On Monday, the Chicago City Council’s finance committee approved the settlement award, which the full council may take up on Wednesday.
The lawsuit (obtained by Atlanta Black Star) stems from a November 2017 incident during which Chicago police officers broke down the door of the Mendez family’s second-floor apartment, allegedly shouting obscenities and barking orders as they brandished assault rifles and handguns.
According to their search warrant, based a tip from a confidential informant, they were looking for suspected drug dealers Curtis Roberts and Patricka Cavazos and contraband including illegal drugs, paraphernalia and cash.
Whom they found inside the apartment were Gilbert Mendez, a Hispanic American housekeeping assistant for a local hospital and his wife, Hester Mendez, a Native American administrative assistant for a health insurance company, neither of whom had criminal records; and their two children — Jack, 5, and Peter, 9.
It was 6:45 p.m. on the day of the raid, and the two boys were playing on the wooden floor of the front hallway, the complaint says. Without announcing themselves, police officers rammed the door and charged inside, pointing firearms at the startled boys, who leapt up and ran down the hall to the living room where their mother was watching TV. Three officers rushed after them.
Meanwhile, other officers allegedly encountered Gilbert Mendez in the kitchen and shouted at him to “Get the f—k down!” and “Don’t make me shoot you!”
Mendez complied and was lying face down on the kitchen floor as he saw his sons running toward the living room with an officer chasing behind him holding a large gun, the complaint says.
Peter later recounted that he saw his father on the floor with guns pointed down at him and heard the police shouting at him, a “terrifying image … forever burned into [his] memory.”
Police also ordered Hester Mendez to “Get the f—k on the floor!” while pointing a large gun at her, the lawsuit says, while Peter and Jack “were balled up next to each other in a fetal position in the corner of the couch, cowering and visibly shaking.”
When Hester Mendez asked the officers, “What is this about? I need to know,” one officer allegedly replied, “We have a warrant. That’s all you need to know.”
The officers never presented a search warrant to the Mendezes or told them why they were there, but several minutes into the encounter Hester Mendez saw the search warrant that Sgt. Russell Egan had set down on a box in the living room.
She told the officers they were in the wrong apartment, and that Roberts and Cavazos lived upstairs, on the third floor.
The physical descriptions of the targets on the warrant did not match the Mendezes, the complaint observes. The female named in the warrant was 5 feet 8 while Hester Mendez is 5 feet 1.
Not all of the officers activated their body-worn cameras during the raid, but one officer apparently said, “Aw man, Oh F—k,” as he appeared to realize the officers were in the wrong apartment. Multiple bodycam videos from the incident show that shortly after the search began, officers became aware their true targets were elsewhere, the lawsuit says.
But instead of suspending their search and leaving, the officers continued searching the Mendezes apartment, while Gilbert Mendez was separated from his family, lying on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Jack and Peter screamed hysterically for their father and pleaded to officers, “Don’t shoot my daddy” and “Don’t kill my daddy,” the complaint says.
Later the boys asked, “Why do you have my dad in handcuffs?” and “Are you going to take him to jail? … He didn’t do anything.”
“My life flashed before my eyes. My heart was pounding,” Peter, now 17, testified during the civil trial in April, reported CBS2-TV. “I thought I wasn’t going to have a dad. I thought I was going to lose my father that day.”
Officers did not find any contraband in the Mendezes apartment, arrest them or issue any citations, the lawsuit notes.
During the incident, officers broke open the inner and outer front doors of the apartment building, the front door to the Mendezes’ apartment, and their bedroom closet door.
Right before they left, they removed the handcuffs from Gilbert Mendez, offering no explanations for their actions, nor supplying any names or phone numbers to help the Mendezes to follow up about the misguided search or the repairing the damage, the lawsuit says.
“Officers terrorized a totally innocent family and departed, leaving behind all of the damage, physical and psychological, for others to cope with in the days, weeks and years to come,” the complaint says.
After the raid, Peter and Jack Mendez suffered recurring nightmares, developed behavioral problems at school, and displayed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit says. Both received psychiatric treatment and counseling.
Peter had recurrent flashbacks of officers surrounding his father with guns, and was afraid to be by himself, even in the bathroom.
Jack, who was outgoing and friendly before the incident, was shaken by ordinary noises and startled easily afterwards, sometimes hiding in coat closets. He developed a hyperactivity disorder and due to behavioral problems sometimes spent entire days in the school office, the lawsuit says. Eventually his parents had to remove him from school.
The lawsuit contended that the city of Chicago has a long-standing, pervasive practice of failing to adequately investigate, intervene and discipline its police officers for the use of excessive force involving children, including unnecessary force directed at children and adult family members in the presence of children.
It argued that the historical failure of the city to properly train and check the practices of police in use of force directly encouraged and caused the officers’ conduct towards the Mendez family.
Among the Chicago PD’s notoriously botched raids was a 2019 incident involving Anjanette Young, a social worker who was standing naked in her living room when nine police officers burst in, armed with rifles and a search warrant listing the wrong apartment number. (The man they were after lived next door).
In that case, police failed to independently verify the information provided, including the suspect’s address, before executing the search warrant, against police policy. Officers violated the same policy when they stormed into the Mendez home, the complaint argues.
Besides accusing the officers and the city of using excessive force, the lawsuit claims the officers relied on an invalid warrant to conduct an unlawful search; falsely arrested and imprisoned Gilbert Mendez; assaulted all family members by pointing guns at them at close range, causing them fear; and negligently inflicted emotional distress.
The plaintiffs sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
In its answer to the amended complaint, filed in November 2019, the officers denied chasing the boys while pointing guns at them or that they stood around Gilbert Mendez and pointed guns down at him, noting that such actions were not captured on video. (The plaintiffs argue the body cameras not activated missed the gunpointing and cursing during the first few minutes of the incident).
The police admitted that not all officers had activated their body cameras and said that on Nov. 7, 2017, it was not yet the “official mandate” that officers wear body cameras, as body cameras were new to the unit and officers were learning their usage.
After Gilbert Mendez was asked if he possessed weapons or contraband on his person and said that he had a pocket knife, the officers gave him directions on how to go about standing up, and escorted to the living room to join his family, where he initially stood wearing handcuffs, then was permitted to sit on a couch near his family.
The police officers denied that it was possible to immediately determine the Mendezes’ precise height or to immediately discern that Mrs. Mendez was not the Hispanic female target.
After Hester Mendez read the search warrant and told officers the targets lived upstairs, Gilbert Mendez was un-handcuffed within less than a minute and a half, about 11 minutes into the incident, which took place over about 15 minutes, the answer says. He was informed in the presence of his family that he was not under arrest.
The officers admitted forced entry was made to outer and inner doors, but denied any substantial damage to the Mendezes’ front door, “as it just popped open.”
All seven officers involved in the raid violated Chicago Police Department rules, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability determined five years later, after a probe was completed in January 2022, reported WTTW.
Former Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown agreed and recommended that one officer be suspended for 60 days, two officers for 30 days, three officers for five days, and one officer for three days, police records show.
All of the officers remain on active duty with the Chicago Police Department, according to the city’s employee database.
Several search warrant reforms were enacted by Chicago and state legislators after the incident, including a state law in Peter Mendez’s name.
During the trial in April, lawyers representing the city told the jury that officers did not point their guns at the two boys, CBS-TV reported.
Hester Mendez testified that her sons are not the same since the raid happened; that they became afraid often, are on high alert, required therapy, and still struggle with the trauma today.
“Our home was our home, and we felt safe in our home,” Hester said, “and that was taken away from us.”
On April 29, a week into the trial, a settlement was reached between the parties, according to court documents. A sealed motion to terminate the case was filed on June 13.
Last week, lawyers for the city of Chicago recommended that the city approve the $2.5 million settlement, which was approved by the city council’s finance department on Monday and now awaits approval by the full council.
Great Job Jill Jordan Sieder & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
