when cops make a mistake, and just don't give a shit

[SmarterthanYou]

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/huron-county-sheriffs-office/5473596

A Benedict Avenue resident contends Huron County deputies forced their way into his home Tuesday without a search warrant.

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 searched my whole house, pulled stuff out my closet, broke a couple knick knacks” he said.

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.

Collins said he repeatedly told the deputies they had the wrong house.

“But they kept saying, ‘This is a drug house,’ and ‘You shouldn’t be in a drug house then’” 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.

After they’d been in his home for awhile, one deputy returned and told him he was under arrest and began reading him his rights, Collins said.

But just a short while later, they uncuffed him and apologized.

“Then they just left like it was nothing” Collins said.

a citizens only recourse at this point is to file a complaint, so what happens when you do?

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.

And the criminal complaint that was filed with the Huron County Sheriff’s Office also is secret.

so the cops, with the local judiciary assistance, is to make everything secret so nobody can access it and find out the truth.

in the meantime, the cops put out multiple excuses.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/blog/matt-westerhold/5474236

Here's how a local newspaper reported it Friday:

"Rumors about authorities using a warrant at the wrong Norwalk residence are untrue, a sheriff's spokesman said Thursday.

"'It's highly inaccurate. It's not factual,' Huron County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Ted Patrick told the Reflector.

"'We stand behind what we did. I stand behind what our men and women did," he added."

But it wasn't a "rumor" Capt. Patrick referred to; it was a complaint he hoped to ignore.

The explanation Chief Deputy Patrick provided the Register when a reporter inquired about the raid just doesn't add up.

"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."

Patrick said deputies "became aware of warrants for an individual in close proximity, which was next door."

He refused to say how deputies "became aware" of the arrest warrant for that individual in the unit next door to Collins' home, a warrant on file with the sheriff's office since 2012.

It must have been just a coincidentally convenient tip.

Plan B

And instead of addressing Collins' complaint in real time, Patrick went to Plan B: Operation Super-secret secret gag order secret.

* Tell a friendly reporter nothing really happened.

* Make sure there is no documentation available about anything of substance.

* 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.

* Make sure the judge is aware the super-secret gag order needs to be in place and the search warrant your team executed needs to be hidden for as long as possible.

but this is just a couple of bad cops, right?