Illeagal search

[spafon]

Minnesota....
While in the hospital, the Winona police broke down my door and trashed my house looking for someone that did not live there. The had obtained a search warrent for a person who had used my address to register a car.
Do I have a case to sue them?

 

[HomeGuru]

Minnesota....
While in the hospital, the Winona police broke down my door and trashed my house looking for someone that did not live there. The had obtained a search warrent for a person who had used my address to register a car.
Do I have a case to sue them?

**A: yes, you do and do not be surprised if you get no compensation. You know full well that you did not give us the complete story.

 

[spafon]

What complete story? They searched my home based on the address they got from the registery of motor vehicles and the search warrent had that persons name on it not mine. I live in a tiny house with only one bedroom and they obtained the warrent using erronious information.

 

[5xMomVA]

HomeGuru, I wonder why you think there is more to the story? I had something similar happen at my house almost 20 years ago, some guy was using our address that had never actually lived there as far as we can tell (we contacted the two prior owners who said they never heard of him either). For a couple of years we constantly got summons for him placed on our door when we were at work, how embarrassing being new in the neighborhood, we would call the Sheriff's office and tell them we didn't know who he was and to stop putting those things on our door and we were told at that time (almost 20 years ago) that anybody can put any address on their driver's license that they want without verification and we can't do anything about it and they had to continue to serve to that address until HE changed his address with the DMV. Never had my house destroyed, but one time about the last time we ever heard anything about the guy, the police showed up and seached our garage and shed for a piece of power equipment that he had rented and didn't return. We explained the long going history on this guy again and never heard anything else about him. So it is quite possilbe that you are getting the complete story.

 

[CdwJava]

Minnesota....
While in the hospital, the Winona police broke down my door and trashed my house looking for someone that did not live there. The had obtained a search warrent for a person who had used my address to register a car.
Do I have a case to sue them?

They had a lawful warrant. Your chances to sue are slim to none. However, you CAN seek costs to make repairs to any damages from the agency involved.

Possession of a valid warrant pretty much precludes a lawsuit.

- Carl

 

[seniorjudge]

Q: Do I have a case to sue them?

A: No, but if you knew absolutely nothing about this and it was an error's on the cops' part, then you should definitely file a complaint with whoever did the search.

 

[spafon]

How can a warrent be valid if the information used to obtain it is erronious?
Wouldn't that make the warrent invalid even if executed in good faith by the police? They can only obtain warrents with the use of factual info for it to be valid, Right?

 

[CdwJava]

How can a warrent be valid if the information used to obtain it is erronious?

Because a judge said it was valid. There is a general presumption that unless the affidavit was intentionally falsified, that a warrant is valid when signed by a judge. In that affidavit presented to a judge the affiant supplies the information he/she believes sufficient to support the issuance of a warrant. if the officer wrote that the suspect put the address down once on a vehicle registration form, and the judge signed it, there is little that can be done. If the police said they did things that they did not do, then you might have a case.

You can consult local counsel, but a warrant generally trumps any compensation aside from reasonable replacement costs for damage to the property.

In some cases, a claim might be successful if an officer did not perform at least a minimal check to determine the veracity of the location with regard to the suspect, but this would be fact specific.

Wouldn't that make the warrent invalid even if executed in good faith by the police? They can only obtain warrents with the use of factual info for it to be valid, Right?

The information in the affidavit must be truthFUL - not necessarily true. It's a matter of good faith and information known at the time. Warrants are issued to attempt to obtain information, not because there is a certainty of guilt or even a certainty that the searched for items will be present.

I may have all sorts of evidence that you are a drug dealer and it may not, in fact, be true. It would not invalidate the warrant or an arrest.

- Carl

 

[rmet4nzkx]

What did they find during the search?

 

[seniorjudge]

What did they find during the search?

Assuming what OP was 100% correct and factual and he knew nothing about the person who used his address (i.e., someone uses without my knowledge my address to register a car) then it would not make any difference if OP had a pound of marijuana in the living room on the coffee table.

The warrant was bad. Period.

(He'd lose his dope but it couldn't have been used to support a charge of dope possession or whatever.)

And before everyone posts back, "I guess you'd say he couldn't be arrested if they'd found a body shot through the head in there?!", let me say this: in my example, marijuana is contraband and he has no rights of possession.

A dead body is not contraband, but evidence (in my example) of a homicide. That would lead to an investigation of murder.

A good defense lawyer (the lawyer defending the murderer) would still use the "fruit of the poisonous tree" argument (same one I made earlier), but I doubt that any trial court or appellate court would buy that argument.

 

[rmet4nzkx]

Somehow, a red flag goes up when he is also trying to sue the surgeon doing his knee surgery at the time the police came in with the warrant.
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=227458
Something is going on.

 

[CdwJava]

Assuming what OP was 100% correct and factual and he knew nothing about the person who used his address (i.e., someone uses without my knowledge my address to register a car) then it would not make any difference if OP had a pound of marijuana in the living room on the coffee table.

The warrant was bad. Period.

Wait ... I don't see that. If the affidavit contained that weak information and was still granted, would that not protect the serving agency from liability resulting in the service of the warrant?

If I had a wanted suspect that had once registered a car at a particular address (hopefully recently), and presented that fact to the judge as part of the affidavit, would I not be protected on the service of that warrant?

It would seem to me that if the information is always subjective, then every affidavit and every warrant could be challenged on the basis that it was insufficient. In which case, what woul dbe the point in having a judge sign a warrant? If any warrant could be quashed based on another court's interpretation of the "appropriate" foundation for the warrant?

Not having ever seen this case brought up, I really don't know. I have seen warrants challenged on items allegedly falsified or unsupported claims made within an affidavit, but not if the facts were as presented and the warrant was still signed.

Personally, if ALL they had was a previously registered car, I wouldn't touch it. But that's me.

- Carl

 

[seniorjudge]

Wait ... I don't see that. If the affidavit contained that weak information and was still granted, would that not protect the serving agency from liability resulting in the service of the warrant?

If I had a wanted suspect that had once registered a car at a particular address (hopefully recently), and presented that fact to the judge as part of the affidavit, would I not be protected on the service of that warrant?

It would seem to me that if the information is always subjective, then every affidavit and every warrant could be challenged on the basis that it was insufficient. In which case, what woul dbe the point in having a judge sign a warrant? If any warrant could be quashed based on another court's interpretation of the "appropriate" foundation for the warrant?

Not having ever seen this case brought up, I really don't know. I have seen warrants challenged on items allegedly falsified or unsupported claims made within an affidavit, but not if the facts were as presented and the warrant was still signed.

Personally, if ALL they had was a previously registered car, I wouldn't touch it. But that's me.

- Carl

I was talking about what would happen to any evidence gained in such a search in an exclusionary hearing. My answer was purely hypothetical but I said nothing about the liability of the agency serving the warrant.

All defense attorneys will attack every warrant, every arrest, every everything in every case.

That's their job.

 

[CdwJava]

I was talking about what would happen to any evidence gained in such a search in an exclusionary hearing. My answer was purely hypothetical but I said nothing about the liability of the agency serving the warrant.

All defense attorneys will attack every warrant, every arrest, every everything in every case.

That's their job.

Ah ... well, when you stated the warrant was "bad", it made me balk. Because to me "bad" means my house could be gone in the pending civil suit. I usually don't concern myself at the suppression hearings ... having never lost one for a warrant, anyway. But then, I would NOT seek a warrant based solely on a vehicle registration anyway.

- Carl

 

[seniorjudge]

Ah ... well, when you stated the warrant was "bad", it made me balk. Because to me "bad" means my house could be gone in the pending civil suit. I usually don't concern myself at the suppression hearings ... having never lost one for a warrant, anyway. But then, I would NOT seek a warrant based solely on a vehicle registration anyway.

- Carl

Well, we never have heard the facts here so all we have done is spill a lot of electric ink discussing hypothetical stuff.