phill4paul
05-19-2014, 01:19 PM
I'm sure we here are familiar with the story. Some of the people involved finally got around to filing a lawsuit.
The city of Aurora, Colorado, and police are being sued for what attorneys describe as a “more-than-two-hour mass roundup of innocent men, women and children at a traffic section” when officers were attempting to catch a bank robber.
It is being brought on behalf of fourteen of the twenty-eight people, who were “detained, removed, searched, restrained — and terrified” by police.
A man robbed the Wells Fargo branch in Aurora on June 2, 2012, and, according to the filed complaint, the prime suspect, Christian Paetsch, “fled with stacks of currency, one of which contained an embedded transmitter.”
Police were able to deploy a GPS-tracking device and track the “transmitter’s location.” They found the transmitter was at an intersection in southeastern Aurora—Iliff Avenue and Buckley Road.
What happened next, attorneys argue, was a clear violation of Fourth Amendment rights.
Nineteen vehicles at this intersection were stopped and barricaded by police. Brandishing “ballistic shields and pointed assault rifles directly at innocent citizens, including children under ten years old,” officers allegedly had all occupants in vehicles at the intersection “hold their arms up and outside of their vehicle windows.”
One officer, Christen Lertch, allegedly ordered the “officers to identify anyone in the stopped vehicles who appeared ‘overly nervous or anxious’ or refused to raise their hands and arms.” Also, “The officers would not permit anyone to shut off their vehicle’s ignition, put their vehicle in park, or lift their parking brakes.”
The complaint further claims that after thirty minutes occupants, who had been holding their arms out their windows, were ordered to exit the vehicles.
Police “pat down most of the individuals for weapons and handcuffed them.” Each person was “commanded” to “sit on the curb” while their vehicles were searched “without consent.” All of this occurred even though Paetsch had already been arrested and despite the fact that a “money band” was found in the vehicle Paetsch had been driving.
http://static1.firedoglake.com/47/files/2014/05/aurorapd3.jpg
Read more....http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/05/19/city-of-aurora-police-sued-for-more-than-two-hour-mass-roundup-of-innocent-people-in-search-for-bank-robber/
The city of Aurora, Colorado, and police are being sued for what attorneys describe as a “more-than-two-hour mass roundup of innocent men, women and children at a traffic section” when officers were attempting to catch a bank robber.
It is being brought on behalf of fourteen of the twenty-eight people, who were “detained, removed, searched, restrained — and terrified” by police.
A man robbed the Wells Fargo branch in Aurora on June 2, 2012, and, according to the filed complaint, the prime suspect, Christian Paetsch, “fled with stacks of currency, one of which contained an embedded transmitter.”
Police were able to deploy a GPS-tracking device and track the “transmitter’s location.” They found the transmitter was at an intersection in southeastern Aurora—Iliff Avenue and Buckley Road.
What happened next, attorneys argue, was a clear violation of Fourth Amendment rights.
Nineteen vehicles at this intersection were stopped and barricaded by police. Brandishing “ballistic shields and pointed assault rifles directly at innocent citizens, including children under ten years old,” officers allegedly had all occupants in vehicles at the intersection “hold their arms up and outside of their vehicle windows.”
One officer, Christen Lertch, allegedly ordered the “officers to identify anyone in the stopped vehicles who appeared ‘overly nervous or anxious’ or refused to raise their hands and arms.” Also, “The officers would not permit anyone to shut off their vehicle’s ignition, put their vehicle in park, or lift their parking brakes.”
The complaint further claims that after thirty minutes occupants, who had been holding their arms out their windows, were ordered to exit the vehicles.
Police “pat down most of the individuals for weapons and handcuffed them.” Each person was “commanded” to “sit on the curb” while their vehicles were searched “without consent.” All of this occurred even though Paetsch had already been arrested and despite the fact that a “money band” was found in the vehicle Paetsch had been driving.
http://static1.firedoglake.com/47/files/2014/05/aurorapd3.jpg
Read more....http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/05/19/city-of-aurora-police-sued-for-more-than-two-hour-mass-roundup-of-innocent-people-in-search-for-bank-robber/