FBI apologizes to Fitchburg woman after using a chainsaw on her front door.

[Ichingcarpenter]

FITCHBURG, Mass.—The FBI is apologizing to a Fitchburg woman after cutting her door open with a chainsaw and pointing their guns at her during a raid last week.

It turns out agents had the wrong apartment, and were actually after the other tenant on the floor of the multi-unit building who is suspected of dealing drugs.

Judy Sanchez says she was terrified last Thursday when she awoke to heavy footsteps in the stairwell and walked to her kitchen in time to see a chainsaw blade cut through her door.

She says she was held face down on the floor at gunpoint for at least 30 minutes. Her 3-year-old daughter, meanwhile, cried in another room

Sanchez says she and her daughter now have trouble sleeping.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/02/01/fbi_apologizes_to_fitchburg_woman_after_mistake/

[slackmaster]

1. Did this image come to mind for anyone else on reading the subject line?

[Blue_Tires]

7. or this

[Auggie]

10. I'm sure the Feds indentified themselves first. Still ...

both sides should consider themselves lucky shots weren't fired.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. I'm glad for your concern

and the nightmares and PTSD the family will have for years

Lucky people

[Auggie]

22. Yes, horrible ideal for the family

What's with the sarcasm? The propensity of firearms in this country makes it a possible someone may have chosen to defend their household with a gun, especially against a chainsaw.

Yeah, the cops fucked-up. The family will live with trauma.

Don't take your upset out with me just because I'm thankful no one was killed!

[nolabels]

58. We have to laugh, otherwise we might be crying and in tears instead

Yea it's sad but what other civilization through the timeline of history could or ever has produced such insanity

[quakerboy]

72. Im pretty sure there have been many

Im pretty sure that history is rife with examples and trends authorities abusing power and citizenry.

Putting it in perspective, I think that even with our abuses, so far our civilizations history has probably been better than most. Perhaps we should be glad that our country got about 200 relatively good years(in most ways, with obvious exceptions) and be happy with that.

Or maybe we can still salvage this thing and even actually make it better someday. But I don't see it happening as long as money is king and no real rules exist to prevent its extreme over-accumulation.

[Kablooie]

50. "FBI and youre under arrest." as they stand over her with a chainsaw.

Nope. Doesnt quite create an image of trust and faith.

[Renew Deal]

20. Yup

Poor woman

[BlueIris]

31. That one was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Just once, I would like the FBI to behave properly. Its agents have, for all intents and purposes, a license to kill. No consequences ever befall the FBI for anything it does. The agents have no excuse not to, you know, not act like grossly negligent maniacs.

[tech_smythe]

40. You and your common sense!

This is the FBI, literally answerable to no one but the DOJ, and whose side do you thing THEY'RE going to take?

this is a travesty, but sadly more common in these police states of America.

That said... why didn't they just go to the manager? Mine has a master key to all apartments.
It's not like I have any illusion of security or safety here.

I'm sure the manager would have been cooperative and maybe even have directed them to the correct unit?

Either way I'm sure the actual drug dealers GTFO as soon as they heard the ruckus!

[hughee99]

65. I miss the good old days when the Boston FBI branch was answerable to Whitey Bulger, too. n/t

[Lint Head]

2. lawsuit

[MADem]

16. Absolutely. I imagine that family might just get enough to be able to buy a house and get out of

apartment buildings where the law chainsaws the damn front door in two....

[TheMadMonk]

42. NOPE. Sovereign immunity. /nt

[MADem]

54. That can be easily trumped by the Federal Tort Claims Act. I think she has a case.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/suing-government-negligence-FTCA-29705.html

Is My Claim Permitted By the FTCA?
In general, the FTCA is intended to provide monetary compensation for injury, property loss, or death "caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government." But this broad-sounding mandate is subject to a lot of fine print.
Although the limitations and exceptions are too numerous to review in this article, here are some general guidelines regarding the limitations on FTCA claims:
Only federal employees can be sued under the FTCA, not independent contractors hired by the federal government (unless they are treated like employees).
The negligent or wrongful conduct must have been done within the scope of the defendant's employment.
In general, only claims of negligence -- as opposed to intentional misconduct -- are allowed (though some claims for intentional misconduct can be brought against certain federal law enforcement officers).
The claim must be based on -- and permitted by -- the law of the state in which the misconduct occurred.
Despite these and numerous other limitations on FTCA lawsuits, the federal government still pays out millions of dollars each year to compensate FTCA claims. So if you think you may have a valid claim, it may be worth pursuing.

We'll see. I'm betting she sees a nice payday. I think she's inclined to proceed.

"The mistake was quickly apparent to the FBI agents who entered the apartment. ... The FBI assistant special agent in charge recognized legitimate concerns the resident had about the mistake," the statement read.

The statement maintained that the agent that spoke with Sanchez apologized repeatedly and left her phone number and another number for any "further concerns."
Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_19857939#ixzz1lDiN08iB

FITCHBURG — Judy Sanchez acknowledges the FBI apologized to her after using a chainsaw to break through her door and burst into her apartment.

But she thinks she should get more than a routine apology, after FBI agents terrorized her and her 3-year-old daughter when they mistakenly targeted her apartment while searching for a drug suspect.

“I don’t think it is good enough,” she said. “It is a start.”

After such a traumatic mistake, she said, the FBI should check in with the family to see how they are doing. Ms. Sanchez, 29, said she has not heard from the FBI since the incident. http://www.telegram.com/article/20120202/NEWS/102029814/-1/NEWS07

[dickthegrouch]

3. I hope that apology comes wrapped in a multi-million dollar cheque /nt

[FarCenter]

4. Do they even replace the door?

[MADem]

17. Local news said they offered to repair all the damage and apologized.

I don't think we're done, yet, though!

[littlewolf]

38. Yes ... the owner of the property

has to contact them and they send a check for all property damage.

[MattSh]

53. What does she need a door for?

She's got a net, doesn't she?

At least according to Mitt!

[RC]

59. Correct, what does she need a door for?

What is she hiding? If she has nothing to hide, why the closed door?

That said, A chain saw? What the hell for? I bet it was a gas powered one at that. How is this not terrorism?
Did they misplace their battering ram?

[freshwest]

8. +1,000,000

[cstanleytech]

44. I can see some money because they did screw up but not sure it should be more than

enough so the women can get counseling and for emotional damages so say roughly 1.5 million for her and a separate 500000 reward put into a trust fund for her daughter for when she turns 18 for her college education.

[Blue_Tires]

57. Yeah, it's difficult to overstate how traumatic it must have been

If I was woken up at 6 am by a chainsaw on my door, I'm pretty much jumping out of any window less than three stories...They could call out "FBI!!!" and I'd yell back "Bull-SHIT! The FBI doesn't chainsaw people's doors!"

[cstanleytech]

64. "I'd yell back "Bull-SHIT! The FBI doesn't chainsaw people's doors!" Except clearly they do as this

story shows.

[Sherman A1]

5. Charming, simply charming......

[RKP5637]

6. Next, will be driving a tank through the side of a building and then

apologizing. ... or a drone strike.

[RC]

60. Me thinks they are working up to the drone strikes in this country.

Always smile and wave at the clear blue sky. You never know...

[Nikia]

9. Even if someone is a drug dealer, is this really necessary?

A chain saw? They could have tried knocking. Heck even kicking the door in might be less scary.
Face down at gun point? They always bring multiple officers. Once they determine that she has no weapons on her, no need to have her face down or with a gun pointed at her the whole time.
I don't know how they usually deal with children but there may have been an alternative to leaving the daughter scared and crying alone in another room.
I know that they are concerned about the safety of their officers but unless someone is a violent fugitive with a gang army with them, there is no need to make people fear for their lives.

[TalkingDog]

11. Chainsaw prevents booby trapped door from exploding when you kick it in. No defense, just fact.

I find these kind of over the top raids excessive anyway. They are terror propaganda, meant to keep people in line.

[AndyTiedye]

27. Don't Chainsaws React Rather Badly to Nails and Other Hard Metal Bits?

I would think trying to chainsaw a reinforced door might be rather hazardous to the chainsaw operator, and anyone else nearby.

[bluesbassman]

32. Probably use the same kind of chain fireman use for roof ventilation.

They're designed to cut through nails and sheet metal, with a shaped leading edge and carbide tips. Very effective.

Still, a bit clumsy and time consuming if you ask me. Certainly announces you're there and gives the perps (assuming the right house is being entered) time to react.

[raouldukelives]

12. Just glad no agents were harmed.

If one them was injured while gaining entrance to her home she would be on the hook for harming an officer in the line of duty. She should count herself lucky they only destroyed her front door and not her or her child's life. I bet she's not even grateful!

[Cal Carpenter]

14. LOL

I was about to freak out on you. Well done.

[Yo_Mama]

13. This sort of crap

should be widely publicized.

We have gone astray.

[Smilo]

15. Police forces do this all the time - then say oops sorry

and go on as if nothing has happened leaving those they have terrified to try and get their lives back together.

She will be lucky if they pay for the door. Even is she tried to file a lawsuit it would be quashed.

[A Simple Game]

18. If only this poor woman

had been armed she could have protected herself. I read it on the DU all the time. What could go wrong? She shoots the FBI agents and she and her daughter live happily ever after.

[RC]

61. +10

More guns are the answer to keeping us safer.

[Doc Holliday]

21. This same kind

of shit happened here (Lubbocktexas) recently...a "wrong apartment" situation.

Except that the 90-year-old man whose apartment was mistakenly entered by Lubbock's Finest had a shotgun and actually fired at (and missed) the two Goobers With Guns who came at him. He took a bullet in the chest for his troubles, but this old man is tough as a boot. He recovered from his wounds and is in the process of suing Our Fair City, the PD, and the officers involved. I hope he wins big.

[AndyTiedye]

28. And the 92 Year Old Woman in Atlanta

…who shot at the men who were breaking down her door.
Unfortunately they were cops who were raiding the wrong house. They all fired back and killed her.

[cstanleytech]

46. I dont think that atlanta one is comparable because in that case the police if I recall got caught

afterwards planting evidence and lying to cover their asses where in this case the FBI didnt plant any evidence and they apologized for the mistake.
That doesnt mean of course that they shouldnt have to pay this women for the mistake because they are responsible just pointing out that its not comparable to the atlanta incident.

[RebelOne]

66. The woman's family has been awarded damages, don't know how much though. n/t

[progressoid]

23. Was that Tuttle or Buttle?

[Cherchez la Femme]

24. Good thing she didn't have a dog

or by now it would be her former dog..

[MADem]

55. She did have a dog--they ordered her to hold it.

It was a three month old pup and it peed all over her.

I think she intends to sue, and I can't say I blame her.

[Cherchez la Femme]

63. Then thank god it was a puppy

or, at this time, it very probably couldn't get any deader.

[Gregorian]

25. America is not a police state. Repeat...

What utter bullshit. Who fucking cares if someone is dealing drugs. Where's the crew of goons when it comes to Bush and Cheney lying to the UN and starting a war that killed and displaced millions.

So basically if you do something that's relatively harmless you get flogged in America. Do something extremely harmful, like war, or fracking, or financial terrorism, you get a free ride.

Fuck that.

[Dawson Leery]

26. The agents in this case are yellow cowards.

[MarkCharles]

29. 30 minutes??? How long does it take? ...

to determine someone's identity?

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. More detail she had a dog, picture of door, 3yr old daughter

At 6:04 last Thursday morning, just before Sanchez’ alarm was set to go off, she heard a pounding outside her second floor apartment.

“I just happened to glance over and saw this huge chainsaw ripping down the side of my door,” she explains. “And I was freaking out. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Within moments, the chainsaw had cut through most of her door, and someone on the FBI’s arrest team kicked the rest of it in.

“That’s when I heard the clicking of a gun and I heard ‘FBI, get down!’, so I laid right on down.

And they said get your dog, so I got her and at the same time I am laying in her urine because she did pee on herself at the same time.”

That dog is the family’s three-month-old pit bull puppy.

Sanchez says they left her on the floor for 35 minutes, with her daughter screaming for her mommy in the other room...........


?w=300

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/31/fbi-uses-chainsaw-in-raid-on-wrong-fitchburg-apartment/

[Snake Alchemist]

33. Get a lawyer. They will settle very quickly.

The FBI is probably the most overrated law enforcement agency.

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. The FBI is still headed by a Bush appointee

who Obama ask to stay on.

[Snake Alchemist]

35. Probably even worse then.

They've been overrated for over half a century though.

[marasinghe]

68. sadly, agree with you.

as a kid, i would read these cool novels about a G-Man 'Lemmy Caution', written by the excellent Brit author, Peter Cheyney (apologies for the side-reference to he-who-should-burn-in-hell), who wrote politer, more courteous yarns of the Mickey Spillane genre; inducing a mild strain of hero-worship for the Goon-squad, in myself. only to read about J. Edgar Hubris & his vile conspiracies & machinations over Dr. King, the Kennedys, et al -- in my later life -- thereby developing a positive allergy to those highly-overrated, self-aggrandizing, super-swine.


off-topic -- Wiki links to Peter Cheyney & his G-Man, Mr. Caution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cheyney
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_Caution

[solarman350]

36. FBI = Fucked Up Bunch of Idiots

and they are quite willing and happy to prove it any day of the week. Just "ask...."

[slay]

37. Legalize It!

and this shit will stop happening immediately.

[petronius]

39. In every one of these cases, there should be a detailed investigation, and every officer

who made a mistake that led to (or failed to prevent) the raid should be fired.

Call it a 'mistake', but it led to a violent armed assault on an innocent person - which would be a serious crime if anyone else did it...

[cstanleytech]

48. In any organization your gonna have mistakes happen though as for the firing aspect I believe

the best approach would be waiting until the investigation is complete over why the mistake was made before asking that someone be fired.

[petronius]

49. Mistakes have consequences, and when your 'mistake' produces the equivalent of

a felony assault, is there any why that would be a reasonable excuse? A fuck-up with an outcome of that magnitude deserves a serious sanction - somebody somewhere (and maybe many steps removed from the officers in the raid) created the situation that made this happen. That head (or heads) needs to roll...

[cstanleytech]

51. Your rushing ahead without thinking and that way leads to things like

for example the disaster that was the Bush documents that turned out to be false which took down dan rather, so lets wait this time atleast until the investigation determines why this happened first before demanding "someone" be fired.

[saras]

41. But the 'drug dealer' deserves the PTSD for his medical marijuana, right?

She's no more or less "innocent" than the people in the RIGHT apartment, and the behavior is no more appropriate if you're selling pot out of your apartment than if you're not.

[MADem]

67. Huh? The guy next door wasn't selling pot.

He didn't have PTSD, either, near as I can tell from the reports.

He was the leader of a gang called "Sex, Money and Murder" selling concentrated cocaine in quantity or something like that.

He was also, in addition to being a gang leader, a friendly fellow in the apartment complex:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120202/NEWS/102029814/0/NEWS02

As part of a series of raids by the FBI and other police forces, agents arrived at her door on Jan. 26 looking for her neighbor, Luis Vasquez. Mr. Vasquez, 41, was later arrested in a neighboring apartment and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other crimes.

...The raid was part of Operation Red Wolf, according to Special Agent Greg Comcowich, media coordinator for the FBI’s Boston office. The raid resulted in the arrest that day of 16 people in the Fitchburg area for drug offenses. Reading from a prepared statement, Mr. Comcowich said that while attempting to make entry into a second-floor apartment at 391 Elm St., an FBI arrest team forcibly damaged a door to Ms. Sanchez’s apartment.

...Operation Red Wolf was a two-year investigation into illegal firearm sales, drug trafficking and related gang activities in Fitchburg. Twenty people were indicted in the investigation, including the 16 arrested that day.

...Although the FBI’s search for her neighbor was the reason she went through the trauma and terror that day, she does not think of him as a gang member and drug dealer. She said she did not know of any meetings of gang members at the apartment next door, where Mr. Vasquez lived. She said she knows him as one of the parents in the building who would hold cookouts with his children in the back yard.

Statements made by the defendants and other witnesses show that many defendants are associates or members of street gangs operating in Fitchburg, including the United Blood Nation and Sex, Money, Murder," an affidavit related to the operation explains.

...Among those arrested is Luis R. "Joker" Vasquez, 41, believed to be the leader of the Fitchburg-based arm of SMM. He has served time in New York state on a drug-distribution conviction. If found guilty on the charges in Thursday's indictment, Vasquez could serve up to 40 years in prison, a fine of up to $5 million and lifetime supervision upon release.

Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_19833892#ixzz1lGaz6ZPP

[bloomington-lib]

43. Shouldn't they at least be watching the apt they're getting ready to chainsaw through beforehand?

Way over the top for drug dealing and doesn't even seem all that safe for the fbi either. If the people inside were more dangerous than the cops outside, they might have just started shooting through the door at the guy with the chainsaw. Failed in every aspect.

[littlewolf]

45. this points to how rubber stamped

no knock warrants have become ... what kind of evidence
was given to get the warrant?

if they changed the law and allowed ppl to sue cops and depts.
for these kind of mess ups ... there would be far few mess ups ....
cuz ppl would actually do the work

[grantcart]

47. Chainsaw?

A low end motel I stayed in was always getting busted into by the DEA.

They had a simple ram that popped the door open.

Beyond all of hte other issues you have to wonder about folks that use a chainsaw to open a door that can be easily popped open with a simple ram device.

[eyewall]

52. exactly what I was thinking

Chainsaw? really?

[Blue_Tires]

56. Remember, law enforcement (even on the federal level)

Always wants to make the most of their budgets, which are usually over-funded out of political pressure (especially post-9/11). This means they are continually getting newer, better, more expensive toys that are unnecessary overkill for the job 95% of the time...

That's why in even simple raids of some poor sap with a couple of cannabis plants, the cops gear up like they are storming Tony Montana's compound...

[eyewall]

62. In Al Pacino's Scarface

there were drug dealers and a chainsaw in the same room at the same time.

Maybe someone at the FBI likes that movie?

[marasinghe]

69. i agree; the college grad variety of pig, appears to have been sold on the 'life imitates art' meme.

especially the TV variety.

'course, they're just following the govt.'s foreign policy lead: ".... frag 'em all & let god sort the pieces ....".

[MicaelS]

70. Law Enforcement at all levels will keep doing this, and one day

Some team serving a no-knock warrant is going to get a number of its members killed when they encounter a civilian armed and ready at just the right moment.

[arely staircase]

71. what about the door - and counseling for the children? nt