[420 Girl]

An Oregon utility official has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Eugene police used excessive force and violated her civil rights during a 2009 drug raid.

The complaint filed by Eugene Water & Electric Board Commissioner JoAnn Ernst also includes her three adult children. It seeks unspecified damages for the use of "paramilitary activities, personnel, tactics and equipment" while executing a search warrant at Ernst's home.

Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns told The Register-Guard he has not yet had a chance to review the complaint in detail. But he told the newspaper the police department has investigated and determined the search followed department policy and met national law enforcement standards.

The lawsuit alleges that Officer Joe Kidd used deceptive information about Ernst's son, Jack Allen, in a sworn affidavit to obtain court permission to serve the warrant with a SWAT team.

Kerns denied the allegation, saying "there is nothing to suggest that officer Kidd's affidavit included false or misleading statements."

Prosecutors said police suspected Allen of being involved in a ****** trafficking ring. He was sentenced to probation last fall after pleading guilty to one count of *************** possession.

Ernst and her daughters, Jamie and Joanna Allen, had faced felony drug charges in the case.

They were sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, Ernst for possessing more than an ounce of marijuana and her daughters for frequenting a place where a controlled substance was used.

Ernst, who was elected in 2008, told a judge at her November sentencing that the pot was for medicinal purposes and that she had since obtained an Oregon Medical Marijuana card. The judge ordered police to return her marijuana-growing equipment seized in the raid.

The family's lawsuit charges that Kidd's search warrant affidavit argued for a "high risk" approach to Ernst's home by saying its occupants were potentially "armed with firearms."

The complaint questioned his inclusion of a discredited informant's statement from a police report about an incident in which a man was shot in the hand.

Kidd cited the informant's claim that Jack Allen accidentally shot the man, but omitted other parts of the report in which the victim said and an investigating officer concluded that the wound was self-inflicted, the lawsuit said.

"As a result of Officer Kidd's deceptive affidavit," the complaint alleges, the sleeping family was awakened during the pre-dawn hours by a "paramilitary type method of incursion into the home."

The forced entry with a battering ram included "flash-bang" grenades, and one struck Jamie Allen in the head, the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit claims the family was traumatized by "black-clad officers in riot gear screaming orders" and says Ernst's daughters are still afraid to sleep in their room.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: democratherald.com
Author: Associated Press
Contact: democratherald.com
Copyright: 2010 democratherald.com
Website: Ore. utility official files excessive force suit


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