Connecticut Towns Pay Out Big for Deadly SWAT Drug Raid
Five Connecticut towns whose SWAT team killed an unarmed man during a 2008 drug raid have agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the man's family. Another lawsuit, filed by the man who owned the home that was raided, is pending.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]In a joint statement, officials from Easton, Monroe, Trumbull, Wilton and Darien all maintained their police were not responsible for the death of Gonzalo Guizan that day. Eaton First Selectman Thomas Herrmann spoke for all five towns.
"While the defendants, police departments and officers from Darien, Easton, Trumbull, Monroe and Wilton maintain they were not responsible for the unfortunate death of Mr. Guizan, the insurers for the defendants, who will bear the full cost of the settlement, believed that it was best to resolve the matter rather than incur further attorneys' fees, which were anticipated to be significant," Hermann said. "The defendants concurred, further believing it was important to facilitate the Guizan family being relieved of the combined burden of litigation."
But the attorney representing the homeowner, Ronald Terebisi, told the Stamford Advocate the settlement was solid evidence the towns knew their SWAT team had gone overboard.
"This is a clear admission of misconduct on their part," said Gary Mastronardi. "There is undisputed evidence Guizan and Terebesi were huddled in a corner when police shot," he said. "This is just the first of two shoes that have dropped," Mastronardi added, referencing his pending lawsuit for Terebisi's emotional suffering and damage to his home.
A federal judge last summer had upheld the lawsuits, holding that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to decide if the SWAT team had used excessive and unreasonable force against the pair. That led to pressure on the towns to settle, even though they had filed an appeal.
The raid was organized by former Easton Police Chief John Solomon, who said in pretrial depositions that he had been under pressure to "do something" about Teresbisi, who was considered a blot on the neighborhood. Terebisi had entertained strippers at his home and was once found passed out in his home because of drug use. On one occasion, a boyfriend of one of the strippers shot up Terebisi's house, heightening neighborhood concerns.
On May 18, 2008, things came to a head. That morning, a stripper called Easton police and said she had seen a small amount of drugs in the house. (She later admitted that she had left the house after having a dispute with Terebisi.)
Early that afternoon, the Southwest Emergency Regional Response Team, dressed in full SWAT garb, took off for Terebisi's house after Solomon and others warned them that Terebisi was armed and would likely shoot at police. Police videos showed them throwing a flash-bang grenade through a window, smashing down the back door, and yelling out, "Police, warrant!"
One of the officers, Monroe police officer Michael Sweeney, yelled "I'm hit, I'm hit," and then there was the sound of repeated gunfire. When it was over, Guizan lay dead on the floor with six gunshot wounds and Terebisi, who had been pinned by one of the officers, was handcuffed and dragged out of the house.
SWAT members then searched the house, but found no guns. They did find two crack pipes and a small amount of cocaine. Sweeney, the officer who yelled "I'm hit," was the one who fired on Guizan and Terebisi. He turned out to have been hit by debris from a third flash-bang explosion. He claimed in testimony that he had struggled with the pair and shot because he felt his life was in danger, but other officers at the scene didn't back up that account. Guizan was found lifeless in a corner.
Sweeney received the Monroe Police Officer of the Year award for his part in the raid.
Comments
You know
LEGALIZE. Fire the DEA!
LEGALIZE. Fire the DEA!
So at the end of the day...
So at the end of the day, his neighbors didn't like his life style, so that's why they killed him. America.. land of the free...
Officer of the year?
I'm glad to see Phil Smith posed the question of rescinding the award for the officer who was involved in this shooting. This kind of ironic recognition for officers that use deadly force in these drug raids reminds me of a stake out case in Missouri during the 1990s where a drug dealer was shot dead by a drug officer after he pulled a gun and fired on an informant. The dealer's friend waiting outside in a car was charged with murder of the dead dealer.
During the trial at closing arguments, the prosecutor told the jury that the law doesn't have to make sense for them to convict. That officer won an award and the kid was convicted of killing his friend even though he never shot or possessed a weapon. When you compare these two cases, one realizes how much the public sentiment and justice system has changed for the better concerning the drug war, how it's enforced and adjudicated.
This civil verdict against these municipalities that participated in this deadly drug raid is a huge victory to temper the overkill mentality that often drives law enforcement to act in this dangerous manner.
Got SqWAT?
"Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy ... and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with 'scientific support' ... fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others. ... The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents."
-- William F. Buckley,
Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495
The Drug War Industrial Complex April, 1998
Noam Chomsky interviewed by John Veit
"A violently active, intrepid,
brutal youth that is what I am after...
I will have no intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin for my young men."
Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation"
The assassins of youth...DARE the FRCn PDFA
Diane Feinstein – the best argument for term limits
Coincidence, its not really brainwashing,
more like a rinse and blow dry.
Nothing says common sense like,
Having the same guy,
Militarizing the LAPD and Teaching Kids about Drugs.
"Casual drug users should be taken out and shot."
-- Daryl DARE Gates - Former LAPD Chief
Think of the message being sent to the kids?
DAREyl SWAT Gates, LAPDog Perversions.
Got SqWAT?
The prohibitionists are living in an Airplane movie...
?Elaine : The gear is down and we're ready to land.
Kramer : Alright, he's on final now, put out all runway lights except 9er.
Towerguy: Captain, maybe we ought to turn on the search lights now.
MCrosky : No, thats just what they'll be expecting us to do.
Trillion spent is a Trillion earned.
Sorta depends on what side you stand whether its spent as wasted taxes or received as profits?.
?"At DEA, our mission is to fight drug trafficking in order to make drug abuse the most expensive, unpleasant, risky, and disreputable form of recreation a person could have."
– Donnie Marshall,
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
?"We have spent over a trillion dollars trying to eradicate the world's most beneficial plant off the face of the earth. Imagine what a better world this would be if that money had been spent on treatment, education and studying the medical benefits of marijuana."
-- Steve Hager - High Times Editor (1988 - 2003)
No, thats just what they'll be expecting us to do.
Throwaways
Recruited by Police & Thrown into Danger,
Young Informants are Drug War’s Latest Victims
L.A. Forfeiture Squads Kill California Millionaire
Will Foster 93 Years For Cannabis
In 1996 Foster was convicted of five drug counts in Tulsa, all revolving around the plants he was growing in an underground backyard shelter. Foster says he had 38 marijuana plants.
Rainbow Farm Massacre
Tom Crosslin - Nov. 10, 1954 - Sept. 3, 2001
Rollie Rohm - Dec. 27, 1972 - Sept. 4, 2001
The Murder of Peter McWilliams
Anger Spills Over at Killing of Kathryn Johnston
Johnston got off one shot, the bullet missing her target and hitting a porch roof. The three narcotics officers answered with 39 bullets.
Another drug war victim - Tarika Wilson
26-year-old Tarika Wilson, single mother of six, who was shot twice by SWAT officers in her home and killed. Her one-year-old son was also shot as she held him and will survive. Two dogs were shot and one died.
Ashley Villareal, 14, shot to death in her car outside her home by DEA agents. Xavier Bennett, 8, shot to death in his home. Veronica Bowers, 35, and Charity Bowers, 7 months, shot down and killed in their missionary plane over Peru by drug enforcement operations. Patrick Dorismond, 26, shot to death by undercover drug police on the streets of New York. Tony Marinez, 19, shot to death while sleeping on the couch. Lynette Gayle Jackson, 26, shot to death in her bed by a SWAT team. Alberto Sepulveda, 11, shot to death by SWAT while lying face down on the floor in his home. Esequiel Hernandez, 18, shot to death by drug war Marines on U.S. soil while herding his family's goats.
DEAth Merchants
GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab 'Torture' Centers
Bush. Religious drug treatment in Texas
Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
Money Grubbing Dung Worriers
Forfeiture $quads
High on Hemp
In reply to Got SqWAT? by DdC (not verified)
Excellent and well researched
The rest of us can learn a great deal from this post.I,for one,found it very informative.
Way past time to end the madness
Since only 1 in 5 support this madness, WHY THE HELL IS IT STILL GOING ON? Sue, sue, sue and sue them again and again. Only hitting the politicians who are ADDICTED to this phony "war" in the pocketbook can stop it.
Officer of the year. They
Officer of the year. They gave him "Officer of the year".
Stunning
but how much did they get from the feds?
That's the problem.Until it costs them more to kill us than to throw us in jail.They will continue to kick down our doors and shooting anything that moves.Everyone should go after the police for damages every time they go in and find nothing.I know.It's easier just to let it go and hope the heat goes away.That's what they count on.
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