Police raid wrong home; couple sues

Responding to a suicide threat, police broke into the wrong apartment, handcuffed and held the 2 at gunpoint.

Florida Times Union | November 11 2004

When Mont'sho Foluke awoke in the predawn darkness to the noise of a splintering door frame at his Jacksonville apartment, he ran to his living room where more than a dozen armed and yelling police officers were forcing their way inside.

Twenty minutes later, police realized they had gone to the wrong address in response to someone threatening to kill himself with cocaine.

The Sept. 18 raid rattled Foluke and his girlfriend, who notified the city they plan to sue.

"My door was coming off the hinges," Foluke said. "Then all I saw was guns and flashlights."

Foluke, 36, said he and Bridget Davis, 31, were handcuffed and forced to the floor while police held them at gunpoint and rummaged through the rooms. Foluke said he pleaded with officers to explain what they were doing.

"We kept asking them why?" Foluke said. "The sergeant that night wouldn't even explain why they were kicking in the door."

He said the sergeant also said "'that door is not my problem,'" when Foluke asked about repairing the damage after the mistake was realized.

The couple have since moved to another unit in the Monument Road apartment complex and plan to sue the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the city. By law, they must give six months' notice of an intent to sue.

Police admit they came to the wrong apartment but said the mistake was that they were given the wrong address.

"You have to force entry to make sure they are not lying on the floor in the bathroom," said Lt. Ron Lendvay of the Sheriff's Office's internal affairs unit. "It appears that they followed policy."

Lendvay said Foluke and Davis lived in a complex that adjoins a complex that uses the same numbering system, meaning Foluke's apartment number is mirrored next door.

"It's the address that was given," Lendvay said.

Lendvay reviewed a complaint Foluke filed with the Sheriff's Office.

"The tactics used by the team were legal and proper," Lendvay wrote Foluke.

Foluke said he has changed from his night shift at work because Davis does not want to stay alone.

"Every night I have to check the door," he said.

Lendvay said police and rescue workers were called to the apartment complex on Monument Road by a woman who gave Foluke and Davis' address. According to a police report, officers heard footsteps inside and knocked for 20 minutes, both at a sliding glass door on the balcony and at the front door.

Then, the report said, firefighters broke the door down.

Foluke said the couple was asleep and didn't hear a thing until the door was smashed open. Foluke, who is black, said he was told later the police were looking for a white man.

Stephanie J. Hartley, an attorney representing Foluke, said the couple lost two or three days work to stay home while the door was repaired.

"These people could not secure their property," she said.

In the notice of intent to sue the city, Hartley wrote that her clients had suffered emotional trauma and that Davis' wrists were injured by the handcuffs.

"Both Mr. Foluke and Ms. Davis have suffered severe emotional trauma as a result of being handcuffed and having loaded guns placed at their heads and back," she wrote.

Lendvay said a patrol lieutenant is also investigating the case, including "inappropriate remarks" Foluke reported the sergeant made concerning the door.

A damaged property report has also been sent to the city's insurance adjuster.

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