WASHINGTON—Today, an innocent family whose Lancaster, Texas, home was raided by a SWAT team in March 2019 asked the United States Supreme Court to hear their case against the SWAT team’s lieutenant. Karen Jimerson and her partner, James Parks, have teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a petition with the Supreme Court asking the Justices to overturn a lower court’s ruling granting qualified immunity to the SWAT commander who ordered the raid of the wrong home.
“Qualified immunity has run amok,” said IJ Attorney Dylan Moore. “The Supreme Court must ensure that victims of obvious constitutional violations, like Karen and James, are not denied a day in court.”
On a quiet night in March 2019, a SWAT team from the Waxahachie Police Department, and officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), attempted to execute a search warrant on a suspected methamphetamine stash house at 573 8th Street. When the team arrived on the scene, however, they nearly raided 583 8th Street. Realizing the first mistake, SWAT Team Lieutenant Mike Lewis ordered them to “go to the house just to the left” and conduct the raid there. But the house to the left was also the wrong house. Rather than ordering officers to raid 573 8th Street, Lewis directed them to 593 8th Street, which belonged to Karen.
Karen’s address did not match the one listed on the warrant, but Lewis never checked. Even worse, the houses had obvious physical differences. Lewis knew that the target house was surrounded by a fence, had a large garage behind it (that police planned to search), and had its address posted on the front porch. Karen’s house had no porch, fence, or garage. What it did have was an impossible-to-miss wheelchair ramp that officers had to ascend on their way into the wrong house.
“This was not a difficult, split-second decision. Lewis had plenty of time, and he had plenty of information to ensure he was raiding the correct house,” said IJ Senior Attorney Patrick Jaicomo. “Qualified immunity should not shield Lewis for his plain incompetence.”
When police arrived, Karen had just gotten out of the shower, and her three minor children and James were asleep in the home. Lewis ordered the team to conduct a “break and rake.” Without knocking or announcing themselves, officers shattered every front window, covering Karen’s children with glass, detonated a flashbang grenade, and smashed down the front door. Upon entering, they ordered Karen to the ground where she was held for several minutes. The SWAT team then left and conducted its raid at the correct home, two doors down.
“This raid was a traumatizing experience for me, and my kids still have flashbacks to the raid,” said Karen, who was taken along with her daughter to the hospital following the raid. “We hadn’t done anything wrong, and suddenly, we’re being held at gunpoint and having parts of our home destroyed. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
Waxahachie Police conducted an internal investigation and found that “reasonable and normal protocol was completely overlooked,” and the police chief stated the mistake never should have happened. Lewis was suspended without pay for two days.
Karen and James sued Lewis, who claimed he was entitled to qualified immunity, a judge-made legal doctrine that shields government officials from accountability when they violate people’s constitutional rights. A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, 2-1, that Lewis was immune, stating he made “significant efforts to identify the correct residence” before he ordered officers to storm the wrong one. But a dissenting judge disagreed, writing that “it is ‘beyond debate’ that Lewis’ efforts to identify the target house were constitutionally deficient.” Now, Karen and James are asking the Supreme Court to rule that officers who ignore the Constitution are not above the law.