Pennsylvania: Taxpayers Hit for
$270k After Cops Beat, Kidnap 4’11” Grandma for Refusing Warrantless Search, by
Matt Agorist, 4/25/19.
Allentown, PA — Thanks to police
officers who chose to violate rights instead of uphold them, taxpayers in
Allentown, Pennsylvania will shell out $270,000 to a 4-foot 11-inch grandma
whose only crime was demanding cops obey the law.
The incident unfolded on May 2, 2016,
when Charlene Klein woke to the sound of cops banging on her door in the middle
of the night. When she opened the door, she saw officer Stephen Madison and
Christopher Hendricks standing on her porch with officer Michael Good and other
police nearby, according to the lawsuit.
Madison asked Klein if her son was home
and then asked if police could search her home. Klein, who knows her rights,
then asked officers if they had a warrant to search her home or a warrant to
arrest her son. According to the lawsuit, police replied that they had neither,
so Klein told them that they could not come in and she began to close her
screen door.
As the Morning Call reports, according to the lawsuit, Madison
tried to keep Klein from closing the door, and when his finger got pinched, he
ripped the door out of Klein’s hands. Madison grabbed Klein by the shoulders,
violently pulling her outside, the suit alleges. Madison and Hendricks then
lifted Klein with her arms behind her back and threw her onto the concrete wall
between Klein’s and her neighbor’s property before handcuffing her, the lawsuit
alleges.
After attacking the innocent
grandma, injuring her in the process, police proceeded to violate her rights
even further and search her home without the warrant.
According to the lawsuit, Klein was
then kidnapped and brought to jail where she was held without medical
treatment, despite her injuries which required surgery.
Because officer Madison’s finger got
pinched in the door to a home he and his cronies were attempting to illegally
search, this grandma was charged with aggravated assault, according to the
lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Klein’s
charges were eventually dismissed. However, the alleged “investigation” conducted
by the police department into Klein’s assault and mistreatment was little more
than a cover-up for the brutal cops, according to the lawsuit.
None of the officers were
disciplined for attacking the tiny grandma which, according to the lawsuit,
highlights a failure of Allentown police supervisors to investigate misconduct
by officers and punish those who break the law.
“The failure to do so results in
police officers believing that their conduct will not be investigated and there
will be no consequences for illegal conduct,” said attorney Robert Goldman, who
represented Klein.
It took nearly three years for Klein to
finally get justice. And, as the Morning Call reports, after a six-day trial and four
hours of deliberations, jurors found officer Stephen Madison used excessive
force in his arrest of Klein, according to Karoly and Goldman. Jurors also
found Madison and officers Christopher Hendricks, Michael Good and Jacoby
Glenny conducted an illegal search of Klein’s home, and failed to intervene to
prevent the illegal search and use of excessive force, and conspired to violate
Klein’s constitutional rights.
The jury also found that police denied
the innocent grandma medical care after kidnapping her. They also found former
police Chief Keith Morris failed to supervise the officers, that the city’s
policies exhibited a deliberate indifference to
residents’ constitutional rights and
that the officers acted maliciously in
violation of Klein’s constitutional rights.
“The jury verdict was loud and clear —
it is essential that the Allentown Police Department reform its ways,” said
Goldman. “They scrutinized the ways of its officers and said they don’t
tolerate violations of citizens’ rights.”
While Klein’s case is certainly a
victory, it highlights a serious problem with policing and the system which is
seemingly designed to allow bad cops to escape accountability. We have a jury
of her peers finding that multiple cops beat Klein up, kidnapped her, denied
her medical care, and grossly violated her rights in the process, and not a
single cop received so much as a slap on the wrist.
Instead of the cops being held
accountable, the taxpayers were — thus continuing to enable bad cops and the
cycle of oppression without accountability.
Comments
I assume Grandma’s
Lawfirm bagged their 30% for their trouble giving Grandma $189.000 and the
lawfirm $81,000. These kinds of reports
are enough to convince us to call 911 only to stop Police from illegal forced
entry.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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