Cops Trashed Attorney's Home In Retaliation For Successfully Defending Suspect Against Murder Charge

[Celerity]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210425/01253246676/lawsuit-cops-trashed-attorneys-home-retaliation-successfully-defending-suspect-against-murder-charges.shtml

An attorney in Virginia found out what happens when you make cops angry. According to Cathy Reynolds' lawsuit, the Roanoke PD targeted her for some extra attention after she successfully defended her stepson from murder charges.

Prosecutors really wanted Darreonta Reynolds for murder, but security camera footage from the convenience store where the shooting took place appeared to show Reynolds shooting Jean De Dieu Nkurunziza in self-defense when Nkurunziza came after him with a gun. The jury agreed with the defense's case, acquitting Reynolds after ninety minutes of deliberation.

This apparently angered someone somewhere in the Roanoke Police Department because this is what happened next. From the lawsuit [PDF]:

Just three days after D. Reynolds acquittal, Defendants targeted Ms. Reynolds for retaliation. Defendants broke down the front door of Ms. Reynolds‘ home after she had offered to let them in, "searched" Ms. Reynolds' home for an individual by destroying her personal possessions, including those entirely irrelevant to a search for a person and left Ms. Reynolds traumatized, knowing that she could be targeted by police for engaging in constitutionally protected activity.

snip

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Nevilledog]

2. Out of control

[Moostache]

3. Fire them all. (Including the judge that signed the warrant.)

Fire them, AND make sure that none of the people involved - from the cops who broke in to their partners in crime covering up the planning or not reporting it before it happened to the supervisors and captain of the department - ever serve in any capacity in law enforcement or justice again.

This Gestapo-esque bullshit can never be normalized or white-washed away.
These police are terrorists.
Treat them as such.

[iluvtennis]

13. + agree. n/t

[Grokenstein]

16. +1,000,000

Where's the "next time call a crackhead" clown? I'd love to hear him try to justify this.

[uponit7771]

36. +1,

[magicarpet]

4. The very same Nazi approach trDUMP would employ,....

.... if he was ever an LEO with a gun, a badge, and the power that came with it.

Fascist jackbooted brown shirt pigs.

[multigraincracker]

5. I was married to a cop.

She told me she was a member of the largest gang in the country. You mess with one of us, you’ve messed with all of us.

[ItsjustMe]

26. The largest gang in the country

https://www.npr.org/2015/04/25/402160046/to-west-baltimoreans-the-largest-gang-is-the-police

https://www.virginiamercury.com/2020/06/10/i-was-in-a-gang-its-called-the-police-its-time-to-change-american-policing/

[multigraincracker]

31. Yep and that was over 10 years ago.

Didn’t work out well for her. She got booted out of the department. Her boss was one of the good guys. He had a PHD and knew cops like her were law suits waiting to happen. She took her boss to court and lost. I was married for 2 years and went through 3 years in divorce court.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. PrOtEcTiNg AnD sErViNg

[onecaliberal]

28. DomEStic terRoriZinG.

[lpbk2713]

7. Did they even have a report? A reason for being there?

Or did they just decide to drop in?

If they didn't have a valid reason for being there in
the first place then they are in a world of shit.

[Shrike47]

20. The affidavit in support of the search warrant claims a confidential reliable informant saw a wanted

person on her porch. She told the police she didn’t know the guy and didn’t represent him.

The complaint alleges there was no real CRI and the officer who signed the affidavit knew it; and, furthermore, the affidavit failed to establish that the informant, if he/she existed, was reliable.

[lpbk2713]

32. Damn. They don't even have a creative imagination.

Could their cause be any more flimsy?

[TygrBright]

8. This happened in Albuquerque as well, a few years back. Seems to be a "thing."

One more reason to completely restructure the law enforcement portion of our criminal justice system, and do some serious upgrading to the rest of the system.

wearily,
Bright

[spanone]

9. Welcome to the fucked up united states of america

[Calculating]

10. Why did she offer to let them search?

No warrant, no search

[LiberalArkie]

11. Probably because if she had not let them in, the officers would have shot someone.

The front doors were unlocked but they still destroyed them. The police had permissions to search, but they still destroyed the house.

[Lancero]

18. She's AA. With todays police...

Refusing the search would have gotten her six in the chest. Especially since, in their minds, they were just putting a 'uppity black' in their place.

Conveniently, the homes of the White attorneys weren't ransacked.

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. Trust?

Sad when the public can't even trust the police anymore. She knew she had nothing to hide, so what would be the harm of allowing them to come inside?

[StarfishSaver]

23. Because Black people don't always feel we have the choice to say no to the police

[Shrike47]

24. They posted officers and closed off the street while they ran off to get a warrant.

The complaint says there were a couple of hundred people watching by that time. She told the guard/cop on her porch they could come in and look, to get this over with. They tore down the door anyway.

[oldsoftie]

27. It gave her a better case against them that she DID.

There was no reason to trash the place or even BE there. By going along with the search, she'll end up taking them down easier

[uponit7771]

37. How? thx in advance

[oldsoftie]

39. There can be no claims of "she didnt cooperate" etc

Which is usually the go-to excuse for a lot of this behavior

[uponit7771]

40. Got it

[Joe Nation]

12. And where were the good apples we keep hearing about?

The truth is that there are no good apples.

[Dustlawyer]

14. Hope these cops find out what happens when you make an attorney angry.

[DENVERPOPS]

15. Coming soon, to towns and cities

all across America.

Pre WWII Germany anyone?????????

[Captain_New_York]

22. Babylon Berlin

Last edited Wed May 5, 2021, 04:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Watch Netflix “Babylon Berlin” to see how facism was born and nursed by the Polizei

[DENVERPOPS]

25. Thx BB, I will

get it and watch it..............

I watched "mississippi burning?" last week on cable, with DaFoe and Hackman?????

Hell, we haven't made any progress what so ever, and have in fact gone back wards from the 50's............

[Scalded Nun]

17. State-sanctioned thuggery, it is everywhere

And this is how the GOP/fascists will treat the entire populace should they gain control of this country. They have been working for decades upon decades getting their enforcement arm firmly established.

And please spare me the 'one bad apple' bullshit. That has NEVER been the case.

[StarfishSaver]

21. But, by all means, let's give them the benefit of the doubt when they kill people

[uponit7771]

38. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[Downtown Hound]

29. This is why "filing a formal complaint" against police when they abuse their power is dangerous

and usually, pointless. Pointless because anything meaningful rarely comes from it. Derek Chauvin alone had 18 complaints against him and nothing was ever done. Dangerous because cops have a history of retaliating against people who complain against them.

[MarcA]

30. The job attracts those who like to brutalize and hurt others. n/t

[multigraincracker]

33. We can clean up the police with out defunding them.

Let the police defund themselves. Every Civil settlement needs to come out of their budget and wages. I know cops and the only thing they want to protect more than the gang is their own pay check.

[lpbk2713]

34. It would be beautiful ...

if she has a home surveillance system and everything those gorillas did was recorded.

[oasis]

35. Police rampage. City's gonna pay, bigtime.💰💰💰💰💰