LF: $3.6 Million Awarded In Flash-Bang Grenade Maiming Of Baby Bou Bou

Title: $3.6 Million Awarded In Flash-Bang Grenade Maiming Of Baby Bou Bou
Source: Information Liberation
URL Source: http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=54217
Published: Feb 29, 2016
Author: Asa Jay
Post Date: 2016-02-29 17:16:13 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 6213
Comments: 37

The parents of a baby injured by a flash-bang grenade during a no-knock multi-agency task force raid in Georgia, will be awarded $3.6 million after a federal judge's decision on Friday.

19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavah (Baby Bou Bou) spent weeks in a burn unit after deputies with a Cornelia Police Department SWAT team threw a flash bang grenade directly into his crib, which exploded in his face, leaving him permanently disfigured.

The raid was conducted at around 3:00 am for a drug suspect that wasn't even in the house. By happen-stance, the Phonesavanh family was staying at the residence with relatives because their home in Wisconsin had just burned down.

"[The grenade] landed in his playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face," Bou Bou's mother, Alecia Phonesavanh said at the time. "He's only a baby. He didn't deserve any of this."

Following the raid, the child was rushed to the Grady Memorial Hospital where he was put into a medically induced coma. In the wake of the incident, Habersham County attorneys said that "the board of commissioners concluded that it would be in violation of the law" to pay for Bou Bou's medical bills.

The Phonesavah family has since settled multiple lawsuits against the assorted departments involved in the raid however. A settlement was reached earlier this month with the City of Cornelia for $1 million, and in April, an agreement for $964,000 was arrived at with Habersham County.

On Friday, a federal judge approved payments totaling $1.65 million by Rabun and Stephens Counties – bringing the entire amount awarded to the family to around $3.6 million.

"We have worked diligently with our co-counsel to obtain the best possible result for Baby Bou Bou and his family," Attorney Mawuli Davis said. "What we achieved will not fix what happened or take away the nightmares, but we hope it helps them move forward as a family."

The only officer that faced any charges as a result of the incident was twenty-nine-year-old Nikki Autry – a special agent of the Mountain Judicial Circuit Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team (NCIS).

She was indicted by a federal grand jury in July for providing false information in a search warrant affidavit and providing the same false information to obtain an arrest warrant that ultimately led to the raid.

Prosecutors had said that Autry knew the informant she relied on wasn't a reliable source and didn't buy drugs from anyone inside the house, but gave the affidavit to the judge anyway who issued the no-knock warrant.

Autry was charged with four counts of civil rights violations for willfully depriving the occupants of the residence of their right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by an officer and "knowingly depriving [the] right to be free from arrest without probable cause."

Although her actions directly led to Fourth Amendment violations that resulted in Bou Bou's injuries, the grand jury declined to hold Autry responsible in December after her attorneys argued that she became the scapegoat for other officers' errors in the case.

Prosecutors didn't agree, but said they respected the jury's decision.

"If there had never been a search warrant Bou Bou would've never been injured," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill McKinnon said at the time. "There's a direct causation."

Baby Bou Bou is still recovering from his injuries, has difficulty swallowing, and requires additional surgeries, according to Attorney Davis.

"He's got a painful road ahead," Davis said. "The whole family, they still struggle with the trauma of what they went through, and every medical procedure is a reminder." (1 image)

By the way, the Grand Jury in this case "strongly hinted that they felt the family was to blame":

"The evidence shows the children were in danger from the moment they moved into the residence and the parents and extended family had some degree of knowledge concerning family members involved in criminal activity that came in and out of the residence."

This is another one of your ignorant statements that seeks to blame the victims. Even when a cop is charged with a crime in the case, and out of court settlements go to the 7 digits is the family free of wrongdoing, right?

I quoted the Grand Jury which heard all the evidence, not selective evidence from a bleeding heart, anti-cop, liberal website.

No one was charged with injuring the child, if that's what you're trying to imply.

Care to post a link? I'd be interested in reading about a statement made by a grand jury, as they work on a simple majority vote on whether to bring charges or not. I wasn't aware grand juries made such collective statements.

You are indeed dishonest. A cop made false statements that resulted in the raid that severely injured the child, and has been indicted for those lies. She was unlucky as most cops get away scot-free. If the child had not had these injuries that netted national news, it's likely she would never had been charged, I'd say. So she was quite unlucky to be caught.

The cops knew there was a child in the house by the presence of toys in the yard.

The truth in black and white -- but don't believe it:
Sheriff Joey insists that this is the face of a criminal.

It was the baby’s fault that he was nearly burned to death in his own crib.

Bou-Bou Phonesavanh was barely a year and a half old, just learning to walk, and unable to speak, but those limitations didn’t stop him from engaging in “deliberate, criminal conduct” that justified the 2:00 a.m. no-knock SWAT raid in which he was nearly killed.

Reduced to its putrid essence, this compound defense amounts to a single claim: If you live anywhere within the claimed jurisdiction of a federally subsidized einsatzgruppe like the Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team, then you are fair game for an after-midnight military raid, and you have only yourself to blame once it happens.

It doesn’t matter that the raid is the product of a dishonestly obtained search warrant issued on the basis of an anonymous tip from a petty criminal, or that no evidence of illegal activity was ever discovered. If your home is torn apart and your infant is nearly killed, you alone are responsible, and the gallant agents of public order cannot be held liable. This is true even in cases like that of the Phonesavankh family, who sought a temporary home with a relative in Georgia after their house in Wisconsin was claimed by a fire.

This is all covered by the “Sucks to be you” provision of the “If you’re not a cop, you’re little people” doctrine.

Looking for other babies to burn, deputy?

Perjury doesn't apply to cops, at least in the minds of cop-sucking assholes like you two freaks.

No, you're delighted that the child was injured, providing you with an opportunity to screech.

Except of course the police who had the temerity to blame the child for their despicable actions.

Tell that to the countless innocent folks who have died as a result of steroid-fueled cops assaulting them when the cops have the wrong home.

Did you see the December 2015 picture of the child healing? That must have pissed you off good.