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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: 6201
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)
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 29.
#2. To: Deckard (#0)
And by the time Baby Boo Boo turns 18, there will be no money left. 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. "Even when a cop is charged with a crime in the case" 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.
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/10/07/presentment.pdf Specifically #18 on page 13. "A cop made false statements ..." And the cop was charged with making false statememts. Nothing else.
They don't need no stinkin' facts. They've just overflowing with feelings.
As the Grand Jury wrote: "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." So what did the parents do? They placed the crib such that it blocked the front door. When the SWAT team found the front door blocked, they threw in a flash-bang.
Okay, so it's like this. The parents are completely to blame. It's all their fault that the kid had a flash bang grenade thrown into the crib. The parents should have known from the memo sent by the police in 2 days prior that the raid would be taking place at 3 AM that morning, but they PURPOSELY chose to ignore it. In fact, they knew the police were coming but chose to "block the door" with the baby's crib, because as everyone knows, cribs make excellent door blocks that completely foil police as they barge into a home. Not only that, but when the police find a door blocked, flash bang grenades are the preferred means of removing the obstruction. This, also, the family was too irresponsible or stupid to realize. That the parents are dealing with a lousy economy just like so many other people is no excuse for their decision about where to live. Dammit, living in a tent in the local park would have been a better choice than a home. The police had no reason to be honest about the statements she made under penalties of perjury to the judge about the basis of the warrant. That the officer involved now faces criminal charges is completely unrelated to the entire incident because the raid would have occurred anyway. That is also the fault of the parents. And the police themselves actually did an adequate job of ensuring there were no children in the house, in spite of the fact that the same GJ statement indicated otherwise. It doesn't matter what the GJ report says because it doesn't carry the force of law, except for the sentence about how the parents might have been aware of the non-violent drug dealings going on that would generate the violent response from the police. Again, they ignored the advance notice from the police that the raid was coming in the middle of the night. Oh, and the $3.6 million dollar settlement to this family from various agencies is totally immaterial, just because it's immaterial, and does not in any way show any fault of anyone except for the stupid family who is solely responsible for everything that happened. All in all, the evidence and facts clearly prove the family was solely and completely at fault for the entire incident from start to finish. Does that sum up your position? Misterwhite, how much are you being paid to post here? Only a paid shill would spout this crap. You have links to things like this GJ report, and other resources, which it seems you were provided in order to have as much pro-police material as possible. Any ordinary person who posts as just a general exercise their freedom of speech wouldn't post this insane crap. I really resent it. It's really an insult to have paid shills competing with the majority here who just post what they honestly think. You are a lobbyist of public opinion, expressing not honesty but the power of money. You are no better than Hillary Clinton, and for the same reasons.
I read your post and it seems to me you're the one spouting crap. I gave you a copy of the Grand Jury's written statement -- which I found via a Google search. That's what I'm going by. It appears, however, that you're all upset because that statement doesn't comport with the story you want to believe. Tough shit.
#32. To: misterwhite (#29)
(Edited)
The members of the Grand Jury understand and are aware that his report, findings, and presentement, are not binding legal orders upon any person or organization. That's number 1. Number 2, the report highlights things the police did and did not do that they could have done better. But you obviously are interested only in highlighting about the only sentence in the whole thing that suggests the family could have done something better, and go on to downplay the lying cop's perjury statement to a judge for which she has be criminally charged. You are grossly hypocritical, white. Grossly. But that's what money makes you do, I guess.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest"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"
#3. To: misterwhite (#2)
#5. To: Pinguinite (#3)
"This is another one of your ignorant statements that seeks to blame the victims."
#6. To: misterwhite (#5)
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.
#7. To: Pinguinite (#6)
"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."
#9. To: misterwhite (#7)
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2014/10/07/presentment.pdf
#14. To: Roscoe (#9)
#27. To: misterwhite, A K A Stone (#14)
#29. To: Pinguinite (#27)
"Only a paid shill would spout this crap."
Replies to Comment # 29. INTRODUCTION
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