Monday, February 27, 2012
Crime / Cops Shades of The Eagle: City likely to pay $144,000 for allegedly improper raid
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart @gwynnstu on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 3:11 PM
In May 2010, Atlanta Police Officers pried their way into an Atlanta bar and restaurant. Once they'd gained entry, police detained all the bar's patrons and employees while the officers collected IDs, and performed background and warrant checks.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it's because this incident — which took place at Sanabella Restaurant & Lounge on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard — is remarkable like the raid that was carried out at the Atlanta Eagle in September 2009.
That incident cost the city more than a million dollars after it was determined that many of the officers involved had essentially trampled on Eagle patron's and employee's Fourth Amendment rights. This one will cost the city the not-insignificant sum of $144,000 for similar police actions if it's authorized by the City Council's public safety committee tomorrow.
According to a 2011 AJC piece, officers were responding to a report that the bar was serving alcohol after hours. An officer knocked and announced his presence, but individuals inside turned off the lights and refused to unlock the doors. The fire department was called to force entry and, ultimately, a bartender was arrested for selling alcohol on a Sunday. None of the bar patrons were arrested nor, presumably, were they suspected of committing any crime, in which case their detention would be unlawful.
The settlement is the result of mediation ordered by federal judge William S. Duffey (mediation that was conducted by another federal judge, Judge Willis B. Hunt). Incidentally (although, "incidentally" is probably the wrong word entirely), the plaintiffs in the Sanabella case were represented by Dan Grossman, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the Eagle Raid suit.
He declined to comment on the settlement.
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