No charges in ‘sloppy’ SWAT raid that maimed baby

No-knock raids such as this one in Iowa have become much more common over the years, with an estimated 80,000 occurring across the U.S. each year.

A grand jury in Georgia has decided not to indict any officers involved in a botched SWAT team drug raid that disfigured a 19-month-old baby boy in May.

The Habersham County grand jury announced Monday it found the local sheriff’s department’s drug investigation was “hurried, sloppy and unfortunately not in accordance with the practices and policies,” but then turned around and said there was “no evidence of criminal intent or criminal negligence on the part of any law enforcement officer involved.”

Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh was permanently scarred when a SWAT team raided his parents’ home at 3 a.m. on May 28, lobbing a flash-bang grenade into the house before they entered. That grenade landed in the crib where little Bou Bou was sleeping. The device exploded, tearing open the boy’s face, severing his nose and severely burning his face and chest.

Little “Bou Bou” spent five weeks in the hospital and remains badly scarred despite having undergone multiple reconstructive surgeries, including the reattachment of his nose.

Habersham County has refused to pay the family’s medical expenses, which have exceeded $800,000, a friend of the family told WND in an email.

A Care2 online petition demanding the county step up and take responsibility for the medical bills has gathered more than 15,000 signatures, including more than 500 from Georgia residents.

View the petition here.

An attorney for Habersham County officials said it would be illegal for the city to pay the bills. Alecia Phonesavanh, the boy’s mother, has said her son’s injuries will require surgeries throughout his life to heal the hole in his chest and injuries to his face.

To date, the family has raised a little more than $40,000 to cover the medical expenses, according to Yasmina Dardari, who is helping the family with the campaign.

WND was first to report in May that the sheriff’s office received its “intelligence” for the SWAT raid from a confidential criminal informant or CCI, which is the least reliable type of informant police can use.

According to the police incident report, deputies were told to anticipate a cache of weapons and armed guards at the home.

Officers conducted a no-knock raid. Once inside, they found no guns or drugs. The highly sought-after drug dealer, who didn’t even live at the house, was arrested without incident a couple of hours later at another residence. He was only charged with possession of methamphetamine.

The family has maintained from the beginning that they had no involvement in illegal drug activity. They had only been living in the house a few weeks when police conducted their late-night raid. Everyone was asleep at the time.

Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh was permanently scarred by a SWAT team in Habersham County, Georgia.

Sheriff Joey Terrell told WND a few days after the incident that the raid was “an accident.”

Mawuli Davis, the attorney for the Phonesavanh family, told  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the family was “devastated” to learn no criminal charges would be brought.

The 23-person grand jury heard evidence for six days before releasing their 15-page presentment. Read the entire document here.

State and federal officials have been investigating the incident separately from the grand jury.

Meanwhile, the drug task force involved in the controversial raid has been merged into a larger task force supervised by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sheriff Joey Terrell announced on Oct. 1.

Terrell told NBC 11 Alive there was “nothing specific about the timing of this. We looked at merging with the Appalachian Drug Task Force back in 2009 but it wasn’t financially possible.”

“We’re very excited about this. It gives all of our officers GBI training. We’ll have more manpower because the GBI has some of its agents work with our officers. We’ll also have greater access to intelligence,” he added.

Davis, the family’s attorney, questioned the timing of the sheriff’s decision to disband the drug task force and fold it into the state operation.

According to a news release, as of Oct. 1 the current task force is now part of the Appalachian Drug Task Force, which serves the counties of the Mountain Judicial Circuit.

The Appalachian Drug Task Force is a multi-county drug enforcement agency which is a collaborative effort between the GBI and local law enforcement. The agency is supervised by the GBI.

The baby and his family have since moved back to their home state of Wisconsin.

No-knock SWAT raids on the increase

In 1981, police served fewer than 3,000 no-knock warrants, according to research by Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. By 2005 that figure had jumped to 50,000.

John Whitehead, president and founder of The Rutherford Institute, said his sources in law enforcement estimate the number of such warrants is now up to 80,000 per year.

Much of the problem, while prevalent in cities and towns of all sizes nationwide, stems from the federal level, Whitehead said.

“Obama is giving all sorts of assistance to SWAT teams, they’re getting all sorts of equipment, so they’re thoroughly becoming the military right here in our local communities,” he previously told WND. “They train with the military now. This is like going into a war zone in Iraq in the middle of the night, and doing house-to-house sweeps.”