Latest news with #Cliatt
New York Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Another Reason People Fear the Government
Why do Americans have such deep distrust of their government? It's a simple question with a complex answer, but here's part of the reason: All too often, the government wrongfully inflicts profound harm on American citizens and then leaves them with no recourse. It violates the law and leaves its victims with no way to be made whole. Let me give you two recent examples, both taken from Supreme Court cases that were argued this term and have not yet been decided. In the predawn hours of Oct. 18, 2017, an F.B.I. SWAT team detonated a flash-bang grenade at a home at 3756 Denville Trace in Atlanta. A team of federal agents rushed in. The family inside was terrified. Hilliard Toi Cliatt lived there with his partner, Curtrina Martin, and her 7-year-old son, Gabe. They had no idea who had entered their house. Cliatt tried to protect Martin by grabbing her and hiding in a closet. Martin screamed, 'I need to get my son.' The agents pulled Cliatt and Martin out of the closet, holding them at gunpoint as Martin fell to the floor, half-naked. When they asked Cliatt his address, 'All the noise just ended.' He told them: 3756 Denville Trace. But it turned out they were supposed to be at 3741 Landau Lane, an entirely different house down the block. The agents left, raided the correct house and then returned to apologize. The lead agent gave the family his business card and left the family, according to their Supreme Court petition, in 'stunned disbelief.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Supreme Court Weighs Case About Mistaken FBI Raid
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 29 over whether the FBI should be protected from a civil suit over its mistaken raiding of a Georgia couple's home in 2017. In the early morning hours of Oct. 18, 2024, FBI Special Agent Lawrence Guerra mistakenly believed he had arrived at a gang member's home to execute a search warrant. Instead, he smashed through the door of a different home—that of Hilliard Toi Cliatt and his partner, Curtrina Martin. According to their Although Guerra had conducted a pre-dawn drive-by in preparation, court filings state that the GPS directed them to a different home. The address of Cliatt's and Martin's home was not on the house itself but was instead on the mailbox and 'is not visible from the street,' according to the Justice Department's filing. During oral arguments on April 29, the Supreme Court weighed whether Martin and Cliatt should be able to sue the government. A law known as the Federal Tort Claims Act generally allows individuals to sue the government for certain acts, such as assault, false arrest, or abuse of process. It includes an exception, however, for legal claims involving the government's discretion in performing a particular duty or function. This was the caveat the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit cited in refusing to allow the couple's lawsuit to proceed. Martin and Cliatt, however, pointed to a provision added to the law in 1974 after mistaken raids in Collinsville, Illinois. That provision allowed legal arguments by plaintiffs based on 'acts or omissions of investigative or law enforcement officers of the United States Government.' Related Stories 4/29/2025 3/19/2024 The justices' line of questioning on April 29 indicated they would remand or send the case back to the appeals court with a narrow win for the couple that entailed more consideration by another judge. At one point, Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed incredulous at some of the comments made by Assistant to the Solicitor General Frederick Liu, who suggested that the FBI agents' mistakes were protected as an attempt to exercise discretion. Liu argued that because there was no specific policy directing the FBI agent not to search a house other than the suspect's, he retained some level of legal protection. 'No policy says don't break down the wrong house—door of a house ... don't traumatize its occupants, really?' Gorsuch asked. Liu said that while the United States' policy 'of course' is to execute warrants at the correct house, 'stating the policy at that high level of generality doesn't foreclose or prescribe any particular action and how an officer goes about identifying the right house.' He went on to suggest that officers may need to consider things such as public safety and efficiency when determining whether to take an 'extra precaution' to ensure they're at the right house. Gorsuch interjected, saying, 'You might look at the address of the house before you knock down the door.' 'Yes,' Liu responded, adding, 'that sort of decision is filled with policy tradeoffs.' Gorsch interrupted, asking, 'Really?' After Liu said that checking the house number at the end of the driveway could expose agents to potential lines of fire, Gorsuch asked, 'How about making sure you're on the right street ... checking the street sign? Is that too much?' Liu told Justice Sonia Sotomayor that the 1974 addition removed one layer of protection for officers but allowed another layer to stay in place. 'That is so ridiculous,' Sotomayor said. 'Congress is looking at the Collinsville raid and providing a remedy to people who have been wrongfully raided, and you're now saying, no, they really didn't want to protect them fully.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
The FBI accidentally raided their home, now they want to sue
A Georgia family that was traumatized by FBI agents mistakenly raiding their home with flash bang grenades and firearms is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them to sue, circumventing typical immunity protections awarded to federal employees. Curtrinia 'Trina' Martin, her seven-year-old son Gabe and her then-fiancé Hillard 'Toi' Cliatt were peacefully sleeping in their home just before dawn on October 18, 2017, when masked FBI agents battered down their front door and let off flash bang grenades. Martin, naked from the waist down, was held at gunpoint by agents in her walk-in closet and kept away from Gabe, who was cowering under his bed, 'terrified'. Cliatt was dragged across the floor and handcuffed while several agents circled him with firearms. It wasn't until an FBI agent asked Cliatt to repeat the address of the house that it became clear the ordeal was a mistake. The agents meant to raid a similar-appearing home four doors down. Upon realizing, the agents uncuffed Cliatt and walked out of the home to conduct the raid on the correct target. Later on, the lead agent went back to Martin and Cliatt's home to apologize. But the family suffered what they call 'severe emotional distress' stemming from the no-knock raid, which last less than five minutes, according to The Washington Post. "I thought someone was breaking in, and it was so chaotic that I thought they had a mission, and the mission was to kill us," Martin told ABC News. Gabe, now 13 years old, said the experience changed his life and gave him a different perspective of the world. "I didn't really have a childhood growing up because of that," he told ABC News. "So, it really kind of changed me as a person." Martin told the Associated Press her son became extremely anxious after the event, peeling paint off walls and pulling threads out of his clothes. In court filings, lawyers said Martin had to change schools twice due to his 'emotional state.' Hoping to obtain compensation and hold people accountable, they sued the individual agents who conducted the raid under the Federal Tort Claims Act – a statute that allows lawsuits against the federal government for harm caused by government employees. It's one of the rare exceptions to sovereign immunity that the federal government typically benefits from. Under the act, they sued the agents for false imprisonment, false arrest, trespassing, assault and negligence among other claims. Lawyers for Martin and Cliatt say the FBI team 'committed a quintessentially negligent and wrongful act' when it raided the incorrect home and have contended that it could have been prevented. But so far, lower court judges have ruled against Martin and Cliatt, saying the agents 'simply made a mistake.' The FBI agent in charge of the raid says it was planned and he had done research beforehand to ensure the raid went smoothly. That included taking photos of the house during daylight hours, writing notes about how to conduct the search and distributing photos to others. Ultimately, the agents got the wrong house during predawn hours. The government, also defending the FBI agents, claims the Federal Tort Claims Act only allows people to sue if the perpetrators were following direct government orders. In this case, the government did not tell the agents to go into Martin and Ciatt's home, they were told to go into the correct home. They argue that a ruling in favor of Martin and Cliatt would open the door for people to file lawsuits against the government for accidents. During oral arguments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices questioned lawyers for the government about the extent of protections awarded to employees. 'No policy says don't break down the wrong door?' Justice Neil Gorsuch asked. 'Don't traumatize the occupants? Really?' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with government lawyers that there are situations where law enforcement should be protected from liability but wasn't sure if it applied to Martin and Cliatt's case.
The Independent
29-04-2025
- The Independent
The FBI accidentally raided their home, now they want to sue
A Georgia family that was traumatized by FBI agents mistakenly raiding their home with flash bang grenades and firearms is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them to sue, circumventing typical immunity protections awarded to federal employees. Curtrinia 'Trina' Martin, her seven-year-old son Gabe and her then-fiancé Hillard 'Toi' Cliatt were peacefully sleeping in their home just before dawn on October 18, 2017, when masked FBI agents battered down their front door and let off flash bang grenades. Martin, naked from the waist down, was held at gunpoint by agents in her walk-in closet and kept away from Gabe, who was cowering under his bed, 'terrified'. Cliatt was dragged across the floor and handcuffed while several agents circled him with firearms. It wasn't until an FBI agent asked Cliatt to repeat the address of the house that it became clear the ordeal was a mistake. The agents meant to raid a similar-appearing home four doors down. Upon realizing, the agents uncuffed Cliatt and walked out of the home to conduct the raid on the correct target. Later on, the lead agent went back to Martin and Cliatt's home to apologize. But the family suffered what they call 'severe emotional distress' stemming from the no-knock raid, which last less than five minutes, according to The Washington Post. "I thought someone was breaking in, and it was so chaotic that I thought they had a mission, and the mission was to kill us," Martin told ABC News. Gabe, now 13 years old, said the experience changed his life and gave him a different perspective of the world. "I didn't really have a childhood growing up because of that," he told ABC News. "So, it really kind of changed me as a person." Martin told the Associated Press her son became extremely anxious after the event, peeling paint off walls and pulling threads out of his clothes. In court filings, lawyers said Martin had to change schools twice due to his 'emotional state.' Hoping to obtain compensation and hold people accountable, they sued the individual agents who conducted the raid under the Federal Tort Claims Act – a statute that allows lawsuits against the federal government for harm caused by government employees. It's one of the rare exceptions to sovereign immunity that the federal government typically benefits from. Under the act, they sued the agents for false imprisonment, false arrest, trespassing, assault and negligence among other claims. Lawyers for Martin and Cliatt say the FBI team 'committed a quintessentially negligent and wrongful act' when it raided the incorrect home and have contended that it could have been prevented. But so far, lower court judges have ruled against Martin and Cliatt, saying the agents 'simply made a mistake.' The FBI agent in charge of the raid says it was planned and he had done research beforehand to ensure the raid went smoothly. That included taking photos of the house during daylight hours, writing notes about how to conduct the search and distributing photos to others. Ultimately, the agents got the wrong house during predawn hours. The government, also defending the FBI agents, claims the Federal Tort Claims Act only allows people to sue if the perpetrators were following direct government orders. In this case, the government did not tell the agents to go into Martin and Ciatt's home, they were told to go into the correct home. They argue that a ruling in favor of Martin and Cliatt would open the door for people to file lawsuits against the government for accidents. During oral arguments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices questioned lawyers for the government about the extent of protections awarded to employees. 'No policy says don't break down the wrong door?' Justice Neil Gorsuch asked. 'Don't traumatize the occupants? Really?' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with government lawyers that there are situations where law enforcement should be protected from liability but wasn't sure if it applied to Martin and Cliatt's case.
New York Times
29-04-2025
- New York Times
Supreme Court Considers Suit Over F.B.I.'s Raid of the Wrong House
Very early on a fall morning in 2017, F.B.I. agents knocked down the front door of a home in Atlanta with a battering ram. Guns drawn, they set off a flash-bang grenade and charged inside. The couple who lived there, Hilliard Toi Cliatt and Curtrina Martin, barricaded themselves in a closet. The agents dragged Mr. Cliatt out at gunpoint and handcuffed him. They told Ms. Martin to keep her hands up as she pleaded to see her 7-year-old son, who had been asleep in another room. As they questioned Mr. Cliatt, he gave his address. It was different from the one the agents had a warrant to enter. One of the agents, Lawrence Guerra, had earlier identified the correct house, which he said looked similar and was nearby, on a different street. He said he had been misdirected on the morning of the raid by his GPS device. The couple sued for false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, battery and other claims but lost in the lower courts on a variety of grounds, notably that government officials' actions are protected from lawsuits when they perform a duty that involves discretion. The legal questions in the case were a tangled series of exceptions and provisos involving the Federal Tort Claims Act, which only sometimes allows suits against the government notwithstanding the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
