Pubdate: Wed, 11 Oct 2000
Source: Beaver Dam Daily Citizen (WI)
Website: http://www.citizenol.com/
Contact:  Ken Pritchard, Staff Reporter

DALTON BUST GOES AWRY, TACTICAL TEAM HITS WRONG HOME, FORCE PREGNANT WOMAN
TO FLOOR

DALTON - Four men dressed in black brandishing handguns crashed their way
into the home of Jesus and Wendy Olveda of rural Dalton, pushing the couple
to the floor with their hands behind their heads as their frightened
3-year-old daughter watched from a couch.

Last Thursday night, the Green Lake County Drug Task Force, believing they
were entering a suspected drug house, kicked down the door of the wrong
home.

This is the story as told by the Olvedas.

Dee Evans, Markesan Police Chief and head of the drug task force, said he
has been advised by counsel not to comment on the incident. District
Attorney James Camp said he too cannot discuss it.

A search warrant used in the break-in was kept secret by law enforcement
officials until charges were presented Tuesday afternoon against the
Olveda's next-door neighbor, Todd Griffin, 38, W5629 Grand Marsh Road,
Dalton. The content of the search warrant remains sealed by the courts.

Griffin, who had been in the custody of the sheriff since Thursday night,
was charged Tuesday afternoon with manufacturing marijuana and keeping a
drug house.

Jesus Olveda, 38, said that once members of the drug task force realized
they had searched the wrong home and were holding innocent people, several
of the officers rushed through a garage door and ran across their property
to the Griffin residence. He said one officer had to return to retrieve the
search warrant.

Jesus Olveda said Evans stayed behind to apologize and assured he and his
wife that the task force would restore damaged property. Olveda said he is
more concerned about the health of his wife, who is five months pregnant,
and psychological damage to 3-year-old Xena.

They have yet to get a good night's sleep since the break-in, he said
Tuesday afternoon. And his daughter, he said, is expressing violent
behavior.

Thursday began as a typical evening in the Olveda home at W5653 Grand Marsh
Road near Dalton. Wendy Olveda, 37, a fifth-grade teacher at Markesan
Elementary School, was doing work for school at a home computer. Daughter
Xena was sitting on an upstairs couch. Jesus Olveda, an employee at Del
Monte in Markesan, was in a bedroom reading.

Wendy Olveda saw what appeared to be a SWAT team dressed in riot gear
approach the house. She went to the door, believing the officers would
recognize her. As the door was being unlocked, it was forced open and Wendy
Olveda was told to shut up and was pushed to the floor.

Wendy Olveda told the armed officers she was pregnant and she said they
responded by pushing her head down on the ground in front of her daughter.
Jesus Olveda said he heard banging and yelling at the front door.

He said, "When I got into the hallway, I saw four guys in black with guns
drawn. They had a flashlight in my face and told me to get down on the
floor.

"I could hear my wife saying, 'You're at the wrong address,' but they didn't
listen." he said. "When I lifted my head to say they were at the wrong
address, one of them put a knee on my head and ground it into the floor."

He said one officer repeatedly used vulgar language and he was kicked while
laying with his hands behind his head. The tactical team proceeded to search
every room in the home, upstairs and downstairs.

Jesus Olveda said he began to hyperventilate and one officer standing over
him asked if he was OK. He said, "I told him I was very upset and it was the
wrong home."

Jesus Olveda said it was after the first wave of task force officers pushed
he and his wife onto the floor and went through their home, task force
leader Dee Evans entered the home. Evans, he said, told the task force that
they were indeed at the wrong address.

Wendy Olveda is concerned because she is a founding member of the Green Lake
county RAP, a drug prevention program. She takes her fifth-grade class for a
courthouse tour each year and knows the district attorney, county judge and
many law enforcement officers.

Jesus Olveda said the officers in the initial assault on their home were
from the Berlin area.

"Don't the officers know how to read a fire number," asked Wendy Olveda.

"This is a very traumatic experience for my whole family," Wendy Olveda said
Tuesday. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep. How can such a
thing happen to an innocent family?"

At about noon on Tuesday, Todd Griffin was led in handcuffs into a small
courtroom at the Green Lake County Courthouse. Griffin and Public Defender
Mark Slate of Markesan received the first look at the charges against the
defendant.

Earlier in the week, sheriff's personnel said they could not confirm that
Griffin was being held at the county jail and also could not comment on
activities of the task force. The state did not inform Slate or his client
about the mix-up in serving the search warrant. The charges against Griffin
were not read aloud in court, but Camp said later the felony charges lodged
against Griffin include: delivery of marijuana, possession of marijuana with
the intent to sell, manufacturing marijuana and maintaining a drug house. A
fifth charge, possession of drug paraphernalia, is a misdemeanor.

Circuit Court Judge W.M. McMonigal released Griffin on a $5,000 signature
bond. Camp said the investigation into the charges against Griffin is still
ongoing and more arrests may be made.
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