Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jan 2003
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2003 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Authors: Allison Klein and Del Quentin Wilber, Sun Staff
Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
http://www.mapinc.org/states/md/ (Maryland)

PROSECUTOR TO DROP CHARGES IN SHOOTING OF FOUR OFFICERS

Detectives didn't identify selves as they burst into city house, officials say

Baltimore prosecutors say they will drop attempted murder charges
today against a man who shot four police detectives during a November
drug raid, saying they believe Lewis S. Cauthorne acted in
self-defense when he wounded the officers as they barged into his home.

Investigators concluded detectives did not announce that they were
police just before smashing down Cauthorne's door with a battering ram
and rushing in to look for drugs, according to law enforcement
documents obtained by The Sun.

Cauthorne was interviewed by police the night of the incident and told
them, "I didn't know you guys were police. I thought I was getting
robbed," according to the documents.

State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy has scheduled a news conference
for today, in which she plans to say that Cauthorne, 26, acted out of
a reasonable fear when he fired a .45-caliber handgun at the raiding
officers.

The case against Cauthorne will not hold up in court, prosecutors say,
because the raid violated a precedent set in the case of Wilson vs.
Arkansas, which held that police bearing search warrants must knock
and announce their presence before forcing their way into a home.

Several officers who broke down the front door of Cauthorne's North
Baltimore house were wearing street clothes without department-issued
yellow "raid" jackets, and uniformed officers were stationed out of
view in the back of the house, documents show.

In subsequent interviews with investigators, the raid team members
were unable to provide a consensus of what happened as they broke the
door down.

Some said at least one officer yelled "police" as they entered the
house, while others said they couldn't remember what - if anything -
was spoken in the tense moments before the raid.

Detective Kevin Rosenborough, a member of the raid team, was asked
whether anyone shouted "police search warrant" before the door opened.

"Not to my knowledge," Rosenborough answered.

Raid team member Detective Paul Wojcik was asked, "When he knocked,
did you hear anyone say anything?"

"I, I, I didn't," he answered.

Cauthorne, who has been jailed since the Nov. 19 incident, is expected
to be released today.

Ragina C. Averella, a police spokeswoman, declined to comment
yesterday, saying the Police Department had not been told charges
against Cauthorne were being dropped. Gary McLhinney, president of the
city police union, also declined to comment for the same reason.

Cauthorne's lawyer, Warren A. Brown, said the decision by prosecutors
to drop charges against Cauthorne sends a message that the criminal
justice system can be fair.

"This will instill confidence in the community that just because the
police make an accusation, it doesn't mean it's a whitewash," Brown
said. "It lends credibility to the criminal justice system when
something like this happens."

Police raided the house at 8:55 p.m. with a search warrant after they
were told by an anonymous source that drugs were being sold out of the
home, in the 1000 block of Cameron Road.

The raid yielded six bags with trace amounts of marijuana, empty
vials, a razor with cocaine residue and two scales, documents show.

Cauthorne, who had no arrest record, was not charged with any drug
crimes. A graduate of Northern High School, he is employed at his
family's business, a city convenience store.

After the shooting, Brown said that Cauthorne's past might have played
a role in his reaction to the police raid. In 1990, his father was
shot and killed during a robbery of his taxicab. That killing has not
been solved.

At the time of the police raid in November, Cauthorne was in his
rowhouse with his mother, girlfriend and 3-year-old daughter. The two
women started to scream to Cauthorne, who was in the basement at the
time, that someone was breaking in to the house.

"I didn't hear anybody say, 'police.' I was sitting right there and I
would have heard it," said Janie Battle, Cauthorne's girlfriend. "It
sounded like they were banging the door down.

"We said, 'Who is it?' and no one said anything. We yelled, 'Who is
it?' more than once or twice.

"We were yelling to Lewis that someone is breaking in the door. He's
thinking someone is invading his home while his family is sitting
right there."

Officers recounted that after they broke the door down, they began
heading up the stairs to the second floor when "they observed an arm
reach out from an archway from the dining room area," according to a
police account outlined in a document. "The arm was holding a handgun
and the person started to fire at the raid team repeatedly."

The bullets hit Robert J. Adams in the right thigh and arm, Officer
Michael H. Smith in the right leg, Officer James S. Guzie in the left
shin and Officer Steven Henson in the left hand.

Police returned fire, but neither Cauthorne nor anyone else in the
home was injured.

Although union and police officials declined to comment publicly
yesterday on the potential action of prosecutors, many inside the
department said they were aware of problems with the raid.

While the law requires them to identify themselves, police are often
hesitant to knock and tell residents that they are police officers.
Detectives are often worried about giving drug dealers time to flush
drugs down toilets or get weapons and attack officers rushing into the
house.

After the Cauthorne shooting, former Police Commissioner Edward T.
Norris told his deputies that they must ensure that detectives wear
yellow jackets on raids.

Legal documents also point out other problems that were identified in
connection with the raid. For instance, crime lab technicians were
told not to take photographs of the drugs, and there is no record of
where the drugs were recovered in the house.

Documents also show that members of the raid team were not available
to be interviewed by investigators until days or weeks after the incident.

Battle, Cauthorne's girlfriend, said she is not angry with police. But
she said it frightens her to think about what might have happened.

"Police are human beings. I now they make mistakes. When people's
lives are at your fingertips you have to be careful," Battle said.

"This is an onging problem and it needs to be addressed. Me, Lewis,
his mother, our daughter, those officers, any of us could have been
killed." 
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