Pubdate: Mon, 15 Dec 2008
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2008 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Jessica Van Sack
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States - News)

WOMAN SEEKS $$ IN COP 'INVASION

A Roxbury woman who says firefighters and police busted down her door last 
summer, ignoring her when she said they were at the wrong house, will air 
her concerns at a City Council hearing today.

Shirley A. Hunter, 56, a professor of international accounting at Tufts 
University, was in the shower Aug. 9 when she heard her front door and 
exterior iron gate being pried open. She said she leaned out the window and 
told authorities, "You have the wrong house."

A city council order for the hearing states that cops received a call from 
a woman on Forbes Avenue stating she had overdosed on drugs, but were 
dispatched to Hunter's house on Fort Avenue in Roxbury. It could not be 
confirmed yesterday that police were dispatched to the wrong house.

After a firefighter forced open her door, two cops charged up her stairs, 
guns drawn, Hunter said. She said when cops realized they had the wrong 
house, "They were about to leave, and I said, 'Wait guys, what about my 
front door' "

"It was traumatic," she said. "They were pretty pumped up. It was as if 
they were angry they didn't find something."

Hunter said she's spent more than $4,000 on repairs to her door and had to 
suspend her consulting business for over a month because she couldn't leave 
her home for long periods of time until a repairman finally secured her 
iron gate in October.

The subject of the hearing is listed on a city council calendar as a 
"police home invasion," which BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll called "an 
obvious mischaracterization."

Driscoll noted that Hunter - who has retained a lawyer and plans to seek 
damages related to her lost wages - could submit a claim to the city for 
the cost of repairs. Hunter was unsure last night whether her lawyer had 
billed the city for repairs to her door.

"At some point, somebody should have shown up to at least apologize or 
expedite repairs," Hunter said.
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