The War on Drugs is bad, the results of the War on Drugs is bad.
It's a shame that this woman died, and ordinarily I'd say that the surviving family members might be due some type of compensation- until Johnnie "The Cockroach" Cochran was hired, now I hope they get nada.
Follow the link- there is a nice ad for the big "Victoria's Secret" sale.
Oh, well.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57963.htm
$500M DEATH SUIT
By ERIC LENKOWITZ and DAN MANGAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALBERTA SPRUILL
May 23, 2003 -- The sisters of a Harlem woman who died after police, acting on a bad tip, kicked down her door and set off a stun grenade filed a $500 million lawsuit against the city yesterday.
"This lady died alone with 12 officers in her apartment who shouldn't have been there," said lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who's representing the family of Alberta Spruill, 57.
"She died at the hands of the police by virtue of irresponsible conduct."
Cops raided Spruill's West 143rd Street home last Friday because an informant told them it was being used to stash cocaine and heroin.
Authorities said that when cops realized their mistake, they apologized to Spruill, who told them she had a heart condition and began having trouble breathing.
She went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
As Cochran announced the suit - which names the city, the NYPD and the cops who executed the raid - he was flanked by Spruill's stoic sisters, Geraldine Wooden and Halice Pinkney.
"This case for them is not about money. It's about changing procedure," said Cochran, a member of the legal Dream Team that got O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder.
"It's about the fact that their sister should not have died in vain. And they see this could happen to any citizen in the New York area if the judges keep granting [no-knock] warrants like this."
Cochran said Spruill, a worker at the city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services, was getting ready to start an ordinary day when the raid went down.
"How would you feel if, at 5:30 in the morning, you have 12 police officers break down your door with a flash grenade?" he asked.
Because of the incident, the use of no-knock warrants and flash grenades has come under scrutiny by civil-rights groups.
The grenades are used to divert a suspect's attention during a raid.
Cops have used them 85 times so far this year, and 150 times last year.
Cochran said he was particularly upset with the origin of the information used to obtain the warrant.
"They relied on an unreliable informant," Cochran said. "He lied. There were no drugs in there. There was no danger in there. Just this lady."
The loquacious lawyer's assistant, Derek Sells, said the cops could easily have found out they had the wrong apartment.
"If the police had just taken half an hour, an hour, even 15 minutes to speak to the super of the building, they could have found out in this case that Mrs. Spruill was the only occupant of the apartment," Sells said.
City Law Department spokeswoman Kate O'Brien Ahlers said the legal papers were being evaluated.
"Obviously, it is a very tragic situation," she said.
When Sells was asked why they set the amount at half a billion dollars, he asked back, "How much is a human life worth - $500 million, $1 billion, $10 billion?
"The family of Alberta Spruill would trade it in a second if they could have their sister, their aunt back for just one more minute, one more hour. So $500 million really is an insult."
One legal expert said the sisters will have a tough, if not impossible, time winning the $500 million they are seeking.
They are "never going to recover $500 million," said Manhattan lawyer Michael Schlesinger, who specializes in civil litigation, adding he believes Spruill's family can win a lot of money at trial.
"What the city should do is settle this case and put it behind them," Schlesinger said.
It's a shame that this woman died, and ordinarily I'd say that the surviving family members might be due some type of compensation- until Johnnie "The Cockroach" Cochran was hired, now I hope they get nada.
Follow the link- there is a nice ad for the big "Victoria's Secret" sale.
Oh, well.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57963.htm
$500M DEATH SUIT
By ERIC LENKOWITZ and DAN MANGAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALBERTA SPRUILL
May 23, 2003 -- The sisters of a Harlem woman who died after police, acting on a bad tip, kicked down her door and set off a stun grenade filed a $500 million lawsuit against the city yesterday.
"This lady died alone with 12 officers in her apartment who shouldn't have been there," said lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who's representing the family of Alberta Spruill, 57.
"She died at the hands of the police by virtue of irresponsible conduct."
Cops raided Spruill's West 143rd Street home last Friday because an informant told them it was being used to stash cocaine and heroin.
Authorities said that when cops realized their mistake, they apologized to Spruill, who told them she had a heart condition and began having trouble breathing.
She went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
As Cochran announced the suit - which names the city, the NYPD and the cops who executed the raid - he was flanked by Spruill's stoic sisters, Geraldine Wooden and Halice Pinkney.
"This case for them is not about money. It's about changing procedure," said Cochran, a member of the legal Dream Team that got O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder.
"It's about the fact that their sister should not have died in vain. And they see this could happen to any citizen in the New York area if the judges keep granting [no-knock] warrants like this."
Cochran said Spruill, a worker at the city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services, was getting ready to start an ordinary day when the raid went down.
"How would you feel if, at 5:30 in the morning, you have 12 police officers break down your door with a flash grenade?" he asked.
Because of the incident, the use of no-knock warrants and flash grenades has come under scrutiny by civil-rights groups.
The grenades are used to divert a suspect's attention during a raid.
Cops have used them 85 times so far this year, and 150 times last year.
Cochran said he was particularly upset with the origin of the information used to obtain the warrant.
"They relied on an unreliable informant," Cochran said. "He lied. There were no drugs in there. There was no danger in there. Just this lady."
The loquacious lawyer's assistant, Derek Sells, said the cops could easily have found out they had the wrong apartment.
"If the police had just taken half an hour, an hour, even 15 minutes to speak to the super of the building, they could have found out in this case that Mrs. Spruill was the only occupant of the apartment," Sells said.
City Law Department spokeswoman Kate O'Brien Ahlers said the legal papers were being evaluated.
"Obviously, it is a very tragic situation," she said.
When Sells was asked why they set the amount at half a billion dollars, he asked back, "How much is a human life worth - $500 million, $1 billion, $10 billion?
"The family of Alberta Spruill would trade it in a second if they could have their sister, their aunt back for just one more minute, one more hour. So $500 million really is an insult."
One legal expert said the sisters will have a tough, if not impossible, time winning the $500 million they are seeking.
They are "never going to recover $500 million," said Manhattan lawyer Michael Schlesinger, who specializes in civil litigation, adding he believes Spruill's family can win a lot of money at trial.
"What the city should do is settle this case and put it behind them," Schlesinger said.