Oops. Fullerton PD Botches Narc Raid, Church Lady Not Amused
Every once in a while you read a story about some innocent citizen whose privacy and safety are wrongfully violated by a police raid executed on the wrong home. Picture the frightening scene of a modernized para-military police force busting their way into your home with guns drawn, putting your innocent family members in immediate danger. Of course it’s almost always perpetrated under the guise of the interminable War on Drugs.
Well, this time it happened right here in Fullerton, and to the last person whom you would expect.
Notable conservative Christian activist and self-described “family values” advocate Robyn Nordell says that her family was mistakenly treated to an armed raid by Fullerton narcotics agents back on October 20th, 2010. According to statements filed by the Nordells at city hall, police quietly came onto her property one evening through her back gate and then entered her home with guns drawn through an unlocked back door. Once inside, police held the Nordell family at gunpoint while they checked her house, presumably for drugs and parolees.
Oops. It turns out they were actually looking for the neighbor who lived next door.
The Nordells helpfully provided photos showing the obvious differences between the two properties, including a deteriorating address marker on the back gate:
Well, that’s not very good. If you’re going to storm someone’s house using lethal force, you better make sure the address is right.
Robyn and her husband Chuck have demanded an investigation by the city council into this incident. While the police have been apologetic, actual follow-up and resolution seems to be lacking. It took several months and some persistence just for the victims to get a copy of the police report.
Corrective action? Unlikely. And if the cops do manage to change something, will they ever admit it to the public? Keeping incidents quiet is always best for them, but never good for the rest us.
Maybe it’s time for some citizen oversight.
Keystone. Kops.
I wonder how 130K Andy spins this one.
Hah! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=342544945856322429&hl=en#
Travis, how did you get those live photos of the raid?
It was a reenactment.
Too much power, not enough accountability. This kind of mistake is a certain death warrant for people determined to defend their homes from burglars, rapists, and home invasion robbers.
That’s right. Another innocent victim of the war on drugs. When will we learn?
I see the problem here. It was two weeks before the election and she had a couple of W-W-Whitaker signs in her yard. The cops don’t like that sort of thing.
Well, some cities have police commissions.
Well at least they were pretending to go after real criminals.
You might have redacted Robyn’s address before posting. Actually, i do wonder about the political side of that, beyond a Whitaker sign. Robyn Nordell is a VERY influential political commentator, she endorses the good guys, and often warns against Repuglicans on a widely read website.
Are addresses secret?
Hey admin, have the kops officially given up the impossible task of nailing the sign thief whose picture and license plate you sent them?
Hahaha!
Yep Fullerton Rudy, the cops botched it all up. I guess the electronic image of Roland Chi’s dad stealing signs, his van, and license plate was TMI all at once. I’m working on a post about this very subject, stay tuned….
Anybody sneaking in my back door with a weapon will be met with lethal force. ANYBODY.
If you have a warrant, please knock. It’s for your own safety.
Careful now, that’s awfully tough talk from such an obviously tough guy! Relax before you shoot yourself in the arse.
Hey Mango, quit no-knocking people’s homes and you won’t have to worry about it.
#13, unfortunately, they have all the body armor while you’re in your undies. You’ll get off a couple of shots while their 10 full autos turn you into swiss cheese. You’ll be dead, and they’ll be back at work in a couple days and a warning to get their paper work done better next time.
I guess I’ll have to take my chances.
unfortuanatly, we have autoloading high power rifles using steel core nato rounds for home defense. body armor? it will only make the wounds worse.
but really, these no knock warrants need to stop it will only end up with innocents killed on both ends of it.
I would suggest some different ammo. If you miss you could kill your neighbor. Rather take your chances with some hollow points and go down like a good martyr. Remember in the humble words of on E. Cartman “respect my autority”.
Let’s cut out all the krazy gun talk.
an unfortunate event for robyn and good for fullerton in that the thousands of fullerton residents/business owners who read FFFF now know there is another moral person with sane political convictions who shares her thoughtful opinions. thanks to this little story, I found another decent blog to inform me.
Typical. There’s generally a reason that these dopes work for the illustrious Fullerton Police Dept rather than NASA. Makes you feel safe, huh?
The report says the cops left out the front door and went over to the neighbor’s house. I guess the covert backyard operation wasn’t necessary after all.
Is it possible to obtain the police report documenting the Officers involved? It would be ideal for Fullertonites to know by name officers willing to use lethal force on innocents.
I am quite aware that there will be no repercussions due to the fact that they are immune to any lawsuits due to the police force hiding behind unjust unconstitutional laws. With that said it should be a public service to know which officers are willing to potentially harm innocent families.
Yorba Linda uses Brea P.D. who murdered Julian last year. NO news on this front.
Don’t you love it when the sheeple, (read all of us NOT wearing a shiny badge.) are less citizens than everyone else. I wonder what would have happened if this was an actual Police Officer’s residence, do you think there is a different protocol for “no knocks” then.
Lastly, for the sake of all of us, is it possible to see which judge signed off on this? Time to vote a judge out of office.
Jefferson, the victims are holding on to the police report right now, presumably in hopes of saving the officers some embarrassment if the department’s follow-up is satisfactory.
Also, I don’t know if a warrant is required to bust into a parolee’s house. Moot point, really, since they certainly didn’t have the authority to enter the victim’s home instead.
Parolees have no standing to assert 4th Amendment claims based on invasions of their privacy, therefore no warrant is required to enter or search their homes. (They are essentially treated like prison inmates who are serving their sentences on the outside)
The FPD will only release reports to victims of crimes, attorneys and insurance companies. The Nordells don’t really fall into any of these categories, but it sounds like they were able to obtain one because they are not suspected or accused of any crime.
Absent a really good explanation this is unconscionable incompetence. Think about it. The addresses in Fullerton are hardly rural residences on some random country road with little or no signage to ID the exact location. Not only do the homes have addresses on front and back, the cops could certainly use addresses of adjacent properties to narrow down any confusion.
Any question still? How about going to google earth right there in the squad car and just pulling up a street view of the house you are about to go in to?
To terrorize an innocent family due to nothing other than ignorance is not acceptable. Certain behavior and specifically going unnanounced into a home with guns drawn requires some easy to institute best practices to insure this NEVER happens. One time is not within some acceptable margin of error. These guys should either come up with a legitimate reason for this mistake or be fired.
I hope the chief has enough decency to meet with the Nordell’s and straighten this out. She onviously wanted this to be handled in private and gave the PD 4 months to do right.
The best way to get the average person to mistrut the police department is defend indefensible behavior on behalf of the police department. Time to show what your are made of Chief Sellers.
If our City Council ever does require and report on a full investiagtion of this incident, I would ask for disclosure of the number of Fullerton Police OVERTIME hours involved by the police-perpetrators of this incident (that is in their creative of writing exculpatory “reports”) as well as by all of the higher ups in the CYA chain of command.
Then I would ask that ALL of those OVERTIME hours be docked or zeroed out from the individuals paychecks and pension calculations.
I’m down man, Fuck those pigs…Kill them all… DEATH to all PIGs
Huh?
It’s just an FPOA troll trying to stir up BS. Ignore ’em.
Seriously uncool comment. Admin, while I know you are big on no censorship, is this really appropriate to leave up?
Cynthia, I don’t think we should just pretend that this sick comment didn’t happen and make believe that deranged people who say things like this don’t exist.
Rather, I’d like to discuss who might have said it, and why.
the sad thing is that this happened to my family as well and the officers, of Fullerton even told us after the fact that they had all of us in cuffs (my family may I remind you) that it was the wrong house.
We filed a complaint and everything, and all we got was I am sorry. We are Christians like this lady too, and nobody cared about us, so why are you making a big deal about this. It happens all the time. The only difference from my family to this family is that we are Latino. No one cared then.
And just remembering having to wake up your 8 year old daughter as an officer holds a gun pointed to you.
Life goes on and move on, write something worth our time.
If wrong address incursions happen “all the time” as stated by who cares, it is very important that Fullerton residents, and especially the City Council hear about these incidents. Even one such potentially “life-threatening incident” is unacceptable and is avoidable with the proper procedures in place.
Wait a minute, Whitaker. Are you trying to tell us that THE CITY COUNCIL IS NOT INFORMED WHEN THEY HAPPEN?
You better get off your duff and tell Chiefee that:
1) The council will always be informed AH-mediately when any cop misfeasance occurs;
2) If it happens again somebody is going to get his overpaid ass fired.
I’m down man, Pluck those Chickens…Kill them all… DEATH to all Hens
Shawn Nelson’s chief of staff was also photographed stealing campaign signs.
Who? What the hell are you talking about?
God bless you, Travis. You really do good work. Travis, the FBI likes men like you.
You can call (714) 542-8825 to be an informant. ( Travis only.)