ANDERSON, Ind. (WTHR) - An Anderson woman is suing an Anderson detective, saying police got it wrong when they stormed into her apartment last month on a no-knock warrant.
Anderson police, with the help of an Indiana State Police SWAT team, were looking for more evidence tied to a double shooting in which two men have been arrested. But Francie Steen said they forced their way into the wrong place.
It happened around 4:45 a.m. on February 1 as Steen, her nephews, and her grandson slept.
"I hear a 'pop,' then my grandson cry out," Steen said. "There was two people (wearing) army fatigues coming through the door with rifles."
She said they busted the front door open and then smashed through the sliding glass patio doors "and all that glass was on my grandson who had fell asleep on the couch" which was up against the patio doors.
Scarier yet, she said she had no idea who had just busted their way into her apartment.
"Nobody said, 'Police! Get down, we got a warrant.' Nobody announced nothing," she said.
The raid stemmed from a shooting outside an Anderson Quick Shop Marathon gas station in early November. According to our partners at the Herald Bulletin, police were looking for a woman they wanted to interview and "inspect her cell phone for possible communication with others in the November shooting, but were having trouble locating her."
Then on February 1, Sprint Communications supposedly traced the woman's phone to Steen's apartment.
Steen said the while the woman had lived in the same complex several years ago, she didn't now. Steen said she didn't know where the woman was, just that the two iPhones police confiscated were gifts her nephews received for Christmas, with a tablet police took that was her grandson's.
"So you come in here for two phones? You could have knocked and said we have a warrant to search," Steen said, adding they could have also checked with the Anderson police officer who lives in her complex.
Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings, who helped secure the search warrant, defended the move.
"Police were investigating a double shooting on a convenience store parking lot on a major thoroughfare in this community. Two people were injured," Cummings said. "Police were conducting an investigation, doing exactly what they should have done. They were authorized in what they were doing by the court and our office."
Cummings added, "sometimes it's appropriate for police if they don't want the evidence or thrown away. At times it is not unreasonable" to do a no-knock search warrant.
But Steen's lawsuit argues not in her case.
According to the Herald Tribune, Steen's attorney Terrance Kinnard insists Sprint doesn’t have the technology to pinpoint a cell phone so precisely. The complaint goes on to say the detective "intentionally and recklessly" misrepresented the facts in the search warrant affidavit to justify the raid.
Steen said Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. and Police Chief Tony Watters apologized for what happened and offered to pay for repairs. But she said the $1,700 wasn't enough to cover the work needed, so the complex manager declined.
Steen said she wants a jury trial and besides getting her apartment repaired, she wants punitive damages. Though she wasn't sure how much she and her attorney would seek, she said it was for "the pain and suffering I'm going through and laying up here at night wondering if someone's going to come in here or come back and retaliate."
Eyewitness News reached out to both the mayor's office and police department for comment, but spokespersons for both declined saying citing the pending litigation.