Deputies’ judgment focus of probe into botched drug raid

What is a flash bang device?

Flash bangs. also known as stun grenades, are used by special law enforcement tactical units during hostage rescue and high-risk warrants. It is an ATF controlled Class-C explosive device that emits a very bright light and thunderous noise meant to distract potentially dangerous individuals.

Source: www.combinedsystems.com

»VIDEO: Flashbang demonstration

Judgment, more than legality, will be at the heart of the investigation into last week’s botched drug raid in Habersham County that left a toddler fighting for his life.

Though controversial, the issuance of no-knock warrants, which allow officers to forcibly enter a residence without any announcement, is not governed by state law. Neither are the deployment of flash bang devices — one of which landed in the crib of 19-month-old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, leaving a deep chest wound and severe burns on his head and face.

But was a no-knock warrant necessary to apprehend a suspected drug dealer alleged to have sold a small amount of methamphetamine to an undercover officer? And did the deputies with the Habersham County Special Response Team, acting on behalf of Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team, take the necessary precautions before releasing a device that, on contact, radiates 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit?

The decision to use the diversionary grenade was made in advance “due to the violent history of (suspect) Wanis Thonetheva and the stated possibility of weapons on scene,” one of the deputies wrote in the incident report obtained from the Habersham sheriff’s office. Deputies had been briefed earlier by the NCIS team to expect two guards to be stationed on the outside of the home and several adults — and no children — inside.

“On initial glance into the room, the lights were off and there was nothing immediately visible in the entry way,” said the deputy, who then tossed the bang “three to four feet inside the doorway.”

It landed on Bou Bou’s pillow.

Steve Ijames, who, for two decades, has taught law enforcement on how to properly use the devices, said training dictates visual clearance of a room before deployment.

“If it’s dark, you might require illumination,” said Ijames, a former trainer with the U.S. State Department who now works for the East Central Illinois Police Training Project. “These are not mini-firecrackers. You have to assess whether the risk outweighs the damage that can occur if there’s intimate contact.”

Ijames said he knows of two people in the U.S. who have been killed by the devices and “countless others seriously injured.”

Following the raid, Habersham Sheriff Joey Terrell told The Associated Press, “It’s an accident that we would have avoided if we’d just had any inclination that there had been a child in that house. We had no idea.”

But should they have known? Four children, including Bou Bou, were sleeping inside the Lakeview Heights residence in Cornelia on the morning of the raid. Attorney Mawuli Mel Davis, who represents the injured toddler’s family, said another child, the 10-year-old son of Thonetheva, usually lives at the the home, owned by his grandmother. His father wasn’t there. Thonetheva, according to Davis, hasn’t lived in the home for two to three months.

A search inside turned up neither weapons or drugs. The 30-year-old suspect was arrested later that day without incident and charged only with possession of methamphetamine.

Davis said a mini-van with four child safety seats was parked in the driveway the morning of the raid. The incident report confirms deputies saw the van but does not mention any child seats.

“They had to pass right by it,” Davis said. “That should have caused them to stop right there.”

Terrell declined comment, citing the investigation opened earlier this week by the Habersham district attorney and GBI.

“Although the facts are only beginning to come to light, we expect that when all of them are made public and the applicable policies are reviewed, it will be determined that all of the law enforcement officers who were involved acted within the scope of their training,” said Habersham County Attorney Donald Hunt, speaking on Terrell’s behalf.

Last week, the sheriff told the AJC that an undercover agent bought a small quantity of suspected methamphetamine from Thonetheva the day before the raid at the Lakeview Heights address. The agent, who had made just the one buy, spotted no evidence of children in the house. No further surveillance took place, said the sheriff, who insisted the raid was properly executed.

Information provided from an undercover officer or confidential informant is just “part of the pie,” said Ken Vance, executive director of the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council. Vance was not commenting on the Habersham raid specifically but rather on standard protocols typically followed before carrying out a no-knock warrant.

“You want to watch the place beforehand,” Vance said. “You might go through the trash can — are there any Pampers in there?”

Vance stressed that it’s not a foolproof system.

“Nothing is certain in a fluid situation like that,” he said.

Though unfamiliar with the particulars of last Wednesday’s raid, Vance said he is confident authorities “did everything they could to ensure there was no baby in there. All you can do is go with your latest and best intelligence.”

Terrell said he used the no-knock warrant because the suspect reportedly possessed an AK-47 assault rifle and had other weapons during during a previous drug arrest.

According to the warrant from that arrest, in October 2014, Thonetheva had a .22 caliber semi-automatic handgun when selling a small quantity of meth to an undercover officer. He was granted bond of $15,000 and was on probation at the time of his second arrest.

“He was a low-level dealer,” attorney Davis said. “The response was overkill.”

Thonetheva’s arrest later that day, without incident, “is a further indictment against their use of force,” Davis said.

The deputies could face criminal negligence charges, depending on the outcome of the investigation. Federal authorities are also keeping close tabs on the case, as is Gov. Nathan Deal. It’s unclear if they are still working while the investigation is underway.

Habersham District Attorney Brian Rickman said law enforcement officials will often check with him if they are unsure if they have enough for a no-knock warrant. His office was not consulted prior to last Wednesday’s raid.

“Were there prior charges? Were the prior charges with a weapon? That’s generally the threshold you’re looking at,” Rickman said.

No-knock warrants have become “the rule instead of the exception in Georgia,” said UGA Law Professor Donald Wilkes.

With a regular search warrant, officers knock on a residence’s door or ring a bell, then identify themselves and present the warrant. No-knock provisions are allowed when authorities have reason to believe the residents might destroy evidence or pose an significant threat.

In 2007, motivated by a botched raid the year before by Atlanta police that left a 92-year-old woman dead, a coalition of rural Republicans and urban Democrats tried to add rules governing the issuance of no-knock warrants. But the measure was defeated in the House after intense lobbying from many of the state’s sheriffs and prosecutors.

“It looks like that issue needs to be revisited,” one of the bill’s sponsors, State Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.

But Wilkes is skeptical there will be any reforms.

“Law enforcement is very powerful in this state,” he said. “They are going to fight back against any outside governance, and so far they’ve been successful every time.”