The mother of a toddler severely injured by a flash bang grenade expressed relief Thursday that federal civil rights charges were filed against a Habersham County sheriff's deputy involved in the botched drug raid.
“This is a good start towards justice,” said Alecia Phonesavanh, whose son, Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, then 19 months old, sustained severe injuries to his face and chest, along with possible brain damage, after a stun grenade landed in his playpen during the May 2014 raid.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday indicted Nikki Autry, 29, on four civil rights violations, accusing her of intentionally misleading a magistrate judge in order to obtain an arrest warrant for a low-level drug dealer.
“She ruined our family’s life by not doing her job properly,” Phonesavanh said. “It’s put our family through a lot of torture and a nightmare we have to live through every day.”
Autry’s attorney, Jeff Brickman, said his client did not intentionally mislead the judge, saying she has become the “sacrificial lamb in this case.” She is set to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Gainesville where, Brickman said, she’ll enter a plea of not guilty.
Acting U.S. Attorney John Horn said without Autry’s statements, “there was no probable cause to search the premises for drugs or to make the arrest.”
According to the federal indictment, an informant, never before used by the multi-agency Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal and Suppression Team team, and his roommate purchased crystal methamphetamine from Wanis Thonetheva outside his mother’s house, where Bou Bou, his siblings and parents were staying after their home in Wisconsin burned down.
Autry presented an affidavit to the judge in which she vouched for the informant as a “true and reliable informant” who had provided valuable information in the past, the indictment states. Claims of heavy traffic in and out of the residence were not verified, prosecutors said.
“It’s been very difficult for us to obtain justice … for police misconduct,” said Mawuli Davis, attorney for the Phonesavanhs. “Today, we’re more optimistic than we have been throughout this process that there will be justice for Baby Bou Bou and the Phonesavanh family.”
Bou Bou has undergone 12 surgeries since the raid and is scheduled for another next month, his mother said. The family was awarded $964,000 in a settlement reached with Habersham's Board of County Commissioners and has civil suits pending against the other counties in the multi-agency task force.
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