A federal jury on Friday acquitted the lone officer charged in the 2014 maiming of a toddler that kick-started a national debate over the militarization of police.
Jurors took four-and-a-half hours to find former Habersham County sheriff’s deputy Nikki Autry not guilty on all three counts of violating the civil rights of Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, his parents and siblings.
“I’m just happy everyone sees the truth,” said Autry, 29, who was forced to resign after a Habersham grand jury called her work “hurried and sloppy.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office went much further in their indictment, accusing Autry of providing false information on an affidavit in order to secure a no-knock warrant for a suspected drug dealer.
Based on that intelligence, and suspect Wanis Thonetheva’s history of firearms offenses, Habersham’s SWAT unit utilized a “flash-bang” device meant to disorient their target, who was accused of selling $50 worth of crystal meth.
The SWAT unit tossed the stun grenade into a darkened room of the home in Cornelia where they thought Thonetheva was staying. Instead, the device landed in Bou Bou’s playpen, resulting in severe injuries to the then-19-month-old boy’s face and chest. He remains at risk of permanent brain damage.
Bou Bou’s parents reacted angrily when informed of the verdict at their attorney’s Decatur office.
“I thought America was built with the truth and not a bunch of corruption and lying like this. I almost lost my life, my family, my son,” said Bounkham Phonesavanh, who is Bou Bou’s father and Thonetheva’s uncle.
“We did nothing. We were sleeping,” he said.
Bou Bou’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, said she now believes race played a major role in the dispensation of investigations and subsequent trial.
“I was the only person untouched in that house when they raided it. Why? Because I’m white,” she said. “Why did we get a not guilty verdict? Because (Autry) is white.
“It’s not fair and we will not stop fighting.”
Defense co-counsel Michael Trost acknowledged mistakes had been made. But in closing arguments Friday morning, he insisted his client was being scapegoated. He noted that the officer who tossed the grenade was not charged despite violating protocol when he failed to illuminate the room beforehand.
“There’s a pattern of excess in the ways search warrants are executed,” Trost said. “That’s what led to the injuries to this child.”
Prosecutors argued the blame lies with Autry, calling her an overzealous officer who exhibited “no respect for the people she was investigating.”
“If there had never been a search warrant, Bou Bou would’ve never been injured,” U.S. Attorney Bill McKinnon said. “There’s a direct causation.”
But the government could not overcome its biggest hurdle: proving that Autry hyped the intelligence collected on Thonetheva willfully or with reckless disregard.
Autry’s defense team countered that her mistakes were sins of omission and not purposeful or overt.
The former deputy, now a stay-at-home mom, maintained she was just doing her job. She was made a scapegoat by her supervisors, her attorneys argued, effectively ending her career in law enforcement.
Though the affidavit in question was prepared by her supervisor, Autry acknowledged she reviewed it and recommended no changes be made despite numerous inconsistencies.
In sworn testimony, Autry told Magistrate Judge James Butterworth that her confidential informant had purchased the meth even though she knew the informant’s friend, who had not been vetted, actually made the buy. That same source also told Autry that the Thonetheva residence, which is owned by the suspect’s mother, was surrounded by armed guards.
But the SWAT unit discovered no guards or drugs at the home, nor did they find Thonetheva, who was living elsewhere. Autry acknowledged that she conducted no independent surveillance.
Butterworth testified earlier this week that had the case been presented to him as he now knows it to be, he wouldn’t have authorized the no-knock warrant.
U.S. Attorney John Horn expressed disappointment with the verdict but added it was “a case that needed to be brought and presented to the jury.”
It will be the last criminal indictment brought in this case, though the Phonesavanhs have civil suits pending against the other counties in the multi-agency task force that conducted the raid. They were awarded $964,000 in a settlement reached with Habersham's Board of County Commissioners last year after a grand jury declined to bring any criminal charges, which prompted the federal review.
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