Franklin couple sue Milwaukee police

[buckthesystem]

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779627

Franklin couple sue Milwaukee Police for violating their rights

By Marie Rohde

Tuesday, Aug 5 2008, 09:06 AM

A Franklin couple is suing the Milwaukee Police Department, alleging that their constitutional rights were violated when a police SWAT team stormed into their suburban home and shot the man while looking for illegal weapons in 2006.

The police had obtained a no-knock warrant to search the couple's home of Richard and Sharon Betker at about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2006. Neither had a violent criminal record, owned their home and had no involvement with drugs, according to the suit.

Richard Betker, 59, was awakened and alarmed by the commotion. According to the lawsuit filed by his lawyer, Leonard Adent, Betker got a handgun from a nightstand and cried out "who are you and what do you want?" The lawsuit alleges that Betker did not point the gun but one of the officers said "he has a gun" before one or more officers opened fire. Betker was shot to the finger and the left shoulder by an officer armed with a semi-automatic M-4 Carbine.

The couple lives in a part of Franklin that was described as "country." They own an extensive art and glass collection, according to the suit.

The lawsuit asserts that police, some of whom arrived in an armored vehicle, broke the picture window of the house before police simultaneously broke the front and back doors.

According to the lawsuit, Sharon Betker's estranged sister called police and said there were weapons in the home and that Sharon Betker had threatened her sister in a conversation with the sister's son. Sharon Betker denies the threat and the lawsuit alleges that police did not question the nephew before getting the warrant. The sister had not been in the Betker home in more than four years, according to the lawsuit.

Because Betker, 55, was convicted of a felony forgery charge in 1982, she is barred from owning a weapon. She said the weapons in the home belonged to her husband.

The sister had told Milwaukee police that Sharon Betker did not like police. Milwaukee police did not contact the Franklin police before the raid but would have found that the Betkers had "a good relationship with the local police," the lawsuit said.

Police got the tip nine days before they obtained the search warrant, an indication that the police did not believe the search was urgent, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that the couple was denied food and medication for 24 hours, even though Sharon Betker has a heart condition. They were also not allowed to call their attorney, they said.

Richard Betker was not charged with any crime. Sharon Betker plead no contest to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, fined $250 and sentenced to five days she had served in the House of Correction.

The suit alleges that police violated the Betkers rights to protection against unreasonable sear and seizure; violated their rights to bear arms; was an unlawful arrest; was an excessive assault and battery and an illegal detention of the couple as well as a malicious abuse of power.

The suit also claims the police violated the couple's rights to due process by the failing to investigate the allegations before obtaining and executing a search warrant.

Deputy City Attorney Rudolph Konrad said the city had no comment on the lawsuit.

[Leonard]

The only thing worse for America than drugs, is THE GOVERMENT'S "WAR ON DRUGS!"