Huntsville family facing eviction after FBI raid
A Huntsville family has less than 20 days to find a new home after their home was raided.
Travolta Garritt said his family was awakened to loud door knocks at midnight on January 24. Exclusive Ring camera footage showed officers moving in and banging down the door at Westlake Apartments, breaking the porch light, and then destroying the doorbell camera immediately ending the recording.
According to the family, a search warrant was received two hours into the raid stating police had probable cause to search the home. Officers with the Huntsville Police Department were there assisting the FBI Taskforce in locating 55-year-old Lawrence Jones. Jones was arrested in connection to four Regions Bank robberies in Madison and Huntsville.
Jones’ ex-girlfriend lives in the home but the family said they are not together and had no knowledge of the robberies. Jones was not inside during the time of the home.
Family members said they were handed a 30-day eviction notice the day after the raid, claiming Jones was arrested at the residence.
“We got less than 20 days to find somewhere to stay for something we didn’t do,” said Sarika Eason, who lives inside the home.
WAFF 48 spoke to attorney Russell Crumbley who is not involved in the case. He said officers need to have thorough evidence before entering a home.
“They have to be particular about this place to be searched. They can’t just say they believe there’s going to be illegal stuff,” said Crumbley.
So the police destroyed a woman’s rental home during a raid, based on a search warrant obtained with shitty FBI information, and lied about the suspect being at the residence, causing this woman to be evicted.
When you’re evicted for breaking the terms of a lease with criminal activity, it’s almost impossible to get a new lease. That comes up in a background check.
So the police fucked this woman over hard.
The police should be held liable for shit like this.
If the police conduct a raid, unless they arrest the suspect that location and obtain a conviction, any property damage done during a raid needs to be fixed by the police and any material harm done to the tenant or property owner needs to be made right.
Watch the overuse of raids fall off a cliff if that happens.
If you keep the company of criminals, you will eventually become a victim, a witness, or an accessory. (Not mine originally.)
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That aside, I’ve heard that some leases are written such that someone needn’t be arrested to be evicted, only that the police were called to the residence. Not defending the police lying by any means, but depending on the terms of the lease, it might not matter.
“If you keep the company of criminals, you will eventually become a victim, a witness, or an accessory.”
Yes, but she broke up with him and cut ties with him. That should count for something.
“That aside, I’ve heard that some leases are written such that someone needn’t be arrested to be evicted, only that the police were called to the residence.”
Yes, buy if the police were forced to make right, the likelihood of raids like this would go down, or the district attorney should have to go to bat for the woman with her landlord as to why she shouldn’t be evicted because the cops were wrong.
Re breaking up and cut ties, all the article says is “Jones’ ex-girlfriend lives in the home but the family said they are not together and had no knowledge of the robberies. Jones was not inside during the time of the home.” Is the ex-GF a family member? How long ago did the breakup happen? Et cetera. All I’m saying is, there’s not enough information in the article to make an assessment of whether a search warrant for the residence was reasonable or not.
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I absolutely agree that the agency that made the raid, should have to put things right. Frankly, I believe that in general, any entity conducting a raid should have an obligation to minimize damage even if a raid is warranted (pardon the pun). I wasn’t arguing that point. What I was saying, is that as far as their lease is concerned, it might not matter whether someone was actually arrested or not. That’s again something the article doesn’t go into.