Judge dismisses lawsuit accusing LMPD of raiding vacant home, handcuffing wrong couple and child

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With weapons drawn, Louisville Metro Police SWAT officers raided a home in July 2019 to serve a warrant on an alleged drug suspect. Instead, they handcuffed a man hired to paint the vacant house, his girlfriend and her 11-year-old daughter, a lawsuit claimed.

In fact, the suit argued, LMPD officers had already arrested the person they were looking for, who had visited the home weeks earlier when the previous tenant lived there.

But Friday, a federal court judge dismissed the lawsuit against the city and police, ruling that police had produced enough "probable cause" for former Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Mary Shaw to sign off on a warrant.

"To obtain a warrant, probable cause is not required to 'believe evidence will conclusively establish a fact before permitting a search, but only 'probable cause ... to believe that the evidence sought will aid in a particular apprehension or conviction," U.S. District Court Judge Greg Stivers ruled.

"I cannot believe anybody would look at any of the circumstances, and all the mistakes and say, 'Oh well,'" said Roy Stucker, the man hired to paint the house.

Stivers ruled that the warrant proved the alleged drug dealer had been to the home previously "and evidence of such activity would be found at the residence," according to the ruling. "Thus, no constitutional violation occurred in the issuance of the warrant."

Stucker had been hired as an independent contractor to work on the house for a new tenant when at least 10 officers raided the home in the Southside neighborhood "in military fashion," shooting objects through windows and breaking in with weapons drawn, the lawsuit claims.

The house had been empty for days, with furniture outside on the curb and Stucker's painting truck sitting in front, according to the suit.

Stucker and his girlfriend, Courtney Brown-Porter, initially believed they were being robbed and feared they would be killed, the suit claims. The couple and Brown-Porter's daughter were allegedly handcuffed for about 20 minutes.

"Out of nowhere, we heard like banging on the doors," Stucker said. "We didn't know if it was somebody trying to get in or somebody's looking for someone who used to live there."

"They (police) treated us horrible, I mean, worse than if we was what he was looking for, talking bad about us, cussed her out for getting upset," Stucker said.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court against the city and police, argued LMPD could have easily verified that the target of the investigation had already been arrested and was in custody.

Nathaniel Boyington was arrested on drug trafficking charges on July 5, 2019, according to court records.

"Just one minute, it would have showed you that he's been in jail for almost two weeks," said Brown-Porter.

"If you raid a house, make sure the person is not in custody, it's just crazy," Stucker said.

Brown-Porter said her daughter, Selene, has been scarred for the rest of her life from the raid.

"They (police) could just arrest me for no reason, for no reason, and just lie and said I did some self, it just changed my perspective a lot," Selene said, who was ten years old at the time.

As to whether police were acting on stale information, Stivers ruled that while the most recent activity at the home was three weeks before the warrant was signed, "evidence of drug sales two to fifty-one days before (the probable cause determination) is recent enough here to suggest that there may be further evidence of illegality in that place."

In body camera video, police can be seen breaking through the doors and windows of the rental house near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, assault rifles drawn.

Stivers ruled "no constitutional violation" occurred as the officers were executing a lawful warrant and the family was told "that the handcuffs were to make sure none of the plaintiffs were a threat to officers during the search."

Attorney Josh Rose, who represents the plaintiffs, said he is very disappointed in the decision and will appeal and "hope justice is served."

Rose had argued LMPD failed to change its methods after other botched search warrants.

"It's been a trend leading up to the Breonna Taylor incident," Rose said of the March 13, 2020, raid in which officers shot and killed Taylor inside her apartment near Pleasure Ridge Park. (Shaw also signed that warrant.)

The city paid $12 million to the Taylor family and enacted numerous reforms to settle a wrongful death lawsuit six months after the 26-year-old was shot.

More recently, the city paid $460,000 to a Louisville couple and their three children last year to settle a 2019 lawsuit claiming 14 SWAT officers erred in raiding their home, smashing through the front door, using explosive devices and holding the family at gunpoint.

Stucker said the lawsuit is about holding police accountable, to prevent another situation similar to theirs, or Breonna Taylor's from continuing to happen.

"They do whatever they want, look what happened to Breonna Taylor, they do whatever they want," Stucker said.

But Stivers found that the plaintiffs did not prove that Louisville police had a pattern of constitutional violations "similar to those alleged in this case."