Thread: FBI raid prompts family to sue

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Posted on Mon, Dec. 12, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE

FBI raid prompts family to sue

Marie McBean, clad only in a nightgown, was confronted by FBI agents and forced from her home at gunpoint with her arms raised in the air. The 59-year-old woman is suing for false imprisonment and invasion of privacy.

BY DAN CHRISTENSEN

dchristensen@herald.com

Ta'shika Randle was 13, developmentally disabled and fast asleep when the FBI arrived at her Fort Lauderdale home early one morning before school.

Moments later, a federal lawsuit says, she awoke to find a gun pointed at her head and strangers shouting orders.

A team of FBI agents and police officers went to the home at 1445 NW Eighth Ave. at dawn on April 14, 2004, to arrest Ta'shika's uncle, Fabian Corriette, on a federal drug charge.

But the agents didn't have a search warrant when they roused Ta'shika, her grandmother and another uncle who owns the home and is her legal guardian, the lawsuit says. And Corriette wasn't there.

The agents didn't leave after failing to find Corriette. Instead, fearing that a family member might tip him off that the feds were looking for him, they refused to let Ta'shika leave for school and detained everyone for another 45 minutes until getting word from fellow agents that Corriette had been arrested elsewhere.

The 25-page civil suit, filed Nov. 28, seeks more than $1 million in damages from the United States and four unidentified FBI agents for false imprisonment, invasion of privacy and violations of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. Miami and Fort Lauderdale police, whose officers were also on the scene, are also defendants.

FBI spokeswoman Judith Orihuela declined to comment, saying her agency does not comment on pending litigation.

SURVEILLANCE

A family security camera mounted on an outside wall above the front door captured pictures and sound that will be used as evidence, according to family attorney Gary Kollin.

The videotape, a copy of which was viewed by The Herald, shows the raid began at 6:52 a.m. with shouts of ''FBI: OPEN THE DOOR!'' It ended nearly an hour later with the agents' departure.

One agent, wearing a bulletproof vest emblazoned with ''FBI,'' is seen using a Nextel phone to call another agent, ''Kevin.'' He tells Kevin that Corriette was not there, but that he's gotten an Opa-locka address for him from his mother, Marie McBean. McBean, 59, is also Ta'shika's grandmother.

The agent tells Kevin he's ''worried'' that McBean will alert her son before he can be arrested. ''Stay with her. Don't let her get to the phone,'' Kevin orders.

Minutes earlier, Marie McBean had answered the door to the sound of shouts and banging by the agents. She was forced from her home at gunpoint, arms raised in the air, wearing only a sheer, see-through nightgown.

Armed agents searched the house. They had an arrest warrant for Corriette, but no search warrant or any ''good faith basis to believe he was at this residence or that he ever resided there,'' the lawsuit says.

The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits warrantless searches to make arrests or search for evidence. Arrest warrants do give police limited authority to enter a suspect's residence, but only when there is reason to believe the suspect is home.

Corriette's brother, Christopher Corriette, is a night forklift operator at Publix and was asleep when agents demanded entry to his locked bedroom.

TERRIFIED CHILD

A bedroom away, agents roused a terrified Ta'shika to the barrel of a gun and shouted questions about drugs, the lawsuit says.

Ta'shika is ''developmentally disabled'' and suffers from kidney ailments. She wears thick eyeglasses and dual hearing aids that agents wouldn't let her put on.

After the search, McBean was allowed to re-enter the house to ''console her sobbing and hysterical granddaughter,'' the lawsuit says.

By 7:01 a.m., the agents knew Fabian Corriette wasn't there. Even so, Ta'shika, McBean and Chris Corriette were kept in custody -- not allowed to go to the bathroom and denied permission to get dressed -- without evidence anyone would tip off the suspect, the lawsuit says.

Awaiting news of Corriette's arrest, one agent was videotaped explaining the FBI's actions to Chris Corriette and apologizing for the ``roust.''

''Hopefully, we'll be out of your hair here in about half an hour and let you go on with your day,'' the agent said at 7:34 a.m.

Twenty-one minutes later, after getting the word that Fabian Corriette was in custody, the agents left.

Corriette was convicted later of being part of a crack cocaine conspiracy. He was sentenced last March to 10 years in prison.

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Perhaps they should sue the !#$@#%$@, namely Fabian Corriette, who had the Federal drug warrant in the first place. And the hell has a camera recording their front door? Not taking pictures of the avon lady I'm sure.