Updated at 3:06 p.m. by Jeff Raasch
CEDAR RAPIDS – Police in SWAT gear busted through a door and searched a Cedar Rapids home for drugs Thursday morning, but came up empty.
At least 12 officers surprised the tenants at 1135 33rdSt. NE when they arrived around 7 a.m. with a narcotics search warrant. Sgt. Cristy Hamblin, a police spokeswoman, later confirmed that nothing was seized from the house.
No one was taken to jail, but the tenants of the house, Justin Davis, 28, and his girlfriend, Erica Lewis, 26, were charged with disorderly house and signed a promise to appear in court, police said. No one was injured during the raid.
Davis said his 5-year-old daughter was in her room when officers busted a hole in the front door. He said he came to the door when he heard a K-9 unit dog barking, and was pulled outside, where he was told to lie face down in his front yard. He said the officers had him at gunpoint.
Davis was visibly upset after police left and mentioned moving out of the area.
“What do you think my neighbors think about me now?” Davis said. “My character has been assassinated, and I’m really upset about that.”
Davis said he and Lewis were handcuffed while officers searched. They were told police had information that there was drug activity at their house.
Hamblin said search warrants are issued only after a judge reviews the evidence collected and signs the warrant. In general, police investigate tips about drug activity by interviewing neighbors, looking through trash and using a drug-sniffing dog, Hamblin said.
“We don’t take just one person’s word, under normal circumstances,” Hamblin said.
Davis said he is on probation and it would be stupid for him to be involved with drugs.
“They should have made sure they had concrete evidence before they knock in someone’s door,” Davis said.
Disorderly house is described as a building or room where someone “resorted to for” illegal activity involving drugs, alcohol, gambling or prostitution, according to a city ordinance.
Initial post:
CEDAR RAPIDS – Police in SWAT gear busted through the door of a northeast Cedar Rapids home and searched inside for drugs Thursday morning.
Cedar Rapids police officers in SWAT gear leave a house at 1135 33rd St. NE after executing a narcotics search warrant this morning, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010. Two tenants of the home were charged with disorderly house, but were not taken to jail. (Jeff Raasch/SourceMedia Group News)
At least 12 officers surprised the tenants at 1135 33rdSt. NE around 7 a.m. Lt. Jeff Hembera confirmed they executed a narcotics search warrant, but no one was taken to jail before the officers left an hour later.
The tenants of the house, Justin Davis, 28, and his girlfriend, Erica Lewis, 26, were charged with disorderly house and signed a promise to appear in court, police said.
Police said no one was injured during the raid. Davis said his 5-year-old daughter was in her room when officers busted a hole in the front door.
Davis said he came to the door when he heard a K-9 unit dog barking, and was pulled outside, where he was told to lie face down in his front yard. He said the officers had him at gunpoint.
Police would not say if they recovered any drugs or paraphernalia, but Davis claims they did not find anything. He was visibly upset after police left and mentioned moving out of the area.
“What do you think my neighbors think about me now?” Davis said. “My character has been assassinated, and I’m really upset about that.”
Davis said he and Lewis were handcuffed while officers searched. They were told police had information that there was drug activity at their house.
Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said search warrants are issued only after a judge reviews the evidence collected and signs the warrant. In general, police investigate tips about drug activity by interviewing neighbors, looking through trash and using a drug-sniffing dog, Hamblin said.
“We don’t take just one person’s word, under normal circumstances,” Hamblin said.
Davis said he is on probation and it would be stupid for him to be involved with drugs.
“They should have made sure they had concrete evidence before they knock in someone’s door,” Davis said.
Disorderly house is described as a building or room where someone “resorted to for” illegal activity involving drugs, alcohol, gambling or prostitution, according to a city ordinance.
What the heck is going on already.
I am so tired of policians that don’t do anything to stop this garbage.
Thank G-d they were not injured physically.
I know it sounds sophomoric but I think these SWAT teams and the judges signing the orders need a taste of their own medicine.
Try having your door kicked in when you are sleeping, minding your own business, etc. and see how you feel.
I don’t want to see an escalation of the violence by citizens taking up arms and fighting back but these tactics are way wrong.
most likely a messy house AFTER the cops came in and tore the place up.
Jeesh? on the NE Side? Why don’t you start looking in the obvious places it doesn’t take an idiot to find out it’s the SE side that needs help. Walk the dog around 15th ST,4th and 5th ave for while but, yet again it will probably just keep barking and running in circles!
I used to live right next door to this house. Although I only knew the tenants in passing, they were sweet neighbors – the best renters throughout the seven years I lived next door, by far. CRPD, if you are monitoring these comments, you got the wrong house. You should have checked out the two shacks on the corner!
I bet the house was “disorderly” once the Feds got finished with it. This is absurd and I hope they file a federal complaint!
cedar rapids, ia is nothing but a f in joke. the oinkers run out of control, some council members are to worried about some stupid signs along a hi way then helping out flood affected people. the list goes on & on. the oinkers as well as the city council & all govt employees work for the people, WE are there boss. the sooner that gets put in every 1`s head, the better we will all be.
Disgusting display of arrogance by a bunch of costumed tax-feeding thugs. I have no more respect for their profession, and no longer feel pity or sorrow when one of them is killed “in the line of duty”
How much does it cost to fix a broken-in front door? Can’t be cheap.
Criminals broke in and then charged an innocent family with “disorderly house.”
The criminals are the men and women of blue. History will not look kindly on these morally/ intellectually bankrupt individiuals. History will show that their war on drugs was a complete failure. History will also reveal that most of the public of the 21st century supported their criminal actions. Pathetic indeed…
Hurry up and get that house cleaned – right now! How many of us have at times had a “disorderly house”? Mine’s pretty disorderly right now. . . . . Should I be worried? Maybe someone passing by will report me? We all had better start waking up pretty fast. We are losing our rights at an accelerated and alarming rate. Am I the only one who is becoming highly concerned about these “police” escapades which amount to nothing? Shady warrants, refusal to release public documents, shooting pet dogs, terrorizing children, “confiscating property”, destroying personal property; finding NOTHING and then walking away like they had a right to destroy your home and your sense of security. Looks like their “snitch” was a ^%$^&& liar. Will they be charged with falsifying a police report? Not to mention the arrogance and outright contempt by all of our public officials – Congress, the Judicial System, the current and past administrations? Even if this person had a prior criminal event, nothing was found in this house and there appears to be no accountability for the false information the police used to conduct this raid. What kind of society have we become when an individual who has been in trouble and is now trying to straighten out his life has to fear this type of harrassment and we allow it to happen? And we wonder why people give up….
These people are very lucky as the militarization of the police in SWAT units has led to the killing of many innocent “civilians” (and their dogs) as a core ‘tactic’. Maximum allowable force is their starting point.
What kind of thugs wear black, cover their faces to hide their identities and hate being caught on video cameras? – The police
I can see that a disorderly house charge is fair. I mean, these people have a big hole in their door, they lay on their face on the lawn for an hour, and they had a bunch of men with guns playing around their house while a 5-year old was home. That sounds pretty disorderly to me.
Remember, when the SWAT pigs show up for you, aim for the head(they wear vests).
Pick up that can…
These people deserve to be financially compensated for their embarrassment, and they deserve a public apology from the police.
Who was the judge and what evidence did he see?
When you can’t find a job in the real world, you go to work for the government. They’ll hire anyone with an IQ below 100.
There are you freedoms right there. I guess it only violates your rights if the police THINK this is an unreasonable search. Who cares about the 4th amendment? Its only a piece of paper if no one is willing to stand up and fight for the words written on it.
Why should you waste your time fight for your rights? You dont do anything wrong. This only happens to criminals. Why take time out of your day and stand up for a fellow American? Its not they are breaking the law. They told me they werent.
Disorderly house?
For SWAT these guys kinda seem like..pussies..
noseeun,
“almost costing (swat officers) their jobs by being innocent”
If you seriously believe that statement you should study the issue more.
Try http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/
If Cedar Rapids is like most towns then 50% of their military style raids find nothing at all.
25% find maybe an ounce of pot or 10 Oxycontin pills.
2% find guns.
And once every year or two the swat team will kill an innocent person.
That charge is a sick joke, something they obviously resorted to because they didn’t find anything and needed to save face. I hope the charge doesn’t stick, nothing would convince me to leave town faster than being pulled out at gunpoint in front of my neighbors when I had done nothing wrong. How many more times do we have to hear about stuff like this before someone is held accountable?
You have to be ******* kidding, bust in a house, guns locked, loaded and pointed, endangering children to issue a “disorderly house” citation, whatever the *** that is. There was NO police work done obviously, just a military raid on citizens. Maybe the swat team should consider merrymaid work since they cant seem to find any real criminals.
This coming from a city who has just collected 14,000 big brother camera tickets…Dont live in CR, dont plan on going to CR, and will never spend a dime in CR
Disorderly house? Are they serious?
Can’t they just charge him with almost costing them their jobs by being innocent, embarrassing them, and potentially forcing them to get yelled at by their captain? That must be a felony by now.