The FBI mistakenly raided their Atlanta home. Now the Supreme Court will hear their lawsuit
Source: AP
Updated 12:12 AM EDT, April 27, 2025
ATLANTA (AP) Before dawn on Oct. 18, 2017, FBI agents broke down the front door of Trina Martins Atlanta home, stormed into her bedroom and pointed guns at her and her then-boyfriend as her 7-year-old son screamed for his mom from another room. Martin, blocked from comforting her son, cowered in disbelief for what she said felt like an eternity. But within minutes, the ordeal was over. The agents realized they had the wrong house.
On Tuesday, an attorney for Martin will go before the U.S. Supreme Court to ask the justices to reinstate her 2019 lawsuit against the U.S. government accusing the agents of assault and battery, false arrest and other violations.
A federal judge in Atlanta dismissed the suit in 2022 and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision last year. The Supreme Court agreed in January to take up the matter.
The key issue before the justices is under what circumstances people can sue the federal government in an effort to hold law enforcement accountable. Martins attorneys say Congress clearly allowed for those lawsuits in 1974, after a pair of law enforcement raids on wrong houses made headlines, and blocking them would leave little recourse for families like her.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/georgia-fbi-raid-supreme-court-lawsuit-9cb55aa6f45bbf02c29d84363c7c9e6f

bucolic_frolic
(49,994 posts)Digital, visual, written, oral identification of the targeted residence had to be part of the process. Yet they still got it wrong. Um, two factor authorization? Multiple gatekeepers? System checks?
Martin68
(25,563 posts)followed during a raid like this. This isn't a lack of quality control. It is a lack of professionalism, training, and discipline.
creon
(1,507 posts)The FBI should had the correcr address. Getting the address wrong is a very serious blunder.
LiberalArkie
(18,002 posts)people that are not qualified to work at McDonalds or Wal-Mart
creon
(1,507 posts)Historic NY
(38,895 posts)with little or no real field time. Training w/o practical experience is worthless. The supervising agent should be demoted to searching for Jimmy Hoffa.
AverageOldGuy
(2,548 posts)Not only did the cops have the wrong address --
-- the correct address was on the other side of the city, and,
-- the guy they were looking for had been in jail for 48 hours.
Cop: "Sir, do you know why I stopped you?"
Motorist: "Because you made C's and D's in high school?"
OldBaldy1701E
(7,714 posts)Cop: "Sir, do you know why I stopped you?"
Motorist: "Because the only letters you know are 'G', 'E', and 'D'?"







wolfie001
(4,721 posts)It's gonna be worse with shitler at the helm.
The Mouth
(3,344 posts)Anyone using a gun should ALWAYS be second guessed. Pull one on the wrong person or use one in a crime and you should NEVER see the sunlight or another person again, even if you are a cop or an FBI agent. And I believe in the right to RKBA, but along with that right goes the fact that like a pilot or obstetrician, you don't get to be wrong, not even once.
We didn't exactly cover ourselves with glory here, either- "The FBI agents did advance work and tried to find the right house, making this raid fundamentally different from the no-knock, warrantless raids that led Congress to act in the 1970s, the Justice Department said in court filings starting under the Biden administration."
SunSeeker
(55,536 posts)If the FBI makes a mistake and harms someone, they should pay that person's damages. I can't believe this is not a settled concept.
Midnight Writer
(23,765 posts)BumRushDaShow
(151,326 posts)and you saw the pics of what they found and took.
But thanks to Loose Cannon and John Roberts, it was all for naught.