Via Radley Balko, another “isolated incident :”

Cook County sheriff’s police on a drug raid smashed into a Southwest Side house late Thursday night, terrorizing the elderly couple who lives there before admitting they had the wrong house.

Sheriff’s police this morning said they targeted the home and obtained a search warrant based on information from an informant who had provided credible information in the past.

“As soon as we entered the home, we knew this couple was not involved in the activity alleged,” sheriff’s police spokesman Steve Patterson said in an e-mail. “Our officers immediately requested the assistance of an interpreter and, as a precautionary measure, a medic, while also asking the couple to contact a relative who could assist in the situation.”

The Jakymecs. who came to the U.S. from the Ukraine in the 1960s to “escape Soviet oppression,” minded their own business.  Not that it matters, but they don’t “smoke, drink or even watch TV.”  That didn’t stop the police from raiding their home by mistake.

Their son was called to the home, who explained.

“When I arrived the officer explained they had misinformation, but said his job was over, and he was leaving. They left a copy of the warrant, but he absolved himself of any responsibility for the raid or the damage,” Andrew Jakymec said.

He estimated the damage to broken doors, locks and windows at up to $3,000.

“Everything was violently opened. Cabinets were ripped open, clothes and sheets were everywhere, and pieces of wood where the doors were rammed were all over the place,” he said.

One might wonder why, given that the police realized their error “as soon as [they] entered the home,” the still felt compelled to destroy the place, but the warrant authorized them to do so and they would be remiss to pass up a chance to search, 

The police explained how a mistake like this could happen.

Sheriff’s police this morning said they targeted the home and obtained a search warrant based on information from an informant who had provided credible information in the past.

There are two criteria required for the issuance of a search warrant.  That they possess information providing probable cause to believe that a location is being used for, or has evidence of, the commission of a crime, and that the source of the information is credible.  The primary means of accomplishing the latter is to assert the conclusory allegation that the source of the information, the confidential informant, has provided credible information in the past.  What this means is almost always up for grabs, since the cops neglect to tell the issuing magistrates what exactly they are referring to, and the issuing magistrates rarely ask.

The warrant said police were looking for a 23-year-old man, described as Hispanic who lived in the ranch home. Records show a judge last month ruled the man forfeited bond in a drug-possession case. The address listed for the man in court records did not match that of the Jakymecs.

Patterson said the gangs and narcotics unit has served more than 500 search warrants over the last four years “and it is incredibly rare that those searches have resulted in this sort of outcome.”

No doubt it is rare, maybe even incredibly rare, to have this particular outcome.  But it’s not nearly as rare to obtain a warrant with stale information, such that the location once used for a crime has changed hands three times since, or such vague information that they only know it’s one of seven apartments on the third floor, or one of three white houses on a street. 

Most of the time, there are no nice old folks like the Jakymecs living there.  Sometimes the residents are younger, of color, and may have a bit of weed if not the kilo of coke the cops hoped for.  No harm, no foul.  You can bet that search warrants aren’t executed with great frequency in better neighborhoods, and in the rare instance when they raid the mansion, the police make very sure they have the right house.  No need to be quite so cautious in the poorer neighborhoods.

In this particular case, the police were apparently looking to execute a bench warrant for a failure to appear in a drug case.  No threat to life or limb involved.  Their CI told them where the guy was staying, which apparently didn’t jive with court records.  Still, they had an absconder to round up.   The forfeited bail is just gravy.

It took nothing more than some miscreant, who decided that his own butt was too important to squander in the jail shower room, to mumble a few words to police. That was good enough for a judge to issue the warrant to raid the Jakymecs’ home.  Perhaps the miscreant provided police with information that led to a major bust.  Perhaps he gave them inconsequential information which was reasonably accurate.  Perhaps it was a shot in the dark this time.  None of this means much to the Jakymecs.  Nor does it mean much to the cops or the court. 

Anna [Jakymecs] added: “I didn’t believe it was the police. They broke everything. I told them they should have rung the bell.”

They should have taken a few minutes to verify the information, to watch the house before getting a warrant, or at least before executing it, to figure out whether they were about to bring needless misery and destruction to an elderly couple who thought they escaped Soviet oppression.  It really wouldn’t take all the fun out of police work if they spent the time to get things right before causing the damage.