SUIT OVER SWAT TEAM ERROR THROWN OUT

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a woman who wanted $10,000 for
damage and stress she said she suffered when a sheriff's SWAT team
mistakenly broke down her door while serving a search warrant.

Attorneys had predicted that Jennifer Switalski's chances in court wouldn't
be good. But the 27-year-old said Saturday that she plans to try to revive
the case.

As part of a drug investigation, sheriff's deputies obtained a search
warrant for a home in the 300 block of N. 31st St. in the Merrill Park
neighborhood on Milwaukee's west side. They showed up at Switalski's duplex
about 6:30 a.m. Feb. 2, 1998.

No one answered a knock at the door, so the SWAT team smashed it open,
handcuffed Switalski's two tenants and threw them to the floor as a crying
2-year-old girl watched. A few minutes later, the deputies realized that
the house they had meant to search was three doors to the south.

Switalski, who lived in the upstairs unit but wasn't home at the time,
filed a claim with the county seeking $10,000 for damage, lost rental
income and "lost sleep and peace of mind." After the county rejected the
claim, she sued last February in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

The county, which had offered Switalski $1,100 for damage to the door but
did not want to pay for other alleged damage, asked Circuit Judge Stanley
Miller to throw the case out. He granted the county's request, ruling that
the Sheriff's Department has immunity for its actions under the law.

Switalski's lawyer, Stephen Needham of Milwaukee, declined to comment.