DRUG RAIDS MAY RELY SOLELY ON WORD OF 'RELIABLE INFORMANTS'

Sheriff's narcotics officers who came away empty-handed from a forceful
early-morning raid on a South Memphis home last year relied on an informant
who had seen drugs stored and sold at the home, says a search warrant.

The residents of the home at 1143 Bradley - including a girl, 13, and a man,
91, with Alzheimer disease - have filed a federal lawsuit against the
department, claiming they were cursed, threatened and stepped on as the
house was ransacked.

They said officers acted maliciously and that they had the wrong home. The
Sheriff's Department disputes both allegations.

"They had a solid informant, they still know where to find her, they still
say they hit the right house and they still say it was a dope house,'' said
Deputy Chief Don Wright. "We go to great pains to be sure we're hitting the
right house.

"Once an informant has given us three or four or five good reliable
informations, then we've got what we label a reliable informant, and we use
that informant until he or she proves to be anything other than reliable.''

Under the law, a search warrant can be authorized solely on such hearsay
provided the reliability of the informant is established. Indeed, many of
the several hundred search warrants issued each year in Shelby County are
based on tips from confidential informants.

In such cases, the judge who signs the warrant must be informed of both the
basis for the informant's knowledge and either a basis establishing the
informant's credibility or a basis establishing that the informant's
information is reliable.

The warrant officers relied on in last year's early-morning raid March 8
said a "reliable informant'' had observed illegal narcotics trafficking at
the Bradley address by a suspect identified as "a M/B (male black),
`Robert,' approx. 5'10'', approx. 185 lbs., approx. 30 years of age.''

"The reliable informant has been in the (Bradley) residence and has seen the
above described person storing and selling Marijuana and Cocaine,'' the
affidavit for search warrant reads in part. The warrant was signed by
General Sessions Criminal Court Judge James Robinson Jr. They also can be
signed by judicial commissioners and Criminal Court judges.

Wright said officers with another warrant did find drugs at a second house
that night where an informant had provided similar information about
"Robert.''

He said the evening shift of narcotics officers served 145 warrants last
year and found narcotics in 141 instances. He said a second shift of
officers served 302 and found narcotics in 291 cases.

"That's a pretty good average,'' Wright said. He said the warrants commonly
yield marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, drug labs and other illegal substances
that often are well hidden and require extensive searching.

Longtime criminal defense lawyer Marvin Ballin calls the reliable informants
"lowlifes'' and compared some warrants to "toilet paper.''

He says, however, he's had fewer than three cases in his 30-plus years of
practice in which authorities with a warrant broke in and wreaked havoc on
the wrong house.

"The uppermost danger is they really take their lives in their own hands,''
he said. "They will hit that door so quick - `Sheriff's department. Search
warrant. Bam' - that it sort of gets lost in the translation and they're
liable to get shot by somebody inside who thinks somebody's breaking into
their home. The second danger is to the person inside, and sometimes you do
get a wrong (house) number and that homeowner does pull a gun, and sometimes
people get shot that don't need to get shot. So it's dangerous both to the
officers and to the defendant. Thank God the incidence of real injury to
anybody is very, very small considering the number of search warrants.''

According to the federal suit filed recently, deputies shouted obscenities
as they handcuffed William Mason, 91, and pulled 13-year-old Candice Lott
from her bed, pointed a gun at her head and placed her in handcuffs.
Occupant Harvey Lott was arrested and taken to jail for failure to appear on
an unrelated charge.

The suit, which includes homeowner Ruby Lott as a plaintiff, also says the
home was ransacked and damaged by the officers.

Wright says officers did not overreact and that they are trained to move
quickly to secure a location and its residents for the safety of the
officers as well as the occupants.

"I'm comfortable we did the right thing the right way and we just happened
to be there when they hadn't re-upped (a drug supply),'' Wright said. "I
think when we get to court this will all come out.''