FAMILY SUES COPS OVER RAID OF HOME

Noise from the apartment next door woke 65-year-old Barbara Gomez ,
who got out of bed as police wearing hoods and carrying guns burst
inside.

They tossed Gomez to the floor, bruising her eye, while her 9-year-old
granddaughter fell on top of her in fear. They handcuffed her adult
son, Wilian Taveras Gomez, and teenaged grandson, Wilfredo Taveras.

For the next 4 1/2 hours on Sept. 5, 2007, the police detained the
family, questioned them, searched the premises with a dog and took
$605 when they left, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit said the police had no warrants to search the home or
arrest any of the family.

Police acted, in part, because the family members, although legal
residents, are Hispanics and not citizens, the lawsuit said.

On the day of the incident, police from Hazleton, the Luzerne County
Drug Task Force Police, which draws from several departments, and
agents of the state Attorney General's Office, were conducting
Operation Boomerang, a sweep of the area for alleged cocaine dealers.

The operation resulted in the arrests of at least 20 defendants -
including the kingpin who was nicknamed "The Don" and another man
identified as a Latin King - and disrupted a ring that Mayor Louis
Barletta said sold $200,000 of drugs weekly.

The lawsuit names eight unknown officers as defendants but said they
are from Hazleton, West Hazleton and state police forces and the
United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Three officers - Cpl. William Feissner of Butler Township Police, John
Soprano of the state Attorney General's Office and Joshua Winters,
whose employer was unknown to the plaintiffs - were named as defendants.

The family resides at 9 W. Monroe St., West Hazleton, but authorities
had a warrant to search the adjoining apartment at 11 W. Monroe St.,
the suit says.

Wilian Taveras asked why the police, who entered his home from a
sealed door to the adjoining apartment, were bothering them at No. 9
W. Monroe St.

"Shut up. You're not a citizen," one of the defendants said, according
to the lawsuit.

The suit says the police violated the family's rights by illegally
entering the home, depriving them of liberty by detaining them,
conducting an unreasonable search and seizing their money, which
hasn't been returned.

Asking the court to declare that the police violated the family's
rights, the suit seeks damages, attorney fees and other relief that
the court decides is appropriate.

Attorney Laurence Norton II of the Community Justice Project in
Harrisburg filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Pennsylvania.