MAN SHOT IN DRUG SEARCH SETTLES SUIT FOR $600,000

RED BLUFF - An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a federal
lawsuit filed by a 55-year-old Tehama County man shot in the arm last year
during a drug raid at his former Richfield mobile home.

Carlos Calderon and his family will receive $607,908 from Tehama and Glenn
counties, the state and the cities of Red Bluff, Redding and Corning,
Tehama County Supervisor Barbara McIver said Tuesday.

A breakdown of specific payments to be made could not be confirmed.

Calderon's wife, Rebecca, said Tuesday evening that the family - which
moved last year to Dairyville - had only learned that day about the
settlement through an article in the Red Bluff newspaper.

"We were kind of stunned they didn't tell us," she said. "We haven't
gathered our thoughts.

"We are glad things are resolved," she said.

Although Tehama County Counsel Nelson Buck was unavailable Tuesday for
comment, McIver said she was happy an out-of-court settlement had been reached.

"I'm pleased that it's over and that it's been settled to the satisfaction
of all parties," she said.

George Russell, chairman of the Tehama County Board of Supervisors,
declined to comment on the settlement.

The federal lawsuit, filed in June 1999, claimed that Calderon's civil
rights were violated when his Richfield home was raided during the early
morning hours of Feb. 24, 1999, allegedly by mistake.

Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen has said that authorities from
various agencies, including the Tehama and Glenn Methamphetamine Task
Force, had a warrant to search a white and green single-wide mobile home
for methamphetamine and heroin.

The search was part of a Redding Police Department investigation of a tar
heroin ring that had ties in Shasta County, authorities have said.

But Calderon's San Jose Road residence, a tan double-wide mobile home, was
next to that single-wide residence. It was not named in the warrant.

No drugs were found in Calderon's home.

Jack Nehr, special agent in charge of the state Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement office in Redding, has said that before officers entered
Calderon's home, a BNE agent who looked in a window saw him grab a 12-gauge
shotgun and point it at the door as officers were entering.

That agent shot Calderon.

Calderon contended that in the first few seconds of the raid - when he
awoke and grabbed and loaded the shotgun - he didn't know that the 13
armed, uniformed people entering and surrounding his home were officers.

"I thought that they were bad people coming," Calderon said in a 1999
Record Searchlight interview.

Calderon's wife and daughters were handcuffed and forced to sit with their
heads down for almost two hours while their home was occupied by police.
They were also strip-searched before being released, and Calderon remained
in Tehama County Jail for nearly a month before a Tehama County Superior
Court judge dismissed the four felony charges of assault with a firearm on
a peace officer against him.

Reporter Jim Schultz can be reached at 225-8223 or at jschultz@redding.com.