B.S.O. RAID HITS WRONG HOUSE

Jenne Apologizes For SWAT Team's `Horrible Mistake'

A week ago, Broward Sheriff's officers wearing masks and carrying guns
burst into her house.

Now Lily Chapman can't get rid of the officers who raided her home by
mistake. They have delivered a new 21-inch television set, matching
bathroom accessories and a barbecue grill. Someone from the Broward
Sheriff's Office stops by daily to check on her. Sheriff Ken Jenne dropped
by Saturday and Sunday to make sure everything was OK.

``I will tell you this: It was definitely a mistake,'' Jenne said Thursday.
``Mrs. Chapman is a wonderful person with good standing in the community. I
have expressed my regrets. The deputies involved are deeply and very
sorry.''

The officers meant to hit a different house in the block.

The gifts and attention may not be enough. Chapman said the family is
considering suing.

Members of the BSO street crimes unit forced their way into Chapman's home
in the 200 block of Northwest 29th Terrace in unincorporated Broward, just
blocks from BSO headquarters, about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 25.

Officers poured through the front door, the back door and the carport where
Leroy Federick, a next-door neighbor, and Albert Franklin, the homeowner's
brother, were working. The men were thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
Guns were jammed in their faces, Franklin said.

Two women in the kitchen were handcuffed and told to ``shut the f--- up''
when they asked officers if there was a search warrant, said Esther
Chapman, 22, who was preparing food for her son's third birthday party. She
said the boy, Kyune Dukes, fell under Federick when Federick was pushed to
the ground by the officers.

As officers raced through the house, kicking down doors and tearing through
closets, a shout went up: ``Mistake! Mistake! We've got the wrong house!''

``They looked like ninjas with big, big guns,'' Esther Chapman said. ``I
was so scared and told them not to hurt my baby.''

Homeowner Lily Chapman arrived 30 minutes after the raid and found the
house in chaos. Clothes had been pulled from the closet, beds were
overturned, the TV set and grill were broken. Deputies milled about the
house, waiting for their commanders to arrive.

She said officers never showed a search warrant or left a copy of one.

``We did get a search warrant for a house where we believed drugs were
being sold,'' BSO spokeswoman Cheryl Stopnick said Thursday. ``One of the
deputies pointed out the house he thought was the one we were supposed to
search, but within 30 seconds, our officers realized they were in the wrong
house.''

The search warrant is now sealed because BSO plans to execute the warrant
at the right house, Stopnick said.

Officers at the home quickly realized their mistake and called their
commanders to come out to the home and assess the damage, Stopnick said.
Jenne was informed of the incident immediately.

``That night two officers came to my home around midnight and asked me if I
needed `petty cash like $300 or $350,' '' Lily Chapman said. ``I told them
I didn't want anything but some peace and quiet.''

BSO said that it was not aware of anyone offering cash and that the offer
may have been a miscommunication between Chapman and the officers.

``We wanted to fix everything up and offered to do so,'' Stopnick said.
``When Mrs. Chapman was concerned about the broken items, one of the
officers may have offered to get it fixed immediately and she may have
misunderstood.''

On Sunday, BSO sent a crew out to the Chapman home to make repairs and
replace the damaged items: a barbecue grill, a 21-inch television and
towels, rug and shower curtain for the bathroom. Jenne stopped by the home
Sunday afternoon and apologized profusely for the mistake, Lily Chapman
said.

``They said they were sorry, and they fixed my house. But they vandalized
my home, knocked down my baby grandson, cussed out my daughter and her
friend, handcuffed my brothers and our neighbor, and made people in the
neighborhood look at me and my family as if we were criminals,'' Chapman
said.

Commanders at BSO are reviewing procedures to make sure officers don't make
the same mistake again, Stopnick said.

``It's probably longer than 10 years since we made this type of mistake,
but that is not an excuse,'' Jenne said Friday. ``It is an embarrassment.

``Our SWAT team members are professional and are extremely upset over what
happened. This was a regrettably horrible mistake. I can't say it enough.''

Jenne said he would visit Lily Chapman again within two weeks to let her
know the results of an investigation into the wrong-house raid.

BSO's risk management director was at the Chapman home Wednesday night
assessing the damage, Chapman said.

``He asked us to let them know how much did we want and told us that any
amount we were thinking of would be less than what BSO would pay,'' said
Franklin, Lily Chapman's brother. ``They didn't have to treat us like they
did. We are decent, hardworking people.''

Jenne went to pains to make that point: ``Mrs. Chapman enjoys a wonderful
reputation in the community. She is a hard-working person. . . . This is a
very, very nice lady, and I can't say enough nice things about her.''