UNWARRANTED TACTICS

Nearly eight years have passed and the city still has not produced the
warrant that allowed nearly a dozen police officers to invade the Bronx
apartment of Tayibat Akande, a pregnant woman with no criminal record who
was hauled away in handcuffs and thrown in jail on a false charge of drug
dealing. The cops apparently got a weak tip from a postal inspector and
went after Mrs. Akande as if she were an international crime lord. In fact,
she was a hard-working, law-abiding woman who would give birth in two
months to her first child.

The cops said that some postal inspector -- the arresting officer's memory
is vague on this -- had said an envelope containing heroin and addressed to
Mrs. Akande's husband, Sikiru, had been intercepted. The envelope had come
from Nigeria, the couple's original home.

The envelope actually contained a perfectly legal Nigerian remedy for
morning sickness, but nobody bothered to check that out. Too much trouble.
Better to take a chance on trampling the rights of the innocent. The raid
was staged on Nov. 2, 1990. A postal inspector posed as a mail carrier and
delivered the envelope to the apartment.
Mrs. Akande, wearing a nightgown, signed for it and the inspector left. A
few minutes later someone knocked at the door again. When Mrs. Akande
opened the door, the police came pouring in. They shoved Mrs. Akande
against a wall and began ransacking the apartment. It happened that Mrs.
Akande was on the phone with her husband, who had called from his job in
Brooklyn, when the police came in. A cop picked up the phone and spoke to
Mr. Akande, who immediately left work and headed home. A female officer
took Mrs. Akande into the bathroom and ordered her to strip. Her body
cavities were searched for drugs.

There were no drugs in Mrs. Akande or in her apartment, but the police
arrested her anyway. They said they believed there were drugs in the
envelope, which had not been opened. Mrs. Akande was allowed to get dressed
and then was taken away in handcuffs.

Her neighbors, she would say later, were "surprised." She said she was
weeping and felt "humiliated."

Mrs. Akande was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance
and criminal possession with intent to sell. She faced 8 to 25 years on
each count. That was on a Friday. On Saturday, with Mrs. Akande still in
jail awaiting arraignment, police lab tests determined that the envelope
contained nothing illegal. But Mrs. Akande was not released. She was not
freed until a judge let her go on her own recognizance on Sunday night. And
it was more than a month before the charges against Mrs. Akande were
dropped. A trial will begin later this week on a civil suit brought by the
Akandes against the city and the Police Department. They are represented by
the Manhattan attorneys Marvin Salenger and Robert Sack. Mr. Salenger said
the case was bad from the very beginning because the cops used "hearsay
upon hearsay," rather than solid police work, as the basis for the arrest.

When the arresting officer, Detective Thomas Larkin, was deposed in
connection with the suit, he was asked, "Before you went in, did you know
anything at all about the people who were in this apartment?" He said,
"No."

He was asked, "Do you know if they had a prior record?" He said, "No."

He was asked if he knew "if they were ever suspected of any prior drug
smuggling."

He said, "No." At another point, the interrogator said: "So, you obtained
the search warrant that you swore to, in fact, without ever having seen the
package, is that correct?"

"I was aware," said Detective Larkin, "that the package existed." This is
the basis for the arrest of someone on a charge that could put her away for
decades.

"Even as we speak," said Mr. Salenger, "the city still has not given us a
copy of the search warrant. We have no proof that there was a valid search
warrant, and certainly there was no arrest warrant." Mr. Sack said the city
and the Police Department are being sued for false arrest, malicious
prosecution, and assault and battery. The couple is seeking damages of $5
million.


Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)