CITY IS SUED BY A WOMAN WHOSE HOME WAS RAIDED

NEW YORK -- The no-knock search warrant, for a drug raid that the police
carried out last June at 396 New Jersey Ave. in East New York, Brooklyn,
was quite specific. "Upon reaching the second-floor landing," it said, "one
turns to the left and proceeds to the gray metal door clearly marked with
the letter and number '2M."' There was just one problem: There is no
apartment 2M at 396 New Jersey Ave. The only apartments on the second floor
are marked 2L and 2R. And both doors are red, not gray.

But the family that lives in apartment 2L claims that the discrepancy did
not prevent a team of police officers from breaking down its door about
8:30 a.m. on June 5. Instead of finding the heroin or handguns they were
looking for, the family said, the police found only a woman and her two
children, who were ages 6 and 1.

The woman, Sandra Soto, 27, held a news conference Wednesday to announce
that she had filed a $20 million lawsuit on Tuesday against the Police
Department and the city. "They just broke down the door," she said. "I told
them, 'Please, can I take the baby out of the crib?' She was screaming.

They said, 'No."' But police officials said Wednesday that they were
confident the officers had raided the right apartment, even if it was not
the one named in the warrant and even though no drugs or contraband were
found. And they questioned the timing of Ms. Soto's lawsuit, suggesting
that she was trying to capitalize on recent cases in which the police have
been accused of raiding the wrong apartments or carrying out improper drug
raids. "It's just like a number of other cases," Police Commissioner Howard
Safir said Wednesday at his weekly news conference, "that are popping up as
people line up to see if they can sue the city for big dollars with
attorneys who hold press conferences rather than litigate."

Ms. Soto's lawyer, Susan Karten, said that Ms. Soto filed a complaint with
the Civilian Complaint Review Board on the day of the raid and filed a
notice of claim against the city -- which paved the way for the lawsuit --
last July. "We believe that this incident, as well as the others that
followed in its wake," Ms. Karten said, "represents a continuing systemic
problem within the New York City Police Department with regard to the way
they confirm and verify information obtained by confidential informants in
connection with drug raids."

The search warrant stated that a confidential informer -- who had been a
heroin user for eight years and who said he had sold the drug from time to
time -- told a police officer that he had been in apartment 2M and had seen
a man named Lucky "cutting heroin and placing it in plastic glassine
envelopes" that were stamped with a percent symbol.

The informer also said that he had seen a 9-millimeter pistol and a
.38-caliber handgun in the apartment, according to the warrant. A police
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that the
informer had proved reliable before and after the raid on New Jersey
Avenue. And he said the police felt sure that they had raided the right
apartment.

"He went on the description of the location, rather than any letters or
numbers on that door," the official said of the officer who led the raid.
Ms. Soto said that she did not know anyone named Lucky. "I don't mess with
anybody in the building," she said. "I'm always in the apartment."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski