POLICE RAID LEADS TO LAWSUIT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Frustrated because he can't get a
simple apology, an elderly Grand Rapids man is suing city police for
breaking into his house and wrestling him to the floor during a SWAT team
raid.

The man, 72-year-old Harold Overbeek, says he was watching the TV show
``Law and Order'' when police rammed the door and mistook him for a drug
dealer.

The raid apparently was sparked by a bad report from a police informant.

Overbeek says he's been asking and waiting for a police apology since the
raid occurred last year.

Now the retiree, who lives alone with a cat and a cockatiel, has filed
suit, claiming the raid violated his rights.

Overbeek tells today's Grand Rapids Press, ``They never said they were
sorry. That's what got me. They put the paper (search warrant) on the table
and walked out.''

In a letter to Overbeek's lawyers, Assistant City Attorney G. Douglas
Walton wrote that the city is not liable because the police informant had
said a drug dealer was inside the home.

Before the raid, Overbeek had asked police to round up drug dealers in his
neighborhood.