WOMAN SEEKS $$ IN COP 'INVASION

A Roxbury woman who says firefighters and police busted down her door last
summer, ignoring her when she said they were at the wrong house, will air
her concerns at a City Council hearing today.

Shirley A. Hunter, 56, a professor of international accounting at Tufts
University, was in the shower Aug. 9 when she heard her front door and
exterior iron gate being pried open. She said she leaned out the window and
told authorities, "You have the wrong house."

A city council order for the hearing states that cops received a call from
a woman on Forbes Avenue stating she had overdosed on drugs, but were
dispatched to Hunter's house on Fort Avenue in Roxbury. It could not be
confirmed yesterday that police were dispatched to the wrong house.

After a firefighter forced open her door, two cops charged up her stairs,
guns drawn, Hunter said. She said when cops realized they had the wrong
house, "They were about to leave, and I said, 'Wait guys, what about my
front door' "

"It was traumatic," she said. "They were pretty pumped up. It was as if
they were angry they didn't find something."

Hunter said she's spent more than $4,000 on repairs to her door and had to
suspend her consulting business for over a month because she couldn't leave
her home for long periods of time until a repairman finally secured her
iron gate in October.

The subject of the hearing is listed on a city council calendar as a
"police home invasion," which BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll called "an
obvious mischaracterization."

Driscoll noted that Hunter - who has retained a lawyer and plans to seek
damages related to her lost wages - could submit a claim to the city for
the cost of repairs. Hunter was unsure last night whether her lawyer had
billed the city for repairs to her door.

"At some point, somebody should have shown up to at least apologize or
expedite repairs," Hunter said.