FLASH-BANG GRENADES IGNITE LEGAL BATTLES IN MICHIGAN, AIYANA STANLEY-JONES CASE

Originally for the Military, Use by Police Departments Has Grown

When Leonid and Arlene Marmelshtein heard someone on the front porch
of their small Southfield ranch house that cold winter night, they
thought one of their adult sons had come home to enjoy Hanukkah
dinner with them.

But within seconds, Southfield police broke the door down -- looking
for a suspected marijuana dealing operation -- and threw flash-bang
grenades, filling the small house with deafening noise, blinding
light and smoke.

"I thought they were here to kill us," Leonid Marmelshtein, 74, said
of the police officers, who wore black hoods hiding their faces and
had their guns drawn.

Arlene Marmelshtein, 58, ran terrified out the back door in her stocking feet.

Police found no evidence of drug trafficking, but they did find a
tiny amount of marijuana belonging to a grown son in a sock drawer.
He pleaded to a misdemeanor possession charge and was placed on probation.

The 2004 raid on the Marmelshteins' home is now the subject of a
lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Detroit. It is
one of several civil suits in Michigan and dozens across the country
charging that the increasing use of such grenades by police is
dangerous and excessive force.

Flash-Bang Grenades Ignite Legal Battles

Jurors will decide in a civil case what went wrong when a Detroit
police officer shot and killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones during
an early-morning raid on May 16 in search of a murder suspect.

A central question they will grapple with: Should officers have
tossed a flash-bang grenade into the duplex?

Police contend the grenade was necessary for the safety of officers
and those inside in order to surprise and distract a suspect
considered armed and dangerous. But critics, including Southfield
attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing Aiyana's family, and
the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality contend the use of the
grenades is a military-style tactic that is an excessive use of force.

"The grenade was totally inappropriate," Fieger said. He added that
its loud concussion may have caused a police officer, with his finger
already on the trigger, to discharge the deadly shot.

"I think the grenade contributed to it. There was nothing under the
circumstances that would condone the use of a grenade," he said.

The suspect was eventually arrested in the upstairs unit of the
duplex, and the shooting has been handed over to the Michigan State
Police for investigation.

The use of flash-bang grenades, with their blinding light, deafening
noise and smoke, has grown increasingly popular with law enforcement
the last 20 years, police experts say. They have also come under
harsh criticism from civil libertarians, and are the focus of
lawsuits nationwide alleging death, serious injury, emotional
distress and property damage.

The New York City Police Department announced a ban on the grenades
earlier this year after a woman died of a heart attack when police
tossed a grenade into the wrong apartment.

In metro Detroit, the lawsuit on behalf of Aiyana's family is among
at least three filed against police departments charging that
flash-bang grenades helped cause damage, injury or -- in Aiyana's
case -- death.

Terror in Southfield

"We thought we were going to die," Arlene Marmelshtein said of a 2004
raid on their ranch home.

Leonid Marmelshtein, 74, said that an officer put a gun to his head
during the raid. He was bruised in the scuffle, and the couple's
carpet was scorched in two rooms from the grenades.

"There was absolutely no excuse for what the Southfield police did to
these people," said attorney William Goodman, who is representing the
Marmelshteins in their suit before federal Judge Julian Cook. "They
have no written policy on how or when to use these bombs.

"They tore the place to shreds."

Cook, disturbed by the use of the grenades, has so far resisted
Southfield's attempt to have the case tossed on grounds of
governmental immunity, ruling that "the officers are not entitled to
qualified immunity because the particular type of force which is
alleged to have been utilized in this case was excessive."

Three days after the raid, Southfield police arrested Marmelshtein
and jailed him on a charge of assaulting a police officer during the
raid. On the advice of an attorney, he pleaded no contest to a
misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. A judge delayed sentencing for
90 days, essentially placing him on court supervision, then sentenced
him to no time.

Attorneys representing the city and the police department did not
return numerous phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment.
Southfield Police Chief Joseph Thomas declined to discuss the case
except to say his officers, who are part of a countywide narcotics
team, are trained in the proper use of flash-bang grenades and were
following protocol.

Started With the Military

But what is the protocol?

That answer has changed over the years, and not necessarily in a good
way, say experts who study law enforcement techniques.

"When police started using these things several years ago, they said
we need this for the most heinous offenders," said Donald E. Wilkes
Jr., a law professor at the University of Georgia who has been
tracking the use of flash-bang grenades nationwide in the last
decade. The grenades, which make a deafening roar and such a bright
flash that they temporary blind those nearby, were originally used
solely by the military, but police began using them in cases of
barricaded gunmen, the grenades providing enough of a distraction
that police could storm the building while the gunman was disoriented.

But soon police began using them to conduct searches and on drug
raids, even in cases where there is no evidence anyone in the house
is armed or dangerous. Southfield police, in depositions, admit that
they had no indication that there were weapons in the Marmelshteins'
home. Instead, they say that they believed guns were "a possibility"
since they had found traces of marijuana in the Marmelshteins' trash,
and note one of their sons had a misdemeanor marijuana conviction from 2001.

Wilkes said that is not enough to throw grenades -- particularly
since the officers had no idea who was in the house.

"It is inconceivable that this has become routine practice, but it
has," Wilkes said. "It should be a mandatory practice that before
they throw these bombs -- and that's what they are because they
explode and can hurt somebody -- that police are required to know
who's in there, what the situation is, and to be certain innocent
people aren't going to get hurt."

Deaths and Injuries

There have been other cases where use of the grenades ended in death,
including a 2002 Minneapolis case where two elderly people died of
smoke inhalation after police tossed a flash grenade into the home
and the furniture caught fire.

And there are numerous lawsuits around the country claiming serious
injury. In a 2009 Las Vegas case now in federal court in Nevada, an
inmate in the Clark County jail was seriously burned.

Jailers, who had decided to move him from his one-man cell because he
had been making threats days earlier, tossed a flash grenade into the
cell. The inmate, Sergio Ramirez, was burned on his torso and
eventually hospitalized.

Las Vegas attorney E. Brent Bryson is seeking $3 million for Ramirez,
who is serving 14 years in prison for a gang-related murder. "We
don't treat animals like that," he said. "These things are very dangerous."

Local Use Varies

Law enforcement officials say that -- if used properly in the right
circumstances -- flash grenades can prevent officer injuries and
protect those that they are trying to arrest. A disoriented suspect
is more likely to be compliant and less likely to require force for an arrest.

"We use them judiciously," said Michael McCabe, undersheriff in
Oakland County. He declined to say what their written protocol is and
what the circumstances were when the grenades were used 10 times in
2008 and 17 times in 2009. But none resulted in lawsuits or injuries.
"They can be considered a safety device for everybody involved."

Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel's office reported fewer than 10
uses for both years, and no injuries.

Despite numerous requests and e-mails, the Wayne County Sheriff's
Office did not provide numbers for use of flash-bang grenades and
Detroit police have not responded to a request for similar
information sought in the wake of Aiyana's death.

But even without physical injuries or death, some who have
experienced a surprise flash-bang grenade say they can cause
long-term emotional distress. Carla Walker, an Oak Park woman, is
suing the Detroit Police Department, first in state court to get
police records, and then in federal court on a civil rights
violation, after police tossed a grenade through her front window
March 2 as she lay sleeping.

Police have declined to comment other than reporting they were
looking for a murder suspect. He was not in the house.

"It is unthinkable what they did to this woman," said her attorney,
Thomas Loeb. "There is just no excuse."