WOMAN SUES WEST ALLIS POLICE, CITY OVER RAID ON HOME WITHOUT WARRANT

West Allis - A West Allis woman filed a federal lawsuit against the city
and more than a dozen of its police officers, accusing them of arresting
her in an illegal drug raid and parading her in handcuffs to a waiting
police car in view of her neighbors.

Angela Talaska-Zumbach, whose W. Rogers St. home was raided May 5 with an
unsigned search warrant, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, both
compensatory and punitive.

The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee by
Brookfield attorney Mark A. Phillips, accuses the officers of incompetence
and the city of failing to properly train them.

"Anybody can make a mistake," said Phillips, who has won at least three
settlements in cases of overzealous police work in recent years.

"These guys don't know what the rules are, or they don't care."

West Allis City Attorney Scott Post and Police Chief Dean Puschnig declined
to comment last week on the lawsuit, saying they had not yet seen it.

Puschnig said two of the officers, Chad Evenson and Lt. Thomas Baker, were
moved out of the department's special investigations unit after the
incident as part of a "regular rotation." He refused to say whether the
officers were demoted in rank or pay, calling it a personnel matter.

Baker and Evenson were among 13 armed officers who stormed
Talaska-Zumbach's home about 9 a.m. May 5 on the suspicion that she was a
drug dealer. Talaska-Zumbach has admitted that she smokes marijuana but
denied selling it.

According to the lawsuit:

The officers forced their way into the home without a signed search
warrant, continued the search even after realizing their mistake, and
handcuffed Talaska-Zumbach - and her teenage daughter, clad only in a bath
towel - though they offered no resistance.

Once they realized their mistake, Baker dispatched Evenson to get the
warrant signed. Court Commissioner Audrey Brooks signed the warrant about
10:45a.m. without knowing that the raid had already occurred.

West Allis police ticketed Talaska-Zumbach and her adult son, then tried to
retrieve all of the paperwork to make it appear the incident never occurred.

For weeks after, officers continued to harass her by surveilling her home
and stopping and questioning people seen leaving the house.