The Glade 4.0

A Pima County couple was awakened from a sound sleep one night this past spring. The couple had gone to bed at 9:00 p.m. since they work hard and their day starts early.

Loud pounding on the metal portion of their home and bright flashing red lights signaled something was amiss in the neighborhood. They never imagined that they were at the center of that something.

Their neighbor had been asked to leave his previous residence, a trailer park in Pima County, after calling 9-1-1 several times in a matter of a few weeks reporting his “neighbors” for various and sundry issues.

Unfortunately, the 9-1-1 caller has issues, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department personnel knew it. However, that knowledge did not seem to be factored into the treatment of the peacefully sleeping couple in May 2013.

He is a commercial air conditioning project manager for a local company and his wife is a licensed manager of a home care service for seniors.

Not quite awake, he looked out the window and saw several Pima County Sheriff vehicles outside his home. As someone who has never had to fear law enforcement, he opened the front door.

Immediately, he was ordered to get his hands in the air, by a sheriff deputy aiming an assault rifle at him, from about 20 feet. He was ordered out of the house and his wife, who was behind him, was given the same instructions.

She modestly asked if she could put on a robe, they were both in their underwear and barefoot. “No,” the deputies shouted. They were then asked if anyone else was in the house, they both said “no.”

They were handcuffed by another deputy and led out to the street in front of the house through the gravel parking area, in their bare feet and underwear – about 25 yards.

Their minds raced, they could not imagine why and how this was happening to them.

There were a total of 12 Deputies, all armed in vests with at least 3 of them aiming weapons at them the entire time. While they were out in the street the PCSD spent 15 minutes searching the house without a warrant or their asking permission.

That whole time, one deputy’s obvious adrenaline overload, terrified them. He was so nervous they feared that almost anything could cause him to pull the trigger on his service weapon.

They still had not been told why they were being treated as dangerous criminals, handcuffed, barefoot in their underwear and detained at gunpoint. One deputy took personal information while the house was being searched. By now several neighbors came out to watch what was going on.

Their new neighborly neighbor came out of his home to tell the deputies that he was the one who had called in the domestic violence report. They advised him that they had not found any evidence of any domestic violence.

Well then he told them, it must have been another neighbor who was engaged in domestic violence. Maybe it was the other house next door.

The couple remained outside, handcuffed, partially dressed and humiliated while the same group of officers, sworn to protect the peace, created chaos and confusion in a raid on their other neighbors.

Again no evidence of domestic violence was found there either.

Only after completing the raid and search of the neighbors house, they were un-cuffed and told they could go home. Before they went back to their home, they asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor was not on the scene.

They came back outside after dressing. Finally a squad car pulled up, it was the sergeant.

He didn’t offer an apology, just admitted that mistakes were made and that he could “handle” the situation or they could file a complaint with Internal Affairs.

The concerned neighbor, whose call had prompted the raid in May, had made 5 other calls to 9-1-1 in the 3 weeks prior to that night. During 2 of these calls, deputies had questioned the man’s mental state. During one incident one deputy had reported that the man had told him he was hearing voices, so this neighbor was transported to a mental health facility by the Pima County Sheriff Dept for evaluation.

This neighbor had only lived across the street from them for 2 days at the time he called 9-1-1; they had no contact with this neighbor before the terrifying raid.

They had called the Pima County Sheriff’s Department only three times in the 22 years at their address. They called once to report a case of domestic violence for parental abuse, another for a habitual speeder racing his motorcycle up and down their road, and once for a theft of work tools valued at over $1000. For the theft of the tools, the source of his livelihood, PCSD did not even come to investigate or take a report.

She doesn’t sleep through the night any more. She wakes up over and over again checking the locks on the door, and wondering if she will be the subject of humiliation again. He worries about her. The violent intrusion of their domestic life, based on delusional caller reporting Domestic Violence, will haunt them for years to come…

A review of reports written by PCSD deputies show that the 9-1-1- caller was or should have been known by the Department as someone who frequently filed baseless reports, and hears “voices.” Shortly before assaulting the fundamental rights of Pima County residents on that night in May, Sheriff’s Department personnel had ascertained that the 9-1-1 caller had been considered unstable.

In a report filed approximately two weeks before the residents were awakened from their sound sleep, a PCDS deputy filed a report in which he noted that the 9-1-1 caller, had an appointment with La Frontera for “hearing voices.” That report was filed in response to the 9-1-1 caller’s landlord who was concerned for his tenants who had been harassed by the 9-1-1- caller’s countless accusations resulting in many 9-1-1 calls and law enforcement visits. The deputy wrote, “I gave him information about obtaining an order of protection or injunction against harassment, filing eviction paperwork, and filing petitions with the Southern Arizona Mental Health Center.”

Still with long guns, one AR-15, and semiautomatic pistols the deputies came upon their 1/2 acre of private property and disturbed their domestic tranquility. Fear and questions remain:

• Why was this man not questioned before long guns were drawn on law abiding citizens?

• Why was this man’s name not flagged by the Sheriff’s dept or 9-1-1, as someone with a history of making false reports?

• What gave the PCSD the right to invade and search their home and that of their neighbor without permission or a warrant?

• Why didn’t the deputies just ask if anything was wrong or if there was any trouble?

• With little immediate evidence that anyone was in imminent danger, what gave the deputies the right to handcuff them and have them stand outside in public in their under wear?

• What gave them the right to shatter their domestic tranquility before determining whether the person reporting the “crime” needed tranquilizers?

• Who else has been a victim of a Sheriff’s Office that is out of control?