SWAT Raided Her Home. It Was The Wrong House.

Everyone who visits a home for the first time—including delivery drivers, plumbers, and Girl Scouts—knows that you have to make sure you have the right address before barging in. Somehow, Waxahachie Police Department (WPD) Lieutenant Mike Lewis didn’t get the memo. In the dead of night, Lewis directed a heavily armed SWAT team to storm a home in which the innocent Karen Jimerson was getting ready for bed while her loved ones slept.

Lewis had every reason to know he directed his SWAT team to the wrong house. First off, he had a copy of the search warrant and photos of the suspected house, and Karen’s address was clearly affixed to the front of her home. Although he later reported that he “believed” the numbers on Karen’s home (593) matched the address on the warrant (573), Lewis admitted that he never got a good look at her address before ordering the raid. Even worse, Karen’s home and the target house looked very different—Karen’s house had an impossible-to-miss wheelchair ramp (which the target house lacked), while the target house had a perimeter fence, a porch, a detached garage, and stairs leading to the front door (which Karen’s house lacked).

Without double-checking Karen’s address or noticing the obvious physical differences between her house and the target house, Lewis ordered officers to “break and rake” her home. On Lewis’ command, officers busted down Karen’s door, detonated a flashbang grenade in her front yard, shattered her windows, and held her terrified family at gunpoint until another officer realized Lewis’ mistake. In the wake of the raid, an internal investigation found that Lewis “completely overlooked” the WPD’s “reasonable and normal protocol,” and Lewis was suspended without pay.

Still, when Karen and her family sued Lewis for violating their Fourth Amendment rights, a divided three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit ruled that qualified immunity shields him from accountability. According to the panel, Lewis didn’t have “fair notice” that ordering a warrantless no-knock raid on the wrong house violates the constitutional rights of the people inside.

The panel’s decision defies common sense and binding precedent. So Karen and her family have teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to ask the full Fifth Circuit to rehear their case. When an officer has detailed information describing the place to be searched—including photos and an address—but fails to confirm that information before raiding the wrong house, he should not be able to evade liability by invoking qualified immunity.

[thesuperdingos]

I’m so sick of hearing about stories like this. Pizza delivery drivers do more due diligence than this to make sure the address is correct.

[PepeToTheMooon]

And of course, her home is destroyed and they walk off like nothing happened. It’s not their home so they’re like who cares

[liberaltears]

Cops came to my door at 3:45 am bashing on my door and blocking my cameras. We were all in shock. No of us had called and my experience with lawyers has taught me to never interact with POLICE. I instructed everyone to remain silent and go back to sleep, the cops eventually left after 15-20min. I later checked the dispatch record and the cops were literally 3 streets over and several houses down from the actual address. I couldn’t believe the level of incompetence, if you’re relying on the police for safety or security you should think again.

[Oldhogleg]

They use qualified immunity as a license to be criminals. It's things like this that makes them a menace to the safety and health of the public. Thus is why there needs to be zero shielding from accountability.

[onrycodger]

I hope your organization can get her rightfully compensated for everything she went thru. It never should've happened. Hold them accountable.
Thank you for what you do.💙👍

[vivalaleta]

Sickening stupidity. There's no excuse for such an enormous mistake.

[Dj.MODÆO]

Amazon and DoorDash can find the right house 99.9% of the time but not the cops….often they don’t even look at the address on the home first before they kick the door in.

[chowner]

We do not live in a free society till these officers are charged and sentenced.

[Bananasinpajams]

Glad you guys are covering this, like I always An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

[DaveBigDawg]

Earning the hate, and they wonder why people are no longer trusting them

[nwkruss]

I am sorry for what she and her family went through. It should never have happened.

[YouveBeenMiddled]

Armed home invasion with your gang gets you a weekend off work in Waxahachie.

[pinschrunner]

God Bless this woman and all her family.

[daveblackman]

They don’t care about getting it right. It’s like an action movie to them. That’s the problem. And they don’t care whose innocent lives they ruin.

[Gluttonite]

Sue the Police pension system. Not We The People! Time for them to pay the bill!

[danielmorgan]

This is what I cannot understand!!! That law enforcement can tear the hell out of your home for no reason and walk away without any consequences of raiding the wrong home!!! Why would they even think they can do stuff like tear up your home, car, or anything else that especially poor folk’s work hard to pay for! This just makes me sick to my stomach!!! This is far from serving and protecting! It’s criminal and qualified immunity needs to be illegal! It’s simply two tier Justice!

[jimda]

If you've never had Force like this used against you you have no idea how traumatizing it is. You are stripped of ever feeling safe one minute of the day. You are stripped of your feeling of freedom

[tullochgorum]

There's a difference between an officer making an understandable judgement error under extreme duress, and an officer who displays gross incompetence and negligence in cold blood. Qualified immunity was intended for the first scenario - not for this.

[renettawilliams]

Qualified immunity should be banded.This BS has got to STOP.

[charliepiland]

It seems Legislatures and Judiciaries have both recognized that it is too great an ask that LEOs be able to accurately read things like the numbers on a mailbox, or the name of a street…