17 Years Ago in the Bronx

Delgado v. City of New York, 14684/95
Appellate Division, First Department
Decided: July 28, 2011

The facts of this case are shocking.

Seventeen years ago, twelve NYC Housing Authority police officers terrorized the sleeping Delgado family in the Bronx, when officers crashed through the family's apartment door in the middle of the night, held guns to the head of the two oldest boys, slashed furniture, destroyed property, and threatened to place the youngest children in foster care if they found what they were looking for - drugs or weapons.

After searching for about three hours, the police found nothing and left.

On July 28, 2011, a New York appellate court agreed with a lower court's determination that the police lacked probable cause to search the family's apartment in the first place, because officers made no effort to corroborate an informant's information or to verify the reliability of the informant, who had been arrested for possession of crack cocaine.

The appellate court also noted that the police search did not constitute an emergency situation "given that six days elapsed between issuance and execution" of the search warrant.

The Appellate Division, First Department, dismissed the family's civil rights claim against the Housing Authority but allowed a lawsuit to proceed against the police captain who had approved the application for the warrant as well as the officer who had arrested the informant but failed to corroborate the informant's information.

It remains to be seen whether the Delgado family will ever receive any form of justice for the trauma which they collectively experienced seventeen years ago at the hands of the Housing Authority police.

Scott