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CA8: Trashing house during SWAT no-knock raid was not shown to be unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant's house was trashed during the no-knock raid by a SWAT team looking for drugs and weapons. It was not shown to be unreasonable under all the circumstances. Officers have discretion how to serve a search warrant. Cook v. Gibbons, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 1095 (8th Cir. January 20, 2009) (unpublished): We conclude that the law-enforcement officers, armed with a valid no-knock search warrant, initially acted reasonably on their belief that Cook was armed and dangerous, given the events that transpired with the CI the night before and morning of the search, given Cook's history of owning a lion and having significant numbers of firearms and storing some of them within the walls in trap doors, and given that they did not see him leave his residence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).