11/02/2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONFERENCE Thursday, November 2, 2023, 11:30 AM
FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS SUIT FILED; POLICE ENTER WRONG HOME, POINT GUNS AT GRANDMOTHER AND YOUNG CHILDREN, HOLD THEM FOR SIX HOURS
WHEN: November 2, 2023, 11:30 AM
WHERE: The Law Offices of Al Hofeld Jr. LLC, 53 W. Jackson Street, Chicago, Suite 432
NOTES: Family will attend; photos attached.
CHICAGO – In the early morning hours of November 2, 2021 at 228 Comstock in Joliet, a disabled, 62-year-old woman, Adela Carrasco, with her four, young grandchildren (ages 10, 12, 13 and 14) behind her, opened her front door to ten rifles and handguns pointed directly at her, according to a federal civil rights suit filed today. The officers shouted that they had an arrest warrant for ‘Elliot Reyes,’ who did not live there. In fact, officers already knew that the warrant was for 226, not 228 Comstock. Nevertheless, about a dozen law enforcement officers of the Joliet Police Department, Will County Sherriff’s Office and U.S. Marshal’s Service pushed Ms. Carrasco aside, forcing their way inside 228 Comstock, and pointed guns directly at her grandchildren before detaining them for six (6) hours for no lawful reason.
The officers did not actually have an arrest warrant for ‘Elliot Reyes’ but rather ‘Elian J. Raya’ who lived next door at 226 Comstock, the address on the warrant. According to the lawsuit complaint, it was crystal clear that 226 and 228 were two, separate residences with two separate entrances, and the officers knew that they were two separate residences. However, the officers were playing an intentional but bad game of “catch up”: in the wake of the tragic shooting death of two, 22-year-old individuals at an outdoor Halloween Party two days earlier in the community, the officers faced public pressure to make an arrest. With no leads, Joliet Police Detective Raymond Jansma decided to revive a never executed, 77-day-old warrant for the arrest of Elian J. Raya, an 18-year-old boy. Officers had not executed the warrant before then because neither Jansma nor any other JPD officer believed that Elian had committed the crime.
But this didn’t stop Defendant Officers from descending upon the 228 South Comstock residence on November 2, 2021, where they unlawfully forced entry without a warrant, consent, exigency, or any other lawful basis for entering a home. Furthermore, they pointed guns directly at all plaintiffs, including the children, at point blank range even though plaintiffs were fully compliant and despite the obvious fact that they posed no safety threat to the officers.
Following this, the officers entered 226 and found and arrested Elian J. Raya in 226. But the trauma for Ms. Carrasco and the children did not end there; in fact, it had hardly begun. Even though officers immediately took Elian to the police station, Ms. Carrasco and her grandchildren were nevertheless detained for the next six hours in 226. Officers told them they were being detained to allow time to secure a warrant to search the entire house.
During those six (6) hours, Ms. Carrasco’s requests to use the bathroom, get her asthma inhaler, etc., were all denied by officers. “This is unacceptable behavior towards young children and an elderly, disabled woman, regardless of the circumstances,” said Attorney Zach Hofeld. “There is a modicum of decency and reasonableness with which police must treat the elderly and children. The psychological injuries they suffered as the result of officers’ misconduct are profound and will remain with them for the rest of their lives.”
Without a search warrant or consent, in 228 officers also flipped mattresses, pulled clothing out of drawers and cut open couch cushions.
As irony would have it, months later three individuals were arrested and charged for the Halloween shooting. They currently await trial. None of them had any relation to Elliott Reyes, Elian J. Raya or 226 or 228 Comstock in Joliet.
Plaintiffs seek justice for Defendants’ egregious violations of their constitutional rights and their injuries, including their mental pain and suffering and ongoing, severe emotional distress.
