Teenagers are going to do what teenagers do, but thank goodness for home surveillance systems.
In Carpentersville, a northern suburb in Illinois, police were caught in the act of —literally—breaking and entering, and then hemming a young dude up. In his own home.
In captured video footage, an unarmed and seemingly unassuming 16-year-old boy was accosted by a police officer, who charged through the doorway in search of a young girl, who ended up not being there.
Now, the family is suing the po-po for raiding their home without a search warrant while their minor son was home alone.
“I did get scared because I never expected something like this to happen to me,” the teenager, who wishes to remain anonymous, told an ABC affiliate.
The encounter occurred in June and was reportedly the result of a search for a missing girl, who is friends with the boy.
As one of the plainclothes cops searched the premises, there was unprovoked, forceful physical contact with the teen, with one officer grabbing his neck and then throwing him down on the couch and hemming him up.
The alleged missing girl—who has not been identified—was not at the home, but the officers still handcuffed and arrested the boy, whose mother was at work.
“It was an illegal search of this home,” the family’s attorney Keenan Saulter said. “It was an illegal seizure of that minor, and ultimately it was a false arrest.”
The video clearly shows how the officer opened the unlocked door and let himself in—lying that it was already open, after saying “Hello.”
On a cell phone video, the teen is heard responding, “Yeah, sir, I don’t feel comfortable opening this door without my parents here, sir.”
But forcible physical contact ensued rather swiftly, with the officer aggressively mushing the teen and throwing him on the couch, hemming him up.
What did they think was going on in there?
They were acting like R. Kelly was in the mix—oh, but that allegedly went on for years without any law and order. (Oops.)
The cops reportedly searched the home a day earlier looking for the girl, who is believed to have run away from her home. The family admitted that she did come to their home and was put in an Uber by the teen and ended up back at her home that very afternoon.
Police were shown a record of the ride but still returned the next day to bring the pain.
The boy’s mother, Violeta Hernandez, was at work and said she talked to an officer on the phone.
“I told him to wait for me,” she said. “You’re not supposed to be in my house. They are minors. I’m not there.”
Something seems to be rotten in the cotton.
Carpentersville police officials are claiming to just be hearing about the lawsuit. Per a statement:
The Village of Carpentersville and its Police Department have just learned of the lawsuit, and, as such, we are not prepared to make a statement as to the specific allegations at this point. However, the Village takes all matters involving police interactions with the public seriously. What is known is that the police were responding to a report of a missing female minor during the alleged incident. A third-party investigation was initiated to address the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the involved officers’ actions. At this point, the investigation is ongoing.
The Village will need further time to review the lawsuit as well as the outcome of the third-party investigation before making any additional comment.