Lawsuit: 12-Year-Old Girl Assaulted By Police During Prostitution Raid On Wrong House

[babylonsister]

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl
Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 12:37:01 PM


It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.

more...

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/12/galveston_false_arrest.php

[BlooInBloo]

1. We got yer state-sponsored terrorists right here, folks.

[hlthe2b]

2. Oh.... God...

Can you imagine how you would feel as this child's parents? Geebus..... Someone would have to shoot me to keep me going after these assholes.

[charlie]

3. Gads

The worst part is in the article. They beat her while she clung to a tree. Then visited her school weeks later and arrested her.

And what if she WAS the prostitute they wanted? A 12-year-old needs goddamned RESCUING, not brusque treatment and a beating.

Naturally, the cops have been found to have used "appropriate" force. Mutha-fuckers.

[JanMichael]

4. god i hate this police state.

i can't imagine (nor post on a public message board) what i'd think of doing to the idiotic cretins that did that to my child...cops or not...

[ccharles000]

5. OMG so many crazy assholes

[Ghost in the Machine]

6. Way to Serve & Protect there, jackboots!

NOT!

I've dealt with a lot of PIGS in my past... but I know some pretty decent cops, too...

There's got to be a way to weed these assholes out *before* they hurt someone...

[rubberducky]

7. This story scares the hell out of me. This is America???

[WinkyDink]

39. As always.

[glowing]

8. This is when you sue like hell.. A judge might find them legal in the process of

arrest, a jury would not be so amused... and would reward accordingly.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

9. I certainly

hope that they get a very good lawyer and sue the shit out of the PD.

Poor kid. :(

[killbotfactory]

10. Is it safe to assume she was a minority?

The police tend to view them all as criminals.

[Matariki]

11. In this instance - the article mentions they were after 'three white prostitutes'

why did they arrest her in school weeks later?

[LisaL]

13. She was arrested for an assault on a public servant, according

to the article. Her trial is set for February.

[Matariki]

14. No, sorry. You were absolutely right. I should read the article before posting.

"All this is according to a lawsuit filed in Galveston federal court by Milburn against the officers. The lawsuit alleges that the officers thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker due to the "tight shorts" she was wearing, despite not fitting the racial description of any of the female suspects. The police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area of the reported illegal activity"

[killbotfactory]

22. Ugh.

I didn't read the article. I wish I wasn't right.

[chrisa]

12. Officers were lucky...

If the father had a gun, they would have all gotten their brains blown out.

[LisaL]

15. Considering the officers probably had guns, maybe it's the father

who is lucky because he could have ended up with his brains blown out.

[Xithras]

18. Perhaps.

Perhaps not. The officers were focused on the girl and it's improbable that the father would have started shooting from any distance with his daughter in the line of fire. Any shots would have been taken at extremely short range...short enough to defeat most body armor.

[LisaL]

19. 3 against 1. Do the math.

[benEzra]

38. 3 against 1, yes...

but these were PLAINCLOTHED officers, dressed in jeans and T-shirts or whatever and driving an unmarked van. If you saw this, it would have looked 100% like sexual predators abducting your child. How would you have responded?

I doubt it would have been "oh, it's OK, it's probably just the police, even though they're not dressed like police, they're not identifying themselves as police, they're not driving a police car, and they're acting like rapists."

FWIW, given that they were plainclothes, they were probably not carrying full-sized handguns; the homeowner would have been in the house behind cover, while the officers were exposed; and the parent could have grabbed a deer rifle or a centerfire carbine rather than a pistol. This was not a SWAT raid.

[Xithras]

16. These cops are very lucky.

I have a daughter about that age, and I own several firearms. If my 12 year old daughter were grabbed in front of my home by three men in an unmarked blue van, I'd come out shooting...and I'm one hell of a shot. Since this happened in Texas, where firearm ownership is as common as car ownership, it's amazing that something similar didn't happen here.

[LisaL]

17. And what exactly make you think they wouldn't have shot back?

[Xithras]

21. Could have happened.

In my case, my "home defense weapon" (the loaded one not in the safe, protected by a fingerprint trigger lock) is a shotgun loaded with 00. There's no returning fire if you're hit with 00, and police body armor wouldn't help much.

Besides, as a parent, my own safety would be secondary to protecting my 12 year old daughter from three kidnappers. Most parents wouldn't hesitate to put their lives on the line to protect their children.

[BreweryYardRat]

20. Oh, for fuck's sake.

These assholes need to be stripped of their badges and do hard jail time.

[Juche]

23. What can we do

These guys need their careers destroyed. Is there any way we can help make that happen? They probably made up the charges of assault on a peace officer just to cover their own asses. Cops do that sometimes, when they assault a civilian they will make up 'assault on a peace officer' charges so they can justify why they used unnecessary force.

FTR, the article says they were looking for a white prostitute, and the girl they tried to kidnap was black. They are criminals and fucking morons, and lucky the dad didn't own a gun.

[GReedDiamond]

28. Even if these idiot swine with badges...

...had gone to the correct location, and had encountered the "white female prostitutes" they were supposedly looking for, how is violence against sex workers justified? Assaulting anyone suspected of being a prostitute (or any other suspected non-violent "offender," such as a marijuana toucher) is a clear abuse of authority. We used to call it "police brutality," and sometimes the offending pigs were prosecuted for their needless thug-like behavior.

[lightningandsnow]

30. I agree with this comment 100%

And thank you so much for saying it. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a wall here.

[Juche]

31. I agree

It wouldn't have been justified no matter what.

[Two Americas]

35. a 12 year old?

A 12 year old girl assaulted three police officers?

Of course it is to "cover their own asses."

[lightningandsnow]

24. Even if they had been at the RIGHT house...

what the fuck is this shit?

It's okay to treat a sex worker like that, too? For the love of god. Let's say they were at the right house. It's okay to burst into a private home to arrest a consenting adult for a sex act just because money was exchanged? Holy fuck.

The fact that it was the wrong house and they assaulted a 12-year-old girl is even worse. I hope they all lose their jobs.

[Doremus]

25. Galveston will have new owners ... assuming they don't take away their right to sue by then. n/t

[Fleshdancer]

26. This makes my blood boil

The sheer amount of rage her parents must be feeling right now. As a parent, I know I wouldn't be satisfied until the officers involved were all fired at the very least. :grr:

That poor child. To be 12 yrs old and on your property where you feel safe. Suddenly three grown men are tackling you, hurting you, then calling you a prostitute. Traumatic.

[Juche]

27. Then they arrest you for defending yourself

I guess the message to children is passively let strangers try to drag you into their van in the off chance they are cops.

I am so pissed off and feel so impotent too. I don't know who to donate money to, who to write or what

[Incitatus]

29. Sooner or later one of these mistakes is going to end with a cop full of lead.

I read stories all the time of cops raiding the wrong house. I have quick access to an AK. If a bunch of cops kick down my door and rush in, I might not realize they are cops who have made a mistake in time.

[KamaAina]

32. Don't Galveston police have enough to do, like restoring general order after Ike?

Can't they at least wait a respectable amount of time before going back to business as usual? :grr:

[Dennis Donovan]

33. Recommended. My God...

The Police Are OUT Of Control in this nation.:grr:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4669647&mesg_id=4669647

[Festivito]

34. I'd think they'd better consider changing their procedures.

I'd sue on their current reluctance alone.

[bertman]

36. I'm surprised that the people of Galveston have not risen up against this shit. The

Chief of Police needs to be fired and all three officers imprisoned. This is insanity.

[benEzra]

37. Note that these were plainclothes officers---NO UNIFORMS!!!

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.

So, get the scenario. Your 12-year-old daughter is outside, three men dressed in jeans and T-shirts jump out of an unmarked van, grab her, tell her she's "coming with them", and try to drag her into the vehicle---and she's not supposed to resist being abducted?

And if you see men in jeans and T-shirts dragging your 12-year-old daughter toward their unmarked van, you're supposed to assume they're police officers (rather than sexual predators) and just let them drive away with her?

Ummmm, no. No way in hell.

The officers are lucky they didn't get themselves shot as suspected kidnappers.

[benEzra]

40. Some more info:

First, good news---HuffPo is picking it up...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/dymond-police-raid
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/18/police-assault-12-year-ol_n_152207.html

...as is Reason Magazine and Radley Balko:
http://reason.com/blog/show/130642.html
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/12/18/more-on-dymond-milburn/

...which makes this less likely that it will be swept under the rug. People from very disparate political views are making noise about it.


Summary of the parents' case:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/08/26/Parents_Say_Four_Cops_Beat_Girl_12.htm

Here's the lawsuit itself:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/08/26/GalvestonCops.pdf
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-txsdce/case_no-3:2008cv00193/case_id-603449/

Hopefully the truth will come out.

And hopefully, the bigger picture---aggressive actions by PLAINCLOTHES police that cause them to be mistaken for criminals---will become a topic of discussion. Even if the arrest had been legit, carrying it out with plainclothes officers from an unmarked car was just asking for misidentification, particularly when seizing a 12-year-old from her own front yard in full view of her parents.