More specifically, Fields wants to see stricter requirements for confidential informants. And she said there may need to be a select group of judges—10 or 20—who are allowed to issue warrants and will be held specifically accountable. That would eliminate police from seeking "any judge they can get up off the bench or out of bed," she said. In the Jean case, it was a Queens judge who approved the Brooklyn raid. Finally, Fields sees a severe "lack of coordination" among police, D.A.'s offices, and the judges—apparent in the Spruill warrant, which was issued after the arrest had already been made.
Civil liberties advocates are looking for all three tiers of the criminal-justice system to truly observe the so-called Aguilar-Spinelli test. Most cities base their warrant procedure on the case law that requires police to prove the CI's truthfulness in asserting, for instance, that there is existing danger in an apartment. The affidavit in Jean's case includes only CI testimony, without other police evidence. Montelione's later deposition of an officer involved in the raid has not brought forth any more evidence, tying the case up in court for years. In a recently reported case of a botched raid in the Bronx, police burst into an apartment, apprehending a young mother and father who were bathing their infant. They later learned the CI had been referring to an apartment one floor up. "If police had talked to the managing agent in the building, they would have known the right apartment. Everybody in the building knew who they were," said Francis Alberts, a former Bronx A.D.A., who is now handling the case against the city on the Bronx case.
photo: Robert Hale
Manhattan Borough Prez Virginia Fields, who opened a raid hot line
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For the moment, it will be hard to spur politicians into action without real data proving exactly how many people have been victimized. Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has requested data from the OCA, including how many no-knock warrants are requested, granted, and denied. Court administration spokesman David Bookstaver said he has been "swamped" by the same request, but the office doesn't track the information—hence the importance of Kelly's proposed database. Still Norman Siegel, former head of the NYCLU, who is representing a raid case that will be filed in federal court, is requesting statistics for warrants dating back 10 years. Lieberman is also requesting that the CCRB release all no-knock complaints.
In the meantime, victims are becoming increasingly agitated. One raid victim, Orlando Russell, said he "used to be an upstanding citizen," but now "any cop walking in without an invitation better have a body bag."
