In an ACLU lawsuit arising from a Boston Police Department wrong-home, no-knock raid, the City of Boston has agreed to pay a local family $500,000 solely to compensate for personal injuries. A federal judge today approved the settlement.
Before sunrise on November 27, 2018, a BPD SWAT team broke open the door to the Regis family’s apartment, pushed them around using shields, and held the parents and their 15-year-old child at gunpoint and in handcuffs—all in front of two younger children. After terrorizing the family in this way, a supervisor entered and announced that the officers were in the wrong home. They had failed to go to the address that was listed on the warrant and and failed to take even minimal steps to be sure they were at the correct home. As a result of the raid, family members have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and now live in fear of police.
“The disturbing lack of care shown by the BPD in this case is a reminder of why police reform and accountability are so badly needed in Massachusetts, and why the state legislature was right to restrict the use of no-knock warrants,” said Ruth Bourquin, senior and managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts.
“This settlement cannot make up for the ongoing pain my family is experiencing: constant fear that our door will be broken open again and a feeling we cannot count on police to protect us,” said Jean Claude Regis. “But we hope it will cause the City of Boston to rethink and revise its policies, including the level of care it uses when invading the rights of its residents.”
"This case highlights what too many people already know: In order to change the systems that routinely perpetuate egregious acts of violence against Black lives, we need bold policy changes that address structural racism and systemic inequality at the root of our policing institutions,” said Joshua Solomon of Pollack Solomon Duffy LLP.
The ACLU of Massachusetts, together with law firm Pollack Solomon Duffy, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Regis family in May 2019. A year later, a federal judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit.
For more information about the case, go to: https://www.aclum.org/en/cases/regis-v-gross
