Horn Lake couple left injured when police raid home looking for meth lab
Published 5:17 pm Wednesday, October 11, 2006
An elderly Horn Lake couple, who were injured when police raided their home in March looking for a drug lab, have sued the city in federal court for $2 million in damages.
The raid on March 23 resulted in a dislocated shoulder and a broken collarbone for Lillie Bostick and a ruptured spleen and bruised ribs for Arthur L. Bostick, according to the lawsuit.
The Bosticks are both in their 80s. The lawsuit claims that the civil rights of the Bosticks and their granddaughter, Shely Downing, who was in their house at the time of the raid, were violated under both the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
Attorney Randall Pierce of Memphis, who filed the lawsuit, said, “Both of the Bosticks have been released, physically, from their doctors. However, emotionally, they still bear the scars. A traumatic event like this really never goes away. They will carry this pain for the rest of their lives.”
Pierce said the Bosticks “have no intention of making any public statements.”
Police had made a drug buy on the night of March 22 and received a tip from an informant that a meth lab was in operation at the address.
There are two houses on the lot — a red brick house where the Bosticks lived and a white wooden house where their son, Minor Ray Bostick, 49, was living with his girlfriend.
Police struck the wrong house, but the lawsuit, which gives only one side of the legal argument, alleges that “Minor Bostick was well known to the defendants or could have been ascertained by diligent search and inquiry based upon the records maintained by the defendants in its ordinary course of business.”
Officers went to the other house on the lot. Minor Bostick was gone and remains at large. His girlfriend, Sonseeaharay Lyn Fells, 36, was arrested and charged with manufacturing a controlled substance.
Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker ordered a review of the case immediately following the raid.
On July 7, he said disciplinary action had been taken against two officers, but he said no one had been demoted, suspended or fired. The officers were not identified.
Police Chief Darryl Whaley said, “What we had was a policy failure. One individual was charged with too many tasks.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Oxford against the City of Horn Lake and other defendants, including Police Chief Darryl Whaley.
Billy Campbell Jr., city attorney for Horn Lake, said Monday that he had not seen the lawsuit.
“It is our policy that we do not comment on pending litigation,” he said.