Swat Raids Mayors House and Kills Two Dogs In Botched Raid

[SuziQ]

I have absolutely no words for this. You'll have to read it yourself.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/07/mayor.warrant/index.html

(snip)
"This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing."
The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.
Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/illegal_drugs) are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Video:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/07/mayor.warrant/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

[SuziQ]

Much more detail at the below link. And LE still will not clear this family's name!:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5it3aTQrD8Kz2hZ6GDZybEvffY1hgD92DOL1G3

(snips)
Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.
The two men under arrest include a FedEx deliveryman; investigators said the deliveryman would drop off a package outside a home, and the other man would come by a short time later and pick it up.

The mayor, who was changing his clothes when police burst in, also complained that he was handcuffed in his boxer shorts for about two hours along with his mother-in-law, and said the officers didn't believe him when he told them he was the mayor. No charges were brought against Calvo or his wife, who came home in the middle of the raid.

Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said Wednesday that Calvo and his family were "most likely ... innocent victims," but he would not rule out their involvement, and he defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologize for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened.

[SieSie]

Wow, just wow. Sad.

[Elphaba]

It has been all over the news, here... how LE went about executing the warrant is in question, big time. This family has a LOT of people backing them, against PG County LE.

[MeoW333]

That's pathetic what is wrong with those officers? You'd think they'd have had better training than that. They shot two innocent labrador retrievers?? WTF? sounds like a set up of some sort, as they still won't clear his name? He needs a huge lawsuit on that department. The whole department in turn, needs investigation and an overhaul. Who is training these idiots?

"
Calvo insisted the couple's two black Labradors were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them "for sport," gunning down one of them as it was running away.


"Our dogs were our children," said the 37-year-old Calvo. "They were the reason we bought this house because it had a big yard for them to run in."



That is just sick and disgusting. They need to do better mental and IQ evaluations for these officers.

[mommy2wil]

Long time lurker, but had to post on this because stories like this in our "post 9/11 Patriot Act" country are all too common. I went to school with Cheye and feel terrible that this happened to him. I was involved in student government, was in the "gifted" classes and was against drugs, but was/is the kind of person that was friends with all types/groups of people. Just a nice guy who cares about people. In one of the televised interviews he points out that the media is there because he is the mayor (of a town of just 1,000 homes) but that similiar raids have happened in PG county to other ordinary citizens (some also where dogs have been shot and killed) and those people aren't fortunate enough to have the media coverage that this incident is getting. The PG County police have been very unapologetic and arrogant in their statements. I encourage you all to search online under "cheye calvo" and read some of the interesting articles on this. I even found a great one by PROFILER PAT BROWN at

http://womenincrimeink.blogspot.com/2008/08/circumstantial-evidence-proof-or.html

The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.

[mysteriew]

Is there any question of LE being involved in distribution or protection of drugs?

I have reasons for asking. First, this isn't the first time it seems to have happened and LE seems to be aware of that and aware of a pattern. Yet they still went in with guns blazing. According to the mayor he told them he was the mayor, but they acted like they didn't believe him. LE is paid by the city government, indirectly the city government are their bosses. LE knows the political figures in their area.

So either they were getting all macho to draw make an impression against the main dealers, or there is a serious political fight in that area and they want the mayor out.

Labs are known to be very gentle as a breed. They might have gotten protective, but by the mayor's account at least one of the dogs was running away.

[mommy2wil]

I don't think it's anything that was directed against the mayor for political reasons - it's a part time position with a small payment. He has a regular full time job. The town he's mayor of is about 1 square mile, so we're not talking about a real powerful position or anythingThe package was addressed to his wife, from some drug dealers using a common scheme of delivering drug packages during the day to houses they assume no one will be home and have someone else drive by and pick it up to avoid tracing it to anyone.

It really could and does happen to anyone.

[mysteriew]

The mayor office may be part time, but in a small town he really is seen as having some power. For instance the mayor and council hands out the LE budget. They often set the wages for the department, and sometimes control larger equipment purchases. Though these things are handled by the council as well as the mayor, as the head the mayor often takes the blame for the council's actions. And if the mayor makes a complaint to the police chief about something, the police chief is almost always going to pay attention. But the fact that the same type of actions have been taken against others pretty much rules out a political motive.

[Elphaba]

Is there any question of LE being involved in distribution or protection of drugs?

I have reasons for asking. First, this isn't the first time it seems to have happened and LE seems to be aware of that and aware of a pattern. Yet they still went in with guns blazing. According to the mayor he told them he was the mayor, but they acted like they didn't believe him. LE is paid by the city government, indirectly the city government are their bosses. LE knows the political figures in their area.

So either they were getting all macho to draw make an impression against the main dealers, or there is a serious political fight in that area and they want the mayor out.

Labs are known to be very gentle as a breed. They might have gotten protective, but by the mayor's account at least one of the dogs was running away.

PG County has some serious problems... that is all I will say.

[SuziQ]

Finally an apology. FWIW, County LE would know all mayor's and council members in their county. If they didn't as they are claiming, then it's gross negligence, IMO.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/09brfs-APOLOGYAFTER_BRF.html?ref=us

A mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing after the police had been reluctant to rule out his involvement in drug smuggling or to apologize for the raid. Chief Melvin High of the Prince George’s County Police Department said he called Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, on Thursday to apologize and say they were no longer suspected in a drug smuggling scheme. (more at link)

[Malapoo]

How "big of them". This is horrible. Our house got searched once when I was just out of school. My sister and I had had a roommate we kicked out because she wasn't carrying her share of pre-agreed upon expenses and duties and she called a police pal and said we had drugs in our house. One of my dogs WAS aggressive, but the police asked if I could control him and I said yes and did so. And no, they found no drugs either. It was exciting though at 2 AM.

[evelyn24]

This is a disgrace. Raids like this have been occurring since the "War On Drugs" for the last 25 years, and this time they trampled on the civil rights of the wrong person, so hopefully something will be done.
PG County police are a big corrupt joke.

[anneinchicago]

The Feds are being asked to investigate.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/maryland.mayor/?iref=mpstoryview

And in the Mayor's own words:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-mayoremail0808,0,4607054.story

[SuziQ]

This is a disgrace. Raids like this have been occurring since the "War On Drugs" for the last 25 years, and this time they trampled on the civil rights of the wrong person, so hopefully something will be done.
PG County police are a big corrupt joke.

They have had their fare share of wrongdoings exposed. The man suspected of killing a LE officer was strangled in his cell. Then one of their officers guns down a couple of guys deliverying furniture. Nice.

[Grainne Dhu]

The thought of those two dogs being killed makes me sick, particularly since one of the dogs was running away at the time. I nearly died in 2005, spent nearly four months in the hospital and my dogs were one of the things that gave me a goal to keep me going through some very bad times there.

This sort of thing has got to stop. Does anyone here remember the Kathryn Johnston killing? Police, for unknown reasons, decided a 92 year old woman was a drug dealer and got a local judge to rubberstamp a "no knock" warrant. Kathryn lived alone, was somewhat hard of hearing (at 92, perfectly understandable!) and was no doubt terrified when her door was crashed in. She fired one shot at the ceiling, the police returned fire. While she was lying on the floor bleeding to death, none of them offered her any comfort or sympathy. Instead, they handcuffed her.

At least in this case the police admitted relatively quickly that they had made a mistake. In the Kathryn Johnston case the police lied about her for weeks; one officer went so far as to plant evidence in her basement.

[SuziQ]

The thought of those two dogs being killed makes me sick, particularly since one of the dogs was running away at the time. I nearly died in 2005, spent nearly four months in the hospital and my dogs were one of the things that gave me a goal to keep me going through some very bad times there.



This is so true for so many people. My dogs force me out of bed when I'd rather stay in it all day and have a pity party. They are such great companions. They are always there for you know matter what. And this couple appears to be childless, so you KNOW these were their kids. And isn't it lucky that there weren't any kids in the house?

[Simplicity]

When I heard this horrific story, I thought to myself.."Come in my house and TRY to kill my dogs."

They'd be carrying the disgusting, disgraceful cops out along with me to the morgue.

The cops should be incarcerated for no less than fifty-years in a maximum security prison.

America has trigger happy criminal characteristics in too many so called law enforcement officers.

I hope they meet the same death as they gave these PRECIOUS, INNOCENT CREATURES WHO ARE GIFTS FROM GOD!

I have no respect for cops!