ATLANTA, Ga. — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, Oct. 7, that an Atlanta family whose home was raided by mistake in 2017 cannot take the federal government to trial, but can keep pressing claims against the FBI agent who led the SWAT team.
The case stems from a pre-dawn raid on Oct. 18, 2017. According to the family, Agent Lawrence Guerra and a SWAT team broke down their door, set off a flash-bang grenade and held them at gunpoint at 5 a.m., until another officer came across mail showing the home’s address and realized the team was at the wrong house. The FBI was looking for a suspected gang member a few houses away. Trina Martin, her then-boyfriend Toi Cliatt and her 7-year-old son were inside.
Martin and Cliatt sued Guerra and the United States in September 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court revived their lawsuit last year, sending it back to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a second look.
In a 38-page opinion, the three-judge panel reversed the qualified immunity a lower court had granted Guerra. The judges pointed to differences between the two properties: the homes were three houses away from one another, on opposite sides of the road and separated by a cross street. The street sign at the target home marks Landau Lane and Cranford Drive, while the family lives on Denville Trace. The panel concluded a jury could reasonably find the agent did not make reasonable efforts to avoid the error.
The judges also questioned why Guerra threw away his personal GPS after the incident, since the team leader later said that device had led him to the wrong address. They noted he failed to upload site survey photographs to the FBI evidence system, and that his cell phone data is missing for the day he said he photographed the site.
The ruling went the other way on the government. The panel found the United States is protected by sovereign immunity under an exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, the federal law that otherwise allows such suits. Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote separately urging the full court to revisit that line of precedent. The panel also included Judges Jill Pryor and Embry Kidd. A spokeswoman for the FBI Atlanta office said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.
