Mathew Corrigan is an Army reservist who was battling depression and insomnia. Wanting some help with the problems, he called what he thought was the military’s emotional support help line. Instead, he mistakenly called a suicide hotline. When he told them he was a vet, they asked if he owned guns. He confided that yes, he did, ended the conversation a short time later and went to bed. A prescription pill helped him get to sleep. Until, that is, he was rudely woken by the sound of his name being shouted over a bull horn. . .
As www.courthousenews.com tells it, the hotline had alerted the DCPD. They then deployed what appeared to be most of the city’s SWAT assets who had set up floodlights and surrounded his house.
“Corrigan turned on his phone and found that Officer Fischer of the 5th District was calling him, asking him to come out, which he did at about 4:50 a.m., locking the door behind him. He was handcuffed and put in the back of a SWAT truck.
“When Officer John Doe I (upon information and belief, Officer John Doe I is Lieutenant Robert Glover) asked Corrigan for the key to his apartment, he informed the officer: ‘There is no way I am giving you consent to enter my place.’ Officer John Doe I stated: ‘I don’t have time to play this constitutional bullshit!’ and ordered that Officers John Does II-V, members of the Emergency Response Team (ERT), enter the apartment.”
As a result of the incident, Lt. Glover will probably have to make some more time for constitutional bullshit in the not too distant future. His shock troops trashed Corrigan’s apartment looking for his guns and ammo (all of which were confiscated) then scanned the place for explosives. In an unusual and refreshing turn for a SWAT squad, they refrained from automatically shooting Corrigan’s dog, instead turning the pooch over to a shelter.
Corrigan spent two days in a VA hospital. Once they determined that he really wasn’t suicidal, he was arrested and spent two weeks in jail.
“When Corrigan returned to his apartment 16 days after being seized, he found that John Does I-XV had left the front door unlocked and unsecured, had left the electric stove on, had cut open every zipped bag, had dumped every box and drawer, had broken locked boxes from under the bed and the closet, and emptied shelves into piles in each room. All his tropical fish in his 150 gallon aquarium were dead.”
Corrigan has filed suit against District of Columbia seeking $500,000 in damages for constitutional violations.