LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A judge has ruled in favor of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and Metro Government in a lawsuit that accused officers of wrongfully handcuffing a man, his wife and their then 10-year-old daughter.
Roy Stucker claimed in 2019 he was hired to paint a house by a new tenant, but while he was there a SWAT team conducted a raid on the house in connection with a man they had already booked into custody.
“It was the worst day of my life,” Courtney Brown Porter, Stucker’s wife, said. “I thought we were all gonna die.”
“The windows was getting busted out, percussion bombs going through, and we didn't even really realize it was the police,” Stucker said.
Selene Wendlind, now 14-years-old, said she’s still traumatized.
“If somebody's coming over, they have to tell me that somebody's coming over before they come over, so I'm not about to have a panic attack and stuff like that,” Wendlind said.
It's these memories that make it hard for them to believe a federal judge ruled in the LMPD officers' and Metro Government's favor. The judge decided that "no constitutional violation occurred in the issuance of the warrant,” according to the opinion.
The house that was raided was the previous home of a man arrested 10 days before. He was still in custody on the day in question. The federal judge's opinion said officers were acting on relevant information by looking for a different man they believed was involved in drug trafficking and had visited the residence two months prior.
Still, the family said the terror they experienced, followed by the treatment they received that day, and now this ruling is not what justice looks like.
Stucker said their lawyer plans to appeal the judgment.
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