They say mistakes happen, but when they happen during a police investigation, they can completely transform someone’s life
Earlier this month, in Rochester NY, an innocent, elderly woman Nancy Dominicos said she was texting on her phone at her phone when she heard banging and yelling, and federal agents stormed into her home to conduct a drug bust.
“I thought it was a family member pulling a joke on me,” Dominicos reported to WHEC.com. “And all of the sudden I looked up and they were in my dining room pointing a loaded gun at me telling me they had a federal warrant to search my premises.”
He only recognized that they were agents and lowered the gun when one of them instructed another to handcuff his mother and lead her out.But they didn’t have a warrant to search Dominicos’ premises, in fact they weren’t even at the right address. And an already traumatic situation could have taken a turn for the tragic when Dominicos’ adult son, a hunter, heard them yelling at his elderly mother and put a bullet in the chamber of his gun to protect her.
When the officers realized their mistake, they left to search the correct house, which was down the street. But Dominicos was scared, traumatized, and the cuffs left marks on her wrists, as a reminder of the evening.
“I’m still terrified,” Dominicos said. “It’s almost like a [post traumatic stress disorder] experience. You keep hearing things. You think, ‘Oh my God I hear a door slam. I hear someone pulling into my driveway. I see a light.’ It’s like, ‘Oh my God are they back?’ How could they make that mistake?”
Courtney Wagner, the 38-year-old daughter of Robert Wagner (an actor featured on Two and a Half Men) learned first-hand the consequences or power of procedural mistakes when possession charges were dropped against her from an arrest in April.
According to the Huffingtonpost.com, police were called following an altercation and a gun shot at her Malibu home, where they found both cocaine and heroin. But the case was rejected in May due to illegal search and seizure, a violation of Wagner’s Fourth Amendment rights, according to E! News.
To find a qualified attorney, best equipped to handle similar mistakes in possession cases, call 800-882-3291.
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