A Paducah couple has sued the city of Paducah, a police sergeant and unknown Paducah police officers in connection with a search of their home in November.
In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Donnie and Marcia McKinney allege that officers assaulted them, and damaged their property, without reason .
On Nov. 19, Paducah police Sgt. Brian Laird and other officers went to the McKinney home on Olivet Church Road to serve an arrest warrant on McKinneys’ son, Dustin, and to search his pickup truck. Although the truck was not seen, officers blew open the home’s front door with an explosive and charged inside, according to the lawsuit.
Dustin McKinney was sought for questioning in connection with a Dawson Springs case. Laird was the supervising officer at the scene.
“Upon entering the home, defendants brandished firearms needlessly and brutally assaulted the McKinneys,” the lawsuit reads. “Donnie McKinney was detained with a boot in his back, and suffered two broken ribs and other internal injuries, in addition to bruises and scrapes.”
The lawsuit further claims that the officers were verbally abusive and disrespectful of the McKinneys’ ages for physical, mental and emotional injuries, as well as damage to the property, punitive damages and legal fees.
City attorney Stacey Blankenship with the Denton & Keuler law firm in Paducah denied all the allegations and said she intends to file a response within a month. Police also conducted an internal investigation over several weeks and found that the McKinneys’ complaint had no merit, she said. She called the serving of the warrant nothing out of the ordinary.
“A review by the police department as well as myself determined that all policies and procedures of the Paducah Police Department were followed during the execution of the search and arrest warrant,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship said she listened to an audio tape of the incident. She said officers used force after the McKinneys did not immediately lie on the ground as officers ordered them to do.
“As a result both persons were taken to the ground by the police officers as is required by their policies when someone does not comply with a verbal command,” Blankenship said. “They were held on the ground for about one minute, at which time they were allowed to sit at their dining room table for the remainder of the execution of the search warrant, which took about an hour.”
Donnie McKinney said he had just gone inside to watch TV and his wife was knitting when they heard a knock on the door about 11:30 p.m.
“I got up to go to the door and unlock the deadbolt, and when I got to the door and got it about half turned, this explosion went off, and fire shot out about two feet,” he said.
The force of the explosion blew McKinney against the wall, he said. He was unsure if that is when his ribs broke or whether it was later, when an officer had a boot on his back.
McKinney said he saw a man dressed in what he thought looked like a ninja outfit. The man had a gun across his chest.
“My first thought was it was my son and some of his friends playing a prank on us,” he said.
Assisted by officers, McKinney said, he got down on the ground as soon as he realized he was being ordered to do so, although he was still unaware who was inside the house.
“I couldn’t breathe, and I kept raising my head up,” McKinney said. “(An officer) said, ‘We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way, and your mouthing is going to make us do this the hard way.’”
McKinney said he could hear his wife crying from the other room, and he was frightened.
“I didn’t know if I was going to die or what,” he said. “No one had ever told me who they were.”
Daniel J. Canon, the McKinneys’ attorney, summarized their argument.
“Basically our position is Donnie and Marcia McKinney were minding their own business in their own home and their home was broken into by somewhere between eight and 15 masked men carrying shoulder rifles and all kinds of artillery,” he said.
Canon said police have a right to carry out searches as part of their investigations, but they can’t apply excessive force and behave as though they are at war with their own citizens that they are sworn to protect.
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