The owner of a Kennedale sustainable community and four others filed a lawsuit last week alleging the City of Arlington and Arlington police violated their constitutional rights during an August 2013 raid on the property. {{more}}
The group alleges their Fourth and 14th Amendment rights were violated because the police department did not have probable cause to execute a search warrant at the Garden of Eden, a 3.5-acre property in the 7300 block of Mansfield Cardinal Road.
The lawsuit, filed July 1 in Tarrant County, claims the arrest of eight people during the raid ?exceeded the scope of the narcotics warrant.?
A SWAT team executed a search warrant around 7:40 a.m. Aug. 2, 2013, looking for ?marijuana, weapons, currency, and other indicia of a drug trafficking organization? on the land and a 3,800-square-foot home on the property.
Eight people, five of whom are plaintiffs in the suit, were detained and handcuffed during the raid. The lawsuit alleges the SWAT team never showed the search warrant to the group, and police left empty-handed around 9:30 a.m. The eight people remained in custody until 5 p.m. while Arlington Code Compliance officers inspected the property for fire, health and code violations, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also alleges the Arlington narcotics detective who wrote the probable cause affidavit did not provide enough evidence to merit the raid or its no-knock approach.
The undercover narcotics officer was assigned July 30, 2013, to investigate the Garden of Eden based on ?multiple reports that the residents of the property were growing marijuana.? The officer claims an anonymous source informed her that Quinn Eaker, one of the plaintiffs, was growing marijuana on the property and was covering it with bamboo. The informant also said there were two rifles and a pistol on the property.
The detective claimed Eaker was in possession of marijuana on July 30, records show. Eaker claims in the suit he hadn?t had previous contact with Arlington police and did not have marijuana.
A Department of Public Safety narcotics agent then took aerial photos of the property showing a 30-by-30 foot area containing foliage that appeared to be marijuana plants. Landowner Shellie Smith claims in the lawsuit that the area contained tomato, pepper, okra and basil plants.
Neither marijuana nor the weapons were found on the property.
The group?s attorney, Wes Dauphinot, said the case has a two-year statute of limitations that would have run out Aug. 2. He said his clients were waiting on the completion of an open records request and an internal affairs investigation before filing the suit. Senior District Judge Terry R. Means has been assigned to the case.
The plaintiffs seek punitive damage for ?mental anguish? incurred during the raid.
