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Chicago police raided home in search of suspect, but he had been in prison for years, lawsuit alleges

Jolanda Blassingame was cooking a chicken dinner in January 2015 when she thought a burglar might be trying to break into her home in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.

The African American mother says she tried to gather her three sons and a nephew into a front room to hide but realized it couldn’t be a burglary when she spotted bright lights out a bedroom window.

SWAT and plainclothes Chicago police officers suddenly burst through front and back doors, throwing flash grenades and pointing assault rifles at the family, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.

But police had made a huge blunder, raiding the wrong house, the suit alleged. The man sought by officers had once lived at the address years earlier but had been in prison since 2009 and had no connection to Blassingame’s family, attorney Al Hofeld Jr. told reporters.

At a news conference at his law offices, Hofeld said that Blassingame’s sons still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms and behavioral issues. The children, who were ages 11, 6 and 4 at the time of the incident, now have separation issues, distrust in the police, nightmares and phobias, according to the suit.

It was only in June, more than four years after the incident, that Blassingame said she sought out Hofeld after hearing news reports of similar suits he had brought.

This marks the seven such suit brought since last year by Hofeld, who alleges a pattern of misconduct by Chicago police in its use of excessive force against children of color. The city settled with one girls’ family last year for $2.5 million, according to Hofeld.

“They need to be held accountable for what happened,” said Blassingame, who directs a child day care center while pursing a master’s degree in early childhood education at National Louis University. “They were just rude. They didn’t care about the kids. They didn’t care about anything.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, declined to comment on the suit but defended police for making “every effort” to accurately carry out search warrants, saying only a small fraction of the thousands each year result in verified problems.

“Oftentimes the information that leads to search warrants comes from community sources, and despite the independent vetting of material … and the methodical process to authenticate addresses, errors can occur and information may not be accurate,” Guglielmi wrote in an email. “We take these errors with the utmost importance and priority given the emotional impact search warrants can have on individuals and the implications to public trust.”

Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, said he had not seen the suit and declined to comment.

Hofeld said the raid could have been prevented if officers had taken the time to search the department’s criminal history database or public records to learn that the man they sought was, in fact, in prison and had not lived in the apartment for years.

Hofeld also complained that while the search warrant sought heroin, drug paraphernalia and records about drug transactions, officers seized Blassingame’s black diamond earrings, a silver cross pendant on a chain and her brother’s Army-issued bulletproof vest — but never returned the property.

Officers also damaged doors, electronics and furniture in the raid without ever apologizing for the mistake or compensating the family, Hofeld said.

pfry@chicagotribune.com