A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to get rid of photos of legal documents that were allegedly taken during an unannounced raid on the home of an attorney for a Black Lives Matter activist
A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to get rid of photographs of legal documents that officers allegedly took during an unannounced raid on the home of an attorney representing a prominent Black Lives Matter activist.
The attorney, Dermot Givens, said roughly a dozen Los Angeles police officers descended on his townhouse on Tuesday, ordering him to stand outside as they executed a warrant.
When he went back inside, Givens said he saw an officer photographing documents left on his kitchen table related to a lawsuit filed against the department on behalf of Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter.
Abdullah has alleged officers violated her civil rights in 2020 by forcing her out of her home at gunpoint after receiving a hoax call about a hostage situation there.
The papers photographed by police contained “portions of Mr. Given’s case file, and potentially attorney work product” related to Abdullah’s case, according to an application in Los Angeles County Superior Court requesting that police destroy or return the materials and provide a copy of the warrant used to justify the search.
The judge may be asking for a copy, rather than asking one be provided to the lawyer… But like, there should be a record of that, the judge’s clerk should just be able to pull it up.
For that matter, if it was for the lawyer… the clerk should be able to just, you know, give a copy.
They are definitely supposed to have one ready to go when they knock or whatever. Usually, they’ll try to avoid handing it over until you ask to see it.