After LA police raid home of Black Lives Matter attorney, a judge orders photographs destroyed
A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Police Department to remove photos 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 about a dozen Los Angeles police officers entered his home on Tuesday and ordered him to stand outside while 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 claims officers violated her civil rights in 2020 by forcing her from 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 possibly attorney work product” related to Abdullah’s case, according to a filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court asking police to release the materials destroy or return them and provide a copy of the documents. warrant used to justify the search.
On Friday, Judge Rupert Byrdsong granted that request. Givens said he had not received confirmation from the LAPD or any information about the arrest warrant as of Saturday.
A police spokesman said the department was conducting an internal investigation and declined to provide further details about the search. “This is an open criminal and internal affairs investigation,” the spokesperson, Capt. Kelly Muniz, said by phone.
According to Givens, police said they responded to a GPS tracker near his home as part of their search for a young man named Tyler. After surrounding the mansion with guns drawn, officers in tactical gear “looted” his home, he said, emptying drawers, opening his safe and searching his suitcase.
Givens said he had lived in the home for more than 20 years and did not know anyone who matched the name and description of the person police said they were looking for. The raid was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Friday evening.
The attorney claimed this was the latest case of harassment by the LAPD due to his work on behalf of clients suing the department. He said the police “know exactly who I am and where I live” and that they are lying if they say otherwise.
Givens is currently representing Abdullah in her lawsuit against the LAPD over their response to a “swatting incident” at her home in 2020, in which officers surrounded her home and ordered her and her children out over a loudspeaker.
She has claimed that police used the prank, which was carried out by teenagers, as a pretext to “terrorize” her for her role in organizing protests following the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
The Los Angeles Police Department has not commented on officers’ actions at Abdullah’s home, citing ongoing litigation.