Two metro Detroit families have filed federal lawsuits accusing cops in Detroit and Warren of storming into their homes without warrants, beating or assaulting residents who had not committed crimes, and then pursuing criminal charges that were later dismissed.
The lawsuits, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit by attorneys Todd Perkins and Joel Sklar, allege police chased people into homes, forced their way inside without warrants, used excessive force against residents, and then relied on false or misleading claims to justify criminal charges.
In a statement to Metro Times, the Warren Police Department denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit “is without merit and disregards the facts of the incident.”
Metro Times couldn’t immediately reach DPD for comment.
In the Detroit case, Carnell Givens, Cara Lanice Givens, Isaiah Daniels, and Carmina Givens, on behalf of 17-year-old Carion Noble-Givens, sued the city of Detroit and more than a dozen Detroit police officers. The lawsuit alleges the officers violated the family’s Fourth Amendment rights during a chaotic late-night encounter at a home on Wormer Street on April 2.
According to the complaint, Detroit police officers Darrell Collins and Anthony Crawford, who were assigned to the department’s Special Operations Unit, stopped Jacari Lee near Wormer Street and West McNichols Road about 12:45 a.m. for a suspected curfew violation. The lawsuit says Collins alleged he saw a gun on Lee, who ran into the Givens home.
The lawsuit alleges Collins and Crawford went to the front door, partially opened it, and demanded entry without identifying themselves, explaining why they were there, or producing a warrant. Carnell Givens and Daniels refused to allow police into the home without an explanation, according to the complaint.
As more cops arrived, the lawsuit says police surrounded the home, drew guns and threatened Daniels with lethal force. Daniels told officers to put their guns down because children were inside, according to the complaint. After officers holstered their weapons, the residents opened the door but continued to refuse to allow police inside without lawful authority.
The complaint alleges officers then forced their way inside and beat Daniels and Carnell and Cara Givens.
“All hell broke loose,” the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, officers pushed Carnell Givens against a wall, struck him with fists and knees, placed him in a headlock, and continued to hit him after he was handcuffed. The complaint also alleges Cara Givens, who was wearing a bath robe, was manhandled, handcuffed, and placed in a scout car, and that her 2-year-old child was bleeding from wounds caused by officers.
The lawsuit says Carion Noble-Givens recorded the incident on his cell phone before Officer Larry Jenkins grabbed him and threw him across a table to the floor. Daniels was also handcuffed, beaten, and placed in a patrol car before being released later that night without charges, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges Officer Davita Rutledge reviewed police reports and video footage and knew the reports were false or contradicted by the footage. Nonetheless, Rutledge, Collins, and Crawford sought criminal charges against Carnell Givens for felony assault and resisting police. Those charges were dismissed on April 22 after a district court reviewed the encounter, according to the complaint.
The Detroit lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages and alleges unlawful search and seizure, excessive force, malicious prosecution, and municipal liability. The complaint also accuses Detroit of failing to properly train, investigate, and discipline officers accused of unlawful stops, excessive force and failing to intervene.
Another lawsuit was filed by Willie Lamarr Hall III and Sandra Hall against the city of Warren and several of its cops. It stems from a Sept. 23, 2024, incident outside the couple’s home on Bolam Avenue.
According to the complaint, Warren police tried to stop a black Chevrolet Equinox near 10 Mile Road and Bolam Avenue. The driver, Tanequa Hasan, and passenger, Isaiah Marshall, fled from the vehicle and ran into the Halls’ home, the lawsuit says.
The Warren Police Department offered a different account, saying officers attempted to stop a Chevy Equinox near 10 Mile Road and Groesbeck Avenue before the vehicle fled. Two occupants got out and ran into a home on Bolam Avenue through the front door, and officers pursued them inside “in an effort to effectuate arrests,” the department said.
The lawsuit alleges Officers Guigar, Watkins, Muczynski, Viars, Wolowiec, and Westerlund forced their way into the home without warning, explanation, or a warrant. The complaint says Willie and Sandra Hall had committed no crime but were arrested “based only on their race.”
Warren police responded that officers encountered “active and physical interference” from Willie and Sandra Hall, who the department said tried to prevent officers from taking the fleeing suspects into custody. Police said the Halls were arrested because they physically interfered with officers’ attempts to make arrests.
According to the lawsuit, officers used pepper spray, painful restraint tactics, profanity-laced threats, and other unnecessary force against the couple, injuring and terrorizing them while their minor daughter, Brielle, watched.
The next day, Warren Detective Cpl. Steven Reed swore to a felony complaint accusing the Halls of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing an officer, according to the lawsuit. The complaint alleges arrest warrants were issued based on fraudulent misrepresentations to a magistrate. The charges were dismissed Nov. 12, 2024, when prosecutors dismissed the case, according to the lawsuit.
Warren police said the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office reviewed the incident and authorized felony resisting and obstructing charges against Willie and Sandra Hall. The department said it “had no involvement in the prosecution that followed.”
Like the Detroit lawsuit, the Warren complaint alleges Fourth Amendment violations, excessive force, unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution, and municipal liability. It accuses Warren of failing to train officers on warrantless home entries and the use of force against residents or bystanders.
Both lawsuits note police generally need a warrant or a legally recognized exception before entering a home. The Detroit complaint says “the physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.”
The lawsuits ask for compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, costs, and other relief. Both also demand jury trials.
Warren police said they would not comment further because of the pending litigation but “welcome the opportunity to more fully present our side of the story as the judicial process moves forward.”
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