Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.After bursting into the diagnostics center in October last year, the SWAT team found only offices, a single employee and medical devices, including a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, a diagnostic tool that uses high-powered magnets to create detailed scans of a patient's body.

Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.

The owners of the facility are claiming damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for an operation their lawyers describe as “nothing short of a disorganized circus.”

Their lawsuit details how a SWAT team swarmed Noho Diagnostic Center after the squad’s leader persuaded a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his “twelve hours of narcotics training” and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

“Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment – unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children’s merchandise,” the suit said.

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  • jonne@infosec.pub
    163·
    3 months ago

    Yeah, good point. A judge signed a warrant on just ‘this place uses more electricity than others’? The court system’s just a rubber stamp at this stage.

    • wagesj45@fedia.io
      133·
      3 months ago

      Don’t forget the “distinct odor” lol. That just says to me that the cops lied through their teeth to get the warrant.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
        17·
        3 months ago

        It may very well have been true because cancer patients get CT scans but that just goes to show how a smell shouldn’t be justification for a fucking raid.

      • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
        351·
        3 months ago

        the ‘odor’ was probably just ‘clean’, and mr copper doesn’t know what ‘clean’ smells like so it just had to be something super illegal.

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
          33·
          3 months ago

          Nah, they don’t get the benefit of the doubt anymore. “I smelled weed” has been used for decades to skirt probable cause requirements. Because it’s transient evidence that can’t be saved or replicated, and you can’t prove that they’re lying. You can be 100% clean, but a cop claims he smelled weed and now your car’s interior paneling is getting ripped out on the side of the highway.

          The cop lied to get the search approved. No more, no less.