(Daily Mail) A former Georgia deputy sheriff was indicted yesterday on federal charges over a ‘no-knock’ drug raid that left a toddler with horrific injuries when a flash grenade exploded in his playpen.
Nikki Autry, 29, has been charged with making false statements to obtain a search warrant for the Habersham County home that agents stormed with disastrous consequences in May 2014.
During the raid, a SWAT team member tossed a flash-bang grenade into the property after finding that the front door was blocked.
Once inside the home, the team realized a portable playpen had been blocking the door – and the grenade had landed where a 19-month-old was sleeping, exploding on the child’s pillow.
The explosion blew baby Bounkham Phonesavanh’s chest and face open and left him with severe burns. He continues to require medical care for his injuries.
The Phonesavanh family – parents Alecia and Boun Khan, their son and three young daughters – were staying with relatives at the time of the raid because their home in Wisconsin had recently burned down.
Police did not allow the Phonesavanhs to see their son – nicknamed Bou Bou – who was carried from the home by an officer and taken to hospital.
He was placed in a medically induced coma in Grady Memorial Hospital’s burn unit and has needed at least ten surgeries since.
His mother said in March this year: ‘His nerve endings are dead around his mouth and chest, so they will not be able to properly develop as they are supposed to, so they will have to go in and do stretching and grafts.’
Former Habersham County Deputy Nikki Autry, who arranged the botched SWAT raid, is also being charged with providing false information to obtain an arrest warrant.
The federal indictment says the raid should not have happened.
‘Without her false statements, there was no probable cause to search the premises for drugs or to make the arrests,’ said acting U.S. Attorney John Horn in a statement.
‘In this case the consequences of the unlawful search were tragic.’
In October, a grand jury found the investigation that led to the raid was ‘hurried’ and ‘sloppy’ – but recommended no criminal charges to be brought against the officers involved.
But prosecutors now say that Autry, a 10-year department veteran, gave an affidavit to a Habersham County magistrate judge based on false information.
Autry, who resigned after the incident, told the judge that a reliable informant had bought drugs from someone standing outside the home the Phonesavanhs were staying in.
In the affidavit, Autry told the judge the informant had provided details in the past that led to criminal charges. (read more)