ATLANTA — A relative of a 92-year-old woman killed in police raid in Atlanta on Friday asked a federal judge to sanction the city for withholding documents in a wrongful death lawsuit.
"Such evasion and misconduct makes a mockery of the truth-finding process that is at the heart of the judicial system and must be severely punished," said Kathryn Johnston's niece, Sarah Dozier, in a motion.
Acting city attorney Roger Bhadari told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the city is reviewing the motion and "will respond accordingly." He said the city has no further comment.
Dozier filed suit against the city and the police department in 2007 after Johnston was killed in 2006 by officers who banged down her door after obtaining an illegal, no-knock search warrant. After Johnston, who thought criminals were at the door, fired a shot, the narcotics officers shot back, killing her.
Three former city police officers were sentenced to prison in February for their roles in the incident.
Dozier's lawsuit says an Atlanta Police Department quota system let to Johnston's death. The suit claims narcotics officers lied on a search warrant to meet their arrest and warrant quotas.
The family's lawyers have asked police to turn over any documents about the quota system. The department has said none exist and Chief Richard Pennington said in pretrial testimony that they didn't exist, according to the motion.
But the motion says Dozier's lawyers got copies of documents that prove the quota existed from Sgt. Scott Kreher, the head of an Atlanta police union, who got the documents from anonymous sources. And officers verified their authenticity in pretrial testimony, the motion says.
The motion asks Senior U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob to enter a default judgment. That means no trial would be necessary to determine whether the Atlanta Police Department was liable in Johnston's death, and it would simply be a matter of figuring out how much the city would pay in damages, the Journal-Constitution reported.
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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
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<img src="http://valdosta.sgaonline.com/headlines/9.gif"/> Niece of woman killed in raid wants city to pay
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