PAY UP, NYPD ‘HOSTAGE-TAKERS’
SHE’LL SUE FOR $15M IN HOME RAID
AN OUTRAGED grandmother who says she was held hostage by cops inside her Brooklyn apartment for more than 10 hours is expected to file a $15 million notice of claim against the city, the Daily News has learned.
Rolinda Walls was awakened by heavy knocks on her door at about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 21.
The officers were looking for Walls’ 27-year-old daughter, Nakkia Ballinger, who was not at their home in Brownsville’s Van Dyke Houses.
“They asked to come in, I said sure — because I have nothing to hide,” Walls, 54, previously told the Daily News. “All of the sudden, I’m being held in my apartment all these hours and I don’t even know why. This was all illegal.”
The officers searched the apartment with her 10-year-old granddaughter, Nyasia Gowins, and her 14-year-old daughter, Ajanayah Bourdeau, inside.
During their search, the officers found a credit card duplicator and marijuana joints in the bedroom of Walls’ 24-year-old son.
Walls was threatened with arrest if her son did not come home, the mother said.
When Walls couldn’t get in touch with her son by telephone, the officers made themselves at home — and refused to let Walls leave. Walls and her daughter were not allowed to sleep in their own beds all night, she said.
“These officers felt free to invade the home of a law-abiding, hardworking woman and to terrorize her, her daughter and her granddaughter,” Walls’ attorney Rose Weber told The News. “That speaks volumes about the culture at NYPD: If you’re not white and affluent, you are fair game.”
Weber is expected to file two separate notices of claim on Tuesday, each the first step to filing a lawsuit. One of the claims is for Walls and her teen daughter Ajanayah, for $15 million, and the other, for $5 million, will be filed on behalf of her granddaughter and older daughter Ballinger.
The claims will seek compensatory and exemplary damages for false arrest, false imprisonment, violation of privacy and violation of civil rights.
When the cops finally changed shifts the next morning, the officers who took their place allowed Walls to leave the apartment to get food.
While outside, the officers handed her a summons for the marijuana in the apartment, and they left. Her marijuana case is still ongoing.
Police never questioned Walls’ 27-year-old daughter or her 24-year-old son, Walls says. “The matter is under internal review,” an NYPD spokesman told the Daily News after the incident.