Lawsuit Claims Police Used Doll as Pretext to Illegally Enter Home
A Brooklyn Center woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a Brooklyn Center police officer, as well as two Minneapolis police officers and the city of Minneapolis for what she alleges was an illegal search of her home.
The lawsuit was filed by Brooklyn Center residents Yolanda Mays and her uncle Tommy Holmes.
“I feel like I was violated,” Mays told CCX News.
The lawsuit alleges that officers report a doll in the home as a “baby in distress” as a false pretext to enter and search the home.
Lawsuit Details
The lawsuit names Minneapolis police officers Andrew Schroeder and Mark Suchta, and the city of Minneapolis as defendants.
Brooklyn Center police officer Alan Salvosa was also named in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Schroeder and Suchta came to Mays’ Brooklyn Center home on March 21, 2023.
Police documents obtained by Mays’ attorney say the pair were investigating a homicide.
Mays’ ring camera captured video of the officers knocking on her door and looking at the mail in her mailbox.
They looked into May’s home through a window. A doll was sitting on a couch near the window.
The officers looked at the doll, saying it could either be a baby that had died or a doll.
Officers then allegedly contacted Brooklyn Center emergency services, reporting a potential baby in distress.
Salvosa responded to the call. He then kicked down May’s door, and officers searched the home.
Ring camera footage allegedly shows Brooklyn Center police officer Alan Salvosa kicking down Yolanda Mays’ door in March 2023. She’s claiming in a lawsuit that the following search of her home was illegal.
Alleged 4th Amendment Violations
Attorney Eric Rice, who is representing Mays, told CCX News that officers may have kicked down the wrong door.
“Our understanding based on records available is that officers were actually looking for a different home based on another investigation,” he said.
The doll also represents an important part of the case.
“The allegations are that the officers saw a baby doll on the couch, that any reasonable person would have known it was a baby doll, and they essentially used that as the pretext to get in the house,” Rice said.
Each of the officers is accused of committing an unlawful search and conspiracy to commit violations of Constitutional rights.
“The baby doll that the officers saw does not look like a real baby,” the lawsuit reads. “It would be obvious to any reasonable observer that it was a baby doll. The baby doll has stitching on joints, a plastic sheen, and is not particularly lifelike … officers used the observation of a baby as a pretext to gain entry into Mays’ home to conduct an illegal and unauthorized search.
The suit says that Mays and Holmes suffered ” invasion of privacy, property damage resulting due to the search, damages due to trauma and disruption, stigma and other harms resulting from the unlawful search and allegations.”
The suit does not claim any specific monetary damages.
Rather it asks for “a money judgment against the defendants, jointly and severally, in amount to be determined at trial for compensatory and other damages, including punitive damages against the individual defendants, together with costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees.”
Other Claims
The lawsuit makes several claims about Schroeder’s history as a police officer.
It states that he has “approximately twenty disciplinary matters listed since 2015. Upon information and belief, allegations include credible evidence that Schroeder has conducted unlawful searches or seizures based on false or pretextual information. Minneapolis has not taken measures to discipline Schroeder to effectively prevent constitutional violations of the type listed here.”
The city of Minneapolis is accused of civil rights violations for failing “to maintain an effective disciplinary system or adequate supervision to ensure that such misconduct did not occur.”
Police Response
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Center Police Department declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
