In May of last year, 19-month-old Bounkham “Baby Bou Bou” Phonesavanh was asleep in his crib at 3:00 AM when a Habersham County SWAT team barged into the home where his family was staying because an informant had allegedly purchased $50 worth of methamphetamine from someone who once lived there.
In the raid, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the sleeping baby’s crib, exploding in his face.
Officer Nikki Autry, 29, a Habersham County sheriff’s deputy and a special agent with the Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team, had been accused of providing false information to obtain the warrant to raid the home.
She had reportedly claimed that a confidential informant “was able to purchase a quantity of methamphetamine from Wanis Thonetheva at Thonetheva’s residence,” which she identified as the house where the Phonesavanh family was staying.
Autry also asserted that she “confirmed that there are several individuals outside of the residence standing ‘guard.'”
All of her claims were later determined to be untrue, as meth was never purchased at the residence and there were never armed guards out front.
Autry was charged with three counts of violating the civil rights of the child, his parents and his siblings.
The officer’s defense argued that it was not her actions that lead to the incident, but rather a pattern of overzealous policing when serving search warrants, and that the blame lies within the system.
“There’s a pattern of excess in the ways search warrants are executed,” defense co-counsel Michael Trost said in his closing argument, AJC reported. “That’s what led to the injuries to this child.”
The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that she is an overzealous officer, and that the blame lies on her.
“If there had never been a search warrant Bou Bou would’ve never been injured,” US Attorney Bill McKinnon argued. “There’s a direct causation.”
The city has already settled with the family for $964,000, which is said to not even cover the child’s medical expenses to reconstruct the his face.
