‘Thousands of Taxpayer Dollars Were Wasted’: Virginia Police Conducted ‘Military-Style’ Raid of 79-Year-Old Man’s Home After False Claim He Bought His Home with Drug Money, Lawsuit States
An elderly Virginia man is suing officers from his local police department for $500,000 after they authorized and conducted an “aggressive and militarized raid” on his home that they thought was the site of illicit drug activity.
William Jennings, a 79-year-old resident of Virginia Beach, filed a federal lawsuit against the city’s police chief and dozens of police officers involved in a raid on his home on Sept. 13, 2024.
According to the complaint obtained by Atlanta Black Star, Virginia Beach police obtained a warrant to search Jennings’ home on suspicion of alleged drug activity. The suit states that the probable cause for the warrant was based on a number of “jailhouse conversations between third parties” that authorities failed to corroborate or thoroughly investigate.
Jennings has no connection to any operations or activities connected to drug possession or distribution, according to the suit, yet law enforcement appeared to erroneously believed that he purchased his house with “drug money,” even though the 79-year-old stated he legally bought the home in 1979.
The suit states that on the day of the raid, “officers arrived in armored vehicles, police cruisers, and even police boats, approaching the property from both land and sea,” and “without warning, they launched a barrage of munitions, shattering windows and damaging property.”
At the time, Jennings was home with a guest. A dog that was also in the home was struck by one of the munitions officers’ launched, according to the suit. Jennings’ attorney told 13News Now that the dog suffered no permanent injuries.
Jennings was ordered over a bullhorn and at gunpoint to walk out of his home barefoot, the suit states. He walked over shattered glass, cutting his feet in the process, before being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle for hours as officers ransacked his home.
During the raid, law enforcement disabled external security cameras and destroyed furniture and more of his belongings in the search for nonexistent drugs. They seized electronics, financial documents, ledgers, containers, and lawfully possessed medications, but nothing connected to criminal activity of any kind.
No charges were filed against Jennings.
“The entire operation — waged against an elderly, non-criminal citizen with no
history of drug involvement — was an unconstitutional abuse of power, carried out without
reasonable suspicion or probable cause,” the suit reads. “Thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted on this military-style assault on an innocent man’s home.”
Jennings’ complaint alleges gross negligence, unlawful search and seizure, and unlawful arrest. It also claims the raid was an “unjustifiable show of force” that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his home.
For the violation of his constitutional rights and emotional and psychological distress, Jennings is requesting a half-million dollars and other relief to be determined by a jury trial.