Army reservist sues District of Columbia for allegedly vandalizing his home after calling a suicide hotline

By Madison Ruppert

On February 2, 2010, a depressed Army Reservist, Matthew Corrigan, called what he thought was the “Military’s emotional Support Hotline” because he was feeling depressed and had gone without sleep for several days, according to the complaint recently filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

It turns out that Corrigan actually called the National Suicide Hotline and when asked, said that he was indeed a veteran and had firearms, although he said nothing about being suicidal, using a firearm or threatening anyone, according to the complaint.

After a short conversation, Corrigan hung up, turned his phone off and then took his prescribed sleeping medication and went to sleep.

Then, around 4 AM Corrigan heard his name being shouted over a bullhorn and saw floodlights outside both his front and back doors. Corrigan estimated eight police officers in his back yard and 20 in the front.

Corrigan then reportedly turned his phone back on and discovered that the 5^th District’s Officer Fischer was calling him and asking him to come outside.

Around 4:50 AM Corrigan exited his home and locked the door behind him, after which he was handcuffed and placed in the rear of a SWAT vehicle.

Officer John Doe I (who is identified “upon information and belief” as Lieutenant Robert Glover in the complaint) asked Corrigan to hand over the keys to his apartment, after which Corrigan said, “There is no way I am giving you consent to enter my place.”

Officer John Doe I then replied, “I don’t have time to play this constitutional bullshit!”

Officer John Doe I then ordered Officers John Does II-V (all members of the Emergency Response Team) to enter Corrigan’s apartment, apparently without the consent of Corrigan.

Corrigan says that police then transported him to a VA hospital after which they broke down his front door and entered his apartment without a search warrant or his permission.

Once inside they allegedly confiscated all of Corrigan’s firearms, vandalized his home, took his dog to an animal shelter and even allegedly killed all of his tropical fish.

“Although the officers had no information that there were explosives in Corrigan’s home and the home had been secured, John Does VI-X, the Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team, entered Corrigan’s home without a warrant and searched for explosives,” the complaint says. “The EOD team opened closed containers and used X-ray equipment to search closed containers.”

The complaint continues to say that after the initial warrantless search, the EOD team came back with a dog in order to search for firearms. During the course of the search John Does II-XV reportedly seized three firearms and ammunition.

The weapons taken included an unloaded and trigger-locked rifle in a locked hard-side case under his bed, a pistol placed in a hard case inside a drawer in his closet, and an additional handgun in a zipped bag on a shelf at the bottom of a clothes rack with pillows and blankets on top of and next to the bag.

Corrigan’s ammunition was stored partly in a sealed plastic crate and in the original boxes in a milk crate stored under a sleeping bag in a utility closet.

The police reportedly took the locked cases, leaving the broken latches behind and even broke Corrigan’s eyeglasses and left them in a corner.

Corrigan then had to spend three days in the VA hospital because he said “having weapons pointed at him upon leaving his apartment triggered his PTSD hyper-vigilance and caused irregular heartbeat.”

Corrigan was determined not to be a suicide risk and released from the hospital, after which Corrigan says police arrested him and threw him in jail where he stayed for some 16 days.

The scene Corrigan returned home to was far from pretty, with the front door unlocked and unsecured, the electric stove left on, every zipped bag cut open, every box and drawer dumped on the floor, broken locked boxes, shelves emptied into piles on the floor, and all of his dead fish.

Corrigan, represented by Richard E. Gardiner of Fairfax, Virginia, is seeking no less than $500,000 in compensatory damages along with “such other and further relief as may be proper” along with his attorney fees and costs.

Corrigan says that the defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights and if his allegations are true then I think he has a very solid case so long as he is able to get a fair trial.

The notion that our veterans are treated in such a way is outright alarming. These men and women put their lives on the line often genuinely thinking they are fighting for our freedom and safety, then when they have emotional problems due to the horrors of war they are treated as dangerous criminals.

There are also the troubling implications this case has in terms of how individuals who might be depressed and/or suicidal and seeking help are treated by the so-called authorities.

If people see cases like this and think that they’ll be thrown in prison and their houses ransacked simply for seeking some help, what are the chances that people will actually seek out help for their mental health issues?

Unfortunately, the United States has become a police state in which individuals in law enforcement are often subjected to a different set of laws. This has the disastrous effect of allowing police to literally get away with murder and indiscriminately beat people with no accountability whatsoever so Corrigan’s chances of getting the fair trial he deserves are not quite as large as I’d like.

However, we can still hope that these officers will be held accountable for their actions, because if all of what Corrigan alleges is true, the events which transpired over two years ago are nothing short of disturbing.

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Mark February 8, 2012 at 12:38 AM

this is how we treat people who give up their lives in the name of America? good going pigs
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tas February 10, 2012 at 8:27 PM

has the us lost the plot ,in our country service men are treated with the respect they deserve ,are you living in a free country or a dictatorship of sorts .i feel very sorry for the people of the us it seems you have all been led down the wrong path ,hope things improve for you all soon,
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Ser Korz March 10, 2012 at 9:34 PM

The Declaration of Independence

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
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TripWire March 11, 2012 at 9:59 PM

The police should be held to a higher degree of conduct then the citizens they serve because they hold so much power. If these allegations are accurate then these officers should do time. Our country has got everything upside down and backwards. This is what happens when the police can do whatever they want to without fearing reprisals. I say, even if you aren’t guilty of anything and have contact with the police, don’t cooperate, resist peacefully and above all, know your rights.
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