An Illinois family has filed a lawsuit against state officials after police officers executed a wrong-door raid. During the raid, the family says they were illegally detained for over six hours despite their pleas to officers that they had the wrong home.

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed last Wednesday and represents 62-year-old Adela Carrasco of Joliet, Illinois, and her family. Carrasco, who is disabled, suffers from asthma, and uses a walker to move around, says that in November 2021, armed officers with the Joliet police department entered her home to execute a search warrant. However, the search warrant was intended for the residence next door. At the time, Carrasco was home with her four grandchildren, ages 10, 12, 13, and 14.

Despite asking the officers to show her a warrant for their search, Carrasco says that officers ignored her pleas and instead pointed their guns at her and her grandchildren.

Under state law, and indeed under the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, police officers can only search the address of a home on a search warrant. Search warrants must indicate who and where the search is intended for. If a search is executed in a manner that does not fit the warrant, the search becomes illegal, and any fruits of that raid become inadmissible in court.

Ring camera footage of the raid shows officers approaching Carrasco’s home to execute the raid instead of the home next door, where the search warrant was intended. Attorneys representing the family say that even after officers realized that they were at the wrong home and they had arrested the target of the warrant in the home next door, they continued their search. In continuing with the search, Carrasco and her family remained detained for over six hours.

After unlawfully searching her home, the lawsuit alleges that police officers would go on to file misleading and incomplete reports in order to cover up their actions. Additionally, the lawsuit says that for over a year, the police department refused to provide the family or the law firm with body camera footage of the raid.

Zach Hofeld, an attorney for the family, shared during a press conference, "This is unacceptable behavior towards young children and an elderly, disabled woman, regardless of the circumstances." Hofeld adds, "There is a modicum of decency and reasonableness with which police must treat the elderly and children. The psychological injuries they suffered as the result of officers' misconduct are profound and will remain with them for the rest of their lives."

The execution of the raid was in connection to a Halloween night shooting that happened two days prior. An investigation into the shooting led officers to 18-year-old Elian Raya, one of Carrasco’s grandsons. However, Raya's listed address on the search warrant was the unit next door at 226 South Comstock. Carrasco lived at 228 South Comstock.

During the search in Carrasco’s home, the grandmother shared that officers flipped mattresses, cut open couch cushions, dumped drawers, and destroyed her home during the unlawful search.

Officials later shared that nothing came out of Raya’s arrest. Three suspects were eventually arrested in connection to the Halloween shooting. The suspects were not related to Raya or Carrasco.

The search on Carrasco’s home is not the first time a heavily criticized search in the Chicago area has been reported on. In 2018, the city agreed to a $2.5 million settlement in a civil lawsuit brought forward by a Chicago family who said the Chicago Police Department unlawfully stormed their home and pointed a gun at a three-year-old child.

In 2020, Chicago Police made national headlines after police stormed into the home of a woman who was naked to conduct a search. Their search, however, was conducted on the wrong home. The city also resolved that case in a $2.9 million settlement.

Given the nearby city’s history, Hofeld maintains that the local police department should have known better.

"We are dealing with entering the wrong residence, we believe intentionally, and if it was not intentional, it was willful and wanton recklessness," Hofeld said.

The family is seeking unspecified damages, including damages for the family’s mental pain, suffering, and ongoing severe emotional distress. The Joliet Police Department has not shared a comment on the lawsuit.