Published June 19, 2006
SARAH OVERSTREET »
Raid on home turns up no meth lab but leaves two injured
Patricia Durr-Pojar has a gash beneath her right eye, with stitches and a bandage over it.
Her son, Curtis Pojar, has bruises on his back and a contusion under his left eye. Durr-Pojar spent Thursday and Friday nights in a local emergency room — first, to have the cut under her eye treated, for a CT scan of her head and X-rays on her knees. The next night she went back to get a knee splint and crutches.
"I've had lots of knee surgery, and they slammed me down so hard on my knees," she said.
"They" are members of COMET — the Combined Ozark Multi-Jurisdictional Enforcement Team — who broke into her home Thursday night to execute a search warrant for a reported meth lab.
They found none after breaking windows, doors and screens and knocking Durr-Pojar and Pojar to the floor and handcuffing both of them.
The warrant signed by Greene County Circuit Judge Mark Powell specified officers were to search for "controlled substances, in particular, methamphetamine, methamphetamine paraphernalia and other related items used in the manufacture and/or the distributing of controlled substances, in particular, methamphetamine."
Durr-Pojar said she believes the SWAT team arrived around 10 p.m., but said she isn't sure because of the time she was kept on her bathroom floor, not allowed to get up, "and I may have blacked out part of that time."
Despite officers breaking in and throwing items out of the second-story windows, the receipt of what officers took from the property listed nothing found in Durr-Pojar's home.
Found in Curtis Pojar's trailer — where he lives in front of his mother's house — and seized by officers were a .22 caliber pistol, "two bags of marijuana, marijuana pipe and roach clip, bag and bottle of marijuana seeds and bottle of marijuana."
Pojar was charged with possession of the items. He also was convicted in 1997 of possession of drug paraphernalia and received a suspended sentence and probation.
Durr-Pojar said she could not get any of the officers who broke into her house to tell her why they were there, except to berate her for risking her neighbor's safety by running a meth lab in her home.
Durr-Pojar said she saw at least one Missouri Highway Patrol vehicle and one from the Willard Fire Protection District among those gathered,
but a dispatcher with the patrol said Sunday that any information released would have to come from the agency the patrol was assisting at such an event.
Gary Wirth, Willard Fire Chief, said his agency only responded to the scene for a medical call.
Springfield Police could provide no information on the raid Sunday, but Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt was able to find out information about the raid and said COMET officers did acknowledge injuring Durr-Pojar.
He said officers had information leading them to think there may have been a meth lab at the home.
The resident said she and her son had just returned home when black-garbed officers with black masks started setting off explosives outside the house.
"A flash grenade went off," Pojar said. "We didn't know what it was, but they threw it at the back window. It sounded like a stick of dynamite went off."
Durr-Pojar said neither she nor her son heard any of the officers identify themselves before or as they were breaking in.
Pojar, who has no kitchen in his travel trailer, was in the kitchen of his mom's home when they came in. He ran toward her room, while she was headed to the bathroom.
"She was screaming and I didn't know what was going on," he said. "That's when they knocked her to the floor."
Durr-Pojar said she did run for her bathroom and closed her door. "I thought they were going to kill me. All this fire seemed to come through the windows. ... I didn't know if they were gun shots or what, and I thought Curtis had been shot or that the propane tank had blown up. I ran to the bathroom when I saw Curtis' head go down when the officers knocked him down. I closed the door, and they knocked it in and hit me in the head with it, then knocked me to the floor," said Durr-Pojar, who is on disability but works part-time making phone calls for a Springfield business.
Merritt said COMET officers "said they thought she was running from them, even though they were yelling at her to stop."
Durr-Pojar said her head wound came from her face hitting the ceramic tile of her bathroom floor. "They hit in here with such violence, it was in a militant, terrorist style." Mother and son both said an officer repeatedly jumped up and down on Pojar's back with his knee, despite their both calling out that Pojar had had back fusion surgery in March from a construction injury.
On Sunday morning, broken glass from the front storm door lay on the house's front porch, yard and in Durr-Pojar's bathroom, and broken screens and storm windows were strewn over the yard. A plastic bag full of latex gloves and black items lay on the yard, Durr-Pojar said, left by the officers. "I was afraid to touch it — I don't know what's in it."
She said she is afraid to clean the glass from her tub so she can take a bath, or clean up other glass and a dark brown puddle on her tile which she believes is her blood, because friends and family members encouraged her to see a lawyer and she wasn't able to contact one on the weekend.
Flies, other insects — and perhaps other critters — come and go into the house, while Durr-Pojar and her son wonder how they will secure it. "I don't have no way to fix it," she said. "OACAC (the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation) helped me winterize it and re-wire the electricity. But how do you think I'm going to replace my house?"
Indeed.
No law-abiding citizen can condone the thought of a meth lab. Its manufacture and sale brings danger to innocent people from users and their meth-madness, including the hazards of it blowing everyone near it to Kingdom Come.
But the brutality of this raid is terrifying. Durr-Pojar and her son said they did not hear officers warn them before breaking in.
And run from them? I've watched enough cop shows to know that in drug raids, people show up in black. But if they broke into my house unexpectedly among blazes and booms, would my first instinct be to run? You bet — run, jump, try to fly or drop and roll. I would probably think I was going to be killed, too.
And yes, the officers had to look at the items in a home where they suspected a meth lab.
But to throw things out a window, breaking them out and leaving them on the ground of a woman who obviously doesn't have money to replace them, wrestling her to the ground and holding her down so hard she needed stitches in her face?
What did that benefit their search?
I'd love to hear their answer.
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/COLUMNISTS17/606190353
SARAH OVERSTREET »
Raid on home turns up no meth lab but leaves two injured
Patricia Durr-Pojar has a gash beneath her right eye, with stitches and a bandage over it.
Her son, Curtis Pojar, has bruises on his back and a contusion under his left eye. Durr-Pojar spent Thursday and Friday nights in a local emergency room — first, to have the cut under her eye treated, for a CT scan of her head and X-rays on her knees. The next night she went back to get a knee splint and crutches.
"I've had lots of knee surgery, and they slammed me down so hard on my knees," she said.
"They" are members of COMET — the Combined Ozark Multi-Jurisdictional Enforcement Team — who broke into her home Thursday night to execute a search warrant for a reported meth lab.
They found none after breaking windows, doors and screens and knocking Durr-Pojar and Pojar to the floor and handcuffing both of them.
The warrant signed by Greene County Circuit Judge Mark Powell specified officers were to search for "controlled substances, in particular, methamphetamine, methamphetamine paraphernalia and other related items used in the manufacture and/or the distributing of controlled substances, in particular, methamphetamine."
Durr-Pojar said she believes the SWAT team arrived around 10 p.m., but said she isn't sure because of the time she was kept on her bathroom floor, not allowed to get up, "and I may have blacked out part of that time."
Despite officers breaking in and throwing items out of the second-story windows, the receipt of what officers took from the property listed nothing found in Durr-Pojar's home.
Found in Curtis Pojar's trailer — where he lives in front of his mother's house — and seized by officers were a .22 caliber pistol, "two bags of marijuana, marijuana pipe and roach clip, bag and bottle of marijuana seeds and bottle of marijuana."
Pojar was charged with possession of the items. He also was convicted in 1997 of possession of drug paraphernalia and received a suspended sentence and probation.
Durr-Pojar said she could not get any of the officers who broke into her house to tell her why they were there, except to berate her for risking her neighbor's safety by running a meth lab in her home.
Durr-Pojar said she saw at least one Missouri Highway Patrol vehicle and one from the Willard Fire Protection District among those gathered,
but a dispatcher with the patrol said Sunday that any information released would have to come from the agency the patrol was assisting at such an event.
Gary Wirth, Willard Fire Chief, said his agency only responded to the scene for a medical call.
Springfield Police could provide no information on the raid Sunday, but Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt was able to find out information about the raid and said COMET officers did acknowledge injuring Durr-Pojar.
He said officers had information leading them to think there may have been a meth lab at the home.
The resident said she and her son had just returned home when black-garbed officers with black masks started setting off explosives outside the house.
"A flash grenade went off," Pojar said. "We didn't know what it was, but they threw it at the back window. It sounded like a stick of dynamite went off."
Durr-Pojar said neither she nor her son heard any of the officers identify themselves before or as they were breaking in.
Pojar, who has no kitchen in his travel trailer, was in the kitchen of his mom's home when they came in. He ran toward her room, while she was headed to the bathroom.
"She was screaming and I didn't know what was going on," he said. "That's when they knocked her to the floor."
Durr-Pojar said she did run for her bathroom and closed her door. "I thought they were going to kill me. All this fire seemed to come through the windows. ... I didn't know if they were gun shots or what, and I thought Curtis had been shot or that the propane tank had blown up. I ran to the bathroom when I saw Curtis' head go down when the officers knocked him down. I closed the door, and they knocked it in and hit me in the head with it, then knocked me to the floor," said Durr-Pojar, who is on disability but works part-time making phone calls for a Springfield business.
Merritt said COMET officers "said they thought she was running from them, even though they were yelling at her to stop."
Durr-Pojar said her head wound came from her face hitting the ceramic tile of her bathroom floor. "They hit in here with such violence, it was in a militant, terrorist style." Mother and son both said an officer repeatedly jumped up and down on Pojar's back with his knee, despite their both calling out that Pojar had had back fusion surgery in March from a construction injury.
On Sunday morning, broken glass from the front storm door lay on the house's front porch, yard and in Durr-Pojar's bathroom, and broken screens and storm windows were strewn over the yard. A plastic bag full of latex gloves and black items lay on the yard, Durr-Pojar said, left by the officers. "I was afraid to touch it — I don't know what's in it."
She said she is afraid to clean the glass from her tub so she can take a bath, or clean up other glass and a dark brown puddle on her tile which she believes is her blood, because friends and family members encouraged her to see a lawyer and she wasn't able to contact one on the weekend.
Flies, other insects — and perhaps other critters — come and go into the house, while Durr-Pojar and her son wonder how they will secure it. "I don't have no way to fix it," she said. "OACAC (the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation) helped me winterize it and re-wire the electricity. But how do you think I'm going to replace my house?"
Indeed.
No law-abiding citizen can condone the thought of a meth lab. Its manufacture and sale brings danger to innocent people from users and their meth-madness, including the hazards of it blowing everyone near it to Kingdom Come.
But the brutality of this raid is terrifying. Durr-Pojar and her son said they did not hear officers warn them before breaking in.
And run from them? I've watched enough cop shows to know that in drug raids, people show up in black. But if they broke into my house unexpectedly among blazes and booms, would my first instinct be to run? You bet — run, jump, try to fly or drop and roll. I would probably think I was going to be killed, too.
And yes, the officers had to look at the items in a home where they suspected a meth lab.
But to throw things out a window, breaking them out and leaving them on the ground of a woman who obviously doesn't have money to replace them, wrestling her to the ground and holding her down so hard she needed stitches in her face?
What did that benefit their search?
I'd love to hear their answer.
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060619/COLUMNISTS17/606190353
