Can You Sue the Police for Sending an Officer in Response to a 911 Call
Minnesota
Is it a civil rights violation for the 911 people not to keep things private between you and them upon request?
Last month the LL said he was going to fill the other side of the basement where I live with large quanties of freshly chopped and split firewood. I found nothing good on google about doing such a thing.
There are no police in this town so I called 911 and briefly told the dispatcher about the firewood situation, with emphasis I said "do not send an officer and to have someone call me back, if an officer was sent here I would surely be evicted by my LL".
I know about statute 504b.205
A sheriff arived here!
When I seen him coming up the driveway I wrote up a repair order asking that the LL fix the AC outlets and puts screens over the windows downstairs where I live.
My landlord seen him coming up the long driveway, and came outside where I was waiting for a return call.
I quietly told the sheriff that he was supposed to call me and told him to call me back when he leaves, I said I am going to be evicted now for sure.
I thanked him & he went back to his car. My LL went to his window and inquired about how he would go about evicting me. The sheriff left, the landlord came to my window and said he is evicting me.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
What do you expect to happen when you use an EMERGENCY number for a NON-emergency. 911 is for emergencies. You're lucky you weren't charged with abuse of the 911 system. You have no expectation of confidentiality. A sheriff's deputy was dispatched to see what the problem was. Most police/fire/EMS departments don't have the luxury of picking and choosing calls to respond to :rolleyes:
Has your landlord served you with eviction papers yet? I suspect there is a lot more to this story.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
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mydefenseplease
Is it a civil rights violation for the 911 people not to keep things private between you and them upon request?
No, it is not. Calls to 911 are not private (think of the various 911 tapes that have been released by the media in sensational cases, for example). The Sheriff was not required to honor your request to call before investigating your complaint. Moreover, you called an emergency number for something that was not an emergency nor even a crime. Might have violated building codes rules, but the Sheriff doesn’t enforce those.
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mydefenseplease
Assuming that your call here is covered by this statute, it gives you a remedy to sue to the landlord for $250 or the actual damages you suffer, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees. It might also give you a defense to the eviction if the landlord uses your call for police assistance as the reason for eviction. But if the landlord has other grounds for eviction, that statute won’t help you with the eviction.
I too suspect there is much more to this story than you have told us here. Few landlords are going to evict a tenant because the landlord sees a sheriff in the driveway talking with the tenant without something more going on.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
Yes there is a WHOLE lot more to this!, the fact is is that this is the 2nd place I signed up at to get some help/tips on what I can do...
The first place had a 1200 character limit so I have spend the last bit of time deciding how I break this up into slices towards each topic.
I have been through eviction court already... MN statutes 504B.205 dissalows retaliation evictions, this is where the malpractice comes in. I have till sept 1st to get out of here where I should be getting 90 days after my repair orders.. if the Landlord can prove a real reason.
Where I am at, especially since there are no police, yet still where I am at it is allowed that we can call 911 for nonemergencie situations.
And from what the sheriff's reports that were emailed to me say, the sheriff was not dispatched for some firewood problem., he was dispatched for a theft situation which was not what the call was for.. it seems they never documented stuff and "on the fly" created the documents or logs yet were confused. They had even said they see nothing on file, then they were like "oh wait, let us put this together" Over the phone with me
They ("legal aid") have exiled me from their corrupt system they run, their guy that runs it is also the guy on the professional lawyer responsibilities board, typical around here.
This case also involves attorney malpractice, which is was I was working on for my next post in THAT area.
This wacko landlord, the other nite, says he wants me to stay... says he will goto court and "remove" whatever he has done... says he does not want me to go homeless, to which I replied "What? and go through another winter with no heat here?, no way!"
I think I will paste it all, yet please understand I must return to packing, while tommorow monday comes I can return to calling new places to live.. If it is all cool here, I would like to move on as I said, and continue this in suites when I am outa here..
Another thing, the other nite the landlord says how the owner here is big.. a multimilionaire (and he probably is, I do not want to reveal how, in fact unfortunately one of the few places that seem opportune to move to are still in this county and I would be living in fear from the law).. he says if I continue the cops are gonna arrest me and throw me in jail.. and I think they would because of all the corruption around here.
Another thing.. I sued another departments cops in this county umpteen years ago and I bet red flags go up when my name is entered.....!
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
Q4P.
Something is in the water, it seems.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
paste!
Is this malpractice from the attorney that was supposed to represent me?
Is there anything I can do about the 911/dispatcher essentially getting me evicted?
How do I get the tapes of my 911 call before they delete them if not already?
I have had several issues:
Back in March I found a room for rent on craigslist and moved into the basement level of a house in xxxx Minnesota. (I am spilling so many beans, "they" may surely figure out where this is coming from)
There have been many issues, no heat, non functioning electrical outlets with exposed wiring on some, my "private entrance"'s doorknob does not work properly and being a major struggle to get out or in, on the first night the landlord said he would replace it - also I expressed the need to be locking the house up. Since then it has not been fixed, I have no key and it has been a fulltime unlocked doors situation, to the point of where I moved some valuables to a friends place for safe keeping.
no smoke detectors.
no handrails.. lots more...
Lots more and I will probably not get to every one.
Last month the landlord said he was going to fill the other side of the basement with large quanties of freshly chopped and split firewood. As I suspected, I found nothing good on google about doing such a thing.
There are no police in this town, it is a small township - so I called 911 and briefly told the dispatcher about the firewood situation and with emphasis said "do not send an officer and to have someone call me back, I said if an officer was sent here I would surely be evicted by this landlord".
I know about Minnesota statute 504b.205
A sheriff arrived here! and when I seen him coming up the driveway I quickly wrote up a repair order asking that he the landlord fix the AC outlets downstairs and puts screens over the windows downstairs.
My landlord seen him coming up the driveway and came outside near to where I was sitting.
So as not to be heard by the landlord I quietly told the sheriff that he was supposed to call me and told him to call me back when he leaves and I said I am going to be evicted now for sure.
We went behind my van and I faked some concerns about being pulled over and it was something to do with my tail-lights.. He added that I should remove that section of the dealers plate cover that covers the 10,000 lakes on my license plate as I could be pulled over and ticketed. I thanked him and he went back to his car. My landlord went to his window and inquired about how he would go about evicting me. The sheriff drove off, the landlord came to my window and said he was going to evict me, I handed him my signed and dated repair order.
I had been getting advice on filing an escrow or abatement case against the landlord. I was planning on doing so as soon as I found another place to move to. This unexpected mistake by the 911 people forced me into immediate action and now I have one more week to find somewhere to live.
The next day, sunday the 17th of july I cooked some chicken downstairs in my electric frying pan, things got a little smokey and I found that I could not even open any of the windows downstairs, disreguarding whether there was a screen in place like I had asked to be fixed in my order the day before. There has been a horrible insect problem here and I wanted screens and had confronted my landlord at one point to stop leaving doors and windows wide open.
The landlord shut the electricity to the house off at the pole, which also leaves me with no water and took off in his truck. I called 911 and when a sheriff called me back I described what had happened and expressed that it was illegal and a crime to which he concurred and said he would be right over. While waiting I was eating my chicken, it was a bit burnt and when done with it I went to brush my teeth and had to rinse my mouth out with pepsi as I discovered the electrically pumped water is now gone.
About 4 hours later, it is now dark out and I am still waiting, the landlord pulls in with two squads behind him, a sheriff and a seargeant. There was a discussion amongst us and they said they were not going to charge him for the crime because he had came back and restored the power.
The next day, monday the 18th, I am served an eviction paper to goto court the following monday the 25th, I asked the person that served me who am I to talk to about issues with this house and was told that the person would be his father, I asked who he was and he said his name, the owners son, as he was walking away he said he would return in a few days and give me the details on contacting his father.
I know about disclosure and there was none 504B.181
This same day I was served, monday july 18th I called "legal aid" and described what happened, at 7:30pm I get a call from one of their attorneys, she asked me to sent pictures of he eviction papers, I did this. She emailed me on tuesday a thank you and said that she would look into this and be getting back to me, tuesday, or wednesday I had the sheriffs report on this incident sent to my email, I sent that to her also.. over the week I emailed her back asking her for response, I also called her "legal aid" agency and tried to talk to her 3 or 4 times, finally it is friday near the end of the day and I am calling and transfered to her voice mail and I stated that the week is done, no communication, why?! and with emphasis: "it is not like I can try to call you on monday, no!, monday I am to be in court!"
I call "legal aid" back about 15 minutes later and am told that another attorney is representing me... one who I would not even want to talk to.. why? Earlier at the last place I rented I had a landlord come at me with a knife and had a recording of this, I had drove to "legal aid"'s office and showed them my printed up evidence of his stalking me via text messaging (over 200 messages) and played the recording, the attorney I was before asked if he could go play it for his boss, when he came back he said something like "This is good evidence but yet, we still do not want to help you with this".
That landlord, from what I can tell from court records had received a felony terroristic threats charge from another renter of his earlier.... When I had called "legal aid" back after this and wanted some explanation as to why they did not help with such a matter I was refered to this attorney now who they say is going to be representing me on the following monday.. I had bad vibes, wondered if this was a setup or if she even was going to be in court "for me"..
There is so much wrong with this case.. to where the landlord should loose.. The sheriff's report states that he is also a renter, while he had told me that he owns the house and pays mortgage on it. No disclosure, the utilities.. the final repair order has around 15 things on it and I am not sure if I will get to that here.
So, I am transfered to "my attorney" and she said we are going to get this thrown out of court, we spoke for one minute.
Monday, the 25th of july, court day:
I am in the waiting room and she/the attorney "for me" enters, I am filling out the answer to an eviction in the back of the attorney generals tenant/landlord pamphlet, I ask if I should continue filling it out and she says we won't even need it. She asks if my LL is in the courtroom and I described him.
She leaves and returns and now is my enemy. At one point she asked if I would pay his eviction costs and be out at the end of august, I said "NO!, I have rights! whats going on?" she leaves to go talk to the LL.. she had left about 4 times to talk to him.. she came back the second time or so and is wanting me to agree that I pay no rent and be out september first, I told her NO! five times in total.. she said I was a squatter, said I manufactured all of this, said I was picking on a 22 year old, my LL. I said fine, I will just go after the owner, she says "Then the court will look at you like you are picking on a 95+ year old man" I said "what about me, in the middle?!" she had been doing this whenver I said NO!, she puts her head down on the table and pleads with me "Come on! they are waiting for us!", Again I say NO!, she'd say "they always side with the landlord anyway", "They dont like these wishy washy tenant landlord cases" upon her refusing my rights and my "NO"'s she'd be putting her head down, looking sleepy.
What was I supposed to do?
At another time she said "you wont have to drive back here again!" Oh really I thought... so, I signed her paper at her demand, forfeited my rights, had no idea about my rights that I learned about later, where I cannot introduce NEW evidence if I were to appeal this later and at LEAST at this point where I accepted this bogus deal - I could had mentioned many many things, therefore allowing them to be brought out in appeal - OR MAYBE the judge would had refused to allow me to go with what was "offered".
Do I have a strong enough case to go after a "Legal Aid" outfit for unfortunate people and either sue that attorney individually or sue the Firm itself?
I looked it up and the firm is insured for malpractice suites.
Tommorow I go check out if all goes as planned, a real apartment, I have been at craigslist 'rooms for rent' for the last year, ALL were major problems, 3/4 of them were landlords with felons, assault felons. this guy now is not one and was actually pretty nice three nights ago when we talked, we had pretty much not talked at all since I moved in here, when I'd say hello how you doing this morning them first few days and got no reply I just decided, fine, he dont want to be friends, I will try to make the best of this here. yet things kept on happening to where I felt he was trying to drive me out. the no heat mainly, that along with wide opened doors as he goes to work while there is snow on the ground still!!.
I had served this multimilionaire on his property with my repair order about a week ago, this order is much larger than the first one which specifies two things, the first repair order was expired before the court date and that legal agency is trying to keep me from easily enforcing it, I think when they learned who I or they were up against they decided to back out (at court when they met the landlord and the home owners son)
another thing... how do I now, get a court order that the first repair order be enacted upon?
statute 504B.391 shows some fines for court ordered repair orders that are not completed.
I Could really used the money from the illegal lockouts.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
Your post is rambling and confusing. It sounds to me like you have found a piece of the law that you think you can exploit for cash while avoiding eviction.
You need to work with your Legal Aid attorneys- if you haven't already told them you intend to sue them. Oh yeah, and you're suing 911 dispatch, too, right? Almost forgot. That's a lot of suing you have to do.
When did the judge say you had to be out? Do you understand why you might be painting yourself into a corner?
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
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geek
Your post is rambling and confusing.
Yes I realize this. I really wish that the legal aid people had gave me real help from the beginning, where the landlord was stalking me, had came at me with a knife, was throwing my food and property into a pile in the garage in mid-winter, hiding my applications for places to move to that had came in the mail and when it was all done and I was out, not accepting my rent payment by check (wanted cash only) I then later learn he had taken my SSI Review form that had came for me in the mail and wrote that I do not live there on it and stuck it back into the mailbox, he did this well before any court date even while I DID live there and I am very lucky I caught this in time to give them what they wanted.
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geek
It sounds to me like you have found a piece of the law that you think you can exploit for cash while avoiding eviction.
More than one piece. It just so happens that I studied the laws and learned what rights I have and also learned that I could be monetarily compensated for violations of the laws.
Yes I want to avoid eviction or delay it. I have the right to avoid illegal evictions. It is not easy or quick to find a place to move to in my situation.
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geek
You need to work with your Legal Aid attorneys- if you haven't already told them you intend to sue them.
The bottom line with Legal Aid was told to me twice. At one point they said that they really only want to help families. Later another one of them said they do not help individuals.
During the whole experience with them I was stalled along to the very last minute before court date almost. The lady in court for me had no idea what was going on with my case, she had said that she had not even read the sheriff's report that I had sent to their other attorney who never returned anything more communication than an emailed "thank you for sending the forms, I will investigate this and get back with you". I have tried to learn what happened to her representation and again I get no answer from them.
The last conversation on the phone with them was with somebody who I had never talked to and I wrote down his name when I asked him who he was. I had asked him if he feels this is malpractice.
I looked him up and discovered he is on that board you report bad attorneys to.
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geek
Oh yeah, and you're suing 911 dispatch, too, right? Almost forgot. That's a lot of suing you have to do.
I do not have a means to learn how things are dealt with in 911 cases such as this at this point and that is why I have came here with these questions.
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geek
When did the judge say you had to be out? Do you understand why you might be painting yourself into a corner?
As I stated, I was forced to "agree" to be out by september 1st.. Though now it seems that the landlord is feeling this is not right and says he will even remove what he initiated and payed for.
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geek
When did the judge say you had to be out? Do you understand why you might be painting yourself into a corner?
As I stated, I have till September first.
Painting? I am not sure I am understanding this phrase and/or how it may apply to my situation.
The rent escrow thing which was confusing and seemed unjust - I now understand after finding a Fritz case with 7 tennants who were witholding their rent in the 70's and the authorities had to impliment the provision for tenants to have some "equal" rights also. I admit I was wrong when I refused to put my money in escrow with the guy that pulled a knife on me.. Even after he refused my payment by check.
Please do not turn against me (I get this feeling from the 'tone' of your reply) I have studied the laws and followed them.
In all actuality, when I learn on the 25th of july that I have till september 1st to find a place, it almost means that I have to find a place by August 1st, when most places starte a rental period and I would have somewhere to move my stuff into. Some provision must be entered into law to fix this situation. That attorney who was supposed to be helping me should had asked for a few weeks into September and I had asked her why she did not work that into our deal, I had said to her that she must be familiar with these situations and should had. I got no reply on that subject. When she had turned 180 on me I was foggy, lost, confused and totally unprepaired for this change. Remember, she said we were going to get this thrown out of court. I now wish I told her to go away and went before the judge myself.
Another thing, during the week leading up to the court case I was getting no communication from their agency, other than transfered calls to voice mails. Anybody outside of them where I would try to get advice had shut me off when they learned I am already "being" represented.. Even an attorney I may had hired said he would need to see a document stating they were out of my case. And I got no answer from this legal aid agency on "if you are not responding to me then I need to fire you and described what I just typed, I said "then now, how do I fire you if this is the new situtation" in reply I heard essentially something like "wait till she calls you back. I am transfering your call to her voicemail"
I may not know it all, I feel this is malpractice though.
I will not edit something on a forum where I am asking legal advice, therefore I will repaste what I said in the first paragraph and omit something that was confusing and out of place:
edited:
Yes I realize this. I really wish that the legal aid people had gave me real help from the beginning, where the landlord was stalking me, had came at me with a knife, was throwing my food and property into a pile in the garage in mid-winter, hiding my applications for places to move to that had came in the mail and when it was all done and I was out, I then later learn he had taken my SSI Review form that had came for me in the mail and wrote that I do not live there on it and stuck it back into the mailbox, he did this well before any court date even while I DID live there and I am very lucky I caught this in time to give them what they wanted.
Re: Can I Sue 911 Send Sheriff Rather Than Calling Me Like I Asked, Now I Am Evicted
Your LL threatened you with a knife and you didn't move out immediately? And in addition, you want to stay there beyond your eviction date? Wut?