U.S. District Judge Louise L. Flanagan on Friday told the Pender County Sheriff's Office to provide the names of officers involved in a raid on the residence of Alisa Carr, Avery Mitchell and their two kids as part of early discovery in a lawsuit alleging violations of North Carolina law and the U.S. Constitution.
"Though the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has not established a controlling test, courts in this district generally evaluate requests for expedited discovery under a reasonableness and good cause standard," Judge Flanagan said in the opinion. "Under this standard, courts in this district routinely permit early discovery into the identity of Doe defendants when, as here, the plaintiffs pursued such discovery diligently, and there would be no prejudice to any Doe defendant."
Attorneys for Pender County and the Pender County Sheriff's Office argued that because the names would be available during regular discovery, early discovery is unnecessary and may be used to obtain the names of officers not involved in the raid.
Judge Flanagan disagreed, however, finding that because the request for early discovery was limited and is a routine part of federal court proceedings, particularly at the outset of a case, the information should be turned over.
The couple claims that on an evening in April 2024, police from the Pender County Sheriff's Office and nearby Lee County Sheriff's Office busted through their front door and deployed flash-bang grenades inside their home while they were sleeping, according to their complaint filed in April of this year.
A SWAT team went into the home pointing military-grade weapons at the family and amid the fracas ordered Mitchell to lie on the ground with an officer standing on his back, exposing stitches from a recent back injury, the lawsuit said.
Carr was interrogated by police amid a cloud of smoke from the flash-bang grenade, with officers refusing to remove her from the home. Carr, who had suffered two previous heart attacks, told officers she believed she was having heart palpitations and was transported to a hospital once the investigation was concluded, the complaint said.
Police later told the family they were searching for a suspected carjacker who they thought was inside the home based on cellphone data that placed the suspect within 52 meters, the complaint said.
Officers, unable to confirm the specific address based on the cellphone data, observed Carr's vehicle in the driveway, a dark-colored SUV. The lawsuit claims that while Carr does drive an SUV, it is the wrong year and color and has a different license plate than the vehicle police suspected had been stolen.
The lawsuit claims that not only did police search the home without connecting it in any way to the carjacker, but there were five other homes within a 52-meter range — yet police chose not to raid the other homes.
The family requested that a federal judge allow for limited discovery in the case to identify several John Doe defendants including police officers with the two sheriff's offices involved in the raid.
Judge Flanagan said in Friday's order that while the Lee County Sheriff's Office had complied with the discovery request, Pender County had refused, telling the court materials would be made available as the case progresses and that conducting limited discovery is not necessary at this stage.
Marie Miller, representing the family, stressed in an email to Law360 that the order is limited in scope and seeks to name the officers involved in the investigation.
"This ruling grants a modest request to serve a single interrogatory that seeks to identify officers who carried out a nighttime raid on the wrong house — the house of an innocent family," Miller said. "It is a small step toward holding responsible parties accountable for terrorizing a family and damaging their home."
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carr and Mitchell are represented by Marie L. Miller and Jared McClain of the Institute for Justice and by R. Daniel Gibson of Davis Hartman Wright LLP.
The government is represented by Nicholas David Acevedo and Bradley Owen Wood of Womble Bond Dickinson LLP and Scott D. MacLatchie of Hall Booth Smith PC.
The case is Carr et al. v. Thomas et al., case number 7:25-cv-00583, before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
--Editing by Philip Shea.
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