It’s been a rough 2014 for Bounkham Phonesavanh, Sr. and his wife, Alecia. After getting burned out of their house in Wisconsin, the Phonesavanhs and their four children fled to what they thought would be a safe place–Bounkham, Sr.’s sister’s house in Cornelia, Georgia; an hour north of Atlanta. But on the morning of May 28, a SWAT team burst into the house with a no-knock warrant for Bounkham’s nephew, Wanis Thonetva–a suspected meth dealer. One of the officers threw a stun grenade into the garage where the Phonesavanhs were staying, which landed in the playpen of their youngest child, two-year-old Bounkham, Jr.–better known as “Baby Bou Bou.” The force of the blast tore Bou Bou’s chest open and severely burned his face. He spent almost two months recuperating–including five weeks in a medically-induced coma–before being released in July.
Prosecutors in Habersham County empaneled a grand jury to look into this tragedy. In October, the grand jury declined to issue indictments, though it severely criticized the manner in which the investigation and raid were conducted. Habersham County has refused to pay Bou Bou’s medical bills, leaving his parents on the hook for numerous surgeries Bou Bou has had to undergo in both Georgia and Wisconsin. That bill, as of the start of December, has ballooned to over $1 million.
Last night, the Phonesavanhs sat down with Matt Gutman of ABC’s “20/20” for what appears to be their first extended national over-the-air interview about their ordeal. Watch it here. The Phonesavanhs had just found a new house in Wisconsin, and were getting ready to go back home after two months when the raid took place. Alecia said that when she heard Bou Bou screaming, she did what any mother would do–she ran toward him. However, she said one of the officers snatched him away.
She asked officers several times if Bou Bou was all right. They eventually told her, “Your son just lost a tooth.” But Bounkham, Sr. didn’t buy it–not only was there a pool of blood, but there were numerous burn marks on the bottom of the playpen and the pillow was “blown apart.” After being detained for two hours, they were finally allowed to go to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta–ostensibly to pick up their son. It was then that a social worker told them that Bou Bou was in the burn trauma unit, and there was fear he wouldn’t make it.
The warrant cited the house as Thonetva’s “residence”–though in truth, Thonetva lived on the other side of town. Indeed, Alecia and Bounkham, Sr. said that they never even saw him during their stay in Georgia. Thornetva was picked up later that day–with only an ounce of meth, and no weapons. He pleaded guilty to selling meth and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. An emotional Alecia said, “They raided the wrong house because they did not do their job!”
Habersham County sheriff Joey Terrell, whose department coordinated the now-disbanded SWAT team with the Cornelia Police Department, maintains that the stun grenade would have never been used had anyone knew there were children in the house. But the Phonesavanhs scoffed at this, saying that even cursory recon work would have revealed there were kids there. For instance, Alecia said, their minivan was parked in the driveway. Not only were there four car seats in it, but there was a decal on the rear window showing three kids and a stroller. Earlier this summer, Alecia and Bounkham, Sr. said that Bou Bou’s Pack and Play was two feet from the door, and should have been visible to the officer who threw the grenade. Alecia has also told Salon that officers wasted precious seconds scouring the house for drugs even though it should have been obvious Bou Bou was badly injured.
The local district attorney, Brian Rickman, backed up Terrell’s claim that no one knew there were kids in that house. Incredibly, he added that once the SWAT team passed “the point of no return,” failing to check the van wasn’t criminally negligent. That suggestion flies in the face of common sense. That van amounted to an announcement in capital letters that there were kids in the house. To my mind, their ignorance of that and other obvious indications that kids were present should have taken this from a mere tort to criminal child endangerment.
Gutman also found out why Habersham County refuses to pay Bou Bou’s medical bills. He was told that since Habersham County has sovereign immunity from negligence claims, paying Bou Bou’s medical bills would supposedly be an illegal “gratuity” under Georgia law. To family attorney Mawuli Davis, however, since Bou Bou was taken into the custody of the sheriff’s department as a result of an injury its deputies caused, “it is far from a gratuity.” I have to agree. The negligence displayed in this case–not just from the SWAT team, but from the informant–is so egregious that I have to think at least one court is going to say, “You’re liable–pay up!” They could still face federal criminal charges as well; federal prosecutors in Atlanta have opened their own investigation.
The Phonesavanhs are suing Habersham County to recover their medical bills; Alecia says they have been “completely ruined” as a result of the county’s obstinacy. ABC’s parent, Disney, was so touched by the Phonesavanhs’ ordeal that it chipped in to get them a Christmas tree and some toys. The family is also asking for help with Bou Bou’s medical bills; click here to donate.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
