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Aug 7, 2008 4:48 pm US/Eastern
Mayor Seeks Federal Probe Into Raid At Home
BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
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Officers and deputies broke down Mayor Cheye Calvo's door July 29, after he brought a package addressed to his wife inside from his front porch.
Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife say changes need to be made in how members of the Prince George's County Police Department conduct business. Calvo's two dogs were killed after a disputed raid at his house.
Authorities raided the home of Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic after intercepting a package shipped through Fed-Ex addressed to Tomsic and filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, law enforcement officers broke down Calvo's door and shot and killed the family's two dogs.
Mayor Calvo denies any involvement with drugs and says he'd accept an apology from police, but more than that he wants justice.
"This is not an isolated incident," Calvo said at Thursday's news conference. "There's a lot of information that needs to come out."
He says he doesn't fault the police for checking out the box, but says there was a "rush to judgment."
"The exercise of force should be the last thing to be used," Calvo said.
Calvo says he wants a federal investigation, and notes that his little lab Chase was shot while running away from police.
The incident happened in Berwyn Heights, a community of 3,000 near College Park in Prince George's County.
Mike Hellgren reports that investigators admit the mayor may not have done anything wrong.
Mayor Cheye Calvo is still reeling from the raid on his home last week. He feared for his life when Prince George's County Police broke down his door and shot his two beloved labrador retrievers.
"They bound me, put me on the floor, kneeling in the corner. My mother-in-law was bound. And I saw my older black lab, lying there dead," Calvo said.
Authorities were tracking a package with 32 pounds of marijuana addressed to the mayor's wife, who works in Baltimore as a financial officer for the state of Maryland.
An officer posing as a deliveryman brought it to their door. Minutes after the mayor took it inside, police rushed in.
"The mayor of the town is brought down the stairs backwards with his hands above his head, dressed only in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and tossed down on the floor face-down to lay down in a pool of his own beloved pet's blood for three hours while they tear his house apart," Chief Patrick Murphy of Berwyn Heights Police said.
Murphy is outraged he was never notified and says County Police did not have a judge's authorization for a no-knock raid.
County Police say the raid was part of a larger drug investigation and do not believe the mayor was involved. Police are not answering questions about whether the raid was appropriate or whether they had to shoot the dogs.
Hundreds of the mayor's constituents held a rally to support Calvo, and he's received dozens of letters mourning his dogs.
Meanwhile, Prince George's County police have arrested a deliveryman and another man they say are involved in a plot to smuggle 417 pounds of marijuana.
Police say the plot involves shipping marijuana in packages addressed to unknowing recipients, including the one sent to Calvo.
Prince George's Police Chief Melvin C. High described one of the men as an independent contractor who worked as a package deliveryman. He did not release the name of those arrested.
High say police investigating the case found a separate, parallel scheme to use the package delivery system to send marijuana, seizing an additional approximately 100 pounds of marijuana.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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