ATLANTA — A federal appeals court has cleared the way for a Southwest Atlanta family to continue a lawsuit against the FBI agent who led a 2017 raid on their home after agents mistakenly targeted the wrong address.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied qualified immunity for the lead agent, allowing constitutional claims against him to move forward.
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The judges found that a jury could determine the raid violated the family’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The case stems from a FBI SWAT operation in 2017, when agents forced their way into the home of Toi Cliatt, Trina Martin, her 7-year-old son while executing a search warrant intended for a house on a different street.
According to court records, agents broke down the family’s front door, deployed a flash-bang grenade and held the occupants at gunpoint before realizing they had entered the wrong home.
Martin and her family later sued the federal government and the agent who led the raid, alleging negligence and constitutional violations.
Attorneys representing the family have argued that agents failed to confirm the address before carrying out the operation. They also alleged the lead agent blamed the mistake on his GPS device but later discarded the device and failed to preserve potential evidence.
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While the appeals court allowed claims against the agent to proceed, the judges said existing legal precedent prevented the family’s claims against the federal government from moving forward under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
However, the panel sharply criticized that precedent and urged the full 11th Circuit to reconsider it, describing the law governing such cases as problematic.
“Our fight for justice is far from over, but this decision is another solid step forward,” Martin said in a statement. “The raid on our home was a life-threatening mistake, it never should have happened, and the government needs to be held accountable.”
The decision marks the latest development in a yearslong legal battle that previously reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which revived the family’s case and directed the lower court to reconsider its earlier dismissal.
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