HABERSHAM COUNTY, Ga. — A jury has found a former Habersham County sheriff's deputy not guilty of misleading a judge to get a warrant in a botched raid that injured a toddler.
Prosecutors said former Deupty Nikki Autry and her team used three people to buy meth from the house, though only one of them was an official confidential informant.
They maintain Autry misrepresented their information and lied to a judge to get the search warrant.
During the execution of a no-knock warrant hours later, another deputy tossed a flash bang grenade which detonated in Bou Bou Phonesevanh's playpen and critically injured the toddler.
During the trial, Autry listened to informants who testified that she used them to make a drug buy at the Cornelia house where the Phonesevah family was staying in May 2014.
Autry told jurors she never lied, deceived or mislead Butterworth when she asked for the warrant. But she also admitted some of the information included in the affidavit wasn’t quite accurate either.
The jurors believed her and acquitted her on all three counts.
"We're so proud of Nikki for standing up for what she believed in and standing up for what she believed was true and just," attorney Jeff Brinkman said. "We fell horribel about what happened to Bou Bou Phonesevanh."
Channel 2's Richard Elliot asked Autry live on Channel 2 Action News at 5 if she felt she was made a scapegoat but she declined comment.
The dismayed parents of Bou Bou emerged from the courthouse minutes later and tore into the entire system.
"I hope this is not what America is built of. I thought America was built with the truth and not a bunch of corruption and lying like this," Bounkham Phonesevanh said. "I almost lost my life, my family, my son... We did do nothing, we were sleeping."
Alecia Bounkham said she was very disappointed in the process.
"I was the only person untouched in the house in that house when they raided it. Why? Because I'm white," Alecia Bounkham said.
"Why did we get a not guilty verdict? Because she is white," Bounkham yelled. "It's not fair and we will not stop fighting."
The judge who authorized the no-knock warrant, James Buttwerworth, testified on Thursday that Autry told him a registered confidential informant made the drug buy and saw weapons in the house. But the truth is, it was the informant's friend who made the buy, and no one witnessed any weapons.
Butterworth said had he been given accurate information, he would not have authorized the warrant.