Family sues over “uncivilized” raid on Douglas County home

Wednesday, May 28, 1997 | 10:49 a.m.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court by James Jordan and his wife Eman Awali-Jordan, names the county, the sheriff's office, Sheriff Jerry Maple, Detective Daniel Britton and investigator Paul Pabon.

It claims the "overblown, unnecessary, uncivilized and militaristic" raid violated their civil rights.

No hearing date has been set.

The action said Jordan, his wife and their children were forced to lie face down on the front lawn of their home in the Indian Hills subdivision just south of the Carson City line.

The raid was prompted by a neighbor's complaint that Jordan had threatened to kill him.

Imtiaz Ahmed, who also is named in the suit, claimed that Jordan kidnapped him at gunpoint, bound and gagged him and abandoned him near the top of Spooner Summit. Jordan was never charged with any crime.

Maple said the actions by his Special Operations Response Team, or SORT squad, was justified under departmental guidelines.

Jordan, who became an American citizen in 1990, claims the team was improperly trained and overreacted because of his Middle Eastern heritage.

"I should be proud to be an American citizen. I did not do anything wrong," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I was sitting with my family at home and all of a sudden I was on the floor."