Bounkham and Alecia Phonesavanh recently shared their story about the drug raid on ABC News.
The parents of a toddler injured in a drug raid in Cornelia last year have filed a federal lawsuit against Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell and the officers involved in that raid.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in Gainesville. Alecia and Bounkham Phonesavanh are reportedly asking for a jury trial and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
19-month old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh Jr. was injured in the May 28 raid when an officer threw a flash grenade into his playpen. The officer was one of several executing a ‘no knock’ warrant on the home on Lakeview Heights when the incident occurred. The house was owned by relatives of Baby Bou Bou and his family. They had moved into the house several months earlier after fire destroyed their home in Wisconsin.
Baby Bou Bou was hospitalized for five weeks and his family says he has since undergone a series of surgeries. They say his medical bills now top $1 million.
A recent threat by someone claiming to represent the hacktivist group Anonymous surfaced on the internet last week. The threat said if Habersham County didn’t pay the child’s medical bills Anonymous would shut down the county’s computers and steal money from its bank accounts to pay the family. That threat has since been removed from the video posting site You Tube but in response, county manager Phill Sutton says it would be illegal for Habersham County Commissioners to authorize payment of Bou Bou’s medical bills. He says only a court can order the county to do that.
