Delaware County, PA Family Law Attorney, Weighs In on Break-In Involving State Police

Transcript

Female Speaker: People came and invaded my home with the help of the state police.

Jim Rosenfield: We’re taking a deeper look into it, NBC 10 investigators exclusive. Yesterday, we showed you this surveillance video of a man right here breaking through the glass door of a home while state troopers watched the whole thing.

The owner of this Delaware County home tells NBC 10 that man was breaking in. But he and the women with him, they tell a very different story. We do know this, that this case involves a divorce. The homeowner’s son is divorcing the woman in the video. The homeowner says the woman in the video never lived at the home.

Jacqueline London: The NBC 10 investigators have asked state police a lot of questions about that video. We’re still waiting for many of those answers. We have asked our legal expert Enrique Latoison to give us his perspective. He joins us now.

Enrique, let’s take another look at this video. We can see a man who is the cousin of the woman involved in the divorce, throwing something at the glass to break it. Two state troopers watch as he continues to break down the door.

He then walks inside with the woman and as you can see, the state troopers follow behind. So Enrique, we spoke with the lawyer for that woman in the video. He says the woman had previously lived in the house and called police because she was locked out. He also says she showed proof that she had lived there. If that’s the case, was it OK for police to allow someone to break into the home and without the owner’s permission?

Enrique Latoison: Well, you have to look at the perspective here. The first thing you’ve already said, this was involving a divorce. Everyone knows when you’re dealing with a divorce, it tends to get messy. This isn’t a clear black or white situation.

Now we don’t know what takes place before the video. Obviously the state police heard enough or were given enough information. You have to remember these people called the police and asked them to meet them there in order to make entry into the property.

So the police must have felt comfortable enough with the information that they heard that what was taking place right in front of their eyes was not actually a crime.

Jim Rosenfield: Enrique, there’s even more video that shows the man and woman taking items out of that house again while police were standing by and watching all of that. Now the woman’s lawyer tells us she only took items that belonged to her but again the owner disputes that. We haven’t heard from the troopers as we’ve said. But what do you think about that decision by the troopers even if they did believe the woman lived there to allow items to be taken out?

Enrique Latoison: Well, the troopers had to use discretion in situations like this. Now as a defense attorney, if I had a client tell me they were trying to get their stuff out of the house, they took a corkboard and they just busted the window out, then the police came, you can believe it. That client is getting arrested. In a situation like this, you would tell the client, “Hey, you should have called the police. You should have insisted and asked for the assistance of the police in a situation like this.”

This is what they did. These individuals believe that was their stuff and they had a right to get their stuff and in doing that, they called the police. They did the things that you should do in a situation like this.

Now, it looks as though they’re carrying their stuff out. That’s a decision between the district attorney’s office and the state police after they do their investigation to find out whether or not something actually here was stolen or the items removed were the items that belonged to that person.

Jacqueline London: All right. Enrique Latoison, thank you for your time. We can’t tell you state police are saying to NBC 10 they’re investigating this incident but they have denied our request for any interview. The owner filed a criminal complaint with the Delaware County district attorney’s office. That investigation will continue when the state police review ends.

Jim Rosenfield: And the investigators will keep an eye on that story. If you have a story or tip for the NBC 10 investigators, send it to us by email. That address is [email protected].