A trial date has been for a disabled Rehoboth couple who are suing Delaware state police for an alleged excessive use of force during a 2014 drug raid.
Lisa and Ruther Hayes' lawsuit is set to go to court in October 2017, according the Delaware ACLU. They filed the suit on the African-American pair's behalf in September.
Lisa is quadriplegic and Ruther a schizophrenic veteran, according to the suit. They allege that state police Tased and beat Ruther and humiliated and traumatized both of them while executing a search warrant the Hayes weren't related to.
The raid, last year in Claymont, resulted in only minor drug charges for one of the two men the warrant targeted. They were relatives of the Hayes'.
ACLU executive director Kathleen MacRae says they still don't know the identities of most of the state troopers who were present or involved in making the raid happen.
"We're not privy to that information until we file the suit and in discovery," MacRae says.
They're in that phase now. With a trial date, she says they can get fill in the names of the John Does named as plaintiffs in the suit.
"We're just at the very beginning stages of discovery," she says. "We are asking the court to make sure that the police provide us with information that we need to flesh out the complaint and build the case."
The complaint demands a jury trial, but MacRae says it doesn't rule out the possibility of a settlement. Either way, the case is on the district court docket for October 2017.
Hayes v. DSP Complaint 28 Sept 15
