The gun of a Los Angeles police department (LAPD) officer was pulled against an MRI machine during a cannabis raid that did not in fact discover any live plants, SF Gate has reported.
The owner of NoHo Diagnostic Center in Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court, Central District of California suing the LAPD, the city of Los Angeles, and individual police officers, "alleging they violated the business owners’ constitutional rights" during an October 18, 2023, raid conducted under the assumption that the center was "a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility," according to SF Gate. The incident was also reported by Law360.com.
During the raid, a female employee was detained while officers searched the premises; no cannabis was found, SF Gate noted. After the search, the woman was released and police requested that she contact the center's manager. In the meantime, officers "continued to roam freely throughout [the center], casually engaging in conversation with each other," according to the complaint.
"The whole operation was nothing short of a disorganized circus, with no apparent rules, procedures, or even a hint of coordination," it said.
One officer entered an MRI room with a rifle in his right hand -- despite a sign that warned against bringing metal into the suite. "Expectedly, the magnetic force of the MRI machine attracted the LAPD Officer's loose rifle, securing it to the machine," the complaint explained. In response, another officer activated an emergency shutdown button which deactivated the MRI machine, an action that caused the MRI's magnet to "rapidly lose superconductivity, leading to the evaporation of approximately 2,000 liters of helium gas and resulting in extensive damage to the MRI machine." The first officer then grabbed his rifle and left the room, leaving a magazine of bullets on the floor.
The incident is yet another example of how unseriously MRI safety is treated, according to Tobias Gilk, founder of Gilk Radiology Consultants in Overland Park, KS, and senior vice president of Radiology-Planning in Mission, KS.
"This could have easily killed the officer, or caused the rifle to fire, shooting one of the other officers or workers in the facility," Gilk told AuntMinnie.com.
The complaint was filed by Hayk Yeghoyan, of YMPK Law Group in Los Angeles, on behalf of center owner Ustiana Shaginian. Shaginian is seeking general and compensatory damages for violations of federal constitutional and statutory rights; an award to cover attorneys' fees and costs of the suit; and punitive damages.
