A Los Angeles judge ordered police not to reveal what they discovered when they raided the home of a lawyer representing one of the city’s leading Black Lives Matter activists.
LAPD officers took photos at Dermot Givens’ home Tuesday while searching for a suspect they were tracking using an AirTag tracking device.
Givens claimed the snapshots included legal documents about BLM leader Melina Abdullah, who is suing the department after her $1.6 million home was invaded in 2020 in response to a reported crushing incident.
“It’s totally embarrassing,” Givens, 67, said.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but this is something that was planned.”
Police say they were chasing a thief when GPS led them to the home of attorney Dermot Givens.
Givens claimed the photos included legal documents about BLM leader Melina Abdullah.
BLM leader Melina Abdullah is suing the department after her $1.6 million home was invaded in 2020 in response to a reported crushing incident.
Abdullah, who co-founded the city’s BLM chapter, claims officers violated her civil rights in 2020 by forcing her at gunpoint from her home in the Crenshaw neighborhood after receiving a false call about a hostage situation there.
She has alleged that police used the prank call, made by teenagers, as a pretext to “terrorize” her for her role in organizing protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
She was crushed again one day after filing the lawsuit in September 2021 and a third time just days later.
“While the LAPD’s response was much more subdued than last year and not blatantly violent, it triggered trauma from the previous incident, as I believe was their intention,” the Pan-African Studies professor later wrote on Instagram.
‘I find it incredulous that such an incident occurred less than 24 hours after my attorneys and I announced a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department for their extremely violent response and infliction of harm against me in August 2020.
“The timing is not a coincidence.”
The campaign group has been dogged by questions about what became of the $90 million in donations it received after Floyd’s death and its purchase of a $6 million complex in Los Angeles.
Givens said agents ‘ransacked’ his home for firearms and ammunition, identity theft and forgery-related materials, cameras, lock-picking equipment, and cell phones and other communication devices.
Abdullah’s home in the Crenshaw neighborhood was hit repeatedly as his profile soared.
She said the police response was designed to intimidate her and her family in “retaliation” for their anti-police activities.
Abdullah (seen above in Los Angeles in June 2020), is a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of BLM.
BLM purchased the 6,500-square-foot mansion in Southern California on October 27, 2020 for $5.8 million even though the seller, Dyane Pascall, had purchased it for $3.1 million just six days earlier .
BLM also allegedly wanted to keep the purchase of the house secret even though three of its former leaders reportedly filmed a series of videos dining and drinking champagne outside the estate in spring 2021.
Documents and internal communications reportedly reveal that the purchase of the luxury property was handled in ways that “blurred the lines” between charitable uses and those that would benefit some of the organization’s leaders, New York magazine reported.
The discrepancy between BLM’s purchase price and that paid by Pascall also does not appear to be explained.
Meanwhile, only 33 percent of Black Lives Matter’s cumulative donations of $90 million reached charitable causes, according to a shocking report released last summer.
The group gave out about $30 million between 2020 and 2022, during which time it raised $90 million in donations while promoting itself as the largest civil rights organization in the United States.
Among the benefactors of BLM’s paltry donations were friends and family of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, particularly her graffiti artist brother, Paul, who received $1.7 million in salary and contracts during that period.
According to property records, Abdullah owns three homes: two in Los Angeles and one in Baltimore; Its total value exceeds 2.2 million dollars.
The Crenshaw home that was “crushed” is said to be worth between $1.3 million and $1.6 million, according to real estate agent websites.
Givens said police gave him only part of a warrant before “ransacking” his home, emptying drawers, opening his safe and going through his briefcase.
The warrant allowed officers to search for firearms and ammunition, any “materials related to identity theft and forgery,” cameras, lock-picking equipment, and cell phones and other communication devices.
‘I said, ‘Are you all hitting me?’ Givens told the LA Times.
‘And they said, ‘Who are you?’ And I said, ‘I live here!’
The attorney said police “know exactly who I am and where I live” and accused them of “retaliation and intimidation” for his work representing clients who sued the Los Angeles Police Department.
Los Angeles Judge Rupert Byrdsong on Friday ordered police to destroy all photographs they took inside Given’s home and hand over the rest of the warrant.
Photos of the property show that the luxurious seven-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot Los Angeles mansion, valued at $6 million, was purchased with donations from Black Lives Matter.
The property’s patio and outdoor patio feature an in-ground pool and cabana.
The property features more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, a “pantry” in the kitchen (pictured), as well as multiple fireplaces and a “mud room.”
Abdullah said: “My first thought was, ‘Oh, it’s crazy that they crushed the lawyer who is suing them on my behalf for crushing me.’”
‘As well as ‘Is Dermot okay?’
A police spokesman said the department was conducting an internal investigation and declined to provide further details about the search.
“This is an open criminal investigation as well as an internal affairs investigation,” added spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Muniz.