WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit accusing Delaware State Police of terrorizing a disabled veteran and his quadriplegic wife during a 2014 drug raid in Claymont.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges that police used excessive force against 54-year-old Ruther Hayes of Rehoboth and his 45-year-old wife, Lisa, while executing a search warrant aimed at two of her nephews.
The lawsuit says Hayes was giving his wife a sponge bath when officers burst in, ordering her to stand up as she lay naked from the waist down on a bed. The plaintiffs claim that Hays was beaten and twice shocked with a stun gun after trying to cover his wife with a sheet.
A state police spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.
