Lawsuit filed against fired detective, city of Raleigh after police raid wrong apartment

A federal lawsuit filed Monday contends a fired Raleigh police detective and others conspired to fabricate heroin trafficking offenses that led to an illegal raid, excessive force and the false imprisonment of 10 Black women and children.

The 32-page civil complaint filed in the U.S. Eastern District of North Carolina is the latest action involving former detective Omar Abdullah and confidential informant Dennis Williams. The suit also names as defendants the city of Raleigh, the fired detective’s police colleagues and his supervisor.

Abdullah and Williams working together sent about a dozen Black men to jail on trafficking charges from Nov. 29, 2019, to May 21, 2020, for drugs that repeatedly turned out to be fake, according to court documents.

Some of those men and their families filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April, which the city of Raleigh quickly settled for $2 million in September.

The new lawsuit involves families who say Raleigh police entered their apartments unannounced wearing tactical gear, pointing assault rifles at and detaining innocent women and children as young as 12, including a partially paralyzed youth.

“This action seeks damages on behalf of plaintiffs for the loss of liberty, extraordinary emotional pain and suffering and injuries to their person that plaintiffs were forced to endure as a consequence of defendants’ decidedly wrongful actions,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs include Yolanda Irving, a mother of five who drives a Wake County bus for special needs children, and her three children, who were home the day police searched the house. Other plaintiffs include Irving’s neighbor Kenya Walton, her four children and another teen, who were all detained as part of the search on Irving’s apartment, according to interviews and the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs ask in the lawsuit for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

‘I never got an apology’

After police raided the apartments, Abdullah provided a search warrant to Irving that had the right address but a picture of an apartment door that was not hers.

Abdullah left offering no apology, she said.

“I never got an apology. I never got anything from the Raleigh Police Department,” Irving, 45, told The News & Observer, earlier this year as she unsuccessfully sought the release of police video of the raid.

“You have my kids scared. I am petrified. And you are going to tell me I could do whatever? No, no, no, ” she said. “On top of that, you are running behind my son with a gun. I could have lost him.”

The Raleigh Police Department did not respond Tuesday morning to questions from The N&O about the federal complaint and related allegations.

Complicated history

The police raid was a result of an investigation led by Abdullah involving Williams, who was suspended as a confidential informant the day after the raid. The raid followed months of of investigations in which Williams claimed he bought heroin but that tested negative for control substances, the lawsuit states.

“RPD officers ... informed Abdullah on numerous occasions that the alleged drugs were not heroin but brown sugar or some other substance,” the lawsuit states.

Officers reported the scheme to Abdullah’s supervisor, Sgt. William Rolfe, who never intervened, the lawsuit states.

Two officers have indicated that Abdullah was never stopped or disciplined because he was Muslim and had previously accused a supervisor of discrimination, the lawsuit states.

“Sgt. Rolfe was afraid of also being accused of discrimination,” the lawsuit states.

Allegations against Raleigh, officers

The lawsuit alleges unlawful entry and search, unlawful arrest and seizure, fabrication of evidence and false imprisonment.

It also alleges a failure to train and supervise officers, failure to monitor the confidential informant program and take other steps to implement policies and practices that prevent conduct that violates the constitutional right of individuals.

The plaintiffs are being represented by a mix of attorneys, including lawyers from Emancipate NC, a racial justice nonprofit.

The lawsuits and related actions have raised questions about a range of Raleigh police practices including confidential informant oversight, use of no-knock warrants — in which police don’t give a warning before entering a home — and officers proceeding with search warrants based on inaccurate and unreliable information.

On Feb. 2, The N&O requested information and statistics about the use of no-knock warrants and proper procedures when police search the wrong address.

Spokesperson Laura Hourigan responded on Feb. 7 that RPD doesn’t use no-knock search warrants but didn’t answer follow up questions submitted Feb. 8 about when and whether the policy was changed and any related statistics on how often RPD had used them.

The lawsuit contends that RPD “has general practice” of executing no-knock search warrants or quick knock search warrants in which officers enter by force seconds after knocking.

Abdullah was fired at the end of October. Attorneys and others involved in the Abdullah cases have criticized Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman for not charging him with any crimes. Freeman says the case is still under investigation.

Williams faces five counts of obstruction of justice.

This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Lawsuit filed against fired detective, city of Raleigh after police raid wrong apartment."

Virginia Bridges

The News & Observer

919-829-8924

Virginia Bridges covers what is and isn’t working in North Carolina’s criminal justice system for The News & Observer’s and The Charlotte Observer’s investigation team. She has worked for newspapers for more than 20 years. The N.C. State Bar Association awarded her the Media & Law Award for Best Series in 2018, 2020 and 2025.