When a Cop Came Into Her House Without a Warrant, This Grandmother Fought Back

Now the 90-year-old is getting a $95,000 settlement.

Do not mess with Venus Green. 

In July 2009, police entered Green's home looking for her grandson, Tallie. He had come into the house moments before saying he'd been shot at a convenience store, but the officer at Green's door insisted that Green had shot him.
"Police kept questioning him. They wouldn't let the ambulance attendant treat him," Green told WBAL-TV in the video above. "So I got up and said, 'Sir, would you please let the attendants treat him? He's in pain.' "
"You did it," she claimed the officer said, accusing her of shooting Tellie. When police tried to enter the basement, where her grandson lived, she wouldn't let them in because they didn't have a warrant. The officer and Green struggled, he handcuffed her, and then he headed into the basement.
"This was my private home," Green said. She stated that she asserted her rights as a homeowner and a citizen, locking the cop in the basement.
Despite her apparent interference with a law enforcement investigation, the city of Baltimore settled the lawsuit she brought, probably assuming that any jury of Green's peers would sympathize with a 90-year-old woman injured by a cop during an illegal search.
This is just one in a number of police brutality and misconduct cases brought against Baltimore police officers recently. An investigation by The Baltimore Sun found that the city has paid money in more than 100 jury decisions or settlements for excessive force, police brutality, and misconduct claims since 2011. Last week, Baltimore Police Dept. Commissioner Anthony Batts asked the United States Department of Justice to review the department's policies and procedures in light of these settlements.