The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear debate in the legal battle over a woman’s lawsuit against the US government against an FBI agent who accidentally raided her home in Atlanta, Georgia.
Trina Martin’s home was broken by FBI agents on October 18, 2017, before dawn. The agent raided into her bedroom, and she and her son, 7-year-old, cried out for their mother from another room.
Martin, 46, was prevented from attending her child because of what she said, until she realized that her agent had been arrested in the wrong house while searching for suspicious gang members.
Martin’s lawyers will go to the Supreme Court on Tuesday to seek a recovery from a 2019 lawsuit against the US government, which agents accused of assault and battery, false arrests and other violations.
Before the major Supreme Court argument, here are the states that have passed the school’s choice measures.
Toi Cliatt, left, Trina Martin stands outside the house that was accidentally attacked by the FBI in 2017 on Friday, April 25th, 2025. (AP)
A federal judge in Atlanta dismissed the case in 2022, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision last year.
A key question that judges consider is what circumstances the federal government can resort to in order to hold law enforcement accountable.
Martin’s lawyers said Congress gave these cases a clear green light in 1974 after a law enforcement attack in the wrong house to stop the case against others who have experienced similar cases.
FBI Atlanta spokesman Tony Thomas told The Associated Press that the agency could not comment on the pending lawsuit.
Government lawyers argued in Martin’s case that the court should not “re-estimate” the law enforcement decision. The FBI agent went on to work and tried to find the right home. The attack was different from the no-con raid that urged Congress to take legislative action in the 1970s.
The 11th Circuit agreed with the argument when it dismissed Martin’s case, claiming that the court could not second guess a police officer making a “honest mistake” in the search. The agent who led the raid said his personal GPS led him to the wrong place. The FBI targets were in several homes.
Her then boyfriend Toy Clit and her son Martin were left hurt, she said.
“We will never be the same mentally, emotionally, or psychologically,” she told The Associated Press at the home that was attacked Friday. “Mentally, you can restrain it, but you can’t really get over it.”
The 54-year-old girlfriend and Clit showed where they were sleeping when the agents broke in and a hidden master bathroom closet.
Toi Cliatt talks about the attack in the bedroom where he and then girlfriend Trina Martin were sleeping when the FBI broke into her home in Atlanta on Friday, April 25th, 2025. (AP)
Martin has stopped the coaching track. The starting pistol reminded me of the Flash Bang Grenade that the agent set out in the attack. Kritt said he had to quit his truck driving job because he couldn’t sleep.
“The road is hypnotized,” he said. “I became responsible for my company.”
Martin said his son was very uneasy and explained to him that he would pull the thread out of his clothes and remove the paint from the wall.
Critt initially believed the attack was an attempt at robbery, and ran towards the closet where he kept a shotgun. Martin said her son is still expressing fear that if he confronts the agent while armed, she may have been killed.
“If the federal tort claims law provides a cause of action against anything, it’s the wrong house attack that the FBI did here,” Martin’s lawyer wrote briefly to the Supreme Court.
Other U.S. Courts of Appeals have interpreted the law more favorably for the victims of attacks in the wrong house, creating conflicting legal standards that only the High Court can resolve, lawyers say.
After the agents smashed the doors of the house, members of the FBI SWAT team dragged Croitt out of the closet and handcuffed him.
However, one agent realized he didn’t have the tattoos the suspect had, court documents show. The agent asked for Cliatt’s name and address, neither of which matched the suspect’s name.
The room was quiet as the agent realized that he had attacked the wrong house.
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The Atlanta home where Trina Martin, then boyfriend Toy Clit, and her 7-year-old son lived when the FBI broke the door and attacked, will be seen on Friday, April 25th, 2025. (AP)
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The Crit is taken away, and the agents set out to the right house, where they arrested the man they were looking for.
The agents leading the attack later returned to Martin’s house to apologise, leaving behind a business card in the name of the supervisor. Kritt said the family had not received compensation from the government.
Martin said the most tragic part of the attack was that his son was crying.
“When you can’t protect your child, or at least fight to protect your child, it’s a feeling that parents don’t want to feel,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
