This past Friday, February 6th, Wichita residents Taylor Tymony, 22, and Michael Kostelecky, 21, were surprised by Wichita police officers breaking their unlocked door down with a battering ram. The officers charged into the the home the men rent with a third man, Jake Houston, 20, with rifles drawn to serve a search warrant.
Torrie Porter, a local business owner and Tymony’s mother, explains what happened:
The officers ordered the men to the floor, and stomped on their necks to “keep them quiet”.
The officers had been conducting surveillance on the home, which is near Reflection Ridge, at 21st and Ridge in northwest Wichita. The officers repeatedly asked the men how they were able to pay the rent on such an expensive home.
What the officers did not realize is that Michael Kostelecky’s parents own the home, and that his parents are currently living in Costa Rica, renting the home to their son and two of his friends, Tymony and Houston, who both work for Hog Wild Pit BBQ.
What also may have been unclear to the police department is that the home contains a music studio, and that local artists frequented the home on a daily basis, to record their music.
What the officers did know is that Houston, the son of Goddard’s Chief of Police, had prior drug arrests, and that three young men were living in a home that was beyond their means, and that other young men and women visited the home on a regular basis.
After breaking down the unlocked door, stomping on two men’s necks, and thrashing everything in the two-story home, the officers came away with a single piece of a broken marijuana pipe, which had not been used for years.
Tymony had roughly $300 in his possession, which was from his paycheck from Hog Wild. No drugs, and no weapons were found in the home.
The officers failed to provide a copy of the search warrant to the men at the time of the raid, and a document obtained from the police by Torrie Porter, Tymony’s mother, claims that the warrant was not presented, because there was no one home when the police entered the house, which was not true.
The men found a copy of the warrant on a counter in the home when they returned from being questioned by police. They also found a burning scarf, which had been left on top of a space heater. If they had been detained any longer, the home may have burnt to the ground.
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