A former Georgia deputy has been acquitted in federal court of lying to a judge in connection with a drug raid last year that left a toddler critically injured, NBC News reported.
The case of then-19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh — known as "Baby Bou Bou"— drew intense criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which described the raid as a stark example of "systemic police militarization."
Authorities were serving a late-night "no-knock" warrant on May 28, 2014, at a home where they believed Bou Bou's father's nephew, a suspected meth dealer, was staying when they lobbed a flash-bang grenade inside. The nephew wasn't home, and the grenade — designed to disorient its target — landed in Bou Bou's crib.
Bou Bou was placed in a medically induced coma. His mother, Alecia, wrote in Salon that the grenade covered his body in burns and ripped "a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs."
