PLACENTIA

The attorney for 15 families who filed a $202-million claim against the Police Department said he plans to combine the complaint with a police abuse lawsuit filed last year in federal court. The Feb. 12 claim alleges police violated the law while executing a series of search warrants Jan. 6.

Attorney Richard Keller, who represents the 15 families, said the alleged violations are part of a pattern of police misconduct. Keller said police stormed into the families’ homes during a massive law enforcement raid Jan. 6 without providing adequate notice and served the search warrants in an “unlawful” manner.

One of the families named in the claim--the Cruz family--is also at the center of the federal lawsuit. The Cruzes claim their son was repeatedly harassed by a Placentia officer in 1997; he was never charged in any of the incidents that suit relates to. Keller said he wants to combine these two cases into one.

The Police Department maintains officers acted legally and lawfully in the service of 18 search warrants that resulted in seven arrests of suspects in the New Year’s Eve slaying of an Anaheim woman. Placentia police spokeswoman Corinne Loomis said the department cannot comment on the case pending in federal court.