Suit Claims Contractor Spurred False Drug Raid Thought Man’s Photo Chemicals Were Used To Cook Methedrine

Workers installing a new furnace and water heater for George Joseph Phillips got him in hot water.

Burned by their wrongheaded suspicion that he was making methamphetamine at home, Phillips is suing Washington Energy Services; Northwest Water Heater, which had been doing the company’s installations before buying the former Washington Energy Co. subsidiary; and city police.

He says the workers reported their suspicions to police and helped officers gather information from his house for a warrant that resulted in an embarrassing raid in which only photographic darkroom chemicals were found.

A statement released by a company lawyer said it was an honest error.

In a related development, officials at Puget Sound Energy Co., the state’s largest investor-owned utility, said they had requested copies of consumer complaints filed against all 82 heating contractors the company recommends to the public.

The request followed a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report that Washington Energy Services, one of the largest on the list, was the subject of four times more complaints than seven other companies which combined do nearly the same amount of work.

In addition, Puget Sound Energy has requested information on gas piping permits from the Seattle-King County Health Department, which contacted Washington Energy Services twice in the past year about expired permits.

Puget Sound Energy, formed by the merger of Puget Sound Power & Light Co., sold Washington Energy Services to Northwest Water Heater in October.

Phillips, a paper mill worker and free-lance photographer, was on his way to buy a Thanksgiving turkey in November 1995 when police pulled him from his car and handcuffed him and his girlfriend, Tamara Jones, in front of gawking neighbors, his weeping 3-year-old daughter and Jones’ terrified 2-year-old son. No charges were filed.

He filed a consumer complaint with the state attorney general’s office in April and followed with the lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court in December, claiming false imprisonment, false arrest, defamation, emotional distress and violation of the constitutional ban on unlawful search and seizure.

Trial is set for Nov. 30.

When police ask citizens such as furnace installers to search a home, it’s no different than if the police do the search themselves, and making such a search before obtaining a warrant is generally unconstitutional, said Doug Honig, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.

Police and Washington Energy officials won’t discuss details of the case because it is in litigation.