COVENTRY — A federal appeals court says police in Connecticut did not violate the rights of an 87-year-old man when officers seized nearly 60 firearms from his home on the belief he was a convicted felon, which it turned out he wasn’t.
The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s ruling Thursday and dismissed a lawsuit by Joseph Kaminsky, who alleged police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
Police seized Kaminsky’s guns from his Coventry home in 2011, after being alerted by the FBI that he had felony convictions from 1964 for unemployment insurance fraud and could not possess guns.
Authorities later discovered the crimes were not felonies and returned the guns to Kaminsky.
Kaminsky had sought undisclosed damages from police.
