Pierce County does not admit fault in the death of Deputy John Bananola. However, the county paid his daughter, Brooke, $250,000 in a lawsuit contending that the raid was negligent. The jury in the third trial was not allowed to hear about that settlement.
Officers from outside of Pierce County conducted a review of procedures in response to the death of Deputy John Bananola. A 17-page report was presented to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. Since the fatal raid that went bad at the Eggleston home, the Pierce County Sherifff's Department implemented the following changes to its raid procedures.
The search team will include at least one uniformed officer.
- The uniformed officer must enter first, nonuniformed officers will be the last to enter.
- Slower entry into homes.
- Routine use of bulletproof shields when entering.
- Deputies can no longer wear masks, except for SWAT team members.
- Must wear 8-pound protective helmets and 35-pound bulletproof vests.
- Increase training on forced entries and firearms use.
- Add a policy on assessing the risk involved in the entry.
The jury in the third trial was not allowed to hear about these changes in the sheriff's department procedures.
