'The nightmare we live every day:' SWAT team investigating child porn targets wrong home, holds couple and their baby at gunpoint, lawsuit says

A Florida couple filed a lawsuit alleging they were wrongfully detained and their 18-month-old daughter kept in her soiled diaper for hours after bad information led a SWAT team investigating child pornography to the wrong home.

Christian and Laurie Ann Campbell filed the lawsuit seeking $10 million on Tuesday. It names the Orlando Police Department, its chief, a detective and a sergeant, the city of Orlando, the Orange County Sheriff, the state's Department of Children and Families (DCF) and six employees.

"The haunting, the PTSD and the nightmare we live every day — you don't forget it," Laurie Ann Campbell told local CBS affiliate WKMG. "You live with that fear."

The Orlando Police Department released a statement saying it could not comment on the case, citing pending litigation, local NBC affiliate WESH reported. The agency did say that it takes all allegations of child abuse seriously.

"Investigators assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC) act within the full force of the law to ensure the safety of vulnerable and exploited children," the statement said. "While OPD is unable to comment on this case due to pending litigation, it is important to note that cases of this nature do not always lead to criminal charges. Search warrants, which are reviewed by an independent judge for probable cause, are an important tool used by investigators to determine whether or not the evidence incriminates or exonerates the accused."

The ordeal happened on Aug. 6, 2020, when a SWAT team with rifles and guns drawn executed a warrant on the Campbells' home "in a gross, extreme, negligent and excessive use of force," the lawsuit said. Officers allegedly pointed their loaded guns at the heads of both Christian Campbell and his young daughter, who had just woken up for the morning still in her overnight diaper and was being lifted from her crib by her father.

The child remained in her soiled diaper for several hours during the investigation at the home, court documents said.

Cops entered the home and disconnected the internet, cutting the internal cameras but leaving the hard-wired exterior cameras intact, which captured the raid outside the house.

Officers stopped Laurie Campbell in her car a few blocks from the home while she was taking her dog to an emergency veterinarian visit. The officers claimed she ran a stop sign and forced her out of her vehicle at gunpoint, took her phone, demanded she unlock it, placed her in the back of an unmarked police vehicle, and then seized her vehicle, court documents said. The couple claims in the lawsuit that the dog later died because it did not receive the emergency treatment it needed that day.

Police dragged Christian Campbell out of his home and detained him for nearly four hours without allowing him to contact a lawyer, his wife or his daughter, the lawsuit said. His wife was held for the same amount of time and couldn't communicate with her husband or tend to her daughter, court documents said. Their daughter was given popcorn but no water and kept in her soiled diaper during the search.

The lawsuit alleges the officers intercepted their neighbors, informing them that the "plaintiffs were child molesters and pornographers," and went "door to door defaming plaintiffs by telling their neighbors that plaintiffs were involved in child pornography and were sex criminals."

"Additionally, plaintiffs were left detained and bound in the front yard of their home for all of their neighbors and passersby to see," court documents said.

They alleged they were stripped of custody of their child for five months and were forced to "intrusive and constant, unsubstantiated visits" from DCF for a year following the police raid.

Christian Campbell told WESH that investigators claimed their internet connection was used in conjunction with a chat they were investigating.

"Just to be accused of being even remotely connected to something like this is an obscenity," he told the outlet.

In November 2021, one of the couple's former lawyers learned that the police arrested someone in the crime they were alleged to have committed — in Indiana. Ultimately, the case against them was dropped, and the couple was never charged.

They said the shock, stress, and emotional distress of the incident made them fearful of law enforcement, and the ordeal prompted them to sell their home. They said they moved out of Orlando due to fear of retaliation from the defendants.