.c The Associated Press

LEE, Mass. (AP) A federal drug agent publicly apologized Thursday for
raiding the home of a local building inspector on the mistaken suspicion
he was a marijuana trafficker. A spokesman for the couple said, however,
they were awaiting a personal apology and intended to press forward with
complaints.

``This is the allAmerican family. If it could happen to them, it could
happen to anybody,'' said state Rep. Chris Hodgkins, a relative who
acted as their spokesman Thursday.

``They are lawabiding citizens, and I'm very, very sorry this
happened,'' said George Fester, the agent in charge of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration's operations in New England.

Daniel Keenan, who serves as building inspector in Lee and neighboring
Stockbridge, said he was reading the newspaper in his front yard on
Sept. 5, with his son playing nearby, when six state and federal
officers drove up in separate cars. The agents told him they had reason
to believe that 300 pounds of marijuana had been in his garage.

Keenan said the agents didn't have a search warrant, but he signed a
consent form allowing the house and garage to be searched.

They were told that if they refused, they would be put in handcuffs, a
search warrant would be issued, and their belongings would be tossed
into the middle of their rooms, Hodgkins said. The agents claimed to
have video showing a drug delivery to the house.

As neighbors and the couple's three young children gathered to watch,
the agents used a drugsniffing dog to search the house and garage.
After a fruitless twohour search, they left. But the agents said they
might return for further interrogation.

Festa said an internal investigation was under way to determine just how
the Keenans came to be targeted. He said he was sending a regional
supervisor to talk to the family and also planned to make a personal
visit to apologize.

Hodgkins acknowledged that two agents had returned earlier to the house
to discuss the raid with the family, but he said they refused to
apologize in front of the children.

``I want to know how they came to the conclusion this house was the
house, how they came to be so wrong,'' Keenan's wife, Laurie, said
Thursday. ``We're concerned about the shadow of doubt this has created
around us.''

``We had these cowboys of DEA agents violating their rights,'' Hodgkins
said. ``The kids were terrified. Everybody's still terrified.''

He said he was writing complaints on behalf of the family to U.S.
Attorney Donald Stern and state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger.

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