Karen LeVert-Woitalla just wanted to bake Christmas cookies with her granddaughter in peace.

But a December 2009 incident at her home in Chanhassen that led to criminal charges — later tossed by a judge — has made its way to federal court.

The woman is suing the Carver County sheriff’s office and one of its deputies, claiming she was falsely arrested and imprisoned, as well as the victim of excessive force.

She alleges that what had started with a neighbor’s 911 call about two people arguing at the end of LeVert-Woitalla’s driveway ended with what a state judge said was deputies’ illegal entry into her home and criminal charges that should never have been filed.

“It was very horrible. It changed my life dramatically and how I feel about government and police,” LeVert-Woitalla said of the incident. “It’s still going to follow me for the rest of my life. I’m 49 years old. I’m a grandma baking cookies.”

Stephanie Angolkar, an attorney representing the sheriff’s office, declined to comment on the suit, originally filed in state district court but moved to U.S. District Court at the county’s request. But she filed an answer on behalf of the sheriff’s office denying LeVert-Woitalla’s claims.

Bryan Battina, the Wayzata attorney who filed the suit, said that while the law generally grants immunity to police officers making spur-of-the-moment decisions, that wasn’t the case here.

“The officers, or this one officer in particular, didn’t like the answers he was getting and didn’t like the attitude of my client, and things just snowballed from there,” Battina said.

“There was no exigent circumstance. There was no arrest warrant or search warrant. They had no right to be in the property, and everything snowballed from this situation, which never should have occurred.”

The suit says that on Dec. 21, 2009, LeVert-Woitalla was home with her 4-year-old granddaughter; their plan was to bake cookies, set them out to cool, take her dog, Nakita, for a walk and then decorate the cookies.

LeVert-Woitalla’s daughter and her boyfriend had left the home moments before, but they had stopped at the end of the driveway and begun arguing. A neighbor saw the argument and called 911.

The woman was oblivious to this, though, because she was in the kitchen baking. She said she heard a knock at the door and heard a man shout, “Carver County Sheriff’s Department. Can someone put the dog away?”

LeVert-Woitalla said she opened the door and saw deputy Jason Breunig standing there. As he stepped inside, her phone rang.

“(S)he passed in front of Breunig showing him her flour-covered hands and reading glasses on, stating she needed to get the phone which was at the opposite end of the sectional sofa that her granddaughter was on,” the suit says.

The call was from her daughter — the one who had been having the argument; she was wondering why officers were at the house, the suit claims. LeVert-Woitalla told her she’d talk to her later because she was busy and hung up.

At this point, the suit says, the oven timer went off, and LeVert-Woitalla told the deputy she had to take care of the cookies. She went into the kitchen and reset the timer.

Then, her daughter called again. LeVert-Woitalla told her she still didn’t know why the police were at her door and hung up.

The suit said another officer entered, and LeVert-Woitalla finally asked them why they were there. When they told her they were investigating a reported argument, she told them she had been unaware of any row.

The oven timer went off again, and the suit alleges what happened next:

“Plaintiff passes the officers to retrieve the cookies out of the hot oven. As she passes them, Breunig asks if she has I.D. Plaintiff responds, ‘What? No, I don’t have an I.D. on me, I’m home baking Christmas cookies, I don’t need it.”

The officers asked her who was in the home and LeVert-Woitalla said she told them it was her, her granddaughter and their dog. The suit says the second officer — unidentified in the petition — asked if they could search the house.

“Plaintiff as she throws her arms up in disbelief, responds that they can check the whole damn house out if he wants as she has nothing to hide,” the suit says.

After some more discussion, Breunig told LeVert-Woitalla that he could arrest her for “obstruction of my investigation,” the suit contends. She objected; the dog started barking; and when the officer told her to take the dog away, LeVert-Woitalla replied, “Then on that note, you can get the … out of my house!”

The complaint says “Breunig became infuriated” and grabbed the woman and she tried to break free. The officer grabbed her wrist and bent her over the living room couch.

The woman alleges the officer then slammed her head into a wall and dragged her outside the house. She claims the officer threw her on the ground, breaking her glasses, blackening an eye and bruising her shoulder and collarbone.

LeVert-Woitalla was charged with two counts of obstruction of legal process and a count of disorderly conduct. She said she spent two nights and three days in jail before she was released.

Her criminal attorney, Marsh Halberg of Minneapolis, filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing the officers had no right to be in the woman’s home in the first place. On Oct. 7, Carver County District Judge Richard Perkins agreed.

“The court has determined that based upon the evidence, the officers did not have a lawful right to enter (LeVert-Woitalla’s) residence without warrant, since no exceptions to a warrantless entry reasonably existed,” the judge wrote.

Perkins said that had it not been for the officers’ illegal entry, LeVert-Woitalla’s behavior would not have occurred. He dismissed the charges.

“There’s a ton of this that goes on, but officers have immunity,” Battina said. “They’re entitled to do their jobs and they have to make split-second decisions. But this one is just so egregious that anyone looking at the case could say, ‘You had no right to be in the home.’ ”

In her lawsuit, the woman alleges assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment, excessive force and other claims.

LeVert-Woitalla said that aside from the legal issues, the incident changed the way she views authority.

“I don’t trust any police for any reason, for one,” she said. “For two, if I could move right now, I would and I would move out of the United States. What they did to me was totally uncalled for and wrong. … I’ve always taught my children to respect police and go to them if you need help. I would never tell my granddaughter that now, and she’s only 4.”

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.