Ruby Johnson, a 78-year-old grandmother and retired civil servant in Colorado, was home alone in January 2022 when a Denver Police Department SWAT team arrived in an armored tank-like vehicle, and at least eight officers armed with automatic weapons tore her home apart in search of nothing more than a missing iPhone.
Johnson on Friday won a $3.76 million verdict from a jury after filing a lawsuit claiming authorities used a “hastily prepared, bare-bones, misleading affidavit” to obtain a warrant and performed an “illegal search” of Johnson’s home that left her traumatized.
According to a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the court’s award was a “precedent-setting decision” under a new statute in the Colorado State Constitution allowing police to be held liable for violating an individual’s civil rights.
Under the state constitution, search warrants must be based on a written affidavit from officers laying out reasons they have probable cause to believe the execution of the warrant will turn up evidence of criminal activity before police can enter an individual’s home without permission.
However, the jury determined that the officers in this case knowingly utilized a deficient warrant to raid Johnson’s home without evidence indicating that she had been involved in committing a crime.
“This is a small step toward justice for Ms. Johnson, but it is a critical case under our state’s Constitution, for the first time affirming that police can be held accountable for invading someone’s home without probable cause,” Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director, said in a statement. “The ACLU worked hard in the summer of 2020, with lots of other stakeholders, to create a right to sue for violations of the state Constitution. This decision is the next step in ensuring that the rights in the Colorado Constitution are secured for all people in our State.”
The jury’s award to Johnson comprised $1.26 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages. The jurors reasoned that the officers involved in the raid “acted with willful and wanton disregard of Ms. Johnson’s constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure,” the release states.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, a SWAT team “ransacked” Johnson’s home of 43 years because the “location ping” from a “Find My” iPhone app showed the stolen phone was near her home at some point after it was taken.
The ACLU said that the officers “did not understand” how to use the app and “had no training” in how it works before the “terrifying police raid.”
“Donning body armor and automatic weapons, police officers searched Ms. Johnson’s home for stolen items from an incident that she had absolutely nothing to do with,” the release states.
“Not only was her privacy violated, and invaluable possessions destroyed, but her sense of safety in her own home was ripped away, forcing her to move from the place where she had set her roots and built community in for 40 years,” Deborah Richardson, ACLU of Colorado executive director, said in a statement. “Though the outcome of this trial will not fully undo the harm of that fateful day, it puts us one step closer to justice for her and others who have found their lives turned upside down because of police misconduct.”
The ACLU said Johnson had to move out of her home after the raid and has suffered ongoing physical and mental health issues due to the experience.
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