A Colorado resident has won a significant case against members of law enforcement who wrongly raided her home in 2022. She filed a lawsuit against the authorities after a SWAT team forced its way into her home under false pretenses, leaving her shaken.
Now, the woman is about to be $3.76 million richer after a jury ruled in her favor. The raid has sparked discussions about police misconduct and qualified immunity.
A 78-year-old woman who sued two police officers after her home was wrongly searched by a SWAT team looking for a stolen truck has won a $3.76 million jury verdict under a new Colorado law that allows people to sue police over violations of their state constitutional rights.
A jury in state court in Denver ruled in favor of Ruby Johnson late Friday and the verdict was announced Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which helped represent her in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that police got a search warrant for the home after the owner of a stolen truck, which had four semi-automatic handguns, a rifle, a revolver, two drones, $4,000 cash and an iPhone inside, tracked the phone to Johnson’s home using the Find My app, and passed that information on to police.
According to the lawsuit, Johnson, a retired U.S. Postal Service worker and grandmother, had just gotten out of the shower on Jan. 4, 2022, when she heard a command over a bullhorn for anyone inside to exit with their hands up. Wearing only a bathrobe, she opened her front door to see an armored personnel carrier parked on her front lawn, police vehicles along her street and men in full military-style gear carrying rifles and a police dog.
To obtain the warrant to search Johnson’s home, the officers overestimated the reliability of the iPhone app when it came to pinpointing exact locations. They provided erroneous information to the judge who issued the warrant. The lack of understanding about how the app works led to a terrifying experience for the homeowner.
The ACLU explained that the SWAT unit “ransacked Ms. Johnson’s home…based on an alleged location ping from an iPhone’s ‘Find My’ app that the officers did not understand and for which they had no training.”
The lawsuit’s success was due in large part to a sweeping police reform bill passed in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. The law did away with qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields officers from civil liability. This case represents a significant application of the new law.
The Denver Police Department remained silent about the verdict. An internal affairs review of the raid resulted in no formal disciplinary action taken against the officers involved. Both officers who were named in the legal action are still employed by the department.
Nevertheless, the outcome of the lawsuit is a positive one in that it allowed Johnson to receive justice for what was done to her. However, removing qualified immunity does not necessarily mean the officers will have to come out of pocket for their actions as most law enforcement officials are indemnified from civil liability.
This means taxpayers will be forced to pay the settlement. The fact that the officers are still employed further underscores the lack of consequences in these situations. This story is one of many showing that accountability is desperately needed among many law enforcement agencies across the country.
