The jury ruled that the Denver Police Department (DPD) violated Ruby Johnson’s rights under the Colorado Constitution by obtaining and executing a search warrant of her home without probable cause or proper investigation. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the DPD last fall stating that police got a search warrant for her home after the owner of a stolen truck — which had four semi-automatic handguns, a tactical military-style rifle, a revolver, two drones, $4,000 in cash, and an iPhone 11 — allegedly tracked the phone in the vehicle to Johnson’s home via the Apple “Find My” phone app. The truck’s owner gave the location information to police. According to the lawsuit, Detective Gary Staab wrongly obtained the search warrant because he told the judge that the screenshot image of the location on the “Find My” app signified the phone being inside the house. However, the app only shows the approximate location of people and their devices and is not intended as a law enforcement tool. Staab — who has prepared or participated in preparing less than 10 search warrant affidavits in the last five years, and never submitted an affidavit for a warrant supporting SWAT involvement — “knew or should have known that the screenshot did not signify that the [driver’s] iPhone was inside Ms. Johnson’s house,” the lawsuit states. The area covered in the screenshot shows “at least six different properties and parts of four different blocks” where the vehicle could have been located, attorneys argued. Under the Colorado Constitution, search warrants must now be supported by probable cause, which is spelled out in a written affidavit. The law was amended in 2020 as part of a sweeping police reform bill enacted after the death of George Floyd, and allows citizens to sue police officers for violations of state constitutional rights. This is the first case to be brought since the law was passed. Johnson, who is black, did not allege that race played a role in the raid. Staab’s “false characterization” of the screenshot and his omission of “particular facts and circumstances that contradicted it” prevented the judge from “independently evaluating the existence of probable cause,” attorneys said. “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.”A Colorado jury has awarded $3.76 million in damages to a 78-year-old grandmother whose home was ransacked by a SWAT team that had the wrong address when they violently stormed her home.
