Jury awards almost $4M in damages in Denver police SWAT search
DENVER (KDVR) — Two Denver police officers were sued after unsuccessfully searching a woman’s home in Montbello. Now, those damages are going to cost the officers $3.76 million.
In 2022, Denver police SWAT teams rushed to 77-year-old Ruby Johnson’s residence ready with with a warrant to search the home for stolen goods. After their search came up empty, police were under fire on accusations of violating Johnson’s constitutional right to privacy.
Denver police launch internal investigation after detective sued over ‘illegal search’
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union announced that the jury found Denver Police Department Detective Gary Staab and Sgt. Gregory Buschy had violated the Colorado Constitution.
“The Colorado Constitution requires that search warrants be based on probable cause supported by a written affidavit before police can invade the privacy of someone’s home. In this case, however, the jury concluded that the deficient warrant authorizing the search was unsupported by probable cause,” the union said in a press release.
According to the ACLU, the jury awarded $1.26 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages.
FOX31 legal analyst Christopher Decker said to expect more of these types of suits.
“We didn’t use to see these types of verdicts at all and then we saw them infrequently. Now it seems like every time we turn on the TV another jury has held another law enforcement agency accountable for abuse,” Decker said.
Internal investigation after lawsuit for ‘illegal search’
The investigation that led police to Johnson’s home started with a stolen truck.
On Jan. 3, 2022, the owner told police the truck had two drones, six firearms, $4,000 cash and an old iPhone 11 inside, according to the ACLU’s lawsuit.
The key issue of the suit focuses on Staab relying on the Find My app to track the iPhone that was in the truck, seeing it pinged twice at Johnson’s address that day.
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According to the lawsuit that was submitted after the investigation, Staab submitted a search warrant for Johnson’s address, which was approved by a judge.
The lawsuit claims “the affidavit presented absolutely no independent basis to corroborate a nexus to Ms. Johnson’s home,” and claims “the warrant authorizing the illegal search of Ms. Johnson’s home issued on Defendant Staab’s hastily prepared, bare-bones, misleading affidavit.”
The lawsuit also claims the search took hours and left Johnson traumatized.
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