A Colorado jury awarded a 78-year-old Montbello woman $3.76 million in damages Monday, ruling that officers of the Denver Police Department violated the Colorado Constitution when searching Ruby Johnson's home.
The case dates back to January 2022, when Denver Police Detective Gary Staab and Sergeant Gregory Buschy were investigating a theft involving a stolen truck, which included an iPhone. According to court documents and statements from American Civil Liberties Union Colorado, which brought the case, Staab and Buschy pursued a search warrant for Johnson's home based on claims that Apple's "Find My iPhone" feature pinged Johnson's house, Denverite reports.
But according to Johnson's lawyers, the "Find My iPhone" feature could not pinpoint Johnson's home exactly, but rather gave an approximate location range on the Montbello street. "On the contrary, the app indicated that the phone's location could not accurately be identified and there was zero basis to single out Ms. Johnson's home," ACLU Colorado wrote in a 2022 statement on the case.
The lawsuit named Denver Police Detective Gary Staab and Sgt. Gregory Buschy, in their official capacity as officers, as defendants, KUSA reports.
The Denver Police Department was not named in the suit.
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 tactical gear carrying rifles, the Associated Press reports.
The lawsuit was brought under a provision of a police reform bill passed in 2020 soon after the death of George Floyd and is the first significant case to go to trial, the ACLU of Colorado said. State lawmakers created a right to sue individual police officers for state constitutional violations in state court, AP adds.
The police used a battering ram to get into Johnson’s garage even though she had explained how to open the door and broke the ceiling tiles to get into her attic, standing on top of one of her brand new dining room chairs, according to the lawsuit.
