Ruby Johnson was watching TV inside her home of 43 years when she heard the sound of a bullhorn one afternoon.
She opened her door, wearing a bathrobe and a bonnet after having taken a shower, and saw a Denver Police Department SWAT team armed with tactical rifles outside on Jan. 4, 2022, according to her lawsuit.
Though “frightened and confused,” Johnson, a grandmother and a retired U.S. Postal Service worker, cooperated and answered officers’ questions about whether stolen guns or anyone else was inside her house, the lawsuit says.
After telling them she lived alone and nothing stolen was inside, the officers had Johnson sit in the back of a police car for hours as the SWAT team invaded her residence in Montbello, according to a complaint.
The officers, in search of evidence related to a truck theft and stolen items, didn’t find what they were looking for — but destroyed Johnson’s property in the process, the complaint says.
Now, a Colorado jury has awarded Johnson $3.76 million in damages after she filed the lawsuit over the SWAT team raid, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado announced in a March 4 news release.
The jury decided the search of Johnson’s home went against her “constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure,” according to the ACLU of Colorado, which represented the lawsuit.
This was in violation of the state’s constitution, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit was filed against Denver Police Department Detective Gary Staab and DPD Sergeant Gregory Buschy, the officers responsible for the execution of a search warrant at Johnson’s home “without probable cause or proper investigation,” according to the ACLU.
The Denver Police Department declined to comment on the jury’s verdict in a statement to McClatchy News on March 5. Direct contact information for Staab and Buschy wasn’t immediately available.
The department previously told McClatchy News that “The Department of Public Safety and Denver Police Department sincerely apologize to Ms. Johnson for any negative impacts this situation may have had on her.”
“SWAT was involved in the execution of the warrant due to allegations that six guns had been stolen and may have been located in Ms. Johnson’s home.”
Johnson, 78, won $1.26 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages in what the ACLU described as a “precedent-setting decision under a new statute allowing enforcement of the Colorado Constitution.”
“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, the ACLU of Colorado legal director, said in a statement.
What led the SWAT team to search her home?
In January 2022, police were searching for a stolen truck after its owner told authorities there were four semi-automatic handguns, a tactical military-style rifle, a revolver, two drones, $4,000 cash, and an iPhone 11 inside, according to the complaint.
When the owner used Apple’s “Find My” app to try to locate the phone, he said it “pinged” to Johnson’s address, the complaint says.
Staab used this as the “sole basis” to link the stolen truck to Johnson’s address, leading to what was described as a “militarized illegal search” of her residence, according to the complaint.
“The warrant authorizing the illegal search of Ms. Johnson’s home was issued on Defendant Staab’s hastily prepared, bare-bones, misleading affidavit and Defendant Buschy’s scribbled, illegible signature approving the affidavit,” the complaint says.
Her property is damaged
As the SWAT team searched Johnson’s home, she was provided no reason as to why she was detained in a police vehicle when the raid unfolded, according to the complaint.
During the search, officers damaged Johnson’s property, including her garage door, which was smashed with a battering ram, the complaint says.
To get inside Johnson’s attic, officers broke a ceiling panel using the handle of her kitchen broom, according to the complaint.
They also broke the head off of her collectable doll figurine, a gift given to her from her youngest son, according to the complaint.
“The home was left in disarray,” the complaint says. “DPD’s unlawful search yielded neither evidence of nor any connection to any crime or criminal activity.”
Johnson no longer lives at the home and fears answering the door of where she currently lives, according to the lawsuit, as the SWAT team’s raid traumatized her.
“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, the 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,” she said.
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