Photo: Denver Police Department / ACLU of Colorado
A Colorado jury awarded a 78-year-old Black woman millions of dollars after Denver police mistakenly raided her home two years ago. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado announced that Ruby Johnson was awarded $3.76 million on Friday (March 1) in state court, according to a Monday (March 5) statement.
Body camera footage shows a SWAT team raiding Johnson's home in Denver's Montebello neighborhood right after she got out of the shower on January 4, 2022. Several armed officers surrounded the grandmother, who was dressed in a bathrobe and shower cap, as they questioned her near an armored truck outside her house. It also left part of her longtime residence and some of her personal belongings destroyed, according to the organization.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the ACLU on Johnson's behalf, alleges Detective Gary Staab and Sergeant Gregory Buschy hastily obtained a search warrant without sufficient probable cause. Authorities were looking for a stolen vehicle containing several firearms and used cellphone data to target Johnson's house, even though there was no evidence suggesting the vehicle and weapons were at the grandmother's residence.
"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 ACLU wrote.
This is also the first significant case brought under a police reform bill passed in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, the organization wrote. The legislation allows people to sue individual police officers for violating their state constitutional rights in state court. Even though Johnson is Black, the lawsuit didn't say race played a role in the police raid.
The ACLU said Johnson, who's a retired postal worker, moved out of her home of 43 years and suffered health issues following the terrifying raid.
"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, ACLU of Colorado's Executive Director, said in the 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."
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