ACLU Lawsuit Claims Grandmother's Home Was 'Illegally' Raided by SWAT Team Searching for Stolen iPho

[Eugene]

Source: Law & Crime

ACLU Lawsuit Claims Grandmother’s Home Was ‘Illegally’ Raided by SWAT Team Searching for Stolen iPhone 11

JERRY LAMBE Dec 3rd, 2022, 2:53 pm

Ruby Johnson, a 77-year-old grandmother and retired civil servant in Colorado, claims she was at home alone in January when a Denver Police Department SWAT team arrived in an armored vehicle with at least 8 officers wearing full body armor and carrying automatic weapons who tore her home apart in search of a missing iPhone.

Police found no stolen phone or any indication of criminal activity. Now, Johnson is suing Gary Staab, the lead detective in the case, claiming he used a “hastily prepared, bare-bones, misleading affidavit” to obtain a warrant and perform and “illegal search” of Johnson’s home that left her traumatized, according to a recently filed complaint.

The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 1 in the Denver County District Court by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says that police were looking into a truck that had been stolen from a nearby Hyatt. The truck allegedly contained four semi-automatic handguns, a tactical military-style rifle, a revolver, two drones, $4,000.00 in cash, and an old iPhone 11.

When Staab spoke to the owner of the stolen vehicle, the man said he’d used the “Find My” app to track his phone, which had “pinged” at Johnson’s address at approximately 11:30 a.m. and 3:55 p.m. the day it was stolen, according to an sworn affidavit submitted by Staab.

-snip-

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/aclu-lawsuit-claims-grandmothers-home-was-illegally-raided-by-swat-team-searching-for-stolen-iphone-11/

[Tetrachloride]

1. My Uber app isn't too reliable. Several drivers didn't get too close

They did their best.

The police should have known there is inaccuracy.

[multigraincracker]

2. Civil Rights law suits are getting so bad,

insurance companies are dropping coverage for departments involved in more than one or a really bad case.
Pretty simple, just force all cops to watch and write reports after viewing these videos. There are hundreds of them on the net.
There are towns that are losing their police force because of this. They need more classes on Civil Rights and less military equipment.

[megapuzzler]

3. Whoa! I guess my husband and I lucked out in a similar situation

About six months ago we had a knock on our door and there were two policemen there. They politely explained they had pinged an "iphone of interest" to our address and wanted to know what we knew about it. Well, we knew nothing about it and they took our word for it, didn't even ask to come inside, and left their card for us to contact them if we needed to. They also explained that the "ping" wasn't pinpoint accurate. We live in a condo and found out from a neighbor later that they had found the iphone around the corner in a driveway at the building next to ours -- about 200-300 feet distant.

Seemed like the possible inaccuracy of the location ping should be common knowledge to police everywhere. I can certainly sympathize with her complaint.

[TigressDem]

4. As someone who has tracked phones down within a large building for tech support....

those folks should have brought the guy with his app in closer proximity to pin point it. Even then, it's possible to be close but not exactly there.

I'd have the location for the lost phone and the phone location of the person looking for it. We played the game of "hot-cold" until we found it.

My husband and I have location sharing on Google Maps. I parked the car when I dropped him off at a doctor's appointment and used it to get to the place where he was, but I knew the floor and department I was looking for. Even when I turned it on "WALK" mode, it did not know where the sky ways were so it was trying to direct me to the street. I just kept walking toward the dot.

He was already in with the doctor. I waited a bit then used the bathroom. I came out and sat down against the wall. I was looking down at my phone for a bit, then looked up and he was sitting in the row in front of me and about 5 feet away. He checked my location dot on the phone and turned to see me. Oh, there you are.

It's an inexact feature. If one of us gets stranded, the other should be able to find us and the car, but it will require more than just the app.