Lawsuit filed against detective for authorizing SWAT raid on the wrong house

An elderly woman in Colorado plans to file a lawsuit against a Denver police detective for authorizing a raid of her home based on information provided by a botched ping from a Find My iPhone app.

The SWAT team stormed the home of 77-year-old Ruby Johnson, who lives in Montebello, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by the ACLU of Colorado.

On Jan. 4, at least eight officers raided Johnson’s home to retrieve several stolen items, including six firearms and an iPhone, according to the New York Post.

Johnson’s suit has named Gary Staab, who was the lead detective in the raid. The complaint alleges that Staab used a “hastily prepared, bare-bones, misleading affidavit” to obtain a warrant and perform an “illegal search” of Johnson’s home.

The lawsuit has requested a jury trial and seeks an unspecified amount in damages, the Post reported.

Authorities were on the lookout for a stolen truck that reportedly contained four semi-automatic handguns, a tactical military-style rifle, a revolver, two drones, an old iPhone 11 and $4,000 in cash.

Stills from bodycam footage taken during the raid show a confused Johnson being ordered to stand outside her home in her bathrobe.

The complaint argues that Staab’s affidavit violated Johnson’s right to be “free of unreasonable searches and seizures” and that the affidavit “lacked probable cause that evidence of crime could be found” at Johnson’s home, since the ping on the Find My iPhone app did not give an exact location.

“Crucially, if a device’s location cannot be determined precisely, the user will see a blue circle around the device’s marker on the map. The size of the blue circle shows how precisely the device’s location can be determined. For example, the larger the circle; the greater the inaccuracy,” the lawsuit said, according to the Post.

“This blue circle covered an area spanning at least six different properties and parts of four different blocks in the vicinity of [redacted] Street.”

The ACLU added, “On the authority of the illegally issued warrant, Denver police arrived at 77-year-old Ms. Johnson’s home, where she lives alone, with an overwhelming and intimidating show of unnecessary force.”