Jury awards Denver woman whose home was raided by SWAT team $3.76 million

A jury awarded a Denver woman $3.76 million after police officers raided her home two years ago in what the ACLU called an "unreasonable search and seizure." The ACLU says it's the first time that a court in Colorado has "affirmed that police can be held accountable for invading someone's home without probable cause."

Ruby Johnson lived in Denver's Montbello neighborhood at the time of the Jan. 4, 2022 raid, which was done by a SWAT team from the Denver Police Department and after a search warrant was executed. The ACLU sent out a news release on Monday stating that the police officers came to her home after mistakenly thinking that stolen items were inside based off of cellphone data.

"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.

A Denver detective and a police sergeant executed the search warrant. The ACLU claims they got the warrant in a hasty manner and without probable cause, and a jury agreed.

Johnson moved out of her home after the raid. The ACLU says she suffered from health issues from it.