The wait is over for a Leawood family who claimed the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department illegally searched their home in 2012.
Adlynn and Robert Harte and their two children were awakened one morning in 2012 to the sound of deputies raiding their home, armed with assault weapons and wearing bulletproof vests.
The Hartes’ attorney, Cheryl Pilate, said that deputies prior to the raid had searched the Hartes’ trash and found what was believed to be marijuana leaves. Pilate said the warrant for the raid was based on those leaves in the trash.
When deputies raided the Hartes’ home, they did not find any marijuana leaves. They only found tea leaves.
The Hartes sued, but a district judge dismissed the lawsuit. The US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district judge’s ruling, and the Hartes will have their day in court.
Click here to read the ruling.
STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF ADDIE AND BOB HARTE
The Tenth Circuit’s decision is a huge and significant victory, both for the Hartes and the Fourth Amendment. The Hartes are elated with the outcome of their appeal and delighted that this long-awaited day has arrived. The appeals court obviously carefully scrutinized the large factual record. The court’s opinions recount the details leading up to and surrounding the frightening raid on the home of a wholly innocent family that had done nothing more than shop at a garden store and discard loose tea leaves in the trash. One of the judges indeed noted that the facts surrounding Operation Constant Gardener and the raid on the Hartes’ home were “too rich for fiction.” The Hartes now look forward to presenting those facts to a jury.
The attorney for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department explained that he could not comment on the ruling from the appeals court because this is ongoing litigation.
