St. Louis – A federal judge ordered St. Louis County to pay the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri’s clients Jon Luer and Andrea Steinebach $300,000 in damages for an illegal warrantless entry and search of their household. The ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit against two St. Louis County police officers in the United States District Court on behalf of Luer and Steinebach.
“Our family is still haunted by the illegal middle-of-the-night invasion of our home by the very people that are supposed to protect us,” said Andrea Steinebach. “The police officers put our lives at risk when they drew their guns and broke into our home without a warrant. We demand the St. Louis County Police Department do more to protect the rights of all of its citizens.”
“The St. Louis County police committed an egregious violation of Jon and Andrea’s constitutional rights when they unlawfully entered the Luer-Steinebach household without a warrant and detained Jon at gunpoint,” said Gillian Wilcox, Deputy Director for Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “We remain alarmed over testimony about the frequency with which county police admit to entering people’s homes without a warrant. It is the responsibility of the St. Louis County Police Department to ensure this never happens again. Police officers, like all members of government, are bound by the Constitution. The ACLU of Missouri will continue to demand accountability when officials at any level attempt to trample the individual rights enshrined in the Constitution.”
Previously, the District Court found that the police home invasion violated the married couple's Fourth Amendment constitutional rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the District Court’s finding.
Around 3 a.m. on July 10, 2016, two St. Louis County police officers were searching for an allegedly intoxicated man in his mid-30s whom a taxi driver said did not pay his fare and instead fled into the suburban neighborhood where Luer and Steinebach lived.
Although the taxi driver claimed the customer had disappeared between two nearby houses, no one saw the man go inside any home. He had no alleged connection to the Luer-Steinebach home. Nevertheless, the police officers decided to enter the Luer-Steinebach home with their guns drawn and without a warrant or consent while Luer, Steinebach, and their son slept.
Luer and Steinebach awoke when they heard the police officers in their living room. The armed officers confronted Luer outside their bedroom while their teenage son slept a few feet away. The officers ordered Luer to wake his son. They interrogated him, conducted a sobriety test, and searched his room before concluding the son could not have been the person of interest. The officers never filed an incident report with the police department.
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